WHO: Jenny & Dahlia. WHAT: Jenny delivers Dahlia some good news a week before they leave for their cruise. WHERE: North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Dahlia & Jenny's bedroom. WHEN: May 24th, 2013. One week before boarding the Mare Crisium! WARNINGS: Nothing but cute.
Everything over the last three years of Jenny’s life had been very different than the years that had preceded them, but although they were trying at times and often difficult at others, they were not bad years. There were bad times, lots of them, but lots of good times as well. Enough to outweigh most of the bad, in fact. It had been three years since her girlfriend, her wife now, had lost her sight and it was still a fact that they were learning to deal with every day. But things were good, and although a lot of things had to be approached differently, Jenny had always been genuinely surprised that sex was barely one of them.
If anything, Jenny almost swore that the sex was better, some days. It was one situation where living in essentially a constantly blindfolded state didn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Lack of sight encouraged Dahlia to have to feel her way around things, which Jenny had absolutely no qualms about when it happened to apply to her body. Dahlia had known her body like the back of her hand for years, just as Jenny knew hers, and Jenny didn’t mind at all the feeling of the brunette getting reacquainted with it.
Like everything else, it hadn’t been perfect at first. It had taken some practice, some getting used to. There had been a lot of her hands gently guiding Dahlia the first time after the accident, after she had finally returned home to their bed after a hospital stay that seemed so far in the past now. But whether it was determination or memory, the other girl had caught back onto things quick. She didn’t need to see to know what Jenny needed. Jenny always told her that she was as smart as a whip like that.
Tonight was no different, Dahlia was in top form, drawing whimpers and moans out of the blonde that she had to press her face into the pillow to keep stifled, her back arched up, her hands gripping fistsful of blankets beneath them, tangling into Dahlia’s hair. But even when they were finished, Jenny laying curled on her side of the bed, spent and with her face flushed, there was still an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.
Much different than the uncomfortable feeling of earlier that evening, the desperate ache that she had felt, the one that had gotten her drag Dahlia into their bedroom the minute that Chase went to bed for the night and they could be alone. That was sated now. What was left was an anxious feeling, one that Jenny wasn’t accustomed to and didn’t care for, knowing that now a serious conversation had to follow the sex. It was excitement, and nervousness, rolled into one. She had something to tell the other woman, but she simply watched Dahlia instead, elbow propping her up on her pillow as she watched her wife breathlessly, still recovering a little.
It was the middle of the night, and they were leaving for their honeymoon in a week, courtesy of Dahlia’s parents, although they’d actually been married almost six months before. She couldn’t argue. Her own parents had already agreed to take Chase for the week, and although she wasn’t exactly a fan of boating or the wide-open sea in general, it was all a little late to back out on the cruise that the Palmers had set up for them. And she did want to have a good time, despite her silly fears. It was a free trip. How often did cruise ships sink, anyway? Other than the one that had recently been on the news..
Regardless of their likelihood to sink, there was still the matter of what needed to be discussed before they left. She had thought about telling Dahlia on the boat, but a big part of her felt that it was something that they would be better off discussing before they reached international waters.
Still half-propped up, Jenny bit down on her lip instinctively, scooting closer to Dahlia and draping an arm over her wife’s waist, and tucking her head under the taller girl’s chin. Ever since she could remember, she always loved to sleep sort of tangled up. Other people often preferred their space, but Jenny preferred the closeness, the warmth, the reassurance, and the tangle of limbs. She took Dahlia’s other hand, holding it in between them, pressing kisses against the knuckles.
She hated the way that the brunette seemed to steal her words from her, sometimes. Jenny hated struggling to express herself, but Dahlia had always possessed an innate skill for forcing her to struggle with where to begin. Even when they had been teenagers, it had never been simple to articulate the things that her friend made her feel. Dahlia made Jenny want to speak eloquent speeches and spiels about her praise, yet she was one of the few people that had the ability to stop Jenny Parry from going on a spiel about anything. Her eyes, even sightless and unfocused, were still beautiful, distracting
Her wife was beautiful, seemingly perfect despite any flaws, and whether it was personal bias or simply post-orgasm euphoria taking control of her mind, she felt her heart swell with affection for the other woman. What she had to tell her wasn’t exactly going to make their lives any easier, but Jenny knew that they had done the right thing, nerves aside, that she had good news for the brunette. If she could manage to find a way to blurt it out. She’d known that it was right as soon as the doctor’s office had called her back.
