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"James?" Claire nearly sang out with a warning, her eyes never leaving the magazine she was paging through in her hands. She felt like James was four again, trying to run off and explore. But, her daughter always did have a curiosity that seemed to get her in places she had never been herself. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Um," James halted in the doorway where she was peering up and down the hallway, "plotting?"

Claire laughed, closing the magazine as she nearly fell forward. "Get your butt over here." She opened up her arms when James shuffled over, huffing out a breath when she dropped down on her. "You're going to make all those nurses nervous loitering out there like that. We will see them soon."

"They aren't even paying attention. I could sneak into Doug's room now." James stated, gesturing towards the nurse's station.

"You forget that it isn't just you. At least one of the agents would follow you, and they are easy to spot." Claire reminded him, running her fingers through James's brown locks. "Doug should be up soon. Gary will let us go in when he gets here."

James sighed looking up at her mother. "We don't even know if Gary knows about Doug yet. We didn't call the cops until after midnight, and the hospital would've called shortly after that. If Gary has been asleep, he wouldn't even be on the road."

"We need to get your mind off of this." Claire decided, wanting to take her own mind off of Francis's condition. "Let's walk around. We've been in here for too long. There's probably a gift shop. We could get something cheesy and ridiculous for your father."

James giggled before nodding and rolling off of Claire's lap. "Let's go."


"Why don't we go shopping more often?" James asked as she rounded the large shelf her mother seemed to be anchored to.

Claire looked up from the piece of clothing in her hand to laugh at what her daughter had been up to. Apparently, she'd found much more in the store that caught her eye than she had herself. James had tied her athletic jacket around her waist along with a glittery neon green tutu. Under her arm was an oversized stuffed bear with its head tilted to the side, mirroring James's stance as she stood with a gold plastic crown on her head. "Wow. Is that all for your father?"

James pointed to the crown. "I figured he would enjoy this. I couldn't find anything shark related that didn't correlate to a baby." She looked down at herself. "But, this whole look could remind him of a time that I was purely innocent and angelic." She batted her eyelashes with a smirk on her lips, propping her free hand up and resting her chin on it. "Do you think I can pull it off?"

"You've been up to no good since you were three. I doubt a tutu will trick your dad." Claire chuckled before holding up what was in her hand. "But, speaking of baby. . ."

James pulled off the tutu from the velcro strap and set it down with the bear before standing next to Claire, glancing down at the white onesie with simple black text on it reading, 'I was calmer than Daddy'. "I was born in South Carolina, right?"

Claire nodded, wrapping her arm around James's waist. "Yeah, we were in the Gaffney house. We were flat ass broke, all our money invested in your father's career. Even though we knew you were coming, we weren't prepared at all."

"Claire, honey, it's late. You're supposed to be in bed. It was even the doctor's orders." Francis yawned as he shuffled into the kitchen to find his very pregnant wife sitting at the card table in the corner with an ice cream carton sitting on her belly. Pregnancy had left her constantly heated despite it being the middle of February, and it showed with the thin cotton pajama pants, tank, and hair pulled back into a ponytail. "We've spent the last two nights at the hospital. You need sleep for you and the baby."

"I also need to gain weight for our baby." Claire replied as he walked over and sat down next to her. She felt bad about the last two nights. She was sure it was time for her daughter to enter the world considering she was nearing two weeks past her due date. While they were false alarms, they left her exhausted and sent her to crash the following day while Francis went back to work. She wasn't sure she had even seen him lay down in the past couple days. "Besides, how can I sleep? We don't have anything for her besides diapers and toys. We don't even have a crib."

Francis rubbed his eyes. "We have clothes. How much could a baby possibly need?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "This isn't just any baby, Francis. She's our baby. I want her to have everything."

"Someday, we will have the ability to do that. We just need to get out of here before that happens. I won't limit our child like my parents did me growing up." Francis reassured her before leaning forward and kissing her stomach. He smiled seeing Claire's stomach move with their baby's change of position. "But, you, my darlin', need to introduce yourself to the world. You're wrecking havoc on your mother and I's sleep."

"I think she's listening to you." Claire breathed as she set her ice cream aside. She reached out, caressing his cheek with her thumb. "We're having a baby."

Francis rolled his eyes, but grinned despite himself. "What makes you think that?"

"I started having contractions again about an hour ago, and my water just broke." Claire admitted, covering her stomach with her hand protectively.

"What?" Francis's eyes moved down, seeing Claire's bottoms soaked through and a puddle on the floor. He quickly looked back up to Claire, seeing a smile on her face knowing it was finally the right time. "I didn't mean she had to come now. Why are you smiling? We have nothing ready!"

"Francis, let's just get to the hospital. Grab my bag. I need to change." Claire directed him as she stood up. She cringed feeling another contraction begin, but it was bearable. Nothing to worry an already freaking out Francis over. There was plenty of time for that later.

Francis quickly stood to help her avoid slipping on the wet floor. "Do we have time for you to change? Claire, a human being is literally going to come out of you. Don't you think we should get to the hospital as soon as possible?"

Claire waved her hand at him, waddling back towards their bedroom. "She's made me wait an extra two weeks to see her. She can wait for me to change into something else to look somewhat presentable to the hospital."

Francis ran a hand down his face, glancing back at the puddle on the floor and shaking his head. "It's my kid. She's probably messing with me. It's just another false alarm." He saw Claire look back at him from their room, eyes narrowed and lips upturned. "Well, it does sound like something our child would do."

"My girlfriends told me to prepare for a long labor. Most of them had been in the hospital twenty-four hours or more with their first babies." Claire breathed as she set the onesie back down in the pile of similar ones. "We got into our room around four and you were in the world before ten that morning." She inhaled slowly. Her daughter was everything to her, but Francis was her partner. Reminiscing over their shared and sacred moments felt like a stab to the gut not knowing whether or not she was going to have another one with him.

Luckily, her daughter, much like Francis, knew how to pull her from her dark thoughts before she could explore them too much.

"Do they have an 'I was calmer than Grandpa' onesie? I might need it." James huffed out, picking through the piles as Claire chuckled beside her. "Or a 'Grandpa killed Daddy' shirt. I don't even know what to get Doug. I just keep wondering. . ."

Claire started sifting through the other baby clothes on the shelves. "Well, pick out a onesie. If you're pregnant, you can use it to tell him. If you're not, you two have talked about kids. Not this early I hope."

James shook her head before picking up a yellow onesie that caught her eye. "My daddy made me. What can yours do?" She giggled softly as she held it up to Claire. "Pretty sure his daddy could do anything with the right phone call."

"Ma'am?" The agent who had followed them down to the gift shop walked up behind them. "One of the nurses just came to the waiting room looking for Ms. Underwood. Mr. Stamper is awake and asking for her. Agent Evers is outside waiting if she would like to go."

Claire saw the emotions hit her daughter quick and rubbed her back soothingly. "I'll check out and be there in a few minutes." She kissed James's forehead before smiling as her daughter nearly sprinted towards the elevators with Evers trying to play catch-up. She turned to the cashier who was trying to hide her curiosity at their interaction when she noticed the Lincoln Memorial paper weights behind her. Smiling to herself, she set down her things. "Can I get one of those please?"

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