"So it's a deal then?"
"It's a deal." Holly agreed. "If it's a girl I get the paint colour I want."
"And when it's a boy I get the middle name I want."
"Arms up." Gail instructed. The toddler defiantly crossed her arms. Gail tried a head tilt, it always worked when her wife did it maybe she'd possess the same power. She was met with a shake of her head and a firm no. "Why not?"
"No dress." Clara stated.
"But this one is so pretty, mommy picked it out special. Look it even has matching reindeer antlers!" She wiggled the antlers. Reindeer had been all the rave since the holiday season roll in, the three year old couldn't get enough of them. Which was why the certain dress was chosen.
Clara was enticed by the headband but still refused to let Gail put the dress on her.
"Fine not this dress." She relented and went to scour her daughters closet. She didn't know what would be acceptable for the occasion, the chosen dress had been specially bought for the Stewart Christmas party, elegant and fancy but childish enough for antlers to be worn. Even after attending the past six years Gail still wasn't sure what the dress code was, Holly always picked out their outfits. She plucked what she thought was a suitable one off a hanger and showed it off to the toddler, "this one?"
"Pants." Was all Clara responded with. Pants, Gail could work with that.
"Yeah, these cool candy cane tights go with it." Gail picked up the garment in question and held it up with the new dress she'd picked out.
Clara hummed in disagreement. "No dress."
Gail sighed. "Why not?"
"Dresses are for girls."
Gail faulted for a moment, caught off guard by the answer. Out of all replies she hadn't been expecting that one. "And because dresses are for girls, you don't want to wear one." She clarified calmly.
Clara nodded.
The girl didn't end up wearing a dress to the party. Instead Gail had pulled her wife to the side and explained why Clara was in her pjs and antlers, and they stopped at a store to buy an outfit that worked for the party and pleased the girl. Leaving questions and confusion to be dealt with later.
"See I told you this colour would look amazing." Holly ran a hand down the newly dried paint.
"I might like it better if I hadn't spent the last day and a half staring at nothing but it." Gail fired back.
Holly chuckled. "That means you've only been given more time to appreciate it."
"Aren't you a big girl, getting your boots on all by yourself." Holly complimented her daughter as she approached the mudroom to get her own boots on.
Clara's face fell from the triumphant one it had been. She shook her head. "No."
"No?" She questioned, taken back but the sudden change.
"I not a big girl." Clara all but huffed.
"So what is it?" Chloe yelled from across the room. Gail shot her a glare and took her seat, ignoring the looks. But she didn't get away with not answering, not when Staff Sargent Shaw wanted to know just as badly as Price.
"Well answer the woman." Oliver urged with a wide eager smile across his face.
Gail couldn't help her own smile as she thought of her baby. "It's a girl."
"This one." Clara pointed to a picture of an adorable boy with the typical boys hair style. They were at the hairdressers and looking through books to find a cut Clara should get. The girl had been asking to cut her hair, telling both of her moms how much she hated her long hair and it showed how insistent she was on the matter.
"That's the one you want? You don't want to look at any others?" Gail wanted her to be sure. Hair grows back of course, but it takes time.
"Yes." She smiles brightly at the picture.
"I think it's gonna look great on you." Holly commented.
"I think it will too. Plus with it that short we can put some of my gel in it and do all kinds of cool things." Gail added.
Gail and Holly watched as their daughter happily stared at the picture until her name was called. They'd talked about Clara's incline to 'boy' things, about the way she would refuse to be called a big girl, about her anger toward 'girly things' like dresses. They discussed the different meanings of the actions but they weren't sure if Clara fell into anything they'd found, it'd only been going on a few weeks and that wasn't enough to really say anything concrete. So they were just going to continue as they were, listening to what Clara told them.
The hairdresser smiled at Clara as she walked over, book in hand. "You got your cut picked out?"
Clara nodded eagerly.
"I'm very excited to see what you've got for me, how about you pick out a chair and we can have a look."
