A/N: I wrote this ages ago on my tumblr site, but I thought I might bring it across here. Just a bit of paily domesticity with kids.
Alex always ended up in the same spot, right in the middle of the living room floor, lying on his stomach as he intensely set about his coloring in. He took up a surprising amount of space for such a small boy, and Paige had to step over him as she brought in the shopping, a task not made easier by him kicking his legs up and down as she did so.
"Watch it, little munchkin," Paige warned. "If I fall over that will be the end of your orange juice."
Alex paid no heed, though. He was focused on his coloring like he was in a staring contest with the outline of the tiger on the page.
His older sister, Elizabeth, was equally enthralled with her activity, the new dance game her parents had bought her for her birthday. She swayed and jumped and threw her arms up in time with the music, all the while watching her avatar on the television screen.
"Mama, look!" she called out as Paige went past.
"That's very good," Paige responded as she picked a path to the kitchen bench where Emily was already unpacking the groceries.
"You didn't even see," Elizabeth protested.
"I did," Paige insisted. She was getting used to lying to her children now, though Emily still had to coach her occasionally.
"OK then, what did I do?" Elizabeth demanded.
Paige hesitated. Now she was in trouble. She looked to Emily pleadingly for help, and she was in luck. Emily did a silent impression of their daughter.
"Ahhh, you… did a turn…" Paige began, though the sight of Emily imitating Elizabeth's dance moves was making it hard for her to keep a straight face, "…then a kick… then a turn again… then a thumbs up…." Emily shook her head vigorously, but they were both laughing now. Paige decided to just go with it. "Then you did a moonwalk, then the chicken dance…"
"That's silly," Elizabeth interrupted, giggling too.
Paige had made it to the kitchen now. She put the bag on the bench and, her hands finally free, put her arms around Emily and gave her wife a quick kiss.
"Thanks, honey," Emily said.
"Are we good?" Paige asked.
"Yeah, I think we're pretty much ready," Emily replied.
Their peaceful moment was soon interrupted by a commotion in the living room. They both turned to see that Alex was crying.
"What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked him.
"I want go," Alex responded firmly.
"Liz, I think your brother wants to join in," Paige called out. "Put it on two player mode."
"Don't call her that," Emily whispered.
"Betty, I think your brother wants to join in," Paige called instead.
Emily just rolled her eyes.
"You don't need to cry," Elizabeth said gently to her little brother. "You can dance with me if you like."
She adjusted the settings to bring up a second avatar.
"Do you like that?" she asked.
Alex nodded and soon the two of them were busily dancing.
Emily and Paige quickly unpacked the rest of the groceries.
"Promise me it's just one night," Paige pleaded.
"It's just one night," Emily assured her. "We'll be fine. They love you."
"That's what I'm worried about," Paige explained. "Five children, three of whom think I'm the resident party game. I'll be exhausted."
Emily just smiled at her.
"It's for Hanna and Caleb," she reminded Paige. "It's their anniversary."
"No it's not, that's months away," Paige replied, now somewhat confused.
"No, not that anniversary," Emily explained. "It's… another one."
"Oh," said Paige.
"They just wanted a night to get away, by themselves," Emily added. "They've promised us they'll return the favor whenever we want."
"OK then," Paige conceded, but deep down she was actually looking forward to it.
Emily turned to the children.
"Auntie Hanna and Uncle Caleb are coming soon," she announced. "Do you want to see Millie, Trixie and Buzz?"
"Yay!" Elizabeth cheered, clapping a little. "Yay!" Alex cheered, imitating his sister. Paige winced a little, as she always did at the names Hanna had chosen for her children, and Emily gave her a knowing grin.
"I'd better go check on the dog," Paige suggested.
"Good idea," Emily agreed.
As Paige headed towards the back door, she could hear the children running over to Emily.
"Mommie, can we go play with Scruffy?" Elizabeth asked Emily.
"Everyone's coming around soon," Emily replied. "You'll get dirty."
"Mama always lets us," Elizabeth protested.
"No she doesn't," Emily responded.
Paige just smiled to herself.
As soon as Emily opened the front door she was hit by a wall of noise, made by just a couple of squealing children but sounding like an army. The two younger ones, Buzz and Trixie, ran straight past her into the open arms of Elizabeth and Alex. Hanna, Caleb, and Millie, their eldest, were slightly more restrained, though still clearly happy to be seeing their friends.
"Hey Em! Hey Paige!" Hanna greeted them.
There were hugs all round, but Emily was distracted by the fact that the other four children had already disappeared down the hallway into the living room in a roll of thunderous footsteps.
"Hey you kids, be careful in there!" she called, but they probably hadn't heard her. When they all got together and got excited, Emily got nervous, but she seemed to be the only one. Maybe Paige and Hanna were right, and she just needed to relax.
Suddenly there was a loud clanging noise. Emily caught her breath.
