AN: I wrote this because it was a request. This is in the OneStepAtATime verse.
"I am not closing my eyes, Leelee!" Shelby Corcoran said lightly. She was walking stiffly, though who wouldn't be after giving birth and sporting sixteen glorious stitches that actually hurt like hell if she moved the wrong way. She had been kept in the hospital for two days, and now she and her unexpected bundle of joy were home.
Home.
Shelby smiled as tears clouded her eyes for the millionth time in the last two days. She was home.
She was home because that was where her baby was. Her Rachel.
"I want Rachel out of her car seat." Shelby said suddenly, stopping in the kitchen of her tiny one bedroom apartment.
She was going to go house hunting soon. She made decent money teaching, and she was a shoe in for being the show choir coach as soon as the one at Caramel retired, and, while she wanted Rachel with her for now, her baby girl would eventually want her own room.
Leah set the car seat with the baby in it on the table. The car seat was perfect, even if Shelby had not been able to pick it out. Leah had done the shopping for that since they had needed it to bring Rachel home. It was pink and had gold stars all over it along with a matching stroller. Shelby had no idea where her sister had managed to find something so perfect, but she would be forever grateful.
Shelby unstrapped the baby from the car seat and brought her carefully up to her lips and kissed the soft, downy hair on her head, and then moved Rachel to her shoulder. She smiled and then looked at her sister.
"I am so happy, Leelee. I think I would have died had I not been able to keep her."
Leah smiled at her sister and stepped closer to her so that she could lay a gentle arm around her and then she leaned over and kissed the baby.
"I know that you are happy. Everything happens for a reason, Shel, everything. This baby was meant to be with you."
"I love her so much, Leelee, I feel like I might burst from it." Shelby said as she looked at the face of her perfect little angel.
"Come on, Shel, I have something to show you." Leah said, this time not bothering to try and get Shelby to close her eyes. Her eyes were only for the baby in her arms at the moment anyways.
Leah guided Shelby through the small hallway and into her bedroom. When Shelby finally looked up, tears started immediately falling again.
Shelby used her free hand and wiped away the tears.
"Damn hormones!" Shelby hissed through her tears, as she leaned into her big sister seeking comfort.
Shelby's room had been rearranged, and now, against one wall, was a beautiful, dark oak crib, bedding and all, with a rocking chair that matched right beside the crib. The bedding had musical notes all over it and the mobile above it had musical notes and stars. Shelby didn't even bother to ask where Leah had managed to find the bedding and mobile. It was perfect though.
"Thank you, Leelee! It is perfect." Shelby said. Leah patted Shelby's back soothingly and just let her little sister take in the sight.
"I really love it." Shelby whispered, holding Rachel close to her.
"You deserve it, Shel. You deserve it, Shel."
Shelby smiled, and then Rachel started to cry. It was a loud cry. The nurses had told her that her tiny, baby girl had been the loudest in the nursery. Rachel Barbra Corcoran had been the talk of the nursery the entire time she was there, not that she was in there much after Shelby had realized that Rachel was hers.
Forever hers.
The nurses had told her that Rachel had cried nearly the entire time she had been in the nursery until she had been brought back to her mother.
The moment that Shelby had picked her up and had, on a whim, decided to breast feed her, she had stopped crying. She only cried when she was hungry or wet now.
"She is hungry." Shelby said absently, walking over to the crib and sitting down, quickly unbuttoning the shirt she had on and then releasing the clip on the nursing bra that Leah had also brought her.
Rachel immediately latched on and began to feed, and Shelby smiled.
Leah watched on. Her little sister was a perfect little mother. Everything just seemed right. Leah watched Shelby as she stared at the perfect little baby and then at Rachel as the little girl put her tiny hand on her mother's breast, taking ownership over what the infant, at two days old, seemed to know was hers.
Leah went and sat on the bed and watched her sister's reactions to the infant.
"Are you scared, Shel?" Leah suddenly asked.
Shelby smiled as she looked up from her baby.
"Yes and no. She is so perfect, Leah. I am scared a little bit, but this feels so right." Shelby said and then looked back down at her perfect baby.
"She is like a little angel. I knew, you know, the minute that I heard her heard beating, that I wanted her."
Leah nodded. She had known that. Leah had held her while she cried that night.
"But, now I have her. I am sorry about what happened to Hiram Berry, but I am not sorry that I won't have to fight for my daughter."
-OneStepAtATime:BringingHomeBaby-
Shelby woke to the cries of her baby at three in the morning. It had been nearly three hours since she had woke up with her last, and Shelby knew, without a doubt, that Rachel was both hungry and wet.
Shelby stiffly sat up just as her door opened.
Leah. Leah had stayed the night with her, and was planning on it until at least until Shelby's stitches came out. She had been sleeping on the pull out in the living room until she had heard Rachel's cries. The nurses had been right. The tiny girl had a very good set of lungs on her.
"Stay in bed, Shel. I will get her for you."
"She needs to be changed and fed. Besides, if I don't move around, I am going to be so stiff in the morning."
"You need to take something."
"I will take some Tylenol the doctor gave me after I feed her." Shelby said, and slowly made her way over to the rocking chair. If possible, she was sorer now, the day after the day after giving birth, than she had been right after.
"I will change her, and then you can feed her while I get you something to drink and some Tylenol."
"Okay, sounds good." Shelby said, and leaned back in the rocking chair.
Leah made quick work of changing the baby and then handing her over gently to Shelby, who had already started to pull down her tank top to feed the little girl.
After Rachel was latched on and Leah handed Rachel's blanket to Shelby, she left the room to get a bottle of water and a couple Tylenol.
She made her way back to the bedroom, but stopped and leaned against the doorframe as she heard her sister singing to Rachel…
"She's got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry
Oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o' mine
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine…"
Leah smiled as Shelby sang and fed Rachel, using her toes to rock the baby back and forth. It was the most natural thing that Leah had ever seen.
Her sister was happier than she had ever seen her.
Everything was simply perfect.
AN: This story is a twoshot. The next chapter is Beth's first few days home.
