Okay, just so everyone knows, this is gonna be an extra-long chapter to make up for the recent lack of updates. Please, enjoy.
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Jefferson's p.o.v
Work was just as boring as ever. With me being pregnant and everything, everyone had been tip-toeing around me, being as cautious as they could. I was carefully ignored in most meetings, my media presence was non-existent and I definitely wasn't being given as much paperwork as everyone else. Most of the day, I watched cat videos and played Google Feud until I fell asleep or James and I could go home. Whichever came first.
On that particular day, I was exactly 21 weeks pregnant. I was leant back in my chair, slowly turning round and round like a really shit carousel when James gently put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at his smiling face and stopped spinning.
"C'mon," he said, pulling me up.
"What?" I asked, bewildered as he dragged me down to the parking lot, bustling me into the car.
Passenger's side.
"Hang on," I said faulteringly, smelling a rat. "Why aren't I driving?"
James turned to me, beaming as he started up the car.
"Well, I didn't want to tell you, but ever since we found out you were pregnant, I've been taking driving lessons."
He paused, taking a deep breath and looking at me with dancing eyes. "I passed my test yesterday and got my licence!"
"Babe!" I gushed, reaching over with difficulty and hugging him tight. "That's amazing! I'm so proud of you!"
"Let me show off!" he laughed, gently pushing me off of him and expertly reversing out of the parking space and pulling out of the lot onto the street.
"You're a better driver than me," I grumbled.
James laughed, glancing momentarily over to me.
"Where are we going?" I asked, now genuinely curious.
"Well, you know how you were going on the other day about how you wanted to start sorting the nursery?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, whilst you were asleep last night, I cleaned out your old room and put all the stuff in the now full loft. We're going to look at baby things."
I couldn't help but squeal, jumping up and down in my seat.
"Calm down, Tigger!" James chuckled, placing a hand on my thigh and then pointing out the windscreen. "See, we're here now."
I squealed again.
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"I can't believe our child is going to have to grow up in a world without Toys R Us," I mused as we strolled around the cot section of the store, our hands tightly intertwined. We'd actually run into another couple on the way here, a lesbian couple, one of whom was pregnant. Me and her chatted about how morning sickness sucks whilst James talked to the other one. Neither of them questioned how I was pregnant, which was nice.
"Really?" James said critically, arching a single eyebrow. "Not global warming, not the fact that we're on the verge of war, just that there's no Toys R Us?"
"Weeeeeellll..."
"I'm kidding!" he laughed, stopping at a particular crib. As soon as my eyes clapped on it, I knew that it was the one.
You know the movie Moana? Stupid question, you've watched it about 10 million times. Well, the crib was in the design of the ship, and when you pressed the mobile, it played How Far I'll Go softly.
"James, we have to get this one!" I exclaimed excitedly, tugging at his arm like an excited child. "Just... look at it!"
He took a quick look at the price tag- I'm not sure why, we were both pretty well off- before nodding proudly at me. I hugged him tightly, taking one last look at the crib before going to the desk and ordering it.
Along with the crib, we also purchased all the paint we needed for a light-blue nursery with a massively awesome rainbow on one wall, some paper pom-poms, some super-cute curtains with floral patterns on them, white cabinets, wicker baskets with light pink inners for said cabinets, a lamp and a babygrow that read Daddy thinks he's in charge. He's so cute.
"Oh, I'm so happy!" I said as we made our way back to work, glancing back at the flat-packs stuffed into the backseat. "We still need to get a pram, though."
"Already done," James cut in, holding up his phone. I took it from him, startled. "I found your list of approved pram brands and ordered the best one I could find. Premium brand, comes with a car seat as well."
"Babe..." I whispered, tears coming to my eyes. "That's the... that's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me!"
"Hormones?" James asked.
"Yeah," I replied, choking up a little.
"Let's go back to work."
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Almost as soon as we got back, I felt a spiking pain go across my abdomen, travelling towards my back. I hissed in pain, almost instantly doubling over with a hand on my bump. James was by my side instantly as I screwed my eyes shut against the pain.
"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" I heard him gasp.
"I think these are contractions," I said through gritted teeth as it wore off. The entire office appeared to have heard as they all jumped up, Hamilton moving towards us. I looked up at him and James desperately.
"WE HAVE PLANNED NOTHING!" James screamed, quickly going into meltdown mode. Burr came forward and took James into a corner to calm down, and Hamilton focused on me.
"How long was that contraction?" he asked calmly.
"I don't know, about 20, maybe 30 seconds?" I answered, feeling myself being to fluster.
"Hey, just stay calm," Alexander instructed. I nodded, taking deep breaths.
I sat down in a chair and everyone fussed around me, bringing me decaff coffee and whispering about what to do.
Around 12 minutes after the first contraction, another one struck. I curled a hand round my oddly stiff abdomen, groaning in pain. James came over to me, stroking my hair. It was oddly comforting and I leant into his touch.
"I've called Franklin," he whispered in my ear. I nodded, trying to stay as calm as I could for my baby girl. "He'll be here in about 5 minutes, babe."
"Thank you," I whispered as the contraction mercifully wore off. James gave me a sympathetic look.
"How're you feeling?" he asked gently.
"I'm scared," I admitted, giving him a weak smile. "I'm balls-out terrified."
He giggled a little, placing a hand on mine.
"Don't worry," he said. "It'll all be okay eventually."
"I still can't believe we're having a little girl!" I exclaimed.
"I know! I was honestly fully expecting a boy."
"I'm happy we got a girl, though. At least now I'll have someone to pass my hair expertise and deep knowledge of Disney princesses to."
"But to be fair, you would have done the Disney thing with a boy."
"Yeah, I would."
We laughed together, and as I watched James' smiling face, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he laughed helplessly, I was reminded, quite forcefully, why I had married this man.
"God, I love you," I murmured just as Franklin arrived. Washington was at his side and they were deep in conversation with each other. To be honest, they looked like two high school girls gossiping about who'd slept with who. Though that was kind of obvious, wasn't it? Whatever, I don't know if that made sense or not.
Franklin came over to me. Weirdly, he didn't look too bothered, strolling casually towards me. I couldn't help but glare at him a little.
"Thomas, how're you doing?" he asked, kneeling next to me.
"Well, I'm potentially in labour, but other than that, just peachy," I replied with as much sarcasm as I could muster. He raised an eyebrow and James gave me a light slap.
Franklin reached out and gently felt around my abdomen, his face the pure picture of concentration.
"I don't think you're in labour," he finally announced, leaning back. The entire office let out a sigh of relief, and James gave me a tight hug. "Have you ever heard of Braxton Hicks?"
"Course," James said right away. I looked up at him, confused. "It's in Friends."
"Yeah, not until Season 8! We're on-" I began angrily before realising what had happened. "You binge-watched without me!?"
"We'll talk about this later," James said quickly, turning his gaze to Franklin. "So he's okay?"
"Yes, he's fine," Franklin replied as he hauled himself up. "Just go home, have a cup of tea or something. Relax."
With that, he left as suddenly as he had arrived.
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I suppose this is longer than normal... Whatever, hoped you enjoyed and there (hopefully) will be more before I go back to school in September. Doubt it, though. BUT I SHALL TRY! Peace out