I'm back again with the baby shower! This was actually kind of hard for me, even though I've been to a whole bunch in the last few years. I've never been a parent though, so maybe that's the problem. I don't know. Anyways, I hope you like this!


Nightmares were never any fun, but they were significantly less fun when you had at least one a night and hadn't been sleeping right for at least a two weeks.

Because of that, Evie had become well aquatinted with the reverse text color option on her tablet. She had downloaded books meant for the age level of kids she was teaching and found most of them were fun, easy reads that succeeded in calming her mind down. And the fact that the text was white on a black background meant that she didn't have to worry about flooding the bedroom with bright white light and disturb Doug even more that she already was by waking up in a panic in the middle of the night or hurting her eyes.

The dreams were ridiculously vivid and all over the place. Monsters and the dragon form of Maleficent were commonplace, but there had been others too. Her house burned to the ground with a baby inside it in one, her entire class in a school bus getting hit by a truck was another. They were all different kinds of terrifying.

Apparently, vivid dreams and nightmares were common during pregnancy, but that didn't make it any less scary.

And of course the worst one yet had to happen at three in the morning the day of the baby shower. It was one of those nightmares that lingers, keeping you on edge all day.

"How're you feeling?" Doug asked her as she was brushing her hair.

She shrugged. "Alright, I guess..."

"You guess?"

"I know it was a dream and that it's completely impossible. I shouldn't feel so... freaked out. I should be excited for today." She put her brush down and fixed a curl with her fingers.

"It's not your fault the dream felt so real, Evie. It's okay to be freaked out by a dream. No one thinks any less of you for it, I certainly don't. And you shouldn't either."

She sighed. "I just wish they'd stop soon."

"I know." Doug replied gently, taking her hand. "And unfortunately, I can't promise you that. But I can promise you that they'll stop eventually. And I promise that today's going to be a good day."

She smiled for the first time all morning. It would be a good day. They were going to spend it with their friends and family. Besides, parties had a way of making everyone happy.


Baby showers were only the biggest 'girls only' event behind wedding showers, save little kids and the father of said baby.

Ben, Jay, Carlos, and Chad had plans that day for who knows what. Jay had teased Doug for weeks about being stuck with baby-struck women all afternoon, but he said he didn't mind. Ben added that he actually had a good time at the one for Henry, but Jay still didn't buy it.

Evie had been banned from helping with the party too much. It was in the hands of Mal, Audrey, Lonnie, and Jane with help from Doug's mother and sister, Snow White, and Belle.

Snow was very fond of Evie and they got along really well and she often said that Doug (and Daisy) was her favorite of the massive brood of kids all seven dwarves managed to have, so she was more than eager to help.

Belle, of course, was really the closest thing Evie had to a mother at that point and loved to help her in any way possible. When she found out Evie was having a little girl, she was thrilled. "It's about time we have some little girls around here," she had said. The party was even going to be held in the castle's garden.

Evie and Doug arrived exactly five minutes before Mal had told them to come.

Daisy was the first to notice they had shown up and came running over to hug both of them. She was eighteen and going to be graduating that June. She was a little awkward and on the quiet side, but bubbly and sweet.

"Hi Daisy," Doug greeted.

"Hi!" Daisy bounced a little.

"You look awfully cute today." Daisy always looked cute. She wore a lot of floral patterned clothes, it was just her thing. She didn't do it because of her name, but she thought it was funny when someone pointed it out. Today she was wearing a dress with a pattern of purple flowers on it.

Daisy glanced down at her dress. "I almost forgot what I was wearing," she giggled. "Thanks."

Evie chuckled. "You seem excited, I guess that's a good sign?"

"About the party? Oh, yeah, it's so cute!" Daisy promised Evie. "You'll like it a lot, I promise."

"You're early!" Mal chastised, walking up the path, arms crossed.

"By five minutes!" Evie protested. She had told herself she wasn't going to let her nightmare get the better of her and was determined to see it happen.

"Couldn't you two let go of the need to be early for one day?" Some people were compulsively late, Evie and Doug were compulsively early all the time.

"No," Evie replied.

Mal laughed and hugged her best friend tightly. "I figured as much. Good thing everything's ready."

"Can we see it?"

"Of course, come on."

The tent in the garden was decorated with light pink and purple everything. The theme of the baby's nursery was going to be butterflies, so they carried it over into the baby shower and it suited the venue perfectly.

Jane was very crafty and she had made an entire garland of little paper butterflies to hang up. There were butterfly balloons and cutouts and a banner that said "Welcome Baby" and Evie was certain she hadn't seen so much cute in her whole life.

"So, do you like it?" Mal asked.

"I love it!" Evie gushed.

"It looks great," Doug added.

"Good. I'm glad." Mal replied. "I'm so glad Henry turned out to be a boy. I couldn't handle living with this frilly, girly stuff."

"Your baby shower was baby animals."

"Yeah, thank God."

"Mal, you're wearing pink now. You wear it all the time." Doug pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's not this color." Mal waved her hand at a pastel butterfly. She was wearing a dress that was a darker pink.

"What happens if you ever have a girl?" Evie asked.

"...we'll cross that bridge when if we get there."

Evie laughed. Ben wanted more kids, Mal wasn't so sure yet. They had plenty of time to figure that out.

The party was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people there. Fairy Godmother, Aurora, and Jasmine came. There were school friends, college friends, and teacher friends there.

