Hello all! These are in no order whatsoever, they're just what came to me in the moment. Each is about 1,000 words long and I would love some suggestions about other one shots, if you have any let me know! In my imagination Jack and Katherine would be able to stay at home at take care of their kids because they both have incredibly flexible jobs. As long as she turns in her article, and he turns in his comic, no one really cares about their whereabouts. They would alternate days to allow the other to get more work done…
"I happen to know, for a fact, that it is your turn." The woman rolled over in bed and pulled the covers over her head, trying as hard as she could to burrow back into sleep. Her husband gave a small grunt of displeasure and slowly opened his eyes.
"There ain't much I can do at this stage, Ace. You know she's probably hungry." Katherine gave a moan of complaint before slipping out of bed and heading to go feed the crying baby.
Jack felt little ripples of guilt as he closed his eyes once again, enjoying the silence that had suddenly taken over the small apartment. She knew that, if he could do anything about it, he would, right? It wasn't his fault that Elizabeth, no more than a few weeks old, refused to drink from a bottle! He tried to reassure himself with this, although it didn't do a lot of good.
Even if he was useless Jack still felt bad that he was warm in bed while his wife was probably freezing, trying to rock the child back to sleep. After all, it had been him that had really wanted kids.
Not that Katherine had been against it, and he knew that she loved her daughter immensely, but she would have been perfectly content with just him and her writing forever. It had been Jack that had brought up the topic, Jack that had reassured her fears with tales of how happy their future would be. Now it was Jack who could go back to sleep while she lost precious shut eye.
She was never going to let him forget this.
He figured that as long as he was blessed enough to have no reason to get out of bed he might as well make use of it and try to get some rest, but it was to no avail. Sleep evaded him as he thought about her, tired and cold, in the nursery, and he knew he had to do something.
His feet hit the cold floor and he winced a little, his body trying to force him to lie back down, but his mind was having none of it. Half in a trance he gathered the blankets from the bed into his arms and started the journey down the small hallway to the tiny room that him and Katherine had set up for the baby.
The heat had gone out once again and, even though it was the middle of September, the apartment was filled with a biting chill that turned his arms to gooseflesh. He hugged the covers a little closer to his body.
When he arrived at his destination his heart gave a little lurch of happiness, like it always did when he set foot in this room, or held Elizabeth. Even though it had been almost a month since she had been born, and almost a year since he had found out he was going to be a father, the word still shocked him sometimes.
Him, father. Jack Kelly was a father. Logically he knew where he was, knew that this was real. He remembered his wedding. Remembered Beth's birth. But that didn't stop the feeling that this might all be a little too good to be true. There were mornings where he still woke up and expected to be laying on the floor of his penthouse, Crutchie snoring next to him.
His eyes took in the small room as he entered and he reflected on the paintings and drawings that covered the walls.
The rolling hills of Santa Fe.
For some reason they felt fake to him now. Those dreams had been the dreams of a poor, hungry, and homeless teenager. Naive and unrealistic. Although, he reflected to himself as he caught sight of the figure in the window, the dream he was living in was pretty unrealistic as well.
He approached the pair standing silhouetted in the moonlight, taking a moment to stare at his small family, before gently wrapping one of the blankets around Katherine, being careful not to cover the bundle resting in her arms.
"She's asleep." Katherine whispered to him as she leaned against his chest, confirming Jack's suspicions. He just nodded against her head, his nose pressing into her curls.
He was pretty sure that Katherine had an interview tomorrow, and his weekly comic was supposed to be turned in before noon, and then it was his turn to stay at home and take care of Beth, and he was supposed to meet Davie for a Union meeting, and about a million other things that needed to get done. Just another average day.
He knew that they should be going back to bed, trying to grab as much sleep as possible before they were woken up again, but he didn't move.
This was one of those perfect moments. The kind of moment where everything is wonderful, and you're so caught up in the joy and love of the time that all other worries shrink away and hide. It was the kind of moment people remembered when asked about the best things in life, the kind of moment that wasn't meant to be shared, but to be kept close to the heart like the small miracle that it was. People lived life for these moments. Moments like the first time he had seen Katherine laugh, the first paper he had sold, the smile on Crutchie's face when they released him from the Refuge. It seemed a shame to miss one of God's precious gifts just because he was worried about a little sleep.
So he closed his mouth and leaned a little closer to his wife, curled a hand protectively around his daughters small head, stared out at the city as it glowed in the pale gray moon. It might not have been the bright orb in the sky that he used to dream about when he thought of Santa Fe nights, but it was better. Much better. He knew that they would both regret this in the morning when they would fight over the coffee and almost fall asleep at the table, but he was so caught up in the moment that he had a hard time caring.
Reviews mean the world to me. I would love to hear any suggestions, prompts, ideas, or questions. I have a few ideas for other drabbles, but your input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for reading!
readingsloth