A/N:

you guys are so fucking flattering! i didn't expect such a big response so fast. so sweet. thank you so much to every single person who reviewed, followed, and favorited already.

so i'm going to change perspectives throughout the story (thanks to vausemaniac for that idea) instead of only telling it from alex's point of view. i think it'll be better this way. i'll also be skipping around the timeline of their lives (they got together in late 2000 so this takes place in the future) pretty randomly so if you have any requests please let me know.

thanks to vausemaniac for writing such a long review despite being speechless... and then coming back to leave another one. and you actually don't need to apologize for rambling when you write a super long review that's basically just a huge compliment because it made me so happy. of course baby stuff is coming because what kind of monster would mention a pregnant piper and not follow up? you actually kinda predicted this next chapter, so good job :)

also thanks to addictedtoOITNB. you're so fucking sweet. i'm not sure what else to say other than thanks a million times, but that would be a really long authors note so i won't. just pretend.

I woke up before her as usual. I tried to stay in bed, I really did. It was Saturday and I felt like I should be trying to sleep in, but it was only 6:13 am and I was wide awake. I slipped out from under her arm and walked over to the bookshelf to find a book to read. What I found instead, though, was that damn picture of me completely passed out on the couch with Alex behind me wearing that shit eating grin. It made me shake my head and smile because it wasn't there yesterday which means she was looking through the photo albums again. And to think she told me I was spending too much time making them back then. What a sap.

I grabbed the photo and kissed a sleeping Alex on the forehead before making my way out to the living room to put the it back before it got ruined or lost. I placed the photo on the shelf where the albums sat and as I was reaching out to grab the correct one, my eyes flicked over to a different album. The one that made me the happiest and brought tears to my eyes at the same time. It was definitely worn after being pulled out to embarrass her on dates and during family gatherings. It was used even more the first few weeks after she went off to college. The cover was light blue and purple with lace surround the edge of the entire album. I carefully pulled out the album and took a seat in front of the fire, setting the book on my lap and running my fingers over the cover. I had to get back up to grab my reading glasses because I didn't want to miss any of the details in the photographs I was about to look at.

Instead of starting the album with a photo of her as a newborn like most people, I started it with when we found out I was pregnant.

I sat on the toilet and buried my face in my hands. I should have waited until she was home to do this. I'd been sitting here for so long that my legs were asleep but I was freaking out too much to stand up. Deep down I knew I wanted this, and hell if we didn't spend a lot of money to make it happen, but right now, sitting here alone, all I could think about was all the scary parts. I picked up the cup again and squinted at the test but the plus sign was still there. I nodded to myself, repeating okay, okay, okay in my head over and over. I didn't know how long I sat on that damn toilet trying to calm down but I was unsuccessful until the second she walked in the door.

"Babe?" She called out and I heard her drop some bags onto the floor. I didn't give a shit what she did with the groceries, though. I quickly stood up but had to sit back down again because my legs were completely asleep. I grabbed the cup and felt the urge to hide it for some reason but I didn't because I could never hide anything from her.

"Al?" I responded tentatively. She walked in and saw me sitting there and raised an eyebrow to silently question what the hell I was doing in the bathroom. And it was seeing her face that finally got rid of my hesitation. I immediately regretted not thinking of a clever way to tell her. I mean, we had been trying for almost a year now, one would think I could have come up with something by now. Whatever.

I wordlessly held out my hand that held the cup with the test in it because there was a lump in my throat and I didn't want to talk or I knew would cry. She quickly grabbed the cup and saw that there was a test in it before returning her gaze to me. Her jaw was dropped now and she grabbed the test and held it up with a shaky hand. As soon as she saw the little plus sign she dropped the test and brought both her hands up to her face and covered her mouth and nose, leaving only her wide eyes exposed, but I could still tell she was smiling. I was smiling too now, for the first time since finding out. And then she was crying and I was crying and she was pulling me up and hugging me so fucking tight that I had to tap her on the back to get her to ease up. She got on her knees in front of me and kissed my stomach over and over until I grabbed her face and made her stand back up to kiss my lips instead.

"Did you make an appointment with the doctor?" Alex asked with a shaky voice because she was still crying. I just shook my head and wiped at the tears on my face, but it was pointless because they were still falling.

