"Are you planning on coming out any time soon?" Emily called out teasingly.
"I don't know," Lucy admitted through the bathroom door.
Emily shook her head with a fond smile. "Come on, Ella – you've been in there for like twenty minutes. Just come out..."
Lucy sighed audibly. "Fine," she said in a small voice. A moment passed, then the door knob rattled and she emerged. She was wearing a pair of jean shorts so tight they looked painted on, a lacy red bra, and a cowboy hat with her hair pulled back in pigtails.
"Wow..." Emily said on an exhale.
Lucy's cheeks instantly flushed bright red. "I know, I know, it's way too soon to be wearing something like this, right?"
A brow arched up Emily's forehead. "What?"
"After the baby, I mean," she explained. "Obviously, I still have like a lot of baby weight to lose and..."
"You're crazy," she interrupted.
A beat.
"What?" Lucy asked incredulously.
Realizing that may have come across wrong, Emily explained, "If you think for one single second that you're not attractive to me..." She trailed off, shook her head. "You're fucking gorgeous, okay?"
Lucy gave a wet little laugh. "So, do you want to..."
Emily grinned. "Get that cute little ass over here," she ordered.
With a little purr, Lucy pounced on her, then squeaked as Emily rolled her, pinned her to the bed.
Lucy snuggled into Emily's chest, tipped her chin up to steal a kiss. "I love you so much, you know that, right?"
"Almost as much as I love you," Emily echoed. "In fact, I love you enough that I didn't take a swing at some homophobic jerk today because I didn't want you to have to bail me out of jail..."
For a moment, Lucy blinked in surprise. "What?"
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to disrupt the fun Clara was having," Emily murmured. "I'm just glad she's too young to understand anything he said."
Lucy propped herself up on one elbow. "It was in front of Clara?" Her jaw hung open momentarily. "And you just let him walk away?"
She shrugged. "I didn't want to upset her by making a scene – she was so excited to just hang out with me. It's not like I was ever going to change his mind with rational arguments anyway."
She pursed her lips in thought for a long moment. "I hate that these innocent little kids – who didn't ask for any of this – are going to grow up hearing this kind of bullshit. I never want them to think there's anything wrong with them because of us..."
Emily pulled her into her chest, nuzzled into her hair. "There's going to be hard times in their lives, but they're always going to know one thing: how much we love them. That's all we can do."
In the middle of the night, Emily woke to find Lucy's side of the bed empty and Aurora's bassinet mussed but vacant. She followed the sound of Lucy's voice into the living room and found Lucy feeding the baby and chatting to her about something on her phone screen.
"What do you think, baby girl?" Lucy murmured. "Should we move to Canada?"
A pause where the baby would have responded if she had been able.
"You're right. Too cold," Lucy agreed. "What about Spain? Do you want to speak Spanish?"
Emily tiptoed into the room and whispered, "Are we going somewhere?"
Lucy looked up sheepishly. "How much of that did you hear?"
Emily settled beside her, kissed her cheek. "Why are you Googling 'Best Countries to Be Gay in?'" she asked, reading her phone screen.
Lucy mumbled inaudibly.
When no further response seemed forthcoming, Emily gently elbowed her to prod her into answered.
She sighed, said firmly, "I don't want our daughters to have some asshole make them feel inferior because we're gay. I'd move Heaven and Earth for them. But I might have to content myself with moving boxes..."
It was Emily's turn to sigh. Gently, she stroked the hair off the back of Lucy's neck, gently tickling the soft skin there. "Ella..." she whispered.
As if she already knew the words that followed, Lucy rushed to explain, "Just listen... You speak basically every language and you've got enough credentials that you could work for law enforcement pretty much anywhere. And I could work for any ballet company – I mean, there's some stylistic differences, but it's not a huge setback if I have to adapt. And the girls aren't in school yet, so they won't be heartbroken by leaving friends behind. There's no reason no to..."
"Ella," she tried again, "We could move to Antarctica and we'd still run into homophobes at some point..."
"But..."
She smiled consolingly. "I think the girls will learn more from watching us deal with people who react negatively than they will if we run from the problem," she said.
Lucy pursed her lips in thought for a moment. Aurora unlatched from her breast, a droplet of milk slowly dribbling down her chin. Emily reached over to wipe it away and the baby sighed contentedly at the gentle touch.
"I've run from a lot of things in my life," Emily added, "But I stopped running when I met you because I'd finally found something worth digging in my heels and standing strong for. And I'm not about to let one prick knock me over."
She gave a soft laugh, Emily finally winning her over. "Maybe you're right," she admitted quietly.
"I'm always right," Emily insisted teasingly. She leaned in to whisper next to Aurora's ear, "You remember that, okay? Mommy is always right. Keep that in mind when you're a teenager..."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "If she takes after you, there's no chance that lesson is going to stick," she teased.
Emily pretended to glare at her, but only briefly before she shrugged and admitted, "You're probably right about that. If they're anything like me, all we can do is pray. And maybe invest in a bomb shelter..."
"Dear God, why did I marry you?" Lucy muttered under her breath. Her smirk belied her words, but that didn't stop Emily from pretending to be hurt by the statement.