Archive of Our Own

It had only been a few weeks. Just a few weeks together, and Norma Bates already felt like a completely different woman with Alex Romero. It was good. Calm. Like finally breathing in clear air after suffocating in the thick fog.

But she must have gotten too caught up in the excitement apparently.

Norma knew in the back of her mind that this would happen. Her and Alex would get caught up in the excitement of the moment a few times, and the concept of protection was thrown out the window. At first she didn’t think much about the aftermath, that wasn’t exactly the first thing on her mind. Norma was just so happy to finally be with someone who actually cared about her and her wellbeing. It almost didn’t feel real, like she was viewing her own point of view from a TV screen, and she was actually still somewhere alone in the dark.

Besides the obvious lack of protection, there were little signs that led up to this moment. A growing nausea that never seemed to leave was the biggest sign that Norma had noticed. She put two and two together pretty quickly, and now here she was; sitting on the edge of the tub in her light blue silk robe, staring at three pregnancy tests in front of her on the floor. Three seemed to be a lucky number for her, Alex being her third marriage and all.

And all three tests were positive.

Her stomach twisted. How was she going to tell Alex?

Norma knew he wouldn’t react in a way that hurt, at least not intentionally. Alex proved to her numerous times that she could trust him. Take comfort in him when she needed it. When she needed him. But how on earth do you break this kind of news to your husband of only a few weeks that you had initially gotten married to on a whim just for insurance purposes? ‘Oopsies, we’ve only been living together for not even 2 months, but I’m already pregnant!’

Norma stared at the floor in silence for a solid 20 minutes before she threw the tests away, walking downstairs to start making dinner. Maybe it would distract her.

But it didn’t. If anything, it was worse. Norma was alone with a racing mind. She was overwhelmed, and the strong sense of smell she had gained from the clump of cells developing within her didn’t help at all.

She had to step away and cry a couple of times, maybe hyperventilate a little. But dinner eventually got made before Alex came home.

The man knew something wasn’t right as soon as he walked through the door that evening. It wasn't clawing away at him, but it simply poked at him lightly. Repeatedly. Enough to know of the presence of something there that usually wasn’t.

There was something about Norma’s eyes that didn’t settle well with Alex. There was some kind of… depth to them. He couldn’t quite explain it to himself, and he would sound even more crazy if he had tried to explain it to someone else. But there was some kind of glazed curtain within Norma’s eyes that shielded Alex from something that she worried he might not want to know about. Her smile seemed almost strained, like an invisible force was pulling at the corners of her mouth to make herself appear content.

When he came home, Alex nudged the conversation just a little, running his hands down Norma’s arms after she had swiftly pulled away from the usual hug and kiss that she greeted him with in the evenings. It was too swift for his liking.

“You okay?”

Norma shook her head dismissively with yet another forced smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a long day in the office…”

She was good at this. She had gotten real good at this whole ‘pretending’ game, but Alex knew better. He knew deep down that there was something more. Something eating away deep in Norma’s soul that he couldn’t reach for the life of him. She wouldn’t let him reach it.

Despite this gut feeling, Alex trusted Norma to tell him what was really going on when she was ready to do so. They had talked about communication many times before, enough for it to be drilled into her brain that she could talk to him about anything. That she should do so when she deemed it necessary.

She had a bad habit of keeping big secrets from him.

The house was normally quiet. It was only Norma and Alex living there, after all. The usual quiet of the house felt like a sweet, gentle rub of your back, but this kind of quiet felt like sharp nails slowly digging in your back until it drew blood. An unspoken tension swung wildly from the light above the dining table between the couple.

Norma couldn’t eat any of the dinner that was in front of her. She took abnormally small portions, and still picked subconsciously at them. She was too nauseous to even breathe in the fumes of this food, which might be more nerve related than fetus related. Her jaw was clenched, and her chest felt tight. Norma was sure that Alex could sense something was different as well.

And she was absolutely correct, but she didn’t know that.

Alex tried again. A second chance at redemption.

“You sure you’re alright? You've been pretty quiet?…”

God, if Norma didn’t tell Alex right now, she was soon going to worry herself into hurling all over this table. Though she would probably do that either way. She sighed and she swallowed thickly, coating her dry throat.

“…I’m pregnant, Alex.”

He stopped eating, looking up at Norma from across the table with minimal change in expression. Though the outside didn’t quite reflect the inside. Those words set off some kind of circuit in Alex’s brain, and he found proper words failing him.

“Are you sure?”

