Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.
Author's Note: Response to a prompt that became a story, longer than I expected.
"Willow Grace Schuester!" Willow heard her name called and looked up from the shoes she'd been staring at. The handsome young head minister of Lima's largest pre-school looked towards her with the same look every adult did. Kindness.
They didn't know of Willow's complicated pre-birth history, or the way she'd gotten her last name, nor did Willow. But she was special. At age 4, she'd already vowed audiences with her beautiful voice, a gift from her mother. With her shiny blonde hair, and high voice, Willow was a carbon copy of the woman standing teary eyed in the back of the garden, holding her husband's hand.
April Rhodes was happy. Five years prior, she'd been on the skids, unhappy, bitter and drunk. Generally drunk. Five months pregnant with Willow, she'd been saved. Saved not only from being defined by her drinking, but from ending up a single mother - from ending up lonely. She looked at the taller man standing beside her, his eyes shining with pride. She squeezed his hand as she watched her daughter receive her kindergarten diploma, her heart almost hurting from the joy she felt. Since the day she'd come home from the hospital, born six weeks too early and with a newly repaired heart, her daughter had been special.
Willow stepped forward, shook head minister Gordon's hand and smiled to the crowd. She saw all her friends' parents, waving at her, and in the middle of the crowd she saw the two people she longed most to see. Her mother blew her a kiss and her father waved as he whistled. Willow felt loved. She always had. She couldn't remember a day she hadn't gotten a goodnight kiss from her father, or had her mother sing her a lullaby. They'd just always been there. She looked at them now, saw the happy tears in her mother's eyes, and she grinned. She didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow, except that she wanted fish sticks for dinner. She just knew she always wanted to make her mother smile the way she did now.
"Willow, what do you want for your special day?" April put her bag on the floor, while Will waited outside, holding a squirming, giddy Willow in his arms.
"Can we make pies?" Willow looked up at her mother.
"Pies? Don't you want something more foody than a pie? How about pizza or tacos? We could go to Olive Garden, tell them it's your birthday." Will answered before April got a chance to respond.
"William!" April covered her daughter's ears. "Don't teach her to lie and cheat."
"April, seriously, this is the kind of cheating that saves money." Will leaned down and kissed April's cheek.
"I want daddy to make his special apple pie." Willow spun around on the floor, her yellow dress twirling as she did.
"My special apple pie?" Will walked into the kitchen as his female company followed.
"I like that idea, sweetie. Do you wanna do the Rhodes girls' special please-daddy smile?" April picked up her daughter and sat her on the chair by the kitchen island. They turned to Will on the other side and gave him their sweetest smile. Willow added a tremble to her lip, April a pout, and they watched Will begin to melt in front of them.
"Hey, that's not… You tell me I can't teach her to fake-birthday the Olive Garden and you do this to me? Come on guys, stop that… You know I can't--- resist those--- screw it – apple pies for everyone!"
"Yay!" Willow shrieked.
"We're out of apples." Will pointed to the empty fruit basket next to April's arm.
"I have a list for you."
"Then you're coming with me." April grimaced and shook her head. "Hey, pie man is making the pie, so you're doing the grocery shopping with me." Will winked at April, who groaned in response.
"Will, come on, I go every other day, and you go once a month." She whined.
"Do you want your daughter to be without her daddy's pie on her special day? No? Then let's turn…" He said to Willow. "And go! Family outing to the grocery store!"
"Can we buy potato chips?" Willow skipped along isle 4 as she asked. Will looked at April and begged for an answer to agree on.
"You know what, sweetheart, today is your day, so yes, we're gonna buy potato chips."
"Mommy, is it my birthday?"
"No. You just had your birthday sweetie." Will said as he reached for the olive oil.
"Look, W, come here…" April leveled herself with her daughter and spoke calmly. "If you go the rest of the time here, without nagging or begging, then daddy and I will let you get one thing of anything that you want."
"Even ice cream?"
"Yeah. So what you're gonna do is think long and hard about what you want before we get to the cash register, and that's what you're gonna get. Deal?"
"Deal. I think I want potato chips. And ice cream. Or…"
"Think inside of you sweetie. Catch up with daddy, I'm gonna get the laundry detergent." April watched her four-going-on-twenty-four-year old run after Will and giggled. Willow had definitely taken after her height wise, and not Mark. Her small form next to Will's 6 feet plus, were a sight to behold. She smiled to herself and walked to isle 7.
"Can I do the flour, daddy?" Willow jumped up and down on her stool.
"Don't jump on the stool, sweetie, you're gonna fall. Sure, flour - do you know which one it is?" Will pulled the sleeves up on her polo shirt and put on her 'Daughter' apron.
"The one that looks like snow, duh."
"Duh? And you haven't seen real snow if you think flour looks like snow."
"Daddy, don't tease me. I'm sewious." Will's heart ached. His four year old daughter, so grown-up, yet still so small. He smiled at her as she giggled.
"Oh you are your mother's daughter, aren't you?"
"I love making pies with you, daddy."
"Me too. You know, this is the first thing I did after I found out about you. Mommy came to me…"
"On a dark, rainy night… She's heard it before, Will." April walked in and grabbed a piece of apple from the counter.
"Shoo, we're gonna use that. Go watch American Idol or something. There's a rerun of Full House on 7. You love Uncle Jesse." April snuck behind the counter and leaned against Will as she wrapped an arm around Willow.
