"Good morning beautiful." Hamish kissed her cheek trying to gently wake her up since he didn't want to disturb her too much. She always looked so peaceful when she was sleeping, really the only time she wasn't furrowing her brow and being overly serious all the time. When Vera was sleeping it was just Vera, or the Vera he was slowly getting to know. That sweet unbothered Vera that didn't have her walls up to protect herself. She was just content even if sometimes she'd start having nightmares and shift around a lot more. Hamish tried to never wake her up but if he noticed she was having bad dreams again he'd do his best to hold her close until they stopped. "Merry Christmas Theo." He whispered to his baby before placing a hand on Vera's belly. It was crazy to think this time next year their baby was going to be here in the world celebrating her first Christmas. Well, technically this was her first Christmas, she just wasn't a participating party member, strictly an observer.
"And next year you can help mommy and daddy decorate the tree." He didn't actually know how capable a seven month old baby was, not very since it was hardly over half a year old and from what he remembered with his nephew they weren't that active or capable of a whole lot until they were walking. Maybe it was time to contact his big sister and see what he should start expecting. It felt strange thinking about what she would be like in the future but it was even more surreal to look back on what she'd been months ago. Mostly just a thought and an unrecognizable spec and now she was a whole person even if it was a very tiny person. It still felt like just yesterday that Vera had told him about the little surprise and now they were half way there to meeting her.
Vera rolled over in bed then, groaning over the sound of his voice and slowly opening her eyes. "Merry Christmas Vera." She was about to go back to sleep until he kissed her again, well great, now she had to wake up. Even though she knew very well that Hamish would let her go back to sleep she felt obligated to wake up when he was waiting in bed for her to get up too.
"That's today?" Vera rubbed her eyes and looked over to the clock reading 9:00. Christmas should have been about not having people over and instead sleeping in until noon. Not that she was exhausted like she had been weeks ago but who didn't like sleeping? Whoever said they hated sleeping was a liar or a toddler. She sat up slowly making sure she didn't make herself dizzy before leaning into him and resting her chin on his shoulder. "Merry Christmas Hamish."
"Everyone should be coming over around noon for Lunch though most of them are going after a little while because I told them I wanted to take you out tonight."
"Out?" She hadn't recalled him saying anything about going out someplace. "Where are we going out to?"
"Just a Duke family tradition when I was growing up and it's a surprise Vera." He kissed her again on the lips with a little smirk. She didn't like surprises, that much he knew because he'd given her two surprises and both had started with bad reactions. One of them had been the surprise roses which Vera had brushed off as not liking roses and the other had been their baby which Vera had started out wanting to not keep it but he thought that surprise was actually something she did enjoy now.
"A Duke family tradition? And here I am feeling left out between you and Theo both being Duke's."
Hamish leaned forward brushing her hair over her shoulder. "Well you could…"
"No, I'm fine." She knew what he was going to bring up and he was bringing it up a lot. The fact of the matter was he mostly had this issue because of his mother politely calling their baby a bastard or as she put it, a happy accident. Fact of the matter was Vera didn't think she ever wanted to get married and if she did it wasn't going to just be because she was having his baby. "This isn't going to be something stupid and sappy like in those dumb movies you made me watch last night?"
"Hey." Hamish was trying to defend himself. "A Princess for Christmas is a good movie, don't mock it."
"You only like it because you have a crush on that actress." Vera pointed out, she really didn't care either though Hamish was trying to hide it with a slow shake of his head no. He could have a crush on whoever he liked, Vera was the first to admit she could still walk around and see a guy and tell herself that technically she would fuck him if she wasn't in a relationship with her sweet and caring blonde werewolf. That didn't mean she was actually going to go out and do it though because really Hamish was doing a pretty good job of things in more than one department.
"I don't have a crush on her." Hamish finally spoke up. "Just because i have a thing for girls with dark hair and pretty eyes doesn't mean I have a crush on her, I just think she's an underrated actress who should be in more movies."
"That's okay, I have a crush on her too."
Hamish shut down a moment just looking at Vera and not certain of what to say next. He hadn't actually expected that but now all he could think of was seeing Vera kissing that hot English actress and he didn't know if he should be disturbed or turned on but either way it was a nice image. "I can safely say that I am very intrigued by that statement and I can admit one thing." Hamish paused a moment and took her hand in his. "Even if I have a crush on that cute English actress I am still normally having dirty dreams about you at night because you say things like that."
"Well." Vera leaned back and rocked to the side a little. "Happy I can supply you with unusual sexual dreams."
"Yeah, there was one with you in a library once too and you had your hair up and these glasses on."
Vera put a hand up. "Thanks, don't want to hear about it."
Hamish went quiet looking at her for a moment with squinted eyes like he was thinking about something. "You should put your hair up for the Christmas party."
"The surprise isn't going to a library afterwards is it?" She raised a brow and questioned him.
"No."
"Okay great, I'll put my hair up." She seemed a bit excited that they wouldn't be going to a library. Wait, was she trying to avoid playing out his librarian fantasy? Clever girl.
"Well you take your time doing your Vera things and I'll go make you breakfast. Do pancakes sound alright to you?"
Vera squinted her eyes, "Actually, I'm kind of." Oh here came the dangerous words. "Craving bacon." She shrugged her shoulders and looked up at him with those big beautiful green eyes of her's that he couldn't resist.
