Chapter Text
Four Months.
Tim Bradford is a girl dad.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon when Lucy realizes this.
They are driving home after her first second-trimester check-up, the news still running through both of their heads as they head back to their place.
It’s a girl.
There will be pink paint, light pastel onesies, bows, tea parties, makeup, and much more.
Unless their child, at a later time, decides they don’t want any of that.
That is alright, as long as their child is happy, they both agree.
But still, Tim finds himself insisting on running by their local hardware store on the way home to pick out some paint samples.
“Do you think she’ll like pink or a light purple?” he asks his wife as they are standing in the middle of the paint aisle.
“What about yellow?” Tim asks her while holding up a paint sample of a light shade called ‘Mellow Yellow.’
“Babe, I think when she gets here, she’ll be a baby, and she won’t care,”
He rolls his eyes affectionately at her before spotting an employee and waving them down.
They spend the next twenty minutes in the paint aisle while speaking with multiple employees over Tim’s request for “the most popular baby girl nursery colors.”
And that is how Lucy Chen -Bradford learns that her husband is a girl dad.
But that is just the start.
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Five Months.
She also sees it one night when they are in bed, looking up baby names together.
They have the middle name picked already.
Elizabeth, after his mother.
“What about Celeste?” she suggests, turning to look at him.
“No,”
“Why?”
“Our daughter will sound like she just walked out of a Jane Austin novel,”
“Too grown up?”
“Too… not her,” he concludes, unable to articulate why the name doesn’t feel right.
They go through a list of names, all beautiful but not right for their spitfire of a daughter.
“They just don’t fit her. We’ll know it when we hear it,” he says.
It isn’t until they are turning out the bedroom lights that Tim suddenly has an idea for their daughter's moniker.
“Luce?”
“Hmm?” she hums the question as she turns over in his arms.
“What about Felicity?” he asks her, while placing one hand on her five-month bump.
“It means ‘happiness, fortunate and lucky,’ and I can’t think of anything that fits us more than that,” he continues just as their daughter gives his hand a quick kick.
“I love it, and it looks like she does too,” Lucy responds with a smile and a laugh.
He leans in and kisses her as the name runs through his head.
Felicity Elizabeth Chen Bradford.
Perfect.
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Six Months.
She sees it when they go baby shopping.
He loves pink.
He loves bows.
He loves this.
“She’ll look perfect in this,” he says while holding up a light pink onesie and matching blanket.
“Nothing but the best for my baby girl,” he says to the clerk at the store who advises him that the crib they picked out has been sold out and to get it back in the off-white cream color they want, there will be an extra charge.
Lucy stands back, hand placed over her expanding belly, watching her husband
Such a girl dad, she thinks lovingly.
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Seven Months.
She sees it when he insists that Lucy show him how to paint nails and braid hair.
They are on the couch, after having their Chinese takeout, and they are currently watching a True Crime documentary at Lucy’s insistence.
“Babe, you aren’t gonna need to know any of this for a while,” she argues,
“Luce, please, I want to be ready for it all, for Felicity,” he says, while rubbing her feet.
And so she does.
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Eight Months.
One day, after he gets home from his shift, he tells her he bought a light blue tea set, stating that their daughter will love it when she can fully enjoy it.
“It will be perfect when she is at an age when she wants tea parties” he insists.
They are lounging around the house, cuddling on the couch while thumbing through ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting.’
“Are you going to attend them?” Lucy asks jokingly, already knowing the answer.
“Of course. And with a pinky raised, happily,” he remarks while kissing her head as she laughs at his response.
“Such a girl dad,” she remarks with a laugh as she lays her feet up on the table and scratches Kojos ears as he lies next to her.
“Damn right,” he answers her with a determined laugh before continuing, “My girls are going to be well taken care of,” he says while looking down at her.
“Speaking of,” he says as he picks up his phone to read a message from Tamara, “Tam is coming down from San Francisco on Saturday. I told her we will have her room all set up for her,” he relays to her as he feels her nod against his chest.
“She is bringing a friend,” he adds this new piece of information while rubbing her shoulder and placing his other hand on her eight-month belly.
“Oh bringing someone home, could be serious,” Lucy says.
“Could be,” he agrees.
Tamara is in her third year of college and had taken an internship in San Francisco which then blossomed into a real job opportunity and it's been four months since they've seen her.
“You are huge!” exclaims Tamara as she runs up to Lucy who at more than eight months, is expanding each day, and to be honest, Lucy loves every moment of it.
Not to be cliche, but she is creating life.
And if her husband’s reactions are any indication, he feels the same way.
“Hello to you too, Tam,” she says as she hugs her.
They spend the day baby clothes shopping, dining out, and conversing with each other over lovable sparring jokes.
Tamara is doing wonderfully: a wonderful job, school, and a new boyfriend.
A fact that Lucy tells her proudly.
“Still, don't you two dare have this baby and not tell me the second it happens. I will be back here before you know it,” Tamara makes them promise.
“Deal,” they promise.
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Nine Months (plus three days late)
Lucy is three days past due.
She is miserable.
She wants to meet her daughter, and so does Tim.
They've tried everything.
Spicy foods, running, oil, sex....
And yet, nothing.
Until her water breaks and suddenly it all goes by in a blur.
As they are getting checked in, Tim texts Tamara, keeping their promise to tell her.
There are nurses and ice cubes and screaming but twelve hours later, their daughter is here.
Felicity Elizabeth Chen Bradford
She is theirs and she is perfect.
“What is her name?” a nurse asks, breaking the new parents out of their daze as they stare down at their baby girl.
“Felicity Elizabeth Chen Bradford,” he answers while looking down at his wife and daughter.
His whole world.
“Perfect,” the nurse responds.
He couldn’t agree more.
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