Even after the immediate traumatic aftermath of the situation had been alleviated, Stacie sometimes can't quite understand how she got so lucky. There were doctor's appointments and physical therapy visits, seemingly without end, alongside police interviews and courtroom sessions and interrogations that made her head pound. Fortunately, though, the result is, for the most part, positive; it turns out that the basement game room she had been trapped in had been equipped with video surveillance, and so the entire attack on Stacie had been caught on camera. The police had needed no further proof, and after Todd pleaded guilty to charges of assault and attempted homicide as well as aggravated battery, it took the judge fewer than twenty minutes to sentence the man with twenty-five to thirty years in maximum security.
It isn't that she has any particular desire to see another human suffer – in fact, it's often exactly the opposite – but Stacie can't deny that she feels safer with her attacker securely behind bars. She and Aubrey had stayed up late many times in the days before the trial, debating what course of action they would take if Todd got off without much of a punishment. It wasn't even mostly for her sake, but for her baby's; she doesn't want her child growing up with the threat of its criminal father lurking in the background. If all goes well, her baby will be an adult by the time Todd is released from prison, and by then, hopefully things will be well enough established so that he or she won't be in danger.
With the stress over her immediate safety assuaged, Stacie is free to devote her attention to other critical matters in her life.
Her ribs have been slow to heal, and her strained wrist still pains her on occasion, but the bruises on her back and sides have faded, leaving her with at least no visible reminders of the assault. Initially, she had spent the majority of her days at home, allowing her body time to heal, but in the past few weeks, she has finally felt well enough to return to class. She lightens her course load considerably, keeping only the bare minimum she needs to acquire the necessary number of credits.
As for her support system, Aubrey has been nothing short of wonderful. Stacie managed to swing a single room at the start of the year, but she now found herself in it less and less as time went by; Chloe spends nearly all of her time over at Beca's dorm, which consequently frees up the apartment that she shares with Aubrey. After a time, Stacie only finds herself returning to her room to pick up a book or spare sweatshirt that she's forgotten to transfer over to the apartment. Every day, she wakes to a full meal in bed and an extra hour in the arms of her girlfriend before they both have to rush off to class.
Her belly is beginning to show, a small yet noticeable bump that doesn't yet stretch her jeans but is big enough to pillow her shirt out the slightest bit. Aubrey finds endless opportunities to touch it, whether it's pressing a gentle kiss to the skin or stroking it softly when she holds Stacie close. She talks to the baby too, speaking softly about how loved and wanted it is, and how badly its mommies want to meet it. She sings to it sometimes, late at night, or tells it stories when they're lying together on the couch.
Stacie honestly doesn't know how she got so lucky. Sometimes she worries; it isn't exactly normal to have a baby together after only five months of a relationship, and she isn't sure that it isn't putting too much pressure on Aubrey, or that the blonde isn't just acting out of a feeling of obligation. But then Aubrey does something sweet like bring home a stuffed animal or surprise her by staying up late reading baby books, and she knows she has nothing to worry about.
Chloe even finds time to be a little jealous.
"I've been her best friend for years, and I've never gotten half as much attention as the little munchkin already has, and it hasn't even been born yet," she complains one day over muffins in the local coffee shop. "Talk about neglect. She hasn't called me in ages; I'm pretty sure she's forgotten my name . . ." But it isn't meant wholeheartedly; Stacie knows that her fellow Bellas are just as excited as Aubrey about the new addition to their tangled, dysfunctional family. Even Beca, who swears up and down that she's a danger to anyone under the age of forty, can be seen smiling warmly at the pair every time Aubrey cradles her growing belly in public, and had even gone so far as to halfheartedly offer to babysit if, "Chloe dies, Cynthia Rose moves to Vegas, and Ashley disappears off the face of the earth, because I'm pretty sure that nobody else can be trusted with their own life, let alone your precious little bundle of screaming joy."
She's a little scared about giving birth, and about how their lives are going to continue to function afterwards, but honestly, she can't wait for her baby to be a part of this crazy, amazing group of women.
It's somewhere around month six when the baby kicks for the first time, a little late, and Stacie somehow isn't surprised that it happens when Aubrey's hand is on her belly. They feel the hard little jolt at the exact same time, and both let out a surprised cry. Aubrey's eyes are joyful and a little teary, and in all honesty, Stacie feels much the same. It makes complete sense to her after all through together that their baby would want to acknowledge the woman who has done so much for them. She grins as Aubrey pulls her close and urgently devours her mouth, and feels the blonde's lips curve upwards to mimic her as they move.
