Their efforts to get the baby room ready had started in earnest at seven months, two weeks. Tyler and Wednesday had tried to keep everything more or less organized as they got more and more stuff for Adrienne, but sometimes organized meant stacking it neatly in the closet instead of having it out.
But they would get more busy (and in Wednesday's case, more tired) during the time before Wednesday gave birth, so they had to get it done now.
The problem was that there wasn't quite enough space to have all of the baby stuff out and have Wednesday's sewing things set up in the same room.
"What do you think about moving your sewing machine and desk and maybe the mannequins into our bedroom?" Tyler suggested. "We have a lot more space in there than in here. And once Adrienne starts crawling, we can keep her out of here and away from the pins and needles. If you had the machine in the living room area, she could get into things."
Wednesday considered that, then nodded. "That sounds good. We might have to wait for my father to come over to dinner to do that, because I don't think I'm meant to be lifting things."
"No lifting heavy things, yeah." Tyler glanced around the room. "Okay, so in the meantime- how much is there to get ready with the crib? I know you said that there can't be any blankets in the crib."
Wednesday nodded. "Yeah, not for the first year. That's why we have the basket under the crib, to keep a couple blankets there for when we're holding Adrienne. The other blankets and the quilt I made are going in the top of the closet for now."
"And then we have a basket of burping cloths, and a space for packages of diapers, and we need to unearth the baby carrier," Tyler added. "Uh- do you want to put stuff in the baskets, maybe, and I can move the furniture around? And then we can sort out all of the toys that we've been getting from people."
"And then can you get the baby mobile up?" Wednesday asked hopefully. "It's so cute, I just want to see it out of the box."
Tyler laughed as he remembered that particular present from Wednesday's parents. Somehow they had found a pastry-themed mobile and had swapped out a couple of the duplicate cupcakes for bombs and blades. "We'll have to make sure that it's high enough that the cats don't go for it."
"Oh, we're going to find them in here, totally entranced by the mobile, aren't we?"
It didn't take long for the nursery to start to take shape. The crib was pushed to one corner and the changing table in another. Wednesday packed up her sewing machine and Tyler carried it to their bedroom, along with the chair from her sewing table and her two mannequins.
The things that they wouldn't need in the room but wanted ready- the baby carrier and the high chair- both got unpacked and placed next to the crib, and the packaging was brought out- well, after the use and cleaning instructions had been extracted and tucked away in Adrienne's dresser.
And that was pretty much all they got done for the day.
"Okay, I gotta sit," Wednesday announced. "My ankles are starting to hurt. Maybe we can get more done tomorrow. Or the next day. Or next weekend."
"It's going to be a little difficult to move around in here until you get your sewing desk moved," Tyler agreed. "And we've made really good progress! I think that's enough for today."
"Can we make cookies now?" Wednesday asked hopefully. "We ran out two days ago."
"I can make cookies," Tyler assured her. "Any requests?"
"The sea salt pretzel ones, maybe?"
Tyler grinned. "The salt and sugar cravings are hitting again, aren't they?"
The only response that he got was Wednesday's death glare and a stuck-out tongue.
"Have you decided yet when you're going to start your maternity leave?" Tyler asked as they headed out to the living room. "I know you were planning on discussing it with Ivory yesterday."
"She said that I can work as long as I want, and we can increase the number of days that I work from home as time goes on and I get too tired to go in to work," Wednesday reported. "And then I think I have to start proper leave three weeks before my due date? That's what we've done the paperwork for, at least."
She made a face. "I feel like I'm going to go either go crazy with boredom or with fussing around to try to make everything perfect. At least I'll have Thing to talk to during the day."
"And you don't have to stay at home," Tyler reminded her, heading into the kitchen and starting to pull bowls down for the cookies. "It's not like you're on bed rest. You can go visit your parents. And didn't you say that Pugsley might be visiting during that time?"
"He might, yeah. He hasn't decided for sure yet."
It didn't take long for them to fall into a comfortable silence. Wednesday curled up with a blanket, a book, and the ever-hovering Masha while Tyler got down to work in the kitchen, tossing chocolate and butterscotch chips at Thing as he mixed up the dough. After a while Sasha appeared, meowing for treats.
"Thing, did you teach her to do this?" Tyler asked with some exasperation as Sasha made an attempt to climb up his leg. "She didn't use to be such a beggar."
"Blame my father," Wednesday called from the other room. "He's been teasing her with table scraps. I've been telling him not to, but he never listens."
"We might have to start shutting the cats up in the bedroom during dinner," Tyler suggested. He scooped Sasha up and carried her out to Wednesday. "I need to put the cookies in the oven and I don't want her tumbling in."
"Double kitty cuddles!" Wednesday snuggled Sasha under her chin. "You get to stay put, my little troublemaker."
Sasha let out an annoyed mmrew but stayed put.
Without a hungry shadow attached to his leg, Tyler finished scooping out the first trays of cookies in no time and put them in the oven. Once the timer was set, he pulled out his phone to check it. It wasn't long before he made a face and let out an irritated noise.
"What is it?"
"Tom just texted. Apparently my father wants to talk to us over Facetime. I'm guessing that not having the option of being able to call us over with a day's notice has been chafing at him a bit." Tyler rolled his eyes as he headed out to join Wednesday on the couch. "Tom quoted him, actually- he said that he wanted to talk since we 'didn't have the chance to properly get together before his departure'."
Wednesday scoffed. "Gee, I wonder why."
"And we might as well do it, or we'll have him pestering us all the time," Tyler said, feeling a bit discouraged. He- well, they- had kind of been banking on the two-month separation (and the couple months of very minimal contact prior) would drive his father into actually honoring their scheduled dinner.
