A/N: Hello all! A smaller update, but full of cuteness. Hope you enjoy!
January 30, 2008
She wakes before her alarm, her eyelids shooting open and immediately just staring at the ceiling. The glance over to her clock made her want to groan, seeing that it was still an hour before her 5:30 alarm, but another glance to her other side showed Henry was still asleep, and she didn't want to wake him.
But then again, this is his fault that she's awake so early. If they would stop acting like horny teenagers every night, she wouldn't fall asleep so early and sleep so soundly for the first few hours of the night. After the first few nights of this happening, she thought back to her school days and tried to remember what the correlation would be between all the sex and the good sleep. Those hormone releases are the cause, and she thought of the dopamine particularly, then just smiled to herself when she felt her face blush a little.
Now, though, the room is still very dark, and she can hear Henry's little snores over beside her.
"Not to be forward or anything," Molly said, "But you and Dr. McCord would make the cutest kids."
Whenever she used to wake up this early, it was due to one of their kids. Jason was the worst screaming newborn of them all—he would barely sleep unless someone was in the room with him. "We have got to stop doing this," Henry said while rocking Jason in his nursery, Elizabeth standing above them both and looking exhausted. She had just gotten home merely hours ago, eaten some cereal, and fallen into bed with her work clothes still on. "He knows we'll always come get him."
"How do I just let him cry?" Elizabeth asked pitifully.
Elizabeth pulls her hand up to her forehead and rests it there, the back of her wrist pressing gently into her skin as she thinks back to those days. She would give up so much to have those days back, to have a do-over with Jason especially. There's a lot of regrets that she harbors, still, for going back to work so much earlier than she would have normally.
Her other hand rests on her stomach, thinking about when she was pregnant with him and so miserable. Now, she just wishes she could do it all over again and do things differently, let it be a different time and not a national crisis that she had to help clean up.
"Not to be forward or anything," Molly says, "But you and Dr. McCord would make the cutest kids."
She smiles a little when she thinks of Molly saying that to her Monday, then carefully slides out of the bed, wraps her robe around her, and tiptoes out of the room, being extra careful to not wake Henry. She sneaks down the hall quietly, avoiding the squeaky spots in the floor, and carefully turns the handle to Jason's room. Peeking around the doorframe, she sees her son sound asleep in his bed, all tucked in underneath his Lightning McQueen comforter. She resists the urge to walk in and climb in his bed, snuggling him closely to her, knowing he has school this morning. First grade is tough enough even with proper sleep.
So she closes the door and looks into Ali's room where she sees her daughter lying on her back with her hands tucked underneath her head, her elbows sticking out on each side of the pillow just like Henry does in his sleep. She smiles at that, knowing out of all her kids, Ali is the one with the most mannerisms like Henry.
The door across the hall has Stevie in it, and she pries it open quietly to see her oldest daughter with her mouth hanging open and a little drool falling down to the pillow. "Yep," she thinks to herself, "This one has my mannerisms." She listens as Stevie lets out quiet little snores, smiling and closing the door behind her silently.
Heading back down the hall to her bedroom again, she slides in the bed and hears Henry stir, "Everything alright?" He mumbles, startling her a little.
She looks over at him and tries to squint to see his face, struggling these days without her glasses, "Just checking on the kids." She whispers.
He frowns, "Did something happen?"
"Was just thinking about them," she says and laughs quietly, propping her head up on her hand, her elbow in the pillow, "I was thinking about what Molly said, how we'd have cute kids." She admits, "And we do. We have really cute kids."
He reaches over and turns the light on beside his bed, then rolls back to face her and prop his hand up just like she was doing, "We do," he says, the sleepiness in his voice starting to wane, "What do you say to one more?" He asks and wiggles his eyebrows.
She snorts and hits his arm, "Don't even start with me, Dr. McCord." She groans, "I am forty years old, this factory is—" she stops and thinks, "Well, it's not closed, but it's not open for business." She corrects, knowing that anything could happen, but she certainly wouldn't want it to. She's done raising babies.
He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her hips to his, sliding his leg to find her foot and playing with it a little, "That would sure shock them, wouldn't it?" He asks.
"Who?" She asks, "Molly and Cassie? They might have an actual aneurism." She says jokingly, laying her head back on the pillow and watching as the light glows from behind his head. She's just soaking in the feeling of his body touching hers again.
"Can you imagine it?" He asks, "Especially if we didn't tell anyone."
She raises her brow, "Are you seriously considering having a fourth child right now, Henry?"
He pauses, and she picks her head up first, then sits up and tries her best to not gasp. He sits up, too, and leans against the headboard, "It's…" he starts, then trails off and shrugs at her.
"You can't be serious."
"Well," Henry says, "I can't lie and say I haven't thought about it."
