December 21, 2022 (Wednesday)
Sam padded down the carpeted stairs of the Jones/Owens estate in Christmas-festive pajama pants and a white thermal top. Ever since Halloween, he had been growing out his sandy blond hair out again, as he often would in wintertime. It now was capable of curling softly over the top of his ears and the nap of his neck, but his recent shower caused it to lay flat and dense against his head.
He let out a yawn as his feet reached the downstairs landing; ignoring the slight watering of his eyes that immediately followed, he glanced around, pondering the whereabouts of his wife. "Mercedes?" he called softly. It was late, and he had a good feeling that his mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law were already fast asleep in their rooms upstairs. He half-expected for Mercedes to be slumbering when he got out of the shower, but when he'd left the bathroom and returned to her old bedroom where they were sleeping, the room was empty. The sounds of a television from downstairs drew him searching for her there.
As he started towards the dimly-lit living room, he heard a couple of wet sniffs, followed by a soft sigh and a crunch. Sam's brows came together with concern as he rounded the corner and spotted the back of Mercedes' head from over the top of the couch. She was by herself, staring teary-eyed at the wide screen television. Sam gave a fleeting glance at the T.V. as he entered the room, but when he recognized I Am Sam, a slight level of relief washed over him. He could at least understand the reason for her tears were due to the movie, and not strictly a hormonal outburst.
"Benz? Baby, why are you watching this movie?" he asked softly.
Mercedes merely sniffled in response while wiping her eyes. She too was dressed in festive nightwear—a long red, green and white, long-sleeved flannel gown that comfortably accommodated her growing belly. Her hair was tucked up under a nightcap with the exception of a few strands that escaped in the front. Sitting in her hands was a small bowl of half-eaten ice cream with pieces of potato chips crushed over the scoops. Tears were streaking down her face, no matter how many times she wiped the back of her hand across her cheek. She glanced over at Sam who took a seat on the couch and draped his arm around her shoulders to pull her close.
"I couldn't help it—it's such a beautiful movie," she finally answered with a slight pout.
Sam chuckled under his breath, "But it always makes you sad." His free hand helped dry her eyes and after wiping her tears on his pajama pants, he spread his long fingers over her bulging tummy. One of their two babes was awake and kicking near his thumb.
Mercedes tilted her head to rest on his shoulder, "I-I know but…it has some really sweet moments too... Like right here when the dad and his friends take Lucy shopping for shoes."
He smiled his signature smile and lowly muttered, "Lucy Diamond Dawson." After musing for a moment, he glanced down at his weepy wife and asked, "Hey, you think we should name our kids after Beatles songs?"
Finally beginning to collect herself again, Mercedes smiled a little, "I don't know. We haven't settled on names yet, have we?"
"Nope. We've talked about it but then we always end up pushing a decision off until later."
Mercedes placed her hand near his while her gaze looked down. Her smile quickly turned back into a frown.
Sam took in her grimacing face and rubbed her shoulder, "Don't worry. I know we've been through baby book after baby book, but I think we've narrowed down some good ideas for names already. I'm sure—"
"No that's not it," Mercedes interrupted, raising her head from his shoulder so she could shake it. Fresh tears began to swell in her eyes.
He kissed her temple. At her most recent doctor's appointment, not only had they discovered the sex of their twins, but the gynecologist told them that as Mercedes' body started to accommodate the twins' growth, her hormones and senses were likely to shift in a more noticeable way. Sam first experienced this, when he suggested they fry fish for dinner one night. She burst into tears, sympathizing for the poor fish that had been caught only to be fried up later. However, she had inexplicably been okay with he scrambled for an alternative to stop her crying and suggested chicken alfredo. This seemed to occur several times throughout the latter half of her second trimester.
A notable change in her senses occurred the day before Thanksgiving. He and Mercedes had flown to Kentucky to spend the holiday with his family, and when they arrived at the estate, they were greeted to the smell of a turkey being smoked out back. The smell of the turkey being smoked repulsed Mercedes to the point where she could not stay at the Evans home like they planned. Guilt-ridden, she and Sam checked into a hotel for their time in Kentucky.
By now, Sam had prepared himself for her irrational bout of tears, and avoided cooking anything on the grill. Mercedes' hormonal imbalance kept him on his toes. As he noticed his wife tearing up again, he reached for the remote to pause the movie before asking, "What's the matter?"
"Sam, I'm a house!" she said with her frown deepening as her fingers plucked a cold potato chip from her bowl.
"You're not a house," he countered while she chewed. When she looked up to him, he cast an assuring smile and murmured, "You're carrying our kids—two of them at once, and you're still beautiful while doing it."
Mercedes' lips quirked into a smile, "You mean that?"
