here comes the sun,

Lie ins had rapidly become a thing of the past after they’d had Hazel. There was no way to convince a baby to give you an extra hour on a Saturday morning, when the little gremlin had filled a diaper or got hungry they let you know about it no matter how much of the sun was peeking over the horizon. Toddlerhood had come with the discovery that Hazel could jail break her crib, a stinkingly cute little ninja scrambling over the bars and either into her parents’ bed or, perhaps more worryingly, working her way downstairs to turn on the TV for Saturday morning cartoons. Every time a new stage of development had been reached it had felt like it should change and they’d get back those mornings where he could keep Freyja in bed until midday there was a new reason to get up at the crack of dawn. And he wouldn’t have swapped it for the world.

Friday’s pop test on genetics, that he’d toss. Theo hissed out a sigh, tunnelling fingers still clutching the fountain pen Freyja had given him their first Christmas together into his hair. A 5 out of 20. He … couldn’t. Random chance should’ve given a higher score than that. Frowning at the thought of another student meeting cutting into his after class time this coming week he scrawled the red F in the top corner.

Theo puffed out a breath, shoving it aside. At the rate he was going maybe he’d have them finished up before Hazel got back this evening. The rush out of the house had been chased at the last minute with the warning that they were heading for dinner at Uncle Frank’s – a family meal – the reminder likely to be text out in an hour to probably be met with an eye roll that put her mom’s to shame. By the time they piled into the car his brain would be leaking out of his ears, the beer that was gonna coming from Kit or Frank as a greeting downed gladly. Valentine’s day had spoiled him, that break away far too short, far too complete. No Nixon, no marking, no juggling three different schedules.

The smile curled on his lips, his gaze misting over as he stared sightlessly down at the next test. Hot water slipping over bare skin, that frisson of fear that had rapidly given way as they’d finally had the Valentine’s day that had been delayed. Feeling like it really was a decade and a half in the making. He capped the pen, regarded the tests with the look of a man who was considering shoving responsibility aside for another hour or two. There would be time tomorrow night, after dinner, with Hazel tucked up in her room, hopefully peacefully, and her mom tucked up beside him as they sprawled on the couch. He could …

Temptation was on the brink of snapping as Freyja barrelled into the room – not the first time, although the stick clutched in her hand was new and … Dark brows furrowed, eyes ticking from her weapon to that grinning face, all lit up with an excitement he could feel radiating like the sun. ”FreyjaFreyjaFreyja!” he chimed back. ”Woah, woah, careful, we’re not spending the afternoon at the hospital because you … baby.” The word hit like an anvil. There should’ve been stars revolving around his head like Wile E. Coyote’s.

Pushing back carefully from the desk, Theo caught his wife at the waist, holding on like he was the one performing acrobatics here. He stared at her, mouth hanging open, a fist in his chest squeezing tight to steal his breath before it erupted out in an excited laugh. Standing up was probably dangerous but he was surging up with his arms around her hips, holding on tight as he almost bounced. ”We’re having another one … when. Jesus.” The laugh rolled again, his arm easing beneath Freyja’s rump to grip the test and twist it so he could see the date. ”Come skinny dip, we won’t get into any trouble, huh? That’s the last time I believe you. Baby, this is incredible.” The blessings felt as though they should’ve stopped coming after Cory had brought him back. A baby, a new chance of life, a marriage. It was more than some ever got and yet … it wasn’t stopping, their miracles were still rolling, just like the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.

Tagged: FREYJA DAMASCA * Word Count: 748

They’d been separated by that invisible wall that might as well have been a yard thick when he’d found out they were having Hazel. By then Freyja had known for days, had thought that he’d abandoned her out of choice instead of by that cutting swipe of Death’s scythe, wielded by a hunter who’d almost taken Freyja and Hazel from him just a few months later. He hadn’t see that first rush of joy fill Freyja’s face with colour, hadn’t had the pee coated stick wiggled under his nose like some sort of trophy. It had been a gutting start to what had ended up being their miracle. Maybe there was some planning this time around but Theo hadn’t exactly expected this just a few short weeks after their romantic little get away and the challenge of making another.

Miracle. Round two. It was gonna make one hell of an announcement over dinner. They’d light up the damn room with their smiles, and not just as a euphemism if Freyja really got excited over this.

