The summer had come to an end in the city of Seattle. The days were starting to get shorter, the temperature was dropping, and the sun was hiding earlier and rising later. Some of the leaves on the forest trees were starting to dry up and would soon fall, decorating the entire floor with warm autumn colors.

Olive was sitting on her parents' bed, playing with one of the leaves she had collected earlier in the garden. She loved spending time outdoors. She played on her swing, collected rocks, admired insects, made mud pies, went for walks with her cat, and when her mother wasn't watching, she climbed the smaller trees. She loved that house. Just like Derek, she had inherited that adventurous and nature-exploring spirit.

It was already night, and she was watching her father struggle with some screws while Addison read an instruction manual. They had been trying to assemble the baby crib for hours without success. Olive had offered to help them, but they didn't let her. And it was already too late to go outside. So she resigned herself to watching her parents do it.

That's how the past few months had been since she found out she was going to have a baby brother o sister. They still didn't know the gender, even though Olive spent the entire pregnancy insisting they tell her. Addison wanted to wait for the surprise of the birth, and Derek agreed with her.

"I think it's crooked," Addison said, closing one eye to see better.

"Again? I already took out this board twice!" Derek exclaimed.

"Yeah, Der. It's crooked, the screws at the front are more to the left."

"God damn it! I hate this shit!"

Olive opened her eyes wide and almost laughed.

"Sorry, Daddy shouldn't say those words. It's very bad. Never repeat it, Ols," Derek said.

"Take out the board and put it back, if possible without cursing," Addison said, turning around. "Olive, it's time to take a bath."

"Oh no, Mom. It's still early!"

"You have kinder tomorrow, let's go. I still have to prepare dinner," she said, placing a hand on her waist. The weight of her belly had exhausted her. She had already reached 39 weeks, and according to what they had seen in the ultrasound that week, the baby was already around 7.7 pounds.

"Don't worry about that, Addie. I'll go."

"No, I want you to finish the crib as soon as possible. The baby could be born tonight and still doesn't have a crib."

"Olive didn't use it in the first few months, it's okay. Go bathe her, and I'll prepare dinner."

"Can I bring my rubber ducks?" the girl asked with a pleading smile.

"Alright. But I don't want you staying in the water for hours."

"Yes, Mommy."

~•~

"I look like a witch!" exclaimed Olive, laughing as she saw the foamy hairstyle her mother had given her in the mirror.

"Hey, it was supposed to be a unicorn," Addison said, laughing. She was sitting on the floor next to the bathtub.

"No, I'm a bad witch, and these are my potions," she said, taking the soaps and bath salts.

"The water already has too many things, Ollie. I'll have to bathe you again to clean you from your bath. Stop adding soap."

"Did you know that these rubber duckies are actually people that I turned into ducks?"

"Really?"

"Yes! And the pink one is the princess!"

"Poor girl, you should turn her back to her original form."

"No, because she has to find a magic gem for that," she said, pointing to Addison's ring.

"Is this the magic gem?"

"Yes! When she touches it, she will turn back into a princess."

"Well, help her quickly then, because your fingers are already wrinkled."

Olive slowly brought the pink duck closer to Addison's hand, but before it touched her ring, she grabbed a toy frog and plunged it in dramatically.

"The swamp monster doesn't want her to catch him!" she exclaimed, making Addison laugh.

"Hey, I thought you were going to give her a happy ending."

"She's in jail, Mommy. Her friends have to rescue her."

Derek peeked through the doorway and smiled at the sight. He loved watching them interact together. He loved seeing Addison in her mother role, as if another heart had been born next to the one she already had. One that was softer, more innocent, warmer, and more loving, just for their daughter. Olive had undoubtedly transformed her into her best version.

"Daddy!" the little one exclaimed upon seeing him.

"Nice hairstyle, Ols."

"It's a witch's hat!"

"Wow, I'm so scared!" he exclaimed, exaggerating his surprise. She laughed.

"How did the crib turn out?" Addison asked.

"It's perfect, ready for Baby Shep 2's arrival."

Addison rolled her eyes and extended her arm for him to help her up from the floor.

"Ollie, it's time to rinse off the foam and get out. It's getting late for dinner," she said once she was standing.

"But the princess still needs to get out of jail!"

"Come on, you can keep playing another day."

"I'll go prepare dinner while you dress her," Derek said, giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and leaving the bathroom.

Addison finished bathing Olive and wrapped her in her kitty robe. She had chosen it specifically because it resembled Milo, and Olive loved it. Sometimes she believed that her daughter loved that orange cat more than she loved her.

