"You ready to see the most gorgeous boy in all the world?"
Tara turned at the sound of Willow's voice and smiled when she saw her head poking through the door of the kitchen, clearly hiding JJ behind the wall. She turned to give them her full attention.
"Ready."
Willow grinned and walked fully into the room, proudly carrying JJ in his new outfit, the black pants and white polo shirt with his green waistcoat hanging over his shoulders. Tara held a hand to her heart when she saw him and walked over, taking him from the redhead.
"You look very smart, JJ," she said to him before looking at Willow, "He does look gorgeous."
Willow reached out and started adjusting the waistcoat slightly.
"Doesn't he? He's gonna make a great first impression."
Tara smiled and pulled Willow to her, planting a soft, warm kiss on her lips. They'd both gotten a solid two hour nap after their impromptu afternoon lovemaking, and had been feeling extra-loving towards each other since.
They'd only awakened when JJ had started crying, needing a diaper change and had spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of the baby and giving the house a general tidy-up before Willow quickly whipped up some omelettes for dinner and had gone to change JJ while Tara cleaned up.
"People are gonna start getting here soon," Tara said when she pulled back, as she rocked JJ, "If you send everyone into the living room and then I'll bring him in after. I hope he stays quiet while people get here."
"I told everyone to get here at seven on the dot, so hopefully they'll all arrive around the same time. And just in case..." Willow grinned, reaching into her pocket and pulling something out, "Trusty pacifier."
Willow put the pacifier on the island at the same time as the doorbell rang. The redhead bit her lip before turning to Tara, smiling from ear-to-ear.
"This is it."
"I know," Tara replied, her smile widening too, "You better answer it."
Willow leant forwards and placed another quick kiss on her wife's lips, before scurrying off towards the front door, closing the kitchen door on her way. Tara turned and placed JJ in his carrier that was sitting atop the island and popped the pacifier in his mouth, just to be on safe side.
"Good boy," she said gently, looking down and smoothing her shirt over herself nervously.
She heard the sound of Buffy's voice and heard her wife guide her and Angel into the living room before the doorbell sounded again.
Willow went back to open the door and smiled as she saw Xander and Anya standing there, her eyes widening at she looked at Anya, having forgotten in all the commotion of the day all that her friend had done.
"Um, come in, guys," she said, stepping aside, "Buff and Angel are in the living room, you can go on through."
"Thanks, Willster," Xander said with a grin, bumbling towards the living room.
"Tara's in the kitchen," Willow whispered to Anya just loud enough for her to hear and Anya nodded, discreetly moving towards there as the redhead followed Xander into the living room.
"Hey, Tara," Anya said, slipping into the kitchen and closing the door behind her, "Willow said I could come in."
"Anya!" Tara said, her eyes widening like Willow's had, "Anya, oh my god, I'm so sorry we didn't call you! I...we were just so caught up and in shock about everything..."
"It's okay," Anya replied, walking further into the room with a smile on her face, "Hallie gave me a call after the hearing and filled me in. I figured when Xander called and said Willow had invited everyone over it was to tell everyone. Is this him?"
"This is him," Tara said proudly, beaming, "JJ, this is your Aunty Anya."
Anya's head shot up, her face full of surprised emotion.
"Aunty Anya?"
Tara smiled and nodded.
"Well considering all that you did to help us get him, I think it's definitely a deserved title. Anya, I can't thank you, we can't thank you enough. I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't been around and put us in touch with Hallie and getting us that emergency hearing and everything. Just...thank you."
Anya shrugged with a small blush at the same time Willow slipped through the door.
"Okay, beers for everyone and no one suspects a thing," she said before smiling at Anya, "Did you meet our boy?"
"I did," Anya smiled, still staring at the baby, "Did you say his name was JJ?"
"Jacob James," Willow replied, going over to the fridge, "But, yea, JJ."
"What a beautiful name," Anya replied, before opening her handbag and producing a small pair of blue booties, "I got him these. I actually bought them for myself but I want him to have them."
"Oh Anya, they're adorable," Tara replied, taking the booties, before her head snapped back up, "What do you mean you got them for yourself?"
Anya's smile widened and she looked between her two friends.
"Well I figured since you trusted me to keep him a secret, I can trust you too. I'm pregnant."
Tara and Willow both looked on in shock for a moment before Tara grabbed Anya and pulled her into a big bear hug.
"Anya, that's wonderful. Congratulations. How far along are you?"
Anya accepted the hug warmly before pulling away with a large smile.
"Just 10 weeks. Xander doesn't want to tell anyone until after my three month scan, so can you keep it to yourselves?"
