Eli stepped off the elevator and walked to the apartment where Clare was waiting for him. He checked his watch and felt guilt sink into him, because he was late again. It wasn't his fault though. He couldn't leave work before he was done, and he couldn't make himself work any faster than he had been. Clare had been understanding at first, because she knew he would be busy, but it had begun bothering her more often when he called to say she could start dinner without him or the week before when he'd called to apologize for not being able to make it to the doctor's appointment. "Hey, I know I'm late, but I really couldn't get out of work."
Clare was sitting on the bed in their room sorting through the many clothes Alli had packed for the babies. There were clothes for any season in many colors and sizes, so Clare had started separating them by when the babies would wear them. She would have done this sooner, but until two days earlier there had been nowhere to put them. Eli had recently bought a changing table and and shelves to put in the closet for the nursery. Clare didn't look up from her work when he spoke or when she answered. "I expected it, since you've been late everyday this week."
Eli sighed and pulled off his tie before sitting heavily on the bed. "Clare, I told you I can't leave just because I'm ready to. I have work to do, and it has to be done before I come home. If we didn't need the money I would quit, but we aren't exactly in a position to not have consistent income."
She looked up then. "I'm not asking you to quit! I'm asking you to be home before I go to sleep more than once a week. What happens when I go into labor, and you're still at work? Are you going to miss Daniel and Tori's birth or what about me being here alone all day and most of the night? Do you not care that I'm alone in an apartment in New York City where many crimes happen everyday?"
Clare was going crazy being alone all day and night, because when Eli didn't have class he was trying to pick up more work hours. Eli knew he should be there more often, and it killed him to leave Clare alone with no one to help her or make sure she was okay. "Of course I worry about, every day in fact I know I haven't been around as much I should be, especially with your due date coming up in the next few months. It's Thursday, and I don't have class until Monday. I've been working over time and putting in a lot of hours, so I have some vacation time coming. Why don't you take a break from school work, since you're pretty far ahead, and we can start on the nursery. We'll go get paint, so you can get out of here, and I'll paint the room. We'll go look at rocking chairs, stock up on diapers. I can set up the bassinets."
Clare smiled against her will. She was supposed to be mad at him, but every time they started fighting Eli would be all sweet. Instead of yelling back at her, he would help her or rub her back, and she would forget all about her anger. "Can we do some of the tourist stuff?", she asked sweetly.
Clare had been wanting to see the Statue of Liberty and look at all the sights tourists went to when they were new to the city or just visiting. Eli laughed at her child like happiness when he said, "We can spend an entire day or two on that." She hugged him as the last of her anger melted away.
Clare was still glad she was there with Eli, because no where else had an Eli that was so perfect. That night they sorted baby clothes together and moved the clothes into the nursery. Tomorrow would be another day with more troubles that they would deal with together.
Clare and Eli were up bright and early the next day to start working on the nursery. As excited as Clare was to go sight seeing, they could wait longer to do that then they could on giving the twins somewhere to sleep. "Where to?", Eli asked when they were both dressed for the day.
Clare thought for a few minutes about what all had to be done before deciding on what to do. "Let's get paint first, since we know what color we want."
"Okay. I could paint when we get back. It will only take a few hours, and then it can dry while we do everything else." Eli and Clare stepped onto an elevator along with a middle aged woman and her young daughter.
"Mommy, is that lady having a baby?" The little girl had "whispered" the question to her mom while tugging at the woman's dress
The woman gave Clare a reprimanding look and answered, "Yes, dear, that girl is going to have a baby."
Clare turned red, and Eli was very close to giving the woman a piece of his mind when the little girl walked across the small elevator to Clare. "Can I touch your baby?"
Her mom's eyes widened in embarrassment. "Emma, it's rude to ask people questions like that." She said that, although she didn't apologize to Clare for her daughter's question.
Clare smiled down at the little girl and answered. "Sure, if you put your hand on my tummy, you can feel the babies kick." The little girl did what Clare said and giggled innocently when one of the twins nudged her hand.
Eli smiled and walked out to a waiting taxi with Clare when the elevator reached the bottom floor. He had decided that it would be easier to call a taxi than to flag one down in the street, so he and Clare made their way to some store Eli had already forgotten the name of. When they arrived, Eli stood beside Clare while she explained to a worker exactly what color she wanted. It was almost comical watching the poor man try to process all of the information she was giving him about the green she wanted. It wasn't supposed to be light but not too dark and kind of soft but not feminine.
In the end it only took her an hour to find the color she dubbed perfect for the babies to sleep under. After that they made their way back to the apartment with the plastic tarps they had gotten. "I want to help.", Clare stated while Eli was moving the furniture and laying the plastic down on the floor.
He looked up to where she was and wanted to tell her that she shouldn't over exert herself, but that would not end well. Clare would always say that for hundreds of years women have been working in fields while pregnant, and all she was asking was to carry something or help with a project. "Sure, I got two sets of paint supplies, but if you get tired please take a break.", he begged with pleading eyes.
Of course she couldn't say no to Eli when he looked at her like that, and he knew it. Sometimes she wished she could stay mad at him when he was trying to help her, but she couldn't. "Okay.", she agreed. The next three and a half hours filled with jokes and the smell of paint permeating the room while Clare and Eli moved from wall to the next.
Once they were finished and glistening in a fine sheen of sweat from the effort, Clare and Eli looked at their completed nursery. "I can't wait to see it with the bassinets, a rocking chair, and two perfect babies.", Eli said while looking around the room as if imagining what he had just said.
Clare could see it perfectly, but in her mind she and Eli were more than friends or roommates, and the babies could grow up and call Eli "daddy". Maybe one day she could tell him, but it should be before too long, because she needed to know if he would be there for everything after the twins were born. Not yet though, it could wait. "What now?", she asked.
