Emily had taken time off to be with Lucy and the new baby, but nearly a week in, everything had gone to shit in one of her operations and Clyde had demanded she come in to help fix it.
Her initial instinct had been to tell Clyde to go to Hell, but Lucy had insisted she would be fine for a few hours – afterall, it wasn't her first time with a newborn. And though she was hesitant to do so, Emily had taken her word for it and left.
It was, however, her first time with a newborn and Clara...
Two hours into Emily's work day, she got a phone call from a distraught Lucy. "Come home!" Lucy begged. "Please, Emily...I need you!" In the background of the call, there was the clear and unmistakable sound of the baby wailing and Clara screaming.
"Lucy, what's wrong?" Emily asked, fearing someone was hurt or ill or something equally disastrous had happened.
"They won't stop!" she sobbed. "Nothing I do makes them happy! Come home, please, I can't do this!"
Emily glanced over at Clyde who was staring at her impatiently. She heaved a sigh, made a decision. "I'll be there in twenty minutes, okay? Just hold on."
When Emily arrived home, Clara ran full-force at her, wrapping her arms around her leg like she was drowning and Emily was the last liferaft. "Mommy!" she wailed, fat tears streaming down her beet red face. "Mommmmmmmmmy!"
She lifted Clara into her arms, carried her into the living room where she found Lucy pacing, looking completely frazzled, tears spilling down her own face. In her arms, baby Aurora wailed, face screwed up tight in angry tears.
Instantly, Emily felt like the worst wife and mother in the world for having created a situation where the three most important people in her world could reach such a devastating sadness.
Emily set Clara down on the couch, turned on cartoons to distract her, then gently eased the baby out of Lucy's arms. She propped the baby up against her shoulder, patting her back. "Lucy, what happened?" she asked softly. "I thought you had everything under control..."
"I did!" she insisted. She hiccuped for breath. "I put Aurora down for her nap, but then Clara was being temperamental and I warned her not to shout or she'd wake up the baby and she lost it! She started crying at the top of her lungs and that woke up the baby and nothing I did could calm either one down...
"I tried so hard, Em, and I'm so sorry!" she sobbed. "I did my best and I failed..."
Emily gently shushed her, reaching out a hand to cup her cheek, drying her tears with her thumb. "You did not fail, Ella," she assured her.
"But..."
She shook her head. "Taking care of two kids is hard," she said. "Remember how hard it was when Clara was a newborn? And that was without a second kid to look after..."
Sniffling, she nodded. "So, you're not mad?" she mumbled.
"Mad?" Emily repeated. "Why would I ever be mad? You're doing your best – I should never have left you alone so soon." She smiled tenderly. "Now, give me a kiss," she said, sweet and teasing at the same time.
With a wet little laugh, she obeyed, kissing her quickly over Aurora's head.
Against Emily's chest, the baby slowly started to settle. "See?" Emily said, "She just missed me."
"What are you going to do about work?" Lucy asked quietly, passing Emily a soother.
She shrugged as she popped the pacifier in the baby's mouth. "I'll do what I can from home and Clyde can just deal with the rest," she said firmly. "Clearly, this isn't the best time to play a two against one defence."
Smiling softly, Lucy murmured, "Well, do you want to play the diaper defence or the toddler defence?"
Emily pursed her lips in thought, then she sniffed the baby. "I'm going to go with toddler."
Emily set Aurora down in the bassinet beside the bed, then climbed under the covers. "We should have a good hour and a half before she's hungry," she murmured. "Which means I have you all to myself for ninety minutes."
With a little contented sigh, Lucy settled against Emily's chest. "Do you think we made a mistake not waiting longer between kids?"
"What makes you think that?" Emily asked.
"You saw them today – at this rate, you'll never return to work," she said.
Emily kissed the top of her head. "So?" She said it so quickly and so nonchalantly that Lucy was momentarily taken aback.
Glancing up at her, brow raised, she answered, "It's your career..."
"Doesn't matter," she said immediately. "I've got enough money to support us. If you need the help, I'm here with you. Or we can hire a nanny. Whatever you need."
"Really?" she asked, voice wobbly. She hardly dared to believe that it could really be so simple as that.
Stroking a hand up and down her back, she asked, "Why do you sound so surprised? I knew this wouldn't be easy when we decided to have another baby and I knew this was a possibility. I was fully prepared for it. In fact, I told Clyde that he might want to start looking for a replacement, just in case. He obviously didn't love that idea, but since when do I care what Clyde Easter likes?"
Lucy sniffled. "Oh, Em," she whispered. "Every day I think I can't love you any more than I already do, then you say something like that and I fall even harder."
"Ella, you're my wife, I'd give up everything for you. I'd stop breathing for you. I would die for you," Emily vowed. "You know that, right? Giving up some job is nothing."
A moment of silence passed. Then, Lucy husked, "God, I wish six weeks had gone by already..."
Emily laughed. "Patience, Lucy," she said, "I'm not going anywhere."
A gurgle, a grunt, a little wail from the bassinet in the corner.
"Sounds like you're needed," Emily said. "And for the record, you're doing a great job as a mother. But then, I never for a moment doubted you would."