Prompt #219 - TBAH: It’s a Girl!
@all--the--dancers : Owen finding out that their fifth and final baby is FINALLY a girl!
I asked Majella last week if I wrote one thing that night what would she want it to be. This was her choice. It took me like 5 days to finish it. Whoops.
AO3 - To Build a Home
IT’S A GIRL!
They needed a new bed. Claire decided, thinking to herself as she lifted her eyes from the tablet in her hand. Something bigger than the king they already had, enough to fit another child comfortably and then some. Not that she was planning to fill their bed with any more babies. Her hand stroked her rounding stomach. Last one. And then she could get back to her job and a life free of carrying Owen’s heavy babies in the pit of her tiny pelvis.
Five was enough. Five wasn’t even supposed to happen. They should have stopped at three but when the ovum split, creating to perfectly identical little boys their plans at a small brood instantly grew. Owen got a vasectomy a little under a year ago. Fate wasn’t in their favour when he couldn’t keep his hands off his wife in the advised window leading to their fifth child rounding out her stomach. The vasectomy was supposed to prevent that from happening … Claire still wasn’t over being bitter about it. They were looking forward to another little life. A final chance to kiss those baby years goodbye before they settled into Bernie’s incoming adolescence.
Currently, their bed was full. Bernard, Hunter, Marshall and Ryan all sprawled across the covers this way and that as their little faces relaxed in sleep. Owen was still reading beside her, black-rimmed glasses perched on his nose as he read something about a hover car racer Bernie was enthralled with. It had become a nighttime ritual, Owen reading to his boys, Claire trying to get work done as sleep usually claimed her with the calm of her husband's warm voice.
Her iPad had locked itself ten minutes ago as she watched small chests rise and fall, her twin boys cramped into the space between herself and Owen, their bodies pressed together, thumbs in their mouths. They never forgot that they were twins but it startled Claire sometimes when their minds and bodies mirrored the other. Hunter had set himself up on the end of the bed, stretched from end to end while Bernard occupied the space between his parent's legs were the twins weren’t yet tall enough to fill. He was the only one still awake and fighting it as Owen continued to read about Jason Chaser none the wiser to his sleeping audience.
Bernard was gone within another page, eyes closing and staying that way for good. Claire felt her heart clench, chest tight as she watched her sweet boys finally sit still and remain quiet. The twins beside her were grunting in their sleep but that was nothing to the constant noise that rattled throughout their home. Four boys. She couldn’t believe it. If they had known that’s where their life would have led all those years ago, she would have thought it all an erratic fantasy.
It was true. Owen Grady and Claire Dearing had gotten married, built a home and brought four wild little boys into the world. She knew the gender of their fifth child, wasn’t supposed to but their well-meaning neighbour had let it slip.
Katie had offered to throw Claire a gender reveal party. She was high on the idea, excited and a little mournful that it was the last baby her friends would have. They had four boys and like with each pregnancy, there was a fifty-fifty chance the baby was a girl. It was all Owen wanted, more than anything in the world, was to have a baby girl of his own.
In confirming a few ideas she had, Katie had let it slip. The secret she knew. The gender of Baby Dearing-Grady #5. Claire tried to forget it, tried to pretend she hadn’t heard. But the confirmation had been stuck in her head for two days and it wouldn’t die out.
Watching her boys and listening to her husband Claire couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. The tears burned her eyes, her lungs seized, holding onto her breath a little too tight. He was a good dad. Their boys were noisy but patient, kind, empathetic. They were going to grow into strong young men that would continue to cherish those in their lives. Owen deserved so much for the effort he put in. He deserved the little girl he had been dreaming about long before they met. His dreams had altered, his need for a daughter growing now that his wife was a dynamo, Owen once explaining that he just needed a piece of her that would grow to look and be exactly like her mother. He never wanted the world to go without a Claire Dearing.
She had argued that their boys could do that. She saw herself in their hearts and their minds. They caught his sense of humour but it was her quick wit mixed with it. Claire had warned that there was a chance — if they had a daughter — that she would turn out exactly like her father or be an amalgamation of them both. He was willing to risk that chance.
She loved him for that.
It wasn’t until Owen finished the chapter that he noticed she was quietly crying beside him.
‘Whoa, hey, what’s wrong?’ He asked, all concern, book tossed to the floor with a quiet thud as his hand found her arm over the body of their youngest sons.
‘You’re such a good dad.’ Claire could barely see his face through her blurry blue eyes. A sob was climbing its way up her throat, the woman desperate for it not to break and wake her sleeping sons. ‘It’s a girl.’ She told him so quietly Claire feared it was all in her head. Owen blinked when she did, eyes clearing to catch the shock on his face. He didn’t move. ‘Katie accidentally let it slip.’ The silence continued. ‘You’re getting your baby girl.’ Her eyes watered again, voice wet as a small cry slipped free.
