Title: Baby, It's You
Author: PurpleOrchid85
Rating: PG-13 to T
Fandom: The Middle
Pairing: Axl/Sue (Heckcest, Axsue, Lumberjack Lawyers, whichever shipping name you prefer)
Spoilers: All of Season 4, Heckcest 'twisted' Season 5
Summary: Sue and Axl drunkenly sleep with each other, resulting in a surprise pregnancy.
Warnings: Sibling incest, incest pregnancy, kissing, occasional swearing.
Disclaimer:
Axl Heck & Sue Heck and every character that is mentioned in this Fanfiction in relation of The Middle are copyrighted by ABC and its creators/producers DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler.
AN: Firstly, apologies for the delayed chapter. I guess life got into the way of writing and gave me dreadful writers block. But, just recently I got back into it and not only I proceeded with this chapter, I managed to outline some of the future chapters as well as some ideas and dialogue for the epilogue and figured out how long this fic will go for: twenty-five chapters.
AN2: For this chapter I have minor changes: Aunt Edie didn't leave for Branson until after Thanksgiving, she is needed for this chapter. the midnight mall crazy thing was moved to the early morning of Thanksgiving Day for plot purposes. I will be introducing a one-off character: the 'relief' OB in this chapter is inspired slightly by Robin Williams' character in "Nine Months", and has a bit of a German accent and will be mixing her German words with English, so I tried to demonstrate that.
German Translation:
Hier = here
Kind = child
Dummkopf! = Idiot!
Achtundzwanzig = Twenty-Eight
Auberginen = Eggplant
Sehr gut = Very good
Drei = third
Zrei = two
Busch = book
Happy reading!
Chapter Fourteen: Thanksgiving
On the morning before Thanksgiving Day, Sue ate her breakfast, Brick eating with a book in front of him as usual and Axl helpfully helping Frankie with washing up, Frankie reminded Mike "Mike, you remember Aunt Edie and my parents are coming for thanksgiving this year?"
Mike said confused "I thought Aunt Edie was going to Branson?" Frankie waved a hand and explained away the change "She forgot she had a veterinarian appointment for Doris on the second day after Thanksgiving so she's leaving the third day after Thanksgiving rather not going there for Thanksgiving instead."
Mike nodded slowly still confused at Frankie's convoluted explanation.
"I'll pick up all the groceries after work, if I have time." Frankie said, as she ran a hand through her hair thinking of all the things she needed to do today. Axl volunteered "I can do that, Mom. Just give me the money and the shopping list and I can get them for you." Frankie sighed thankfully and said "Thanks Axl!" and rummaged away in her purse to retrieve the items as requested.
It was lunchtime and a bored Sue was visiting Brad at Spudsy Malone's during his fifteen-minute lunch break. Sue sighed into her tuna potato, making Brad ask concernedly "Sue, you okay?"
"It's just… the parenting class is hard lately, and this afternoon I've got a check-up, but all I want is to relax for the vacation. Just spend time with…" She shook here self before she blurted out what she wanted to say, so she quickly continued "Dad and Brick has gotten into the naming the baby game. Last night, Dad subtly suggested Peyton for the baby."
Brad looked confused, as he detested all kinds of sports and whoever famous playing any kind of sport.
Sue enlightened him "After Peyton Manning, the Colts quarterback. Sometimes I do listen to Dad's Colts' rants and him listing each player's stats." Brad nodded, his expression clearing, then asked curiously "And what was Brick's suggestion?"
Sue shook her head fondly as she said "He's going through his favourite novels' character names, in order of book favourites. He started with Kalakare."
Brad gave a look of mild disgust mixed with confusion "Kalawhat?" He asked.
"Apparently, she's some princess from the Planet Nowhere books." The pregnant teen replied.
"That's almost as bad as Renesmee." He commented, referring to their mutual hatred of the Twilight character name.
Sue continued on the baby naming topic "I didn't mind the name Elizabeth. Or Anna or even Holly as well as some others he suggested, but..." she trailed off trying to find a reason why she hasn't decided upon a name yet.
Brad nodded in realisation "Ultimately, it is your decision. After all it's your baby."
