I just started a new job, so my spare time is limited. I have decided that Eric & Calleigh will be adding to their family. Click on my profile name to vote on the next question regarding this! I appreciate the opinions on this in the reviews but I'd like to see what percentage of readers want one baby or twins.
She's my daughter, not my stepdaughter!
Calleigh and Eric considered themselves a normal, nuclear family, as did their friends and relatives. They didn't see themselves as a "blended" family and it genuinely bothered them when people referred to them as so. It made Calleigh beyond furious when anyone referred to Chloe as her "stepchild" or herself as Chloe's "stepmother." She was Chloe's mother, simple as that. Just because Eric had a genetic connection to their daughter and she didn't, didn't make Calleigh any less Chloe's mother. To be a "stepmother" Chloe had to have a "mother" before Calleigh. Melissa Jakobs didn't qualify; being pregnant and giving birth didn't make someone a mother. Certainly many mothers did give birth but truly being a parent went far beyond that.
The couple planned to marry, not in the immediate future, but soon, for Calleigh to formally adopt Chloe and add to the family in the future. That knowledge sometimes prompted some rude people to say things like "I bet you can't wait for you and Eric to start having your own." The only thing that was going to be new with adding to the family going through pregnancy and childbirth together, something the couple looked forward to. The first day that Calleigh met her child, when Eric had bought Chloe to the lab, when she got off work she had gone straight over to Eric's place, to his surprise, and spent most of the night with the two.
"Calleigh. Hey," Eric said when he answered the door. Chloe was in the crook of his right arm. "Come on in," he said, stepping aside and closing the door.
"Thanks. I hope you didn't mind me dropping by. I wanted to get a closer look at this one," Calleigh replied, touching Chloe's cheek. "Without five people standing next to me waiting to take her."
She held, rocked and fed the newborn. She even changed her diapers. She cooed and fussed over Chloe the way every new mother would over her new baby. Eric let her, watching the interaction with a smile. His little daughter was visibly quite at ease with Calleigh.
The CSI was actually glad to see his co-worker, the same woman who made his heart flutter. Eric was very tired then after being up with Chloe most of the night. Eric laid down on the couch to close his eyes for two minutes and fell asleep.
"Look at that," Calleigh said to the newborn in her arms, when she walked out from Chloe's room where she changed her diaper. "Your daddy must be tired. We''ll let him take a little nap while you have your milk, okay?"
Chloe knew that mommy wasn't her "tummy mommy" that she "was born in mommy's heart." The 3-year-old was just fine with that. She realized that if she ever became a big sister that her mommy would be her baby brother or sister's "tummy mommy." Chloe knew that mommy would love her just the same even with a new baby.
Up next, a criminal trial & an impromptu wedding!