Who: Evie and Will What: CHRISTMAS PRESENTS - EPIC ONES Where: Their place When: NEAR OR AROUND CHRISTMAS.
After Will had talked to Wren, he couldn’t stop thinking of the ring that he had (somehow) managed to keep hidden the entire time, even through their relocations. It had remained tucked in a box of his old lab notebooks, somewhere between 2007 and 2008, blanketed by talk of chromosomal anomalies. He’d dug it out before leaving the note in Evie’s stocking, knowing that the promise of Christmas and pajamas would be more than enough to get her home early from work. Being the stay-at-home half of the two of them, he worked most of the day to get things ready. Hands maybe a little shaky with nerves as he prepped things for homemade pizza and at least three different desserts that were her “favorite”.
Tree lights on, other lights dimmed, he changed into his own pajamas, which really were no different than his everyday lounging clothes, but he made certain to put on the flannel pants that had the reindeer on them and the t-shirt that was a dark green to match. It took a while for him to find Evie’s baby polarbear and penguin “jammies”, but he eventually dug them out and laid them over the end of the comfiest living room couch. Ring hidden among the other presents under the tree, he hummed to himself as he bustled through the rooms, finally feeling ready for everything.
Then Evie’s present was delivered. He read the note first, frowning when it didn’t make any sense. Still trying to figure out what she could have meant, he carefully opened the present and simply stared at a pair of socks that had absolutely no right being so tiny. Why were they so tiny? Evie’s feet were bigger than that, and his were bigger still. She couldn’t possibly mean to put them on one of the animals; she’d done that in the past, yes, but there were always four. They had no need for just two tiny socks. Somewhere in his mind, he knew the answer, had maybe known it since she’d been feeling ill, but his brain refused to complete the thought, refused to make the connection for him, and he stood there just staring at the socks that were dwarfed by his hand.
Evie was excited as soon as she got Will’s note, she loved Christmas surprises. And she had a pretty ginormous Christmas surprise on her hands. She wondered what Will’s reaction would be to her Christmas surprise, but she was focused on his. Her driver picked her up at the office and she talked his ear off the entire way home (as usual).
When she got home she kicked her shoes off in the entry way (again, as usual) and practically jogged to the bedroom, “I AM NOT JAMMIED UP YET DON’T MOVE!” she said ducking into her walk in closet and put on the Christmas pajamas she’d bought for the year and put on her big red bathrobe over them because she wasn’t going to show them off yet. She put her slippers on and walked to where she had seen him standing with his back to her and when she entered the room she saw what he was holding in his hands. Lovely timing. She stood there a few feet from him and bit her bottom lip with a slight smile. “Surprise?” she said tilting her head a bit.
He’d heard her shout when she raced through from the front door to the bedroom, and half thought to call out that he’d picked some out for her already. But with his gaze still fixed on those socks, he couldn’t find the words. Then she was gone again, hidden somewhere in the rooms and he was staring, just staring, at the little stars and colorful stripes. He couldn’t gauge the minutes that passed, had no idea if it was two or twenty when he finally heard her behind him again. She’d gone quieter, softer, and he turned his head to blink at her.
“Socks,” he whispered, and held his hand out to her, the tiny things cupped in his palm. He was a man that had earned both undergraduate and post-grad degrees, an intelligent man, but he just blinked at her again, unable to find any sort of coherent thought. “...socks,” he repeated, tongue gone thick with confusion.
Evie was shifting her weight from one foot to another lightly and bit the inside of her cheek, she didn’t know what she expected, she was panicking like a crazy person and she was beginning to think that maybe she should have eased him into the idea. Maybe the tiny socks were just a moment of bad judgment during one of her whimsical moments. She didn’t feel ready to call it a moodswing, but her feelings on this entire pregnancy issue were going back and forth between crushing fear, guilt, happiness, confusion, nervousness, whimsy, excitement, and at this moment she was having all of them at once. Shit. She tilted her head a bit and took a step forward and nodded. “Socks,” she said ready to run and hide in the bathroom. “Will, are you alright sweetheart? Breathe. Take a deep breath and tell me this is okay.”
His eyes were wide as he turned slowly to face her, still holding out his hand as if offering its contents back to her or making sure she knew what he was holding. It hung there between them, his fingers trembling slightly. His eyes, barely blinking now, moved between his hand and her face, as if he couldn’t decide which to focus on, but he finally ended up looking at neither and staring at her stomach. “It wasn’t the chicken,” he managed, followed quickly by, “and you got me tiny socks.” He finally followed her instructions and took a deep breath, the air shivering and shuddering on both the in and the out. His feet were heavier than they had any right to be, but he managed one halting step toward Evie before he stopped again, eyes still on her stomach like he couldn’t pull them away.