Theo surged to his feet with her squealing and clinging to him now. It had been an idea for the near future, like they’d try now instead of just waiting around to see if something struck but unsurprisingly their second born had decided the very first time was gonna be the charm. Impatient, like their ma. If they could just avoid this one making their arrival in the middle of the night…

Clinging on to stop Freyja – and the baby – tumbling, Theo took a look at the test. Like he needed that confirmation t believe they’d been blessed again. He looked up as Freyja smacked a kiss on him, close but not right on the mouth, grinned. ”I’m a total sucker for my wife, what I can say? She tells me to get my clothes off and …” They ended up having another. Theo’s grin started to grow watery around the edges, tears swimming up into his eyes as he beamed at his wife. At this rate it was going to become a yearly event. They’d leave their growing brood of kids in his brother’s nearly capable hands. Between Frank and Kit, and all the other waifs and strays the house had been filling up with they’d cope and just a couple of weeks later there’d be another dinner, another announcement that was gonna leave him dancing on air. And sobbing.

He couldn’t deny it as he let out a teary chuckle. Theo let go of the test, twisting his wrist to knuckle at his eyes. She’d known he was a crier practically from the moment they’d met and she loved him for it anyway. ”That makes two us … I guess you’re the only one who can blame it on pregnancy hormones, huh?” Oh he’d take the blame and he’d wipe the tears from her cheeks as he did now, his fingers curling at the perfect point of her chin, his thumb brushing the spots the swipe with her shirt had missed.

Making sure he wasn’t gonna lose his grip, Theo slipped his other arm under Freyja’s ass, gripping one wrist with the other hand as he swayed slightly. He used to do it when Hazel was a lot smaller, bouncing her around the living room when she’d cry like her little heart was broken (definitely breaking his in the process). Now all he could do to comfort her was hug her and promise that no matter how terrible things seemed at times, they were going to make sure it was all OK. Theo chuckled ruefully, it was a bit harder to convince your child of that when there was a possible new, loud, incredibly smelly little gremlin invading her life. ”Probably not, but she’ll get used to it soon enough. How did your brothers take it when you were announced?” It was the sort of thing that became legend in families, how each of those pivotal moments had careened into their lives. It wasn’t one of the stories he’d heard in the years around the Bentley family dinner table on those trips they’d made back to where they’d made Hazel – the scene of the first baby making crime.

Theo stilled, the bouncing of his knees slowing as he considered it. It wasn’t like they were gonna be able to hide the appointments and the ultrasounds … or the growing bump … past a certain point. He nipped at his top lip for a moment before he nodded. ”How about tonight? Wait til Frank gets the dessert out and then drop the bomb. There might be some fainting around the table but I think we can probably handle that.” Frank had heard about Hazel from Freyja, in the church when … Theo’s throat tightened enough that he had to gulp to try and ease the lump in it.

Pushing a grin past it, he settled Freyja on the edge of the desk, dropping to his knees in front of her to press his hands and his lips against a belly that was still flat for the moment. Last time he hadn’t been able to do this until Hazel was almost already here. ”It’s gonna be smooth sailing this time,” he murmured softly, his nose nudging Freyja’s belly button. ”You’re gonna have your mom and dad right here the whole time, and your big sister … even if she pretends she’s not stoked. When you get the appointment, I’m coming…” Theo propped his chin on her thigh, looking up at his wife. He wasn’t about to spend a single moment separated from any of it this time.

Tagged: FREYJA DAMASCA * Word Count: 942

He might’ve been forced to experience most of Freyja’s first pregnancy from the other side of an invisible wall but it didn’t that he hadn’t tried to drink in every moment of it. If that was all they were going to have, the one daughter, a single child who would grow up not knowing her dad because he’d died too damn soon, then he was going to make sure he saw as much of it as he could. The cravings, the heartburn after, the swollen ankles he hadn’t been able to massage, the circus tricks going on inside her bump he hadn’t been able to feel until he was back, the scan – Theo smiled at the memory – oh, the scan had gotten him closer than anything else and it had been incredible.

Theo flexed his fingers, felt the sensation roll through every muscle as it had done then. Somehow smaller in an instant, fuller in some places, especially his bladder, that’d be an experience he didn’t wanna relive. So many of those small discomforts were muted as he’d stared at the tiny screen through a veil of tears. Sixteen years and he still remembered every tiny dip, every tiny ripple that made up his squirming daughter. This time he’d be crying with his own eyes, his hand holding Freyja’s as the tech talked the both of them through it.

