#barty crouch is a menace he was completely like 'oh only the parents stay? okay i am a parent too'

[veritas-scribblings]

doctor - @jegulus-microfic - words: 1,060

[in-universe: pride and then puddles | occurs before pride]

There are times when James wonders how his life got to this point. Where he’s at St. Mungos in the waiting room while another man is in the emergency ward with his partner and child. To be fair, if James is going to be rational about this (and he really doesn’t think he wants to be rational about it), Barty had been with Regulus and baby Elio when baby Elio had spiked a fever and started vomiting, and had immediately rushed the three of them to the emergency department.

Where James’s rationality stops is when Barty had apparently informed the healers that he is ‘definitely’ baby Elio’s other father. Because Barty is an absolute freak without any concept of boundaries and has decided that if Elio is Regulus’s child, he’s obviously Barty’s child too. It’s like Barty doesn’t comprehend that you can’t just lay claim to another human being. It doesn’t work that way. For fucks sake. If Barty wants a child so badly, he can go and get his own fucking child.

But now, James is stuck in the waiting room being refused entry because, he was curtly informed by the nurses, a child cannot have three parents. Not even a wizarding child.

The nurse at the desk glares at James as he scratches away at a sheet of parchment with a plain white hospital-standard quill. The nurse is a robust man, a little bit squat, the appropriate build for a strong beater, James thinks. James would have tried to strike up a conversation about quidditch, ask the man if he plays, had the man not solidified his role as James ultimate mortal enemy.

For the better part of an hour, he’s been watching James closely, having apparently deemed James a ‘nuisance’ after James had kicked up the world’s biggest stink in the middle of the waiting room.

James had argued and then screamed and insulted the man. He had even sent the man to go and speak with Barty and Regulus and rectify the situation, only for the man to return and inform James that Barty has rectified the situation and both parents are already with baby Elio. James is to patiently sit his arse on the chairs and wait for news.

And then, when the man had decided James wasn’t worth his time and had attempted to attend to another person, James had taken the opportunity to try and quickly make a break for it. Bolt through the doors. Search for his partner and child, and maybe murder Barty.

The man had not at all appreciated this.

So James sits. And he waits. And he makes angry faces at the man at the desk, because his fucking child, his own flesh and blood, is sick. James does not know what is going on. He can’t get any information. He can’t see him and he can’t hold him. He can’t even be with him. And he thinks he might be going out of his mind.

With a huff, James strides over to the man and slams his hands on the desk. Before he can speak, the man says firmly and tiredly, without looking up, ‘No news yet, they’ll let you know.’

‘Potter,’ James says. ‘His surname is Potter. My surname is Potter. He’s my child. For fucks sake, how stupid can you be?!’

‘James?’

James whirls around at the sound of Regulus’s voice. Regulus looks tired and stressed; there are dark patches under his eyes. James wants to rush forwards and sweep Regulus into his arms, but Regulus has turned away to speak quietly to a healer as he approaches. Two steps behind them is Barty. No sign of Elio.

James looks around frantically for baby Elio before finally noticing that Barty is cradling the baby to his chest. ‘Crouch,’ he growls, storming forwards. ‘Give me my—’

‘Sh.’ Barty glances up with a menacing smile. ‘Quiet or you’ll wake him. We just got him to sleep.’ He raises baby Elio a little bit higher to snuggle him. He’s definitely doing this to be a dick, because he knows that James will not punch him in the face if he’s holding James’s child hostage.

‘Give me my fucking baby, Crouch,’ James hisses. When he goes to pluck baby Elio from Barty’s arms, Barty quickly dodges his hands and scurries over to stand next to Regulus.

Sometimes it feels like Barty is an unwelcome squatter in James and Regulus’s relationship.

Look, James gets it. He really does. He’d brought Sirius into the relationship with him, and Regulus had brought Barty into the relationship. And between the two of them, there’s now four of them and that’s a lot of people in a single two-person relationship. The only difference is that while Sirius, for the most part, understands the concept of boundaries and can be reasoned with, Barty has not listened to another human being (besides Regulus and Evan) since he gained an inch of freedom and ran a mile with it.

James drapes his arm around Regulus and pulls him close, trying to keep his attention both on baby Elio and the healer, who is speaking.

‘I’m happy to send him home,’ the healer says, handing Regulus a slip of parchment. ‘Just give him children’s pepper-up potion; the infant range. Two millilitres every 4 hours. Keep his fluids up and monitor his temperature, and if his temperature rises too much again, definitely bring him back in.’ She leans over to peer at Elio, who is still slumbering in Barty’s arms. ‘He’s just being a little dramatic. Aren’t you, little one?’

The healer gives them a smile and a nod before departing.

James immediately tugs Regulus into his arms. ‘What happened? Is everything okay?’

‘Infection,’ Regulus says, relaxing slightly in James’s arms. ‘He was vomiting. A lot. He’s fine now. …I think. When did you get here? You should have come in.’

James blinks at Regulus, because…what? ‘Well, I tried, but…’ he trails off, noting Barty’s smug as fuck expression. Sighing, James doesn’t continue and instead just slowly runs his hand up and down Regulus’s back. He’s tired and stressed. Regulus is tired and stressed. James doesn’t have the energy for a round of verbal sparring with Barty.

And at least he knows that Barty will tear the world apart to protect his child. That’s some sort of consolation, right?