Norma nodded silently, putting her fork down. She couldn’t make eye contact with Alex. If she did, she wasn’t sure whether she would cry, puke, or both at the same time. So instead, she looked down at her hand tracing shapes into the table.

“I took three different tests today. They were all positive.”

Alex nodded, still processing the news that was handed to him when he least expected it. He knew that he and Norma hadn’t been very cautious in their sex life lately, which he definitely should have paid more attention to. But the idea of Norma being pregnant just didn't click in Alex’s head until now, and he really wanted to kick himself for that. How could he be so inconsiderate?

He wasn’t very good at this ‘husband’ thing, was he?

“…Well, how do you feel?”

Norma shook her head, pressing a palm to her head in distress.

“I feel everything…”

“I’m sure.” Alex replied, sympathy lacing his stoic, gravely voice like a great big dollop of honey and sugar in a sour tea. He was gentle with his words. Cautious. So much so that Norma could cry. She already felt it happening again, but she tried to push through. Tried to explain what she was feeling, though she had absolutely no idea herself.

“I don’t know… I’m so terrified, but I'm also not? I just… I feel numb, but I’m also spiraling. I-I can’t— I don’t…”

Norma’s eyes started to sting once again. She propped her elbows up on the table as she hid her weeping face, a few meek whimpers slipping through the cracks of her breaking voice.

“I don’t know what to do…”

Alex just felt awful. He got up from where he sat, walking over to his wife and guiding her to stand and melt into his arms.

“Hey, come here.”

And Norma accepted it. She accepted him. She made herself at home within Alex’s gentle yet firm embrace as she continued to let whatever tears were left fall into his shirt.

“What do I do?” Norma asked, her voice weak and trembling. Alex cradled the back of her head, planting a soft kiss on her hairline.

“You don’t have to know what to do right now, okay? You’ve still got time.”

Norma knew that Alex was right, but she also wanted to deny it. There was no time. She was trapped in a corner with a gun to her head. If she didn’t make a decision right now, right this second, her head would get blown clean off.

“Whatever you decide to do, I’m here… I’m always here, okay?” His voice was shushed, but also firm. Like he wanted Norma to know that what he said was absolutely true, while doing it in the most gentle way.

She sniffed, blinking out stray tears that kept digging their way past her eyes. Norma wasn’t sure what to say in reply, except for the first thing that came to mind.

“…God, I can’t eat anything. I’ll throw it up all over my kitchen floor…”

Alex nodded in sympathy.

“Let’s go lay down then, hm?”

Norma nodded in agreement as she unraveled herself from Alex’s embrace and leaned on him while he led them both to the living room. They could heat dinner back up later if they so wished.

Alex sat on the couch, and Norma naturally let her head fall into his lap. She immediately felt much more calm like this. His sturdy hands found their way to her soft hair, starting to run his fingers through the locks subconsciously.

For a good while, the two of them didn’t say anything. Just processing this news, going through different scenarios in their heads. Different outcomes.

Though, Norma was the type to process and think out loud, and Alex was a good listener.

“…I’ve always wanted a girl.” Norma finally uttered. Alex looked down at her, brows raised slightly in curiosity.

“Yeah?”

“Mhm…” Norma hummed. “…I used to have dreams that I had my own baby girl. It was always the same one every time… I think I named her Juniper.”

“Juniper…” Alex repeated under his breath. “June for short… I like it.”

Norma agreed, continuing on.

“I remember always holding her in every single dream I had about her. I never wanted to put her down, I just wanted to hold this tiny baby girl all the time for the rest of my life.” She recalled.

“…I’ve been thinking about Juniper all day today. About how calm she always made me feel… I thought about how… if we do this… then maybe she might come back to me, and it won’t be in a dream this time…”

Norma sighed, wiping her eyes and shifting her position in Alex’s lap to look up at his face.

Her beautiful boy.

“I’d really love to have a baby with you, Alex. That would be everything, I just… would I be able to do it all over again 18 years later? Is it too late for us? I mean, what would…”

Norma tried not to think of Norman for once. She tried not to put him in every single context like she had done his whole life. He wasn’t here, and he couldn’t make decisions for her. Even if it was just his silent, looming presence that somehow influenced her. It wasn’t there anymore, and it wouldn’t be there for a good while.

But what would Norman think if he found out? He had always wanted to protect Norma, especially from any bad men in her life that wanted their way with her and nothing else. She worried that this might mistranslate in his head, leading to something terrible.

