Author's note: Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Hogwarts: Assignment #7, Task #4 Write about a birth or a death (or the immediate time before/after one of these events)
Warnings: Pregnancy and related T-rated humour (if you've seen the Friends storyline with Phoebe as a surrogate, you're good), alludes to non-specific instances of child neglect, polyphobia, and lesbophobia
Straight From The Gift Horse's Mouth
Weeks before the reception took place, George had warned them that he'd dance all three of them off their feet "for old time's sake." He was now hard at work to keep his word, under the setting sun and the strands of light illuminating the make-shift dance floor that had been set up outside the Appleby Arrows' Quidditch pitch and reception hall. He'd made Katie laugh the entire time he'd had her on the dance floor, which had in turn made Alicia and Angelina break out into grins.
He came to return Katie to her wives, and offered an arm to Alicia. She reached down and plucked her heels off her feet before following George onto the dance floor, just as the music changed to a nice slow dance.
"I'm happy for you three," George said.
"Thank you," Alicia said. Her eyes flitted back to the other two women for a moment—Angelina looking pristine in her three-piece suit, a bouquet tied to the back of the wheelchair she had started using after her accident during the Battle of Hogwarts. Then there was Katie, sitting in her lap, with flowers in her hair and a lace wedding dress whose skirt hugged her calves. Angelina was making Katie laugh about something and feeding her bites of their delectable wedding cake.
"You'll be happy and fulfilled and so on and so forth," George said. "You know, all the wedding things."
"I don't know many wedding things," Alicia said, just before George spun her. "I never really thought I'd be here, you know? Dancing, wearing a white dress and a ring, planning to get old with people I loved…"
"But here you are," George said cheerfully. "And hey, if you guys ever need a sperm donor, here I am too."
"Excuse me?" Alicia asked, though she spun right back into his arms.
"You know," George said. "If ever. When we used to misbehave, Mum would remind us of how much money she could make by putting our mischievous behind up for adoption—which led to a very brief and unsuccessful attempt on Fred and I's behalf to sell Ginny down at the village, but that's neither here nor there. As it turns out, Mum was right. Adoption is expensive."
"And you're free to a good home?" Alicia asked.
"Ouch, Spinnet. I'm a quality product, don't you know." George said. They continued swaying. "All I'm saying is, I know how to use a turkey baster and so this is my wedding gift to you—no expiry date."
"You're impossible," Alicia scoffed though she had to hold back from smiling.
"One day I'll be useful to you, just you wait," George warned her as the song ended. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"That's madness," Angelina said, leaning back into her pillows and looking at Alicia who was perched on the end of the bed. She curled her hands around her mug. "You know this is madness, yes?"
She turned to look at Katie who was sitting with her legs crossed, coffee in hand, next to her. Katie looked into her cup of coffee—she drank it so sweet and so milky that even after five years of marriage Alicia had no idea how she managed to drink it. Katie looked up and cocked her head.
"I mean…" Katie said. She chewed her lip. "Would all three of us be able to adopt a baby and have parental rights? Because I haven't found anybody saying yes to a situation like ours, even if they've started making exceptions for stepparents... and the world is difficult enough on women who love women and on women who love more than one at a time that I… I'm not sure."
"Logistics are just logistics," Angelina said. "We can sort things out. We can…"
"We can, but a homemade baby might be more straightforward," Alicia said.
"Having a baby is not about doing something the straightforward way," Angelina said. "Besides, we're still not addressing the source of the madness about having George Weasley as a sperm donor. George. Weasley."
Katie and Alicia exchanged a quick look before turning to Angelina.
"Love," Katie said, reaching out and putting her hand over Angelina's. "Love, isn't it crazy enough to feel right? Because…" she turned back to Alicia and smiled. Alicia couldn't help but notice Katie's hand hover and drift over her midriff. "It feels right to me."
Angelina noticed too, and then looked up to meet Katie's eyes and then Alicia's.
"You realize if we do this, there is no conceivable way that this baby won't be a redhead?" Angelina said.
Alicia felt the grin break across her face.
"So you'll think about it?" Alicia asked, testing the waters.
"I absolutely will," Angelina promised, laying back down on the bed so that her head rested on Katie's lap. "But don't make me be the one that asks George Weasley for his semen."
"I can't believe you even said those words out loud," Alicia said, smiling teasingly at Angelina before crawling towards her and snuggling up against the two of them too.
"Well, well, well…" George said. "Look how the tables have…"
"Nope," Angelina said, shooting him the same deadly look she'd used to keep him under control when she'd been his Quidditch captain. "Don't be like this. Did you bring it?"
"Of course," George said. He took a brown paper bag out of his satchel and put it down on the kitchen table. "I don't need the jar back, by the way."
"Oh look, you are like this," Angelina sighed.
George smiled.
