"You know, I'm getting real sick and tired of this whole 'Flopping Fish Phase' she's going through right now, Chlo." Beca said as she gently lowered their ten-month-old daughter onto the couch, catching the baby after she promptly launched herself backwards in retaliation after Beca took the TV remote away from her. Frankie rolled herself over and pulled herself up so she was standing and leaning against the back of the couch again. Beca instinctively bracketed her hands around the baby incase she threw herself again.
"We can always do what Amy told us to do. She said it worked when Jasper was her age." Chloe grabbed Frankie from under her arms and set her on the floor to let her crawl around. She took a seat next to her wife, throwing her feet across Beca's lap.
"I'm not gonna let her hit the floor! What if she hits her head?" Beca absentmindedly began massaging Chloe's feet while simultaneously keeping a close eye on her daughter who was crawling her way around their gated family room.
"Well obviously we aren't going to let her hit the floor, Becs. I mean if she's on a soft surface or something we should avoid catching her. That way she'll learn." Chloe looked towards her daughter and giggled when she squawked as she fell on her butt after trying to pull herself up.
Frankie crawled her way over to her mothers and pulled herself up so she was standing against the couch. Chloe brushed the light brown hair out of her daughter's face then pinched her chubby cheek. Beca smiled brightly when her daughter giggled loudly and showed off her two new top teeth that have just grown in. Chloe scooped her up and placed the baby on her knees. She held her daughter's hands as she bounced her on her knees, throwing her head back in laughter as her daughter giggled wildly.
"Chlo, babe. As much as I love hearing both of you girls laughing, you're kind of digging your heels into my crotch and it hurts."
"Whoops. Sorry, baby." Chloe stopped bouncing her legs and felt a tug on her fingers as Frankie arched her back, ready to throw herself backwards. The redhead quickly pulled her legs up toward her to press her thighs against Frankie's back to stop her. "Francine Olivia Mitchell, you better stop that." She looked at her daughter with the 'Mom Stare' (as Beca called it) and when her daughter cried and began smacking her back against Chloe's thighs the redhead stood up, taking the baby with, and placed her daughter in the playpen they have set in the family room to finish her tantrum.
Frankie pulled herself to stand up and looked towards Beca, crying as she reached for her mama to pick her up. The brunette pouted and looked to her wife, who was hovering above her with her hands on her hips and shaking her head at Beca. Basically telling her not to acknowledge it. Beca felt her fingers twitch against the couch, aching to pick up her baby and calm her.
"I know what you are thinking and you better not." The redhead said sternly.
"But Chlo-"
"No, Rebecca!" Beca cringed at the use of her full name. She crossed her arms over her chest and furrowed her eyebrows while pouting. Chloe cocked an eyebrow at her wife. "Do I need to put you in there, too?" Beca opened her mouth to say something, but when Chloe narrowed her eyes at her she decided to just shake her head to end this discussion. "That's what I thought. I'm going to start lunch. Stacie and Aubrey should be soon so if you have to shower I suggest you do it now while our daughter is distracted by the TV."
Beca frowned at the bitterness in her wife's voice. She felt kind of bad for making Chloe grumpy. As Chloe was walking away, Beca quickly stood up and grabbed her wife by her t-shirt. She pulled the redhead against her chest and wrapped her arms tightly around her while swaying side to side. She smiled as she felt her wife relax into her embrace. She pushed her hair to one side and began to plant soft kisses on Chloe's neck.
"I'm sorry if I upset you, babygirl." Chloe reached an arm back and tangled her fingers in Beca's hair, pulling her forward for a quick kiss.
"I am sorry that I got upset over that." She planted one more wet kiss one Beca's lips before puling herself away from Beca's embrace. "Go shower now. You smell like baby cereal." Beca feigned offense and squealed as Chloe smacked her ass while she was walking towards the stairs.