Besides that, Norma also tried not to think about how weird the massive age gap was between siblings. It would be very weird to have two brothers that are around 20 years older than you, right? Not a very conventional family at all.

Though she might have already been too far gone when it came to having a ‘conventional’ family. Might as well add one more to the pile if she ended up making that decision.

“…god, I don’t know. My head has just been spinning all day…” Norma sighed in defeat. “…I mean, I’m almost 40 for god’s sake! I shouldn’t be out here getting pregnant this late in my life… it isn’t normal.”

“Well, what’s ‘normal’ anyway?” Alex protested. “Nobody’s normal, hon. We're all different. Families are different. That’s just how it is.”

Norma wasn’t sure how to reply to that, because she knew that Alex was right once again. Though she also had the feeling it was more of a lighthearted answer to try and make her feel better about her first son being a product of forced incest when she was just a teenager, her other son having blackouts that made him hurt people, and not to mention the countless other men in her life that have stomped her to the ground and just kept kicking her with no sign of stopping.

Norma always had a hard time believing any reassurance from Alex about her life. She wanted to keep thinking her existence was just some big joke played by whatever god was watching over her, if there was any. Because if there really was a god that everyone swore up and down truly existed, why would He use Norma as such an experiment? Like a fun project to see how much hell a little girl could endure her whole life without a single break before she cracked.

But she was still here, wasn’t she?

“…being a dad with you sounds amazing, but also, my priority is you. So while it’s just us together right now, I’m happy… I’ll be happy whether we have a kid or not, cause I’ll always have you… understand?”

And Norma did. She understood every word.

“I do.”

“Good.”

Alex took a gentle hold of Norma’s hand and kissed her knuckles. She smiled. He always had a way of making her feel at ease in the most dire situations. How did he do that?

Alex had a magical ability of some sort, Norma just couldn’t prove it.

There was another moment of silence between them as Norma turned back on her side to stare distantly at the wall in front of her. She hesitated to speak, because if she said all that she wanted to say, she wouldn’t like the answers that she would get. The outcomes she thought of in her head made her nauseous all over again.

“If we really go through with this… I’m worried I’ll just end up being a shitty mom again. I always have been…”

“Norma, you’re not—“

“I am!…” Norma interrupted, her voice shaking and her throat stinging. “…both of my kids hate me, Alex. They want nothing to do with me, and I know it’ll happen again with this one… I don’t wanna put them through all of that.”

Alex hummed stubbornly. He tucked Norma’s hair behind her ear, staring at the floor in thought before he finally spoke.

“You wanna know what I think?”

Norma turned back over to look up at Alex, eyes wide and desperate for answers. Like a lost little fawn.

“…I think that things are different for you now, so raising a kid will be different too… things aren’t the same as they were when you were raising Dylan and Norman… you were put through hell and back, but now you’re here, and you're with me… and I don’t mean to brag, but…”

Norma giggled at the last part. A warm, sweet little laugh that made Alex crack a smile out of habit.

“…I like to think I'm a little better.”

Norma sighed gratefully, reaching up to graze her fingers along Alex’s scruffy face.

“God, you’re so much better… you’re like a breath of fresh air in this shitstorm.”

Alex chuckled, his hand moving down to hold her waist. His thumb caressed the smooth silk of her robe.

“I’m glad… so are you.”

Norma smiled fondly, but then it faded once more.

“…I just wish I knew what to do… I don’t think I have it in me to raise another kid, especially not with the motel and everything… but god, I want more than anything to raise one that’s yours.”

Alex nodded.

“It’s a huge decision… Why don’t we sleep on it, hm? You may not think so, but I promise that you still have plenty of time to decide something.”

And Norma finally believed him. There was still time after all. She didn’t feel so backed into a corner with a gun straight to her head anymore. Though she was walking cautiously along the wall while the gun was pointed to the floor, but it was still loaded. There was still a time crunch, but Norma could wait a week to decide. She didn’t have to know exactly what to do right this second.

“Okay.”

A final moment of silence. Norma’s mind was still swarming, but it felt more like standing by a crashing ocean shore on a windy and cloudy day rather than the pelting rain and booming storm at Point Nemo that she had felt stranded in earlier today.

“You still too nauseous to eat anything? I can reheat dinner.”

Norma shook her head with a disappointed sigh. She knew that she should at least eat something before bed, and maybe she would feel a little better. But she was too worried that it would just come right back up, and she didn’t want to subject Alex to that.

“I just wanna go to bed…”

“Say no more.”

