It had been such a peaceful yet hectic few days. Talia had been visited by almost everyone under the sun whilst recovering in the hospital, and she was met with nothing but kind words, sweet congratulations, cards and gifts. Elijah had been passed about from person to person, under Talia and Chase's watchful eyes, and everyone complimented on both how peaceful and how beautiful he was. It still felt like a strange dream for them both. They couldn't believe they were officially parents - but they were feeling so blessed amongst all that disbelief.

And now, they were finally bringing him home.

"Welcome home baby boy," Talia whispered down to Elijah as she carried him through to their living room, whilst Chase quickly turned the thermostat up. Talia carefully settled herself down on the sofa with a content sigh, whilst keeping her eye on her little angel. His eyes were slightly cracked open now, and Talia could just about make out that they were now a stunning blue but with a deep grey orb surrounding the main deep blue of the iris. She knew that babies eyes tended to change - but she was praying that Elijah's never would, because ultimately, she saw herself in them in a face that was essentially his father's.

Within moments, Elijah had blinked his huge eyes up at her curiously as his arms stretched out.

"Hey! Hey my pouty boy! You're wide awake now, huh?" Talia cooed down at him lovingly. "Welcome home, finally!" She glanced up to see Coco approach her tentatively, prowling across the carpet to her owner with a curious look in her eyes. She sat there and kept a suspicious eye on this fascinating new creature in a blanket, who appeared to be taking all the attention for himself, wondering who on earth he was and, more importantly, how long he was staying for.

"You think we'll ever get him out of our room?" Chase smirked as he slowly took off his jacket and made his way over to the sofa too.

"If it's up to me…then no," Talia smiled back truthfully. "He's too pure and way too adorable to be left in his nursery by himself…like, ever."

"Yeaaaahh, I thought as much," Chase chuckled. He settled himself down beside her and Talia immediately snuggled into his side. "I can't believe he's actually here," Chase murmured as they both stared down at their baby in awe. "Like you said, he's perfect."

"He looks exactly like you - of course he is," Talia hummed back as Elijah lazily blinked up at both his parents before slowly falling back asleep again.

"He…doesn't look anything like me!" Chase frowned.

"Rob, look at his lips," Talia tutted, shooting him an obvious glare.

"T, he has your lips," Chase scoffed back. Talia rolled her eyes and waved him off. "Alright if not your lips, then definitely your eyes. You've got whole the…blue grey thing going on. And your nose-"

"My nose is pointier than that!" Talia denied quietly. "Although I wish I had his little button nose because I am honestly living for it."

"The fact that he was born a week before Christmas is what I'm really finding hilarious here," Chase pointed out with a short chuckle. "December is about to become even more expensive than it already is."

"It is indeed," Talia laughed back. "I also love the fact that he might grow up with the weirdest accent ever. I've got British, you've got Australian, one grandma will have Australian too and one will have this weird British American mix up, not to mention his very American grandfather - it's gonna be kinda bizarre before he goes to school and speaks how his classmates speak."

"Hm," Chase chuckled to himself. He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a few moments as he watched his son peacefully fall back into a deep slumber, and Talia picked up on his silence immediately.

She knew her husband far too well at this point.

"What you thinking, babe?" Talia asked curiously, sensing that there was something on his mind from the way he had suddenly fallen silent beside her.

"Would you…ever consider moving back to London in a few years?" Chase mentioned casually.

Talia looked up so that their eyes met properly again.

"London? Well, I think about it all the time. I miss it," she admitted quietly with an added little shrug of contemplation. "But this job isn't something I can just find elsewhere, you know? Particularly as Cuddy went through such great lengths to keep me on the damn hospital premises. The job doesn't even exist."

"I know," Chase sighed as he shook his head. "And that's the annoying thing. I know Juliette really did us a favour with all that money, to the point that we could do anything with it - but it's the rush of this job that I love - and I hate that."

"Yup," Talia agreed miserably, redirecting her gaze back to her perfectly snoozing son. "Too right. But, like I said, it wouldn't be for a few years regardless, right? We have time to sort it out before Elijah even starts school. For now we should go with the flow, don't you think?"

…

Over the next few days, it became apparent that one of the Chase's were naturally better in the parenting role than the other one was.

No prizes for guessing which one was which.

Talia loved children anyway, so she was extremely natural with Elijah. She swept him into her arms when he was crying with no issue, hushed him to sleep within moments (which she put down to her having a 'soft chest' due to her much larger and now somewhat pillow-like breasts), hummed to him, sang to him, and obviously was his main source of nutrients. It was only latching for the first day or two that she struggled with - but even that was simple enough for her. The only thing she was seriously finding a difficult time with, was keeping up with her sleep. She had worked stupidly long shifts at work many times by now, but dealing with a demanding and rather hungry newborn all the time was providing her with a different kind of exhaustion. It was one that she had never known before - although she wasn't complaining.

She was just thankful to be a mother.

Chase, however - he was much more worried about how to do this whole thing, as today was proving.

Talia was fast asleep with Coco curled up at the bottom of the bed, the two of them totally knocked out. It was only about six in the evening, and it was Christmas Eve - but she was taking the chance to snooze until Elijah woke up for another feed again. Chase was lying beside her, also tired from Elijah's demands - until he heard him stir himself awake again.

What he didn't want, though, was Talia waking up again.