/
When Beca came downstairs fifteen minutes later, she could hear Chloe on the other side of the house opening the front door and greeting their friends. Beca decided that since lunch was about to be served that she would take Frankie into the kitchen and meet the girls in there to greet them as opposed to them walking into the family room then turning back to go into the kitchen. Without giving it much thought, Beca approached the playpen in the direction that Frankie, who was engrossed in Peppa Pig, was not facing. The brunette grabbed Frankie from under her arms and lifted her high up while making a "Whoosh" sound because it almost never failed to make her daughter giggle. Except this time it did fail. Big time. Frankie wasn't too thrilled about being pulled away from her show. While she was midair she decided to express her inconvenience by forcibly throwing herself backwards, the back of her head colliding with Beca's nose. There was a crack or a pop or basically some noise that indicated Beca was fucked. There was a collective gasp coming from the direction of the kitchen and it took everything in Beca to not straight up drop her daughter. Chloe came to the rescue and quickly grabbed the baby from Beca, who instantly took this opportunity to cover her nose and stumble back to sit on the couch. Chloe and Stacie were instantly kneeling on each side of Beca as Aubrey soothed the crying baby while rubbing the back of her head.
"Holy fuck, Bec. Are you okay?" Beca quickly shook her head no and pulled her hands away from her face momentarily to show her wife and her friend her nose. She had blood dripping down her chin, neck and her hands as well. "Shit." Chloe stood up and ran to the kitchen, coming back in record time with a rag. She pulled Beca's hands away and pressed the rag softly against her nose, careful not to her hurt wife even more.
After a minute or so Stacie pulled the rag away for she was able to check Beca's nose, but Beca squirmed to get away.
"Check Frankie's head first. She was crying."
"She's fine, Mama B." Stacie nodded her head in the direction of Frankie, who was back in her playpen watching TV and sucking on her pacifier like nothing even happened.
"Oh. Okay you can look at me then." Stacie rolled her eyes. When Beca pulled the rag from her nose, she heard Chloe gasp loudly and heard Aubrey gag. She panicked and covered up her nose again. "You can't be making those sounds! It makes me panic! If you are going to make those sounds you need to leave the room." Aubrey mumbled a 'sorry' and Chloe zipped up her lips. Beca once again pulled the rag off her nose. Her eyes darted over to meet Chloe's and her wife scooted closer and wrapped her arm around Beca's waist.
"Well, judging by the bruising you've already got going on under your eyes as well as the fact that your nose is slightly to the left, your nose is totally broken." Stacie said apologetically. She stood up and patted Beca's knee. Beca just nodded her head. She clenched her jaw and looked up towards the ceiling to stop the tears that were threatening to fall. Chloe sighed and kissed Beca's temple.
"I'll go get the car keys." Chloe stood up and began to head towards the kitchen.
"Wait! Can we like, eat first?" Beca looked over to Stacie. "Can I do that? Will my nose fall off if I don't get it checked now?" The taller brunette threw her head back and laughed.
"Your nose won't fall off. You can eat."
/
All the girls, including Frankie, were seated at the kitchen table eating the lunch that Chloe made. Nobody was talking and the only noise that could be heard was the sound of the silverware on the plates.
"You know, Chloe, we should really teach Frankie that staring at people makes them uncomfortable." Beca said, referring to her daughter who was sitting in her highchair directly across from her. Ever since they sat down, Frankie had not stopped staring at Beca. Every time she would look up at her daughter, she would pout and whine until Beca looked back down at her food or away from her. "Do you think she's whining cause she knows she did this to me?"
"You're funny, Beca. She's totally scared of you." Aubrey said, cringing a little at the end of her sentence.
"No she isn't!" The brunette said defensively.
"Bet."
After all the girls finished their lunch, Beca was putting all the plates into the dishwasher and Chloe was holding their daughter who was still staring at Beca. When Beca was finished, she walked over to Frankie and held out her hands to see of her daughter would lean forward to be grabbed. Frankie leaned back as far as she could and whined. The brunette furrowed her eyebrows together and instructed Chloe to give her the baby. The redhead obliged and as soon as the baby was in her mama's arms, she began to cry loudly. Every time Beca would rock her or try to soothe her, Frankie would cry louder and after a minute or so she eventually began leaning forward and pulling on Stacie's shirt, wanting her to grab her. Beca pouted when the baby stopped crying as soon as Stacie was holding her.