And before Norma could even process what Alex said to her, she was swooped off the couch and carried up the stairs. She laughed in surprise, burying her face in the crook of her sweet prince’s neck and hooking her arms around him so she didn’t fall.

But Alex wouldn’t let Norma fall. Not in any way.

Gently placed onto the bed, a kiss was planted on her forehead, then her cheek, and then her lips. That one lingered a little more than the other kisses.

“I’m gonna put everything away, and I’ll come and join you, okay?”

Norma smiled, her voice light and gentle with hope.

“Okay.”

And with that, Alex was gone. Norma took the time to herself once again, and thought about the previous time she was alone today. At the time, she was so scared. She was angry with herself for letting something like this happen. Norma was feeling every emotion to ever exist, and all of it was mashed together to make a chunky, gross slop of hellfire.

But this time, Norma felt at peace. She felt acceptance, and welcomed a slow and steady pace for processing what was inside of her. The quiet of the house was that comforting rub of the back once more.

She would be okay. Her and Alex would be okay no matter what happened. No matter what she chose.

Norma looked around the room as she thought, her eyes landing on the full length mirror in the corner. She just stared at it for a minute, contemplative as her hand subconsciously moved to her belly. Of course, there was no bump at all. It hadn’t even grown firm yet, but there was still something inside. Someone that would frequently need Norma’s comfort. Her touch. Just her presence.

Norma got up from the bed and made her way over to the mirror. She untied her light blue robe to reveal the short black nightgown she wore underneath that she hadn’t bothered to change out of this morning. It was one that she liked to tease Alex with, knowing it drove him absolutely wild. Lace along the edges with no sleeves, hugging her curves just right.

But that kind of teasing behavior is how Norma got herself here in the first place, wasn’t it? Though, to be fair, Alex always enabled it. He couldn’t get enough of her ever, which is what got her pregnant at almost 40 years old. Fantastic.

Norma stood in front of her reflection, her eyes glued to her normal sized belly. If she kept this baby, it would be very weird seeing herself in later pregnancy again after so long. It would definitely feel weird too.

Would she be able to handle the thought of something alive and moving inside of her on top of everything else? There was once again a whole other person she had to worry about and take care of as it grew when Norma couldn’t even remember to eat for hours at a time some days.

But now Alex was here to remind her of these things. He always reminded her to take care of herself, and now he would definitely fuss over her wellbeing a lot more, along with their baby.

Though, Norma wouldn’t call it ‘fussing’. He was just a caring man. Someone who really, truly loved her, and wanted only the best for her. Maybe it just felt like a lot sometimes because she wasn’t used to such affection from a man. From anyone, really.

Norma lifted up her nightgown, exposing her stomach. She kept her eyes locked on it, turning at certain angles. She wasn’t sure why she was doing this. There was nothing to look at, but it was more of her observing what could be.

A hand placed on her belly once again. It was a familiar motion, but it had been such a long time. It felt like falling back into an old routine that Norma thought she had long grown out of. Something scratched at the back of her head once more telling her that all of this was weird and unnatural, as she was quickly crawling into her 40s, and had already raised two boys previously that had now grown into young men.

And the thought of doing all of this again still crossed Norma’s mind as a possibility. Even after everything. Even after all this time.

She mostly blamed her fear of missing out. It tugged at Norma’s heart for two whole decades that any chance of joyful motherhood experiences were all violently yanked from under her feet. This was a big reason, yes. But also picturing Alex as a dad was something she would give anything to witness.

Norma came to White Pine Bay to start over, and maybe this was her chance to finally do what she promised herself when she first bought her Mercedes to take up north. It took a little time, and a lot of hardships. But maybe there truly was hope for her.

Certainly a weird way to start over, huh?

Norma only ripped her eyes away from the mirror when she heard Alex’s voice behind her from the doorframe, bringing her back down from her own little hellscape of a mind.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked, making his way towards Norma. She replied with a shrug as she put her nightgown back over the exposed skin and folded her arms protectively.

“…just looking.” She muttered, looking at Alex behind her from the mirror’s reflection. The way he glanced sparingly at Norma’s stomach didn’t go unnoticed as he rubbed his hands up and down her shoulders sweetly.

“I know you’re looking, but what are you thinking?”

A pause, followed by a sigh. Norma scowled in thought.

“This is so weird, Alex… I’m supposed to be fully excited about it, but I’m just… too conflicted.”

A gentle, reassuring kiss pressed to Norma’s cheek.

