AN: Before I forget (and on a completely unrelated note to this story, sorry), many of you have asked to see pictures of me, though I don't know why? I did post the one of me when I was younger and much better looking during the time when I met Riccardo, the inspiration for Pete. And of course my profile pic is what I look like now, though I'm completely overshadowed by my amazingly handsome kitty cat Moss 😉
Anyway, the Solo Travel one shot I wrote about Japan called 里帰り (Satogaeri--Returning Home) has two or three photographs of me as a toddler and very young girl, as well as my grandparents' wedding photo, if you read Obachan, or if you're interested in those kinds of things.
Okay, on we go with MJ and her pregnancy and we really are nearing the end, okay? This should be just about the last chapter, and I'm just jumping ahead to give you guys the info I know you want. And, if I end up writing a sequel, I'm royally screwing myself❣️
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"Oh, let me look at you, MJ, darling, let me look at you," Margaret kept repeating as she came down the steps of Tanglewood, a sweater tossed around her shoulders in her eagerness to reach the mother of her future grandchildren.
A light snow was falling, giving the twilight an ethereal glow, a quiet radiance. Two or three inches had already fallen, and sounds were slightly muffled, though the horses could be heard calling from the barn as they sensed the arrival of newcomers to their home.
Pringle's puppies, half-grown in size but still very young at heart, came spilling down the steps along with Noel, Budgy and Pringle, looking like a river of waving tails parting around Margaret as they came to welcome the tired travelers.
Just as Margaret reached the bottom of the steps, however, she was displaced by Archie, who was today wearing a huge, baggy sweatshirt that said "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a protected right."
"Steady on, Archie," his mother complained as her youngest son reached the car first to greet MJ and Heath.
MJ laughed when she read Archie's shirt, because, as far as she could remember, abortion in England was a protected right, up to twenty-four weeks, if she wasn't mistaken. He grabbed her in a huge hug, lifting her completely off the ground and swinging her in a circle.
"Oh lord, MJ, you look wonderful!" Archie exclaimed. He kissed her cheek, carefully set her down, and turned toward the house. "Let's get you out of the snow, though, don't want you and the babies to freeze, do we?"
"Um, Archie, the rest of us came outside to say hello to her as well, you know?" Poppy complained, hand on her hip. She was wearing sweats with her Cambridge College logo on them, and had her long, brown hair up in a messy bun.
"Sorry, sorry, here you go." And Archie turned, releasing MJ and presenting her like she was a statue or artwork of some kind, so Hugh, Margaret and Poppy could hug and kiss her as well. They all greeted her and began leading her up the stairs, admonishing each other to "be careful," and "watch out, don't let her slip."
"Your shirt's not very, um, politic, given the circumstances, is it?" MJ asked Archie as they climbed the steps. She patted her belly.
"Oh fuck, never thought of that," Archie replied, eyes huge. "Shit, MJ, I'm so sorry."
"I'm joking, Archie," MJ said with a laugh. "You know I'm pro-choice, right?"
Archie let out his breath. "Right, right--"
"Okay, then, I guess I'll just go to the barn and kip down with Cinnamon, Silver, and them, then," Heath interrupted as he stood next to their bags. Even the driver was laughing quietly at the joke.
"Sounds ace, mate," Archie called over his shoulder, his arm still around MJ. "Just make sure MJ's things make it into the house, yeah? She needs to be comfortable when she sleeps."
"Hey, turn around you wanker," Heath called.
"Who are you calling wanker, you--" Archie began as he turned toward his brother. He stopped speaking abruptly as a snowball hit him square in the face.
"You dick," Archie said, his words indistinct and muffled by the snow.
"Seriously, Heath Michael, what if your aim had gone awry and you'd hit MJ?" Poppy asked.
"Come on, you bellend, get your bony arse back here and help me with the bags," Heath said with a laugh to Archie, who was still wiping the snow from his face. To his sister, he added, "My aim never goes awry, I'm deadly accurate, you know that. I wasn't called 'Snow Sniper' for naught when we were younger."
Poppy laughed as Archie went back to help Heath with the bags, and Hugh, Margret, Poppy and MJ continued up the stairs with all the dogs.
"No one ever called you that," Poppy responded, "except maybe you, brother. You were a legend in your own mind."
