A/N: This chapter is for the review who a while ago requested to see the journey of Danielle and Ashley's first child arriving. I hope you like it!


Danielle plops down on their bed, spilling the bowl of popcorn between them in the process. She groans and starts scooping up her mess.

From beside her, without looking away from her computer screen, Ashley laughs at her wife. "This is why we can't have nice things."

"I know; I'm a horrible person," Dani says, laughing.

The pair sit quietly, munching on their snack and listening to the show playing from the TV in front of them as Ashely types away and Danielle scrolls on her phone.

"I'm getting them together," Ashley pipes up.

"Who?"

"Jess and Lucy."

"Shut up! You are not!" Danielle is quick to look at her wife after the shocking news

"I am," she nods, smiling wide. The relationship she'd helped to create over the course of the past year and a half was finally coming to fruition. "I mean, I've written nearly every important episode with them, it was only right that I do their big one."

"No, yeah, I get that. They're your kids. You deserve to see them finally reach this important milestone."

"I know! Oh, I'm so excited! Like I literally have goosebumps right now just writing it! I can't even imagine how I'll react when we shoot it."

"Who do you want to direct it? Because I think Jesse would crush it," Danielle says. She was familiar with the directors they regularly used on Ashley's show

"I haven't thought about it," Ashley replies, though her face tells another story.

"Liar. Yes, you have," Danielle says, instantly seeing through her bluff.

"Maybe I have," she shrugs. "But it's a crazy, half-baked plan that probably would never work."

"So what if it's half-baked? We're just daydreaming here, right? I mean it will be another month before it goes into production. We can dream until then."

"Yeah," Ashley sighs, saving her document.

"What?" Danielle says, picking up on the shift in energy between them; the nerves Ashley is giving off.

"I want you to direct it," Ashley says turning to her wife.

Danielle freezes, her eyes widening at the shock of Ashley's statement. "That would be amazing! But, I've only shadowed twice. There's no way in the sphincter of Hell that Terri and Andrew would let me direct," she said about the Showrunners for Ashley's show. "And no way I could be let out to direct."

"You said we were just dreaming! And I told you my dream!"

"Wow," Danielle says, taken aback at Ashley's reasoning. She didn't know how she felt about being trusted with such an honor.

"Look at you all flustered and red. You weren't expecting it," Ashley croons, leaning over and stealing a kiss.

"I wasn't," Dani confesses, falling quiet as she gets lost in her thoughts. She's still so young and new in her career; thought her desire to direct wouldn't come to fruition for years down the line. But Ashley's faith in her and her desire to have Dani direct her dream episode sparked a fire in her.

Maybe directing wasn't a far-off dream after all.

"I need to pee," Ashley announces, setting her computer aside and getting up for the bathroom.

Danielle laughs at her bluntness. As soon as the door clicks shut, she remembers what she'd meant to tell her earlier that day.

The toilet flushes, water can be heard hitting the sink, and a minute later, Ashley comes back into the room.

"Hey," Dani starts, swinging her legs around to sit on the edge of the bed, intercepting her wife and taking her hands. "Can we go take a walk?" There's a soft importance on her face that Ashley takes notice of. A look that wasn't there five minutes ago.

"What's up? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just want to talk to you about something."

"At the beach?"

"Yes. Please."

"Okay, yeah. Let me get changed real quick," Ashley agrees, understanding her wife needed the comfort of a neutral spot to broach whatever topic was on her mind.

It seemed that the beach was their place to talk and work out important things in their relationship. Hearing the waves crashing on the shoreline and cuddling together under a blanket or laying out under the sun gave them the perfect place to talk about difficult or scary things. It's where they went one cold day after their first Thanksgiving apart and became an actual couple (instead of quote-unquote dating and flirting incessantly). Where they went to go over the logistics of getting their first apartment together. Where they went after Ashley proposed to her at that football game. Where they went the day before their wedding.

A short while later, the wives are stepping onto the soft sand of Manhattan Beach. Sandals in hand, they make the trek down to the water's edge, crying out and moving fast as the hot sand hits their feet. They stand together letting the frigid water of the Pacific tickle their toes, watching as little kids splash in the smaller waves and surfers ride the larger ones further out.

