Their daughter was born on July 18th, 2023, at a healthy 8 pounds even. Both of her mothers were present in the room when she was born, anxiously trying their hardest not to pester the nurses with every little question they had about her as she was taken away to be cleaned up. There was a noticeable lack of crying in the hospital room, and Imogen's hand found Fiona's, squeezing hard. Fiona threw a worried glance down at her and then over to the young woman in the hospital bed: their baby's birth mother, a teenager who had gotten pregnant and had no way of taking care of an infant. They were lucky to get picked so early on in their adoption search, and doubly so to get someone willing to do a closed adoption with a newborn involved.
Suddenly, a strong wail arose from the corner and Fiona let out a shaky breath, grinning. Imogen let go of Fiona's hand and covered her mouth with both of hers, eyes wide behind her glasses. The wailing went on for a few minutes more, and one of the nurses cracked a joke to them about how their baby seemed like she'd be quite the handful, and Imogen returned it by saying that she'd be taking after her mommy in that respect, elbowing Fiona in the stomach.
It took the doctors a little while to get her all cleaned up and ready, and then there was the pesky problem of dealing with paperwork and the rest of that. Eventually it was all squared away and it was just Fiona, Imogen, and their new baby, who had yet to be officially named. They'd just been referring to her as "our baby," and "her" throughout the day, but they couldn't keep doing that.
Fiona was sitting in the rocking chair in the hospital room, the baby swaddled and tucked in the crook of her arm, and Imogen had another chair drawn up beside her. She was leaning forward, chin propped on her fists, studying the baby. "I can't believe she's ours," she admitted, and Fiona flashed her a smile.
"Me neither." A beat went by, with neither of them taking their gaze off of her. "We should name her, Im."
Imogen sat back in her chair, nodding. "I know. Okay, well, we had that list of names. What were they, again?"
Fiona pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand, trying to recall them all. There had only been three, but now she was so tired after waiting up all night that it was hard to remember them. "Um, Amelia, Addison, Molly." They both looked down at her in unison, as though she'd tell them herself what she wanted to be. Imogen cocked her head to the side, and then spoke -
- at exactly the same time Fiona did. "Addison." They looked at each other in surprise and then laughed, glad that after eleven years together they were still on the same page.
"Okay, so we have the first name down. Addison. How does that sound, Addie?" Fiona cooed, her finger tucked firmly in the infant's fist. Addie didn't move at all, fast asleep.
Imogen was silent, gaze trained on Fiona now. She had been thinking about this for a while, but she had yet to bring it up to Fiona. "I know what I want her middle name to be."
"Oh?"
"I want it to be Coyne. I mean, since you took my last name when we got married, I think it's only fair she gets to be a Coyne somehow," Imogen explained, reaching out to touch Addie's blanket, smoothing a crease in it. Fiona smiled warmly, placing her hand over Imogen's, their wedding bands glinting in the dimmed lights of the hospital.
"Can I tell you something?" Imogen nodded. "I know what I want her middle name to be, too. Kate."
It took her a minute, but then it dawned on Imogen. "After my mom?"
"After your mom. I know how much you miss her, honey, and I know you were upset she couldn't be at our wedding or be here to see Addie or anything, so I thought it would be a good way to remember her, you know?" Imogen only nodded, then stood up and leaned over Addie, kissing Fiona soundly and murmuring 'I love you' against her lips.
Addison Kate Coyne Moreno barely fit on the dotted line of the birth certificate, but they got it to. After all, if Fiona's mom could make Fiona's full name fit, they could make Addie's work.
five weeks
Imogen grinned down at Addie, holding her in her lap so that she was propped up on Imogen's forearms and looking straight up at her mom. "Hi, there, pretty girl," she cooed, her hands cradling Addie's head. "How was your day? What did you and Mommy do? I hope you didn't get up to too much fun without me."
Imogen hated having to go to work and leave Fiona home with Addie by herself, but one of them had to go back, unfortunately, and since she made more money right now it was only logical. Besides, since Fiona's money had been reinstated shortly after graduation and her trust fund had kicked in when she turned 25, she technically didn't really need to work for any money. It was to fill her day more than anything else.
"She was an angel as always," Fiona called from the kitchen, opening and closing the cabinets, getting things to prepare for dinner while Imogen bonded with their daughter.