“So,” Jenny began slowly, once a silence far too long had passed between them, plenty of time for her to catch her breath. She pressed her lips against Dahlia’s knuckles again, against the ring there. “That was.. something.” She cracked a little smile that Dahlia couldn’t see, but surely felt against her hand. Jenny kept her head firmly turned under Dahlia’s chin as she spoke, her own eyes closing for a moment as she tried to think on how she wanted to word things, how to segway into the subject that she was trying to broach.
“I’ve got to tell you something,” she went on, not missing a beat. “Three guesses, first two don’t count.”
---
Before Jenny, Dahlia had never been much of a cuddler. She preferred her space so that she could stretch out, but being with Jenny had changed that considerably. Now, she didn’t mind it when Jenny curled up against her, both of them dappled with sweat and bathing in the post-orgasm numbness. Things were better now than they’d been three years ago. Her mood swings weren’t as harsh, her temperament wasn’t so hostile, and she was able to smile and laugh without forcing it. Had it not been for Jenny and Chase, she would have still been miserable and bitter. Or, worse, she would have killed herself already. Now it wasn’t even a thought.
Besides, they’d be going on their belated honeymoon in a week’s time, thanks to her parents, and Dahlia couldn’t have been more excited. Unlike Jenny, she loved the water, and she practically grew up on various cruises. Her family tried to take one every year when she was younger, sometimes more frequently than that. Between Jenny and Lucy, she wasn’t concerned about somehow finding herself overboard, though there was the nagging voice at the back of her mind reminding her that she would be in a new, unfamiliar place. Rather than let that thought bother her, she traced invisible patterns with her fingertips over Jenny’s flat stomach. Poor Jenny was terrified of water but was too sweet not to take Dahlia’s parents up on the cruise. They had, after all, already paid for their suite.
Dahlia could feel Jenny’s smile against her fingers, and it earned her wife one of her own. “It was something, yeah. Something good, I hope,” she mused, her voice low and fluid. Dahlia knew Jenny all too well; she could sense the hesitation in her voice, the way she tensed (even slightly) when she said that she needed to tell her something. Dahlia didn’t push it, and sure enough, the blonde admitted that she had something to tell her soon enough.
“Alright, three guesses. Let’s see. You’re cheating on me with Mrs. Burnstein?” she teased, snickering at the thought. They both loathed their next door neighbor; she was a prude who was as ugly on the outside as she was on the inside, and she insisted on leaving pamphlets about the dangers of homosexuality on their front door. Jenny had to physically pull Dahlia out of the woman’s yard after she took it upon herself to lecture Chase about his two mothers. “Two, you’re not actually epileptic and just wanted me to feel sorry for you.” Dahlia wasn’t being serious, obviously, as if it weren’t evident in her shit-eating grin.
“Three, you killed someone and need help hiding the body. In which case, we’ll probably need to put on some kind of clothing, first.”
---
“Something amazing, as always. You haven’t lost your charm,” Jenny teased her wife, as she kissed her hand again, listening to the brunette’s guesses about what she had to tell her. The suggestion about Mrs. Burnstein made the blonde practically snort. Jenny didn’t think that she had ever met a more closed-minded, pig-headed specimen of a woman in her life. She was vile. Once, shortly after the incident on the front lawn, she’d found out that Chase had set off firecrackers in the Burnstein’s mailbox. She’d seen him herself as he run away, clear as day. When they’d come knocking, she had played as dumb as could be. Fuck the Burnsteins.
“Excuse you, what I spend my time doing with Nora Burnstein on my day off is my business,” she informed the brunette sarcastically, grinning right back up at her. “Seriously though, wrong, wrong, wrong. You’re lucky you’re cute, because you’re terrible at this game,” Jen giggled. “And I’m not about to put you in any kind of situation where you have to put your clothes back on, I promise.”
