This takes place about two days after chapter 50, after the birth of Finn and Rachel's first grandchild, Liam.

Scott is 28, Abby is 24, Ellie is 22, and Evan is 19. That would put Finn and Rachel at 56 and 54, respectively.


"Is everyone asleep?"

Rachel smiled at her husband as she settled on the couch in Scott and Blaire's apartment. When the new parents had been preparing to leave the hospital with their infant son, Finn and Rachel had offered to spend the first few nights with them, hoping to offer some support and help to them. Scott and Blaire had gratefully accepted, if nothing else to just have someone help out with meals and cleaning.

Finn and Rachel did their best to stay out of Scott and Blaire's way as they navigated caring for little Liam. Of course, with their extensive family, meals were already taken care of—Scott and Blaire's fridge and freezer had been packed full of prepared food. Finn and Rachel quietly handled cleaning and the organization of any new gifts that were dropped off. They tried to gently encourage Scott and Blaire to get as much sleep as possible. Both Finn and Rachel remembered what it had been like when Scott was a baby, and how Carole had gone out of her way to help them multiple times.

That's just what parents did for their children. Blaire's parents had been traveling, but had already met their grandson via FaceTime and would be in New York the following weekend, and the next shift of supporting the new parents. For now, though, Finn and Rachel were more than happy to fill that role.

"I can't believe our baby has a baby," Rachel said again. She'd been saying the same thing off and on for the past two days. It seemed like it was just yesterday that Scott was a teeny, tiny little infant in her arms. Now he was over six feet tall, a detective in the NYPD, happily married, and with his own baby. All four of her children were grown. It was a little mind-boggling to think about, honestly.

"It is a little crazy," Finn admitted. They had both watched Scott grow up with their own eyes, and now here he was, a man with his own family. Finn couldn't have been prouder of his first born son—he was proud of all of his children. He wrapped his arm around his wife and pulled her into his side, and she snuggled against him happily. "You know that all of the kids were planning to come over and bring them take out from their favorite Mexican place, right?"

"Yeah, they wanted it to be a surprise," Rachel said affectionately. "I warned Ellie and Abby that I was going to tell Scott and Blaire. You don't just surprise new parents, even if you do bring food."

"They'll get over it," Finn assured Rachel. "They'll be happier to see the baby, than anything else."

Rachel snorted at that, knowing that it was more than a little bit true. When you had a baby, people tended to "ooh and ahhh" over the baby first, then ask after the parents after. While it might be different for some people, Rachel had found that it had worked out just fine for her. A few minutes where she wasn't expected to interact with anyone as her friends and family fawned over her babies? Rachel had always enjoyed those moments after bringing an infant home. Sometimes, a moment to yourself was all you needed to re-center yourself.


Just as Rachel and Finn had predicted, Scott and Blaire had been able to disappear for about fifteen minutes once everyone had arrived. And it was quite the large group: Abby, Mason, Ellie, Evan, Sophie, Todd, Derek, and Nathan had all shown up, their arms full of food and beer, along with clothes and toys for baby Liam. Rachel and Finn had organized the chaos as Liam was cooed over and passed around. By the time they got plates out and had handed out beers, Scott and Blaire had reappeared and happily answered questions about how they were doing.

"He's perfect!" Ellie gushed as she peered into Liam's tiny, scrunched-up face. Abby was currently holding him, and Mason was looking at his new wife with hearts in his eyes, clearly imagining her holding one of their own children.

Abby immediately caught the look. "Slow your roll, dude," she said with a laugh. "We're waiting at least a year to have kids."

Mason held his hands up, but he was grinning the entire time. "Of course," he agreed easily. "I'm just saying… you look good holding a baby, Abby."

Abby and Mason made lovey-dovey eyes at each other, which Ellie punctuated with an ick-face of her own. "Sorry, Liam, everyone in a relationship does that a lot around here," she whispered loudly. She yelped and jumped out of the way as Mason reached over to try and mess up her hair, landing next to where Nathan was leaning against the kitchen counter.

Predictably, she tripped over her own feet and reached out to try and catch herself on the counter. Nathan moved to help her, and she ended up gripping his forearm with one hand as she quickly steadied herself. After twenty-something years, one would think that she'd be used to constantly tripping and/or banging into things.

"Damn it," Ellie cursed, even as she started laughing.

Seeing that she was okay, Nathan chuckled as well. "You good?" he asked with a teasing lilt to his voice.

Ellie's cheeks flushed, and she wondered if there would ever be a time that she didn't halfway embarrass herself in front of this man. "I'm good," she managed, and then decided that she really needed the beer that she had just put down. Mason handed it to her, all the while smirking knowingly at her. Ellie narrowed her eyes at her brother-in-law, wondering how Mason had managed to trick everyone with his sweet little nerd routine. She'd get him back for it later.

On the other side of the kitchen, Finn and Scott were watching Ellie and Nathan. Finn nudged his oldest son with his elbow and jerked his head towards the pair. Scott's jaw set, and Rachel rolled her eyes.

"What are you guys doing?" Scott called loudly.

Ellie and Nathan jerked apart, not having realized that she was still holding on to his forearm. Both Ellie and Nathan turned away from each other and took long drinks of their beers. Now it was Blaire's turn to roll her own eyes as she elbowed her husband sharply in the ribs. He scowled as he rubbed his side.

"What, babe?" he asked, while Rachel, Abby, and Sophie sniggered without sympathy.

Blaire, still more than a little hormonal, mumbled under her breath about pig-headed men that had to stick their noses in everything. Rachel pressed a hand to her mouth but otherwise didn't do much to hide her laughter. She was relieved to see though, when Ellie crossed the kitchen to break into the chips and guacamole, Blaire join and murmur reassuringly to her.

It warmed her heart to see that her children—though they often bickered and did things to annoy one another on purpose, as siblings tended to do—got along relatively well and were close. The fact that it extended to spouses as well only made them even closer.

Rachel peeked over into the living room, where Evan, Todd, and Derek had appropriated Scott's X-Box—they were playing a racing game, thank goodness, because Rachel didn't want to ruin the good mood by yelling at them for playing a violent game. Little Liam was propped carefully against Evan's chest where he was reclined against the couch; his uncle was explaining the finer points of the video game as he gleefully kicked Todd's ass.

They all piled food on their plates and joined the boys in the living room. They all let the racing game on for another half an hour before Sophie snatched the controller away from her younger brother and managed to switch it to the Jackbox party games. Ellie had scooped baby Liam off of Evan's lap and was now cuddling him and cooing softly; no one missed the way that Nathan was trying not to watch her.

When they selected a trivia game, Ellie passed the baby to his parents and joined everyone else on the floor in front of the television. The longer the game went on, the louder everyone got, until they were yelling over one another about who was right. The whole time, Liam slept soundly in his father's arms, not at all disturbed by the chaos occurring around him.

Laughing, Finn pointed out the observation to his wife. "Look, babe. That kid is totally a Hudson." He said it proudly, and it was no wonder: two out of their four kids had inherited Finn's ability to sleep like the dead.

Rachel affectionately patted his chest. "He sure does, honey."


Thanks for reading!