"How many tests did you take? Did you take different kinds? We need to call the doctor. I'll go call the doctor." I was laughing and crying now because usually I was the one that rambled but the tables had finally turned.

"I took 3 different tests." She pulled me into another bone crushing hug and the waterworks from both of us continued. She held up a finger and ran out of the room, only to come back quickly with my camera in her hand. We both wiped our fingers under our eyes to fix our makeup and I grabbed the test between my index finger and thumb. I held it up in the mirror and she snapped a photo of us in the reflection, teary eyed with huge smiles on our faces.

There were toothpaste specks on the mirror in the picture and you could see that lotion we always used to buy sitting on the counter. Our makeup was also strewn all over the counter because we would spend so much time getting ready that we never had time to properly put it away. Nowadays we just shared some eyeliner and mascara when we felt like putting in the effort. We both had pink cheeks from wiping our tears away and Alex was wearing her shirt from the restaurant. I spent a few minutes admiring my carefully cut out decorations on the page before moving on.

Back then I wasn't very happy about the pregnancy photos that Alex insisted on taking. There was no such thing as a filter or editing a photo and though even I had to admit I was glowing, I always put up a fight. The majority of the pictures she tried to take only showed me through the slits of her fingers because her hand was held up over the lens of the camera.

Most of the successful photos she ended up sneaking while I was asleep on the couch. That old couch did wonders for my back when I was pregnant so that's where I spent most of my time. Alex refused to let me sleep on it at night in fear that I would roll off, but during the day when she was home I would lay there for hours on end, watching TV or trying out new hobbies that I never stuck with, like knitting or making jewelry.

So since I was asleep in most of these photos obviously I didn't remember them being taken. I did, however, remember the first time I saw them.

I usually went to Costco with Alex. She would do the heavy lifting and always knew what brands of stuff I liked, even when I couldn't seem to remember. We would sneak extra free samples and pop out of aisles to scare each other like kids but somehow never got kicked out. This time I went alone because she had a potential investor coming to look at the restaurant that weekend and the trip couldn't wait any longer. I was pretty damn pregnant at that point, which didn't make things easier. I dropped off the film to be developed first and wandered off. I didn't have a grocery list because Alex would eat pretty much anything and it was impossible to predict what would make me nauseous these days. I was going through multiple rolls of toilet paper a day at the time thanks to the pregnancy so that was the only thing I knew we needed.

After buying an excessive amount of pickles and peanut M&Ms and completely forgetting the toilet paper that I went there for in the first place, I picked up the film and made my way out to the car. It was to the point where driving was hard because my stomach was sticking out so far. She was only okay with me driving when we needed something badly and it was a short trip. If I even barely leaned forward I could honk with no hands, something Alex found absolutely hilarious.

It wasn't until later that day when I remembered that I hadn't looked at the pictures. Alex was sitting by the fire (I didn't fight her for the spot because it was too uncomfortable to sit on the floor in my current pregnant state) and I was laying on the couch.

"Did you develop that film?" She asked with a slight smirk I could tell she was trying to keep off her face.

"Oh yeah. They're in my purse. Why?"

"Did you look at them?" I narrowed my eyes and tried to sit up but it took me three tries thanks to my big belly and she made it up before me, running across the living room to snatch the envelope out of my purse.

"What did you do! You know the people look at them, right?" I asked, becoming a little bit nervous.

"It's nothing bad..." She turned away from my reach and started flipping through the photos.

I was quick enough to grab half of the stack from her left hand only to see a photo of me laying on the couch with my mouth open, clearly snoring in a deep slumber. It was definitely not flattering.

"What the fuck! Oh, you asshole." I continued to flip through only to see more photos of a similar nature. There wasn't a single picture in there that I knew had been taken. That sneaky fucker.

"I needed to document your baby bump!" She reasoned defensively, snatching the rest of the photos away from me before I could try to get rid of them. "Seriously, you'll thank me when we're all old and wrinkly and you have proof that this kid actually lived in you at one point."

I sighed, knowing she was right as usual. She smiled triumphantly, knowing that I knew she was right.

And of course she was right, because when I sat down to make the baby scrapbook I included almost every photo that I had developed that day.

