Work Text:
Eddie closed the front door of their apartment firmly behind her, blocking out the chill that’d seemed to follow her inside the building, and then leaned against it for a few brief moments, her eyes shut tightly and her breath coming out in shaky bursts. She found she needed those few seconds of solitude. After spending her afternoon in that morgue, with that mourning father, watching as he tried to make himself believe what she knew he had realized couldn’t actually be true, she needed just a bit of time to ground herself before she could finally shed the weight that’d gathered on her shoulders throughout the day and just… be there, in her home, with Jamie.
“Hey,” she called, about half a minute after she’d entered the apartment, “you home?”
“Bedroom,” Jamie called back immediately.
The mere sound of his voice settled something inside her, and she couldn’t help but smile slightly as she made her way through the living room and down the hall, headed in the direction of their bedroom. “Hi,” she greeted several seconds later, once she was standing in the doorway.
“Hi,” Jamie returned, glancing up from the pile of clothes he was in the process of folding to offer her a warm smile. “I ordered pizza. It should be here in a half hour or so.”
Her forehead crinkled. “I thought you were trying out your new salmon recipe tonight.”
He shrugged. “The way you sounded on the phone, I figured you needed pizza more than grilled fish, tonight.”
She shook her head slightly, smile widening as she crossed the arm to plant a kiss against his cheek. “You are my favorite, you know that?” she murmured against his skin, smiling as he turned to press his lips against hers lightly.
He pulled away slightly to grin down at her. “Figured so, after the wedding vows, but still nice to hear. You’re mine too, by the way.”
“Nice to hear,” she echoed, staying in his embrace for several seconds longer before finally pulling away so that he could finish up his task. She perched on the corner of their bed, staring over at him. “I’m thinking we should only have one kid,” she said after several moments passed in comfortable silence.
Jamie looked over at her, one brow arched in question. “And why’s that?” he asked, sounding more amused than anything.
She shrugged. “Oh, you know. Hockey sticks, fire irons. Your family’s habit of using them as weapons. I’d say we could just take the chance, have two and hope one or both of them is a girl, but I remember being a kid too well to think that’d actually change anything. Plus, I’ve heard the stories about Erin. The girl gave as good as good as she got.”
“She still does, though now it’s verbal abuse, not swinging a softball bat at us.” Jamie chuckled quietly at the look on Eddie’s face. “Oh, relax. She only ever threatened. Nobody’s head got busted open by my sister and her bat.”
“Oh, my children are going to be terrors,” Eddie muttered to herself, shaking her head with a fond smile as she fell back against the bed to stare up at the ceiling.
Having finished up with the clothes, Jamie set them aside and laid down next to her. His hand found hers, and he carefully intertwined their fingers. “They’ll be great,” he promised her quietly. “Even if they are terrors.”
“You think so?” Eddie questioned softly, hair splaying out against the comforter as she turned her head to stare at him.
Jamie reached over with his free hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face, then smiled gently at her, his hand still resting gently against her cheek. “Positive. With you as a mom, no chance they’ll be anything less than fantastic.”
“Yeah,” she murmured, eyes drifting briefly shut as a contented smile curved her lips upward, “with you as a dad, they’re going to be… well, not perfect. Nobody is. But pretty damn close.”
Jamie smiled at her, turning onto his side so that he could kiss her cheek. “Yeah. Pretty damn close.”
“We’re still not letting Erin babysit though,” she tacked on, almost as an afterthought.
His deep laugh vibrated the bed beneath them, and her own smile widened in response. “Or maybe we could just teach them not to bribe the babysitter with their allowance?” he suggested lightly.
Eddie stared at the ceiling for several seconds, eyes narrowed in playful consideration, then nodded seriously. “Deal,” she proclaimed, pulling her hand from his briefly to offer him her pinky to seal the deal.
Jamie’s smile softened even further, and he wrapped his own pinky around hers, looking amused and adoring as he completed the childlike ritual of agreement. “Deal.”