Franky was the first to wake that morning, with Bridget nestled snugly against her side. She lifted her left hand, and studied the ring on her finger. It was a weird-in-a-good-way feeling to know that she was finally married.
"Are you rethinking your decision?" the blonde asked, her voice still full of sleep.
"Definitely not." She gave the older woman a soft kiss. "I was just thinking that I should have went with a prenup though."
"Franky!" Bridget's mouth hung open.
"I'm just messing with you, babe." The brunette turned over so she was facing the other woman, and kissed her again.
"You'd better be," she said, as she nipped Franky's bottom lip.
Just then, there was a small knock at their door.
"Can I come in?" Emily's voice was quiet on the other side of the door.
"Give us a minute, love." Bridget called out to her niece.
It only took them a few seconds to each put on their pyjamas, and climb back into the bed.
"Okay, you can come in now." Franky said, as she settled back into the warm bed.
It was only a second before the young girl opened the door, and climbed onto the blonde's side of the bed. She didn't even have to ask anymore, the two women just automatically made space for her in between them.
"You're awake early this morning." Bridget brushed a strand of hair out of Emily's face. She thought that they'd all probably sleep in a bit since yesterday had been busy, and they'd had a late night.
"I'm still sleepy, but I wanted cuddles." She looked at each of them, waiting to see which one would offer first.
"Come here." The blonde opened her arms, and the young girl moved to lay next to her.
Emily turned over again so she was facing the brunette. She reached out, and touched the new ring on the woman's finger.
Franky watched her, unsure what Emily was thinking.
"Now you're my Franky forever," she said, as she closed her eyes, ready to sleep for a bit longer.
"Yeah, I am," the brunette whispered, as she stretched over to place a kiss on the young girl's forehead.
Bridget watched the exchange quietly, and gave the younger woman a small smile when they made eye contact. She motioned for Franky to move closer to them, so she could put her arm over them both.
When the blonde woke for the second time that morning, she could hear her wife, and niece, engaged in conversation.
"Which dinosaur is this?" Emily asked, looking at Franky, and pointing to one on the sleeve of her pyjamas.
"Um." The brunette knew it wasn't a T-Rex because that was the young girl's favorite, but other than that her dinosaur knowledge was a bit fuzzy. It had been a long time since she'd been expected to know them. "Stegosaurus?" She said the first one that came to mind.
"And this one?" Emily pointed to another one without telling Franky if she'd gotten the first one right or not.
"That's a T-Rex. Your favorite." The brunette was confident in her answer this time.
"And this one?" The young girl was simply moving up her sleeve.
"Uh...that's the really fast one." Franky was trying to pull the name from what she remembered of Jurassic Park. "Starts with a 'V'."
"Velociraptor." Bridget helped her out, and got a look from Emily.
"Yeah, that one!" Franky winked at the blonde.
"And this one?"
"Triceratops?" The brunette was just randomly picking names now.
"Not bad. Three out of four." The young girl turned onto her side, snuggling into her aunt again.
"Hey, which one did I get wrong?" Franky tugged on the back of Emily's shirt, making the girl giggle.
"Velociraptor," she said with a small laugh. "Auntie Bridge answered that one for you."
"I don't get half points for it?" the brunette joked with her.
"No." Emily smiled.
"Not fair." Franky pouted, pretending to be sad, which made the young girl giggle again.
Bridget's phone vibrated on the bedside table, and she reached behind her to retrieve it.
"Vera wants to know if the chocolate waffles are still happening." The blonde looked around her phone at Franky.
"Absolutely." She turned her attention to the young girl. "Ready to make breakfast?"
"Yeah!" Emily sat up in the bed.
"Alright. Go get washed up and I'll be out in a minute." The brunette patted her on the back. She waited until the young girl was out of the room, then moved in close to Bridget and took her in her arms again. "You stole my points," she said with a smile. "You barely even had your eyes open."
"The dinosaur pyjama quiz was very popular while you were away." Bridget gave her a soft kiss.
"I guess I'll have to study for it next time then," Franky said as she gently nipped at the older woman's lower lip.