Well, he was gonna have to do something about the dad bod by then anyway, what little of it had crept in over the last decade and a half. Still no man boobs, he was pretty proud of that but Theo looked down between the two of them at his chest all the same, pooching his lips out contemplatively. ”You never know,” he quipped before he looked back up. His grin grew as he caught hers, pressed against Freyja’s lips for a moment. ”You say it like it’s a bad thing. You’ve always got me to brush those tears away.” To make it better if needed it, the same way she’d done for him since they’d found each other on campus.

One little meeting spinning out to all of this. It would’ve been hard to imagine then but now, swaying in his office with his wife – his pregnant wife – in his arms, Theo could see every swirling branch of it and felt blessed by every single of them.

It might’ve taken them a while but they were gonna end up with a family just as big as the one Freyja had grown up in. The house was no farm but there was room for those kids, a yard for them to run around screaming in. Maybe it was going to take Hazel time to come around to the idea that she wasn’t going to be an only kid anymore, but they’d produced a sweet, generous kid, he trusted she was gonna love having a brother or sister, or five more of them, to take the pressure off. Distractions for mom and dad. Theo laughed low, continuing that slow bounce as Freyja dialled back the clock. ”I bet your mom was glad she wasn’t gonna be the only female in the house anymore. You had them wrapped around your little finger eventually.” No question there. He’d seen the way they were together, knew how much Freyja’s family loved her and them. They’d taken him into the family and he’d seen the joy there when Hazel had been built.

He’d never been lucky enough to meet Bo though. Theo felt like he’d gotten to know him through Freyja’s stories but he’d been taken long before he’d died, had found some sort of peace after a time. His throat had thickened as Freyja mentioned him, the feeling growing as she brought up his name know. The little pucker between his eyebrows eased as he gave a watery smile. ”Absolutely,” he promised hoarsely, dipping his head to kiss the inside of Freyja’s arm, the one she’d propped on his shoulder to play with his hair. ”Bo either way. How about Boudica, or Bogdana?” Amusement trailed through his voice but he knew when the time came, it would be simple. Boy or girl – Bo.

Setting Freyja down on the desk, Theo dropped to his knees, getting close to little Bo. His touch drifting over that still minute curve that would bulge almost obscenely by the end. A squirming mound of excitement, ready to burst out into this crazy, sometimes scary world. They were gonna have to tell Hazel before it got too far, no one wanted to find out their mom was pregnant by realising her boobs were bigger or there was a definite bump under her shirt.

Theo tipped his head back, smiling up at his wife as her fingers twirled into her hair again. Maybe he was a little premature but that excitement was building under his diaphragm again, leaving him a little giddy with it. ”Yeah, yeah, sure, we can give her the heads up first.” The laugh rolled out of him, warm, squelched by the smacking kiss he pressed to her stomach again. ”If we’re lucky Kit’ll stay on his feet. He can scrape Frank up.” Kit had been there to have his brother’s back often enough that it felt like he was one of the family. Their rapidly growing family.

By the time Bo came along Frank might’ve adopted a hundred other strays, leaving his place as full as theirs was gonna be. Still, they weren’t gonna hesitate to leave the kids there, in all of those trusted hands. Frank and Kit had ended up better uncles than he’d imagined, Dom too, although if there was anybody who’d taught Hazel every bad word she’d squeaked out as a kid, it was him. ”Hey,” Theo whispered softly as Freyja started to blink the tears away again. ”It’s gonna be just fine this time.” Freyja didn’t have Grim as her near silent support but she had him and he wasn’t missing a moment with this one.

Like she’d read his mind she brought him up. Theo cupped her face in his hands, pressing his lips to her forehead as the emotion welled up again. He hadn’t grown up with pets but Grim had been there with Freyja for as long as he had, their tenures overlapping, thankfully. ”They can’t be harder work or more expensive than Hazel,” he joked, dropping his mouth down to her cheek before he nodded. ”I think we can afford to fill a couple more bellies. It’ll be good for Hazel, and the new baby. We can get her out walking him, or her, and they can watch out for her.” He rested his forehead against hers, humming lightly at the reminder of just how long it had been. ”We’ll make it a two fer and maybe it’ll make it up to Hazel a little, let her feel like she’s getting a treat too.” Most kids begged for puppies, kittens, ponies, flying squirrels, whatever cute furry thing they’d seen somewhere.

Tagged: FREYJA DAMASCA * Word Count: 1171