This is Prompt No. 51-Exercise
Over the next few months, while Shane still allowed her to, Mitchie went about getting as much exercise as she could. She helped move all of the unnecessary items, such as extra bed sheets and extra cutlery, up to the Washington house, enduring the long rides through the tunnels just to deposit another set of silverware into her new kitchen drawers.
"You shouldn't be up so much," Shane had warned her when she began to rise even earlier in the mornings than she usually did, ignoring that the only appendages that were moving were her hands, and they were busy knitting.
Mitchie had sighed as she'd repositioned herself in the rocking chair by the fireplace and took up her knitting once again. "It's for a good cause," she had told him gently. "You don't want our son or daughter to have nothing to wear when they're born, do you?" Her eyes had sparkled, telling him that she was teasing, but Shane still hadn't approved of all the exercise she was getting, and had told her so…again.
When Mitchie had heard everything he was saying to her, she rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly," she had told him with a kind laugh. "I simply can't sleep in anymore, and as for the exercising, well," she had looked around at the rocking chair and the needles in her hands. "I've never heard of a woman losing her baby because she knit too much."
Shane had then turned away, grumbling, "Stranger things have happened."
Mitchie chuckled and he had shot her a smile over his shoulder, telling her that everything was alright once again in their little world.
They had overcome their differences about the knitting exercises, but that was the only thing that Shane and Mitchie seemed to agree on when the words "Mitchie" and "move" were used in the same sentence. Finally, Mitchie took to conspiring with Caitlyn just to get out of her apartments. Caitlyn would invite her over, and they would sit and talk, and drink quite a bit of tea, for hours. Mitchie always felt refreshed after her visits, and would return back to find Shane anxiously waiting for her, wondering if she was alright.
After a couple of months passing like this, Mitchie finally began to understand why Shane was so much more protective than the last time she had carried his child. True, he hadn't been there through most of it, but that was not the reason that he was nearly beside himself now. No, the reason was that he had been just as afraid as Mitchie that she might never have another baby.
When she realized this, Mitchie had taken the first opportunity she could find to have a talk with him and to assure him that she was perfectly healthy. She had run her fingers gently across his face and whispered to him, "I'm fine. Please don't worry so much." And somehow, he hadn't.
Now, he allowed her to do a little more than he had before. He still insisted that she couldn't pick Shania up, but he compromised by allowing his daughter to crawl up into her mother's lap for a quiet, fireside nap occasionally.
After their conversation about her health, Mitchie didn't see Shane as much. He was gone before she woke in the mornings, even though she was waking up fairly early, and he would tumble into bed, exhausted, just as the heaviness of sleep dragged Mitchie down into her own slumber. When she asked him where he was always off to, he had smiled and had said, "I'm exercising."
A month later, Shane unveiled his "exercise" project. He had successfully completed the table and chairs Nate had taught him how to make and had set them in the small dining room of their Washington home. Mitchie glanced around the room when he had brought her out to the house, taking in the fine craftsmanship, the sturdiness of every leg, and she turned teasingly to Shane. "Is there something you can't do?" she asked. Shane had simply grinned and had taken them down the street for a short visit to the library so that Shania could see the inside of the vast building.
The rest of Mitchie's term passed rather quickly, and to the excitement of the whole team, she gave birth to a little boy, whom she named Jeffery Nathaniel. As she lay in bed, still breathing hard after the exertion, Shane crept into the room and laid down next to her, his eyes flickering back and forth from his wife to his new son.
"Is something wrong?" Mitchie asked worriedly. Had he noticed something about her son that she had not? She hastily scanned the baby in her arms for any sign of deformity, but she could find none. He seemed perfect in every way.
Shane shook his head, but Mitchie couldn't tell if the action was meant to answer her question or to pull himself out of whatever thoughtful state he was in at the time she asked the question. "No," he answered her a moment later. "Nothing's wrong."
Mitchie frowned, confused. "You look like you're looking for something."
Shane paused for a moment and Mitchie felt him tense. Had she said something wrong? "Do you remember that first night in England when I rescued you?" he asked, changing the subject slightly.
Mitchie nodded. "Yes," she said slowly, not quite understanding where this train of thought was heading. "How could I forget?"
"Do you remember when I went to touch you the first time and you flinched?" Shane asked, and his voice was soft, controlled, and somehow sorrowful. Mitchie nodded but said nothing. "That was the first time that you've ever really been afraid of me," he told her, "and it nearly broke my heart."
"But it wasn't-!"
Shane nodded. "I know it wasn't me," he said. "I know that you've never actually been afraid of me, but you flinched because of what someone else had done to you." He shook his head. "After that, I guess I just wanted to protect you all the time." He reached out gently and stroked the baby's downy head. "I was so afraid that something would go wrong, that I would lose you and the baby." He glanced up at her and ran a finger over her cheek. "I could never lose you, Mitchie. I love you too much."
Mitchie felt her eyes filling with tears and she leaned forward, despite the discomfort that the action caused her, and kissed him. "I love you too," she told him. "I will always love you, and your protectiveness." Her eyes twinkled and she lay back onto the pillows with a sigh.
"I'll let you get some rest," Shane told her softly as he kissed her forehead and slipped out of the bed. "Caity and Nate have Shania for the night. She's having some kind of sleepover with Benjamin, and I'll be right out in the parlor if you need me." He winked at her. "I think you've had too much exercise for one day."
He laughed as Mitchie made a face and waved him out of the room.
A/N: I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed in you guys. I've had a whopping total of four reviews on the last chapter, and that's depressing considering the number of visitors that there actually was. PLEASE review! It's so important to me!! (Am I beginning to sound like a broken record or something?) LOL! Anyways, I hope you all liked it, and only two more chapters! That's more depressing than the lack of reviews, but not by much. ;)
