So it's been a while, but I think this might be the new normal - random updates as I can. Suppose that is better than making everyone wait until I'm done with Week 40, right?
As always thanks to Rebecca for everything with this chapter and to Jewel for chatting to me about it ages ago. This chapter was supposed to be week 28-29 but I had such a block with it. And I should probably thank Pinterest too for all the inspiration.
Anyways - I hope you enjoy the latest week in the Smudge's development ~Em
Week Thirty One
~ Candidate is about as long as a bunch of leeks ~
Matt groaned as he turned over to find an empty spot next to him on the bed. His eyes flicked over towards the clock to find it still early. He knew that Gabby hadn't been sleeping well, but he had still expected her to be in bed. Maybe she wouldn't be laying down in bed, it was more likely that she would be propped in a more upright position. Stretching his own arms out, trying to get the kinks out his back. Rolling over slightly, his eyes were drawn towards the comfy chair that lived in their bedroom. There, wrapped in a warm jumper that he was sure was originally his, sat Gabby. She definitely looked teary, Matt couldn't work out if she was crying or had been crying.
"Gabby?" he called out quietly from his position on the bed. Gabby looked startled, wiping at her eyes furiously. "Hey hey hey…" he quickly made his way over to the armchair. "What's going on?" he knelt down in front of her, brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"Nothing…" she brushed off. "I'm fine." She made a move to push his hand away from her legs and to get up. Matt knew that look, it was one that had led to so many arguments over their on-off relationship. She spent so much of her time trying to prove that she had a strong will.
"Come on Gabs…" he prodded. Carefully he slid his arms underneath her bent knees and the other swiftly brought the rest of her body snuggly into his. This way she wasn't able to escape from him. Gabby scoffed slightly before giving in. "Talk to me…"
Gabby let herself sink back into the pillows before opening her mouth, letting the words spill out of her. "You know what I realised when I was woken up at 4 am by Smudge pushing on my bladder?"
"What?" came Matt's soft reply. He made himself comfortable on his side, propping himself up on an elbow, allowing his head to come to a rest in his hand.
"That I'm 31 weeks today… And I honestly have no idea where the time has gone… We've got so many things left to do before Smudge arrives and roughly nine weeks left to do everything. Seriously? Are we happy with the names we have chosen? What if he doesn't look like a Marcos, that every name we think is going to be perfect, isn't right for Smudge? And we haven't found a paediatrician or put together our nursery… We haven't bought any diapers. And we have no crib… Where is Smudge going to sleep?"
"Exactly, we've still got all these weeks left before Smudge arrives. Plenty of time to get all of these things done. Smudge will be perfectly happy with sleeping right here with us. We can get one of those bassinet things and park it right here," Matt motioned towards her side of the bed.
"I'm not bringing our baby home without a nursery ready," Gabby huffed, crossing her arms over her belly.
"We've got a room ready - I know which room you want…"
"No," interrupted Gabby. "I want the room closest to ours. Baby can't be too far away from us."
"Shall I knock a hole through our bathroom so we can walk straight in?" he asked tongue in cheek. "No…. Gabby no!" he sternly told her as he watched her seriously consider what he had been joking about. "Smudge will stay with us for the moment, then we can move them out. And it's a very short walk out of our room and into hers… What else?"
Gabby gave him a sneaky look. She didn't even know why she ever bothered trying to hide anything from this man in front of her.
"Baby is going to be here in 8 or 9 weeks…" she confessed looking down to play with some non existent lint on her top. "It's slightly overwhelming that she'll be here soon."
"So it's a girl now?"
"Oi!" Gabby teased back, pushing Matt's arm causing him to lose balance off of his elbow. Matt sighed as he made himself comfortable on his back. Quickly he snaked a hand to rest lightly on her belly.
"It's normal Gabs… I'm scared too," he quietly confessed. Not letting her get a word in, nor did he want to face her, he kept staring up at the ceiling. "I'm mostly scared that I'm going to screw up my child… Look at my role models, neither of them were poster parents. I mean, my mother ended up in jail for killing my father. And he was abusive. And it hits me that I've got nothing to let me know if I'm making the right decisions…" Matt to a deep breath. "But then I look at you and I just know that we're going to be fine."
Laughing slightly, Matt turned back onto his side to look his wife in the eyes. "So what, we don't have everything ready for Smudge. Go out today and pick up diapers and clothes. Ring Brett and Kidd - I know that they will want to go with you. Go and have lunch with your friends."
