Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Honey I’m home!!” Tobin sing-songs as she closes the garage door behind her and slips her shoes off. She tosses her wallet and keys in the bowl next to the door, and moves further into the house in search of her wife. 

It has been a long day and all she wants to do is curl up with her wife and relax for the rest of the night. She calls out again when she doesn’t see Christen anywhere downstairs. “CHRIS?!” She knew she was home since her car was in the garage and it smelled like something was cooking in the oven. 

Over the past couple months, they had a routine down. Tobin would come home from her new coaching job at UCLA and Christen would work at home during the day on Re-inc and try to have dinner ready by the time she got home. The couple had grown accustomed to being together almost all day, everyday, so it was a big change when Tobin got the coaching job and was out of the house for most of the day. They decided that dinner together was going to become a tradition every night where they would talk about their days and whatever else was on their mind. 

When Christen had retired a little over a year ago, she set a goal to learn to be a better cook. Both women were considerably below average when it came to cooking since 90% of their meals were being made for them up until that point. Sure, they could throw together an easy meal if they needed to but mostly relied on take-out. Christen presented the idea that they both needed to take cooking lessons if they were going to stay healthy and one day have a family. For about 3 months they both would go to a class in downtown LA on Wednesdays night to learn some new recipes and basic cooking skills. 

Christen got into it much more than Tobin but they both learned quite a few new things and were trying to implement those skills into their daily meals. Tobin would mostly make breakfast or an early lunch for the two before she had to leave for campus and Christen would try new recipes to have ready for Tobin when she got home. 

Tobin continued into the kitchen to check what was in the oven and make sure nothing was burning since it didn't seem like her wife was anywhere downstairs and there was no timer set. Once she made sure everything looked okay, she made her way upstairs. She figured that maybe Christen was finishing up some work or was on the phone and just didn’t hear her come in. 

She checked in the office at the end of the hallway first but when she saw it was empty, turned around to head into the bedroom. “Chris? Are you here?” She calls out again, still not seeing her anywhere in the room. Finally, she rounds the corner into their bathroom and finds her sitting against the bathtub. 

“There you are, I was looking for you, did you hear me calling for you?” She asks, wondering why she didn't get a reply. 

“Sorry, I was just right here, I must’ve just spaced out for a little bit” Christens answers quietly lifting her head off her knees and trying her best to smile. 

Tobin notices her wife’s red-rimmed eyes and the strain in her voice and drops down next to her on the floor. “Hey, what's going on, what's wrong?”

Christen doesn’t answer right away but reaches down to her right and hands Tobin a pregnancy test that she didn’t notice when she walked in. Christen rests her head back on her knees and watches as Tobin’s face recognizes what is happening. 

Tobin tries her best not to not have a huge reaction because she doesn’t want her wife to take blame, even though she knows it will happen regardless.

“It didn’t work, again” Christen says shakily, trying not to start crying again. 

Ever since Christen’s retirement they have been trying to start their family. They both knew that they weren’t getting any younger and now that they had the time they wanted to get started as soon as possible. Tobin had retired two years before Christen and in those years they had talked at length about their options and what they wanted when it was time for Christen to be done playing competitively. 

Thankfully, they have always been on the same page about the process and it was mostly about ironing out the details. Christen was going to be the one to carry and they found a donor who was athletic, healthy and had features similar to Tobin. Their first round of IVF was just a month after Christen’s last game. The doctor was honest with them about their chances, the risks and gave no guarantees it would work. Even with that information, they were hopeful. They had anxiously waited to take a test and tried to not be too let down when it came back negative. 

A few months later, they tried again. Unfortunately, it was the same outcome. Each of them tried to keep their hopes high after the two tries but they were both devastated. Christen struggled with not being able to conceive and felt responsible that she wasn't able to give Tobin the family she so desperately wanted. Tobin continually reassured her and promised her that she was not to blame and it would happen when it was meant to. 

There was an appointment scheduled for another round right before Thanksgiving when Tobin had gotten the information that the head coach at UCLA was retiring at the end of the year and they were going to start looking for a replacement. It was the job that she has been waiting for and she wanted to make sure that she could get it. Christen completely supported her wife and suggested that they should hold off a few more months to focus on getting the job. 

Once she got the job, Christen still thought that they should wait until Tobin was settled before they tried again. After about two months and the first couple weeks of preseason out of the way, they set up an appointment for the third week of January. Everything went smoothly and they had been waiting the past week to take a test.

Tobin reaches her arm around her wife to bring her closer to press a few soft kisses to her forehead. Christen leans into the touch and readjusts to rest her head on Tobin’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry” Christen whispers into Tobin’s shoulder. 

“There is absolutely nothing for you to be sorry for, it's not your fault” She replies, trying to make it clear there is not a single part of her that blames Christen for the process not working. 

“I just don’t get why it’s not working, I’m healthy and doing everything right” Christen mutters.  

“You know what the doctor said about the chances. You are doing everything right, it will work. We will keep trying.” Tobin reasons back, in hopes to reassure her wife. 

Christen sighs heavily “I just don’t know if I can handle this failing again. Maybe we should just take a break from trying.” 

“Wait, what?” She asks, confused, not quite understanding what direction this conversation is going in. 

“We are both let down every single time this happens and it takes weeks for us to get back to normal. This is the third time and it only feels worse each time, mentally and physically for me. You know it's true.” Christen says dejectedly, lifting her head and looking into Tobins eyes. 

“I mean, yeah it sucks but we get through it together, right? I’m just confused by what you are saying, do you not want to try again ever?” Tobin responds, furrowing her brow. 

“Of course we always get through it together, I love you and I want to have a family with you. I’m just saying that maybe we should put this on hold for a while. You are just getting started with your team, I’m working on expanding the company and we both have the house to remodel.” 

“Okay, if that’s what you want, you know what your body can handle better than I do.” Tobin replies, trying to keep her voice as even as possible. She doesn’t want to push the topic because this is not something that will benefit from push back on her end. Of course she knows how hard it is when it fails but she wants a family. She can wait though, their time will come. 

“I’m sorry, I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear but I really don’t know how much more I can take.” Christen says 

“I’ll be honest, I do want to keep trying. But this is your body, you have the control. I love you no matter what. Can you just promise me that we will revisit this in the future though?” 

“Pinky promise, babe.” Christen answers quickly, holding her pinky out for Tobin to take in her own. 

Tobin relaxes into a smile, locking her pinky with her wife’s and pulling it closer to leave a peck on her lips. When she pulls back, she asks “What did you make for dinner? It was a long day and i’m starving”

“Always thinking about food, aren't you? Christen lets out a soft laugh, a smile finally creeping onto her face. “I made a lemon chicken with potatoes and carrots, should be ready by now”

“I checked before I came up here and it looked delicious. Let’s eat!” Tobin stands quickly, 

reaching for Christen’s hand to help pull her up. 

Christen shakes her head while getting to her feet. She leans back down to grab the test to throw in the trash, feeling a little of the pressure and stress of conceiving roll off of her. 

*********************

About a month later, the couple is back in the swing of things. Tobin is loving her job and always comes home with new stories to tell. She really lucked out getting this job and still owes Alex for tipping her off about the old coach's retirement. After Alex retired, she took a job as the athletic director for UCLA. Obviously everyone wanted THE Alex Morgan working at their school but UCLA had the best offer and she was able to stay in California and not have to relocate her family again, and it was close to all her friends. 

Alex knew that Tobin had been looking for a coaching job and she knew that Tobin was more than qualified for the position. She couldn’t take part in the interview process or the hiring but she knew there was no competition. It also helped that Ashlyn had been the goalkeeping coach before Tobin and even Alex started her and raved about them any chance she got. 

The three best friends often found themselves eating lunch together in between training sessions and meetings. They would gather in Alex’s office, each taking turns bringing lunch for the other two. 

Tobin rushes into Alex’s office with the lunch she picked up for the trio, closing the door behind her. “Sorry, sorry I’m late. I lost track of time writing up a practice plan for this afternoon.” 

“No worries, Ashlyn isn’t even here yet because she had to pick up Sloane from preschool but should be here any minute.” Alex answers while still typing away at her computer. 

Tobin walks over to the table in the corner of the office that has wall length windows lining the wall. “I picked up from Joe’s today and got you the weird vegan sandwich you never seem to shut up about.”

Alex finally looks up from her computer at the mention of her favorite sandwich “It’s not weird, it’s the best sandwich ever created! You seem to be feeling nice today going out of your way to get this for me.”

“You have a warped sense of taste ever since you became vegan so I will judge what you eat” Tobin grimaces at the thought of some of the food Alex has made her try, claiming it tasted just like the real thing. “I’m just a good friend and felt like being nice today, so don't push it or I won’t be nice again”

Alex pushes out her chair and walks over to the table, snatching up her food and sitting down across from where Tobin has already started digging into her sandwich. “Thanks Toby, this is just what I needed today”

“Don’t call me that, you know I hate it. Busy day?” Tobin says in between bites of food.

“You don’t complain when Chris calls you that, so I will continue to also” Alex challenges, knowing how to get under Tobin’s skin. 

“Whatever” Tobin says rolling her eyes and taking another bite of her sandwich. 

“But to answer your question, yes it has been very busy, trying to get funding as usual and working on finding a new volleyball coach. You've been busy?” Alex shrugs, used to having a busy day but still loving every second of it. 

“Eh, not too bad actually. Just behind on some plans but I should be caught up now. The girls are looking really good so far, I’m excited for the season to officially start.” 

“That’s awesome, from what I have seen they look great. I can’t wait to come to all the games” Alex smiles, happy to see her friend excited about the team. 

The door to the office flings open to reveal Ashlyn with a tired looking Sloane in her arms. “Sup guys, sorry had to pick this one up Ali got called into a meeting at the last minute with the coach.” 

After Ashlyn and Ali retired they moved to LA when Ali landed the assistant coaching at USC and Ashlyn was able to secure the job at UCLA. They were happy to be out of the New York cold and closer to all their friends. 

Ashlyn shut the door behind her and walked over to the table to join her friends. “What did we get for lunch today?” 

“I picked up Joe’s. Didn’t know this little cutie was joining us or I would’ve gotten her something” Tobin says pushing Ashlyn’s food over to her, having just finished her lunch, and running a hand up and down Sloane’s back.

“Thanks dude” Ashlyn says ready to dig in but first looking down at the girl in her arms before softly asking “Do you want to go sit with Auntie Tobin while Mommy eats” 

The 4 year old keeps her eyes closed but nods her head against her mom’s shoulder. Ashlyn places a kiss on her daughter’s head and then hands her over to Tobin. 

“Hi Auntie Toby” Sloane whispers into Tobin’s shoulder, once she has settled into her lap. Alex laughs and mutters “I hate when people call me Toby” mocking Tobin. 

Tobin glares at Alex from across the table before directing her attention back to the little girl “Hi munchkin, did you have a good day at preschool?” Tobin asks, starting to run her hand up and down Sloane’s back again.  

She feels Sloane nod against her. “She gets clingy and quiet when she is tired. Preschool has really been wiping her out. She usually naps for about two hours when she gets home so she will probably be out in a few minutes here.” Ashlyn says after finally taking a bite of the burger in front of her. The trio falls into silence for a few minutes all content in the company of each other. 

“How is Ali doing, liking the job still?” Alex asks, breaking the silence once she finishes her sandwich. 

“Yup, already starting to talk trash though. She claims that they are going to beat us this year for the first time.” Ashlyn chuckles back. 

“Geez, between her at USC and Kelley up at Stanford we really are going to create some rivalries this year” Alex shakes her head while wiping her hands on a napkin and tossing it into the empty box in front of her. 

Ashlyn laughs again “I still can’t get over how we all landed up coaching at schools all in the same conference. It’s like we are obsessed with each other and soccer or something.”

“Christen really is the only one so far who has been able to retire and truly step away from the game. I envy her sometimes. Is she still doing well with all the free time and being CEO?” Alex asks, directing the question toward Tobin. 

Alex and Ashlyn both look over at Tobin, expecting an answer. They quickly can tell she hasn’t been paying attention at all but instead is looking down at Sloane sleeping in her arms. They both can see the adoration in Tobin’s eyes when she looks at the little girl and frankly any other child. 

Alex and Ashlyn are aware of the struggles the couple has had conceiving. Tobin has had lengthy conversations with each of them individually and together about the process and her feelings. 

“Tobin” Alex calls out, trying to get her attention.

Tobin looks up quickly having been taken out of her daydream “Hmm what did you say?”

“I asked how Christen is doing with her free time and the company since she retired.” 

“Oh yeah, she still loves it. She is happy to be away from the soccer politics and is thrilled about the new house. The company is doing great, I personally am sad that I have had to take a step back but she loves that she has been able to be more involved.” Tobin says with a soft smile, one that always seems to appear when talking about her wife. 

“It’s very good to hear that, by the end there you can tell she was ready to hang up the boots. Everything else going well for you guys?” Ashlyn asks, trying to subtly address the look that was previously on Tobin’s face. 

“You can just ask me whatever you are wanting to ask, instead of beating around the bush” Tobin chides, sensing an underlying meaning to the question since the couple hardly has any major issues. 

Ashlyn and Alex share a look before Alex decides to bite the bullet and ask. They both know how Tobin can get snippy when people aren’t direct with her. 

“How are you doing with the baby stuff? I know how much you want it and we just wanna know how you are handling the break from trying.” Alex asks slowly, trying to not upset her friend. 

Tobin sighs “I don’t have the right to complain about this and Chris and I agreed we were going to talk about it eventually. But I want a family so badly. It's her body and I get the disappointment when it doesn't work but I just figured we would keep trying since we both want it.”

“You need to talk to her about it then. If you aren't happy with where you two are then you need to have a conversation. It won't do you any good holding in how you feel.” Alex responds. 

“I know I need to. It’s not that I’m not happy where we are, we have so much going on and I love the life we have. I’m just scared that if we talk about it she is going to say that she doesn’t want to try again and I don’t know what I will do then.” Tobin gazes back down at the sleeping girl in her arms with a sad smile. 

Ashlyn sets down her food “Have you guys ever talked about other options besides IVF? You guys could always foster or even adopt.”

“We haven’t really, Christen has always wanted to be pregnant and it just was kind of an unspoken agreement that this was the way we wanted to start our family.” “Well, if Christen isn’t wanting to keep putting her body through it anymore then maybe you should talk about other options? Maybe I am a little biased but there are a lot of great kids out there who need homes.” Ashlyn says with a smile. 

“It’s something to consider Tobs. You and Christen have so much love to give and will make excellent parents regardless of how you make your family.” Alex says in support of her friend. 

“You’re both right, I’ll talk to her about it soon” 

“Of course we are right, we are super geniuses” Ashlyn retorts before digging back into her burger. 

“Geniuses” Alex says while holding out a fist for Ashlyn to bump. 

“Something like that” Tobin responds while shaking her head and letting out a soft chuckle. 

The trio continue their lunch break, Alex telling stories about her youngest Miles and Charlie getting into all sorts of trouble. Tobin leaves after an hour and heads back to her office in the training building to get her stuff packed before heading to the field for practice. 

********************************

The past two months for Christen have been relatively easy-going. It’s been an adjustment to have actual free time and not be constantly consumed with soccer. She has enjoyed the luxury of working from home on re-inc most days and the days she does have to go in it's always nice to see everyone. Outside of work, Christen has been busy working on the designs for their new house. 

When Christen told Tobin that she was ready to retire, the couple decided it was time for them to start trying to find a house to call their own. For years, they had been renting apartments and houses but they were ready to settle down and not worry about when their next move would take place. 

They toured dozens of houses but they didn’t love any of them. They knew whatever house they picked was most likely going to be the house they spent the rest of their lives in, so they wanted to make sure it was everything they wanted. 

After a few months of their search, Tobin stumbled across a complete fixer upper 2 blocks off the coast in Manhattan Beach. The structure of the house was sound but it just needed lots of renovations and love. It was a steal of a find and would be worth all the money that they were going to put into it. The house had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and an amazing backyard. 

They closed on the house at the end of October, and have slowly been making progress considering the entire house basically has to be redone. Christen has been working with their contractor on designs and the vision for the house that her and Tobin decided on. When Tobin has free time she will go work on the house but with the soccer season starting she has had less time lately, which has left Christen in charge of it. 

Christen has loved every minute of it and can’t wait until it is finished. There are still about 6 months left before the house is move-in ready but everyday they are closer to that day. 

Last week during their weekly facetime, Kelley informed Christen that she was going to be driving down from Stanford for a long weekend the following week. She requested a tour of the new house since she hasn’t seen it in person yet. 

Christen left home at the same time as Tobin this afternoon to meet Kelley at the new house. She was excited to see her best friend, since it had been a few months from when they last saw each other due to Kelley’s schedule coaching Stanford. When she got to the house she walked around checking to see if there was anything different from when she was there a few days ago. The construction team had the day off since they were waiting for the new flooring to be delivered. 

Christen heard a car door slam outside indicating that Kelley most likely just arrived. She made her way out the front door onto the wraparound deck.

“Pressy!! It's about time you invited me to see the new house!” Kelley screeches while jogging up the driveway to Christen

“Oh fuck off, I have invited you multiple times but you always claim 5 hours is too far of a drive for a weekend. But when your girlfriend happens to be in town it's suddenly no big deal” Christen responds by crossing her arms, playfully glaring at Kelley.

Kelley throws her arms around Christen, squeezing as tight as she can “It's just a double whammy now that I’m here then! I get to see my girlfriend AND my best friend. I missed you and I’m excited to see the place! ” 

Christen wiggles her arms out of the death grip before wrapping her arms around Kelley more gently, relaxing into her best friends embrace “yeah yeah yeah, I missed you too” 

They break apart and Christen figures the tour can start right in the front. “So this is the deck” Christen gestures toward the ground, holding out her arms and walking along the deck to show her where it wraps around the house. “It was the first thing that was finished since it wasn’t walkable when we bought it. Tobin actually started repairing it before we hired a contractor because it was in that bad of shape.”

“I love it! Are you gonna put rocking chairs out here so that you and Tobin can be the grouchy old ladies yelling at people to get off their lawn?” Kelley says with a smirk.

“I see that more as a you and Sonnett thing when you are older. You both are incredibly intense” Christen responds with a smirk of her own. 

Kelley just rolls her eyes at the statement. “Show me the rest now, specifically where my room will be”

It’s Christens turn to roll her eyes but she turns and opens the door, heading inside. Christen takes Kelley around the house, pointing out all the little details and plans they have for the place. Once they have circled back to the front of the house, Kelley suggests that they grab lunch and head down to the beach to eat. 

Christen agrees and grabs a blanket out of her car before starting their walk. They took a little detour to a little coffee shop, that also served lunch, and grabbed a drink and two sandwiches before making the short walk to the beach. 

The beach wasn't too crowded considering it was only the end of March, so they were able to find a spot close to the water. The weather today was gorgeous, it was mid 70’s out and the sun was shining without a cloud to be seen in the sky. Christen spread the blanket out on the sand before the pair sat and got situated with their drinks and lunch. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the sound of the waves crashing. Kelley is the one to break the silence, not one to enjoy long durations of silence even with the people she is most comfortable with. 

“Are you and Tobin going to the games this weekend or next?”

“Yeah I think we will go to at least one. I didn't really want to but Mal called the other day asking if we were coming, and I know that means that she wants us to. And I know Tobin wants to go to see Lindsey and all the others, even though we would’ve seen them anyway.”

“Aww Mal wanted her moms to come watch her play” Kelley says with a grin. “But yes I think the kids, who aren’t even kids anymore, are planning on inviting themselves over for a BBQ on Sunday. At least that’s what I heard from Emily.”

“Of course they are, and of course they haven’t asked yet. They really are still children” Christen says with a shake of her head. 

“Oh shush, you always make it seem like you want nothing to do with the National Team anymore but I know you do secretly love seeing everyone even if they do act like children.” Kelley says while nudging Christen with her shoulder. 

“I love the girls and am always happy to see them. The politics behind the scenes of the team I am never thrilled about but it’s been nice to be away from it and not have to worry about it as much anymore.” 

“Fair enough, I can agree with that. I’m sure Mal will be thrilled to see you, Emily says she complains that you aren’t around anymore all the time and hasn’t been able to shut up about seeing you since they got here yesterday.”

That statement brings a smile to her face. She knows that Mal does look up to Tobin and herself but knows that the bond she has with Mal is deeper than Mal’s with Tobin. “She’s silly, we talk all the time still and she already asked to stay a few days after camp since she is taking a few days rest before she has to be back in Chicago.” 

“That’ll be nice for the three of you. I think Emily is taking a few days too and coming back home with me.” Kelley says before taking the last bite of her sandwich. 

“Aww I’m glad she can come back with you. Did you take time off to stay here for a while or do you have to go back up?” Christen asks, wondering how long her friend will be in town. 

“I’ll be here for the weekend for the first game but I have to go back up for a few days for a couple scrimmages but then I am gonna come back down for the other game and then drive Em back with me.” 

“If you had told me you were going to be here I would’ve offered you our guest room sooner but you are more than welcome to stay with us.” Christen says while finishing her sandwich and wiping her mouth for any crumbs. 

“No, no it’s okay. I didn’t really know how long I was gonna stay until yesterday but I’m gonna stay with Alex and I’m sure I'll sneak into the team hotel after the game for a night. Thank you for the offer though, if I get sick of Alex I will for sure be knocking on your door.” 

Christen shakes her head again, thinking of Kelley sneaking into the team hotel. “You do know that the staff is probably expecting you to be with Sonnett, so she can just ask them for her own room.”

“You of all people should know sneaking around is more exciting, even if everyone does already know” Kelley snickers. 

Christen blushes a little, thinking about all the times her and Tobin would find any excuse to sneak out of their rooms to be together before they told people officially. “Touché. How are things with Sonnett going anyway? We haven’t talked about her since she left to go back to D.C., it’s been almost a year now hasn’t it?”

Kelley smiles, thinking about her girlfriend. “It’s good. It’s really good. It obviously sucks with her back in D.C. but it was nice to have her here for a few months. I get to see her now and then I think I’m going to fly out for her first game of the season since my season won’t have started quite yet. But yeah it’s almost been a year”

Christen smiles back at her friend, happy to see her so happy. “I’m really happy for you both. You are good for eachother and I don't think I have ever seen you so happy and relaxed in a relationship.”

Kelley shrugs nonchalantly “yeah, she’s pretty perfect, I love her a lot.” 

“Maybe next week when you come back we can go on a double date or even a quadruple date with Alex, Serv, Ash and Ali.” Christen offers, knowing Kelley sometimes feels a little left out when she sees the three other couples hanging out when she isn’t in town. 

Kelley’s entire face lights up at the suggestion “Yes that would be so fun. I’ll double check my schedule and let you know.” Kelley pauses for a moment before asking “Wanna walk along the water?”

Christen agrees, slipping off her shoes before standing up. They leave the blanket and their garbage in their spot, knowing they will be back to collect it before heading back to the house. The water is cold but after a few minutes their feet start to adjust to the temperature. 

After a few minutes walking, making light conversation about work, Kelley decides it's time to broach the subject that she has been waiting for all afternoon. “Can I ask something, but if you don’t want to talk about it you can say no?”

Christen looks up from the water locking eyes with Kelley before looking back down at her feet, knowing exactly what she is about to be asked. “Yes, you can ask me about it.”

“I know that you said you wanted to take a break from trying but has there been any update on when you guys are going to try again?”

“No, we haven't talked about it again since the last time.” 

“I know you both were super excited about it before the last try, but based on your reaction right now it seems like that might not be the case anymore. Do you want to talk about it?” Kelley inquires lightly. 

Christen lightly sighs, kicking at the water beneath her feet, trying to figure out what she wants to say. “I knew going in that the process was going to be hard, but I didn’t expect for it to be this hard. It wasn’t bad the first time it didn't work because the odds of me getting pregnant on the first try was incredibly low. The second time, it was a little worse but not too bad because we just thought well the third time's the charm. And then the last one still didn’t work and it was devastating to me because I wanted it more than anything.”

Kelley grabs Christen’s hand, taking it in both of hers to offer some support and encourage Christen to continue talking. 

“I just don’t know if I can do it again and I'm terrified to tell Tobin that because she is going to be devastated and divorce me because I can’t give her the one thing she has always wanted.” Christen admits, tightening her grip on Kelley’s hand. 

