And the final vote is in. In fourth place with one vote we have Cadence, tied for third place we have Riley and Olivia with two votes, in second place we have Addison with four votes, and finally, rounding out our completion in first place with five votes is Elizabeth. Congratulations to all of you who voted for Elizabeth, but thank you all for voting. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter 21:
Danny POV-
My family bombarded us with questions about our appointment before we could even get in the front door.
"Did you find out the genders?"
"What are you having?"
"Do we have any fudge?" Okay, so maybe my dad didn't care as much as the women in my family, but then he laughed and looked at us expectantly.
I rolled my eyes and smirked at Sam.
"We're having a boy and a girl!" Sam told them exclaimed. My mom and my sister cheered happily and hugged us. Somehow, my mom didn't notice, or maybe didn't care that, even at thirteen weeks (which is what my mom and dad still assumed us to be at), Sam should not have been far enough along for the doctor to find out the genders. But, at the same time, I was glad she hadn't noticed, that would just open up a whole mess of questions I wasn't ready to answer.
"Oh, I knew it! Do you guys have any names picked out?" my mom questioned.
"We have the boy's name picked out: Grayson Xavier Fenton," Sam replied and my mom beamed proudly, hugging Sam again, probably a little too tightly, just judging by the 'I-can't-breathe' look on Sam's face.
"What about my niece?" Jazz asked in excitement.
"Well, we have the middle name: Luna, but we were going to let you guys help us decide on the first name," I told them.
By now, we had finally, actually, gotten into the house, and Sam and I went to sit on the couch.
Jazz grinned happily, pulling out a pad of paper and ripping it into strips, handing them to everyone. Then she passed out the pens so we could write down our choices.
"What are the choices?" Jazz questioned enthusiastically bouncing up and down on the old worn-out cushions of the couch.
"Olivia, Elizabeth, Cadence, Riley, or Addison," Sam told them, "So write your choice on the paper. Danny and my votes count for two."
My family members nodded, scribbling down their choices and placing them in the decorative bowl in the center of the coffee table. I thought about the choices. I knew Jazz liked the name Olivia, so that would, no doubt, be her choice. I didn't know what my parents wanted, or even what Sam had in mind. We hadn't discussed which name we liked the best on the way home but I had a feeling she would pick one of the names that could be shortened to a nickname, which is what I was leaning towards too. But this big of a decision was, honestly, difficult for me. I mean, I was okay with all of the names Sam picked out, and I would like anything that we ended up on, but I wanted Sam to be able to name our daughter what she wants. And because I don't know what she wants, I'm having a hard time making this decision.
Right now, I was torn between the names Addison and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Luna Fenton. Lizzie Luna Fenton. Elizabeth Fenton. Lizzie Fenton. Elizabeth. Lizzie.
Addison Luna Fenton. Addie Luna Fenton. Addison Fenton. Addie Fenton. Addison. Addie.
I played with every form of each name, trying to find out which one I liked best. And which one would be most effective when I had to play the 'middle-name-card.'
Grayson and Elizabeth. Grayson and Lizzie.
Grayson and Addison. Grayson and Addie.
I tried to see which name would sound best with her brother's name too.
I glanced at Sam out of the corner of my eye. Trying to see if she could maybe give me some insight into what I wanted to choose, but she wasn't letting anything slip. She covered her little piece of paper with her hand, not letting anyone see what she had written. Although, judging by the look on her face, she hadn't even written anything yet. She looked like she was mulling over the names the same way I had, still undecided about what to pick.
I took a deep breath, ripping my paper in half and writing the name I had finally decided on each slip, before folding them up and placing them into the decorative bowl.
A few seconds later, Sam did the same.
Now, all the votes were in the bowl. And Jazz, who I guess had nominated herself as official vote counter, dumped out all the votes onto the table.
"Okay, let's see," she said, unfolding the votes and putting them in separate piles, "One vote for Olivia, one vote for Addison and, wow, five votes for Elizabeth. It looks like we have a winner! Elizabeth Luna Fenton," she beamed, although her choice had not won.
"Wait did you vote for Elizabeth too?" I asked Sam who nodded at me with a smile.
"Who else voted for Elizabeth?" I wondered.
"I did," my mom spoke up, "I had a grandmother named Elizabeth and I thought it would be nice to carry on the name," she told me. I grinned at her.
"Elizabeth Luna Fenton and Grayson Xavier Fenton. They're perfect!" I announced. Saying their names out loud made it so much more real. We didn't just have two babies anymore; we now have a son and a daughter who we already have names for.
This meant that we would have to start getting things ready soon, especially considering that Sam would likely be delivering in less than ten weeks.
And now, I had a plan.
After our baby naming ceremony, Sam went upstairs, and I was alone with the rest of my family.
"Hey Mom, Jazz, would you guys mind doing me a favor?" I asked.
"Sure Danny, what is it?" my mom answered.
"Could you take Sam shopping for the rest of the evening? I want to surprise her and do something special for her, but I need her out of the house," I told them. My mom and my sister shared a look, and something told me that they had been waiting for the excuse to do this.
"Absolutely, Danny," Jazz grinned and went upstairs to collect Sam. I could hear Sam's protests against a shopping trip from where I sat, and I couldn't help but smirk to myself. Finally, she must have relented because she came downstairs in the tow of my sister's grip, not looking a little annoyed.
"Apparently, I'm going shopping," she grumbled.
"Okay, Jack, Danny, we'll be back later," my mom announced, gathering her purse and following Sam and Jazz out the front door.
"So what is this surprise you have for Sam?" my dad asked me.