"But…" Gabby splurted.
"Baby," Matt soothed, "Smudge is coming, whether we like it or not, whether we're ready or not. It's going to be here soon. So just embrace it and go with it."
"How do you have the right words?" she questioned as she reached for her cell phone. Not bothering to look up, she quickly typed out a message to the girls asking them to meet her for lunch. "What am I going to do when I'm too fat to get out of the house?" she looked down and placed both of her hands on the sides of her belly resignedly. "I already feel like I can't get any bigger… How much more do you think Smudge can grow in eight weeks?"
"You still have your wedding rings on," pointed out Matt. He was willing to say anything to help out here. "I remember Christie telling me once that her hands started swelling really early in her pregnancy and she couldn't wear them after her 25th week…"
"How do you even remember that?" Matt shrugged non committedly. He just remembered weird things.
"I'm hungry," Gabby suddenly whined. "I need food, Matt… Smudge needs food."
Matt laughed, shaking his head slightly. "Okay then," he started, his hand going out to help her stand up and pulling her in close, "Let's go get you fed then," he chuckled. Discreetly he slipped his phone into his hand, tapping a message out to Antonio and Kelly as he made his way down the stairs in front of Gabby.
"Hurry up Sev," Matt called out as he shut the door of his truck before making his way towards the building where Antonio lived. Kelly tapped his fist on the bonnet of the truck as his made his way around it.
"Stop," Antonio's voice stopped both men in their tracks.
"Antonio?" Matt greeted his brother in law with a quick hug. "What's going on?"
"I may have forgotten all about our plans to work on the nursery..."
"Antonio… I swear if you're going to work," interrupted Matt.
"Nothing like that," he reassured his slightly stressed brother-in-law. It crossed his mind very briefly to mess with him, but knowing the amount of grief both Matt and Gabby could give him, it wouldn't be worth the hassle. "But I may have forgotten to bring over all of the wood from Papá's… And all the of my tools are over in their shed too."
"You have tools?" Kelly teased.
"Okay, his tools."
Kelly chuckled all the way back to Matt's car, watching as Antonio scampered off towards his own car.
Kelly's eyes widen as Matt opened the garage door when they first arrived at the Dawson's large house. He let out a low whistle as he took a step in towards the middle of the room.
"You know that you and Dawson could probably have just moved in here, didn't need that fancy house of yours," he joked taking in the room.
"No, I love my in-laws… but no!" Matt emphasised. "Antonio on the other hand…. This place-" he spread his arms around the garage, "-is bigger than his tiny apartment."
"Definitely not," came Antonio's booming voice as he strutted his way into the garage. "I've got a no vacancy clause…"
"You moving in with them," Matt teased back. "I don't think we should put Miguel and Adrianna into that shack you call an apartment."
"So moving on…" Antonio moved his brother-in-law on so he wasn't the centre of attention any more.
Matt moved around the room looking at the various piles of wood that were lying on the floor. He would never have imagined that this time was finally arriving. For weeks and weeks now Matt had been pushing Gabby away with the shopping for the nursery.
Antonio had even been on the receiving end of a very teary phone call late one night. She had been conceived that Matt wanted nothing to do with the baby anymore, or that he obviously just didn't care enough like she did because he didn't want to do anything. Matt had received an incredible angry phone call from an irate older brother, reminding him of that time that Antonio had stormed into his office questioning his intentions with his baby sister. Really it had kicked Matt in gear; between the firehouse and the alderman gig, Matt had never meant for everything to get pushed under the carpet. And never would he ever mention to Gabby that he was feeling overwhelmed with trying to juggle everything in the air. And there was nothing that was ever going to be too much for his Smudge.
And so here he was, standing surrounded by stacks of wood, ready to do what he had always wanted to do.
"Matt?" Kelly's voice broke through his thoughts. Matt followed his best mate's eye line looking at a large stack of stained wood.
"Ever since I found out that Gabby was pregnant, I knew I wanted to build our baby's crib. Everything else is just a bonus. Of course, I've had my doubts - would it be safe enough? What can we finish it with that would be safe for our baby? But it's going to be fine, I just know it. Miguel sent me some plans that could work well for us, and apparently these set of plans are going to end up looking like a Pottery Barn crib. And then Adriana mentioned in passing to me that she thought Gabby would really like it. So it's perfect."
"And I've bought you a mattress," announced Antonio pulling it out of the cupboard. "The lady at the shop said it was a standard size and I checked with mi padre that the plans he had were for this size."