Kelley stops in her tracks, which causes Christen’s arm to jerk back, having not noticed Kelley stopping. Kelley interjects quickly “Tobin is not going to divorce you. Not over this or ever. She loves you more than I have seen anyone love another person in my entire life. She will understand if you can’t handle it, you just have to talk to her about it.”

“She may understand but I don’t want her to resent me in a few years if I really don’t want to try again.” Christen says softly, tugging Kelley’s hand to get her to keep walking.

“That will not happen, I can assure you of that. If she were to ever feel that way, she can be the one to get pregnant. And you have your eggs frozen so it’s not like you necessarily have to make a decision right now to never try again.”

“Can you even imagine Tobin pregnant?” Christen chuckles at the thought. 

“No, I really cannot but you know what I mean. She has the ability too if you don't want to be the one to carry anymore.” 

“That is true, I guess.” Christen says. 

“Have you ever talked about your other options? I know that IVF was always your first choice but have you ever actually considered fostering or adoption?” Kelley questions, truly wondering of the answer. 

“No, we haven't considered it recently. We talked about all the options a long time ago but we always both just knew we wanted to try this way first. The doctor said I’m healthy and still have a few more years before our chances completely disappear but it might be time to talk about other options. We both want a big family and unless I get pregnant tomorrow and then have 3 more right away it just isn’t realistic.” Christen says sadly.

“It may not be how you both wanted it to happen but you know a family is way more than blood. There are so many kids out there that need homes and would be lucky to have you and Tobin as moms. And you never know, maybe you’ll want to try again through IVF down the road. It’s just something you should consider and talk about. You both deserve to be parents with the amount of love you have to give.” 

Christen releases Kelley’s hand before wrapping her up in a hug. “Thank you for saying that. I think I needed to hear that” 

“I truly mean it, you and Tobin will make amazing moms. All you have to do to confirm that statement is ask Mal. And I am dying to be the coolest Aunt in the world” Kelley responds, hoping to lighten the mood. 

“If I ever have doubts, I might have to do that.” Christen says with a smile, knowing how Mal would jump on the opportunity to tell Christen how amazing she is.

Kelley nudges Christen to get her to look at her again “I’m serious though, just talk to Tobin. She will understand and you will figure out what to do next.” 

“Thanks Kell. I will talk to her, I promise. I can’t wait for you to be Auntie Kelley either.”

The two friends walk a few more minutes down the beach before heading back once Kelley claims that Emily will be out of training in an hour and she wants to get over to the hotel to meet her. The walk back to the house is quick and the pair exchange a long hug before agreeing to talk about their plans for the game this weekend later. 

Christen goes back in the house to gather her things before locking up and heading back home to wait for Tobin to get home. 

Chapter Text

To say that Tobin is distracted for the rest of the day is an understatement. She can’t seem to shake the idea of fostering or adopting out of her mind. It wasn’t something that she has thought about a lot in the past, but she has watched the process from Ashlyn and Ali and a few other close friends. But now it's all she can think about. 

She knows that when she gets home she is going to have to talk to Christen about it because she doesn’t want to hide anything from her and doesn’t want to get her hopes up if Christen isn’t open to the idea. 

The practice she scheduled for today is supposed to be from 3-6 but since she has been unfocused all day, she decides to end it early. Leah, her assistant coach, has already kicked 3 soccer balls at her, really hard, when she caught her not paying attention and she’s not sure how much more she can take. She decided that the team has done enough and since it was Thursday she could let them off early.  

It's 4:30 when she calls out to the girls to get them to huddle up so they can talk before everyone leaves. 

“Alright guys, circle up, circle up real quick” She waits for everyone to gather around and stop talking before she starts up again. “I’m going to end practice here today. You all are looking really good and I am feeling super nice today. I want you all to make sure you get some rest and make sure that you are all caught up on your school work. Practice tomorrow is going to be some fitness tests and scrimmages to prepare for the game next Tuesday, it’s going to be tough so get the rest you need. Any questions?”

All the girls are shaking their heads ‘no’, so she tells them all good job again and starts to walk away. The team captain continues to talk for a few minutes before all the girls start to pack up. 

She pulls out her phone and notices she has a dozen messages from Kelley. She opens up the thread to see if it is anything important based on the number of texts she got. As she is reading through them, she sees Kelley asking her about the game on Saturday night. It reminds her that she wanted to talk to the team about it, so she swivels around and calls for the girls attention again. 

“I had an idea and I want to get all of your opinions. We have 2 options for Saturday practice. Option 1: I can schedule a scrimmage with the boy’s team in the morning and then you guys will be responsible to do your own lifting and cardio at some point the rest of the day. Option 2: We can do a lift in the morning and then we can go as a team to the National Team game at night” Tobin winks at Ashlyn from across the circle, knowing exactly what the answer is going to be but waiting patiently for it anyway. 

All the girls huddle up, whispering quietly to each other as if this might be the most important decision of their life. She doesn’t have to wait long before Melanie, the team captain, clears her throat before responding. 

“After much deliberation, we would like to choose option number 2.”

Tobin laughs with a shake of her head at the antics. “Awesome, I was hoping that would be what you picked. I figure that we can all meet here around 3 and then I can get us some access if you all want to meet some of the girls before the game.” 

The girls all squeal at the mention of meeting the team, having looked up to them and dreaming about playing for the team one day. She hears a few of the girls say how cool this is going to be, which makes a smile form on her face. . 

When she was announced as the head coach, Alex told her that the team was in shock at the thought of such a highly regarded player coaching them. She told her that they were more starstruck at the mention of Tobin Heath then at her showing up to a few games. Tobin told her that it was because they had already seen her around campus and the buzz had died down from when she first started. Tobin assured her that she was just as talked about among the team and the only reason she was getting the hype was because they didn't know her yet. 

When she first met the team, she told them to view her as just a normal person and they should look at her as their coach. After she said that she heard a girl whisper, “But you won 2 world cups and 3 olympic medals. That’s not exactly normal people level soccer.” All she could do was laugh and agree before deciding to take a different route for them to get to know her. 

She told them she would be willing to answer any questions that they have, within the realm of appropriateness since she was still their coach. Every girl had about 10 questions ranging from winning the world cup, playing in London and who she was still friends with. 

Once the excitement settled, Tobin told the girls again that they did well today and she would see them tomorrow. All the girls started to scatter so she turned to start to picking up some of the gear that was still laying around.

She didn’t hear Leah coming over to her so when she spoke, it made her jump out of her skin. “Jeez dude you scared the shit out of me” Tobin spoke, pushing Leah away for her.

“You probably would have heard me coming if you weren’t so caught up in your thoughts all day. Care to explain at all what that’s about?”

“It’s nothing really, I just had a conversation with my friends this afternoon and what they said hasn’t been able to leave my head. You should really be thankful because you get to go home early now. So truly, you are very welcome” Tobin teases. 

“You’re so full of yourself sometimes, it’s annoying.” Leah joked back with a roll of her eyes. “Are you going to elaborate at all what the conversation was about, considering I am also one of your friends and could offer up some advice?”

“You’re being nosy but they told me that Christen and I should look into fostering or adopting since IVF hasn’t worked yet. But I don’t want to talk too much about it yet because I don’t even know if Christen would be on board.”

“Mate!! Are you kidding me?” Leah says excitedly.

Tobin looks at her, confused, wondering what she said that would garner such a reaction out of her friend.

“Jordan and I are going to an orientation to get our foster care license in a couple weeks! It’s so crazy that this is what you were so in your head about. If you and Christen talk and it is something that you are interested in, I can totally send you the information for the agency that we are working with! They have been amazing so far and we are super excited, a little nervous but mostly excited.” Leah quickly rushes out when she sees the perplexed look from her friend.

“Wow, that is totally crazy. But congrats to you and Jordan. And I will let you know after I talk to Christen. I’m planning on bringing it up over dinner tonight. I’m hoping it is something that we can at least look into together and decide if it would work out.”  Tobin replies, putting the last set of equipment on the cart to bring back up to the locker rooms.

“We were waiting to tell people until after the orientation just to make sure it was something we truly wanted to do but we are excited to get started.”

“I’m happy for you guys, you are going to make great parents.” Tobin says with a smile, hopping into the driver’s seat of the cart.

“Thank you, I appreciate it. And not just to compliment you back, but I can’t think of a couple more deserving of a family then you and Christen. I hope your talk goes well tonight.” Leah responds, patting Tobin on the back when she gets into the passenger seat.

“Thanks dude, it means a lot.” Tobin says as she starts the short drive up to the athletic building.

Leah and Tobin have been close friends ever since her year at Arsenal. They quickly bonded during their shared time of recovering from injuries. They often went on double dates when Christen was in town and Tobin would hang out with the couple when her wife was back in LA. Leah and Jordan moved out to LA, seeking warmer weather and a coaching contract for Jordan. She was quickly picked up by ACFC and has been with them for the past year. Leah planned on continuing with schooling, since injury prevented her from playing competitively anymore.

When Tobin got the job at UCLA she was asked if she wanted to bring anyone in as an assistant coach or if she wanted the University to find someone on their own. She reached out to Leah about the job, knowing her friend missed the sport even if she claimed that she was doing okay with just focusing on school. Leah was hesitant since she never thought about coaching but Tobin offered that if she didn’t like it, she wouldn’t hold it against her and she should still have time to complete her degree. Thankfully, Leah was a natural leader and has been flourishing with the team since day one.

Once all the staff put all the gear away, Tobin grabbed her stuff out of her office ready to finally head home. Leah walked out with her discussing team logistics for the game on Saturday.

“I can ride with the girls if you want to just meet us there with Christen. But I am telling you right now, I will not be cheering for the U.S. and I will definitely be wearing some of my old England gear” Leah offers, knowing Tobin is likely wanting to catch up with her friends before all the girls show up.  

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. But I will for sure take you up on that offer. I will make sure everything is all set and I will come out to meet you all when you get there so there are no issues getting in.”

“Sweet, sounds like a plan. Looking forward to it. See you at practice tomorrow, boss.” Leah says, starting to walk towards her car.

“Have a good night, tell Jordan I say hello” Tobin calls out, walking in the opposite direction toward her own car.

“Tell your better half that I say hello as well. Good luck with your talk!” Leah calls out before she is too far away.

**********

Tobin decides not to text Christen to tell her she will be home early, in hopes of surprising her. The drive home only takes about 45 minutes today since she was able to beat rush hour by about a half hour. She pulls into the garage as the clock nears 5:30 p.m., having spent the entire ride home going over what she was going to say to Christen. Her wife has always been understanding, so she isn’t super concerned but she still is nervous about what the outcome of the conversation will be.

Tobin gets out of her car, shutting the garage behind her and walking into the house. As soon as she steps into the house, she can picture exactly what she will see when she rounds the corner into the kitchen.

She hears the Hamilton soundtrack blaring out of the TV,  which means her wife is most likely half cooking, half performing every song. Christen will be using whatever cooking utensil she has in her hand as a microphone and will either be cooking at the stove or on the countertop. Based on the nice weather today, Christen will either be wearing a sweatshirt with shorts, or a t-shirt with sweatpants.

Tobin rounds the corner of the small hallway from the garage and takes in the sight in front of her. Almost everything she expected to see, is what she sees. Christen is at the counter mixing what appears to be vegetables in a big bowl, and using the spoon as a microphone in between stirs.

Christen is wearing a pair of Re-Inc sweatpants, paired with a white tank top that leaves very little to the imagination. Her hair is up in a messy bun with her blue-light glasses pushed up onto her head. A big smile grows on Tobin’s face at the sight and she can’t help herself from rushing toward her. Christen surprisingly hears Tobin heavy footsteps walking toward her over the loud music, which makes a matching smile grow on her face.

Tobin reaches her wife and wraps her arms around her waist from behind, leaving a kiss on her bare shoulder.

“Hi baby” Tobin says softly

Christen places the spoon on the edge of the bowl before she turns around in Tobin’s arms. She quickly leans in for a proper kiss, before pulling back to ask why her wife is home early.

“Why hello there, what do I owe this pleasure of you being home early? I thought practice went until 6 today? I wasn’t expecting to see you until after 7”

“It was but all the girls were playing really well so I figured I would let them off early. Give them time to catch up on their homework or sleep or whatever else kids do these days.” Tobin responds, figuring there is no need to bring up being distracted all day until dinner when they can actually talk in depth.

“You sure are a nice coach, I wish you were my coach when I was in college” Christen says with a smirk.

Tobin shrugs with a smirk forming on her own face. “What can I say, I’m just the coolest ever.”

“The coolest” Christen whispers before leaning back in for another kiss. 

She lets herself linger for a few seconds before starting to pull away, but she doesn’t get the chance before she feels Tobin wrap her arms tighter around her waist to prevent her from moving and deepening the kiss. 

They finally pull apart when they need to catch their breath and Christen says, “I need to finish dinner and you need to shower.” Her finger poking Tobin’s shoulder. 

“But I love when you wear this tank top, you know what it does to me” Tobin pouts, trying to use her best puppy dog eyes as her hands start to push up the tank top to reveal more skin. 

Christen can’t help but melt into the touch but knows that if she doesn’t stop it now, dinner is going to burn on the stove behind them. She grabs at Tobins hands before they can go any higher and pulls them back down. “I do know that and I also know that I’ll be wearing this all night, so go shower and I will finish up here and then we can eat. The sooner we eat, the sooner our after dinner activities can start.”

Tobin perks up at that and states, “Okay, okay. I will be back in a little bit.” She sadly lets go of her wife with a final quick kiss and heads upstairs. 

Tobin lets herself enjoy the shower for a few minutes longer than usual, trying to see if the hot water will help with the nerves that have been sitting in the pit of her stomach all day. 

Once she gets out, she throws on a pair of loose fitting boxers and one of her old UNC sweatshirts. She makes an attempt to towel dry her hair but after a minute decides to just leave it and let it dry on its own. She grabs her glasses and her phone she left charging while she was in the shower , before heading back downstairs. 

When Tobin gets back to the kitchen, she slides up next to Christen in front of the stove and asks what she can help with. 

“We needed to use the leftover chicken from the other day so I just threw together a stir fry. Just waiting for the veggies to cook through a little more, and the rice is just staying warm. Nothing else really to do, you could go ahead and set the table and get drinks, if you’d like.” Christen says, glancing over at Tobin. 

“What do you want to drink?” Tobin asks, reaching for two plates in the cabinet next to the stove. Once the plates are on the counter, she gets two forks and napkins and goes to place them on the kitchen table. 

“Do you wanna open a bottle of wine?” 

“Sure, any preference?” Tobin asks as she heads over to grab two wine glasses. 

“I think a white wine would pair best with this, so you can pick whichever one sounds best to you.” 

Once the glasses are on the table, Tobin picks out a Pinot Blanc off their wine shelf and pours them each a glass. She leaves the bottle on the table in case either of them want another glass. 

Since Tobin came back downstairs, Christen has changed the music to a more relaxing playlist and has lowered the volume significantly. After a few minutes of comfortable silence of working around each other, Christen announces that dinner is ready and starts to dish up both plates. 

Tobin grabs her plate from Christen with a whispered thank you before sitting down at the table. Christen joins her after making sure everything on the stove is turned off. Once Christen has sat down, Tobin doesn’t waste any time before digging into her food. 

“This is really good Chris” Tobin says with her mouth half full. 

“Thank you, it was just something easy to whip up” Christen says with a chuckle at the childlike manners her wife has when eating. 

“How was your day? How was Kelley?” Tobin asks. 

“It was a really good day. We met at the house and I showed her around and then we walked and got some lunch and ate it on the beach. She left to meet Sonnett after practice and then I just came back here, did a little bit of work and then started on dinner.”

“That sounds like a really nice day, I'm glad you had a good time. Is Kelley staying in town all week?”

“No, she said she is going to go back for a few days but will come back down for the second game and take Sonnett back with her. How was your day?” 

“It was busy, I was behind on a few plans but I got that finished before lunch. I picked up Joe’s for Ash and Alex for lunch which was delicious. Practice was normal, nothing crazy besides letting them go early.” Tobin responds, still enjoying her food and talking between bites. Tobin quickly follows by asking, “We are still going to the game on Saturday night right? I told the team I would get them all tickets and access to meet the girls before the game.” 

“Yeah, I told Mal we would see her before too so that will work out. What’s with you being so nice to your team? Practice getting out early today AND backstage passes to see all of their idols?” Christen replies. 

“I just know how stressful college can be and they should all be allowed to enjoy their time. And just life in general is hard and I don’t want any of them to feel too overwhelmed. Soccer is supposed to be fun, not stressful. And I know what a shitty coach can do to a player and I don’t ever want to be one of them.” Tobin says tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and reaching for her glass.

Christen’s face immediately softens at Tobin’s words, “I know baby, I was just teasing you. I’m glad you are being the coach that cares about their team more than anything. You are an amazing coach, just like I knew you would be.” Christen says, reaching across the table for Tobin’s hand.

“Thank you for always supporting me,” Tobin smiles, rubbing her thumb across the back of Christen’s hand.

“That’s not something you need to thank me for. I always will, that’s what we do.” Christen lets go of Tobin’s hand in order for both of them to resume eating.

They resume eating, talking about their schedule for tomorrow and the plan for the game on Saturday. They decide that before the game, they will get to the stadium a half hour before the UCLA team just to make sure they have all the tickets and will be able to get into the locker room with the girls. They know Mal and Lindsey wanted to see them earlier before the game but they will be able to talk even with the team there and they will have plenty of time over the next two weeks to catch up on everything.

Once they are both finished with their food, they fall into a silence, still sitting at the table while sipping their wine. With only the soft music playing in the background, Tobin gets lost in thoughts just as she has been all day and tries to psych herself up to bring up the subject matter without Christen feeling overwhelmed.

Christen sees the little wrinkle forming on Tobin’s forehead, signifying that Tobin is thinking hard about something. She lets a few minutes pass, hoping Tobin will bring whatever is up on her mind on own but she can’t help herself reaching her hand back across the table and asking, “What are you thinking about baby?”

Tobin squeezes Christen’s hand before finishing off the little bit of wine still in her glass. “I’ve been a little lost in my thoughts since lunch today after Ashlyn and Alex brought something up. And I don’t know how to bring it up because we have been in such a good place lately and I don’t want you to feel pressured about it.”

Christen has a hard time following Tobin’s slightly rushed words and tries not to think the worst about what is about to be said. “Take a breath and just tell me because I don’t want to start assuming the worst because of how nervous you seem. I promise I’ll listen to whatever you say”

Tobin takes a deep breath, “It’s about kids. They mentioned the idea of us fostering or adopting kids and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.”

Christen visibly relaxes at the statement, expecting something much worse. She wasn’t sure what Tobin could’ve said that would’ve been bad but is relieved that it is only about kids.

Christen’s mind jumps to her conversation with Kelley earlier that day and can feel a smile growing on her face. She doesn’t know if their friends have talked about this together and purposefully brought it up around the same time or if it is merely a coincidence.

Tobin’s brow furrowed at the smile on her wife’s face, not understanding what she is smiling about because she has yet to hear a response.

“You don’t have to be nervous to talk to me about anything Tobs, especially about this.,” Christen says, squeezing Tobin’s hand again. “We can definitely talk about this but how about we get this all cleaned up and then go sit outside while the sun is still up?”

It’s Tobin's turn to relax at the soft words of her wife. She is quick to agree and they both get up from their chairs and start to clear the table and countertop. Christen and Tobin move around each other cleaning up with a practiced ease of having done this countless times. They don’t talk but each of them occasionally reaches out to touch the other. Whether it’s a hand on the back when walking around the other or kiss on the cheek when they are putting stuff away in the fridge at the same time.

As Tobin is washing up the last of the dishes, Christen tells her that she is going to grab a blanket and sweatshirt from upstairs since she knows she is going to get chilly. Tobin pouts at the thought of Christen wearing more clothing, having been promised that she would be wearing her favorite tank top all night. Christen just laughs and explains that she doesn’t want Tobin distracted when they are talking, but promises again that she can take the sweatshirt off once they come back inside. Tobin grabs Christen’s waist with a wet hand pulling her close, placing kisses starting at her neck all the way down to her chest.

Christen shrieks when the cold hand makes contact with her bare skin but finds herself leaning in the touch quickly after. Tobin releases her, not allowing herself to get carried away. Christen leaves Tobin’s side to head upstairs to grab what she needs. 

Tobin is the first to make it outside, sitting down on one end of the small couch that they have on the patio. She props her bare feet up on the glass table and pulls out her phone to see if there are any texts that she needs to respond to. Tobin texts Kelley back from earlier and responds to a message from Lindsey asking if she watched the Arsenal match from yesterday yet. She is in the middle of texting her brother back about his plans of coming to California in a few weeks when she hears the sliding door open and close.

Tobin finishes up the text before she locks her phone and places it face down on the table next to her feet. Christen situates herself on the couch next to Tobin, putting a pillow against the arm of the couch so she can lean against it and put her feet in Tobin’s lap. Tobin sits up, turning her body, propping her elbow on the back of the couch with her chin resting in her palm and rests her other hand on Christen’s shin under the blanket she covered herself in.

Christen is the first to speak, “I love you and I don’t want you to be nervous about this conversation. If it helps, I had a very similar conversation with Kelley today.”

“Really?” Tobin questions, lifting her head off her hand.

“Yes really. I’m not sure if our friends are talking about us but they all seem to be overly eager to be aunts” Christen says with a laugh.

Tobin also laughs, “They really are obsessed with us. I thought they would have gotten over it by now”

Christen reaches her hand over to grab at Tobin’s that is still resting on the back of the couch, giving it a strong squeeze to break the last of the nervousness that she can still see in Tobin’s eyes.

“Tell me what you have been thinking,” Christen says softly.

Tobin takes a deep breath, “I want kids and I completely understand where you are coming from about IVF. I don’t want to be pregnant, so the decision is yours about trying again since it is your body. Of course I would love for a little you running around the house but it is not something that I need. A child doesn’t need to be biologically either of ours for us to be parents and for us to love them. I want a family with you, Chris. I want to teach our kids how to surf, how to play soccer and how to be creative. I want you to teach them how to be a leader and stick up for themselves. I know that we haven’t looked into it at all and I’m sure it is also a difficult process but I really want kids.”

“I want a family with you too,” Christen admits, locking eyes with Tobin. “I want to be able to tell you that I am ready to try again but I’m not there yet.” Christen sees Tobin’s face fall, dropping her head to break eye contact.

Christen untangles her hand from Tobin’s and reaches out to lift Tobin’s chin. When Tobin’s eyes meet hers, she continues. “Just because I don’t want to try again now, does not mean I never want to. I know that I said that before but I was emotional and not in the right headspace to make that decision.”

Christen pauses, moving her hand back into Tobin’s. “We unfortunately are only getting older and the amount of time that I realistically have left to get pregnant is slim. I know that we both want a big family, which is becoming unrealistic to have with kids that are biologically one of ours. I still have some of my eggs frozen, so I don’t want to take it off the table but I still want it to be put on hold. With that being said, I do still want a family with you. I think it is a great idea for us to look into other options.”

Tobin’s face lights up, “You do?”

“Yes of course I do. Like you said, it’s not something that we have looked into a lot but I do think it is something we can consider. Kelley was telling me that there are a bunch of kids who would be lucky to have us as parents and I can’t help but agree”

Tobin feels her eyes start to water, “I agree too. You are going to be a great mom.”

“So will you babe” Christen says with a smile.

“I was actually talking to Leah today and she said that Jordan and her have an orientation with a foster care agency in the area in a couple of weeks. She said that she can send us the information if we would be interested in looking into it more.”

“That would be great. We can look at a few different places and see what we find.”

“You’re sure you are okay with this?” Tobin asks, not wanting to get too excited prematurely.

Christen sit ups, moving to situate herself in Tobin’s lap. She sits so she is straddling Tobin and wraps her arms around her shoulders. Her hand rubs at the back of Tobin’s neck, while Tobin’s arms snake around her waist pulling her impossibly closer.

“I have pictured a family with you for way longer than what was probably appropriate. I’m sorry that I made you doubt that I would want this. I was hurting because of how badly I wanted it to work. I promise you that I want this, especially with you.” Christen says before closing the gap between them.

Tobin pulls back but keeps their foreheads together, “I love you so much and I am so ready to start our family.” She leans back in capturing her wife’s lips in a searing kiss.

