Chapter Text
5 years later
She always thought marriage was going to be hard, she saw how much her parents struggled, how everyday was a battle for dominance, a screaming contest.
He always though marriage wasn't for him, he couldn't stand the idea of promising himself to one person only, he never saw anything like that, in his experience people cheated and dads left.
By far their three years of marriage have proved them wrong. They truly are an amazing team, like a perfect duet or good sex.
They are still in the honeymoon phase when it came to making love, even after five years of dating, four years of living together and three years of marriage.
They know the other so well they can decipher every little move, every little expression mark on the other's face, they know when they have to tiptoe around each other, when the other wants to be hugged and held close.
There's only one bad apple in a marriage that's full of joy and Annie feels the weight of it all on her tiny shoulders.
No matter how hard they have tried and planned in the last year, everytime she has been a little late all her hopes have been shut down by negative pregnancy tests.
She knows how much he wants a child before he is too old, how much they both have talked of little Sebastian running around, but at this point it seems like Sebastian doesn't want to be in her.
He tells her that it doesn't matter, that it will be better the next month, that they already are a family, but she can't shake the feeling off herself that she is secretly disappointing him and it breaks her heart, especially after seeing how he uprooted his life, how he changed so much to be with her, she feels like she can't even pay him back.
This morning she had to stay home from work.
She still works in DC, in a very good lab and in the field they say she is one of the more promising forensic scientists in the country, she expects a call from the FBI within the next five years.
Jeff is still working for his amazing firm, scaling the ranks quickly, because he is the best at convincing juries his clients are innocent and ever since he has been with her he works even harder.
It's a huge turn on for her to come home and see him, with his salt and pepper beard, his muscular arms and reading glasses, bend over a pile of paperwork. She has loved him for many years, but nothing could have prepared for how much she loves this mature version of Jeff. It's a dreamland.
She has spent the whole night sick to death, probably thanks to all the sushi they ate last night to celebrate his big win in an important case. It feels like she is in a boat that's dragging her to hell.
He has skipped his beauty sleep to hold her hair while she was bent over the toilet.
After all they vowed to love and cherish the other in sickness or health.
He has left for Denver, he has a big day in court tomorrow, he'll be back to her in three days. They spent six years apart, but now that she is used to have him always around, three days apart feel like an eternity. Especially if she feels this sick.
She manages to get out of bed and she wanders through their house.
It's the fourth house she has owned and it's her favourite by far.
It's clean and with boring white walls like Jeff wanted, but there are their pink curtains and her orchids to bring some colour.
They have pictures everywhere: the study group now and then, their wedding picture, with him looking at her with the eyes of love, her offering him the brightest smile she ever dreamed of.
In the middle of the wall there's a framed article from the Greendale Gazette, celebrating the first historical win of the Edison-Winger team. The first of many.
She looks at the calendar hanging in the kitchen, a Christmas gift from Troy, with all the pictures he snapped during his travels around the world and she feels like something is wrong. She thought today was the 25th, but it's the 30th of October. He could her brain be so fuzzy? She is never wrong.
A little voice is telling her that she was supposed to have her period five days ago and she should take that test she keeps in the bathroom cabin.
Another little voice tells her that it will only break her heart, that she has only been stressed the past month, that's the reason why she is late.
She can wait for another month and see how it goes, she can't take another disappointment.
Her phone buzzes. It's him.
"Hi babe, I hope you are better now. I just landed in Denver. My mum says hi!".
She hears her mother-in-law saying something in the background.
She was so scared the first time she met her, not only she was the girlfriend of her only boy, he also moved far away for her. When they met she found in Doreen the mother she had longed for the past six years, loving and forgiving, a true ally.
"Honey, I'm a bit better. Tell Doreen I say hi too. That sushi really stressed my guts".
"I've seen people with food poisoning babe, but that thing wasn't normal. I've never seen you that sick, you scared me."
The little voice in her head tells her she has to take the test, that it could be something more than bad food and stress.
"Jeff, I have to tell you something. I didn't want to act on it, but I'm sort of five days late and I don't want to get our hopes up, but gosh, all that sickness. Should I take the test?"