My favorite was the one where I was laying on my back, head propped up by a decorative pillow. My tank top was rolled up leaving my belly completely uncovered. I was probably 5 or 6 months pregnant judging by the size of my belly. Our cat, Puck (yes, from A Midsummer Night's Dream) was curled up on my stomach protectively, staring at Alex as she took the picture. I was asleep, which is the only reason she got the picture, with my head turned to face her. I actually looked pretty peaceful for a pregnant girl sleeping on a couch with a cat on her stomach.

There was another picture of me on the lounge chair out on the deck with a lemonade in my hand. I was facing the backyard but she had managed to almost get my profile without me noticing. I was wearing my favorite maternity sweater and a pair of Alex's shorts that I had stretched out gradually since my baby bump started growing. My hair was windblown and I was looking off at something in the distance. It almost looked staged, and I silently thanked god that Alex was brave enough to risk pissing me off when I was pregnant to capture that moment.

"Busted," Alex's singsong voice caused me to actually jump. I had been in such a trance staring at the photos that I didn't realize it was already well past 9 in the morning. I was pretty sure she was becoming more attractive as she aged, if that was possible. Her eyes were still clear as day, alabaster skin still flawless, hair still jet black thanks to my handy dyeing skills.

"You started it, I found that picture on the bookshelf when I woke up." I said knowingly.

She took a seat next to me and her knees cracked.

"When did I get so fucking old?" She sighed and I leaned my head against her shoulder, moving the album so it balanced between our knees.

"You aren't old. If you're old that means I'm old." She raised her eyebrows knowingly and I smacked her arm before flipping the page in the album. We both stared at the picture of the moment our lives changed forever.

Giving birth was a total bitch. I mean, I knew it would be, but god damn. I was in labor for a whopping 14 hours and Alex sat, stood, and paced next to me the whole time. I was being impossible and I knew it, but she wasn't the one suffering for 14 hours, not to mention the previous 9 months. My parents didn't come. It kind of sucked but honestly my mother's ridicule for my constant cursing would have made the whole situation a lot worse. Diane was there, but she was keeping her distance. She knew how I could get so it was probably out of fear, now that I thought about it. Alex ran back and forth getting ice chips and rubbed my arm and pulled my hair back like the perfect wife. Which made it even more surprising when I started pushing and she passed out for a good 5 minutes. Luckily for both of us she was back up just in time to watch her daughter be born.

We named her Samantha but she went by Sam as soon as she was old enough to decide. I think it was because she wanted to shorten her name like Alex, but she wouldn't admit it even once she was a teenager. We slept together on the hospital bed that night with Sam being watched over by the nurses and it was definitely one of our last sound sleeps for at least 6 months.

Diane was the one who took the picture. I was laying on my back on the hospital bed with Sam tucked under my arm. Alex had managed to fit on the bed as well. She was laying on her stomach with her face pressed into the pillow and her arm draped protectively over the two of us. My hair was a mess and I was still wearing the hospital gown and Alex was still wearing black skinny jeans and her leather jacket. Pure exhaustion.

I kept my head leaned on her shoulder as we stared at the picture in silence. Sam was so tiny and we both looked so young. But it still felt like yesterday. It was almost unfathomable that it was 19 years ago and our little baby was in college now.

Alex flipped the page to a photo of us sleeping on the couch this time, another piece of Diane's work. She always captured the best moments. It struck me as a little strange that we slept on the couch so much with such a big bed in just the other room, but at the time it made sense.

I always had this feeling that I would be lucky and end up with the perfect, easy, quiet baby. Boy was I wrong. Alex warned me, too. You're way too high maintenance to have an easy kid, she joked. I should have appreciated sleep while I had it, because damn. We only had one kid for a reason, and that 6 months was it. She was so incredibly fussy and refused to sleep whenever we needed her to the most. It was only the second day being home and we were both practically zombies. I was getting used to breastfeeding and Alex was a diaper changing prodigy, but getting Sam to go to sleep was insanely difficult. We did discover a few tricks, like driving around the neighborhood for hours, knowing that if we stopped the car she would wake up. The gas money was worth it.

She was about 6 and a half months when she began sleeping through the nights and dear god were we thankful. I remember laying in bed so excited to sleep that I actually couldn't sleep. Alex was a lifeless lump laying face down on the bed, no doubt drooling all over the pillow. She had been sleeping even less than me because of her dedication to both our family and the restaurant. Eventually I did fall asleep, though, and I think it was the best sleep of my life. I vaguely remembered waking up once to go pee and hearing Alex talking. I couldn't figure out if she was sleep talking or if I was so tired that her words made no sense, but I passed back out as soon as I laid down.

