GRACE AND JACOB

In Alexandria, Virginia the moon was full and there was a gentle breeze on a quiet Sunday morning. The sound of the wind and some early rising birds was all that could be heard in the stillness of the pre-dawn hour. The quiet, well-to-do, suburban neighborhood was at peace, its residents slumbering undisturbed. That was certainly the case at the O'Neill home until a small baby slowly began to awaken and notice she was hungry.

Grace was only 2 months old but already she'd managed to develop a powerful blood curdling cry when she wanted to be fed. She'd work up to it gradually, politely giving her parents a chance to respond before she woke the neighborhood. If that didn't work she would turn up the volume in increments until Jacob, who would have slept through the night left to his own devices, joined his sister's plaintive cries. By the time Jacob joined in at least one parent had usually been shaken from their sleep. With both twins crying, sleep was a thing of the past.

On this particular night, Sam began to stir at the first soft whimpers from Grace, whose cradle was the closest to her parents' bed. Two months after the delivery, Sam felt like she was still suffering from sleep deprivation. She'd cherished two nights when both babies had slept through the night. On one of those nights, however, Sam had awoken frequently just to be sure they were okay.

Eyes still half closed, she pulled herself slowly from the bed trying not to wake her husband who had put in an eighty hour week and seemed more tired than she was. This was his only morning to sleep in and she didn't want him to miss out. Jack had put in his share of early morning wake up calls with the twins during the past weeks. Sam was breastfeeding and pumped milk for nighttime bottle feedings. Actually the second part of this plan was Jack's idea in an attempt to share in the middle of the night feedings and let Sam get some sleep. Truth be told, Jack loved just about every minute he spent with his tiny children and was sure he could find somehow to make up the sleep.

Sam tiptoed to Grace's cradle and smiled down at her. As she always did, Grace stopped crying as soon as she caught sight of her mother's face. Sam reached down and picked up her tiny daughter, grateful that she'd reached her before Jacob woke up. Jacob, or Jake, as his parents had started to call him, was nearly a pound heavier than Grace at birth and had started to sleep through the night nearly 2 weeks earlier.

The rocker Jack had made was right between the two cradles in the nursery, the room adjoining the master bedroom. As Sam settled into her seat and pulled the baby securely to her chest, she was overcome as always with a feeling of love and protectiveness. Grace began to nurse and her mother completely forgot the initial fatigue and reluctance she felt as she'd pulled herself out of bed just a few moments earlier. Mother and baby bonded during nursing as at no other time, looking directly into each other's eyes. Tonight as Sam smiled down at Grace, the baby's tiny lips began to curl into a smile as well, effectively ending the feeding at least for the moment as she relinquished her mother's breast.

Sam smoothed a tiny wisp of blond hair back from her daughter's eyes as the baby continued to smile up at her. Grace had just started to smile and Sam refused to listen to Jack's theory that it was just gas. She didn't care if Jack was the more experienced parent; she knew when her daughter was smiling.

Just as she lifted the baby a bit closer to her, getting ready to transfer her to the second breast, Sam heard the tell-tale sounds of her husband rolling out of bed with a groan, coming to stand behind the rocker.

"Hey, how's our beautiful little girl?" Jack asked bending low to kiss Sam on the cheek and offering his baby finger to his daughter's eager grasp.

"Just fine, now she's started her feeding. Sure is hungry a lot."

"I think she just wants to be with her mother is all," he replied, pulling up a chair to sit next to his wife. "I know I do."

Sam gifted him with her radiant smile, but said in a serious tone, "You really can stay in bed, don't feel like you have to get up with me. You need your sleep."

"You don't? Nowhere I'd rather be than right here with the three of you." He said, reaching over to caress her face as she continued to nurse Grace.

Sam couldn't get over how happy she was these days. She'd heard of women who were depressed shortly after giving birth or felt a let down of some sort, but for her these past two months had been amazing in the most wonderful ways. Sure Jack had been busier than ever with the demands of his job, but when he was home he'd been attentive and supportive beyond her imagination. She'd always felt loved by Jack, but it was different now. It was like they'd both grown up, like their devotion to these babies had cemented their own relationship.

Her musings were cut short by whimpers from little Jake, who'd finally decided he didn't like being left out of this love fest.

"Another country heard from!" Jack whispered as he got up to go to his son. His son. His heart skipped a beat at the thought, as it always did when he thought of his children. Little hands reached up to him as Jack lowered his face into the crib to kiss Jake. He couldn't help making funny faces at the little guy who seemed to giggle at his father's antics. He would never get enough of this, he thought, picking up the little guy and holding him close.

As Grace finished her feeding, Jack walked Jake around the nursery and into the master bedroom, showing him several items of interest as he went. Once they'd completed the nightly grand tour, the O'Neill "men" returned to the nursery to see how the "women-folk" were doing.

"Big week coming up, huh?" Jack asked standing slightly to the side of his wife who held a now quietly sleeping Grace.

"The babies' check-up and me going back to work? I'd say. Jack, I don't know if I can leave them."

"Well Luke's coming over tomorrow to give them their baby check-ups, shots – ouch – and all. He'll give them both a clean bill of health and then Monday, you'll go into the lab for a few hours and leave your old hubby with two perfectly healthy babies. I think I can handle it."

"I know you can. I don't know if I can be away from them for so long."

"Do you want to put it off for awhile? I could talk with Hammond and I'm sure he could arrange things."

"No, I can do this. We can do this. We both have important work to do. What we're doing will help keep all of us safe. The hard thing will be making the time to do justice to the job and our family. But we'll do it together, right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I love you, you know."

"Always. We're in this together Sam, always."

Still raining, actually raining all weekend, so no outdoor time, lots of write time.

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