Modern Family

Found

Ryan watched Jace nearly trip over his daughter when he stepped out of the shower. White hotel towel anchored securely at his waist, the lead singer opened the door from the bathroom to let out the steam and stopped short, stumbling on his way to find some clean clothes at the sight of his eighteen month old daughter waddling around the side of the hotel room bed on a mission of exploration.

"Savannah!" Jace gasped as he leaned down to scoop her up, one arm wrapping beneath her diaper clad bottom, the other pulling down the hem of the oversized Liverpool t-shirt Austin had bought her, already trying to turn her into a fan. "What are you doing in here by yourself?"

The sound of someone clearing their throat drew his attention and he looked up to see Ryan lying on the double bed on the other side of the room, his laptop on his legs and a pointedly annoyed expression on his face because he didn't think he was that unnoticeable. "I'm right here, bro."

"Sorry," Jace sighed, bouncing his daughter in his arms and finding himself unable to hold in a soft laugh as she reached up to grab his damp hair in her tiny fist. "I guess I'm just not used to her being able to walk yet."

The fact that Savannah could now go from place to place on her own was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. It had been a heartwarming moment when, while they were sitting in their dressing room before a show, Savannah had taken her first steps, toddling away from where Jace had been holding her upright. Her uncles had cheered and her father had cried, thinking that it was amazing that she was growing every day, but at the same time wondering if years from now, he'd blink and realize his baby girl was no longer a baby.

Despite being thrust into fatherhood unexpectedly, Ryan thought Jace was turning out to be a pretty great parent. A little overbearing at times because he was always worrying that he was doing something wrong, but loving and caring nonetheless.

Ryan didn't really have any room to criticize, seeing as he had little to no experience with small children. Helping to raise his mate's child while touring with his band wasn't exactly how he pictured his life at nearly twenty three, so every day was an adventure, but he liked to think he was getting the hang of it. As much as it might have freaked Jace out to see his daughter walking around without one of her uncles following closely behind, Ryan figured he'd have to learn to let go eventually.

"You need to relax, man," Ryan laughed lightly, closing his laptop and setting it to the side before crossing his legs and sitting up straight.

Parenthood had made the lead vocalist more uptight than usual. Despite being the youngest, Jace had always been the most sensible one in the band, most likely because, for the longest time, he wasn't of legal age to do anything wild. Throw in the fact that his mother was on tour with him and he didn't have much range to be young and wild and free. He'd loosened up a bit once he turned eighteen and began to tour without a parental figure, but as soon as Savannah came into his life, that switch flipped once more, only this time to the tenth degree.

Ryan supposed he couldn't blame Jace as it wasn't as though Ryan had any idea what it was like to be someone's father. And if he'd learned anything from watching Jace stress out over the past year, it was that he didn't plan on becoming anyone's father for a long, long time.

It wasn't as if Savannah was in any way a troublesome child. In fact, all of them found it hard to be irritated with her, even when she woke them up with her screaming in the middle of the night because she was hungry, because as soon as she calmed down, she'd smile widely and look at them with those big blue eyes and all of them would melt.

But he and Jace were very different and although he could appreciate the way Jace had stepped up to take care of his daughter, Ryan had come to the conclusion that he himself was far too emotionally immature to be any kind of parent.