"Great. now we have a scared boy. Shall I buy you a teddy bear on our way back?"
"Mom, you're not serious, you hurt my feelings."
"Maybe he needs somebody in his bed too." Greg said. "Somebody, who is mean enough to scare away monsters… like…like…a cop is not enough…how about…a dentist? A modern time tormentor? Can you ask your lovely, I mean terrible, cousin, Honey?"
"Sure." Jules grinned. "I'm sure we can talk her into a nightshift."
"You are all silly, I go and get myself a coke and won't get you guys anything!" Stephen left the room with dark red ears.
"He has a crush on Tanya?" Doctor Bendler voice sounded more like it was a matter of fact than a question.
"Yes."
"There are so many normal and nice girls around why my crazy niece?"
"He likes crazy, it's why he wanted us as his parents." Sofia grinned. "He hasn't talked about his feelings, so we don't mention them. No more comments about Tanya in his bed, Greggo."
"Sorry."
"Nobody made jokes about you having a crush on Sara."
"It was serious." He grinned.
"Was is the key word." Sofia cleaned Susan's mouth. "Come here, take the baby, you didn't have her in your arms. Gives me the chance to pull my fiancé in my arms."
"The one, I never got. Oh well, I've got my own fiancé, love her and oh, you are a cute little Sara, Susan. No Don, lucky girl, only the mother. Good DNA, I always knew it." Greg took Susan in his arms, put the little towel over his shoulder, started walking and slapped carefully the baby's bag. "Time for you burp. Now is the only time in your life you're allowed to do that in public and make women happy about it."
"He's crazy." Sofia pulled Sara in her arms and kissed her.
"Definitely, but he knows what he does, he has two kids. Our daughter is in good hands." The brunette snuggled into the arms of her better half. How did she miss these arms when she was in bed. A bed without Sofia wasn't a complete bed. How could people sleep without her in their arms? Impossible. At least for Sara.
"Looks like you have a little party going on, I'll go back to work…or back home and see my grandchildren."
"Go home, you worked twelve hours already." Jules said.
"You sound like your father."
"Of course, I'm his daughter. In case you manage to leave here on time, why don't you and dad come over for dinner? Sevenish."
"We'll be there. Have a good evening, everybody, and remember, no loud parties in hospital."
"Of course not. Thanks for stopping by, doc."
"You're welcome, Sofia…oh and the scared boy. Did you find your coke?"
"Yes, with coke nothing can happen."
"Your best weapon, no coke throwing here, all right?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"A good boy."
Stephen grinned and opened his can of coke. "Oh Greg, you're the one with the conehead. Let me guess, you've to wait until she throws up on your shoulder?"
"Actually a little burp is enough. Watch, learn, soon it will be you."
"Can't wait. Mom, they offer only crap food in the cafeteria. Do they serve you something better?"
"No."
"Yuck…okay, I come over after school tomorrow and smuggle a pizza with extra cheese in here. You can't eat those stuff downstairs, it's disgusting."
"What do they offer?" Sara asked.
"I'm not sure but I think at least one person ate it before. Spinach garlic pizza with extra cheese is much better for Sofia."
"Is that right?"
"Of course it is." The blonde had a wide smile on her face. "Spinach is healthy, so is garlic and cheese has calcium. Perfect food. Fits perfect to chocolate, by the way."
"With the bar you have here and all the other chocolate, you had in your presents, you've got enough chocolate for the ret of the month."
"Thank God the month is almost over. Jules, why didn't you bring some muffins from the bakery we all love so much?"
"Because I planned to bring you muffins when you're back home - in case I'm not in here by this time. In that case we need a rain check on it and have a big muffins party later, when I'm back home too. For the baby shower."
"With all your annoying doctor friends." Sara rolled her eyes. That was a part of Jules's pregnancy she didn't like. Seeing all the doctor friends of her friend. They were nicer now than they were in the beginning, but Sara liked them most when they were in another area of the city.
Exhausted Sofia leant back in her bed and closed her eyes. Meeting her friends had never been this exhausting like it was today. She was happy to see them all, if anybody of them hadn't shown up here, she had been sad, but now she was happy they were all gone. All but Sara. Her lover was here, with her, had her in her arms. A few minutes ago Don and a nurse had taken Susan back to her bed, when the girl woke up the next time, she'd be fed with a baby bottle. Stephen left with him, he had to prepare the empty room downstairs for another guest tomorrow.
