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Christmas morning started with the sound of tiny feet running down the hallway.
“Mama! Dada!” A little voice said accompanying the pitter patter of little feet. Tim barely had time to set his coffee on the counter before a giggling toddler wrapped herself around his leg.
“Someone’s excited.” Tim said looking down at his little daughter.
she giggled, “pwesents?” She cocked her head, bouncing on her toes.
“Do we have any presents for her?” Tim asked. Lucy shrugged and Tim scratched his head, “Guess we forgot.”
She pulled on Tim’s pant leg, “Dada look!”
Tim looked towards the Christmas tree the tree skirt full of presents.
“Well look at that!” He said. Lucy smiled on the couch, one hand resting absentmindedly on her very round stomach. The little girl ran to the presents and Tim helped her pick out each one. There was a flurry of wrapping paper as she tried to tear with her little hands. Tim ended up tearing most of it in the end.
Finally they came to the last present. Tim picked it up and she grabbed for it,“Wanna take it to mama so she can see?” Tim asked her and she thought a minute before toddling toward the couch.
“Okay, Bug. This one’s a very special one that’s all yours.”
She attacked the wrapping paper with all the determination a twenty-two-month-old could muster, occasionally getting distracted by the sound it made before remembering there was a present underneath. Tim again helped her with most of the paper until the paper finally fell away
“A baby!” She exclaimed. She tried to get the baby out of the box but she was tied in. She started to get impatient.
“Well now hold on.” Tim chuckled as he pulled out the scissors and cut the fasteners. He lifted the doll out of the box and handed to his daughter who immediately hugged it to her chest. Lucy couldn’t help but laugh.
“I think she likes it.” She commented looking at the content look on the little girl’s face.
“I’d say so.”
Their daughter patted the doll’s head with surprising gentleness.
“Baby.”
“Yep,” Tim said. “That’s your baby.”
She looked up at him with a huge grin and held the baby towards Lucy.
“My baby.” She told Lucy who smiled and nodded before she caught Tim’s eye. He smiled back, giving the smallest nod.
Lucy shifted a little closer and rested her hand on her stomach.
“You know…” she said softly, “Mama has a baby too.”
Their daughter’s eyes dropped to Lucy’s stomach. She frowned thoughtfully.
“…Baby? In dere?”
“Yes sweetie, in there.” Lucy nodded.
“There’s a baby boy in Mommy’s tummy.” Tim reinforced
The toddler looked back down at her doll, then up at Lucy again, trying very hard to put the pieces together.
“Baby… in Mama?”
Tim smiled.
“That’s right.”
She stood up and toddled over to couch carefully pressing one tiny hand against Lucy’s stomach.
“…Hi, baby.”
Lucy felt tears prick her eyes almost instantly before she sat her daughter next to her, “You know this baby is named Alec, do you want to name your baby that?”
The toddler thought for a second before nodding, “Baby Alec.”
***
The siblings were best friends for 24 years before her brother fell in love with a beautiful kind and strong girl. The kind of wonderful you only read about in books. She missed the times when she had her brother all to herself but when she looked at the baby doll she got so many years earlier she knew that was something she will never have to share. It made her feel okay with the life changes and hopeful she too would one day find someone to love her the way her brother loved his wife and her dad loved her mom.