She could hear Owen gaping, mouth opening and closing, unable to find the words until both his hands were on her face and his lips on hers. She didn’t know how he did it with the small bodies between them but he was kissing her, ferociously, their faces wet and tasing of salt.
‘Yeah?’ He asked the only thing he was capable of. Claire nodded. ‘I — I can’t —‘ He trailed off, hands squeezing her face before they fluttered down her arms, gripping here and there. She wanted to remember the look on his face for the rest of her days but Claire couldn’t see him between her tears. She felt his hands, one holding steady on the roundness of her belly that was starting to make her fear their child being another big boy. His other hand tugged at her shirt, pulling it over her prominent bump so his fingers could have contact with her skin. His lips were on her stomach in a heartbeat, peppering all over the way he had done a hundred times over the last eight years. ‘A girl?’ He asked again and she nodded. ‘Claire, I — I love you so much, babe. I love our boys. I would have loved another one. But, a girl?!’ His words stopped, choking sound filtering from his throat before it turned into a cry. ‘I’m so glad we fucked up and got another chance at this.’
She hit him at the mention of their misinformation concerning his vasectomy, her small fist landing against the side of his arm as hard as she could swing. Owen barely moved. Claire hardly cared. She had done the one thing she thought impossible; Claire Dearing had rendered her husband speechless for longer than thirty seconds.
‘Mama?’ It was Hunter’s concerned voice, Claire wiping the tears from her eyes as she looked over at her second boy, sitting up on the end of the bed. She felt the twins stir beside her, their grizzles growing louder as Bernie was quick to follow with bleary-eyed confusion. She couldn’t be upset that they were awake, they needed to be moved into their own beds eventually.
‘It’s okay.’ She told them, Marshall and Ryan wiggling past their dad to climb into their mother’s lap, fitting themselves around her growing middle.
‘You’re getting a sister!’ Owen told them, a smile splitting his face in half as he pushed his weight against the mattress and bounced with complete glee.
‘We were supposed to wait until Katie’s party.’ Hunter told them, confusion knitting itself between his eyebrows, the boy deflated, almost disappointed. Claire nodded, small laugh on her lips. Bernie drew their attention, eldest boy sitting in the middle of the bed, lip curled, fingers pressed to his mouth. His tears were hot and heavy, slipping down his cheeks as his throat crackled.
Claire reached for him, immediately trying to soothe her eldest boy as she asked if he was okay. ‘I really really wanted a little sister.’ He cried, leaning into Claire’s touch as he shuffled over to bury his head against his mother’s neck. Claire’s hand slipped through his dirty blonde hair, catching the long strands that were in desperate need of a trim. Marshall grunted, elbow sliding back into his older brothers ribs as Bernie shoved him back, quietly reassuring the youngest of his place in the sibling hierarchy. The oldest Grady boy was as rough and tumble just like the others. He started the game, but once the others came alone it was evident to Owen and Claire that Bernard was the softest of their boys. He took his role as eldest seriously and used to nurture his brothers and well as discipline them. However, he wasn’t afraid to get rough. If they hit him, he would hit them back, would yell at the same pitch, would get agitated and impatient all the same.
Owen reached a hand between the two boys, separating their small fight before it got to hands-on, shoves turning into fists until their mother got hurt in the process. He couldn’t count on two hands the number of times they had each gotten a strong fist to the face.
He was beyond ready for a little girl. Something calm and sweet in the midst of all this chaos. His body was still shaking with the news. Maybe Claire was right. Four kids were enough. Three was where the line should have been drawn but twins weren’t something he thought to plan for. ‘C’mere, Marsh.’ He reached for the boy, plucking him right from Claire's arms as Owen bounced him on his hip. ‘Are you excited?’ He asked the boy who only rested his head on Owen’s shoulder.
‘Brother.’ He told him, pointing at Ryan who was climbing to a wobbly stand on his mother’s legs, hand on her chest to steady himself.
‘That’s your brother, yeah.’ Owen confirmed, kissing the boy’s head as he held a flat palm out for Ryan, the boy wobbling towards it before Owen scooped him up with his empty arm. ‘You’re gonna get a sister.’ He was crying again, voice unaffected as the tears steadily fell down his face. ‘Do you think that’ll be fun?’ The twins nodded, blonde curls bouncing on their heads as Owen turned to his wife to catch her watching them with awe.
