Hi everyone! Thanks for giving this story a try. It's 100% fluff but also mostly cannon. I figured it'd be cute to read a "day in the life" of Sue and Sean's future or at least what I picture in their future. There's not much more to it. Lol.
I own nothing related to the Middle and never will.
"Good morning Mrs. Donahue! Your breakfast awaits." Sean grinned cheesily. He leaned down and kissed his still hazy bride. She tried to sit up and he placed the tray over her lap. Well not so much over her lap, as being nine months pregnant had stolen her lap, but lap adjacent. Blueberry pancakes, crispy bacon and her favorite pulpy orange juice neatly lined the tray which was finished off with a small daisy.
"Sean, you didn't have to do this." Sue forced a smile, still trying to wake up from her slumber. They had celebrated their sixth anniversary the night before, but he wanted to keep it going. "I know I didn't, but I wanted to."
She had been in a mood for the past few days. He just called it pregnant and took it, but Sue was starting to feel bad. She knew it wasn't like her to yell like she had been yelling, she was actually starting to feel like her mother. But she was swimming in hormones and more exhausted than she'd ever been.
They heard their bedroom door creek open as she tried to pull the tray closer. It was their five-year-old daughter, Stella. She walked up toward their bed with her thumb still in her mouth, a habit neither one of them had been able to break her from yet. She jumped onto their bed, making the whole breakfast tray bounce. Her curly brown hair was a frizzy mess and she was in her pink nightgown with her favorite baby blanket hugged in her arms.
"Whoa little lady!" Sean cautioned. He swept her up into his arms just as their eleven-month-old daughter Tessa started crying on the baby monitor.
Sue went to move the tray to the other side again so she could go get their daughter. "No honey, you stay. I'll get her!" Sean promised his tired wife. She rolled her eyes and laid back into the bed, exhausted.
"Daddy!" Stella started crying, snuggling up to her mother.
"Stella sweetie, how about we watch some cartoons while Mommy eats breakfast and then we'll cuddle with her?" He tried to reason. She stared at him, clearly trying to decide if she would accept the deal he was trying to offer her.
He tried the next best thing. "There's bacon in the kitchen?"
She grinned. The girl loved bacon. He adjusted his hold on her so he could have her in one arm and scooped an anxious Tessa up from her crib into the other. "Good morning Tessy!"
Tessa giggled and blew him a kiss, something she had learned to do a few weeks ago and had done repeatedly ever since. He blew a raspberry on her tummy in return and scooped her up.
With a little bit of work, he got everyone situated in the living room. He placed Tessa into her high chair with a cut up pancake, plopped Tessa onto the couch with two strips of bacon and turned on SpongeBob. When they were all distracted enough he went back in to check on his wife.
The bacon was gone, the pancakes were mostly eaten, and the orange juice glass was empty. She had laid the tray on their dresser next to an empty frosting container and curled back into her sleeping position.
"Still tired babe?" He asked as he snuggled back into their pillowy bed with her. She was rolled onto her side with her t-shirt struggling to stay down over her expanded belly and completely curled into the pregnancy pillow Lexi had given her. He hated that thing. Ever since she got it she preferred to cuddle with that over him and he felt left out.
She let out a snore and he saw the tiniest bit of drool on the pillow. She was out for the count. He gently kissed her forehead, then her belly and went back to the girls in the living room.
Stella didn't break her concentration on the TV when picked her up and pulled her into his lap to cuddle. Tessa was still making a mess out of her pancake. "Patrick!" Stella sang, he had always been her favorite character. Watching SpongeBob on Saturday mornings had become their thing. He usually got up with the girls because more times than not Sue had worked late at the hotel Friday night so this was their routine. However, she started her leave the week before and had been uncomfortable ever since.
His phone rang, and he saw Axl's face pop up. "What's up Ax man?" He answered a bit begrudgingly, he had a beef to claim with him at the moment.
He immediately heard screaming in the background. Axl and Lexi's three boys were all under the age of six and more rambunctious than ever. Behind their screams he could hear Lexi chasing after them and yelling at Axl for help in the background. It was a zoo over there at all times.
"Hey man, sorry to bother you so early." He sighed, knowing their household wasn't up nearly as early as his these days.
"No problem. Not like I'm getting to lay in bed with my wife these days anyway, she'd prefer the pillow. If I hadn't said it before, thanks again."
Axl was taken aback. "Uhh, I think you've been handsy enough with her as it is. Get her pregnant again and see what happens." He snapped back. Sean was a Heck now as much as Sue was a Donahue. After all these years he still got crap from Axl about marrying his sister. That would probably never fully go away.