"It's OK, it's not broken!" came Elizabeth's voice.
"I think we'd better go in," suggested Paige.
They walked briskly down the hall, and when they arrived in the living room Elizabeth was trying to put back the tin shark sculpture which had been sitting on their shelf, but couldn't quite reach. Emily quickly scanned the others. Buzz was looking down at the floor. She wondered to herself how he had even reached it.
"Buzz, you have to be careful, remember," Hanna was saying. "The world isn't one giant toy box, no matter what your dad says."
Meanwhile, Paige was checking Shayla, as the children had named her, but looked satisfied and put her back in place.
"Come on kids, you've got to say hello to Auntie Emily and Auntie Paige too," Caleb announced.
Buzz ran over and quickly hugged Emily, saying "Hello Auntie Emily," as he did so, then ran on to Paige to do the same before Emily could even react. That over with, he went back to the other children.
Trixie was a little less hasty, but not by much. It didn't really matter, though. The children hadn't seen each other in a while and just wanted to play. Only Millie stayed with the parents, something she had always tended to do.
"So how are things at Chez McFields?" Hanna asked.
"Good," Paige replied. "We've been so busy, between classes starting again for Em, Elizabeth starting school…"
"Is she enjoying it?" Caleb asked.
"She's loving it," Emily responded. "Mostly, at least. I mean, she's fine in classes, but has trouble in the playground sometimes, you know, with the other kids. She's discovering that things at school aren't as… organized as at home."
"Face it, you're raising your children to be nerds," Hanna declared.
"They're not nerds, it's just good for children to have a routine," Emily countered.
"Yes, Pam," Hanna responded with a grin.
Emily glared at her for a moment, but Hanna's playfulness quickly softened her scowl.
"You're probably right," Emily conceded. "Anyway, she's working things out."
They all looked over to where the children were busily chatting away.
"Hey, Alex is talking," Hanna said. Emily had told her their son's speech was picking up, but she could still hear the surprise in Hanna's voice.
"He certainly is," replied Paige. "They put grommets in his ears and…"
"They put whatsits?" Hanna interrupted.
"Grommets," Paige repeated. "They just compensate if the Eustachian tube is not allowing…"
"Eustachian? That's a type of dog, isn't it?" Hanna asked.
"That's Alsatian," Emily pointed out.
"Whatever," Hanna responded. "So basically they fixed his ears and now he can talk."
"Um, yeah," Paige confirmed. "It turns out is was just his hearing that was the problem. That was all that was holding his language development back. Now he's picking up really quickly."
"That's great," Caleb said.
"It is," Emily agreed.
"Hey Alex," Paige called out. "Come over here and say hello to Auntie Hanna and Uncle Caleb."
Alex ran over.
"Hello Auntie Hanna… and Uncle Caleb," he said.
"Your moms tell us you're talking now," Caleb said.
"Yes," Alex replied proudly.
"Tell everyone what you like doing at home," Paige suggested.
"I like games… and playing with Scruffy…" Alex answered, "and mud… and story time."
"I can vouch for all of that," Emily confirmed.
"Can you say 'I like Auntie Hanna'?" Hanna asked.
"I like Auntie Hanna," Alex cheerfully responded.
"Can you say 'Uncle Caleb is the best'?" Caleb asked.
"No," Alex said, shaking his head, before turning and running back to the other children.
"He's a good judge of character too," Hanna observed, given Caleb a teasing look.
"How are you little ones going?" Emily asked.
"Millie, tell them about your play," Hanna suggested enthusiastically. "This is so good," she added to Emily and Paige.
"I'm in a play at school," Millie said.
"Really, that's great!" Paige responded. "Which one?"
"Pinocchio," Millie replied.
Paige let her mouth fall open and her eyes widen. She did this a lot with children.
"That's awesome!" Paige exclaimed.
"It's a musical," Millie added. "I'm the Blue Fairy. I get to sing songs and wear a blue dress."
"Wow," Emily said. "That sounds like fun."
"It is," Millie agreed. "Except mom and dad want to come and see it."
"What's wrong with that?" Emily asked. "They like to see you when you do things."
"They're a bit embarrassing," Millie explained. "Mom always talks to my friends."
"Your friends like me," Hanna protested.
"They think you're funny," Millie responded, but it was clear from the tone in her voice she didn't see this as a good thing.
Elizabeth had brought out her castle from her room for all the children to play with, but Trixie and Buzz were more interested in Paige, who was sitting on the couch nearby. Trixie was sitting on Paige's lap, while Buzz was playing with Paige's hair, having grabbed two handfuls which he was now waving in time with a song he was singing to himself. Paige had no idea what it was.
Meanwhile Emily, Caleb and Alex were in the kitchen, Alex proudly showing Caleb his latest drawing, which was stuck on the fridge.
