December 9 - 2024
"Cosmo, stop jumping up," Kate calls out sharply, and the dog drops back to the floor. Alexis doesn't seem bothered — she's met Cosmo enough times that she's used to it — and she closes the front door behind herself. The dog hops in tight little circles, ecstatic to have a visitor, but he lets Alexis come further inside the loft without bothering her.
"Hi Kate. How are you?"
Kate accepts Alexis' one-armed hug. Rick's daughter has the car seat in her other hand, the baby fast asleep inside. She smells like spices and woodsmoke and looks exhausted, but she smiles widely. Kate steps back to take her in and then she takes the carrier to let Alexis get out of her coat.
"I'm great. You guys doing okay?"
"We're good. Little man was fussy earlier but the drive seems to have worn him out. Where is everyone?"
Kate heads for the couch and sets the car seat down on the floor. She eases the baby out of it, holding her breath, but he doesn't wake up as she brings him in for a snuggle. Alexis sits down beside Kate and unzips her boots, looking immediately more relaxed.
"My dad is helping the boys put together a new train track. Martha and Lily are off playing dress up. Your dad's in the shower."
"So I've got you to myself?"
"Until they realise you're here."
"Oh, good," Alexis says with such relish that Kate smiles widely, can't help herself. She and Alexis have grown closer throughout the years, since the kids were born. Now that Alexis has a baby of her own she comes to Kate more and more in search of advice or a comforting word. Still, some small part of Beckett still feels like she needs to earn Alexis's approval.
Alexis scoots down the couch to check on her infant son, and her bicep brushes Kate's. Being a new mother is difficult and emotional and gruelling, Kate remembers it all too well. How she floundered with Lily, how she worried that every choice she made was going to be the wrong one for her baby. Kate had Martha to ease her fears, and now she gets to do the same for Alexis.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just- you know my mom was here this week?"
Meredith had been in the city for a few days earlier in the week. It had been, apparently, the first break in her schedule that allowed her to make it out to New York. She didn't stay with Alexis and her husband, choosing a fancy hotel instead and complaining about having to travel out to her daughter's home. Rick let her use the car service, and still it was an inconvenience she chose to grumble about for her entire visit.
Harry is almost three months old, and Alexis's mother only just met him this week. Rick had been so furious with Meredith that Kate had had to send him to their room to cool off, because he was scaring their children. Three round, wide-eyed little faces had been sitting all in a row watching Rick. There'd been a lot of shouting and a glass was smashed, but he worked through it. Kate had insisted that he not let Alexis see that anger, that he just let his daughter be happy to spend time with her mother.
"I remember. How did it go?"
"Not that great." Alexis wrinkles her nose. She's picking at a hangnail, refusing to meet Kate's eyes, but she's here. She's sharing her feelings with Kate. It's more than she ever even knew to hope for.
"Oh?"
"I kind of got a taste of what it must have been like for Dad when I was a baby. She just didn't want to do anything. I wasn't expecting her to change diapers and stuff, but she hardly even wanted to hold him."
Kate eases an arm out from under Harry so she can wrap it around Alexis's shoulders. She's a mother now, but Kate still sees a wounded girl in her sometimes. "Well, some people just get awkward around babies. I used to, until I had Lily."
"But Harry is her grandson," Alexis practically wails.
"I know, honey. But it's her loss, okay? You and Harry are so loved, by so many people."
"She said she doesn't want to be known as his grandmother. That it makes her feel old. She said he can call her Auntie Meredith when he's older."
Outrage zips through Kate like an electric shock and her spine straightens. She knows Meredith is selfish, has heard too many stories from her husband, but she's always thought of her as harmless. There's no malice in her actions, because she doesn't consider them for long enough to realise the effect they have on everyone around her. Even so, it's hard for Kate to quell the frothing hate that churns in her guts.
"I know it's not really any consolation, but your dad loves being a grandfather. He shows Harry off to everyone he comes across."
One corner of Alexis's mouth quirks into a little smile. "I know he does. I just really hoped this might be the thing that finally made my mom care about me."
"Oh honey, she does care about you. I know she does." Kate strokes Alexis's hair and lets her have a moment to grieve.
Sometimes Kate forgets. She had her mother for nineteen years, a mother who adored her and let her know it. Alexis has never had that. It's always been just her and Rick, really.
"But not as much as you do." Alexis nods, managing a small smile. "That's kind of. . .what I wanted to ask you. It's okay if it's too weird, but I was hoping maybe- can Harry call you Grandma?"
It is weird, but it sends a flood of humbling joy through her guts all the same. Kate's own babies are only four and seven. They still need her so much, are still so tiny. To be somebody's grandmother, even if not by blood, is bizarre. She's Rick's wife though, and even if she's not Alexis's mother she loves her just as fiercely.
"Alexis, I'd be honoured. Of course he can call me Grandma."
