One Shot 17: Baby

It was a bit of a shock to him when he first saw it. Well, it wasn't actually a sight, it was a touch. His hand was snaked around her waist and when he woke up, he felt it; one small bump.

He was tempted to rub her abdomen, but he knew that would earn a dirty look from her. Their first pregnancy, he did that a lot when they were in bed together and it annoyed her to the point where she would bite his hand.

"Baby." he murmured against her ear.

"Baby." She muttered back as she turned over so they'd be facing each other. She nestled her cheek against the front of his neck and traced eights into his skin. "Are the kids up yet?"

"Dunno." He yawned, burying his face into her honey blonde hair. He pulled her closer so he could feel the bump against his flat stomach. "But we'll know once they run in here screaming for us to feed them."

He felt vibrations against his throat and he couldn't help but smile as his thumbs smoothed over the shaking shoulders. They did particularly nothing for the rest of the early morning, waiting for the ambush of small hands and jumping children. Travis kept looking down at her to see if she was asleep. She was always on the verge of rest but once she realized his eyes were on her she would wake up again.

"You should sleep." He says, kissing her forehead. "I know you're tired."

"Just shhh." she mutters, her left index finger smooshes against his lip. He nips after her finger as she gets impatient and covers his entire mouth. "It's a nice Sunday morning. Don't ruin this. It's a miracle that the kids aren't up."

"Speaking of children," he says, removing her small hand from his face. "Let's talk about this one." He places the palm of his hand on her softly swollen abdomen and she places her hand on top of his.

"Not now…" she murmurs against his skin. "It's too soon."

"We'll have to start planning out the room soon." Travis insists. For the first time, Travis is not being the incisive one. "It's a girl, right?"

"Yes but…"

"Names?"

"Travis…"

"Katie."

"Can we not?"

"You know we'll have to face this eventually." Travis replies, trying to soothe the fears from her.

"I'm just scared," Katie says, adverting her eyes from him. He frowns and traces little hearts on her belly. "What if this one is the host?"

"Maybe the prophecy was wrong." Travis lies.

"Prophecies are never wrong." Katie replies, gripping his arm a little harder. "You know that."

"Our girls—" but he cuts himself off once the sound of scuffling feet echo through the house. The door bursts open and two children pounce onto the huge bed screaming in delight.

"Mommy!" Hailey squeals, jumping between them. Jacob follows in suit and the husband and wife are parted. "Daddy! I had a dream that I ate all the ice cream in the world! It was like the bestest dream ever in the entire world!"

"'Bestest' isn't a word! Jacob proclaims.

"Who says it isn't?" Hailey growls, glaring over at her twin.

"Me!"

"You're not funny!" the young girl barks, smooshing her brother's cheeks together.

"Calm down you two." Katie says, scooping the girl up into her arms. Travis follows her move and scoops up his son to keep the two siblings from fighting.

"When is breakfast happening?" Hailey asks, sitting up from the bed and beginning to run out of the bedroom. "Come on! I wanna eat!"

Jacob follows her and they both run downstairs. Travis and Katie look at each other and smirk. "It's our calling." Travis says, getting out of bed.

"I'll give you ten bucks if you take care of the breakfast situation." Katie calls from the bed as she curls up in the sheets.

"You know you don't trust me with cooking." Travis laughed. "You're always saying that I'm going to burn the house down."

She bolts up and stares at him. "You wouldn't dare burn the house down." She hisses.

"I'll try not to."

Katie got out of bed and ran ahead of him and he laughed at her irrational fear of him burning down the house.

When he comes home from work one day, he's greeted by his family sitting on the couch. They don't notice him at first so he quietly watches from the doorway. Katie's seven months along and it's strange. The last time it was seven months, the twins were already born since of something about twins being born early since there's no space in the womb for more months.

The swell of her abdomen is much smaller than what it was for their first pregnancy and it fascinates him.

The two children are nestled by her side and her arms are wrapped around them in a loving embrace. Both of their hands are pressed against the swell and the little girl's ear is pressed against it.

"Can you feel it?" Katie asks, running her fingers through their girl's pretty hair.