The brunette put up little resistance when the other woman pushed her onto her back, then carefully climbed on top of her. Bridget immediately felt a strong hand on either of her hips, holding her in place.
"Do you need a tutor?" the blonde asked as she lowered herself to rest on Franky, and gave her a soft kiss.
"Maybe." The brunette moved her hands along Bridget's sides. "It would have to be someone who could properly motivate me though." She wrapped her arms around the older woman and held her close as their lips connected once again.
"I have some things I could try that I think would be very motivational." Bridget moved her lips to Franky's neck. She felt the brunette sigh as she pressed her lips against the younger woman's collarbone.
"Mmm, if you keep going, we're not going to get to breakfast." Franky was quickly losing her motivation to leave the bed.
"Hey guys, are yo-" Vera walked down the hallway, looking into each room.
Both women in the bed turned at the sound of Vera's voice, to see her standing in the doorway with her hand shielding her eyes.
"Oh, hey. Didn't hear you come in." Bridget moved off the brunette with some help.
"I'll just wait out here." The governor pointed down the hallway in the direction she'd just come, and headed back out to the kitchen.
"Don't worry, she didn't see anything." Franky reassured the blonde.
"I know. I actually didn't realize that Em didn't shut the door. We need to be more careful." Bridget smiled at her, as she leaned down and gave the brunette one more kiss before she got out of the bed.
"Yeah, me either." Franky rubbed her hand over her face, and stretched, before sitting up on the side of the bed.
"Sorry, Em said you were down here, and the doors were open, so I didn't think you were…..doing anything." Vera explained when the blonde joined her in the kitchen.
"We weren't really doing anything. Don't worry about it." Bridget gave her a smile. "You got here really quickly though. Would you like a cup of tea while we wait for the food?"
"Sure, thanks." Vera gave her a small smile. "I was at the shop running an errand when I texted you," she said as she joined Emily in the living room.
"Ah, and here I thought you were just really excited for the waffles." The blonde winked at her, and they both laughed.
"Are you hanging around for the afternoon?" Franky asked Vera as she cleaned up their plates. "I was thinking we could watch Jurassic Park." Emily's quiz had reminded her of those movies, and she thought the young girl would enjoy them based on her current love of dinosaurs.
"What's Jurassic Park?" Emily asked before Vera had a chance to answer, as she climbed onto one of the stools at the kitchen island.
"It's a movie about a theme park where they have real live dinosaurs," the brunette replied, her eyes wide with mock surprise, which made the young girl giggle.
"And did you forget how it ends?" Bridget asked quietly, as she passed by Franky on her way to the sink.
"No…" The brunette trailed off, realizing now what the other woman was really saying. She followed Bridget to the sink so they could talk with a bit of privacy. "Do you not want her to watch them?"
"She can watch them, but just don't be surprised if she doesn't like them, or if she has nightmares tonight." Bridget sensed that Franky thought maybe she was in trouble for suggesting it, so she gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"I'll look after her if she does," the brunette quickly offered.
"I know you will, baby." She gave Franky another quick grin.
"So, are you watching them with us?" The brunette turned her attention back to Vera.
"Uh, I can, sure." The governor scratched the back of her neck and gave a small smile.
"Don't sound so enthusiastic." Franky gave her a wink. On her way over to the couch, she stopped, put an arm around Vera's shoulder and gave her a small squeeze. She didn't know what was going on with the other woman, but she sensed that things were a bit off since the wedding. She thought that maybe seeing Bridget finally fully settle down with someone had made Vera feel like something was missing in her life. "Hey, Em, let's make a quick trip to the store and get some special snacks for the movies." The brunette thought this would at least give Vera and Bridget a few minutes alone to talk.
"Can I wear my pyjamas?" Emily was wearing her favorite ones today, and didn't want to take them off.
"Sure, we're just going to the 7-Eleven down the road." Normally the rule was no pyjamas outside of the house, but Franky figured it was sort of a special weekend and they were only going to the one store to get snacks.
The brunette grabbed her keys out of the bowl in the entranceway as Emily ran past her to the door.
