~A Once and Again Series~
Where Do We Go From Here?
Chapter 26//Not for the Whole World
*
*
*
"Oooohhh."
Grace looked over at Zoe and smiled.
Zoe held up the pretty fluffy pink dress, "It's so cute!"
Grace fingered the silky material. "It's beautiful."
"I still can't believe you have a baby in there," Zoe tapped Grace's bulging belly.
"I better have SOMETHING in there!" Grace joked. "If I gained all this weight for nothing..."
Zoe smiled, looking over the little baby girl clothes on the rack. "And Judy is going to be having her baby soon, too!"
Grace nodded, "Right... I wanted to buy her..." Grace trailed off, spotting a blue baby boy's corduroy jumper. "Something for little baby Blue," Grace finished, taking the little outfit off the rack.
"Did she and Sam choose a name?" Zoe asked, looking over Grace's choice.
"I think they're going with Felix Frances Blue," Grace answered.
Zoe made a little face, "Felix? Don't tell me you're going to name your kid something like that."
"Oh, we haven't decided on a name yet," Grace said, shrugging it off. "Shall we head home?"
Zoe snuck a not-so-subtle look at the store's clock. "Uh, not yet."
Grace turned back to looking through the racks, pretending she had no clue why Zoe had wanted to keep her away from the house for the past few hours. She smiled as her fingers passed over the tiny adorable clothes.
* * *
Grace pulled into the driveway. She looked at Zoe, before shutting off the car. "Is it safe to go in now?"
Zoe faked ignorance, "What do you mean?"
Grace rolled her eyes, turning the key. The engine shut off. "Alright."
Zoe smiled, and they got out of the car. Zoe reached the door and "accidentally" hit the doorbell. "Opps," She grinned.
Grace just smiled knowingly. It wasn't hard to guess what was about to happen. Her mother had been making hushed plans on the phone all week.
Zoe pulled open the door, and they stepped inside.
"SURPRISE!"
Faces popped up from behind chairs and corners, and Grace faked complete astonishment. "What? Wow."
Lily came towards Grace, and led her into the living room, "We decided to throw you a baby shower."
"Thanks," Grace said, smiling at all of them: Lily, Zoe, Jessie, Katie, a very-big Judy, Tiffany holding Maddy who was staring wide-eyed at baby Dominic who was leaning towards her from Karen's lap.... Julie, Sarah, and Ashley were here too. Grace was touched. She had kind of lost touch with her three best friends after they went off to college, and she stayed home. Grace guessed they must be home on Thanksgiving break.
"Well, come on! We've got cool games, food and then you can open your gifts!" Zoe cried, happily.
Grace did just that.
* * *
"Oh, hi," Eli said as Jake entered the kitchen.
"Hi," Jake said back, just as awkwardly. He looked towards the living room, where loud laughter and giggles were erupting.
"The baby shower," Eli explained.
Jake nodded, "Right."
"It's kind of a girl's thing..." Eli explained, as to why he was out here.
Jake smiled, remembering Tiffany's baby shower. "I know what you mean."
Eli slowly broke into a smile. "So, did you want me to go fetch Grace... I might be able to make it out there and back alive."
Jake shook his head. He looked down at the box he had carried in from the car and then back up at Eli. "I actually came to see you."
"Oh... you did?"
"Yeah," Jake rubbed the back of his neck slightly, "I... I just wanted to say, 'sorry' for the way I treated the news of you... uh, being the father."
"No..." Eli shrugged, "It's the way a father should react."
"Yeah, well," Jake looked over at Eli, "I guess I wanted to say that I'm glad it's you... that's going through this with Grace. I can see now, just how much you mean to her."
"I love her," Eli said simply.
Jake smiled affectionately at him. "Yeah, you do."
Eli looked at the box.
"Oh," Jake said, looking down at it, himself. "I, uh, bought you some of Maddy's old clothes. I figured since you're going to have a girl... the baby, my granddaughter... could wear some of these."
"Yeah... thanks," Eli said.
They opened the box, and began shifting through the collection of cute little shirts, pants, and dresses. Jake looked over at Eli, while he was looking down in the box, and smiled. He had come to respect and love Eli as a son... as his daughter's boyfriend. As the father of his granddaughter. Jake clapped a hand on Eli's shoulder, and Eli looked over at him, with a smile of his own.
