They all gathered in the living room. Jake sat in the middle of the couch with Jade and Dave on his left and Roxy and Jane on his right. Rose took the armchair and John was sitting on the beanbag chair. Dirk sat on the stool again.
Jake picked up the first present; a somewhat heavy gift even though it was one of the smaller ones wrapped in green paper.
"That one's from meeee!" Jade singsonged.
Jake tore away the wrapping paper to reveal a collection of Disney DVDs.
"Well played Jade!" Jake grinned at her as everyone chuckled at his rhyme. "You even got ones that I don't already have. How considerate of you."
"Hee! I checked your collection last time I was here to see which ones you didn't have. You should always have movies to watch with your baby!"
"Much appreciated!" Jake handed the DVD's to Jane who in turn handed them to Roxy to set aside for the moment.
Next up was a present wrapped in blue and Jane beamed and waved when he asked who it was from. When Jake tore the wrapping off it revealed a brightly colored box containing a tiny Easy-Bake Oven. Everyone was highly amused at her choice of gifts and their chuckles were met with a blush of her own as she laughed along with them.
"There's a stack of recipe cards in the box with some of my favorites copied onto them. Feel free to use them whenever since it may be a while before the baby could even read them!." Jane informed them smiling.
"It would be perfectly ironic if the baby were a boy now." Dave said. "A Strider with an Easy-Bake oven. What is this universe coming to?" He stated dramatically which had the effect of producing more laughter out of everyone. "Do mine next before the irony wears off. It's the big red one."
Jake obediently grabs the rather large and heavy red package and rips the paper off. He is greeted by the sight of a brand new set of turntables still in their box.
"Check it. That bitch is tricked out. No Strider should be without a set of tables, and those are top of the line." Dave said smugly.
Over the oohs and ahhs directed at the gadget Dave glanced up at Dirk who was looking at him with his eyebrow raised over his pointy shades. Dirk managed to catch the slight blush creeping across Dave's cheeks and fought to keep the smile from showing on his face. Underneath the attitude Dave cared more than anyone would think and showed it in predictably ironic ways. Only Dirk seemed to catch the significance of the gift and how much Dave had just let his affection show. But Dirk suspected the true meaning behind the gift was only meant for Dirk and Dave to know anyway.
Both Dirk and Dave loved their music. Seeing that Dave had gone to considerable effort to pick out a nice set of turntables was a blatant show of love in the Strider book. Dirk couldn't help his own swell of pride and love for his bro from bringing tears to his eyes. Dirk resolutely blinked them back and was grateful yet again for the cover of his shades.
Dave seemed aware of the emotional turmoil in Dirk and they both nodded at each other slightly. No one else seemed aware of the exchange between the blondes as Jake picked up the next gift.
This one was an oddly shaped bundle wrapped in too much pink wrapping paper. Roxy giggled as Jake picked it up and he grinned at her.
"Oh no!" Jake cried laughing hysterically as he tore open the package. It was a set of four baby bottles made to look like liquor bottles. They were all empty, much to Dirk's relief, but the humor was too much and his laughter joined everyone else's.
Rose's present was next and Jake opened it to reveal two sets of carefully knitted baby clothes. The first was white and on the center of the chest was a green skull wearing an orange baseball cap. The second was reversible; one side was purple with a heart on it and the reverse was yellow with wings.
Jake smiled warmly as he held the garments. He set them aside carefully and complimented Rose on her workmanship.
The last box looked a little beat up and John looked on excitedly as Jake opened it. Jake's eyes opened wide as he looked inside and lifted out the beat up old bunny that comprised its contents.
"Is this…" Jake started to ask.
"Yup!" John beamed.
"But you didn't have to give up your bunny…"
"But that's the point! You're supposed to give it to someone you care about, just like the movie."
Jake didn't say anything else. He didn't have to. The shining of his eyes as he cuddled the much abused rabbit said more than words anyway.
"And now we have a question." Dirk stated as everyone looked up at him. Dirk motioned with his arm for Jake to continue.
"Ah, we would like to inquire if Jane and Roxy would like to be named godparents to our baby." Jake and everyone else looked at the girls expectantly.
They wore almost identical expressions of surprise and incredulous joy as they both whooped in excitement and practically smothered Jake and each other with hugs and declarations of acceptance.
Aw. One big derpy happy family.
