December 2019
It was Christmas Eve and today was the day Melissa was finally going to tell Tom, Mia, and Daniel about her pregnancy. Keeping her pregnancy a secret from them for the past three weeks had been so difficult for her. Along with her constant nausea she was also experiencing mild cramping. She would have to hide the small groans that would escape her lips when she would feel pain coming. That was a lot easier to hide than her nausea. As soon as she would wake up she'd run to the bathroom. Occasionally she'd be in the middle of a conversation with them and have to run to the bathroom. She always just blamed it on something she ate. They bought it for about a week but then they started to get worried. Thankfully after that, her nausea became strictly morning sickness, so she just made sure to let it happen before Tom or the kids woke up.
The Flores family had always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, it's what most Latino Families did. Since meeting Tom, they had spent the past two Christmases in London with his family but this year they were coming to Atlanta to spend it at their house. His family wouldn't be arriving until the afternoon and Kimberly and Jorge would be arriving in a little over an hour to help cook dinner.
Melissa was planning on telling all of them the news today but she wanted to start off with just her husband and children. She would be telling them after breakfast and she had her whole plan ready. She would start off by cooking them their favorite breakfast and would then surprise them with the news.
"Merry Christmas!" she heard them all yell before loud footsteps came running down the stairs. A few seconds later, Tom, Mia, and Daniel all came running into the kitchen.
"Feliz Navidad mis amores!" Melissa said as she went to hug her family. She led them to the dining room where she had set what she prepared, chilaquiles, fruit, juice, and tea. "I made your favorite!"
"This looks delicious love. Thank you," Tom smiled. He pulled out her chair for her and allowed her to sit before pushing it back in and taking his own seat
They talked about the day ahead as they ate. Kimberly and Jorge would be coming right after breakfast to help cook Christmas Eve dinner. Tamales were on the menu, along with pan dulce and champurrado. Then Tom's mom, sisters, and brother-in-laws would be arriving at around 4 pm, giving them time to get settled in and ready for dinner. All of them would be staying over at their house for the night so that they could open gifts at midnight and then spend time all together on Christmas Day.
Once they were done eating, Tom, Mia, and Daniel offered to clean up since Melissa had cooked. She had told them to meet her in the living room when they were done. She quickly went to get what she needed and made her way to the couch.
The three of them finally joined her and were quick to notice the large wrapped box on the coffee table. "Ooh who's that for?" Mia batted her lashes in hopes she would be getting the first present of the day. Tom sat down with Mia and Daniel on either side of him.
"Actually it's for all of you," Melissa said as she put it directly in front of them. "I wanted to give you guys this before everyone got here. So why don't you guys go ahead and open it," she said nervously. Before they got there she had also quickly set up her phone to secretly record them. She wanted to be able to look back at this moment forever.
Mia and Daniel were quick to begin unwrapping the big box, pulling off all the paper before throwing it to the floor. Tom then lifted the lid, pulling back the tissue paper. All of them looked down confused at the various Marvel plushes. There was at least ten plushes, including Loki of course.
"These are so cool mom!" Daniel was confused by the random gift but also excited because they were Marvel after all.
"Keep going. There's more."
Under the last plush Mia reached down to pull out something that was folded. She held it up to reveal a small baby onesie. Tom let out a small gasp and went back to pull out a few more onesies. He immediately had tears running down his face when he saw the framed sonogram picture at the bottom of the box. Mia and Daniel had yet to see it but when Tom pulled it out of the box they both let out loud gasps.
Both of them had quickly jumped to their feet and ran over to Melissa. "Oh my god mom! You're pregnant?" Daniel asked excitedly.
"I am mijo," Melissa smiled through her tears.
"Mom this is the best news ever!" Mia shouted.
Tom had yet to move from his spot on the couch. He sat quietly, holding the frame in his hands, tears running down his cheeks. Melissa moved over to stand in front of him. "Tom?" she asked quietly.
He looked up, eyes full of tears, "Is this real?"
"Si mi amor."
"We're having a baby?" he asked hopefully.
"We're having a baby," she smiled once she saw his excitement coming through.
Tom jumped up to his feet and wrapped his arms around Melissa's waist, lifting her gently up in the air. "Oh my goodness sweetheart!" He brought her into a deep kiss. "I love you so much."
"I love you too."
"Do you know how far along you are?" Mia asked.
"Yes. There's actually a lot we need to talk about," Melissa said. She gestured for all of them to sit down with her on the couch. "So I am currently about seven weeks pregnant. When I went to the OB/GYN to check about the possibility of having a baby it turned out I was already four weeks pregnant. I wanted to surprise you with the news for Christmas which I am surprised I was able to because I have been extremely nauseous."
"I knew something was going on! I wish you would've just told me. I've been so worried about you," Tom said concerned.
"I know but I thought it would be a great Christmas gift. And the doctor said it was normal and gave me a list of things to help with it and I'm a little better now. But she also told me about some risks that we may face going forward." She went on to tell them everything the doctor had told her about the risks of her pregnancy.
"When's your next appointment?" Tom asked.
"Tomorrow."
"Can we all go?" Daniel asked eagerly.
"Yes of course. The doctor actually wanted you guys to join me. Because of it being high risk she wants to make sure all of us do everything we can to make sure it all goes smoothly."
"We'll be there with you every step of the way mom," Mia said as she leaned in to hug her mom.
"Thank you baby. I know it's still early and most people wait until they reach the end of their first trimester, but I wanna tell the family today." She had filled them in on her plan. Before they started getting ready for the day they all gave her a big group hug and gave her words of affirmation that definitely had her sobbing into Tom's chest.
Kimberly and Jorge had stopped by about an hour later and helped out to cook dinner and bake dessert. They had started prepping yesterday so thankfully they didn't have much left to do. By 4 pm, Tom's family had arrived and went to their rooms to rest and get ready for dinner. Melissa was feeling extremely anxious to share the big news with their family that she found herself distracted during dinner. Tom noticed and tried his best to keep everyone else from noticing. He knew she was nervous but also ready to tell them.
Once dinner was done they all went to settle in the living room, deciding on which Christmas movie to watch to pass the time for midnight to hit.
Melissa had stepped away, claiming that she was taking Bobby to the backyard to use the bathroom. Really she was stepping out to put Bobby into a brand new sweater she got for him. He had to be included into the big news. He was part of the family after all. Bobby followed Melissa back into the living room where everyone was waiting for her to play the movie.
"Aww Bobby look at your cute little sweater!" Diana said.
"When did you even put that on him?" Kimberly giggled as Bobby got closer. "What does it say on- Oh my god. Melissa are you?" Melissa simply nodded at her causing her to shriek.
"What the hell is going on?" Jorge asked startled at his wife's yelling.
"Read Bobby's sweater!" Kimberly yelled as she ran over to hug her sister and Tom.
Everyone went to read Bobby's sweater and let out similar shrieks to Kimberly's.
"You're having a baby?" Sarah asked just to make sure everyone understood correctly.
"Yeah we are," Tom said proudly.
"This is the best Christmas gift we've ever gotten!" Emma celebrated.
"I am so happy for you my darlings," Diana said hugging and kissing the couple. "I love you so much."
Everyone was extremely happy for Melissa, Tom, and the kids. This was big news and they all assured them that they would help them in any way that they could.