Chapter Text
Ana
Chris is packing for his scout camping trip that's boys only and listening to me vent about the unwanted addition to my family. My parents are going to saddle me with a sibling!
"Did I ask for a sibling? Did I want one!? No! I like having them to myself! Why did they wanna rock the boat by adding another mouth to feed and be responsible for!? I mean, truth be told the two of them are uber busy people! How are they gonna handle taking care of a rugrat when they barely have enough time for me! What's that gonna do to my quality time?!" I seethe in frustration.
Chris stops rolling his sleeping bag to shoot me his 'not this again' exasperated look. "Ana, there is nothing that you can do about it. You are getting a baby brother or sister whether you like it or not. It is not a choice that you get to make."
"Now that's where I disagree. There should have been a family discussion." I throw myself onto his bed on top of his neatly folded clothes, sending them flying everywhere, and scream into his pillows.
"Damn it, Anastasia Rose! Now I have to start all over again!" Chris shouts at me and starts picking up his stuff from the floor. "What part of miracle baby do you not get?! They didn't plan your sibling! It just happened! Get over it!"
"I'm their miracle baby!" I screech and hit him in the face with a pillow. "They didn't need to replace me with a newer model!"
"What are you five!?" He glares at me like I'm an alien or in need of the funny farm. "Did you not pay any attention in Health class?! Do you not comprehend all of those endless books that you love to read!? Seriously, Anastasia, if you're gonna throw a snit and attack me with my pillows for being the voice a reason then go HOME!"
What the hell?! Is he kicking me out!? He's supposed to be on my side!?
"Because you aren't listening to me! I'm being replaced! They've missed soccer games because baby appointments clashed with them! Dad's the assistant coach! When we earned our black belt last week, were they there?! No! She forced me to take ballet all these years and never missed one recital, but now none of my activities matter anymore! They're always so focused on baby this and baby that! They've missed everything! "
"Becoming a big sister does not mean that your parents are replacing you! Two games. Your mom had a scare and they were at the hospital when we earned our belts and the same thing happened right before your recital!" Chris stalks over to his door and throws it open. "You've been hanging around Mimi and Kate too much! Creating endless drama over nothing! Call me when you've come back to your senses!"
"Fine!" I scramble off his bed sending the rest of his stuff flying, not that I give a damn! He's abandoning me in my hour of need! "Be on Team Rugrat! Abandon me when I need you the most! It's clear that you don't care that my parents are sending me away when it's born! Don't bother visiting me either! I mean, they've already given it my room and moved me to the guest bedroom at then end of the hall! It's no surprise that the next step is shipping me off to my grandparents while the little creature gets the run of my house!" I stalk passed him in a full blown snit.
"They are not shipping you off! Your new room is twice as big as your old one and it's far enough from the nursery so that the baby won't keep you awake at night! What is so wrong about going to see your Grandparents? You love the farm and are right next door to Grandma and Grandpa T's orchard! You clearly don't want to bond with the baby, so they're giving you the space that you are screaming for until you finally get it into your stubborn little mind that being a big sister is not the end of the world!" He glowers down at me and I glare back up at him. He's had a growth spurt so he's taller than me while I'm stuck at five feet nothing.
"You'll be so sorry when I'm gone! Not that you even care about me anymore! That's fine with me! I don't need you! I'll figure it all out on my own! You and I are done!" I scream at him, willing myself not to burst into tears and then stalk down the hallway to the top of the stairs. Turning to glare icy blue eyes at him and shouting out one final shot his way before stalking down the stairs. "I hope you come down with a nasty case of poison oak, ivy, and sumac!"
"Ana!" I can hear him shout after me. "I didn't! It's not that I don't…"
He made his position crystal clear and I don't want anything to do with him at all! I run blindly across the lawn and scramble through my spot in the rose hedges back home.
"Ana…" Daddy's trying to figure out why I've dragged out my suitcase and am throwing all my stuff into it instead of enough for a weekend at my GG's farm. "Why are you packing up your closet? It's only for the weekend, not forever."
I stalk past him and into the hall closet to drag out another case. "I'm keeping stuff there for when you ship me off and replace me with miracle baby! It's not like Chris cares either! He kicked me out of his room and told me to stop being a drama queen! So we're done! Not that you care about what's happening with me anymore!"