"Of course," Willow nodded, pulling Anya in for a hug as well, "You know this means our kids are only gonna be like 6 months apart, right? They're gonna grow up together!"
"They can learn to ride bikes together and have play-dates," Anya replied excitedly, before putting a hand protectively over her stomach, "But no pet bunnies."
"Or pet frogs," Willow replied seriously, a hand instinctively going to JJ's head and stroking his hair, "No way."
The doorbell rang again just then and Willow ran off to answer it, beers in hand, leaving just the two blondes in the room.
"Anya, I'm so happy for you," Tara said, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder, "I didn't even know you were trying."
"We weren't," Anya shook her head, a small smile on her face, "It happened after...well, after Willow got shot. We were both so shocked and worried and realised how short life was and well, this little thing inside my belly is the result. It's very strange thinking another human is inside you. I mean, I'm used to Xander being inside me but for a tiny baby to be growing..."
Tara chose to hear only parts of that sentence and smiled.
"You'll be a great Mom, Anya."
"Thank you, Tara," Anya replied genuinely, "I want to make sure they have lots of pretty things. I read that raising a child costs $250,000, but I hope Xander realises our child will need at least twice that for all the nice things it deserves."
"Xander's gonna be a great Dad too," Tara replied with a laugh, "It really is wonderful news."
Anya smiled again, just as Willow's head popped back through the door.
"Everyone's here."
"Right," Tara nodded, looking down at JJ, "Okay. You ready to meet everyone, little man?"
JJ just calmly sucked on his pacifier and Tara saw Anya smile at him. Tara picked up the booties and slipped them over his feet, which made tears come to Anya's eyes.
The smaller blonde quickly wiped at her eyes before turning to walk out of the kitchen, muttering under her breath.
"Damn hormones."
Tara grinned over at Willow who grinned back and held the door open for Anya to walk through. The redhead quickly skidded over to her wife and wrapped an arm around her waist, her other hand taking one of JJ's hands.
"Okay, baby boy. This is it. Will you hang out with Mommy in the foyer and be extra quiet for a while?" she asked the baby, before turning to face Tara, "I think if just bring him in and say 'this is our baby' people might get a little loud, I don't want to scare him. So I'll tell everyone what's happened and then you can bring him in, is that okay?"
"That's a good idea," Tara replied, picking JJ up and holding him against her shoulder, "You ready?"
"You bet," Willow nodded, leaning forwards to place a kiss on the blonde's lips, "I love you. Both of you."
Tara smiled and gave her wife another quick peck.
"We love you too. We love Momma, don't we, JJ? We love her with all our hearts."
Willow moved her hand up to cup the taller girl's cheek, both staring into each other's eyes for several long seconds, sharing a moment until the sound of the pacifier dropping to the floor disturbed them and Tara very quickly swooped down to pick it up and ran over to the sink, washing it and popping it back in the baby's mouth before he had a chance to cry.
"Alright," Willow nodded with a smile, "Let's do this."
They walked out of the kitchen and towards the living room where the sounds of eight other voices chatting were coming from. Willow gave her wife a final smile before walking into the room as Tara hung back at the doorway, out of sight of everyone. She watched Willow sit on the coffee table and smiled at everyone.
"What's with the Willow-grin?" Buffy asked, looking curiously at her friend.
"I'll tell you in a sec," Willow replied, opening her laptop which she had put on the table earlier and pressing a few buttons before a ringing sound was heard and a moment later the somewhat-fuzzy image of Becky and Brian filled the screen.
"Alright, Will," Becky's voice came through clearly, "What the hell is going on? Why did you want us to be at the computer at exactly 7pm?"
"Say hi to everyone else," Willow said cheerily, moving the laptop around so the camera faced the gang.
Everyone said hello and awkwardly waved at the screen before Willow placed the laptop back down so the camera was on her.
"Okay, so I didn't ask you all here for no reason. Most of you probably noticed that me and Tara weren't in work today. And it wasn't just for trivial reasons," she said, with a pointed glance at Xander, who blushed, "Something pretty big is happening in our lives. And I know you'll all have a lot of questions, and we'll be more than happy to answer but..."
Willow stopped and took a deep breath, before getting an encouraging wink from Anya.
"Tara and I are adopting a baby. A little boy. We were in court today to make sure we got custody of him, which we did and the adoption will go through over the next couple of months. But basically what I'm trying to tell you is that we have a child now."
There was a stunned silence throughout the room for several moments before everyone starting speaking at once.
"This is the baby who came into the office on Friday, right?" Alice asked, her eyes wide.
