Summary: "Doesn't that thing have an 'off' button?" "No, Ennis, she's a baby." Ennis and Jack have no idea what they're in for when they decide to start a family.
Chapter Summary: Ennis and Jack's journey to becoming parents, and the birth of their child.
Disclaimer: I don't own Brokeback Mountain. Nuff said.
Chapter 1: Preparations
"Jack fucking Twist," Ennis grumbled at last, after being woken up for the umpteenth time that night due to Jack's restlessness. "What's going on?"
"Just thinking, go back to sleep," Jack said, turning around to face Ennis. Truth was, he wished that he would just fall asleep. He was exhausted, and knew that he had a long day tomorrow, but he couldn't shake his mind of the thoughts that were running through his head.
"What about?" Ennis asked.
Dammit Ennis, it's the middle of the night and now you decide to talk? Jack thought to himself.
"Nothing, go back to sleep," Jack grumbled, getting a little aggravated now.
"It can't be nothing if you can't sleep on it," Ennis said, wrapping his arms around Jack. As much as Jack liked the affection, he didn't want it at two in the morning when he could be trying to sleep.
"How do you feel about kids?" Jack asked, giving up. Maybe the sooner he talked the sooner he would be able to sleep.
"They're alright, I had two girls with Alma, you know," he said.
"How do you feel about having a kid with me?" Jack asked shyly. He missed Bobby, but Lureen had him. Ever since he divorced Lureen, and Alma divorced Ennis, they were only able to see their kids once a month. He missed having them around, and he would want nothing better than to raise another child with Ennis. Their baby.
"Uh…Jack…I don't think that's possible…" Ennis said, awkwardly.
"You know what I mean, Cowboy," Jack groaned, "there are plenty of options out there like adoption and surrogacy…" he trailed off, not being able to think of anything else.
"What the hell is surrogacy?" Ennis asked. Maybe this wasn't the conversation to be having in the middle of the night.
"It's where one of us or both of us donates our sperm to a surrogate mother who has our baby for us," Jack explained, awkwardly.
"So it would be our biological child?" Ennis asked.
"Yes, well, one of ours," Jack said, "We wouldn't have to know who's though. It could be a surprise, meant for only the baby to know when they are older."
"That's a good idea," Ennis said.
"So does that mean you're in?" Jack asked, getting a little excited.
"Let me sleep on it," Ennis said, not giving anything away, "Kids are a huge commitment, I want to make sure us knuckleheads could handle a little kid running around."
"That's true, but I think we could," Jack said.
"We'll see," Ennis said, but Jack was convinced. If he had his way, they were going to have a child to raise together.
It was a hard battle, but in the end, Jack won. They had to look up budgets and surrogates. They had to start reading parenting magazines (which neither Jack nor Ennis enjoyed) and they had to start paying attention to their language. They both agreed that if they had a baby around, they couldn't talk like they did now. Eventually, Ennis caved in, secretly having wanted this all along, and they agreed to head to the surrogate center.
They found a pretty young woman, mid to late twenties who was willing to help them out. She was blonde like Ennis with blue eyes like Jack, so they should be able to keep the identity of the parents pretty inconspicuous. Well, they hoped.
The months went by, and they constantly kept in contact with Willow, the surrogate. They invited her over to eat, and they had some good laughs along the way. Both Ennis and Jack enjoyed the sunny personality that Willow had, and hoped that it passed on to their son or daughter.
On August 9 at 3:00 am, the phone started to ring.
"Yeah?" Ennis answered, or more like grunted. He hadn't been woken up this early since they first started talking about babies.
"What?" He yelled, and Jack woke up beside him.
"Who is it?" Jack whispered into Ennis' ear.
"Is she doing okay?"
"Who is it?"
"Alright, well we'll be there in about an hour, tell her to hang in there," Ennis said, hanging up at last.
"WHO IS IT?" Jack yelled as Ennis hung up the phone, "Well, who was it?"
"It was Michael. Willow went into labor; they just brought her over to the hospital. We've gotta get moving, rodeo," Ennis said, hopping out of bed.
"Jesus Christ, it must be your kid if it's up this early," Jack complained.
"Babies don't sleep, Twist," Ennis said, and hopped into the shower. Jack just threw on some fresh clothes; they were going to a hospital, not a business meeting. Everyone already looked like hell. Plus, he wouldn't have time to shower if Willow and Michael were on their way to the hospital already.