Twenty minutes and much laughing later, they were all settled in the beautiful front room of Tanglewood where a fire burned merrily, taking the chill off, and a gorgeous Christmas tree took up an entire corner of the room, its topmost branches brushing the twenty-foot ceiling. All of the dogs, who numbered eleven now, since the addition of an abandoned little terrier mix that Archie had brought home from school, and some sort of whippet-greyhound looking dog that Margaret had found rummaging for food at the market, had found places to sit as well, making it look like some sort of very posh veterinarian's waiting room. The numerous cats only added to this effect.
"So, dear, you're at about 25 weeks, right?" Margaret asked, smiling.
MJ nodded, taking a sip of her tea.
"Mum's got a calendar," Archie told her. "She marks off the days with a pen, like she's the one having the baby, it's hilarious."
"Oh, Archie, it is not," MJ admonished. "I think that's so nice, that she's so invested and interested."
"Come on, MJ, how could she not be interested?" Poppy asked in disbelief. "She's in heaven, they both are! Haven't you noticed that they haven't stopped looking at you since you arrived? Heath Michael could've grown two heads and they wouldn't even have noticed."
"Stop it, children," Hugh chastised. "MJ's right, it's normal that we'd be extra--erm--interested, that is to say, pleased--"
"Dad, the word you're looking for is chuffed," Archie supplied. "Well done, Heath." Archie hoisted his tea cup in salute Heath's way.
Heath, who had just stuffed another cookie in his mouth, just nodded in response.
"God, do you have to be such a pig?" Poppy asked. "You're going to be a parent soon, Heath, how about a little decorum?"
MJ laughed and stroked her tummy, which was quite round under her pretty gray sweater dress. "Oh my god, you should see him tie one on with my dad! They sit at the table and drink ouzo and sing Greek folk songs, it's hysterical. Eventually I make them go in the back yard so they can scare the raccoons and coyotes. Once or twice, the coyotes even howled back at them and they got so scared they came running back in. You should've seen their silly, drunk faces!"
"Speaking of your dad, you did tell him he was welcome to come, I hope?" Hugh asked, scratching the head of a conveniently close dog.
"Yes, thank you, I did, but his brother won an all expenses paid week in Mexico for two, and invited him to go," MJ explained. "Normally my dad isn't big on travel, unless it's back to Greece, but this included deep sea fishing and golf and other things that he really enjoys. And he said that once these guys are born, he won't be able to go anywhere for a long time, so he wanted to go and play while he could, even though we told him that he could still go on vacation any time he wanted--" MJ shook her head and smiled. "He's taking his responsibilities as nanny very seriously."
Heath, who had finally finished chewing and swallowing his cookie, spoke up. "I resent the implication that mine and pappoús' singing is what caused the coyotes to howl," he said. "I maintain that they were merely howling at something out there near wherever they were, and it happened to coincide with our Greek harmonizing, which was actually quite mellifluous and dulcet in tone."
"God, Heath, that was two or three topics ago. You need to keep up or shut up," Archie suggested, not unkindly.
"So, speaking of the babies," Margaret continued, trying not to sound impatient or excited, "you know, now that you've arrived, and are here in person, so to speak--"
"Good lord, mum, just say it," Poppy said, smiling. "It's hard to believe you were ever a barrister, the way you're hemming and hawing with your words." She turned to Heath and MJ, and put a hand on MJ's tummy. "She wants to know, as do we all, if they're boys or girls. You said you'd tell us when you got here, and you're bloody well here, so spill it, please?"
"I still am a barrister in good standing, I'll have you know," Margaret retorted with spirit. "And I can speak for myself." She turned to MJ and Heath.
"You said you'd tell us the sex of the babies when you were here in person, and now you are, so spill it, please?" she said in a fairly accurate paraphrase of her daughter, at whom she gave a smile as she spoke.
Heath and MJ smiled at each other, and MJ reached into her bag and pulled out a green velvet drawstring bag.
"Since it's Christmas, we thought this would be fun, and you'd have a way to remember it always," Heath explained, picking up Valentino, who was sitting next to him, and placing him on his lap so he could pet him.
"Heath, you honestly think we're going to forget the gender of your children without something to remind us?" Archie asked in disbelief.
"God, no, you imbecile, the occasion, we thought this would be a nice way to commemorate tonight, you know the reveal or whatever--you're so fucking thick sometimes," Heath complained.
"Shut it, both of you," Poppy said, passing the bag to her mother. "Here, mum, hurry up, I'm dying."