Well it's mine. And Axl's she privately thought, but didn't let Brad onto her thoughts, but quickly searched her thoughts for a polite excuse to leave until she checked her watch and said "Ooh, I better go. I've got to go to the OB appointment." They stood up and exchanged a warm farewell hug awkwardly due to the belly.
In the van and on her way to the appointment, Sue's finger was on the van's radio station buttons, searching for a station that fit her current mood and the random station instantly put on a song she instantly recognised and liked then she began tapping out the soft melody on the steering wheel and started humming along to the song.
The van started to stall, and then started sounding weird. Sue took her eyes off the road to the dashboard in surprise, she flicked her eyes back upon the road she immediately began to pull the car over and just as she did, the engine died.
"Not again!" She groaned. She flipped open her cellphone and started searching through her contact list to work out who to call. After some elimination, (both parents at work, Frankie at an emergency root canal extraction with an difficult client who had a horrible dentist phobia, Mike in a meeting with workers compensation due to an incident onsite earlier that week, Carly sick with mono, Brad stuck with a full timetable of work shifts which she had an earful about earlier, Sally stuck on bedrest due to orders by her doctor, all of the Donahues away at their relatives for Thanksgiving, the Norwoods in Indianapolis for a Thanksgiving event and she wanted not to bother Darrin…) the phone highlighted Axl's contact and realised that he was the only one home since he was home for holidays. She pressed dial, then put it to her ear as she waited for him to answer.
When Axl arrived, the tow truck and the mechanic already had arrived, and Sue finished detailing what happened to the mechanic with a nod headed to Axl and said in an almost panicky tone "Axl, let's go! we have like ten minutes before the appointment, or otherwise it would be given away to someone else." Axl nodded, scared by the intense look Sue had her face. Once they arrived, as Sue announced her arrival to Adalind, who immediately had a nervous look on her face and said, "Just a minute…I have to check on something." then left the desk to Axl offered to Sue "I can wait right here until you're-" but he got interrupted by Adalind's return saying "Dr. White is currently sick and you have a temporary doctor by the name of Dr. Sabina Nutzlos. You can either continue to your appointment but with Dr Nutzlos or you can reschedule to next time."
Axl and Sue exchanged a quick look, then Sue said "Well, since we're here, I suppose we can see Dr. Nutzlos…"
Sue said, "Since it's someone new, I would like you to come into the room with me." Axl sighed and nodded, following Sue to the examination room, only to stop dead.
"I am Sabina Nutzlos." Said the doctor. Sue blinked in surprise. She was blonde haired, tall and willowy with a soft German accent.
Sue approached the adjustable bed thingy, pausing slightly when she saw it was high.
"One minzz, Miss Hex." Dr Nutzlos said as she recognised why Sue stopped. She fiddled with the controls, only to have the bed flip up and down uncontrollably, scaring Sue who took a step backwards, while Axl held onto her, bewildered.
When the uncontrollable flipping stopped and the bed seemingly a bit lower and a bit odd yet ready, the doctor patted the bed, beaming.
"Hier. Time to check kind." Dr Nutzlos said, mixing her German with English.
Sue let out a weak smile at the doctor, then hissed lowly to Axl "Do not leave my side in any circumstances, or no more fun times for you."
Axl quickly looked at the still smiling doctor then back and said, "no problem."
"Mizz Music is away. I do check kind." Dr. Nutzlos said, confusing Sue. Then she saw the sonogram machine and realised that Dr Nutzlos meant that Melody, the nurse who usually operated the sonogram machine was away.
Through a pasted smile upon her face Sue nodded in acceptance. When Dr. Nutzlos turned grab the tube of gel and returned, she tripped against the rolling chair and dropped the gel tube.
"Dummkopf!" Dr. Nutzlos swore to herself, then said "Sorry. First day."
She bent over to pick up the tube only to bang her head against the metal part of the adjustable bed.
Sue let out an eeping yelp of concern and asked, "Are you alright, Doctor?" while Axl winced.
The tall blonde German doctor waved off a hand, rubbing against her head.
She took of the tube lid and squeezed, only she squeezed too hard and the gel spurted out in one long spurt that sounded like a fart. Axl snorted at the sound, but Sue gave him a swat along with a glare pointedly reminding him to behave.
