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Emily wakes up with two blondes in bed: an 8-year-old Henry and a very pregnant JJ.
Henry is getting older, and Emily and JJ know the times he asks to sleep with them are going to end soon. He only asks when he is sick. So when he asked to watch TV with them in their room and fell asleep, they decided not to wake him up to take him back to his room. They also decided to pretend they didn’t see him wake up and pretend he was asleep so they wouldn’t tell him to go to his room.
She loves that every year, they take the day of their birthdays off to just stay together at home. They even let Henry take the day off school if it isn’t a weekend, too.
So she covers herself with the blanket and watches her two favorite people sleep. She doesn’t get to do it as often as she would like to..
Henry wakes up around 20 minutes later. He rubs his eyes, trying to get the sleep off his face. He has done that since he was little, and Emily has always thought it was adorable.
“Good morning, baby,” Emily whispers, moving his hair out of his face. “Did you sleep well?”
Henry nods with a little smile. “I’m not a baby…”
“Well, it’s my birthday, so let me have it today.”
“Okay.” Emily is glad he is not at the age where he rolls his eyes at them all the time, but the few times he does, she kind of finds it adorable. “Happy birthday, Mama.”
“Thank you, Henry.” Emily leans in to kiss her son’s head.
“Do you think Mom is going to wake up?”
Emily chuckles softly and shakes her head. “Your sister is keeping her tired.” Henry turns around to look at JJ. Her hair is everywhere, she is on her side, curled up on her pregnancy pillow, her mouth a bit open. Henry laughs softly, but Emily thinks she looks cute like this. “Want to go have breakfast?”
Henry nods. So Emily stands up, and Henry follows her, and they tiptoe to make sure they don’t wake JJ, even though she could sleep through everything.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” JJ mutters as she enters the kitchen, rubbing her belly. “I can’t believe you didn’t wake me on your birthday.”
“You looked like you needed sleep,” Emily whispers, kissing her wife. She takes a couple of pieces of bread and puts them in the toaster for JJ.
“The whole point is to be together on your birthday.”
“And we are.” She looks at Henry, silently asking for help. “We just came here, right?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “And you’ve been a little tired.”
Emily shoots him a look, shaking her head. Telling 40-weeks-pregnant JJ that she looked tired – even if she did – was the worst thing the two of them could do. “What he means is that you’re growing a whole human. That must be exhausting.”
JJ rolls her eyes at them. That is where Henry has been getting it from. She sits next to Emily, kisses her, and whispers, “Happy birthday, you idiot.”
“I love you,” Emily whispers, resting her hand on JJ’s bump. She turns to Henry. “I love you three with all my heart, do you know that?”
They do. But Emily doesn’t get tired of telling them. She never does.
It is their tradition that on birthdays, they do what the birthday person – in this case, the birthday girl – wants. On Emily’s birthdays, they usually go out to have lunch at their favorite restaurant, go for a walk in the park, and then go home and watch a movie when they get home. But this year, JJ would have had a hard time walking for so long. She has been having Braxton Hicks for the past two weeks, and she was 5 days past her due date. And exhausted all the time.
So this year, she chose movie day and take-out from that same restaurant.
JJ has to go to the bathroom three times with each movie. Henry saves the heart-shaped gummies for Emily and the blue bears – the sour ones – for JJ. And Emily is truly happy, with her son curled up against her, and her wife taking her hand and putting it in her stomach so she can feel their daughter.
“Emily!” JJ calls from the bathroom during the break between the third and fourth movies. “Come here, please?”
And when she gets to the bathroom, JJ is leaning against the sink, breathing heavily. “You okay?”
“My water broke.” She mutters, pointing at the floor. “And that last one was definitely a real contraction.”
“Okay.” Emily moves to take JJ’s hands. “Okay. What do we do?” And as if on queue, JJ grunts, squeezing Emily’s hands hard as another contraction hits her. “Okay, I’ll call Will to come pick up Henry, and we’ll go to the hospital.”
JJ shakes her head. “I’m not having this baby on your birthday.”
“JJ–”
“No.” She shakes her head again. “It is your day. We’re watching another Disney movie with Henry.”
“JJ, you’re in labor.”
“This is not happening, goddammit.” JJ sighs, letting go of Emily’s hands to put her hair behind her ears. “We were supposed to spend the day together.”
“I know. I know.” Emily takes JJ’s face into her hands. “But this is happening. So let’s go sit down and call Will.”
JJ nods and takes Emily’s hand as she walks to the living room.
“I’m so sorry, buddy,” JJ whispers against her son’s head when Will gets there. “We’ll have a movie marathon another day to make up, okay?”
“Honey…” Emily whispers. “It’s not like we planned this. It’s fine, right, Hen?”
“Yeah.” He nods from the door. “And you’re going to have my sister. That’s exciting too.”
Emily goes to hug Henry before they leave for the hospital. “I love you, baby.”