With a Facetime "meeting" mid-vacation, Mr. Galpin would probably consider that enough interaction with his son and daughter-in-law for another couple months.
At this rate, Adrienne would already be born by the time Tyler's father could spare the time to meet with them again.
"Do you want to tell him the news when we're Facetiming him?" Wednesday asked. "Or do you want to do the- what did Tom call it? Malicious compliance?"
"It just refers to deliberately following what someone said exactly, even if we know or suspect that it wasn't exactly what they actually meant." Tyler grinned.
"Like, I bet my father would include Facetime as face-to-face interactions. We're ignoring that on purpose. I'd prefer to make him wait, honestly," he added to Wednesday. "Since otherwise he's not going to bother ever having us over for dinner in person again."
Wednesday nodded. "That's what I was thinking, too."
Even with Mr. Galpin's request, it took several days for them to get a Facetime video set up and actually get it done. He canceled on them once- apparently he had met a prospective client, which was maddening considering that he was meant to be on vacation and resting- and then actually honored the appointment the second time.
Tyler was Not Impressed.
As it turned out, his father mostly wanted to dictate a bunch of stuff to them about what should be going on at the company, since apparently Tom wasn't listening to him.
His return was going to coincide with some sort of meet up, which was called a gala to be fancier, with investigators and famous clients and assorted company staff for Jericho, and he wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. He also wanted to make sure that Tyler and Wednesday knew that they were expected to be there.
Tyler shot off a text to Tom that boiled down to please can you do this thing that my father is asking about and tell him you did because I don't want to deal with him bugging me about it until you do.
"Mr. Galpin, we don't have anything to do with the company," Wednesday was saying in clear exasperation as Tyler pocketed his phone and glanced back up to re-join the conversation. "There's no point in contacting us about this stuff. Tell Tom or one of the other secretaries."
Mr. Galpin waved that objection off, just like he always did. "Yes, well, you're family. It's a family business. I've told you time and time again that you should-"
"She's told you no, over and over," Tyler cut across, his voice going steely. He was honestly tired of his father doing this, and Wednesday shouldn't have to keep turning him down.
It was exhausting, and Wednesday was already getting tired more easily than usual. "She loves her job where she is, and the lab aesthetic at Jericho isn't anywhere near as good of a fit. Enough with the asking."
His father actually looked taken aback. Wednesday reached over, squeezing Tyler's hand gently. He glanced over and she shot him a thankful look.
"How is the vacation going?" Tyler asked once he had taken a second to recompose himself. "Have you visited anywhere interesting?"
"I've been visiting a number of the typical inspiration locations and have found most lacking," Mr. Galpin said stiffly. "The crowds are atrocious, even at this time of the year. Perhaps especially at this time of the year. There are far too many people for my liking."
"Perhaps you could find some easy hikes to go on?" Wednesday suggested weakly. "There won't be as many people there, surely, and the nature should be rela-"
Mr. Galpin snorted, cutting her off mid-word. "It's far too warm in this part of the world to spend that much time outdoors, I didn't bring the shoes for hiking nor the desire to, and what would I do if my heart decided to give me trouble while I'm out on my own? No, I won't do any hiking."
There was an awkward silence at that.
"Has- has your heart been giving you any trouble?" Tyler asked tentatively, since clearly attempting further suggestions would get nowhere. His father was determined not to enjoy his vacation, so there was no point in even trying to help.
Mr. Galpin snorted again, waving a dismissive hand. "Not at all. I've never had any trouble, so I don't know what my normal doctor was on about. It's just all exaggeration and nonsense."
...okay, yeah, Tyler was remembering why he hated trying to hold a conversation with his father so much.
Two minutes later, their conversation had devolved to talking about the weather and his father was looking increasingly irritated. Tyler hastily brought the conversation to an end, and both he and Wednesday leaned back from the darkened computer screen with a sigh.
"I prefer talking to your grandma to that," Tyler told Wednesday. "She might not listen that well, but at least she clearly enjoys the places that she visits."
Wednesday nodded, looking exhausted.
"And a gala..." Tyler let out a long breath. "Every time he tells us to go to one of those, I worry that he's going to try to use peer pressure to force you into the company. I hate it."
"By telling people that I'm going to join the company, you mean?" Wednesday asked. "And thinking that I'll be forced to go through with it once it's out there? Because I think he knows that I wouldn't hesitate to correct him. Loudly. And that would just embarrass him."
Tyler laughed. "Yeah. If you had any less backbone, I think he would try it. But he knows that you aren't scared of him, so he has to at least pretend to behave." Then he got more serious. "But a gala when he comes back- you'll be at eight months. A little over, actually. You can't wear a chunky sweater to a gala."
"He can try to stop me," Wednesday muttered rebelliously. Then she sighed. "I'm still really small. I could probably get away with wearing a flowy empire waist dress- actually, I know just the one. It's black, so that's even better, and sleeveless, so I could wear an open-front sweater- hmm. I'm going to have to think about which one I could pair with the dress. But it's not impossible to hide my bump at a formal event. It's still tiny."
"And we can try to beg out early, as usual," Tyler told her. "Since I'm sure you'll be exhausted."
"I'll be on leave by then, so I can rest up and have all day to get ready. But I'll never argue with leaving early."
"Perfect."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Wednesday sagging against Tyler's side as they recovered from the ridiculously exhausting video call. Then Tyler was hit by a fantastic idea.
"Say, I could go for some ice cream to recover from that whole conversation. Do you want any?"
Wednesday perked up. "Oh my god, yes. Can I have pretzels with mine?"
"Whatever you want, my love."
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Fin