Notes: Mari and Sammy – Thanks for the squeals and the suggestions, as always!
Readers and REAL McRollers – We're still blown away by your amazing response to the marathon and *especially* Angie! Special thanks to everyone wondering about Joan's first meeting with Angie. This was always coming, but it was so fabulous to see how many of you wanted to see it!
Hope you enjoy!
Thick as Thieves (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
From her seat on the couch with Joan and Catherine, a pile of books on the coffee table in front of them, Mary looked at the series of texts she'd just received.
"It's from Aaron," she announced. She looked at Catherine, then Steve in the nearby armchair. "He's got Aunt Deb, but she wants to make a quick stop before they come here."
Aaron had been dispatched to pick Deb up from the airport and he'd dropped Mary and Joan off at the beach house first. Joan had immediately plastered herself to Catherine who had been holding Angie when they'd arrived, and proceeded to essentially follow the baby around much as Cammie did, sitting with whoever happened to be holding her. They'd managed to convince her to come back downstairs with them while Angie slept, but only after much cajoling.
"Is Daddy coming hewe?" Joan asked.
"Yep," Mary replied. "Remember? He went to the airport to get Aunt Deb."
"Ann Deb coming!" Joan clapped excitedly.
"That's right. She's coming to meet Angie."
Joan gasped. "Baby Angie's sweeping! I go wake her up!" She started to squirm from in between Mary and Catherine, but her mother grabbed her.
"Oh no, you don't. We're gonna let Baby Angie sleep as long as she wants to." She tickled Joan's tummy to distract her and the little girl shrieked delightedly.
Steve, grinned at the scene, then addressed Mary. "A stop?"
"He says it's nothing to worry about."
After a brief pause, Steve said, "I've got a bad feeling about that."
Mary straightened, concerned. "What?"
"I think Angie's about to get spoiled." He exchanged a look with Catherine. "Again."
Steve answered the knock at the door an hour later.
"What the–" he started.
A bouquet of colorful balloons obscured the face of the person holding them, but the insistent, "Here, take these," as she thrust the balloon strings at him was undeniably Aunt Deb.
Paws on the stairs heralded Cammie's approach, which was quickly followed by Joan's voice from upstairs. "I'm coming! I'm coming!"
"Careful on the stairs, peanut," Mary said, hurrying to catch up to her daughter. "Slow."
"Bawwoons!" Joan cried excitedly, holding the rail with both hands as she went down the steps one at a time.
"Is that my little munchkin?" Deb asked with a broad smile.
"Ann Deb!" Joan gasped, spotting the multiple baby gift bags in her hands. "You bwought pwesents!"
"I don't think those are for you, peanut …" Mary warned as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh, there might be one or two …" Deb countered, setting the bags down.
Mary sighed. "Aunt Deb …"
"What? I can't spoil both my great-nieces?" She bent down to kiss Joan, then gave Mary a hug.
"This was your quick stop?" Steve asked, glancing at the balloons he was holding and the bags now on the floor.
"Well, some of it I brought with me from home." She smiled broadly, pulling him into a tight hug. "There's the proud papa."
He grinned at her words.
"Look at you!" she continued. "Look at that smile." She patted his cheek and beamed at him. "You look just like your father when he brought you home."
Steve blinked, surprised, then his expression eased back into a smile.
"Where's Daddy?" Joan asked, peering around their legs.
"Here I am," Aaron's voice came from behind the large stuffed bear he was carrying up the steps of the lanai, several bags over his other arm.
"Teddy beaw!" Joan squealed, reaching up with both arms. "Can I howd it?"
"This is for Angie, pumpkin," Aaron said, stepping inside and putting the bear down against the wall on the other side of the stairs. Cammie abandoned nosing around the gift bags to investigate the huge purple addition, and Joan was right there with her.
Steve eyeballed the bear, then looked at Deb. "You really shouldn't have."
She grinned. "Do you know I mostly bought that just to see your face?"
He glanced at her, then smiled broadly and hugged her again. "I'm glad you're here."
"Me, too," she replied, then teasingly pushed him away. "But enough of you, where's–" She stopped, seeing Catherine at the top of the landing, baby on her shoulder. "There she is. Oh my goodness." She smiled. "Catherine, you look wonderful. How do you feel?"
"I'm good," Catherine said, smiling back. "How do you feel?"
