The nursery was finished shortly before the baby was due to arrive. Leah went with a woodland theme, with an emphasis on foxes. Boomhauer was pleased to see the fox plush he got for her on their first date had found a new home on the nursery shelf.
Mia and Bill were going to have a baby, too, just as Leah had suspected. Their baby was due right as fall would begin, coming in with colors of red and orange and with the crispness in the air. Mia had also moved in with Bill now, becoming the newest member of Rainey Street. Leah was very happy to have her best friend right next door.
Leah got her house listed on the market around the time Peggy threw her a baby shower. She received so many beautiful, thoughtful gifts that she put away neatly in the woodland nursery. She especially loved the hand painted fox picture Mia made for her.
As Leah's stomach grew, so did Boomhauer's excitement. It was shameful for him to look back at the times he told Leah he wanted nothing to do with the baby. Because now he couldn't think of his life any other way… He would often visualize the things he and his son would do together, like fishing or working on cars. He was nervous about how to hold a baby, or how to feed it, but Leah's assurance helped alleviate his fears.
"You'll get the hang of it," Hank also assured him. "I didn't know what the hell I was doing with Bobby after he was born, but we made it through okay."
"Babies are easy," Dale insisted, "It's when they start going mobile is when you need to worry."
Bill shook his head dismally. "If you're nervous, Boomhauer, then there's no hope for me."
"Hey, you both are going to be great parents! I'd never expect otherwise."
Bill looked a little better at that. "Thanks, Hank."
"You boys better drink up while you can," Dale told them, "Once your kids get here, you're going to be very busy for a while."
Boomhauer cracked open another beer.
Finally, as springtime bloomed, the baby was suddenly ready to arrive.
"Aren't you glad I have a fast car?" Boomhauer asked Leah, trying to lighten the mood.
"Just hurry up," she huffed through gritted teeth.
Leah had practiced her breathing and grounding herself in the weeks leading up to this event. She wasn't sure how much any of it was helping, though, because it all still fucking hurt.
Boomhauer's anxiety was through the roof, but he still maintained his composure while he supported Leah through the entire process.
The nurses immediately placed Anthony against his mother's skin. Boomhauer was in awe. His son was so little, so fragile, and so beautiful. When he got his chance to hold him later that night, he found himself tearing up. His love for this little baby, his little baby, was so intense he could hardly breathe.
Boomhauer would do everything in his power to keep him safe.
He sent a picture to his mother and she cried harder than he had ever heard her cry before.
"He's so beautiful!" she managed through sobs.
Leah's father was also tearful.
"I can't wait to see him," he sniffed. "And I know your mom would have been so proud."
He must have been right about that. The next morning, Leah saw a dove perched beside her hospital room window. It was peering in through the glass, seemingly looking right at the baby… Could it have been a message from her mother?
Leah and Boomhauer's new lives as parents came with a bit of an adjustment period, but they soon settled into a routine. Boomhauer would spend the evenings after work holding Anthony, talking to him, and playing with him, while Leah had a chance to rest or take care of herself.
Mia and Bill were married at the end of the summer, and Isaac Dauterive was born shortly after. Bill was entirely enamored with being a father. He had found no greater joy or purpose in his life than when he held his son.
Boomhauer would know… he felt the same way.
Anthony began to look very much like his father as he grew. He had the same long nose and was sure to have the same high cheekbones and sharp jawline once his baby fat evened out. But his eyes were definitely Leah's, sparkling and brilliantly green. He had her wondrous, earthly nature, too, which Boomhauer was glad for. There needed to be more people like them in the world…
Sometime after Anthony's first birthday, the three of them went for a walk out in nature. Leah wanted to explore the countryside of Heimlich County more, and Boomhauer took them to just the place.
Beyond Arlen, where the houses and buildings were sparse, a roll of fields unfurled all around them, grassy hills and valleys full of plants and wildlife.
"The guys and I would play here when we were kids," he told her.
The noontime sun shined overhead. They parked on the shoulder of the dirt road and strolled along through the grass. Grasshoppers sprang high in the air while butterflies floated gently in the breeze.
Leah and Boomhauer each held one of Anthony's little hands while they walked up a small hill. They slowly reached the top, and what they saw before them was a most breathtakingly beautiful view. It was a meadow, lush and green, and absolutely filled with a field of wildflowers. Flowers blooming with colors and shapes of every kind, an explosion of colors, as far as they could see.
Boomhauer didn't remember ever seeing this before...except in a dream.
They moved carefully through the flowers and sat down together. Leah put some flowers in her braid while Anthony tried to grab some in his little fist.
"It's amazing here," Leah said.
"It's even better now than when I was a kid."
Anthony tried giving some flowers to his father to look at, though they were a little mangled from the effort.
"Fa!" Anthony burst happily.
"Do you think he's saying 'flower?'" wondered Leah.
"He's got to be."
Anthony was content to sit there in the flowers, examining the colors and watching the butterflies. Leah leaned comfortably against Boomhauer and held his hand while they watched Anthony play.
"Can you believe this is our life?" she asked.
He shook his head. He really couldn't.
It was always an inconceivable thought, about how close he was to not having any of this. Leah could very well have never moved to Rainey Street. That was the start of it all…
But she did move to Rainey Street, either by simple coincidence or pure cosmic alignment, and they found each other, two halves of the same soul, together at last.
"I love you," he told her.
She smiled, that beautiful smile which always brought him happiness, and she kissed him.
"I love you, too."
Anthony toddled back to them and clambered into his father's lap, his favorite source of comfort. He looked up at his father, with that childlike wonder, but most of all, with love.
"And I love you," Boomhauer said, with all the sincerity in the world.
Boomhauer and Leah had come a long way before they found themselves in each other. And now, stretched out before them, for the rest of their lives… it was nothing but flowers.
There you go! I worked hard on this story and I think it turned out alright. You should also check out my first fic, This Must Be the Place, which follows Mia and Bill's story. Thank you everyone for reading!