"Oh! Franky?" Bridget called out from the kitchen.
"I know, you want a Violet Crumble." She heard the blonde's 'yes, please', and smiled to herself. Every time for the past almost year, when she was the one going to buy the snacks, Bridget would ask her to get the same thing. "Vera?"
"Oh, uh, caramel kisses, thanks," she called out from the kitchen.
"Alright, bub, pick out a couple things for us to share," Franky said as she picked up the chocolate bar that Bridget had asked her to get, and the bag of caramels for Vera.
"These are shaped like dinosaurs!" Emily said excitedly as she handed the bag of gummy candy to the brunette.
"Oh, those are cool! You can pick one more thing if you want." She added the treats to the others she was already carrying.
"And these." The young girl held up two more bags of candy.
"No, bub, just one." Franky thought she was being generous enough letting her pick two treats to start with.
"But these are my favorites." Emily gave her a pout.
"You can get them both if you put these back." The brunette held up the dinosaur-shaped candy she'd picked out earlier.
"But those are the dinosaur ones!" The young girl was starting to raise her voice.
"Em, listen." Franky crouched down to talk to her. "You can have two things. Whatever you don't get this time, you can get next time, okay?"
The brunette watched as a tear rolled down Emily's cheek.
"I don't know which ones I want." She looked back and forth between the bags she held in each hand.
"You're tired, aren't you?" Franky asked as she reached out and brushed Emily's cheek with the backs of her fingers. Even though they'd all slept in, she could tell that the weekend had taken its toll on the young girl. "Tell you what, we'll get the dinosaur ones because they go with the movie, and you let me pick which of these two we get this time. That way you don't have to decide." She saw Emily nod, and picked up a bag of the candy. "Okay, let's go." She stood, then reached down to take the young girl's hand.
"Do you want a short nap before we watch the movie?" Franky asked when she and Emily arrived back at the house. It was still early, and they had plenty of time to watch it.
"No," Emily shook her head, as she discarded her shoes in the hallway.
"Okay, go wash up, and then we can start it." The brunette sent the young girl to the washroom while she joined the other two women in the kitchen. "Violet Crumble for you, and caramel kisses for you." She handed each of them the candy they had requested, then glanced behind her down the hallway to make sure that Emily had gone into the washroom. "I don't think she'll make it through the movie."
"Why's that?" the blonde asked, quietly.
"She had an almost mini-meltdown at the store." Franky took bowls out of the cupboard for the candy that Emily had picked out. "I told her she could pick out two treats for us to share, and she wanted three. When I told her she had to choose she couldn't decide, and started to cry. She's just tired."
"If she falls asleep, we can just watch it again with her another time." Bridget gave the brunette a kiss on the cheek.
When Emily returned, they all piled onto one section of the couch on Franky's suggestion. She knew the three of them usually sat together to watch movies, and she didn't want Vera to feel left out sitting by herself on the other section. Emily chose to cuddle into Bridget's side with her bowl of candy, while the brunette chose to sit next to Vera, putting the young girl between her and the blonde.
The movie started and Bridget felt Emily jump slightly during one of the opening scenes when the dinosaur threw itself against the steel transport cage.
"You okay, love?" the blonde asked, as she pulled her niece a bit closer.
"Yeah, it was loud," Emily said as she slowly put another piece of candy into her mouth. "Is Rex in this?"
"There's a dinosaur like Rex in this," Bridget answered, as she and Franky exchanged glances. "He's not nice like Rex though." She looked at the brunette again, and they shared a silent understanding that they may have to stop the movie part way through. The T-Rex in this movie was not the friendly, lovable one from Toy Story.
When the next crash sounded, it wasn't Emily, but Vera who jumped slightly. Franky reached out and put an arm around her. At first, the governor remained almost stiff in her seat, then slowly relaxed.
"Whoa." The young girl lifted her head from against Bridget's side when the first of the dinosaurs appeared on the screen. "Are they real? You said they weren't around anymore." She looked up at her aunt.
