Eddie furrowed her brow out of curiosity as she walked up to the door of her apartment and heard giggling coming from the inside. She was sure it wasn't her husband, who had gotten home a few hours before her and was waiting so they could go out for dinner tonight. She stood in front of the door for a long moment to listen and suddenly heard the patter of small footsteps running, which really increased her curiosity now. Finally, she dug out her key and opened the door.
She was immediately greeted by a small body hitting her legs, almost knocking her off balance. She looked down to see Elena, Baez's two year old daughter, looking up at her with an adorable but cheeky grin.
"What are you doing here?" Eddie laughed, picking her up and sitting her on her hip.
"It's a long story," her husband said, walking over from his place in the kitchen. He greeted his wife with a kiss on the cheek before tickling Elena's side to make her laugh. "We have a guest for the night."
"Oh we do? And how did that happen?" she asked, putting Elena down so she could continue to play.
"Danny called me when I was on my way home. He said that Baez was desperate for a sitter and had used a good chunk of her PTO when Elena was sick a few weeks back and really couldn't afford to take off. Her usual sitter is sick now too and she had no one to turn to. Danny basically offered us up since he knew we're off for the next few days. But Baez still called me after I got off the phone with Danny and asked me herself. She sounded so stressed and I felt bad for her so I said yes."
"I would've too," Eddie replied. "And she does it all on her own. I don't know how she handles it."
They looked over at Elena, who had calmed down slightly and was sitting on the ground, having a full on conversation with the variety of stuffed animals that her mother had sent with her.
"She said that her and Danny are going to work overnight and that she should be here to pick her up after their shift. I think around eight or so," Jamie continued. "She said that she still needs to have dinner and that she'll have whatever we put in front of her. Bedtime is usually around eight, latest nine. She's usually good at entertaining herself but will rope you in to play with her. She's working on potty training so we'll have to keep asking her if she has to go. But most of the time she'll tell us."
"This should make for an interesting night," Eddie smiled. "Thankfully she's comfortable and actually knows us. So… should we still go out to dinner? Or should we stay in? I honestly don't care as long as we eat."
"I was going to say that we can get a pizza from the shop down the street and take it over to the park so she can play. She's been running circles ever since we got here so I think she's antsy to get out. Baez even said that we're more than welcome to take her out if we want to."
"Then, let's do it." Eddie quickly changed into more comfortable clothes, keeping in mind that her and Jamie were very likely going to break a sweat having to chase a very energetic toddler. When she returned, she found that Jamie had managed to wrangle Elena back into her jacket and shoes. The two year old reached for her "Ed-e's" hand as they left the apartment while Jamie followed behind, carrying the small backpack that had multiple pairs of clothes, pull-ups, and other items needed to survive an outing with Elena Baez.
Much to their surprise, Elena didn't attempt to bolt when they walked outside. Since she was of high energy when in the apartment, they assumed it would increase once the fresh evening air hit her. Instead she was very observant of her surroundings and kept a tight hold on Eddie's hand as they walked. Jamie assumed that she had been carefully taught by her overprotective mother and her godfather Danny on stranger danger, despite her young age. Eddie even tested this when she tried to loosen her grip on Elena's hand, but the little girl squeeze her hand even tighter. She smiled over at Jamie, who noticed and nodded.
"Elena… are you hungry?" Jamie asked the little girl. "Do you want some pizza?"
Her light brown eyes lit up as she looked over at Jamie. "Pita?" she said. "Chee pita?"
Jamie and Eddie laughed at her adorable effort of trying to pronounce the words. "Yeah honey," Jamie responded, ruffling her hair. "We'll get you some cheese pizza."
Elena smiled, "Pita!"
They made it to the pizza shop and ordered their slices. Elena even managed to order hers on her own, which impressed the shop owner so much that he gave them a dessert to share on the house.
They walked back to the park that was across the street from their apartment and found an empty picnic table next to the play set. They sat Elena down next to Jamie before they realized that she was too short and wasn't able to reach for the table above her. It didn't matter anyways since Elena elected to stand while she ate.
"So, how was your tour today?" Jamie asked, cutting Elena's pizza up into smaller pieces to lessen the choking hazard.
"It was good," she responded. "Uneventful thankfully. How about you?"
"A lot of desk work," he replied. "Nothing much happened."
"Pita good," Elena suddenly let out, placing a hand on Jamie's shoulder as she chewed the piece she popped into her mouth. Eddie took an opportunity to pull out her phone and send a picture to Baez and Danny.
