A/N: Hello, beautiful people. Here's a sweet chapter ahead.
As this story is coming to a close soon (-ish, not quite yet), I want to thank you all once again for reading, reviewing, and enjoying this story with me as I write it. The M Sec welcome committee has been good to me, and this was such a joy to write. I do, however, have lots of papers coming up for my graduate program, so I will have to break from the fun writing after this story is over and go back to academia. Wish me luck, and I wish you all a good week!
November 13, 2022 | Elizabeth
"She's so tiny," Stevie's hands are poked inside her pockets as she's watching over this new little sister.
Elizabeth nods, sitting down in the chair next to Stevie. They've allowed her to start walking to see the baby instead of being wheeled in, and she was so grateful for that—having to rely on someone else to bring her to her baby was disheartening for her. "She's only a whopping three and a half pounds." She says, "Dr. G said it was typical for babies this young to be anywhere from four to five pounds, so she's doing better than we'd thought."
She feels Stevie staring at her from above, and she looks up to see that she's watching her with teary eyes. "Mom," She whispers, sitting down in the other chair next to Elizabeth that Henry had been occupying until just a few moments ago, leaving the two of them while he went to get them all lunch to bring back to Elizabeth's room, "This is a lot."
Elizabeth reaches her arm around Stevie's shoulders, pulling her into the side of her body carefully. She was still achy and tired, but that wouldn't stop her from holding her biggest baby. "It's a lot," She agrees, pressing her lips to the top of Stevie's head and resting there as she rocks them back and forth softly. "She's coming along, though…just in these two days they've been able to keep her heartbeat steady and take some of the extra oxygen away from her little by little. She's doing really good for the situation she's in."
Stevie sniffles and wipes her face, "It's a lot to have a baby sister at my age, too." She admits and laughs, "That's more what I meant, but I'm glad she's okay."
Elizabeth laughs, "Oh, I definitely misread that." She says, "Forgive me, I'm still exhausted from all the stress and—"
"Birthing a child?"
"Right," She says, sitting up straighter as Stevie leaves her arms and sits on her own chair, "That was, by far, one of the most stressful things I've done. And that's keeping in mind that I ran for the President of the United States." She says, hoping to get another smile out of Stevie.
It works, and Stevie nudges her mom's arm gently with her elbow, "You always said I was your most stressful labor."
"Oh, you were, but this one definitely takes the cake," She says, shifting her gaze back to Willow. She slides her hand in the left hole, reaching in to touch Willow's little hand and rub her thumb across her wrist. Stevie moves to look at Willow, too, and Elizabeth leans over and rests her head on Stevie's shoulder. "At least Willow will be a little older than your little one—I always felt bad for the kids whose aunts or uncles were younger than them." She admits.
Stevie snorts, "Not by much," She says.
"Definitely not by much," Elizabeth replies, looking up and smiling at her daughter, "How excited is Dmitri to find out whether it's a boy or girl tomorrow?"
She smiles and bites her lip, "Very excited, although he's dead set that it's a boy. I keep saying I think it's a girl just to annoy him, but deep down, I think it's a boy too."
Elizabeth smiles big, "I have told Henry that for a few weeks now." She says, "When your morning sickness didn't stop, I just had a hunch. That's what happened with me, too. With all you girls I was mostly fine after about the tenth week. But, God, with Jason…" She trails off and lets her head fall back for a moment, groaning, "I thought I was going to die a few times while hugging the toilet. I was always throwing up, it felt like, until it switched to heartburn around week thirty."
"Oh, something to look forward to." Stevie retorts.
"Sorry," Elizabeth replies innocently, "It's worth it in the end." She whispers, looking back at Willow, still rubbing her terribly soft skin on her arm. She looks at Stevie's hands fiddling in her lap, and she reaches down to grab one with her free hand, "You can touch her," She says softly, guiding her hand to the other hole in the incubator.
"I—" Stevie blurts out, "I—she's so tiny." She says again.
Elizabeth laughs softly, "You won't break her, especially while she's in there." She says, and when Stevie's hand relaxes again she continues her journey to the other hole.
