Chapter 23
"Home sweet home", Kara says as she touches down on the balcony and gently sets Lena and Liam down.
Lena looks up from the sleeping baby in her arms and smiles up at Kara, "You ready for this?".
"Little late to ask that now", Kara teases as she leans down to kiss her, "Let's do this".
Lena follows her in as Kara rambles, "We've got diapers and wipes in the end table, our bedside table, and the extras in the nursery. Bottles as well as the pump and storage for the milk are all in the kitchen clean and ready whenever you are. Pacifier, blankets, PJs are all in his room so that we can at least get used to putting him to bed in there even if he will spend the first several nights with us".
As she rambles, Lena sets Liam in the pack and play in the living room and comes up behind Kara, wrapping her arms around her waist. "Thank you darling", Lena teases, "I do remember where we put stuff".
"Right", Kara says, taking a deep breath and turning in Lena's hold. "Wait where's Liam?", she asks, carefully trying to move Lena's arms to go look for him but Lena holds fast.
"In the playpen, he's ok", Lena says, holding tighter. She feels the moment Kara lays eyes on him and relaxes. "So he's asleep…", she starts.
Kara smiles, bringing her arms up around Lena, "It probably won't last so sleep when he sleeps or have time to ourselves".
"I'll probably fall asleep anyway", Lena admits, tucking her head under Kara's chin.
"Movie and cuddles?", Kara asks.
"Sounds perfect", Lena says, tilting up to kiss Kara's jaw.
"Well come on then", Kara replies, turning to the playpen and gently picking it up to carry into their bedroom, not ready to let Liam out of the same room.
She carefully sets him down in the corner and changes into pajamas before turning down the bed. Lena gets changed as well before leaning against the doorframe, smiling as she watches Kara pull out pillows and blankets to pile on the bed.
Kara puts the finishing touches before stepping back, hands on her hips, appraising her work.
"All set?", Lena chuckles, pushing off the wall.
Kara startles a little before turning around, smiling. "Ready for a comfy night", she affirms, meeting Lena halfway. Lena's arms automatically go up over Kara's shoulders as hers wind around Lena's waist and they hold each other close. "How do you feel?", Kara asks, as they sway slightly in the middle of their bedroom, Liam's quiet breathing in the corner.
Lena takes a moment before answering. "Happy", she finally says, pulling back slightly to look up at Kara.
"Yeah?", Kara asks, smiling.
"Yeah", Lena agrees, "I mean still sore and I still feel like a whale but…", she pauses to look over at Liam, "it was worth it".
Kara ducks down to kiss her cheek while she's looking at their son but Lena turns at the last second and their lips connect. Lena immediately sinks into it, her hands gripping at Kara's shoulder and neck to pull her closer while Kara's hands roam up and down her back trying to keep her close but not hurt her since she did just admit she was still sore.
Lena finally pulls back, needing a breath and Kara moves across her jaw to her neck.
"Rao", Lena pants, her head dropped back, "Kara stop".
Kara immediately pulls back, "What's wrong? Are you ok? Did I hurt you?", she asks, worried blue eyes searching Lena's face for pain.
"No, no", Lena says, "Rao no you didn't hurt me, but we have to stop now because I'm not going to be able to stop myself if we go any further".
"Right", Kara says, "six weeks. We can do that, just as long as I didn't hurt you".
"Hey, hey", Lena says, moving a hand to cup Kara's jaw, "I know you would never hurt me, ok?". Kara nods and Lena kisses her quickly, not letting it evolve again. "Let's get in bed and cuddle while we still can", she says, looking over at Liam.
Kara swoops her up and floats into the carefully arranged mound of pillows and blankets, grabbing the controller and starting up a movie.
Ruby picks a calm night in for her celebration but uses the opportunity to get the takeout she wanted as well as popcorn, because "we can't watch a movie without popcorn", and ice cream for dessert. She gathers a ton of blankets and pillows and they set up a blanket nest and all three settle in for the night.
Sam is antsy, seeing Lena with her son, and seeing Alex hold a baby, she wants to talk to Ruby and get the process started.
Alex notices that Sam has been giving her weird looks all night, glancing at Ruby questioningly and Alex honestly has no clue what she's trying to signal.
Sam gives up, giving Alex a sharp warning look. "I need a refill", Sam says, kissing both their heads, "be right back".
"Yeah me too", Alex says, getting the hint, kissing Ruby's head as well.
Ruby stays engrossed in the movie while they get up.
"What's up?", Alex asks, hushed as soon as they round the corner.
"I wanna tell her… ask her", Sam says quickly.
"Oh… about…", Alex starts.
"Yeah", Sam starts, "I mean… if you still want to".
"Yeah!", Alex says, "I want to".
"Ok", Sam says, relieved and blushing embarrassed for being so silly.
"After the movie, we can mention it to her", Alex says, handing the refilled glass to Sam.
"She'll be ok with it, right?", Sam asks, nervous.
"Hey, hey", Alex says, wrapping an arm around her, "you raised a great kid and she knows we love her. She'll love being a big sister".
Sam smiles, ducking down to kiss her, "Come on, she'll come looking for us".
They head back to the living room, hand in hand until they take their places on either side of the, thankfully oblivious, teen.