Ashley takes her wife's hand and pulls her close to steal a kiss. She starts them off on a walk along the shoreline, letting the wind whip their hair into knots. "I still can't decide if I should have Jess kiss her in the lab, or somewhere else." Ashley starts the conversation, knowing her wife needed a chance to form her words before she broached whatever topic was on her mind.

"It would be more impactful if it were in, I think. Because of the whole 'co-workers not being able to date' thing." Danielle says, plotting the story with her wife. "I mean, I can picture it! A quiet kiss in an empty office or something. I would be great!"

Ashley takes the idea into consideration as they continue to walk. They stop every now and then to pick up nice-looking shells and splash through waves. Their hands are still linked when Dani stops them and Ashley lets her wife spin her until she crashes against her shoulder with an oomph.

"So, I was thinking," Danielle starts, holding Ashley against her.

"Oh no, not again," Ashley rolls her eyes with a smile.

"Stop. I'm being very serious here and you're ruining it."

"Sorry. I can be serious."

"Thank you. Anyway, I wanted to know how you felt about starting to try for a baby."

The statement takes Ashley aback, and her eyes go wide as she looks at her wife.

A baby.

A tiny human all their own to bring into the world. To love and hold and raise into a wonderful person.

They had talked about, daydreamed, what their future would look like. and for both of them, it always included kids of some sort. They both wanted to be moms; to have a family.

They also knew it would take time to figure out the logistics; to sign paperwork and find the other half of their equation or get set up with an adoption agency. To figure out who was going to carry. To actually get pregnant

"This isn't some 'oh, my brother is gonna have a baby and now I know about the miracle of new life and want one of my own' thing, right? Because if that's your reason, we both need more time to think."

"No. I mean, yeah it's part of it. But also: I want us to have our own family. I want to be a mom. And I know for us it's probably going to take time so why not start now?"

"Okay. fair," Ashley nods, knowing their nephew-to-be wasn't the only reason behind the discussion.

"Just hear me out! That's all I'm asking!" Danielle says as she looks at her wife, hope written on her face.

"Okay, I can do that." Ashley nods. And then Danielle suggests the most outrageous plan to her.

She'd been talking with their friend Ethan - her sister Finn's platonic soulmate Ethan - and they'd somehow gotten onto the topic of her wanting to try for a baby. And Ethan had jokingly remarked that he'd give them his 'stuff' for free. But when Danielle pressed him on the issue he was totally serious. He knew how expensive getting pregnant could be for lesbian couples, and if he could help them out he was going to.

Ashley was happy with the offer but also scared at the potential complication that came with knowing who their donor was.

"He said he didn't want to be involved in more than a crazy aunt sort of way! And considering he's planning on living a childless life, he's serious about that."

"Yeah, but baby, what if years down the line he changes his mind?"

"He's not! And if we want to get a lawyer and have paperwork made, he said he'd sign whatever. Baby," she pulls Ashley closer, making sure their eyes meet. "He wants us to have a family! He wants to help us!"

Ashley nods, she knew everything her wife said was true. She was just scared of things getting complicated.

"And I know he's Puerto Rican, which is not even close to being Mexican," Dani continues. "But it's something! And I know you mentioned wanting to carry a baby. This could be your chance!"

"But what about you? You want to carry too."

"And I will. Just not this time. Ashley, this one has to be you. I want to hold a little you." Danielle looks at her wife adoringly, both of them imagining a future where they stood on this exact same beach and watched a little golden-skinned, black-haired little girl splash in the waves and build sandcastles. She cups Ashley's face with her hands. "I want them to have this smile, these dimples," a kiss on those dimples quickly follows, "and your laugh. I want another version of you I can count my blessings on."

"Okay," Ashley nods, blinking away tears that blur her vision.

"Yeah?" comes Danielle's giggling reply.

"Yeah." They share a soft kiss at the acceptance of the plan. "So, we have a donor. All we need is a doctor to set up IVF."

"We don't need no IVF," Danielle says with a laugh. "We can do it from the comfort of our own home." Her cocked head and sly smile gave a clue to her suggestion.

"Baby, I love you, but I'm not sleeping with your sister's man." It makes both of them laugh hard, washing away the last of the nerves and anxieties.