"Look, I get that you're feeling left out and that we've had to miss some of…"
"Some of my stuff!? Dad! You've missed everything, because the baby comes first and it's not even born yet! Soccer which you co-coach! Me earning a black belt! My first recital en point! My gymnastics meet! If I wanna go to the movies or out for ice-cream then it's with Mimi or with Kate and their parents! Months of stuff! Missed because baby comes first! I get that Mom has had a few scares and fine that's understandable, but the rest!? You both don't care about anything that happens with me anymore!" I toss am arm load of stuff into the case and stalk to my drawers for more.
Dad scoops me up and tosses me over his shoulder. "Family meeting! You are not being replaced or disowned!"
"Put me down! I need to finish packing my stuff!" I squirm then squeal when it earns me a smack on the butt. "Owie! I'm just making it easier for you and mom to focus on the baby! It's all you and Mom care about anyway! I've spent more time over at Mimi's or Kate's than I have here! Because you don't love me anymore!"
"Ray? What one earth is wrong with Ana?" Mom comes out of my former room to see what's going on?
"He won't let me pack!" I grumble, trying to wriggle free, and he swats me again. "Fine! We'll have your meaningless family meeting and then I'll finish packing for Grandma and Grandpa's! It's not like you're gonna miss me when I'm gone!"
"Gone?!" Mom's staring at Dad like I've lost my marbles. "You're spending the weekend at the farm with the rest of the girls while the boys are off camping. You love spending time on Grandma and Grandpa Lamb's farm." She's absently rubbing her massive belly. I'm not kidding this kid is gonna be a beast! She's looks like she swallowed half a basketball and has months to go!
"Annie's feeling abandoned because we've missed some of her events…" Dad gives mom the short version of my rant and she bursts into tears, which has dad torn between placating Mom or letting me down to bolt back to my room and pack.
"I'm a terrible mother!" She sobs against Dad's shoulder. He's still got me, but has his other arm around Mom. "We've missed so much and now she hates us!"
"The baby comes first over everything and it's like I don't matter to you anymore." I start to tear up too, because the last thing that I wanted was to make my mom cry. "Even Chris is on Team Baby. He called me a diva and kicked me out until I come to my senses, so we're done."
"We are not done!" Chris shouts from downstairs. "I was trying to get you to see reason and you went mental again!"
"Go away!" I shout.
"No! Grow up!" He stalks up the stairs with his stuff. "Mom got called to the hospital. Dad got a call and has to go to DC again. Lelliot's at Stanford. T went with Dad and Gail just left to take care of her sister. Camping got canceled. I'll be in my room. Mimi's over at Kate and Ethan's" He heads off to his room.
"Just drop your gear and then head downstairs." Ray calls after him.
"Fine, but she's being a stubborn little diva and I don't think even a family talk is gonna shake her out of it. In her defense though, you have missed a lot of stuff, so I do get why she's thinking what she's thinking. I know it's not true, but I do get why." He disappears into his room.
"We're over there being any danger of losing this little one, so it's gonna get better, baby girl. I promise." Now that has me kinda freaked out a little. What did Mom mean by danger? Losing the intruder? I'm nine they need to tell me these things!
"You know. If you would just stop treating me like a little kid and actually talk to me about what's going on instead then I wouldn't feel like I do now. You miss stuff or are changing stuff in the house for the baby, so then you try and make up for it by spoiling me with stuff. Like having Gwen design my room and not with no budget. My old playroom is getting transformed into a gaming and computer nirvana. The new my size sailboat that's in the boathouse is fantastic, but then you don't have the time for teaching me so Daddy Cary has been teaching me and Chris instead. I get that you think that I need to keep active and busy, but what's the point if you're not there to watch me achieve those goals…" Daddy has me so that he's holding me instead of carrying me like a fire hose and we're locking eyes.
"Like it or not, you little pixie are still a little kid whether you think you are or not." He kisses me on my nose. "And because of that your Mom and I feel the need to shelter you from anything that's going to worry or upset you."
"Yeah, not really working, Daddy. I feel like an outsider in my own house. You and mom are so focused on the intruder that you forget that your first miracle needs you too. I'm not Mia or Kate, so all of these things mean nothing to me if I don't get to have quality Daddy or Mommy time to go with them." I wrinkle my nose and pout at him.