Audrey had been super excited about games, so they played some. There had been a game where people had to write down answers to questions about Evie and whoever got the most right was the winner. Doug's mother ended up winning that game.

They got a ridiculous amount of baby clothes and toys and a bunch of diapers.

"Doesn't this seem a little excessive?" Doug asked.

"Trust me, you can never have too many diapers." Mal replied dryly. Every mother nodded in agreement.

There was a lot of awwws at the little clothes and things, from both Evie and Doug and everyone else. They got books too, lots of them.

Mal had given a mother-daughter bracelet set as a present. It was beautiful. "I know she'll be too little at first, but you can save it for when she gets older."

Evie was having such a good time, she forgot about her nightmare. There was a lot of laughter and general good feelings.

Henry managed to get cake in his hair somehow even though Mal had been feeding some to him with a fork.

"You better get used to messes, E. This one, honestly, you can't take him anywhere," Mal joked, picking frosting out of her squirmy toddler's hair. "Just like his father."

Belle burst into laughter at that, making everyone crack up.

After all the presents were open and everyone had cake, there was a lot of sitting around and talking, which was nice.

"Have the two of you picked a name yet?" Snow White asked.

"Kind of." Evie replied. "We have a list of about ten names and we're down to two middle names."

"Two only?" Snow inquired.

"Yeah, um, Annabelle and Mallory." Doug replied. For some reason, the middle names were easier to choose.

"Where did those come from?" Lonnie asked.

"Well, Annabelle is my mom's name-" Doug nodded towards his mom, who was overjoyed about being a grandmother.

"Oh, right." Lonnie replied, looking at the woman and smiling.

"And Mallory because, her." Evie pointed at her best friend, who smiled.

"Your name's Mallory?" Jasmine asked the girl.

"No," Mal replied. "But it's close enough." And it was left at that.

"May I ask what some of the possible first names are?" Aurora asked.

"Um, Elizabeth I know is on there." Doug replied, trying to think back to the list they had.

"Riley, Talia..." Evie added. Gosh, she didn't realize recalling names was so difficult. No wonder why Belle sometimes called Henry 'Ben' on accident.

"Paisley, Hannah, Lindsey,"

"Lucy, Kailey..."

Doug snapped his fingers when he remembered. "Diana is the last one." Evie nodded. Yes, that was it.

"All of them are good." Belle commented. They were really cute names.

"How are you going to pick one?" Daisy asked, curiously.

Doug shrugged. "I don't know."

"We'll figure it out." Evie smiled, leaning against him. He smiled.

"Could you two be any cuter?" Lonnie wondered aloud.

Audrey chimed in. "Seriously though, you two are gonna be the parents who embarrass your little girl at school functions because you're so cute all the time."

"Well, I say having parents that are that much in love that makes her one lucky little girl." Doug's mother said.

All too soon, the party ended and people started to leave. Every person in attendance got at least one hug from Evie and or Doug. Mal and Belle shooed the expectant parents out too (after hugs and everything, of course), refusing to allow them help clean up.


Evie was stacking toys in the closet of the baby's room-they didn't need them yet. She had hung up the little clothes already.

The room was shaping up nicely. It had already been painted pink, and Mal promised to paint a butterfly on the wall for them before the baby was born. They needed to out the crib together and that was really all that was left.

"Evie, I am continuously amazed at your organizational skills." Doug said, walking into the room.

She turned around. "Well, I'd rather it be clean than messy. And the best way to keep anything clean is by organizing."

"Still, I'm impressed."

She smiled. "You know what? Once we got to the party, I didn't think about that dream once."

"Well good, I'm glad."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Did you have funtoday?"

"Absolutely. The way Jay talked about it, you'd think I was going to be sacrificed to the baby gods or something."

Evie snickered.

"I had a very good time."

"Good... You smell like cake."

"Henry rubbed frosting on me at some point, I think."

Evie laughed and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You smell like flowers."

"Maybe I should spend a few hours in the castle garden more often then."

There was a pause before Doug spoke. "It's kind of crazy to think we're going to be parents in a couple weeks, isn't it?"

"We already are," Almost as if to protest his words, the baby kicked pretty hard, making her flinch.

"Well, technically yes. But in a couple weeks, our daughter is going to be here with us, instead of kicking you... I'm excited."

"Me too," Evie replied. She was so excited. She was going to be a mom. She was going to be the best mother she could be, in spite of her own mother. There were more important things in life than being pretty and doing your makeup well and she was going to make sure her daughter was well aware of that.

"You sound tired, sweetheart."

"Exhausted," she corrected.

"Then we should probably get to bed."

"Yeah..."

That night, Evie didn't have a single nightmare. She was too happy to think a single bad thought. Her little girl, however fierce a kicker, was a dream come true, and nothing could compete with that kind of joy.


A/N: I'm a sappy dork, in case you couldn't tell.

In response to a review about Ben and Mal having more kids- you'll see!

So, I have a first name picked out (one from the list), but I can't choose between Annabelle and Mallory, so I'd love for you guys to help me decide! Leave a comment with the middle name you like best!

Next chapter, you get to meet the baby girl when Evie brings her to visit her class (someone suggested that in a review, which is funny because that's what I had planned all along!).

Thanks for reading! Leave a review letting me know your thoughts!

See you soon!