Chapter 2 of 2 today … don't miss Ch 57!
(7/11/2018)
CHAPTER 58
That night, the family sat at the dinner table eating together, the conversation revolving around the baby again. Gracie and Eve babbled about names and what they were going to play with the new baby when it arrived. Elizabeth didn't have the heart to tell them they had a very long wait until they could play with the baby.
Elizabeth did notice however that Halley didn't join the conversation. She sat there quietly, glancing over at Elizabeth now and then but not saying much.
After they got ready for bed, Jack read a book to Gracie and Eve while Elizabeth took Halley's hand leading her to her room.
"Halley, sweetie, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"You've been quiet all afternoon. Is there a problem?"
She nodded her head slowly.
"Did something happen at school?"
Halley shook her head 'no'.
"Is it about something at home?"
She nodded her head again.
"Is it about the baby?"
Halley looked at her mother, not answering immediately.
"Tell me what the problem is."
"I don't understand how the baby gets inside. Daddy said it was like the seed of a tree."
"Oh well, I guess so. In a way." Elizabeth said, wondering exactly what Jack would have said to Halley.
"So a baby has branches?" she said looking incredibly confused.
Elizabeth smiled. "No. I'm sure he meant something else." Elizabeth looked at her daughter and knew what she had to tell Halley. She started slowly trying to give her enough detail without overwhelming her.
"So the baby is tiny right now?" she said after Elizabeth's explanation.
"Yes about as big as your hand, I guess."
"How does it grow?"
"Everything I eat from now on, part of it goes to the baby to help it get bigger and bigger."
"And when its big enough, the baby will know to come out?"
"Yes."
Elizabeth waited for more questions but they stopped.
"Okay. Goodnight Mommy."
Elizabeth leant in to kiss Halley's forehead. "Goodnight sweetie. Sweet dreams."
Elizabeth tucked her in before leaving the bedroom. Jack was waiting outside, leaning against the door. Elizabeth closed Halley's door and took Jack's hand, leading him to their room and closing the door behind them.
"You told her I had the seed of a tree inside me that would turn into a baby?"
"No, I said it was like the seed of a tree. I'm guessing she was more confused."
"Yes!"
"So what did you tell her?" Jack said sitting on the end of the bed.
"The truth!"
"You didn't!" he said in shock.
"I did."
Elizabeth moved around the other side of the bed, walking into the bathroom.
"She's our little girl! You can't tell her about ... well ... everything. She'll never look at us the same again."
Elizabeth laughed. "I didn't tell her everything. I just mentioned the basics. A man's sperm. A woman's egg. Together they make a baby."
Elizabeth discarded her clothes and grabbed her satin robe off the back of the bathroom door. She pulled it on and tied the sash, not worrying with her nightgown.
"Right, so how did you tell her they come together?" Jack asked again as she emerged. He was sitting on the bed unmoved.
"She didn't ask about that. Thankfully, that was all she needed to know right now."
"Until when?"
"I don't know but I'm guessing the next question will be along the lines of how does the baby come out."
Jack groaned. "I am not equipped to deal with these things."
Elizabeth laughed again. "Not equipped to explain these things or actually deal with them?"
"Both" he said, with a serious expression.
"Jack … are you being serious?" she asked, approaching him.
"Maybe. This is all new. I don't remember any of it."
"You remember me being pregnant, I've seen the drawings."
"Yes."
"And you remember the girls as babies?"
"Snapshots. Sure. But I don't know that I'm going to be much help to you."
Elizabeth stepped closer to him, pulling him to his feet.
"Jack, I just need you to be there for me."
She pulled his shirt off over his head.
"I can do that" he replied.
Elizabeth tugged his sweats and underwear off, letting everything fall to the ground.
"Can you talk sense into me when I go crazy?"
"Sure."
She walked into him, forcing him to sit down again.
"Can you help me out when I have weird cravings and ideas?"
"No problem."
Elizabeth put her hand on Jack's chest, making him shuffle backward, before she brought her knees up to rest on either side of his thighs, sitting down on his lap.
"Put up with my increased sex drive over the next few months?" she asked as she leant in to graze her lips over his.
"Oh, I can definitely handle that one" he answered eagerly as his hands slid underneath her robe.
It turned out that keeping a secret for three excited girls was way too difficult. They made it through the first day okay but by Friday, they couldn't hold it any longer.
Elizabeth was in the staff room during morning tea, sitting in a chair in the corner on her own, when Halley's teacher approached. Christine was a lovely young teacher who was not one to gossip so clearly she wanted to confirm the information direct from the source.
"Elizabeth, have you got a minute?"
"Sure. Is it about Halley?"
"Yes."
"What's wrong? Did she forget her homework again?"
"No, no. It was something she said that I …"
"Oh no. What did she say?" Elizabeth immediately thought she had picked up on a bad word on the playground and repeated it.
"Well, she mentioned something about getting a new baby brother."
Elizabeth felt the heat rising in her cheeks. "She didn't …" she whispered.
"Um … yes, she did. She was quite specific."
"Oh. Well … that is, it's still early days so I … um …"
"Don't worry Elizabeth" Christine said with a smile. "I won't say a word."
"Thank you."