"If you don't know how to explain to Ana what's going on with Momma C then why didn't you just ask my Mom? I mean that's what she does and she's the best doctor in the universe." Chris pipes up from behind us.
"I already asked Momma Grace all about it and she sat me down and showed me a book with pictures of what the intruder looks like inside Momma's belly. She didn't say anything about Momma being in danger or losing the intruder in any of our talks. Just that it takes lots of Mommy's energy and stuff like that…" I narrow my eyes at my Daddy and growl. "What's wrong with mommy?"
"Nothing is that matter with me, Babydoll." Mommy croons soothingly and reaches up to stroke my hair. "I just had to be really careful for a few months and that meant seeing the doctor more to make sure that me and your little brother…"
"The intruder that's taken over my life is a boy?" My eyes pop wide at the news.
"Ana being a big brother or sister is a really big deal. You get to protect them, love them, and teach them stuff. I protect Mimi all the time. Help her with Math. And I love her lots…" Chris once again tries his how fantastic it is to be the older sibling speech on me again and I shrug.
"You're what? Five whole minutes older than Mimi?" I snort, rolling my eyes.
"So, I'm still older than she is making me her big brother whether she likes it or not." Chris grins. "You've got it even better than I do its like Lelliot when Mimi and I were little."
"How do you even know it's a boy? You can't tell anything from those pictures that you get from the doctor's." I'm still far from convinced that the bean shape in those pictures now looks like a person like in the book.
"Your mom and I have something to show you that might make this transition easier on you and no it's not one of those printed out photos either." All of us head downstairs, I guess to see what the intruder looks like now. Maybe they got something in color this time?
Sitting on the coffee table is Daddy's laptop and I'm wondering what that has to do with seeing my Baby brother. Then I spy the DVD+R disk sitting next to it and I can just make out what's written on it Baby Steele 15 weeks scan. "They gave you a home movie of the intruder?!" I gape up at Daddy and he's grinning at me.
"Ana…he's not an intruder…" Mom plucks me out of his arms for a cuddle and the intruder kicks me causing me to jump out of her arms, cling to Chris, and glare down at her belly.
"It kicked me in the hinny!" I growl in outrage.
"Well, maybe you were squishing him and he didn't like it and told ya so?" Chris shrugs. "Or ya woke him up and he's as grouchy as you are when someone dares wake you from your beauty sleep."
Dad and Mom are trying so hard not to burst out laughing, knowing that it will incense me even more. "Or he's just saying hello and responding to your voice. He's been kicking and doing summersaults ever since he heard his big sister's voice." Mom's soothingly rubbing her belly.
"You're fine, sweet pea. You and Chris come sit by our feet." Daddy motions for us to join them in front of the coffee table.
"Fine, but getting kick in the hinny isn't cool at all!" I grumble, folding my arms, as we sit down at their feet.
"Neither is getting squished," Chris counters in the intruder's defense and I stick out my tongue, cross my eyes, and blow him a raspberry.
Just when Chris is gonna tug hard on my braid for sassing him with my sassy face, dad growls, "Ana, that's not nice. Tell him you're sorry. Chris, don't even think of it."
"Anymore of that and we won't be going out to IHOP for dinner tonight and if you're really good maybe even ice-cream." Mom narrows her eyes at us and uses her mom voice.
"Sorry, Christian…" I huff.
"Its fine, Anastasia." Chris reaches over and gives my shoulders a squeeze. "I get it. I'm team TJ and you don't like it."
"TJ?" I frown.
"Yeah," Chris points to the disk on the table. "That's what it says on the disk TJ Steele."
"The intruder has a name already?"
"Your baby brother, not the intruder has a name." Daddy corrects me, as he goes about booting up the disk on his laptop. "Say it with me, Anastasia. Baby brother."
"Fine. Baby brother…holy crap!" My eyes bug out of my head when Daddy plays what's on the disk.
"Anastasia Rose! Language!" Mom growls.
Chris is staring bug eyed at it too with his mouth open. "I'm with Ana all the way on that…wow!"
"He went from a blip, to a bean, to this alien looking creature, to…that?! And in just a few weeks! He looks like the baby in the book that Momma Grace gave me…he's a boy, alright! He waved at you and now he's sucking his thumb! Can we have a party and show everyone this?! This is so worth you ditching my stuff if it meant keeping TJ and Mom safe." It's so cool and he's starting to really look like Daddy a lot and he's got months to go.