It was the next morning when Diane came over for lunch. We scrambled around to clean up the house because even though we knew she wouldn't judge us, we didn't want her to see how bad it had gotten over the last few months. I wasn't the best at housekeeping so I did my best while Alex trailed behind me, refolding blankets and moving things to their actual places. Sam was in her chair bouncing away, throwing toys and then whining until we gave them back to her, only to throw them back on the ground with adorable laughter. I blamed Alex for her fucked up sense of humor.

When we finally had the house somewhat cleaned up I lay down on the couch, reaching out and flexing my fingers while making a pouty face at Alex. Of course she laid down with me. I flipped through the channels to put on something childish for Sam and we spooned on the couch while making fun of the Sesame Street characters. The next thing I knew a bright flash woke me up and Diane was standing in front of the TV making an oh shit face.

"Sorry kiddo, I didn't know the flash was on." Her voice was what woke Alex up.

"Hmwhat the fuck?" She sat halfway up and glanced up at her mom before laying back down. "Hi mom."

"I miss that couch." Alex broke the silence while still looking at the picture. I hummed my agreement and she kissed me on the cheek.

When Sam left for Columbia (yes a fucking Ivy League because she's so brilliant) we spent at least a week moping around the house, looking at old photographs and watching home videos from when she was a kid. The whole place seemed so damn quiet without her and the memories helped us transition. Alex did her best to pretend to be okay, she really did, but it was so obvious how much she missed Sam whenever I looked into her eyes. Not that we weren't ecstatic about her success because we took every provided chance to brag about her to our friends and family.

We watched every single home video (which was hours upon hours of footage) multiple times as we cuddled up on the floor and laughed and cried together.

There was the one where she had the chicken pox and Alex told her to show them to the camera.

I knew this day would come. I hoped it would so she wouldn't get them as an adult and have it way worse. But she got them bad. I mean, she was more chicken pox than normal skin for a while there. We gave her multiple baths a day with that nasty oatmeal stuff and rubbed all sorts of creams and lotions on her. She was definitely a trooper.

Alex insisted on getting footage of this so we could show her just how bad she had it for that long week. She was 5 years old at the time. I was sitting on the couch making a grocery list while Sam played with her stuffed animals on the floor when Alex came in with the camcorder.

"You wanna show future Sam your chicken pox?" Alex asked as she squinted at the camcorder and figured out how to turn it on. She had used it a million times but it always took her a while.

Sam nodded, but she wasn't as enthusiastic as she usually was. These things were taking a serious toll on her fluffy personality. Alex held up the camcorder and Sam immediately grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted it to cover her face, completely flashing the camera. Her entire torso was covered in those damn chicken pox.

"Woooah there!" Alex's voice came from behind the camera and caused me to look up and see what our little angel was doing this time.

"Sam!" I laughed and pulled her shirt back over her torso.

"That's one to show to her first boyfriend," Alex muttered.

"What? I'm showing fusure Sam."

"Future," Alex corrected. We always corrected her when she said words wrong so she didn't learn them the wrong way.

"Future." Sam repeated thoughtfully, obviously trying to ingrain the word into her head. She went back to playing with her stuffed animals and Alex filmed her for a good 5 minutes before turning off the camcorder. She was so good at capturing those natural moments.

Sure enough,we showed that one to her first serious boyfriend while Sam hid her face in her hands and he furiously blushed. Alex and I were crying with laughter and she rewound the cassette twice before Sam couldn't take it anymore and they rushed out of the house.

There was the video where I walked around with the camcorder to film the entire house so we could show her what it looked like when she was growing up. It was right around the time Sam was learning how to use sarcasm. She got it from Alex, and for nearly a year every word from her mouth was just dripping with sarcasm.

The camcorder was facing the ground when I turned it on.

"Alex, can you help me?" I called out and muttered a few curse words under my breath while I tried to figure out how to turn on the device that was already on. Her feet came into view on the carpet.

"Babe, here." The camcorder was now directed at my legs as she looked at the screen. "It's already on you dork."