"No, mum, go a bit slower then, if she's actually dying," Archie suggested. "Maybe she'll have well and truly passed by the time you get it open--"
"Archibald Francis, you fucking asshole," Poppy said, trying not to laugh. "You absolute son of a dripping, rotten--"
"That's enough, both of you," Hugh interrupted, his voice mild. "Can we have thirty seconds of peace so we can remember this beautiful moment, please?"
Heath put an arm around MJ and leaned in to kiss her cheek, after which he bent to kiss her tummy.
Margaret pulled on the drawstring, and opened the bag. She pulled out two tissue-wrapped objects, and handed one to her husband.
Inside the tissue were two beautifully wrought snowflake ornaments, about the size of a person's palm, both set with clear stones. There was some sort of mechanism at the top of each snowflake, along with a loop to hang it from the tree.
Hugh found the small on/off switch, and went to flip it.
"No, wait, dad, wait until you've hung them," Heath said, holding his hand up. Margaret handed hers to Hugh, who went to the beautifully decorated tree holding the two ornaments in his hand.
"See, when you turn them on, they light up, there's room for small watch batteries in the top," Heath explained. "They're crystal, and when lit up, they'll shine either blue or pink, for obvious reasons, get it?"
"Oh, how marvelous," Margaret declared, sitting on the edge of her seat.
"I agree," Poppy said, grasping Archie's hand and clasping it. Brother and sister smiled at each other in excitement.
"Hurry up, Dad," Archie called. "Do you need help, or what?"
"Of course I don't need help," Hugh answered. "I'm just finding the right place. There's an art to this, you know."
Finally, he'd found the right place, apparently, and he stepped back, one hand on each ornament.
"Are we ready?"
"Yes, yes, we're ready," everyone answered.
Heath gave MJ a squeeze, and the two of them smiled at everyone's excitement.
"Okay, then. Ready, steady, go," Hugh cried, and he flicked both switches at the same time.
Both snowflakes illuminated with a pretty, soft, pink glow as they slowly began to spin.
"Oh god, girls," Margaret murmured as she rose and came to hug and kiss both MJ and Heath.
Poppy's response was a little more high energy.
"Fuck me, we're having nieces," she shrieked. "Archie, we're having nieces, nieces, nieces!"
"Oh god," Archie said, his voice solemn and serious for once. He bounced as his sister lost her mind next to him on the couch.
The dogs, picking up on the energy in the room, stood and wagged their tails, looking from person to person.
Hugh came and kissed both Heath and MJ, then kissed and hugged his wife.
"Well, this calls for some nog," I think," he declared. "We must celebrate!" And he took himself off to the kitchen to prepare it, while everyone else sat down to talk about the fact that MJ had two tiny little girls growing inside her.
"Were you excited when you found out?" Archie asked.
"Heath cried," MJ told everyone. "I honestly didn't care, and I don't think my dad did, either? And Heath kept saying he didn't care, but I noticed every time he'd go online to look at stuff, it was always girl clothes, or first editions of The Secret Garden, stuff like that? And the day of the ultrasound, he had to sit and cry."
Heath took the ribbing and teasing from his family with good grace. "Yeah, whatever, just wait until it's you, Archie, you won't know whether to shit or go blind," Heath declared.
"What an odd turn of phrase," Margaret said. "Is that American?"
Hugh returned with home made eggnog for everyone (he told MJ hers had no Cognac or rum), and they all toasted to the health of the baby girls.
"So do we have any names yet?" Poppy asked. "Or are we keeping those a secret as well?"
"We wanted to do the gender reveal in person because we didn't want to take any chance of it leaking," Heath explained as he sipped his eggnog.
"But we really don't want to think about names until they're born," MJ said. "I feel like I can't give them names until I meet them and see their faces," she explained. "I know, that sounds crazy, especially since I am kind of getting to know them already, every day, but I have to say 'hi' to them before I can name them, you know?"
"And I agree with her," Heath said, pecking her cheek.
"Oh, they're moving," MJ said softly. "You want to feel?"
Five hands were on her belly in a blink, and the babies obliged by pummeling each other and jockeying for more comfortable positions in their increasingly tight quarters.
"Ha! Amazing!" Poppy murmured, kissing Archie when she felt it. He nodded, looking back at her.
And MJ kissed Heath, whose face was right next to hers. Everything about tonight had been as perfect as they could've hoped, and she was ready for bed.