Her Gift

Baby shower.

Delilah had wanted to have the baby shower as close to her due date as possible, much to my confusion. She looked as ready to pop as the balloons that floated around the room; blue and pink - they'd decided to keep the gender a secret, wanting to wait until he... or she, arrived.

"The place looks great mom, you've done such a good job decorating and planning." I praise, eyes taking in all the different games we'd be playing and all the food we'd be eating. "You know I would have come back earlier to help."

"I know sweetie, but I wanted to do this, just like I will when it's time for your baby shower." Mom beams at me, probably imagining the time I would excitedly tell her I was pregnant.

Considering who I was in love with, and that the likelihood was low that I would ever fall out of love with him, I didn't think it would be something mom would ever get to revel in.

Mom, I'm adopting a baby.

That could work just as well... I hope.

Thankfully the doorbell rings before I have to respond and I circle the room looking for my best friend, knowing she'd have a story or two to cheer me up.

Georgie was stood talking to two of Delilahs closest friends and I join the group, easily picking up the topic of conversation and voicing my own opinion.

As I laugh along with the girls I search out for Hayden, smiling when I see him talking to my father and getting dad to laugh at whatever joke or story he was telling him.

Hayden looks over at me, as if feeling my gaze and grins cheerfully, winking when he knew no one else was paying attention. It was hard trying to conceal the love in my eyes when I was around my parents, especially when I didn't have to hide anything at school.

Dad chuckles again and pats Hayden's shoulder, and I wonder, not for the first time if they'd be okay with us being together. Fear kept me quiet though.

I excuse myself from the girls and grab two beers making my way over to dad and Hayden. I pass them over and wait for dad's reaction when Hayden takes a hearty swig.

His eyebrows dip for a moment in confusion, and I contain the need to giggle in excitement.

Here it comes.

"I thought you were driving Hayden... Are you guys staying over instead?" Dad questions.

Not the response I was expecting.

"No, we're staying over." Hayden says, shooting a bemused look to me.

Dad sighs in relief, "Oh good, I was about to take that off you. Drinking and driving, you know how I feel about that."

A puff of laughter escapes me; he didn't even notice anything odd about Hayden drinking. It just made me believe he really did see him as a human instead of an android.

"Hayden what are you doing?!"

We all turn to moms screech, in fact everyone turns to her while she marches over and snatches the bottle off him.

Her face is a picture, and I wish I'd thought to film her response, this was much better than dads.

"Are you trying to destroy yourself? Why would you do this... And you," She points the neck of the bottle at me. "Why would you give him liquid? Explain yourself?"

"Mom it's alright," I start, gently taking the bottle off her and passing it back to Hayden who is successfully keeping the chuckle he wants to release at bay. "He drinks and eats now, Killian and Hayden have been working on this for a while. He's not going to destroy himself."

"He can eat and drink?"

"Yes Susan, I can." Hayden grins at her and I laugh with him. "I have a working stomach that breaks down solids and liquids, it's not nutritionally valuable to me, but it does taste good." He takes another gulp of the beer to prove his point.

Mom blinks slowly for a moment, taking it all in and dad finally realises what's happened.

"Huh, I didn't even notice. Guess I forgot it wasn't normal for you to be drinking." He laughs while explaining. "You go to the toilet now as well?"

Hayden barks a loud laugh and I roll my eyes.

He looks at me while he answers my father. "I do go to the toilet, that was the perfect way to ask that question Doug."

"Oh shut it you." I narrow my eyes.

"How did she ask it?" Mom asks, the shock having worn off.

"She asked if I had to poo now."

They all laugh at Hayden, well at me really, and I end up joining in; it had been a ridiculous way to ask it.

"Ahh my little Rae-ban, always has had a way with words." Georgie says from behind me, having heard the majority of our conversation. "Congrats on the experiment working Hayd." She nods to him. "Now can we get on with these games so we can eat?"

Everyone agrees and we move on to the typical baby showers games, Delilah is glowing and laughing with every silly game we finish and Daniel is following her around, insisting she stay off her feet.

"I'm fine Danny, stop worrying, you're worse than -" she stops suddenly and everyone looks down.

"Oh my god! Your waters... They've broken! We're having a baby!" Daniel squeals, uncaring how he sounds through the shock and excitement.

Chaos erupts and everyone is in motion; Mom is trying to calm everyone down and tell them there's no need to panic or rush. Dads panicking regardless alongside Daniel. Delilah has gone quiet, and my sisterly instincts kick in to make sure she's not frozen in shock and to ease her stress.

Hayden has the same thoughts as me and is already striding over to her to lead her gently into a chair, he starts to speak to her in soothing tones and I can see the instant it works; her glazed over eyes blink back to reality and she takes in a deep breath.

"Everything's going to be fine D," I add, sliding up beside her "let's get you upstairs and changed before we drive over to the hospital."

Delilah let's me and mom take her to her old room and find some of her clothes she'd left here, thankfully she had some maternity clothes from the times she'd stayed over the past couple of months.

By the time we come back down, Hayden has got everyone but the immediate family to leave and even managed to calm Dad and Daniel down. The car is running and her go to bag, that's always in the car for this exact situation has been moved out of the trunk.

"Let's go have our baby." Delilah says to Daniel, who kisses her softly before helping her into the car.

Hayden and I tell them we'll drive behind them and let mom and dad travel with the expecting couple, so we have a few moments to ourselves.

"You did so well Hayden, the way you took charge and sorted everything out. If we weren't in a rush right now I would jump you so hard."

He laughs loud and scoops me into his arms, pressing my tight against him. I breathe in his scent and let it consume me.

"I would take you up on that if we didn't have to leave now. Let's go auntie Rae."