"Annie, I wish I was there. I know you are hurt, but I hope you know by now that I love you so much already, with or without a kid. I want you to do what's good for you, maybe it will be better to rip the band aid now, then spending a month hoping".
"Will you stay with me while I wait?" She asks, but she already knows the answer.
"I'm staying with you forever".
"Ok I'm peeing on the stick right now. Tell me something funny that happened on your flight".
He talks for three minutes to keep her mind busy, from the shaky tone of his voice she can tell he is a bit nervous as well.
The alarms rings.
She takes a big breath, he takes a big breath.
Her hands are shaking, but hearing his breaths, the little noises his teeth do when he is nervous, makes her a little braver. She turns the test.
She lets out a sequel, the same squeal she used to do whenever she had some good news, because this is the best news.
"Annie is it what I'm thinking it is? Are we going to have a baby?"
"We are honey, Sebastian is coming home".
*~*~*~*~*~*
Nine months later he comes home and they settle him in his little futuristic crib, courtesy of his strange uncles Troy&Abed.
Jeff stays up the whole night thinking about him, too in shock, too amazed by the miracle of life, too happy to have a son. He doesn't close his eyes for a minute.
He thinks of Annie, squeezing his hand with all the strength in the world, doing something so big with a body so tiny. He always suspected she was a superhero, now he has the proof.
The proof is this perfect little boy, all red and wrinkly. His eyes have been closed almost the whole time, but they seem already big and blue and he knows that it's going to be very hard to say no to those. Shit! He is outnumbered now, both his amazing wife and son in possess of doe eyes.
This tiny baby is his biggest love already, along with Annie, but also his biggest fear.
He knows nothing about being a father, he doesn't have any examples of father figures in his life, he just knows that one of the secrets is not doing what William Winger did.
But there's no way he is leaving them. He has longed Annie for too longed, wasting many years of potential happiness, he let her go once already and he doesn't want to do it ever again.
The baby starts fussing, Annie groans and wakes up. She picks Sebastian up and takes him to bed. He has to eat.
"I think I have a harsh competitor on the "Who loves Annie's boobs the most?" now".
He comments as he sees his boy all happy now that he is feeding.
"Why are you awake? You should sleep honey, we won't have many occasions in the foreseeable future".
"I was too much in love to sleep tonight. Thank you for making me a dad." When has he become such a sappy person?
"I know you didn't take biology so seriously in school, but it takes two, so thank you for making me a mum."
"You put way more effort in this".
He only did his part by having amazing sex with his wife, she was the one to go though pucking at ungodly hours, getting bigger and bigger and still being in charge of a sofisticate lab, she expelled a gigantic Winger baby out of herself!
"Well, doesn't it always go that way? Now silent, I'm putting him back to sleep."
She leans over the crib to give a light kiss on Sebastian' head and she comes back to bed.
He can see the signs of exhaustion in her eyes, he holds her in his arms, careful to not hurt her and gives her a soft kiss, out of love, gratitude, but mostly love.
She caresses his face. During the years together he has learnt that there's no anxiety, no worry too big that she can't make it go away with her light and warm touch.
"Even though now I'm too exhausted to do an Edison-Winger speech, I hope you know that I love you too and that I'm looking forward to see how this cutesy caper of ours will turn out.
I know you think you don't know how to be a dad, but you are a natural leader, you care a lot, you have learnt to give the world to those you love, you are going to be amazing. We are going to be amazing. Our team has won the only competition Greendale has ever won, parenthood is going to be a walk in the park".
*~*~*~*~*~*
She was right (as always).
When you walk through the forest of parenthood with someone strong, determined and loving as Annie Edison-Winger as your companion, you can be sure that you'll always see the sun shining.
There are many many good days and of course there are the bad ones when your kid doesn't want to wear socks and screams like his mother when she loses her purple pens or he doesn't want to eat the mashed vegetables and decides to paint a Jackson Pollock on the floor.
There are days when you come home too exhausted from court and all you want to do is lay down in silence and you remember fondly your bachelor pad, but then your insanely hot wife comes in your room holding the cutest baby on Earth, who just learnt how to say "dada" and your heart grows so may sizes that you think it could explode out of your chest.
