AN: This is just a frivolous, fluffy little one shot. It can be read alone, of course, but it's best following "What Are Little Hazlitts Made Of?"
I own nothing from Murder, She Wrote.
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!
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Seth didn't always work Monday through Friday, like many people did. He didn't work regular hours, either. He tried to keep somewhat steady hours but, of course, he was often called here or there for emergencies, and he regularly came in on Saturday to handle the issues that cropped up on Friday night—as if sickness could sense "off-hours."
He was determined, however, that Saturday he wasn't going to go into work unless it was an absolute emergency. He wanted to spend some time with Jessica, simply doing whatever it was that happened to come up for the two of them. He'd commented to Jessica on Friday evening that he was honestly feeling exhausted. She'd fawned over him a bit, insisted that he put his feet up, and given him a gentle lecture about working too hard and not taking care of himself.
He'd promised her that, short of a true emergency, he wouldn't be going in on Saturday. The day would be theirs, entirely, to spend together.
She'd woken him up, Saturday morning, in a way that he was sure was a hundred times better than the wake-up call of most men in Cabot Cove.
Seth was never sorry for a morning love-making session with his wife. Though he enjoyed the physical intimacy between them immensely, and though he would swear it did wonders for clearing his mind, improving his mood, and making him simply feel "better" all day, it wasn't even the physical intimacy that he felt really stayed with him.
What had him humming as he made his way downstairs to start breakfast wasn't just the purely physical side of it—it was the way he felt after being as absolutely close to and connected to his wonderful wife as was possible.
Seth caught himself humming as he started the coffee and searched the fridge for ingredients to consider for breakfast. He laughed to himself. He might have given someone else a hard time for being so outwardly chipper, but he didn't care to try to hide it.
After he lost Ruth, Seth had felt like there might be very few happy days ahead for him. He hadn't gone to the dark emotional places that some men went to—mostly because he knew that Ruth wouldn't have approved. In fact, it was his memory of Ruth that had gotten him through some of the hardest moments. She would have scolded him about being so low after her death.
Ruth liked for Seth to be happy and light. She remembered how he'd been when he was young, really, and she had always held onto that, at least to some degree. She'd urged him, often, to act quite outside of his age with her.
And Seth had been happy to act however Ruth wanted him to act.
Of course, like every married couple, they'd had their downs, but their ups had been well worth anything else they'd had to endure.
So, when he'd lost Ruth, Seth had feared that, really, all of those wonderful times were behind him. There had been women that were interested in him—of course there had been, there were enough divorcees and widows in Cabot Cove that the choice to be alone was absolutely a choice—but he couldn't imagine loving another woman like he loved his Ruth.
And he was right. He was absolutely right.
Because he didn't love Jessica like he loved Ruth. He loved Jessica in a way that was unique to Jessica—but no less sincere and wonderful.
Jessica was smart and talented. She was beautiful. She was sexy. She was funny, and she made him laugh. She made him think. She encouraged his silliness. She made him feel like a good man—the best kind of man—and she made him want to be that man for her.
Seth didn't deal in absolutes, mostly because he didn't believe they existed. Now that he truly loved Jessica, he wouldn't dare say that he'd loved Ruth more or that he loved Jessica more. He had loved Ruth entirely, as Ruth, and he loved Jessica entirely, as Jessica. There was no competition, and he liked to believe that Jessica felt exactly the same.
Seth was a happy man—and he liked to believe that, somewhere, Ruth and Frank approved of the happiness of the now-Hazlitt household.
"Jess—you coming down, Woman?" Seth called out, realizing that Jessica was taking a bit longer than he thought normal to do whatever she wanted to do in the bathroom and get dressed.
His stomach tightened a little, and he felt just a bit of his joy pushed to the side to make room for the anxiety that he kept pushed down, most of the time. He didn't like for Jessica to know when he was anxious, if he could hide it. She had a great deal of anxiety to contend with—all of it absolutely justified, in Seth's opinion—and he felt that it was his role to try to keep his own anxiety at bay so that he could offer her the comfort, reassurance, and positivity that she needed to deal with her own feelings.
Jessica was pregnant. Most of Cabot Cove might call them foolish for choosing to try to have a baby at their age, but it didn't matter much to Seth what most of Cabot Cove thought. He wanted a child. Jessica wanted a child. She'd confessed the dream to him one night, and he'd realized that he would do nearly anything to help her see that dream become a reality, especially when it was his dream, too.
It hadn't been the simple thing that people thought. They hadn't shared their experience with anyone outside of the doctors that Seth had carefully chosen because of his confidence in their abilities. Their baby hadn't come from a simple love-making experience like the one that had started Seth's day off perfectly. They—and, by that, Seth mostly meant Jessica—had gone through a lot to make this baby even a possibility.