"C'mon, Becs. Let's go now. Are you okay with watching Frankie? If you have plans we can totally take her with us."
"Yes, of course we will watch her. Stacie and I saw a farmer's market at a nearby park, is it okay if we bring her there?"
"Absolutely! Her stroller is hanging up in the garage. Take Beca's keys too so you can get back in the house. They're the keys with the headphone keychain on it." Chloe said as she ushered Beca into the garage. She quickly placed a kiss on Frankie's head and then shut the garage door behind her.
/
"Why does stuff like this always happen to me?" Beca asked bitterly from the hospital bed she was lying in.
"I guess you're just lucky, babe." Chloe patted her wife's hand and continued to read the magazine she took from the waiting room.
They sat in silence for about 45 minutes. Beca was hurting and embarrassed about the whole situation and Chloe knew to leave her alone. They've been at the emergency room for three hours already. She's gotten her x-rays done and one of the doctors said she would send in for the ENT specialist to go over her options. Stacie and Aubrey have been sending them Frankie updates as well as photos from their outing earlier as well. At around 6:00pm the ENT specialist finally arrived with a nurse and a tray of various tools.
"Hello Mrs. Mitchell. I'm Dr. Torres and I am going to be working on your nose today. So, I looked over your x-ray and because your nose is slightly out of place, I'm going to have to realign it. Luckily, your fractures aren't severe enough to where you will need surgery so I will be able to realign your nose right now."
"You mean re-break my nose?" Beca said with wide eyes. She grabbed her wife's hand and squeezed it tightly. Noticing her wife was about to freak out, Chloe stepped in and began asking the questions.
"How do you do something like that? Will she get medicine or anything?"
"Of course. I have a numbing spray on my tray that I will spray up her nose. Once it's working, I'll have her lie down with her head elevated slightly and I'll pop her nose back in place."
"Oh wow! Sounds so fucking pleasant." Beca said sarcastically, earning an arm smack from Chloe.
"Afterwards I'll put a nose splint on her just to keep it straight. She'll keep that on for about six weeks. I'm also going to pack her nose afterwards as well for the bleeding. I will send you home with like two days worth of painkillers and the rest of the time she can just take Tylenol for pain. Does that sound okay?" Beca reluctantly nods her head and Dr. Torres pulls the tray of instruments close to her. "Okay, Mrs. Mitchell. I need you to tilt your head back for me." The doctor grabbed the numbing spray and waiting patiently for Beca to tilt her head back.
"Oh! You mean now?"
"Yes she means now, Beca." Chloe whispered harshly in Beca's ear and sent an apologetic smile towards Dr. Torres. Beca reluctantly tilted her head back and flinched when the nose spray shot up her nostrils. After a few minutes the doctor took a long cotton swab and carefully placed it in Beca's nostrils and poked around lightly.
"Can you feel that, Mrs. Mitchell?"
"Feel what? Do it again." Chloe rolled her eyes at her wife and the doctor just laughed. Dr. Torres leaned down to adjust Beca's bed and propped her head up on a pillow. Chloe gripped Beca's hand tightly. Even though her nose wasn't the one getting re-broken she was still scared for her wife. She looked at Beca with watery eyes and her wife just smiled at her.
"I'll be okay, baby. Just don't let go of my hand." Dr. Torres stood above Beca and positioned her thumbs on the either side of the bridge of Beca's nose.
"Okay. On the count of three, ready? 1…2…" The pressed against Beca's nose and there was a loud pop. Beca screamed loudly, unsure if it actually hurt or if she was just surprised.
"What the fuck happened to three!?" The brunette said as she wiped tears off her cheeks (she'll forever deny she was crying and blame it on a reflex that there were tears). The doctor placed a long cotton gauze into her left nostril and carefully aligned the nose sprint onto her nose.