After the first movie ends, Ruby heads to the kitchen to get the ice cream and comes back to Alex and Sam springing apart.
"Ok what is up with you two?", Ruby asks as she sits down and hands them each a spoon.
Alex looks at Sam who takes a deep breath and says, "Well we've been talking, Alex and I, and we… we would never do it without talking to you first…".
"Are you getting married?", Ruby asks, both women go from nervous to wide-eyed.
"No", Alex says, "Not now…yet… I mean…".
"We were talking about having a baby", Sam says, saving Alex from her stuttering, "We actually haven't talked about the other thing".
"Really?", Ruby asks excited. "When? Boy or girl? Who's gonna knock up who? Well I guess technically who's Aunt Lena's tech gonna knock up? You are using it right?", she rapidfires questions at them.
"Woah, woah", Alex says, "slow down".
"10ish months after we talk to Lena. Me, Alex. Alex. Yes", Sam answers, to two shocked faces. "I've been answering your rapidfire question for 18 years", she shrugs.
Alex kisses the side of her head while Ruby rolls her eyes. "So what do you think?", Alex asks the teen.
"I think it's great", Ruby says, "gives me a reason to home every weekend".
Sam chuckles wetly at the thought of her baby going off to college, "As if you needed more of a reason… we all know you'd miss us too much". They all laugh and Sam continues, "But you're ok with this? We're not replacing you or going to love you any less".
"Yeah Mom. I know. I'm really ok with this", Ruby promises, "I'm excited".
"So am I", Sam says, pulling Ruby into a hug, grinning at Alex over the girl's head.
The first day is surprisingly easy. Liam sleeps a lot, only waking up every other hour to eat before he goes right back to sleep.
They spend the day in bed, watching movies, ordering in, Liam moving back and forth between tucked between them to his playpen.
At 9, Lena breastfed him one more time before pumping the rest. She's pumped a couple times giving them enough for at least 4 feedings so the Kara can start to feed him as well. Kara burped him while she went to shower and take some time to herself to relax and try to feel a little more like herself.
Lena wraps her black silk robe around her, loosely tying the string in the front and heads back out to the bedroom. She stops short at the sight of Liam, snoozing on Kara's chest, both their faces slack in sleep, same content expression, Kara's glasses skewed. She carefully moves Kara's protective hand from his back, lifting him and carrying him over to the playpen, kissing his forehead before laying him down. She watches him for a moment, watches his eyelids flutter, his chest rise and fall, his little fists clench, before turning back to the bed where Kara has commandeered Lena's pillow to hold against her chest. Lena shakes her head, smiling, leaning down to kiss Liam's forehead before swapping her robe for one of Kara's old t-shirts that she regularly sleeps in. She slides in the bed and carefully removes the pillow from Kara's grasp, laying her head on Kara's chest instead. Kara arms easily comes up around her shoulder and she settles in for what she hopes to be at least an hour of sleep.
Lena stretches out, reaching for Kara but only finds cool sheets, and a little bit of light sneaking through the edges of the shades. She looks over not seeing Liam either and slides out of bed, grabbing her phone to check the time.
"Kara", she calls, going out to search for them.
Kara is standing at the stove, fixing eggs, with Liam sitting in his baby swing watching her. "Hey, buddy, look who it is", she says, noticing Lena. "Good morning, zhao", Kara says, leaning over for a kiss before going back to her eggs.
"Good morning indeed", Lena says, "how are you so awake right now? And you should have let me get up with him a couple times".
"Slept when he slept and with you as much as I could without waking you up and Noonans and definitely not, we had enough milk stored to get through the night and you needed the sleep", Kara says, plating the eggs and kissing Lena again as she hands her plate over.
"When did he last eat?", Lena asks, before digging in.
"Right at 5", Kara says, "At least he's already on a schedule".
"Easier to keep track of, I guess", Lena says.
"Oh, trust me, he won't let us forget", Kara jokes.
"Got your Jeju's appetite huh little man?", Lena coos at the smiling baby, "Mommy's gonna have trouble keeping up."
"Hey", Kara laughs, "I've been making sure you eat proper meals for 5 years, I'm not giving up now". "You do plenty to provide for him", Kara says, now serious, putting her arms around Lena, resting their heads together, "if we have to supplement that's fine and not at all a criticism against you. Clark's powers, and thus his metabolism, didn't kick in until late. We have time before you have to worry about feeding two Kryptonians".
Lena exhales, smiling at how Kara can always make her feel better even when she didn't know why she was feeling that way. "I love you", Lena says, turning her face into Kara's neck and kissin the warm skin there.
Kara, in turn, kisses her hairline, at her temple, and says, "I love you always".
AN: Happy Holidays to all of you whatever you celebrate. So sorry for the delays but finals and then holidays and then new semester and moving into an apartment… it's been a little crazy over here but rest assured I have not abandoned this story. I don't have a posting schedule figured out so make sure you bookmark/follow/whatever and turn on notification if you don't want to miss the next chapter. I will finish up this installment, wrapping up some loose ends and finishing out these storylines. I'm looking at potentially doing a fourth 'installment' that will have little scenes I've thought of or want to explore and is open to any prompts/ideas you all have/would like to see that would fit into this little world here
Thank you so much for reading and all of the kudos and comments.