"Seriously, I'm teasing," George said. "I'm excited for you guys. I really hope it works. And if it doesn't, we can try again. And again. And again. And..."
"Has anyone ever told you that you're a thorn in their side?"
"All the time," he nodded. "Well, I should get going so that you can move on while that stuff's still good. Let me know how it goes."
Since Alicia worked at the broommaker's a stone throw away from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, it wasn't rare for the two of them to run into each other during lunch hour—especially when Tom had Hannah Abbott making fish and chip butties at The Leaky Cauldron. That special always drew a crowd.
"Oye," George said, nodding his head to Alicia. "How are things?"
"Good," Alicia said. "Very good. We made an important discovery yesterday, actually."
"And what's that?" George asked. He collected a rather large order from the take-out counter, packed away in brown paper bags that was already starting to stain with oil. He probably had enough deliciousness there to feed everyone in his shop.
"You're extremely fertile and so is my wife," Alicia said with a grin.
George gasped and dropped the food.
"This big, Mrs. Bell?" Alicia asked. Her mother-in-law crossed the kitchen to examine the way Alicia had cut the salty chunks of pork she had been trusted with.
"This is okay," Mrs. Bell said in her always careful English. "But next time, make them bigger. Even if she is wanting the food from when she was a little girl, Katie is eating for two now…"
"Yes ma'am," Alicia said. Mrs. Bell patted her shoulder fondly before returning to the stovetop where Angelina was watching chunks of ginger, fish sauce, lemongrass, and lime leaves sizzle together. Truth be told, Alicia was losing track of all the ingredients her mother-in-law had dumped on their counter and shown them how to manage. Thank goodness she'd promised to write it all down.
The front door opened and Katie's voice chimed in.
"It's me, loves."
There was the clatter of a set of keys in the bowl by the door and then Katie paused.
"What are you making?" Katie called out. "It smells just like…"
The sound of footsteps got closer and Katie appeared in the doorframe, padding along in her stockings and wearing the blouse and skirt that she always wore to commute to the day school where she taught flying lessons. "Mama?"
"Your girls tell me that you are not eating properly," Mrs. Bell said, putting her hands on her hips. "They say all you want to eat and the only thing you do not throw up is spaghetti with banana ketchup."
"I—Mama, I didn't know you were coming…" Katie said.
"I came to show your girls how to make sinigang so that you might eat a vegetable for a change," Mrs. Bell said. "I want a healthy grandchild from you, Katerina."
"I don't like this," Alicia said, running her hands along her thighs. "I don't like this one bit…"
"Breathe," Angelina said. "We… we can't do anything more than this."
"That's what I hate," Alicia said. Anxiously, she twisted her hands. "I just… I hate that we can't help her with this. I hate that we're sitting in the waiting room, waiting for a Mediwitch, I hate—I hate this, Ange…"
"Okay," Angelina said, reaching over and grabbing Alicia's anxious, fiddling hands. "Okay, breathe."
Alicia shut her eyes and shook her head.
"We're a team," Alicia said. "We've always been a team, that's why we work. We work in any configuration, in any situation, in any… it feels like we're not a team when she's doing this alone."
"She's not doing this alone," Angelina said, squeezing Alicia's hands. She uncurled Alicia's crooked fingers and started tracing spirals in her palms. That was how Katie always got her to calm down. "We're just… we're doing everything we can, alright? We're doing everything right. Even if that means sitting in the waiting room and waiting for… Merlin, there's the Healer!"
As soon as the Healer realised that she'd been spotted, she crossed the floor quickly to come talk to them.
"She and the baby are both okay," the Healer said. "Those were Braxton Hicks contractions—false contractions; they're rarely this painful, but they happen…"
The two of them breathed out.
Angelina stirred and rolled onto her side to check on Katie, who was sleeping sandwiched between her and Alicia. Katie used to only sleep on her right side, so Angelina was used to having her breath tickling the back of her neck. Since her second trimester, though, Katie had only been able to sleep on her back or, on really bad nights, the rocking chair in the living room.
She looked nice and peaceful now, one of her hands knotted in the front of the t-shirt she slept in and the other flopped against Alicia's direction.
Angelina sat up some and readjusted how the blanket fell over Katie. As she did, she brushed one of her hands against the baby bump. A little kick soon ensued—Alicia was convinced that this baby was going to be a Seeker.
At first, that had been Angelina's greatest fear. That they would make this baby and have this baby and that it wouldn't be hers. That, somehow, things would go wrong and she would lose this just like they had all nearly lost each other a thousand times—with the cursed necklace, the war, the Battle of Hogwarts... The risk was there, as it always was, that Angelina's sharp edges would chip away at whatever bond there was supposed to be.
She snuggled closer to Katie, looping an arm around Katie as best as she could with the bump in the way. Katie made a soft cooing sound in her sleep and Angelina smiled, nuzzling her face into Katie and falling asleep with the smell of wildflower shampoo filling her nose.