Then she took a brush and untangled Olive's long red hair, blow-drying it, getting her ready to go downstairs for dinner. Derek had prepared pasta with pumpkin sauce and cheese. All orange meals had been her daughter's favorite since she was a baby.

~•~

"You won't read me another story?" Olive asked, covering her face with the blanket. She was already in bed.

"It's late, Ollie," Addison said, sitting next to her on the bed.

"Just a short one, please."

"I'm tired, baby. I'll read you another one tomorrow," she said, closing the storybook.

"Don't you love me anymore?" Olive asked with a trembling voice.

"How can I not love you, sweetie? I adore you with all my heart."

"But ever since you're going to have another baby, you don't want to be with me," tears started to well up in her eyes.

Addison's heart broke seeing her like that. She was so little and feeling the upcoming changes. It was normal for her to have those fears and jealousy.

"Hey, come here," Addison said, wrapping her arm around her and pulling her closer to her body. "I will always want to be with you. I love being with you."

"But you always go to sleep."

"Not always. This morning we organized the baby's socks together, and you helped me a lot with their clothes. Then we had cupcakes in the garden. And we had fun in the bathtub with the ducks. We spent a nice day together. But you need to understand that I need to rest. I can't be running and playing with you all the time. I have a baby here who is already very big," she said, pointing to her belly, "and it makes me very sleepy. But that doesn't mean I don't want to be with you, Ollie. I will always want to be with you. You are the most special person to me."

"Really?" she said, looking at her with those huge eyes that melted her.

"Really. Tomorrow I'll read you two stories, okay?"

"Okay..."

"I love you, Ollie."

"I love you too, Mommy."

~•~

"Is everything okay?" Derek asked as he entered the room. Addison was already lying down and had a distressed look on her face.

"I know we've talked about this a lot, but... I feel so guilty, Der. It breaks my heart to see Olive cry and feel left aside."

"But you know that's not true, Addie. We will never push her to the side. She's our special girl."

"I know, but... she feels that way. I don't want her to feel that. Sometimes I wish I could spend more time with her so she doesn't feel like this," her voice began to break.

"You'll see that when the baby is born, she'll be more excited. We'll become secondary, she'll want to take care of her little brother or sister on her own."

"What if it's not like that? What if she hates it?"

"Addie, she wanted a sibling. She asked for it countless times."

"She wanted one because she saw her classmates with siblings, or because of cartoons. But she didn't know that she had to start sharing her parents, their attention, their time... she only found the idea amusing, and now that she's experiencing what it feels like, she's not completely convinced."

"It's because of the uncertainty that she feels this way. We don't know what might be going on in her little mind right now. But once she sees the baby... she'll like it. She has always liked babies, she loves Sofia. Mark told me that the other day she made a necklace out of pasta for her."

Addison smiled at the thought. It was true that Olive loved little kids.

"Just think about how she's about to have the best experience of her life. Her childhood will be much more fun and valuable with a sibling to share mischief with. Can you imagine what yours would have been like without Archer?"

"Horrible. Even worse than it already was."

"Mine would have been more peaceful maybe, but... we wouldn't have Amelia here. Sometimes she acts as our babysitter."

Addison laughed again.

"She's going to love it. And she'll survive this... I'm telling you this as someone who survived having four sisters. And I don't think she'll have four more..."

"Oh no, not even one more."

"That's what you said before... then you changed your mind."

"I won't change my mind again. This is the last baby I'll have."

Derek smiled and lay down beside her, wrapping his arms around her big belly. At that time of night, the baby liked to start moving more.

"Don't you think it's time to leave Mommy's uterus, huh?" he said, bringing his face closer to her belly. "I know you're comfortable there, but we are dying to meet you out here."

"And Mom is about to explode," Addison said.

"And Mom is about to explode," he repeated. "Come out soon so we can hold you. Or be in your new crib. You'll like the crib, Dad made it with sweat and tears. Maybe a little blood too."

"Oh, Der. Did you hurt yourself?"

"Just a little, nothing to worry about," the baby moved and Derek continued talking to him. "What do you say? Will you be here with us tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? I don't think so."

"It tells me that it will be born tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Tomorrow will be 40 weeks."

"Olive took a few more days."

"Yes, and from what I see, her brother or sister is coming the same way. We'll have to bring them out."

"Oh no. I'm not going for a walk, or doing exercises, or using that ball again. We'll wait for it to come out on its own."

"Did you know that I love you even though you hate physical activity?"

"I love you too," she said, smiling as he leaned in to kiss her gently.

~•~

"Why can't we go to Julie's birthday party? Everyone's going!"

