Work Text:
Jack was still at practice when the call came in. Eric himself was almost too flustered to say anything when he was told that there was a woman who wanted to meet them. She’d liked their application best and wanted to see if they gave her the same “good vibe” in person. It took a few tries before anything coming out of Eric’s mouth actually sounded like words, but eventually he managed to say,
“Yes, of course, we’d love to! Just tell me when and where, we’ll be there.” It was mid-season, but he knew Jack would make it happen, he’d promised he’d do anything for them to be able to start their family, even if it meant skipping hockey stuff for a day or two. After he hung up the phone, Eric couldn’t sit still waiting for Jack to come home, so he pulled out the butter and flour and baked.
He churned out mini pies batch after batch, piling them in tupperware. With the amount of hockey players that got dragged through his kitchen he never worried about the food going to waste. Just as Eric had been about to run out of butter, there was the click of the front door opening and Jack called out,
“I’m home!” Eric raced to the sink to rinse the pie dough off his hands and called back,
“In the kitchen!” When Jack stepped up behind Eric at the sink, he said,
“Why am I not surprised?” and bent to kiss Eric’s neck in greeting. Eric turned to face his husband, resting his hands on the warm broad chest in front of him.
“Jack.” Jack’s expression went from playful to serious in a blink.
“What? Bitty, did something happen?”Eric’s face split into a smile, and Jack relaxed.
“Jack, there’s a woman who wants to meet with us. We might be getting a baby.” And now, now that he’d said it, it finally felt real, and Eric’s eyes welled up, voice choking off.
“Really?” Jack breathed, soft and disbelieving Eric nodded, and Jack let out a whooping, joyful sound as he scooped his husband up and swung him around. “We’re getting a baby!”
“Might be!” Eric reminded him, giggling as he’d kept dangling in the air. He didn’t want to get their hopes up too high. He’d seen too many disappointed posts in forums, adoption after adoption that fell through at the last second.
“I have a really good feeling about this,” Jack told him, then pressed him against the fridge and kissed him breathless.
The meeting went perfectly. They met with the mother at the adoption agency’s office in New Haven. She was a college student, quick-witted, ambitious, and completely oblivious to what she calls “sportsball”. Eric pinched Jack before he could correct her that technically his job didn’t actually involve a ball, but rather a puck. More than Jack’s career, she was interested in their education (“Yeah, actually what caught my attention first was that you both went to Samwell. That’s a really good school, it was the only place I applied to that waitlisted me, so I was like shit, these guys are smart.”) and, briefly, their relationship.
“My parents got divorced when I was ten, and it was really rough on me,” she explained. “Like, part of my whole reasoning for adoption is that I think stability’s really important, ya know? And like, that’s definitely not happening for me anywhere in the next decade.”
So, they told her the whole story of them. From checking practice before dawn all the way to Jack’s proposal. She smiled, even said “aww” in all the right places as Jack and Eric went through the practiced dance of telling how they met.
“…and I was standing there on the ice, holding the Cup, and I realized that I had everything I’d ever wanted, and that I was so perfectly happy that I didn’t care what anybody could say.” Jack told her, smiling down at Eric so softly. He smiled back, bright and just a bit crooked as he said,
“He didn’t have the ring with him, but he asked me anyway. Just got down on one knee at center ice.”
Jessica was fanning her watering eyes when they finally managed to tear their eyes away from each other.
Despite Jessica’s parting promise that she really liked them and wanted to move forward, it was another week before they heard from anyone. Throughout the week, both Jack and Eric grew increasingly anxious, each of them trying to reassure the other in spite of their own worries. But it was hard. They wanted so badly to be parents, to have a family together, and the thought of having a family together, to have their hopes go on that roller coaster and with nothing to show for it was crushing.
Both of them were home for the call the next time. Jack was peeling peaches for Eric, who was up to his elbows in butter and flour. So when Eric’s phone started ringing, he just asked Jack to grab it from his back pocket and answer.
“Hello. Eric’s phone, Jack speaking.” Eric bit back a laugh at the politeness. “Yes, yes, we’re both right here. Let me just…” Jack turned it to speakerphone. “Alright, I just put it on speaker.”
“Eric?” the woman on the other end called.”
“I’m here,” he told her.
“Good, good. So glad I could get ahold of you both. I’m Marsha, from the adoption agency. I’m calling because I just got off the phone with Jessica.” Jack and Eric held their breaths, Eric clutching at his hsuband’s hand. “She faxed over her paperwork this morning. Congrats, guys! You have a baby.”
Jack was stunned silent. Eric, in contrast, went immediately to crying while also trying to finish the phonecall. He scribbled down deadlines and more meeting information on the back of a grocery list, hiccuping through thanking Marsha. It took Jack until the call was wrapping up to gather himself enough to say, “Thank you.”
As soon as the phone line went dead, they turned to face each other Jack’s eyes finally started to dampen at the sight of Eric’s blinding smile. He fell into Jack’s arms, squeezing tight around his waist. Jack was grateful for the embrace, unsure if he could stay standing without his husband propping him up.
“Jack,” Eric choked out.
“Bits,” he breathed.
“Jack, we’re getting a baby. We’re gonna be parents.”
“Yeah.” Eric looked up, the point of his chin digging into Jack’s sternum.
“Are you freaking out?” Jack smiled, letting out an amused huff.
“Yeah.” He kissed Eric’s hair. “In the good way though.”
“Me too.”
“Why hello, Miss Amélie,” Bitty cooed at the newborn just starting to fuss in her carrier.
“And goodbye sleep,” Jack said, but he couldn’t manage to sound anything but unbearably fond as Eric set the carrier on the kitchen table and Jack immediately reached to pick up their now squalling daughter. She was impossibly tiny, he thought. Not even the full length of his forearm. Eric popped one of the bottles of formula they’d mixed up into the microwave and tested the temperature on the inside of his wrist. Meanwhile, Jack swayed, shushing Amélie, and then offering her the bottle after it met with Eric’s approval.
“I’m gonna go put her carrier away,” Eric told him, standing on tiptoe to kiss Jack’s cheek and running a hand over the soft downy hair on Amélie’s head.
He took the carrier, but didn’t step past the doorway, just leaning against the frame and watching them with the softest smile. Jack looked up at the feeling of his husband’s eyes on him.
“Do you want us to come with you?” he offered. Eric’s eyes flicked from Jack’s to the little pink bundle in his arms. He nodded. Jack followed him down the hall, looking down at Amélie watching him as she drank her dinner.
“Come on, ma cherie, let’s see how you like your room.”