"If a thing loves, it is infinite."
― William Blake
Their house was full. The backyard was full of contractors and builders coming in and out, along with Rossi who was standing guard and the final go through for Fran's apartment out back. Derek, Matt, Luke, Reid, and to a lesser extent Mackenzie were in constant motion. They had put together both dressers, as well as the glider and had started to paint the room. That is when Mackenzie was unceremoniously kicked out. She thundered down the stairs, landing with a thud and walked over to where JJ, Tara, Penelope, Kristy, and Emily were sitting.
"I'm no longer welcome because they're opening the paint." Mackenzie announced dramatically. "And they only let me fold and put away clothes by the way."
JJ shrugged and took a cracker and popped it in her mouth. "You are pregnant, Mackenzie. And with the exception of Spencer, you're surrounded by alpha-males up there."
Mackenzie rolled her eyes and sat down on the ground. "I mean, I guess they're getting everything finished before the babies." She reasoned.
Emily nodded and ran her hand over her belly. She was just coming on 25 weeks and was getting closer and closer to the safe zone for delivery. She had started working more and more at home, more out of necessity than desire. Her back was killing her, her hips were sore, and she was constantly exhausted.
"You guys have names picked out?" Tara asked looking up at Emily. "Or are we going to be referring to these babies as Baby A and Baby B forever?"
"We have names." Emily said wincing as she felt a sharp kick. "And no you don't get to know the names." She said rubbing a spot on her belly. "But we have four girl and four boy names, just in case. They all mean something to the two of us." She gave her friends a gentle smile but didn't elaborate. And the names did mean something to them. All of the names were deeply meaningful but Emily wasn't quite ready to share. A loud knock at the door and then the storming of little feet across the hardwood and Noah came to a sliding stop in front of them.
"I here." He announced proudly. "I go help Dek." He shrugged off his jacket and started to head upstairs.
"Henry, Michael, Jake, David, Chloe, and Lily are all downstairs." Kristy said as the little boy came to a stop. He turned and bit his lip, the conflict obvious on his face.
"Downstairs? What dey doin'?" He asked warily. Taala walked in and placed a stack of pizzas on the table and gave them a smile.
"I think they're playing superheroes." Kristy replied. "Do we want to go check?" She got to her feet and Noah sighed heavily.
"I go see Dek, den I go." He replied bounding up the stairs. A few minutes later he came down and nodded. "Dek say I go play. I help later."
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "Go tell everyone to come up for lunch." She told Noah who did a little fist pump. Getting to her feet, Mackenzie helped Taala set out the pizzas on plates for the kids along with small glasses of milk and veggies and dip. Taala turned to Emily with a soft smile.
"I got you and Mackenzie your own pesto flatbreads with tomatoes and burrata and a salad. And gingerale." She said with a smile. "Just stay sitting, we'll get it."
Easily, the rest of the women were able to feed the kids and sent them back downstairs. Taala made plates for Emily and Mackezie, placing a kiss on the latter's hair. She grabbed herself a slice of pizza before heading up the stairs. The theme of the nursery had been set weeks earlier. Derek and Emily had narrowed it down to two themes, one was a night sky theme, the other was a library. Mackenzie was the artist between the two of them, and she and Fran had hand sketched characters from some of Derek and Emily's favourite books on the biggest wall, where the others were covered in stacks of books, their spines facing out. The men were standing on top of a pile of wooden slats that Taala assumed were going to become two cribs.
"Issues gentlemen?" She asked, a smirk on her face.
Luke looked up and shook his head. "I uh...tossed out the instructions." He said with a sad shrug.
"And Reid hadn't had a chance to read them over yet." Derek finished rubbing his chin.
There were always instructions available online, but Taala decided to let them sweat it out for a little while. "How about you guys go and get some food. I brought lots of pizza over." She said with a sweet smile. "Give me a chance to get a good start on some of the painting."
Matt nodded and pushed Luke out of the door with Reid and Derek close behind. Taala shook her head and put on her headphones, starting to paint.
