Chapter Text
“No, Dad! Not like that. You have to color the flowers first. And then you can do the grass,” a small voice rings out in the midst of the makeshift tent in their living room. The butterfly patterned sheets are strewn about the expanse of their room and are illuminated by the twinkling lights that Tim had just put up an hour prior for this exact occasion, Felicity’s fort night.
“Yes, ma'am,” Lucy overhears her husband reply to their know-it-all of a daughter as Lucy is making a new bowl of kettle popcorn for the three of them to enjoy underneath the butterfly sheets and their own makeshift “stars.”
“Hurry up, Mama! We miss you. Right, Daddy?” the voice asks.
“Right, baby.”
“I’m coming. I’m coming, guys,” she answers back as she rolls her eyes at the sight of their family.
The two of them are completely wrapped around the finger of their four year-old daughter. She is all of three feet tall, has brunette curls, bright blue eyes, and the smartest mouth that either of them has ever encountered.
“Popcorn?” she offers as she crawls back into the cocoon of their living room fort, her growing belly nudging some of the blankets slightly as she gets back into her position at Tim’s side.
She feels his strong arm come around her side and to her lower back, his thumb tracing her lowering back, a way to give her some sort of comfort, though, at only five months, she knows that the back pain will only get worse as her pregnancy continues.
All worth it though, Lucy thinks as she looks over at the mess of brunette curls that is currently popping a piece of popcorn in her mouth and reaching for her mug of hot chocolate.
“Thanks,” Lucy says to Tim as he continues to rub her lower back, his hand providing a slight pressure and a sense of relief. He answers her thanks back with a small smile and a sweet but chaste kiss to her cheek.
“Mama?”
“Yes, baby?”
“When the new baby gets here, will they color with me?”
At Felicity’s question, Tim and Lucy share a laugh, a smile, and a shared thought. Lucy goes to answer their daughter as she feels herself being moved slightly by the strong but gentle arms of her husband. She finds her body now in between his legs, her back against his chest, and her head is now able to rest against his shoulder.
In this position, she almost feels like she could fall asleep at any moment, her lower back pain dissipating nearly instantly.
She loves that he knows exactly what she needs.
She looks up at him from her position, sending him a smile that she hopes conveys how grateful she is for him. He answers her smile back with a kiss to her temple.
“I’m sure they will love to when they are older, baby. It may take a little while, though. The baby won’t be able to do a lot for a while, Felicity.”
“That’s boring.”
The married couple's interlocked hands run jointly across Lucy’s growing belly as they both laugh at the antics of their child.
“You’ll have a lifetime to color together, Felicity. But until the baby can, we’ll color together. Deal?”
Felicity thinks about her father’s proposal for a moment before nodding her head in agreement.
“Deal. I guess,” she finishes with a smile as she picks up her momentarily forgotten crayons and turns back to her coloring book, the two of them now forgotten.
“Deal, I guess,” Lucy laughs as she sees his eyes sparkle with amusement, joy, and a certain type of peace that she is just so grateful for.
“I wonder if the next one will be as tenacious as her,” she wonders aloud as she motions to her growing midsection.
“God, help us,” she hears her husband huff out in a breath of laughter.
Four and a half more months, and they would have another daughter.
“I can’t wait to meet her.”
“Me too.”
The two share a look, a smile, and the shared thought that their lives are just so absolutely right, that they are exactly where they should be, and that they will do whatever they have to in order to guard this life they have created.