“You’re feeling a lot of things right now, that’s normal. You don’t owe complete excitement to anyone, okay?”

Alex’s hand slowly made its way down Norma’s arm before hovering it near her stomach, but not touching it. She looked over at him curiously, and saw his gaze finding approval from her.

“Can I…?”

Norma looked back down at his hand, and nodded. Why should Alex have to miss out on whatever weird ‘reflecting the concept of parenthood’ shit she was doing earlier? After all, they got themselves here as a team. They were both guilty.

With Norma’s approval, Alex gently placed his rough hand on her stomach. His thumb subconsciously rubbed on the silk of her nightgown. Another long moment was shared where the two of them didn’t say anything as they both processed what they were thinking.

Alex was very different from Norma when it came down to parenthood. He had never had kids, and he barely interacted with them. Sure, he had been married before, and so had Norma. But she knew about being a mom like clockwork, and Alex had no clue what being a dad was like.

It didn’t mean he didn’t want to find out, though.

The contemplative silence was broken by Norma, who laced her hand around Alex’s forearm. The one that gently held her belly.

“…there’s a naked human inside of me.”

Alex couldn’t help but snort, and Norma lightly chuckled along with him. And all the seriousness from the day was gone.

“I mean, not yet, really… but it never gets any less weird to think about.” Norma continued, leaning back against Alex as his hand moved off her belly to wrap around her.

“Well, we can think about that in the morning, yeah? How about we go to bed?”

“Alright.”

And that was that. The two of them crawled into bed, and Norma subconsciously clung to Alex like a magnet. It was second nature at this point. She liked being close to him whenever they were relaxing in the same vicinity of each other.

After just a few gentle strokes to her hair, Norma was out cold.

—

Sure enough, she had a baby dream that night. It was Juniper. Norma’s baby girl had come back to her, and she once again held her in her arms the whole time, refusing to put her down.

It was a mix of emotions. It was peaceful at the start, or at least the start of what Norma could remember before waking up. But clear as day, she remembered watching the sunrise while rocking gently in a rocking chair with Juniper curled up and laying against her chest. Norma was wearing her usual light blue robe, and she remembered humming a vague tune while she traced shapes on her daughter’s blonde wisps of hair. She remembered how fuzzy it felt, how comforted she was by the warmth of Juniper’s tiny baby body.

“My baby girl…” Norma whispered as she gently kissed the top of Juniper’s head. “…my beautiful, beautiful girl…”

At some point, the baby started to stir and whine. Almost like she was uncomfortable. But Norma knew the drill. She was hungry, and she needed breakfast. She knew that would be in the kitchen downstairs, so off they went.

The layout of whatever house she was in was very weird. Norma started out in the bedroom from the previous house she lived in before moving to the motel, but then going out into the hallway landed her back into the current house on the second floor. The only difference is that there was a mountain of large objects in her way. Boxes stacked halfway to the ceiling, picture frames scattered on the floor, and random household appliances that were too heavy for Norma to move herself. Especially when she had a baby cradled in both arms.

She forgot about this. How was she going to get downstairs and get Juniper fed with all of this stuff in the way?

At one point, Norma attempted to squeeze her way through tight gaps between a refrigerator and a washer, and she stepped over boxes and picture frames as best as she could. But she didn’t get very far before she found herself surrounded with nowhere to go. She remembered the feeling of her heart beating out of her chest, and how her head spun with anxiety before a familiar voice called out her name.

“Norma?… Norma, you in there?”

It was Alex.

“Alex, I don’t… I’m stuck in here!”

“Hang on, I’ll get you out.”

Norma remembered following Alex’s voice as he carefully pushed aside a tower of boxes. Just enough to see his handsome face through the sliver to freedom. She told him that she needed to get downstairs and feed Juniper, and that she wasn’t sure what to do.

“I didn’t know there would be this much stuff…” Alex’s eyes moved up to the top of the box tower, and back down to a restless Juniper. The poor baby had no clue of what was happening around her.

“Give her to me, and you’ll be able to fit through better.”

Norma was hesitant to unhand Juniper, clutching her a little tighter. She did trust Alex. She trusted him with her whole life, it just made her anxious not having her baby with her. But he gently protested. This seemed to be the only way to get out of the object maze, at least that’s what Norma was thinking in her dream.