"I think I can." Hailey says in hushed wonder. "It kicks too hard for a girl."

"I still wish it was a boy." Jacob says, rubbing his tiny little hands on her tummy. "I don't want another girl like Hailey."

Katie smiles and you can see her laugh lines and Travis smiles to himself because he's reminded how beautiful she is. Katie's eyes meet his but she doesn't say anything. They smile at each other and Katie continues. Both of her hands are running through the hair of their children and it reminds him of when those two were babies and how his wife would always run her finger through their little baby hairs. The thought suddenly makes him feel old.

"Well, how do you know she'll be like Hailey?" Katie asks. "I bet each and every one of you will be different."

"She's a fighter." Jacob says, his eyes narrowing as if he's staring into the soul of the baby. "Why are you naming her Rosalie?"

"Rosalie is a tough name!" Hailey chirps. "Roses are sharp! She'll bite everybody!"

"You're weird." Jacob replies, wolfishly grinning at his sister.

"Whatever weirdo."

"Go off to bed you two," Katie laughs, kissing them both on the forehead.

"Tuck me in!" Hailey exclaims.

"Tuck yourself in!" Jacob says, giving her a push off the couch and dragging her upstairs.

"You tuck me in!" she told him.

"No!" Jacob yelled. "You smell bad!"

"I'll be up in a minute!" Katie calls to them. "Don't claw each other's face!" She turned to her husband and smiled at him. "Hello Mr. Creeper McCreeperson. How long are you going to stand there?"

"Since you're married to me, wouldn't you be Mrs. McCreeperson?" Travis asks, toeing off his shoes.

"I could have kept my maiden name," Katie says, sticking her nose in the air. "Also, Mr. McCreeperson, your mother called; said something about sending an interior designer for the baby's room."

He groaned. He hated when his mother did all these unnecessary things for him and his brother such as send in a whole wardrobe of the 'in fashion' clothing for that fall or spring season. Words could not express how many trips they took to the Goodwill just to drop off last season's clothing that they decided they could live without. They couldn't just reject her clothing because she would rage if she didn't see her sons, daughter-in-laws, and grandchildren wearing the clothing from her and her famous fashion designer friends.

"Do you know what brand that was?!" she would yell, learning that he and Connor gave it away. "Charisa Brannon! Do you know how people would kill to have those clothes! I had them hand made for you and what do you do?! YOU GIVE THEM AWAY! Oh god, Charisa is going to be absolutely wrecked if she found out you gave away an exclusive blazer!"

And ever since Katie and he announced that they were having another, she was all over it. And since Katie was on a maternity leave from the lab once she learnt of her pregnancy, Katie was the only one underwhelmed by his mother.

"Does she really have to do this?" Travis asked, plopping down next to his wife. "What she's been doing is already too much!"

Katie rests her hand on his shoulder and gives him a small smile. "Relax Trav," she says. "She's just trying to help."

"It's not her baby!"

"She just wants to give them what she couldn't give you and Connor when you were babies." Katie reasons, getting up to tuck in their children. "I mean, that's what I would do if I had her life story."

"You are too reasonable, Love." he says, gesturing out.

"Well, one of us has to be in order for this relationship to work."

They both laugh.

He never really liked baby showers. For one, he tries to avoid the festivities that are occurring in the living room and dining room. He and the kids are hiding in his office.

He curses his brother having the excuse of attending a meeting with the NYCPD on a murder case. Hailey and Jacob poke their head out of the doorway to stare at the party and they whisper to each other. But like the usual small child, they aren't very good at whispering.

"Ew, Gretchen is here." Hailey whispers, her face twisting. "I don't like her. She's weird."

"She tried to take my blood!" Jacob exclaims, baring his skinny little arm to his sister to where she struck him with a needle.

Gretchen Lark is Katie's lab partner. He doesn't get how Katie gets along with her, but Katie has no idea what he and the kids mean when they say how freaky she is. Gretchen Lark was something different. You couldn't describe how different she was. Gretchen Lark didn't like Travis. Gretchen Lark had a thing for Jacob and Hailey but Jacob and Hailey didn't have a thing for her.