Tipping her head up a little, she pressed her lips against Dahlia’s neck, kissing the pulse there. “It’s way better than all of those things. Well, for you, more than me.. I’ll have to do all the hard work,” she cracked a smile. Really, as if she wasn’t excited beyond words. There was some work that was just worth it. “For the first few months, anyway.”
---
“Guessing games were never my forte,” she admitted with a shrug of slender, bare shoulders. “You should know this by now. What kind of wife are you?” Without realizing it, the hand tracing her wife’s stomach ventured up to touch her face, to feel the arch of cheekbones and the sarcastic little tug of lush lips. It was commonplace now for her to touch Jenny’s face, if only to get a better picture in her mind the expression there. Chase liked to make it a game. He would make a funny face, have Dahlia touch said face, and then have her describe it. It delighted him, and anything that made Chase happy made Dahlia happy.
When Jenny’s cryptic hints finally clicked for the brunette, she paused, her unseeing eyes going wide and, for a split moment, it almost seemed as though Dahlia was looking right at her. “What?” Dahlia asked, pushing herself up onto an elbow. “You’re not …?” She and Jenny had decided, after many long discussions about whether or not to grow through it, to try and have another child. Chase wasn’t Dahlia’s, not by blood, but that didn’t keep her from loving him like he was her own. It was Jenny who originally wanted to have another, and it was Dahlia who had to be convinced.
What if something happened to Jenny after the baby was born? Dahlia couldn’t take care of an infant. She would be a first time mother, and as if that wasn’t scary enough, she would be a blind first time mother. But it meant a lot to Jenny, and the more they talked it over, the more it meant to Dahlia.
“You’re serious?” the brunette stammered, her face absolutely lighting up. “When did you find out!?” If Dahlia had any hang-ups now about being a mother, they didn’t seem to show.
---
There was no disguising the look of delight on Jenny’s face as Dahlia finally began to clue into what she was talking about, watching the brunette push herself up with a wide smile on her own face. “Mmhm, I sure am,” she assured the other woman, the excitement in her voice just as apparent as on her face, maybe more. She’d always been bad at keeping big secrets, at least when it came to good things, and it was a miracle that she’d been able to wait all day to blurt anything out. She’d wanted it to be just right, just the two of them.
It hadn’t been a decision that they had made on a whim, they had discussed all of the possibilities, pros and cons, worries and concerns. It was something that they had both agreed upon, even if Jenny had needed to ease Dahlia into it, convince her that things would be okay. Being a mother was one of the greatest, and most important, things that she’d ever done with her life, even if she had started a lot earlier than she had ever planned. She loved Chase with all of her heart, and she had since she had laid eyes on him.
She’d always wanted more children, something she’d never made a secret to Dahlia, even back when they were just friends. After they’d gotten married, she’d made it a priority. She couldn’t deny that Chase was getting older, growing up all the time and twelve already, and she missed having a baby around at times. She knew that it was a little selfish, that something could happen to her or god forbid, their baby. Their family was a perfect example of the fact that unexpected tragedies could change everything. Dahlia couldn’t see, there was no way she’d be able to handle the baby on her own. But Dahlia was the one that Jenny wanted to have a family with, period, and she wanted to make it work. Whatever it took.
They’d have to go about things a little differently, but they were all used to that by now.
“Doctor Lawrence’s office called me today, on my lunch. They left me a message,” the blonde explained happily, biting her lower lip as she watched the brunette’s face light up at the news. “I went out and got my own test right after, I wanted to be sure-- you know, before I said anything.. so I peed on a stick at work for you,” she laughed. “We are positive.”
---
“That’s … wow.” Dahlia was in shock - it was a happy kind of shock, but shock nonetheless. There was no mistaking the mile-wide smile, however. She wasn’t just happy; she was ecstatic. Overjoyed. All the possible words for “happy” that one could possibly think of and then some. “That’s amazing, Jenny! We’re going to have a baby.”
She wondered what Chase would think about the addition of another little boy or girl. He was a sweet kid with a heart as big as his mother’s, so something told Dahlia he would make an excellent older brother. “How do you think Chase will feel?” she asked, wishing now more than ever that she had her sight. She would have loved to see Jenny in that moment, all beaming and grinning with excitement.
