FICLET FRIDAY THE SEVENTY-SIXTH: STILLXMYXHEART
overdue visit (Chris, Jeannie, Nathaniel, Haley, mentions of Kari and Tony [Chris/Kari, Jeannie/Tony]), G
"Hey," Chris says, smiling when he opens the door and sees Jeannie on the other side.
"Hey," she replies, smiling back as she steps inside, and he pulls her into a hug, holding her for a long moment.
"I haven't seen your house yet," she says when they pull apart, staring around the living room. "It's beautiful."
Chris gives a short laugh as they move to settle on the couch. "We haven't had much time to really do any decorating, since we moved in just a couple weeks before the twins were born, but we're slowly working on it."
Jeannie nods. "What you have is still nice."
"Yeah, that's where Kari is today, actually, she's spending the day with Han and Maddie, so she and Han can have a break from the babies, and Kari said she was gonna look at more decorative stuff, so we'll see what she comes home with."
Jeannie laughs softly. "So you're home alone with the babies?"
Chris grins. "Hey, I'm getting the hang of it. We've managed to get them used to bottles, so I can feed them, and Kari doesn't have to be here all the time. She was getting some major cabin fever; she needed to get out for a bit."
Jeannie smiles and nods, and glances at the twins where they're buckled into their sleepers.
"I'm sorry I didn't visit before now, I figured you guys had enough visitors, and I think I just... needed a little more time."
Chris shakes his head. "Don't even worry about it. You're here now."
Jeannie nods, looking at the babies again, and smiles softly. "They're beautiful, Chris. What are their names again?"
"That's Nathaniel - Nate," Chris says, pointing, "and that's Haley."
"Nate's a little bit smaller," Jeannie observes, staring between them.
"Yeah, but he's healthy. Just not as... robust as his sister."
Jeannie smiles. "Which one is older?"
"Haley, by eight minutes."
"Yeah, she's gonna exploit the crap out of that when they're older."
Chris laughs. "Sometimes I feel like she already does, and they're only six weeks old."
Jeannie laughs too, and Chris looks over at her.
"So, how are you? It's been so long since we talked. I mean, really talked."
Jeannie shrugs, sitting back against the couch. "I'm... okay, I guess. Spending the summer down home was nice, just being with my family, having the distraction, but I had to come back before school started, and being in the house..."
She presses her lips together, and then sighs. "It's harder at night, because I'm just home, you know? It's just me. And it's hard watching our shows by myself, or reading magazines and coming across interesting articles that I want to show him. The worst part is still sleeping alone. Not feeling him next to me at night, not being able to scoot over and snuggle up beside him when I'm cold. It's like I'm always cold now."
She breaks off abruptly, sniffling as she lifts her hand to her face, and Chris reaches for her other hand, squeezing her fingers.
"I'm sorry," she says after a minute. "I didn't want to come over here and make you sad too."
"It's okay," Chris says quietly. "I still miss him too. Not as much as you, I know, but I miss seeing him at work, and hanging out with him at The Pint during lunch, or after work. I miss hanging out with him on the weekends. I'm sad he never got to see the twins, that they never got a chance to meet their Uncle Tony."
Jeannie gives a soft, sniffly laugh, and then sighs again. "They won't get much of a chance to know their Aunt Jeannie either."
"So you're really leaving," Chris murmurs.
"Yeah. I looked at a few places while I was down there this summer. I'm not sure I could go back to an apartment after so long of living in a house, but there are some cute little houses that should work for me, and once I sell the house here, I'll more than be able to afford it. But yeah, I'm gonna teach this last school year, and then next summer, I'll head down there."
"I'm gonna miss you," Chris says, flashing a small smile when she looks up at him.
"I'm gonna miss you too," she replies. "But I'll be here a few more months, and when I do leave, I want us to keep in touch. I want to keep up with you and Kari and the twins, at the very least. I don't want us to stop being friends just because I don't live here anymore."
Chris nods. "Yeah, definitely. I'll send you so many pictures of the twins you'll probably get sick of it."
"I doubt that very much."
Chris smiles and leans forward to hug her, holding her tightly and rubbing his hand over her back.
"You want to stay for lunch?" he asks when they pull apart, swiping at his eyes. "It won't be like anything you usually make, but there's sandwich stuff, or we could have something delivered."
"Sandwiches sound great," Jeannie replies, and they stand.
"If you want to steer Haley into the kitchen, their little sleepers have wheels," Chris says, pointing. "These things are seriously the greatest."
Jeannie laughs and nods, carefully turning Haley's sleeper around and pushing her into the kitchen as Chris does the same with Nathaniel.
christmas with nana (Hannah, Eli, Nicholas, Rachel, Karen, Stuart [Hannah/Eli, Karen/Stuart]), G
"Hi, Nana!" Nicholas exclaims happily as he rushes inside Karen's apartment, closely followed by Hannah pushing Rachel in her stroller, and Eli toting as many bags as he can.
"Hi, Nicky!" Karen replies, pulling him into a hug.
Stuart smiles at the two of them as he comes forward to touch a quick kiss to Hannah's cheek, and then steps past her to help Eli with the bags.