"You know what I mean! I can literally walk into that CVS and get a kit for us," Dani says, pointing in the direction of the drugstore across the street. How easy it was to just walk in and buy something that was once locked behind glass and needed a doctor's signature.

"Okay, so we're actually doing this?"

"I think we are," Danielle nods, kissing her wife.

They start to head back up the beach to their blanket.

"What about Ethan? Doesn't he have work?"

"He can work from literally anywhere," Danielle comments, waving off her friend's career as a web designer and digital content producer and manager for Finn's businesses. "Finn will let him come or we're gonna have words."

Ashley rolls her eyes at that, knowing her sister-in-law would be more than happy to let their friend help if she knew what was going on.

.

.

.

Two months later, Ashley finds Ethan standing on the curb of the Arrivals area of LAX. After a round of hugs, they pile back into the car and were soon sitting in traffic on the freeway.

While an unwelcome nuisance, the traffic allowed the friends time to talk about life and jobs.

And the reason for Ethan's visit.

"I just wanted to say thanks, again, for doing this. It really means a lot," Ashley says, pulling the car forward another few inches.

"Girl, you gotta stop thanking me! We're good!" Ethan's dismissal of the pleasantry was easy enough. "I told you and Danielle that this is what I want too. You two are going to be the best moms and I'm going to be the favorite Titi."

His smug smile drew a laugh from Ashley. "Don't let Mat, Austin, or Liam hear you say that!"

"Hey, they get claim on 'Uncle', I'm the only Titi in this kid's life."

"Fair enough," Ashley nods.

They fall silent for a while, listening to the radio play the current Top 40s and letting traffic move them ever so slowly toward home.

"You really think it's gonna work?" Ashley asks quietly.

"If it doesn't, it just means I have to come back! But, let's hope it works before Thanksgiving because if I miss that, Finn will kill me. It's the busy season for her and she needs all hands on deck."

"Okay. If we're not pregnant before Thanksgiving, we'll blame Finn." The joke makes them both laugh.

"Hey," Ethan takes her hand and rests it on the center console. "It's gonna work!"

[][]

Three days later, it was time. Ashley had always tracked her cycles, but she'd done it especially closely in the months leading up to this day. She knew it was the perfect day for them to get pregnant.

As Ethan went in one direction to procure his contribution, the wives retreated to their bedroom to wait.

Any shot at romance was lost at the sight of the insemination kit sitting on Danielle's nightstand. The sterile pad and syringe seemed to stare at them, everyone knowing what was to come.

"Why am I so nervous?" Ashley asks, shaking her hands and pacing the width of the room.

"Because this is totally crazy and exciting and potentially life-changing," Danielle answers as she sits on the bed watching her wife.

"What if it doesn't work? What if something goes wrong?"

"Hey." Knowing Ashley was starting to spiral, Danielle stops her with a hand on her arm. "Don't put that out into the universe. It's gonna work. You and I are gonna make a baby today." She kisses her hand, her jaw, her cheek.

"Okay," Ashley whispers, nodding. She turns and wraps her arms around Danielle's neck. They kiss long and hard, and when the need for breath comes, they separate only enough for their noses to continue brushing and their hands to tangle in loose hair. "We're gonna make a baby." The smiling whisper is enough for Dani to kiss her in a series of small nibbles.

A knock at the door interrupts them before they get too far.

"Come in," Danielle calls over her wife's shoulder. It opens to reveal Ethan standing there, a blue-lidded cup in one hand, with a slightly red face of awkward embarrassment.

"I think this is for you?" His sheepish comment made them all laugh. "There's is no way to make this not awkward. I'll just leave this here then." Ethan crosses the room and sets the cup on Danielle's nightstand. He backs up to the door. "I'm gonna go take a walk, maybe get some coffee, give you some privacy."

"Thank you, Ethan!" Ashley smiles at him.

"Love you!" Danielle says.

"Love you too."

The bedroom door closes, and a few moments later the apartment door slams shut, the electronic lock whirring into place.

"So…..where were we?" Danielle asks with a saucy lift of an eyebrow.

"I think you were about to kiss me," Ashley smiles. She happily takes the kiss her wife gives her and it doesn't take long before the moment turns hot.

.

.

.

"I took a pregnancy test."