"And I've looked over the plans in detail, comparing them with the crib standards that are provided on one of the American baby sites…"
"Some website?" Kelly asked incredulously.
"The American Academy of Paediatrics," confirmed Matt. "And as much as I know that Gabby would have liked to have the drop down sides, the whole height thing and not having to bend over the side, apparently those have been banned since 2011."
"Never knew that man," Antonio interjected. "The one we had for both Eva and Diego had those. Better let Mama know - I think she has the old crib at their place." Matt nodded along, making a mental note of it to speak to his in-laws about this and offer to get them a new crib. He assumed that they would like to have their grandchild stay with them.
"So how are we doing this?" Kelly questioned looking around at the various lengths of pine laying on the floor.
"Well I know I'm asking a lot of both of you…" started Matt.
"Whoa," Antonio held up his hands and started to back out of the room. "I don't remember offering any type of manual labour…"
Kelly openly laughed in his face. "Man, if I can use tools then so can you… Where did this wood come from?"
"Papá found some non-pressure treated wood in his travels to make the crib. I honestly think that he wanted to be the one making the crib with Casey. Anyway, he found this just before Christmas and he left it around in his garage for us to work with."
"Yeah," scoffed Matt, "He might have been easier to work with than you two clowns."
"And when has he had time to do all of this, Case? Aren't the in-laws away?"
Antonio let out a chuckle. "Papá has been on the phone and the internet sending us both stuff. If he had his way, he would be here ordering us around."
"And we've been working on this for a few weeks now. The upside to having Gabby work on this regular schedule, I've been able to work on a lot of the furniture on my days off. Miguel and I were doing some of the work before they left for the Dominican," Matt shrugged. "Basically all we really need to do today is put together the crib."
"So I think everything has been cut to size and it all just needs to be assembled," announced Antonio looking at the plans that he had finally managed to unroll on the table.
"Why does everything look painted and stained already? And it's all in piles?" questioned Severide, taking in the different stacks of wood.
"That one over there," pointed out Matt, "that's the rocking chair, it's been assembled once and should be ready to go now. And that one… that's the dresser-drawer piece, Miguel and I finished that about six weeks ago. And the last one is the change table that is good to go, I think… Which leaves that pile," Matt pointed to the pile closest to Antonio. "That's the crib, we need to work on that. I want to put it together here and assemble it. Make sure it works together and it all fits. Then we can take it back to the house."
"Let's get to it then, lots of work to do," Kelly announced clapping his hands together.
Antonio leant towards Matt and whispered loudly, "Does he even know how to use tools?"
"I helped build a library," fired back Kelly.
"And since then," Matt joked, "he's all about the tools." He shook his head before pointing Kelly in the direction of the plans and screws, hoping that he would at least be able to map out where the screws had to go.
Matt heard the doorbell ring as he was trying to get the wall decal up straight. The boys had spent the rest of the morning sorting out the differing pieces of furniture, drilling, sawing and screwing pieces together. Once Matt was satisfied that everything was going to come together as he had hoped, he left Antonio and Kelly to pick up the pieces and sort the rest out whilst he went back to prepare the room. He knew that he didn't need to paint, but there was a few last minute loose ends he wanted to tie up. And it all started with this damn decal.
Christie had warned him when she had brought it over for him. She had managed to track down the decal that she had sent him a photo of weeks ago and since no one knew the new baby's name yet, or gender for that matter, she had gone with 'Casey'. As nice looking as the photo one that Christie had sent him was, it had taken up nearly an entire wall, so Matt had sighed in relief when he unrolled the sticker this morning to find it much smaller and more manageable.
All that being said he was currently struggling with the fire hydrant and that was the first bit of the sticker that he had managed to get attached, was still not straight. He had struggled with trying to get it right for a few long moments and he swore under his breath as the doorbell rang again. He was sure that it was Antonio and Kelly. He had sent them back to the Dawsons' house to pick up the rest of the pieces for the nursery whilst he was attempting to get this up first. Matt had decided that the others could get the furniture whilst he started the decorating. And his first step was to get the sticker onto the wall right above where he wanted to place the crib.
