Wanda had a very valid point there. No matter how many times Victor was laughed off a stage or out of a lab or classroom, no matter how many time his appeals for reinstatement were rejected, there was one irrefutable fact none of them could take from him. He had created Adam. That would always be true, no matter how unrecognized the achievement went. Adam stood as proof of his genius as well as the wonders of nature and medical science. Nothing would change that... certainly not a room full of opinionated, overweight, wig-wearing ancients who called themselves academic scholars. He smiled at Adam as Wanda gestured towards him. "Mm," he hummed in agreement. "You're right, as always, my love."
Adam, meanwhile, was oblivious to the various mentions made of him during Wanda and Victor's conversation. His undivided attention lay on the world around him, and currently he was wiping sand off an ocean-tumbled quartz rock with his fingers, turning it this way and that in the sun to see it sparkle. It of course was promptly placed into his bucket, having been deemed a treasure worthy of keeping.
"Oh, that's nonsense, of course you will add elegance to our family. And pride. And intelligence. And a certain feistiness that I have come to know and love," Victor said with a grin. "I do need to thank you. You've no idea, really... how wrong this could have gone for Adam and I had you not intervened." He was quiet for a moment before adding, "I do not even like to think about it anymore, lest my thoughts somehow bring it all about after all. Superstitious, I know. As a man of science, I ought to be ashamed of myself," he said with a chuckle.
"Do you really suppose that he understands?" Victor asked. "That he knows that the way I treated him... that I did not mean it so much as I... I just did not know how else to be? That I had to change first...? I worry that, as he grows to expand his mind, his vocabulary, and his intelligence in general, that one day he'll become bitter toward me. What if one day he regrets forgiving me so easily for what I did to him?" Victor shook his head. "Sorry, I... Sometimes at night when I cannot sleep, these are the conversations I have with myself, wondering without any real answers."
Getting a dog would be fun and exciting, but it also made Victor a little nervous. Lots of things could potentially go wrong. "I just hope it doesn't bite him or otherwise scare or anger him somehow. I want his first impression of a pet to be a positive one. Though... he did get along with the bird well enough, and he seems to be patient with other creatures..." Victor mused. "I just hope it will be a positive experience for him."
What a wonderful day this had been so far. Adam wished every day was Christmas! He smiled bashfully as Wanda gave his arm a squeeze and said he was a special soul. "Ssso... are yyyou..." he said with a little nod to punctuate the sentiment. "Ssso... is... f... fa-ther."
Victor turned around when he heard this, stopping for a brief moment before smiling a bit in surprise and then continuing on up the path on their way back to the tower. Adam just called him father. No subtext, no other qualifiers, no real reason, just... of his own will, he chose to call him that. It almost made Victor tear up.
Since that day he'd been encouraged to speak more, he'd slowly been doing it more and more, developing his words. Now, it was nearly impossible to get him to stop talking. The more he did it, the more he liked being able to express himself with words, and reading books helped him to learn more words with which to do exactly that. "The... b-bird... wwwas... wwwarm... and... sssoft," he said, tilting his head a bit and rubbing his shoulder with it, as he'd done when he'd leaned it against the bird's side. "I wwant... to sssee... mmmore a-ni-mals."
