Chapter Twelve – December 15
It was absolutely freezing outside, and Elizabeth pulled her coat tighter around herself as she headed up the steps to her house. All she wanted to do was put on an extra sweatshirt and pair of socks. Curling up under a blanket would be pretty amazing too. Henry had been planning to take the kids out Christmas shopping so she should have the house to herself. After hanging up her coat she headed upstairs. By about halfway up she was out of breath, but she pushed on anyway. Her sweatshirt was calling her.
Elizabeth wasn't as alone in the house as she thought she was. Stevie was upstairs and had heard the footsteps on the stairs. That wasn't what had drawn her attention though. It was the heavy breathing. Worried, she left her room to go investigate. Her mother was just climbing the last two steps.
"Stevie. You didn't go with your father and everyone else?"
She was nearly panting as she spoke and getting out only a few words at a time. Seeing how out of breath her mother was made Stevie even more concerned and she moved closer.
"Mom, are you okay?"
"Fine. Why?"
She had to pause between words to draw breath, and Stevie's forehead creased.
"Because you're really out of breath."
"Oh. That." Elizabeth patted Stevie's shoulder reassuringly. "It's normal."
"It is?"
"Yeah, though I might have tried to get up the steps too quickly. I'm freezing."
She didn't give her daughter time to respond to that before she continued toward her bedroom. Stevie followed after her mother, not completely convinced. Elizabeth grabbed one of Henry's bigger sweatshirts and pulled it on. It was a tight fit, but at least it was warm. She would probably have trouble taking it off later, but Henry could help with that. Sweatshirt accomplished, she started digging around for the thermal socks she used to wear to muck stalls in the winter.
"How did your appointment go?"
"Fine," Elizabeth replied absently as she continued to dig through the socks.
Stevie rolled her eyes at that lack of an answer and tried again.
"What did your doctor say, Mom?"
"Ah, here they are!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she pulled the coveted socks out of the drawer.
She headed toward the bed where she could put them on without needing to worry about not being able to get back up. While she was doing that she answered Stevie's question.
"She said I'm doing amazingly well."
"As in..?"
"As in I'm on the lower end of negative symptoms and the higher end of positive indications even for someone who isn't high risk."
That was good at least. If the doctor had just told her mom today that everything was going well then Stevie probably didn't need to worry. Some of the tension left Stevie's shoulders. It sounded like her mom hadn't been exaggerating when she'd described being out of breath as normal. She watched her mother struggle to get her foot up high enough to pull the socks on. It left Elizabeth slightly out of breath again, but not nearly as bad as when she'd climbed the steps.
"The doctor did request that I start staying away from heels now that my balance has shifted," Elizabeth added once her breathing was level again. "She wants to reduce the risk of me falling. No heels is one of the only benefits of being high risk."
She was rather looking forward to getting rid of her heels for a little while. Already she'd been kicking her shoes off whenever she was at her desk. Her feet hurt badly enough without the added strain of tight formal shoes.
Stevie laughed.
"So you're going to go to work in a skirt and tennis shoes?"
"Tennis shoes and whatever still fits. I'm not sure how much I still have."
Already some of the maternity clothes she'd bought earlier in her pregnancy were getting tight.
"We can go out shopping again and get you some bigger clothes."
Elizabeth frowned in disgust. She did not want bigger clothes despite the fact that she obviously needed them. New clothes would be a further reminder of how much larger she was growing. And even worse, how much heavier she was still going to get.
"You can't negotiate international deals in Dad's old sweatshirt," Stevie reminded her mom when she saw her expression.
"But it's so comfy," Elizabeth whined.
The two of them both started laughing. Stevie held out a hand and helped her mom to her feet. Together they headed downstairs.
"So everything is okay with the baby?"
"Everything is fine as far as they can tell."
Relief was evident on Stevie's face. They had all been worried something would turn up wrong with the baby. All of the potential risks hadn't been lost on Stevie. Elizabeth understood the relief of knowing that the baby was doing well. She felt the exact same thing. After every appointment that she and the baby received a clean bill of health she literally breathed a sigh of relief. It was an amazing feeling.
"And you're still not going to tell us her name?"
