Prompt: Stevie is afraid that Henry and Elizabeth will love the new baby more than her.

Stevie had been very excited to have a little brother or sister. She had classmates who had little brothers and sisters, and it always looked like fun to her. She had been thrilled when her parents had told her that she would be getting one, too, and she had told all of her friends at preschool and her teachers that her mom was having a baby. She wanted to teach the baby everything- how to play and how to tie their shoes and what the best candies were at Halloween. Her dad had told her that she'd have to wait a while to teach the baby those things, though, because they would be too little at first to play or tie their shoes or to eat candy. Either way, Stevie was excited.

Or she had been- until she had seen how much her parents were talking about the new baby now. It seemed to be all they talked about- they were constantly discussing what they might name him or her, or whether they should find out if it was going to be a boy or a girl. Stevie had never known there was so much about babies to talk about, and she wasn't sure that she really liked it. Her mom had helped Stevie go through all of her clothes the week before, to find out which ones fit Stevie now and which ones didn't. But instead of giving the clothes away, Elizabeth had packed them up in a box.

"What are you doing that for, Mommy?" asked Stevie.

"Because if the new baby is a girl, she can wear your clothes when she gets bigger," Elizabeth had explained. Stevie wasn't sure that she liked that- and she was definitely sure she didn't like it when her parents told her that her baby brother or sister could have the toys that Stevie had played with when she was a baby.

"No," she argued when Henry explained that to her. He looked over at her in surprise, accompanied by Elizabeth with the same expression.

"No," Stevie repeated. "I don't want the baby to have my toys."

"But Stevie, honey, you don't play with them anymore," Elizabeth reasoned. Stevie shook her head, a lock of blonde hair falling in her face as she crossed her arms defiantly.

"No," she said again. "I don't want to share with the baby."

Henry and Elizabeth looked at each other for a moment, neither of them quite sure what to do with this. Henry sighed and turned back to Stevie.

"Why not?" he asked. "I thought you were excited to have a baby brother or sister."

"I was," Stevie huffed. "But…" she hung her head and scuffed her toe against the floor. "Not anymore."

"What happened, sweetheart?" Elizabeth asked.

"You guys are gonna love the new baby more than me!" Stevie exclaimed, and when she looked up there were tears in her eyes. "That's why you're giving them all my stuff."

Henry and Elizabeth exchanged a glance again, both horrified by their daughter's words. Where had they gone wrong?

Henry reached out and scooped Stevie into his arms easily, settling her on his lap.

"Stevie, sweetheart, that's not true," he began. Stevie looked between her dad and her mom, shaking her head slightly as she tried not to cry.

"Then why would you give them all my stuff and talk about them all the time?" she asked. "You used to only talk about me."

"Oh, Stevie," Elizabeth sighed. She moved to sit next to Henry and smoothed her hand over Stevie's hair. "Just because we're sharing your old things with the new baby and talking about them a lot doesn't mean that we love them more than you."

"It doesn't?" Stevie asked uncertainly.

"No, not at all," Henry replied immediately. He brushed Stevie's hair out of her face and met her eyes, so like Elizabeth's.

"Stevie, of course we love your baby brother or sister," he began. "Just like you do, right?"

Stevie nodded hesitantly; she did love the new baby.

"But that doesn't mean Mommy and I love you any less," Henry said gently. "We love you every single bit as much as we always have, and that's never, ever going to change."

"So you won't play with the new baby and forget about me?" Stevie asked. "Or- or stop waking me up to make pancakes with you?"

"Of course not," Henry answered quickly, pulling Stevie into a hug. "You're our baby, too, Stevie. We're going to love you and the new baby just the same."

"Really?" she sniffled.

"Really," Elizabeth answered as she smiled softly at her daughter. "And we're so excited to see you be a big sister, because we know you're going to be so great at it."

Stevie looked cautiously between her parents.

"You do?" she asked.

"Yeah, we do," Henry agreed. "You're going to be the best big sister ever."

Stevie smiled a little at that; she had to admit that she did like the idea of being a big sister.

"Okay," she relented. "Maybe we can give the new baby some of my toys."

"That's my girl," Henry said. "Come on, why don't you and I go outside and ride your bike while Mom finishes up here?" he suggested. Stevie lit up and seconds later she was racing off to get her helmet while Henry turned to Elizabeth.

"Was that the first sibling fight?" he asked.

"Maybe," Elizabeth chuckled. "But you know what?" she added as she leaned in to kiss him.

"What?"

"I still can't wait to mediate more of them," she admitted and Henry smiled; he had to admit that he was on the exact same page.