Two weeks after their argument, on Christmas Eve's Eve, Karen and Derek went for an ultrasound which would hopefully tell them the gender of their baby. The two had disagreed over the two weeks prior over an awful lot of things from what they would do for Christmas to whether they should stay in the apartment or move into a house and even what the baby should be named. Each argument quickly ran its course and because of them decisions were made.
The pair walked into the familiar doctor's surgery belonging to Doctor Goulding and sat down waiting for Karen's name to be called as had become routine. Once it was called, the two walked into the office and Karen was told to lie down on the bed and do the exact same thing she'd done at every other appointment.
Doctor Goulding squeezed the gel onto Karen's slight baby bump making the young mother-to-be shudder due to the cold sensation the gel brought over her and she smiled as the baby appeared on the screen in front of her, losing herself in the thought of what it would be like to hold her child in her arms "Do you guys want to know the gender?" Doctor Goulding asked, breaking Karenout of her mini trance.
Karen looked to Derek for confirmation even though they'd already made the decision during the previous fortnight, he nodded and Karen replied with the the affirmative "Yes,"
Doctor Goulding typed a few things into the computer as Karen and Derek waited with bated breath. After what felt like forever to the couple, Doctor Goulding was able to say "It's a girl,"
Karen looked to Derek, who had a glimmer of tears in his eyes and she was instantly reminded of their conversation that had occurred just under a year and a half before.
"There's a doctor who I think you should see, he's very good, specialises in this sort of thing," Derek told her, knowing he would have to reveal another truth about himself.
"How would you know?" she asked.
"I have a daughter, well had actually," he admitted and upon seeing Karen's shocked face he continued "Don't look at me like that, I didn't disown her, I'd never do that – could never do that – she died in a car accident about twelve years ago and it... it took me a while to get over it. She shouldn't have died, if her mother hadn't have driven drunk then she'd probably be with us today, she'd be fifteen now if she'd survived or it hadn't happened," he said regretfully.
"What was her name?" Karen asked, suddenly interested in this daughter that she'd never even known about until now.
"Nicola, you would have loved her. Even at the age of three, she had the kindest heart and the most gorgeous sparkling blue eyes that you'd ever see," he reminisced, his eyes softening "She had this snow white skin and strawberry blonde curly hair, and this infectious laugh that could fill a room. For weeks after Nicola died, I refused to leave my apartment, shower, or sleep, I even ordered in alcohol I mean how sad is that? Anyway, that's beside the point, it was the combination of mum, James and Grace to get me out of the apartment and to see Dr Spencer and everyday I thank god that they did. To be honest, aside from mum, James, Grace and Sarah, you're the first person I've ever told about the full extent of this," he confided.
"Wow, I-I never knew," Karen said quietly.
The memory of that conversation gave Karen the perfect idea for a name for their little girl "Why don't we name her Clara? It was your Grandmother's name and it's Latin for clear and bright, plus it was on the list of names we were thinking of," she suggested but then suddenly realised that Derek might not like the name and so she started saying "But if you don't like it then we could always-"
But Derek had interrupted her, like he always did when she was worried that he might not like the sound of something, by saying "It's the most wonderful name idea I've heard you say," giving her one of his now not so rare kind smiles.
Once they'd gained another set of sonogram pictures to add to their evergrowing collection, Derek and Karen left the doctor's office with smiles on their faces, happy that they'd finally decided on their little girl's first name and headed over to the airport to pick up Derek's family, all of whom were spending Christmas in New York. James, Sarah and little Emme – as she'd been dubbed – were staying in Karen and Derek's apartment while Grace stayed in the apartment that she'd purchased for herself during her year in New York. After Derek was shot, Grace and Karen had stopped getting along due to Grace's constant blaming of Karen for the incident. Karen's parents had flown in the previous evening and were sleeping off their jet lag and Ivy, Ana, Julia, Michael, Amy and Bobby would be coming over to the apartment for Christmas dinner. All in all, Karen was stressed to the max over food, sleeping arrangements, the state of the apartment and everything inbetween. So the fact that she hadn't even noticed James, Sarah and Emme come through the arrivals gate wasn't a complete surprise.
"You lucky cow! I wish I was that small at that point in pregnancy," Sarah exclaimed as she gave Karen a hug making both women laugh "So are you going to tell me whether or not I get a niece or nephew or do I have to wait?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Karen said coyly, desperately trying to avoid ruining the surprise for her sister-in-law.