This left Elizabeth showing the castle to Hanna and Millie.
"The princess sits up here, she's in charge," Elizabeth explained. "This is her dragon."
"Isn't the dragon bad?" Millie asked. "I thought it was attacking the castle."
"It did, but the princess told it off and now the dragon is her pet, like Scruffy," Elizabeth replied. "Everyone has to do what the princess says because she has a dragon."
The mention of Scruffy's name got Buzz's attention.
"Scruffy!" he exclaimed. "Can we go and play with Scruffy?"
"Please, please, please," Trixie added.
"OK," Paige replied. "Just try to keep him off you."
"We will," Trixie assured her.
Paige led them to the back door, and she could see they were both eager. Scruffy was a rescue dog, mostly Border Collie. He was very affectionate with the children and they loved him.
Before Paige even opened the door Scruffy could see them through the glass. He stood up and started wagging his tail.
As soon as Paige opened the door and they stepped outside, Scruffy bounded towards them.
"Scruffy, stay!" Paige commanded.
Scruffy stopped in his tracks, tail wagging and tongue hanging out.
Both of the children rushed forward and hugged Scruffy, and Scruffy responded by jumping up on Buzz and licking the boy's face.
"Ew, gross!" Trixie exclaimed, but Buzz was just laughing.
"Um, you probably shouldn't let him do that," Paige suggested, to no effect. "I'm not sure your mom…"
At that point Hanna appeared in the doorway.
"That looks like fun!" Hanna said, running over to join in.
While Emily and Hanna were preparing snacks, Paige and Caleb were busy entertaining the children. Emily wasn't sure quite what the game was, but it seemed to involve superheroes. At this point in time, all five of the children had jumped on Caleb, pinning him to the ground in the middle of the living room.
"Help! I'm trapped!" he cried.
"I can't help you," Paige called back. "They'd be too strong for me, too."
The children laughed triumphantly.
"Those two are pretty good with the kids, aren't they?" Emily said to Hanna.
"Caleb is a kid, that's why," Hanna responded.
"He's good," Emily insisted. "You could have done a lot worse than him."
"So how about if I swapped you Caleb for Paige?" Hanna suggested.
"Hanna, let's think about that for a minute," Emily replied.
"Ah, so you would swap Paige if it was for a girl," Hanna said triumphantly.
"What? No!" Emily responded, getting slightly flustered now. She pushed the chopping board towards Hanna. "Start cutting up the apples."
Hanna did as she was told, but with a satisfied grin on her face.
Soon everything was ready.
"OK everyone, if you sit down we've got some treats for you," Emily called out.
It took a few minutes for the children to calm down from the excitement of vanquishing the villainous Caleb and Paige, a process not helped by Caleb yelling "I'm free!" when they eventually peeled off him.
"OK everyone, we've got apples, apricots, sultanas and pineapple," Emily announced.
The children looked excited, but Emily noticed Elizabeth silently mouthing "sorry" to Trixie.
Hanna presented the fruit platter to the children, who all eagerly helped themselves.
Hanna leaned in towards Alex and Elizabeth.
"The treats are better at Auntie Hanna's, aren't they?" she said in a stage whisper, looking at Emily.
"I don't want to know," Emily responded.
It was late now, Hanna and Caleb had left and the children had gone to bed. Paige could hear talking in Elizabeth's room as she walked past.
She lightly knocked on the door and everything went silent. She opened the door and poked her head inside. Elizabeth, Trixie and Millie all looked up at her from their beds.
"You're supposed to be getting some sleep," she reminded them.
She gently closed the door and continued on to her own bedroom.
Emily was lying in bed with the lamp on, smiling at her.
"It's a sleep over," Emily pointed out. "Staying up late talking is half the fun."
"I know," Paige replied. "We have to make a token effort, though."
Paige climbed into bed.
"You survived," Emily noted.
"It was fun," Paige conceded.
"It was," Emily agreed. "They're great kids."
"Want another one?" Paige asked.
"You know the situation," Emily said. "After the complications last time you'd have to carry the next one."
"OK," Paige replied.
Emily studied her intently. Paige could see the shock on her face.
"Are you serious?" she asked.
"Yes," Paige said, without hesitation. She had been thinking about this for a while, but hadn't wanted to mention it too soon, in case she got Emily's hopes up for nothing. "After the next championships, I'd be ready to take a break."
"Really?" Emily asked.
"Really," Paige confirmed.
"You're not just teasing me?" Emily asked.
"I'm not," Paige confirmed. "I know I've been hesitant in the past, but I just… I love being a mom, and I really think this is what I want."
"I…" Emily began, but she couldn't say anything else. She started crying, but her face was beaming.
Paige gently kissed Emily's forehead. It felt so right that Paige couldn't even remember why she had had doubts. Paige felt so much love for Emily, so much love for their children, and she knew there was room for more.
The End