Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me, except for Elle and Harrison Stokes.
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Nick woke up without his wife beside him. The past few days he had known that she wouldn't be there, and wasn't too disappointed. But when he woke up, he was startled to not see her. 'I'm pretty sure she came home last night' Nick thought to himself. When he lifted his head up off the pillow and spied her suitcase and travel bag next to the rocking chair that Sara used to sit it and rock their children to sleep in, he knew that she was definitely home.
"Sara?" Nick called out, figuring she might've gotten up early to take a shower, or to eat something. He got out of bed, pulling a t-shirt on, and walked past the bathroom. He looked in and saw the light was off. No Sara. He went into the living room. No Sara. The kitchen. No Sara. He then thought that Sara might have gone to sit with one of the twins. He made his way into Elle's room. No Sara, but there was Elle, half of her body hanging off the bed as she was playing with her dolls on the floor.
"Good morning Elle" Nick said, walking into the room. He shocked her, causing the rest of her body to fall out of the bed, and for her to hit her head on the hardwood floors. "Oh sweetie." Nick said, running to her side as she began to cry. He scooped her in his arms. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He pulled her face away from his shoulder. "Are you OK baby?" He said, looking at her face. She just nodded and sniffled, and snuggled back into his warm embrace. "Lets go find mommy." Elle perked up, remembering her mother returning last night.
"Mommy!!" Elle said, jumping out of Nick's arms and running towards Harrison's room, where she saw her mother sitting on the floor playing with him. "Mommy, you're home!" She said, grabbing Sara from behind and wrapping her arms tightly around Sara's neck.
"Hey Elle, yeah, I got home last night. Really late. Daddy was even asleep." Sara said, pulling Elle around to face her.
"Wow, that was late." Elle said, holding onto her mother's hand, knowing how late Nick usually stayed up.
"Oh Elle, what happened to your head? There's a red bump." Sara soothingly rubbed the bruise on her daughter's tiny forehead, and kissed it lightly.
"Daddy walked into my room, and he scared me and I fell out of my bed and hit my head on the floor." Elle said, grabbing Harrison's Elmo doll off the floor, and nestling her face into Elmo's.
"Nick? Why did you scare her?" Sara said, looking at her husband from the floor as he leaned in the doorway. He felt as though he was being yelled at by his mother, but just laughed.
"I didn't mean to, I was going in to say good morning." Nick said.
"Mom, do you have work today?" Harrison asked, poking his head out from behind the toy chest where he had gone on search of his runaway bouncy ball.
"Nope, Uncle Grissom gave me today and tomorrow off because he felt so bad making me leave you guys." Sara said, looking up at Nick, who didn't know of the news.
"He gave you the next two days off? Wow." Nick said. Sara was a workaholic before she had gotten pregnant, and after the delivery, she could never imagine working as much as she did while she had two children at home.
"Yep, so we can do anything you guys want." Sara said. All of a sudden, she began feeling sharp pains in her stomach. "I'll be right back. I just have to go to the bathroom." Sara said, getting up and placing Elle on the floor.
Nick noticed the rapid change in Sara's mood as she headed quickly towards the bathroom. He just brushed it off and sat on the floor, and started playing with his children. After about 15 minutes and no return of Sara, he started to worry.
"Hey you two, I'm going to go check and see if mommy's OK." He said, resting the toy cars the three of them were playing with on the floor.
As he made his way to the bathroom, he had heard Sara in the bathroom. To Nick, he couldn't quite make out what he had heard. He knocked on the door, not wanting to disturb Sara. "Sar, honey, are you OK?" He heard no response, just the door unlock. He walked inside and saw his wife sitting on the floor, next to the toilet bowl. "Oh, sweetie" he said, wetting a washcloth with cold water and placing it on the back of her neck and her forehead.
"No Nick, I just threw up food I ate last night. I feel like complete shit." She said, moving the washcloth from her forehead to the back of her neck.
"Did you eat something bad?" Nick said, not really knowing why his wife was so sick, so sudden.
"No, just a bag of potato chips and a bottle of water. I felt fine until just a little while ago." She said, handing the washcloth to Nick so he could re-wet it.
"Maybe you have some sort of virus." Nick said, handing the newly soaked washcloth back to Sara.
"Probably. Can you give the kids breakfast? Cereal or something. I'm going to take a shower." She said, getting up.
"Yeah, sure." He said, helping her up. Before he left the bathroom, he gave her a kiss on the forehead.
After a 30-minute shower, Sara re-emerged from the shower looking refreshed and re-reenergized.
"Hey Sara, you feeling better?" Nick said, sitting down, eating cereal with the twins.