And the tiny baby girl was healthy, but they were both still holding their breath. Jessica had lost two babies before, very much in the span of time which they were currently experiencing in this pregnancy, and she was terrified that such a thing might happen again. Seth, too, was nervous, but he did his best to keep that away from Jessica's immediately realization, knowing that she needed to lean on him and, in return, she would keep him going in every way that he could imagine.
Still, any time that Seth felt like Jessica took too long or seemed out of sorts, his stomach tightened with fear. At this point in the pregnancy, he would be helpless—even his profession wouldn't serve him well—and that terrified him.
Seth abandoned the ingredients for breakfast on the counter and made his way to the stairs.
"Jess? What's taking so long? Have you got another man up there or something?"
He added the last part to try to make himself laugh. He added it to try to distract his own brain. He didn't want to let on that he was worried, after all, and he didn't want to stir up concern, if nothing like that was warranted.
"Jessica!" He called, when she didn't respond again.
"I'm coming, Seth! I'm coming!" Jessica called back, her voice showing a little irritation. She appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed for a run, and Seth's heart felt like it resumed a normal beat. He wondered if he looked as relieved as he felt.
"A jog?" He asked. "Mind if we wait until after breakfast?"
"I don't mind either way," Jessica said, coming down the stairs. She let out something of a sigh as she reached the bottom and went around Seth, headed for the kitchen. He reached out and playfully swatted her on the bottom. She laughed, but double-timed her steps for a moment.
He felt sincere relief to know that all was well—or, at least, well enough. When he came into the kitchen, he could sense that something was at least a little off in Jessica's demeanor, but she was expecting, and he was forgiving of the fact that she was dealing with new moods of which she wasn't even aware sometimes.
"You come right in the kitchen and start messing with my breakfast plan, Jess?" Seth teased, walking up behind her as she looked over the possible breakfast ingredients. He nuzzled the back of her neck. He felt her inhale deeply. He felt her relax as she let the breath out. He kissed her neck and her face. He rested his hands on her hips, and she leaned back into him, relaxing into him. He smiled to himself before he returned to nuzzling the side of her face. "I'm just going to tell you, Jess—if you're thinking anything at all, just know it's my refractory period and not you."
Jessica laughed quietly.
"Would you be offended if I told you—I like this just as much right now?" Jessica asked.
Seth hummed in the negative to reassure her. He drew in a deep breath and let it out, feeling his own muscles relax, as he pulled her a little more tightly into him and rested his chin on her shoulder. She hummed with satisfaction and it ran through him—absolute proof that his body betrayed him, sometimes, because his mind and his heart were absolutely willing. Still, he liked holding her, like this, just as much as anything else they could be doing at the moment—just as she'd said.
"I feel the same, Woman," he offered, moving to kiss her neck a bit more. She shivered against him and he moved his hands, sliding them forward from her hips to rest on her belly. Finding the elastic band of the pants, he slipped one hand inside, just far enough to feel the warmth of her skin against the skin of his palm. "I love you, Jessica." He said. "I love you both."
Jessica hummed.
"I love you," she said. "We love you."
She turned, and he let her. He couldn't help but laugh at the series of facial expressions that she went through in relatively rapid succession.
"What in the world is on your mind, Jess?" He asked, when she settled on something that wasn't entirely a frown, but was certainly in the neighborhood of one.
She drew in a breath like she was about to tell him, let it out like she'd changed her mind, and frowned again with the kind of expression that made him believe that she was about to tell him that she'd wrecked his car or committed some other crime against him.
"Spit it out, Jess," he said, suddenly wondering what she'd done.
She sighed.
"Oh—alright," she said. "Seth—I don't really want to go on a run. I mean…I wouldn't mind a nice walk, honestly, but…"
He laughed.
"Jess—I don't care," Seth said. "I'll run with you, walk with you…I'll stay home with you and we'll sit around the house together. I don't care, Woman. You came down dressed like you wanted to go on a run, so…"
She made a face. Seth stopped talking.
"These were the only pants I could get on," Jessica said. She sighed. "Seth—everything's tight. Nothing fits comfortably."
She looked at him apologetically. She looked at him almost as though she expected some sort of scolding for something she'd done that, perhaps, he'd told her not to do. She looked at him as though she expected disapproval.
Of course, as a doctor, he lectured people about their weight somewhat regularly, but he also knew that there was an inordinate amount of pressure on women to stay trim—even beyond what was, sometimes, actually healthy.