Christen backs away, “Do you want to go upstairs and spend the rest of the night trying to see if we can make a baby on our own?”

Tobin’s eyes darken, “Hell yeah.” She stands up with Christen still in her arms and hurries up to their bedroom.

**********

The next morning, the couple relaxed and had a lazy morning. Christen did her normal meditation/yoga routine while Tobin slept for another couple of hours. Once Tobin woke up around 10, she went downstairs in search of her wife and some food. She found Christen on the couch with her laptop, nursing a cup of coffee. 

Tobin walked over to the couch, dropping a kiss onto Christen’s head and plopping down in the spot next to her. “Morning,” she mumbles, voice still filled with sleep. 

“Good morning, did you sleep okay?” Christen asks, closing her laptop and placing it on the coffee table.  

“Mhmm, you wore me out last night” Tobin says, scooching closer to rest her head on Christen’s shoulder. 

Christen lets out a laugh, shaking her head and leaving a kiss on the top of Tobin’s head, knowing that it was Tobin who kept them both up well into the night.  

“What do you want me to make for breakfast?” Tobin asks, lifting her head slightly to make eye contact.  

“Maybe just some eggs and fruit?” Christen suggests, knowing neither of them are big breakfast people.  

“Sounds good,” Tobin replies. She goes to stand up but Christen is quick to pull her back down. 

“So, I was thinking.” Christen starts, running a hand up and down Tobin’s forearm. “You should text Leah and get that agency’s information. I was doing a little research this morning and there are a few places around here and they all seem like good places, but if Leah and Jordan have one that they like maybe we should look more into that place first.” 

A huge smile forms on Tobin’s face, “I will text her right now.” Tobin pulls her phone out of her pocket and sends a quick text asking for the information, before she looks back up at Christen. “This is really happening isn’t it?” 

Christen’s smile grows from a soft smile, to matching Tobin’s wide grin. “Better believe it baby, we are going to have some kids running around here soon hopefully.” 

“I truly don’t think I have ever been so excited about something in my whole life. I know it is going to be a lot of work but we are so ready for this.” Tobin grins, hands pulling Christen closer to hug her.  

“I’ll help you with breakfast while we wait for Leah to answer and then we can start doing some research together” Christen stands, pulling Tobin up with her to head into the kitchen. 

Tobin starts making the eggs while Christen cuts up some fruit and puts on a fresh pot of coffee. Tobin’s phone chimes a few times right as they sit down at the table. Tobin sets the phone between them on the table, allowing Christen to read the messages too.

Leah: MATE!!

Leah: I AM BUZZIN FOR YOU!

Leah: AND FOR CHRISTEN!!!!!

Leah: I am guessing that this means your talk went well. Christen is the best, there was no reason for you to be nervous. 

Leah: WE CAN BE PARENTS AT THE SAME TIME!

Jordan: Here is the link, Leah is a little too excited. Buzzin for you both : ) See ya at the game tomorrow. 

Tobin and Christen chuckle at all the messages, thankful for Jordan for actually sending the stuff they requested. 

Tobin to Jordan: thanks, man. see you tomorrow. 

Tobin to Leah: you’re insane. your wife is much more helpful than you. i will talk to you about it later.  

Tobin locks her phone, not needing to wait for any responses back. They finish their breakfast quickly, neither of them able to contain their excitement. They spend the rest of the morning looking through all the information on the website that they can.  

It’s nearing 3 pm when they think that they read almost everything that the website has to offer. Neither of them have brought it up but they both noticed that there was still a sign-up for the orientation that Leah and Jordan are going to. 

Tobin has to get up to get ready soon, if she wants to make it to practice on time at 5. She wishes that she could skip but she knows that with ending early yesterday and no practice tomorrow, she has to go.  Christen knows that Tobin needs to get ready but is putting it off as long as possible. She decides to speed the process up by closing the laptop and dragging Tobin up to their room, needing to get a few things from the room herself.

Once Tobin was getting ready, Christen headed back downstairs to pack a little to-go dinner for Tobin. She made a sandwich, more cut up fruit, some chips and a few pieces of candy that she knows Tobin loves. Nobody wants to deal with a hungry Tobin so she is aware that she needs to make sure there is enough food to last her through the drive to practice and the length of practice. 

Tobin reemerges from upstairs after about 20 minutes, dressed and with her backpack full of her coaching essentials. She doesn’t like that she has to leave so early but with rush hour approaching she doesn’t want to risk getting stuck longer then needed. If she happens to get there early, she can start setting up the fields or start working on the lineup for their game on Tuesday.

Tobin approaches Christen who is packing up the last of her food, “Thank you for putting that together, I could have done that.” 

Christen hands the finished bag over, “I like taking care of you and I wanted to, I don’t want you to be late.” 

Tobin leans in for a kiss, whispering a soft I love you as she pulls away. 

“I love you too, drive safe and I will see you when you get home.” Christen responds, then presses another quick kiss to Tobin’s cheek before Tobin turns and starts walking toward the garage. 

“See you tonight!” Tobin calls out, slipping on her shoes as the garage door closes behind her. 

The rest of Christen’s night is spent wrapped up on the couch looking up more articles and blogs about fostering and stuff to know before fostering. Mal calls her around 7 to tell her about camp so far and to confirm that she will be at the game tomorrow early in order to see her.

Christen confirms and listens to what Mal says while also offering advice when needed. She wants to tell Mal about them thinking about fostering but decides to wait until tomorrow, wanting to see the reaction on Mal’s face live.

When Mal finally says good night after an hour, Christen heads upstairs to shower and read in bed while she waits for Tobin to get home. 

**********

Tobin doesn’t make it home until after 9. She talked a little longer with the girls, answering questions about the game tomorrow and running through their morning lift with them since she won’t be there. Even after the team left, Leah talked to her for almost an hour about fostering and how excited she is for them. 

She is officially exhausted when she makes it up into the bedroom. The excitement of the morning/afternoon, the longer practice and the extended social time with her friend, took a toll on her. All she wants to do is to curl up in bed and sleep until noon tomorrow. 

Christen’s bed-side light is the only light illuminating the room, which is just enough for Tobin to see her wife’s droopy eyes fighting off sleep. Christen has a book open in her lap but hasn’t been able to turn the page in awhile, having reread the same sentences a dozen times due to her eyes not being able to stay open. 

Tobin sits down on the edge of the bed, plucking Christen’s book from her lap to bookmark and place on the bedside table. Christen has a sleepy smile on her face as she says, “You’re home late, I’ve been trying to stay up but it's been a long day, my eyes are tired.”

Tobin brings a hand up to Christen’s face, running her thumb right under Christen’s eye. “Close your eyes, love. I’m just going to shower really quick, then I’ll be following you right into dreamland.” 

“I’ll close my eyes but I won’t fall asleep until you are back.” Christen mumbles, eyes already shut as she readjusts to get more comfortable. 

Tobin chuckles at the adorableness of her wife when she gets this tired. She has never been good at staying up late, her body used to waking up early instead. Tobin leans down, placing a kiss under each of Christen’s eyes before she heads into the bathroom to quickly shower. 

15 minutes later after her nightly routine is done, Tobin finally crawls into bed. She tries to be as quiet and still as possible but isn’t successful when she feels Christen roll over and cuddle up against her. Christen arm draping over Tobin’s waist and their legs intertwining. Tobin runs a hand up and down Christen’s back, hoping to not completely wake her up. 

“I told you I wasn’t going to fall asleep until you got back, I was waiting for you.” Tobin barely hears Christen mumble against her chest. 

“I’m here now, go to sleep.” Tobin responds, relaxing deeper into the mattress now that Christen is in her arms. 

“I think we should sign up for that orientation in a couple weeks with Leah and Jordan. I did more research while you were away.” Christen says slightly more clearly and opens her eyes briefly to look up at Tobin, obviously having been thinking about it all night long. 

Tobin makes eye contact before squeezing Christen closer, “We can sign up first thing in the morning, you can even wake me up when you do for us to do it together.” 

“7 o’clock then” Christen responds, eyes falling closed again. 

Tobin groans, “fine, only cause I really want to do this and I love you”

Christen squeezes Tobin back, feeling herself succumb to sleep quickly all warm and wrapped in Tobin’s arms. “I love you Toby, goodnight”

“Sweet dreams Chris.”

Chapter Text

Like always, the next morning Christen wakes up at 7am when the sun starts to peek through the curtains of their bedroom. For as long as she could remember, her body has never allowed her to sleep in. She wakes up at the first sign of the sun rising and can never fall back asleep, with the rare exception of a super late night before or a really rough game the previous day. 

Christen contemplates whether or not to actually wake Tobin up but ultimately decides to because she knows that she can fall back asleep as soon as they are done. She looks at the sleeping body next to her and listens to the soft snores coming out of her wife for a minute before running a hand through the tousled hair covering the pillow. 

“Babe” Christen whispers, moving closer in bed until she is pressed up against Tobin.  

A few seconds pass with still no movement, she tries again. “Baby, time to wake up” 

“Mmmmm” Tobin presses her face further into her pillow. 

“Just for a few minutes and I promise I will let you go back to sleep” Christen whispers, continuing to run a hand through Tobin’s hair. 

Tobin rolls on her side, bringing an arm around Christen to pull her closer. 

“Good morning, love.” Christen tucks her head into Tobin’s neck, pressing a kiss to it. 

“Morning Chris” Tobin squeezes her wife in a hug before rolling on her back and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. 

Christen pulls the covers off of herself and moves to get out of bed. “Let me go get the laptop and we can do this quickly so you can go back to sleep.” 

Tobin’s voice still thick with sleep, “okay, I’ll be here.”

By the time Christen grabs her computer from the office and makes her way back into the room, Tobin has sat up in bed and put her glasses on. 

Christen crawls back into bed, dropping the laptop into Tobin’s lap, situating herself on her side with her head resting on Tobin’s shoulder. 

Tobin opens up the orientation sign up page and starts to fill in all of their information. Once everything is filled in and they have read the short articles attached at the end, Tobin pauses before hitting the submit button. 

“We are sure we want to do this?” Tobin asks, wanting to make sure they were still on the same page even though it is just an orientation sign up. 

Christen lifts her head and looks into Tobin’s eyes, “100% sure.”

Tobin doesn’t need to be told twice so she looks back at the screen and hits the submit button. Once everything is done, the laptop is put on the bedside table and Tobin turns to face Christen. 

“I love you” Tobin says as she leans in to kiss Christen. 

Christen smiles into the kiss and lets herself enjoy the warmth of Tobin’s body next to her. When she pulls back, forehead resting against Tobin’s, “I love you too. Go back to sleep, we don’t have to get ready for hours.” 

“Will you stay for a little bit? I wanna cuddle with you.” Tobin asks, sinking lower in bed and pulling Christen with her before she can even respond. 

“Let me grab my book and I’ll stay,'' Christen reaches over to grab her book and sits slightly propped up against the headboard. She pulls Tobin closer, who throws an arm around Christen’s waist and lays her head on her chest. 

It doesn’t take more than 5 minutes for Tobin to fall back asleep and after a half hour Christen slips out from under her  to start her morning. 

**********

Once Tobin wakes up around 10, they spend the rest of the morning lounging around outside and cleaning up around the house. 

Right before they are ready to leave, Tobin receives an email of all the tickets for the girls and parking passes, which she forwards to the team to make sure everything is squared away. Tobin and Ashlyn pulled a few extra strings and were able to secure 2 suites for the game instead of sitting in the stands. They figured that the girls could have their own and be able to enjoy the game without feeling like they were being watched and monitored. The other box would be for the coaches and for Alex and Kelley who would be there too.

They arrive at the stadium a little after 3 pm, knowing the game is set to kick off at 5 o’clock. When Tobin talked to staff about meeting the girls before, they had told her that they would be able to hang out until 4, when the team was set to start getting ready for pre-game warmup.

Tobin and Christen’s phones were both going off almost the entire ride. Mal had been continually texting Christen asking when they would get there and Ashlyn and Leah were both texting Tobin about their ETA’s to the stadium. They had gotten stuck in some traffic so Christen was letting Mal know that they were just going to wait for Tobin’s team to arrive before they went back to see her.

After they parked, they headed toward one of the bus entrances where Ashlyn told them they were waiting for the bus to show up. Leah had texted right when they pulled in that they were 10 minutes away, so when they get to the entrance they should only have to wait a couple minutes.

They had just caught sight of Ashlyn and Ali when they heard a little voice yell in their direction. 

“AUNTIE CHRIS!!!” Sloane screeched while running toward them as fast as her little legs allowed. 

Tobin prided herself on the fact that kids loved her, no matter what age they were or how they were related, she was always their favorite. She loved being the favorite, she loved when her nieces and nephews would request her to read them a bedtime story or when she would get FaceTime calls from them telling her that they missed her. She loved when her friend’s kids would always come up to her first, asking to play with them and then would later cuddle up with her when they got too tired.

If there was one person that kids loved more than Tobin, it was Christen, especially Sloane. Christen radiated warmth and happiness and all kids felt that and they loved her extra for it. Ever since Sloane was a baby she quickly gravitated toward Christen. 

When Ashlyn and Ali would visit and Sloane was fussy they would give her to Christen to help settle her. Ashlyn and Ali were more than capable but they were grateful for the little break they were able to get. As Sloane got older the affection only grew, always seeking Christenout  immediately when they were together.

Ashlyn and Ali told them once that they asked Sloane why she loved Christen the most and she rattled off a list of things before ending it with “and she has hair like mine and her skin is darker like mine.” Christen couldn’t help the tears that formed when she heard that and from then on would always go out of her way \ to make sure that Sloane and her spent quality time together. 

Christen squatted down and opened her arms, ready for the little girl to run into her arms. Right before Slone reached Christen, Tobin swooped in and grabbed her and brought her into her own arms for a hug.

“Munchkin! I’m so excited to see you, I know you are so excited to see me, your favorite auntie” Tobin joked while tickling the little girl’s sides and pretending to squeeze her as tight as she could. 

“Help Auntie Chris!!” Sloane manages to get out in between laughing fits.

Tobin keeps it up for a few more seconds before she slows down and lets Sloane catch her breath. Once she is able to slow her laughs down, Sloane reaches over for Christen but Tobin is quick to walk out of Christen’s reach one more time.

Tobin looks slightly down at Sloane in her arms, “Can I at least have a hug first before I give you to Auntie Christen?”

Sloane quickly wraps her little arms around Tobin’s neck squeezing her tight. Once she lets go, Tobin finally gives the girl over to Christen.

Christen takes the Sloane into her arms and situates her on her hip and starts to walk over to where Ashlyn and Ali are standing.

“I missed you” Sloane whispers and places her head down on Christen’s shoulder.

Christen places a kiss on Sloane's forehead, “I missed you too, sweetie. Tobin told me that she got to see you the other day after preschool.”

“Yeah! Mommy had to come pick me up and then I got to see Auntie Tobin and Alex at work.”

“That sounds like so much fun!” Christen responds.

Sloane continues, “I wish you were there too but I was sleepy after school so I took a nap on Auntie Toby. She was really comfy but then I woke up when mama came to pick me up”

“She is really comfy isn’t she? Do you want to know something silly?” Christen glances over at Tobin with a smile and Sloane responds by shaking her head ‘yes’. “Sometimes when I get super tired, I curl up and fall asleep on her too because she is the comfiest!” 

“No way! That’s so silly!” Sloane laughs.

“It’s true she does!” Tobin interjects, as they reach Ashlyn and Ali.

“I see that someone found their favorite aunties” Ashlyn says while leaning in to give both women a hug, which is quickly reciprocated by Ali.

“I did!” Sloane shouts a bit too loud for how close everyone is standing, but still making all the adults laugh.

“How long do we have before everyone gets here?” Ali asks, wanting to know if they are supposed to be anywhere specific.

“Leah texted me a few minutes ago that they were only about 10 minutes away so they honestly should be pulling up here pretty shortly” Tobin responds, while checking her phone to make sure she hasn’t missed any other updates.

“Sweet, do you want to wait here for them or do you and Christen want to get a head start?” Ashlyn asks Ali but making sure that everyone can hear and let them know they don’t have to wait around for the team.

Ali gives Christen a look to let her know that she can make the decision for the both of them. “We can wait with you both, shouldn’t be too long” Christen says decisively.

They all stand around making small talk for the next few minutes before they see a bus pull into the lot and come to a stop close to where they are standing.

Leah and Jordan are first off the bus and both make the rounds of giving all 4 women hugs and asking how they are doing. Once all the girls are off the bus, waving and smiling at Christen and Ali and gushing about how cute Sloane is, Tobin gets all of their attention.

“Alright, I emailed all of you your tickets so you should pull those up if you haven’t already. Once we get those scanned they will give you all a pass that gives you access to the suite and on the field with the team so make sure you don’t lose them.” Tobin looks down at her watch to check the time before she continues, “The team starts their warm ups in about 45 minutes so we are going to go down to the field for about a half hour where they should be. If you have any questions feel free to ask any of us and we will be more than happy to help.”

All of the girls say thank you to their coaches and start to pull up their tickets as they head inside. Ashlyn and Tobin fall into step with each other a few paces behind where Ali and Christen have done the same. They all show their tickets and get their passes and Christen texts Mal, as Tobin does Lindsey to let them know they are close and will see them in a couple minutes.

Christen lets Sloane down to walk on her own but she still stays right by her side, holding her hand as they continue to walk through the halls. Tobin can’t help the smile that grows on her face as she watches Sloane talk Christen’s ear off about preschool.

Ashlyn nudges Tobin with her elbow, “Based on your love sick puppy dog eyes, I’m assuming you talked to her and everything went okay?”

Tobin turns to her friend not embarrassed by the look at all, but lowering her voice slightly to make sure no one else can hear their conversation “Yeah it was good, we are on the same page and are going to a foster care orientation in a couple weeks.”

Ashlyn throws her arm around Tobin’s shoulder, pulling her into a side hug. “That’s super exciting, I’m really happy for you both.”

“Thank you. Don’t tell anyone yet though, I don’t know if she wants to go around telling everyone but I’m sure the word will get out quickly soon enough.” Tobin says, pulling out of the hug and running her fingers through her hair to fix what Ashlyn just messed up.

“No worries, my lips are sealed.” 

**********

Right before they walked onto the field, Tobin stopped and turned around to address her team. “I’m sure most of you are freaking out right now but I promise you that they are all normal people just like us. Ask them questions and talk to them all you want.”

Christen and Ali let Tobin and Ashlyn lead the team in first while they hang at the back with Sloane. Once they get on the field, Tobin introduces the team and Lindsey, the current captain, gives a speech before everyone starts to mingle. 

Christen has her attention focused on the conversation Ali is having with Midge, when she feels a body slam into hers from behind and arms wrap around her squeezing her tight. If it had been anyone else she wouldn’t be okay with it but she turns and wraps Mal in a hug, squeezing her just as tight. 

“I missed you so much” Mal says, still holding onto Christen but loosening her grip slightly.

“I missed you too. Are you ready for the game?” Christen asks, giving another squeeze before letting go so she can look at the younger girl. 

“Yeah, we are ready. I’m starting up top with Soph and Cat so we are hoping to score a lot. I hope I can do well since you are here.” 

Christen shakes her head, not liking that Mal feels she needs to play well just because she is watching, “As long as you try your best that’s all that matters.”

Mal just smiles before giving Christen another hug, having always been an affectionate person and because it has been a few months since they have seen each other. 

Tobin makes her way over to the pair, laying a hand on Christen’s back to let her know she’s there. “Do I get any of the love or only Christen?” Tobin jokes, knowing Mal darted immediately to Christen when they came in, not saying hi to anyone else on the way. 

Mal shrieks before throwing herself into Tobin, the same way she did Christen. “Hi Tobin, I missed you too.”  

Tobin lets out a laugh, “I missed you too, kid. You’re stil planning on coming to stay with us once camp is done, right?” 

“If that’s still okay with you. We are done Saturday after our game but I told Chicago I wouldn’t be back until the following Sunday night since it's only preseason and I want to rest.” 

“We are excited to have you, I might have to drag you to a practice with me one day.” Tobin says, putting her hand back on Christen's back.

“I would love that. Also, I was told I need to ask you about having a barbeque next Saturday after the game with the team. No one is leaving until Sunday and everyone wants to hang out and we all miss you and the others.” Mal asks, feeling a bit like she is imposing.

“Who told you that you needed to be the one to ask?” Christen inquires, having heard from Kelley that Sonnett was the one who was actually trying to plan it. 

Mal shifts nervously on her feet, “Sonny told me I should ask because you are more likely to say yes to me”

“We would’ve said yes, regardless of who asked. I don’t get why Sonnett hardly talks to me and didn’t ask for herself if she is the ringleader of all this.” Christen questions curiously. 

Mal glances around at everyone, making sure that Sonnett won’t be able to hear her. “Well she said that I was your favorite and you couldn’t say no to me but also I’m pretty sure that she is still scared of you a little bit.”

Christen scoffs in disbelief, “How is she scared of me? I’ve only ever been nice to her!”  

Mal just shrugs her shoulders not wanting to divulge all of the information she has been told, while Tobin just laughs at the situation.  

Christen whips her head around when she hears Tobin laugh, “Why are you laughing? This is not funny! I don’t get how she can be scared of me!”

Tobin runs her hand up and down Christen’s back before answering, “I don’t think she is scared of you exactly, but I think she just is intimidated by you” Christen sees Mal nod next to her before looking back at Tobin waiting for her to elaborate. 

“You’re really good at soccer, you are super outspoken and you are pretty serious most of the time. But it’s not a bad thing, she doesn’t dislike you. I honestly didn’t know this was still a thing, when we were both in Portland she mentioned it but I assumed she grew out of it after spending so much time together.” 

“And you are Kelley’s best friend and she wants to make a good impression ever since they got together.” Mal chimes in. 

 Christen lets out a huff, still shocked but now has her mind set on being nicer and more open with the girl.

“Well, that’s a yes to the barbeque but I am going to talk to her about it right now.” Christen says definitively, standing on her tiptoes to scope out where Sonnett may be. She spots her across the field, standing as close as possible to Kelley.  

“Don’t tell her I said anything! She will kill me.” Mal whines, trying to grab at Christen’s hand as she turns to walk away. 

“I won’t say anything, I am just going to be nice.” Christen says with a big smile and skips away. 

Christen makes her way across the field, waving and giving hugs to a few people as she passes. Sonnett must see her approaching because right as she steps into their area, she takes a step back from Kelley to open up the space for another person. 

“Hi Christen” Sonnett says with a smile.

“Hey Sonnett, its good to see you!” Christen says slightly over eagerly and pulls the girl in for a hug.

“It’s good to see you too.” Sonnett responds with what appears to be a slightly nervous smile. 

Kelley throws an arm around Christen’s shoulder to pull her into her side. “Hi Pressy”

“Hi Kel” Christen says before pulling away and looking at the back of the jersey Kelley is wearing. “Cute jersey, didn’t think I would see you wear anything but your own” She continues with a smirk trying to embarrass Kelley, referencing the number 14 on the back instead of the number 5.

Kelley just beams back at her and leans in slightly, acting as if she is trying to hide what she is saying “I know right, but Em told me she has a thing for me in it.” 

 Sonnett’s face instantly goes beet red and Christen pulls out of Kelley’s grasp quickly, “Ew Kel, I did not need to picture that.”

 Kelley just shrugs, with a big smile plastered on her face. “Oh grow up, don’t act like I haven’t heard stories from Tobin about you in a Thorns jersey and many other things I won’t mention.”

 Christen’s face starts to heat up as she hears Sonnett let out a laugh next to her and sees her make eye contact with Tobin and send her a thumbs up. “Okay, okay fair enough. I did come over here with a purpose.”

 “Well then, what can we do for you?” Kelley asks.

 “I came to tell Sonnett here that we would be more than happy to host a barbeque next Saturday, like she planned. And to know why she sent Mal to ask when she is the one putting it all together” Christen directs toward the younger girl..

 “Oh, well I just know how close you three are and I figured you would want to hear it from her if you were going to be mad about it.” Sonnett responds nervously.

 “You should know that we would have said yes regardless of who asked us.”

 “Well I will make sure that I ask in the future then” Sonnett replies with a genuine smile. 

They are quickly interrupted by Rose and Sam who are cracking up trying to retell a story about Lindsey saying something embarrassing in front of a few of the UCLA girls. 

