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Jared is literally seconds away from taking his salad fork and jamming it into the middle of his forehead to short-circuit his brain. He huffs, rolls his eyes, and surveys the scene before him.
It is bad enough that he is already in a bad mood because he has only received minor comments about how much baby weight he lost in less than a month, because seriously, he has no idea why anyone wouldn’t find that commendable. I helps that he was active all through his pregnancy, but after the twins were born they never gave him a chance to have down time, especially Jack, who is determined to spend all of his time exclusively in either parent’s arms, he is pushy like that. This probably explains why Jack is screaming his head off in Jensen’s father’s arms. Jensen’s father doesn’t know how to do that ‘rocking-thing’ that Jensen does, and the man definitely isn’t going to go practice ballet with the newborn in the studio.
Jack isn’t going to stop crying anytime soon if people insist on keeping him out of Jared and Jensen’s arms.
Regardless, Jared is a bit miffed that no one is giving him the kind of attention he is used to. Instead, it is all going to the twins. Of course, Jared understands this, he thinks the twins deserve all the attention in the world; they’re absolutely perfect, colicky cries and all. Still, some individualized attention from someone other than Jensen would be nice, especially since he cooked such a huge spread for Thanksgiving. Well, technically, he didn’t cook it, he catered it, but he isn’t telling anyone that part. And he’s already threatened Jensen to go along with his little story because there is no way he had the time or energy to cook for 42 people – 42 people – while rocking Jack all day and trying to stay vertical. He is not telling his grandmother that he didn’t cook Thanksgiving dinner, which would be worse than breaking an actual law because his grandmother believes subjecting anyone to anything other than home cooking is actually breaking a law.
So, Jared did not cook this huge spread with the expectation that no one would give him any type of acknowledgement. It’s selfish, he knows it, but some emotions die hard.
He shouldn’t be feeling like this, it is Thanksgiving after all. And this year he has a lot to be thankful for.
He’s thankful he is one of those people who just snap back after pregnancy.
He’s thankful Jensen still loves him because he has been a bit of a handful over the last three weeks; sleep exhaustion does that to him.
He’s thankful he has two perfect, healthy – mostly healthy – children who he loves more than life itself. Juliette is his little princess and Jack is his main man and they make him willing to give anything up.
And he should be thankful to be surrounded by his and Jensen’s family and loved ones – and moochers like Jensen’s Uncle Al who somehow showed up out of the blue to be part of the three ring circus that has become the Ackles-Padalecki-football-ballet-celebrity universe.
Only, he is not feeling so thankful at the current moment.
There are too many people and they are everywhere. It is the twins' first real holiday and he had intended to spend it with just the four of them but somehow four became 8 which became 14 which became 20 and so on. Both his and Jensen’s parents insisted on being part of their grandchildren’s first Thanksgiving.
Having both sets of parents would have been enough to give the evening some tension; Jared’s parent’s think Jensen’s are “unrefined” and Jensen’s parents think Jared’s are “judgmental sophisticates”. They’re both right, but it’s why Jared and Jensen love their families. They don’t, however, love the weird tension that sets in when they spend the evening together.
It only got worse from there because soon everyone was inviting themselves or asking if they could bring someone. And they were smart about it too; they always seemed to ask Jensen.
Jensen cannot say no.
So, 42 – 42 freaking people – are surrounding him, spread out at their huge dining room table and some satellite tables on the sides of the room. And they are all being so noisy.
Only Juliette seems completely unfazed by it. She is sound asleep in his sister’s arms, oblivious to anything going on around her. It’s not totally surprising; she’s accustomed to noise since she deals with Jack’s crying most of the time. Plus, she’s being cuddled so she is absolutely content.
Everyone else though is screaming, or laughing, or yelling or just plain communicating loudly. Jensen and his brother are arguing over some family story about who poured creamed corn on Nana twenty years ago. They are practically yelling at each other despite the fact that they are two feet away from each other. It’s all in good fun but Jared can barely hear himself think.
His niece and nephew are throwing rolls at unsuspecting victims and his cousin’s latest flavor of the week looks completely shell-shocked when one bounces off the back of his head.
He clears his throat and tries to get people to quiet down enough. There is no change in their action; they all keep up their animated discussion.
He tries again.
Same result.
So, he takes an alternate approach. After taking a sip of water, he shakes himself out and sits up straight.
