Chapter 93: 2 Days = 48 Hours

Eddie is unpacking the last of the boxes when she hears the door from the garage into the kitchen open "WE'RE HOME!" Mia calls as she enters the house and starts to make a beeline for the stairs.

"Wait!" Eddie calls after her "Where are you going? How did it go?"

"It went great!" Mia calls back as she starts to climb "But no time to talk! Gotta go change!"

"For what?" Eddie calls.

"To paint." Jamie replies as he enters the house with a can of paint and other supplies in his hands.

"Oh what color?" Eddie inquires as she walks over trying to see but Jamie twists his body in front blocking her view.

"Nah!" He rejects "You know the rules. No peaking."

Eddie eyes him then moves to walk right past him and open the door to look in the garage. She sees the SUV packed full of stuff "So did you throw us into debt?"

"Maybe a little." Jamie replies.

Eddie turns to look at him with wide eyes.

"I'm kidding." Jamie promises "We stopped by Maria's and picked up a bunch of stuff from her as well."

"Oh." Eddie accepts.

"We're going to owe her big time." Jamie tells his wife.

"UNCLE JAMIE!" Mia calls "HURRY UP I'M READY!"

"YOU PUT ON THE CRAPPIEST CLOTHES YOU HAVE?" Jamie calls to her.

"YEAH!" Mia calls back "MOM ALREADY HAD THEM LAID OUT!"

"Then I guess she's ready." Jamie deduces "Excuse me Babe." he states as he moves to walk past his wife and head for the stairs himself "Got a nursery to paint!"

Eddie watches him leave and when he's out of sight she takes a step to head down into the garage and check out everything in the SUV but Rosa's stern voice calls out from behind her stopping her.

"No."

Eddie cringes and slowly turns to look backwards "Where did you come from?"

"Back inside." Rosa authoritatively commands "Now come on, you know the rules, no peaking."

"Seriously you've all like coordinated this together haven't you?" Eddie challenges but she does as instructed though and moves back inside the house.

"Well it's like you said, when your husband sets his mind to something there is no stopping him."

"I'm not going to get a moment alone am I?" Eddie realizes "Until this nursery is complete, someone will be watching me like a hawk to make sure I don't sneak a peak aren't they?"

"Yup." Rosa confirms with a nod of her head "But don't worry, I promise you, it will be worth it."

….

Walking up the stairs about 30 minutes later, Eddie heads to her bedroom. She figured she wouldn't get to see anything in the nursery anyway because the door would be shut but she was not expecting to see a big yellow piece of construction paper tacked to the door that in big bold black block lettering says

STOP! NO AUNT EDDIE ZONE! KEEP OUT!

"Okay." Eddie laughs to herself before stepping up to door and knocking just for the hell of it "CAN I COME IN?" she sweetly calls.

"NO!" She immediately hears Mia and Jamie's voices call back from inside then Eddie hears feet running for the door.

The next second the door opens a cracks and Mia scoots out forcing Eddie to take a step backwards and Mia immediately shuts the door behind her. The young girl looks up her Aunt very unimpressed and points at the sign "Read. The. Sign. Aunt Eddie!" she chides.

"Okay!" Eddie immediately relents in a chuckle with a raise of her hands in surrender "I'll keep out."

"Thank you." Mia cordial accepts before flashing a quick bright smile then just as quick as she appeared, she cracks the door back open behind her and slips back inside the room never once taking her eyes off Eddie until she has the door completely shut again.

Shaking her head, Eddie turns and heads for her bedroom.

So for the next day and a half Eddie watched as people traipsed through her front door and up the stairs to the nursery carrying boxes and bags and furniture pieces and the lengths Jamie went to to hide everything from her was astounding. Every time something was brought in it was covered and if it couldn't be then someone was right there next to Eddie making sure she wouldn't see it.

It was so weird to Eddie. She was always very much a go getter of a person – bossy and opinionated right? but the more she watched this parade of people, the more calm she felt and she was starting to make a game out of it…

The doorbell rings and Mia comes running down the stairs "I GOT IT!" She declares as she swings the door open to see Lena on the other side.

"Hi Mom." Eddie greets from the couch with her feet up eating from a bowl of popcorn "Welcome home!" She jokes.

Lena steps inside with bags in her hands and looks around "Well I must say this is a bit weird." She admits taking in her old home with different furnishing "The same yet very different."

Eddie smiles at her and pops another popcorn in her mouth "Well don't let me stop you. You know which room you want."

Nodding, Lena heads up the stairs.

….

Eddie lounges on her bed reading a magazine.

"OW!" She hears Danny's voice exclaim in pain behind closed doors across the hall.

"Well that's what you get for not listening to me!" Jamie's voice bites back "You never could follow paper instructions."

