"hush now, please, little one I'm beggin' ya," John muttered, though it did little to soothe the babe in his arms.

"Anythin' ya want, anythin' at all," he bargained and bribed, but to no avail for the babe couldn't yet voice her troubles and ailments, he didn't just want the babe to keep crying until shevwas exhausted, poor thing.

No.. those could not be the first rays of dawn, it couldn't be.. how unfair, he thought, to be deprived of something so simple, so small as sleep, poor babe, until he remembered, almost in a fit of desperation, the pretty little thing who'd moved in across the road with a babe of her own, she'd offered to be John's friend, another single parent in Small Heath willing to give him the time of day after Esmé.

~

A sharp rapping of knuckles on hardwood woke you, along with the wails of a babe. You sat up in bed, immediately looking to the cot at the foot of it, seeing your baby sound asleep, you relaxed just a fraction, but still there was a crying babe at your door, you just prayed it hadn't been abandoned.

A surprised frown pinched your brows together when you opened your gangway door, John on the doorstep, whimpering, hiccuping baby in his arms.

"I've tried everything," he sighed, shaking his head, the true desperation in his tone made evident by the fact he was still dressed from the day before.

"I wouldn't come calling unless I was desperate, I need yer help, birdie." he said softly, the baby punctuating his pleas with soft wails.