sadly, this is the last chapter to this story. really, i'm out of ideas and there's no where else i can really take it. on the bright side, you all have a coproduction between ClaireBear536 and I that will begin in the near future!
X-X-X-X-X ::: Chapter 14: It's a Rollercoaster Ride
Joe kept his promise well. He stopped mentioning children, and Olivia was happy for it. She still felt guilty for keeping something from Joe that he wanted so badly, but he was understanding and knew that it wouldn't be for ever. It also helped that their life together had become unspeakably busy - besides their separate work, there was also a painful rough patch as Joe's father was hospitalized after a heart attack.
That was the most difficult part of the year for everyone. Miley and Nick struggled as Nick withdrew from everyone. Kevin and Jess were the rational ones that kept it together, helping out Mrs. Jonas and all. It hit Olivia (and consequently, Joe) particularly hard as her own actual father had died of a heart attack some ten years before. But the family pulled together and pulled through, and by the time a year had gone by, life had quieted down...
It was a rather quiet evening in the household of one Joe Jonas. He was in the hangout room, chilling out and reading the newspaper, looking quite like an old man. All he needed was a pipe and a smoking jacket. He had just moved on from "Over the Hedge" to "Peanuts" when he heard the stereo click on across the room, familiar piano chords floating across the room as Liv slid into the doorway, wearing one of his button down shirts (unbuttoned) over her bra and underwear. She began lip synching to the song - "Just take those old records off the shelf, I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself. Today's music ain't got the same soul, I like that old time rock and roll! (1)"
Joe laughed as she continued "singing," dancing her way across the room and whipping out what he was pretty sure were his sunglasses. She took his hand, pulling him up to dance with her. He laughed, twirling her around and attempting a tango, though the dance hardly matched the music. He took the sunglasses from her - after all, why did she get to dress up and leave him in normal clothes? - and continued rocking out to the old song. When the song faded away, the couple collapsed on the couch, exhausted by their intense dance skills.
"Someone's stuck in the 80's today." Joe remarked, laughing.
"'Risky Business' was on whenever I came home. What can I say, I was inspired." Olivia said, kissing him.
"And I have to say, the outfit is quite nice. I dig it." he said, moving the shirt a little bit to expose a little more skin.
"Yea, well, you know I very rarely approve of clothes." she replied, settling beside him as he wrapped an arm around her. They stayed in that position for a long while, simply enjoying being together. After a while, Olivia sat up.
"What is it?" Joe asked, looking to her. She seemingly refused to look at him. Instead she looked down at her hands, playing with her wedding ring.
"I was just thinking..." she began, but stopped, furrowing her brow and biting her lip.
"Ok, thinking is a good start." Joe said after a few moments of silence. Olivia took a deep breath, turning to face him.
"Do you still want to have a baby?" she asked, fastening her eyes upon his. The question hung in the air between them as Joe tried to decide if she was kidding or not.
"For riz?" he asked.
"For riz." she responded. His face brightened.
"Um, YEAH!" he said, kissing her soundly. She responded smiling into the kiss. He abruptly pulled back, looking at her with a serious look on his face.
"Are you sure you want this? That you're ready?" he asked. She nodded emphatically.
"I'm positive." she said, giving him a dazzling smile. He smirked.
"Well, technically not yet, but we'll get there eventually." he said, nodding his head. She rolled her eyes.
"Joe, that was one of the worst jokes ever." she said, laughing anyway.
"What? It was not! That was a good one!" Joe insisted. "That sucker was clever!"
"Of course, dear." Olivia said, patting his cheek. He rolled his eyes, kissing her softly.
"Anyway, back to the heart of the matter. About this whole 'baby' thing..." he said, his words broken up by kisses to her neck.
"What about it?" she asked innocently, enjoying the attention.
"I think we should start soon." he continued.
"Really? How soon?" she questioned further.
"Eh, now sounds good." he said.
"Now works. I'm free now." she replied.