"We don't have any….oh." See the problem was when she said she was craving something she was serious about it. It became an overwhelming drive that would actually make Vera cry which meant if they didn't have bacon in the house then he had to go find a grocery store open on Christmas and get some. "I'll go out and get some then and you can get ready since it takes you the better half of the 100 year war to get ready." If anyone ever asked him how he managed to get such a beautiful woman in his life he was going to show them the time stamps he tracked on just one day it took her to get through her morning routine and let them know she was awfully pretty but it took several hours and maybe a few virgin sacrifices for her to stay that way. He wasn't saying she was high maintenance in any way but she required maintenance.
After breakfast Vera started picking things up around the house and getting it ready for guests until Hamish shushed her away from the task. ""Excuse you Vera but go sit down and relax, I'm taking care of this don't worry."
She stood there a moment cocking her head slightly and placing her hands on her hips before going over to their Christmas tree and fixing an ornament she felt was too close to another. Her little show of defiance and rebellion. Right about now she would have loved a glass of champagne to sip on since normally that was what she had during parties but much like the party they put on for his promotion to Temple Magus Vera was learning to have conversations with others while holding a glass of water in her hand instead. Once she fixed up their tree Vera sat down on the sofa picking up the controls for the fireplace and turning it on. She would have to draw the line if Hamish thought he was playing Christmas music though. Luckily so far he hadn't made that movie.
Around 11:30 Jack Morton arrived having promised Hamish he would help with stuff. Unfortunately he had also promised Hamish he wouldn't bring Alyssa and yet there she was. It angered Tundra a bit seeing the blonde who had threatened to kill Vera. Hamish ran back to the door not wanting to have Vera see the girl and honestly he wanted to yell at Jack a little too. Checking back to see Vera was thumbing through a book Hamish tried to make up a good reason to keep her there. "I'm going to help Jack bring some stuff in." Hamish opened the door and stepped outside with his pissed face on. "Jack I told you she wasn't allowed to come today."
"I know but Alyssa is my family too." Jack tried to defend her and really it wasn't that hard when it was against Hamish. "If we had something at the den you'd bring Vera even though Lilith hates her and Randal isn't her biggest fan."
"Yeah, but Vera hasn't tried to kill Alyssa."
"To be fair Vera has tried to kill all of us."
"Not tried, threatened, completely different." Hamish corrected him. It wasn't a strong argument, even he had to admit.
"I'm not here to start any trouble." Alyssa spoke up for herself. "If you think it's better that I leave then I'm not going to argue with you."
Great, now she was guilting him into letting her stay and it was working. Hamish remembered the days when the threatened to kill people for not saying an oath. Vera's 'no killing' mantra was really wearing off on him. Love a lady who didn't like murdering in times like these. "You can stay just, please don't stress Vera out and don't try to kill her or really just try not to talk to her in case she gets bitter. She's so difficult to deal with when she gets pissy. I'm trying to make this a good day for her and not stress her out too much." There was this funny fantasy Hamish was trying to live with about not letting Vera get too stressed while she was pregnant because he worried their baby would pick up on it and get stressed out too. "Come on in."
"I also made a pie." Alyssa motioned to the car. "Unless you want me to leave it." She was trying to make a peace offering with Vera though maybe today wasn't the best day for it.
"Go ahead and bring it, just be quiet when you come in because Vera is going to come after me when she sees you here."
Jack walked into the house taking off his shoes since he didn't feel okay leaving them on. It was a little weird being at the Grand Magus' house too, not really what he had expected. In fact it was very light and pretty. He'd expected it to be dark and gloomy like the reliquary. Talk about Vera stone living a double life. "Grand Magus." He greeted her. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas Mr. Morton." Vera closed her book and set it down on her coffee table. Vera seemed less on edge and stressed out since she didn't have to constantly keep things secret. At least as far as her relationship with Hamish and the kid they were expecting. It was good too since it seemed like hiding it wasn't much of an option. Jack didn't want to be the one to tell her that she was definitely showing either. Alyssa came in with the pie she'd made and the timing couldn't have been any better since Vera was now heading towards them. "Ms. Drake?" She paused while Alyssa walked over to set the pie down. "I'd offer to show you around but I believe you know where everything is."
That moment when the person who broke into your house was here for a Christmas party. Hamish was quick though, seeing a possible sass fight coming on from Vera. Normally he wouldn't do what he did next but today was going to be a very special exception for her. "Vera, you want a glass of champagne?"
"I can't have any Hamish but thanks for the offer."
"One glass isn't going to hurt you or the baby. Besides you drank a lot the first week before you knew so." He didn't want to say if there was any damage that would have been the cause of it. In fact he was certain there wasn't, Vera just needed to avoid being a straight up heavy drinker like she normally was.
"Thanks for the reassurance but no thank you." She could have taken the easy way out but really Vera wasn't going to risk her daughter just so she could be in the same room with Ms. Drake. "I'll have water though." Hamish was more than happy to get her that too. Opening up the fridge he poured some of their purified water into one of the wine glasses and slid it across the counter for Vera. "So Hamish is there anything you want me to do yet?"
"I want you to…" She gave him a death glare. If he said sit down and relax to her one more time she was going to actually hurt him. "Set the table." Because she was a perfectionist about that. Hopefully there would come a point in their relationship where Hamish didn't have to feel slightly afraid of angering her. Maybe that was never to be but a wolf could dream.
Alyssa grabbed some plates to help Vera set the table, she wasn't going to ask for forgiveness or even tell Vera what she wanted to tell her which was that she still didn't trust her. However Vera had orchestrated her return to being not, well, undead. That warranted Alyssa at least helping her set the table. "I think I can handle this Ms. Drake, thank you very much. You may have taken my powers but thank goodness I'm still a very capable person."
Hamish and Jack both looked at each other a bit concerned again. Today was going to be a very long Christmas Party. Hopefully once everyone else started to show up Vera would be able to leave Alyssa alone.