So, he carefully got out of bed and rushed over to where he was crying in the Moses basket before Talia could wake up and do so herself, and scooped his flailing son in his arms as carefully as possible. "Alright, kiddo," he shushed him, stepping out of the bedroom and shutting the door behind him. Despite his soft words, Elijah continued to wail away. "Hey! It's okay," Chase frowned, bouncing him up and down as he stepped into the kitchen. "Sssh! Lij! You're gonna wake up your mum and I really don't think that's particularly fair after the noisy day you've given her, do you?" he hummed down at him with a frown.

Then, as if Elijah could hear him, he started to quieten down - giving Chase the perfect opportunity to open the fridge door and take out expressed milk to heat up. All this had to be done with one hand, which was tough enough as it was. Elijah stayed quiet and brought his tiny wrinkly fist to his lips, choosing to suck on that instead for the meantime.

Chase knew that it wasn't going to last long, though. And within two minutes, Elijah's cries proved his theory to be true.

"Elijah, mate, I'm going as fast as I cannn! I don't wanna burn your tongue, bud," Chase groaned into his hair quietly whilst testing the milk's temperature. "Please, I'm trying to show your mum that I can be a good dad. Do you think I can? Huh?" he murmured after sensing the milk was warm enough on the back of his hand. He carried his baby boy over to the sofa and gently settled himself down beside the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree, before correctly positioning Elijah in his arms and placing the bottle to his pouty awaiting lips. Chase was unsurprised to watch him guzzle away, making the greedy little gulping noises too.

He smiled down at him and shook his head.

"Sorry that whole thing took so long, mate. I'm not as good as your mum at this. She's way better at it - but I'm trying. We're…we're gonna give you the best life we possibly can, you know that?"

He left a little pause as his eyes connected with his son's huge wobbly ones.

"You are beautiful, by the way. Again, all your mum's doing, although she keeps insisting its mine. But you need to know how much we've waited for you, how long I've envisioned this moment in my head. It's wild to even see you here in my arms. I love you so much, and I gotta make sure you know that, cos your Grandpa Rowan…he didn't like to tell me that very often. Not his fault really cos he wasn't that kinda guy, but it really didn't help our relationship. But I'm gonna tell you that every single day without fail, even though your mum tells you that every second. And I'm going to work again next week, so…" Chase trailed off in quiet uncertainty, shaking his head. "I know you don't understand anything that I'm saying bud, but I'm gonna try so hard, so so hard to be the best dad I can be to you, and any siblings you have. I promise you, son. I've got you for life. I love you." Elijah blinked up at him and stopped guzzling, implying that he was done for now. Chase gently eased the bottle from his pouty lips to place on the coffee table and hoisted him onto his chest to burp him by gently patting his back. "There we goooo…hey, this isn't so bad once I get over trying to not accidentally to break you," Chase started to chuckle - until he suddenly felt a warm milky rush of arm liquid spill all the way down his back.

He groaned and dropped his head forward in exasperation.

"Ohhhh come on, mate-"

Then came a little coy giggle from the doorway, causing Chase to look up at the speed of lightening. Talia stood there in her oversized England football jersey and shorts, leaning against the doorframe expectantly with a look of adoration all over her face. Chase's cheeks flushed pink as it dawned on him that she'd overheard everything.

"How…how long have you been standing there for, T?" he groaned in embarrassment. "Did I wake you?"

"Wake me? Babe, I've been awake since bub first started crying," Talia admitted with a little shy laugh. "I was gonna go back to sleep but I wanted to see how Daddy Chase was gonna handle it first."

"Yeah well Daddy Chase just got puked all over. It's bad enough when a patient does it to me but when it's him, it feels like a form of betrayal," Chase winced as Talia padded across the carpet to grab a cloth from the little wicker basket they kept in the living room. "Did you hear…like…all of my speech?" Chase frowned, taking the cloth from her to clean himself up. Talia nodded dreamily as she sat herself down beside him with a small sigh. Then she gently prised Elijah into her own hands to relieve Chase of the multitasking.

"Every last bit of it, yup," she smiled down at Elijah as he blinked back up at her intriguingly. "You love your daddy's voice, huh baby? You have done ever since you were in the womb, to be fair." Elijah released a few newborn noise before yawning again - a big yawn at that.

"Woooahh, someone's tired," Chase smirked down at him, stroking his soft blonde locks back with his index finger. Talia repositioned Elijah so that he was leaning against her chest instead, and turned to look at her husband with earnest eyes.

"You know you're an amazing dad, right?" she whispered, causing Chase to look back up at her and let out a quiet scoff of disbelief.

"Yeah right. I'm just trying to be half of what you are naturally, T," he murmured miserably.

"Why? You are literally your own person and your own parent. No need to be me, because it won't make a difference. He loves us both," Talia hummed. "And I have never loved you more, by the way. The dad thing is super hot on you. And you'll loosen up soon and it'll be easier to handle, but we're both in the same boat right now. I just style it out because although he adores you, he's clearly a little mummy's boyyyy!" She pecked a kiss in Elijah's hair whilst Chase rolled his eyes playfully.

"Yeah yeah, but like you said - he likes his dad's voice the most," he reminded her quietly, before reaching over and placing soft, slow kisses against her exposed neck. Talia let out a small sigh through her nose and turned to glare at him playfully.

"ROBERT. Carry on like this and we'll end up having about twenty more," she hissed as she bit back a smile.

"Eh - wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, would it?" Chase grinned back, making Talia's heart flutter indescribably.