Derek grabbed three pieces of pizza and sat down on the arm of the chair that Emily was sitting on, giving her a wide smile, brushing his fingers through her hair.
"So how's it going up there?"
He shrugged and took a big bite of pizza. "It's going."
"That's code for they fucked up somewhere and they don't know what to do next." Mackenzie replied as she stretched out, her feet in front of her.
Derek reached down and tugged on her hair softly. "We haven't fucked up. Yet."
Matt and Luke swallowed laughs, as Derek shot them a glare.
"Mmmm hmm." Mackenzie grinned and took a swallow. "Are any of us allowed to go up and check?"
"Nope." Derek replied, taking another bite of his pizza. "You lovely ladies stay here." His eyes flicked up as he heard the back door open and his mother's voice float through the air. "There's pizza on the counter." He called to Fran and Rossi. Fran just smiled and waved her hand.
"You kids have the pizza, we're going to go -"
"Eat something that doesn't taste like cardboard." Rossi finished, holding Fran's jacket out for her. He gave the group a polite nod and led Fran out of the house.
Derek grumbled under his breath, only calming when Emily kissed the palm of his hand.
"They're adults, Derek. Let your mom have some fun." She smiled and cuddled up against his side, his hand on her belly. They were getting so close to the magic number of weeks where their babies would be okay in the world.
Nodding, Derek focused his attention back on his wife and the babies that were moving under her skin. His fingers followed them gently until he felt Emily's hand encircle his wrist. She smiled up at him, her smile bright. Moving his hand with hers, she found the spot she was looking for and grinned up at him. "Feel that?"
He frowned, the bumps under his fingers. "Yeah."
"That's baby A's spine." She whispered softly, watching as his fingers traced the bumps silently. Their friends exchanged silent glances as they watched. A few moments later, Derek pulled his hand off of Emily's belly and gave his friends a grin.
"I still find that unnerving that you can actually begin to feel your offspring's body parts." Spencer said matter of factly.
Emily and Derek exchanged looks that could only be described as evil and Derek jumped up and grabbed Spencer, placing his hand on Emily's belly.
"Feel my children."
"Derek this is weird."
"FEEL MY CHILDREN." Derek moved his hand until he felt what Emily described as an elbow. "See, this is Baby B's elbow."
"Derek, I'm basically groping your wife's breast."
Emily waved and shook her head. "It's fine, at this point I'm used to people touching me."
"But I'm not used to it!" Spencer recoiled, but Derek held tight.
"This is Baby B, and here is Baby A's spine!" Derek said as he moved Spencer's hand around. The younger man just stared at the rest of the group, a defeated look on his face.
After a few more minutes of torturing Spencer, Derek let him go. The younger man scrambled away and sat as far as he physically could away from Emlily, his eyes still trained on her stomach.
JJ laughed and shook her head. "He was creeped out with both Henry and Michael."
"Still creeped out." Spencer added across the room.
Derek grinned and pressed a kiss to his wife's temple. "Amazing, not creepy."
Part of the gift from Penelope was a maternity photo shoot. Sure, both Emily and Derek wanted to remember this time since they knew deep down they were lucky to be able to start a family, but there was always that niggling little thought of self doubt in the back of her mind. She was in her 40s and pregnant with twins, why would she want to take pictures of that? She didn't have as many stretch marks as she thought she might have, and even those blended in with her scars from earlier. But she was still a middle aged woman pregnant with twins. There was nothing sexy about that, despite what Derek told her. The photographer was going to come to their home, make things a bit easier on Emily. Fran had already left for some fancy brunch with Rossi, much to Derek's dismay.
"The photographer is coming in about 20 minutes, you ready?" Derek sat down beside his wife and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Emily shrugged and brushed a lock of hair off her face. "I dunno, you don't think it's stupid to do this?" She asked quietly. "At my age and my...size?"
Derek gave her a smile, pressing a few kisses on her bare shoulder. "Nope." He replied, popping the P. "I think you look like a beautiful woman pregnant with my twins. Which, I might add, makes you even more beautiful." With a smile, he sat back and ran his hand over her stomach. "Baby, you wear whatever you're comfortable in, this will be a nice way to remember us starting a family."