She watches as Stevie's hand eventually makes its way to Willow's little foot, rubbing the skin near her ankle.
"Dr. G says that it's really good for incubated babies to be touched as much as possible, actually, as long as their bodies are healthy enough." She explains, "Since she can't be held yet, especially, it's less scary for them to have a touch that's familiar to them."
"I'm not familiar to her," Stevie says.
Elizabeth shrugs, "I like to think that babies just…know. When Ali was born and Maureen brought you to the hospital later that day to see her, we put her in your lap and, oh God, Stevie, we were so scared." She laughs a little, "Your dad and I were both freaking out that you would drop her. You were so excited to finally have your baby sister." She remembers, smiling as she looks back at Willow, "But you didn't, and one of her arms broke free of her swaddle and she reached up for you."
Stevie smiles, listening to the sweet story, "I don't remember this."
"Of course you don't, you were only five."
"I remember holding her, though." She says.
Elizabeth shrugs, "You can ask Dad to validate the story, but it was true. You squealed about her hands looking like chicken's feet."
"I did not!" Stevie defends herself while laughing, "That's so bad!"
"You were five," Elizabeth says through the chuckling, "It made me laugh so hard that I thought I was going to tear my stitches." She continues, "Aunt Maureen actually had to come distract me while you and Henry continued to hold Ali—otherwise I might have actually torn my stitches."
Stevie's face was red from embarrassment, "That's such a terrible story, Mom." She groans jokingly.
Elizabeth leans over and kisses Stevie's shoulder, "Oh, but it's one of my favorites."
August 4, 2001 | Henry
"Isabelle said she'd bring them at four." Elizabeth said, flipping her cell phone shut before laying it down on the rolling bedside table. She had just spoken with her friend about bringing the kids to a see the new baby.
Henry was standing by the window, bouncing his baby boy softly in his arms. Jason had been a bit fussy the past hour, and he was only a little over four hours old. He glanced at the clock on the wall behind him, seeing that it was already 3:40, "Good." He said, turning his attention back to Jason and pulling his blanket away from his neck a little.
He had totally been hogging the baby, he knew that, but it was so hard not to. Besides, Elizabeth had told him it was okay—she didn't mind as long as he gave Jason over whenever she did want to hold him again. He couldn't take his eyes off Jason hardly, and he had just been wondering before she started the conversation with Isabelle whether his own dad had even held him in the hospital when he was born. He'd never ask his parents that, though, since he had spent most of his life just trying to stay under the radar and not cause any problems between his parents—they had enough problems on their own.
After a few minutes, turning from the window and walking back toward Elizabeth, he sat down beside her knees, still gently bouncing baby Jason. "Wonder what the girls will think about him?" He asked.
She snorted a little, leaning forward carefully in the bed to get a better look at the baby. "Well, I suspect Stevie will adore him because she will now be the big sister of a sister and brother, but I don't know how Ali will feel." She said.
They'd talked about this before, back when they first told the kids that they would be having a baby and a few other times in between. The first conversation was prompted by Alison when she swiftly began screaming and crying after the two parents told the girls the news. She was only about to be three at the time, though, so Henry and Elizabeth hadn't thought too much of it. She was just young and didn't understand yet, but all throughout the pregnancy, she had felt the same way about having a baby brother.
"Hopefully she warms up to the idea of being a big sister, otherwise it may make this little one's life miserable for a while." He said, laughing a little at the thought of Ali doing the sisterly torture that he always did to his little sister.
"Brother torture is definitely a trait she would've gotten from me," She said, biting her lip to keep from laughing, "Just ask Will."
"Oh, I don't need to ask Will. He told me when we first got married that he would believe me if I ever called him and said you were abusing me."
She gasped, "He did not!"
"Oh, he definitely did." Henry said, now laughing loudly enough that he was trying to quiet himself down for the sake of keeping the baby asleep. "He's told me a lot about how you used to hold him in a choke hold whenever he would come in and take the magazine you were reading."
She shrugged and leaned back, letting her back slouch against the bed, "Well," She started, "He deserved it. He started it, and the big sibling always is supposed to finish it."