"I love you, that's what I…"
"Mommy, you are in our way. Daddy and me are making baking." Willow looked sternly up at her mother; as if it was completely obvious that she should have known.
"You're making baking? I wanna make bake." April suppressed a chuckle at her daughter's mix-up.
"Wife, get thee an apron, or you'll ruin that way-too-expensive shirt you have on."
"Sorry…" April pulled her matching apron over her head and watched lovingly as father and daughter interacted. She stole another piece of apple, just escaping a smack on her hand from her husband.
"Cupcake, you wanna hear the story again?" Willow nodded profusely, and Will took a deep breath. "Here we go. It was a dark and rainy night, no one else dared go outside, it was raining so much. Mommy came to our old apartment, the one we lived in when you were born, and she looked beautiful. Just like Princess Giselle, only with wet, blonde hair."
"I love Princess Giselle, daddy!"
"She had brought groceries to make me a pie. Pears, apples, flour, everything you could think of. She knocked on my door and she stood with a smile on my face, wanting to make me smile just as big as she was. But before she went to make the pies, she told me that inside of her belly there was a itty bitty tiny baby. That was you. So we made the special apple pie, and mommy told me how excited she was, and how she just couldn't wait to meet her baby girl. And that's the day I found out I was your daddy."
"I love that you're my daddy."
"So do I, baby girl."
"Thank you wife, and thank you cupcake. I love you more than you could ever know."
"I know."
"I love you too, Mommy."
"Thank you baby. Nuzzle please?" April leaned across the counter and let Willow nuzzle her nose against her own. From Willow was just a few days old, she had reacted lovingly when April had nuzzled her nose against hers. It had stuck as a sign of love between mother and daughter.
"Did mommy have a witch chasing her?" Willow asked, a tiny ball of dough in her mouth.
"What? Spit that out." April held her hand out for Willow to let go of the dough.
"Why would you ask that?" Will asked as he pressed the dough into the pie form.
"Duh, daddy, Princess Giselle has the witch chasing after her. Was she after mommy too?" April felt herself nearly bursting into tears. If her daughter only knew the circumstances around her birth…
"No, honey, she wasn't. Mommy was being chased by something else."
"Who?" Willows eyes grew bigger by the second as she looked at her father.
"Will…" She looked at Will, desperation in her eyes. Her breath was heavy, she shook her head slightly.
"There was a big, bad monster after mommy. You wanna know what it's called? The. Tickle. Monster! 1. 2. 3. Go! Get her! Get mommy!" Will lifted Willow off the stool and watched her run to the other side, where April stood, still breathing hard.
"Mommy, I'm gonna get you!" Willow ran, right into her mothers legs.
"Ahhaha, you got me! You got me, baby. You're so quick, I couldn't even run away from you." April looked down at her daughter and smiled again. She sat down, eye to eye with Willow, wiping flour off her face.
"You suck at Tickle Monster, mommy." Willow giggled.
"'I suck'? Really? Who thought you to say 'suck'?"
"Daddy." Willow said as she licked the sugar off her fingers.
"Really, did daddy teach you to say 'duh', too?" April brushed flour off her nose, then kissed her daughters hand gently. They tasted like sugar.
"Yep."
"Okay, it's time for Sesame Street." Will interjected. He saw his wife piling up the questions, and used the first, and best, excuse to distract Willow.
"Elmo!?" Willow shrieked.
"Yep, but you better hurry or Elmo's gonna think you left him."
"Will, don't scare her." April chided. She watched her daughter run into the living room. "So, you're teaching our daughter to say 'suck'?" April walked slowly to the other side of the kitchen island, her eyes pierced at Will as she walked.
"She overheard me yelling at the contractor the other day."
"Sure, likely story." April said cheekily.
"Come here, shortypants." Will pulled April towards him.
"What? What are you doing?"
"Trying to kiss you, you fool." Will's lips met hers and April relaxed against the wood of the kitchen island. Memories of their first night at home flashed through her mind.
_____________
"Wow, we have 13 messages offering babysitting, all from your kids. Even Puck and Mike." April walked into the kitchen, still in renovation phase. She observed the unfinished island, the fridge in the middle of the room, and Will, fixing the sink, still wearing his hospital ID badge on his jacket.
"13? There are only 12 kids in…"
"Kurt called twice."
"Why am I not surprised?" Will wrapped his arms around her "Thank you for making me a father. For making me this happy."
"You make me happy. I just can't believe that perfect little person in there is mine. She survived. Everything that could have happened, probably did, and she's fine." She laughed at the ridiculousness of it, thankful for it all.
"She's ours. Yours and mine." Will leaned her against the unfinished kitchen counter and kissed her gently. "Welcome home, April."
_____________
"Remembering our first night home?" Will touched her nose, to wake her from her state.
"Yeah. I just can't believe she's growing up." She stared at her baby girl, sitting on the floor in the living room, singing along to the music.
"April, she's four, not twenty-four."
"I know, but she's such a tiny adult. You heard her. She's 'sewious'." Will laughed and cupped her face in his hands.
"Kids are like that, honey." He laid another kiss on her lips. Sweet. Gentle.
"Daddy, are you kissing on mommy again?" Willow asked from the living room.
"Yep."
"Yuck!" April couldn't help but laugh.
"Ok, I may have taught her how to say that too." Will kissed April quickly, before she could protest, and among the sing-song off the TV, they heard another "yuck". As Willow returned her focus to the TV, the parents stood, head to shoulder in the background, watching.