Notes: Mari and Sammy – Thank you for your always enthusiastic feedback and for constantly being the best of the best. And thanks to Sammy for the title – at the point you can pretty much assume SuperSammy comes up with every good title.
Readers and REAL McRollers – Thank you for your incredible support. It still amazes me with each and every story.
Hope you enjoy!
Add to Cart (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
Catherine was sitting on the sofa reviewing notes for a meeting the following morning. On the coffee table, her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She looked at the screen and grinned.
"What's got you smiling?" Steve asked as he came out of the kitchen.
"We may have created a monster."
"Hey, no fair calling Niblet that before she's even been born," he said with a teasing grin.
She snorted. "Not Niblet, my mother. Ever since we told her it's a girl, she's been sending me links to baby clothes and bedding and stuffed animals and who knows what else." She tapped the link in the text and showed him the screen with several onesies.
He sat beside her and she repositioned the phone so they could both look.
"Ohh, look at that one," she said, pointing to a pink onesie with a black butterfly silhouette.
He grinned. "Bet they've already ordered that."
"You're probably right." She chuckled. "They were so eager, they probably did it right after the Skype call."
"You can't really talk about being eager," he said pointedly.
She grinned unapologetically. "True."
Friday, February 10th
Steve and Catherine walked out of Dr. Kucher's office into the parking lot hand in hand, both with beaming smiles, still giddy at the knowledge that their baby was a girl.
"Do you have time before you have to get back?" Steve asked as they reached the Corvette, his truck was parked a few spaces away. "Do you want to get lunch?"
Her smile widened, her other hand curled over her stomach. "I want to call my mom."
He laughed. "Okay, let's do that."
He dropped her hand so she could take out her phone. Foregoing a preliminary text or even call, she went straight for Skype, hoping her mother would answer. Steve leaned in to see the screen.
A moment later the call connected. "Catherine?" Elizabeth asked as her face appeared. She looked surprised at the scenery behind them. "Steve? Where are you?"
"We're in the parking lot outside the doctor's office," Catherine said.
Elizabeth gasped. "Could he tell the sex from the ultrasound?"
Catherine nodded eagerly. "Are Dad and Gram there?"
"Yes, yes, yes, let me get them," Elizabeth said excitedly, disappearing from the screen. They watched the image bounce around as she walked quickly through the house. "Joseph? Mom? Catherine and Steve are on Skype." Elizabeth's face reappeared. "Honey, can you call back and we'll pick it up on the laptop? Then we can all see better."
"Okay."
"Give me one minute and not a second longer."
Catherine laughed. "Don't worry, we won't be able to wait a second longer. Talk to you in a minute." She ended the call and looked at Steve, her face flushed with excitement. She beamed. "We're about to tell someone we're having a girl."
"We're having a girl," he repeated, his grin splitting his face.
They waited exactly one minute before Catherine replaced the call.
"Here," Steve said, offering to take the phone. With his longer arm, they were able to both get in the screen more easily.
The call connected and they saw Elizabeth and Grandma Ang on the couch, Joseph leaning down behind them, all clearly waiting eagerly.
"Okay, what is it? What is it?" Elizabeth asked, her fists clenched tightly in anticipation.
Catherine glanced at Steve and he wrapped an arm around her waist, nodding for her to go ahead. She looked back at the screen and announced, "It's a girl!"
"HOO HOO!" Ang cried, raising both arms in glee. She sighed, smiling happily. "A girl for my girl."
Elizabeth clasped her hands together and Joseph beamed proudly.
"Oh, honey, that's wonderful!" Elizabeth gushed.
Joseph nodded, his reaction more reserved but no less genuine. "Congratulations to you both."
"Of course, we would have been ecstatic either way," Elizabeth continued, "it's just … oh, it's so exciting to know beforehand. Thank you so much for telling us. I know sometimes expectant parents want to keep it secret."
"Even if we wanted to, which we absolutely do not, I don't think we could've trusted Steve here to keep it quiet," Catherine teased, elbowing him gently.
"You spill one huge secret …" he said with exaggerated affront.
Elizabeth grinned. "I, for one, am very glad you spilled that huge secret, please feel free to keep spilling them." They all laughed, their faces bright with the news. "Well, anyway, like I said, it's so exciting to know. They didn't do ultrasounds when I was pregnant with you, Catherine, not unless there was a problem, so we didn't know until you were born."
"Of course, your mother was convinced you were a girl," Joseph said. "So convinced that we didn't even pick out a boy name."
"Really?" Catherine asked, intrigued. "I never knew that. Why were you so sure, Mom?"
Elizabeth waved a hand. "Oh, nothing scientific. It just seemed like everyone I met told me they thought I was carrying a girl … eventually that kind of gets in your head." She laughed. "Not sure what we would have done if you were a boy. You would have been Baby Boy Rollins until we came up with a name."
"But then there you were, our little girl," Joseph said, his smile growing fond. "Our little Catherine."
Steve smiled as he watched Catherine's face, her own smile the special one that was always reserved for her father.
"And you were in the delivery room, right, Dad?"
"I was. Well, for most of the time."
"Most of the time?" Catherine asked, surprised.