"Because Mom can't travel to New York right now," Derek said while driving. He was taking Olive to kindergarten.

"But can I go alone?"

"No, Ols. You're five years old."

"Five years and three quarters."

"That's not old enough to travel on a plane alone."

"But Julie told me that Aunt Kate will make a purple Rapunzel cake," she started crying. She loved Julie, she was turning eight and was the cousin closest in age to Olive.

"We'll go for Halloween, I already told you."

"It's a thousand years away!"

"Not that long, it's next month."

"But the birthday party is next week!"

Derek looked at her through the rearview mirror and pressed his lips together. He hated seeing her suffer because of the geographical distance from his family.

"When we go for Halloween, you can dress up as Rapunzel."

"That's not scary."

"And the stepmother? Isn't she scary to you?"

"No, Dad. I'm not a baby."

"Then what will you dress up as?"

"As a ghost! Because I'm never there!"

"Don't say that, your cousins always remember you."

"I couldn't go to Erick and Valerie's party, or Stephanie's, or Morgan's. And..."

"We've arrived, Olive," he said, parking in front of the preschool.

"I don't want to go!"

"Yes, you do. Come on."

~•~

"Der..." Addison said as soon as she saw Derek return home.

"Hello, Addie," he lovingly kissed her cheek. "Are you okay? Why that expression?"

"I think I'm in labor."

"Why do you say that? Are you feeling contractions? Are you in pain?" he asked, concerned.

She nodded as she felt another contraction.

"Okay, calm down. The baby's bag and yours are already in the car, along with the documents... I finished installing the car seat yesterday and... did we pack the documents, right? Yes, I said that. I... well, um... " nerves began to take over his body, causing him to lose focus.

"Everything is ready. With Olive, we checked it several times and... Ouch!" she exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut.

"How many contractions have you had? How long are they lasting? Are you timing them?"

"I don't know, Derek," she sighed tiredly once the contraction passed.

"When did they start? Should we go to the hospital? Do we have to leave now?"

"They started today at 7 in the morning, when I was making breakfast for Olive I felt the first discomfort."

"Why didn't you tell me, Addison? I took her to kinder not knowing that you were having contractions!"

"Because I thought it was nothing!"

"God, it's already ten in the morning. We have to go to the hospital right now."

"Not yet! I can endure more time at home, with Olive I waited too long there."

"You've been like this for at least three hours, you need your OB to check how it's progressing. Let's start going."

"I'm not ready yet!" she exclaimed, sobbing.

"What do you mean you're not ready? It's a full-term pregnancy!"

"I'm not ready to have another baby right now!" she cried out with a choked voice.

"Addie, listen, I know how you feel and I swear I understand, but we have to go to the hospital right now before the baby is born, as it won't wait for you to be ready."

"I can't, Der," she grasped onto the doorframe, feeling a new contraction.

"Addie...," he approached her and gently stroked her back, from top to bottom, "I know you're scared. I know a difficult part is coming, but... you've done it before. You brought Olive into this world on your own, I'm sure you can do it again."

"Of course I can, that's not what worries me."

"Then what is it?"

"What if I can't love this baby the same way I love Olive? What if all the love I had inside me was taken by her and I have nothing to offer to this one?"

"Love never runs out, it multiplies. When it was just the two of us, I thought I could never love anyone more than you and... then Olive came and proved me wrong. She showed me a new kind of love, so big and deep that..."

"Ou!"

"We'll love this baby just as much as we love our daughter."

"How? I can't imagine loving anyone the same way I love her and... Oh!"

"Addie, we can talk about this on the way or when we get there, but it's time to leave. The hospital isn't that close and... look at yourself!"

"I can still endure here!" she shouted and started feeling her legs getting wet quickly.

Derek opened his mouth in shock at the puddle of water beneath his feet.

"My water broke," murmured Addison, closing her eyes.

"I noticed."

"Tell Amelia to pick up Olive today," she said with tears in her eyes. The pain was intensifying.

"I'll tell her right away, get in the car." He took out his cellphone from his pocket and began dialing his sister's number.

~•~

"Why can't I be with my mom?" she asked angrily as she walked with Amelia towards the hospital cafeteria. It was already four in the afternoon.

"Because your mom is very busy right now, she went to get your little brother or sister... you'll meet them in a few hours. Do you want ice cream?"

"I want my mom!"

"Ols, your mom can't see you right now. We can do fun things in the meantime. Don't you think? Do you want to go to my office? Or play in the daycare?"

"No! I wanna be with her!"

Amelia sighed nervously, knowing that her niece wasn't easy to convince. She had inherited the stubbornness from both her parents.