* * *
"It's happening!"
Grace looked over from the computer, where she was trying to type, while still sitting far enough back so her belly didn't press against the edge of the desk.
"It's happening!" Lily repeated, absolutely glowing. "Judy's having her baby."
"Oh gosh," Grace cried, easing up from the chair. "Like now?"
Lily nodded, "She called from the hospital. She and Sam just got there."
"Let me get my shoes on," Grace said, hurrying over to the closet. She slipped her feet into a pair of slip-on clogs, grateful for her one pair of winter shoes that didn't require tying of laces. It made things much simpler on her middle-heavy body. Grace grabbed her coat off the chair, and followed her mother down to the car. Lily buckled Dominic in the back in his car seat and they began to drive.
Jessie and Zoe were at school right now. Grace looked over at her mother, and they practically shared one mind. "We should pick them up, huh?" Lily asked.
Grace nodded, "They'd hate if they missed it."
Lily nodded, and changed the direction of the car to head towards the high school. Fifteen minutes later, Lily was coming back out of the school with Zoe and Jessie skipping excitedly behind her. They got into the car and headed for the hospital.
"Hey," Lily greeted Sam, when they arrived in the waiting room. She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Is this actually happening?" Sam joked.
Lily assured him it was and Sam guided them down the hall to Judy's room.
Judy sat on the bed, her face slightly sweaty, but free of any pain-- right now. She smiled warmly at the gang of them, and her eyes teared up a bit. "Lily... I'm having a baby!"
Lily hugged her sister tightly, tears forming in her eyes also. "Ohhhh," She breathed.
"Are we late? Did we miss it?" Rick asked, as he and Eli entered.
"Rick! Eli!" Judy said, pleased that they were there too. "You didn't have to come..."
Eli smiled, "Part of the fun of working at Sammler and Blue is that we can do things like this."
Rick nodded, "We wouldn't miss this." He touched Judy's hand, smiling at his sister-in-law.
"Okay, okay. Way too many people in here," Said a female nurse as she entered. "Let's narrow it down, okay, and take turns. We need to give the pregnant woman room to breathe."
They turned, and began dispatching out of the room. The nurse caught site of Grace and her big belly, and her eyebrows lifted questioningly, "Are you a visitor or...?"
"I'm not due till another month," Grace reassured the nurse.
The nurse gave her a friendly smile, "Just checking."
Grace took a hold of Eli's hand and they walked out to the waiting room.
* * *
"It's a boy!" Lily cried, as she came out of Judy's hospital room a few hours later.
"We already knew that!" Zoe complained.
"Can we see him?" Jessie asked.
"Soon, soon," Lily promised. She turned and went back into the room, joining Judy and Sam and their new arrival.
Grace tightened her grip on Eli's hand. "That's going to be us in another few weeks."
Eli leaned in, kissing her sweetly. "I can't wait."
* * *
"Meet Felix," Judy said, lifting the blanket, so they could see the baby's face.
They all smiled, at the beautiful boy. The nurse had allowed them to all go in at once, as long as they didn't stay long.
"Can... I hold him?" Eli asked, surprising everyone. He caught their looks, and gave a half-smile, "Hey, I've got to get used to one of these."
Judy placed the baby gently in Eli's arms. Eli looked down, his eyes filled with wonder at the little baby.
"Hello?"
"Mom!" Jessie cried out, pleased. She went and embraced her mother.
"And, I picked up..." Karen said, moving out of the way to let Sam's son, Jaime enter.
Jaime looked at them all a bit cautiously and moved towards his father. Sam put a hand on Jaime's shoulder and pointed at the baby. "You have a brother."
"Cool," Jaime said.
Karen looked over at Eli and the baby. Her face broke in an easy smile at the site of her son... and a baby. Karen looked over and her eyes met Grace's. They shared a warm smile.
"We're going to be grandparents, huh?" Rick commented, coming up next to Karen.
Karen nodded, drawing a deep breath. "When did we get so... old?"
Rick smiled compassionately at his ex-wife. "I don't know."
Karen looked over at Eli again, who was kneeling a bit, so Jaime could observe Felix close up. "But, we did good, didn't we?"
