Prompt: Clothes
Rating: K+

Shopping, especially for clothes, was something Jess usually enjoyed.

Shopping for maternity clothes, however, was proving difficult.

She wanted cute and colourful, short and sweet, and was disgruntled when most of the maternity dresses she could find were either dark colours or maternity trousers with elastic pouches that made her feel like she was wearing some kind of kangaroo costume.

Becker didn't win any points with her when he laughed when she said that but she supposed, after eating the majority of a tub of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Brownie ice cream that she could understand. The image of her in a kangaroo costume, complete with not-so-small bump, was quite amusing.

In a way.

But she wasn't going to admit that to her husband, not until he was finished making it up to her.

And part of making it up to her meant he had to accompany her shopping.

For clothes.

As much as he loved her, and as much as they liked doing as much of their usual chores and household routines together, clothes shopping was something Becker had learned at the beginning of their relationship had its ups and downs.

Oh, in the early days, it was fun. He didn't mind waiting outside of curtained off cubicles in dressing rooms if it meant he got a glimpse of her in various clothes of differing colours and styles. Since he'd developed a little bit of a thing for seeing her in formal wear, he usually tried to coax into trying on long, elegant dresses he'd liked to imagine helping her out of.

Seven times out of ten, she'd end up buying those dresses and Becker would take her out to dinner with the sole intention of making his imagined scenarios a reality.

But then there was the regular clothes shopping. Whilst he admired her work clothes even if some of the colour combinations still befuddled him – how she knew what would go and what wouldn't was something he'd never understand – shopping for them wasn't his idea of fun. She was as much a perfectionist when it came to what she wore as she was about everything else which meant for long, long mornings, sometimes days, spent searching the fashion outlets of their local shopping centre for an outfit he swore only existed in her mind.

Having laughed at his very sensitive and highly hormonal wife and the mental image she'd unwittingly painted, Becker found himself promising to help her solve the problem of maternity clothes but hadn't realised what he was getting into until the day of shopping dawned.

Jess was right; shopping for maternity clothes was a nightmare.

There was some outfits he would – under duress – admit were "cute". But they weren't cute enough for his wife – they didn't scream 'Jess' when he saw her in them.

Some of the dresses were okay and he actually managed to persuade her to buy a couple when she admitted they were comfortable but there was nothing that seemed to fit with Jess's unique style.

The colours were all wrong for one. There seemed to be a distinct lack of maternity clothes in the bright colours Jess favoured – the colours he'd become accustomed to seeing her in.

"Most pregnant women are sensitive about their, erm, weight gain," one of the sales women had stammered when Jess had decided to confront them. "Darker colours are more flattering; they don't emphasise the shape and size..."

Becker had almost felt sorry for her when Jess had launched into rant about how proud she was of her bump and how she wanted to put it on display and had no intention of hiding it like it was a bad thing or something she should feel ashamed or guilty about. She was a married woman, for heaven's sake, having her first child with her husband and why wouldn't she want to draw attention to that?

Since he agreed with every word she was saying, he'd stood back instead, a proud grin on her face as she gave the poor saleswoman – and the shop manager, who'd come to see what was going on – a piece of her mind before turning on her heel and storming out of the shop, her smirking husband following behind.

If he'd had his way, they would have given up for the day and gone home, where he could show her how much he agreed with her and how proud he was that she stood up for herself but after catching a glimpse of her downcast expression, Becker knew they wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

The breakthrough came in the last shop on Jess's extensive list. She hadn't been planning on shopping for maternity clothes in the popular chain for baby accessories – hadn't even known, in fact, that the shop sold clothes for mums-to-be.

They'd gone in with the intention of looking at furniture for the nursery, and to get an idea about a buggy and car seat, and hadn't made it more than five steps into the shop when Jess had stopped suddenly, her hand tightening on Becker's arm.

For a moment, he'd been worried. Was she in pain? Was the baby okay? But then he followed her gaze and felt a grin tug at the corners of his mouth.

Clothes.

Not just baby clothes, but maternity clothes.

In every colour and in every style that Jess had spent the majority of the day describing to no avail to hapless sales assistants in a number of big name clothes shops.

It took less than two minutes for Jess to get over her shop, letting go of his arm as she gravitated towards the brightly coloured garments.

He followed, catching the eye of another father-to-be who gave him such a commiserating look that Becker had to grin again.

Less than an hour later, she had her maternity wardrobe all picked out and a blindingly bright smile graced her lips. Just as Becker thought their shopping adventure was over, Jess took hold of his hand and tugged him to another display of clothes, her smile softening as she picked up a white baby grow with black writing and a little red heart image printed on its front.

"We have to get this," she decided, adding the baby grow to the pile of clothes draped carefully over her arm, her fingertips tracing the letters as she gazed up at him.

Becker felt his heart race, warmth filling him as he looked at the words and realised what they meant.

Realised that one day in the not-too-distant future, he'd be able to hold his son or daughter as he or she wore the outfit.

'I love my Daddy this much.'

Continued in 'Decisions'.

If you want to see the baby grow in question, go to the UK Amazon site and search for 'I love my Daddy this much baby grow'. It's really quite cute.