And so they began trying for a baby. Joe wanted to keep it a secret ("Why would you ever want to ruin the surprise?!"), but Olivia told Miley anyway - after all, Miley had confided in her whenever she was trying for a baby. A few months later, everything went topsy turvy.
As the alarm was blaring one morning, Olivia knew that it was not going to be a good day. She was sick, and she very rarely got sick. Of course, she was the worst sick that was possible - headache, achy bones, and tremendously sick to her stomach.
"Are you ok?" Joe asked after turning the alarm off. Olivia shook her head in response, curling up into a little ball on her side. Joe was immediately alarmed, trying to be as calm as possible as he placed his hand on her forehead.
"You're a little warm." he said, sounding much more composed than he really was. Olivia never got sick - what kind of sick twist was this? Olivia shivered a little bit as an answer.
"Ok," Joe said, getting up. "You stay here. I'll get you some water and an Advil or something." he said, going out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen, where he called the one person that he knew could help him.
"Hello?" Mrs. Jonas sleepily answered the phone.
"MOMMY!" Joe nearly yelled. "How do you nurse somebody back to health?!"
"Joseph?" she asked, still a little bit asleep.
"Yes it's me! Now tell me how to nurse somebody back to health!" he exclaimed, getting out the water and Advil he had promised Olivia.
"For the love, Joseph, you didn't try to cook again, did you?" she asked, suddenly awake.
"No, Mommy, I didn't. Olivia's sick, and she never gets sick ever, so forgive me if I FREAK OUT A LITTLE BIT!" he said.
"Well, what are her symptoms?" Dr. Mama Jonas asked.
"As far as I can tell, headache, fever, and..." he heard some odd noises from upstairs. "...nausea."
"Hmm." Mrs. Jonas hummed knowingly. "Well dear, I would say to keep her hydrated, get her some good soup, and suggest to take the day off."
"Hydration, soupage, and rest." Joe repeated dutifully back.
"Yes, good job." Mrs. Jonas commended.
"Thanks Mommy!" he said. "I'll talk to you later!"
"Oh, and Joseph?" she stopped him before he could say goodbye.
"Yes Mommy Dearest?" he asked innocently.
"While you're out getting soup, get a pregnancy test as well." she suggested.
"...Huh?" Joe asked, shocked. How was it that his mother managed to know anything at any given moment?!
"While you're out, go buy a pregnancy test." she repeated.
"No, I got that...but how did you - we didn't tell - huh?" he said, struggling to form coherent sentences.
"It's called Mother's Intuition, darling. Now go take care of your wife." she replied semi-vaguely.
"Ok." Joe said, not bothering to even attempt to question further. "Bye Mum!"
"Bye, son." she said, and they hung up. Joe stopped to ponder his mother's words - would they really be so lucky as to get pregnant this soon? They had only been trying for a few months, and WebMD suggested that it could take a year or more. He then remembered that his wife was upstairs and sick, so he grabbed the couple bottles of water he had gotten out of the fridge, got the whole dang bottle of Advil, and returned to her upstairs.
"Feeling any better?" he asked softly, stroking her hair as she laid down on the bed.
"A little." she replied, now awake enough to converse. She sighed. "I don't know what this is, I've never had the flu or anything like this before."
"Well, my mom suggested hydration, rest, andapregnancytest." Joe said quickly, hoping she wouldn't quite understand him.
"You called your mom?" she asked. Yes! His plan worked!...for the time being.
"Well yea, how else am I supposed to know how to nurse you back to health?" he asked, cracking open the bottle of Advil for her. "Now, take a couple of these and go back to sleep. I'll call you in sick and go get you some soup. Any particular kind?"
"Just chicken noodle is cool." she murmured, taking the pills and drinking some water before laying back down.
"Chicken noodle soup coming right up!" he said softly, kissing her forehead.
"Thank you, Joe." she murmured, already falling back asleep.