"Stevie is fourteen." She reminds him, swallowing thick and running her hand up through her hair, pulling the blanket over her chest and tucking it under her arms as she sits there, "And Jason is six, Henry, there's just…" she trails off this time, shaking her head, "There's no way."
"It was just some thoughts." He admits, shrugging his shoulders again innocently.
"Well, don't think them anymore." She says, suddenly feeling like she needed to consider the idea of a pregnancy test. There was absolutely no reason for it other than that one of them in the relationship was apparently wishing for a child, while one was blissfully unaware.
She looks over her shoulder and thinks about how their lives would be changed if they had a baby at this age, and she immediately feels panicked.
"Hey," he's reaching his arm to her leg and rubbing it through the comforter, "I'm not saying I want another one," he says softly, "I'm just saying I've thought about what it would be like."
She looks to him and tries to avoid the fact that she's seeing him through blurry vision, even though her glasses have now been on her face, but it's due to the tears that have made themselves known. "Henry, I can't have more kids." She says, "There's just…there's no way. Please don't ever—"
"I don't want more." He says again, leaning forward and taking her hands, pressing down into them with his fingers. Her blanket falls off her chest some and she feels a little more exposed than she should, "I don't. Don't freak."
"I'm not freaking." She lies.
"You are," he answers with a little smile, "I can see it in your face. You don't hide it well." He reminds her.
She lets out a tiny sigh, laying her body back down beside him and pulling the blanket up over her, "Fine," she admits, "I was freaking."
"You don't ever think about what it would be like?"
"No, not really." She says.
"Oh," he lets out a laugh and settles himself back down into laying position, "Well, I do. And I like, particularly, the part that comes before the actual baby."
She raises one brow, "You're slick."
"I love that part." He corrects, and she's very aware of his leg sliding between hers, his knee coming up between her thighs. Her hips jerk a little when his skin makes contact with somewhere that was still so heightened even from last night.
"Should we tell the students?" She whispers suddenly, and she almost laughs when he stops and makes a face.
"That's what you're thinking about right now?"
"Well," she clears her throat and settles back onto his leg, rolling her hips. By the look on his face, he is realizing that it's not what she was thinking about, "I think we should just maybe drop little hints that we have kids…"
"Like what?" He asks, a little strain in his voice.
She shrugs and sticks her lip out, "I don't know," she says, "Maybe just say little things to make them think."
"I'm thinking way too much, and not doing…" Henry murmurs, leaning forward and putting his face in her chest.
She giggles and grabs the back of his head, her fingers weaving through his hair as she feels his mouth doing wonderous things. She pushes his head into her skin a little more, arching her back, "I love it when you just do." She whispers.
When she walks into her classroom today, she's late once again, and she decides to come clean…sort of. "Hello everyone," she says, "I'm sorry I'm late," she sets her bag down on the table and starts logging into the computer there, pulling the projector down and getting it to warm up, "My son was a bit cranky this morning and was late eating breakfast." She knows that's definitely not the reason—the reason was that she and Henry had dozed off and slept through their alarms, and although Stevie and Ali have alarm clocks, too, they weren't exactly in a hurry since Mom and Dad weren't hurrying them along. Therefore, everyone was cranky by breakfast.
"You have a son?" Cassie blurts out from the seats in front of her.
Elizabeth picks her head up from the computer and gives her a warm smile, "I do. And two daughters." She says.
"You never talk about them." Another says, and she's glad that the class is starting to warm up to her more.
She shrugs and leans against the podium after she gets logged into the computer, "I don't," she says, "But believe me, they're my life." She says with a warm little smile, "Let's get into diplomatic power, alright?" She says, shifting her attention to the projector.
"But Professor Adams," she hears Cassie's voice again and she turns around to see her, "Why didn't you ever tell anyone you have kids?"
"Plenty of people know I have kids." She quips, "It's no secret."
"You never told us." Molly adds in.
"My kids don't have much to do with Political Science, fortunately. I don't think they'd be very diplomatic or soft in their ways. They're more militant than I am."
Cassie and Molly just exchange glances, and Elizabeth takes that moment to start teaching on diplomatic power.
After the class was finished, she's surprised to see that Cassie and Molly had left along with everyone else in the class. When she walks out to her office, they're not there, either. She quickly sets her things down in her office and treks to the cafeteria—she and Henry definitely weren't thinking about lunches this morning—and gets in the line for her favorite sandwich booth. "Professor Adams," Cassie says behind her, and she turns to see her standing right behind her in line.
"Hey Cassie," she says warmly, turning back to her Blackberry and texting Henry to let him know that she would be sitting outside for lunch today. A rare, somewhat warmer day at UVA in January always called for her to eat her lunch outside.
She can feel Cassie's curiosity behind her, but she has her phone tucked to where Cassie can't see it. Maybe it's her spy sense, but she knows Cassie is wanting to ask her something. She turns and clears her throat, stuffing her Blackberry in her jacket pocket, "Everything alright?" She asks, "You seemed a little quieter in class today than normal."