She handed it back to me and I turned the camera upright to show her smirking face.

"And now your technological struggles have been documented forever." She must have seen the look on my face because she pressed her lips together and held her hands up in surrender before retreating to wherever she was before I asked her for help.

"Okay Sam, this is what our house looked like in 2014." I aimed the camera toward the living room and spun a slow circle. Our fireplace had a stack of books and magazines next to it with a pair Alex's glasses on top. There was the of slippers that Alex and I often fought over instead of just buying another pair and a stack of blankets folded in the corner. I had tried to tidy the place up a bit before making the video.

I walked through the hallway and focused on the photos of Alex and I and Sam on the wall, pausing for the longest on a few pieces of Sam's artwork from school. I peeked into our daughter's room and she was sitting on her bed with a coloring book.

"Hey Sammy, say hi to the camera." I put the camera right in her face and it made her giggle.

"Hi to the camera," She responded with an imitation of Alex's smirk on her face.

"So tell us what you're doing," I prompted to try to get her talking in front of the camera.

"I'm coloring." She gave me her best duh look.

"Ah, our brooding 8 year old artist."

"You're weird mom." She returned to coloring and I kept the camera on her for a few minutes as she worked.

I slowly rotated the camera around the room. She had a bookshelf - full of reading material made for kids way older than 8 years old - and a beanbag in the corner where she would sit to read. There was a small easel the other corner where she would paint when she was feeling extra creative. There were visible paint splatters on the wall behind it from the time she tried to splatter paint after getting her hands on a magazine that introduced her to Jason Pollock. We made her scrub for hours but the red splatters only turned a light shade of pink.

"Mom is it lunch time?" I flipped the camera around to show her face again.

"I don't know, should we go bug your mother?" She was standing up before I even finished talking. She absolutely adored Alex.

We made our way through the hallway and into the kitchen where Alex was washing dishes. Sam held up her finger to her lips and snuck up behind her mother.

"Mama!" Alex jumped up and dropped her plate in the sink before spinning around.

"Jesus! Oh you little shit." We didn't usually curse around her but she knew not to repeat the words and Alex had clearly just been scared to death. She grabbed the spray nozzle from the sink and wrapped her arm around Sam's shoulders to hold her in place and pressed the trigger, completely soaking our daughter, who was now shrieking and laughing as she tried to escape her mom's death grip.

The video cut out there because there was no way I was missing out on all that fun if the kitchen was already soaked.

"Should we call her?" I asked this question a lot. We both wanted to call her every second of every day, but we knew she needed her space to become an adult.

"She's probably hungover, its before noon on a Saturday."

"Our little angel? Never," I pretended to be appalled but we both knew Alex was probably right. She pulled out her phone anyways, putting it on speaker as soon as it started ringing. I wiggled my toes with excitement, praying that she would answer so I could hear her voice.

"Hmmom?" Yeah, we woke her up. She'd get over it.

"Hi baby!" I squealed into the phone and she groaned loudly.

"Oh our little college partier, I'm so proud." Alex chuckled and I grabbed the phone out of her hand.

"How are you? How is school? You better be getting good grades if you're out partying all night."

"Mom I'm getting good grades. I'll snapchat you a picture of my last test grade."

"What is a snapchat?" I looked at Alex but she just shrugged.

"Oh my god, never mind. I'm doing well in school."

"So tell us what you've been doing?" Alex chipped in.

"I don't know, studying a lot. Oh, I joined this club called cupid. It's uhh.. Columbia University partnership for umm.. international development."

I squealed with excitement only to hear another groan from Sam on the other end. I always knew she would do something cool like that when she got to college. She was so brilliant and caring.

"Can I call you guys later? I'm kind of dying right now." I could hear running water over the line, but I wasn't sure if she was getting a glass of water or getting ready to take a shower.

"We miss you," Alex uttered into the phone.

"I miss you guys too. I'll call you later or tomorrow or something. Love you guys."

I leaned my head back on Alex's shoulder and we sat in silence for a few minutes before I came up with an idea.

"Let's send her a care package! When I was in college my parents never did it but my roommate always got them. You put like snacks and pictures and socks and stuff in it. You know, mom stuff."

She linked our fingers and brought our hands up to kiss my knuckles.

"Alright, let's do it."