Henry smiled at her pouting, then turned back to Jason to awe over him for a while. He couldn't stop rubbing his fluffy little cheeks, taking note of how soft they were even with all the tiny bumps that newborns have. "She'll either make him miserable, or make us miserable." He said.
"Oh, gosh," Elizabeth moaned, "I didn't even think of her turning her anger to us."
"Whose anger?" Isabelle said, walking in. "No one answered when we knocked." She said and laughed quietly. "The girls are by the door. All good to bring them in?" She asked, stopping at the corner and being sure to not look at Elizabeth in case she wasn't fully dressed.
Elizabeth chuckled, "Isabelle, I stripped down in front of you and fed Ali in the office that day that I had to bring her to work." She reminded.
"I just want to be…decent." Isabelle sighed, "Come on, girls, time to meet your brother." She said, reaching her hand out for them.
Henry noticed that Stevie took Isabelle's hand, but Ali was trailing behind Stevie shyly and never grabbed the other hand. They walked into the room and Henry stood up to hand Jason to Elizabeth, letting the girls come climb on the bed with her. "Careful," He reminded Stevie who immediately jumped on the bed.
Elizabeth had winced when the bed moved a little, but she didn't let her aches show for long, "Here he is," She said to Stevie. Ali was standing behind the bedside table, her fingers in her mouth.
"Ali, honey, you want to see the baby?" Henry asked, walking to her and going to pick her up.
"No." She said simply, eyeing Elizabeth and the baby.
He looked at Elizabeth quickly, seeing that she was looking at him, too. Her facial expression seemed to say "oh no." "I know you want to see your baby brother," He tried again, and she whipped her body around and pressed her chest down into his shoulder.
"No!" She said again, a little louder and more frustrated this time.
The adults all exchange looks with each other, and it was finally Elizabeth who cleared her throat, "Ali, you want to see your brother, don't you? He's been in mommy's tummy all this time."
"Put him back." She said, never budging from Henry's shoulder.
He looked at Elizabeth pitifully, seeing that her face had gone from that "oh no" look to one of utter defeat. She looked like her heart was breaking, but she was trying to keep it together while Stevie was curled up next to her and staring Jason down so lovingly.
Henry blinked a few times, trying to figure out what to do. He felt like he was at a loss. "Let's go outside for a minute, yeah?" He asked Ali, but already was walking out to the hall. He sat her down in the chair against the wall out there, then sat down in the one beside it, "Noodle," He said softly, "Why don't you want to see your baby brother?"
She didn't answer him, and he wondered why he was trying to talk to a three-year-old this way. She probably didn't really understand what he was saying or even why she didn't want to see her brother. He knew she was smart, but he doubted that she would answer him after a few moments of silence. "Mommy's baby." She finally said, never looking at Henry in the face.
"Of course that's Mommy's baby, he—" Henry stopped midsentence, finally realizing why Ali was so upset. "Honey," He said, still being incredibly gentle with his tone, "Do you think that because Mommy has a new baby that means that you won't be her baby anymore?" He asked. She nodded, climbing out of the chair and losing her attention span. Henry sighed, getting up to pick her up and put her back on his hip. "You're still Mommy's baby, Noodle." He whispered, "You're always mine and Mommy's baby." He said, "Stevie is still Mommy's baby, too, right?" He asked.
She nodded slightly, mostly focusing on all the people and machines moving through the halls.
"So see? Mommy has three babies now." He explained, "She loves you all so much, and she wants you to love your brother so much."
She finally leans into his shoulder, resting her cheek there. He recognized this move—she was sleepy. She probably didn't sleep good last night. He and Elizabeth had been talking about how they thought she might have a bit of an ear infection, but she hadn't mentioned it yet so they didn't take her to the doctor. Somehow, that one little maneuver made him realize it, though.
"You want to know what baby brother's name is?" He asked.
She nodded, never moving her cheek from his shoulder.
"Jason," He whispered, "So you can go in there and see the baby and say 'Hi baby Jason.'" He explained, smiling a little as she smiled, too. He pushes her hair out of her face where it had fallen down over her eyes, "You want to go tell baby Jason hi?"
