"Is this room even big enough?"
Tara cast a sidelong glance at her wife and raised an eyebrow.
"Willow, it's the exact same size as our room. If we can fit both of our adult bodies into that one, the baby can fit his little one into this one."
"But he'll need so much stuff!" Willow replied, waking further into the now-guest room, but what would be the baby's room, holding JJ in her arms, "Will it all fit?"
Tara walked through the door and into the room as well, looking around for a few moments.
"Well, we can put the crib here," she said, walking over to the wall opposite the window, "So the sun won't be shining directly on it. And so he's safe from the blind cords or if the window breaks somehow."
"Good thinking," Willow replied with a smile before gesturing at the wall she was standing in front of, "And then we can put a changing table here and keep the dresser beside it for his clothes."
Tara smiled and nodded
"And we can buy a cheap second-hand armchair to put next to the crib for night feeds."
"Yes!" Willow agreed with excitement, then patted the wall right beside the window, "And we can set a bookshelf up here."
Tara smirked slightly.
"He won't be reading for a while."
Willow stuck her tongue out.
"We can fill it with teddy bears until he's old enough to learn the joy of books."
Tara walked over to her wife and bumped their shoulders together playfully.
"See? Everything will fit perfectly."
"Yea..." Willow replied with a soft smile, before spinning around to face her wife, eyes wide, "Can we get those big letter things to hang on the wall? You know, to spell out his name?"
Tara quirked both her lips and her eyebrow.
"His full name?"
"No, goof," Willow replied with a playful roll of her eyes, "Just JJ."
"Of course we can," Tara responded with a warm smile, "We could put a border around the room too. Make it more kiddie than just the blue."
Willow looked around the room, nodding as she did so, before shrugging.
"We could just make it kiddie with teddies and toys and stuff. Maybe a few pictures. That way we can just change it as he gets older to what he wants without having to completely re-do the walls. Blue's a solid colour for a growing boy."
Tara took one of JJ's feet and gave it a small tickle.
"He might prefer pink."
Willow lifted the baby up and kissed his forehead.
"And we'll love him no matter what."
JJ looked his redheaded mother in the eye for a moment, then suddenly started whimpering before bursting into full blown tears.
Both women spoke at the same time.
"Hungry cry."
The couple shared a smile and Willow bounced the baby in her arms to comfort him.
"I'll go get him a bottle."
"I'll be down in a few minutes," Tara replied, stroking the baby's head as he started to quieten, "I just need to go to the bathroom."
"Okay," Willow smiled at her wife before starting to walk out the door, "Come on, honey, I'll get you some food."
She made her way downstairs and into the kitchen, placing JJ in his carrier as she went over to the feeding stuff.
"Okay, my beautiful boy, you have a choice of formula or formula? What's it gonna be?"
JJ gurgled in his carrier, sitting atop the island and Willow laughed.
"Formula it is, little man."
She made up the mixture and shook the bottle up and down just as Tara walked into the room, back from the bathroom.
"There's my family," Tara grinned, going over and wrapping her arms around the redhead's waist from behind, "Hey, you."
"God, Tara, I still can't believe it," Willow whispered, leaning into the embrace, "We're mothers. He's our child."
"Our little boy," Tara replied softly, taking a hold of one of JJ's feet, "And it's only been a matter of hours since the hearing, I think it's normal that it's gonna take some time to sink in."
Willow chuckled quietly.
"Well I guess that's true. I think I'm getting used to no sleep, as well. Like, we got what, 3 hours last night? And I'm totally fine."
Tara grinned and tightened her hold.
"That's definitely a good thing. 'Cause it's gonna be a while before we get a full night again. And I think we're maybe running on adrenaline today."
"Adrenaline and buckets full of happiness," Willow replied, still staring down at JJ, who was looking back up at his new mothers wide-eyed, "Look at that precious little angel. God if you told me when I left work on Friday that by the end of the weekend I'd be a mom to the most beautiful little boy on the planet, I'd have said you were stir crazy."
"The most magical of things happen at the most unexpected times," Tara responded quietly, "And you're definitely magical, JJ."
