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Maeve had been begging for weeks- Mama, can I have jewels like yours? Mama, please? Please, Mama?- until Tess had finally relented, and told her she would pierce her ears when she turned eight.
Only now, Maeve’s eighth birthday had come and gone, and Tess didn’t have the guts to stick a needle through her baby’s ears.
“Joel, I can’t do it,” Tess whispers in the kitchen, said needle in her hand and an apple in the other. She’d seen The Parent Trap, knew the steps and could do it. They had an ice cube tray and she had a few cubes out on the counter, and a pair of simple metal studs that she’d disinfected for the occasion. Maeve sat in the living room, swinging her feet and waiting patiently, humming to herself as Tess stressed herself out in the kitchen.
Joel looks at her, bemused.
“Tessa, ‘ve seen ya gut a man before,” he tells her, and she narrows her eyes into a glare. “And you can’t stick a needle through our daughter’s ear for two seconds?”
Tess hisses out a breath, lifting the back of her wrist to her forehead.
“It’s gonna hurt her,” Tess stresses, and Joel’s eyes soften. “I’m not supposed to hurt her, I’m her mother.”
Joel cups the rounds of Tess’s shoulders in his palms, squeezing gently.
“Want me ‘t do it?” he asks, and Tess pouts, but nods.
“I just can’t do it, Joel. I can’t,” she repeats, and Joel leans in until he can brush a scruffy kiss to her forehead.
“S’alright, honey. I got it,” he says, and takes the sterilized needle carefully from her, along with the apple. “Just bring the ice.”
They trudge into the living room together, and Maeve perks up at the sight of them.
“Is it time?!” she asks, and Joel nods.
“I’m gonna stick the needle in, alright baby?” he says, and Maeve nods eagerly. “Then I have to put the earring in the hole, and Mama’s gonna put the ice on. It’s gonna hurt a bit, now.”
Maeve’s eyebrows furrow.
“Like a lot?” she asks, a trace of nervousness touching her voice, and Tess squeezes her hand in the one not cupping the ice.
“I’ll be holding your hand the entire time, sweetheart,” she reassures her, and Maeve takes a breath, nodding.
“Okay Daddy. I’m ready,” she says, and Joel smiles at his eldest before placing the apple behind the back of her earlobe and then preparing to insert the needle to the sharpie dot on the skin where Tess had marked them evenly on each ear.
“Okay, on the count of three. One, two,” and before he can say three, he jabs the needle through the tender flesh of her ear. Tears well in Maeve’s eyes, and stream down her cheeks as he holds the needle for a few seconds, then takes it out, dabbing away the droplets of blood, and secures the earring in his place. Tess lifts an ice cube to the reddened skin, and frowns.
“Mama, it hurts,” Maeve whimpers, and Tess’s heart twists.
“It’s okay baby girl. Mama’s got you,” she says as Maeve curls up under her chin, and Joel feels like the worst human being on the planet as Maeve cries into her shirt. Tess looks at her husband helplessly, and lets Maeve gather herself before she straightens up. “Do you still want to do the other side, Maeve-y?”
Maeve nods tearfully.
Joel swallows hard, and lifts the apple and needle up once more. The process is no less devastating on the opposite side, and once it’s complete he scoops his daughter up into his lap and cradles her to his chest, kissing her blonde hair and letting her cry into his shirt.
She’s fine after a few minutes, and goes to admire her new jewelry in the mirror. Joel looks at Tess, shaking his head.
“Ain’t doin’ that ever again. Fuckin’ Maria can pierce our kid’s ears from now on.”
Tess laughs, and kisses him firmly, settling on his thigh as they watch Maeve smile at her new earrings in the hallway mirror.
“She’s happy,” Tess murmurs, stroking soft fingers against his neck. “S’all that matters, hm.”
Joel sighs, hand on her ass before he squeezes.
“Still ain’t fuckin’ doin’ it again.”