"Damn you and your complete unreadability!" Sarah exclaimed with a laugh.
"Is Grace still pissed off with me over the incident?" Karen asked quietly.
"Do you want the honest answer or the bullshit one?" Sarah asked bluntly.
"Just give me the honest one," Karen said, she would rather have it ripped off like a band aid than be lied to.
"Let's put it this way, I'd be very careful with what you say to her tomorrow," Sarah said quietly.
"Right, well thanks for the warning," Karen said with a brief smile.
The next morning, Karen woke up bright and early an excited smile on her face as the realisation of Christmas hit her. She got out of the bed as discreetly as she possible and grabbed a strappy navy blue dress with a deep v-neck which was made to look demure with frills – it was the perfect combination of New York and Iowa in one dress - "Karen go back to bed," she heard coming from the bed.
"Derek, two things. 1. We are hosting Christmas, in our apartment. 2. I'm pretty sure your sister hates me so everything must be perfect for dinner," Karen pointed out.
"My sister does not hate you Karen, who on earth could?" Derek said sweetly as he pulled his wife into him, lightly brushing his lips against hers.
"Well, Derek, evidently your sister can hate me so I am going to get up and start sorting everything out, so that I can get a head start on dinner," she said as she walked away from him and flung the dress over her head before tugging it so that it hung over her in the correct style before skipping off to the kitchen in typical Karen fashion.
The first thing she did was start making coffee, hoping that the smell might entice her husband to get out of bed and help her. The little trick worked and five minutes later there he stood asking "Okay what do you want me to do?"
"You remember last Christmas with breakfast? Can you make a start on something similar whilst I make a start on the curing of the ham," she said as she began mixing brown sugar and water in a pan before piercing the ham with cloves.
"Oh my god I have to get a picture of this, one of the Wills boys is cooking," came Sarah's voice from behind them "Karen how on earth did you make this happen?" she asked.
"I deprive him of one of two things: Coffee or sex. This time round it was Coffee," Karen said with a little giggle.
"Ah so my husband must just be lazy then," Sarah said jokingly.
"He always was Sarah, I probably should have warned you back when you two first moved in together," Derek stated with a laugh.
"Damn it! You would have saved me so much nagging!" Sarah joked.
After that conversation, Christmas breakfast went relatively smoothly and soon enough it was time for presents, the part that Derek – for the first time in his life – was the most excited and nervous about at the same time. Karen sat beside the Christmas tree and began handing out presents to each person. The first, she handed to Sarah, the second to James, then another to Sarah so that it could be unwrapped for Emme, then came Grace's present – a Tiffany charm bracelet – which got the response of "Karen, you should know by now that you can't buy my forgiveness," which earned her a reproachful look from Derek but Karen continued handing out the presents as though the comment hadn't even been made. Eventually she reached the present she was giving Derek – a first edition copy of Pygmalion – when he opened it she focussed in on the look of sheer joy that appeared on his face "I figured that if Jerry was going to make you direct the revival of My Fair Lady then you'd want this for your research," she said with a sweet smile before leaning in closer and whispering "And there's another present that I've saved for later, but you'll have to wait until bedtime for it," in her best Marilyn impression.
A couple of presents later and Derek felt the need to announce what Karen's present was, having been unable to get it into the apartment – for logistical reasons - "So all of you will know that Karen and I have a baby on the way and since finding out she has been complaining because she wants somewhere bigger to live and who could blame her. Well love, I have a little surprise for you," he said as he handed her a small poster with the house that he had bought for her on it.
"D-did you buy a house?" she asked out of utter disbelief "Like an actual house?"
"Yeah," he said with a slight blush on his cheeks "Well by New York standards it's practically a mansion but yeah, it's a house," he said casually.
She looked at the poster again "Derek, it has seven bedrooms, it is a mansion!" she exclaimed with a laugh.
A couple of hours later and everyone had arrived for dinner. By the time the table was set, Karen had discovered that everything had fallen to pieces: the ham was burnt to a crisp; potatoes were half-cooked and she was considering putting the chicken in the microwave so that it might actually cook past its half frozen state. All of that had sent her into a near panic attack and whilst her mother, Sarah and Julia were trying to calm her down with stories from how badly the first Christmas dinners that they'd cooked had gone, Grace had the audacity to snicker away in the corner of the kitchen. "I've ruined Christmas," Karen kept exclaiming through tears while the other women told her that she hadn't and that it was perfectly normal for a cooking disaster to occur on Christmas day.
