Chapter 121: Day One…

Eddie stands at her bed in the hospital getting ready to go when she drops her brush.

She looks down and sighs "At least I can partially see my feet again." she realizes before slowly lowering herself all the way to the floor to pick it up then slowly stand back up "Whew." She breathes out while wincing slightly in pain "That smarts."

"I'm back!" Jamie happily quips as he enters the room with an empty car seat carrier in his hands "And I picked up a stray along the way." He adds as he looks back towards the door to watch Mia enter the room.

"I named the baby so I'll let that slide." Mia arrogantly dismisses before looking around "Where is she?"

"Who?" Eddie innocently counters trying to hold back her grin.

Mia places her hand on her hips "Uh my sister? Where is she?"

"Oh her!" Jamie lightly chimes in like he just remembered "Right, she's coming home with us too!"

"Very funny Uncle Jamie." Mia deadpans not particularly enjoying the game her Aunt and Uncle are playing "I know you didn't forget because you're holding her car seat."

"Oh right." Jamie relents knowing the jig is up as he put the carrier down.

"So?" Mia prompts "Where is she?"

"The doctors are just giving her a final check up before they release her." Eddie explains.

"And you?" Jamie prompts as he looks at his wife.

"Already checked. Already released." Eddie replies before looking at Mia "Is your Mom here too?"

Mia shakes her head no.

"She stayed home getting things ready there." Jamie explains "But this one wanted to come for the ride."

"Really?" Eddie counters "I'm shocked by that!"

"No, you're not." Jamie laughs.

"You're right I'm not." Eddie agrees.

Just then the door opens and a nurse enters with Jessie.

"There she is!" Mia sings as she runs over.

Jamie steps forward, and immediately checks Jessie's ID tag "Yup she's ours." he lightly quips in an attempted joke before taking his daughter from the nurse "Thank you." he then seriously offers as he watches the nurse scan Jessie's ankle monitor before moving to Eddie "Wrist please." She requests so Eddie holds up her wrist with her own hospital band to allow the nurse to compare the two "Okay." She accepts when they match so she goes to remove the monitor from Jessie "You are both now officially discharged so Mom and Dad, you are free to take her home. Congratulations." She adds before turning to leave.

"Did you hear that Jessie?" Jamie states with a smile as he turns to place his daughter in her carrier and strap her in "We're going home!"

Eddie smiles as she watches her husband with their daughter "Alright!" she decides a second later as she moves to pick up her bag from the bed "Let's do this!" but Mia runs over

"Nah ah." The young girl rejects to her Aunt "I carry the bag."

"Oh, by all means!" Eddie graciously accepts as she releases her grip on the bag and watches Mia drag it to the edge of the bed and swing it down towards her "You good?" Eddie queries.

"Yup!" Mia proudly confirms "I got it!"

"Okay then, let's go home!" Eddie states.

"Oh wait hang on." Jamie protests in remembrance as he reaches into his pocket to pull out a super small bracelet with a charm on it before affixing it onto his daughter's wrist.

"What is that?" Mia queries as she watching Jamie then slip a soft arm band over the bracelet.

Having watched her husband's actions, Eddie smirks "Jessie's version of your necklace."

"Oh." Mia notes in understanding "Cool. Now we have a set."

….

"Jamie you're driving too fast." Eddie chides from the backseat of the SUV as she sits next to her daughter in the car seat.

In the driver's seat, Jamie laughs "That's rich coming from you and no, I'm not driving too fast."

Mia in the front passenger's seat turns to look backwards "Yeah, we're barely moving."

"We're going the speed limit." Jamie clarifies for everyone.

"Are you sure?" Eddie challenges as she looks around "It seems fast."

"Eddie we're fine." Jamie promises with a slight shake of his head in amusement.

"Did you want me to call Mr. Frank and ask for a police escort?" Mia giddily quips.

"NO!" Jamie and Eddie both reply causing the baby to wake up and start crying.

"Oh no, no sweetie, it's okay." Eddie tries to sooth "What's wrong? Are you hungry? Are you wet? Are you scared? I can't take you out of your seat while we're driving." She apologizes.

"Need me to pull over?" Jamie queries.

"No." Eddie sighs "I don't want to stop on the side of the road." so Jamie nods in acceptance and keeps driving.

….

Rosa is in the kitchen preparing some food when she hears and sees the overhead garage door begin to open "Reagan, Jamko!" She calls as she quickly wipes her hands and moves to the door. "They're home!" She adds as she waits for the SUV to pull in and stop and for the overhead door to close before she opens the door and the second she does, Reagan runs into the garage but she is also hit with the sound of a screaming baby "Ooh." She cringes as she watches her not too happy looking daughter get out of the front seat.

"Yeah!" Mia loudly tells her Mother trying to talk over the sound of the baby "She's been doing that the entire way home!" She adds before placing her hands over her ears and stocking into the house trying to get away from the noise.

Rosa sighs then turns her attention to Jamie and Eddie and the baby "Everything okay?"

"She might be hungry... or wet..." Eddie explains with a hiss as she carefully gets out of the backseat on the passenger's side while Jamie opens the driver's side backdoor and works to get the car seat free "Or maybe she just hates car rides I don't know."

"Well." Rosa sighs as she watches Eddie slowly walk towards her "Now's the part where you get to figure that all out."

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire." Eddie mumbles before looking at that steps she has to walk up in order to get in the house "Great. Stairs."

