Chapter 2 : Let's babysit
Hey, so here's the second oneshot! It was requested to me on twitter and I hesitated a long time before posting it because silenceeverything already posted a oneshot where Hanna and Caleb are babysitting Lily and Grace (you should totally read it if you haven't done it already, it's called Midnight Moon and it's an amazing oneshot), but I decided to post it anyway. So tell me if you liked it, I hope you will!
When Hanna told him at nine a.m that they were going to babysit Emily and Alison's twins on the same night, he was surprised. And not excited at all.
He wasn't expecting this. His wife was eight months pregnant, she was very moody, and she had back cramps. So why would she want to babysit two very energetic baby girls?
Not that Caleb didn't like Lily and Grace, he adored them. Why wouldn't he? They were two little humans full of innocence and purety. And he couldn't wait for them to say their first word -which according to Emily was going to be 'no'-, to take their first steps, to start preschool, to have their first friend... And he couldn't wait to hear them calling him 'Uncle Caleb'.
When he was younger, he didn't really liked babies. To him, people only liked babies because they were a way for them to escape from reality for a minute or two. Babies have the power to make you forget your problems just because they don't have any, and they have no idea of what's expecting them in the future. Fortunaly, meeting Hanna had made him totally change his mind about babies and kids in general. After meeting her, he could finally see the purety in kids. Because he had seen it in Hanna. She was just so kind, she always saw the good in people, and she never though anyone could want to harm her. He had learned to love that. And that's how he had learned to love that in babies. And from the minute he saw the purety in Hanna, he had known he wanted to see the same thing in a baby he and Hanna would create. So when they had found out that she was pregnant, that this would finally happen, he had been the happiest man ever.
Even though he loved Lily and Grace, he didn't want to have to babysit them with his eight months pregnant wife. But when he had told Hanna they didn't have to do that, that she would get even more tired than she already was -if it was possible- and her cramps would be even worse, she had responded to him by saying that their baby would be born soon and they had to get practice. He didn't understand why they hadn't done it sooner then, why did they wait for her to be on the verge of exploding -that was her expression not his- to start getting practice? Sometimes, Caleb really didn't understand his wife's logic.
Hanna and Caleb were now in their car, on their way to the DiLaurentis-Field's house. Caleb was driving, fighting against his want to go back to their loft. He knew doing this was really important to Hanna. She wasn't absolutely confident about her skills as a mother, even if he had repeated her at least a thousand time that she was going to be the best mom ever. And, if Caleb was totally honest with himself, he also had some apprehension about being a dad. Growing up, he never had a father figure, he didn't know what it was like, so he was kind of stressed himself. But he told himself that as long as he and Hanna sticked together, they would be more than fine.
"What are you thinking about?" Hanna's voice took him out of his thoughts. She had clearly noticed he was distracted by something. And she knew he wasn't thrilled with the idea of spending his evening babysitting two babies, but she also knew that they both needed this, and she was convinced that he would end up loving it.
"I'm just thinking about how eager I am to finally meet our baby in a month." He told her, taking his eyes off the road for a second to look in her baby blue eyes, smiling at his wife, and taking his right hand off the wheel to gently rub her baby bump. And the smile she offered him then was worth a million dollars.
When the couple arrived at Emily and Alison's house at seven p.m, they could hear what sounded like baby cries from outside. Caleb looked at Hanna, raising an eyebrow, "Are you sure you want to do this? We can still walk away and eat Cheetos all night." He told her, knowing that she Hanna had been craving Cheetos ever since her pregnancy had started. She gave him a soft encouraging smile before taking his hand and dragging him towards their friends' house.
Hanna had barely entered the house that her brunette friend had already placed a crying baby in her arms, "Finally you're here. They've been crying for at least thirty minutes now and Ali and I can't take it anymore, so we're going out, thanks for keeping the girls, we owe it to you guys." Emily said before Alison appeared and placed another crying baby in Caleb's arms before giving both of Hanna and Caleb a small smile and eagerly following her wife out of their house. Looking at each other, Hanna and Caleb shared the same thought, this was going to be a very long evening.
It hadn't been fifteen minutes that they had been here, and yet, both Hanna and Caleb felt like their head were going to explode. Having two crying babies to deal with was a whole new situation they had to face. Alison and Emily had left like robbers, and they hadn't even told them which one was Grace and which one was Lily. How were they going to get through the night?
"Caleb stop making weird faces, I'm sure you're just scaring them out." Hanna told her husband who kept making faces to the twins, and it really wasn't helping, they just cried even louder.
"Well at least I'm trying to find a solution to stop all this crying. You're not really doing anything to help," And that was true. Hanna was just sat on the floor with the twins occasionally rubbing their back. At least, Caleb was trying. "Maybe they're hungry?" He told her. "I don't think so, Ali must have fed them before leaving." Hanna sighed. They really didn't know what to do.
And then an idea popped in Hanna's mind. She held her arms up motioning to Caleb to help her up, as it was impossible for her to do on her own with her belly, and went in Lily and Grace's nursery, reappaering a few seconds later with two dog stuffed animals in her hands leaning down to give them to the twins. At the sight of their favourite toys, Lily and Grace immediatly took them from Hanna and hugged them as they could in between their little arms, and this was honestly the cutest sight ever.
"It was easy." Hanna said proudly.
"Easy? Seriously Hanna?"
"Well they're happy now." The blonde told her husband sitting down on the couch that was in front of the two babies now playing with their stuffed animals.