Rick also looked at Eli, and then at Jessie, who was growing more and more beautiful everyday. "Yes, we did," He agreed proudly.
"Grace," Eli called, motioning to her.
Grace went over, smiling, as Eli gently passed the baby on to her. "Ohhhh," She breathed as she held the tiny thing in her arms. "He's beautiful, Judy."
"I know," Judy said, her voice full of emotion.
"We do good work," Sam joked, kissing Judy's cheek.
"It won't be that long, Grace... till you have your own," Jessie reminded her, coming up close to look at the baby.
Grace didn't need any reminding. It was all she thought about these days... bringing another life into the world. Her and Eli raising a baby girl who would grow up to be her own person, with her own ideas and thoughts.
Jake and Tiffany appeared in the doorway.
"Looks like this room is exceeding its fire capacity," Jake joked.
"Come in!" Judy insisted.
The two moved forward. Jake kissed Judy's cheek. "So, partner, where's the little guy?" Judy pointed, and Jake looked, his breath stopping as he saw Grace looking so beautiful, absolutely glowing, holding the new baby.
"This is Felix," Grace said to her father, passing on the little guy.
"Wait..." Jake said, but took the baby anyways. His fingers brushed the baby's smooth skin. "He's... perfect."
"I know," Judy said happily. She clasped Sam's hand, smiling up at him. "I know."
* * *
"Mom?" Grace asked.
Lily looked up, "Yes?"
"Does it hurt... like a lot?" Grace asked.
Lily didn't try to sugarcoat it. "It does."
Grace tried to smile, but failed. She sank down into one of their kitchen chairs.
"But, it's worth all the pain, Grace," Lily said, coming close to kiss Grace's forehead. "It's amazing."
Grace smiled.
Lily went back to preparing dinner. She looked over her shoulder, fondly, at her daughter. "I seem to remember a time when you thought you'd never have kids."
Grace shrugged, grinning. "I remember that too... but I wouldn't trade this... not for the whole world." Grace's hands rubbed her belly affectionately, feeling the baby kick her back in return. It wouldn't be long now...
* * *
Where Do We Go From Here?
Chapter 26//Not for the Whole World
*
*
*
"Oooohhh."
Grace looked over at Zoe and smiled.
Zoe held up the pretty fluffy pink dress, "It's so cute!"
Grace fingered the silky material. "It's beautiful."
"I still can't believe you have a baby in there," Zoe tapped Grace's bulging belly.
"I better have SOMETHING in there!" Grace joked. "If I gained all this weight for nothing..."
Zoe smiled, looking over the little baby girl clothes on the rack. "And Judy is going to be having her baby soon, too!"
Grace nodded, "Right... I wanted to buy her..." Grace trailed off, spotting a blue baby boy's corduroy jumper. "Something for little baby Blue," Grace finished, taking the little outfit off the rack.
"Did she and Sam choose a name?" Zoe asked, looking over Grace's choice.
"I think they're going with Felix Frances Blue," Grace answered.
Zoe made a little face, "Felix? Don't tell me you're going to name your kid something like that."
"Oh, we haven't decided on a name yet," Grace said, shrugging it off. "Shall we head home?"
Zoe snuck a not-so-subtle look at the store's clock. "Uh, not yet."
Grace turned back to looking through the racks, pretending she had no clue why Zoe had wanted to keep her away from the house for the past few hours. She smiled as her fingers passed over the tiny adorable clothes.
* * *
Grace pulled into the driveway. She looked at Zoe, before shutting off the car. "Is it safe to go in now?"
Zoe faked ignorance, "What do you mean?"
Grace rolled her eyes, turning the key. The engine shut off. "Alright."
Zoe smiled, and they got out of the car. Zoe reached the door and "accidentally" hit the doorbell. "Opps," She grinned.
Grace just smiled knowingly. It wasn't hard to guess what was about to happen. Her mother had been making hushed plans on the phone all week.
Zoe pulled open the door, and they stepped inside.
"SURPRISE!"
Faces popped up from behind chairs and corners, and Grace faked complete astonishment. "What? Wow."
Lily came towards Grace, and led her into the living room, "We decided to throw you a baby shower."