"Yeah Mommy, are you OK?" Harrison asked, looking up as his mother sat down in the seat next to him.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I feel much better. Its probably just some 24-hour bug." Nick looked at her. "Really, I'm feeling a lot better. So, Har, what is this your eating?" Sara said, peeking over the side of her son's cereal bowl.
"Its Cocoa Crispies. When you add the milk, it makes all these popping noises. You should've heard Elle's." Harrison said, pointing to Elle's cereal bowl. For Christmas, Catherine had bought Harrison Superman silverware - bowl, cup, fork, spoon, knife - and the identical for Elle, except instead of Superman she had Cinderella.
"Yeah, mine made a lot of popping noises. But I don't like the cocoa ones, I have the fruity ones." Elle said, indicating the morsels of sugar drowning in milk in her bowl.
"Yummy" Sara said. She directed her attention to Nick, "I see you buy the same foods I buy when I go food shopping" Sara said.
"Sara, every week they eat Cheerios. They needed a little sugar, that's what cereal is all about." Nick said, as he chomped down on his own Cocoa Crispies.
"Yeah, OK, but if they hate me when the Cocoa Crispies.." Sara began, getting up and going to grab a coffee cup out of the cabinet.
"And the fruity ones, Mommy" Elle said, as she heaved more of her cereal into her mouth.
"And the fruity ones are gone, I'm blaming you entirely." Sara said, filling her cup up with the hot liquid.
"I already take the blame." Nick said, looking over his shoulder at her, and giving him the wink that always reminded her of how much she loved him.
"Uh, Nicky, keep an eye on the kids." She said, throwing her coffee cup and dashing towards the bathroom. Nick heard her be sick again, and got up to help her. "Hey you two, eat your breakfast. I'll be right back." He said, leaving his children who were tasting each other's cereal.
"Sara, honey, still not feeling good?" Nick said, sitting across from her on the cold bathroom tile.
"Nick, I don't feel sick sick. Its almost how I felt when I was.." Sara stopped, not wanting to scare Nick.
"When you were what, Sar?" Nick said, moving closer to her.
"When I was pregnant with the twins." Sara said, looking Nick in the eye to see his reaction. "I'm not saying I'm.. you know, pregnant or anything, but its just the same feeling. Its an easily distinguishable feeling, I mean, its definitely a feeling you only get when your pregnant." She rambled on, trying to get some sort of a response from Nick.
"Sara, are you?" Nick asked, knowing that she already knew the answer. She only blathered when she was trying to hide something.
"Am I what?" Sara asked, trying to avoid the question at all costs.
"Sara, don't play dumb with me." He looked her in the eye. "Are you pregnant?"
Sara didn't want to answer too quickly, but she knew she had to tell him. They never discussed having more kids, the ones they already had were a handful for them. Sara didn't know if she or Nick could handle having another little one running around the house.
"Yes, I'm pregnant." Sara answered. Nick looked up at her, down to the floor, back towards her face. Sara needed something, anything, some sort of a response. Even if it be anger, she needed something. "Nick? Nicky, honey?"
"You're.. pregnant?" Nick asked, needing for her to confirm it once more for him.
"Yes, Nick. Pregnant. With child. Expectant. Expecting." Sara said, looking from the floor to the ceiling. "Pregnant." She said once more, almost validating it for herself.
Nick looked up at her, and gave her the grin he had given her the last time they found out Sara was expecting. It was the biggest and the best smile Sara had ever seen bless a face. "That's amazing, Sara." He said, moving as close as he could get and hugging her tightly, kissing her hair. "Its wonderful, baby. I can't imagine anything more perfect."
They just sat there, until they heard two tiny knocks at the door and saw Elle's head poke in. "Are you OK in here?" she asked, worried why her parents were in the bathroom for so long, and together.
"Everything's absolutely perfect, sweetheart" Nick said, holding out his arms to her. "Want to know what me and Mommy were talking about in here this whole time?"
Elle nodded as Harrison walked into his mother's extended arms. "Yeah."
"Mommy" Nick said, pointing to Sara, who waved "is going to have a baby."
"Whoa, are you really?" Harrison said, turning around in his mothers arms. Sara cringed as he said 'whoa', which he obviously picked up from Greg.
"Yep, I really am." Sara beamed.
"Cool." Harrison said, content with that answer. Elle on the other hand, wanted to know more.
"So a baby is going to come out of Mommy soon?" She asked, looking at her mother and father.
"Yeah" Nick said, reaching over and rubbing Sara's hand.
"A brand new baby?"
Sara laughed "Yes, a brand new baby. Never been used before. Brand new."
Elle just smiled, and snuggled into Nick.
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OK, bad ending? No? What's that you say? You're happy with this chapter? Oh, you're too kind. Much too kind. Well, read and review. That's all I have to say. Woo.