A third time the bell rang. Matt twisted to put his shoulder against the sticker, using a hand to keep the free falling paper from creasing or sticking to the wall. With his free hand he fished out his cell phone from his back pocket. Swiping furiously through his contacts, he stabbed angrily at his phone. "Sev?" he questioned. "Is that you pressing the bell?... I can't move from the room… I've got something half stuck on the wall… Come around the side and back of the house. The door is unlocked… Sev… I don't need a lecture… Just hurry up man…" Grumbling to himself, he let the phone slide down the wall. He cringed as he caught the phone with his foot, slowly lowering it to the floor.
Not moments later Kelly's heavy footstep could be heard pounding up the stairs. Carefully he placed the piles of planks he was carrying onto the ground, right in the middle of the room. Watching on for a moment or two, Kelly gave a throaty laugh as Matt once more tried to moved the edge he had just placed down and tried to straighten it.
Matt turned around to glare at his friend. "The least you could do is help Sev," growled Matt, he was frustrated. He had spent what had felt like he had been fighting with this piece of sticky plastic for hours, when in reality it had only been fifteen minutes. "Well?" came the frustrated voice.
Kelly thought about leaving him hanging for a few minutes longer. It was actually quite funny to watch the normally cool headed lieutenant all frustrated over what was essentially a large oversized sticker. But it was a pretty cool sticker.
"Seriously, Sev…"
"Might have been better if it had a Squad truck in the background," Kelly mentioned a mere twenty minutes later as they took a step back to admire their handiwork finally stuck straight up on the wall. The first three times they had stuck it up, only to look and find that it was crooked. After the first time, Matt had decided not to press too firmly, glueing it to the wall - since it had nearly taken some paint off of the wall as they gingerly removed it. But finally it was up right.
"Next?" questioned Kelly.
"Just need to wait for Antonio to come by with the furniture," confirmed Matt. "And once we have everything, then I think we just need to move everything around the room to make it fit right."
"Hello?" came Antonio's voice nearing to the room that Matt and Kelly were working. Antonio popped his head around the door. "Ready for furniture?" he questioned. Closely following him was Cruz, all rugged out ready for the cold winter raging outside.
"What happened to the room with the balcony?" questioned Cruz as he popped his head into the room where everyone was working. "I overhead Dawson and Kidd talking about the balcony and what you were going to do about the door…"
"Change of plans, the room with that has the balcony is larger than this one," explained Matt. "And I had originally thought that it would be easy enough to just walk straight down the hallway into Smudge's room in the middle of the night. But Gabby decided that if Smudge wants that room when he or she is older then we would look at it. Right now, Smudge's room can be a small one and this is technically right next to ours if it weren't for the bathroom."
"Man, have you mentioned this at all to Gabby?" Antonio asked curious at what his brother-in-law was doing changing rooms like this. Knowing his sister, she may have mentioned it in passing. And if she hadn't told Matt that he needed to change the room, then he was going to be in for hell when she arrived home and found he had changed her plans
"I had to all but drag her out of the room last night when she thought it a good idea to start moving the furniture out of this room," Matt chuckled slightly. "That sister of yours, once she gets an idea into her head… Not to mention that she made a point of telling me this morning that this was the room that was going to be the nursery and she keeps mentioning that we haven't got anywhere for Smudge to sleep."
"That's why we all got the SOS text," Cruz laughed. "Do we need to paint too?" he questioned looking at the white walls. Matt shook his head.
"White is fine with Gabby apparently…" he looked at the bare white walls with concerned frown. If he had his way maybe a light blue-grey wall would be a nice contrast to the stark white.
"So does she know that we're doing this today?" Kelly asked as he opened the built in wardrobe door to check nothing was left in there.
"Nope…" smirked Casey. "Kidd and Brett agreed to take her out for the entire day. Kidd said she would message me when they were on the way home. So I would say that we've got about four hours left to get this place looking great."
Antonio and Kelly exchanged a glance. "I'll ring Herrmann and see what else he can pick up for us," mentioned Kelly while fishing for his phone.
"And I'll take Joe and go grab the rest of the furniture from Papá's house," Antonio confirmed. "Keys?" he held out his hand for Matt's truck keys.
Matt looked thoughtful for a minute pondering what else it was that he needed to do before they started assembling furniture.
Meanwhile, Stella and Sylvie had managed to drag Gabby out for a girl's afternoon.
Stella carefully placed the wine glasses on the table in front of her and pushed the mocktail that Gabby had requested toward the girl in question. Gabby closed her eyes and sighed contentedly after her very first sip.
"You okay there?" Stella questioned amusedly.
