"You've been on my mind, I grow fonder every day.."
Swirls of purple and blue fused together on a princess themed coloring sheet as Brynn listened to her mother sing and play the piano, something that was more than normal in their home. The small girl carefully added drops of glue onto her princess's dress, following up it with a dash of silver glitter, her tongue pressed on the corner of her mouth in concentration.
"Look, mommy!" She beamed, holding her paper up for Jade to see.
Jade turned to face her daughter, a look of frustration melting into one of pure adoration as she watched Brynn proudly display her artwork.
"That's beautiful, Brynn. Set it back down so the glue can dry, okay?"
Brynn nodded and placed the paper back on her play table, then turned her attention to the box of crayons. Reaching out for the box, she let her pointer finger trace the crayon's pointed tops before deciding on a teal one, using it to scribble a few letters that she had learned about in preschool.
"Lose myself in time.. Jus-"
Jade shrieked with anger, her hands slamming down on the piano keys and creating a jumble of mixed notes. She sat carefully for a moment, bobbing her head slightly as she sang the words quickly under her breath, her fingers moving in air as if she were still pressing them against the keys.
"Mommy, remember you said it's bad to hit the keys. It makes them sad."
"Right, I'm sorry." Jade replied, her mind focused solely on the part of the song her fingers seemed to be stumbling over. She placed her hands down on the keys and began playing again, too focused on getting it right to even begin singing along.
Brynn sat quietly in her seat, listening carefully as Jade played the same part over and over again. After listening to it a few times, she made her way over to the piano bench and sat down beside her mother, grabbing her hands in an effort to get her attention.
Jade sighed, turning to her daughter.
"No mommy, this is how you do it." Brynn smiled, forcing her way onto her mother's lap. She began mashing on the keys, their notes mixing together to produce a something that sounded exactly like what one might expect from a four year old.
"Oh, you're right." Jade smirked, "And right after that, I think it goes a little like this.."
Jade reached around her daughter's small frame and began tapping on the keys exactly as Brynn had done, earning a few giggles from the child in her lap.
"I love you, mommy." Brynn smiled up at Jade, their identical eyes meeting as Jade smiled back at her.
"I love you as big as a cupcake." Jade replied, leading into a game that she and Brynn always played. Brynn shook her head, her long hair flying out around her.
"No." She giggled, waiting for Jade to try again.
"I love you as big as.." Jade trailed off, thinking of what to say. "A house. I love you as big as a house."
"Nope!"
"I love you as big as a dinosaur." Jade said as she wrapped her arms around Brynn, gently clawing at her as if she were a dinosaur.
"Mommy!" Brynn giggled, squirming her way out of Jade's arms. "Not big enough!"
"How about the universe? Can I love you as big as the universe?"
Brynn shook her head as she picked up the picture she had previously sat on her table, inspecting it to see if the glue had dried.
"No? So hard to please, you are." Jade joked, turning her attention to Brynn's picture. "What's that at the top of your princess picture?"
Brynn smiled, carrying it over to Jade, careful not to spill any of the glitter that hadn't stuck to the glue. "I writed something!"
"Wrote, baby. You wrote something. What does it say?" Jade asked as she inspected the paper, which was heavy with what seemed like gallons of glue.
"It says 'to baby', see I writed the number two, and then b-a-b, but I don't know how to write y's yet, so I writed a three instead. I remembered how to spell it because you told me how!" Brynn smiled, leaning over her mother's lap as she pointed to the letters she had written across the top of the page.
"Don't say writed, say wrote. Got it?" Jade said before realizing what her daughter had said. "Baby? What baby?"
"You know! That one, right there." Brynn shook her head as she pointed to Jade's stomach.
Jade's eyes went wide and she felt her cheeks blazing red as she looked down at her stomach, trying to determine whether or not she was starting to gain weight. "There isn't any baby in there, Brynn."
"Whatever you say, mommy." Brynn sighed as she strode out of the room, probably searching for her father or an interesting toy.