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Nick woke up without his wife beside him. The past few days he had known that she wouldn't be there, and wasn't too disappointed. But when he woke up, he was startled to not see her. 'I'm pretty sure she came home last night' Nick thought to himself. When he lifted his head up off the pillow and spied her suitcase and travel bag next to the rocking chair that Sara used to sit it and rock their children to sleep in, he knew that she was definitely home.
"Sara?" Nick called out, figuring she might've gotten up early to take a shower, or to eat something. He got out of bed, pulling a t-shirt on, and walked past the bathroom. He looked in and saw the light was off. No Sara. He went into the living room. No Sara. The kitchen. No Sara. He then thought that Sara might have gone to sit with one of the twins. He made his way into Elle's room. No Sara, but there was Elle, half of her body hanging off the bed as she was playing with her dolls on the floor.
"Good morning Elle" Nick said, walking into the room. He shocked her, causing the rest of her body to fall out of the bed, and for her to hit her head on the hardwood floors. "Oh sweetie." Nick said, running to her side as she began to cry. He scooped her in his arms. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He pulled her face away from his shoulder. "Are you OK baby?" He said, looking at her face. She just nodded and sniffled, and snuggled back into his warm embrace. "Lets go find mommy." Elle perked up, remembering her mother returning last night.
"Mommy!!" Elle said, jumping out of Nick's arms and running towards Harrison's room, where she saw her mother sitting on the floor playing with him. "Mommy, you're home!" She said, grabbing Sara from behind and wrapping her arms tightly around Sara's neck.
"Hey Elle, yeah, I got home last night. Really late. Daddy was even asleep." Sara said, pulling Elle around to face her.
"Wow, that was late." Elle said, holding onto her mother's hand, knowing how late Nick usually stayed up.
"Oh Elle, what happened to your head? There's a red bump." Sara soothingly rubbed the bruise on her daughter's tiny forehead, and kissed it lightly.
"Daddy walked into my room, and he scared me and I fell out of my bed and hit my head on the floor." Elle said, grabbing Harrison's Elmo doll off the floor, and nestling her face into Elmo's.
"Nick? Why did you scare her?" Sara said, looking at her husband from the floor as he leaned in the doorway. He felt as though he was being yelled at by his mother, but just laughed.
"I didn't mean to, I was going in to say good morning." Nick said.
"Mom, do you have work today?" Harrison asked, poking his head out from behind the toy chest where he had gone on search of his runaway bouncy ball.
"Nope, Uncle Grissom gave me today and tomorrow off because he felt so bad making me leave you guys." Sara said, looking up at Nick, who didn't know of the news.
"He gave you the next two days off? Wow." Nick said. Sara was a workaholic before she had gotten pregnant, and after the delivery, she could never imagine working as much as she did while she had two children at home.
"Yep, so we can do anything you guys want." Sara said. All of a sudden, she began feeling sharp pains in her stomach. "I'll be right back. I just have to go to the bathroom." Sara said, getting up and placing Elle on the floor.
Nick noticed the rapid change in Sara's mood as she headed quickly towards the bathroom. He just brushed it off and sat on the floor, and started playing with his children. After about 15 minutes and no return of Sara, he started to worry.
"Hey you two, I'm going to go check and see if mommy's OK." He said, resting the toy cars the three of them were playing with on the floor.
As he made his way to the bathroom, he had heard Sara in the bathroom. To Nick, he couldn't quite make out what he had heard. He knocked on the door, not wanting to disturb Sara. "Sar, honey, are you OK?" He heard no response, just the door unlock. He walked inside and saw his wife sitting on the floor, next to the toilet bowl. "Oh, sweetie" he said, wetting a washcloth with cold water and placing it on the back of her neck and her forehead.
"No Nick, I just threw up food I ate last night. I feel like complete shit." She said, moving the washcloth from her forehead to the back of her neck.
"Did you eat something bad?" Nick said, not really knowing why his wife was so sick, so sudden.
"No, just a bag of potato chips and a bottle of water. I felt fine until just a little while ago." She said, handing the washcloth to Nick so he could re-wet it.
"Maybe you have some sort of virus." Nick said, handing the newly soaked washcloth back to Sara.
"Probably. Can you give the kids breakfast? Cereal or something. I'm going to take a shower." She said, getting up.
"Yeah, sure." He said, helping her up. Before he left the bathroom, he gave her a kiss on the forehead.
After a 30-minute shower, Sara re-emerged from the shower looking refreshed and re-reenergized.
"Hey Sara, you feeling better?" Nick said, sitting down, eating cereal with the twins.
