#basically I'm going to a dinner party this weekend (against my will) (my parents and i compromised so I'll go but only stay an hour) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mksc77 · 6 years

Text

Later that afternoon, Rusty came to the hospital after his last class. Emmett's family was already gone, and Sharon wasn't staying much longer, herself. They'd had to leave the room for a couple of hours earlier that afternoon for required parent/baby bonding time, so Sharon and Emmett's parents, aunt, and uncle had gone out for lunch. They'd spent time together a few times in the recent past, as there had been a couple of baby showers for Emily and Emmett, and they'd gotten together a couple of other times when Emmett's parents had been in LA for the weekend. Sharon smiled to herself, remembering Andy's dismay at having to attend baby showers. They had basically just been parties with gifts, but he'd still grumbled about it. The rest of the afternoon had been spent passing the baby around unless a nurse needed her for something or she needed to eat. Sharon had texted Andy, Rusty, her parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews with pictures, and her phone had been blowing up all afternoon.

Sharon stood up to let Rusty have her seat. "Here, do you want to hold her?"

Rusty shrugged. "Yeah, but if she starts crying or does something gross, I'm giving her back."

“Deal."

Sharon waited for Rusty to sit down and carefully lowered Marie into his arms. She watched as his face turned from indifference to amazement, just like the first time he held his little sister. "Oh, my god, she's so tiny!"

“She didn't feel tiny," Emily mumbled.

Marie was sleeping soundly, unfazed by being constantly passed around all day. The only times they'd heard her cry, besides right after she was born, had been when she was hungry or being brought back from the nursery after having a test done. "If you think about it, being born is probably a little traumatic," Sharon noted. "After being in a warm, dark, tight space for nine months, you're suddenly in this open and bright place, and people keep messing with you when you just want to sleep."

Emily rolled her eyes. "It can't be as traumatic as having stitches—"

"Whoa, Emily, do not finish that sentence," Rusty interrupted. "Whatever it is, I'm positive I don't want to know." He looked down at Marie. "How the hell did you give birth to something so sweet?"

Sharon knelt beside Rusty and smoothed her hand over the baby's thin patch of light brown hair. "She looks just like Emily did. I'll have to show you her baby pictures sometime."

"I haven't seen the first clue that I had anything to do with her yet," Emmett agreed.

"I keep telling you she has your mouth," Emily countered.

"You're just making that up. There's no way you can tell. Unless she's screaming, she's either eating or has a pacifier bigger than her head blocking it."

"The screaming definitely comes from Emily," Rusty added.

"Whatever. I have to pee." Emily winced as she started to get out of bed, and Emmett grabbed her arm to help her. When she got to the bathroom, she looked around for a few moments before looking back out into the room. "Hey, Mom, is that squirt bottle out there? I thought I left it in here."

"Here it is." Sharon grabbed it from the table and took it to Emily.

Rusty looked confused. "What's that for—never mind. I'm sure I don't want to know."

"I'll let that one pass, but I'm answering next time," Emily warned before disappearing into the bathroom.

"Is that normal?!" Rusty hissed once the door was closed. "She can't even get out of bed without hurting." He knew childbirth couldn't be the most pleasant thing in the world, but he wasn't expecting this.

"Unfortunately, yes," Sharon answered. "Emily has never complained about being hurt or sick unless it was really bad, so I know she's hurting if she's complaining."

Emily emerged a few minutes later, and Emmett helped her back into bed. As aggravating as it was to not be able to just pee and wash her hands and be done every time, the fresh pad and ice pack in the mesh underwear a nurse had given her felt amazing.

Sharon looked up as Andy arrived, laden with gift bags. He put the bags down and kissed Emily's forehead before making his way to Sharon. One perk of retirement had been that they weren't together all day, so she was always excited to see him when he got home from work. The evening kisses were a daily thing now instead of only happening on days where for some reason they hadn't seen much of each other, one of them was off, or one of them left earlier than the other.

"You're early," Sharon commented after he kissed her.

"Yeah...Hernandez came to my desk with a gift bag and asked me what the hell I was still doing there when I had a granddaughter to see," Andy mumbled. "I didn't even tell her she'd been born. She must've heard the rest of us talking about it."

"How awful," Sharon said with mock sympathy. "It's almost like she's a nice person."

"Yeah, yeah. The other gifts are from Tao and Provenza. I guess they had wives to make them bring their gifts to work ahead of time so they'd have them ready to give me when the baby was born. Everyone says congratulations, by the way."

Emily took a sip of water from the thermos beside her and placed it back on the table. "Thanks, Andy."

"You're welcome." Andy crouched beside Rusty to get a good look at the baby. "She's beautiful. All right, kid, give her up."

Rusty stood up and passed the baby to Andy once he was sitting down, a little relieved to give her to someone else. Andy looked down at Marie, mesmerized by her. A little while later, Sharon was holding her again, and she went from being deeply asleep to pissed off and screaming in no time.

"It's time for her to eat," Emily said, holding her arms out for the baby.

"Uh, I think that's my cue to go," Rusty said, grabbing his keys and ready to make a hasty exit.