After cleaning up the mess, the clumsy doctor managed to put the right amount on Sue's belly and managed to roll the sonogram handle over Sue's belly without any incident.
"Your kind is now achtundzwanzig… sorry, twenty-eight weeks." She moved the handle around slightly and said, "kind size is likeauberginen uh... the big purple plant." She tried to show the eggplant shape with her fingers and hands to support her findings to Sue and Axl, who tried to understand what she was trying to say. The two still confused teens kept shaking their heads, until Dr. Nutzlos showed them a picture of an eggplant on her computer until they understood the meaning.
Dr. Nutzlos took off the plastic gloves and said, "Now check blood." She retrieved the blood pressure cuff and put it on and pumped the pump until the cuff was firmly around Sue's forearm.
When the doctor checked the readout, she said "Sehr gut. I mean very good. No danger of clamps." Sue looked confused for a minute, then remembered the chapter on preeclampsia she read in her book this morning an understood what she meant, while Axl was trying to work out what the word meant, mouthing it to himself until Sue whispered in his ear.
They returned their attention to the doctor who was saying "Today start of drei trimester. I mean third. Must visit doctor Witte—White in zrei no, two weeks then when kind is at thirty-six must visit weekly."
Sue then remembered that lately, when she was trying to sleep, her legs seemed to have the urge to move or jerk.
Sue said in a clear and concise explanation "My legs do this." she mimicked the jerking, then continued "When I try to sleep." She simultaneously pretended to sleep trying to get the German doctor to understand what she was saying with body language.
"Ah yes. Normal." Dr. Nutzlos said, nodding. She proceeded with other necessary medical procedures, each time with slight clumsy accidents.
When she finally finished the appointment, Dr Nutzlos said not seeing the relived looks on the two teenagers' faces, "See Addie front to busch-book to see Dr. Weitt – White in zrei- two weeks."
With confused nods from Sue and Axl, the two teens left, heading back to the administration table, with Axl saying "Your regular OB better be delivering our kid, not Dr Nutso." Which made Sue laugh for the first time that day.
It was Thanksgiving Day, and Sue was about ready to go to the mall for the early dawn mall rush.
"There you are." Frankie said in a whisper, trying not to wake up Mike and Brick, then continued "Ready for some dawn daftness?"
Sue grinned "So ready."
A tired Axl was at the bench, vainly trying to stay awake. Sue grimaced She had to apologise to him tonight for the accidental kicking due to the restless leg syndrome she had developed lately.
"Why do you have to go this morning? Black Friday's coming up." Axl mumbled almost in his arms.
Frankie explained to her half-asleep son "Pioneer Galaxy Mall has moved Black Friday up to Wednesday. But this morning, everything is 60% off. We wait till Friday, it's only 30% off."
Sue turned and instantly saw the still asleep Justin "Oh shoot, I forgot to walk Justin." Sue said, cursing her baby brain, and Frankie said, "Maybe someone else will have to do it, or wait until you get back?" Axl piped up "You know what? I'll walk him after I take the garbage out for the trash men then I'll pick up Grandma Pat and Grandpa Tag." It made Sue beam happily at him and Frankie said "What a wonderful son you have been lately. Perhaps you're maturing." Axl gave a tired, weak smile.
It was nearly dawn when Frankie and Sue got to the mall for the event and to their surprise got primo parking. As they lined up the slowly converging people waiting for the stores to open, Frankie said "Use your belly as an advantage, and block any people to get anything you want in your trolley." Then Frankie eyed the mall's manager getting ready to let the excited shoppers in and said to Sue "Get ready."
While Sue and Frankie was in middle of Frankie's wild stampede, Axl was stuck in his car getting reamed out by the grandparents for dropping his class throughout the long trip back to Orson, hunching himself over the steering wheel and tried to ignore the angry grandparents ranting in his ear. Back at the Heck house, Brick was busy in the kitchen preparing his lime jello, knowing that Frankie would not end up making it as she promised.
Out front and oblivious to Brick's jello preparation, Mike wordlessly waved at Edie's departing housemate as Edie and Doris joined him on the doorstep.
As they entered the Heck house, Edie while regaled Mike with a tale that he was barely even listening to, Doris stopped in front of Justin. The two dogs stared at each other, one with surprise and curiosity, the other with boredom. The bored one, who was too old to try and decide who was the top dog in the house just flopped down next to the now sitting Edie, who sat next to Mike who flipped on the TV and started looking for a Colts pre-game.