Clara didn't hesitate in her answer, she'd always picked the police cruiser, and it never failed to make Gail burst with love when she told the hairdresser why. "My mama has one of these." She informed the woman as Holly set her in the seat.
"I drive one at work, but it's not mine." Gail told the toddler, barely containing her joy. If Clara knew how to roll her eyes she would have in that moment.
"That's very cool." The hairdresser, Ashley her name tag said, commented and wrapped the cape around the girls neck. "Now, wheres that picture?"
"Mommy has it."
Ashley glanced at Holly and held a hand out. Holly passed her the book and held her breath, she wasn't sure how the woman would react but however it was she was ready. Ashley's eyes lit up in surprise but her smile never faltered.
"This is quite the change in styles, are you sure you want it this short? Because we can do it a little longer than in the picture."
"No thank you." Clara declined.
"Okay then." Ashley grinned at her in the mirror. She gently took out Clara's ponytail and begun her work.
Gail could have sworn that the moment Ashley chopped off the majority of Clara's hair was the happiest she'd ever seen her daughter. The smile, the giddy squeals, all of it was pure joy.
"She's so beautiful, I can't get over it." Gail continued to stare at her daughter, brushing a finger up and down her cheek. She'd been doing that for hours, staring and caressing, cooing, fixing blankets and hats, she couldn't get enough of the baby girl she helped bring into the world.
"She gets it from you." Holly snuggled closer into her wife and joined in admiring their baby.
"I'd love to take credit, but this one is all you, Lunchbox. From her hair to her eyes all the way to the freckle on her butt. She's yours and I wouldn't have it any other way."
"You look like a strong boy." An old woman got Clara's attention. "Could help me grab a few cans there?"
Holly held her breath for the inevitable decline from her daughter, for the angry no that followed every time someone called her strong or big. She waited for Clara to correct the graying woman with an apology on the tip of her tongue. But it didn't come. Instead her daughter smiled brightly, showing off all of her pearly whites, and set to the task at hand.
Clara followed the woman's finger and crouched down to pick up a can of pie filling. She reached up as far as she could to hand the woman the can and have her her best toothy grin, the one Holly swore she got from Gail.
Holly watched with pride and curiosity at the exchange. Pride because her daughter was delighted to help someone in need, even adding a 'your welcome' when the woman thanked her, all without being told to. Curiosity because Clara had stopped everyone from giving her such compliments. But those compliments usually added girl in them, this time she was assumed a boy with her short hair, Avengers shirt, and toy police car.
"I think she's transgender." Holly said to her wife once Clara was off playing in another room.
"What?"
"Transgender. I've been looking at a lot of stuff, researching really, and all of her actions point to trans. She doesn't just like boy things, it's more than that. It's her refusal to wear overtly girl things, the insistence that she's not a big girl, her anger with all of these things. It adds up. And it's been consistent for months now." She rambled off all of her reasoning, everything that had been swirling around her head since Clara handed the second can to the old woman. The possibility had come up a few times, they'd even glossed over it when Clara first started, but it wasn't something they could have gauged yet because it hadn't been going on long and all Clara was telling them was that she didn't want to wear dresses.
Gail absorbed her wife's reasoning's and continued to put the food away. "What made it hit you like this?"
"At the store someone called Clara a strong boy when asking for help, and she beamed as bright as when she got her hair cut." Holly explained and passed her a box of cereal to put in the cupboard.
"We should talk to her." Gail met her eyes, serious.
"At dinner." She replied in kind.
"Where's my granddaughter?" Holly's mom gave in way of a greeting. It was her first grandchild and she wasn't going to waste one second with her time meeting the girl.
"Hi to you too mom." Holly teased. Her mom stuck her tongue at her. "Gail's changing her and will be down in a minute."
She gave a gleeful squeak when Gail walked down the staircase and ran to meet her at the bottom. Gail chuckled but passed her the tiny human she got to call her daughter.