Gabby just nodded, leaving her eyes closed. "Did you know this time last week I was sitting down by a pool, enjoying the sun with one of these mocktails and a little umbrella…" she shivered slightly whilst pulling her jumper a little closer to her body. Even with running slightly hotter, it was still a cold Chicago winter. "Sun on my face, nice maxi dress, thanks for that…" Gabby trailed off remembering her week long vacation.
Sylvie sat back in her comfortable seat, letting the cushions surround her. She twisted her hand around the stem of the wine glass and started to take in the conversation that was unfolding between Stella and Gabby. And Gabby was doing this thing… It was a minuscule movement that she hadn't seen her do for a long time. Sylvie couldn't quite concentrate on the conversation as she stared at Gabby's hands. Her right arm was haphazardly thrown across her belly and her left arm was resting on the table with her hand slightly raised off of it. And there was this thing she was doing - rotating her rings around her finger with the help of her thumb. And every so often the shine of the diamonds would catch Gabby's eyes and a grin would flash across her face before she re-engaged with Stella. She remembered seeing Gabby do this when she was first married, hell she remembered Matt doing a very similar thing while sitting at the bar at Molly's. It was scary just how in sync they were. And without even meaning for it to happen, Sylvie felt the green eyed monster stirring again.
The green eyed monster that she was certain that she had put to bed, but it was evidently still there. It wasn't even something Gabby was consciously doing. Sylvie drowned the half filled glass of wine, before motioning to the girls she was getting up for another.
As her hand wrapped around the chilled glass, her mind froze. Never had she thought that she would be like this. There had been a time in her life where she was engaged to be married and life hadn't turned out how she had thought. And now, here she was in Chicago, cold windy Chicago… without anyone to call her own. Even Stella had Severide. Never would she had believed that she was the odd one out, the only single girl in the circle of friends. Of course, there was that nice guy who had bought her a drink at Molly's last week. He had seemed nice enough. But she wasn't sure.
Why couldn't life be easy? Meet a guy, settle down and live fairly happily ever after. Stella and Gabby just made it all look so easy. Taking a seat at the bar, Sylvie looked back at her pair of friends. Stella's loose wavy hair was out of its usual work confinements, shaking as she threw her head back, roaring with laughter as Gabby told yet another story about her week away.
It was then that she noticed something else about Gabby and her ring. There was something new there sparkling in the bright lights of their surroundings, something catching the light as Gabby picked up her glass again. Against her wedding ring was a brand new ring. Sylvie stared harder still as she noticed Gabby clicking the rings against the side of the glass. She would be drawn away momentarily from the conversation and look around for the source of the sound, before realising it was her the entire time. Her gaze would then be drawn towards her rings and their brilliant sparkle. Every so often then Gabby would start to turn them around her finger. Sylvie was sure that Gabby would have mentioned it if Matt had bought her a new ring, but nothing.
The whole gossip session had revolved around the week away that the Caseys had shared. Sylvie herself had stayed mostly quiet, just happy soaking in the experiences of her friends. Honestly, it was a little odd to see Gabby with that many rings even adorning her finger, in all the years they had worked together; Gabby had only ever worn her wedding ring.
And as she thought about that, it suddenly struck her. It was her life; it was her that needed to make the decisions. Taking a sip of her drink, Sylvie thought about the girls in front of her; the ones who were busy laughing and sipping on their respective drinks ~ Neither of them had had an easy journey in life. Gabby was always quick to remind her of that.
So maybe instead of sitting there feeling sorry for her, she would just take life on. That guy who had bought her a drink, maybe there was something in it. He had left her with his number… Maybe it was time to use it. And it was time to get on board with the happiness that was happening in friend's life, all of her friends.
"So…" Sylvie drew out as she threw herself down onto the plush armchair, somehow managing not to spill any of her drink. "We've heard all about that brilliant getaway that Casey took you on…"
"And we've been blinded by a new ring…" interrupted Stella. Gabby ducked her head in embarrassment.
Sylvie nodded along, "And how is this all going?"
Gabby gave a low chuckle, wondering how honest she actually should be. "Filtered version?" she questioned.
Stella roared with laughter as she placed her nearly empty wine glass back onto the glass surface of the table. "When have you ever filtered Gabby?"
"I am swiftly coming to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing attractive about the third trimester of pregnancy. In my second trimester, I had this resurgence of energy, my belly was a cute little bump that both fascinated and enthralled me, and any pregnant woman has a lovely glow that comes from the all the excitement to come. Everyone fawns over you and your little belly - nothing is too hard. I was able to teach practical classes… And the sex..." Gabby laughed. "But now that I'm in my third trimester - nine weeks to go and I feel like I've gained weight like a fat person at an all you can eat buffet. And have you seen my hips and thighs? They have spread like the Red Sea…" she ranted.