Eddie leisurely flips a page enjoying the entertainment.

…..

Eddie reaches over to her night stand and picks up her cup of tea.

"No more to the left." Eddie hears Rosa's voice instruct across the hall.

"Like that?" Jamie's voice questions.

"No too far now." Rosa replies "Go back. Okay now just a touch to the right again. THERE!"

"Are you sure?" Mia's voice chimes in "I think it looked better the other way."

Eddie can hear Jamie groan in frustration while she simply and contently sips on her tea.

…..

Eddie sits on her bed filing her nails.

Bang, bang, bang goes the hammer on the nail into the wall across the hall.

Bang, Bang, "OW! Damn it!" Jamie's voice curses "WHERE ARE THE BANDAIDS?"

Eddie sighs and drops the nail file to her lap "MEDICINE CABINET!" she calls out to her husband.

A second later the nursery door cracks open and Jamie slips out shaking his hand. He crosses the hall walking through their bedroom into the bathroom.

"You got a boo boo?" Eddie questions in amusement "Need me to kiss it and make it better?"

"I'm good." Jamie promises.

"Are you done in there yet?" Eddie sighs "It's been 2 days."

"Technically I have another 2 hours." Jamie corrects "Then its 2 days."

"Right down to the minute huh?" Eddie muses.

"You can't rush perfection." Jamie tosses back.

"You realize my expectations are like WAY high now right?"

Jamie comes out of the bathroom affixing a bandaid to his finger "Have I ever let you down yet?"

Eddie smiles and shakes her head "No." she admits.

"And I don't plan on starting now." Jamie lobs at her before heading back across the hall.

"Okay dokey." Eddie quips as she picks up her nail file again and continues on.

….

Eddie is in the kitchen drinking a glass of water when she hears Mia call "AUNT EDDIE! WE'RE READY!"

Eddie puts the glass down on the counter and swallows "About time." She mutters "COMING!" She calls as she starts for the stair. She gets to the bottom and looks up to see Mia at the top of the stairs excitedly dancing around like there are hot coals on under her feet.

Eddie chuckles as she starts to climb.

She gets to the top to see Rosa standing in the middle of the hall off to the side and Jamie down at the far end right in front of the nursery door and if Eddie didn't know any better - she'd think he looked nervous…

"You sure you're ready?" Eddie challenges her husband as she walks towards him and as she passes Mia and Rosa they both fall in behind her.

Jamie nods "It's ready."

"Okay so what?" Eddie prompts as she comes to stop in front of him "You going to make me close my eyes? Blindfold me?"

Jamie shakes his head "Nope. Just open the door and walk in."

Eddie eyes her husband then looks back towards Rosa and Mia

"GO!" Mia prompts with a shooing gesture unable to wait anymore.

Laughing, Eddie reaches for the doorknob and as she does, Jamie slips his phone to Rosa who immediately holds it up and begins recording…

Eddie swings the door open and immediately her eyes go wide, her breath hitches and an "O" forms on her lips.

"Jamie..." She finally breathes out completely blown away in awe as she takes a couple steps inside and turns 360 degrees trying to take everything in "It's… it's perfect." she emotionally whispers as tears well in her eyes.

"Yeah?" Jamie hopefully prompts.

Overwhelmed Eddie simply nods her head up and down yes.

"Look at the wall!" Mia jumps in as she picks up Eddie's hand "Look at the wall!" She repeats as she pulls Eddie with her over to the wall of framed photos.

There Eddie sees her photo with her parents, Jamie's photo with his parents and the framed napkin along with 2 other frames with pieces of paper behind the glass that say 'COMING SOON' with big stickies covering just below those words on top of the glass.

Her face pouts and her heart melts "Jamie." she just repeats again as she turns to look at her husband.

"Hang on." Mia suddenly states "Why are there 2 extra frames up there? There is only supposed to be one."

"No 2 is correct." Jamie counters as he glances at the young girl but most of his attention is still on his wife.

Mia looks between the wall and Jamie confused.

"Eddie..." Jamie prompts "Go ahead and remove the sticky on the first frame. This one right here." He instructs as he point at a specific frame.

Sniffling back her sobs, Eddie reaches up to remove the sticky to see the words 'Mom + Dad and Baby'.

And Eddie starts to cry all over again. She doesn't even remember there is another sticky on another frame she just moves towards her husband and throws herself into his chest wrapping her arms around his torso tight.

Mia opens her mouth to speak but catches sight of her Mother – who is still recording - silently wave her off telling her to wait so Jamie and Eddie can have this moment.

"I love it." Eddie whispers to her husband "And I love you."