"I feel like a million bucks now that I'm finally going to meet the new little McGarrett."
Catherine reached the bottom of the stairs and let go of the railing so she could gently turn Angie around.
Joan jumped excitedly at their feet. "It's Baby Angie, Ann Deb!" She pointed. "Baby Angie is Nibwet. She's sooooo wittle. She has wittle eaws and wittle fingews and wittle toes. She doesn't pway yet, but you can tawk to hewr."
"Ohh, the little angel," Deb said, putting a hand to her chest. "What a darling!"
Angie blinked up at her, stretching her arms out and opening and closing her mouth several times.
"You look like your mother, don't you?" Deb continued.
Steve smiled happily, standing just behind Catherine. Deb winked up at him.
"But there's a little of your daddy in there, too." She reached out and clasped one of her tiny feet, shaking it gently. "Isn't there?"
"You hafta wash you hands, Ann Deb!" Joan said suddenly. "Den you can touch Baby Angie."
Mary chuckled. "That's what we told her in the hospital," she explained. "That she had to wash her hands before she touched the baby."
Deb grinned, leaning down and tickling Joan. "And she's right. Why don't you come with me so your hands are all clean, too?"
"Den you can howd Baby Angie and I sit by you," Joan told her, taking her hand and leading her toward the downstairs bathroom, babbling all the while about her "wittle cousin."
When they returned, Deb sat on the couch holding the tiny baby, Joan right beside her as promised.
"She can howd you fingew, see?" Joan said, touching one of Angie's hands and beaming when the baby wrapped her tiny fingers around her bigger one.
"Well, you just know all about your little cousin, don't you, munchkin?"
Joan nodded seriously. "She sweeps a wot in hewr … in hewr …?" She looked over at her the other adults for help.
"Her bassinet," Mary supplied.
"Hewr bassinet," Joan repeated. She grinned. "I saw it! It's puwple!"
"A purple bassinet?" Deb said, smiling at Joan. "Well, Miss Angie is certainly styling." She looked down at the baby, shaking her head in wonder. "You are just the sweetest little thing. With those big blue eyes–"
"For now," Steve said. "They're gonna be brown."
Catherine shook her head, chuckling lightly. "They could just as well stay blue," she said, looking at him pointedly.
"Nope," Steve countered confidently. "Our daughter's gonna have brown eyes like her mother and her grandmother."
"Ahh, but her other namesake has blue eyes," Catherine pointed out.
That gave Steve pause, but only for a moment before he shook his head. "Nope, brown."
Deb smiled and looked at the baby. "Well, whatever color they end up, I have no doubt they will be as beautiful, as intelligent, and as caring as both your parents' are." She turned her smile on both of them, before looking back down. "Oh! That looks like a hungry face if ever I saw one. I guess that means I have to give you up, little darling."
Catherine looked at Steve. "Why don't you get a bottle ready?" she suggested. "Deb could feed her."
"Oh, could I?" Deb asked eagerly. "Only if you're sure. If she'd rather be with you …"
Catherine smiled. "She looks pretty comfortable right where she is."
Deb's beaming smile was all the answer they needed. Steve returned shortly with the prepared bottle.
"Are you gonna help Aunt Deb, Joanie?" he asked. "She's gonna feed Angie."
Joan's eyes went wide and she looked ready to burst. "I hewp!" She looked at her parents. "Can I?"
"Sure, peanut," Mary said. "But do everything Aunt Deb and Uncle Steve tell you, okay? Be a good listener."
Joan nodded. "I wistening."
Deb shifted the now mewling Angie up higher in the crook of her arm. "It's wonderful she's taking a bottle so young."
"We're very lucky," Catherine agreed. "As long as she gets to eat, she's perfectly happy."
Steve took the top off the bottle and handed it to Deb.
"Joan, hold the bottle with me," Deb said. "Right on the bottom. Ready? Nice and gentle now." With Joan holding her fingers on the bottom of the bottle, Deb brushed the nipple on Angie's lips until she opened her mouth and latched on.
Mary smiled, watching her daughter's rapt attention on the baby. She looked at Steve and Catherine.
"Told you she'd think Angie was the greatest thing ever."
After Angie had fed and burped, she stayed alert for about ten minutes before she started to fall asleep, during which Joan regaled her with all the different food she could eat when she was a big girl. They decided to put her down again in her bassinet reasoning that it would be easier to get Joan to go outside for a bit if her new favorite person in the world was out of sight.