Sylvie laughed as she looked down at her thin, thin legs. Gabby was all baby.
"And my emotions - I have cried enough during this pregnancy to last a lifetime. It's like my emotions are bouncing all over the place like being on a trampoline. And the cute little flutterings that at one time I only felt? They are now 'love punches' at my bladder and ribs… Matt loves feeling them, but I could do without the bladder punches. And swelling is happening everywhere; places that should never swell. And ladies, if I'm being honest - let's not forget about that little thing of the actual birth - the little bundle of joy that I know will forever wreak havoc on lady parts and my lower abdomen… I don't want to think about what is going to happen down there," she bemoaned. Stella had to bite her bottom lip to stop the laughter coming out whilst Sylvie's shoulders shook in silent laughter.
Gabby took a deep breath and thought about it all, "But at the end of this incredible journey, Smudge will finally be here. I'll have a beautiful baby and a whole new understanding of unconditional love; Matt and I will be parents. He's wanted this for so long. So in the end, I guess it all evens out."
The boys were hard at it. Antonio and Matt were working on the rocking chair with the change table already standing proudly in the corner. Kelly, on the other hand, was trying to put the cot back together for the fourth time. The jokes hadn't stopped over the last few hours. About twenty minutes ago he thought it was finally up, only for Cruz to put the slats in and the whole thing crumbled.
Cruz had been voicing his concerns for a solid ten minutes since. It was only the threat of being kicked off Squad that had finally silenced him. Ever since then he had been busy picking up the little things around the room and setting up bits and pieces.
"Got room for more?" called out Herrmann's gravelly voice from down below, definitely inside the house.
"Do you ever lock your doors Matt?" asked Antonio, a look of concern passing over his face.
"Back door is open right now, just so you lot are able to get in and out without us having to go and open the door every ten minutes…" Matt explained; making sure that Gabby's older brother, the police officer wouldn't give him the third degree about safety in Chicago. Cruz laughed as he made his way out to the stairs to shout down to Herrmann.
Moments later, Herrmann appeared with a big shopping bag in hand and a small wooden ladder tucked under the other.
"Ladder?" questioned Matt.
"It's for you short Truck members," Kelly interrupted, once he had seen how short the ladder was. It was a dark wooden ladder that was a little shorter than one would expect to see on a short bunk bed, and it wasn't as wide as they saw every day. However, as Herrmann turned it around to lean it against a wall, a shiny surface caught their eyes. Cruz bent down to take a closer look.
"Herrmann?" he questioned. The rungs had been turned and glued flush to the side rails and along every third rung some mini water spouts had been attached as hooks.
Herrmann shrugged slightly, "Cindy saw something like this… Boden and I have been working on it. He found an old mini ladder. Good for a mini smoke eater." Matt nodded as he clamped a hand onto his friend's shoulder in thanks before bending down too. Those spouts actually looked identical to those they would find on any Chicago water hydrant. Without meaning to, Smudge's nursery was going to be very firefighter themed. Everything that meant the world to Gabby and himself was going to live in this room, and it seemed fitting that firefighting was going to take front and centre.
"Have you thought what might happen if my niece is a girl?" Antonio laughed. Even as the words left his mouth, he knew that the sentence really didn't make sense, but the sentiment was still the same.
"Don't let your sister hear you say that," Herrmann joked. "She's a firefighter and Kidd will back her too. Doesn't matter if it's a girl or boy, Casey will still be a firefighter." Cruz nodded along emphatically.
"Plus we didn't paint the room red or hang hoses… but" Kelly looked around the room, his eyes darting over the four walls of the nursery, "there's no CFD crest anywhere."
Antonio shook his head as he dug through the bag that Herrmann had placed on the floor. Inside he found the cushions for the rocker and the ottoman section, right at the bottom was an animal sheet set ready to be placed in the crib.
Antonio, Kelly and Matt stood next to the door to survey their handiwork. Herrmann and Cruz had left only twenty minutes ago, but they had been most helpful.
"Looks good bro," complemented Antonio. Matt nodded along, in his mind he was running through the things and items that he had wanted to achieve today. Glancing around and looking around at the items hanging from the walls, it seemed like they had ticked off every thing on his list.