"Yeah, me too." Andy took Marie from Sharon to hold for a few more seconds before giving her to Emily, then kissed them both on the forehead. "Call if you need anything."

“Thanks." Emily took Marie and waited until Andy's and Rusty's backs were to her before opening her robe and getting her settled. Marie was instantly quiet as she began to nurse.

"I've never been so happy to be a man in my life," Rusty said to Andy as they walked out the door.

Andy nodded. "You said it, kid."

Sharon rolled her eyes and sat beside Emily on her bed. Women supposedly being the "fairer sex" was a big joke. Men were such wimps. Emily was holding Marie with her side to Emily's, so that they were facing each other in what the lactation consultant had referred to as the "football position." Marie's eyes were closed, but her mouth was steadily moving. "I liked to nurse you guys like this, too," Sharon said. "There just wasn't a name for it then. It won't be long before she's looking up at you while she nurses and is clutching each side of your breast like you're going to take it from her. It's the sweetest thing in the world."

"This hurts like crap," Emily moaned.

"I know. That'll get better, too."

"Mom..."

“Hmm?" Sharon lifted Emily's hair up off of her neck. The ballerina bun her hair had been in when they left the house the night before was now in the last stages of a loose ponytail. "You need something?"

"No...I just...I feel terrible for saying this, but I didn't feel this "instant connection" with her when she was born that people talk about. I mean, I love her, obviously, but all I've been able to think about is badly this hurts." Marie had only been a little over seven pounds, but that was a big baby for someone as tiny as Emily. The pain medicine had taken the edge off, and the ice packs were a lifesaver, but she was still uncomfortable and in pain.

"I honestly never felt that with either one of you, either," Sharon admitted. "It was a great moment when I saw you guys for the first time, especially you, because I had no idea whether you were a girl or a boy, but I felt like I'd missed out on some 'magical moment' I was supposed to have had. When I had you guys, people didn't talk about the details of childbirth. The most you'd hear about it was that, yes, it hurt, but seeing your baby for the first time made it worth it. I also had no idea what the recovery was like. I thought the pain would be mostly over once you were born. My doctor had vaguely mentioned 'recovery' a few times, but I just thought I'd be sore."

Emily nodded. "I'm glad it's not just me."

"Honey, she was screaming bloody murder, and you were shaking from the epidural. It's hard for that moment to feel spectacular. I don't know if people feel like they should have felt something like that, so they say they did or exaggerate it, or if some people are lucky enough to have easier births, but I felt guilty when I didn't feel it, too. I'd heard about that "special moment" my entire pregnancy, and I felt guilty when it wasn't what I thought it was supposed to be." Sharon kissed the side of Emily's head. "You're doing great, honey. You're going to be an amazing mother."

"Thanks, Mom." Emily shifted closer to her and leaned against her. "Will you sing the jaybird song?"

Sharon smiled. "I thought I'd heard that request for the last time when you were ten." When Jack was still home, and on nights the few times he came back, he'd always play music and dance with the kids after dinner either in the living room or on the back deck. This one had always been a crowd favorite. Emily had always asked Sharon to sing it when she was upset or didn't feel well, and Sharon had been heartbroken when Emily decided she was too old for it. Sharon put an arm around Emily and smoothed her other hand over Marie's head as she began to sing softly.

"He rocks in the treetops all day long..."

Emily's college friend, Allie, arrived then, and Sharon stayed and chatted for a few more minutes before leaving for the night. She kissed the top of Marie's head and did the same to Emily. "I'll come back late tomorrow morning." Emmett's family was coming over for dinner the next night, and they'd probably end up at the house for much of the rest of the week, so she wanted to clean up and start dinner preparations before she came back. There was no way in hell she was doing any of that tonight. She was exhausted. "It's great to see you again, Allie." Sharon gave her a quick hug, gathered her things, and left the room.

After not eating lunch until almost 3:00, Sharon still wasn't hungry when she got home. Andy and Rusty had ordered pizza, but she got some lettuce, toppings, dressing, and fresh vegetables out of the refrigerator and had salad and wine instead. It seemed to give her a second wind, so instead of soaking in a long bath and going straight to bed like she'd planned, she poured another glass of wine and went to sit by the pool. She was too tired to read, but she wasn't quite ready for bed, so she got comfortable in a lounge chair and listened to music. Andy joined her several minutes later, and she shifted over in her lounge chair so he could fit beside her. She'd been thinking all day about how protective he'd been of Emily that morning, and now, she also had the image of how much he'd adored Marie. It was...kind of hot. She tilted her head up and kissed him more deeply than he was expecting.

“Mmmm, what's that for?" Andy murmured between kisses.

Sharon ran her fingers down the length of his arm and intertwined her fingers with his. "Just for being you." She lay on his shoulder, and they sat in comfortable silence until she finished her wine. She decided to get one more small glass, and she saw that Andy had cleaned the kitchen. It hadn't been in bad shape, but it would've needed cleaning before the next evening, and that was one less thing she'd have to do the next morning. As exasperating as Andy could be sometimes, days like today made her want to get him in the bedroom and never leave.

Continued on ff.net

2 notes · View notes