Married/Family Gadge :)

Gale kneeled in front of his son, Rowan, who was trying on new tennis shoes. The little boy kept talking about his class projects coming up. Gale struggled to put the little shoes on the constantly swinging feet of the five year old. He looked over at his two year old in the stroller who was blinking down at him with large blue eyes.

"Madge" he called out. His wife bustled towards him with another box of tennis shoes.

"Mmm?" She murmured and pressed her hands against her large protruding stomach.

"What do you think about these?" He asked. His wife looked ready to pop and she looked uncomfortable each day she grew closer to her due date. Gale wondered if they shouldn't gone shoe shopping but Madge insisted.

"Take a lap!" She smiled at her son and Rowan jumped up and took off around the racks of shoes.

"What do you think?" Gale asked him after he took his seat again.

"I like the light-up ones better." Rowan frowned, "or the ones that make noise when you jump high."

"Alright." Gale sighed and started to put away those that did not fit in the category. Madge started taking boxes from him and went bustling off in all directions. Gale frowned, "Maybe you should sit down." He murmured to his wife when she calmed.

"Why?" She asked and made a face.

"You're going to wear yourself out and you have the day to get through." He pointed out.

"I'm fine, Gale! Really, stop worrying so much." She smiled and started to walk off.

"Where are you going now?" Gale asked her.

"I'm going to go look for more shoes." She shrugged.

"He has nine boxes to choose from!" Gale said and gestured to the pile. His daughter pushed herself slightly out to look at them and Gale sighed. "Just come sit down and we'll help Rowan decide."

"You can help him, I'm going to start looking for Clara." She smiled and bounced off. Gale sighed heavily and rubbed his temple. This women was going to be the death of him. He wandered over to Rowan and kneeled in front of him.

"I want these." Rowan said pointing to a pair of bright green shoes with light up spaceships.

"Good." Gale smiled, "I liked those the best." He collected the other shoes and started placing them on the shelves. Madge came around with three boxes of little shoes and handed them to Gale. "Rowan picked some already, we can go." Madge chewed on her lip.

"These are super cute though." She pouted and then smiled brightly. "What is two more minutes of shopping?" She murmured. Gale resisted rolling his eyes.

"Darling, I'm afraid that you're exhausting yourself." Gale said and pulled her closer, "please take care of yourself. You look so uncomfortable."

"I'm pregnant, Gale, not a bomb." She took the shoes from him and waddled down to her daughter.

"Same thing." Gale whispered to himself. Gale and Rowan sat on the floor in front of the girls and chatted about kindergarten. Gale couldn't stop watching Madge, she had a look of concentration but every once and a while there would be a flash of something else. Pain. He was growing incredibly anxious to leave.
"What do you think about these?" Madge asked after putting a little pair of sandals on her daughter's feet.

"Oh, I love those!" Gale exclaimed, "Let's buy them and go." Madge frowned and looked back at the shoes.

"I don't think she has anything to wear them with." She sighed, "And we have two more boxes to try." Gale clenched his fists but stayed as calm as possible.
"Well, let's getting hurrying, we have more things to do today." He was lying but maybe he could pick up the pace of this shopping trip. Madge nodded and started to reach for another box from her seat. Gale scrambled to help her.

"Gale please stop." She groaned.

"I'm not doing anything!" He cried and grew tense.

"Just... stop helping! You're frustrating me." She switched the shoes on her daughter's feet and beamed. "These are it, oh Gale, aren't they so sweet?" He tried to stop his jaw from falling open at the quick change of emotion he just witnessed. He glanced at the denim shoes and smiled.

"Yeah they really are, can we go?" Madge nodded and started getting up. Gale winced as she struggled. He grabbed the two boxes and the stroller and headed to the front of the store. He paid and then pushed the stroller out to the large silver minivan.

Gale placed Clara in her car seat and buckled Rowan and Madge in. "I can't wait until I can do this for myself again." She said to him as he leaned back out of the passenger seat. Gale nodded and closed the door.

"It might be sooner than you think." He sighed to himself and folded the stroller up in the back. He slid into the driver's seat. "Home!" He smiled.

"I'm hungry." Madge pouted, "Can we go out for lunch?" Gale gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"How about we make grilled cheeses at home?" He asked.

"Sure." Madge smiled, she let her head fall back against the headrest.

"Tired?" He asked her as they backed out.

"Incredibly." She sighed. Gale smirked and shook his head. When they pulled into the drive, Gale parked and immediately got out. He helped Madge get out of the car and watched her go inside, he slid open the side car door and let Rowan jump out. He was wearing his new shoes and was jumping around, watching them light up on the porch. Gale laughed and lifted his daughter out of car seat, bringing her inside.

"Come on, Kid." Gale laughed, gesturing to Rowan. Inside, Gale watched in horror as his wife was running around the living room with a duster cloth, going at the all the surfaces in the room. "Madge, what are you doing?" he cried.

"The room was dusty..." She said and showed him the cloth, "I'm going to go check the other rooms next!"

"No, please sit down and rest. You don't have to do that right now." He set Clara into her highchair.

"It's no problem, I can do it now, how about you get lunch started?" Madge made her way slowly up the stairs much to Gale's dismay. Gale rushed to the phone and punched in numbers wildly. Rowan was back coloring at the kitchen table next to his sister.

"Ma?" He asked as the phone stopped dialing.

"Yes?" His mother asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's Madge..."

"Oh! Has she gone into labor?" His mother yelled, excited.

"No, I don't know... Ma, she won't stop moving! She was running all over the place in the shoe store and now she's on a mission to clean the house!" Gale rubbed his forehead, "how do I get her to sit down?" His mother was quiet for a moment.

"I'm on my way, see you in twenty minutes." Gale started to argue but his mother had already hung up the phone.

"Gale?" Madge's voice rang out from upstairs. He set down the phone and took the stairs two at a time.

"What is it?" He asked. She was sitting at the end of their bed, staring out of the big picture windows into their backyard. She looked back at him with tears in her eyes. "No, don't cry... why are you crying?" He rushed over to her and kneeled in front of her.

"I'm in labor." She cried and reached out to him. Gale laughed. "Don't laugh at me!" She cried louder.

"It's okay, Madge, just calm down." He smiled.

"Stop laughing at me."

"Have you been in labor all day?" He asked her. Madge quieted a little and looked away guiltily. "That's what I thought." He nodded and started rubbing up and down her arms. "My mother is on her way so as soon as she's here we can go to the hospital, okay?" Madge nodded and leaned into him. "Next time..." He started.

"Next time?" She squealed, Gale smiled slightly,

"IF there is a next time" he amended, "let's not wait all day for your labor to get worse." Madge sighed.

"But shoes..." She murmured. Gale chuckled and rolled his eyes. He kissed her forehead.

"I'm going to make lunch and you're going to get your things together. We're going to eat, my mother is going to get here, and we're going to leave." Madge opened her mouth, "no buts." Gale laughed and wandered back downstairs.

Reviewww and request! :D

Erin