A/N: I'm back at it with another installment of this fic. Hopefully I can get the last two chapters and epilogue up soon. Thanks for reading!
October 1928
Tom and Lucy were ready to tell Sybbie about the baby. It was still early days, but they had a good feeling about things. Lucy felt Sybbie deserved to know she was going to have a sibling in 6 and a half months. She wanted her to get used to the idea, and she also hoped the news may help cheer her up because she was still having a hard time with Violet's passing.
They decided to tell her over dinner so that they could answer any questions she may have when they would go into the sitting room for their routine after dinner time together. They would do puzzles together and play games or sometimes listen to the radio and dance. It was a time to just be together as a family, especially since Tom and Sybbie were at work and school during the day. This was their special time together, and they loved it.
As they began to eat dessert, they decided it was the right moment to tell Sybbie. "Sybbie, darling, we have some news for you," Tom said as he watched his daughter take a bite of pie.
She smiled and quickly swallowed her food. "What is it?" she asked eagerly.
"You know how Caroline is George's little sister?" he asked. Sybbie nodded, though she was confused what that had to do with anything. "Well, you are going to have a sibling too. Lucy is pregnant."
"Really?!" she asked excitedly.
"Really," Lucy confirmed with a slight chuckle at her stepdaughter's eagerness. "You're going to be a big sister."
"I can't wait to teach them things, like how George is teaching Caroline cricket."
"You will be an amazing teacher," Lucy said assuredly, proud and grateful for this little girl who was going to be the best big sister imaginable.
After dessert, they settled in on the sofa in the sitting room. Sybbie wanted to ask her dad and stepmom some questions. She knew a little bit about how pregnancies worked because of being around when Aunt Mary was pregnant with Caroline and when Aunt Edith was having Peter, but she wanted to know more specifically about Lucy's and what was happening with her baby brother or sister.
"I know you don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but do you have a feeling what it might be?" she asked, remembering Aunt Mary telling her she thought she was having a girl when she was pregnant with Caroline.
"I honestly don't know yet," Lucy said, "It's still quite early. I haven't even felt him kick yet."
"You said him, though!" Sybbie said excitedly.
"Ha, would you look at that," Lucy said with a chuckle. She was surprised at what she had said, and she thought it was funny how her clever stepdaughter caught what she said when she hadn't even realized it herself. "I did say that, didn't I? Well, maybe I do somehow– subconsciously– think it's a boy," she admitted.
"A brother will be fun," Sybbie proclaimed excitedly. "Can I feel him?" she asked, cuddling slightly closer into Lucy's side.
"There's really nothing to feel just yet, but you can put your hand there if you want."
Sybbie gently placed her hand on Lucy's stomach, treading over it lightly and then settling in a spot where she imagined the baby lay. "Does anyone else know about the baby yet?"
"No," Lucy answered. "It will be our special secret for just a little while longer."
"But we'll tell Donk and Grandmama and Aunt Mary when we visit Downton in a few weeks," Tom said, smiling as he watched his daughter's face light up at the news she would be seeing her cousins and grandparents soon.
"I was thinking we could do something special to tell them," Lucy said. "Maybe you could help me make something. Maybe some socks or a blanket."
"Oh, I know what we should do!" Sybbie said excitedly.
"What?" Lucy asked with equal excitement.
"We'll make a card," Sybbie explained. "It will say 'New Branson Coming Soon.' And I can draw pictures of you and me and daddy and the baby."
"I think that's the perfect idea! How did you get to be so clever?" she asked with pride evident in her voice as she rubbed Sybbie's back gently. She truly felt so lucky to call this amazing little girl her family.
"Daddy says I have good genes," Sybbie said with a shrug, unsure of what it meant.
"Oh yeah? And would he be referring to himself when he says that?" she teased.
"Not entirely," he teased back with a smirk before becoming serious. "She got the best of both of us," he remarked sincerely, with a gleam in his eye that she knew meant he was remembering Sybil and thinking of how much Sybbie was like her late mother.
"I never met her, but I know you're right," Lucy said sincerely, placing her palm soothingly on her husband's face. "And I couldn't be prouder or more grateful for that fact. Sybbie is the most incredible little girl, and she will always be one of the people I treasure most in my life."
"I know," Tom said, "which is why I love you. You love my daughter like you love me, which is exactly what she deserves."
"This family is exactly what we all deserve," Lucy whispered as she leaned in to kiss her husband.
"And it's growing," he said once they'd parted, placing his hand on top of his daughter's on his wife's stomach.
"It certainly is," Lucy said, adding her hand to the pile and imagining that special day when a tiny baby hand would be on top of theirs.