"They're not, love. They just made it look real with computers. Kind of like a realistic cartoon." The blonde had never really thought about it until now, but Emily really only watched cartoons and kids shows, which were never meant to have an element of realness to them. This was probably her first time watching a movie where something that didn't exist was made to look as if it did.
"What are those?" the young girl asked. They'd made it to the scene where they were showing the baby dinosaurs growing inside of eggs.
"Those are the eggs with the babies, remember? We learned about those in one of the books you brought home from school." Bridget reminded her. When Franky had been away, Emily had brought home a new dinosaur book at least once per week.
"Is that how people babies are made?" The young girl looked at all three adults, who in turn looked to each other, hoping someone would step in and offer an answer.
"Not quite. People don't hatch from eggs, love." The blonde watched as her niece shrugged, and went back to watching the movie. They'd have to have those conversations soon enough with her, so Bridget was glad she'd left it for today.
"Could he really do that?" Emily's eyes were wide as she watched the large T-Rex easily flip over one of the park SUVs.
"Yeah, they were huge and strong." Franky bit the head off one of the gummy dinosaurs, making Emily laugh. She was happy to see that, so far at least, the young girl didn't seem to be frightened by the movie.
The only time that the brunette thought that they may need to turn off the movie was the scene where the velociraptors were following the kids through the Visitor's Centre. She could see that Emily was hanging on tightly to Bridget's shirt, but the young girl never made a sound.
The movie ended, and Franky stood up and stretched. "What did you think, Em?"
"Can we go to that park? I want to see the T-Rex." She looked at the brunette, then her aunt.
"It's not a real place, bub. Besides, it didn't work. The park was shut down at the end." Franky looked at the blonde for backup.
"They didn't fix it?" Emily looked sad.
"No, love. It's just a story." The blonde smoothed the young girl's hair back out of her face.
"Oh." Emily looked at the floor. "Okay." She climbed off the couch and headed towards the bathroom.
"I'll look online later and see if there are any museums in the area that have dinosaur exhibits. Maybe that will be close enough," Franky said as she gathered up their bowls from their snacks. "Did you like it?" the brunette asked Vera.
"Oh, yeah, I enjoyed watching it with you guys. I'd seen it before, but that was years ago." Vera had genuinely enjoyed the afternoon with them. Franky had left her arm around her for the rest of the movie, and she was grateful that the brunette hadn't drawn attention to the fact that she'd been startled. "I should be heading home now, though. I have a file to look through before an early morning meeting tomorrow."
"Aw, okay. It was good to see you again." Bridget gave her friend a hug. "If you need me for anything at work, just let me know."
"You're supposed to be resting for another week. Everything is fine. The psych from Walford is covering your urgent sessions." Vera appreciated the blonde's work ethic, but right now she wanted her to just rest, and get better.
"Thanks." Bridget gave her a hug, and a kiss on the cheek before she walked her to the door.
Later that evening, the blonde returned to the living room after putting Emily to bed, to see Franky studying something on the screen of her laptop. She could always tell when the brunette was focused, and she found it a turn-on.
"What's got you concentrating so hard?" Bridget asked as she took a seat, and curled up against the younger woman's side.
Franky turned her head, and placed a kiss on the blonde's cheek. "I'm just looking for stuff to do with Em. The Melbourne Museum has dinosaur exhibits, and they're doing a dinosaur hunt right now. If you find all one hundred mini dinosaurs placed throughout the museum, you get some kind of prize."
"Oh, she'd love that. Maybe we can do that next weekend. It sounds like something you'd need the whole day for, because I know you two, you'd have to find all of them." The blonde smiled, knowing how competitive those two could be.
"I like to be thorough and complete." The brunette gave Bridget a wink when she saw her looking up at her.
The blonde looked at the open browser tabs on Franky's screen. She saw the museum one, one about commercial real estate, one about starting a small business, and a final one titled 'FAQ about IUI'.
"This is a lot to have going on in your mind," Bridget said pointing to the screen.
"It is, but researching stuff makes me feel more relaxed. Like if I know what to expect, I can handle it better." She looked down at the older woman and got a small smile.
