salute ➳ 〚h.s.〛 〚a.u.〛

life as we know it

A/N - the url for the extra in between this and the last is not working, so sadly we will not be able to access that one. in that extra, they get married and have a daughter ( i think ).

March, 2020

Piper had been working long enough at MI6 to know the sort of quiet that meant gossip was afoot. She'd gotten used to it down in T branch, when the hum of noise would quiet down as secrets were passed back and forth across desks until they circled the room. Now, having worked in O branch for nearly 3 years, she knew right away when things got quiet on the main floor that something was happening within the department. She'd been supervising a junior agent running through operations details on the main screens but she looked away when the hush settled over the room. She wondered what had captured everyone's attention.

She should have know when she heard the girlish giggles. There was something about her husband that always made the O branch agents forget themselves and resort back to elementary school, leaning their heads together and whispering under their breath.

She said a quick word to the agent she was supervising to excuse herself for a moment and then stepped down from the operations room and back onto the main floor. From down here, she could see the entrance to the department so she could see Harry as well as hear him chatting casually with the receptionist, a sweet young girl that he'd coached in recruit training a few months back.

Her and Harry had always had a strange sort of connection between them so it didn't surprise Piper that Harry looked up before she was even halfway across the main floor. He turned away from the reception desk, a fond smile on his face, but Piper's eyes were drawn to his chest. Sitting comfortably in her baby carrier strapped to Harry's chest was little Sara. At the sight of her mummy, she smiled wide, her cheeks puffing up as she began reaching her hands out toward Piper.

"Look who it is," Harry said softly as he took one of Sara's hands into his own. She looked back up at him, craning her neck around, and Harry swooped in to press a kiss to her cheek that made her squeal happily. "Is that mummy? I think that's mummy."

He reached out his other hand when Piper was close and she took it, letting Harry pull her close so he could press his lips tenderly to hers in a warm, welcome greeting. Piper chuckled against his mouth when she felt Sara's hands pushing on her chest, trying to create space so she wasn't sandwiched between her parents.

Piper took a moment to lean down a press kisses to every inch of her daughter's face that she could. Sara tried to squirm away even though she was giggling that precious baby laugh that Piper adored. Piper grabbed hold of her little feet so she couldn't peddle them into Harry's stomach and then smiled up at her husband.

"What're you two doing here?" she asked curiously, reaching up to push some of Sara's wild hair back from her face. She'd inherited her dad's curls but instead of his thick hair, she'd gotten Piper's wispier hair so the curls didn't fall normally and chose instead to fly around her face like a little strawberry blonde halo. Piper had already caught her trying to spit out hair that got into her mouth. Just past a year old and she was already dealing with the problems that plagued women everywhere.

"I was helping with evaluating the agents that were up for field designation."

"Wasn't Niall going to babysit?"

"He got called into work. I didn't really have a choice but to bring her with me." Harry waved around the little hand he had trapped in his and Sara looked up with a big smile. Harry smiled back, his cheeks dimpling. Piper was pretty sure that Sara was going to end up with those dimples too once she lost a bit of her baby fat. "We had fun, didn't we gingersnap?"