"Good morning sweetheart" Connie cooed to her daughter as she stood above her bed and watched as her little girl gave an excitable wriggle from underneath the duvet that was placed over her little body. Her smile was large and spread across her face.
"Grace...did you just...?" Connie stuttered in disbelief, reaching out a hand and placing it against her little girls face.
"Jay! Jay! Quickly" Connie cried out as she pulled the bedside down and crouched down beside her baby girl, her face full of pure amazement.
Jacob, who had been snoozing away in bed, leapt up from the double bed he shared with Connie and hurried across the landing to the bedroom that belonged to his step-daughter. His heart was hammering as he had no idea what to expect. Connie sounded almost panicked, and he really hoped that everything was ok.
As he entered the bedroom, he was surprised to find his partner sat on Grace's bed, holding onto the child who was already grinning up at him.
"Is she..." Jacob started excitedly as he sat down on the specially adapted bed and placed a hand on his step-daughter's forehead.
"Jay.. she's smiling... she's actually smiling" She cried, tears running down her cheeks. Grace was lay in her lap, smiling up at her Mother and step-Father, the two people who had been caring for her twenty four hours a day, seven days a week for the last four months since the car accident that had left the young girl with brain damage and partial paralysis. She had reverted back to being a baby, incapable of talking, walking or crawling.
Connie had become her carer, refusing to allow anyone else into the house to assist with Grace's care, believing that they weren't good enough. She had taken long term leave from work, Jacob had also decided to take some time off to support his partner. She was fully capable of caring for Grace, and he knew that, but when they found out Connie was pregnant, he realised that the lifting and carrying involved with Grace's care wasn't safe for either Mother or Daughter.
"Oh Grace, you have just made mine and your Mother's day my darling" Jacob whispered as he lifted his step-daughter from her Mother's swollen stomach and arm's, and held her in his own. She wasn't his biological daughter, but he loved her and cared for her as though she were his own.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey..." Jacob started to sing the song that seemed to make Grace interact the most. Her eyes would light up and her body would begin to move.
"She really loves you, you know that don't you?" Connie said as she looked at her partner with utter adoration in her eyes.
Connie looked about Grace's bedroom, smiling as she looked at the purple and cream wallpaper that Jacob had put-up himself in an attempt to make the room, with all its clinical equipment, seem more homely. Pictures of the three of them sat on the wall, whilst letter's from Grace's father were also framed for her to look at when she got stronger and older.
"I love her more than she will ever know Con, my baby girl, aren't you Gracie" Jacob beamed at the little girl that lay in his arms, her little face lighting up even more.
"I can't believe it" Connie sobbed as she grabbed Grace's hand and held it tightly in her own.
"Connie, this is good, it means that she is getting better and doing better that the Consultant ever thought that she would. This is a good sign sweetcheeks, and soon enough we will be a proper family" Jacob said softly, reassuring his anxious girlfriend.
"I really hope so Jay, because that's all I want, us being a family. In fact it's all Grace has ever wanted, and I just want her to know that I will do anything to make her happy" Connie's voice wobbled slightly as she spoke.
Jacob reached out to his partner and pulled her in close so that they were side by side, Grace sat over their laps.
"I love you" Jacob murmured into the brunettes ear. Never had he loved someone as much as he loved Connie. She was stern and scary at times, but at home she was caring, loving and the most wonderful Mother and Partner he could have asked for. Now she was six months pregnant, she was even more glowing. She was the love of his life, and nothing was about to change that.