AUTHORS NOTE: Hey! I'm sorry I haven't uploaded in a while- my A-level results are out tomorrow so I've been a bit stressed with that! I'm also apologising with this chapter- it's not my best and it's a bit short to be honest and a bit of a filler :P The next chapter will obviously be the baby shower, and then I think it will be time for the due date! :D Could someone in the know (eg someone who has been pregnant with twins or knows someone who is/was) please tell me what sort of time they would go into labour (eg- what week? I'm guessing as she's a first time mum it might be a bit earlier? I have no idea to be honest!)
Thank you for all the lovely reviews, and thank you for your continued support!
24 Weeks Since Midsummers Eve
"How does it fit?" Eric was puzzled. "Maybe if I just push it in there….then twist it…it would be much easier if this had more strength" he grunted and then sat back on the floor again.
"Eric honey what are you doing?" Sookie sighed, putting down her paint brush and turning round to see her boyfriend sat cross legged on the floor in front of what should have been a baby crib.
"I don't understand how it fits" He looked up, she had never seen him look more confused in his life.
"Maybe you should read the instructions?"
"No. Men don't read instructions- we don't need instructions. I will do this lover, it is fine- concern yourself with the painting" He furrowed his brows and got back to work.
Sookie chuckled, she didn't know what was funnier- the fact he was being a stereotypical man in the fact that he refused to look at the instructions, or the fact that Vikings would never have seen items like this. Eric included.
She turned back to the baby blue paint she had opened and dipped the brush back in, painting the wall in front of her. They had decided in the end to split the room- one half pink for the girl, the other half blue for the boy. They were going to have a painted tree dividing the two, with picture frames on some of the leaves. Sookie had also brought two rocking chairs, and a few lamps. Eric had originally hated the idea; he thought the room should be dark blue and red, in favour of their Viking heritage. After Sookie explained she didn't want them to have nightmares and thought it would look too much like Fangtasia, Eric subdued…but he did buy a model of a Viking ship that was now in the windowsill. His son would be brought up the Viking way- just as he had. His daughter would be spoiled, obviously, and would be the beauty of the land- second to her mother of course.
While Sookie had her back to him painting, Eric silently opened the instruction manual and flicked to the first page. So that was how it was meant to fit. Eric changed what he was doing and soon enough he was almost finished, silently turning the pages of the manual. He admitted he needed the help- but only to himself, he wouldn't show Sookie he needed to read some human's instructions- he was a man after all. Eric clicked the last wooden beam in place before sighing contentedly at his handiwork. He would have worked it out on his own eventually. He looked up to see Sookie smirking down at him, paintbrush in hand.
"So much for not needing instructions huh?" She started to giggle. He got up from the floor and walked slowly towards her, eyes intent.
"Don't mess with me Sookie Stackhouse" He growled, a smile playing on his lips. He placed his hands on her now extremely large stomach. She giggled as he traced his fingers over her belly button and down to her hips. Eric sensed her emotions.
She thought she was safe.
She was wrong.
He took the paintbrush from her hand as quickly as he could and painted the side of her face, slowly and thickly, leaving a blue stripe down her left side.
"Eric!" She gasped, before sticking her hand in the paint pot next to her and ruffling her hands through his hair.
"Don't start a war you can't win Eric Northman" She smirked, before he painted the other side of her face.
"Oh, I have every intention of winning" He wiggled his eyebrows and stepped away from her, paintbrush in hand….and the paint pot. Sookie eyed the open pink pot, picking it up and dipping another paint brush in it.
"Eric honey…come over here I think you have something on your face" She batted her eyelashes and smiled innocently.
"Oh lover I'm not so easily led" He replied, reapplying the blue paint to the brush. She started circling him around the empty crib box, trying to reach over to spread the paint.
"Sookie you're not going to win a paint fight with a vampire- I'm faster than you" He started chuckling. He had stopped concentrating, and that was her chance. She dashed around the box and threw bright pink paint at him with her paint brush.
"HA!" She started laughing as she looked up at him spluttering pink paint.
"Right, that's it" Eric tipped the half empty blue paint pot over Sookie's head causing her to gasp.
They both stared at each other, Eric covered mainly in pink paint, Sookie completely covered in blue. Sookie let out the first laugh, and Eric bent down to kiss her, the paint on their clothes mixing together. Before it got too heated, Eric pulled back, looking around the room. The floor around them was covered in paint- thankfully they were laying carpet after they finished painting. The cribs and the lamps had avoided the paint, but both Sookie and Eric were dripping paint onto the floor beneath them.
"You go shower, I'll clean this up lover" He kissed her temple, causing her to sigh contentedly.
"OK, see you in a minute?" She smiled coyly, as she walked backwards and out the door. Eric smiled back, and quickly wiped up the paint he could, and finished the wall Sookie was painting- all in 5 minutes.
When he reached Sookie's room, he found her just getting in the shower. She wasn't a great fan of her body at the moment, she thought her bum had gotten too big and she hated how she had to almost waddle about- but Eric thought she was beautiful. He had read that the 6 month mark was the calm before the storm, and he was enjoying the tender and loving Sookie before her hormones riled up again. He stripped off his clothes and joined her in the shower, helping her wash off the pain from her hair, Sookie doing the same for him. There was nothing sexual about it for once; it was just love and devotion between them as they dried themselves off.
As Sookie got changed into a clean pair of tracksuit bottoms and an old Fangtasia t-shirt (she loved the pregnancy clothes she had bought with Pam, but when it was just Eric and her around the house, nothing could beat baggy bottoms and one of Eric's t-shirts) she noticed that Eric had framed the most recent scan from the pregnancy clinic. After the initial shock of twins, Eric had started to enjoy their monthly visit to the clinic- because of the nature of the conception and the fact Sookie was carrying twins, the doctor had insisted they came in monthly- which meant they had a month by month picture of the twins. You could see their heads in detail now- the nose and mouth. Sookie chuckled inwardly at the memory of Eric- he didn't understand how two beings so detailed could be inside her stomach, and he had marvelled at their noses and their hands. Sookie had a content and happy feeling every time she thought about the twins in her stomach- but Eric was just plain excited. She couldn't believe how easily he had settled into the role- he was even reading the books she had got from the library (he didn't know she knew). Everything had changed. Everything was good. Except maybe the stretch-marks she was getting and the constant need to pee when she sneezed- but hey, nothings perfect.
She looked out the window; it was a few days before Christmas day, and Eric had erected a Christmas tree in the garden (as well as the one he had helped put up in her living room) around the house one night when she was cooking- she had been elated. Now she looked out and saw the snow started to fall and settled gently on the tree. She knew how much Eric secretly loved the snow and Christmas- maybe it would settle deep enough for them to go out in it tomorrow. In the months during the pregnancy she had learnt so much about Eric- how he loved Christmas like a child, how he hated hail but loved snow, how he actually enjoyed doing DIY- despite not being the best at it. Inside the rough vampire Viking exterior- Eric had shown her that he was indeed just a man. That was what she loved the most about him. When she first found out she was pregnant, she couldn't see herself and Eric in a happy family environment- now she could see it perfectly. Eric wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair, her shoulder and her neck. "Come to bed lover- it's late" He breathed against her ear. Shutting the window, Sookie did just that.
AUTHORS NOTE: *Hides behind sofa* Yes I know it wasn't the best, but I really wanted something about the nursery in, and then I waffled- but I promise the next chapter will be good- baby shower central and lots of Pam! Also, I'll be a lot less stressed as of tomorrow so I should be able to think clearly :)