"Jacob James Rosenberg-Maclay," Willow said proudly, "Dad's gonna like that we gave you a nice, strong, Jewish name, JJ."
JJ made a small sound of annoyance and smacked his lips together slightly.
"Oh right," Willow said, removing herself from Tara's embrace and sitting on a stool, picking JJ up and cradling him, bringing the bottle she had made up to his mouth, "Lunch. Sorry, little man. Blame Mommy. She distracted me with her nice strong arms. This is the last of that pack of formula, by the way, Tare. I thought we had enough to do us until at least tomorrow but he's been hungry. Big day for all of us huh?"
Tara, grinning and lost in her own thought from being called 'Mommy' didn't register her wife's words until the redhead kicked her shin lightly since her hands were occupied with feeding JJ.
"Earth to Tara. Anyone home? Baby?"
"Hmm? Oh right, I'm sorry," Tara said, snapping herself from her daze, "We need formula?"
"Yea," Willow replied with a curious smile, "Where did you just go?"
"Just got lost in my own happiness for a sec," Tara smiled, before grabbing her wallet from the island, "I'll go get some formula. Do we need anything else?"
Willow looked at her wife seriously.
"Coffee."
Tara let out a low laugh and nodded.
"I'll get the jumbo jar."
"Good idea," Willow nodded, gently taking the finished bottle from the baby's mouth before a thought occured to her, "Baby, we haven't told anyone about this. We need to tell Dad and Michelle and everyone! We need to introduce this little guy."
"Oh god, yea," Tara replied, wondering how that quite important task had slipped her mind and putting it down to the excitement and bewildering day it had been, "Do you want to call everyone and ask them to come over after work? Don't tell them why, we'll surprise them."
"World's biggest surprise," Willow responded with a playful scoff, putting a dishcloth over her shoulder and bringing the baby up, patting his back lightly, "But I like that idea. I'll call them while you're out. JJ should go for a nap so he won't give the surprise away by crying or something."
Tara was about to respond when JJ let out a loud burp, making Willow laugh.
"That's my boy."
Tara smiled at her wife with their child.
"I'll be back as soon as I can. Don't have too much fun without me."
"We won't," Willow grinned, turning JJ back around, "You have a kiss goodbye for Mommy, JJ?"
JJ made a small noise which Tara took as a sound of approval and she walked over to him, taking him from the redhead's hands and holding him close to her chest, kissing the top of his head.
"Bye JJ. Mommy loves you," she said quietly, her eyes closing as she inhaled from the top of the baby's head, "Mommy loves you."
Willow watched Tara rock JJ lightly in her arms and put a hand on her wife's hip, making the blonde open her eyes.
"Why don't we take a family trip to the store?" Willow suggested with a smile, "We can all go together."
Tara was about to protest that it would be much simpler for her to just go by herself but thought better of it straight away and smiled back.
"Yea. I think that's a good idea."
"I wouldn't be able to leave him either, Tare," Willow replied with a small grin, "Not even for twenty minutes to go to the store, not today. He needs both his mothers around him and we need our little man. Now does Momma get a kiss?"
Tara's smile got wider and she leant down to place a soft, loving kiss on the redhead's lips, careful to keep JJ supported against her.
"I love you more than I ever thought possible," Tara whispered into the kiss, "You and JJ mean everything to me."
Willow reciprocated the sentiment by moving her lips gently against the blonde's until Tara pulled back and kissed the baby on top of his head.
"Go to Momma for a second, sweetie," Tara said, holding JJ out for Willow to take, "Good boy."
Willow held JJ as Tara grabbed the carrier and put the straps over the side, then took JJ back and strapped him into the seat.
"I'll go get him settled in the car," Tara asked as she smiled down at the baby, "Will you call everyone quickly?"
"Oh yea, sure," Willow nodded, whipping out her cell phone from her pocket, "I'm on it."
Tara took the handle of the carrier and walked JJ to the car, strapping him in securely there as well. She smiled when she saw that his eyes had closed and he was sleeping again before quietly shutting the door and hopping into the driver's seat.
