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Aaron groans as he reaches the bottom of the stairs, scratching the back of his head as the sound becomes a yawn. Sleep had been a rare commodity over the last few months, even rarer than normal, and he felt like he’d barely closed his eyes before his alarm went off.
He initially heads for the kitchen to turn on the coffee machine, but hears soft whispers coming from the living room, so goes in that direction instead. He leans against the doorframe, a smile on his face as he watches his wife, their three-month-old in her arms as she paces back and forth. Gently patting their son’s back as she talks to him, her lips against the top of his head.
“Daddy thinks he’s sneaky, huh Hugo?” Emily whispers, her lips twitching up into a smile as her eyes flash to him briefly before she returns all of their attention to their baby, “But he forgets Mommy used to be a spy, he can’t sneak up on me.”
Aaron walks over and wraps his arm around her, leaning in to kiss her good morning, “Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi,” she replies, kissing him again before continuing to pace, Hugo already fussing because she’d stopped, “We barely got any sleep,” she says, smiling tiredly at her husband, “I gave up trying a couple of hours and brought him down here.”
Hugo had been colicky since he was born. Crying at all times of the night and only sleeping if he was in one of his parent’s arms, Emily’s if he had a choice. It meant they took it in turns to stay up with him so the other could sleep. It meant that Emily struggled when Aaron was away on cases, several nights in a row with very little reprieve. She still had a month of her maternity left, one of the perks of being married to the boss, and she wasn’t sure how she’d cope when she went back to work.
She’d be starting a new job, becoming a unit chief herself for a different team, which was enough of a change in itself. When she added in the fact she’d be leaving her son for more than an hour or so at a time for the first time she could barely think about it.
“You should have woken me up, Em,” he says, furrowing his brow at her, “I could have helped.”
“It’s ok,” she replies, yawning, “One of us needs to be a functioning member of society,” she smiles at him, “It’s your turn tonight though, honey.”
“Of course,” he says, stopping her in place by putting his hand on her back, “Do you want me to take him so you can go shower? Have a few minutes to yourself?”
She moans at the thought of it and nods, “God, yes that sounds amazing,” she kisses Hugo’s cheek before handing him over, smiling at the sight of him and Aaron together, “I only fed him about an hour ago so he should be fine.”
Aaron nods in acknowledgement, aware from experience that if he tried to be funny when she was giving him instructions about their son it didn’t go down well.
“We’ll be fine, won’t we buddy?” He says, holding Hugo close before looking back up at her, “Go on, sweetheart. Jack will be up soon and the day will only get more chaotic.”
She nods, giving them one last glance before she walks away, unable to stop herself from yawning as she walks up the stairs. She barely has her feet back on solid ground and Jack’s door bursts open, an excited look on his face.
“Morning, Mom!”
Despite her exhaustion, she smiles at him, stepping towards him and opening her arms up for a hug. It had been months since he started calling her mom, and it was still as incredible to her as it had been the first time. He steps into her arms and hugs her tightly.
“Morning, honey,” she says, pushing his hair off of his forehead, “Did you sleep ok?” He nods in response, and it makes her smile, “Your brother didn’t keep you awake?”
He shrugs slightly, “Hugo can’t help it, he’s a baby.”
It makes her smile deepen, her and Aaron’s words repeated back at her. A common thing that had been said in their home, especially in the first few weeks after they brought Hugo back from the hospital.
“Exactly,” she ruffles his hair before she steps away, “I’m going to shower quickly, but then it’s breakfast time and then your big soccer game.”
“You and Hugo are coming this time, right?” He asks, excitement making his eyes wide as he looks at her.
She hesitates. She hadn’t been to one of Jack’s games since just before she gave birth. At first, it was practical. She was too pregnant to sit in the uncomfortable stands and, according to Aaron, too hormonal to watch other women talk to him as he coached the games. She was insistent that they were all flirting with him. The combination of him being an excellent father and coach along with the polo shirt he insisted on wearing apparently made him irresistible to not only her. Aaron kept saying that they were just being nice, but she knew better.
Since then it had become easier for her to stay home with the baby and for Aaron to take Jack to his games. She knew she would start going back soon, but she was exhausted, hoping that she could get a nap of some sort when Hugo finally slept in the later morning.
“Jack-”
“Mom,” he says, the closest he ever came to whining, “You promised.”
She sighs and then nods, “Yeah, you’re right I did,” she smiles, “We’ll be there.”
The smile on his face is worth all the exhaustion in the world.
___
Emily finds herself pacing back and forth at the end of the pitch, switching between ensuring the son she had strapped to her chest was sleeping and that the one playing soccer would see her watching him.
“Been a while since you were here.”
She turns her head to look at Dave, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and she smiles at him.
“I promised Jack I’d come along,” she says, “Something I said before I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
He smiles at the baby, fast asleep against Emily, “He still hates sleeping?”