He rolled his eyes. Instead of telling Axl she was the one who started getting frisky with him the night their third child was conceived, he dropped it. Telling him his sister jumped him in the shower for a quickie before work would probably make him throw up. "Anyway, what's going on?"
"Yeah. Anyway." Axl groaned, sounding surprisingly annoyed as he did so much of the time they were in school together. Look, Maddox has had a fever for a few hours now and won't stop crying. Lexi wants to take him in, but I think he's just teething. What do you think?"
Sean asked him a few follow up questions and felt comfortable enough to have them stay home and then told him so. "Just keep an eye on the fever but you should be fine. That's normal. I'll stop in this afternoon and check on him." He promised him. It wouldn't take long, they lived just down the road anyway. He ended up specializing in family medicine and opening up his own clinic in Orson. It was perfect because he worked what was usually a 9-5 with the exceptions of medical 'emergencies' here and there. The practice had already expanded enough to bring on another physician and a few nurses.
It also afforded his family to be successful enough for Sue to stay home comfortably for the next few years with the kids, so she could be a stay at home mom like she wanted. Sean was ok either way, he certainly didn't want to ask that of her but would be lying to say he wasn't pleased when she brought it up. His wife was going to be able to stay home just like his mother had with them. He felt lucky. She had nervously asked what he thought about the idea and then presented a plan that included budget and time table for her returning to her field after the kids were all settled into their schooling in the next few years.
Sean snapped back to reality. As if they needed more interruptions on what could have been a quiet Saturday morning, his father in law showed up. "Grandpa Big Mike!" Stella sang as she jumped off his lap and up into her Grandpa's arms like they were her favorite place to be.
Mike was a completely different guy with his grandchildren. Sean remembered noticing as a kid that he wasn't particularly warm with Sue or her brothers while they were growing up but he couldn't be any more different from that now. "Hi princess." Mike grinned and nodded hello toward Sean. Mike had mostly gotten over Sean stealing Sue's innocence, at least after they announced their second pregnancy, which brought Tessa. That was when most of his denial passed anyway.
"Hi Dad!" Sean welcomed him as his usual chipper and polite self. "You're sure here early."
Mike shrugged as Frankie popped in behind him. "We figured if we're taking the girls for the night we might as well get an early start. We're going to hit up the Frugal Hoosier before all the 'must eat today's' are gone."
He wasn't surprised. His in laws were fans of the Frugal Hoosier ever since he could remember. His parents on the other hand never really shopped there and he and Sue were fortunate enough to be in a pretty good place themselves. But Stella loved going with them. She was like Sue in that way, always happy and rather excitable even for the most mundane of tasks.
"How's our girl doing?" Frankie asked, motioning to the bedroom where she could hear her snoring away. She had talked to Sue the day before who she had told Mike was just a joy to talk to. Even Frankie agreed she couldn't pop that third kid out fast enough.
Before Sean could answer, Stella interjected. "Mommy said it's Daddy's fault she's fat and tired and her ankles are as big as balloooons." Stella stated matter of factly, adding an adorable emphasis to the word balloons.
Mike agreed. "That's right Princess. Everything is Daddy's fault." Mike nodded, talking to Stella but really speaking to Sean. Frankie tried to ignore Mike's typical comment and stifle her laugh while Sean uncharacteristically rolled his eyes at his in laws. They had come a long way from when Mike caught them getting hot and heavy in the driveway one Friday after coming home for the weekend. Eventually Mike even told him to call him Dad.
Frankie asked her granddaughter with mild concern, "Stella sweetheart, did Mommy tell you that?"
Stella giggled again and shook her head as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "No, Daddy tried to kiss Mommy and that's what she told him."
Mike and Frankie laughed because as much as they loved giving Sean a hard time for marrying their daughter and then knocking her up almost habitually, they loved having their granddaughters even more. Sue and Sean couldn't have been more perfect for each other in the end anyway, even if they were surprised he went from Axl's friend to their son in law.
Taking the girls for the night always felt like a treat for both of them and was much different than the exhausting nights they remembered of having young kids themselves. They loved seeing their daughter as a mother. She was loving, attentive, supportive and actually ended up being the stern one, much like Frankie had been in their family. They were secretly a little envious that their kids were in such better financial situations than they were as parents but that also made them prouder than ever.
With Sue and Sean having two, almost three kids, Axl and Lexi having three and Brick and Cindy having a pair of hyper grand dogs, their houses and hearts were full.
Life couldn't get much better for an old blue-collar couple from the middle of Indiana.
Fluff, just like I said. I just wanted a story book look into their future. I wish we would have seen a flash forward of some type for Donasue but maybe we'll get that at some point with the spin-off. A girl can dream :)