She nodded again, and they made their way back into the room. Stevie was still on the bed with Elizabeth but curled up beside her hip now and resting underneath her right arm. She was leaned up against Elizabeth's side, and it made Henry cringe at how that probably was pressing on Elizabeth's stomach and making it ache. She didn't seem to mind if it was doing that, though, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he walked over to the other side of Elizabeth and sat Ali down on the bed opposite of Stevie.
"He's so cute," Stevie said to Ali, and Henry laughed at how Stevie was still calling everything "cute."
Ali was eyeing him, and finally Jason's little hand popped out of his blanket like he was reaching for something. "Hi baby Jason," Ali whispered, afraid to say much.
Henry watched in amazement as Jason's hand made its way toward that voice he just heard, and Ali reached out halfway to meet his hand mid-air. She grabbed a little harshly, and Henry reminded her to be gentle, but the moment was still going to stick in his mind forever.
November 14, 2022 | Elizabeth
"I'm so sorry we couldn't get here earlier," Ali says, walking in and setting her bag down on the end of Elizabeth's bed as she goes in for a hug. It seemed like she was moving eighty miles an hour, and Elizabeth laughs as her daughter embraces her.
"Honey, where's the fire?" She asks, coughing a little since Ali knocked the breath out of her chest.
Ali pulls away, "Sorry," She says softly, giving a timid smile. "I forget you're still sore."
Elizabeth smiles, "It was worth the big hug." She says, then looks over at Jason with open arms, "Where's my hug from my boy?" She asks, then grins a little and chuckles, "From my man?" She corrects.
"Boy sounds way better," Jason says, reluctantly walking over and carefully hugging his mom.
She smiles and groans, "Mmmm-mmm! I missed your hugs." She says, squeezing him a little tighter.
Ali scoffs, "But not mine?"
"Not the ones where you forget the brakes." She teases back, winking over at her daughter before letting go of Jason. He looks so uneasy that it makes her smile a little, laughing inside of her head. "Just like Ali was when he was born," she thinks.
"Dad went to go get some lunch for me, but once he's back he can help me out of the bed and we can go see who you're really here for." She says.
"We're here for you too, Mom." Ali says, then looks at Jason, "Right?"
Jason was totally distracted by the surrounding, "Hm? Oh, yeah, right." He answers, still taking in all the hospital atmosphere.
Clearly, Jason hadn't been in many hospitals, but this was definitely his first time in a room prepped with delivery things. They kept her in this room since it was bigger than a regular room—Bill deemed it to be safer and easier for them to get to her if they needed to quickly. Apparently, the hospital admin listen to you if you're the President of the United States, so she stayed. Especially since she technically didn't need her own care anymore, and she was just using the POTUS card to stay in the hospital and be close to her daughter.
"Jase," Elizabeth laughs, "Nothing will bite you in here." She says.
He shrugs, "Just taking it in."
Ali smirks and comes to sit on the side of Elizabeth's bed, "He's just thinking of how he'll pass out if he ever manages to be a father in one of these rooms," She teases, "Right, Jason?"
He sticks his tongue out at her, and she does it back to him. Elizabeth laughs to herself, thinking that not much has changed over the years.
"Lunch is here!" Henry announces, then sees the kids, "Well aren't you two a beautiful sight." He says, setting the food down on the couch before hugging them both. "I was beginning to wonder if Stevie was the only one to come visit at all." He teases.
Ali playfully hits his stomach, "My flight got delayed and you know Jason wasn't going to come unless someone dragged him. He's terrified right now." She says and looks back at her brother, making sure he heard her teasing him.
"What?" He asks defensively, and before he could finish the rest of his thought, Henry butts in.
"See all this? Just think of that before you have a child with someone." He says, smirking as Jason suddenly becomes even more uncomfortable.
Elizabeth laughs and then groans, "Ohhh, come on. Don't be picking on my baby boy." She says, reaching her arms out and pulling him into her, wincing a little when she pulls too hard, and he falls back into her body with a slight force. She quickly shakes it off, "Lunch first, or Willow first?"
As Jason says "lunch first," Ali's voice speaks at the same time and says "Willow first."
