So, after writing the sad one-shot the other night, I started writing this yesterday, because I need something that was a complete 180, totally light and fluffy. And then I learned on Facebook today that is National Daughter Day so since I decided that Sam would be all over the #girldadlife, I figured it was like fate. So enjoy - it's nothing but fluff and cheese!
Other note - I picture the girls as looking like the two sisters on Mixed-ish, but younger. And I think I've settled on Chandra Wilson as Mercedes's mom.
"Well, everything looks great, mama!" The ultrasound tech was cheerful as she moved the wand around on Mercedes's stomach, pointing out fingers and ears, the baby's heartbeat echoing in the little room. "Did you guys want to know the gender?"
Mercedes looked at Sam, who shrugged. "Do you?" he asked her.
"Kind of?" Mercedes replied. "I mean, we really don't care as long as they're healthy –"
"Yeah, and we have transgender friends, so we know that what they're born with might not stick," Sam added in his usual blunt, foot-in-mouth sort of way.
"But the girls will want to know," Mercedes continued. "So, yeah, go ahead and tell us."
"Girls?" The tech said curiously and Mercedes nodded.
"Yes, we have two daughters already. They're seven and four and super-excited," she said.
"Well, looks like dad's about to be super-outnumbered, because this one's a girl too," the tech said with a smile.
"YES!" This from Sam and Mercedes couldn't help but laugh.
The tech smiled approvingly. "I like that response. I see way too many men getting upset when a baby's not a boy."
"Which is just ridiculous," Sam said, "especially since it's the sperm from the dude that determines the sex."
"Honey," Mercedes said, patting his arm. "She works at an OB/GYN office, she knows that."
"Right. Anyway, it is ridiculous. Girls are great. One hundred percent hashtag-girldad, right here."
The tech laughed. "He's a keeper for sure."
"Yeah, I know," Mercedes said with a smile.
"Alright, well, I'll leave you to get dressed. Make sure you grab the checkout form, I'll leave it on the table by the door and they'll get your next appointment set. Have a great day!"
Sam helped her down from the exam table and then stood, leaning in the doorway of the exam room bathroom while she discarded the paper and cloth drapes and got her clothes back on. She caught the smirk on his face as she turned back to the door.
"Checking me out?" she teased.
"Always," he replied with a grin and she shook her head.
"Even looking like this?" she said, turning sideways and waving her hand over her belly, which, being her third pregnancy, was already pretty obvious, even at only twenty weeks.
Sam reached out and pulled her close. "You're gorgeous, all the time, and I love you."
She let him give her a kiss and then took a step back. "You're really okay that it's not a boy?"
"Of course I'm okay. We make gorgeous girls, we already have all the pink in the world and we kinda, sorta know what we're doing with girls. Besides, I have a little brother. Boys are stinky and messy and they always want to be wrestling someone."
Mercedes laughed. "You know that I know you would say the exact opposite of these things if we were about to have our third boy?"
"And I would mean them just as sincerely."
"I know." She gave him a quick hug and then picked up her purse. "C'mon, let's go, before they think you're back here trying to get me more pregnant."
Sam laughed and they walked out of the room.
It was a short drive and they were soon home, where Mercedes's mom had come over to watch the girls.
"Hey mama," Mercedes said, kissing her mom's cheek as they came in the back door and found Evelyn Jones in the kitchen.
"Hey! Well?" she said expectantly.
"Another granddaughter!" Sam said, quietly, but excitedly, not wanting the girls to hear him yet.
"Wonderful! It's good that you won't have to get a lot of new things."
"Exactly. Where are the girls?"
Evelyn gestured out of the room. "In the playroom. You go on and tell them, I'll finish getting your dinner prep done."
"Thank you, you're the best!" Mercedes said and her mother smiled.
"Honey, I remember how worn out I was when I was pregnant with you and trying to take care of your brother. I can't imagine having two to keep up with during pregnancy!"
"I think the real problem," Mercedes said to Sam once they were out of her mother's earshot, "is that James must have been an absolute holy terror, because I swear I'm not as fragile as she makes it sound."
"I know," he said as they reached the playroom; this was not the first time he'd heard this statement.
"Excuse me," Sam said and both girls immediately looked up and smiled, "are there any future big sisters in this room?"
"Me, me, me!" Four-year-old Zoe came running at him and he caught her, swinging her up on to his hip.
"That's right, you are," he said, kissing her forehead.