"Your mom can't be with you now, I already told you... she's..."

"And my dad?"

"He's with her."

"I wanna see the baby too!"

"You'll see it when it's born. You have to wait for them to bring it..."

"They don't have to bring it, the baby's already in her belly."

"Yes, but they have to... um... they have to take it out of there," she said nervously. It wasn't easy explaining childbirth to a five-year-old.

"How will they take it out?"

"Um... Addison will... your mom, she'll push and the baby'll come out of her body."

"How?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

"Well... babies... mothers... they can't be in their bellies all the time, right?"

"No."

"Well... when they're big enough, they decide to come out on their own, and your mother... she has to help. Because the baby can't come out by itself."

She continued to stare at Amelia with wide eyes, waiting for her to continue.

"Olive, why don't you ask your mom or your dad about it later? They'll be mad if I say too much."

"They won't be mad."

"Well... when babies are big enough, a doctor, an obstetrician like your mom, cuts open the belly with a scalpel and takes out the baby."

"That's a C-section"

"Do you know what a C-section is? Wow. At your age, I used to eat dirt."

"My mom taught me."

"Ah, too bad she didn't teach you about natural childbirth..." she muttered under her breath.

"I know. It's when babies are born through the vagina."

"So why did you ask me how it was if you already know, little nerd?"

"Because you didn't tell me how my mom's is."

"Mmm... well, your mom will have a natural birth. I think."

"You think?"

"Everything can change at the last moment. Kids sometimes don't want to be born, they want to stay inside."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it's comfortable. It's warm. They like being there. It's like their little home..."

"How did they get in there?"

"Okay, let's go get some ice cream instead. Chocolate, right?"

~•~

"She looks a lot like Olive when she was born," Addison said as she observed her baby. They both were enthralled by her beauty.

"I think she has darker hair than Olive's," Derek chuckled as he looked at her fine brown hair, almost invisible.

Addison smiled and placed a white hat on her little head so she wouldn't get cold.

"Why don't you go see how Olive is, Der? She must be worried. It's been several hours..."

"Don't worry, she's with Amelia, she's fine. You need to rest."

"I think she's hungry again," she smiled as she removed her baby's hand from her mouth.

"If she's like Olive, she'll eat every two minutes and won't let us sleep until she's two years old," he laughed, recalling those times.

"I thought I had forgotten how to do this part," she said, unfastening the strap of her nursing bra to breastfeed.

"You haven't lost your touch."

Addison shook her head and laughed.

"Friday, September 24... Is she a Libra, right?" Derek asked.

"I think so. Did you talk to your mother? Your sisters?"

"Not yet, I'll let them know later. That way they can come tomorrow. I remember when Olive was less than 6 hours old and they were already here, getting in the way."

"They weren't getting in the way, they were excited to meet her."

"Yes, and their excitement faded when Amelia decided to destroy the porcelain doll Liz brought her."

"You know it was an accident."

"Coming from Amelia, nothing surprises me. I think Olive inherited her clumsiness."

"Don't speak about her like that, Der. She's little. If she hears you, she'll feel bad."

"I felt bad too when she spilled her milkshake on my portfolio, just minutes before submitting crucial documentation for a transfer at Seattle Pres."

"It was an accident, she wouldn't do it on purpose. You know she doesn't have bad intentions."

Derek heard a knock on the door and assumed it was Amelia. He quickly got up and went to open it.

Olive was holding onto her aunt's arm, with a trembling gaze and much shyer than she actually was. It was clear she was nervous.

"Hello, my love. There's someone who's very excited to meet you," Derek said, gently taking her hand.

Derek walked beside her towards the bed, where Addison was half-reclining.

"Ollie, how are you, sweetheart?" she asked as soon as she saw her. But the girl didn't even respond. She was too focused on what her mother had in her arms.

"Ols, we'd like to introduce you to Arleth Elaine," Derek said softly, "your baby sister."

"Sister?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, "I wanted a baby boy."

Hey guys! I want to issue this warning before you continue reading. This story contains some scenes that may be sensitive to some people, as it includes the shooting that occurred in Grey's Anatomy and the tragedies it triggered.

This story is the continuation of Baby Steps, my first story, but it's not necessary to have read it to understand it.

Please excuse me if I make mistakes, I have never been pregnant nor do I have children, so I have not experienced motherhood firsthand. Many of the antics and family mishaps are inspired by my own childhood –identify a lot with Olive–.

I hope you can love Addison and Derek's daughters as much as I did.

I hope you like it and I apologize if I have grammatical problems, English's not my first language. Remember that you can always express an opinion without hurting a person. Please be kind.

Thank you, love u.