"No problem, love." he replied, leaving for the grocery store. A few minutes after he left, Olivia sat up, looking around the room blearily.
"Did he mention a pregnancy test?" she asked the empty room. When the air didn't answer, she shrugged, figuring she had just imagined it, and laid back down to take a nap.
A few days later, Olivia was feeling a lot better (well, usually), so Joe finally mentioned the pregnancy test again. After it tested positive, Olivia marvelled at their luck...and the insane intuition of Mrs. Jonas. Then the excitement set in.
"HOLY CRAP, WE'RE HAVING A BABY!" she said, excited beyond belief.
"AH, I KNOW!" he said, just as excited, picking her up and twirling her around. They waited the lucky amount of time (as specified by Jess) before gathering the whole family for dinner one night. There was excitement in the air the entire meal (to Joe and Olivia at least - although Mrs. Jonas and Mrs. Haddocks both had suspicious twinkles in their eyes...), and it was painful for them to wait until the end.
"Ok," Olivia said, getting up from the table and gathering everyone's attention. "so we gathered you all here because we have a very exciting announcement."
"Are you moving to England?" Tyler asked.
"Tyler!" Mrs. Haddocks exclaimed, smacking him upside the head.
"What?! I'd be excited if I was moving to England!" he justified himself as the group laughed.
"No, we're not moving to England, Ty." Olivia said, laughing at her younger brother.
"We're having a baby!" Joe said, unable to contain it any longer.
"Oh, well...that was my second guess." Tyler muttered, giving his older sister a half smile before the uproar. The couple was congratulated by the family, excitement being passed around like a bad case of strep throat. A couple weeks later, Miley announced that she was pregnant also, and Olivia was happy to have a "preggo buddy," as she dubbed her sister-in-law.
Pregnancy, however, was not very kind on Olivia. One day when Joe called her, she could be found alone in her office, head on desk and steaming cup of tea nearby.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked with a concerned tone in his voice.
"You know that scene at the end of the third Pirates of the Caribbean? With the whirlpool and all?" she asked.
"Um, yea..." he replied, not sure where that came from.
"I feel like that's happening in my abdomen." she stated shortly. Ah, so that's where the connection was.
"I'm sorry, hon." he said sympathetically.
"I'm also pondering why they call it morning sickness when it lasts all day." she said.
"Have you been taking your vitamins?" he asked.
"Yes."
"And drinking your water?"
"Yes."
"Then you'll be ok in no time!" he said.
"It's a girl, by the way." she stated.
"You asked the doctor?! I thought we agreed it would be a surprise!" Joe whined.
"No, it's just that my mom had perfect pregnancies with my brothers, but she says that mine was super rough. So I've concluded that it's a girl." she explained.
"I think that yours is opposite of hers and we're having a boy." Joe retorted.
"Just trust me on this, it's a girl." she said.
"I will not stop believing until the day he is born!" he said valiently.
"Ok, sounds good." she said shortly. "Now, what's up?"
"Huh?" he asked, momentarily forgetting why he was calling. "OH! Right. Do you think we could babysit Noah for a night while Nick and Miley go out? Cause a) they really need to go out together, and b) I think playing with the baby will be good for us."
"When were you thinking we would do this?" she asked, taking a sip of water. It helped a little.
"Um...tomorrow night." he said sheepishly. Liv took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
"Alright, tell them we'll babysit tomorrow." she agreed. Joe expressed his excitement and said he would call and tell Miley and Nick that they'd be there the next night. Liv smiled and shook her head, glad that he was so excited to have a child, especially since her excitement was growing exponentially every day.
The next night, they couldn't get to Nick and Miley's fast enough, to Joe at least.
"The babysitters club is here!" he announced when they arrived.
"Don't mind him, he's been excited all day." Olivia said laughing as she hugged Nick and Miley.
"That's a good thing, cause Noah's pretty excited as well." Miley said, smiling at her brother-in-law's enthusiasm.