Willow appeared a moment later and got in the passenger seat, a wide smile on her face.
"They're all gonna be here around 7ish. I just said we decided to have an impromptu get-together to celebrate the start of summer."
"Xander and Jesse didn't ask why you weren't in work?" Tara asked as she started the car and pulled out of their driveway, "Shit, I didn't think about Alice and Michelle. They're definitely gonna be suspicious."
"Little ears, Tara!" Willow hissed, glancing into the backseat, before blushing, "I'm not sure about Alice and Michelle, 'cause I just told Jesse to bring Al along and left a message for Dad to do the same with Michelle. Buff's coming along with Angel and I told Becky to be at her computer, I was thinking we could Skype her and Brian. And um...well Xand and Jess just thought I took the day off so we could, you know...spend the day together."
Tara's eyes widened and her head flung around to gape at Willow as they stopped in front of a traffic light.
"You told them that!"
"No," Willow replied defensively, "Xander just said something about 'enjoying our snugly time' and well, what was I supposed to say? I'm actually not helping you take down the baddies 'cause, hmm, I dunno, I have a child now? Not the kind of news you tell someone over the phone."
"You could've said you were sick," Tara said, still a little bit peeved as the light turned to green and she continued driving.
Willow rolled her eyes to herself.
"If I was sick, we wouldn't have been throwing a get-together this evening, would we? I can't have them thinking I don't take my job seriously either."
Tara scoffed.
"And letting them think you took off work so we could have sex all day is taking your job seriously?"
Willow dropped her head into her hands and let out a frustrated sigh as Tara turned into the carpark of the grocery store.
"Tara, today has been one of the happiest days of my life. Can we please not ruin it by having a stupid fight over an even stupider topic? Who the heck cares what anyone thinks about why we're not in work? We're not there because we were making our family. You, me and our little boy."
Tara turned off the engine as she parked in a parking space and turned to Willow, reaching over to take one of her hands.
"I'm sorry."
Willow raised her head, her features softened.
"It's okay. I just don't want this day...spoiled in my memory because we're both exhausted new mommies and getting tetchy with each other."
"I know," Tara replied softly, squeezing her wife's hand, "But I am sorry. I didn't mean to get snappy. It's been an exhausting day, is all. And it's only lunchtime."
Willow let out a low laugh.
"How about we have a family nap when we get home? He's gone down for a long sleep about this time over the weekend, so hopefully he'll stay out for a while and we can catch up on some shut-eye?"
"That sounds...really, really good," Tara replied with a tired laugh, then glanced into the backseat, "I'll run in and get the formula. No point risking waking him up with the loud noises in there. Do we have enough diapers?"
Willow thought for a moment.
"Maybe get another pack just in case? It would not be pretty if we ran out."
Tara smiled again and leaned over to place a quick kiss on the redhead's cheek.
"Okay. Be right back."
Willow watched the blonde leave the car and walk quickly into the store. She turned in her seat and looked at the sleeping baby for a while until her wife returned only minutes later and put a plastic bag on the floor of the backseat before hopping back into the driver seat.
"That was quick," Willow commented quietly, adjusting her gaze towards the blonde.
"There were no queues," Tara responded, "And I hurried. Wanted to get back to my family."
The couple shared a smile for a moment before Tara turned the engine back on and began the short drive home. They drove in a calm, comfortable silence for several minutes until Willow started gesturing wildly to the left, speaking in a hushed but demanding tone.
"Tara, pull over!"
"What?" Tara asked, switching her gaze between her wife and the road, "Why, what's wrong?"
Willow pointed at a particular free parking spot.
"Baby, just pull over, right over there, quick!"
Tara swiftly pulled the car over into the space Willow was gesturing at and turned off the engine, turning to stare at the redhead.
"What is it? Are you okay?"
"Yea, I'm fine," Willow replied, before pointing out the window with a grin "There's a baby store."
Tara turned to look out the window and saw they were parked outside a small store with the name 'Lullaby' written in cursive lettering above the door and a small window display set up to look like a nursery. She turned back to Willow and looked at her pointedly.
"Willow, a baby store? I thought there was something wrong!"