"Of course she was; she's my daughter!" Imogen replied, smirking when Fiona made a noise of indignation. "Your Mommy is going to be in trouble if she keeps it up, isn't she? I'm going to be in trouble. Huh, Addie?" Addie's clear blue eyes were focused on something just over Imogen's shoulders, and she sighed, wondering how she was boring a five week old. "When you get older I'll have to teach you the Moreno pout so you'll be able to get out of everything when Mommy is mad."
"Are you really already teaching her to get in trouble?" Fiona perched herself on the arm of the couch, sliding an arm around Imogen's shoulder and pecking her cheek.
Imogen nodded, looking up at Fiona. "Of course. She needs to know how to avoid you when you're crazy mad. I mean, when the telltale vein comes out, kid's gotta know to run for it." Fiona made a face.
"What vein?" Oops. Imogen had let too much slip. She tried to figure out a way to get out of it, scrunching her face up in the process. Just as she opened her mouth, Fiona squeezed her shoulder and pointed to Addie, drawing Imogen's attention down to her. Their little girl was giving them the dumbest looking little smile ever, but to Imogen it might as well have been the most award-winning smile in the entire world.
"Oh, my God," she breathed, and Fiona echoed her statement, trying to pull her iPhone out of her pocket to capture the moment before it was gone. She was too late, though, and in the next instant Addie went back to looking blankly up at her mothers.
"Damn," Fiona muttered, disappointed.
"Next time," Imogen reassured her, before congratulating Addie on having such a nice little crooked smile.
seven months
"Benson! Benson, no!" Fiona scolded, trying to move their Great Dane off the couch. He knew that he wasn't allowed on there, yet the absolutely massive dog always managed to sneak around and get himself perched on there precariously. She still didn't understand how she had let Imogen talk her into getting a little tiny puppy that would grow up into a 140 pound monster that loved to do the opposite of what they wanted him to. He really was a sweetheart, though, and Addie loved him, squealing anytime that she saw him pad into the room.
She finally got him off of their couch and let out a growl of frustration when she saw the fur that he left behind, vowing that she was going to make Imogen clean it up, because it was her dog, after all. Benson disappeared into the kitchen and she heard the sounds of him crunching on his kibble, so she figured it was safe enough for her to go check on Addie.
Pushing open the door to the nursery, she poked her head around the door, surprised to see her daughter staring back at her with those big blue eyes that mirrored her own despite them not being biologically related. "What are you doing awake?" Fiona asked, propping open the door and reaching into the crib to pick Addie up. Addie merely stuffed a fist in her mouth as she was put against Fiona's shoulder and carried into the living room. Benson was laying on the couch again and Fiona gave him a dirty look, but didn't bother to move him because she didn't want to make the effort with Addie there.
She set her on the floor, surrounded by her toys, and rolled her onto her stomach. Then she turned her iPhone on to video and set it next to her. "Okay, Miss Addison, let's try this yet again." Imogen and Fiona had been trying for a few weeks now to get Addie to crawl, but she couldn't have seem less interested in it. Their doctor said not to worry about it, but one of Imogen's coworkers had a baby that was born around the same time and he had been crawling for a month at this point.
Fiona held out one of Addie's favorite toys, a squeaky giraffe named Sophie. "Come get Sophie! Come on, pretty girl, you can do it!" Addie regarded Fiona coolly, as if her mother was an idiot for thinking she could get her to move with just a toy. Fiona frowned, putting Sophie aside and trying with another toy. No dice. She went through the little pile that had accumulated on the floor, but all that Addie succeeded in doing was rolling from her stomach to her back.
Benson left the couch and went to lay next to Fiona, and she scratched behind his ears absentmindedly. "How you doing, buddy?" She looked back up when she heard a little squeal and let out a gasp when she saw Addie taking a wobbly movement forward on her hands and knees, focusing hard on getting to Benson. Fiona very carefully moved to get her phone, unlocking it and recording Addie's slow progress from the middle of the living room floor to right in front of Benson, where she laid down and poked his nose. True to his gentle giant form, he didn't do a single thing except lick her cheek.
Fiona scooped Addie up. "You did it! Oh, pretty girl, Mommy knew you could do it! Let's send this to Mommy, yeah? She's going to be so proud of you when she gets home!"
nine months
Fiona and Imogen struggled to unbuckle Addie from her car seat, wondering why the damn thing had so many straps and buckles. "Why did we buy something that a team of scientists couldn't even figure out?" Fiona grumbled, finally getting one part undone.
"I don't know - oh, shit!" Imogen swore, sticking her finger in her mouth after pinching it in one of the buckles.