Their honeymoon wouldn’t just be a celebration of their marriage. It would be a celebration of marriage and a pregnancy, an addition to their already happy little family. “Mom and dad are going to freak out. You know how mom’s always telling us that we should adopt a baby so that she can have more grandkids to spoil.” While it took her parents (her mother, specifically) a little bit of time to adjust when she told them that she was in love with Jenny, they were never anything but supportive. Her parents loved Chase like their own grandson, and they were the worst about spoiling him rotten and then sending him home full of sugar and arms full of presents he didn’t need.
“I don’t even know what to say, baby,” Dahlia mused, blindly reaching for both of Jenny’s hands so that she could press soft kisses along her knuckles. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy and terrified at the same time.” There was no point in denying the fact that Dahlia was scared. Unlike Jenny, she hadn’t ever had a baby, with the exception of Chase, and by the time they were living together, Jenny had already taken care of all the hard parts.
---
“I think he’ll be into it.. until he realizes that the new baby is going to take up most of our attention,” Jenny mused, shaking her head a little at the thought. She had been sort of wondering herself how Chase would take the news, but he was (in her opinion anyway) mature for his age and he had a heart of gold. He was growing up, but he wasn’t grown up enough yet that the world had begun to change him. He was still a momma’s boy for a few more years. “He’ll be a good big brother, though. He’s never really been around a lot of babies before.. but he’ll catch on quick. I’ll teach you both a thing or two,” she suggested.
Her sister had two little girls now, but California was far away, and her son had only met his cousins a handful of times. Chase had a lot less experience with other children than she’d like to admit. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t socialize. He had friends, but at home, he’d been an only child his whole life. He was always the sort of kid that got along better with adults, that wanted to be seated at the table and listening to the conversation and treated like an equal part, because it was how he’d been brought up. He’d always been at Jenny’s side.
She’d always planned to have other children while he was a little younger, but between university, Dahlia’s accident, and other things, it just hadn’t worked out that way. Best laid plans were often meant to be broken. Maybe, at least, him being a bit older could actually work in their favor. “I’ll have you both changing diapers with your eyes closed, you’ll see.”
Admittedly, Jenny was probably a little rusty herself. She’d been barely more than a kid herself when she had gotten pregnant with Chase, and it had been an interesting ride, considering that her own mother had never actually been pregnant. The twins had already been six months old by the time that Paula & Ron Parry had adopted them. She’d done a lot of learning about newborns and pregnancy on her own, and she didn’t think that she had done half a bad job with things, given her circumstance. Chase was, by her own evaluation, perfect. If she could handle it then, she was sure that she could handle it again, now older and wiser.
“Your mom is going to freak out.. and my mom,” Jenny grinned at the thought. Her parents had been a little apprehensive themselves, when they had initially found out about Jenny and Dahlia’s relationship. While they’d always been open-minded and raised their daughters as such, and always loved Dahlia, they had seemed skeptical of what the girls were thinking. It hadn’t taken them long to come around, however, and to see how much Dahlia and Jenny really cared about each other. How well they went together. By now, the couple didn’t bat an eye at the idea of one sister giving them a son-in-law and the other a daughter-in-law. Paula and Ron were getting up there in age, and Jenny couldn’t imagine her mother being anything but ecstatic about another grandbaby. She’d been almost as excited for Chase as Jenny had been.
“You don’t have to say anything,” the blonde laughed gently, pulling one hand carefully away from Dahlia’s kisses and using it to push some hair behind the brunette’s ear as she gazed at her in the semi-darkness. “It’s okay, I think happy-terrified is normal. I recall this feeling,” she assured her. “I just love you so much, there’s no one else in the whole world that I’d be happier to do this with, you know? Sorry, not to get all mushy on you or anything..”
She smiled slowly, despite her teasing apology. She still meant every word, sappy or otherwise. When she thought of Dahlia holding their baby, helping the brunette through the motions, setting up a nursery together so that it’d be convenient for both of them. It made her heart swell, a familiar fluttering in her chest. There were a lot of things Dahlia would be missing out on, actually seeing their little boy or girl, decorating their room, picking out clothes for them, all things that Jenny knew her wife would kill to be able to do. But nothing could be entirely perfect, they’d just have to make it as perfect as they could manage. They’d be happy, maybe not perfect, but complete.