**********

Once the team needs to start warming up, everyone says their goodbye’s, Mal giving Christen an extra long hug and Christen telling her that they won’t see her after the game but they will call her when they are leaving if she wants to talk about the game.

They make their way up to the suite, with Tobin, Ashlyn and Leah making sure that the team has everything that they need before going back to their own a couple doors down.

Alex shows up right as the game is starting with a very mad 4 year old Charlie trying to get out of the grasp Alex has on her wrist and a baby carrier in the other with a crying 4 month old, Miles. Kelley and Tobin quickly jump up to help when they hear the crying and notice the stressed out look on Alex’s face. 

Tobin takes the baby carrier out of Alex’s hand and puts it down on one of the chairs, starting to unstrap the baby. Alex lets go of Charlie only for the little girl to flop on the ground and start crying. 

“What happened?” Kelley asks, squatting down to run a hand down Charlie’s back to try and calm down. 

Alex runs a hand through her hair and takes a deep breath, “He’s just hungry and she ran off in the parking lot and almost got hit and now is mad that I yelled at her and wouldn’t let walk on her own.”

“Do you have a bottle? I’ll sit and feed him.” Tobin asks, grabbing the diaper bag off Alex’s shoulder.

“Yeah it should be in there, you just have to put a scoop of formula in with the water.” 

“I thought Servando was coming with you?” Kelley questions. 

“He was supposed to be but he got sick this morning so I figured I would just take the kids for the day so he can rest.”

“Makes sense, take a deep breath, I can talk to her and I’m sure if you ask Ashlyn and Ali they will take Charlie for the night.” Kelley suggests.

“Yeah, I’ll have to do that. Thank you both for helping, she scared me in the parking lot and there was more traffic than expected on the way here so he has been fussing for a while.” 

“No worries dude, we are here to help with anything.” Tobin responds with a smile, finishing making the bottle and taking Miles out of the carrier. 

Alex and Kelley both start a softer conversation with Charlie, who has finally stopped crying and is only now supporting a pout.

Tobin makes her way over to the seats just outside and sits down on the end of the aisle next to Christen who is seemingly deep in conversation with Jordan. Christen smiles at Tobin and runs a finger over Miles’ cheek before turning back to her conversation. 

Jordan excuses herself a few minutes later, leaving Christen and Tobin alone. 

“Everything okay with Alex?” Christen asks in a low voice. 

“She was just a little overwhelmed, but should be all good once everyone settles.” Tobin replies, matching Christen’s volume and looks down at the baby in her arms. “I feel like he has grown so much from the last time we saw him a few weeks ago.” 

Christen follows Tobin’s eyes and smiles, “He has for sure.” She lowers her voice even more, leans over to place a kiss on Tobin’s cheek. “You look good with a baby in your arms.”

Tobin looks up and leans in to place a kiss to Christen’s lips. “I love you and can’t wait for this with you.” 

It doesn’t take long for Sloane to come bounding over, having been away from Christen for 15 minutes, and stops right in front of Christen, placing her hands on Christen’s knees. 

“Hi sweetie, are you having fun?” Christen asks, brushing Sloane’s hair from her eyes. 

“Yes! Mommy told me that I get to have a sleepover with Charlie tonight and that we can watch Moana!”

“Wow that sounds like so much fun!” Christen says excitedly.

Sloane turns to look at Miles, “Is that Charlie’s baby brother?” she asks curiously. 

“His name is Miles and he just finished eating so he is super happy right now.” Tobin responds, making faces at the baby who is sitting up in her lap, smiling back at her. 

Sloane moves a little closer to the baby, poking him in the leg. “Auntie Toby?”

“What’s up munchkin?” 

“Where do babies come from? I really want a baby brother or sister?” Sloane looks up at Tobin, waiting for an answer. 

Christen does her best to stifle her laugh, thankful that Sloane directed the question at Tobin and not her. Tobin’s jaw drops open and she opens and closes her mouth a few times, trying to decide what to say. 

Tobin hands Miles over to Christen giving herself more time to answer but decides to take the easy way out. “Ummm, that’s a question you should ask your moms.” 

Sloane seems to think about it for a minute, “Okay!” 

They watch her make her way over to where Ashlyn and Ali are standing and overhear her ask, “Auntie Toby told me to ask where babies come from.”

Ashlyn’s head snaps up and shoots Tobin a glare that Tobin responds with a sheepish smile back and a shrug of her shoulders. Christen finally lets out the laugh she has been holding in. 

“Still can’t wait for all of this?” Christen chuckles. 

“Ha ha Chris, if it was our kid then I would answer.” Tobin crosses her arms, shrinking in her seat. 

“I know you would. I can’t wait either.” Christen takes Tobin’s hand, pressing a few kisses to the back before letting it rest on her thigh. 

Tobin and Christen spend the rest of the game passing Miles between them,  making light conversation with all of their friends and cheering whenever someone scores. Mal lands up scoring the game winner in the 79th minute and Christen gives her two thumbs up when she finds her in amongst the crowd. 

Everyone says their goodbyes after the game ends and they send the UCLA team on the bus back to campus. Tobin and Christen land up spending the entire hour riding home on the phone with Mal and Lindsey listening to the duo retell the game..

**********

The next couple of weeks fly by for Tobin and Christen. The week following the game, they are busy with work but frequently found time to talk about their future and what they both were feeling with the foster care orientation coming up. 

Over the weekend, they host the entire USWNT and their friends at their house for a barbeque. They didn’t have the biggest house but were still able to fit everyone outside to enjoy the night.  

Tobin, Kelley and Servando grilled up a bunch of hot dogs, hamburgers and veggies for everyone which went with all of the sides and desserts they requested each person bring.  

The night was lots of fun for everyone, especially the team who was able to let loose now that camp was over. Most of the girls were flying back home the next morning to get back to their club teams, with the exception of Mal and Sonnett.  

Tobin and Christen decided not to tell everyone about their plans to foster yet, not wanting to have all the attention and comments before they even got their license. Of course, they were planning on telling their friends depending on how the orientation went but would tell Mal later in the week, knowing she wouldn’t share the information. 

The couple mostly spent the night apart, wanting to spend time with their friends, but frequently catch the eye of the other to send them a wink or a quick kiss on the cheek in passing just to let the other know they were around.  

Mal left to go to the hotel that night but came back the next morning with all of her stuff ready for a full week to spend with her favorite people. Mal spends most afternoons and nights with Christen at the beach or at different restaurants getting shown all of the different places she loved. Mal confided in Christen throughout the week about the struggles her and Dansby are having with distance and limited time together, which Christen offers advice on and sympathizes with her, knowing how hard distance can be. Most mornings are usually spent with the three of them at the beach, with the sun shining down but the morning breeze still allowing them to wear a sweatshirt or long pants.  

They decide to tell Mal about their plans one morning on the beach, excited to see her reaction. Mal is speechless but quickly starts to ask dozens of questions about what kind of kids they are looking for and what kind of parents they are planning on being. Christen and Tobin try to answer the question but tell her that they still have a lot of time to decide. Mal ends the discussion with a joke about being excited for siblings that make them all laugh. 

Tobin followed through with her idea to take Mal to training one day, which lands up being one of the most high energy performances she has seen from the team. Mal jumped in and practiced with the girls, which made them all but in 110% effort, trying to show off for the talented forward. Tobin and Mal spend the long car ride home talking about Mal’s upcoming season and what goals she has for it. 

The week went faster than any of them would have liked and by the end of it they all say a teary goodbye outside the airport, with promises to visit each other soon.

Before either of them knew it, it was Wednesday night at 6pm and they were walking hand in hand into the RaiseAChild Foster Care Services orientation.

Chapter Text

Christen and Tobin follow the signs to one of the classrooms near the back of the building, both filled with excited nerves. When they finally find where they are supposed to be, they sit in the middle row of seats, a couple rows in the front of where Jordan and Leah are already seated. They smile and wave, not getting up to sit near each other, wanting to have their own experience. 

Tobin drapes her arm over the back of Christen's chair, while both of them look around at the other people in the room. There are about 30 seats in the classroom and about 20 of them are filled. There seems to be a mix of straight couples, same-sex couples and a few people who appear to be without a partner. 

After a few minutes, two women walk in and stand in the front of the class. 

“There are over a half million children currently in foster care.” Martha, one of the leaders of the orientation starts, “The system is overloaded, Okay? It doesn't need any more kids. So for a child to be removed, conditions have to be pretty bleak, usually involving abuse or extreme neglect.”

Karen, the other leader continues, “And some of these kids can often languish in the system, unless a wonderful family like yours steps up for them.”

A couple sitting in the front row is quick to blurt out, “We will take one!”

“Oh good, let me go see what we have in the back,” Martha jokes, earning laughs from everyone in the room. 

“We do not stock kids here and everyone should know that she is kidding” Karen says very seriously, making sure that everyone knows that it was a joke. 

She follows it up right after, “But we can take you through the eight-week foster parenting course, and you can get your certification. And then we can pair you with some kids that you can foster until they become adoptable.”

“But it's not going to be easy folks, these kids will test your will, put a strain on your relationship and push buttons that you don’t even know you have.” Martha says bluntly.

Tobin runs her thumb over the side of Christen’s arm, making Christen turn her head and give her a soft smile. 

“Alright! Why don’t we go around the room and learn everyone’s name and what type of children you are looking for.”

A few couples go, all having different stories varying from not being able to conceive and feeling called upon by God to foster a child. Most of them say that they are interested in children under the age of 10 and wanting to foster in hopes of adopting. 

Once it gets around to Christen and Tobin, Christen takes the lead on the introductions. 

“Hi everyone, I am Christen and this is my wife Tobin. We have tried IVF a couple times and it hasn’t worked so we are looking to expand our family through foster care. We don’t have a preference on gender or age, we just are hoping to make a connection with a child and go from there.” 

It’s true that they don’t have a preference on what they are looking for in a child. A lot of the articles they have read online about fostering have talked about making connections with the child being the most important part. They don’t want to limit themselves to a specific gender or age when meeting kids, they want to just follow what they feel. 

Everyone in the room smiles at them and a few offer sympathetic looks hearing about the failed IVF attempts. The last few people in the room introduce themselves offering similar stories before Karen starts to speak again. 

“We have a few more things we want to go over with everyone tonight but after all of that we would love to get you all signed up for your classes. We have a variety of meeting times every week so you can fill out the form on your way out if you are interested and we will be in contact with you.”

Karen and Martha spent the next hour talking about the organization more, what they can expect from the 8 week course and answered any questions everyone had. Once they are done, everyone mills around chatting together and getting to know more about everyone. 

Jordan and Leah make their way over to them with big grins on their faces that they can’t help but match. “So do you think you guys are going to sign up?” Leah asks. 

Christen looks at Tobin with a smile, seeing her wife’s eyes light up at the question getting the confirmation she needs to answer. 

“Yeah we are. Are you guys?” Christen responds while Tobin pulls her a little closer to her by the waist. 

“Yes we are. The tricky part is going to be finding a time that we can both attend every week with our schedule.” Jordan says.

“Well we never have games on Monday’s or Thursday’s and I can be super lenient with being late or leaving early for a couple practices if you need it.” Tobin quickly replies, knowing that the couple was probably more concerned about Jordan’s schedule but wanted to reassure Leah that her schedule could be flexible if needed, especially with family. 

Tobin knew that it would be easier for her and Christen to find a time since it would mostly be whatever fit Tobin’s schedule since Christen could work whenever she wanted and could rearrange mostly anything with Re-inc if there were something to come up. 

“Thanks man, that is very helpful to know.” Leah says, looping an arm around Jordan’s shoulder. “We had a couple things we wanted to ask Karen and Martha so we are going to find them but I will see you, Tobin, tomorrow and maybe we can get together soon for dinner or something.”

“Of course, we can definitely plan something soon. It was great seeing you both as always.” Christen pulls them in for a hug which Tobin also does before they both go in opposite directions. 

They head toward the table that is directly outside the room which they were told has the course sign up forms for them to fill out. Christen grabs the sheet for both of them to look over and leads them away from the table to look over their options. 

The sheet lists their options as Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights from 6pm-8pm or Tuesday and Sunday morning from 10am-12pm. It asks them to list three options since they need at least 5 couples in each class for that time slot to stay available after sign-ups. It states that the courses start the following week and Martha said that there were two more orientation classes the next few days so it would not just be the people they met tonight in the classes. 

“What time do you want to pick?” Christen asks, handing the paper and pen to Tobin for her to fill out when they decide. 

“Wednesday and Sunday definitely won’t work. I’m leaning toward Tuesday morning or Thursday night. Monday could also work but there is a chance if we have a far away game on Sunday we might not always be back timely on a Monday and I would for sure be exhausted but could still make it work. What do you think?” Tobin explains. 

“I think Tuesday morning would be the best since you would rarely have anything going on then and it would keep our nights free while we still can.” Christen suggests, knowing that when they do have a kid, that will be the main focus every day and night. 

“That works for me, I’ll put Tuesday down first, then Thursday and Monday.” Tobin nods her head while starting to fill out the form. 

They look it over, making sure that everything looks good before turning into the box on the table. Tobin grabs Christen’s hand as they walk out, exchanging smiles with the other couples they pass on the way. 

Once they get outside, the reality of the situation sinks in, both feeling their excitement taking over. 

Tobin opens the car door for Christen before she rounds the car to get into the driver's seat. As the car is starting, Tobin looks over at Christen with the biggest smile on her face.. 

“I’m so pumped babe!” Tobin squeals. 

“I am too! I am very excited to start on this journey with you.” Christen reaches over grabbing Tobin’s hand to place a kiss on her knuckles. 

They head home with an excitement that stays with them all throughout the 8 week course. 

They learn a lot over the 8 weeks but one of the last sessions stands out to them and makes them think extra about what they really want. The entire group is sitting in a circle holding a long string of yarn. Karen tells them that the yarn represents the connections that a child creates.

Martha starts to talk while walking around the outside of the circle, “I want you all to imagine you got this plush new job. They give you a nice big office. There’s a gym and a frozen yogurt machine right there in the break room.”

Martha stops walking and Karen picks up with the speech, “But deep down, you know you’re not qualified. In your heart of hearts, you know you’re not good enough and you are going to get fired. It’s going to be the same way you got fired from your last three jobs. And you think about quitting just to get some control back. Or you might even tip over the yogurt machine and walk right out of there.” 

Martha gets a big pair of scissors and starts to cut all of the string that keeps everyone in the circle connected and continues, “the point is, that it’s the same for a displaced child who knows that you don’t want them. Except instead of grieving the loss of a job, they’re losing their connection with everything and everyone.”

Karen cuts back in, “But the one connection that can remain is between siblings. Sometimes it’s easier for siblings to adjust because they’re not going through it all alone. You might want to consider upgrading to a sibling set.”

The thought of bringing siblings home stays on their mind as they prepare for the adoption fair the weekend after their final session. 

—-----------------------

“Hi Christen and Tobin!” Karen greets them both as they are walking up to the sign in table.

“Hey Karen, what do we need to do?” Tobin asks, dropping Christen’s hand to take the sign in form being handed to her. 

“All you need to do is sign in on the bottom there, hand that part back to me and then fill out the top with the names of any kid you might be interested in.”

Christen furrows her brow, “really? That’s how this works?”

“I know, it seems a little like shopping for kids which is messed up but the county puts these on because they can match a lot of kids and parents quickly.” Karen explains, taking back the signed form. 

“Let us know if you have any questions or if there are any issues.” Martha says, sending Christen and Tobin on their way into the fair. 

As they make their way around the fair,  there are a few kids that they approach. There is a 8 year old boy that is playing a fishing game with another boy around the same age that they try to talk to but when they start fighting over the pole they walk away not feeling comfortable stopping them. There is a little girl that they see playing in one of the sand boxes alone and start to head over there when one of the other couples runs over to make it known they are talking to the girl. They give them both smiles before walking away. 

After an hour there still hasn’t been any kids they have really talked to or formed any sort of connection with. They have walked around the entire fair and decide that they will do one more walk through before they call it a day. 

As they are making their way toward the exit, they notice that there is a group of kids that they hadn’t seen before kicking a soccer ball around a little further out into the more empty part of the park.

It seems like they are a little bit older kids, probably around 11 if they had to guess. There are about 6 kids playing a 3 v. 3 game but not all trying their hardest but seemingly having a lot of fun. All of them laugh when someone trips or misses the ball and cheers when a really good move is done. Seeing all of the kids running around playing soccer makes both of them smile. They don’t want to interrupt their game trying to go talk to any of the kids so they just watch for a few minutes seeing if they would want to talk to them after the game is over.

Tobin is the first to notice a group of 4 older girls sitting off to the side of the field in the grass, who are making comments about the kids playing soccer. She can’t hear everything that they are saying but makes out a few words that are rude and can tell that they are making it clear that they don’t care who hears them. 

The two girls who are dressed in short crop tops with blonde hair and heavy makeup are making a majority of the comments. Another girl has short blue hair, a crop top covered by a loose fitting flannel and who has yet to look up from her phone in the few minutes that Tobin has been watching them.

The last girl has shoulder length brown hair and is dressed in black jeans and a worn out Metallica t-shirt. She’s only half facing her group and only contributing to the conversation to laugh along or throw in a comment every once in a while. Tobin notices that when the other girls are talking to each other, her eyes drift over to the kids playing soccer, looking at them with less judgmental eyes than the other 2 girls were. 

Tobin turns her focus back to the game when she hears Christen say, “Did you see that nutmeg that boy just did?”

“Huh, where?” Tobin’s eyes searching for the boy Christen was talking about. 

“The boy in the red shirt just nutmegged one of the other kids and scored.”

“Oh, I didn’t see that but I’m sure it was a good move. I know how impressed you get with nutmegs.” Tobin smirks, as Christen rolls her eyes.

“If you didn’t see it, what were you looking at?’

“See that little group of girls over there?” Tobin points over to the group that Christen obviously had not seen yet.

“Were they doing something, why were you watching them?” Christen asks curiously, noticing the girls not exactly doing much, wondering what Tobin was watching them for.

“No, I just noticed them but they weren’t doing anything besides making rude comments about those kids. That one with the Metallica shirt seemed like she was itching to go play with the kids but is clearly hanging out with a bunch of mean girls who will judge her. I feel like I should say something to them or even see if that girl would want to kick the ball around.”

“No, Tobin don’t say anything. They aren’t going to listen to you if you just tell them to be nice. And that girl is not going to leave her friends if she is laughing along with the rude comments.” Christen pleads, not wanting Tobin to go make a scene, knowing that it would not end well. 

Tobin is about to say something in return when she hears a voice call over to them.

“HEY!” Both of them turn to look at the group, trying to figure out which one was talking.

“Yeah you guys, what are you looking at?” The girl in the Metallica shirt shouts at them, standing up and crossing her arms.

Christen is about to shout back that they weren’t looking at them but Tobin finds her voice first, “I was looking at your little group cause you are being rude.”

“Oh my goodness, Tobin stop.” Christen wraps her hand around Tobin’s bicep to try and get her to stop, noticing that the other group of kids have stopped playing their game to watch what was going on.

Tobin looks back at Christen, “they might not listen to me but I can stick up for those other kids at least.”

They aren’t too far away but Tobin takes a few steps closer, Christen reluctantly following, as the girl also takes a few steps closer so that they are only a couple feet from each other. 

Now that they are closer together, Tobin notices the girl has a nametag on just like all of the other kids at the fair, which reads ‘Alexis’.

“We all know how these fairs work so you guys can mind your own business and stop looking at us and go back over and watch the kids.” Alexis says, fixing them both with a hard glare.

“And how do they work?” Christen asks.

“You all come here and mingle with the little kids and find the cutest one to take home and adopt. It’s what always happens so you might as well get on your way and stop wasting your time.” Alexis bites back. 

“And what if we did want to come and talk to you?” Tobin challenges.

Tobin and Christen both notice the hard facade fall a little as if she might actually believe them for a minute. But the softer look only lasts a few seconds before the glare is back. “You didn’t, so you can be on your way and leave us be.”

Christen glances at Tobin to see if she is going to reply or not but knows she is going to drop what she was originally going to say to them when she puts her hands up in surrender.

“Alright, we will go. Have a good rest of your day.” 

Alexis just scoffs in return before going to sit back down by her friends as Tobin takes Christen’s hand and walks away. 

They land up not writing any kids names down that day but both of them can’t seem to get Alexis out of their mind. They both leave the other to do their own thinking on the way home but when they do land up getting home, Tobin can’t keep her thoughts to herself anymore. 

She leads Christen by the hand out back onto the couch, reminiscent of the first conversation they had about fostering. 

“It might be a little crazy since she is a teenager and we mostly have thought about younger kids but I can’t help but feel a slight connection with Alexis.” Tobin plays with the wedding band on her finger, spinning it around to give her hands something to do. 

“I’ll admit that I was skeptical about going to talk to them and that it wasn’t the best interaction but I felt it too.” Christen smiles before continuing, “We don’t know anything about her but I felt the need to protect her the same way that I feel about Mal.”

“I agree, you could see the few moments that she had let her guard down slightly and I just wanted to try and help her. She clearly has some very high walls built up and I just want to show her that someone cares.” Tobin explains, looking up from her hands at Christen.

“She is guarded for sure, and who knows if she even would be interested in the idea of meeting us, or even coming home with us but I think we both would regret it if we didn’t ask.” Christen runs a hand through her hair, relaxing more into the couch. 

Tobin sits up, rubbing her hands over her face before turning back to Christen. “It would be a lot of work and the only thing we know about teenagers is from Mal’s early days on the team but that was hardly any work since there were about 20 other people looking after her too, and she was older. You think we can do it?” 

“The best we can do is try I guess.” Christen says with a shrug. 

“Let’s call Karen and Martha and see if we can meet with them about it.” Tobin suggests, knowing that getting more information would be their next step. 

—----------------------

They find themselves 2 days later on Monday morning in a back office with Alexis’ file in front of them. 

“So you guys went and found yourselves a teenager now after all, huh?” Karen grins at them from across the table. 

“We only met her for a couple minutes,” Christen replies. 

“But she made a real impression,” Tobin grabs Christen’s hand up the table. 

“Alexis is a great kid, she does really well in school but can hang around the wrong people from time to time which gets her into trouble.” Martha explains, opening up the file for Christen and Tobin to look at. 

“She came into our care for the first time when she was 6 but often would return to her mother’s care when she proved she was clean but always came back and has been with her current home for the past year and half. Her mother has made a lot of promises over the years to her but never seems to follow through with them for long enough before she lands up back here.” Karen opens up the file for Christen and Tobin to look at. 

“Where is her mom now?” Tobin asks. 

“She is finishing up a sentence in county jail at the moment but is expected to be released with probation soon but hasn’t asked for reunification since she got sentenced, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Does she have a father?” Christen questions. 

Both Karen and Martha have a sad look on their face, “there are no ID’s on any birth fathers for her. Her mom is a product of the system and she never learned how to properly care for herself, much less three kids.”

Tobin and Christen both nod along, still looking at the details in the file, before Christen’s head snaps up realizing what they just heard. “Wait three kids?” 

“She has siblings?” Tobin asks, confused, having not seen that part in the file.

“Yes, Alexis comes with two younger siblings. Mackenzie is 7 and has been in and out of the system with Alexis since she was 1 and Aiden is 18 months and has been with us since he was born, right before their mom got convicted.” Karen gets up and grabs the two other files sitting on the desk. 

Tobin is still speechless as her and Christen both open the other files and see the faces of two super cute kids that share similar features to Alexis. “Why did you not tell us this on the phone? I don’t think we can handle three kids at once, we weren’t even sure if we could handle one. That’s insane.”

Christen squeezed Tobin’s hand to try and get her to calm down and continue to listen to what Karen and Martha say about the kids. 

“We figured we should give you all the information at once and look more into all of their files. If you don’t think it is something you both can handle then you can continue looking, we haven’t mentioned anything to Alexis about your interest.”

“Listen, we aren’t going to sit here and sugar coat it for you guys. These kids will not be easy.” Karen reasons with them.

Martha flips through all three files toward the end to the page that has the challenges of the child. “Alexis is very strong-willed, she does not trust easily which comes with a lot of attitude and she has been forced into growing up a lot faster then she should. Mackenzie is a wild, rowdy kid that refuses to share at times and likes to be the center of everyone’s attention. And little Aiden has sleeping troubles and is very shy which makes it hard for him to interact with people he doesn’t know.”