"Hi Clara, I'm your grandma, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Up and down just like this." Gail instructed, showing what to do with her own paint roller. She was once again painting her baby's room. She didn't know why or how she kept getting roped into doing the painting, Holly didn't have any excuses that time. Maybe it had something to do with the little human beside her, making drip marks and singing along to the Disney music playing in the corner.
"I come baring snacks, thought my workers could use a break." Holly walked into the room with a tray of lunch. She glanced around at the half painted walls, "it's looking amazing."
"I don't know how you do it, Hol." Gail sighed when she plopped onto the stool next to her wife.
Holly gave her a half smile, still sleep heavy, and kissed Gail on the cheek. "Do what?"
"That kid's hair. She wiggles way too much and cries as if I'm pulling it out."
"I didn't think we'd be adding more stuff to this pile so soon." Holly said as she moved a stroller out of her way.
"I didn't think we were going to be adding any more. I thought the next time we'd be back here was to pull it out." Gail added.
Holly stopped and turned to her wife with a raised brow and an amused light in her eye. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." She replied almost shyly. Then bumped the box in her arms into the one in Holly's.
"Pop!" Clara squealed and ran to her grandfathers waiting arms.
"There's my is." Holly's dad said warmly, pulling the girl into his chest in a greeting hug. "How's my Princess?"
"Which one's yours?"
"The reindeer."
"Oh he's adorable." The woman melted. "Sven?"
"Yup." Holly smiled. She still got a rush when people refereed to her son as just that, a boy. It'd almost been a year since it all started, but it still felt fresh, still was at the forefront of her mind. It'd been bumpy in the beginning. Some people who knew her son before had been difficult and they'd since dropped out of their lives. And switching pronouns had been a tongue twister, same thing with the new name. But over all it had been joyful.
The kids dispersed, the bigger ones running ahead and jumped down the steps, leaving the little ones to stumble around until it was clear. The woman called out to her kids to slow down and be mindful of the younger ones, apologizing to Holly before going to the next house.
"Mommy, look!"
"What d'ya get?" She questioned excitedly.
"A whole chocolate bar!" He exclaimed, holding the candy in the air for her to see.
"Wow." Holly exaggerated.
"Ben, common!" Leo called from the curb.
Ben looked at him and back to his mom, Holly nodded encouragingly and he was off running toward the teen. He'd been so excited when Leo said he'd tag along, ditching his friends in favor of trick-or-treating with his honorary cousin.
She took her time walking down the street to wait at the curb for when her son came to tell her what he got, only to do it all again and again and again until his little legs gave out and they called it a night. But for now she was content to watch.
Three houses later she was greeted with arms wrapped around her waist and a kiss behind her ear. It could only be one person, and it made her heart flutter for a moment.
"How're we doing?" Gail had had a late arrest and said she'd meet them when she could. Luckily she hadn't missed too many houses.
"People have been quite generous so far, one house even gave him two handfuls. And a few parents have noted how heartmeltingly adorable he is."
Gail hummed. "He's all you, babe."
Ben came running back, Leo hung back at only a walk. He stopped once he got close enough to drop his bag and hug Gail's legs.
"Hey Sven, what'd you get?" Gail pat his back, pealing herself off her wife so she could fully engage with their son.
Ben unraveled himself to dig in his bag to find the right candy and held it out for his moms to see. A few tiny boxes of Dots.
"Good stuff."
"Hey, Gail." Leo greeted with a nod.
"Nice costume." Gail complimented.
He looked to his outfit and smiled. "Thanks, it took three weeks allowance to get."
"Ready for the next house bud?" Leo looked to Ben.
"Yes." Ben picked up his bag of candy and went to run across the next lawn when he swung back around to his moms. He gently placed both hands on either side of Gail's belly, leaned up on his tippy toes and kissed the growing baby bump, "hi baby." And then he was off.
"We have the sweetest son ever." Holly said adoringly. Gail couldn't have agreed more.