Eli's thoughts snapped back to the present, and he looked down at the paint splotches covering both of them. "Now, you get a shower and I order in the lunch we skipped. Are you okay? You really shouldn't skip meals, you know."
Clare rolled her eyes but appreciated that Eli was thinking of her. "We ate a big breakfast, so I'm fine. I'm going to get a shower and change." She smiled and walked out of the nursery.
Eli chuckled to himself and went to find his phone, so he could call the Chinese restaurant down the street from their apartment. After ordering the food, Eli's mind took him back to what he had been thinking about while looking over the nursery. He had been wondering what it would be like to hear Tori call him "daddy" for the first time or looking at Clare's hand to see the wedding ring that said she was his forever. He wanted that one day, but Eli had convinced himself early on that this would only go as far as helping a friend in a tough situation, but he wasn't stupid enough to believe that it hadn't become more.
A knock at the door told him the Chinese restaurant really did have fast service they had advertised in online, or he had gotten lost in his day dreams for longer than he had expected. He took the food from the delivery man and paid for it before closing the door. He set the food on the counter just as Clare exited the bed room in fresh clothes. "It smells so good.", she said when she walked up to the food waitng for them.
"Yeah, I'm going to take a shower before I eat, so start without me. I'll catch up." He laughed and walked away to take his own shower. Clare almost opened one of the containers but realized she only had four days to be guaranteed time with Eli, and she intended to eat every meal with him.
Eli showered and dressed fairly quickly, because he was hungry. That food seemed to be mocking him and calling to him from the kitchen. He walked out of the bedroom and saw that Clare was on the couch watching television, and the food had yet to be opened. "Why didn't you eat?", he asked curiously.
She looked back at him and smiled. "I told you I wanted to stop eating alone, and you're here today. I'm not eating alone when I have the option to eat with you." He laughed at how determined she was to eat with him and loved it, so the ate together just like she wanted.
When they had both eaten as much as they wanted and opened their fortune cookies, Eli put the food in the fridge and walked over to where Clare was sitting. "It's only three, so do you want to do a little more shopping before the day's over? I know you want a rocking chair, so we can go look at the store we passed on the way back from getting the paint.", Eli offered.
Clare had wanted a rocking chair, because she remembered when her mother had rocked her back and forth when she was younger. She wanted to do that with Daniel and Tori, so she had been hinting at getting a rocking chair for the nursery since the day they had moved in. She smiled brightly and went to get her shoes after saying, "That would be so great. Do we need to call another taxi?"
Eli laughed loudly and wiped away fake tears from his eyes. "If we call a taxi every time we go some where, one of us is going to have to become a prostitute to keep this place paid for." Clare laughed at his blunt, unlikely scenario but gathered that he was telling her they were going to walk. It wasn't very far, so she didn't mind.
The store Eli had been referring to was Babies R' Us. He said he was sure they would have a rocking chair she would approve of, and if they didn't, she could keep looking in other places of course. He and Clare walked through the entire store and narrowed their options down to two chairs. "I just don't know which one would look best in the nursery.", Clare said in aggravation.
Eli thought they looked the same, but apparently there was a huge difference. "They're both darker, so either one would go with the nursery. I'm leaning towards that one, because it has arm rests.", he said pointing to the chair on the right.
Thankfully Clare agreed, so they paid for the chair and arranged for it to be delivered to their apartment within two business weeks, whatever that meant. They also bought diapers and some toys (Clare was sure the babies would love almost every toy she saw in the store) while they were in the store and walked back to the apartment to relax for the rest of the day.
That night they slept peacefully and had given up the pretense of going to sleep on oppostie sides of the bed. Clare knew she would always love the feeling of falling asleep wrapped in Eli's arms, and Eli would always love waking up to Clare's stunning blue eyes and smile in the morning.
The next day was much less exciting. Eli worked on the bassinets and used his very colorful language when it took nearly twice the time that each one said to put them together. During all of this Clare got further ahead on school work and took breaks to ask Eli if he wanted help, which he always turned down. Eventually two well constructed bassinets stood against the far wall of the room, a rocking chair sat in the corner, a changing table was against the right wall, and the shelves had been assembled in the closet where baby clothes were tucked away neatly. "Looks like all we're missing are some babies.", Eli said.
Clare looked around the room and sighed blissfully. The room was exactly as she wanted it, and she couldn't have been happier about who was standing beside her looking at it. "It's perfect.", she said. They ate Sub Way that night, because Eli insisted take out was not a healthy diet for Daniel and Tori or Clare. They agreed that the only thing left to get were more diapers (they could never have too many) and baby furniture like a bouncer, stroller, chest for toys, and and in-door swing set for the babies to play.
Eli's last two days with Clare were spent doing some tourist things she had been wanting to look into. They couldn't do everything, but there would be time for everything later. One full day was dedicated to the Statue of Liberty, although Eli had asked Clare several times if she was sure she should be walking up so many stairs. Clare loved every minute of the historical sight and said that they should bring Daniel and Tori there when they were older. After she said that, she had been saddened by the thought that Eli might not be there when the twins were older. They had never set a plan in stone, and Clare wondered how long Eli would stay after juggling two screaming babies, school, and work for a while.
The next day they went to Rockefeller Center for a few hours and then took a stroll through Central Park. Clare was happy to have somewhere to go where there were actually more trees than honking cars, and she loved hearing birds chirp instead of blaring sirens. They walked for some time, and Eli bought them each an ice cream from a food cart. She was so happy that Eli had done this for her and let herself hope that he would be there for everything.
Hope you don't think it was too short. I know it wasn't a "month", but I only do the important stuff for each month and this was to show that they had problems like anyone would expect but were getting through them.