Axl, with an expression of bare relief entered the house and made a beeline to Brick and started complaining to him about what happened on the long trip, finishing up by reassuring him that the grandparents indeed did bring fudge.
Axl grabbed a bag of chips and jumps on couch with remote in hand, but Mike snatched it out of his hand, still wanting to watch the pre-game. Sue and Frankie came in, Sue's oddly quiet until she said the what have you' tic, which made Mike slightly concerned and Axl overly suspicious since Sue was supposed to lie better, after all they were covering up a major lie... And then Sue announced, "I'm going to go to my room for normal reasons." Axl gets even more worried but he gets distracted by Pat saying "What happened to my sunshiney girl?... Oh, I forgot to give her my newspaper clips... (she looked into her bag for the clips with the Skymall torch glasses) oh, never mind I'll give them to her later."
As Mike headed into the kitchen to look for some refreshments Tag, with a harried look upon his face, corners him and starts a rambling explanation about Tag losing the cruise money on online gambling finishing up with trying to get Mike to cover for him whenever Tag was going to bring up cruise disasters in conversation.
As time went by, with everyone busy with either: reading (Brick), watching TV (Mike), wrestling with inner demons (Sue), worrying about parental reactions over an important announcement he has to make (Axl), the wife's reaction over a secret (Tag) or cheerfully talking about the cruise (Pat) or working on preparing Thanksgiving dinner (Frankie).
Finally, finally, Frankie called out "Dinner!"
Everyone who had their own dramas or problems instantly was relieved to have dinner distract them and scrambled to the living room to find seats. Axl, distracted by trying to figure out how to announce the class dropping didn't notice Sue was staring depressingly at her plate.
Brick cleared his throat and asked pointedly "Mom, where's my lime jello salad?"
Frankie groaned "Oh shoot, Brick. I forgot."
Brick shot aback annoyed "Really Mom? Ten years and you still couldn't pull it off? Wow. Lucky, I know you very well." He pulled a sheet of paper off a tray of a green looking liquid.
Brick said brightly "Ta-da! We didn't have any fresh fruit cocktail, so I substituted skittles instead."
Frankie arched her eyebrow and said in an almost laughing tone "Wow, Brick." Then when she looked closer, she informed her youngest "You know, you're supposed to let it refrigerate for four hours."
Brick shot back "Oh yeah? Well, maybe we could do a taste test against yours."
Frankie sighed, then shook her head "Forget it. Just sit and eat."
As everyone were about to eat; forks at their mouths, the sound of the doorbell reverberated through the house, interrupting them. Everyone looked towards the direction of the noise in astonishment.
When Frankie returned from answering the doorbell with the beaming Dr. Goodwin in tow, she muttered to Mike "He still doesn't get sarcasm..." making the eavesdropping Axl choke back a laugh. Frankie, with a smile pasted on her face instantly re-arranged the seating, then everyone was ready to eat once again, the doorbell went once again.
Frankie nearly dropped her head in despair, then pasted her 'all's fine' smile upon her face again and went to answer the door again, only to return with Marlene and her two kids Colleen and Louis Vuitton. Frankie quickly introduced Marlene and the kids to Dr. Goodwin, Aunt Edie and Frankie's parents as well as sub tly reminding her family about them. After asking for help from her kids, Frankie re-arranged the seating for one last time.
Thanksgiving dinner continued without any interruptions. That is, if you were counting Tag's fake bad cruise stories or Marlene's unsubtle flirting towards a very uncomfortable Dr. Goodwin and Brick loudly slurping at his unmade lime jello.
In midst of the dinner, Tag asks Mike if he would talk to him in the kitchen. When they return, Aunt Edie toddles off with two plates of food for the dogs. Doris' plate seemed to have a mixture of mashed potatoes and stuffing and small bits of turkey (Aunt Edie reminded Frankie that Doris hasn't any mandibles to chew her food) while the other plate seemed to have a lot of turkey, which made Justin jump and bark in circles. On her way back, Aunt Edie sees Sue get up from the table and walk into the kitchen to get some juice from the fridge, Aunt Edie, in midst of her momentary dementia 'mistakes' Sue for Frankie and asks politely, "Are you pregnant with Axl?", and Sue panics and as she returns to the table, she swung past Axl and she whispered, "I think Aunt Edie knows that we're together." Mouth full of food, he almost chokes as his eyes bulge as he heard what she said.