“But we would not recommend this match if we didn’t believe that with some structure and love, these kids could really blossom. If that is something you think you both could provide for this family then we highly recommend you consider it.” Martha says with a smile, “And we would really like to get them out of their current foster situation but not a lot of people are willing to take in 3 kids.”

After hearing a little bit more from Martha and Karen and getting a few minutes to discuss it on their own, they set up a meeting at the current foster placement for the coming weekend to meet all the kids officially.

Karen calls them to let them know she spoke with the foster home and they agreed for Tobin and Christen to go over that coming Saturday to meet the kids for a little bit. Once they confirm, Tobin calls Leah to tell her that she is going to have to miss the scheduled morning practice, and that she was in charge for the day. 

It’s a little after 10 a.m. when they pull into the Jones’ driveway. Their house is East of LA so the drive took them over an hour, thankfully not getting caught in too much traffic on the way. Neither of them said much in the car ride over, too nervous and in their heads going over what to expect. 

Tobin’s music played softly in the background, slightly drowned out by her window that was cracked letting in the loud breeze as they drove down the highway. Tobin’s right hand was resting in Christen’s lap, where Christen was spinning the ring on her middle finger and drawing patterns on her palm as she looked out the window. 

It wasn’t necessarily a bad neighborhood or a super rundown house, but the house did not seem big enough for 5 people.  They weren’t sure what to expect when they went inside based on what Karen and Martha had told them but were reassured that the situation was not abusive or harmful.

“We got this, it is probably going to be a little awkward but we just have to try and get to know them a little more and see if we want to bring them home with us.” Tobin states, squeezing Christen’s hand, making eye contact before looking back up at the house. 

“Yeah, we totally got this. What is meant to be will be,” Christen replies, leaning over to kiss Tobin’s cheek before they get out of the car. 

When they reach the front door, Tobin reaches out to ring the doorbell before placing a comforting hand on Christen’s lower back. 

The door isn’t answered right away, which makes Tobin reach up and knock on the door. 

It takes another few seconds before the door is pulled open by a bald, burly man, dressed in a stained white t-shirt and jeans with paint stains on them. “You are the ones here for the kids?” 

“Yeah, that’s us. Nice to meet you.” Christen politely responds, trying not to cringe at the odor coming off the man. 

He holds the door open a little further, prompting them to enter the house. They step in and see directly to the right a woman sitting on the couch with a bag of chips in her lap watching Pawn Stars on the TV. The man doesn’t introduce himself or the other women, leaving Tobin and Christen standing in the foyer, as he goes to sit in the recliner across from the couch. 

Christen gives Tobin a pleading look to ask where the kids are to hopefully get them out of just awkwardly standing there. 

Tobin clears her throat loudly, hoping it will get their attention to remind them that they were standing there waiting for some sort of direction. Thankfully, the woman hears her, turning to give them a displeased look before finally telling them that the kids were out in the backyard. She didn’t give any direction before turning back to the show and turning the volume up higher. 

“Okay, then.” Tobin mutters, grabbing Christen’s hand and walking down the hallway in front them, in search of the back door. They find a sliding glass door just off the kitchen where they see a nicely sized backyard.

Once they step outside, Tobin can’t stop her from whispering to Christen. “That dude smelled disgusting and that was very uncomfortable, I literally just want to take the kids so they don’t have to be here anymore.”

Christen smiles at Tobin’s words, “I know, me too.”

Hearing the door close, they see Alexis whip her head up from where she had her back turned, pushing Mackenzie on the swing. Next to Alexis’ leg, Aiden is sitting on the ground with a few toys around him. 

Alexis jogs over to them, giving them smiles while straightening out the flannel she has on layered over a plain black shirt. 

“Hi Alexis.” Christen says, which Tobin follows up saying hello as well. 

“Hey, uh, Mrs. Press and Mrs. Heath. How are you?”

“Oh, no please call us Tobin and Christen.” Tobin shakes her head at the formality, gesturing to herself and Christen when making the introduction to let Alexis know who was who. 

Alexis nods her head, shifting on her feet nervously. “Sorry, if they were weird in there. I meant to come inside to let you guys in but I lost track of time.”

“Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t too bad.” Christen reassures her, unable to miss the slight embarrassment on her face. 

“Um, cool, okay. Do you want to come meet the kids?” 

They both say yes, following Alexis further out into the yard. There is a small patio with a table and a few chairs right outside the door and the rest of the yard was all grass that seemed recently mowed, with a small play set in the far corner.

Mackenzie had gotten off the swing when Alexis stopped pushing her and was now sitting next to Aiden playing with some of his toys. 

“Kenz, Aiden, I want you both to meet someone.” Alexis calls out as they get closer. 

Mackenzie jumps to her feet and runs over to them. Aiden, on the other hand, hobbles over to Alexis and wraps his arms around her legs, hiding his face. 

“I want you to meet Tobin and Christen, they are going to hang out with us for a little bit. Can you say hello?” Alexis says in a voice much softer than they have ever heard her in the limited conversations they have had. 

“Hi, I’m Mackenzie!” 

“Hi, Mackenzie! It’s nice to meet you!” Christen replies with an excited voice, matching that of Mackenzie’s. 

“Can you say hi Aiden?” Alexis asks, bending down to try and get him to at least look at either of them. 

He shakes his head and adamantly says no, closing his eyes and turning more into Alexis. 

“I’m sorry, he is still working on meeting new people.”

“We heard that it might take a while for him to warm up so it’s not a problem.” Tobin gives a soft smile back at Alexis. 

“Are we going to live with you now?” Mackenzie asks, eyes trained on Christen but a big smile on her face. 

Christen feels herself flush and gives Tobin a look as if asking, “What the hell do I say to that?”

“Oh um, well you know we met your sister before and she made a good impression so we wanted to come meet you and your brother and see if that is something you want.” Christen nervously rushes out. 

Mackenzie just gives a shrug in response as if she didn’t really know what Christen just said but also not caring. “Do you wanna go play restaurant with me?” 

“Yeah I would love to. Where is your restaurant?” 

“It’s right over there!” Mackenzie points up to the table on the patio that does have a few kitchen toys on it. She grabs Christen’s hand and starts pulling her up to the table. 

Christen looks over her shoulder at Tobin with a huge smile while being dragged by the little girl. Tobin just shakes her head and laughs. 

When Tobin turns back to Alexis, she notices that the girl looks incredibly nervous. She tries to think of what kind of conversation would help break the awkwardness. 

“We can go over to the play set with his toys if you want?” Alexis suggests before Tobin is able to say anything. 

“Yeah of course.”

Alexis takes Aiden by the hand walking him back over to where he was sitting when they walked outside. Alexis and Tobin both sit on the ground, cross-legged while Aiden remains standing, still hiding behind Alexis’ back. 

She turns around and grabs him to pull into her lap, “can you say hi for me please? Or do you want to show her your trucks?” 

Aiden shakes his head and whispers, “no.”

“It’s really okay, it’s not a big deal.” Tobin says, not expecting the boy to just start playing with her or even say a couple words to her. 

“Okay, Cool. So umm, what do you guys do for work?” Alexis questions, having met a lot of foster families in her past, deciding to just ask the basic ice breaker questions and because she is genuinely curious. 

“I’m the head women’s soccer coach at UCLA and Christen is the CEO of a company we started quite a few years back.” Tobin decided not to mention that they both are recently retired from professional soccer. 

“So you guys are rich then?” Alexis doesn’t shy away from asking.  

Tobin cringes at the question, never being one to flaunt the money that they have and never feeling like they were the typical type of rich. “Umm, I wouldn’t say we are rich but we aren’t struggling for money by any means.”

“Hmm, alright.” Alexis is used to fostering parents who were doing it for the check and is curious why the couple here want to foster but not wanting to ask yet. 

“You are a freshman in high school right?” Tobin decides to try and turn the focus on Alexis in hopes of learning more about her. 

“Yeah school ends in a few weeks so I’ll be a sophomore next year.”

“How are you liking high school so far? Are you in any clubs or activities?” 

Alexis feels Aiden finally get off her lap and move a few feet over to wear his toys while laying, starting to play with them. “It’s fine, just typical high school and no I’m not in any clubs or anything, it’s hard to do any activities since it's before or after school and I have to take the bus because I can't drive yet.”

Tobin sighs at the thought of kids in the system not getting to do everything they want when they are stuck in houses where the parents don’t go out of their way for the kids. “What would you do if you were able to?” 

Alexis shrugs, never really thinking about having the opportunity to do anything outside of school. “I haven’t really thought about it but soccer seems cool, I like to run so maybe track or basketball.” 

“That’s awesome,” Tobin says genuinely, obviously biased to soccer but liking that Alexis seems interested in sports.

Tobin continues to ask Alexis basic questions, learning her favorite color is red, her favorite food is tacos, that she has very wide music taste and her dream vacation would be Australia. Alexis asks her a few questions about how old she and Christen are, where they live and if they have any pets or other kids. It’s not the best conversation, it’s filled with awkward pauses but they accomplish getting to know a few things about each other. 

Aiden crawls back over a few minutes later with a little fire truck in one hand and a bulldozer in the other. He sits in between where Alexis has spread her legs in front of her and starts moving them up and down her jean covered legs. 

“He likes trucks it seems?” 

Alexis lets out a laugh, “Yeah he loves them. I was able to get him a pack of all the different types of trucks and construction stuff because he found that firetruck and I swear has not let go of it since.”

Tobin directs her attention to the little boy, “those are some super cool trucks Aiden. My nephews love trucks too. I think their favorite is a dump truck.”

Aiden finally makes eye contact with Tobin, looking at her like he is trying to process what she said. Tobin smiles at him, taking in all of his little features.

He looks back down at the two trucks in his hand, then looks back up at Tobin and whispers, “Twucks.” 

Tobin’s eyes light up at his soft voice, “yeah that’s right buddy, those are your trucks.”

Aiden smiles back at her but then turns his attention back to the trucks and continues to play with them, not saying anything else to Tobin. 

A few moments later Alexis and Tobin both turn when they hear Mackenzie shout and start running over to where they are sitting, “I’m done playing this, let’s play freeze tag now!” 

Christen puts the few toys that were on the table back into the little toy chest on the ground next to the table before she follows after Mackenzie. 

Mackenzie is grabbing at Alexis’ hand to pull her up, “Come on Lexi, I want to play now!”

“Stop pulling me, they might not even want to play freeze tag.” Alexis tries to reason, standing up. 

“I want to play it! I am the best at it during recess, I always win!” Mackenzie was talking way too loudly for how close everyone was standing. 

Christen was back over by the kids and stands next to where Tobin has stood up watching the two sisters. 

“It’s not always about what you want to do, you have to make sure everyone wants to play.”

“I don’t care, I want to play freeze tag!” Mackenzie shouts.

All four of them turn to look at the back door when they hear it open, seeing the woman from the couch stick her head out. “You know she gets that attitude from the older one there, doesn’t know how to keep her voice down either.” The woman shakes her head and turns to go back inside. 

Tobin and Christen turn back, both noticing Alexis’ reaction. They watch her jaw clench at the same time her hands clenched into fists and her eyes glaze over in anger. Mackenzie doesn’t seem too fazed by it but does have her arms crossed impatiently, seemingly still waiting to play. 

“Well, I could play freeze tag.” Christen breaks the tension. “But I’m super fast so I don’t think you will be able to catch me.”

“No way, I am the fastest!” Mackenzie bounces with excitement.

“I guess we will have to see then, right Tobin?” 

Tobin looks away from Alexis, who refuses to make eye contact, and looks at Mackenzie. “Yeah Mackenzie she is so fast but I bet you can catch her!”

“I can! I’m it and I am going to catch all three of you!”

“I’m not playing.” Alexis walks over to sit on the swing, with Aiden looking up and following behind her. 

Mackenzie doesn’t seem fazed by her sister, “ready, go!” She runs right at Christen who luckily reacts quick enough to start running away from the girl. 

With Mackenzie solely focused on Christen for a minute, Tobin takes a few steps closer to the play set not wanting to overstep but wanting to still check on the teenager. “You sure you don’t want to play?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” Alexis replies with more bite then she even expected out of herself. 

Tobin flinches slightly at the tone but is quick to recover, “that’s okay. You can join in if you change your mind.” 

Tobin hears Mackenzie yell, “Got you!” then whips her head around and runs directly at Tobin who laughs and starts to run to unfreeze Christen.

The game goes on for about 15 minutes, Tobin and Christen alternating getting tagged until they notice Mackenzie start slowing down and both get frozen so that she wins. 

“Yay! I win! I knew I was faster than both of you!” Mackenzie jumps around with a huge smile on her face.

Tobin and Christen both have the smile on their faces at the complete joy on the little girls face.

“Let’s sit down for a few minutes and catch our breath.” Christen suggests, sitting back in the grass over near the where Alexis moved to sit next to Aiden but has her attention on her phone.

Mackenzie follows them over and drops into the grass and lays flat on her back, “that was so fun.”

Tobin watches the girl’s eyes close and open again slowly as if she could fall asleep any minute. “Yeah it was super fun kiddo.”

They all sit in relative quietness, the only sounds from the occasional car that passes by and the mumbled noises coming from Aiden playing with his trucks.

The next half hour they spend asking more questions, most of which are only answered by Mackenzie since Alexis stays focused on her phone. It is clear that the anger still has not dissipated at all and has completely closed the girl down.

Ms. Jones pops her head out to announce that the kids should eat lunch soon, which Tobin and Christen take as their sign to head home.

All 5 of them make their way up to the back door and stand awkwardly, unsure of how to say goodbye.

Alexis is holding Aiden, who has his head turned the opposite way from where Tobin and Christen are standing. Mackenzie seems to be rejuvenated from her short stint of tiredness, bouncing from foot to foot.

“It was really nice to meet you guys, I had a lot of fun playing with you!” Christen directs towards Mackenzie. “And it was good to finally get a chance to know you better, Alexis.”

“I had fun too!” Mackenzie exclaims.

“It was nice to meet you guys officially too.” Alexis forces a smile on her face. She knows that her siblings and herself are a lot for people to handle, which has caused them to meet a lot of families but never actually seeing them again.

“We will reach out to Karen and Martha and I am sure they will be in touch with you too. I’m glad I got to know you a tiny bit better.” Tobin tries to come across as genuine as possible, not missing the fake smile etched on Alexis’ face.

“Yeah, you too. Can you say bye, Aiden?” Alexis shifts Aiden in her arms, not being able to hold him for a longer period of time with how much he keeps growing and trying to get him to face the couple.

His eyes stay closed but says in a voice so quiet that it would be hard to hear if they were standing any further apart, “bye.”

Tobin and Christen are both shocked that he actually said something and can’t help but smile at the little boy.

“We will talk to you soon then.” Tobin reaches out for Mackenzie to give her a high five, which is eagerly returned by the girl.

Alexis leads the way inside, setting Aiden down in the kitchen as she follows Tobin and Christen to the door. They both peek into the living room on the way out and see Ms. Jones in the same spot but are happy to see that it seems that Mr. Jones showered and changed his clothes.

The couple and Alexis exchange one more round of goodbyes before they start to make their way home.  

Chapter Text

“Tobin, if you don’t want the kids, I’m not going to push you into it.” Christen sighs, crossing her arms against her chest. 

It was Wednesday and they were at the new house for the afternoon going over some plans with the contractor and then figuring out a few things for themselves. Christen was leaning against the wall of one of the spare bedrooms as Tobin knelt down showing her different carpet samples.

“I never said that I didn’t want them.” Tobin put down a light gray sample, looking up at Christen for an answer.

“No, I don’t like that color and it’s too shaggy. And you didn’t explicitly say it but I know that is what you are feeling.” She huffs, annoyed at the bad carpet choices and at Tobin for being vague.

Tobin throws the sample back into the pile and goes to stand next to Christen, “I just think that we need to really think about it. Karen warned us the other day and I feel like they are trying to talk us out of it for some reason.”

After leaving the kids on Saturday, they had gone home fully ready to take the kids home with them. They talked about it more on Sunday and made the decision to call Karen and Martha on Monday morning.

Martha was the one to talk to them about next steps. She told them that they would have to go through a bunch of paperwork that would take up to a week or two before they would be cleared to take the kids home with them. She told them that they would start on the paperwork on their end but wanted the couple to take the week and really make sure that this is something they were 100% sure on.

After they hung up, doubts started forming in Tobin’s head. Her mind was starting to come up with every reason why they shouldn’t do it.  Christen was still on board but after noticing the change in Tobin, she started to have doubts of her own.

“They just want us to be sure because it seems like these kids have been moved around a lot and they don’t want them to do that anymore. But if you think that we shouldn’t do it then that’s fine and we can wait.”

Tobin lets out a sigh, “I feel like I’m 70% yes but I don’t know what is going to change to make me 100% sure. There was the connection with them but I know that it is going to be so much work and especially when the regular season starts up in August, I don’t want you to feel like you are doing it alone when I have games or practices.”

Tobin did have a point since her team wasn’t in full season yet. It’s May and they still had June and half of July in their “summer season” before they had a break before school officially started, as well as their regular season.

“The kids will be in school most of the time but I understand what you mean. It may take some adjustment but my sisters or dad could always help if we need them too. I don’t want to say yes without us being 100% sure. Maybe we should just take the rest of the week and see how we feel.”

“Yeah we can keep talking about it and my family will be here tomorrow night so we are going to be slightly distracted. We can plan on calling on Monday to tell them to hold off if nothing changes.” Tobin pulls Christen into her for a hug, where they stay for a couple minutes just holding each other.

Some of Tobin’s family was coming in for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. Jeff was the only one that was originally going to come but her mom and Perry decided they would tag along since it was only for a long weekend and they had the time.

Both Tobin and Christen had mentioned to their families that they had got their foster license but Tobin hadn’t yet told them that they actually went to meet kids. Christen had told her dad and sisters, and they were so happy at the possibility of having some kids in their family.

Tobin had the weekend off so everyone was going to celebrate on her actual birthday on Sunday at the Press household.

They spend the rest of their  Wednesday at a few stores finding things for the house and getting dinner to eat at the beach. Thursday was spent with both women working all day before Tobin had to go to the airport.

Cindy offered for them to get a hotel but Tobin told her they were more than welcome to stay with them since they had the room. Christen got the guest bedrooms ready and the pullout couch in the office, while Tobin went to get her family from the airport. They had 2 guest rooms in the house that Perry and Cindy would take and Jeff was going to be put in the office on the pullout couch.

The flight didn’t get in until 9 p.m. which got them home right around 9:45 p.m. Christen was able to keep herself awake most of the night by finding things to clean but once she finally sat down at 9:30 to wait for them to get home, she had to force her eyes to stay open for 15 minutes.

Thankfully she was able to stay awake by flipping through the TV but was relieved when she heard the garage door open.

Jeff is the first one to walk through the door holding both his and Perry’s bags, followed by Perry, Cindy and finally Tobin holding her mom’s bag.

“Christen, honey, it is so good to see you!” Cindy smiles brightly at her and pulls her in for a big hug. Perry and Jeff both wrap her in big hugs as well. Christen has always loved everyone in the Heath family and is thankful that they have felt like a second family to her since first meeting them. 

“Is there anything that I can get you guys?” Christen asks.

“No, we are all good but I think that we are all exhausted and will probably just head to bed.” Perry answers, tired from the long flight and the 3 hour time difference.

“Okay, c'mon I’ll take you upstairs and get you settled then.” Tobin picks her mom’s bag back up and leads them upstairs.

Christen shuts the TV off and double checks to make sure the doors are locked and all the lights are off before she follows everyone up. She gives everyone another round of hugs before retreating to their room to let Tobin make sure her family has everything they need.

In the middle of brushing her teeth, Tobin’s arms wrap around her from behind with her chin resting on her shoulder. “Hi baby” Tobin whispers, giving her a tired smile in the mirror.

Christen reaches her free hand behind her to wrap around Tobin’s back before letting go to rinse her mouth. Tobin unwraps her arms from around her and leans against the counter waiting for Christen to finish.

After she is done, Christen moves in front of Tobin, wrapping her arms around her waist and leaning in for a kiss. 

“Mmm minty fresh” Tobin smirks, pulling Christen back in. 

Christen pulls back and tucks her head into Tobin’s neck, “I missed you today. I haven’t seen you since this morning.”

“I missed you too and we can’t even chill this weekend cause we have to entertain my family.”

“But we get to celebrate you, you old lady.” Christen leaves a few kisses on Tobin’s neck. 

“Hey! Now that is just rude Chris” She shifts Christen so that she is facing her now, eyes sparkling at the joke she made. “Oh you think you are funny don’t you.”

Christen’s smirk only grows as she shrugs her shoulders, “just a fact babe. 37 is kind of old.”

“Wow, I see how it is. I’ll make sure to remember that in December then.” Tobin moves off the counter and goes to turn on the shower. She had left this morning at 9 and was at work all day since it didn’t make sense for her to come home after practice ended at 6:30 when she would have to turn around and go to the airport as soon as she got home. So, she decided to stay and do extra training with a couple of the girls. 

She walks back over and reaches for the bottom of Christen’s top, trying to tug it off. Her hands get swatted away, “what do you think you are doing?”

“I think that I am getting you undressed so you can shower with me. Unless you want to keep your clothes on but that won’t be as fun.” 

“I already showered earlier and your mom, brother and sister are just down the hall. I think you are going to have to do this alone.” Christen holds Tobin’s hands at a distance to stop them from trying to grab her shirt. 

“I don't care that my family is here, I just want to shower with my beautiful wife,” Tobin pouts. “And it's my birthday so you can’t say no.”

Christen relents, “alright alright but quick cause I am tired and you already know that your mom is going to be awake early.”

Tobin grins, having only heard the okay and just nods, reaching back to undress her wife. 

—----------

Everything was going smoothly with Tobin’s family until Sunday night when everyone had just sat down for dinner outside at the Press’.  

Tobin and Jeff had been helping Cody grill burgers and a bunch of vegetables for dinner, while Cindy and Christen made Tobin a cake for later and all the sisters sat around chatting..  

As dishes were being passed between each other, Tyler was the one to bring it up. 

“So, did you guys decide yet on if you were going to foster those kids?” 

Christen and Tobin still were planning on holding off longer on bringing the kids home, so they were also planning on waiting to tell Tobin’s family. When they had originally told the Heath’s about their plans to foster they didn’t react in the way they expected. 

It wasn’t a bad reaction exactly but there was hesitancy that could be sensed. They never outright said that they weren’t comfortable with the idea but there were some comments that made both Tobin and Christen second guess where the Heath’s stood on foster care. 

Christen took Tobin’s hand in hers at the question, knowing now talking about fostering with her family recently has always left her unsettled.

Tobin offers a tight smile to her mom, who is looking at her in shock, “Um, actually we think we are going to hold off for a little while longer?”

“Aww why? You guys were so excited after you met them? What changed?” Tyler questions, still not picking up on the shift in mood at the table.

Christen and Tobin exchange a look, knowing the conversation was going to be the exact opposite of how they wanted it to go. 

“We just want to be 100% sure that it will be a good fit and with Tobin’s season starting soon we just thought that we should wait a little while longer.” Christen explains. 

“Well that’s a shame, I really thought you guys were going to do it. I’ll have to hang on to the gifts that I got already.” Tyler pouts 

Christen mutters an ‘oh my god’ under her breath at her sister still not taking any hint that they did not want to have this conversation, and for having bought gifts for kids that they didn’t even have yet. 

“You didn’t tell us that you actually went to meet kids, I thought it was just something you were discussing?” Perry interjects. 

Tyler finally realizes her mistake and mouths a ‘sorry’ to Christen, which she gets a stern look in response. 

“Well, you knew we finished the foster license and we went to one of the fairs and met one of the kids and landed up going over to their placement to meet them.” Tobin elaborates, trying to downplay the situation. 

“How old were they?” Jeff asks.

“It was actually a sibling set so there were 3 of them. Alexis is 15, Mackenzie is 7 and Aiden is 18 months.” 

Jeff and Perry both nod and turn to look at their mom who clears her throat.

“Why didn’t you tell us that?” Cindy asks, a slight edge to her tone, not used to Tobin not sharing stuff with her. 

Tobin tries to force a smile, “We just wanted to be sure of it before we told you and I have been really busy with the team so I just haven’t gotten the chance.” 

“Okay, Tobin.” Her mother answers, passive aggressively. “If I am being honest, I must say I am relieved that you are waiting.”