Nodding, Emily took his hand and kissed his palm. "You're right." She said softly. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Derek grinned and leaned into her touch. "Anyway, have you decided what you want to wear for the shoot?" He asked, running his fingers over her bare belly.
"There's the blue dress...and then the red one. And like there's the one tunic and leggings."
"The red dress." Derek said quickly. "You look so amazing in red."
Her face lit up, a flush covering her cheeks. "The red one it is." She whispered, her voice wavering slightly. Somehow, Derek made her feel like the most beautiful woman on the planet even when she was beginning to resemble the size of a planet.
He grinned at her and got to his feet. "I'll let you change, but like...leave your hair down. You don't need makeup. You're beautiful."
She rolled her eyes and got up off the bed. "Go make sure the backyard is clean." She mumbled, a smile on her face belaying her feelings.
Derek grinned and headed outside to make sure that the contractors had cleaned everything up. They were going to use their yard as a backdrop so Emily would still feel comfortable. He was in the midst of moving some lumber when the doorbell rang. The photographer had been highly recommended by Penelope, but he wasn't expecting someone so...un-Penelope like. The young woman pushed her glasses up her face and she gave Derek a dimpled smile. "Hi, I'm Lily." She said with a grin.
"Derek." He smiled and led her into the backyard. "We figured outside was the best…"
Lily nodded and pulled out her cameras. "Sounds great. I'll get things set up if you want to grab your wife."
Derek nodded and took the stairs two by two to go find Emily. She was wearing the red maternity dress, her hair down and a light layer of makeup on. He couldn't help but grin as his eyes traced up and down her body. "You look gorgeous."
Snorting, Emily slapped his chest lightly but took his arm as he led her down the stairs. The photographer grinned and let her camera hang around her neck. "Hi!" She snapped her gum and started to adjust her camera. "So Penny signed you guys up for the deluxe package, so...basically everything goes." She picked up her camera and started snapping pictures as Emily walked across the back lawn.
"I feel stupid." Emily mumbled, feeling Derek's hands wrap around her waist.
"You look beautiful. Just pretend there's no one here, it's just me and you." He whispered against her skin.
They walked, and danced and Emily did her best to ignore the photographer. After a while, Derek helped Emily into the overstuffed patio furniture and gave the photographer a smile.
"Now how about some belly pictures?" Lily suggested as she changed her lens.
Emily blushed and ran her hand over her face. "I...I dunno. Isn't that a bit...much."
Lily shrugged and blew a bubble with her gum. "They usually end up pretty great. Like we can do some from far away and then some close up shots with your hands over your belly.." She trailed off and gave Derek a shrug. "Uh...Imma go look at some of the shots." She said walking over to her bag. Derek sat down beside Emily, his hand on her belly.
"What's up Princess?" He whispered feeling the telltale movements under her skin.
Emily sighed and shrugged. "I feel awkward about showing my belly. Showing the stretch marks...how fat it is."
He knew that this was all new for Emily, not just the pregnancy but the whole looking different, being treated differently. "Except the stretch marks show how much your body is changing to keep our babies safe. And you're not fat. You're all baby."
She nodded and gave him a small smile. "Alright, I'll go get changed."
Nodding, he gave her a smile and helped her to her feet. She returned wearing a pair of leggings and a loose tank top. Lily bounced over and started to snap pictures. Derek could feel Emily's heart hammering as he wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay." He whispered softly, watching as her eyes closed. "Lily, just wait a second." He said, stripping off his shirt.
Emily's eyes shot up and narrowed, though a tiny smile played on her lips as she watched her husband's flat stomach was pushed out. His hand rested on his abdomen as he hammed it up for the camera. Emily shook her head and rolled her eyes as he stood next to her. All of her self doubts went out the window as she felt Derek's arm around her shoulder.
A few weeks later, she stared at the pictures, laughing softly as the one that they put on their beside was the one with their hands on each other's stomachs.