There are days you work from home, because your super wife managed to be hired by the freaking FBI just two years after making a baby and you have to shield your documents or the little Picasso will cover them in doodles and drool.
There are days you wish you could go out in smokey and boozy bars with your woman and instead you are cramped in a very tiny chair in a kindergarden gym watching your kid singing "Let it Shine" and you don't know if it's because you are allergic to dust or because this is the most adorable thing you have ever seen, but some tears are coming down on your cheeks, tears your Annie vanishes with her kisses.
There are mornings you wish you could stay in bed after working for a whole week, stay in bed and make love to your wife who has worked for the whole week, and instead you are rooting for your son, who's kicking balls in a soccer field and even if he gets everything wrong he is like Messi to your eyes and you are moved when your wife still cheers him up and makes him feel better after the game, because even if that's Motherhood 101, you know that in her household there was no room for mistakes and you are so glad that she got out of it and Abed called her to join the study group all those years ago and that she is working hard to make their household a place where they cherish and love each other, whether they win or lose.
His favourite part of the day has become opening the front door and shouting: "Annie, I'm home".
Seeing her sitting on the couch, resting after a day of examining evidences and gory stuff, with her very professional outfit and her gorgeous smile, makes him think he is the luckiest man on Earth.
"Hi, honey! Seb, come here!".
He comes in the living room, stomping the floor like a bull and he throws himself at him, circling his neck with his arms.
He kisses his son until he can't contain the laughter anymore, 'cause his beard stings and he finds it very funny.
Sebastian starts telling them all about his day at school, all the new songs they've learnt, all the new words he intends to improperly use in every sentence and all about his shenanigans in the park with his little friends and "Gamma Doreen".
Since his mum didn't have anyone in Colorado anymore she decided to enjoy her retirement in a small house not far from theirs, a win-win, since she gets to spoil her grandson and they get to work freely during the day.
He tells them his adventures with the fantasy and the wonder of a six years old kid and in 52 (he shrugs a bit at the tought) of life he has rarely seen something that damn cute. He has spent the last 17 years of his life in company of Annie Edison, so he knows a thing or two about cuteness.
The kid goes back to his room, playing with Legos and destroying things and he finally kisses his wife.
After almost ten years of marriage the spark, is still very much alive, although now they are way more exhausted and more often than before just enjoy each other company.
"How was your day?" It's their thing, always asking, always interested in every tiny detail of the other's life.
"Trust me honey, you don't want to know it before dinner. Are you still game for getting dinner ready?" Ever since they started dating he has tried to surprise her with his incredible cooking skills.
"I told you, I've won the biggest case of my life, I've saved an innocent from life in prison and I'm cooking lasagna to celebrate!"
"You know, the thing that surprises me the most is not the fact that you have been married for almost a decade, that you love me as much as the first day and you are the most loving father I've ever seen, I've always known that under that tall wall of hurt and sarcasm there was a very, very good man, but it's the fact that you are willingly cooking and eating carbs".
"I already have a hot, young wife, I don't need a six pack as well. Are you happy?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"It's just that sitting on the couch with you and Sebastian is a sort of dejavu to the nightmares I used to have when I was sure I wasn't right for you. I want to make sure I'm right for you, that this life is right for you."
"Are you kidding me? I married my college crush, I married someone who loves me and respects me, I married someone who constantly puts my happiness above everything and I happen to have a healthy, funny, smart kid I adore. Not to mention I have the job of my dreams and the most delightful and less intruding mother-in-law.
You and Sebastian make me feel like I wom the lottery every single day. And you? Are you happy?"
"The only thing I'll add is a dog, then I can affirm I'm the happiest and luckiest man on Earth. I
look back at our last year in Greendale and it's incredible how my nightmare turned into a dreamland. It's incredible how the driven lady who smacked my head multiple times, whose heart I've broken multiple times agreed to become my wife and the mother of my child.
I've always been scared as hell of getting old, but the thought that I'll grow old with you by my side brings me the peace I've longed for my whole life.
Annie Edison-Winger, words are my speciality, but looking at you, at Sebastian and the family we have created I'm speechless, because I love you more than words can say"
THE END