"Jade, you're not getting fat. Calm down." Beck sighed, resting his head in his hands.
Since they had put Brynn to bed, all Jade had done was look at herself in the mirror, insisting that she must be gaining weight. They both knew she wasn't pregnant, so what made Brynn say that she was? Beck tried to chalk it up to something Brynn heard at preschool, maybe one of her friend's moms was pregnant or she saw the episode of Caillou where they brought home his new baby sister. Jade on the other hand wouldn't even consider the idea, swearing that kids are brutally honest and it must mean that she's gaining weight.
"I have to be! I'm not pregnant, nor have I ever entertained the idea of it where she could hear me."
"You know, they say kids are really intuitive about that stuff." Beck offered, getting up to stand behind her.
"Yeah and maybe that would be the case if I were actually pregnant." Jade scoffed, leaning back into Beck's embrace.
"Is there a chance that you could be?"
Jade rolled her eyes as she turned to face him. "It takes two people to make a baby Beck, and you'd be the one that it'd be done with. What do you think?"
"Honestly?" He asked, afraid of upsetting Jade. He knew that if she didn't want to be pregnant, she'd be insulted by him even entertaining the idea that she could be. She nodded in response as he sighed, scratching the back of his neck.
"You and I both know it's more than possible."
Jade stormed off, just as Beck knew she would. It was hard enough to get her to accept the fact that she was pregnant with Brynn, and he knew this would be no different. Not that Jade didn't love her daughter, in fact anyone involved with the family could tell that she was absolutely in love with her little girl, but for some reason Jade didn't like the idea of actually having kids. That and the fact that she was incredibly stubborn; had she been the first one to realize she may be pregnant, she wouldn't be so reluctant to admit it.
Beck silently followed after Jade, knowing she must have gone to the living room to get away from him.
"Jade? Come on babe, you can't be upset over that." He called out as he entered the living room, surprised when Jade was nowhere in sight. From there he went to the kitchen, but still Jade was nowhere to be found. He considered going back to their bedroom and waiting for her to calm down, but ended up deciding that may make matter worse. Beck ascended the staircase, thinking she must be in Brynn's room if nowhere else. He knew how much comfort she took in cuddling up with her sleeping daughter and figured that must be where she was.
"Babe?" He whispered as he gently pushed the bedroom door open, allowing a stream of light to fall upon his daughter's bed, revealing a fast asleep Brynn cuddled up with her blankie. He shook his head, trying to figure out where Jade might be; that is, until he saw the light streaming out from under the bathroom door.
"Jade, are you alright?" He asked after he closed Brynn's door. "Come on, you have to talk to me."
As soon as he made it to the bathroom door, it swung open, Jade standing on the other side with her face looking even paler than usual.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Beck asked as he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her into his embrace. She let her head fall on his shoulder and her arms wrapped around his neck, as if she needed his support to even stand up.
"She was right. Our kid is psychic."
"What? What are you saying?" He asked, pulling her away from him so that he could see her face.
"The baby.. There's a baby. I had a left over test from when I refused to believe I was pregnant with Brynn and what do you know.. Brynn knew it before either of us did." She said; her face a mix of confusion and happiness.
"Told you kids have pregnancy intuition." Beck smirked, bringing his wife back in for a hug. There was no doubt that the two of them were excited, no matter how surprised they were.
And there you have it! I am so not good at writing this kind of thing, hence why the story started off with Brynn being four years old, so we'll see where this goes from here. There's a really good chance that I'll speed through the pregnancy and maybe the baby's first year or two of life, which of course means Brynn will age too. I have a lot of story ideas for this baby but it'll need to be at least two or three to fit into those.. We'll see! Thanks again to all of my faithful reviewers and your pieces of advice, I appreciate you all more than you know! Also, have you all bought Liz and Ariana's cover of Santa Baby on iTunes yet? It's amazing! Love them!