“I hope it’s a girl,” she told Dahlia in a hushed whisper, as if she hadn’t expressed that desire already. She’d be just as happy with two sons, but a boy and a girl would be just right. She reached over, scooting closer and taking the brunette’s face in her hands, leaning in for a kiss. Resting their foreheads together, even after she backed off a little, keeping the closeness. “I hope it’s a little girl, and you can.. make her go in those awful pageants, and I can save her if she hates it, or cheer till I’m hoarse if she loves it. And I hope she’s dark-haired and beautiful, with little freckles just like her mommy, and all the boys will love her.. but Chase can keep them away.”
Dahlia had teased her a couple of times through the IVF process about choosing a ‘suitably attractive’ donor for them who ‘preferably resembled’ her. Jenny had done her best, she’d gone for a donor with other outstanding qualities as well (such as his master’s degree), but she thought that the man she’d finally decided upon was quite handsome, if she said so herself. She’d specifically picked someone dark-haired and handsome. But in the end, Jenny was always a strong believer in nurturing before nature anyway. If they had a little girl, some part of her had no doubt that she would have a diva streak just like her mother, all blood relation aside.
---
“I bet you say that to all the girls you marry,” she teased, but Jenny’s words had more of an impact than the brunette let on. It felt strange to think that in nine months or so from now, they would be mothers to a kicking, screaming infant. For as long as they’d been together, it was Dahlia, Jenny, and Chase. Their family was small, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in love, as cliche as that sounded. Now, they would be adding one more person to their little family, and Dahlia couldn’t have been happier.
She just wished she could see their baby.
“If it’s a girl, I won’t be making her go to pageants,” Dahlia assured assured her. She’d been raised in them, sure, but she always told herself that she would give her daughter (if she had one) the choice of whether or not to compete. It wasn’t the healthiest atmosphere, that much Dahlia knew from first hand experience, but when you thrived in the spotlight as Dahlia once had, it seemed the natural choice. “If she wants to be in pageants, we’ll put her in pageants. If she wants to play football, we’ll find a team that will let her in.”
“If she looks anything like you, she’ll be the prettiest little girl to grace the face of the planet. And if it’s a boy, he’ll be a heartbreaker, like Chase is going to be.” Dahlia liked to tease Chase about how all the girls loved him, since he was still in that phase where he thought girls were little more than cootie-carrying drama queens. With the exception of his mothers, anyway. He always made that distinction after calling girls gross. “But not you guys,” he’d say, sure to cover his tracks after.
Smirking, she intertwined she and Jenny’s fingers and laid her head back on the pillow, already trying to picture what it would be like to be a mother of a newborn baby. It wouldn’t be her baby by blood, of course, but there were more important things than blood. Blood was thicker than water, but love was more substantial than both of those things combined. “We’ll tell everyone tomorrow,” she murmured happily. “Chase first, of course, but then we can tell our parents. They’re going to shit bricks.”
Playfully, she poked Jenny’s arm and put on a half-serious face. “You know this means you’ll have to stop smoking.” It was a habit that Dahlia had tried to get her to kick for as long as they’d been together, but if it was that easy to quit, no one would have been a smoker. “We can throw them out tomorrow, too.”
---
“You say that now, but you wait until your mother has her say in matters,” Jenny teased her wife about the pageants, squeezing the brunette’s fingers as she intertwined them. She was glad to hear it though, no matter how much she teased. She’d always held a little bit of a grudge toward the whole idea of beauty pageants, but it was something that Dahlia had always enjoyed, and if they had a little girl that enjoyed it, that would be good too. If they didn’t, Jenny was always glad to know that they were on the same page about that, as well.
Jenny’s own parents had never forced her or her sister into doing anything that they didn’t want to do, and Jenny had always tried to be the same way, within reason. She was a little stricter with Chase’s diet than her own parents had ever been on her. But when it came to what her children would enjoy for hobbies, who their friends would be, who they would grow up into and actually be as people, Jenny wanted to give them as much freedom as possible.