"Thanks," Grace said, smiling at all of them: Lily, Zoe, Jessie, Katie, a very-big Judy, Tiffany holding Maddy who was staring wide-eyed at baby Dominic who was leaning towards her from Karen's lap.... Julie, Sarah, and Ashley were here too. Grace was touched. She had kind of lost touch with her three best friends after they went off to college, and she stayed home. Grace guessed they must be home on Thanksgiving break.
"Well, come on! We've got cool games, food and then you can open your gifts!" Zoe cried, happily.
Grace did just that.
* * *
"Oh, hi," Eli said as Jake entered the kitchen.
"Hi," Jake said back, just as awkwardly. He looked towards the living room, where loud laughter and giggles were erupting.
"The baby shower," Eli explained.
Jake nodded, "Right."
"It's kind of a girl's thing..." Eli explained, as to why he was out here.
Jake smiled, remembering Tiffany's baby shower. "I know what you mean."
Eli slowly broke into a smile. "So, did you want me to go fetch Grace... I might be able to make it out there and back alive."
Jake shook his head. He looked down at the box he had carried in from the car and then back up at Eli. "I actually came to see you."
"Oh... you did?"
"Yeah," Jake rubbed the back of his neck slightly, "I... I just wanted to say, 'sorry' for the way I treated the news of you... uh, being the father."
"No..." Eli shrugged, "It's the way a father should react."
"Yeah, well," Jake looked over at Eli, "I guess I wanted to say that I'm glad it's you... that's going through this with Grace. I can see now, just how much you mean to her."
"I love her," Eli said simply.
Jake smiled affectionately at him. "Yeah, you do."
Eli looked at the box.
"Oh," Jake said, looking down at it, himself. "I, uh, bought you some of Maddy's old clothes. I figured since you're going to have a girl... the baby, my granddaughter... could wear some of these."
"Yeah... thanks," Eli said.
They opened the box, and began shifting through the collection of cute little shirts, pants, and dresses. Jake looked over at Eli, while he was looking down in the box, and smiled. He had come to respect and love Eli as a son... as his daughter's boyfriend. As the father of his granddaughter. Jake clapped a hand on Eli's shoulder, and Eli looked over at him, with a smile of his own.
* * *
"It's happening!"
Grace looked over from the computer, where she was trying to type, while still sitting far enough back so her belly didn't press against the edge of the desk.
"It's happening!" Lily repeated, absolutely glowing. "Judy's having her baby."
"Oh gosh," Grace cried, easing up from the chair. "Like now?"
Lily nodded, "She called from the hospital. She and Sam just got there."
"Let me get my shoes on," Grace said, hurrying over to the closet. She slipped her feet into a pair of slip-on clogs, grateful for her one pair of winter shoes that didn't require tying of laces. It made things much simpler on her middle-heavy body. Grace grabbed her coat off the chair, and followed her mother down to the car. Lily buckled Dominic in the back in his car seat and they began to drive.
Jessie and Zoe were at school right now. Grace looked over at her mother, and they practically shared one mind. "We should pick them up, huh?" Lily asked.
Grace nodded, "They'd hate if they missed it."
Lily nodded, and changed the direction of the car to head towards the high school. Fifteen minutes later, Lily was coming back out of the school with Zoe and Jessie skipping excitedly behind her. They got into the car and headed for the hospital.
"Hey," Lily greeted Sam, when they arrived in the waiting room. She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Is this actually happening?" Sam joked.
Lily assured him it was and Sam guided them down the hall to Judy's room.
Judy sat on the bed, her face slightly sweaty, but free of any pain-- right now. She smiled warmly at the gang of them, and her eyes teared up a bit. "Lily... I'm having a baby!"
Lily hugged her sister tightly, tears forming in her eyes also. "Ohhhh," She breathed.
"Are we late? Did we miss it?" Rick asked, as he and Eli entered.
"Rick! Eli!" Judy said, pleased that they were there too. "You didn't have to come..."
Eli smiled, "Part of the fun of working at Sammler and Blue is that we can do things like this."
Rick nodded, "We wouldn't miss this." He touched Judy's hand, smiling at his sister-in-law.