All good over here. Big fan of cheese pizza, she captioned the photo before sending it.
"Agua por favor?" she asked, pointing to her water bottle that was sitting next to Eddie.
"Of course, sweetheart," Eddie responded, taking the lid off of it before handing it over to Elena. "It's still crazy to me that this tiny two year old can speak better Spanish than me. It took me a minute to register what she asked for until she actually pointed to it."
Jamie chuckled, "Yeah. According to Baez, her babysitter is fluent and talks to her a lot in Spanish. She told me to not be surprised if she starts switching between English and Spanish when she talks at times. I think it's a good second language to know, especially for our line of work. And you're actually getting better at it."
"Yeah I'm better now but still not great. Badillo still has to translate for me at times," she admitted. She sat in thought for a long minute as she looked at Elena. "I think it would be good for our kids to know some Spanish…"
Jamie smiled, "Me too. Especially starting when they're young like Elena. It becomes easier for them to grasp and eventually they're used to it."
They chatted to Elena, who offered her thoughts and observations of what she saw around the park as they finished eating. Eventually, the two year old requested to be assisted down from the picnic table and quickly ran off to the play set with Jamie chasing after her. Eddie cleaned up their trash then sat down to watch Jamie and Elena.
Elena was on top of the slide with Jamie standing protectively at the bottom waiting for her.
"Come on Elena," Jamie encouraged. "Slide down here honey."
She looked down at him anxiously and shook her head. "I 'cared," she let out with a small, nervous squeak.
He flashed a comforting smile at her, "It's okay. There's nothing to be scared of. I won't let anything happen to you."
Elena still shook her head.
"Do you want me to come up there and slide down with you?" Jamie asked.
The two year old nodded quickly, "Jammie up!"
"Okay, I'll come up." Jamie climbed up the steps of the play set and made it over to Elena. He sat down before pulling Elena onto his lap and scooting forward to the top of the slide. Eddie couldn't help but laugh and take a picture when she saw that Jamie's legs almost reached halfway down the slide.
"Are you ready Elena?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her to secure her to him safely.
"Ready Jammie!"
The little one giggled with delight as they slid down. As soon as they made it to the bottom, she was ready to go again.
"Come on Jammie!" she exclaimed, jumping off his lap and running over to the stairs to go again.
Eddie eventually lost count of how many times Jamie and Elena had gone down the slide. She had endless energy and her poor husband was trying his best to keep up with her. She stood up once she saw them heading for the slide again and walked over.
"Time to tap out, Jammie," she teased, patting her husband's shoulder as she moved past him to follow Elena. "It's my turn."
Jamie smiled gratefully and made his way back down the stairs to take a break at the picnic table. After another trip down the slide, Elena elected to go over to the swing set. Eddie placed her on one and started to push her carefully. She was a tiny little girl and the last thing they needed was Elena to fly off a swing. Thankfully for them, the motion of the swing was soothing to her and eventually, they noticed her little eyes starting to flutter.
"Jamie," Eddie called out gently as she stopped the swing and went to pick up Elena. As soon as Elena's head hit Eddie's shoulder, she was out like a light.
"Looks like it's time to go," Jamie said as Eddie came over to the picnic table with Elena in her arms. He ran a hand over the little one's head before picking up their things and following Eddie back to their apartment.
The first thing they were tasked with once arriving home was getting Elena in her pajamas. They were afraid that she would wake up but thankfully, she remained asleep. They laid her down in the guest room and Jamie placed a fort of pillows around her, not wanting to take any chances of her rolling off the bed.
Eddie let out a happy sigh as she leaned against the doorway. "She looks so peaceful," she said to her husband.
"She does," he agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close.
"Honestly… I had so much fun with her today," she admitted. "It was just fun to get to watch her and hear her thoughts about things. And gosh, her energy is crazy. Don't you agree, Jammie?"
He laughed lightly, "She wore me out."
"I could tell." Eddie looked at Elena again as Jamie brought her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"I had a fun time with her too. Got me thinking about this is how our future will look like at some point. Chasing around a mini Eddie or Jamie."
She looked up at him, "We're taking a real chance at combining the Reagan and Janko genes, aren't we? Are you sure you could deal with me and a mini version of me? Bub, you'd pull your hair out. Especially if we had a girl."
"I'm sure I can handle it," he assured. "And what about you? A smaller version of me…"
"… would be absolutely adorable," she finished for him. "I've seen your baby pictures. But I don't know about the swallowing random things though. That would surely give me a heart attack."