Ashley's confession has Danielle dropping her phone onto the couch and turning, wide-eyed to her wife. "And?" she asks, eager to know the results. They were early; barely past the five-day mark. All the things she'd read said it was too early to show up

"And, I want to show you something," Ashley smiles, taking her wife's hand and leading her to the bathroom.

The test was sitting on the counter, and Danielle didn't expect to see anything, didn't even have her hopes up too.

But there it was: the faintest pink line.

"Oh my god!" Danielle throws her arms around her wife and together they cry tears of joy and triumph and just a hint of fear. "I can't believe it worked!" Dani kisses her wife and looks back at the test still sitting there.

"I know! It almost never works on the first try!" Ashley nods, wiping her face, her hands shaking.

"That's a line!"

"That's a line."

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.

.

They're back on the beach again, sitting on a blanket with a white envelope in their hands. October in California meant it was just starting not to be warm enough to be out in the water, but sitting on the sand in the sunshine was perfect.

Ashley is eleven weeks pregnant now, and thanks to a simple blood test, they are about to learn some wonderful news.

The gender of their baby.

"I don't know why I'm so nervous," Danielle chuckles nervously.

"You're not nervous, you're just excited!" Ashley smiles, waving the envelope around.

"I am," Dani agrees.

"Okay. Ready?"

Danielle nods at her wife and watches as Ashley tears open the envelope and pulls out the paper tucked inside. They read the words at the same time, quickly scanning past medical jargon until they land on the two words they desire. Two words, and a colon.

"Oh my god!" Ashley screams, covering her face as she cries.

Danielle is quick to follow, pulling her wife into her chest, both women crying together in pure happiness.

[][]

The next weekend, Danielle and Ashley host a party in the small backyard of Ashley's grandmother's house. There were folding tables set up along the back porch, coolers full of beer and soda dotted the grass, and inside, the wooden kitchen table was full of food. Her little cousins ran and played and the adults talked and laughed.

Nearly every member of Ashley's family was in attendance, and while Danielle's parents and grandmother were there in person, the rest of her side attended the event virtually.

"Okay! We're getting ready to start! Everyone, come outside!" Ashley called through the house. They all trooped through a blue-painted wooden gate into the field behind the house and the families formed a large semi-circle around the guests of honor.

The wives waited until everyone was there and then held up identical confetti blasters containing the reveal of their baby's gender.

"Okay, ready?" Danielle yells.

Everyone cheers and the wives smile at each other.

They count down and with two loud pops, the blasters explode in a cloud of pink smoke and confetti.

"It's a girl!" They don't know where the shout comes from, and Danielle and Ashley are instantly bombarded with hugs and cheers and screams and words of excitement.

"It's a girl!" Izzy cries as she hugs her sister.

"You're a Nina! Finally!" Ashley says, taking her sister's face in her hands, the two smiling wide at each other. This baby would be the first grandchild for Ashley's immediate family, and the two sisters were already set that Isabelle would be Ashley's first baby's godmother; their Nina.

"Oh, baby! I'm so happy for you guys!" Kate says, hugging Danielle hard.

"Thank you. We're happy too," Dani smiles, going to her dad for a hug. "What do you think, Dad? Another granddaughter."

"It's gonna be great!" Castle smiles, already envisioning future family Christmases and summers at their beach house full of little kids running around; a nearly identical image to the party that day. McKenna, Wyatt, and Chyler might have been the first grandbabies of the family, and Simon might of been the first grandson of their sibling set, but Danielle's daughter would always hold the title of the first granddaughter.

After the initial excitement wears off, the family returns to the house for food and to continue a traditional Acevedo family gathering that was full of loud conversation and laughter.

It was exactly the kind of place Ashley and Danielle want their child to grow up in.

.

.

.

As far as pregnancies went, Ashley's was fairly by-the-book.

There were doctor's appointments and scans where the wives saw their daughter grow and change from a bean-like thing into an actual person.

There were quiet moments alone where Danielle explored her wife's changing body and felt their daughter kick and move.

There were mid-day naps and late-night trips to fast food restaurants to satisfy cravings.

There were times when Ashley sat alone in her car and cried at the insanity of it all; the overwhelming amount of love and fear and emotion she had sometimes became too much.