Jessica had always been careful about her figure, quickly getting her weight back down to what she thought was acceptable, if she ever did indulge a bit too much.
Maybe, now, some of that played into the reason that she was looking at him as she was.
Seth smiled at her and moved his hand back to her stomach.
"Let me see, Jess," he said, tugging upward on her shirt.
"Seth!" She said, laughing at him. "We're in the kitchen…"
"I don't care, Jessica," he said. "We're in our kitchen. Alone! Besides, I told you—you still owe me a little kitchen table loving, Woman. Or the countertop—I'm flexible."
"I'm not sure I'm that flexible," Jessica teased.
"You're plenty flexible," Seth responded. "But don't you worry, we'll figure out what's comfortable for you and our baby girl."
"There's nothing to see," Jessica said, smoothing her shirt down. Seth let her, but he did still pat her belly. She smiled softly in response. Seth knew that, no matter what she seemed to be feeling these days, she always responded positively to him gently touching or patting her tummy—so he did it with some regularity for the pleasure that it brought both of them.
"Oh—there's a little something to see," he said. "And there'll be more, Jessica. She's growing."
Jessica smiled, and her cheeks colored slightly, but she rolled her eyes at him and made a sound of disagreement that was only partially believable.
"I just look fat, Seth. Out of shape."
"But you're pregnant, Jessica," Seth countered. "And our little girl is growing. Here's the proof." Jessica opened her mouth like she might say something, but she stopped. Seth smiled. "Just celebrate with me a minute, Woman. She's growing."
She stared at him a moment, and he saw her relax.
"She's growing," she confirmed, nodding her head.
"She's healthy," Seth said. "Every last one of your doctors says that, myself included. Do you remember that heartbeat, Jess? That was a good sounding heartbeat, Woman."
Jessica's face grew a little pinker, but she laughed. She nodded at him.
"And she's growing," Seth said. "Nobody can deny it. Look at her."
"It just looks like…I'm eating all the time, which I am…and now my pants don't fit."
"And it's beautiful, Jess," Seth said.
"People are going to have things to say," Jessica said. "You can be sure of that."
"What else is new?" Seth said. "I don't care what any of them have to say, unless it's congratulations."
She smiled at him and touched his face. She leaned toward him, and he met her for a kiss. She seemed a bit hungry for it, and he never wanted to turn away one of Jessica's kisses, so he indulged her, easing his hands back to her hips to hold her against him. The kiss might not be leading to anything more physical, but he still enjoyed feeling her body pressing up against his.
"You are happy, aren't you, Jessica?" Seth asked, when the kiss broke.
"About the baby? Of course. Immensely," Jessica said.
"The rest is just part of what comes with the territory," Seth said.
"I do wish—it was a bit more obvious," Jessica said with a laugh. "You know—that I'm pregnant and not just…out of shape."
"There's time for it," Seth said. "In the meantime, let's get you both a good breakfast, and then let's take a little trip."
"A trip? Seth? Where are we going?"
"We're going to buy you some clothes that fit, Woman," Seth said. "And—there's a couple things that I've been meaning to pick up. I think we ought to have a few things around to remind us we have a little girl on the way."
"Don't get too carried away, Seth," Jessica said.
"Not too carried away," he said. "Just carried away enough. How do you want your eggs?"
"At least let me make you breakfast," Jessica said. "The least I can do is take care of you a little."
Seth smiled at the sincerity of her words. He leaned and pecked her on the corner of the mouth before stealing one quick kiss on her lips that she offered freely. She broke free of the kiss with a giggle at his teasing, as his fingertips found her sides and tickled her.
"Believe me, I'm well taken care of," Seth said. "After how you woke me up this morning, you won't hear me complain."
"Well—that's certainly something new for you…not complaining," Jessica teased. Her expression—mischievous and beloved by Seth—told him she was waiting to see if she would get a rise out of him.
"You can help me with breakfast, but we better get a move on or you're going to hear me complaining about how long I have to wait, Jessica," Seth said, putting on a bit for her amusement. "The traffic is already going to be ridiculous and I don't want to be out past her bedtime."
"Her bedtime?" Jessica asked with a laugh, moving to start helping him arrange breakfast for the both of them.
Seth got started, too, preparing to assist her.
"A-yuh," he said. "I supposed it had to be her bedtime, because her mother can't seem to make it past nine." Jessica gave him a warning look, which he didn't believe for a single second. He smirked at her. "Two eggs or three, Jess?" He asked.
"One," Jessica said.
"Two it is," Seth responded. She rolled her eyes at him and he laughed to himself. "Gotta feed my girls…and keep her growing like a weed!"