"Well, I wanted to get the nursery ready now that we know what we're having," I told him.
"Great idea, Danny Boy," my dad clapped me on the back, "If you get everything ready, I'll help you."
I smiled gratefully at him, before getting up to use the phone. I hoped that baby store we had found everything we wanted in was still open.
"Um…yes, I think it's under Manson. Is there any way you could deliver our order tonight? Yes, tonight. Okay great, I'll give you the address. Can I add a few things to my order?" I asked, looking up the catalogue quickly online, "Okay, thanks, it's the purple paint splatter sheet set, and the blue star sheet set. Matching decorations? Yeah, okay, throw those in to. An hour? Okay, that sounds great. See you then," I hung up the phone, part one of my plan already underway.
"Hey dad, would you mind picking up some paint from the hardware store?" I asked him.
"Sure, Danny Boy, what colors do you need?" he asked me. Now, that was an interesting question. I didn't know the exact colors I needed, but if I wanted this done by the time Sam got home, I would have to try. So I printed out the pictures of the sheet sets, circling the color I needed in black pen, and handed them to my dad. I knew this might be a risk, but I certainly hoped my dad would be able to handle it.
"No, problem, son. I'll be back in twenty," he told me, leaving the house. I heard the Fenton RV rev to life in the driveway. He could have just used my car, but I guess I can only ask so much of my dad at one time. I chuckled to myself a little, going up to the guest room. Right now, the only things in the room were a queen sized bed and a dresser. I transformed into my ghost form. Getting the furniture out would be the easy part, finding a place to put them might be a little more difficult.
'Although,' I thought. Right now, I have a twin bed. Yes, Sam and I have been sharing a twin bed. Not the easiest or most comfortable thing in the world, and, several time during the night, if I'm not up fighting ghosts, I get kicked, often, off of the bed. Not that I would have told this to Sam, 'I think this will be going in my room.'
So picking up the bed, I phased it into my room. Then I picked up my bed, and moved it up into the Ops center to replace the crappy, emergency cot we have up there.
Then I went back down into the nursery. All that was left was the light-brown stained dresser which I pushed into the unused side of the closet. We would probably need the extra storage anyway. So now, with an empty room, I laid some tarps from the garage on the carpeted floor, and brought in the ladder. Then, I flew up to the ceiling and ran a line of tape directly down the center of the room on both sides so now one side could be painted light purple and the other could be painted blue. I heard the loud RV barrel into the driveway, and I knew my dad was back. So, changing back to my human form, I went to help him carry the paint upstairs.
"What do you want to do about the…furniture…? Danny, where did the furniture go?" my dad asked when he saw that I had rendered the guest room empty.
"Well, I moved the bed to my room, moved my bed up into the Ops center, and moved the dresser into the closet," I told him.
"By yourself?" he questioned. Hmm…maybe I had made that way too obvious.
"Well, I took the beds apart first," I lied, badly, but, thankfully my dad didn't notice.
"Okay, well, then, let's get started," my dad said, opening the paint cans and pouring the paint into the paint trays. The paint, surprisingly enough, was actually the right colors.
"Okay, why don't you paint this side of the room purple and I'll paint this side blue," I told him. My dad agreed, and we set out to painting. Whenever my dad had his back turned, I would use my ghost powers to paint the corners and places I couldn't reach with the rollers, which definitely made the process go a little faster.
Half an hour later, my side of the room was completely painted, so I picked up another paintbrush and helped my dad finish his side, this time, from the ladder. My dad didn't seem to notice that I hadn't been using the ladder to paint my side of the room.
Thank God for the obliviousness of my parents.
Several minutes later, I heard, what I assumed must have been the truck from the baby store pull up in front of my house and I went down to meet them. I directed the two men who had brought the furniture, up to the guest room and old them to set the unopened crib boxes and the black dresser in the center of the floor. Next the accessories came up, and it was a lot more than I had expected: pillows and curtains and blankets and wall decals and mobiles for over the cribs.
Finally, the men left, and I forged Sam's signature on the delivery form (don't look at me like that! She can forge my signature too).
I assembled the cribs, which was harder than I actually thought it would be, setting them where I wanted them to go, but not pushing the bed all the way back against the wet painted wall.
I did the same with the one dresser we had ordered, which went between the two cribs on the back wall below to only window in the bedroom. I put the sheets on the beds and attached the mobiles to the beds, and then I put all the extra pillows and blankets and stuff inside the cribs at least until I had an idea what to do with them.
I then picked up the tarps off of the floor, folding them up and carrying them downstairs with the ladder into the garage.
I went back upstairs to admire my work. It actually looked good. I just hoped Sam would like it.
I heard Jazz's car pull up out front, which meant that I could now put my work to the test.
I ran downstairs, where my dad was currently trying to stall, not sure if I was done yet.
"Why does it smell like paint?" Sam asked. How the heck can she smell that? I can barely smell that. Then she looked at me, "Danny, what did you do?"
"Come see," I smiled. Sam rolled her eyes.
"I swear, if you're the reason that I had to go out shopping with your mom and Jazz at the shoe barn, I am going to…" she trailed off when she saw the room.
"Danny, this is amazing," she told me, her ranting forgotten.
My mom and sister came in the room next, just as awestruck by the room.
"Wow, Danny, I knew you were going to surprise Sam…but, wow, how did you do this in the time we were gone?" Jazz asked.
"Dad helped," I shrugged, "What do you think?" I asked Sam.
"This is wonderful, Danny," she told me, giving me a hug.
"I'm glad you like it," I replied, kissing the top of her head.