There were two parties to welcome the baby girl to be. One at work where the crews of both Ashley and Danielle's shows gifted them with baskets piled high with gear for their daughter and Ashley's fellow writers gave her so many books they could practically start their own library.

Another party was held with close family and friends, again at Ashley's grandmother's house. Along with her parents, Danielle's best friend Saccone came out for the party and was clearly as much, or even more, excited for the new baby as the moms-to-be. She was more than ready to be the best aunt, just like Danielle was to her three sons. There was lots of food and Ashley's aunt Vivian made her famous fruit-topped cookie cake. There were even more gifts and lots of time spent talking and laughing with family.

.

.

.

"What about Kerry?"

"Like that girl in those horror movies? No way!"

They were discussing names for the baby again and it was going…well.

"What! Come on! It's a cute name!"

"It will get her teased on the playground!"

"Okay, fine….What about Enid?"

"Graduating with Honors, Enid Requejo-Castle," Ashley tried the name, disliking it in her mouth instantly.

"No." It was one name both wives could agree on.

"Okay, my turn. What about Violet?"

"Hmm. okay. Maybe. Add it," Danielle nods. She scrolls further down the web page of baby names, mumbling some as she passes. "What about Thea?"

Ashley tried the name, pronouncing it with both the hard and soft sounds. "I like it, but we'd have to be so specific on the pronunciation. I really don't want to deal with that all her life. Do you?"

"Yeah, you're right."

'Okay, what about Maisie?"

"Like the mouse in those cartoons?"

"What cartoons?"

"You've never seen the Maisie Mouse cartoons?"

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm showing you!"

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.

.

In the quiet of the night, something stirs her up from sleep. A sound she tries to push away. Just a minute longer.

It comes again and Danielle opens her eyes. It takes her a second to fully become aware, gray light of too-early morning filters in around the window blinds, but when she does, she feels the bed beside her move and thrash and then the sound comes again. She flips on the lamp beside her and then turns to her wife.

"Hey. What's wrong?" Danielle's quiet question comes at the sight of Ashley: eyes tightly closed, hands gripped in the sheets, moaning over what Danielle now knows is a contraction.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up," Ashley says once the pain ends.

"How long have you been like this?"

"About an hour." She hands her wife her phone where a list of times over the last hour had been made. "Those are my contractions. I think they're getting closer, but I don't know." And then, another one comes and Ashley grabs her hand instead; gripping it so tight her fingers turn white.

When it ends, the wives lay there for a minute more, both of them knowing their lives were going to change that day.

Then another contraction comes. Danielle helps her wife breathe through it; tries to be a strong support for her.

Another forty minutes goes by and Dani can see her wife getting steadily more miserable. "Okay. Get up. We're going to the hospital," Danielle declares, throwing back the covers and going for their closet.

Her sister's stupid 5-1-1 rule be damned.

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.

.

"Hello, sweet girl."

Suddenly, a slimy, screaming baby is placed on her chest and the whole world stops. All Ashley can think about is her daughter. Her button nose and round face. Her perfect, tiny fingers and toes. Her screams of hatred at being in a cold new world. It was so fast; two hours from arriving at the hospital to having a baby. The nurses said it was unusual for a first-time mom

"I know, you're okay," Ashley says to the baby as the nurses help tuck her in against her chest and wrap them both in another blanket. "Baby," she looks up at Danielle, whos crying, and kisses her wife. "Look at her! We made her."

"She's here," Danielle whispers, leaning down to kiss them both.

"You did so good," The doctor says as she cleans up, but the wives could care less, still too focused on their new daughter.

"What's her name?" one of the nurses asks a while later.

Ashley and Danielle look at each other and smile. "Macey," they say together.

Everyone in the room coos over the name and the angry little girl it belongs to.

Eventually, they have to take Macey to run the usual tests on her, and she protests every second of it. But once she's back with her momma, under the warmth of blankets, she's perfectly content.

"She's just like Liam as a baby," Danielle laughs. "My parents used to say he hated the world as a baby.

"Looks like you got some Castle in you after all, huh, mamas?" Ashley says, looking down at the baby.

There would be time for phone calls and visits later, but right then all the moms wanted to do was enjoy their daughter.