“You’ll call when she’s born, right?”
“Of course, love. We’ll tell your dad everything, okay? You’ll know everything.” Henry nods with a smile. “But if it gets late, you go to bed,” Emily says, kissing his head. And when he nods again, Emily kisses his forehead one last time. “I love you.”
She is saying goodbye to him and Will when JJ squeezes her hand again. “Emily Elizabeth Prentiss. I’m going to kill you.”
“Okay, we’re going. We’re going.”
“Bye, Moms.” Henry waves, taking Will’s hand.
“Good luck, girls. Tell us everything.”
“I can’t do this.” JJ pants, squeezing Emily’s hand so hard that her knuckles are white and Emily’s fingers red. “Why did he think this was a good idea?”
“You’re doing so well, love,” Emily whispers, wiping off the sweat from her forehead. “She’s almost here. Just a little bit more.”
“This shouldn’t be happening today.” JJ cries, tears mixing with sweat. “Today’s your day.”
“Stop thinking about that.” Emily kisses her forehead and wipes her tears away. “This is literally the best gift you could ever give me. So let’s just focus on meeting her, okay?” JJ nods. “You’re doing so well. I’m so proud of you.”
“One more big push, Jennifer.” The OB tells her. “She’s almost here. On the next contraction, I need you to push really hard, okay?”
JJ grunts, squeezing Emily’s hand with one hand and the bedsheets with the other.
“That’s it, Jen.” Emily encourages. She hasn’t felt her fingers in minutes, but she can see a head full of hair, and it makes her forget. “I can see her. You can do it.”
It takes her two more pushes before the loud cries of their newborn daughter fill the room.
“You did it.” Emily kisses her head. “She’s here. She’s beautiful. You did it.”
They put their daughter on JJ’s chest. JJ’s hands move to hold her close. “Oh, my God, she’s so beautiful. Look at her.” She had a head full of black hair and a nose just like Emily’s. “She looks just like you.”
Emily chuckles, wiping away her tears as she looks at her girls. “I love you.”
“You want to cut the cord, mama?” The OB asks her. Emily kisses JJ, carefully grazing their baby’s face before going to cut the cord. When she is done, she asks them, “Does she have a name yet?”
“Sienna.” JJ smiles, not taking her eyes away from her. “Her name’s Sienna.”
Emily smiles. They hadn’t settled on the name yet, they were still between three or four. But Sienna was Emily’s favorite since the beginning. Even before JJ got pregnant. When they started talking about having another child, Emily started looking for names. She didn’t know why, but she loved it.
“Well, happy birthday, little Sienna,” The nurse says as she smiles at them.
“Hello, little one…” Emily leans in and carefully kisses Sienna’s head. “I’m your Mama. And your Mommy and I love you so much.” Another gentle kiss. “And your brother is waiting to meet you. You’re so loved, sweetheart.”
“I love you,” JJ whispers, looking at Emily this time. And Emily kisses with as much gentleness as she kissed their daughter. “Happy birthday, love.”
“Best one to this day.”
It’s 9 pm when they are back in JJ’s hospital room, but now with a little crib next to the bed, holding the cutest baby girl both of them have ever seen.
“Yeah, baby, we’ll send pictures of her as soon as we hang up,” Emily promises Henry, holding the phone between herself and JJ.
“And you told her I love her?” Henry’s voice is a mix of excitement and exhaustion.
“We did,” JJ promises this time. “And you can tell her yourself tomorrow.”
“It’s late now, you need to go to bed, okay, baby?” Emily can see in her mind the face Henry is making. The one he gets when he doesn’t want to do something. “You need to get energy for tomorrow, because there’s someone who’s really excited to meet you.”
“Okay… Love you, Mama.” He gives in. “Love you, Mom.”
“We love you too, baby.”
“So much.” JJ chimes in. “Sleep well, baby.”
When she is about to hang up, Henry stops her. “Mama.”
“Yes, baby?”
“Can you put the phone close to Sienna?”
“Done.”
“Good night, Sienna.” He whispers, then blows a kiss to the phone. “I love you.”
A couple of tears leave Emily’s eyes and roll down her cheeks. Happy tears.
When Emily looks at the sleeping baby in her arms, her sleeping wife in the bed, and the picture that Will sent of Henry, finally asleep too, she is happier than she has ever been.
“I hope your next birthday is as good as this one,” Emily whispers, smelling her daughter's head. “I promise to do everything I can to make it happen. Always.” Her little eyes flutter open for a couple of seconds. “There you are.” She kisses her head. “Mama’s got you, Sienna. Mama loves you.”
After a few minutes, she forces herself to put Sienna back into the crib, although if it were up to her, she would hold her forever. “Happy birthday.” A couple of seconds of silence. “Thank you for making all of my birthdays from now on much better.”
Emily has thought this every year on her birthday for the past 7 years, but she is convinced this year has been the best birthday she has ever had.
Or at least, until next year.