"Okay, okay. Way too many people in here," Said a female nurse as she entered. "Let's narrow it down, okay, and take turns. We need to give the pregnant woman room to breathe."
They turned, and began dispatching out of the room. The nurse caught site of Grace and her big belly, and her eyebrows lifted questioningly, "Are you a visitor or...?"
"I'm not due till another month," Grace reassured the nurse.
The nurse gave her a friendly smile, "Just checking."
Grace took a hold of Eli's hand and they walked out to the waiting room.
* * *
"It's a boy!" Lily cried, as she came out of Judy's hospital room a few hours later.
"We already knew that!" Zoe complained.
"Can we see him?" Jessie asked.
"Soon, soon," Lily promised. She turned and went back into the room, joining Judy and Sam and their new arrival.
Grace tightened her grip on Eli's hand. "That's going to be us in another few weeks."
Eli leaned in, kissing her sweetly. "I can't wait."
* * *
"Meet Felix," Judy said, lifting the blanket, so they could see the baby's face.
They all smiled, at the beautiful boy. The nurse had allowed them to all go in at once, as long as they didn't stay long.
"Can... I hold him?" Eli asked, surprising everyone. He caught their looks, and gave a half-smile, "Hey, I've got to get used to one of these."
Judy placed the baby gently in Eli's arms. Eli looked down, his eyes filled with wonder at the little baby.
"Hello?"
"Mom!" Jessie cried out, pleased. She went and embraced her mother.
"And, I picked up..." Karen said, moving out of the way to let Sam's son, Jaime enter.
Jaime looked at them all a bit cautiously and moved towards his father. Sam put a hand on Jaime's shoulder and pointed at the baby. "You have a brother."
"Cool," Jaime said.
Karen looked over at Eli and the baby. Her face broke in an easy smile at the site of her son... and a baby. Karen looked over and her eyes met Grace's. They shared a warm smile.
"We're going to be grandparents, huh?" Rick commented, coming up next to Karen.
Karen nodded, drawing a deep breath. "When did we get so... old?"
Rick smiled compassionately at his ex-wife. "I don't know."
Karen looked over at Eli again, who was kneeling a bit, so Jaime could observe Felix close up. "But, we did good, didn't we?"
Rick also looked at Eli, and then at Jessie, who was growing more and more beautiful everyday. "Yes, we did," He agreed proudly.
"Grace," Eli called, motioning to her.
Grace went over, smiling, as Eli gently passed the baby on to her. "Ohhhh," She breathed as she held the tiny thing in her arms. "He's beautiful, Judy."
"I know," Judy said, her voice full of emotion.
"We do good work," Sam joked, kissing Judy's cheek.
"It won't be that long, Grace... till you have your own," Jessie reminded her, coming up close to look at the baby.
Grace didn't need any reminding. It was all she thought about these days... bringing another life into the world. Her and Eli raising a baby girl who would grow up to be her own person, with her own ideas and thoughts.
Jake and Tiffany appeared in the doorway.
"Looks like this room is exceeding its fire capacity," Jake joked.
"Come in!" Judy insisted.
The two moved forward. Jake kissed Judy's cheek. "So, partner, where's the little guy?" Judy pointed, and Jake looked, his breath stopping as he saw Grace looking so beautiful, absolutely glowing, holding the new baby.
"This is Felix," Grace said to her father, passing on the little guy.
"Wait..." Jake said, but took the baby anyways. His fingers brushed the baby's smooth skin. "He's... perfect."
"I know," Judy said happily. She clasped Sam's hand, smiling up at him. "I know."
* * *
"Mom?" Grace asked.
Lily looked up, "Yes?"
"Does it hurt... like a lot?" Grace asked.
Lily didn't try to sugarcoat it. "It does."
Grace tried to smile, but failed. She sank down into one of their kitchen chairs.
"But, it's worth all the pain, Grace," Lily said, coming close to kiss Grace's forehead. "It's amazing."
Grace smiled.
Lily went back to preparing dinner. She looked over her shoulder, fondly, at her daughter. "I seem to remember a time when you thought you'd never have kids."
Grace shrugged, grinning. "I remember that too... but I wouldn't trade this... not for the whole world." Grace's hands rubbed her belly affectionately, feeling the baby kick her back in return. It wouldn't be long now...
* * *