"Tell me what you've found out so far." Bridget sat up a bit higher, and rested her arm on the back of the couch behind the brunette so she could run her fingers back and forth across the nape of the younger woman's neck. She felt her sigh.
"I'll still need to get a loan even with the prize money from the show. I don't have bad credit, but it's not great either. Before I go asking for money though, I need to know exactly how much more I'll need. I have to decide what kind of restaurant I want to have, what size, and where. Then it'll depend on which properties are for sale in the area. Do I buy a place that's still up and running and revamp it a bit, or do I go for something that will be a complete overhaul? But again, that depends on what's actually available." Franky stopped, and took a deep breath.
"I'm sure you've sat and daydreamed about what your own place would be like." The blonde saw her wife nod. "Tell me what you see when you think about that. Paint me a picture."
"I want it to be a relaxed place where people come to really enjoy sitting down and having a meal. I don't want it to be like a grab and go type thing. I want it to be bright, with lots of natural light. I want it to be a place where Em can come hang out after school, bring a friend if she wants." The brunette stopped, and smiled to herself, then turned to look at Bridget. "I can cook us a private dinner. We'd have the whole place to ourselves with just some candles placed around for lighting."
"That sounds lovely, baby." She leaned in and gave Franky a small kiss. "You've got some good ideas. They'll give you a good list of things to look for when you're looking at places."
"Yeah, I hope so. I've just never done anything like this before. I'm worried I'll fuck it up." The brunette shook her head slightly, as she looked back at the screen.
"Well, there are people you can hire to advise you, and make sure that you're not overlooking anything. Or, if you want, you could enroll in a little small business course at one of the colleges. Nothing major, just something to get some basic tips and accounting." She knew that Franky would probably want to be very hands-on, so the class would most likely appeal to her more than simply hiring someone.
"That's a really good idea, actually. I should look up classes." The brunette opened another tab in the browser window.
"Hey," Bridget said quietly, as she covered Franky's hand with her own, "Maybe hang onto that idea for another time? You should be winding down for the night, not starting new projects."
"Yeah, you're right." The brunette closed the tab.
"Tell me about this one." The blonde pointed to the one titled 'FAQ about IUI" as she rested her chin on Franky's shoulder.
"That one is a bit overwhelming." Franky was quiet for a moment. "I have to get a bunch of tests, and take hormones and stuff. I don't really understand a lot of the technical part. I don't even have a doctor, I just use walk-in clinics when I have to."
"My doctor would take you on as a patient, if you want." Bridget knew that her doctor quite often took on family members of her patients, especially spouses, so she didn't think the brunette would have any trouble.
"That would be great." She was quiet again. "It says there's only an eleven percent chance each time that I'll get pregnant. That seems low. What if it doesn't happen?"
"Well, I don't know the exact odds of getting pregnant naturally, but I do know that this method works for a lot of people, so I wouldn't worry about the percentages. We'll talk to the doctor, and do some more research, then go from there." The blonde studied the younger woman's face for a moment. "I'll be with you for everything; you won't be doing it alone. I think you should start the restaurant first though."
"Gidge?" Franky gave her a questioning look.
"I know you want this a lot, and so do I, but I think you should concentrate on getting your business started first. It'll be a lot easier to run a restaurant when you're pregnant or have a newborn than it is to be trying to do renovations and get things off the ground." Bridget would support her wife no matter what she chose, but she'd done some thinking of her own, and she knew that too much stress wasn't good for the body, whether pregnant or not.
"Yeah, you're probably right." The brunette closed the laptop, and set it on the coffee table.
"Say that again," the blonde said as she moved to sit on Franky's lap, straddling her thighs.
"You're probably right." The brunette gave her a smile. "I tell you that all the time, Gidge."
"I know." Bridget lowered her head, and connected their lips. "Why don't we call it a night? I'll give you a massage to help you relax."
"Hmm, I don't know." Franky teased.
The blonde lowered her head a bit more so her lips were next to the younger woman's ear.
"I'll do it naked," she whispered.
Franky giggled. "I'm sold."