Chapter Text
The tiny two-bedroom house a short distance from LSU wasn't exactly what Baker had in mind when she thought about her first home, but it's all she and Hannah can scrape together the money for on savings and Christmas cash. When the papers are signed and the power is on, and it's just Hannah and Baker and Charlie, it feels enormous. It has to be, to fit all that love inside.
Hannah's vision didn't exactly involve Baton Rouge at all, but it did involve Baker. So when Baker was accepted into LSU’s renowned veterinary school, Hannah had a choice: she could take a job teaching in inner-city Atlanta for a stipend that barely rivals what she could make at the Dairy Queen back home or she could go home to be with Baker. In the end, it was the easiest choice Hannah ever had to make.
It took a year and some change to realize that living at home and visiting Baker at school wasn't going to work for Hannah, but they don’t make the decision to find a place together till an incident where Baker came over to Hannah’s under the pretense that her parents would be out of town. Hannah was going to cook Baker dinner and pick a movie for them to watch, and both girls were looking forward to it all week.
It had been a few weeks since they had any time alone, so Baker had big plans for a romantic night in, and in a rare moment of recklessness, she decided to buy a new lingerie set and trench coat (cliche, she knows), which she untied as she stood on Hannah’s porch, hands on her hips, till the door opened.
To reveal Hannah’s father.
Baker had shrieked and rushed to cover herself, and Tom had turned bright red, mumbling as he excused himself and ran upstairs to the master bedroom. Hannah had come to the door to find no Baker and had to chase her before she was able to take off in her car to go home.
Once the embarrassment had worn off (honestly, it’s still hard for Baker to look Hannah’s dad in the eye), they decided to take the next step in their relationship and rent a home together.
To say it was an adjustment would be putting it lightly. Hannah didn’t understand why Baker insisted on making the bed every morning (and why she had to wake her up to do it before she left for her 8 a.m. clinicals). Baker didn’t get how Hannah could just throw dishes in the dishwasher without rinsing them first, and Hannah couldn’t begin to figure out why you would wash a dish just to wash it again.
What didn’t take a lot of adjusting was the good stuff—falling asleep in each other’s arms, waking up still tangled together, date nights almost every night, random flower bouquets and ice cream deliveries after a long day.
Hannah substitutes almost every day, every chance she gets. Her favorite is high school English, but she’s subbed for every grade and subject imaginable—Baker had laughed her ass off the night Hannah came home from teaching elementary school P.E. class, fell asleep with her head in Baker’s lap on the couch at 7 p.m. (just as Wheel of Fortune ended) and proceeded to sleep for 14 hours straight.
Baker worries incessantly. She worries that Hannah isn’t happy, she worries that Hannah will get bored and regret putting her plans on hold for Baker, she worries she isn’t cut out to be a veterinarian, but Hannah knows all her tells. Every time she gets lost in her own head, Hannah gets her out of it (usually by getting her out of her clothes sooner or later).
But for every one day that’s less than perfect, there are a hundred that are pure bliss. Like today, when Hannah comes home to find Baker studying at the kitchen table, long dark hair twisted in a messy bun on top of her head as she chews on a pencil.
“Get up,” Hannah says, and when Baker looks up, Hannah can’t wipe the grin off her face.
“What’s up with you, goofball?” Baker laughs, closing her textbook. She stands to greet Hannah with a kiss, her palms pressing against her chest.
“We’re going out,” Hannah says. “We’re celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating?” Baker asks, breathless. She may not know what Hannah’s excited about, but she’s thrilled just to see Hannah like this.
“Mrs. Gallagher is pregnant,” Hannah says.
Baker’s face falls. “Who…?” She racks her brain to figure out what the hell Hannah’s talking about.
“The English teacher who was sick for like two weeks a few months ago,” Hannah says. She had come home every day from substituting for her feeling like a real teacher. She didn’t leave busy work, she left stimulating activities that made Hannah feel like she was learning herself, and the kids were great. “She’s pregnant, and she’s taking maternity leave starting at the beginning of March.”
“That’s…”
“Two weeks,” Hannah says. “They hired me. I start in two weeks.”
“Oh my God!” Baker exclaims. “Han, that’s amazing, I'm so proud of you!”
Baker wraps her arms around Hannah’s neck and kisses both her cheeks what feels like a million times. It's a small step, they both know, on a journey that will require many more sacrifices and hard choices along the way, but after all they've come through, there's no reason to believe they can't conquer the world together.