"It's just- I know you're only forty five and you're so young and stylish and no one is going to look at you and think Grandma, so I didn't want to offend you or anything and-"
Kate cuts off her babbling with a hug. That's how Rick finds them, fresh from his shower and smelling delicious. He beams to see that his eldest daughter is here and he leans over the back of the couch to hug her once Kate lets go.
The baby is awake and fussing. He squirms unhappily in Kate's arms and Alexis takes him from her, arranging him to feed. Kate leaves her on the couch to have a quiet moment with her son and she nudges her husband back into their bedroom.
"Alexis just asked me to be Harry's grandma," she says, feeling the peculiar shock of it all over her face.
Rick smiles widely, lopsided mouth and crinkling eyes. He backs her up against the door and dips his head to chase her kiss. She opens to him, sliding her flat palms up his chest until she can lace her fingers at the nape of his neck.
In the last few months grey has begun to bloom at his temples and across his jaw. He grumbles, but Kate thinks it makes him look distinguished and oh so sexy. His knee slides between her thighs and Kate hums into his mouth, feeling lazy and predatory all at once.
"I love how you love my daughter," he says when they break apart. He looks stricken by it, and she smoothes her thumbs over his cheeks.
She gives him a minute to collect himself and then she steals a last kiss from him. "You good?"
"Yeah. Kate, does this mean it didn't go well with Meredith?"
"I'm sure she'll tell you all about it in her own time. And I reminded her that she's loved elsewhere, that she and Harry have a family that appreciates them."
"God, you're so good at this."
She laughs and laces her fingers with his, bringing him out into the living room again. Lily appears at the top of the stairs, sees Alexis, and almost falls the rest of the way down in her excitement. She yells out to let everybody else know that Alexis is here and the boys come thundering downstairs as well, with Martha and Jim bringing up the rear.
Alexis moved out of the city because she wants to raise her son someplace with a yard, someplace quieter. They still see her all the time, but the gaps in between are long enough for Lily and the boys to ramp up their excitement every time.
The kids crowd onto the couch with their big sister and peer down at the baby. He's a content little thing, already falling back to sleep after his feed. Kate stays on the periphery of the action with her hand in Rick's. Their babies have a nephew. Her twins, her four year old sons who last night had to fall asleep in the big bed because a movie freaked them out, are somebody's uncles.
"Weird, but so good," Rick murmurs to her.
It's exactly right. Kate squeezes his hand and allows him to lead her into the living room. The kids are giddy and struggling to sit still. Lily's got makeup on which Martha must have done for her and she keeps looking at her reflection and preening, batting her eyes at herself.
"Sorry, Katherine." Martha nudges Kate and shares a smile with her.
She doesn't mind, not really. Kate opens her arms to her daughter and Lily comes to sit in her lap. She can be a little shy when Alexis and her grandparents are all here. Usually it's Rick she seeks out when she feels unsure, looking to him for support. Kate can hardly fault her daughter for that when she does the exact same thing.
"You look very nice, sweet girl. Did Gram teach you all the tricks of the trade?"
"Gram says that theatre makeup is over the top so people in the back row can see it. She said for pretty makeup to wear every day I should ask you."
Kate catches Martha's eye and finds her smiling. Rick's mother is in her eighties now, but she's as sprightly and energetic as she always has been. Harry has been passed to her and she coos to her great-grandson, showering his chubby cheeks with lipstick kisses.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" Reece comes charging at her and flings his arms around her neck. He almost smacks his sister in the face and Lily grunts, kicking out at him.
Kate gets one arm around her son and it helps to still him a little. "What is it, baby?"
"Grandpa helped our train set to be sooo cool." Reece grins, out of breath with the pleasure of being four years old and having your whole family close by. "It does have bridges and even- oh, Mommy, even a lake."
"I just coloured it in on some paper," her father chuckles. He's got Jake in his lap and petting curiously at his stubbly cheeks.
Alexis and Rick are in the kitchen making dinner for everyone. Their voices are quiet but firm. Alexis must be telling her father about Meredith's visit. He whips around to see Kate and she nods at him, gives him an encouraging smile. She doesn't want to dictate what Alexis needs from her father, but she's fairly sure that fury isn't what she's looking for.
Her husband beckons to her and Kate eases the kids off her lap. They crowd around Martha and the baby, leaning in to love on Harry, and Kate leaves them in the capable hands of their grandparents.
"Okay?"
"Yeah." Rick tucks his fingers into the back pocket of her jeans. She leans in to him, because he looks grief-stricken and she knows having her close is often what he needs. "Alexis told me that Meredith doesn't want to be called Grandma."
"Dad, I'm telling you, it's fine," Alexis butts in. She skirts the clutch of his arm around her shoulders and heads for the refrigerator. "I don't need her. I've got Kate."
Rick lets out a breath as if he's received a punch to the guts. Kate turns into his body and lays her cheek to his chest, her arm around his waist. "Babe, you've all got me. You always have done."
"I love you so much."
"Don't be gross," Alexis huffs. "And stop being dramatic. It's fine. Help me chop carrots."