"'Course I do," he replied without hesitation. His hand moved from her belly to cup her cheek and kiss her full on the lips, catching a bit of salt on his own pair. He licked his lips and told her after gently pulling away, "I love you for going through all this like a champ."
Her smile grew a bit and then she lowered her head back to his shoulder while circling her hand along her stomach, "You were right about us needing to choose names for these two. They're gonna be here in a couple months."
"Yeah," Sam said with a yawn.
"We can talk about it tomorrow though, if you're tired."
Sam shrugged, "I thought you were in bed when I got out of the shower. But you weren't, so I came looking for you to make sure you were okay."
Mercedes reached up and tousled his damp hair; she looked up to appraise her playful gesture, only to burst out in laughter. The top of Sam's hair was now sticking up in a disheveled mess while the back still lay flat and damp. One of her hands clutched at her bowl of melting ice cream while her other hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her laughs.
Sam gave her a dead-eyed stare before a devious smirk broke out across his face. He shook his head hard, sending a few flecks of water onto Mercedes' face. After she playfully swatted his arm for it, he beamed a satisfactory grin at her. "That's what you get."
"Yeah, whatever Evans," she teased, wiping her cheek. "Do that again and you'll be licking ice cream off your face like Scooby Doo." While Sam maintained his grin and smoothed out his hair again, Mercedes reached for the remote to turn off the television. "But we probably should go to bed. Stacey, Stevie and your parents will be here tomorrow, along with everyone else."
He heard the slight disdain when she added on 'everyone else' and perceptibly reminded her, "Well, tomorrow is your shower after all."
"Our shower," She corrected. "I didn't want you and the guys running off for a game like you and Mike did for Tina's shower. Plus our moms said it wouldn't be so girly so…it's our shower."
Sam pursed his lips and nodded. For the most part, he'd kept quiet about his feelings regarding the shower, but if he were to speak openly and honestly, he didn't want to go. A shower never sounded like something he should be attending unless it was inside a bathroom with water and Mercedes. But if he were to say this aloud, he would have to hear about it from Mercedes, his mother and Mrs. Owens—whom he still referred to as Ms. Jones, out of habit. So for the sake of not being verbally pulverized, he agreed to come. His saving grace was that Mike, Artie and Joe were all planning to come as well. Kurt and Blaine were coming as well, but he already expected them to be enjoying the shower as much as his women.
Mercedes heaved herself to her feet to put her ice cream bowl in the kitchen.
"I can take that for you," Sam offered but she waved him off.
"I can do it," she insisted.
He hardly pressed the matter further. For one, she was already leaving the living room. And two, he loved watching her go. Sam always had an affinity for her fleshy backside, but as her pregnancy progressed, she developed a bit of a waddle in her step. It not only made her slightly adorable to watch while she walked, but it always drew his eyes to her swaying ass. What made it even more pleasing for him was that he had failed to mention this to Mercedes. Sure, she's known for years that he loved her butt, but he did not tack on his newfound love in her extra sashay.
For a moment, he hadn't even realized that he was biting his lip until he let it go upon her return to the living room.
"I think these two might let me get some sleep tonight. What do you say we go to bed now?" she suggested, completely oblivious to her own alluring swagger.
"Yeah, good idea,' replied Sam, though his thoughts were more like: Good idea. Let's go to bed and not sleep. He knew that wasn't happening though; not with his in-law breathing under the same roof. So he rose from the couch, took hold of Mercedes' hand and held it a little tighter than usual, the entire trek back upstairs.
December 22, 2022
Sam was the first one in the Jones-Owens house to wake. After slipping on some sweats and a wife beater, he went for a quick jog around the neighborhood, taking in the cool Lima air, and showered again upon his return. In keeping with festive, yet casual theme, he dressed jeans and a red, long-sleeved thermal that hugged his chest and biceps. His duties after breakfast were to help his brother-in-law, Marcus, re-arrange the Christmas decorations to accommodate the ones for the shower, as per Ms. Jones' orders. Soon, the rest of the Evans family arrived and they all exchanged Seasons greetings. Sam's mom then ushered her eldest to the stairs and told him, "All you have to do is keep Mercedes upstairs while we get the food and games ready. And if you need help keeping her busy, I'll send Stace up."
Fortunately for him, that proved to be an easier task than expected. Mercedes hadn't slept through most of the night, and he tried to stay up to keep her company, but ended up falling asleep frequently. When he returned upstairs to fulfill his mother's wishes, he found her still in bed, sleeping with a restless look on her face. The covers were draped from the middle of her thighs, down with her iPad beside her. He noticed her brows twitching as she stirred, moving a hand to rub lazily along her tummy. His slightly concerned gaze morphed into friendly contemplation as he approached the bed. They were both fairly heavy sleepers, but out of the two of them, he was the lighter sleeper—thanks to many years of being dog-piled on in the morning by his younger siblings.