"Language around the baby, Im!" Fiona chastised, getting the last buckle undone and picking Addie up out of it. She adjusted her dress and turned to face the house that they were arriving at. It was Eli's birthday, and she and Imogen had been invited to the Goldsworthy house by Clare, who sent out surprise invitations. If Fiona knew Eli at all - and she did - this was a terrible idea, but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to see him completely uncomfortable at his own birthday party.
Imogen took out his present from the back of the car and shut the trunk, turning to face Fiona. "Do you know who else is supposed - "
"Shit!"
Imogen cut herself off immediately and her eyes went wide. She and Fiona both looked down at Addie slowly, not quite believing their ears. Their little redhead was happily chewing on her fist, not paying the least bit of attention to them now.
"Did she just say...?" Imogen trailed off, and Fiona glared at her, shifting Addie away.
"This is why I tell you to watch your language, Imogen Felicity Moreno."
one year
"Fiona, can you help me with this?" Imogen called, struggling to hold open the door to their house and get the cake for Addie's first birthday inside at the same time without letting Benson out into the yard. The last time he had gotten out the fire department had been called because of an incident with the next door neighbor's cat that Imogen didn't really want to repeat.
Fiona arrived at the door a second later, Addie propped on her hip. "Mommy!" Addie cried, pointing at Imogen, and Imogen smiled.
"Hi to you, too, sweetie," she replied, entering the house and placing the cake on the counter in the kitchen. "The lady spelled Addie wrong, of course, but I can fix it before the party, I'm sure," she assured FIona.
"How can you mess up Addie?" Fiona said, sounding skeptical. Imogen opened the box, revealing 'Addi,' and Fiona snorted. "Who spells it that way?"
"I don't know, but we have icing around here somewhere, right? I can fix it, I promise."
Fiona shifted Addie to her other hip and leaned in to kiss Imogen. "I trust you. Just get it done before everyone else gets here, okay, babe?" Imogen nodded, already turning to rifle through the cabinets. Addie tried to lean forward to grab for the cake, but Fiona swung her away. "Ah, not yet, Miss Addison. Later on, when all of your friends are here, okay?" She wasn't going to have a huge party, just a few kids and their parents from daycare, Imogen's father, a few of her cousins, Fiona's mother who had made the trip up especially, Eli, Clare and their son, and Adam, Katie, and their daughter. As much as Fiona wanted Declan to come, he simply couldn't take time off from work. She was disappointed, but she could understand, she supposed.
Benson wandered into the kitchen, toenails clicking against the hardwood, and Fiona shook her head. "Out, out, out!" she scolded, pointing so that he wouldn't go after the cake. The black-and-white dog looked up at her with sad eyes but nonetheless trotted out, and Fiona and Addie followed.
She set Addie down next to the couch, watching as her daughter clung to the coffee table with a firm grip. Addie hadn't started walking yet, but she was so close that every day Fiona and Imogen had to watch her like a hawk lest they miss the big event. "Wanna walk for Mommy today, Addie?" Fiona asked, reaching out to ruffle Addie's reddish hair.
"Shi - Fiona!" Imogen called from the kitchen, and Fiona closed her eyes, burying her face in her hands.
"What, Imogen?" she said, her voice muffled.
"How much do you really care about the icing on this cake?" Her voice was closer now, behind Fiona, and she sounded guilty.
Fiona lifted her head and stared at Imogen. "How on earth did you mess that up? I left you alone for two minutes!"
"I know you did but I didn't know that it would turn everything red - Fiona, look!"
"Imogen, don't change the subject." Fiona crossed her arms. "Can we fix it?"
"No, no, Fiona, look!" Imogen crossed the distance between her and the couch Fiona was sitting on, pointing towards Addie. Fiona furrowed her brow and turned around, mouth open to question what Imogen was doing, and stopped short when she saw Addie about to take one determined, shaky step forward. When she did, and then took another, and another, before falling back onto her butt, her mothers looked at each other with wide eyes and then screamed.
"Addie!"
"Oh, my God, pretty girl!"
"You did it!"
Imogen rounded the couch and scooped Addie up, kissing her cheek. "I knew you'd take after Mommy and be the best in everything," she said smugly, and Fiona swatted her arm.
"Shut up, Moreno. Addie, you're such a good girl! You rocked those three steps!" she cooed, taking Addie's hand in her own.
Addie merely stared at the two of them in confusion, wondering what the hell was going on.
(She'd get good use out of that expression in the years to come.)