‘We’re crazy.’ She told him, voice quiet, barely there in what had been the snoozy bubble of their bedroom. Five kids. Four boys and a little girl. There had been a point in her life where Claire was sure she wouldn’t have any children, let alone four with their fifth on the way.
‘You’re just figuring that out?’ Owen flashed her a grin. He was standing by Claire’s side of the bed, a toddler on each hip as he bounced them steadily, boys mirroring each other with blonde heads on his shoulder.
Claire shook her head. ‘Oh no, I figured that out when I let you keep Daisy.’ The cow that was currently out to pasture on their property, happily munching on the grass — and the daisies the boys liked to feed her — often found resting near the fence that bordered the chicken coop. Claire Dearing realised she lost the plot when it clicked that her husband had slowly integrated her life into farm living.
The boys loved it. She couldn’t really complain. That, or as his Mama said, she was so often pregnant most of her complaining was focused on swollen ankles and growing bellies that she didn’t have time to notice he had turned the city girl into a country mouse.
‘We need ice-cream!’ Owen announced, sounding exactly like her hyper boys in the middle of the afternoon. Claire shook her head but Owen wasn’t looking, his eyes were jumping from each boy’s face and back again. ‘And milkshakes! Strawberry milkshakes!’ That got their attention, Bernie and Hunter, on their knees, bouncing on the bed and ready to leap right off it.
Claire’s voice was low when she caught his attention just to level him with a stern look. ‘It’s bedtime.’ Owen laughed, waving her off like all four boys hadn’t just been asleep, almost ready to be carried off into their beds.
‘We’re having a girl, Claire! It deserves a milkshake.’ His face was drawn in serious lines other than the smile her husband couldn’t subdue. There would be no arguing with him.
‘You have to put them to bed.’ She warned. ‘And all tummy aches and tantrums tomorrow are yours and yours alone.’ Owen nodded eagerly. He had already been waiting on her hand and foot since she told him they would be having a fifth baby. Bedtime and tummy aches were nothing new to his routine.
‘I’ll bring one up for ya.’ He grinned, bending to kiss his wife’s cheek as Bernie jumped off the bed, his feet hitting the floor with a heavy thud as Claire cringed for his ankles. Marshall was placed on his feet as Ryan clung to his father’s shirt, refusing to let go while each boy followed him out of the room like eager little ducks. What was better than dessert when they should be sleeping?
Claire sighed, hands running over her rounding belly she had started to think would be another boy. She was going to get up, follow her husband and her sons when the sheets rustled beside her. Hunter had stayed behind.
‘Don’t you want to go make milkshakes?’ She asked, smile soft and encouraging.
Hunter shrugged, fingers twitching in his lap as his mother watched him carefully. ‘I don’t want a milkshake.’ He told her, face almost drawn in a full frown. ‘I don’t want another baby.’ It was the first she had heard those words. At six months pregnant, it was a little late for Hunter to voice disapproval. Claire needed that voice months ago when she wasn’t sure if they were making the right decision or not. Hunter’s disinterest in another sibling wasn’t completely out of the blue. If she had looked, it had always been there. When they told the boys she was pregnant again he had sighed deeply, disappointed and tired before he pulled away from everyone and went to his room. With four boys, they were already struggling to keep on top of them. Her mother's guilt kicked in, terrible feeling stirring in her gut when she realised they hadn’t been checking in on the boy's feelings as thoroughly as they ought.
‘It’s not so bad.’ She told him, unsure of what to say. Their numbers grew quickly and before now neither of their older boys had protested. ‘You won’t have to share a room.’ She told him, nudging the boys' side and hoping that was enough to convince him. ‘What are you most worried about?’
The boy watched his fingers in his lap, unable to look at her. ‘You’re gonna be with the baby all the time and not us and … and … and we won’t get to see you cause they’re sleepin’ or eating and that uses up all your day.’ He stopped, breathing through his open mouth as his fingers tugged on the string in his pyjama pants.
He was only three when the twins were born and despite being completely blind sighted by double the number of infants Claire and Owen both thought they managed newborns and their older two sons well enough. She couldn’t quite put her finger on whether Hunter was talking from experience or simply expressing what he feared would happen.
‘It will be like that sometimes. Babies need a lot of attention especially when they first come home. But, Scooby,’ the use of his pet name pulled the boys' attention. ‘I promise dad and I will make time for each of your boys individually, okay?’ She waited for his nod. ‘If you’re feeling left out you need to tell us, okay?’ Another nod. Satisfied, Claire pulled the boy to her side, giving him a tight squeeze and a kiss on the head. ‘Lets go make sure your father and brothers aren’t destroying the kitchen.’ She gave him one last squeeze before they both got up, Hunter close to her side as they followed the sounds of the blender and laughing little boys.