"What about you, Gab?" Mercedes said to their seven-year-old, Gabrielle, who was sitting at their little table and coloring.
She had gone back to her picture and didn't even look up from her drawing. "I'm already a big sister."
"Well, that's true," Mercedes said, going to squat beside the table and then realizing that was not a smart idea and just flat-out sitting on the floor instead. "Oh, that was a mistake," she muttered under her breath. "I'm gonna need help getting up eventually."
Sam laughed and sat down beside her, Zoe in his lap.
"Anyway, Gabby," she said, "some people get to be a big sister or brother more than once. Like Daddy, he's a big brother to Uncle Stevie and Aunt Stacy. I think that's pretty neat. I'm the youngest in my family, I never got to be a big sister. I sort of am now, to Uncle Stevie and Aunt Stacy, since I married Daddy, but that's not the same. They were big kids when I met them and they were almost grown-ups by the time Daddy and I got married."
Gabby nodded, still concentrating on her drawing.
Mercedes looked at Sam, their eyes meeting over Zoe's head. "Is she upset? Or –" Mercedes asked quietly and Sam shrugged.
"Or just indifferent?" he whispered back.
"Hey, Gab," Sam said to her, "are you okay with being a big sister again?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I just want to finish my drawing."
"Oh. Okay. Well, can Mommy and I talk to you for a minute and then you can go back to your drawing?"
"We thought you guys might want to know if the baby is going to be a little sister or a little brother?" Mercedes added, smiling at Zoe, who was now fully sprawled out across Sam's lap, her head resting on Mercedes's leg. Zoe turned her head just enough to address her mother's belly.
"Yeah!" Zoe cheered. "Hi baby, what are you?"
Sam and Mercedes both laughed and Gabby put her crayon down. "Okay, I'm done enough," she said, looking at her parents with an attitude that felt more like seventeen than seven.
Mercedes held out her arms to her oldest and was grateful when Gabby got out of the chair and came to sit on her other leg.
"Well," she said, one hand on her stomach and the other arm wrapped around Gabby, "it's another girl! You're getting a little sister!"
Both girls cheered and Mercedes breathed a sigh of relief. She'd suspected that Gabby was not hoping for a brother.
"Oh, you guys, she's moving around! She must be glad that you're excited about her."
"She's moving?" Zoe looked and sounded incredulous and Mercedes nodded. "But how?" Zoe asked. "I thought she was stuck in your belly."
"She is," Mercedes said. "But she's in a special spot in my belly and she has special liquid to like, swim around in. Like when you swim around in the big bathtub. So I can feel her moving when she does that." She reached for Zoe and Gabby's hands. "Do you want to try to feel?"
Both girls nodded and she took their hands, trying to get them situated in the best spot. It was so early on that the baby's movement might not be noticeable to anyone but her, but when there was a sharp movement and both girls' eyes went wide, she knew they had felt it too.
"That's so weeeeiirrrrddd," Zoe said and Mercedes laughed.
"Yeah," Gabby added.
"It really kind of is, isn't it?" Sam's eyes met hers over the girls' heads and she stifled a laugh, remembering how incredibly freaked out they had both been when Gabby had started moving around during that pregnancy. And with Zoe, while Gabby had been old enough to be curious, she was also still young enough that she didn't remember any of it now. It really was going to be fun this time, with Gabby really old enough to understand and Zoe being that one year older than Gabby had been would make a huge difference there too.
She could tell Sam was dying for a chance to feel the baby moving too, so she said to the girls, "Okay, should we let Daddy have a turn?"
Zoe pulled at her father's hand. "Right here, Daddy," she said, pushing Sam's hand onto Mercedes's belly. Mercedes laughed and put her hand over his.
"Actually, more like – right here now," she said, moving his hand a little to the left and he grinned.
"It's just so amazing, every time," he said and Mercedes smiled at him, crinkling her nose.
"Right?" she replied.
"All right, y'all, I'm leaving!" they heard Evelyn call from down the hall and Mercedes picked Zoe up and set her on her feet.
"You better go tell your gramma bye," Mercedes said. "Tell her we'll be there in a minute, Daddy's gotta help me stand up first."
The girls ran out of the room as instructed and Sam gave her belly one last pat and got up before holding his hands out for her to grab, helping her to her feet.
"Thank you," she said.
"Anytime," he said, giving her what was meant to be a quick kiss but turned lingering, as little feet came running back down the hall.
