Happy Mother's Day from all of the GCU moms! I threw this whole thing together in a few hours, so excuse me if it's not my best work. Some of these take place on Mother's Day, while others are just moments I wanted to highlight.
Mom-pilation:
"Howard. We need to talk."
Hearing that from his wife would have made most men panic. Not Howard. He took another sip of his whiskey and nodded once without looking up from his evening newspaper.
"Can you look at me for the duration of this conversation and not just pretend to listen?"
Now, the first hint of panic arose in his eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No. I just need to tell you something."
He looked at her expectantly.
"I'm pregnant."
His shock was instantaneous. "What?! How?!"
She shrugged. "The pill's not perfect."
"I told you that I didn't want kids. That I can't!"
"I know! I didn't do this on purpose! But it's happening, whether you like it or not."
"You're keeping it?"
"Of course I'm keeping it!" She wrapped a protective arm around her belly.
Howard immediately backed down. "Okay. I'm sorry. I would never make you do anything you didn't want to."
"Good."
"But I'm not ready to be a father again. I never will be."
"How can you know that? You haven't even met the child yet."
"Maria, I know I will never truly understand your perspective here. Likewise, you will never understand mine. You haven't lost what I have. I need you to see that I cannot promise to emotionally nurture this child. I will support you both in everything else you could ever need or want, but I cannot put myself in such a vulnerable position again. It would ruin me Maria, and I don't want you to have to see that."
She knew it was a lot to ask of him, but it still broke her heard to see him rehash why he didn't want to have children with her. As a kid, she'd dreamed of one day marrying a man and cementing their union by creating life forged from the two of them. When she met Howard, she peacefully buried that dream out of respect for him. But now that it was becoming a reality, she realized just how bad she wanted this. Maria could never forced Howard into a role he wouldn't accept, but she could embrace her role as this child's mother with open arms.
"That's okay," she told Howard. "I'll love him enough for both of us."
~0~
Edith kept working on her sign language. She didn't need it to communicate with Clint anymore, but she continued to build a relationship with Eleanor Bishop. She could lip read well enough to understand English as long as the lighting was good, but had explained to Edith that it was tiring to focus so hard and fill in the blanks all the time. She was very grateful that Edith was willing to learn her language, and even helped teach her a bit whenever they were together. Edith loved hearing about Kate. Clint's friends from Gravesen were the closest thing she had left to a child of her own.
~0~
May slept in Sunday morning because she didn't have a work shift. She still got out of bed before Ben. He tended to wake himself up with his own snoring and thus rarely got a good night's sleep. May put her slippers on and wandered into the kitchen. Peter was always an early riser, so she expected to see him. What she didn't expect was the card left for her on the table.
"Did you make this?" she asked.
Peter nodded sheepishly. "Happy Mother's Day."
May hadn't even known it was today. Her own mother had been gone for over a decade, Ben's too. And until now, she'd had no children of her own.
"Thank you, Peter. This is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me." She meant every word of it. May would never consider herself Peter's mother—that role was already filled—but she was honored to know this little boy already considered her a mother figure. It had been less than a year and she felt every day like she'd never be good enough, never do right by this child of Mary's, but this gesture right here was all the proof she needed that she was doing a pretty good job.
~0~
"I want a third," she proclaimed.
"A third what?"
"A child, you imbecile. What else?"
"I thought perhaps you were referring to...something else," he said slyly. Frigga did the math from the evening and realized that another one would make three. But that's not what she was referring to. And she didn't want to be pregnant again. Twice was plenty.
"I want to adopt," she continued. "Give a home to a child without one."
"That's very noble of you," Odin said.
"What do you think?"
"I think Thor could do with a brother to get into trouble with."
"I couldn't agree more."
A year after that conversation, they brought Loki home.
~0~
"Should I be offended that George's idea of a Mother's Day gift is to send me away for several hours?" Winnifred asked. The entire table erupted into laughter. "I'm pretty sure he's using this time to take Bucky to the batting cages."
"Well, are you enjoying yourself?" Deja asked.
"I sure am," Meryl said.
"Yeah, I am," Winnifred agreed. "And I like knowing they're also having fun."
"We all lucked out in the husband and son department, that's for sure," Sarah said with a smile. Steve and Joseph had given her this brunch invite and were spending the morning building a model WWII airplane.
"Jim and Ren are already working on dinner," Grace said.
"They re treating you to brunch and dinner, wow." Deja sounded impressed.
"Steve and Joseph are gonna cook too. They both told me I'm forbidden from so much as washing a single dish today."
"Does anyone happen to have dental floss on them? I got pineapple stuck between my teeth and it won't come loose," Meryl said.