"Was it too much today?" Sara saw how tired her lover was.
"It was a lot. Barely any sleep last night, only a few hours here, but it was great. We're parents! We have a daughter!" Her eyes glowed.
"We do, thanks to you. Like I said, you were so great, did it all so well. I'm so proud of you." Sara kissed her lover. Without her, she wouldn't have a daughter. Nor an adopted son. Only with and because of Sofia her life was complete.
"I'm so happy she is a little Sara, it's what I hoped for most. My own little baby Sara, now I know how you looked like when you were a baby. So cute."
"We call her cute, her brother calls her conehead."
"Well, she does have one…and it will be gone soon. But even with a conehead she is the most beautiful baby ever born. Something all mothers say."
"The difference is, you're right." Sara grinned.
"We'll be busy chasing guys away in a few years. Or Don, it's the job of the father. His parents called me, they try to get over by Saturday. Can't wait to see their granddaughter."
"I'm sure they hoped for years you and Don have a child together."
"Like my parents they knew, Don and me were only friends. Probably they hoped anyway, now their dream became true. Susan's birth made a lot of dreams come true. She's a little angel."
"In a few month she will start to crawl, next summer she'll walk, so many exciting months lie ahead of us. Our daughter grows with every day, develops more and more, learns new skills, I can't wait for everything to happen." Sara smiled. They had to remember to take a photo every day to see how Susan changed. In a few years they needed a book shelf for the photo books of their baby - then child.
"The first Christmas, the first time we go on vacation as a whole family, the first time one of our kids finishes school, has a partner, goes to kindergarten, the first tooth, the first heartache. Busy times for us."
"Yes and we can't wait until they happen. Not the heartache part, but I'm afraid it's a part of growing up."
"I don't think Tanya will break Steve's heart, he knows he can't have her. It will be painful, but it's easier than losing your big love or watch, how she falls for somebody else. He knows her as Don's girlfriend and…she really is slightly older than he is."
"Slightly. He asked today if Lea can come to your baby shower too."
"Isn't she a part of the family already?" Sofia laughed.
"Officially not, maybe we need a 'welcome to our big, loving and crazy family' party. She does spend most of her time at our place or with our son."
"It feels like the fourth bedroom is hers… maybe one day she'll stay in his."
"Which won't make us nervous, we'll be cool about it and… won't disturb them in his room. Right?" The brunette smiled.
"Of course…it will be hard, but we're good mothers. His sister will open the door all the time to see, what's going on, where her beloved big brother is."
"Only when her mother tells her to do so, when her mother tells her to stay away, she won't disturb her brother."
"Isn't that a breach of duty of supervision?"
"Did you think so when your mother crept up on you?"
"No!"
"See, leave our son alone, he'll come to us when he needs us."
"And in a few years we have the same problems again, only with our daughter. What if we become young grandmothers?"
"We're old mothers, we can't be young grandmothers. Young grandmothers are our age, Darling. And we don't want our kids to quit school because they're parents. We want to go to college and university…we need to save up for that."
"I know…no more expensive things…like a world trip."
"No, we take trips to the ocean, up the coast, visit your brother."
"My brother…I wonder when he appears in L.A. to see his niece. He better shows up within a month or mom will drag him here. In handcuffs and a Glock on his head."
"Or to your big birthday."
"Not a nice topic, I don't want to be forty."
"The sexiest woman in her forties."
"Is you."
"No, you."
"I'm…still fat. Honey, I need a serious diet. And I look…my skin is not nice…I need a personal trainer otherwise I can never wear a bikini again. Stretch marks are so not sexy."
"Sofia, there's no way you can ever not look sexy, believe me, I know every inch of you, I kissed every inch of you. If somebody knows your body, it's me, and I tell you, you are perfect. Fucking perfect just the way you are."
"You are such a charm and we can't take advantages of it. We can't have sex here…I'm not allowed to have sex…until Sunday or so."
"Lets give your body a few days, at the moment I'm happy when I can hold you in my arms again."
"Share a bed with you…can't you stay? We snuggle up and share this bed."
"The nurse will tell us different. No double room in your special hotel."
"Two more nights without you. Or three, they haven't got decided yet when I can leave. Friday is not very likely, Saturday more, Sunday is definitely. I prefer Saturday, three nights without you are more than enough. I've got responsibilities, have to hold you, make sure you're fine."
"Make sure you and Susan are fine and I'm fine too." The brunette sighed and pushed a thought away.