"There was a minute there when the triage nurse kicked me out."
"We never told you about that?" Elizabeth asked.
Catherine's brow furrowed. "I don't think so."
"Of course, I don't really remember it," Elizabeth admitted.
"But I do," Joseph said, his eyes darkening slightly at the memory. "Longest minute of my life. Everything was going along fine … I mean, it seemed to be. We'd never been through it, so I didn't know what was normal, of course, but I could tell the second something changed. Suddenly people were running around and the nurse said, 'You need to leave, sir.' I found myself standing outside the delivery room, wringing my hands." He shook his head slowly. "It felt like hours. I just wanted someone to come out and tell me what was going on. Then they were bringing me back in as if nothing had happened and the next thing I knew, we had a daughter."
"Did you ever find out what happened?" Steve asked.
"Catherine's heart rate had dropped, they were worried maybe the cord had wrapped around her neck, but then it went back up and everything was fine."
"I never knew that," Catherine said, shaking her head slightly in amazement.
"That must have been terrifying," Steve said, his own face clouding slightly at the thought.
Catherine found his hand at her hip and squeezed his fingers.
"It was," Joseph admitted. Elizabeth reached back to pat his arm and he continued, "But fortunately everyone was fine, and we had our beautiful baby girl."
Catherine smiled. "And what did you think? When they said I was a girl?"
"Ohh, I was just happy," Elizabeth said with a sigh. "So happy to finally have you in my arms."
"I was thrilled," Joseph admitted. "I wanted a girl."
Steve blinked in surprise.
"I know the cliche is that fathers want a son," Joseph went on, "but I wanted a little girl. And honestly, that was the same for a lot of fathers I know. More often than not, in fact."
Steve looked down, a small smile of understanding on his face.
"What about you Gram?" Catherine asked. "What'd you think when Dad called to tell you?"
"Well, of course I would've been happy no matter what, as long as both you and your mother were fine, but I was excited when Joseph told me it was a girl," she confessed. "Two grandsons … I was ready for a granddaughter." She smiled. "And what a granddaughter I got."
Steve's arm tightened around her as Catherine smiled affectionately at her grandmother.
"And now you're getting a great-granddaughter," Catherine said.
Ang beamed. "My first. And I know she's going to be just as amazing as her mother."
"Gram …" Catherine said, tearing up.
"Just like my granddaughter is every bit as amazing as her mother."
Elizabeth reached over to touch her mother's hand. "Mom …"
"I call it like I see it," Ang said simply.
"Great women raise great women who raise great women," Joseph said. "I read that on a plaque somewhere recently."
"And here it is in the flesh," Steve said, his eyes drifting to Catherine before looking back at the screen. "Our daughter will have no shortage of great women to look up to, starting with you three."
Catherine smiled at him, and he shrugged. "I call it like I see it," he said, echoing Grandma Ang who grinned.
"That's right," she said with a decisive nod.
"Well, we should get going," Catherine said after a moment. "We need to grab lunch before we go back to work. But we wanted you to be the first ones to know."
"And we're so glad you called," Elizabeth said. "This is such wonderful news, honey. We couldn't be happier for you."
"What your mother said," Joseph agreed with a smile.
"Thank you," Catherine said. "We'll send you a copy of the sonogram."
"Ohhhh," Elizabeth said, clasping her hands again. "Our granddaughter's first picture. I can't wait!"
"Now go get lunch," Ang said. "You've got a growing girl to feed."
"That's right," Catherine said, smiling at Steve. "We sure do."
"The texts started pretty much right after that," Catherine said, grinning.
Steve smiled softly, thinking of the text he'd received that afternoon from his ever-astute father-in-law:
You wanted a girl too, didn't you, son?
His smile widened, coming fully back to the present. "And how is our growing girl?" he asked, glancing at Catherine's tummy. "Still hungry?" He looked back up. "I can get you some more egg salad."
"No, thank you, we're good," Catherine said with a smile, running a hand over her stomach. "And thank you for making that. I really had a taste for an egg salad sandwich."
He smiled and kissed her. "Sure thing."
"But did I hear you doing dishes in there?" she asked suspiciously. "What happened to you cook, I clean?"
"Ah, there wasn't much to do," he countered. When she continued to stare, he said, "I didn't do them because you're pregnant, I did them because you were working." He nodded to the file folders on the coffee table. "You need more time?"
"No, I'm done."
"Good," he said and leaned in to kiss her again.
"Mmm," she hummed happily into the kiss, cradling his face.
Her phone buzzed with another text, and he laughed. "More onesies?" he asked.
She reached over and tapped the screen, chuckling at the sight. Holding up her phone she showed him the navy blue romper covered in white anchors.
He grinned. "She's got good taste, your mother."
"I have a feeling that one's already ordered, too."
Hope you enjoyed!
Notes: Special thanks to Mari for the outstanding Joseph text, and to my parents for sharing some delivery room memories I had never heard.
Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll
Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net
Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com
You can still join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with Add me, please! in the subject line.
And find Mari on Twitter asking your opinions on all things McRoll in the REAL World! at Mari21763 and add #REALMcRoller