The nursery still needed Gabby's feminine touch and a heap of finishing touches, but the bones of the nursery were down. The parts of the room that Matt had envisioned were pretty much done… All except one thing. Matt held up a finger to the boys as he exited the room.
Quickly making his way towards the end of the hall, he ducked into the room that they had originally planned to be Smudge's room. He glanced around before retrieving the canvas that had been gifted to them.
Once back in Smudge's nursery, Matt pondered the best spot for hanging it. Finally he picked up a hammer and nail so he could hang it high above the corner where the rocking chair stood.
"It's still missing a few photos," mentioned Antonio as Matt took a step back to make sure that it was straight.
"What is it?"
"Gabby and Antonio's parents gave it to us," explained Matt. "A canvas to hold ultrasound photos. I think Gabby has a few more from our 30th week appointment, but I don't know where she stashed them. And that last spot is for our first family photo," he pointed up at it.
Gabby dropped a heap of shopping bags on the coffee table causing Matt to look up from his television watching.
"What have you got there?" he questioned, rising up out of the chair to hug her and rest a hand on her belly. "That's a few bags," he pointed out.
"After lunch the girls and I went to Pottery Barn. Well, I wanted to start at Twinkle Twinkle Little One, but Stella told me that she couldn't transport nursery furniture in her car. But there's this little cute crib that I want. Matt," she whined. "We need to start on our nursery. Smudge is going to be here soon. Can't have an empty room…"
"Gabby…" he gently prodded, grabbing her hand and drawing her back to the bags that were spread in front of them. "What did you get?"
"Nothing much," brushed off Gabby, "Just some clothes, a few soft toys and bedding… Oh and this…" Slowly Gabby dropped to the floor so she was able to start digging through the bags upon the table. "I know that I keep saying that I don't want all this firefighter stuff in our nursery for Smudge, but it's still a big part of who we are and I just couldn't resist this." She pulled out a little black body suit that had printed on suspenders and a fire department crest.
Matt couldn't help the grin that started to spread across his face. Dropping a kiss to her temple, he placed a hand under her elbow and the other around her waist. "Come on," he urged her quickly as he helped her into a standing position.
"Where are we going?" Gabby questioned as Matt followed her up the stairs, a fair amount of pressure on the small of her back causing her to continue up the flight of stairs towards their bedroom. As she reached the top stair, Gabby placed a hand on the underside of her belly, supporting the weight of Smudge; the slightly hurried walk up the stairs had left her somewhat out of breath.
Matt's warm hand snaked around to join hers as he twisted her around the hallway, away from their room and towards the room he had worked so hard on today.
"How you feeling there? ... Ready for a surprise?" he questioned as he placed his hand on the door handle. Gabby twisted slightly to look up at her husband, a questioning look on her face. She had opened her mouth with a smart Dawson reply in mind, but before she was able to let the words filter out, Matt swung the door open.
With some extra pressure, Gabby took a single step inside the room. A deep breath was taken as she rested her hand upon her belly. There was a dark wood dresser closest to the door. Upon it stood a set of bookends with baby foxes on them. Gabby slowly walked towards the crib that was against the wall opposite the door. Matt silently shut the door behind himself and leant against it; his eyes never stopped following her figure.
Gabby gave a slight laugh as she noticed the Casey sticker above the crib. Leaning over the railing of the crib, she ran a hand over the wall, a soft smile settling on her features. "How did you do all of this?" she questioned as the change table that sat next to the crib caught her eye.
"We have some amazing friends," confessed Matt, all the time urging her to keep exploring the small room.
"I see you haven't done everything," she laughed as she opened the built in wardrobe, finding it bare.
"Have to leave something for you to do," he joked back. "Didn't think that you would appreciate the stylings of the men of Firehouse 51."
"Matt…" Gabby's voice caught in her throat as she spotted the ladder that had been hung next to the window. It didn't matter how many times she had insisted that they shouldn't have a firefighter theme to their nursery, it had especially weighed on her mind should they have a girl. But there were a few CFD touches here and there that didn't overwhelm the room - and it was perfect. Matt made his way up behind her, took her into his arms and rested his chin on her shoulder.
"It's from Herrmann and the Chief… They've been working on it… And we should probably thank Cindy too, Herrmann said that it was her who found it…. Wait, wait, wait…" He tugged her back. Gabby was already charging toward the door, likely intent on finding her phone and profusely thanking the Herrmanns and Bodens for their gift. "Just a few more things, Baby…" he nodded toward the corner next to the window.