"What is it?" Sofia knew her lover too well to not see there were clouds on her girlfriend's sky.
"The last days I think a lot about the baby case you had a year and a half ago. What, if these men come back? Think they're safe and start to kidnap babies again. Our baby. I feel like sitting in front of Susan's bed all the time, make sure she's safe and whenever a nurse or doctor comes along to take her away for some tests, I want to be there too. Impossible, I know and I know they increased their security system, it's really good now, but…she's our baby and I want to do everything to make sure, she's safe."
"She is." Sofia took the hand of her lover. "She is safe here. Like you said, their new security system is good. Susan won't be kidnapped. She'll stay here until we take her home and from that day on, she'll be under the surveillance of my mother, you know what that means. No step is made without the Captain knowing about it."
"Yes." Sara had to laugh. Her mother-in-law would make sure Susan was watched all the time. Their personal babysitter.
A nurse came into the room. "I'm sorry Miss Sidle, you need to leave now. Visitor time is over and your fiancé needs to sleep."
"Okay. No chance I can stay here? I promise she'll sleep - even better - when I stay here with her."
The nurse smiled understanding. "Sorry, not possible. I hope we can offer things like this one day, but unless you're not very rich and rent a hotel room with your personal doctor and nurse, it will be like this."
"We're not rich, if we were, our accountant would sleep better." Sara kissed Sofia. "I come back after work tomorrow. From Saturday on I've got a week off, wait for you to come home."
"Saturday sounds like a great day to come back home. I love you, try to sleep."
"Ditto. Give Susan a kiss."
"I will. See you tomorrow." Sofia pulled Sara in her arms one more time. Saying goodbye was hard, it almost made her cry. She wanted Sara by her side, wanted her to be with her, hold her. Three nights without her lover. Three nights could be like eternity.
When Sara came home she found Marie in the living room, Janis and Jim on her lap, purring, like they were in a competition with each other. No sight of Stephen nor the dogs and other cats.
"Your son is with the dogs out, a last round around the reservoir." Marie read her mind.
"Good, I'm very tired and don't think I have the energy to do it." Sara sat down and immediately she had John and Jimmy on her lap, appearing from under the couch. "Hey guys, how are you? Did you have a good day? A little bit lonely after we were away all the time - or asleep."
"I'm sure they could take care of themselves. Cats don't need an entertainer all the time."
"Yeah, they could walk around the house, something is always going on here."
"Big house, a lot of people. How are Sofia and Susan?"
"Tired. I'm glad the nurses feeds Susan tonight and give Sofia the change to catch some sleep. After the short last night, she needs it."
"So do you, you're tired too."
"I am. And I miss her."
"Three nights, Sara. Plus you know she's fine, these nights are without worry, not like the last time she was in hospital. The only reason why Sofia stays there is to get some rest and have somebody look after her twenty-four/seven. A service you can't provide here."
"My head knows all those things, my heart misses her anyway."
"You go back to work tomorrow, tell everybody about your beautiful daughter, show pictures of her."
"I think I took around one hundred of her and Sofia today. We're crazy when it comes to photos of Susan. Like the ultrasound pictures we collected. The first album will be full before Susan is a month. We have photos of her with everybody."
"Sara, you're a mother, a first time mother, you can't act crazy, only loving. You and Sofia are loving parents, Susan knows that. She felt it months ago, she knows she's loved. The best condition to make your daughter a happy mother."
"And soon she'll have the best babysitter in the world." Sara smiled. "Are you ready to be a fulltime grandmother?"
"More than ready. Five months without a real job, I got very bored already. Moving to a new city can occupy you for a while, but it's nothing that makes you happy. You do all the things because you have too. Looking after your grandchild is special, it makes me happy."
"I'm glad you're here and will do it."
"Hey, it was the condition you and Sofia told me. I've to move to Los Angeles otherwise I won't be a grandmother, classical blackmailing style, worked out perfect. My son has kids too, but it's different when your daughter gets pregnant and you see how she changes, how her life changes, how she prepares for the new member of the family to arrive. Even when Susan doesn't have Sofia's DNA, she had been in her for nine months, they are a part of each other. And she looks like you, it's like Sofia gave birth to your child."
"She did. With the help of doctors and Don, but she gave birth to my child." Her child, it sounded still unreal. Her own child. She was a mother. Sara Sidle had a baby, who would have thought this a few years ago?