"Obviously." Joe replied, rolling his eyes with a large smile on his face. "Now, where is the mini stud muffin?"
"In the family room," Nick said, pulling on his coat. "being entertained by blocks."
"Whoopee! My favorite!" Joe said, practically running off to where the small child was.
"And this is supposedly our first child?" Liv asked sarcastically. "If you ask me, I've been taking care of a little kid for quite a while now."
"I'm curious as to how he's going to be with the baby." Miley mused, chewing her lip in a moment of thought.
"You and me both. But you two get going, and have a good time! Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him, so it'll all be ok. Just have a quiet, relaxing evening." Liv said, giving a reassuring smile. Truth be told, she was feeling a lot better today than usual.
"Alright." Miley said, grabbing her purse and coat.
"Just call if you need anything." Nick said as they were heading out the door. Liv smiled, waving goodbye to them before joining her husband in the family room, where he was sitting on the floor with Noah and building...something.
"What exactly is that, huh?" Liv asked Noah, who smiled at the attention, throwing a couple of the blocks to show off.
"This is clearly a very artistic and purposeful pile." Joe replied as he tried to make a castle out of the blocks without Noah throwing one and knocking it all down.
"Oh yes, clearly." Liv agreed, nodding her head definitely. They spent the next few hours relatively problem free (only a few disasters had to be avoided), having fun doing all the baby things with little Noah, like games and blocks and Blue's Clues. It wasn't until about eight o'clock or so that the day started taking it's toll on Liv.
"You ok?" Joe asked, turning towards her as they sat on the couch.
"Noah." she said, looking to the small child. Joe quickly turned back, snatching up the boy before he could topple over and hit his delicate little head on the dangerous corner of the coffee table.
"Ok, Noah aside," Joe said, sitting the little boy on his lap. "you feeling ok?"
"Just a little tired is all. A little sickly." she said, waving it off. "It's all good."
"Do you want to go lay down for a little bit?" he asked. Olivia perked one eyebrow, giving him a look. "I promise I can take care of him without anything bad happening!"
"I don't know, Joe..." she said, but the wear and tear on her body also served to lessen her resilience to his pleas.
"Seriously, I'll pop in another movie, and then we'll play with blocks or legos or something until Nick and Miley get home." he said, his face softening. "You look really tired. Just go lay down."
Olivia sighed, hoping her instincts would win out over her judgement. "Ok, I'll go lay down for a little bit. But please, for the love, do not let anything happen to that child." she said.
"Scouts honor!" he replied, saluting her. She still looked a little skeptical, so Joe turned to Noah, bouncing him so that he produced a small giggle. "See? Tell Auntie Liv that everything is going to be a-ok!"
Liv was still a little hesitant, but she reasoned that eventually he would be left alone with their child, so she might as well get used to it. She gave both boys a quick kiss before giving in to her body and lying down for a nap. She didn't even hear when Miley and Nick came home.
"Why is Noah still up?" Miley questioned, a worried look on her face as she walked into the family room. "And where's Liv? She's supposed to watch...I mean, help you."
"Noah told me he didn't want to go to bed yet." Joe said. He continued when they gave him disbelieving looks. "Seriously, he was all 'Dude, Joe, come on man, throw me a bone here.' And look at that face, I just couldn't say no!"
"Joe, Noah can't mutter a coherent word, much less a sentence." Miley said pointedly. "You can't keep the baby up just to entertain you, he needs sleep. And again, where's Liv?" she said tiredly.
"She's lying down in one of the spare bedrooms, I think. She said she was tired." Joe mumbled, shrugging and turning his attention back to the baby.
"I'm going to go find her." Miley sighed, exiting the room quickly.
"What did I do?" Joe asked Nick, confused.
"She just has Noah on a schedule, and he's supposed to go to bed earlier than this." Nick explained, shrugging.
"Well, staying up a little late one night won't kill him - live a little." Joe said. He turned to Noah. "You had fun tonight, didn't you little buddy? Mommy and daddy are a little too strict, don't you think?"