"I just wasn't sure if she just had a wild imagination. She kept calling him Kristoff."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "We don't know the gender. She just wants a baby brother."
"Badly by the sound of it. Although who can blame her when she already has two younger sisters" Christine said with a laugh.
Elizabeth thought that would be as bad as it gets. Until Gracie's teacher, Patty, sought her out at lunchtime when she was talking to Theo and eating her pasta salad.
"Elizabeth!" she called across the staff room. "I have something to show you."
"Yes?"
"It's a picture Gracie drew" she said.
"Of?"
"I'm not exactly sure."
"What do you mean?"
"Here."
Elizabeth looked down to see what appeared to be five girls on the page. "Gracie" was written below one person in Gracie's handwriting and Patty's handwriting was written above all of the others. The biggest was Halley, in the middle was Eve and the two smallest girls on the end were Ana and Elsa. Elizabeth's eyes went wide.
"Gracie tells me she has two baby sisters coming."
The conversation on the table stopped and everyone stared at Elizabeth.
"Um. No."
"So you're not pregnant?"
"Well …" Elizabeth said unsure how to answer. She didn't want to lie.
"Congratulations Elizabeth! You're having twins?" Patty said excitedly.
"Nooo. Just one."
Congratulations surrounded her as news quickly spread around the staff room. Elizabeth smiled and said thankyou all the while hoping that this baby made it over the next week or so until they had gotten past the anxiety-ridden first trimester.
When she got back to her classroom before her students returned, Elizabeth sent off a quick text to Jack.
E: Your daughters both spilled the news today. Everyone knows.
She got a quick reply indicating he too was at lunch.
J: Good. Now I don't feel bad telling everyone.
Elizabeth grinned. She knew he was excited too. She had been worried that he would have been overwhelmed by the news but this was as good as it could get.
Elizabeth collected Halley, Gracie and Oscar from school and drove toward Viola's house. Oscar flew out of the car first, running up the front path to the front door. Viola opened it before he could even knock.
"Mom!" Oscar yelled as he hugged her.
"Hi sweetie. I've got fresh cookies on the counter for you."
"Thanks" he yelled, running past her.
Elizabeth walked up, leaving Halley and Gracie waiting in the car as usual. Viola had her hands on her hips as Elizabeth approached.
"Hi Vi. How was she?" Elizabeth asked, waiting for Eve to appear.
"Good. We had such a fun time this morning."
"Oh yeah? What did you do?"
"We decided to make cookies for everyone. So we mixed all the ingredients together and rolled them out. She did a great job helping with the cookie cutters. We put them in the oven and once they were cooked and cooled down we decided to put them in paper bags for all the kids."
"That's a great idea."
"Yes. Her and Lara were so excited. They wrote the names on the paper bags and then put two cookies in for each of the kids."
"Mommy!" Eve came running. Elizabeth put her hands out to catch her as she flew into her.
"Eve, sweetie, don't forget to grab your cookie bags" Viola reminded her.
"Oh yeah!"
She ran back into the house and returned with the bags of cookies.
"Mommy, look what I made!"
Elizabeth looked down and saw Eve's uneven scrawl on the front of the bags. Elizabeth glanced over them. 'Halley', 'Gracie', 'Eve' were written on each bag and Elizabeth held her breath as she saw a fourth bag at the bottom. 'Baby Elsa'.
"Mommy, those ones are for the baby."
Elizabeth nodded her head slowly, a small smile on her lips. All three daughters had managed to spill the news on the same day.
"That's great, sweetie. Why don't you take them to the car and give them to your sisters. I will be there in a minute."
"Okay" she said happily taking them and running to the car.
Elizabeth watched her go before she turned to her older sister. Viola stood there with a smirk on her face.
"Did you have something you wanted to tell me, Beth?"
Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief. "I think you already know."
"Maybe but I want to hear it from you."
"Jack and I are expecting another baby in May."
Viola squealed in excitement before stepping forward to wrap her in a hug.
"How long have you known?"
"I found out on Tuesday."
"You're kidding?!"
"No. It was actually something you said last weekend that got me thinking. You know about the headaches."
"But I thought you two weren't going to have any more."
"We weren't."
"It was an accident? Beth, that is not like you."
"My implant expired. With everything that happened with Jack, I just lost track of it."
"Oh Beth. How did Jack take it?"
"Really well. I mean it was a shock but he's so excited. I should have waited to tell the girls but we were just so happy and it just seemed right at the time."
"So how far along are you?"
"About ten weeks."
"So you don't know the gender?"
"No. I think we'll just keep it a surprise again."
Viola grinned at her. "I'm so happy for you. I know things have been tough over the last year but this is just amazing. Jack will get another chance to go through it all again. It doesn't get much better than that!"
"I'm glad you're not upset with me."
"Upset? Why would I be upset?" Viola said surprised.
"I guess from stealing some of the attention again …"
"Nonsense, Beth. Our new babies are going to be close in age again … that is an added bonus." Viola stepped forward to give her another hug. "Let me know if you need anything Beth. I mean it."
"Thanks Vi. I better get back to the girls."
"I'll see you next week Beth."
"Bye."
The news is out … it's a quick chapter but I've got some more coming :)
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