"Gramma says you better hurry up, she's got to get home and make Grampa's dinner!" Zoe was yelling as she burst back into the room, saw them kissing, and turned around to run back down the hall. "Gramma! Ewwwwwww! They're kissing!"
Mercedes laughed, shaking her head as she pulled away from Sam and headed out of the room. "How you ever got me pregnant again with that little chaperone around is beyond me," she muttered under her breath.
Sam grinned as he followed her. "That's why kids sleep so hard and look so cute when they do. So that you'll remember how much you love them and have time for the activities that lead to more of them."
Mercedes considered this. "Yeah, you're not wrong."
"Science, babe. Pure facts."
Mercedes burst out laughing at that and they kept walking to the kitchen.
Later, after dinner was finished, Sam got the dishwasher loaded and the girls bathed and ready for bed so Mercedes could have an hour or two in the studio – she was working on a new song and felt like she was just on the edge of the creative breakthrough, but couldn't quite get there. Finally she threw her pen down, pushed her notebook aside and headed back into the main part of the house.
The TV was still on in the den, but muted and most of the lights off, when she looked in there and so she continued upstairs. She stopped first in Zoe's room and found the little one already sound asleep. She straightened her pink blanket, smoothed a hand over her hair, and, balancing herself carefully, leaned down to kiss her forehead.
Then she stepped across the hall to Gabby's room, stopping just out of sight of the doorway as she heard Gabby saying, "Daddy?"
"Yes, honey," she heard Sam reply, catching just the faintest tinge of tiredness in his voice. She would bet money that Gabby had already gone to the bathroom, requested a glass of water, had a song sung to her, maybe two, and still somehow wasn't ready to go to sleep.
"Why do you and Mommy need another baby?" Oh, Mercedes thought, putting her hand over her heart. It was the 'mommy' that really got to her. Gabby had pretty much stopped calling her that as she hit 'seven-going-on-seventeen.' She used just the shortened 'mom' most of the time.
"Well," Sam said slowly, "it's not so much that we need another baby, it's that we get to have one."
"But why? Aren't me and Zoe enough kids around here?"
"Hey, Gab, come here," Sam said, holding his arms out to her and she sat up and hugged him. "You two are plenty of kids. But sometimes, things happen – especially babies – that you don't always plan on. They happen kind of by accident. And you adjust to a new plan. And that's what we're doing now."
Gabby sat back against her pillows, arms crossed, frowning. "But you said you and Mommy have to work together to make the baby. How do you work together on accident?"
Well, damn, Sam thought. She had been paying attention two months ago when they'd first told the girls about the new baby and they'd immediately wanted to know how the baby got in Mommy's uterus. They'd agreed a long time ago that, especially with having had friends have a baby in their sophomore year of high school, they wanted to be open and honest with their kids about sex and make sure they were informed and knew they could always come to them with their questions. But good Lord, it was a LOT harder in practice than in theory.
"Well," he said, even more slowly than the last time he'd said the word, and Mercedes decided he might need some help.
"Hey," she said softly, entering the room and coming to sit on the other side of Gabby's bed. "I heard your question – can I answer it?"
Gabby and Sam both nodded and she choked back a laugh at the relieved look on her husband's face.
"Okay. So the way that a man and woman work together to make a baby – and remember that hthis is something for grown-ups – well, it can be a lot of fun. So sometimes they work together even if they're not trying to make a baby. And sometimes you get a baby anyway, which is why you should be a grown-up." She studied her daughter's face, trying to gauge her comprehension. "Does that make sense?"
Gabby nodded. "Kind of. I think."
Mercedes smiled. "I think you're tired. Why don't you sleep on it and you can ask more questions tomorrow if you have them?"
Gabby nodded, leaning forward to hug first Mercedes and then Sam.
"I love you, sweetie," Mercedes said.
"Love you, kiddo," from Sam as they both got up and headed out of the room.
"Thank you," Sam said as they headed downstairs. "I totally froze."
Mercedes shook her head as they settled on the couch. "It's okay. You know I'm not totally comfortable either, but it's the best thing for them, so I power through." She looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's better to have most of it come from me for right now. You might be more helpful as they get older, help them understand what it's like for the guys that they might date or be friends with." She rested her head on Sam's shoulder. "I love watching you with them though."
"We make a good team," he said lightly, kissing the top of her head.
"That we do," she said, snuggling in closer. "That we do."