He had to take another shaky breath before he could look up at her face again. He just stared for a long moment before breathing out something that could have maybe been a laugh, and shaking his head. “Oh my god,” he murmured, but then he was moving forward, an awkward half-stumble to get to her, hardly even feeling it when he banged his shin on the coffee table. His arms slipped tight around her, socks clenched in his hand as he hugged her and lifted her nearly off her feet. His entire body was shaking as he held her up, and he whispered into her hair. “...oh my god.”
Evie watched him carefully, and she was trying to stop her hands from shaking at her sides so she clenched them into fists. She made the executive decision to take his maybe a laugh as an actual laugh and when he hugged her she hugged him back tightly with her arms wrapped around his neck. “Is it okay?” she asked again, because more than just about anything in the world she needed him, not just someone, to tell her that everything was going to be okay. At least for right then.
He knew he shouldn’t squeeze her too hard - not that it would hurt the baby, but that her stomach might still be touch and go - but he couldn’t help it. He held her as tightly as he could, pulling her onto her toes as he turned his face to hide in her hair. His entire body had continues to shake, a steady tremor, even as he pulled her close, and at her question, he gave a real laugh. “Okay? It’s... it’s fucking terrifying.” There was a pause as he kept trying to process everything, a long pause before he realized that she was shaky too, and then he pulled back just enough to look at her, still holding on tight. “We’ll make it work though. ...We can do it, right?” He didn’t sound certain, not at all, and was admittedly not being much of a help.
Well. Not exactly what she was looking for, but she would suck it up if it kept him from freaking out. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat a bit and smiled widely at him. “Of course,” she said cheerfully. She rested her hands on his shoulders firmly and squirmed just a bit to put her feet back on the floor. “We can definitely do it, and look we already have tiny socks. So we’re well on the way to prepared,” she said patting his shoulder gently. “We’re awesome, Will. We’ve so got this covered.”
He hesitated, knowing her too-wide smile for the one that wasn’t quite from the heart, and he finally set her back on her feet, bringing his hands up to either side of her face, holding her gently. “Are you...” His hands were still shaking, even pressed carefully to her cheeks. “Crap, I... yeah. We’ll be okay. I’m just... I wasn’t expecting...” He couldn’t even finish a thought, new ones springing up before the last was complete, and he just shook his head. “Not at all...”
She nodded, “I’m fine, I’m okay, it’s Christmas,” she said putting her hand over his and squeezing slightly. “It’s going to be just fine,” she said gently. While he went on with his unfinished sentences she nodded, “Me either, but we’ll be fine, Will. We always are. We’ve got plenty of time to work out the details. And we will. We’re going to be fine.”
He looked at her, eyes dark and worried, but slowly (very slowly) adjusting to the idea. At least for the moment. He saw the way she was trying to hold herself together, and didn’t want to be the cause of anything falling apart. not when they so recently patched things back together again. He took another breath, tried to ignore the way it was still shaking, and nodded. “We’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out. It’s... it’s good.” He smiled at her, uncertain but real. “It is Christmas. ...you ruined my surprise.” He wasn’t even sure if he should ask now, didn’t want it to seem like some sort of kneejerk reaction to her announcement. To the... baby. Baby. A brief flash of panic flared across his face, but he pushed it back again - not the time.
She moved her hands through his hair and scruffed him up a little and leaned up to kiss his chin gently. He’d said it was good, she almost believed him, and that was progress. He was trying and she knew it wasn’t exactly fair for her to want to freak out and not afford him the opportunity. This could have all gone so much worse. She tried to imagine them in this position a year or two ago. Or three. Or during any of the bad spells they’d had in six years. This was, by far, the best they’d been. She rolled her eyes at him, “No such thing as a ruined surprise, tell me. Give me presents,” she said grinning at him. “I’ve got my jammies on, give me presents.”
He was nervous now. More than he had been before, somehow. He wasn’t quite sure how to make the leap from her announcement to his own question. But he swallowed hard, awkwardly, and snagged her wrist to kiss the inside of it before nodding and stepping back. “Okay. I just...” He looked around and then took her by the shoulders, steering her carefully toward the couch. “Sit?” He fidgeted nervously, wiping palms on the front of his shirt. “...I didn’t mean for the surprise to go like this. I didn’t think you were going to have something so... baby.”