“What, why?” Tobin squeezes Christen’s hand in her, knowing that this conversation is about to be what they expected the worst case scenario would be.

“3 kids is a lot, honey. And these are kids that you don’t necessarily know where they came from so you don’t know what they will be like.”

“I agree, 3 kids would be way too much all at once, I can barely manage my three. Being a mom of 3 is a full time job, plus, you always hear horrible stories about foster kids and what they do. You guys should just keep trying on your own.” Perry shares. 

“And foster kids wouldn’t be our own?” Christen pushes. 

“I mean they would be yours, but they aren’t the same blood as either of you, so you never know what kind of genetics they have.”

“Well, I wish that getting pregnant was as easy for us as it is for every other straight couple. Not all of us have that luxury and if that isn’t working there are not a lot of other options” Tobin responds harshly.

“I’m sorry that is not what I meant, I know there aren’t as many options but I just think that you guys should keep trying for your own.” Perry tries to reason. 

“I think your sister is just trying to say that she wants you guys to have the experience of having your own child. It is a wonderful experience that I pray every night for the both of you.” Cindy says softly, recognizing the anger rising in her daughter. 

Tobin can’t take it anymore, she loudly pushes her chair back and rises from her seat, “Are you both fucking with me right now?”

“Watch your language, Tobin” Cindy warns.

“No mom, neither of you have any right to say that to us! You know how fucking hard it has been on us so don’t tell us how amazing the experience will be.”

Perry opens her mouth as if to say something but Tobin doesn’t let her.

“No, I’m not done! There are so many kids in foster care who wish that they could sit around like we are and celebrate their birthday but don’t have the ability to. It’s not their fault either, they got put in a situation that is unfortunate and there is nothing they can do about it! So don’t give me that shit about having our own when there are so many kids that would kill for a family like ours.”

Tobin looks down at Christen, hoping that she can read her question before she actually says anything. When Christen gives her a nod she continues. 

“So forget what we said before, it’s back on. We are taking those kids home with us and I don’t care what any of you have to say about it!” Tobin puffs out, out of breath from practically screaming. 

Cody looks around at everyone stunned to silence, “Amen! Let’s eat!”

“It looks great guys, thank you for cooking.” Channing says, starting small talk with Jeff and Tyler, trying to cut the tension. 

Tobin looks back down at Christen now that the focus has shifted to Jeff telling a story about his work. “Are you okay?”

Christen smiles back up at her, “I am, are you?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Christen tugs at Tobin’s hand to get her to sit back down, and leans over for a kiss. “Love you.”

“I love you too,” Tobin whispers back. 

The rest of the night thankfully went by fairly quickly. Once they were done with dinner, they served the cake and sang happy birthday to Tobin. There was still  tension between Tobin, her mom and sister but they all put on a smile, knowing that they would have to have a discussion later.

The drive back to the house was nothing short of awkward, Jeff would break the silence every once in a while with some random story or thought that was only ever answered by Christen.

When they finally got home, Tobin was the first one out of the car and went straight up to their room, not saying anything to anyone. 

Thankfully it was late so everyone was just going to bed, but Christen stayed to make sure that everyone was settled before going to find her wife.  

Tobin had always had a good relationship with her family but there were certain things that were hard for her family to understand. They were all very religious and sometimes that left them to be somewhat close-minded. 

When Tobin first came out to her family it was not easy but they came around to it and loved her and welcomed all of her partners with open arms. The love that every member of the Heath family has for each other was the driving force of the family. When difficult conversations were had, they always tried to lead with love. 

It has been much better lately and usually with a conversation and some education on the subject, all of the Heath’s come around. Tobin knew that she just needed to talk to her mom and sister but she needed to just have a night to decompress and figure out her thoughts. 

When Christen made it to their room, she found Tobin on her knees on the side of the bed, hands folded, praying. Christen knew that Tobin had heard her come in so she just went about her nightly routine, leaving Tobin to her own prayers. 

20 minutes later, Christen climbs into the bed and cuddles in as close as possible to where Tobin was laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling..  

It was a cold night for May in LA so when Christen’s hands found their way under Tobin’s shirt to find warmth, it made Tobin yelp at the cold. 

Christen mumbled a sorry from where she had buried her face into Tobin’s neck. 

Tobin spoke after a few minutes of comfortable silence just enjoying the closeness of each other. 

“I’m sorry for yelling today, I shouldn’t have done that in front of everyone and I already am planning on apologizing to your dad and sisters tomorrow.” 

Christen shifts to prop herself up on her forearm, “Tobin, you have nothing to apologize to me or them for. I should have warned Tyler to not bring up the conversation, especially at dinner.”

“I should have just told my family before, but obviously my concerns about what they thought wasn’t far off but I shouldn’t have reacted like that in front of everyone.” Tobin sighs, she always tried to keep her emotions in check, especially the bad ones but found it hard at times when they were too overwhelming. It normally only happened on the soccer field but since retiring, she had found that those emotions occasionally came out in her everyday life.

Christen runs a soft hand along the side of Tobin’s face, “It really is okay, love. They shouldn’t have said what they said and it is not your fault for reacting the way you did. I felt the same way but it was not my place to say anything.”

“I don’t get how they could think those things, and I can’t believe they would say that about us trying when they knew about our struggles.”

“No one in your family has had any trouble getting pregnant, so they probably just don’t understand. I know you will talk to them and I am sure if you explain to them the situation they will feel bad for what they said. What they said was not right, but I am hoping that the way that it came across was not truly what they meant.” Christen reasons. 

“I hope not. I just couldn’t deal with it anymore tonight but I figure I will wake up early to talk to them before they leave.” 

“I think that is a good idea, they have always come around even if it takes them awhile and I am sure this will be no different.” Christen leans back down and rests her head on Tobin’s chest, matching her breathing.

Tobin’s hand maneuvers under the back of Christen’s shirt gently scratching, “I hope so but if they don’t we will adjust and figure it out.” 

“We always do.” Christen smiles into Tobin’s shirt. “You were serious about what you said about being back on board with the kid’s right?”

“Yes, I guess I needed something to make me snap out of my doubts to realize that I am 100% in with those kids. I really want to bring them here and do everything we can to show them the love that they deserve.” Tobin declares. 

“I am 100% with you on that. We can call again tomorrow after your family leaves to make sure that everything is still in place with the paperwork.”

“I can’t wait.” Tobin kisses the top of Christen’s head, feeling her emotions from the night settle completely, allowing her body to  relax into the mattress.

The last thing Tobin hears before she falls asleep is Christen saying, “We have so much shopping to do.”

—----------

Tobin wakes up before Christen the next morning, having woken up a few times in the middle of the night thinking about the conversation she needed to have with her family. 

It was just after 7 am and based on the quiet sounds of footsteps that could be heard in the kitchen, she knew that someone else was awake..

She quietly gets out of bed, hoping to not wake Christen to give her a little bit longer to rest, before grabbing her glasses and a hair tie off the bedside table.

When she gets downstairs, she finds her mom and sister sitting at the kitchen table nursing their coffees and talking quietly. 

“Good morning Tobin,” her mom offers with a soft smile.

“Morning” she responds, heading straight to the coffee pot, pouring herself a glass and walking over to the table. 

“Do you want to sit outside and talk? I don’t want to wake Chris up.”

They both nod, grabbing their coffees and following Tobin outside. 

Once they all sit down, Tobin doesn’t waste time starting the conversation. “I know that I should not have raised my voice like I did but you both need to understand why what you said was so upsetting to me.”

“We didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Perry interjects.

“I’m sure that you meant well but that is not the way that it came across and it shouldn’t be said in the first place.” Tobin huffs, trying to figure out the best way to get her point across without getting upset again.

“Why is it so bad for us to wish that you could have your own kid?” Cindy pries.

Tobin takes a few deep breaths and ties her hair up in a bun before responding, “You can want that for us and believe me we want that too but it is not that easy. The issue is that you think that if we are fostering kids or adopting them they wouldn’t be our own.” 

“But you know we don’t mean it in that way, Tobs.” Perry offers. 

“You obviously kind of do if you are saying it. Whether the kid is my blood or Christen’s or some random persons, I am going to love them all the same. You guys weren’t there to see firsthand the toll the failed IVF attempts took on Christen and I. Of course I would love for it to be easy but it’s not so we decided we needed to look at other options.”

They both hear the emotion behind Tobin’s words and see the glassiness in her eyes. “I’m sorry that it has been so difficult for you, and you were right we don’t know what it’s like to struggle for kids so forgive us for not understanding.” Perry says gently.

“Just please don’t say anything like that again and if you have something to say then you can say it to me but do not make any more comments to Christen. She has struggled a lot with everything and she doesn’t deserve your judgment and opinions.” 

Cindy feels the guilt creeping up inside of her, “I am so sorry and I promise it will not happen again. And don’t be mad at me for asking but do you really not have any concerns about taking these kids in?”

“Of course we have concerns but we have talked about them ad nauseam and we feel that the positives that we hope can come from this far outweigh any concern we have.” 

Tobin’s words bring a smile to both Perry and Cindy's faces, “Well we trust your judgment and if you think that, then we will make sure to support you in this. Can you tell us a little bit about them?”

“Well they have all been in and out of different homes before going back to their mom for quite a few years, except for Aiden who has been in the system since he was born.” Tobin goes to continue but hears the back door open and sees both Christen and Jeff walking out. 

They both have mugs full of coffee which means that Christen must have brewed another pot and probably had been downstairs but stayed inside knowing that the conversation needed to be just between the three of them.

“What are we talking about?” Jeff grins at his family, running a hand through his messy bed hair.

He takes the last empty chair and Christen settles next to Tobin. Her hair is also up in a bun and is wearing a pair of navy yoga pants to match the red arsenal sweater with HEATH 77 on the back. She pulls her knees up to chest and turns slightly so that her feet can tuck under Tobin’s thigh. 

“Tobin was just starting to tell us about the kids actually.” Perry tells her brother. 

Christen turns to look at Tobin, “all good?” 

Tobin just nods her head, knowing that she will tell Christen the entire story later. Tobin’s hands find their way to Christen’s calf, lightly massaging the muscle with her thumb. 

The rest of the morning is spent chatting outside, eating the breakfast that Cindy got up to make everyone. At 11, everyone gets up to get ready for the day and for the Heath’s to pack their bags since their flight was at 3 later that day. 

Cindy and Perry each found time to pull Christen aside on their own to make their own apologies. Christen is quick to forgive but does remind them that it’s important to her and Tobin that they accept their family no matter what way that it’s formed. 

Christen tags along this time to the airport, telling Tobin that since she has the day off they should get started on some shopping. Tobin groans in response, never having been a fan of shopping but knows that Christen likes the company and sometimes her opinion. 

While Jeff unloads the suitcases when they are stopped at the airport, Cindy tells them that as soon as they will have her, she would love to come back and meet the kids. Perry and Jeff agree, though their schedules are a little bit harder to manage with work and Perry’s kids but they assure them that they will find a time that can work. 

Everyone gives hugs to one another, apologies still whispered that are only met with tighter hugs.  

—----------

Once they are back on the highway, headed to the stores closer to home, Christen calls Karen to let her know that they are still on board and asks what else they need to do. 

“Well, that is really great to hear from you! We really do think that it will be a good match for the kids.” Karen’s happiness can easily be heard through the phone. “The next step would just be getting all of the paperwork read and signed. I can email all of it to you later today but it does have to be signed with us in the office.” 

“We can make that happen whenever you need us to.” Tobin replies.

“The last few pages won’t be ready until Thursday so if you can come in Friday afternoon we can get all of that done.”

Christen looks to Tobin to see if she can make that work with her schedule before they agree. 

Tobin just shakes her head in confirmation, “I will just move some things around so that we can be there whenever you need us.”

“Perfect, we will put that down on our calendar for around 1 o'clock this Friday. Once that is all signed, legally they will be approved to be in your care."

“Do we have to like to go pick them up or does someone drop them off? How does all that work?” Christen asks. 

“Martha or I will drop them off at your house on Saturday and then we will just make sure that they have everything they need and then they will be all yours.”

The thought of having 3 kids in the house in less than a week makes them both nervous but also excited. “Wow okay, we will make sure that everything is ready for them on Saturday. Is there anything specific we need to get them?” Tobin asks. 

“They will have all of their clothes and belongings with them on Saturday but getting them new toothbrushes and other hygienic products would be recommended.” Karen pauses, “actually, if you both are interested I can take you both to meet with them again Friday after our meeting and you can ask them yourselves if there is anything else they may need and make sure that they are comfortable coming home with you.”

“Yes, that would be awesome if we can do that.” Tobin quickly answers. 

“Perfect, we will set that up and then if you don’t have any more questions, I will email you that paperwork later and will plan on seeing you Friday.”

“Thanks Karen, see you Friday!” They both answer together before hanging up. 

“It’s really happening now, no going back.” Christen mutters, realization hitting her that in just under 5 days they will have 3 children in their house under their care. 

Tobin reaches over to take her hand, “Yes and we totally got this.

“We got this.” 

—----------

Christen takes them to a few different stores, buying necessities for the kids but then also scoping out a few things, ultimately wanting the kids to pick out some of their own things. 

They do buy a crib for Aiden to be put in the office that will be converted into his room and all of the office stuff will be moved into the living room downstairs and storage. 

After the shopping is done, Tobin convinces Christen to let them go over to her dad’s house to apologize for last night. He is quick to accept her apology even though he says there is no need. They land up staying for a while and eating the leftovers for dinner. 

The rest of the week they spend reading over the paperwork a dozen times and try to come up with a schedule for the two weeks that the kids will still be in school. They didn’t want to take the kids out of school in their last weeks so they decided that they would just drive them those last 10 days. Aiden was enrolled in a daycare that was right next to the high school Alexis was at and Mackenzie was at the elementary school a few miles away. It was going to be at least a half hour drive in the mornings but they figured the kids would adjust better that way. 

On Wednesday night, Tobin and Christen were meeting Leah and Jordan for dinner to tell them about the kids. 

Tobin and Christen got there first but once they sat down, Jordan and Leah came in 5 minutes later. 

“Sorry we are late, traffic as usual.” Jordan complained, pulling out Leah’s chair for her.

“No worries guys, we just sat down anyway.” Christen greets.

They make small talk as they all look over the menu and then order a few minutes later. 

Leah leans on her elbows on the table like a little kid, big smile on her face. “So you guys found a kid?”

“We actually found 3 of them.” Tobin answers, taking a sip of her water.

“WHAT!?” Leah whisper yells, thankfully controlling her volume in the restaurant. 

“They are siblings and we just connected with them, so yeah 3.” Tobin can’t help the smile on her face. 

Jordan raises her glass for them to cheers, “Congratulations, that is so amazing.” 

“Have you guys met any kids yet?” Christen asks.

Christen and Tobin hear Leah whisper to Jordan, “Can I tell them?”

Jordan just laughs and nods, her wife not being secretive at all. 

“We actually got connected with this young girl who is pregnant and wanting to give her baby up for adoption.” Leah tells, a smile on her face. 

Tobin curiously asks, “How did that happen?” 

“We were talking to Karen and Martha a little bit more about how we were interested mainly in fostering a baby in hopes to adopt them pretty quickly. She told us that sometimes they have expecting mothers who come to them asking about what services they have and there was a young girl who was at a placement and got pregnant and wanted to give the baby up for adoption. She is 17 and knows that she will most likely age out of her home and wants to give her baby a better situation than what she has gone through.” 

Jordan picks up the story where Leah left off, “And so we got connected with her pretty quickly and she picked us so now we are just waiting for the baby now. She is about 6 months along so we have a little ways to go but we are excited. Gives us time to prepare.”

“Wow, we are so happy for you.” Tobin raises her glass again for another round of cheers. 

“Thank you, we both will have our little families just like we wanted.” Leah says, making all four of them smile.

Their dinner arrives, which they all dig into while talking about Jordan’s preseason with Angel City so far and she tells them they need to come to games once the season starts. 

“So are you going to tell the kids that you both are celebrities?” Leah asks as they are all finishing their food. 

Tobin nearly chokes on her food, “We are not celebrities.”

Leah makes a face at her, “you kind of are, not paparazzi following your every move level famous but you get stopped for autographs still. And if you went to a game then you would totally be real celebrities there.”

Tobin’s face scrunches up at the thought, never being one who liked the spotlight that came with soccer or even her relationship. “I mean I guess we will have to tell them but I don’t think that it will be a huge thing for them. Alexis will probably just be embarrassed or something.”

“Your fans are going to lose their shit whenever they find out.” Leah jokes.

“They’ll make me lose my shit if they are pushy and invasive about it.” Tobin mutters.

Christen takes another drink of her wine, “We will figure it out for sure and thank you for bringing that up because that might be the only thing that we haven’t talked about yet.”  

Leah smiles at the appreciation, “You’re welcome for being so helpful.” 

“Ever so humble, my wife.” Jordan laughs, earning an eye roll from Tobin. 

“I did want to mention that I will most likely be moving most of the night practices earlier because for the next 2 weeks. We have to drive the kids to school and I don’t want to leave Chris alone as they are adjusting.” Tobin directs to Leah. 

“Fine by me, works better for me anyway since Jordan is gone most of the day so we might be able to spend more time together now.” 

“Thank you, we really appreciate it and when your baby comes I will make sure to be just as accommodating.”

“Thanks boss!” 

They spend another hour at the restaurant catching up, eating dessert and getting a few more drinks. As they are leaving, Christen asks the couple to make sure that they don’t tell anyone yet because they are planning on making an announcement soon.

Jordan and Leah agree, asking the same of them with their news. They all exchange hugs and goodbyes before they head off in opposite directions. 

Tobin brings up the topic of telling the kids that they were professional soccer players on the way home and they discuss how they are going to tell them on Friday. 

On Thursday, Christen tells the Re-Inc staff about the kids and that she is going to be only working a few hours during the day the next few weeks but will still check in daily and that she will still be available for any issues that arise. 

Tobin spends the entire day at UCLA, making lineups, practice plans and general preparation for the next few weeks. Her lunch is spent with Alex and Ashlyn asking a million questions about the kids when she tells them, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to keep it from them any longer.

Christen calls Ali and Kelley at the same time she anticipated Tobin was at lunch to make sure her friends don’t get offended that the others were told first. Kelley screams on the phone and talks through all of the things she is going to take the kids to do, claiming she will be the “fun aunt” and how it was about time her and Tobin got some kids. 

Christen makes Kelley promise not to tell Sonnett yet because she knows if one of the ‘kids’ finds out all of them will know within a minute. Kelley whines but agrees once Christen tells her that they are telling Mal tonight and will send a message to the national team group early next week. 

Tobin tells the other coaches and her team that night at practice since one of them asked why practice was getting moved again. They all get excited and ask some questions but are tame in comparison to how Alex and Ashlyn reacted. 

Tobin gets home around 830pm, so while they eat they call Mal. 

Mal answers the FaceTime from her bed, looking like she had been sleeping. 

“Hi sweetie, did we wake you up?” Christen coos into the phone.

Mal readjusts to sit up a bit, “I think I just dozed watching my show.”

“We can just call you back tomorrow, let you get your sleep.” Christen readjusts slightly on the couch so that the phone gets all of Tobin.

“No, no it’s okay. I want to talk to you both.” 

Tobin sets her finished plate down on the coffee table, “how are you doing? What’s been going on?”

Mal yawns, “Nothing much really, preseason is kicking my ass though. I either got way out of shape the past couple of weeks or they really upped the intensity.”

Christen frowns, “make sure you are taking care of yourself then, stretch really well and eat and drink enough.”

“I am, I promise. The weather is thankfully getting warmer so that has been helping a bit.”

“That’s good to hear, let us know if you need our help with anything.” Tobin tells her, knowing that the girl can get into her head when things aren’t going as well as she’d like. 

“I always do. I’m just ready for the season to start and for us to play in LA. I think it’s our 3rd or 4th game.”

“We will make sure that we are there. We did want to tell you about something really quick and then we will let you go to bed.” Christen starts. 

Mal doesn’t say anything, waiting for what they are going to say. 

“We went to a foster care fair to meet some kids a couple weeks ago and we actually met some siblings that we are going to foster” 

“Really? I’m so happy for you guys” Mal’s voice gets slightly shaky, feeling the emotions rise out of her. 

“Yeah we are going to sign the papers tomorrow and hopefully take them home Saturday.” Tobin explains. 

Mal wipes at her eyes, “I can’t believe this is finally happening. I know that it usually is a joke but you both kind of are my second set of parents, so I know how lucky these kids will be. If they get any fraction of the love and care you have shown me then those kids will be so happy.”

Tobin and Christen feel their own emotions rising at Mal’s words, “Thank you sweetheart, that means so much to us.” Christen appreciates the kind words. 

“I can’t wait to meet them whenever I get the chance. Tell me all about them please. I can be like a big sister to them or something.” Mal yawns.

“When you come out here for your game, we will make sure that you meet them.” Tobin notices Mal’s eyes start to droop. “Chris will tell you all about them, I am going to go shower.”

Tobin knew Mal would probably fall asleep in the next few minutes and wanted to give Christen and Mal a little bit of time together. 

“Yeah you really should, you're lucky you aren’t here to smell her Mal.” Christen teases. 

Mal lets out a chuckle as Tobin rolls her eyes, “Mal, I’ll call you next week and we can talk about some drills or something, okay?”

“Okay, that would be great, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, love you kiddo.” Tobin waves to the girl on the screen.

“Love you Toby.” Mal gives a sleepy smile and waves. Tobin gets up, winking at Christen as she goes upstairs leaving her to finish the conversation. 

Mal falls asleep 10 minutes later after Christen tells her to get comfortable as she tells her about the kids. Christen hangs up after 15 minutes and follows after Tobin to get ready for bed. 

—----------

Before they know it they are in the car headed back to the Jones’ after officially signing all of the paperwork with Karen and Martha. It had taken an hour for everything to be discussed, signed and copied. 

“Do they know that they are coming home with us tomorrow?” Christen asks, as Karen and Tobin are walking up to the Jones’ front door. 

“We spoke to Alexis on Tuesday and we told her to let Mackenzie know, since she doesn’t necessarily understand completely who we are and what we do.” Karen explains. “I think Alexis is still skeptical that it is going to actually happen so she still might be a little reluctant today.”

Tobin takes Christen’s hand as they get to the door, both nodding at Karen’s words, Tobin already thinking about what they will say to Alexis to get her to believe them. 

Karen rings the doorbell and the door is swung open almost immediately by Alexis. 

“Hi!” Alexis smiles widely, smiling not quite meeting her eyes as usual, ushering all three women into the house. 

Karen walks in first, patting Alexis on the back, “What’s up Lex?” 

Alexis’ smile turns genuine, rolling her eyes at Karen, “same as it usually is, Karen. Just school and making sure that the kids are taken care of.”

“Well hopefully starting tomorrow, you will get some help with those kids,” Karen gestures toward the couple.

Alexis only briefly makes eye contact with Christen and Tobin, “yeah hopefully.” 

Similar to the last time they were there, the Jones’ are sitting in the living room, not paying direct attention to the people in their house, except the volume on the TV is lower signifying they are expecting conversation. 

Karen glances at the Jones’ before turning back to Alexis, “why don’t you take them to wherever the kids are because I have some stuff to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Jones about.”

“Yeah, okay.” Alexis leads them toward the back yard. 

As soon as the three of them are out the back door, “Karen mentioned that she told you about our intentions of taking the 3 of you home with us.” Christen says.

“Yeah she did.” Alexis responds, fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt, feeling nervous still about making a good impression.

“Did you tell the other two?” Tobin asks as she looks out into the yard where Mackenzie is slowing herself down on the swing and Aiden is playing with his trucks next to the playset.

“Umm, I haven’t yet. I figured they would be more excited if you told them, or at least Kenzie will.” Alexis looks at them both, hoping that they believe her and not figure out that she didn’t tell her siblings because she was worried they still were going to change their mind.

Tobin eyes Alexis curiously but doesn’t say anything since Mackenzie has started sprinting over toward them. She only slows down a few steps away from Christen, but still manages to slam into her.

“Hi Christen! Did you come here to play with me again?” Mackenzie asks, looking up at her, arms wrapped around Christen’s waist with an excited smile on her face.

Christen pushes the long brown hair out of the girl's face, “Hi sweetie. We can play for a little bit but we actually came here to talk to you about something.”

