Chapter Text
It’s four in the morning when Kelly rolls over and finds that her wife isn’t in bed.
She turns back over and lets out a frustrated sigh. One, because they agreed months ago that they would both take today off, and two, because Alex didn’t wake her before she left. Something she promised she’d always do.
She’s seconds away from falling back asleep when she hears noises coming from the kitchen.
Ava. She sighs again, this time frustrated at how many times she's had to scold her daughter for going through the pantry at ridiculous hours of the night. She blames Kara for instilling in her the need to constantly eat.
Rolling her eyes, she gets out of bed and starts heading toward the kitchen. She’s prepared to have yet another conversation with Ava for what will hopefully be the last time. She opens her mouth to start a tired rant but stops when she sees the culprit.
“Alex?” She squints her eyes as they adjust to the bright lights. She looks around at the chaos. The kitchen island is a disaster and her wife is a frantic mess. “Honey. Why?” She groans, confused and way too sleepy to form a more articulate sentence.
“Oh, hey! Good morning,” Alex walks over and gives Kelly a quick kiss on the cheek before returning to what she was doing.
“Alex, it’s four in the morning. Why are you out of bed and destroying my kitchen?” She was also going to ask why she was so awake, but when she saw the pot of coffee across the room she had her answer.
“I’m making Ava’s lunch. I didn’t know if she’d want a grilled cheese sandwich or a turkey sandwich, so I made both. I mean, I would ask her but I don’t want to wake her and run the risk of her being cranky on her first day of school. I was going to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich since that’s all she eats lately but it’ll be all soggy and gross by lunchtime.”
Kelly walks over to the anxious woman and grabs her hands, causing her to stop what she’s doing. “Hey, look at me.” Alex drops the sandwich bag and turns her body so they’re standing face to face. “I love you. I love you so much, but for the love of god, you have got to calm down.”
“I’m really nervous.” Alex admits, giving her wife the most pitiful look.
Kelly smiles and lets out a soft chuckle. “I know, babe.” She reaches up gives Alex a reassuring kiss on the lips. “Let’s get all this cleaned up and go back to bed.” Just as Alex is about to protest, Kelly continues. “I know you won’t be able to sleep, but you’re coming back to bed with me, and we’re going to stay in bed until it’s time to wake Ava up. Got it?”
“Fine.”
The mess gets cleaned up and Ava’s lunch is ready to go. Packed to the brim with more food than she’ll need, but it made Alex feel better about sending her daughter off to school for the first time. Kelly starts heading back to their bedroom when she notices Alex isn’t behind her. When she turns around, she finds the redhead about to pour herself another cup of coffee.
“Alex,” Kelly says in her most stern voice. “No.”
Alex curses under her breath and puts the coffee down. She pouts all the way to bed.
“Can I get a drumroll please?” Kara shouts from the top of the stairs. She came over early for breakfast and to make sure her niece got the proper sendoff before school. After they ate, Ava insisted that her aunt do her hair. The two had been upstairs for awhile, giving Kelly and Alex time to enjoy their breakfast together.
The two women downstairs laughed at Kara’s dramatics and then proceeded to make their best drumroll noise using the kitchen table.
“Ladies and gentlewomen,” she yells. “Introducing Ava Rae Danvers, world’s cutest tiny human and official kindergartener!”
They all cheer as Ava makes her way down the stairs with the biggest smile on her face. Alex gets out her phone to capture the moment. The little girl had on her overall shorts with a pink polka dotted shirt underneath, and her new pink slip-on vans to match. With her long curly hair braided back into two plait pigtails, Ava was ready for her very first day of school.
She hops down when she reaches the final step and runs over to her parents excitedly. Kelly stands, catching her daughter as she crashes into her arms and lifts her up onto her hip.
“Mama, do you like my hair?”
“I love your hair, bug,” she smiles and plants a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. Alex snaps a picture of the two before Kelly sets her back on the ground. “Go get your backpack so Mommy can take your picture.”
The five-year-old runs off to grab her things and Alex follows behind her.
“Thank you for all your help this morning, Kara.” Kelly says as her sister-in-law walks towards her. “I might need you again this afternoon to help distract your sister. She’s been a nervous wreck all day at it’s not even eight a.m. yet. I can only imagine what the rest of the day will be like.”
Kara couldn’t help but laugh. “I’d be more than happy to help.”
The two walk over to where Alex and Ava are standing by the door.