His voice loud and sure to carry through the room, Jared made sure everyone heard him. “I’m pregnant.”
When Jensen spits out his mouthful of wine in shock, Jared knows he’s been heard. The football player turns and stares in confusion at his husband sitting beside him.
Other people are doing the same thing. Jared’s two words served to silence the room and finally land all the attention on him.
“You are?” Jensen raises both eyebrows and blinks at his husband.
“No! Of course not!” Jared almost laughs because his husband’s brain must not be working properly. The twins are just 22 days old, they’ve certainly not had sex yet. Still, he must have caught Jensen off guard enough that the man said the first thing that came to his mind. “It was just the only thing I could think of that would shut everyone up.” The last line should be offensive, but it isn’t. Either everyone is used to Jared or they know it holds no real heat. “I just wanted to offer a toast before we all started eating but,” he surveys the scene and noticed that it might be a little too late for that, “you all appear to be doing okay without it.”
“Aww, no, Jared, go ahead baby.” Jared’s mother puts down her utensils and smiles at her son.
Jensen’s grandfather grabs one of his roll throwing great-grandchildren by the back of his shirt and forces him to pay attention. “Of course Jared, go ahead.”
Everyone is waiting in expectant silence except for Jack, who is still giving his crying his all. Jared gestures for Jensen to get closer with his head. “Can you…Jack….” He darts his eyes towards Jensen’s father, who is giving soothing Jack his best shoot, he doesn’t want to offend the man. Dropping his volume to a whisper, he continues. “Can you just make the screaming stop? Please?” The silence in the room has only made Jack’s cries more obvious; they are grating on him and he hates hearing them.
Jensen kisses him on the temple and within moments is holding Jack in his arms, doing that magic ‘rocking-thing’ that he does. Jack shuts up almost as soon as Jensen gets into a steady rhythm. Taking a place standing beside his seated husband, Jensen makes a raised eyebrow head gesture to Jared’s sister and soon a sleepy Juliette is placed in Jared’s arms.
The silence is so nice that Jared almost forgets his initial reason for requesting it in the first place. Instead, he takes a moment to inhale Juliette’s baby smell and relaxes into the feeling of Jensen’s fingers kneading the tension at the base of his neck. He opens his eyes to see everyone staring at him.
Clearing his throat, he starts to feel a little sappy. A little too sentimental for his comfort zone. He blames it on residual baby hormones but it still makes him squirm a little. Sucking it up, he smiles at Jensen before turning back to their guests. “I just wanted to thank everyone for being here to spend the twins’ first major holiday with them – with us as a new family. We are blessed to have Jack and Juliette here and I wanted to make sure everyone knows it. Seriously, these kids are so lucky to have people who love them as much as Jensen and I do. And Jensen and I are lucky too.” Jared hears Jensen make a content snort and he smiles wider. “So, that’s really all. I just wanted to make a toast to everyone’s health and to thank them for being part of today.”
There are cheers in agreement before Jensen’s father raises his glass to complete the toast. “To Jack and Julie.” He smiles at his grandchildren before the cheering roars up again, this time accompanied by clanking glassware.
“Very nice, princess.” Jensen leans down and gives Jared a quick but firm kiss on the lips. “I was wondering when sentimental Jared was going to come out.” He kisses Jared again, eyes curving up in a smile.
Jared laughs and playfully swats Jensen’s affection away. “Shut up.” He smirks but his attention is drawn away from Jensen by his mother-in-law. He turns towards her with a question in his eyes.
“Jared, sweetie, did I tell you how lovely this dinner is? Thank you for having us. And,” she makes a sweeping gesture with her eyes over Jared’s profile, “did I tell you how absolutely wonderful you look? I mean, you don’t even look like you had a baby, let alone two.” She pats him lovingly on the cheek and kisses the same spot before being pulled back into the quickly returning hubbub of the room.
Smiling, Jared pulls a cooing Juliette closer and realizes that maybe having all 42 people at the twins’ first holiday was perfect. The noise that had bothered him moments ago transformed into a sign of warmth and affection and he realizes he is lucky to have that type of noise in his home, in his world, and in his children’s lives. Jensen looks at him again, a knowing smirk on his face and Jared melts completely, it’s what Jensen always does to him.
He’s ridiculously in love with his husband and their kids. And by extension, everything – or everyone – that comes along with their relationship.
Yeah, he has a lot to be thankful for.