“Honey…” Alex’s voice grew firm, but gentle. “I’ve got her. I won’t let anything happen to her, okay?… She’ll be alright, just give her to me.” Alex held up his hands to receive Juniper through the small gap. It left genuine pain in Norma’s chest to pry her daughter away from her for even 2 seconds, but Alex was so gentle when taking her. His voice grew more shushed as he whispered comforting words to a fussing Juniper, moving her to one arm and leaving the other one free to lead Norma out between the box towers.

“See? She’s okay, hon.” Alex reassured, holding out his hand as Norma took it. With her arms free, she was able to put them at her side and slip right through. Once she was out, she pulled herself right in to wrap Alex in a grateful hug. She thanked him endlessly for helping her and Juniper out of the mess, and he promised he would always be there.

Norma’s eyes somehow fell onto the flight of stairs, and her stomach dropped.

Instead of steps, it was a straight ramp down.

“Shit… I forgot this was here.”

Alex looked back at the stairs with a confused expression.

“Has this always been here?”

Norma shook her head.

“No, it appeared after Juniper was born… It was the same with Dylan and Norman, but I always forget how to make my way down.”

Alex readjusted his hold on Juniper, her whines growing into frustrated grunts. Norma’s heart was pounding out of her chest once again. Why was so much happening at once? She hated it.

“We’re gonna figure it out together, okay?”

Norma nodded.

“…can I have my baby back? I just need to hold her, please?”

Alex gave in quickly, noticing the apprehension in Norma’s face along with her voice. He handed Juniper back to her, and it felt so much better to have a heavy pressure on her chest once again. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and she naturally fell into him.

“I’ll walk in front of you, and lead you down. I won’t let go, I promise.”

“I trust you.”

Alex and Norma stepped along the railing, one arm wrapped securely around her, while the other gripped the railing as an anchor. Juniper continued to stir and fuss in Norma’s arms.

“It’s okay, we’re almost there…”

Slowly inching their way down, Alex and Norma finally made it to the bottom of the steps. They both let out a heavy sigh of relief and took a moment to let themselves breathe. Norma started to gently bounce Juniper in an attempt to get her to settle just a little bit, which seemed to work for now.

“I always forget that happens every day…” Norma reluctantly recalled. Alex looked at the sliding stairs and the random piles of junk on the second floor, a slight scowl forming between his brows.

“Jesus, that’s a lot more than I thought there would be… but we got through it together, yeah?”

Norma nodded. A faint, but exhausted smile growing on her face.

“Yeah…”

But Alex seemed to catch on. Maybe he noticed her sudden heavy eyelids and distant stare.

“What’s wrong?”

Norma shook her head.

“…That was so exhausting, Alex… I've never been so tired in my life…” She groaned, her eyes starting to sting with frustration.

“…and I still have to make a bottle for Juniper.”

And right on cue, the small creature started to whine more. She was getting fed up by the second, and Norma just sighed as she made her way into the kitchen.

But right on the table was an already made bottle. Norma turned to Alex in confusion, but he just smiled.

“Already got it made for you, hon.”

Oh, Norma could cry. It was a small gesture, but it meant the world to her after the morning she’s already had.

“Alex…” Her voice was pillow soft, laced with appreciation. “You didn’t have to do that...”

Norma adjusted Juniper’s position in her hold, picked up the bottle, shook it a bit, and let Juniper latch on.

And just like that, the world was quiet as it was in the rocking chair earlier. Norma subconsciously started to sway in a soothing manner, entranced by her daughter’s big brown eyes staring up at her as she drank. It was almost like she was being hypnotized into forgetting the chaos of the morning.

And she hated to admit that it was working.

The rest of the world seemed to disappear around Norma and her baby girl, and it was very relieving. But that didn’t make it any less of a tiring job though, did it?

Despite the memories of the chaos being forgotten, the overwhelming fatigue still remained.

Is this all worth it?

—

The last thing Norma saw was Juniper’s sickeningly sweet smile before she awoke slowly, the feeling of firm arms wrapped around her still ever so present. She looked up to see Alex still asleep, while the golden beams from the sunrise peeked through a sliver in the curtain and cast perfectly across his closed eyes.

Norma planted kisses on Alex’s chest, slowly making her way up to his collarbone, and getting to his neck before he finally woke up.

“Mmm… how did you know that’s what I like in the morning?”

Norma giggled for a moment, almost forgetting about the night before, along with the dream she had just woken up from. Her smile faltered into something more serious. There was a pause before she spoke.

“Alex?”

“Hm?”

Norma’s eyes fell onto him, engaging strict eye contact.

“I’ve made my decision…”