"Oh," Cassie's taken off guard by this question, "I—yeah, I'm fine. All is good." She says and folds her arms over her chest, adjusting her backpack first, "I was just…you have kids, huh?" She asks and tilts her head, finally just coming out with it.
Elizabeth laughs and nods, "I do," she says, "I have three, as I said this morning. Jason is my youngest, he's six, and then I have two daughters, Alison and Stephanie." She explains, getting her phone back out and scrolling through to find a picture of all three of them from this past Christmas. They were sitting in front of the tree, and she knew that Henry was standing beside her taking photos with his phone, too. "Stephanie is fourteen now."
"Wow," Cassie says, examining the somewhat blurry photo. "Is that Stephanie?" She asks, pointing to the one who looked the oldest. When Elizabeth tells her yes, she raises her brows, "She looks a lot like you."
"She acts a lot like me, too," she admits with a laugh while tucking her phone away, thinking of this early morning whenever she saw Stevie snoring with her mouth hanging open, "You seem surprised that I have kids." She prompts.
Cassie shrugs, finally letting out an awkward laugh, "I am," she says, "I just figured that maybe you and Dr. McCord were…I don't know…a thing…"
"What makes you think we aren't?" Elizabeth asks, getting a little too close to the fire with that question.
"Well, you have kids." She replies, pointing to the pocket where Elizabeth's Blackberry was just placed, "So…"
Elizabeth raises her brows, realizing Cassie was almost accusing her of cheating on a husband that she doesn't even know about since she's seen Elizabeth with Henry a few times. "That doesn't mean I have a husband." She reminds Cassie.
"Oh," she says, "Oh, I'm sorry—I—I didn't mean to…I'm prying again." Her face has gotten red now, and she sinks into herself some.
Elizabeth smiles a little, "You're fine," she says, "How about you?" She asks, shifting the conversation now, "You're the young one with the potential social life."
Through the line to get the sandwiches, Cassie goes on about her boyfriend, and Elizabeth just listens intently, nodding as she talks every once in a while to show she's listening. Once they get to the counter, Elizabeth orders and tells her goodbyes to the younger woman, walking outside to greet Henry.
"I think they think I'm having an affair now." She says to him, seeing him sitting on the bench they always meet at, "I told my class this morning that I have kids, and it totally backfired."
Henry laughs as he opens his bag up, grabbing out a cheeseburger, "What happened?"
"I just told them I have three kids, and then I saw Cassie in the cafeteria after, and she said she thought we were a thing." She says, gesturing between the two of them as she unwraps her sandwich with the other hand, "I reminded her that it didn't mean I had a husband just because I have three kids, but I think she's thinking we're sneaking around now." She says and sighs, "Maybe I should come clean."
"Why would we do that when I haven't even started on my side yet?" He asks, biting into his cheeseburger.
Elizabeth looks over at him and frowns, "What do you mean by that?"
"I haven't even told them yet that I have kids, too." He says, chewing his food while trying to hide a smirk, "I won't let them think you've taken on a lover."
She bites her lip and looks at her sandwich, then tilts her head and smirks at the idea, "I like the idea of you being my lover." She says.
He laughs, "But not the idea of you being a cheating wife."
"No," she says and takes a bite of the sandwich, "So what are you going to tell them?"
"I think today I'll just mention that I have three kids. Have you told them their names?"
"I told Cassie," Elizabeth says with a mouthful.
He nods while chewing, thinking about something, she can tell, "I think I'll just tell them I have kids, then, and let them wonder for a while."
She shakes her head, trying to swallow quicker than she should, "No, no, tell them you have to go to your daughter's soccer game tonight." She says, "That's truth, remember? Stevie has a soccer game at six."
"Oh," Henry says, "I forgot that was today."
"Well, you need to un-forget. It's her first game of the season."
"You know I won't miss it." He says.
She nods, "I know, but just tell them that you'll be attending your daughter's soccer game tonight. We'll go from there." She says and smirks, looking over at him chewing his cheeseburger, "I love you, Henry." She says out of the blue.
He laughs, raising his brows, "I love you too," he says.
She leans in suddenly and kisses him on the lips, even though they both had food in their mouths. When she pulls away, he looks surprised, and it makes her feel a little happier than before even. "Maybe one day I'll tell them how much this little game helped our marriage." She says.
He smiles and kisses her on the cheek now that he's swallowed that bite of food, "Just maybe keep the part out about our sex lives."
"What's the fun in that?" She teases.
He snorts, "Don't traumatize them."
"I wouldn't," she says and sighs, looking over at him again and staying quiet for a few moments. "It's never just been about sex," she says, "And I've always loved that about us." She smiles and lays her sandwich down again, laughing quietly as she wipes her face with a napkin, "But…I will say…this is some of the best that we've had in our entire lives together." She whispers in his ear.