Aaron convinced Joan to go outside using the promise of playing with Cammie, her other favorite, as enticement. The other four stayed inside relaxing in the living room.
"Well, you two don't look nearly as exhausted as you probably should," Deb said, smiling at Steve and Catherine.
"It hasn't been too bad," Catherine said. She glanced at Steve and grinned. "We're tired, don't get me wrong, but the fact that she'll take a bottle has helped a lot with the nighttime feedings so we can each get a little bit longer shifts of sleep."
"And I bet it's helped having your parents and grandma here."
Catherine smiled warmly at the very mention of her family. "Absolutely." She looked at her sister-in-law. "And to have Mary and Aaron and Joan here, and now you." She reached up for Steve's hand, resting on her shoulder. "All of you plus our family that lives here on the island …" She smiled. "We're so fortunate."
He nodded. "We are. It's hard to imagine doing this without so much family around. The fact that Angie gets to grow up like this … surrounded by people who love her … " He exhaled, a soft smile on his face.
Catherine squeezed his hand, and Deb smiled at his words.
"Now, speaking of Joan, she is just enamored."
"Isn't it adorable?" Catherine said.
Mary laughed. "She had to get over a little confusion at the hospital."
"We' hewe!" Joan exclaimed, pushing open the door of the birthing suite.
Mary quickly followed. "Shhh, peanut, remember? We have to be quiet here."
"Shhhh," Joan echoed before whisper-shouting, "We' hewe!"
"Hi, honey," Catherine said, standing next to the bassinet.
"Ann Caf, we' hewe to meet Nibwet! Mama says she's not in you tummy now!"
Catherine grinned. "She's not, and she can't wait to meet you."
Steve gently lifted the swaddled and sleeping baby.
"Hey Joanie, come meet your new cousin Angie."
"Den we meet Nibwet?" Joan asked before seeing what Steve held. She gasped, hurrying over to him as he sat carefully on the little couch. "Baby!" she cried as she scrambled up next to him and peered at the bundle in his arms.
"Shhhhh," Mary said again.
Steve smiled at Joan. "This is Angie, your cousin."
"Baby Angie," Joan said, awed.
Aaron, having greeted Catherine with a warm hug, came over to get his first look at the new baby as well. He smiled broadly.
"She's beautiful."
"Thank you," Steve said, tearing his eyes from his daughter for a moment to smile at Aaron. "She looks like her mother."
Catherine, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking on, smiled, shaking her head fondly.
"Why is she sweeping?" Joan asked, looking at Steve.
"Because that's what babies do most of the time," he said.
"It's tough work being born," Mary said, grinning. "Hey, peanut, do you want to show Uncle Steve and Aunt Cath what you brought for Angie?" Mary asked.
Joan looked at her, confused. "Fo' Angie?"
"Remember?" She took something out of her purse. "The onesie that matches your shirt."
Joan glanced down at the shirt she'd worn to the baby shower that announced I'm the Big Cousin in bright pink letters, then up at the onesie her mother held that had I'm the Little Cousin in matching letters.
"But dat's for Nibwet."
Now it was Mary's turn to look confused. She shared a quick look with Aaron.
"Joan, we talked about this, remember?" she said. "Angie is Niblet. Niblet is Angie. Uncle Steve and Aunt Cath just called her Niblet when she was in Aunt Cath's tummy so they could keep her name a secret."
"A secwet?"
"That's right," Catherine said. "We wanted it to be a special surprise when she was born."
Joan looked back at the baby in Steve's arms. If possible, her face lit up even more than it had when she first saw Angie. "Dis is Nibwet! Baby Angie is Nibwet!" She looked back over her shoulder. "Daddy! Baby Angie is Nibwet!"
Aaron laughed. "I know! Isn't she great?"
Beaming, Joan reached out to touch Angie's cheek, but Mary stopped her.
"Hang on, peanut. You have to wash your hands and make sure they're all clean before you touch the baby."
Joan's forehead wrinkled as she looked at her mother. "Why?"
Mary lifted her and brought her over to the small bathroom sink. "Because our hands have lots of germs on them, and we don't want to make Angie sick, do we?"
Joan shook her head adamantly and dutifully washed her hands. Mary brought her back to her spot next to Steve, who held Angie closer to Joan.
"Be very gentle," Mary said as Joan reached out and touched Angie's cheek.