Elizabeth and Henry both laugh, and then she nods over to Henry to help her up. "Let's go see our baby girl first." She says, then we can chow down on some delicacy of boxed Chinese food."
Jason had been standing behind them the entire time as Ali and Elizabeth sat in the chairs that Elizabeth and Stevie were in yesterday. "Dr. Gorrell says that she can be held tonight if her numbers are still improving." Elizabeth explains.
Ali smiles, rubbing her baby sister's arm, "I can't wait until she's out of here and home with you guys. What a lucky kid to grow up in the White House."
Elizabeth laughs, "I don't know about lucky, but it will be a cool experience, probably." She says, then looks back at Jason, "You want to hold her hand, Jase?"
He shakes his head, and then Henry pushes him forward a little, "He does," Henry answers for him, "He just forgot how to nod and instead was shaking his head like a lunatic who wouldn't want to say hi to his baby sister." He says, looking at Jason with wide, pressuring eyes.
"Right," Jason says, raising his brow at his dad. "Yeah," He says again. Ali gets up out of the chair and moves to where Jason was standing as they swap places. "Yeah, she's cute." He says, sitting down with his hands in his lap.
Elizabeth laughs again, shaking her head and looking back at Henry. "I guess Stevie was the only big sister who wasn't afraid of babies, huh?" She asks him.
He shrugs, also laughing with his wife, "I guess so." He says.
Elizabeth takes Jason's hand in hers with a little pulling from him, and she shoots him a look like she used to whenever she was silently telling him to stop acting up. He relaxes his arm immediately, and she guides his hand to the incubator just as she did Stevie's yesterday, "Just be gentle with her, but she won't break." She says softly, letting go of Jason's hand once his fingers were inside the incubator's hole.
She watches him as he takes a few moments before slowly sliding his hand further in, using his index finger to just barely touch Willow's arm.
"She likes it if you put your finger in her hand. She'll hold it a lot of times." She explains.
Jason looks at his mom like she was crazy, but he does as she says, anyway.
She was sure it did sound crazy. A baby this small—it doesn't seem possible that she could hold their fingers. But she did seem to love wrapping her tiny fingers around their one finger the best that she could. She'd thought this was unusual, but then she remembers the multiple sonograms they have of Willow looking as though she was holding on to the umbilical cord.
"That's crazy." Jason blurts out as Willow's tiny fingers reacted to the feeling of her brother's finger in her palm, squeezing it the best she could.
Elizabeth smiles and blinks some tears out of her eyes, leaning over to kiss the side of Jason's head, "She knows who her family is," She assures him, "And I think she even loves them."
November 15, 2022 | Elizabeth
They had hoped to get to hold Willow last night, but her numbers hadn't improved to where Dr. G wanted them to be. With as much as they were looking forward to it, and as sure as they felt they would get to hold her that night, Elizabeth broke down once they were back in the room. Henry tried his best to console her, but there wasn't much that he could say—she knew he was hurting, too. Neither of them had gotten to hold this little miracle yet, and even though they both knew it was for her own good, it was still painful to not do what they've been able to with each of their other babies. So, Henry had crawled into that little, twin-size hospital bed with Elizabeth and just held her, let her cry and be small for a while since she doesn't get to do that often, and she fell asleep just like that.
When she woke up this morning, it was the first time that she'd been wrapped up in Henry's arms since last week, and she wanted to savor it. She didn't wake him until she absolutely had to.
"Henry," She whispers, "Wake up, babe. I gotta pee."
He shuffles a little and almost falls out of the bed, "Oh—" He says, grabbing onto the side and pushing himself back up. "I forgot where we were for a second."
"How could you?" Elizabeth asks, smiling at the scene, "This thing is so uncomfortable."
He laughs and sits up carefully, getting out of her way so that she could slide out of bed. "The couch is either equally as bad or worse." He admits as she's walking to the bathroom.
Once she comes back out, he was already up and getting changed into clean clothes for the day. She watches him briefly but doesn't want to get caught staring and just watches out of the corner of her eye as she, too, changes her clothes. Since she wasn't needing their care anymore, the hospital let her wear her own clothing, and she had opted for sweatpants and tees every day possible. It was the most comfortable thing possible.