Jamie blushed and shook his head, "You had to bring that up, didn't you?"
She smiled and turned around to kiss his cheek, "Come on. Let's get to bed. We'll keep the door open just in case Elena needs us."
It was nearly two in the morning when Jamie heard the soft cries coming from their guest room. He immediately hopped out of bed and threw on a shirt, before walking over to tend to Elena.
The two year old was sitting up in bed, tears streaming down her face. "Jammie," she sniffled, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she clutched her stuffed bunny that Eddie had left.
"Hey sweetheart," he said gently, moving a pillow to sit next to her on the bed. "What's wrong?"
"I want mama," she let out, wiping a few more tears that ran down her cheeks.
The look she was giving him broke his heart into pieces. The last time they had texted Baez was right before they had gone to bed, informing her of their evening and that Elena was asleep. He contemplated for a quick minute if calling and letting Elena talk to her mother would help the situation but decided against it, feeling a phone call from him at this time of night would probably send her into a panic.
"Come here, honey," he said, reaching out for her. Elena immediately crawled into his grasp and laid her head against his chest as he bundled her up in his arms.
"When Mama come?" Elena asked. "I want Mama."
"Mama's working right now, Elena," he responded. "But she'll be here when the light comes up, okay? Right now, you need to try and go back to sleep so you can get your rest."
He sighed sadly when Elena continued to cry softly. He hoped she would cry it out for a little while before falling back to sleep but it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. He wasn't the most well versed baby sitter, only taking care of his niece and nephews a few times when they were quite a few years older than Elena. This was a new territory for him and he was scouring his brain for an idea on how to calm her down.
"Elena? How about I tell you a story? Do you like stories?"
Suddenly, Elena looked up at Jamie with a small twinkle in her eye. "I like 'em," she responded. "Mama say 'tory."
"Oh she does? Well, I think I have one for you. Do you want to hear it?"
Elena nodded happily before settling back against Jamie's chest, "Yes p'ease."
"Alright…" He pulled the blanket over them and cleared his throat before he began. "Once upon at time…"
Eddie was startled awake at almost three o'clock in the morning when she turned to cuddle up to her husband and found his side of the bed cold and empty. She immediately sat up and looked around the room.
"Elena," she said to herself, her voice barely above a whisper.
She quickly got out of bed and made her way over to the guest room, slightly panicked thinking that something had happened with the little one. When she got there and peeked inside, she was greeted with the cutest sight that she'd ever seen. Jamie was sitting up in the bed asleep, with his back against the wall and Elena cuddled up in his arms.
She suddenly got a look into the future, imagining Jamie doing the same thing with their own children. She could see him being the first one at their side if they woke up from a nightmare or if they just needed someone. Seeing him interact with Elena tonight had stirred up those feelings that she had when dealing with Amelia a few months back. Jamie would be the most amazing father to any child they had and she hoped they could make that a reality as soon as possible.
She walked over and tried to slowly peel Elena from Jamie's grasp. He immediately stirred at the feeling and woke up in a rush.
"It's okay. It's okay," she comforted gently. "It's just me."
Jamie let out a sigh of relief, "You scared me."
"I know. Did she wake up?"
He nodded, "Yeah. I heard her crying so I came in. She was missing her mom."
Eddie frowned as she looked at Elena, "Poor girl. Did you call Maria?"
Jamie shook his head, "I figured a call from me at this hour would get her panicked. I was able to calm Elena down. I had a bedtime story up my sleeve. Worked like a charm."
Eddie chuckled softly as she went to sit next to him and Elena on the bed, "Oh really? Which one did you tell her?"
"It was one that my mom would tell me when I was little. It's called Whispers of a Goodnight Moon. It always calmed me down if I had a nightmare or was having trouble going to sleep. Sometimes, I go and read it when I miss her. It makes me feel close to her, you know?"
She nodded thoughtfully before smiling at him, "You're going to be a really good Dad, Jamie. I've always known it but seeing you interact with Elena truly confirms it."
He smiled gently as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I appreciate that, hon," he said softly. "I really hope to be. My mom always said that all she wanted to do was raise good people. She didn't care if we became rich, famous, or anything of that sort. As long as we were good people and good to others, then she thought she was doing her job as a parent. And truthfully, that's all I want too."
"Me too," she agreed.
"And you're going to be one hell of a mom, Ed," he continued. "Our kid is going to be beyond lucky to have you."
She laid her head on his shoulder, "We're going to make quite a team, aren't we?"
He nodded, "We sure are."