Smiling softly, Sam returned to the bed, walking on his knees as stealthily as he could. To his luck, Mercedes hand had slipped off of her bump but as he started to place his hand on her stomach, his attention was distracted by her tablet. He picked it up, letting his eyes jump around at some of the words on the screen. It looked like she had been reading an article on the names of constellations and stars. Still standing on his knees, Sam scrolled slid his finger down the side, wondering what had brought Mercedes to this page. Soon he became engrossed in the various constellation names that popped out at him—to the point that he hadn't noticed Mercedes awaken.
"See any you like?" she asked.
Sam jumped and involuntarily blushed. "I didn't mean to wake you."
She smiled and softly groaned, "You didn't. These two are having a party in there or something. What time is it?"
He glanced back down at the tablet, "9: 54. My family's here and I'm supposed to keep you hostage until our moms say otherwise."
"Oh…" Mercedes brows furrowed but she shrugged it off and sat up, "Can I at least use the bathroom? With all the partying in here, I think they're determined to turn my bladder into a punching bag."
Sam chuckled, "Yeah, I don't think they meant you had to stay in your room. You're just not supposed to go downstairs yet."
"I can manage that," she said. As she walked around to his side of the bed she stuck out her chin and puckered her lips expectantly.
Sam smirked and leaned in to plant a pop-suckling peck on her pair.
"Good morning by the way," she said before turning to leave.
His gaze lowered to her backside again and then to the tablet. When Mercedes returned, minutes later, he asked, "Hey what were you looking at this article for?"
She knelt down to her duffle bag to lay out her clothes, "You've always had a thing for astronomy. I thought we could find a way to incorporate that in one of the kids' first or middle names."
"Really?" Sam's lips spread into a smile as his heart swelled with flattery. It wasn't something he had thought of before, but he was pleasantly surprised to hear Mercedes considering it.
"Yeah, I mean there's some weird ones out there that I would never put on our babies' birth certificates, but some of them are kinda cool. And some of them, I think we could play around with."
"Like what?"
As Mercedes slowly rose to her feet again she said, "Well…I know that there's Aries, like in the zodiac."
"Yeah, but…Aries was also a god of war and destruction."
Mercedes pursed her lips, "…Sam that's not the same thing. Ares, god of war doesn't spell his name the same. And I wasn't even considering it for a boys' name."
Sam arched his brows, "So you wanna name our daughter Aries Evans?"
"No, but if you let me finish, I'll tell you," she replied, a little impatiently.
With a pinch of his lips, he nodded, gesturing for her to go on.
"I was playing around with the name Aries earlier, and I thought Ariesa Annette Evans sounded really beautiful. And unique."
"Ariesa?"
She shrugged and nodded with a matter-of-factly tone, "Yeah, Ariesa. Like uh-ree-suh."
Sam mused over the name and smiled, "Kind of sounds like 'Aretha'."
Mercedes tilted her head a fraction and giggled softly, "You know I hadn't even thought of that."
"Surrre you didn't," he teased, to which she quickly protested.
"I didn't! Honest!"
Sam chuckled, "I believe you—I was just giving you a hard time."
As Mercedes shook her head at him, he said the name over in his head a few times, "I like it."
Mercedes was beaming now. After months of mulling over name after name after name, they had finally agreed on a full name for their baby girl. Now if they could pass the hurdle of coming up with a name for their son, they'd be one step closer in their baby preparations. Her smile faltered to curiosity however, when Sam pulled her out of her private reverie.
"And I think…" he started to smile again while his eyes were on her iPad, "I think we have our theme for the nursery back home." He glanced up and watched the realization spread across his wife's face.
"Outer space?" she guessed with a hopeful smile.
With one nod and a lasting smile, Sam said, "Yes. It's gender neutral and it's something I could manage painting without making it look like a five year-old did the job."
Her hopeful smile spread into a toothy grin, "You're a great painter, Honey. My St. Valentine's Day statue has survived all these years at least, and the canvases in your office are some of my favorites." Setting her sweater and jeans down on the foot of the bed, she neared him again and curled her arms around his middle, looking up into his green eyes, "Outer space it is. And while you're stuck up here with me, maybe after I get ready for the day, we'll have our son's name decided on before the shower starts? That way we can finally tell everyone today."
Sam freed his hands from the tablet and cupped either side of her face. After kissing her forehead, nose and finally her lips he muttered, "I love your plan."
Please leave reviews! A drabble chapter of the shower & Christmas are next, followed by a special celebrity interview for Mercedes in Chapter 27. Any guesses as to who will be interviewing our lovely songstress? Let me know what you think! :)