Chapter Text
Daddy Knows Best
April 12th 1993
Hillary tugged at the zipper on her skirt. The third skirt of the morning. The rest laid in a heap to the left of her feet. Oh, how she envied Bill. He picked a suit and then a tie and was dressed in less than five minutes. “Honey?” she called out. “Can you come here for a moment?”
“Sure, hang on.” he called from the bathroom.
When he entered the closet a few moments later he found his wife sitting on the bench in tears. And then he spotted the pile of clothes on the floor next to her. He frowned and then made his way into the room.
“Hey.” he kneeled in front of her. “What’s wrong, darlin’?”
The tears swimming in her eyes threatened to spill at any moment. “I can’t get anything to zip.”
“I think that’s a rather broad statement.” he smiled a bit. “You’ve only tried on a few things.”
“Three skirts, Bill.” her lips trembled. “And they all fit the last time I wore them.”
He reached down and picked up the yellow skirt. “I haven’t seen you wear this in months. Or this purple one. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in this blue one.”
Now the tears were falling. “That’s not helping at all.”
“Oh, baby, don’t cry.” he began wiping away her tears. “We all put on a little weight when it’s colder. You know that.”
“I just want this Easter Egg Roll to be perfect.”
“And it will be.” He took his handkerchief out of his pocket and gently patted her face. “I’ll help you find something, okay?” he rose to full height and offered her his hand. He pulled her up to her feet. “You’re beautiful no matter what.”
Hillary guffawed. “Yeah all extra seven pounds of me.”
“Seven pounds is nothing.” he told her, walking to her side of the closet. “Now seventy would be too much. I would definitely say something then.” he teased her.
Her lips turned up in a slight smile. “I know you’re right, it’s just…” she sighed. “I hate when this happens.”
Bill started going through the line of skirt suits. “It’s not that big of a deal, darlin’.” he told her. “Even my pants are a little tight. They work loose after I’ve had them on a few minutes.”
“Oh, Bill, that’s so comforting.”
He pulled a green suit off the rack. “How about this one?” he held it out to her. “You look so good in this color.”
Hillary was skeptical. “That’s not one of my favorites.”
Bill stuck out his bottom lip, pretending to pout. “Please try it on?” he asked, sweetly. “For me?”
“For you.” she conceded.
He slipped the skirt off the hanger and handed it to her. “This one is going to look great on you.”
Hillary slipped the skirt on. “God, if it fits though, it’s staying on.”
Bill came up behind her. “Allow me.” his fingers went for the zipper and slowly started dragging it upward.
“Christ, Bill!” she sighed, exasperated. “Quick like a band-aid.”
He laughed, glancing up to see her reflection the mirror a few feet away from them. He looked back down at the zipper and then his eyes darted back up to the mirror. “Turn this way.” he guided her hip so that her profile was visible. “Hmm.” he sighed, studying her form.
“What?” her eyes followed his in the mirror, sliding over the slight curve in her abdomen. “Too much pecan pie over the weekend.”
Bill gently shook his head, letting his eyes travel up to her breasts. Tops peeking out from her camisole. “New bra?”
Hillary shook her head. “No.” she replied. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Curious.” he pulled the zipper up into place. The fabric gave a little, stretching out over her hips.
“What wrong?” she turned to face him. “I can hear the wheels in your head turning.”
His eyes traveled over her again, coming up to settle on her beautiful face. “Hillary, I want to ask you something but I don’t want you to get upset, okay?”
“Okay.” she said, slowly.
“Could you be…pregnant?”
She laughed. “No.” she replied. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Come here.” he took her hand and led her over to the mirror. “Look at this.” He turned her to the side and let his hands skim over the slight swell of her abdomen. And then up to her breasts. “They look bigger to me.”
“Weight gain will do that.” she dismissed him, again. “Come one, we have to get a move on it.”
“We have plenty of time.”
She pulled away from him. “We don’t have enough time to indulge in your fantasies, Bill!”
Oh, God! Now he had really done it! “Hillary, come here, baby.” he reached out for her and pulled her toward him. “I’m not trying to upset you.” his hands settled on her hips. “I just want you to think about it, okay? Have you even had a period since we’ve been here?”
Hillary thought about it for a few moments. “They’re not always regular, you know that.”
“I know that.” he replied. “Can you tell me when the last one was?”
She bit down on her bottom lip and then slowly released it. His eyes were gentle and kind and she knew he wasn’t trying to get her hopes up. “The first week of January.”
“This is the second week of April.”
“That still doesn’t mean anything.” she said, softly. “I’ve gone months without a period before.”
He pressed a kiss against her forehead. “Will you take a test for me?”
“A test?” she asked. “Where are you going to get a test at seven o’clock on a Monday morning, Mr. President?”
Bill laughed. “In the medical unit.”
/////
Hillary watched as Bill slipped three small packages out of his breast pocket. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.” she mumbled. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”
He laid them on the vanity. “A deal is a deal, Hillary.” he reminded her, opening the vanity drawer and taking out a small paper cup. “Here you go.”
She sighed and accepted the cup from him. “If this makes us late, Bill, so help me God…”
“Just pee in the cup, Hillary.”
“I really don’t have to go.”
“Just try.” he told her. “It doesn’t have to be a lot.”
A few moments later Hillary held the cup out to him. “Satisfied?”
“Quite.” he walked back over to the vanity and began opening the first package as she finished up.
Hillary went to the other sink and began washing her hands. “I do hope this puts your overactive imagination at ease, William.”
He dipped the test strip down in the cup and counted to five before laying it on the counter and then repeating the process again. “Just relax, baby.”
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” she asked, watching him intently.
“It’s pretty self-explanatory.” he said, dipping the third and final strip into the cup. “Take some deep breaths or something.”
Hillary looked at all three testing strips.
“The top line is the control.” he explained, pointing at the first strip. “The dark pink line under that? That’s a positive result."
She watched as the all three tests turned up two dark pink lines. “Oh my God!” she whispered. “They’re all positive.”
“You know what this means?” he asked, a sly grin on his face. “Inauguration night.”
“Bill…”
“Yes?”
“Let’s not get our hopes up, okay?” she suggested. “I’m forty-five.”
“But you’ve got to be several months along.” he tried to reason with her. “Over three. That’s a definite safety zone. We know that from when you were pregnant with Chelsea.”
Hillary smiled, softly. “We don’t know that I’m that far…”
His hand skimmed over her stomach. “We do know that.” he told her. “This isn’t the result of too much pecan pie. This is a baby. Our baby.” his eyes pleaded with her. “Please can we be happy about this in the moment?
She nodded slightly and smiled. “We can be happy in the moment.”
He gently kissed her lips. “That’s my girl.” he beamed. “Next year our baby can join in on the egg roll.”
“At six months old?”
“Yeah, I’ll carry her around.”
“I love you.” she whispered. “Let’s just not get too attached before we talk to the doctor, okay?”
“I’ve been attached since I watched that first test turn positive.” he told her. “But yes, we’ll talk to the doctor as soon as the festivities are over. It’s going to work out.” he smiled. “Just like with Chelsea.”
Hillary nodded. “It’s going to work out.” And maybe just maybe she actually believed it would be. She had only ever been pregnant once before and that had worked out just fine. Maybe this pregnancy would as well. She knew the next several hours would test all the patience she could muster. She went from not being able to wait for the Easter Egg Hunt to start to not being able to wait for it to end.
tbc…