Vignette 36 - Baby Steps

Behind Closed Doors – the Sybil & Sam Collection

FLUFF alert…OK, I can't resist this! I plan on doing a series of vignettes, each complete in itself and centring on Sybil and Vimes' relationship. The idea is to capture little scenes in their life, hopefully keeping in character. Some may have a piece of music as a theme, some might not, it depends how the muse takes me.

If this idea is so much marsh gas, let me know. If it's a good idea, let me know that too!

In Snuff, Vimes reflects during a particularly, er, physical undertaking, that he was glad he and Sybil had decided to just have the one child...

The Vimes's have THAT talk...

"Sam?"

"Yes dear?" Vimes turned over the page of his report, mentally shaking his head at Carrot's fractured grammar for the umpteenth time, and lifting the paper out of the way of a questing pudgy fist as Young Sam clumsily crawled over his lap, baby face scrunched up in a beaming smile.

"Sam, are you listening?" Sybil raised an eyebrow over her darning, suspiciously appraising her husband.

Vimes, whose husbandly radar was picking up the signals from due Sybil loud and clear, lowered his papers.

Sybil put her darning down to one side and fixed her eyes on the crawling baby sprawled over her husband's lap.

"Do you, um, do you think we should have another baby?" She asked hesitantly.

Sam stared at his wife in some surprise.

"We haven't long had Sam, dear," he managed weakly.

He tried to separate the different issues of Sam as his son, and his difficult birth that endangered his mother. The thought of putting Sybil at risk, even for another child, terrified him. The helplessness he had felt as he waited was something that he never wanted to experience again.

Sybil fiddled with her hands as she tried to arrange her thoughts.

"I know Sam," she murmured. "But it's something we should think about. I'm not getting any younger," her voice trailed off. "I never imagined..." She stopped.

Vimes picked up young Sam and walked over to where Sybil was sitting. He kneeled down, ignoring the slight click of his knees, and clasped her hands with the hand that wasn't balancing Sam.

"If you want a brother or sister for Sam, then we will have one Sybil," he searched her face, hoping to allay her fears.

"But what about you Sam?" Sybil asked. "What do you want? I don't want it all to be my decision."

"I never even thought I would have one child Sybil. Never mind a wife," he smiled at her. "I already have more than my wildest dreams." He squeezed her hands again. "A brother or sister would be wonderful, of course it would, but Young Sam is already so much more than I could have hoped for."

He looked again up into his wife's face and was astounded to see a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I just thought," she sniffed. "I thought I was holding you back..."

"How?" Vimes was confused.

"I didn't know if...if you would have wanted more children..." She sighed. "I'm being silly I know." She looked at him with a watery smile. "Pregnancy hormones still," she said with a small laugh.

"Oh Sybil," he sighed, kissing her hand and rocking Young Sam gently. "If you only knew just how little you have to worry about."

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