"Just wait to you have yours, Joe. Just wait." Nick said with a smile. "You'll be praying that they get on a sleep schedule so that you can get some shut eye as well."
Meanwhile, Miley found Liv dead asleep in one of the spare bedrooms. She didn't want to waker her up, but she knew that she had to go to her own house. Miley silently sat down on the edge of the bed, gently rousing Liv from her sleep.
"Hey hon, we're back." she said softly as Liv's eyes fluttered open.
"Oh, hey." Liv responded, yawning as she sat up and stretched.
"Tired?" Miley asked, a smile on her face.
"Oh yea. Do you know how hard it is to take care of a two year old and a grown man at the same time? Pretty darn hard, let me tell you." Liv said, running her hands through her hair in an effort to fix it.
"Well, I don't usually have to take care of the grown man." Miley smiled. Liv shook her head, smiling as well.
"Hopefully he'll grow up a little bit when the baby comes. But I mean, he's still the same guy I fell in love with, so I'm not sure it matters." she said, shrugging.
"He's going to be a great dad, you'll see." Miley said, over-comforting the older woman.
"Oh, I have no doubt about that." Liv said with a confident smile. She got up, stretching once more before going to collect Joe and return to their house (after checking and making sure that Noah was still alive, of course).
The sickness and aches and pains eased up as the pregnancy went on. Before long, Olivia was referring to herself as a house, and the nursery was almost finished. Then, the day they had been waiting so long for finally arrived.
The pair was sitting in the house, reading and having quality time together when Liv suddenly turned to her husband.
"So, guess what." she said, the epitome of calm.
"What?" he asked, looking at her with an odd look on his face.
"My water just broke." she said nonchalantly.
"WHAT?!" Joe nearly yelled, going into freak out mode.
"Just get the bag and drive me to the hospital, hon." Liv said, smiling. Now, Joe knew that she was pain tolerant, but this was ridiculous! By the time they made it to the hospital, the family had been alerted and was on their way as Olivia was settled into her room and connected to all the necessary machines and moniters. The first contraction that was registered sent all the needles and moniters into a frenzy, and Joe had to "sit down". Right on the floor next to the bed.
"Ah, I didn't pass out!" he said, jumping up as a nurse came in. "I was just checking the floor for germs!"
"Of course you were, dear." the nurse said sarcastically with a smile. "The family's all in the waiting room. Do you want to go talk to them, or shall I?"
Joe looked to Liv, who told him to go talk to the family. Joe sprinted out to the waiting room, running his hands through his hair.
"Oh my God, a baby is about to come out of her." he said by way of greeting. The group stared at him as he began to pace.
"Joe, hon, you know how the baby got there in the first place so we don't need to go into that, but how else did you expect it to arrive?" Miley asked in her mother tone.
"I don't know! Magic?" he asked weakly, grabbing Miley's shoulders. "WHAT DO I DO?!"
Nick "lightly" backhanded him. "You're going to let go of my wife, then you're going to chill out and go back to Olivia instead of standing around here freaking out, ok?" he said. Joe nodded, but there was still an element of freak out there.
"Right. Ok." he said, taking a deep breath and attempting to make his way back to the room. Nick looked to Kevin, attempting to speak telepathically and nodding in Joe's direction. Kevin nodded, getting up and following his brother.
"Joe, hold up." Kevin said, stopping him. Joe stopped abruptly, turning to face his older brother. Kevin placed both hands on his shoulders. "You need to calm down. For reals."
"Ah, I can't help it!" Joe said.
"You don't need to freak out this much." Kevin said seriously.
"Well one of us has to! She's just in there, all calm and pain tolerant - if it weren't for all those machines, I wouldn't even know if she was having a contraction! HOW IS SHE SO CALM?!" Joe said.
"Joe, if she is calm, then don't you think you should probably be calm as well?" Kevin pointed out. Joe looked at his brother as if seeing him in a new light.