Mackenzie unwraps her arms, takes a step back and looks toward Tobin with a confused face. “I forgot your name.”

Tobin chuckles at the statement, “my name is Tobin.”

“Oh yeah, Tobin. That’s kind of a weird name.”

Christen covers her mouth to try and hide her laugh, watching her wife be slightly taken aback.

Alexis nudges the little girl, “be nice, Kenz.”

“It is kind of a weird name but I like it.” Tobin shrugs, having been used to people saying something about her name all her life.

Mackenzie turns to look at her brother who has slowly made his way up to the patio, hiding behind Alexis’ legs.

Alexis squats down and picks him up, “Do you remember Tobin and Christen?” 

He points toward Tobin, “Yeah, she was the one that played trucks with you.”

He nods his head slightly, “twucks.”

Tobin and Christen’s entire faces light up at the little boy, making Tobin reach into her jeans pocket to pull out the dump truck that she brought for him.

“I noticed you didn’t have one that looked like this last time I was here.” She takes a few steps closer to them, holding out the truck for him to grab.

His eyes grow double the size in excitement but still shyly grabs the truck before tucking his head back into his sister’s neck.

“Aiden, you have to say thank you.” Alexis whispers to him.

He looks over at her, “tank you.”

“You’re welcome little dude.” Tobin answers, moving back to stand next to Christen.

Mackenzie tugs on Christen’s hand, “Can we play now?”

“Let’s sit down and talk for a few minutes and then I promise I will play with you.”

Christen gestures for them all to sit around the small table on the patio. Aiden sits in Alexis’ lap, rolling the truck around on the table. 

“Are we going to live with you now?” Mackenzie asks bluntly. 

Christen and Tobin share a look, “If that is something you are okay with, we would love for the three of you to come live with us.”

“That would be so much fun! We would get to play together all the time!” Mackenzie shouts, eyes shining at Christen. 

Tobin turns to Alexis, “Is that something you want?”

“Yeah that would be cool, Kenz seems excited and Aiden will adapt wherever with time.” Alexis deflects off of herself. 

“Awesome then. Karen said that she would bring you over tomorrow then. Is there anything you need us to get for any of you before you come?” Tobin asks.

Mackenzie looks up at Alexis for the answer, “I don’t think so, we should have everything.”

“Well if anything changes just let us know and we can get it for you. We thought that we would go shopping on Sunday with the three of you for some things.” Christen says.

Alexis just nods her head as Mackenzie bounces in her chair at the idea of getting to go shopping. 

“Can we please go play now?” Mackenzie whines.

Tobin shifts in her chair, uncomfortable at the thought of the next topic. “Just one more quick thing kiddo.”

The little girl groans at having to sit longer, “Fine.”

Christen takes the lead knowing how the topic makes Tobin feel. “I know that Tobin told you last time about what we currently do for work but we talked and thought that you should know what we used to do.”

Alexis sits up straighter in her chair, intrigued by what she was about to hear. 

“We both were professional soccer players and recently retired, which is why we both have other jobs now.”

The teenager scrunches her eyebrows together, “For real?”

“Yes and we wanted you to know only because there are times when fans will ask for autographs or pictures when we are out. We want you to be comfortable and know what is happening because there are people who for some reason take interest in not just our soccer life but our personal lives.”

“So you guys are famous?” Alexis asks. 

Tobin shakes her head quickly, “no we are not famous. We don’t have paparazzi following us but there are times if we go to soccer games people will recognize us and be interested in what we are doing.”

Alexis nods along, trying to understand how this information affects her.

“It is not something that either of us are fond of but it’s something that has come along with us doing our job. We will do everything we can to make sure that it is not something that will in any way affect your life.” Christen explains, hoping to get her point across, knowing that the teenager will really be the only one to somewhat understand the concept of what they are saying.

Christen continues, “There are times when we will have to make appearances and we may get asked about the three of you but we just want you to know that we will never say something or put you in a situation where you are uncomfortable. I’m not sure that it makes complete sense but if you have any questions now or later you can always ask either of us.”

Alexis smiles at them both, “it doesn’t make complete sense but I appreciate you looking out for us and letting us know. If I have questions I’ll ask.”

Tobin relaxes back in her chair, glad that the conversation was over. “Cool, do you have questions about anything else?” She looks at both Alexis and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie sits up from where she was leaning her chin on the table, “I do! Can we play now?”

Tobin and Christen both laugh at the girl’s persistence, “Yes, we can play now.”

“Can you come push me on the swing?” Mackenzie directs toward Christen.

Christen pushes her chair back and stands up, “Of course, let’s go.”

“YAY!!!” Mackenzie hops out of her chair, running over to the swing. Christen trails behind her, giving Tobin a wink as she walks away.

Alexis shifts Aiden into the chair that Christen just vacated in between her and Tobin. He is too little to reach the table if he is sitting down so he stands and continues to push around his trucks on the table.

“Are you sure there is nothing else you want to ask us?” Tobin asks the teenager.

“No, not that I can think of.”

“Okay, but seriously if anything comes to you, ask us.”

“Karen said that we don’t have to change schools for the last two weeks, is that true?”

Alexis readjusts slightly in her chair to be closer to the table, to push a few of the trucks back and forth with Aiden.

“Yes, we talked with Karen and we thought that it would be easier for you and Mackenzie to finish the school year where you currently are and then we can find a school closer to our house for next year.”

“How are we going to get to school then since there will be no buses that far away?”

“Christen and I will drive you both, so you’ll have to wake up earlier than usual since it will be about a 30 minute drive and we will have to drop your sister off first.”

Alexis looks at Tobin, shocked that they would be willing to do that, never having been with a family that would go out of their way for them, not even her own mom. “Don’t both of you have to work?”

Before she can answer, Tobin looks down at the table when she feels something hit her hand. She sees the little firetruck and looks up at Aiden who is looking back at her with a smile on his face. 

She makes quiet siren noises as she pushes it back to him, making him let out a small laugh. “We do but we both moved our schedules around to make sure that we were able to drive you.”

Alexis avoids eye contact again, “well I appreciate it and I’m sure Kenzie will too. Changing schools in the middle of the year always sucks, especially at the end of the year.”

Tobin empathizes with the girl, “It’s the least we can do.” She looks down again when another truck hits her hand.

Alexis watches Tobin’s face as she makes another noise, making her brother laugh. “Believe me, it’s a lot more than anyone else has ever done. So thank you.”

“We care about the 3 of you so you don’t have to thank us but you’re welcome.”

“He likes you.” Alexis comments, never having seen her brother play with someone new after only meeting them twice.

Tobin looks up at her, “I hope so, and I hope you do too.”

“I’ll get back to you on that one.” Alexis jokes, finally letting herself relax a little bit. 

Tobin laughs and shakes her head, “I’ll have to work on that, like I’ll have to work on getting your sister to like me.”

“She’s got a one track mind and currently Christen is that one thing.”

They both look over at Christen pushing Mackenzie on the swing, laughing with each other as Mackenzie yells at her to push her higher.

That’s how Karen finds them 15 minutes later, with a smile on her face as she watches them, proud of herself for knowing that they would all fit together.

Karen, Christen and Tobin leave an hour later, hoping to beat some of the Friday traffic. Mackenzie grumbles at their departure but is reassured that she will see them tomorrow. Aiden is shy again as they leave but reciprocates the high five from Tobin.

Alexis walks them to the door and actually believes them when they say that they will see them tomorrow.

Later that night as she sits on the couch after everyone else has gone to bed, she pulls out her phone and googles Christen Press and Tobin Heath to see if she can better understand their conversation from earlier. She’s shocked when she finds hundreds of articles about them, their careers and a few about their relationship, which she doesn’t even bother to look at.  The articles don’t interest her as much as the dozens of videos of all of their soccer highlights do. She watches the first one in awe and an hour later she is completely fascinated by the skill of both women. 

When she falls asleep that night, she hopes that the next time she goes to bed she will be in a better house with people who seem to actually care about her and her siblings. 

Chapter Text

On their way home Friday, Martha had texted them that she would be dropping the kids off around noon.

Usually Christen would let Tobin sleep in but when she woke up with a knot in her stomach at 7 on Saturday morning, she couldn’t help but make sure that Tobin was awake too. 

“Wake up,” Christen nudges Tobin’s body.

When she doesn’t get a response, she starts to gently shake Tobin’s body, “Tobin wake up.”

Tobin’s eyes snap open, “Huh, what’s wrong?”

Christen gives her a strange look, “nothing’s wrong, you just need to wake up.”

Tobin glances over at the clock on the bedside table, rubbing her hands over her face to help wake her up, before looking back at her wife, “Christen, it is 7 am.”

“Wow, is it really? I totally didn’t know that.” Christen responds sarcastically. 

“Why are you waking me up at 7am?”

“Hmm, I wonder why I would do such a thing.” She pauses, bringing a finger to her chin as if she was deep in thought. “Maybe it’s because there will be 3 children in our home in 5 hours.” Christen rolls her eyes, getting out of bed.

Tobin sits up, “the keyword there is 5 hours. This is probably the last day I will ever get to sleep in and you are waking me up at 7.”

“Really? That’s what your thought process is right now?” Christen asks, clearly not happy with her wife. 

“Umm, yes?” Tobin tries to smile, earning an annoyed look back. 

“Whatever, you go back to sleep while I get everything ready for the CHILDREN that will be in our house today that we are not prepared for.” Christen turns and walks into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. 

Tobin groans quietly, making sure Christen doesn’t hear her. She waits a few minutes before getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. 

She’s thankful the door isn’t locked, allowing her to slowly open the door to peek in. 

Christen is putting product in hair when she hears the door creak open, looking over and making eye contact with her wife. 

Tobin pushes the door fully open and walks in to lean against the wall opposite where Christen is watching her in the mirror. 

She knows that her wife is not the type of person who likes to be physically comforted when she is mad or upset, so she doesn’t make a move to get closer. She watches Christen finish putting the product in her hair before she puts it away and turns around to lean against the counter so they are facing each other. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped like that.” Christen starts, still annoyed but recognizing she was out of line. 

“What’s going on?” 

“I just woke up with a lot of anxiety and I think it really set in that we are going to have kids here. I’m scared that I won’t know what to do and then they will hate me.” Christen whispers. 

“Chris, I don’t know what to do either. I am in this with you and I promise that you are going to be an amazing parent to these kids.” Tobin reaches her hand out toward Christen to grab, pulling her closer. 

“You don’t know that.” Christen mumbles, head down, looking at her feet. 

Tobin squeezes her wife tight in her arms, “yes I do actually. The way you are with Sloane, Mal and every kid that you come across proves that you are more than ready.”

Christen meets her eyes, still not fully believing her. She had spent the past couple weeks making sure that Tobin was ready that she might not have realized how scared she was. There is no doubt that she wants these kids but the thought of being responsible for them freaked her out this morning.

Tobin notices that her words don’t help settle her wife, so she tries something else. “Do you want to know the first time I ever thought about having kids with you?”

Christen's eyes snap up to meet hers, “of course I want to know.”

Tobin smiles, pulling Christen out of the bathroom. Christen stops walking once she realizes that she is being led back toward the bed. “Tobin no, we need to get ready.”

“Please, 15 minutes, that's all I’m asking for.”

Christen looks at the clock, sees that it’s only 7:15am, but still has a list of things running through her head of everything she needs to do. 

“Indulge me for 15 minutes, I just want to lay with you for a little longer before we start preparing for the kids. I promise I will help with everything else today and won’t complain if you just give me 15 more minutes.” Tobin bargains, tugging again for them to lay down. 

“15 minutes but you have to tell me the story.”

They get back under the covers, facing each other with Tobin’s hand resting on Christen’s hip, softly rubbing up and down. 

“Honestly there are probably 100 stories that I could tell but I’ll tell you the one only but you can’t interrupt me.” Christen nods. 

“Do you remember when we went to visit my sister a couple months after Tucker was born?”  

“Yeah it was right before an October camp I think.”

“That’s right. Anyway, we got there and I mean seeing you holding a baby made me fall in love with you even more instantly but it was when we babysat him to give my sister a break.”

Christen smiles at the memory, leaning in slightly, anticipating what Tobin is about to say.

“Well we had been dating for a little over a year at that point and I knew you were the one for me but we hadn’t talked about kids yet and we never were really around kids for me to try and clue me in on how you felt.”

“If I’m being honest with you I think that trip solidified for me that you are a natural with kids and if you ever wanted that with me, I would be so lucky.” Christen admits.

Tobin squeezes Christens hand in hers, “I am lucky to be doing this with you. I never pictured this life with anyone else.”

Tobin had suggested the trip since they were both still in their NWSL cities and hadn’t seen each other for a couple months, and also because she had been feeling like she was missing out knowing her nephew. So, Tobin planned it all and stopped for a day in Chicago to get Christen before they arrived in New Jersey together for a few days.

Perry pulled the door open, looking incredibly put together and well rested for having a 2 month old who never sleeps for more than a few hours at a time.

“Hey sis!” Perry greets excitedly, pulling Tobin in for a bone crushing hug. 

Tobin squeezes her sister tight, before Christen gives her a much lighter one.

“It’s so good to see you guys, how was the trip?” Perry guides them down the hall to their room, so that they can put their things down.

“It was smooth sailing, very quick and easy. How are you though? You look good, not at all like you had a baby two months ago.” Tobin shrugs her coat off, and puts their bags in the corner of the room.

“I’m good, we are good. Tucker and I have a routine down and he thankfully has been sleeping for a couple hours so I was able to get some rest and actually have an uninterrupted shower.”

Christen sits on the bed, taking her shoes off. “You do look great, Perry.”

“Thank you, Christen.” Perry squeezes her shoulder in appreciation of the compliment. “So, he is still sleeping so if you both want to shower and get settled and then he should be up.”

Tobin nods happily, already moving to unzip her bag for fresh clothes. “I’ll be super quick then you can go Chris, okay?”

“Sounds good, I need to check a few emails anyway.” Tobin presses a quick kiss to Christen’s lips before hurrying off to the bathroom across the hall.

Perry laughs at her sister, “she’s excited, huh?”

“There hasn’t been a conversation since Tucker has been born where she doesn’t mention something new that you have told her.”

“I’ve been trying to send her a bunch of pictures and give as many updates as possible every day because I know she struggles with not being around as much as she would like.” Perry moves to sit in the spot that Christen vacated to open her luggage.

Christen pauses, looking over at Perry, “yeah she has been having a hard time with it. She wanted to be here so bad when he was born but they weren’t giving her any wiggle room with training. She has been bouncing around all day yesterday and today in anticipation.”

“I’m glad that you both were able to find the time now to come for a few days. I might have to make you guys babysit so that Greg and I can get out of the house for a few hours.”

“Anytime you want a break the next 4 days, we would be happy to look after him.” Christen turns back to her bag, but loses focus when she hears cries coming from further down the hall.

Perry stands up, “well that’s my queue, do you want to come with?”

“No, it’s okay. Tobin should meet him first and I’m sure she will be done any minute. I’ll give you guys a little bit of time together first.”

Perry watches Christen for a few seconds, thankful that her sister had found someone who cared so deeply about her and her feelings. “Okay, see you a little bit.”

Christen gathered a few of her things and followed the path Tobin went. She knocked on the door before twisting the handle and pushing it open, glad that it wasn’t locked.

“Chris?” Tobin called from behind the shower curtain.

“Yeah it’s me.” She called back, putting her stuff down on the counter.

“I’m almost done then it’s all yours.”

“Perfect, Tucker just woke up so when you’re done he will be awake and ready to meet his auntie.”

Christen heard a few bottles clang around in the shower and a minute later, Tobin hopped out, grabbing a towel to wrap herself in.

“I left it on for you because it’s nice and hot just like you like it.” Tobin says, drying herself off as quickly as possible.

Christen can’t help but chuckle at the frantic movements of her girlfriend. She doesn’t move yet, enjoying watching Tobin stumble around the bathroom getting her clothes on.

Once she got dressed and tied her towel around her hair, she pauses in front of Christen. “What if he doesn’t like me?”

Christen places a kiss to Tobin’s cheek, “I don’t know much about babies but I’m sure that he will love you just as much as you love him. But we won’t know until you meet him so go do that.”

Tobin grins, excited energy back, pressing a chaste kiss to Christen’s lips before running out of bathroom and down the hall.

While Christen is showering, Tobin finds her sister in the nursery feeding her son.

She pauses in the doorway, wondering if she should give them privacy. Perry notices the hesitation and softly calls Tobin over to sit on the foot stool of the rocker that she is seated in.

“He will be done in a few minutes and then you can take him.”

Tobin just nods, not being able to find the words at the moment looking at her nephew.

Perry talks softly about his eating and sleeping habits as he finishes feeding, before she hands him over to Tobin.

Perry drapes a cloth over Tobin’s shoulder, as she readjusts him to burp him properly.

Tobin situated Tucker on her shoulder, gently burping him as her and Perry continued to talk quietly about the past few months.

Once Tucker was done, Tobin repositioned him so that he was resting on her thighs looking up at her. Her heart completely melted at the happy gurgling sounds coming from her nephew.

Christen joined them 10 minutes later and took the little boy Tobin handed her. Perry ushered them into the living room, following behind Tobin and whispering in her ear, “she looks good with a baby.”

Tobin turns with a roll of her eyes, “she always looks good, of course she does with a baby.”

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and catching up on everything that has happened since the last time they saw each other. 

The next day, Tobin forced her sister and her husband out of the house for a date night, leaving Tobin and Christen with the baby.

Perry and Greg left somewhat reluctantly but were happy to have a break and trusted her sister and girlfriend with their son.   

Everything was typically easy with the baby, he slept for a majority of the time and when he was awake he was a very happy kid.

He had woken up around 7 pm crying, hungry and in need of a diaper change. Tobin and Christen worked seamlessly together and got the boy changed and fed with no hiccups.

The problem came once he was changed, fed, burped but wouldn’t settle down and was crying very loudly.

Tobin was holding him in the crook of her arm, walking around the house and rocking him. She was running out of ideas of how to calm him down. No toy, pacifier, a bottle or anything was working and Tobin was starting to go crazy.

Christen had been holding him when he had started to cry, when Tobin grabbed him and tried to settle him.

“Chris, I don’t know what to do.” Tobin whined, getting frustrated with herself.

Christen was no baby expert and had almost no experience with babies but what she was an expert at was all things Tobin. “Tobin, you need to relax. He is a baby, babies cry a lot. I am sure that it is nothing you are doing but don’t they say that babies can sense your energy so you being frantic right now is not helping anything.”

Christen stood up from her spot on the couch where she was watching her girlfriend make loops around the house. She grabbed Tobin when she walked back into the room, “just breathe, he is probably tired. Let’s go into his room and see if that will help at all.

They made their way into his room, Christen left the lights off but turned on the nightlight and sound machine. Tobin was still pacing but was slightly less frenzied.

Christen knew that Tobin was thinking that she was a bad aunt for not being able to calm Tucker down. Tobin was normally a go with the flow, nothing stresses me out kind of person but she knew that anything related to her family was the one thing that always got her riled up.

“Why don’t you swaddle him and rock with him in the chair and see if that helps.” Christen suggests, sitting on the footstool of the rocker chair.

“I don’t know how to do that.”

“Babe, I watched you look up everything about babies his age on the plane ride here and I know that swaddling was one of those things.” Christen reaches for the boy, to let Tobin grab the blanket from the crib.

Tobin’s face flushes, thankfully unnoticeable in the dark room, thinking that she was being discreet about all the videos she watches and articles she read.

Christen shushes the baby and sways him in her arms, as his cries settle slightly. “Your auntie is crazy sometimes, Tuck, but she loves you so much.” Christen whispers.

Tobin places the blanket on the floor, taking Tucker back and swaddling him to the best of her ability. Once he is back on her chest, his cries have quieted to only a whimper.

She sits in the chair, slowly rocking and rubbing a hand up and down his back. Christen watches the pair and has her own hands on Tobin’s knees, keeping her girlfriend relaxed. 

It takes another 10 minutes for Tucker to finally fall asleep, fighting it until the very end. Christen watches Tobin’s eyes get heavy, exhausted from the day and finally letting herself relax for the first time that night.

Christen stands up, her thumb softly drawing a line down Tobin’s cheek making her eyes shoot open. “Shhh, I’m just going to put him in his crib.”

Tobin rubs her eyes, watching Christen set him in the crib and run her thumb down on the same path that she just did Tobin’s. The softness of the movement and the care that she watches Christen have not only with her nephew but with herself makes her heart clench and make her realize that this is exactly the life that she wants for them in the future. 

Christen’s eyes get teary at the story, knowing that she pictured a family with Tobin for a long time but they never discussed it until nearly a year and a half after their trip to Perry’s.

“You may not see it all the time in yourself but you have shown me countless times with my sister’s kids, Mal, Sloane and every other child and person you have interacted with in your life.” Tobin says, wiping the tear that did escape down Christen’s cheek.

“Thank you.” Christen whispers, pulling Tobin closer and closing her eyes.

Tobin kisses both of Christen’s eyelids, “we can get up whenever you are ready. I promise to help with whatever you need.

Christen just shakes her head, “we can wait a little bit longer. I just want to stay here with you for a few more minutes.”

Tobin turns slightly to reach her phone, setting an alarm just in case they fall asleep. She turns back and pulls Christen as close as possible, smoothing her hair out of her face and leaving a kiss on her forehead, “As long as you need, my love.”  

They both are in a light sleep when Tobin’s alarm goes off 45 minutes later. True to her word, Tobin starts to sit up to get out of bed but is pushed back down as Christen’s leg swings over her, straddling her. 

Tobin’s hands naturally fall to Christen’s bare thighs in her sleep shorts, eyes locked with Christen’s darkening ones, “I thought we had so much to do?”

Christen’s hands slowly push up Tobin’s shirt revealing her tan skin and abs, “We have time and like you said who knows when the next time we will be alone to do this will be?” 

“So true,” Tobin whispers, moving a hand to the back of Christen’s neck to pull her down to crash their lips together. 

----------

They finally are out of bed a half an hour later, both of them showering and getting dressed for the day. 

The rest of the morning passed in relative quietness. Tobin played music in the background as both of them got ready for the day then did final preparations to the house.

Tobin had set up Aiden’s crib after they bought it, but today they made all the beds, organized extra blankets, pillows and the few toys that they had bought. Once they were finished in all of the rooms, they went into the kitchen and set up the highchair that Ashlyn and Ali let them have since Sloane had outgrown it a while ago.

Since they had told their friends, they were so grateful for all of the advice that they were given. They had answered all of the questions Tobin and Christen had asked, as well as they could based on their experiences with Charlie and Sloane.

Christen and Tobin were both nervous about being fully responsible for 3 kids but everyone they talked to reassured them that no parents were fully prepared and they would get through it no matter what.

Martha had texted them around noon that they were running late since when she had arrived at the Jones’ hardly anything had been packed up. She told them that she would take them out to lunch and hoped to be there around 2.

The couple spent the next two hours eating lunch and talking over how they expected the rest of the day to go and the upcoming weeks. They made sure that they were on the same page with routines they wanted to set, bedtimes and how they were going to manage the next two weeks with the kids in school.

As the clock struck 2 p.m., they both started anxiously pacing the house, Tobin had a soccer ball at her feet, juggling and softly passing against the wall, while Christen was organizing food in the pantry and wiping down every surface in the house again.

A minivan pulled into their driveway at 2:25 p.m., prompting the couple to rush to the front door. Tobin pauses before she opens the door, turning to Christen, “I am so excited to start this next chapter with you.”

Christen leans in quickly, giving Tobin a gentle peck on the lips, full smile on display as she leans away, “Let it begin then.”

Tobin opens the door, both of them stepping out into the front yard to greet the kids.

Mackenzie sees them before they can even say anything and drops her bag to race over to give Christen a hug. 

“Hi Christen!” Mackenzie beams up at her.

When Mackenzie pulls away, she turns to look up at Tobin next. She leans over and gives her much less enthusiastic hug and pulls away quickly. “Hi To…bin.”

Tobin can’t help but chuckle at the difficulty of the little girl remembering her name. “Hi Mackenzie! I’m glad you remembered my name this time.” 

The compliment makes the girl start to bounce in excitement. “Thanks! Lexi kept reminding me on the way here to make sure I wouldn’t forget it.” 