Hannah moves into the living room to get out of the way of the guys and smiles as she hugs her mother.
"I'm so glad you guys could come up," Karen says, smiling too as they pull apart. "I've been wanting to see my granddaughter in person."
"Well, here she is," Hannah says as she bends to unbuckle Rachel from the stroller. "Mom, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is Nana."
Karen smiles as she takes the baby from Hannah. "Hey, Rachel."
Rachel stares solemnly back, blue eyes intent on Karen's face, and Karen's expression turns amused.
"You know, it's weird, she kind of reminds me of your dad."
Hannah's eyes widen. "Okay, this is just so crazy, we've all noticed that, and the fact that you notice it too just sort of confirms it. I guess Dad's genes came through extra strong in her."
"Not the worst thing that could happen," Karen murmurs, smiling again when Rachel grips one of her fingers.
Hannah moves to put Rachel's stroller in a corner to get it out of the way, and smiles as she stares around the living room. She remembers the first Christmas after she and Eli got married; they came up to visit, and ended up buying Christmas decorations since Karen didn't have any. They didn't buy much, but since then, Karen has expanded on her decorations, including a set of stockings strung on the wall, bearing all of their names. There's a new one on the end, deep purple with Rachel stitched on in shining silver thread, and Hannah's smile widens as she looks at it.
Eli and Stuart join them in the living room, and Stuart comes to look at Rachel over Karen's shoulder.
"So this is the newest one."
"Yep," Hannah replies. "Rachel."
"She's beautiful, congratulations. You guys have made some good looking kids."
"Well, it was more of a passive thing," Eli says with a grin. "It's not something we really had control over."
"True," Stuart says, grinning too.
"So, are you guys hungry?" Karen asks.
"Yeah!" Nicholas chimes, and Hannah laughs.
"I guess that's our cue to go to dinner. I'm pretty hungry too," she adds, glancing at Eli, who nods. "Let me just change her," she says, reaching to take Rachel from Karen. "Nicky, do you need to use the potty?"
"Uh huh."
"Okay, come on, and then we'll go to dinner."
When they return to the apartment a couple of hours later, they settle in the living room to open presents. From Karen and Stuart, Hannah gets a dress, a sweater, and a package of hair wraps.
"Designer hair ties?" Hannah says, laughing when she opens the last one.
Karen laughs too. "Well, sort of, I just thought they were pretty, and I know you like to do lots of things with your hair, so I thought you could have fun with those."
Hannah smiles and nods as she leans forward to hug her mother, thanking her softly, and then does the same to Stuart.
Meanwhile, Eli opens his presents: a sweater as well, a set of tie clips, and a wallet.
"I remembered you saying you needed a new one," Karen says, looking somewhat anxious as Eli pulls the wallet from the box. "Do you like it?"
"Definitely, it's perfect."
"Oh!" Hannah exclaims, reaching across to brush her fingers over the corner of the wallet. "It's even got your initials, look."
Eli smiles when he sees the monogrammed EAS, passing his thumb over it before lifting his gaze to Karen and Stuart.
"This is great, you guys, thank you so much."
He stands to hug them too, and then Nicholas is tugging on Karen's sleeve.
"Nana, where's my presents?"
"Nicholas," Hannah scolds softly. "You know better than that."
"No, it's a fair question," Karen says, smiling down at her grandson. "Well, Nicky, I was planning to take you to the toy store tomorrow and let you pick out some things you wanted. How does that sound?"
Nicholas stares at her with wide eyes, undoubtedly already in some form of toddler heaven, and then he cheers.
"Can we go now?" he asks excitedly.
Karen laughs, and Hannah shakes her head, though she looks amused too.
"Nana said tomorrow, Nicky, you can wait until then."
"There is one present we have for you tonight, though," Karen says, looking up at Stuart, who nods.
"What is it?" Nicholas asks, eyes wide again.
"Well, since your baby sister needs to use your old crib now, and you're growing so fast, we got you your own big boy bed."
Nicholas turns his gaze to Hannah, who stares back with wide eyes too. "Look at that, Nicky, you have a big boy bed at home, and at Grandpa and Grandma Jules's house, and at Grandma and Grandpa Shaw's house, and now you have one at Nana's house!"
"I wanna see it, Nana!" Nicholas says, bouncing on his feet.
"Okay, c'mon," Karen says, standing and grabbing his hand to lead him to the guest room, Hannah, Eli, and Stuart trailing behind, Rachel in Hannah's arms.
Nicholas's old crib is set up against the wall, and right next to it is a small bed with Spider-Man sheets.
"Look, Mama!" Nicholas exclaims, running over to the bed.
"I see it, baby!" Hannah replies, grinning as she watches him flop down onto his bed. She looks over at Eli, who's grinning too. "I'm guessing you knew about this?"
"Yeah," he says. "I helped Stuart set it up when we got here. It's more of a cot, so they can fold it up and store it when we're not here, but same difference, really."
Hannah nods, still grinning as she looks at Nicholas again in time to see him run over to Karen and wrap his arms around her legs.
"Thank you, Nana."
"You're welcome, Nicky," Karen replies, smiling as she kneels to hug him.