Work Text:
It had been nearly two weeks since Shauna Shipman and Jackie Taylor welcomed their son Henry into the world. Both of them were so happy but extremely tired from sleepless nights.
Shauna never thought in years she would be a mom or married to her best friend Jackie. But that one day in 1996 changed everything for them.
After getting to the airport too late to catch a flight to Seattle with their teammates for a championship game the plane they would have been on crashed in the woods killing their friends.
It had been the roughest time for her and Jackie but they pulled through and fell in love marrying five years ago with their friend Sid Strickland and Shauna's mom in attendance.
And two weeks ago Shauna became a mom to a baby boy named Henry.
Already two weeks into motherhood Shauna and Jackie were learning the ropes of parenthood but one night they made a decision on how to raise Henry in his life.
Shauna sat on the rocking chair in the nursery holding her son in her arms rocking him back and fourth.
She knew sometimes motherhood won't be easy in the years to follow and was prepared along with Jackie.
In the two weeks that she was a mom Shauna and Jackie had experienced sleepless nights, fussiness, diapers and spit ups. Shauna and Jackie weren't concerned about those things in fact they were ok with those things. Their main concern was keeping their son fed, clothed, warm and most importantly happy and loved.
Shauna sweetly smiled at Henry in her arms as he made a cooing noise. her baby was beautiful no matter what he looked like as he grew up.
Although earlier that day Henry peed on Shauna twice as she changed him and spit on Jackie's shirt.
Other than those everything was good.
She sang a lullaby to him and watched his eyes drift in and out of sleep. Shauna and Jackie loved to sing to Henry in their arms. They made a vow to never sing kid songs to him except when Shauna sang a childhood song to him in the hospital.
Shauna rose from the rocking chair in the nursery and gently put him in his bassinet in her and Jackie's bedroom as he closed his eyes sleep coming on.
She kissed his forehead holding onto his tiny hand as he slept. Henry was a good sleeper unusual for a baby his age of course he cried. but when he fell asleep he would be out cold. Except when Shauna had to wake him up in the middle of the night to feed him.
Shauna made sure to tip toe around her room not to wake up her son.
On the bed next to her was Jackie who had dozed off on the left side from Shauna. Since welcoming Henry Jackie had been a good wife to Shauna making sure she didn't fall asleep breastfeeding among other things.
Lately something had been bugging Shauna and Jackie. For weeks they had been moms and were learning the ropes of motherhood but both of them had thoughts in their minds of how they can raise Henry when he started to learn how to walk, talk and read.
So tonight Shauna needed to talk to Jackie about how to raise Henry in the future.
Shauna crawled into bed underneath the covers. Looking up at the ceiling in thought then saw the bassinet nearby their bed. Those two weeks had gone by and despite the sleep deprivation. The crying, the blow outs and spit up on clean clothes. Shauna and Jackie were getting to know their son and he was getting to know his moms and they would be taking care of him.
"Jackie you awake?" Shauna whispered to a sleeping Jackie as she mumbled.
"Is Henry up?" Jackie said rubbing her eyes. "No I just put him down" Shauna replied leaning down on the pillow.
Silence filled the room. Shauna knew Henry was sleeping and their cat Rosie was on the foot of their bed.
"We've been moms for nearly two weeks right?". Jackie said to Shauna who nodded "we have, I've been thinking about Henry lately" Shauna replied.
"We haven't talked about how we are going to raise him in the future. I had so many thoughts in my head like how will he turn out?" Shauna said making Jackie look next to her in bed holding her hand.
"Like how?". Jackie said to Shauna.
"I don't know Jax.... will he love us? Will he hate us? I really don't know we need to decide how to raise him" Shauna said.
A pause followed.
"Let's decide then" Jackie said to Shauna making her smile.
"OK. First off I'll be loving but stern to him giving him boundaries that a kid will need" Shauna said deciding to be the stern but loving mom "You can be the cool parent Jackie" Shauna said
"I was going to be anyway but sometimes I'll be serious when it calls for to him" Jackie agreed being the cool mom.
"OK, so.... hmmm...." Shauna said looking in thought. "I'm gonna be that mom that embarrasses him sometimes" she said jokingly making Jackie chuckle.
"We'll do that for sure with him" Jackie replied back.
"Once he starts developing We'll teach him everything to know" Shauna said. "And we will do it our way but we'll also let Sid do manly things with him when we can't sometimes."
"This is also very important we need to do with him. We need to teach our boy that women are equal and to treat them with respect the same with people just like us" Shauna said making Jackie nod in agreement
"100 precent agree to that Shauna we will teach him about equality, respect, kindness and compassion and to never be afraid to express himself" Jackie said back to Shauna.
"What about other stuff?" Jackie said to Shauna "Like what can we let him do?" She asked her wife.
"For starters he will NOT be getting a tattoo" Shauna said about tattoos off limits "most definitely no matter how much he asks us he won't be getting one until he's 19 years old" Jackie agreed with Shauna on that.
"He can get his ears pierced but nowhere else on his body like nose or eyebrows" Shauna would allow Henry that.
"When can we let him watch horror movies?" Jackie said making Shauna chuckle "no idea but maybe young I guess?" Shauna said "We have to start him young, remember when we watched Friday the 13th when we were eight? We turned out ok" Shauna remembered her and Jackie watching that movie way too young.
"Uh.... kinda" Shauna jokeingly said as Jackie pouted "said the girl who still sleeps with a nightlight" that made them both laugh but had to do it quietly.
"We'll expose him to Nirvana, smashing pumpkins, pearl jam, green day and liz phair" Shauna would play those artists to get musical tastes for him.
"But a important thing that we can do. We can teach him to be tough, bold, fearless but compassionate and we'll give him a shoulder to cry on he doesn't have to be tough sometimes. Henry can be whatever and whoever he wants to be and he can follow our path but if he wants to create his own path we'll be following right behind him in support. Most of all we will love him and protect him" Shauna said as a tear rolled down Jackie's eye.
"He has the best mothers in the world and we will protect him from all the haters. And no matter what anyone says he is our son." Jackie said wiping her eyes.
"Yes to all of that" Shauna said smiling then she kissed Jackie.
"It's him, you and me Shauna, it's us against the whole world" Jackie said to her "Sid too" Shauna said back.
"That as well" Jackie said.
"I love you Shauna" Jackie sweetly said to Shauna making her smile.
"I love you too Jackie." Shauna replied back with a kiss.
They closed their eyes holding each other close then within two seconds Henry began to cry.
Shauna and Jackie groaned but they couldn't complain.
"I just want to sleep again" Shauna said getting up to attend to Henry.
"So do I Shipman." Jackie laughed at that following Shauna as they both went to attend to their baby.