"I'm so glad Mom kept you." he said.
"So I've heard." Kevin muttered. "Now go be with your wife, and don't freak out."
"Good plan." Joe said, nodding. "Thanks, Kev."
"No problem." Kevin replied, going back to the waiting room as Joe rejoined Olivia.
"How is it?" he asked her, brushing her hair off of her face. She shrugged.
"Honestly? Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Then again, I'm on drugs now." she said happily.
"Well that's good then!" Joe said, trying his hardest to appear calm. He spent the next few hours next to her, waiting for that one moment.
"Ok, Liv," the nurse said. "Are you ready?"
"Yes! Get it out already!" Liv said, pretending to be dramatic as she was put into position. Joe took his position next to her, grasping her hand in his.
"Alright dear, here we go! Give me a BIG push!" the nurse said enthusiastically. Liv nodded, pushing as hard as she could and squeezing Joe's hand. Later she would compliment him on his intense hand holding - he took it like a man.
"You're doing great, sweetie." the nurse said. "Now gimme another push!" she said, and Liv obliged, having a sudden thought that she was glad for doing all those crunches when she was younger.
"Our child's almost out!" Joe said excitedly, brushing the blonde hair out of Olivia's face. She was sent into one final push, relaxing immediately as the baby was fully born, crying almost instantaneously. The baby was cleaned up before handed to Olivia.
"Congratulations, you have a baby girl!" the nurse said happily. Joe smiled brightly, kissing Liv's cheek.
"We have a little baby girl." he said, and began cooing softly to the little baby. "Hi there, baby. I'm your daddy. We're gonna have some good times."
"You wanna go tell the others?" Olivia asked.
"They can wait a little longer." Joe said, discreetly counting all the fingers and toes on the little girl. Olivia smiled. After they named her, she sent Joe to go inform their poor relatives. He practically sprinted out to the waiting room, nearly shaking in excitement.
"It has ten fingers and ten toes and is COMPLETELY AWESOME!" he exclaimed.
"A little louder Joe, I'm not sure the people in Texas heard you." Nick muttered sarcastically. Joe either didn't hear him or didn't care.
"Is it a boy or girl?" Mrs. Jonas asked excitedly, clasping her hands together.
"It's a girl! And did I mention she's AWESOME?!" he continued.
"Does she have a name, or are you just planning to call her awesome?" Miley asked, laughing at Joe's energy.
"Oh yea! Her name's Kate - isn't that AWESOME?" he asked rhetorically. The group laughed, shaking their heads at the excited father.
Joe could easily say that after Kate was born, he was in the best time of his life. For all the excitement he had when he would go see Noah, it was a million times greater with his own daughter. Olivia was very happy to see that he did grow up a little bit - or rather, he stepped up and was the father that she knew he would be. It was hard, taking care of a child when they both had work, and there were some disagreements and definitely a lack of sleep, but it was completely worth it.
After a while, Joe couldn't stand being away from his family so much to go on tours and such - plus, he could tell that it really put a strain on Liv. So one day, at the group meeting, he casually threw out the idea of taking a break for a few years. Kevin and Nick agreed quicker than he anticipated, both of them also struggling with missing their families. And so they went on one last "hasta luego (2)" tour, then settled into the family life that they had always wanted.
X-X-X-X-X
(1) - "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" by Bob Seger. YouTube "tom cruise risky business" for further explanation of what's going on. If you have no idea what I'm talking about in this, then I'm very sorry.
(2) - "Hasta luego" means "until later" in Spanish. Thought I'd footnote it in case someone...well, doesn't speak Spanish.
ok, so super cheesy ending. whatever. as you can tell (and as i said at the beginning), this is the final installment of this story. i'm sorry, but i don't have any more ideas and no idea where i can take this next. HOWEVER you should get excited for a collaboration between ClaireBear536 and i, cause it's basically going to be amazing! so look out for that, coming to a theatre near you!
as always, leave love! peace out, y'all!