Emily felt Aaron nudging her. "Sorry Em, I think she's hungry again."

She bit back the retort that it was pretty obvious from the screeching crying, and instead just reached her arms out to take the baby from him. She'd naively thought that her years working in the White House had prepared her for sleep deprivation of any kind. And she probably had gotten this little sleep before, but she was learning there was a big difference between being woken by a ringing phone and a crying infant. Yawning, she pulled her shirt up and started the process of getting Callie to latch. Everything seemed to be a process with Callie.

If she was being honest, it was all harder than she'd thought it would be. Callie was quick to startle and slow to sooth, and never wanted to let anyone but Emily hold her. Trying to get her to sleep in the bassinet was a struggle. It was a long drawn out song and dance, and it felt like by the time Emily got her settled, she was at most ten minutes away from waking up again. It didn't help that Aaron was a softy who couldn't stand to hear Callie even slightly whimper. He would rather let her sleep in his arms than try and put her down. Which might be fine for him when he got to go to work everyday leaving Emily with a baby that expected to be held constantly. But she knew she would never say anything because there was nothing she liked more than the sight of Aaron holding Callie. She thought there was something innately attractive about men holding babies to begin with, but all her insecurities over her own father and David kicked it into overdrive a bit. She was starting to understand how it could be easy to end up pregnant twice in the same year.

David was another thing about all this that was more difficult than she expected. She'd planned for him to have no involvement at all, while some childish part of her had held out hope that when the baby came he'd want to be there. What she hadn't planned for was the odd half interest he seemed to have. He'd asked for pictures, which she'd happily sent him, in part thinking that when he saw his daughter looking back at him there would be no way he would be able to resist being involved in her life. But then he was fighting with her to avoid having his name on the birth certificate, implying that he didn't trust the baby was really his. She'd assumed that the whole thing was his attempt at avoiding paying child support, but then the other day she had received a generous check from him so she really couldn't figure out what his deal was. She just wished he was in or out, she worried about Callie spending a lifetime getting her hopes up that her father wanted to be part of her life only to be let down.

At least his mother and brother wanted to have some involvement. Or at least meet Callie. She'd hyped herself up about this meeting to the point where she was more nervous about this than she'd been about meeting Aaron's mom. She had it in her head that if this went well David would come around and want to be a part of Callie's life, that she just needed to orchestrate the perfect meeting. She knew she had driven Aaron to distraction with the number of times she had gone back and forth on whether she wanted him there. Personally she wanted him there, but she wondered if it would seem like she was throwing it in their faces that she had found someone else to play the role of father to her child. It was probably for the best that they ended up planning on visiting on a busy day for him, so the decision had been taken out of her hands. Although it really only led her to spend her time worrying over what outfit she should dress Callie in, how she should act around them, if it would be weird breastfeeding around them, and a million other things.

As if reading her mind Aaron mumbled sleepily "Stop worrying about it."

"I'm not." She protested uselessly, not even needing to reference what it was she was allegedly not worrying about.

"They're going to love her, and if they don't they're insane."

Emily had to agree with Aaron there. Even though she found motherhood harder than she expected and worried incessantly that she was doing everything wrong, she was also so insanely in love with her little girl and didn't think it was possible for anyone to see her and not feel the same way. Every little part of her fascinated Emily, she could easily get lost for hours just staring at something like her little toes. She just prayed that David's family would feel the same.

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Emily found herself a bit intimidated by David's mother. Colleen was a retired middle school principal, and from the appraising look she was currently giving Emily, she could well imagine sitting across from her in a principal's office, being told off.

The first thing that struck Emily about Colleen and Patrick was the strong familial resemblance they shared with David, and Callie too she supposed. They were both tall, Colleen was probably close to six feet tall, and Patrick was well over. They shared his blondish hair, fair skin, freckles, and slim builds. And most clearly his striking blue eyes, which Emily now remembered were one of the first things that had attracted her to David. Emily had told herself that Callie's blonde hair and blue eyes were inherited from her mother, but looking at the pictures of his children Patrick had shared with her, Emily could see that Callie would fit right in with the two of them.

"Sorry she'd been really clingy lately." Emily had been trying half heartedly for the last few minutes to pass Callie to Colleen, but anytime she tried Callie broke into tears. Really the only way to get Callie to settle into anyone besides her or Aaron's arms was to have Emily leave the room, but she didn't think she would feel comfortable leaving Callie with virtual strangers.

"Apparently." Emily couldn't tell if Colleen was just not a big talker, or judging her parenting abilities.

"So, do you know how long David expects to stay in Hong Kong?" She didn't like admitting how little she knew about what was going on in David's life, but it's not like she had a lot of other options if she wanted these questions answered.

"His contract should be at the end of the year, but usually can extend if he wants."

"Oh, do you think he will?"

"I wouldn't even hazard a guess. One never knows what David will do next, he's always had a touch of wanderlust." Emily wasn't sure if she was judging her son, or speaking of him fondly. She remembered his 'touch of wanderlust' well, it had been attractive to her last year when she was at loose ends herself. But any appeal that the idea of jumping from city to city never putting down roots held at the time had quickly been diminished when she found out she was pregnant.

"Patrick, I remember David telling me you work in IT as well, what do you do?" Emily wasn't usually this bad at small talk, but even just two weeks at home with a baby seemed to have left her rusty.