"I do." Sarah turned around to fish in her purse for it. She was what Joseph called "Boy Scout-level prepared." Unfortunately, she was so prepared, she couldn't find the floss by blind rummaging alone. Sarah put her purse on her lap and started pulling things out to see better. A bottle of enzymes. Two packs of tissues. Several other bottles of various medications. Replacement G-tube kit, for emergencies. A salt shaker. Batteries. All her friends had seen the formidable contents of her purse before, but she could see a woman openly staring from the next table over.
"Found it!" she announced, handing the floss over to Meryl.
"Sarah, I've never known anyone who comes as close to having 'everything but a hammer and nails' as you do," Grace said.
Sarah began shoveling everything back inside. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"I don't know how you do it," Winnifred said. "I could never be a medical mom."
"Nobody thinks they can until they have to be one."
~0~
Alina listened to the music of the Nutcracker, even though it wasn't Christmas. She listened to it while she knit every day because it reminded her of Natasha. Her daughter who was overseas fighting a war, more or less. She rarely even saw Natasha before she got sick, between school and her dance schedule, but even a few minutes a day was better than this immeasurable distance. Natasha called when she could, but she often wasn't feeling well enough to do so. Alina did her best to comfort from a distance, but there was only so much she could do.
It made her jealous to see all the other families in their town go about their business as usual. She used to loved getting together with the Belovas, but now she just resented them. She didn't want to; it made her feel awful, but she couldn't help it. Alina just wanted Natasha home. Right now, she hardly felt like a mother at all.
~0~
Jackie had been doing this by herself for so long, she forgot what it was like to have a partner. Not that he'd ever been a particularly good father. Or a good partner. Most of the time, she was glad he was gone. Besides, she had Nick. He always stepped up without complaint to keep Jake entertained or fetch supplies while she was busy feeding or changing Dawn.
When he lost his eyesight, the entire household suffered. Jackie had to pick up all the tasks he once did while helping to teach him to do them again with his new disability. It was the most difficult time of her life, without question. That first year without the kids' dad paled in comparison, a testament to how little he'd done even when he was around.
Days like today made it all worth it. She came into the kitchen on Mother's Day morning to find all three kids hard at work. Dawn was squeezing oranges, Nick listening to the screen reader announce the next step in the pancake-making process, and Jake setting the table, where a bowl of fruit already awaited.
"Do you guys need any help?" she offered.
"No!" Dawn insisted.
"Yeah, Mom, we got this," Nick said.
She hugged and kissed each of them in turn. "Yeah, you do."
~0~
Irina suspected she was carrying twins. She was far bigger and far more exhausted than any of her friends had been when they were pregnant. Oleg wanted a boy. Irina hoped that, if it was twins, she'd get one of each. She even had names picked out if that was the case. Wanda and Pietro. She liked the meanings of each name individually, and the way they sounded together. Wanda Maximoff. Pietro Maximoff. Wanda and Pietro. If she was wrong about the twin thing, she'd just save the other name for the next kid. They had no intention of stopping at one.
Those intentions changed when she almost died giving birth. After nearly two days of labor, they determined the baby must be stuck and had to cut her open. Irina was completely knocked out during the process, and when she finally came to, numb and confused, Oleg told her she was right about the twin thing. Only he said it without a hint of a smile.
"What's wrong? Are they okay?"
"They're both alive," he assured, although that wasn't particularly reassuring.
"Oleg, what's wrong?"
"You just need to see them."
"Bring them to me." When he didn't move or respond, she reiterated, "Let me see my children."
Oleg nodded grimly. "I'll go fetch a nurse."
Irina despaired. She began to picture missing limbs, hideous deformities, babies clinging to life. Oleg said they lived, but would that last? Had Irina waited months to finally say hello only to immediately say goodbye?
A nurse entered before Oleg returned, a large bassinet in tow. Irina sat up straight and craned her neck to see inside, a movement which her fresh incision did not thank her for. At first, she didn't notice anything wrong. Her two babies lay side by side, so close their arms were all tangled up. When Irina's gaze fell on their faces, then she finally realized. A gasp escaped her throat, one of horror and surprise.
Their heads looked like two cookies baked too close together. Irina couldn't quite tell where one twin ended and the other began. What sort of mythological beast had she birthed? Irina's family used to tell stories of people with magical powers, of curses and blessings. Had she been cursed for leaving that family behind to marry Oleg?
The baby on the left blinked its eyes open and immediately fixated on Irina's face. Soon after, the other baby followed suit. Irina looked into the eyes of her children and knew that this was no curse. She shuddered knowing she'd thought that for even a second. Two beautiful children, as rare and special as any in the world, and they were hers.
Irina gently traced her finger along the babies' cheeks and the seam connecting their little heads. "Thank you for choosing me to be your mom."
Yes, I am headcanoning that Wanda's mom used to say that line to her and Pietra all the time, and now she says it to Billy and Tommy. Multiverse of Madness left me with too many Wanda feels, and this is how I'm coping.