Alicia was sitting in the corner of the nursery, examining the top book from the pile that had just come in after the baby shower and George's latest haul at Flourish and Blotts.
"Hey," Katie said, entering the room. It smelled like lavender and vanilla immediately, probably from the enchanted rocking chair that Mum had charmed for the nursery. That was where Katie was waddling to, eager to get off her feet. She looked around at the room, with the pastel green walls, the mural of subterranean mushrooms and fluttering bugs and butterflies, at the light wooden furniture, the closet they were starting to fill up with clothes…
"What are you reading?" Katie asked.
"Paddington Bear," Alicia said. Her hair was twisted into a knot on the top of her head, the wisps of her baby hair tucked back with a bandana.
"I used to love Paddington," Katie said. "Mum had to read it to me every night before I went to bed—even if she got off the graveyard shift…"
"I just found out about Paddington," Alicia said. "And Rainbow Fish, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and this Velveteen Rabbit…"
"The Velveteen Rabbit used to make me cry," Katie said. She gently kicked off the floor to start the chair's rocking. Alicia was looking at the pile of books looking distinctly discouraged—which was rather rarer given how rough, how tough, how tenacious and stubborn and capable she was…
"Ali?" Katie asked. "Ali, it's… they're just books, Ali."
"They're just books but I don't know them because my parents just weren't parents," Alicia said. "I don't know anything about this bear or that rabbit or whatever other magical woodland creature is supposed to teach children life lessons. What else am I missing? What else do I not know? What else can I just not do?"
"I don't know Ali," Katie said frankly and softly. "I don't know either because I don't have the answers either, even with the best Mum in the world…"
"Your Mum's the best," Ali agreed quietly. "I just…"
She didn't finish her phrase. Ali was a woman of few words, and Katie realized that she'd run out of things to say. It was her turn now.
"Pass me one of those books, any book," Katie said. "Not Paddington, though. And come here…"
Alicia slid across the nursery floor and sat at Katie's feet. Katie took the book, opened it, and gently tugged Ali forward so that her head would rest on her knees.
"There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid…" Katie said quietly, reading along. She held the book with one hand and ran the other along Ali's hair.
"It's a mouthful of a name," George said. Still, he didn't seem to be complaining too hard, standing at the foot of Katie's bed and gently rocking the bundle of blankets in his arms. Katie could barely see her daughter, she was so sunk into her pillows. Still, she smiled.
"It's not that bad," Alicia said. She said the name again, savouring the letters and the way her lips moved: "Evelyn Frederika Bell Johnson."
"She'll grow into it," Katie chimed in.
"Then we'll have to add a middle name," Angelina said. "You know. To keep the ratio up."
"Maybe Georgina," George said.
"That would be rather egotistical and odd," Alicia said. "You know, since we were going to ask you to be her godfather…"
George's jaw dropped a bit before he gathered himself. He chewed his lip and looked down at Evie, then up at her three mothers, and then back at the sweet little girl again. She was only a few feet away but Katie felt her absence keenly; she wanted those wiggly little legs and those big brown eyes close her again. And no, the baby wasn't a redhead. She had lovely little black curls.
"No, don't cry," Katie said. Her own eyes stupidly watered up. "Don't cry because then I'm going to cry again…"
"And if Katie cries…" Angelina warned.
"And that's my cue to leave this conversation," George said. "You know, before I start crying about how beautiful she is and how beautiful you all are and how you even want me around…"
"Well you were really useful," Alicia said.
George did a little curtsy.
"What did I say about looking a gift horse in the mouth?" George said.
"That was six years ago," Alicia said, shaking your head. "I can't believe you still remember that."
"I knew I'd be right," George said.
He kissed Evie's forehead and gently lowered the baby back in Katie's arms. He kissed Katie's forehead, Alicia's cheek, and bent down to give Angelina a hug.
"Call me when you bring her home—that way I can cook up something for you guys and maybe clean," George said. He grinned. "That's what godfathers do to help out the best mums in the world."
"It is," Katie smiled. "You'll be a great one."
George winked. "And call me when you're ready to go again. You know, if you want to start a whole sisterhood of Bell-Johnson babies… maybe a whole Quidditch team…"
Stacked with: Hogwarts; Shipping War; Spring Bingo; Link Maker
Individual Challenge(s): Uncharted Waters; Gryffindor MC (x4); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Ethnic & Present; Disabled; Small Fry; The 3rd Rule (Y); Hold the Mayo; Old Shoes; Short Jog
Word Count: 2774
Spring Bingo
Space (Prompt): 4D (Fertility)
Shipping Wars
Ship (Team): Alicia Spinnet/Angelina Johnson/Katie Bell
List (Prompt): Spring Medium 1 (Acts of Service)