"I work at Mount Sinai; in-house IT."

"Nice."

"Yeah, it's good. It's where I met Marissa, she was a nurse there."

"Marissa is a lovely woman, great mother. It's too bad she couldn't make it today." Colleen chimed in. Whether it was intended or not, Emily took that as a pretty clear dig that she was not a good mother or a lovely woman.

"Mmm, she would have loved to meet you, but she needed to stay home with the kids, we didn't want to overwhelm you guys."

"Are the kids in school yet?" Small talk about Patrick's family seemed to be a safe bet. She had thought they would mostly talk about Callie, but there was really only so much you could say about a two week old. Chatting about his kids did carry them though for a bit until Colleen excused herself to the ladies room. Emily just needed to ignore the pointed statements about what a great family Patrick had.

"Sorry about her." Patrick said almost the second she left the room. "She'd just intimidated by the whole Vice President thing, and feels bad about David, well being David."

"It's fine." Honestly some of her barbs had stung, but this was really about building a relationship for Callie's sake not hers so she could take it. "I don't bite, I swear."

Looking down at Callie and seeing that she seemed to be sleeping pretty soundly at this point Emily suggested Patrick try and hold her if he wanted to. She gently transferred her into his arms and smiled at how happy he looked to be holding her.

"Hi sweetie, I'm your Uncle Pat." Emily wasn't sure how she felt about Patrick declaring himself Uncle. It's what he was, so she wasn't going to say anything about it, but just like with David, Emily worried about Callie getting her hopes up for a relationship that wasn't going to last in the long term. "She reminds me so much of my Harper."

Emily smiled. "I guess the Murphy genes are strong."

"Marissa says the same thing. Although both our kids were over nine pounds when they were born, so I think you missed that curse."

Emily was thankful for that. Delivering Callie had been hard enough, she couldn't imagine if she had been three pounds heavier.

"It's a family curse for sure, both you and your brother were ten pounds." Colleen was back and immediately Emily felt herself stiffen up. It was much easier chatting just with Patrick. Colleen sat back down next to Patrick, and looked down at Callie. "You were a fussy baby too, I remember wondering what I had gotten myself into with you. Especially when David had been such an easy baby."

Just like when her Aunt or Aaron's Mom would reference their time as new parents Emily felt a rush of sadness. It hurt that she would never have the opportunity to hear from her own mother what her early days as a parent had been like. And she would never know if she had been a fussy or easy baby, or anything about her early years to be honest. It wasn't something she had thought about until becoming a mother herself, but she no longer had anyone in her life that remembered her childhood, all she had to fill in the those years before she had her own memories were some scattered photographs. She would find herself looking at pictures of her mother holding her as an infant and try to read into the faces she was making. Was she too in love with Emily to tear her eyes away from her for a picture, or did she just not realize someone was taking one? Was she too tired to smile in this picture, or was she finding motherhood challenging, maybe feeling depressed? More than anything Emily wanted her Mom to reassure her that everything she was feeling was normal, and she would be a good mom.

Realizing she had let herself get lost in her own world she looked up as she heard Callie start to fuss a bit. Patrick was transferring her to his mother's arms. Emily resisted the urge to hover or take her back, and settled for watching anxiously as Colleen attempted to sooth her. Emily had to grudgingly admit that she seemed to be doing a rather good job of it. While Callie didn't go back to sleep, she wasn't crying anymore either which was a major victory as far as Emily was concerned.

"Is there something you want her to call me? Pat's kids call me Nana."

It wasn't something Emily had given any thought. "Nana would be fine. My Aunt is Nonna and Aaron's mom is Abue." It was the first reference she'd made to the fact that Aaron's family was playing any kind of role in their lives, let alone a large one. She didn't mean it as an attack, but if they were going to be in each other's lives Emily wasn't going to be able to hide it.

"That's nice." Colleen said somewhat absently. "Will you be teaching her Spanish?"

Once again Emily couldn't tell if she was being judged or if it was just an honest question. "Umm we are. Aaron and his family speak Spanish with her, I'm trying to learn but it's a bit rough going."

"Mmm, it's so much easier when you speak it growing up. I tried to pick some up when I was teaching in the Bronx, but I didn't get very far."

Emily let out a breath, at least that seemed approving.

Talking in a baby voice to Callie, Colleen said, "I just wish your Grandpa was here. He'd have loved you to pieces. And he'd have talked some sense into your Daddy."

Emily hesitated; she really didn't like Colleen referring to David as Callie's Daddy. She knew it made no difference now but one day it might be confusing for Callie. She always planned on being honest with Callie about her parentage, but there was a big difference in Emily's book between being a father and a Dad, and at least right now David wasn't earning the latter title. But she also didn't want to start a fight or offend them. Especially when Colleen was talking about her somewhat recently deceased husband. So she decided to try and get Patrick talking again. He seemed like the most effective buffer, "Did your father get a chance to meet your kids Patrick?"

"He met Harper. He loved being Pop Pop. He passed just before Billy was born. David had a real hard time losing him. Not that it excuses any of this."

Emily felt a twinge of guilt for how much she had been judging David, but just a twinge, she had just lost her Mom after all, and she wasn't deserting her child. At least his family seemed to agree that what he was doing was wrong. Maybe they would be able to get through to him, or maybe not, but either way Emily was starting to think that at least Colleen and Patrick could be a part of Callie's family.