As she stayed observant of her husband, she felt an overwhelming amount of love for him. She glances at the couch before sitting on the edge of her bed, still having to be careful to not exert much energy. She knew that the couch wasn't comfortable, and she also knew he didn't have to stay. With that said, though, she didn't have to stay either. They were both here for their daughter, but Henry was here for Elizabeth, too. She knows he would never leave her alone here. For that, she was so grateful, and said a silent prayer of thanks for her husband.
"Madam President?" Dr. Gorrell says, walking into the room after knocking and waiting for an answer, "I wanted to be the one to share the good news…" She says and smiles, and before the doctor could even finish Elizabeth felt tears come to her eyes.
"Please tell me it's the good news I'm hoping for." She says desperately.
"If you're hoping to hold your baby girl today, then yes." Dr. G answers happily, unable to contain the biggest smile Elizabeth has ever seen the woman have.
She briskly walks to the doctor and gives her a big hug, completely breaking the understood patient-doctor code, "Thank you," She breathes into the doctor's neck.
Elizabeth pulls away from her and looks at Henry who was walking toward her, wrapping her in his arms, "We get to hold our baby girl," She whimpers into his neck, feeling tears run down her cheeks.
"We do," Henry answers, kissing her head.
Once they were in the NICU, a nurse shows Elizabeth to a reclining chair and helps her get settled, and Henry sits beside her in another recliner, close enough that their chairs were touching. Elizabeth was pretty sure she heard Henry ask if they could scoot the chairs together, and she's guessing they probably did that for them.
Dr. Gorrell had told the parents to take their shirts off once in the NICU, putting a robe over them if they wanted, but keeping it open. She explained that Willow would be allowed to have that skin-to-skin contact finally, and Henry and Elizabeth did exactly as they were told.
They had settled into their recliners and were waiting somewhat impatiently for only a minute or two before Dr. Gorrell herself came over with Willow, laying her on Elizabeth's chest.
She looks down at the little girl, noticing briefly that her own hands were shaking. "Hi sweet Willow," She whispers, feeling a rush of emotions as her skin was touching Willow's. "I'm so sorry this wasn't sooner," She coos, "But Momma's here now."
Elizabeth feels a hand reach out and touch her arm, and it was Henry's fingers giving a gentle squeeze. Tears were streaming down her face as she takes every feature of Willow's in from this angle, knowing for absolute certain that this would be the last time. She sniffles, rubbing Willow's tiny back and trying to ignore that she could feel her ribs a little more than she could with her other three babies. Even though those babies were all born over twenty years ago, she still vividly remembers how each one of them felt when they were lying on her chest for the first time, screaming and crying after just having arrived so brutally into this big, scary world.
She scoots Willow up a little, letting her head nuzzle into Elizabeth's neck, careful of the wires and monitors still hooked to her baby girl. She wonders for the fourth time if the time between resting in mom's stomach and resting on mom's chest is terrifying to them or not. The rational, logistical side of her mind tells her they probably don't know, but her mom heart tells her that it must be terrifying to be pushed out of this warm, dark, safe place into a bright, cold, scary room with so many hands moving you. And, additionally, in Willow's case she has all these wires and things beeping around her. Elizabeth feels that mom heart break a little and snuggles her in closer before looking over at Henry.
She smiles softly, sniffling, "You want to hold her?" She asks.
"Do you even have to ask?" Henry asks, smiling big at her and reaching out for Willow.
He takes her and lays her carefully on his chest, and Elizabeth fights back a sob. She couldn't tell whether it was a happy one or a sad one from already having that warmth off her chest, but nonetheless, she had to share. When she takes the scene in front of her in, though, she no longer feels that empty space on her chest, and instead every bit of her inside is warm again.
"Hi baby girl," Henry whispers, "It's your daddy." She smiles and reaches out to touch him, "She's so tiny." He says, looking over at her as though he was scared to break the baby on his chest.
She nods, "I know," She whispers, "But she's perfect."
"She's perfect." Henry agrees.