"It hurts less when you don't brace yourself for it." Chloe angrily narrowed her eyes at the doctor when she turned away to throw out all the gauze packets and cotton swabs. "I'll have the nurse write up the discharge papers and bring in the pain meds for you. I'm going to place my card with the papers. I would like for you to come back in six weeks so I can look that over. I also want you to ice that nose. It might bleed for a couple of days, so I think I'll send you home with some of those long gauze as well. If anything looks or feels wrong, please don't hesitate to call." She shook both Chloe and Beca's hands before she left the room and both girls thanked her.
Thirty minutes later a young male nurse entered to room. He went over the discharge papers as well as the instructions for the pain meds Beca would be taking for the next two days. He gave Beca a pill to take after she signed the forms and told Chloe it might make her sleepy and loopy. Chloe thanked the nurse and led Beca out of the room and to the parking garage so they could head home.
/
The girls finally made it home at around 8:30pm. Beca was silent the whole car ride, mostly because she was asleep. They walked in through the garage door and saw Aubrey, Stacie and Frankie sitting on the couch watching some cartoon movie pulled up on Netflix. Aubrey had Frankie in her arms and was feeding her one of those pre-made bottles of breast milk Chloe has stocked in the fridge. When they heard the door shut, all three of them turned their head in the direction of the sound. When Frankie saw her mothers, she knocked the bottle away and began to squirm. Chloe smiled and picked up her daughter.
"Thank you so much. I hope she behaved herself." Chloe kissed her daughter's chubby cheek before blowing a raspberry against it.
"She was no trouble at all." Stacie said as she stood up and began putting on her shoes. "She had a really good time at the farmer's market. We bought you some vegetables, Chlo. Oh and Beca? There's a spicy garlic and cheese spread in the fridge for you. It seemed like something you would like." Beca plopped herself onto the couch and grinned widely at her friend, too tired to actually say thank you.
"Thank you so much. You're not leaving are you? Please stay for dinner. I can order some Chinese food or something. It's the least we can do. Please?" Chloe was practically begging their friends to stay. She felt horribly they had to watch Frankie so last minute. Stacie and Aubrey looked at each other and agreed that they would stay for dinner.
The redhead felt her daughter bouncing in her arms and looked down to see Frankie leaning towards Beca, who was sitting on the couch trying to keep her eyes open.
"No no, Franny. Mama has an owie." Frankie looked up at Chloe and pouted. She began leaning forward while repeatedly saying "mama"; getting louder each time she didn't get what she wanted. Beca rubbed the sleep from her eyes and held her arms out.
"Gimme my baby, Chlo."
"Fine, just be careful. We will be in the kitchen trying to figure out dinner. Just shout if you need me." Chloe handed Frankie over and kissed Beca's head while she was leaning down. She turned to make her way to the kitchen.
"Chloe!" Beca shouted before her wife was even out of the room. The redhead turned around to look at her. "I always need you, babes." The brunette sent a crappy wink over to her wife, making her laugh and roll her eyes before she went in the kitchen.
Beca looked down at her daughter her was once again staring intently at her face; thankfully she wasn't crying this time. The brunette repositioned her squirmy daughter so she was standing on her thighs, facing Beca. She held the baby by her hips, taking a risk by letting her unpredicted baby arms roam free. Frankie's arm began to reach up to touch Beca's face and she automatically flinched away, afraid she was about to get smacked. She was pleasantly surprised when she, in fact, did not get smack in the face and Frankie just placed her chubby little hand on Beca's cheek. She leaned in and pressed her forehead to Frankie's briefly before pulling away. After she pulled back, Beca smiled lovingly at her daughter. This time Frankie leaned in, pressing her forehead against Beca's. This interaction happened a few more times. When Frankie leaned in again, Beca was expecting another forehead touch, but was completely surprised when she got a wet baby kiss to the tip of her nose. She flinched a little bit, but the swelling in her heart caused by her daughter's cuteness completely outweighed the sting on her nose.
"How are you so freaking cute? I love you so much, Franny."
"And I love both of you!" Chloe shouted from the kitchen, causing Beca to jump and roll her eyes. She looked back towards Frankie smiling at how cute she was before she turned serious.
"I can't believe you broke my nose, dude."