Every day after that, when Aubrey speaks, the sound of her voice elicits a rapid flutter of kicks, and Stacie feels her heart swell with love.
They've been dating for more than seven months when they fight. It isn't the first time it's happened, but it's the first time since she got pregnant, and funnily enough, it's over baby names. Aubrey is angry because she refuses to believe that it's a boy, and Stacie refuses to believe otherwise. It isn't that either of them want a boy or a girl more; they're just stubborn, and stuck in their beliefs, and Aubrey goes for a three-hour walk in the rain before Beca finally drives up and drags her into her car, scolding that Stacie was about to get in the car herself and go looking for her, which immediately snaps the blonde out of it.
She apologizes – they both do – and if Stacie thought she'd seen it all, the makeup sex is something else entirely.
On her twentieth birthday, the girls surprise her with a combination birthday party and baby shower. Lily and Fat Amy's gifts are questionable, and will definitely be laid away for many years until the time comes for them to safely be put to use, and her belly is a little too big by that point for them to properly enjoy Chloe's present, which is inappropriate enough to make even Stacie blush, but surprisingly, it's Beca who outdoes them all with several mixed tapes dedicated to their little family, a warm, custom-made little blanket printed all over with the music to her own mashup of lullabies, and a pair of tiny noise-cancelling headphones for "when the kid decides they're going to be cool like their badass Aunt Beca." It earns the little brunette a hug from everyone in the room, but an extra tight one from Aubrey, who has over time learned to more tolerate the snarky little DJ who once gave her so much trouble.
Stacie's a week and a half short of her due date when her water breaks in early May. Aubrey is in class, a fresh Barden grad student, but a quick call to Chloe, and the blonde is rushing into the room within ten minutes, hospital bag in hand and a tense but genuine smile on her face.
Stacie bites her lips raw through every contraction, squeezing Aubrey's hand so tightly that she's sure she pops some joints out of place, but the older woman never once complains. It's part of their plan, in any case; Stacie has stated repeatedly that under no circumstances is she to be given an epidural. She hates pain, but she hates the thought of drugging their baby more, and Aubrey is more than happy to endure a little agony on their child's behalf.
After seven exhausting, screaming, sweaty hours, it pays off, and Stacie finds herself sobbing in relief and joy as she cradles her tiny, perfect little girl. Maybe Aubrey's preoccupied by meeting their daughter for the very first time, or maybe she just has enough sense not to push it so soon after Stacie's undergone such a stressful ordeal, but she at least has the tact not to say I told you so.
(The others aren't so subtle when Aubrey catches Cynthia Rose, Fat Amy, Denise, and Beca reluctantly handing over bills to the smug Chloe, Lily, Ashley, and Jessica later on in the waiting room when she goes to break the news.)
They had discussed throughout the entire pregnancy the fact that of course Aubrey will be their baby's other mother, but it still makes the blonde's heart feel fluttery when she signs the birth certificate in her newborn daughter's presence. She's a mother now; she's a mommy to the perfect, beautiful little girl sleeping in the arms of the love of her life, and it hits her as her fingers grip the handle of the pen that this is something she never thought she'd get. Neither of them did, but Stacie's had significantly more time to process it, and she still can't quite believe that this is all actually real.
When she considers the responsibility that is raising a child, let alone a girl, for whom she already feels an empathetic pain in her chest, it makes her feel smaller and simultaneously more present than she knew was possible. She had accepted early on that love and a family were probably never going to be in the cards for her, and so right now, with a hand cradling the tiny head of her daughter and an arm around the shoulder of the woman she loves more than she thought it was possible to love, she can't quite believe her luck. She considers asking Beca to pinch her, but knows that all she'll earn is a knowing smirk, and settles for pressing a kiss to the top of her girlfriend's head as she looks fondly down at her newborn baby girl.
Louise Christine Conrad-Posen blinks up at mothers sleepily, only hours old, not knowing the extent of the love and wonderful chaos that she will be subject to in her life, but somehow already aware that there is something extraordinarily special about the new world in which she has just arrived.