Axl now worries about both, the Edie thing and telling the parentals about the dropping two classes. He piles on more food, not realising that he was overeating in his nervousness. He decided to just announce it and get it over with and stood up and began "I'd just like to say how thankful I am to be surrounded by so many loved ones, because when bad news has to be delivered, you need your family and friends and bosses to not overreact to-" but he got interrupted by Tag loudly announcing about the gambling and Pat getting angry at him. Then instantly after that, Marlene almost shouted about shoving her goods in Dr Goodwin's way, then slipped the titbit about divorcing Rusty. Slumping his shoulders in submission, he sat back down almost grumbling about a missed moment.
Once dinner was finished, Dr Goodwin tried to leave, wanting to escape Marlene's flirting but Frankie reminded him of dessert, so he tried just to avoid her. When Mike flipped on the television, Brick noticed "Hey look – is that Mom?" when a newsreader had a picture of Frankie, looking angry and wild with her arms up in the air along with the words 'Mayhem at the Mall'.
Everyone turned to Frankie, shocked. Frankie tried to get someone to change the channel, but curiosity made everyone watch the segment, and once it finished, Sue burst out pointing at Frankie "That wasn't all! You guys didn't see the whole thing. Mom kept throwing me things, and she kept saying, "Put it in the cart! Put it in the cart! Put it in the cart!" And everyone went nuts and started grabbing things. I had to try and fling myself on the cart to stop them or Mom pushing me to block them with my belly, and then when it was over, she made me promise not to tell!" she then burst into tears, feeling overwhelmed. Pat patted her shoulder, giving Frankie an glare. Frankie then tried to defend herself with excuses.
Axl then stepped forwards and announced, "I had to drop three classes."
It was silent, but then Frankie yelled "Axl!" then, continued with "How could have this happened?" Axl reeled off with his explanation, then waited with bated breath as Frankie looked at Mike. Mike calmly said "Well, it's your life." Which made Axl blink in surprise. He was sure his father would have yelled at him.
After some pacing and worrying in his bedroom and trying not to listen to Brick's groaning, Mike popped his head in to ask, "You guys want to play some football?" with Axl joining with a confused 'sure'.
While Brick was laying on the grass groaning from the lime jello, Sue managed to play a little, (mostly was just throwing the ball, with no running) but gave up since her pregnancy impeded from putting her all into the game and walked off. A confused Axl, in midst of failing at the game rants at Mike who only speaks sporadically. Just out of Axl's eyesight, Dr. Goodwin tries to escape from Marlene's overt flirting while Frankie, Tag and Pat watch on the bench and Pat's announcement about weight watchers and not quitting the membership, instantly made Tag drop his jaw in shock.
Back on the street, Mike and Axl finally talk, and Axl promising to do better in his studies while Mike smiled to himself.
As Frankie served up dessert, and Axl refusing whipped cream as self-punishment, Sue managing to eat all of her dessert to make up for her despondence over dinner.
When Frankie escorted Dr. Goodwin to the door she apologised "Again, I am so sorry about everything."
Dr. Goodwin agreed nodding "I know it was a pretty screwy Thanksgiving. So I guess I'll see you at Christmas huh?"
Frankie then sarcastically says "Okay I'll be here." and his upbeat reply "Oh, yeah I know you will."
As Frankie closed the door behind her, her head dropped in realisation that she once again inadvertently invited Dr. Goodwin over for Christmas.
Later that night, Sue brushed her hair while listening to Axl, who was in her bed mindlessly playing with Woofy in his hands as he gave her an in-depth explanation to why he had to drop the classes in the first place, finishing up with his promise to Mike.
Sue climbed into bed and said "Okay. But you better study better. Ooh, kickitteenstyle has a study guide. See, it has... You know what, I'll just email you the link." She turned sideways to click off the bedside light and laid back down, ready to sleep oblivious to Axl's look of consternation that continues into the darkness of the room.