“Ok sweetie, smile big!” Alex beams, snapping another picture. She posts it to her Instagram story with five crying emojis as her caption. Behind her, Kelly takes a picture of Alex taking a picture. She posts her picture to her story as well. Her caption reads: Ava’s first day of school! I am ok. Alex is not.
When they arrive at Ava’s school, the two women walk their daughter in together. There had been a minor hiccup when they first pulled in and Ava was told she couldn’t bring her koala in with her. The little girl was on the verge of tears, but Alex assured her that Cupcake would be waiting for her in the car when she got picked up.
Ava holds tight to both of her parents' hands as they enter the building. She was feeling a bit unsure until they got closer to her classroom and she recognized one of the girls from her dance class. After she runs off, Kelly looks at Alex and squeezes her hand.
“I told you she’d be ok.”
“Yeah,” Alex smiles back hesitantly.
A few seconds later, Ava’s teacher, Mrs Holbrook, makes her way over to them after talking to a few of the other parents and students who had just arrived.
“Alex, Kelly, hi!” She greets them with a warm smile and shakes their hands. “Good to see you both again. Ava seems to be doing well already.”
“She is,” Kelly responds. “She’s been so excited about her first day of school for months.”
“I am equally excited,” Mrs. Holbrook shares. “It looks like I’ve got a great group of students this year.”
Alex stands there, a bit distracted, while Kelly continues on with some small talk before the teacher excuses herself to finish preparing her classroom.
“Wait!” Alex calls out, causing the older woman to turn around and walk back over to them. “If you haven’t already assigned seats can you make sure Ava’s desk isn’t too close to the clock? I don’t know if you have the traditional analog clocks in your classroom or the digital ones since they can’t really tell time yet, but she hates the ticking noise they make. And if you have a fish tank in the room please don’t sit her too close to that either. The sound the filter makes really bothers her. She’s just really particular about certain noises and if she can’t focus she might have a meltdown and I really don’t want that to happen on her first day, and neither do you. Trust me.”
Kelly tries to interrupt her wife when she stops for a split second but the nervous rambling continues before she gets the chance to say anything.
“Oh, and um, if she cups her hands over her ears she’s not ignoring you. That’s just how she calms herself down if she’s feeling overwhelmed. She usually only needs about 15 seconds and then she’s good, but if it goes on for more than a few minutes that means she’s really upset and is probably on the verge of shutting down completely. If that’s ever the case please give me a call. I work just a few min-”
“Alex.” Kelly has to stop her or she’d go on for hours. She places a loving hand on her wife’s back and rubs gentle circles. “Honey, breathe.”
Alex stops and takes a deep breath. She places a hand over her heart when she realizes how quickly it’s beating.
“I’m sorry,” she says, looking at her wife and the teacher apologetically. “I just want to make sure she’s ok.”
Mrs. Holbrook notices the tears starting to form in Alex’s eyes and does her best to reassure her. “My assistant teacher and I both read over the notes from the meeting you and your wife had with the school counselor at orientation last month. We have plans in place for all of our students that will help us meet each of their needs in any situation. I promise you, Ava is in good hands.”
They finish up their conversation and a few minutes later Mrs. Holbrook makes an announcement for all the parents to say their goodbyes as the school day is about to begin. Alex squats down and opens her arms as Ava walks back over to them. She pulls her into a big hug and holds on tight for a little longer than she probably should.
“Alright ladybug,” she says as she lets go. “Knock ‘em dead.”
Alex stands up and the little girls moves over to give Kelly a hug. She wraps her tiny arms around her mother’s legs as she bends over to kiss her head. “I love you, baby. We’ll be back to get you as soon as school is over. Be good and have fun!”
Ava walks off as the assistant teacher calls all of the students into the room. “Bye Mommy! By Mama!”
They both wave back at her, then wait until she’s in the classroom before walking out of the school hand in hand.
The car ride home is quiet. They’re two minutes away from the house before Alex says anything.
“What time is school over?” She asks, looking over at Kelly in the driver’s seat.
“School ends at 2:45.”
“Oh my god!” Alex cries out. “I can’t do this.”
Kelly presses her lips together to keep from laughing at her wife. When they reach a red light, she gets out her phone and sends Kara an SOS text, hoping she will know how to get her wife through the next seven hours. When she looks back over at Alex, the redhead is staring out of the window with the most pathetic look on her face. Kelly chuckles quietly to herself before stealing a picture, feeling only slightly bad for finding humor in her wife’s misery.
When they get home, she posts the picture to her Instagram story. This time, the caption reads: Update: She’s still not okay.