Evie smiled and practically bounced on the couch as she sat down, it was nice to think about something else than their impending arrival. Though at the moment she was starting to feel a bit whimsical again. Thinking about this time next year when they’d have a baby. A baby. “I’m sure your surprise is going to be amazing, they always are.”
“I hope so,” Will murmured, mostly to himself, and then took a breath, a little louder: “Okay, um. ...Close your eyes?” He waited until he was certain she’d complied, then fetched the small box from under the tree and sat down beside her. Pausing to make sure her eyes were still closed, he reached over with his free hand and turned one of hers palm-up, murmuring, “Put your hand out...” Once it was, he placed the ring box so carefully on her open palm and swallowed hard. After a nervous beat, he nodded and steeled himself. “...Okay. ...open.” He could barely get the last word out, heart beating in his throat.
Evie did everything she was asked and she was trying very hard not to peek. It was terrible anticipation, and her hand was shaking a bit completely unable to keep from smiling. When she finally got permission to open her eyes she did and smiled widely at the little box. She knew what little boxes usually meant.
"Can I open it?" She asked grinning stupidly.
Will couldn’t help smiling in return, though his was still nearly overcome by nerves. He nodded though and actually laughed, “If you don’t, I think I’m going to pass out.” His foot was bouncing, causing the whole couch to shake a little. He reached over and touched the lid of the box, then pulled his hand back, looking at Evie. “Open it before I do...” He looked like he was about to say something else, but pressed his lips together and waited.
Evie grinned madly and opened the box and look at the ring wide eyed and giddy. She didn’t waste very much time before she put the ring on her finger and tackled her Will backwards on the couch and covered his face in kisses. “Yes!” she said without really noticing that he hadn’t asked her any questions.
Will was laughing by the time Evie tackled him, something relieved giving in his chest. She may not have realized that he hadn’t actually asked, but he did, and he needed to ask. He needed something about this to be official. After he managed to wrap careful arms around her, between her kisses, he managed to murmur out the words. “Marry me? Please? We’ll figure it out. Everything else...”
Evie was vaguely aware that Will was saying something, she was vaguely aware of what it was and she pulled back and grinned down at him. “Since you said please,” she said grinning like a crazy person. “We figure everything out,” she said matter of fact. She wasn’t thinking much about her own catastrophe at the moment, instead thinking about things like weddings and engagement rings and making important wedding announcements. “We’re going to have a very busy year.”
Will rested his hands on Evie’s hips, looking up at her as she laid on top of him, still smiling in response to her own grin. “We are.” Then after a pause, letting himself frown a little: “I didn’t ask because of what you told me. I was planning, and I didn’t know. I don’t want you to think that I think we need to get married because of... because baby...”
Evie looked at him a bit puzzled, “Of course you didn’t,” she said seriously. “And that’s not why I said yes,” she held off explaining that it wasn’t important either way she just wanted to be with him forever, but she knew no matter how she said it she wouldn’t say it properly and nothing was going to hurt today. It wasn’t allowed to. “I love you forever, William. And our wedding is going to be amazing, and our baby is going to be amazing, and our life is going to just get amazinger.”
Will finally relaxed enough to let out a little laugh, and nodded. “It is. And we... we can wait until after, if you want. We don’t have to rush into it, if you don’t want to while you’re... um...” He looked down toward her stomach, one of his hands lifting from her hip just enough to start the short quest over, but he couldn’t quite convince himself to touch her there, not yet. He was still too wracked with nerves, and uncertain of how to handle everything.
Evie grinned down at him, “We’ll figure it out,” she said again as far as she was concerned there weren’t a lot of decisions that had to made immediately right at that moment. “This is a big day, I think we are free of making decisions for a while. For now the most complicated thing we should talk about is what to eat for dinner.”
She didn’t want to freak out, not for the rest of the night. As it was her freak outs were ebbing and flowing pretty regularly and her mood was going from elated to terrified at the drop of a hat. She hoped that was normal.
He looked back at her with a smile of his own, still uncertain, but warming into something that might sometime soon turn into excitement. He wasn’t going to let go of his own worries, but he could put those aside at least a little - at least for long enough to celebrate. Christmas, an engagement, and a baby. He actually let out a little laugh as that thought ran through his mind. He shook his head with another smile and leaned in to kiss Evie. With lips pressed to hers, he murmured whatever you want. And meant it.