Following his gaze, Gabby noticed the soft small couch that has been in this particular room since they had first moved in. With its cream colouring, it matched in perfectly with all the dark wood. And then there was a glider set in the corner with ultrasound canvas hung above it. She knew that it was missing a few photos, ones that were tucked in the desk in their office.
"It's not quite done," Matt confessed. "But I thought you might like another shopping trip…" he trailed off.
Gabby turned and strode towards Matt, a hand went roughly around his neck and pulled him towards herself. Lips meet lips, as they both fought for dominance. Gabby pulled back regretfully a few moments later, her fingers still tangled in his short blonde hair. "It's perfect Matt… Perfect," she breathed. "Where did you get all of this? That crib is perfect… Pottery Barn?" she guessed. The crib looked exactly like one she had noticed in the window of the said shop.
Matt ducked his head with some embarrassment, "I made it… Your dad had been helping me… But I made it, that's why I've been putting you off." Gabby's mouth dropped slightly as she took in all of the wooden furniture in the room. She always knew that Matt was good with his hands, but this was something so much more special.
"You made this?" Gabby questioned, her hands running over the rocking chair that sat in the corner of the room. She pushed the back gently and watched as it glided back and forth. Although she had never shared it, she had really wanted a glider. That one time they had visited the baby store, she had tried out the various rockers that they had stocked and Gabby had quite quickly realised that the rocker type rocking chairs weren't right for her. She had felt like she might go head over heels as she took a seat in them. On the other hand, the gliders only went back and forth which was much more reassuring. And the little ottoman moved back and forth with it.
Matt nodded sheepishly, "Well I had help from Severide and Antonio… Not to mention Herrmann and Cruz."
"Antonio? My brother Antonio?" she asked incredulously. Upon the affirmative nod, she looked sideways at the chair. "Have you tested it? I don't want to sit in that chair and suddenly find myself and Smudge on the floor." Matt nodded as he picked up the ottoman to move it from in front of the glider so he would be able to test it out.
Matt bit his lip trying desperately to hold in his laughter, and with laughter dancing in his eyes took a seat in the chair. Gabby held her breath as Matt started to rock back and forth. A few seconds later, Gabby seemed convinced that the chair was safe and she looked forward to trying it out for herself.
A few seconds later Matt reached out to pull her into his lap. With a slight 'omph' the wind was knocked out of her.
"See," he told her, "Antonio and I are perfectly capable of making safe furniture."
"And since I'm such a whale at the moment, I don't think we'll last too long on here together… as much as I enjoy cuddle Matt, this just isn't comfortable," she confessed.
With one last kiss to her temple, Matt helped her up to her feet. "Sit," he ordered once he was out of the way. Quickly he pushed the ottoman back towards her feet and knelt to lift her legs onto it for her to try out the entire experience. Once he was satisfied he moved towards the dresser
Matt pulled out a gift wrapped package out of the top dresser drawer before handing it over to Gabby who was gently swinging testing out the chair. She opened her eyes as she felt the package touch her lap. The smile on her face widened as she surveyed the slightly unruly wrapping that was presented to her.
"No guesses who wrapped this," she teased Matt. With a cheeky smile upon his face, he shook his head.
"Not me…" he promised. Gabby gave him a confused look before turning the parcel over in her hands to start taking off the tape. Her eyes widened as she revealed a very familiar looking piece of material.
"I gave this to Antonio when Eva was born," she muttered.
"And he wants our little one to have it now," confirmed Matt, shaking it out to its full size and tucking it in around Gabby's body. Sliding a stool that he found in the closet next to the glider, Matt himself took a seat and placed a hand over her belly, laughing as he felt some kicks and punches beneath his palm.
Gabby closed her eyes as she leant her head back again the cushion enjoying the serene moment between their little growing family. "Apparently she's about to enter her last growth spurt before birth, meaning she'll be filling out and getting ready to greet the world," Gabby spoke quietly, not wanting to break the spell that had settled over them "She's been moving around a lot, flipping and kicking in my belly doing what I assume is her spirited version of the Dawson dance…"
Matt nodded in agreement, "He's probably got the Dawson version of a dance party happening in there," he spoke up.
Gabby cracked a slit of an eye to glare at him. "Better than a Casey dance," she replied as her own hand rested over his. "It's going to be perfect Matt."
~ He will now gain as much as a half pound per week until he's born ~
As always please do let me know what you think - Review...