“Tomorrow,” Jenny agreed, smiling at the thought. “Chase is going to be so surprised,” she laughed after a moment, resting her head closer next to Dahlia’s on the pillow. They’d left him in the dark about their plans, until they had made a concrete decision, and then until everything was figured out. She hadn’t wanted to get him excited over something before anything was actually set in stone. Now, it would definitely be safe to tell him, and the rest of their family. “We should all go out to.. I don’t know, dinner or something, before we leave anyway. Your mom loves making dinner reservations. We could shock them in public,” the blonde suggested playfully.
When Dahlia inevitably found her way over to the subject of smoking, Jenny found a guilty smile upon her face. “I know,” she sighed, trying to sound overly-exasperated, but mostly good-natured. “I should have quit already, once we really decided to try, like once I’d been to an appointment.. but I’m only a few weeks in, I guess now is better than never.” It was a filthy habit, that if anyone else had picked it up, Jenny would have been quick to chastise them for it. She’d picked it up herself in highschool, dating her first serious boyfriend and Chase’s father.
She’d quit numerous times, for a period, over the years. But she went through periods of highs and lows, as far as cravings went, and she’d always been bad for sneaking them. She’d quit through her entire pregnancy with Chase, smoked very lightly until college, where stress had allowed the habit to take on a life of it’s own. Since college, the blonde had been back and forth a few times, though she still at least made the token effort to hide the act from Chase. She didn’t doubt he could smell it on her, he was getting a little old for some of her tricks, but she refused to smoke in front of him. Sometimes, she’d hide in the bathroom, like Chase and Dahlia both didn’t know what she was doing in there.
“This pregnancy stuff is rough,” she lamented, like she hadn’t volunteered for the experience. Like they hadn’t paid a pretty penny for it, in fact. “Next you’re going to tell me that I have to quit peanut butter or sex.. which, for future reference down the road, I have read is actually good for inducing labor toward the end, unless your doctor tells you otherwise.” She had plenty of pregnancy books, most of them outdated probably by now, and none that Dahlia would be able to read on her own anymore. She made a note to find some in braille. “The sex I mean, not the peanut butter,” she laughed, leaning over and pressing her lips firmly against Dahlia’s cheek.
“You’re going to be a great mom, you know. You already are.”
---
“We can go buy you some nicotine patches or something, if your doctor thinks it’s safe for the baby.” The baby. Dahlia wondered how long it would take for her to get used to talking and hearing about their unborn baby. She was still in shock for now - at least that’s what she thought, but Jenny was only a month pregnant. They still had eight months to get used to the idea of a miniature Jenny being born. “You probably wouldn’t have been allowed to smoke on the cruise, anyway, so this is perfect timing. Just don’t get too cranky with me, alright?”
Dahlia leaned into the kiss on her cheek and smiled, her hand reaching out to find Jenny’s fingers once again. “I would never ask you to give up peanut butter, Jenny. Who do you think I am?” she said on a lighthearted little laugh. Over the course of the past three years, their family had been on an emotional roller coaster full of twists and turns and ups and downs, but things were beginning to feel like they were all falling in place. Even before she found out Jenny was pregnant, Dahlia had just recently begun really living her life again. It happened in small increments at first, but wasn’t that how any big change began?
“You’re pregnant, we’re going on an all-expense-paid cruise, and I couldn’t be any happier.” It had been a long time since she and Jenny had been able to spend any real quality time between just the two of them. They both adored Chase, but it would be nice to spend a vacation just focusing on their own selfish wants. Besides, Chase would be safe and sound between being watched by Jenny and Dahlia’s parents, so they didn’t even have to worry about him.
When Jenny said that she was going to be a great mom, Dahlia’s eyebrows stitched together. “Maybe,” she said on a sigh. “You did all the hard work with Chase. By the time we started living together, he was already a little person, not a baby. What if I screw up being a mom and, like, our kid has all kinds of deep, emotional scarring because of it?” There was no real reason to think that Dahlia would be a bad mother. The kids she worked with on a daily basis took an amazing amount of patience and love to deal with, so it made sense that she would be a good mother. Still, this would be her first time to be a mother to a newborn. The worry was only natural.