Caleb sat down next to her and placed his right arm around her shoulders, while she was placing her head on his shoulder. "But seriously, if I can't handle two babies crying for fifteen minutes, how will I be able to handle our babies crying?" Caleb told his wife sighing.
"Our babies? How many kids are you planning on having with me?" Hanna teased him. They both knew they wanted at least two kids.
"Don't act so clueless Han. You know I'd love to have a little football team with you." He teased her back.
"Okay, this is not happening. I'm not dumping my car for a freaking school bus." Her comment made him laugh. He knew that even if they had twenty kids, she would love all of them equally. She had enough love in her heart to love every single person in the whole world. "Seriously though," Hanna started, interwining her right hand, with his that was hanging from her shoulder, "You don't have to doubt anything. You'll be such a good dad. Plus, Lily and Grace aren't our babies. We're not used to having to take care of them by ourselves. We can't do miracles, okay? Our babies will love you, and you will love them too, which is why I'm sure you're gonna be amazing at comforting them whenever they're crying."
Caleb's heart skipped a beat at this moment. Just like it always did whenever Hanna looked at him with that much softness in her eyes. She was just amazing. How was she able to tell him exactly the right thing whenever he doubted himself? He had married an angel. He was sure of that, "Thank you baby." He said pressing his lips against the top of her head.
This moment between the two lovers ended as soon as it had begun because Grace started to get bored of her toy and threw it almost angrily on the floor. Hanna threw her head back sighing, and Caleb got up the couch to pick up Grace and went to sit back next to Hanna, with Grace on his lap. Hanna replaced her head on Caleb's shoulder and took one of Grace's tiny hand in hers. "I can't wait to have moments like this with our baby," She heard Caleb say, "To have him sat on my lap, with you right next to us."
At that, Hanna looked up to her husband, "Him?" She said, a huge smile on her face.
"Sorry, it just slipped off."
"Well do you want a boy? I mean we've already discussed it, but you always said that you didn't have any preference."
"I don't. I'll be happy with either a boy or a girl. They'll be my kid, and I'll love them. I'm just thinking it might be easier for me if our first child is a boy." Caleb said shrugging.
"Why do you think that?" Hanna asked her husband while Grace was entertaining herself with Hanna's fingertips.
"I'm a boy. I know what boys like, how they think, how they act. But seriously, I'll be happy if it's a girl. She'll be my daughter, my baby girl. Plus, if we have a girl, I'm sure she'll look just like you. She'll have your dimples, your blonde hair, and your amazing blue eyes."
"Well, if we have a boy, I hope he'll look like his daddy. Messy brown hair, crazy beautiful brown eyes, and huge feet." She said the last part giggling, looking down to his feet. She like teasing him about his feet. She had noticed how long they were on their first night together, in the tent. And ever since this day, she teased him about it.
"Stop, they are not that huge." He laughed too, used to the jokes Hanna made about his feet.
"Anyway, we don't even know if this one's Grace or Lily." Hanna told him looking down at the baby on Caleb's lap that seemed very intrigued with Hanna's wedding ring.
"I think this is Grace. Lily's more indepedant, she doesn't like being in someone's arms for so long. Grace likes it though, she likes cuddling." Caleb responded to Hanna kissing the top of Grace's head. This small gesture was so cute, thought Hanna.
"How did you noticed this?" She was surprised her husband paid so much attention to the twins.
"Last time at the barbecue Lily kept on moving on Emily's lap, while Grace was all calm cuddling into Alison." Spencer and Toby had organized a barbecue at Spencer's house a couple months ago to announce their engagement, and Caleb had spent quite a while playing with Lily and Grace.
"Never noticed you had such a good sense of observation."
"Well you might have not noticed because you were sleeping for practically the whole time, but I spent a lot of time with the twins that day."
"You're really good with them, they love you you know." Hanna told him watching as Grace snuggled up into Caleb's chest. But Lily decided her sister was having too much attention so she crawled up to Hanna, not wanting to be left out anymore. Hanna picked her up, not without any efforts, and placed her on her lap.
"Hey Lily, do you want some attention too?" Hanna said smiling down at the baby. Lily reached a hand up to Hanna's face and placed it on her left cheek. Caleb watched the interaction between the two of them, and he couldn't help but think of what a beautiful picture they were creating. And it would be an even more beautiful picture when this would be his and Hanna's baby at Lily's spot.
At 8:30, Caleb and Hanna went to put the twins to sleep. They placed them in their crib, and sat down on two little chairs besides their crib to read them a book. Hanna picked a book and gave it to Caleb who read it to them. His voice must have been apeasing because five minutes after Caleb had started reading the book, the girls were both fast asleep. So Caleb and Hanna quietly got out of their room, taking the babyphone with them and went back to sit on the couch in the living room.
Once they were sat, Hanna lied down and placed her head on Caleb's lap, as he instinctively placed his hand on her belly. "Are you tired?" He asked his wife. When she nodded, he leaned down to kiss her on the forehead, "Get some sleep. You need to rest." Hanna nodded again, and closed her eyes, but not before murmuring a soft 'I love you' to her husband. "I love you too babe."
At some point, Caleb had also fallen asleep, but he woke up as he felt something lightly hit the palm of his hand. He opened his eyes and noticed his hand still on Hanna's belly. And that's when he understood the small hit he had felt was his baby manifesting his presence from inside Hanna's belly.
"Hey baby," Caleb muttured to not wake Hanna up, "We can't wait for you to get here you know. I can't wait to hold you, and to have moments with you just like we had with Lily and Grace tonight. Except the ones with you will be even more special. Because you're my child." He softly rubbed his wife's belly with his hand, thinking about how lucky he was in this moment.