"If that's what you want, baby girl." Mom's all smiles now that the crisis is over.
"That's unless you wanna surprise everyone, but that's a big secret for even Chris and I to keep. Maybe, just the family? We can have a blue cake, a box with blue balloons in it, or maybe hand out blue teddy bears?" I chatter excitedly.
Now that I can see an actual miniature human, I can see why Daddy and Mom were so careful and had to miss so much stuff. "Would you like that TJ? There will be lots of yummy cake." I croon to Mom's tummy and he kicks, making me giggle. "Can Chris feel this too? It's so cool!"
"Of course he can." Mom motions for him and Chris eagerly goes over to feel TJ doing circles inside my Mom.
"I think that he really likes your voice, because he's doing flips in there." Chris is as awed by this as I am. "Hey, TJ, I may not be your official big brother, but I can be your honorary one and that's just as good. I'll help Ana watch over you and teach you lots of cool stuff." That got a kick and Chris was grinning at me. "He likes my voice too."
"You're family, son. And are going to make a fantastic big brother, just as Ana is gonna make a wonderful big sister to our little Taylor Jason." Dad reaches out to ruffle Chris's hair and then Mom kisses his head.
"Uncle J is gonna do flips!" We grin.
"It's a surprise until we have the party that Ana wants…" Dad gives us a look.
"We won't tell." Chris and I both make the motion like we're zipping our lips. "Promise."
"Good. Now, both of you go set Ana's room to rights and then we'll be ready to go to IHOP in an hour."
"You trashed your room too?" Chris rolls his eyes, as he pulls me up to my feet.
"Anastasia Steele, did you trash Christian's room?" Mom narrows her eyes at me.
"Define trashed?" I bite my lip, trying not to look in hers or Dad's eyes.
"Ana…" Dad growls.
"Well, he had all of his stuff on his bed for his camping trip and when I threw myself on it things may or may not have gone flying everywhere…" I say all of that at lightning speed.
"It's fine. She was in a temper…no harm, no foul…" Chris hastily tries to get me out of trouble. "It wasn't like trashed…trashed…nothing got broken or anything like that…"
"Ana, you and Chris go over and fix his room now or no IHOP." Mom orders.
"Yeah, about that I kinda fixed it already," Chris scrubs at the back of his neck. "It wasn't really all that bad…"
"Well, then Ana will just have to do your chores for an entire month and then write me a ten page essay on manners and why it's not nice to take out her temper on other peoples things."
"A whole month?! And an essay!? Ten pages?!" I exclaim in protest.
"Want me to add grounded to that list?" Dad narrows his eyes at me.
"But! He does yardwork! The trash is so heavy too! Are we gonna be eating over at Chris's for a Month? He washes dishes or sets the table? Am I gonna be running back from his house to ours? Can't I just bake him cookies or something instead…I'll still write the essay…" I try to negotiate my sentence and add my big blue eyed puppy look for good measure, as it usually works.
"Anastasia Rose…"
Chris grabs my hand and starts dragging me out of the living room. "Cool it or you'll end up grounded for a month." He hisses.
"How about just the dishes and table?! The Essay! And I bake him cookies?" I call back.
"That's fine with me!" Chris stops us just outside the living room and calls back to negotiate and just to make sure that I don't make it worse he puts his hand over my mouth to shut me up. "She's too small to really do the yardwork and Dad won't go for it. She didn't really do any harm to my stuff, so maybe just a week of the dishes and table, the essay, and baking me triple chocolate, peanut butter fudge, monster cookies is more than a fair punishment? I mean, it was my room that got tossed…"
"We will agree to your appeal, Councilor Grey…" Dad calls back, highly amused by Chris's defense.
"One hour. We'll be up to check your progress and decide if we're still going out or not." Mom echoes after him.
"One hour. Got it!" Chris answers back.
"Ana?"
I glower up at Chris and he reluctantly removes his hand, "Got it, Mom! One hour!" I wriggle out of his hold and stalk towards the stairs. "That was not cool, Christian!" I hiss as we head upstairs.
"You were making it worse!" He hisses back. "Besides, it worked and I got your sentence lowered. Stop hissing at me and let's go tackle your room, so that we can go to IHOP! Oh, and you're welcome!"