Gretchen didn't know how to act around children, but she liked them alright. She didn't think that Travis deserved Katie and thought that he was a fool. She had thickly framed green glasses and wore these granny dresses that made her look old. She glared at everyone and she was often rude to anybody who dared to talk to her. And when she talked it made it seem like you were fading in the background and she was ranting to the world.

But Katie liked her, so he would stand her.

The twittering of the ladies outside filled the house and they talked about girl things. Miranda planned this whole thing out and invited all their friends from camp as well as Katie's other friends. He wasn't used to all the women in his house. They usually weren't the company type of people so it was odd seeing all these people in his house. The doorbell rung and he peered out the doorway with his children to see who it was.

Annabeth entered the house and her child, Alex ran ahead and Jacob and Hailey ran towards him and pulled him to the backyard so they could play. He wanted to groan out in agony and call out for his children to return to him but he knew that would be cruel.

"Hi Travis." Annabeth called, waving at him. "Tried bringing Percy to keep you company but I couldn't convince him. Sorry."

He cursed Percy in his head but smiled at the curly haired woman. "S'right." Travis said, beginning to hide in his office yet again. "I'll just leave you ladies alone."

He lost himself in Reddit before he heard the soft knocking on the door. "Hm?" he asked, not looking away from his computer screen.

"It's over," she said, her voice soft. "Help me clean up, the kids are tuckered out."

He swiveled around and got up. "What loot did you get today?" he asked, picking up bowls and ushering them to the kitchen sink.

"You know, the usual baby things." Katie replied, stacking the boxes of baby toys and other things. "Toys, clothes, books; you know, the usual."

"Was it a good day?" Travis yells from the kitchen as the soap suds up and washes away all the food and grime from the bowls, plates, and cups.

"I suppose." Katie replies. The house is silent with the only noise of plates and clinking together and the sound of running water. Once everything is done, he turns off the sink and walks to the living room.

There he finds Katie asleep on the couch asleep, clutching a teddy bear to her chest.

He smiles to himself and thinks about how lucky he is.

Nine months come around the corner and he's freaking out. The baby is two weeks late. It's night and Katie is sitting in bed reading and he's right next to her staring at the two week late baby.

"Traaavis." She says, dragging out his name. "I know what you're thinking. Don't worry."

"It's two weeks late!" he exclaimed, glaring at it. He should stop calling it 'it'. It's a girl. He knows that. Rosalie Carolina Stoll, the baby that is two weeks late. "What if something is wrong?!"

"Nothing is wrong Travis." Katie assures. "The doctor just estimated the day; it wasn't going to be exactly on the dot."

"But still—"

"Don't worry," she replies, looking at him. "We're prepared. If I got into labor anytime soon then we can just get out of here and call your mom to watch the kids."

"Didn't your mom say she was going to watch them?" Travis said. When Demeter came to their door asking if she could watch the kids while Katie was giving birth they both didn't really believe her. But they were scared of dying so they agreed.

"I really don't believe she will, so call your mom just in case." Katie replies, returning to her book.

They settle back into the silence and he stares at his laptop screen. His eyes can't help but settle on her and she notices.

"Travis, I'll be fi—"

"I love you Katie."

They look at each other for a long time with wide eyes. She slowly smiles and he follows her in suit.

She steals a kiss from his lips and pulls away saying, "I love you too, you dork."

In the night she goes into labor and three days later they come home with a rosy looking baby girl with one green eye and one blue eye.

She grows up to be a rose garden; beautiful and strong.

Ugh I wrote this in two days because I haven't written in months! Months I tell you! The only writing I did was for school! Horrendous! I know! My creative juices have been flowing and I don't know when I'll be updating anything because I'm just everywhere in my mind that I can't think straight! So expect scattered stories everywhere! I have a story about Jacob and Rosie and it's just soooo angsty. Also it's 1 A.M. in the morning and I've been writing ever since I came home from singing for this choir thing. I've been busy with real life so I'm sorry I haven't been updating anything! I'm sorry if this is horribly written but I needed to let loose.

Love you all!

-Marykate3000