She grinned excitedly at the soft skin, looking up at first Steve and then back at her parents and Catherine. "Can I howd her?" she asked hopefully. "Wike I howd my Nibwet dow?"
"Oh, peanut, I know you've been practicing holding your baby doll, but Angie is really little," Mary said. "She was only born yesterday. We need to wait until she's bigger."
Joan looked crestfallen, and Steve said, "Come here, Joanie." He shifted Angie into the crook of one arm.
"Steve, you don't have to–" Mary started.
"It's okay," he said. "You just want to get to know your cousin, right, Joanie?"
She nodded. He helped her into his lap with his other hand.
"Put your legs over mine," he said. Once she was settled, he carefully moved his arm with Angie back over their legs.
Joan breathed in and out excitedly, but when she reached out to touch Angie's soft, dark hair, she was very gentle. She gasped as the baby blinked open her eyes.
"Hewr eyes aw open!" She exclaimed, looking over at Mary and Aaron. Aaron had taken out his phone and was recording her reaction. "She's wooking at me!"
"She is looking at you," Mary said. She grinned over at Catherine.
"She sees her big cousin," Catherine added.
Steve smiled at Joan. "She knows you're gonna look out for her."
She looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. "Can Baby Angie come to my house? She can sweep in my big giwrl bed wif me," she reasoned.
He sighed, clearly hating to deny her. "She will someday. When she's bigger."
"How much biggew?"
Mary chuckled. "Quite a bit bigger, peanut."
"But you two are going to be great friends," Catherine said. "You'll get to spend lots of time together as you grow up."
"That's right," Steve said.
"She has wittle eaws!" Joan said, distracted by the sight of Angie's tiny ears.
"Look at her fingers," Steve said as Angie determinedly pushed a hand out of her swaddle.
"Wittle fingews!"
"Watch this," Steve said. He took one of Joan's fingers and guided her to touch Angie's hand.
Joan gasped and then giggled as Angie gripped her finger. She looked back at her parents. "She got me!"
"She got you with her little fingers," Aaron said, smiling broadly and still holding his phone.
"You'd probably be happy just sitting like that for the rest of the day, wouldn't you, peanut?" Mary asked, grinning.
Joan nodded seriously. "I stay wight hewe wif Baby Angie."
Eventually, Mary and Aaron also got a turn holding the baby, though Joan insisted they sit in Uncle Steve's spot on the couch so she could stay next to her new cousin.
After about a half hour during which Angie drifted in and out of sleep, Mary passed the baby to Catherine, now back in her bed.
"Okay, peanut, let's let Aunt Cath and Uncle Steve get some rest with Angie."
"Can we stay hewe? Pwease?"
"No, we can't stay here, they all need some sleep," Mary said. "But you'll see them again soon."
"We're going home tomorrow and you can come see us," Catherine promised.
"And see Baby Angie?" Joan asked, seeking confirmation her new favorite person would be there.
Catherine smiled. "Of course."
"Say bye-bye," Mary prompted, picking her up.
"Bye, Joanie," Steve said.
"Bye, sweetheart," Catherine added. "We love you."
Mary brought her close to the bed where Steve stood.
"Wuv you, Unca Steve," Joan said, and he leaned down so she could kiss him. "Wuv you, Ann Caf." She kissed Catherine next.
Her biggest smile was for the baby. Mary dipped her carefully so she could kiss Angie's head.
"I wuv you, Baby Angie."
"Oh!" Deb said, clasping her hands together after they'd told her the story of when Joanie met Angie. "That is just precious! 'Baby Angie is Niblet!' She kept telling me that while we were washing our hands."
"Apparently Aaron and I didn't do a good enough job explaining because she really thought there were going to be two babies," Mary said, chuckling. "How she would have divided her time between them if there were is anyone's guess."
Steve and Catherine grinned.
Mary's expression sobered. "But seriously, if she ever gets too be too much–"
"Never," Catherine assured her. "I love how much she loves Angie."
"It's great," Steve agreed. "We were a little worried she might be jealous or something."
"Oh, I'm sure that day is coming," Mary said. "But it definitely helps to have so much family here."
Catherine nodded. "Plenty of love to go around."
"They're going to be thick as thieves when they're older," Deb said. "Can you imagine?" She grinned at Steve. "The two of them together? You don't stand a chance."
Hope you enjoyed!
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