“Yes,” she replies, the mere thought of sleep enough to make her yawn, “Good thing he’s so cute.” She looks back over to the game, which was just about to end, and smiles at Aaron from across the pitch, offering him a little wave that he returns. She spots the other women, the moms of both teams watching his every move.
“Last time you were here I seem to remember you making your feelings about the soccer moms very clear,” Dave says, never missing a thing as always. The mention of it makes her cheeks flush slightly. Aaron liked to say that she all but mounted him in front of everyone to mark her territory, something she thought was a slight exaggeration.
“I was pregnant,” she says, defending herself as she kisses the top of Hugo’s head, “I wasn’t entirely in control of my emotions.”
Dave hums in his throat, “I’ll believe you, thousands wouldn’t.”
Hugo fusses, crying sharply for a moment until Emily focuses her attention back on him, stroking the back of her finger down his cheek.
“You’re ok, sweet boy,” Emily says, running her hand up and down Hugo’s back through the baby carrier securing him to her chest, “You’re ok.”
“What’s wrong with mini bossman?” Dave asks, smirking as uses the nickname that Penelope had assigned the baby the first time she met him.
“He’s just grouchy, and stop calling my son that,” Emily replies, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Well you did name him after a fashion brand,” he quips and she looks at him, her glare deepening.
“I did not, I named him after the man who created the sci-fi genre.”
“I always forget how much of a nerd you are,” Dave says, clearly having fun winding her up, not phased by her annoyance in any way.
“Why are you here again?” She asks, looking down at her son, smiling when she sees he’s fast asleep.
“I help Aaron with the team.”
“Sure,” she replies, raising an eyebrow at him, “That’s why you’re all the way over here, pissing me off instead of over there helping.”
He pauses and looks at her, a smile she’d almost call proud if she didn’t know any better “You know, you somehow manage to still be quite intimidating, even with a baby strapped to you.”
“Thank you,” she says genuinely, looking over to the sidelines and seeing Aaron talking to a couple of women she recognised as the mothers of Jack’s school friends, two women she knew were called Angela and Mary. She tries to maintain her cool, reminds herself that they are just being nice, and then she sees one of them reaching out to touch Aaron. Her hand squeezing tightly around his arm. Emily clenches her teeth and clears her throat, “Let’s go put that to the test.”
She walks away without saying anything else, and only hears Dave’s response as she does so.
“What was that you said about it being pregnancy hormones?” He asks, laughing as she flips him off whilst she walks away.
___
Aaron has to hide a smirk as she approaches. A determined look on her face that is in no way made any duller by their baby strapped to her chest.
“Honey,” she says, her voice as sweet as he’d ever heard it as she makes it to his side, “I missed you.”
She smiles as Angela and Mary take a step backwards, fake smiles etched on their faces.
“You missed me?” He asks, his eyebrow raised at her as she puts her arm around him, her fingers digging into his ribs slightly.
She hums in response, “So did this little one,” she says, nodding down to Hugo.
“Well,” he says indulgently, the smile on his face letting her know he knew exactly what she was doing, “I missed you both too.”
Emily finally acknowledges the other women, both of them still staring at the couple. “Andrea, Mandy,” she says, purposely getting their names wrong, “It’s good to see you both.”
“It’s Angela and Mary,” Angela says, her smile almost as fake as Emily’s.
“Right, sorry,” she says, sounding anything but, “Baby brain.”
“He’s adorable,” Mary says, reaching out to touch Hugo but Emily steps backwards, her hand coming to rest on his back as if to protect him.
“Thank you,” Emily replies, “We’re very proud of him.”
The silence they fall into is slightly awkward until Angela speaks, “Well we should get going, the boys will want lunch.”
“Good to see you,” Emily says, watching them go, her smile fixed on her face until they are no longer in sight. She turns to look back at her husband, her eyebrow raised, “Have they been flirting with you like this the entire time I’ve been at home on Saturday mornings looking after our son?”
“I feel like there isn’t a safe way to answer that question,” Aaron replies, kissing the top of her head as he cups the back of Hugo’s, smiling at his youngest son.
“And who tries to touch someone else’s baby?” She says as if he hadn’t spoken, “Who knows where she’s been.”
He laughs at that, no longer able to hold it back as he kisses her head again before looking down at her.
“Settle down, sweetheart,” he says gently, “You scared them off quite successfully,” he kisses her when he sees her frown hasn’t gone away, “You’re somehow still incredibly intimidating even though you have a baby strapped to you.”
Her lips twitch in a smile at that and she tilts her head back in Dave’s direction, who was now talking with Jack.
“Your best friend said the same thing.”
“You said the same thing about yourself?” He asks, his eyebrow raised and she rolls her eyes, her smile breaking out fully across her face.
“You’re ridiculous.”
He hums, putting his arm around her shoulder as he leads them towards Jack and Dave, the thought of pancakes at their favourite diner all but calling his name. She leans into him a little bit, her hand linking with the one draped around her as she makes eye contact with Angela and Mary again.
“You’re coming to every game from now on, no matter what aren’t you?”
“You bet your ass I am.”