"Uh, a child? As in a baby?" Buffy asked in disbelief.
"You guys are parents?" Jesse exclaimed, mouth hanging open.
"I can't believe I thought you were playing hooky for sex!" Xander almost shouted, hitting his palm against his forehead.
"I knew it, I saw how Tara looked at that child before she left with him..." Michelle said, biting her lip.
"When the hell did all this happen?" Brian asked, completely bewildered.
"Why the hell are we only on Skype for this, we should we there!" Becky actually did yell.
"A baby...an actual baby?" from Angel.
"So...wait...are you saying I have a grandson?"
The last question came from Ira and Willow turned to face him, grinning and nodding.
"You do. Would you like to meet him?"
Ira could only manage a nod as his eyes stayed wide, his features set in surprise. Willow looked around at everyone and held her hands in front of her.
"Okay, I know you're all really, really surprised, but he's a very tiny little baby, so no screaming or scaring him, okay?"
Everyone nodded in agreement and Willow turned her head towards the door. She met Tara's gaze, motioning for her to come in.
Everyone's head snapped around as the blonde walked into the room and sat beside Willow, holding the baby in her lap so he was facing the gaggle of people, all of them staring wide-eyed and in shock, except Anya who just had a playful smirk on her face.
"This is Jacob James Rosenberg-Maclay," Willow said proudly.
Tara raised his little hand in a wave before speaking, equally as proud as her wife.
"JJ, meet your family. Family, meet JJ."
There was a silence around the room, everyone too shocked or too scared to say anything. Anya was the first to reach out and take one of the baby's hands.
"Nice to officially meet you in person, JJ," she greeted cordially, "I've been told you're very cute and don't cry unnecessarily."
Xander's head snapped around to his wife.
"You knew about this?"
"They asked me to help with the legal stuff," Anya replied casually, "Attorney-client privilege."
She knew that particular confidentially clause didn't actually apply since she wasn't technically their lawyer, but also knew Xander wouldn't question so left it at that.
"Whoa, you got a kid," Jesse suddenly piped up with a smile, "Does that make me 'Uncle Jesse'?"
"Oh," Buffy replied, bringing a hand up to her head and massaging her temples, "Thanks a lot. Now I have the theme to 'Full House' stuck in my head."
Ira suddenly stood and walked over to Willow and Tara. He knelt down in front of them.
"Jacob?" he asked the women, his voice breaking with emotion. Willow nodded and the man covered one of the baby's hands with his own, "You were named for a wise and honourable man. I'm proud to have you as my grandson."
Willow felt a tear slide down her cheek as her heart swelled with emotion.
"Daddy..."
Ira looked up and leant forwards, pressing his lips to his daughter's temple.
"I'm so proud of you, ahuvi," he whispered, using the Yiddish term for 'my love' before turning to his daughter-in-law, "And Tara. He's perfect."
"He is," Tara agreed with a warm smile, "Thank you, Ira."
Ira nodded and stood, discreetly wiping his eye with a permanent, almost unbelieving smile attached to his face.
"So guys," Willow spoke up, beaming, "Think you can help us build a nursery?"
"I can build a crib," Xander offered straight away, "Give me the weekend and I'll have it done."
"And we'll be sending the biggest teddy bear ever!" Becky's shrill voice came from the computer, "Screw it, we're hand delivering it! We'll get flights out this weekend! We need to meet our nephew!"
Everyone started talking at the same time, offering their services in whatever they could and making plans for the nursery.
Tara kept the baby secure in her lap as everyone spoke around them.
He had a very limited understanding of what exactly was happening. He saw new people and heard new sounds and part of him felt scared at all this newness. But his instinctual feeling of wanting to cry stopped inside him as Tara's arms held him tight and Willow's hand lightly stroked his hair.
His comprehension of who they were was dim.
All he knew was that they were warm and their voices were soft and he felt safe when they held him.
He really had no idea what was going on or had any grasp on what an 'emotion' was.
He was only four days old after all.
He didn't know what 'parent' meant and though the sounds of 'Momma' and 'Mommy' had been floated past him numerous times that day, he really had no idea what their meaning was.
But with a clean diaper, a full stomach and the feeling filling him that he'd someday learn to class as 'love', he sat in his mother's lap, quiet and content.
"He's so quiet," Willow whispered to Tara in a rare gap where the others were talking to one another and not them.
"He's an angel," Tara agreed quietly, "Our angel."
Willow leant over and placed a lingering kiss against her wife's cheek before taking the baby from her arms and nestling him between them both. She brought her hand down to let JJ grab a hold of her finger and looked between him and Tara adoringly.
"Our son."