A/N: Y'all know the drill; reviews and suggestions, please. ;)
They had just landed in North Carolina, and Mellie was struggling to gather the children and their bags. Fitz was trying to help, but all three of their children were in the mood to be as clingy as possible, and fight over Mellie's leg. Mellie sighed to herself, running out of patience as Bellamy smacked Teddy. She growled, but before she had a chance to reprimand her child, Fitz stepped in. "Bellamy Danielle." He pulled his daughter into his arms and took a few of the bags out of Mellie's arms. "You don't hit your brother. That's not nice."
He helped Mellie put their bags in the car, and he helped the children get in. Fitz got Bellamy and Ben to calm down, but Teddy was still clinging to Mellie, sitting on her lap with one of his arms around her neck, and the other toying with her pearl necklace. Mellie rubbed her oldest son's back, letting out a sigh as she looked out the window and thought. She wasn't sure why she was in such a bad, stressful mood. It might have something to do with Jerry. But she wasn't sure why it would have to do with that, considering the fact that her and Fitz had stopped thinking about that hours ago. She knew that it had everything to do with the pregnancy, but she knew that there had to be something else bothering her. She just couldn't figure out what it was.
Mellie was brought out of her daze when she noticed Teddy on his knees and the floor of the car, his head hovering over her belly. He leaned in and kissed her stomach, gently rubbing it. "Merry Christmas, baby." Teddy whispered, laying his head against Mellie's baby bump and closing his eyes. Mellie smiled to herself and reached down, rubbing her son's back. He was such a sweetheart. Teddy reminded her of Fitz so much that it wasn't even funny. He was the absolute spitting image of Fitz; he acted like and looked so much like his father.
The baby kicked against Teddy's head, and the toddler jumped, looking confused as he brought his gaze to Mellie. Mellie laughed slightly, the first time that she had even smiled since her and Fitz had exchanged gifts with one another earlier that morning. "It's okay, sweet pea. The baby's just kicking."
"Why it kickin'? It no like me?" Teddy asked, frowning as he looked at his mother. He looked like he was about to cry, so Mellie pulled her son off of the floor and into her arms.
She shook her head, kissing the top of Teddy's head. "Shh. No, it has nothing to do with the baby not liking you. It just kicks when it wants to play. Since it's stuck by itself in mommy's belly, it has nothing else to do for fun so it kicks and punches."
Teddy frowned, looking up at Mellie as his hands shot back up to her neck, playing with her necklace as if it was a ritual that he had to go through with every time that he was on his mother's lap. "It hurt you? Baby no supposed to hit and kick momma..." He was upset, not wanting his little brother or sister kicking his mommy. It wasn't nice to hit mommy.
"No, honey." Mellie kissed the top of Teddy's head. That little boy was seriously the sweetest. "The baby doesn't hurt mommy. It just does it to me to let me know that it's alive and healthy."
"Oh. Okays." Teddy nodded and laid his head on Mellie's chest, closing his eyes. He fell asleep and Mellie looked out the window again, spacing out until the car pulled into her parents' driveway.
They made their way inside and Mellie talked to her parents for a few minutes before excusing herself to go upstairs. She wasn't feeling well, and she was exhausted, so she just wanted to go to sleep. She apologized to her parents and to Fitz, and told the kids that they could go ahead and open their presents without her. Since they were kids, they agreed, but Fitz was reluctant to let them, knowing that Mellie would have liked to see them opening their presents from their grandparents. But, she insisted on letting them open them tonight, so Fitz allowed them too.
Mellie stripped out of her clothes, sighing slightly as she stepped into the shower. She was reluctant to take one, considering how tired she was, but she knew that she needed one. This was the quickest shower that she had ever taken, just washing her hair and washing her body, wasting no time in thinking or in taking breaks between shampooing and conditioning. She was just ready for bed. Between being pregnant and only having slept about two hours the night before, she had reached the end of her rope, and had to fight to keep her eyes open and keep from falling asleep in the shower.
It had been a tough day. Between it being Christmas and stressful enough in itself, it was a day that was really tough to enjoy because her son was dead. Her son was dead and there would never be another Christmas that she would be able to spend with him. And that ate at her. But that was just a part of her bad mood. She had also had to get up extremely early that morning, and she was pregnant, which intensified everything else. But the worst part was that she didn't get laid earlier. Fitz had teased her and had whispered extremely dirty things in her ear in the midst of it. But by the time they were done opening each other presents and were headed upstairs to engage in giving some more gifts to one another, Ben and Bellamy were awake, which ruined their chances. Mellie sighed to herself as the hot stream of water ran down her body, and she dragged herself out of the shower, drying off and walking back to her bedroom wrapped only in her towel.
Fitz came up to bed after putting the kids to sleep, and he stripped down to only his boxers before climbing into bed with Mellie. He wrapped his arm around her, confused when his hand touched something that he hadn't expected to touch. Fitz jumped slightly, but then put his arm back around her. She was naked. He definitely hadn't expected her to be naked when he had gotten into bed. He had noticed that her hair was wet and he knew that she had taken a shower, but he figured that she would have gotten dressed after her shower. At the least, he figured she would have put on a tank top and panties. Not that he minded, he just hadn't expected that.
He rubbed his wife's back, gently kissing her shoulder before lying down and closing his eyes. He knew that she had had a tough day, and he would do anything to help her and to take the pain away from her. He wanted so badly to be able to do that. And it killed him that he couldn't. He hated seeing her so vulnerable, so broken. Even when she tried to hide it, it was obvious that she was fighting tears, that she was breaking internally. Fitz took a deep breath and held his wife as he fell asleep.
In the morning when Fitz woke up, she was gone. He got up and got dressed, finding his way downstairs, looking everywhere for her. He found her outside on the back porch standing next to her father, a shotgun rested on her shoulder. Fitz watched from a distance for a few minutes as they shot at targets, glancing down at his phone to respond to a few texts. He was distracted for a while, but was pulled out of his trance when he heard the commotion in front of him. Mellie's mouth was dropped and her father was panicking, but over what, Fitz couldn't tell. It took him a few seconds to realize that Mellie's jeans were soaking wet.
He rushed to her side and between him and Mellie's father, the two of them got her to the car and took her to the hospital. Mellie's dad informed Mellie's mom of where they were going, and she agreed to watch the kids. All along the ride, Fitz tried his hardest to keep Mellie calm, as she freaked out about how it was too early and about how she the baby wouldn't make it. He didn't have high hopes either, but he had to be strong. He had to be strong for his wife.