"This is what you get for gold digging and being an actress instead of doing something practical," Grace commented in a manner that was so rude that Karen ended up lunging at her husband's sister.
"Okay, you know what? I know you're pissed off with me because of the shooting because you somehow think that it was my fault. And do you know what? I thought it was my fault for an awful long time because I dated Robert and for a while there was a cop who thought that I was the cause of it too! I have dealt with your rude and inconsiderate comments to me for a long time now and I thought that on today of all days you might be at least a little bit kinder to me but no you have to turn it into the Grace hates Karen show for everyone to see. Well you know what? I AM SICK OF IT! The way I see it, you have two choices either you quit with the comments about my career and my relationship with your brother and be as nice as humanly possible or you can leave this apartment now!" Karen yelled at the top of her lungs making everyone turn towards the scene unfold.
"Derek, you can't let her say something like that to me. I'm your baby sister," Grace pleaded.
"Actually, it's not a matter of letting her or not. Karen isn't some lap dog that I've allowed to crap on your shoe, she is the love of my life and the mother of my child who has defended herself against several of your rather high-handed comment and she's given you two options so choose," Derek said plainly and simply just as he had with every other person in his life, diplomacy had never been a word that Derek had really understood and he wasn't about to start now.
"Derek Arthur Wills, you know that if Mummy were here she wouldn't approve of this, it's a childish way out,"
"No Grace Amelia Wills, your remarks were childish my response is rather adult in comparison," Derek stated bluntly.
"Fine then, I'm leaving, if either of you wish to apologise then you know where to find me," Grace said in an upper-crust accent.
The moment Grace left, Karen breathed a sigh of relief and shouted "I give up, who wants Chinese for dinner?"
"Karen, it's Christmas, there won't be any Chinese places open," her mother told her.
"Mum, it's Christmas in New York there's bound to be a place open," Karen stated.
It took a fair while but eventually a Chinese takeaway place was found and they were all eating a fairly decent meal. Karen and Derek were on the sofa, her head leant on his shoulder "I'm sorry I ruined Christmas," she whispered to him.
"Love, you didn't ruin Christmas, to be honest I was on the verge of kicking Grace out anyway and I prefer Chinese food to a Roast Dinner," he told her with a kind smile.
"Don't let my mother hear you say that," Karen said with a laugh "I swear she's embarrassed for me over the whole Chinese food thing,"
Derek looked over at his mother-in-law who was deep in conversation with Sarah, eating Sweet and Sour Pork quite happily "I think she'll live," he said with a smile "Shall we make our announcement?" he asked.
"I think we've kept them in suspense for long enough," Karen said and Derek rushed off to their room, returning with a guitar.
"Oh my god! Derek owns a guitar?" Ana and Ivy exclaimed simultaneously.
"What else is going to be revealed?" Sarah asked with a laugh.
Karen stood up from her seat on the couch and began saying "Derek and I have a little announcement to make, aside from the obvious but sort of to do with it at the same time, so Derek is going to play a song whilst I sing it and we'll see which one of you is able to guess it!" Karen said gleefully, the entire thing had been planned for a couple of weeks, making a game out of it just made it all the more fun and non-traditional – just like them.
Isn't she lovely Isn't she pretty Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love we'd be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely made from love
Truly the angel's best
Boy, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
Through us he's given life to one
But isn't she lovely made from love
Life and love are the same
Life is Clara
The meaning of her name
Darling, it could have not been done
Without you who conceived the one
That's so very lovely made from love
"Karen, we know that you're pregnant," Ivy said.
"Ivy I said aside from the obvious,"
"Didn't Stevie Wonder sing that song about his daughter?" James pointed out "And you guys said Clara instead of Aisha,"
"You're getting close," Derek said to his brother.
"Oh my god! Am I going to have a granddaughter called Clara?" Elizabeth shouted.
"And bingo we have a winner!" Karen said excitedly.
"Oh my god!" Sarah, Julia, Ivy, Ana and Elizabeth squeeled all at the same time as they huddled around Karen.
"Looks like my little girl will have four adoring aunties and an adoring grandmother," Derek said with a laugh.