"Yeah." Rosa knowingly cringes "In some ways the labor was the easy part."

Eddie lifts her head to look at Rosa "Oh don't tell me that."

"Sorry." Rosa apologizes.

Eddie looks behind her to see her husband with carrier in hand shutting the car door "Jamie, you and Jessie go first." She instructs "Might take me a minute or two to get up these stairs."

"You sure?" Jamie presses "Need help?"

"No I'll be fine." Eddie reassures him "Just go see if its her diaper. I'll be up as soon as I can to fed her."

"K." Jamie accepts as he whizzes past his wife and Rosa with his daughter and enters the house.

"When was the last time you ate?" Rosa asks Eddie as she watches her slowly climb the steps one at a time.

"Um probably breakfast." Eddie replies

"Okay well I made you some snacks." Rosa prompts as she steps back into the kitchen.

Eddie sighs "Rosa you didn't need to do that."

"I remember what it was like after giving birth, I was sore and tired and had a baby that was now relying on me to take care of it. I almost forgot to take care of myself which is a big no no. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of your baby. Now, I will try as much as I can to remain hands off with Jessie. You and Jamie are her parents so you two need to figure it out but I can do things like fix you some food and bring it up to you so you aren't climbing up and down the stairs more then necessary – light exercise is good but we don't want you over doing it."

Eddie looks at Rosa and practically burst into tears.

"And the mood swings will also be back." Rosa informs her "Welcome to postpartum."

….

Having heard the sound of a screaming baby pass by her closed bedroom door and Jamie's continual soothing voice saying "okay, okay, we'll check your diaper in a second, just hang on." Mia thinks a moment then grabs her earphones.

She puts them over her ears trying to muffle the sound, opens her bedroom door and walks down the hall to the nursery. She steps in the doorway to see Jamie just placing Jessie down on the change table. She walks up to him and removes her earphones "You know how to change a diaper?"

Jamie briefly glances over at her "Yes of course I do."

Mia gives a nod of her head "Great!" She accepts as she puts her earphones back on, turns and heads back to her room. "Man that kid can scream." She mutters but when she gets to her room she pauses in thought then continues down the stairs removing her earphones as she goes. She pauses at the bottom of the stairs then looks to her left and right. She turns right and heads into the living room. "Man." She mumbles at still hearing the baby cry so she moves into the study "Okay a bit better." she notes as the sound fades a bit but then she walks out and heads for the kitchen where Rosa is handing Eddie a glass of water as the new mom sits at the counter on a stool snacking. They both look up at her.

"Nope study was better." Mia continues to mumble to herself.

"What are you doing?" Rosa questions her daughter.

"Figuring out the quietest place in the house now." Mia simply explains "So far it's the study but I'm trying the basement next."

Rosa opens her mouth to speak but pauses when the cries turn to whimpers and then silence.

"Must have been the diaper." Eddie deduces as she wipes her hands in a napkin and slowly gets up from the stool. "Okay enough of a rest and thank you for the food but now it's time to climb Mount Everest."

"Huh?" Mia questions.

"Giving birth isn't easy." Rosa explains to her daughter "Your Aunt's body is sore now so doing things like climbing stairs takes it toll."

"Oh." Mia accepts "Well I can help you. Come on."

Rosa smiles at her daughter "Yeah just use her as your walking aid."

"Wait." Eddie suddenly states "I almost forgot about the picture." She adds before looking at Mia "Can you go get your Uncle and tell him I want to take the picture for the wall while I'm still downstairs and dressed half decent?"

Mia nods in acceptance "Back in a flash!" she quips before indeed bolting for and then up the stairs.

"I used to be able to move like that." Eddie mutters.

"And you will again." Rosa reassures her "Where do you want to take the photo?"

"Um… I think out the front door on the porch." Eddie decides "We'll just pretend that it's the moment we are about to bring her home and into the house for the first time instead of it being through the garage with her screaming her little head off."

Rosa laughs as she grabs for her phone "Come on let me help you to the door."

"No I can make it." Eddie reassures her as she slowly starts moving in that direction herself.

"Okay he's coming!" Mia announces as she comes bounding back down the stairs "But Jessie is sleeping now so shhhh!"

Eddie huffs out a laugh "I should just let her raise her while I go to sleep for the next week."

Rosa smiles sympathetically at her "I know you want too but this is the important bonding time."

"I know." Eddie sighs as she reaches the front foyer and looks up the stairs to see Jamie heading towards them with Jessie in his arms.

"Where we doing this?" He queries.

"Out the front door." Eddie replies so Mia opens the door and everyone walks out onto the porch.

Jamie transfers Jessie to Eddie as Mia shuts the door then scoots around them to stand next to her Mother.

Jamie removes his phone from his pocket, unlocks it, pulls up the camera app and hands it to Rosa before stepping back and settling into a pose with his wife and daughter beside him.

"Okay say cheese!" Mia quips as Jamie and Eddie plaster big bright smiles on their faces.

Snap.

Now the wall would be complete…

"Let's get one more for good measure now though." Rosa suddenly instructs as she glances at her daughter and they exchange a quick but knowing secret look "Okay in 3,2,1…" Rosa prompts and right as she takes the picture Mia with a great big grin on her face sticks her head into frame from the side essentially photo bombing the shot.

"Oh that one is a definite keeper!" Eddie laughs at the antics of her god daughter "Let me see it!"

...