Tobin turns to look at Alexis where she is struggling to get everyone’s bags out of the trunk of the van. Aiden has both of his arms wrapped tightly around Alexis’ legs with his face hidden, making it difficult for her to do anything. 

Tobin turns to Christen, “I’m going to help her get their bags.”

Christen just nods her head before bending down to Mackenzie’s level as she starts to tell her everything about the car ride over.

Martha sees her walking over, “Hey Tobin. Sorry that I forgot to text saying we were going to be later than 2. Lunch took a little longer than I expected.”

“No worries, we were just getting everything ready.”

When Tobin reaches the back of the van, she notices that all of the stuff they had were in garbage bags except for the worn down backpacks that it seemed each of them had.

“Hey, can I help you out?” Tobin probes.

Alexis stops for a second, “Uh, yeah thank you.”

Tobin takes the last 3 bags out of the trunk before closing it and turning back to the teenager who has picked Aiden up, whispering soft words into his ear.

“Is he okay?” Tobin notices the redness around his eyes from obviously having cried recently.

“He should be. I think he can sense that something is changing and is a little unsettled. He didn’t sleep well last night either so I think he might be tired too.” Alexis responds. 

“Poor little guy.”

Tobin reaches out to take the bags from Alexis who can’t take the bags now that her hands are full. Christen must notice the slight struggle and walks over with Mackenzie to help out. “Can you put your backpack on for me?” She asks, looking down at the little girl, hoping that she won’t have any issues with it.

Mackenzie just happily smiles and puts it on and grabs Christen’s hand. “Can we go see the inside now?”

Christen smiles down at her, “We sure can, do you want to see your room?”

“I get to have my own room?!” Mackenzie shouts in disbelief.

Tobin and Christen can’t help but laugh at her over excitement. They knew that the kids haven’t had all of the things that they were privileged enough to have when they were their age but they didn’t realize how important something as simple as their own bedroom could be for them.

“You sure do! All three of you get to have your own rooms!” Christen exclaims, turning to look at Alexis.

“Really?” Alexis asks cautiously. “Because I don’t know what he is going to do on his own. He really struggles at night and sometimes he just sleeps next to me and I just don’t know how that will work.” She rambles on.

Martha is the one to step in, placing a hand on Alexis’ shoulder. “Slow down Lex. You can talk about that later with Christen and Tobin but they are here to help you, okay? You don’t need to do it all on your own anymore.”

Alexis makes quick eye contact with both Christen and Tobin who are nodding at her to try and let her know that what Martha said was right. “Okay.”

“Let’s go inside!” Tobin announces, sending a quick wink in Aiden’s direction, noticing that he had been watching her. She smiles back as he puts his head down on his sister’s shoulder and starts to rub at his eyes.

Christen leads the way with Mackenzie skipping along next to her. They all take their shoes off and set the bags down right inside the front door. Mackenzie takes it upon herself to be the first one to start exploring the downstairs, getting a very stern warning from Alexis to be careful.

“There is nothing else left for me to do at this point so I want to remind all three of you that you have my number and Karen’s number. If there are any concerns or questions don’t hesitate to call or text, preferably during normal work hours but we always have our work phones on 24/7.”

When she gets nods and okay’s back, she hands over the few pieces of paperwork she has to Christen. “Those are just extra information guides for our offices and some local resources if you were to need emergent help. There is also the sign up for the foster parent group sessions that take place every two weeks that you still need to sign up for. Just email me what you decide by Monday and I will send all of that information over then.”

Christen continues to nod along, looking at the paperwork that Martha describes. “Thank you so much for everything Martha. We will get back to you before Monday for sure.”

“Sounds perfect. I should get going but like I said, call if anything comes up.” Martha slips her shoes back on, going to open the door. “Oh! I almost forgot. I need to get a picture of all of you.”

Alexis lets out a quiet groan, hating having her picture taken. “Why do we need to take a picture?”

Martha just rolls her eyes, and waves over Mackenzie who has found her way back to them. “Because we need it for the file and hopefully it will be the first of many pictures the 5 of you take together.”

Alexis scoffs lightly but moves next to Tobin, whispering to Aiden to open his eyes and try to smile. Mackenzie stands right in front of Christen with a big and crooked smile due to the few missing teeth. Aiden manages to open his eyes but still has his head rested on Alexis’ shoulder and won’t smile.

Christen puts one arm around Tobin’s shoulders and lets her other hand rest on Mackenzie's shoulder. Tobin just wraps her left arm around Christen’s waist and lets her right hide behind her back.

Martha quickly takes a few photos, promising to text them over once she gets back home. She waves to everyone before letting herself out, leaving the new family alone for the first time.

“Can we go see my room?” Mackenzie asks as soon as the door shuts.

“Grab your backpack and we will show you where it is.” Tobin says, reaching down to grab the bags she carried in, Christen doing the same.

Christen leads the way up the small flight of stairs and guides them first to Mackenzie’s room.

With the way their upstairs of the house was set up, Mackenzie and Alexis’ rooms were to the right of the stairs along with the bathroom. Alexis would take the bedroom at the furthest end of the hall opposite of Tobin and Christens and Mackenzie would take the room right by the stairs and next to the bathroom. To the left of the stairs, Aiden’s room was the old office which was directly next to the couple’s room.

They go into Mackenzie’s room first, hoping the room will keep her distracted for a while so that they can sort out Alexis and Aiden’s rooms without her bouncing off the walls.

“Wow the bed is so big!!” Mackenzie runs over, jumping up onto the bed.

They had rearranged the room to try and make more floor space for Mackenzie to play. The bed was pushed into one of the corners of the room, the dresser was moved into the closet and one of the night stands was replaced with a small toy chest. Christen had picked out a new circular, white, soft rug to take up the now opened floor space. The entire house was hardwood flooring but knew that with kids carpet was much more functional which was why the new house had carpeting in all of the bedrooms.

They didn’t add decorations to any of the rooms yet, waiting for the kids to pick out which they could then move to the new house when they officially move at the end of the year.

Christen sets down Mackenzie’s bag, “can you take all of your stuff out and put it on the floor and I will be back in a few minutes to help you organize it?”

Mackenzie gets off the bed, taking off her backpack and dumping all of the contents on the floor. “Okay!”

They watch her another minute as she gets distracted by one of her dolls. Christen is the first to move and goes down to Alexis’ room, holding the door open for her to go in first. They hadn’t moved anything around in the room yet, not knowing what the teen’s preferences would be.

Tobin puts down the two of Alexis’ bags on the ground, as Alexis sets Aiden down on the bed. The room was pretty simple, a queen side bed against one wall with nightstands on both sides. Across from it was a large waist length dresser, with a few plants on it with a mirror centered against the wall.

Christen stays in the doorway, “we weren’t sure what you liked so we kept it the way it was but if you want to move stuff or get rid of any of it just let us know and we are happy to help.”

Alexis smiles back at her as she drops her backpack on the bed and begins to refile through it. 

Tobin sits down on the bed next to Aiden, “Hi buddy. Do you want to come with me to see your room?” 

All three of the women in the room wait for the answer, not sure what he is going to do. He looks up at his sister, as if asking if it was okay. She gives him a big smile, “Go see your room and I’ll come see it in a little bit.” 

He still seems hesitant but looks back over at Tobin and reaches out for her to pick him up. She easily lifts him and situates him on her right hip, leaving Alexis to sort out all of her belongings. 

Christen follows behind, peeking in on Mackenzie to make sure she was still occupied, which she was, and watches her wife talk quietly but excitedly to the boy in her arms. He hasn’t fully relaxed in her arms but has one hand wrapped around her bicep and the other resting in front of him. 

Christen doesn’t really know what to do with herself once they get into his room because she wants him to be comfortable but knows that her presence doesn’t bring that to him yet. She hovers slightly inside the room and observes Tobin giving him a thorough tour of his room. 

They kept the pull out couch in the room but moved it into the corner just in case they do have guests or if he can’t sleep at night and someone needs to be in there with him. The room is the smallest one in the house, so the only other large furniture in the room is the crib and the changing table. There is a toy chest that has a few toys and stuffed animals in it that they couldn’t resist buying when they were at the store. 

“This is the crib we bought you. That’s where you are going to sleep.” Tobin explains, standing in front of the crib and pointing at the little blanket they bought for him at night. 

Aiden starts to wiggle around in her arms, pushing on her chest to get out of her arms. “No seep, no!” 

Tobin moves away from the crib, trying to make sure he didn’t push himself out of her arms. Her left hand moves to hold on to his back, pushing him back towards her. “Hey, hey you don’t have to go to sleep.”

He doesn’t seem to catch onto what she was saying except for the sleep part causing him to say again that he didn’t want to sleep. 

Tobin looks over at Christen, starting to panic about what she needs to do to get him to sleep. They knew that he had problems with sleep but didn’t realize that any mention of sleep would set him off. Christen moves further into the room and sits on the couch, patting the spot next to her for Tobin to move to sit. 

Tobin is quick to join her and stands Aiden up on the couch next to her, but still has her right arm around his waist. His eyes have started to fill with tears but he thankfully has stopped moving around now that he was on his own feet. He looks over at Christen, prompting her to talk for the first time in the room and keeping it simple. “No sleep. You don’t have to sleep.” 

He looks back at Tobin, his hand moving to clutch the front collar of her shirt. “No seep?”

“No, buddy you don’t have to sleep. I wanted to show you only.” She reaches up and wipes at the tear that was just about to escape down his cheek. 

“No seep.” He declares as he starts to calm down, rubbing at his eyes with the hand not on Tobin’s collar. He seems to get shy again when he glances back over at Christen, moving himself closer to Tobin so that she is practically holding him while he is standing.

Tobin takes notice of his shyness, “Do you remember her?” 

Christen softly smiles at him which makes him tuck his head into Tobin’s neck making her laugh. 

“Her name is Christen. She is really nice and I bet she will play trucks with you.” Tobin offers. 

He peeks out from her neck at the mention of trucks but still shakes his head no. “Twucks, you.” 

Christen isn’t bothered by him not wanting to play with her, she knows that she hasn’t bonded with him when they were visiting. She stands up off the couch, “I’m going to go help Mackenzie and you can start putting his stuff away.” 

“Okay, we will come find you when we are done then.” Tobin replies, setting Aiden down on the floor and standing up and grabbing Aiden’s bag that she set down by the door. 

Christen leaves a quick kiss to Tobin’s cheek as she leaves the room and walks back toward Mackenzie’s room.

An hour later, all three kids had most of their stuff organized and Christen had started on a load of laundry of some of their dirty clothes. Everyone had moved into the living room, Alexis was occupied on her phone on the couch, Mackenzie had a princess coloring book on the coffee table with an assortment of colored pencils all over the table and Aiden was as usual occupied with his trucks and the little track that they had bought  him.

Christen is sitting on the couch behind Mackenzie, answering Mackenzie every time that she asks which color she should use, while Tobin lays on the ground next to Aiden making noises that causes him to let out little laughs every time.

As it nears 4:30 p.m Christen gathers everyone's attention, excluding Aiden who just keeps on playing with his toys.

“We thought that for dinner tonight we would order pizza and eat it on the beach. What do you think about that?”

“Yes! I love the beach!!!” Mackenzie shouts, jumping up from the floor. 

Alexis rolls her eyes, “Kenz you’ve been to the beach once, how do you know you love it?”

“Because I love swimming!” 

“Well the water is going to be a little too cold for swimming.” Tobin injects before the little girl can get too excited about swimming. 

Mackenzie visibly deflates as soon as she hears that she won’t be able to swim. 

“But we can put our feet in and see if we can find any cool rocks!” Christen recovers, which Mackenzie brightens again at. 

“Yay! Can we go now?” 

“We have to order the pizza first so we can pick it up on our way.” Christen explains, before turning to Alexis. “Does that sound okay with you?” 

Alexis shrugs, “yeah whatever is fine with me.”

“What kind of pizza do you all like?” Tobin asks. 

“Pepperoni and cheese!” Mackenzie says. 

Tobin looks over at Alexis, waiting for her to respond, “that’s fine with me too.”

“Is that what you actually like or is that just what Mackenzie likes?” Christen questions, catching onto the fact that the teenager always puts what her siblings first. 

“I like pepperoni so that is fine with me.” Alexis insists. 

Mackenzie gives her sister a look, “She likes a bunch of veggies on her pizza but we never get it because I think it's really gross.” 

“Thank you for that information, Mackenzie.” Tobin smiles at the little girl. “I will order those and then we can pick them up on the way to the beach.”

During the next half, Christen packs up blankets, drinks and everything else that she thinks they will need at the beach. She packs the new diaper bag that they bought for Aiden, filling it with extra snacks for him, diapers and toys that will hopefully keep him occupied for a while. She grabs warmer clothes for him to put on and was going to change his diaper but Alexis was already doing it when she got into the room. 

Tobin struggles for the half hour setting up Aidens car seat but finally gets it secured and she gets Mackenzie’s booster seat secured much quicker. When she goes back in the house everyone seems like they are ready to go. She grabs the bags to put in the trunk as Christen makes sure Mackenzie is settled and Alexis straps in Aiden. 

They eat as soon as they get to the beach, everyone is content to just eat with the noises of the water in the background. As soon as they are done eating, all of them head to the water to test the temperature. Mackenzie flinches as soon as she feels it, but it doesn’t stop her from stomping around and splashing everyone.  

Aiden cautiously walks toward the water, his pants rolled up to his knees like Mackenzies, Tobin right behind him. His face twists in uncertainty when his feet hit the wet sand causing him to pause and scrunch his toes up.

He walks a little further but when a bigger wave comes up to reach his ankles he immediately lets out a scream and starts to cry. He quickly turns around with his arms up waiting for Tobin to pick him up. 

Tobin can’t help but let out a soft chuckle at his reaction, reaching down for him and trying to quiet him down. He keeps kicking his feet around which causes Tobin to use her shirt to dry his feet off. 

Christen walks toward them, leaving Mackenzie and Alexis to continue looking for any cool rocks and shells. “I packed some extra pants and socks for him if you want to go get those.” She runs comforting hand down his back.    

Aiden has stopped crying but is still whimpering and moving his feet around. “You’re so smart Chris. I’ll be back in a second.” 

Tobin hurries back to their bags and grabs the socks, his pants thankfully didn’t get wet enough to have to change them. She grabs the towel, making sure that his feet are completely, “did the water make your feet cold buddy?” 

He wiggles his feet and legs as she is drying them, “feet cold.”

She quickly puts the socks on him and rubs her hands over his feet for a few seconds to try and warm them with her hands. Once he seems to have calmed down, she tickles his sides and under his chin making him squirm and laugh. 

“All better?” She reaches out for him to move back into her arms if he wants. 

He giggles at her and stands up, walking back into her arms. 

Tobin stands up, “should we go back to your sisters and Christen?”

He points over to where they are and says, “Wexis.” 

She walks them over, her feet having to adjust to the temperature but the cold water feeling nice on her normally hot body. 

“Find anything good yet?” 

Mackenzie shows her the 20 rocks that she has in her sweatshirt pocket, “and look at this one, it's so smooth and colorful!”

“Those are super cool, I’m going to have to find some like that!” Tobin responds, passing Aiden over to Alexis since he was reaching for her once they got close enough. 

Alexis settles him on her hip, used to carrying him but knowing that he is getting heavier every day and she won’t be able to lift him much longer. 

“Did you find anything cool, Alexis?” Tobin asks. 

“Yeah I found some shells, they’re in my pocket or else I’d show you.” 

“You can show me later when your hands are free.” Tobin smiles at the teen and moves closer to Christen, wrapping an arm around her waist. 

“What about you babe? Anything cool?” 

Christen reaches into her pocket and shows Tobin the few rocks she did find. “Just a few, the water is actually a little cold, my hands are freezing.” 

Tobin shakes her head at her wife, waiting for her to put the rocks in her pocket before she takes her hands and tries to warm them up. 

Tobin briefly forgets that they have kids around them when she leans in to kiss Christen. Christen returns the kiss but doesn’t let it go past a peck. 

Tobin snaps back to reality when Mackenzie starts to laugh loudly, “Ewwww!!!!”

“Eww what?” Tobin counters with a smirk. 

“Kiss again! Kiss again!” Mackenzie jumps around in water, splashing Alexis, who moves out of the way. 

Tobin leans back in, accentuating a kissing sound as she pulls back again. 

“Eww!” Mackenzie says again, causing everyone to laugh, even Alexis. Christen just shakes her head and jokingly pushes Tobin away from her. 

All of them go back to looking for rocks and watching the sunset for the next hour before it’s fully sets and they start to head back home. 

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It’s a little after 7 when they make it back home, so the first order of business is to get the kids bathed and ready for bed. 

They’ve done bedtime routines with their friends' kids and nieces and nephews, but they talked about what they want to try and do for their kids routines. 

Alexis tells them that Mackenzie is capable of showering alone, so Christen gets her set up and tells her to yell for her if she needs anything. Alexis goes to her room after leaving Aiden’s room telling Tobin more about Aiden’s bath routine. 

Tobin keeps Aiden occupied for the 20 minutes that it takes Mackenzie to finish her shower. Christen fills up the bath with warm water as she supervises Mackenzie brushing her teeth. 

Aiden surprisingly likes baths, Alexis having told them that it might be his favorite thing, besides trucks. He happily splashes in the warm water and lets Tobin wash his hair without any fuss. He even laughs with Christen when she sits on the edge of the tub and splashes some water onto Tobin. 

Christen and Tobin get both Mackenzie and Aiden in Mackenzie's room and on her bed for them to read a few stories. The kids brought all of the books that they get every Christmas from the agency and some of their foster homes, giving them quite the collection. 

“Can I read this one?” Mackenzie asks, holding up Llama Llama Red Pajama. 

“Of course you can.” Christen answers softly, tucking the girl's wet hair behind her ears to keep it out of face while she reads. 

It takes awhile to read through the entire book but she does it with minimal mistakes and is very proud of herself. 

Tobin and Christen each read another book for her before her eyes start to droop and she is almost asleep. Tobin puts the books on the shelf, while Christen tucks Mackenzie in. 

Mackenzie wraps her arms tight around Christen’s neck, “goodnight Christen.”

Christen squeezes her back, “goodnight sweetheart.” 

Mackenzie keeps her arms open after letting go of Christen, silently inviting Tobin in for a hug as well. “Goodnight To-bin”

“Goodnight kiddo. If you need anything during the night you can come wake either of us up, okay?”

“Okay.” Mackenzie sleepily replies, settling into the big bed, her eyes drifting closed. 

Tobin grabs Aiden off bed, his eyes also getting droopy but fighting it. 

Christen leaves the door cracked opening, the night light filtering through the door into the hallway. 

Both women head toward Alexis’ room, knocking softly before walking in when she tells them they can. 

She is sitting cross-legged on the bed, a book in her lap, long brown hair brushed neatly back, similar to Mackenzies. “Hey.”

“Your sister is asleep and we wanted to check in with you and let Aiden say goodnight. Did you find everything you needed?” Tobin puts Aiden down on the bed, allowing him to crawl right into her lap. 

Alexis wraps her arms around her brother, running her fingers through his hair. It’s always slightly darker when it's wet but still shines blonder than hers and Mackenzies. He rests his head on her chest, both hands occupied with the little red fire truck. 

“Yes I did, it's a really nice shower.”

“Good we’re glad. If there is anything else you need or can’t find let us know and we can get it for you. We are going to go shopping tomorrow so if you want to make a list of things you need, we can make sure we get them.” Christen slightly rambles. 

“You really don’t need to take us shopping, we have everything that we need and you don’t need to spend a bunch of money on us.” 

“I know that you are still skeptical of us and might think that we are being fake and don’t care but I promise you that we do. We want you all to have more than just the necessities. If you aren’t ready for us to do that yet then that’s okay and we can wait to go shopping. We just thought that a few new outfits and some new toys for the kids and whatever you might be into would be nice. If we are overstepping or being too overbearing let us know.” Christen reassures, Tobin nodding along to signal that she agrees. 

Alexis shifts a little, eyes trained down on her brother. “It’s okay. I do really appreciate it, it’s just kinda weird having people care and it might take awhile for me to be comfortable with that. The kids are easier, they are already obsessed with you both and I’m sure that they would love to go shopping tomorrow so we can still do that.” 

“We want you to be comfortable so whatever you need or don’t need from us, just communicate that and we will do our best to go at the pace that you set. Okay?” Tobin smiles, trying to get the teen to look at them. 

Alexis finally makes eye contact, smiling at both of them. “Okay. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Tobin pauses, turning her attention to the little boy whose blinks are becoming longer as he rubs at his eyes. “We are going to try and get this little dude to sleep, I know that you said he didn’t sleep well last night so maybe he will be tired enough to sleep a little easier tonight.” 

Alexis watches her brother, “yeah, he usually isn’t too much trouble if he can’t keep his eyes open. Do you need help or anything?”

Christen is the one to shake her head, “we should be alright unless you want to help. Martha was right when she said that we are here to try and take some of the responsibility off of you when it comes to your siblings.”

“No I don’t need to help but if there is anything that you need or he won’t settle down you can get me. He calms down quicker when the lights are off and I have been playing him some white noise lately and he really likes that.”

Tobin moves to take Aiden, Alexis giving him a few kisses on his head and whispering that she loves him, before he settles back in Tobin’s arms. 

“It’s only about 8:30, so if you want to watch TV or have a snack or anything you are more than welcome to anything here. We will probably be in our room for the night but like I told your sister, if you need anything you can wake us up at any time.” Christen explains and she starts to head back toward the door. 

“Thank you but I am actually pretty tired so i’ll probably go to bed soon anyways.”

“Sounds good. Goodnight Alexis.” Christen responds. 

“Goodnight.” Alexis pauses, but calls out for them just as they are closing the door. “Thank you for caring about us. It means a lot.” 

Tobin watches as a slight blush crosses Alexis’ face at the admission, “You don’t ever need to thank us for that. Get some sleep kid. We’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night.” Alexis says again. 

----------

In the minute it takes them to get to Aiden’s room, the boy is half asleep on Tobin’s shoulder. They keep the lights off as they walk in but Christen flips on the nightlight in the corner furthest for his crib, as well as the sound machine on the dresser. 

Tobin stands in the middle of the room, gently swaying as her hand rubs up and down his back to try and soothe him completely asleep. 

Christen sits on the couch as she watches her wife, thinking about how the two of them in a dimly lit children’s room with soft noise in the background was almost the same as the story that Tobin had told her earlier that morning. Except this time, the toddler in her arms and the other 2 down the hall were theirs. 

It took about 10 minutes before Tobin was able to lay him down in his crib without him stirring. She flipped on the baby monitor next to the crib and both of them tiptoed out of the room. They shut the door completely, wanting all sounds from the rest of the house to be kept out of the room as much as possible. 

It’s still early for them but they both head toward their room, having already shut and locked everything downstairs. They keep their door cracked open, wanting to be able to hear if anyone wakes up and also to help Mackenzie find her way if she needs them during the night. 

Tobin showers first, while Christen brushes her teeth and does some of her night time routine. Once Tobin is done, Christen gets in, showering quickly since she didn’t need to wash her hair tonight. 

The couple is in bed 30 minutes later, exhausted but neither of them can wipe the smile off their faces. 

Christen is tucked into Tobin’s side and she can’t help but pull her wife as close as possible to her. “I’m so happy, Toby.” 

“I know baby, I am too. Everything today went perfectly. They are seriously the best kids ever.” Tobin admits. 

“I’m so tired though. Are you going to go to bed?” Christen yawns. 

“I was thinking that I would turn on the Arsenal game that I missed so Lindsey can get off my back about watching it. If that’s fine with you to have it on here.” Tobin softly chuckles. 

“I’m going to be asleep any minute so you can watch whatever you want.” 

“I’ll turn the volume down super low, so you won’t even be able to hear it.”

“Thank you. You’re the best wife in the whole world. I love you so much.” Christen sleepily says, lifting her head to give Tobin a kiss. 

“I love you too, Chris. Goodnight.” 

Christen just hums in response. 100 minutes later, she turns the TV off and scooches down more in bed to get comfortable causing Christen to stir slightly. “Did they win?”

“Yes they won 2-0.”

Christen turns over on her side but takes Tobin’s hand with her so that she moves with her. Tobin settles against Christen’s back, not being able to resist dropping a few kisses to her wife's neck. Christen squeezes her hand tighter in hers, mumbling out, “glad they won for you.”

“Me too. Sweet dreams love.”