Jamie kisses the side of her head "I love you too." he quietly returns before Eddie begins to pull back and wipe her eyes. She looks over and suddenly remembers Rosa and Mia are there "Thank you guys." she gushes to them "This is all truly amazing."

Mia looks at her Mother "Can I talk now?" she lowly requests.

Rosa chuckles and nods.

"Okay what about that one?" Mia prompts as she points at the last picture frame still with a sticky.

"Oh right." Eddie remembers as she takes a step to go remove it but Jamie blocks her path "Actually, Mia I think you should do the honors on this one."

"Me?" Mia questions in surprise.

"Yup." Jamie confirms as he reaches down and moves a little step stool he had previously put in the room and slightly off to the side right in line with the picture frame and gestures for Mia to use it to step up in order to reach the sticky.

Narrowing her eyes at her Uncle, Mia steps up onto the stool, reaches up and rips the sticky away. There underneath she sees 'Big sister + baby' written.

Mia's eyes immediately go wide in excitement "I GET A PICTURE ON THE WALL!" She cries in glee as she jumps down off the stool and moves to throw her arms around her Uncle's waist in a big hug.

Jamie laughs and quickly returns her hug while Eddie reaches up and give his cheek a quick kiss in approval. Jamie then looks over at Rosa to see her mouth 'thank you' to him.

Jamie gives her a slight nod of his head in return.

At that moment Reagan wanders into the room and begins to look around.

"Wait." Eddie calls "The real judge is here! Let's see what he thinks!" She adds so Jamie, Eddie, Rosa and Mia all watch Reagan check out the room.

He looks up, down and around then settles his gaze on the dresser in front of the window. He positions himself, gauges the distance and then flawlessly jumps up without a whisper of a sound. He again looks around, sees a beam of sunlight shining down onto the dresser, walks into it, circles around and then curls up, lays down and begins to groom himself.

"HE LIKES IT!" Mia deduces.

"Well there you have it." Eddie adds with a laugh "The cat has spoken."

"And cut." Rosa adds as she presses stop and hands Jamie back his phone "Don't think you can get a better ending then that!"

Everyone laughs.

….

That night, Jamie walks out of the bathroom ready for bed when he stops and doesn't see his wife in bed. Instead, he sees the light on across the hall in the nursery. Taking a deep breath, he walks over and sees his wife standing in the middle of the room – her back to the door so just like 48 hours ago, Jamie leans against the door frame and watches her "48 hours." he states.

Surprised at the sound of his voice, Eddie turns to look back at her husband.

"That's clearly our magic number - 48 hours…" he repeats "…where we can go from 0 to 60 and just get it done."

Eddie laughs "Very true." she admits knowing he is also referencing their fast as lightening engagement "It truly is amazing Jamie." Eddie tells him "I was so overwhelmed before I didn't even really get a chance to take it all in but - you got me my mobile Jamie." Eddie pouts.

"Well you needed to have SOME input into this room." Jamie tosses back in amusement before laughing "You should have seen the look on the sales associates face when she saw me though. Lena was already in the store and had picked items and the second that girl saw me her face dropped and she said 'Oh it's you' but then I said 'I brought the SUV today' and I never saw a person's face light up so fast in my life!"

Eddie chuckles "So how much did this all cost?" She curiously inquires.

Jamie pulls out his phone, opens his emailed receipt and shows his wife.

"That's not that bad." she admits.

"I think I did pretty good." Jamie agrees.

"You did better then good Jamie." Eddie praises "But there is something else about this room – something familiar - and I just can't quite put my finger on what it is."

"Ah good eye there Mrs. Reagan." Jamie quips as he walks over to the tall dresser, opens the top drawer, reaches in and pulls out the photos of Eddie's old nursery "It should look familiar because it is." he states as he hands her the photos.

Curious, Eddie takes the photos and looks at them – then she looks up at the room - then back down at the photos - then up again and finally it hits her what her husband had done.

In an instant Eddie is once again throwing herself into her husband's embrace "Two generations, one room." he whispers to her.

All Eddie can do is just flat out cry into his shirt as she clings to her husband.

"It's the hormones right?" Jamie lightly inquires.

"Totally the hormones." Eddie sniffles into his chest.

Suddenly Mia appears in the doorway "What's wrong? I could hear her all the way down the hall."

Eddie stifles back a laugh as she pulls away from Jamie to wipe her tears away "Nothing. Absolutely nothing is wrong. Couldn't be more perfect actually."

"Oh so this is those happy tears again." Mia notes with a bop of her head up and down "Okay." she accepts before turning to head back to her room.

Jamie and Eddie watch her leave.

"I really hope they get along." Eddie whispers in a confession to her husband.

Jamie leans over and kisses his wife's head "They will."

...