"Yeah Mommy, are you OK?" Harrison asked, looking up as his mother sat down in the seat next to him.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I feel much better. Its probably just some 24-hour bug." Nick looked at her. "Really, I'm feeling a lot better. So, Har, what is this your eating?" Sara said, peeking over the side of her son's cereal bowl.
"Its Cocoa Crispies. When you add the milk, it makes all these popping noises. You should've heard Elle's." Harrison said, pointing to Elle's cereal bowl. For Christmas, Catherine had bought Harrison Superman silverware - bowl, cup, fork, spoon, knife - and the identical for Elle, except instead of Superman she had Cinderella.
"Yeah, mine made a lot of popping noises. But I don't like the cocoa ones, I have the fruity ones." Elle said, indicating the morsels of sugar drowning in milk in her bowl.
"Yummy" Sara said. She directed her attention to Nick, "I see you buy the same foods I buy when I go food shopping" Sara said.
"Sara, every week they eat Cheerios. They needed a little sugar, that's what cereal is all about." Nick said, as he chomped down on his own Cocoa Crispies.
"Yeah, OK, but if they hate me when the Cocoa Crispies.." Sara began, getting up and going to grab a coffee cup out of the cabinet.
"And the fruity ones, Mommy" Elle said, as she heaved more of her cereal into her mouth.
"And the fruity ones are gone, I'm blaming you entirely." Sara said, filling her cup up with the hot liquid.
"I already take the blame." Nick said, looking over his shoulder at her, and giving him the wink that always reminded her of how much she loved him.
"Uh, Nicky, keep an eye on the kids." She said, throwing her coffee cup and dashing towards the bathroom. Nick heard her be sick again, and got up to help her. "Hey you two, eat your breakfast. I'll be right back." He said, leaving his children who were tasting each other's cereal.
"Sara, honey, still not feeling good?" Nick said, sitting across from her on the cold bathroom tile.
"Nick, I don't feel sick sick. Its almost how I felt when I was.." Sara stopped, not wanting to scare Nick.
"When you were what, Sar?" Nick said, moving closer to her.
"When I was pregnant with the twins." Sara said, looking Nick in the eye to see his reaction. "I'm not saying I'm.. you know, pregnant or anything, but its just the same feeling. Its an easily distinguishable feeling, I mean, its definitely a feeling you only get when your pregnant." She rambled on, trying to get some sort of a response from Nick.
"Sara, are you?" Nick asked, knowing that she already knew the answer. She only blathered when she was trying to hide something.
"Am I what?" Sara asked, trying to avoid the question at all costs.
"Sara, don't play dumb with me." He looked her in the eye. "Are you pregnant?"
Sara didn't want to answer too quickly, but she knew she had to tell him. They never discussed having more kids, the ones they already had were a handful for them. Sara didn't know if she or Nick could handle having another little one running around the house.
"Yes, I'm pregnant." Sara answered. Nick looked up at her, down to the floor, back towards her face. Sara needed something, anything, some sort of a response. Even if it be anger, she needed something. "Nick? Nicky, honey?"
"You're.. pregnant?" Nick asked, needing for her to confirm it once more for him.
"Yes, Nick. Pregnant. With child. Expectant. Expecting." Sara said, looking from the floor to the ceiling. "Pregnant." She said once more, almost validating it for herself.
Nick looked up at her, and gave her the grin he had given her the last time they found out Sara was expecting. It was the biggest and the best smile Sara had ever seen bless a face. "That's amazing, Sara." He said, moving as close as he could get and hugging her tightly, kissing her hair. "Its wonderful, baby. I can't imagine anything more perfect."
They just sat there, until they heard two tiny knocks at the door and saw Elle's head poke in. "Are you OK in here?" she asked, worried why her parents were in the bathroom for so long, and together.
"Everything's absolutely perfect, sweetheart" Nick said, holding out his arms to her. "Want to know what me and Mommy were talking about in here this whole time?"
Elle nodded as Harrison walked into his mother's extended arms. "Yeah."
"Mommy" Nick said, pointing to Sara, who waved "is going to have a baby."
"Whoa, are you really?" Harrison said, turning around in his mothers arms. Sara cringed as he said 'whoa', which he obviously picked up from Greg.
"Yep, I really am." Sara beamed.
"Cool." Harrison said, content with that answer. Elle on the other hand, wanted to know more.
"So a baby is going to come out of Mommy soon?" She asked, looking at her mother and father.
"Yeah" Nick said, reaching over and rubbing Sara's hand.
"A brand new baby?"
Sara laughed "Yes, a brand new baby. Never been used before. Brand new."
Elle just smiled, and snuggled into Nick.
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OK, bad ending? No? What's that you say? You're happy with this chapter? Oh, you're too kind. Much too kind. Well, read and review. That's all I have to say. Woo.