After about ten minutes, Ennis came out into the kitchen and grabbed the baby carrier they had bought a month back. They hooked it up into the truck and drove off.
"Do we need anything else?" Jack asked, putting on his worry face.
"Hope not," Ennis grumbled.
"We have the baby carrier, they provide clothes, and she shouldn't need to be fed until we get home. I think we can handle this," Jack mused.
"You said she," Ennis noted.
"Yeah, so?" Jack said, raising an eyebrow.
"You want a girl?" Ennis asked. They had never talked about the gender; they wanted it to be a surprise from the start. Willow and Michael were the only ones who knew what the baby was going to be.
"Well, I've already got Bobby, it would be nice to see what raising a girl would be like," Jack said.
"It's hell," Ennis grumbled.
"So you want a boy?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, would be easier, two men raising a boy rather than a girl, don't you think?" Jack nodded.
"True, but I still wouldn't mind a girl," Jack said, and Ennis dropped it. Secretly, he wouldn't mind another girl either.
They got to the hospital at about 4:00 am, and they ran into the maternity ward. They saw Michael out in the hallway trying to get the pay-phone working.
"Michael!" Jack yelled, getting his attention.
"Hey, guys, glad you finally made it. She's almost done, but man; she has the power to rip your balls off right now if you go saying the wrong thing to her. That's why I'm out here, she kicked me out for being too sweet," he smiled.
Jack and Ennis looked at each other, and Jack went inside to see the screaming Willow.
It was about another hour after that when Jack came back outside. Ennis and Michael had fallen asleep on the bench outside of Willow's room. Jack hated to wake them up, but they needed to see this.
"Ennis," Jack shook his sleeping cowboy, "wake up."
"What? God damn," he grunted, standing up. What he didn't realize was that Michael had been leaning on him and when Ennis stood up, Michael's head collided with the bench.
"Shit!" Michael yelled, waking up and rubbing his head, "How's Willow?" he asked, getting to his senses. Ennis looked at Jack, also waiting for an answer.
"You'll have to see for yourselves," Jack smiled, and led them both into the dark room where Willow and the baby were laying.
"Hey, cutie," Jack said.
"Heya, Jack," Willow said, smiling. She looks like hell, Ennis thought.
"I meant the baby, but you too," Jack said, and picked up the baby that Willow held in her arms.
"Hey, baby," Jack cooed. Ennis looked on, utterly confused as to what to do.
"Get over here, cowboy and hold your daughter," he said after a few minutes.
"So it's a girl?" Ennis asked.
"Yeah, she's a girl," Jack smiled. Ennis did too and took the sleeping baby into his arms.
"Looky, he's a natural," Jack laughed when Ennis held their baby confidently. It had been a while, but he was remembering the right and wrong ways on how to hold a child.
"No, just have two girls before her and 'm remembering's all."
"What are you going to name her?" Willow asked from her bed, sitting up a little to see the baby.
Jack and Ennis looked at each other. Of all the things that they talked about when having a baby, they never talked about what they were going to call it.
"You're the one who wanted the girl, why don't you pick something out," Ennis said, after a moment of silence.
"No, she's your responsibility too, you're gonna help name her," Jack said. "You've named girls before, what do you think?"
"When Junior was born, and Alma was looking for names, and if I wasn't set on Alma Junior I probably would have argued for Michelle, then we could always call her Mitchie or somethin', "
"I think that's a great idea, don't you Mitchie?" Jack said, taking her away from Ennis. Ennis was starting to admire Jack for how well he worked with kids. Then again, Ennis admired a lot of things Jack did well.
"She likes it," Jack smiled, even though he knew that Mitchie was sound asleep, not caring about anything.
"So when can we take her home?" Ennis asked one of the nurses who walked in to check on Willow, who was also asleep.
"In a few days at the latest assuming nothing goes wrong. She's a pretty healthy little girl," the nurse cooed.
"But she's so small," Jack said, looking concerned.
"Jack, I'm small and if she got your genes, she's screwed height wise, no offense," Willow said as the nurse checked her vital signs.
"True," Jack said, "I just hope she grows a little bigger."
"Jack, she's not even three hours old. Relax," Ennis said, "now let me hold my daughter."
Jack laughed, and gave Ennis Mitchie again. He had spent most of the morning in here with Willow, and he could use some sleep himself. He sat down in a nearby chair and fell right asleep.