---
Jenny hadn’t even considered the fact that smoking could be banned on the cruise. It was certainly something she hadn’t asked Dahlia’s parents when they were telling them all of the details. She tried to keep the smoking from her parents and in-laws just as much as she did from Chase. “If there’s peanut butter, then I promise that I won’t be a mad woman and treat you too unkindly,” the blonde promised, with her lips still close against the brunette’s cheek. “When I was pregnant with Chase, I loved french fries and soft serve ice cream. They weren’t bad together, actually, for dipping.”
She rested her head back down, onto Dahlia’s shoulder, getting comfortable again now that she had gotten the big news out of the way. She pulled the blankets further up, tucking them around them, her eyes closing and a content smile on her lips as she listened to her wife speak. “I couldn’t be any happier either,” she agreed, “How long has it been since we did something ourselves?” she murmured happily, a rather rhetorical question. They both knew the answer. They hadn’t been on a vacation in a long time, and one of their own even longer.
Jenny loved to travel, although by water was not her ideal choice. She kept reminding herself that beggars couldn’t be choosers, and that the suite Anna and Martin had reserved was probably likely to be one of the nicest places she’d ever stayed in, even if she’d have to feel nauseous the whole time. Dahlia’s reply, and her sigh, caught the blonde off guard before she could gush any further about how nice it would be to be alone. Her eyebrows furrowed together as well, as she delivered a gentle elbow to Dahlia’s ribs.
“Shut up,” she answered, “No maybe, I know that you’ll do well.. you’re not going to be perfect out of the gate, but who is? If I remember correctly, you taught me a thing or two, when I was starting out.” Dahlia had, at least, had the small bit of experience with babies at her church daycare at the time. Jenny could still remember feeling like the other girl knew everything, even when they’d only been simple tips. Then again, she’d always sort of idolized Dahlia, making babies stop crying just ended up being another talent to admire. “I had no idea how to swaddle him up, but you did. And who calmed me down whenever he wouldn’t stop screeching, that first after I first brought him home?”
She turned her head a bit, squeezing Dahlia’s hand in her own, resting their entwined hands between them, against her stomach. “He might have been pretty big by the time that we all moved in together, but you’ve still known him since the day he was born, and you’ve always been good with him. With kids, period. You’re amazing. You aren’t going to scar anyone.. and I’ll even give you two passes to drop the baby, if you need it,” she joked. “Just think positive. We’re going to have a beautiful baby boy or girl, who we’re going to love and give a great life to, and who’s going to have a family that loves him or her very, very much.”
“French fries and ice cream?” Dahlia asked, not remembering that tiny detail about Jenny’s pregnancy. “That’s disgusting, baby.” She made a face and settled back deeper into the fort of pillows, draping one leg over Jenny’s as the blonde tugged the sheets back up around them. When she first woke up from the coma, one of the most difficult aspects of being blind had been the inability to feel safe. Now, surrounded by soft sheets and Jenny’s body heat, Dahlia wasn’t sure that she had ever felt safer.
“Okay, so I knew how to wrap him up like a baby burrito and make him stop crying,” she mused, a gentle little smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “But that’s nothing compared to what I’ll have to do in eight months.” It scared Dahlia to think that she wouldn’t be able to see when they had a newborn in the house. Not only would she not be able to see their baby, but she wouldn’t be able to see anything around it. Who was to say that she wouldn’t trip and fall while holding the baby? Or, even worse, how could she protect an infant that she couldn’t even see?
When the thoughts became too much, she shook her head, took a deep breath, and released a long sigh. Everything was going to be fine. There was no use worrying over something when the baby hadn’t even gotten here yet. Besides, they had a cruise to go on, and there was no way Dahlia would let her worry get in the way of that, even if she was a bit concerned by the thought of tripping in the water. Thankfully, Lucy would be accompanying them, and Lucy was as good about navigating Dahlia safely as Jenny was.
“Good point,” she agreed, reaching over to feel for the lightswitch to the lamp. When she found it, she switched it off - not for her benefit, obviously, but for Jenny’s - and pulled the blanket up under their chins. “G’night, Jenn,” Dahlia said, and she gave Jenny’s hand one last squeeze.