"Nope. Not even a hint."
"You're terrible, Mom."
That might have bothered another parent, but it only made Elizabeth smile. Driving her kids nuts was a blast.
"Absolutely terrible," she agreed.
Stevie shook her head with a laugh. Neither of her parents had given away anything about the baby's name. It was going to be hard to remain patient for another three months.
"We do have to discuss a middle name once everyone else gets back."
"And how are we supposed to do that when we don't know what name it's supposed to go with?"
"Same way you would if you knew the first name. We'll just take out the ones that don't work."
"And then not tell us the second name you're picking either," Stevie groaned.
"See? You already know how this is going to work."
"Ugh, Mom. Really?"
Elizabeth grinned but didn't otherwise respond. She was totally loving driving Stevie crazy.
An hour and a half later she got to drive more than just Stevie crazy. With everyone home they were ready to start discussing middle names. After they argued about the first name of course.
"You're seriously not telling us anything?" Alison moaned.
"Of course they're not," Jason grumbled. "Why would they do that?"
He'd at least accepted the fact that they weren't going to learn anything until the baby was born. Alison and Stevie were still trying. For the moment though they were willing to admit defeat and focus on prospective middle names. That wasn't to say they wouldn't try again later though.
"How about Grace?" Alison suggested. "It's really popular right now."
"It does rather fit our religion professor," Elizabeth returned with a grin.
She might have thought it was a good fit, but Henry didn't agree.
"I haven't given any of my children religious names so far. I'm not going to start now."
"Oh come on, Dad. It's not like it's even meant to be religious," Alison complained.
"It is really pretty," Stevie admitted.
Jason shrugged. The name was good enough for him.
Regardless of everyone else's agreement, Henry still wasn't going for it.
"Sorry, Ali. I'm vetoing that one."
Alison gave him a disgusted look and settled back in her chair. Really, her dad was being way too picky.
"Would any of our first name suggestions work?" Stevie asked.
"A few," Elizabeth admitted. "But we're not in love with any of them when they're paired with the name we chose."
"What ones are you considering then?"
Even though she didn't look too eager for the answer, Henry picked up on what she was trying to do anyway. He immediately put a stop to it.
"Good try, Stevie. We're not giving you anything that will narrow down what first name we picked."
Not that it necessarily would have helped them. Henry and Elizabeth had done some thinking outside the lists as well.
Stevie shrugged nonchalantly and said, "It was worth a try."
"What about Melanie?" Jason offered.
"Doesn't fit with the first name," Henry replied right away.
"So it might start with an M."
"Or end in the same sound," Alison added.
"Or it makes for too many syllables," Stevie threw in. "Doesn't really help us."
"Really, guys?" Elizabeth demanded in exasperation.
She shouldn't have expected anything else. Her children were smart enough to come up with every possible way to get more clues to a puzzle, and they'd done a rather good job of it. They all just grinned at her like it was totally normal for them to be trying to outsmart their parents – which it kind of was. Sometimes she wished they weren't quite so smart.
"If you're not going to give us the name then we'll have to try and figure it out ourselves," Stevie told her.
"No point in trying to stop them, babe," Henry pointed out. "What other names do you have?"
"Jane," Elizabeth answered.
"That sounds really old school, Mom," Jason complained.
"Okay, okay. No Jane. How about Anne? Anyone have an issue with Anne?"
She swept her eyes over her family to assess their reactions to the name. Nobody seemed openly adverse to it so far, so she rested her eyes on Henry first, waiting for an answer.
"You know it's one of my top favorites."
She nodded and looked at Stevie.
"It works for me."
That was two at least. Not that Elizabeth was getting her hopes up yet.
"Jason?"
"No arguments from me. I really like it. It was on my list."
Granted it had been on his list as Annie, but that was close enough in his mind.
That just left one. Alison tipped her head to the side thoughtfully. Elizabeth tried to wait patiently, but it was hard. They were so close to agreeing on a name. Finally Alison seemed to make up her mind.
"It's definitely not anything unique, but I actually kind of like it."
She beamed at her mother, and Elizabeth sighed in relief. They had a name! Not that she was going to admit that to the kids.
"Anne goes on the list of possibles then."
