Baby, Just Hold On - Chp. 26
Title: Baby, Just Hold On
Author: Jamie jamieall_over
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17 Overall
Warnings: Mpreg
“Are you sure that you really feel up for going out today?” Jack asked as Alex pulled on a pair of his tightest jeans. It was exactly a week after the elder’s surgery and, even though Adam was set to be in Baltimore for that day only (which, as though by magic, was a fairly warm day, meaning that they could go down to the park for their shoot), the younger man was still much more concerned about his husband’s overall well-being than anything else.
Alex, as per usual, was getting a little exasperated with his partner’s constant pestering (because he’d answered the same question, as well as variations of the same question, at least fifty times in what could’ve only been ten minutes), but he still bit his tongue and nodded all the same. He turned from where he had been adjusting his beanie in the bathroom mirror, hands instantly raising to rest against Jack’s chest as he leaned in for a short peck of the lips.
“I’m gonna be fine,” he vowed slowly, making direct eye contact so that Jack would know exactly how serious he was being. Even if he, for whatever reason, felt that he would be in pain, he’d more than likely just ignore it until some point after the fact. There was no way in hell he was giving up free, professional pictures of his family. “Besides, I need to move around some. It’s not good for me to just lay in bed for another, what, three and a half weeks? The fresh air will be good for me, it’ll be good for you, and it’ll be good for the kids.”
The Lebanese man sighed and nodded, setting his hands on Alex’s hips-thumbs pushing under the elder’s shirt to rub gently at the new gauze that had been taped into place only about a half hour before-and pushing a sweet kiss to his husband’s forehead before backing away and leaving the bathroom.
Ashley and Perspicacity were lying on the bed, pillows boxing them in on all sides because Jack had been paranoid and what if they roll onto their stomach’s and start crawling, Alex? The older man had made a point that if they could magically start crawling at the tender age of a month old, they’d probably also be able to maneuver themselves over the pillows (rendering them completely useless) and, therefore, no matter how one looked at it, the one set up above the babies' heads and inches below their tiny feet were pretty damn useless as it was.
Jack was hearing none of it.
What he did hear, though, was the sound of crying mixed with the smell of-
“Baby, did you already pack the diaper bag? I’ll do that now if you haven’t. Cacity just… or was that Ashley…” he trailed out, looking down at the two as they both cried and screeched. Cocoa, who was on the bathroom counter and rubbing up against Alex at every chance she got, looked nothing short of absolutely appalled at the noises coming from just the room over-the odds of her ever getting used to such a thing were far slimmer than she was. Her owner, on the other hand, sighed at the fact that yet another shirt had to be changed because he loved his cat too much to tell her no and shoo her into another room.
“I packed it last night,” Alex finally answered, moving away from the bathroom and pulling his shirt over his head. “We used it a couple times earlier, so I would probably pack it all up again. Maybe we should bring them an extra-extra change of clothes?”
“You think the extra clothes we have now won’t be enough?” Jack inquired as he carefully picked up each baby in turn and, in doing the one distastefully horrendous job of parenthood, caught a whiff of their diaper-covered behinds through their onesies.
“Well, I mean, maybe they will be, but Ashley’s been throwing up more after he eats lately, and I think Perspicacity might have a stomach problem or something because the last few diapers I changed all had-”
“Diarrhea?” Jack guessed, grimacing as the overwhelming scent assaulted his senses. Alex didn’t bother continuing on his hunt for a shirt that wouldn’t be too unattractive, instead making a detour to grab the diaper bag to hand it over to his husband.
Perspicacity was exchanged for the bag so that Jack could set up a safe spot on their bed to change her, and Alex took the opportunity to cuddle her to his chest in an attempt to help her calm down again. “Baby girl,” he cooed, bouncing his arms gently and leaning in to press a delicate kiss to the top of her head. “Hey now, no need to cry; baba’s gonna make it all better.”
“You should try singing,” Jack interrupted, turning and holding his hands out for the child to be handed over. “Ash is clean, so I think it was just Cacity’s crying that set him off. I don’t think he’s hungry or anything because they only ate, like, a half hour ago, but if he cries too much now, he’ll get really sleepy. I don’t wanna keep him outside in the heat too long, especially if he’s tired.”
Alex nodded his agreement. It was their first time going outside for more than a handful of minutes at any given time, and he, just like Jack, didn’t want either of them getting too overheated or anything of the sort, even though it was still a fairly cool day, given the circumstances. The prospect was also pretty exciting, the thought of him being able to get pictures of his babies on their first real journey into the outside world. They would get to truly feel the wind and the sun, hear the sounds of birds and leaves as they hushed together on the branches over their heads, and he would be there to see it all.
He couldn’t wait to go out and introduce his babies to the world, and with a grin on his face, he lifted Ashley from the bed and huddled the child against his bare chest, bouncing on the balls of his feet and out into the living room to grab more diapers.
“Sh, sh, sh,” he hushed, cradling the infant in his left arm and leaning down to pick up the desired items, all spread out and waiting on the coffee table. “What’s wrong, handsome boy? Baba said you can’t be hungry and that your diaper’s all clean. What’s a matter, huh? Tell daddy why you’re cryin’. Baba said I should sing for you, but I think you need…. kisses!”
The mood changed almost instantaneously as Alex’s lips pushed to a chubby cheek, moving quickly and exaggeratedly. Ashley squealed, but it wasn’t the kind it had been before. It wasn’t the kind that made Alex feel upset as well, but it was the kind that made his heart feel like it could just explode with far too many indescribable emotions.
“Well, now that all my babies are happy again,” Jack said as he walked into the room behind his husband, Perspicacity in his own hold and empty hand slipping casually into Alex’s back pocket, “I think we’re about ready to leave.”
A final, drawn-out kiss on a chubby, slightly red-blotched cheek and then Alex was standing up straight to ask, “You packed more clothes for them just in case?”
“I did. I put the blanket in the bag this morning, and all we need now is for you to put a shirt on and hand me those.”
Honestly, Alex had forgotten that he kind of wasn’t wearing a shirt, but that had him thinking about pictures he’d seen online and in magazines of shirtless parents with their naked babies held against their chests and he really hoped that, if Adam agreed, Perspicacity would be able to contain herself long enough for them to make it back to the apartment to do such a pose.
“Put Cacity in the stroller and go get dressed,” Jack prompted after a few moments of Alex just standing there, expression blank. The elder slowly blinked himself back into reality, looking back and nodding before a small smile graced his lips.
“Kisses first?” he inquired, to which Jack rolled his eyes playfully. He acquiesced nonetheless, pushing one, short kiss to his partner’s puckered lips and squeezing the hand that was still tucked away in the older male’s back pocket.
“Alright, hurry up. We’ve gotta meet Adam at the park in, like, twenty minutes.”
Another nod and Alex was back in motion once more.
--- ---
“He told me that he was gonna be by one of the bigger trees,” Jack said as they finished pulling all of their things from their car. Both babies had fallen asleep on the ride, making the journey and transition much simpler, but also escalating Jack’s concerns in the process. Alex had tried to assure him that it’s still a cool day; they’ll be fine, but that hardly made him feel any better. What if they got sick? What if they-
“Is that him over there?” Alex asked as they set off into the gated area. He hooked his left arm around Jack’s right and set his right hand on top of his left as the younger man pushed the stroller down the sidewalk, the (probably) overflowing diaper bag hanging from his own left arm.
If he was being honest, Jack had no idea what the infamous Adam Elmakias even looked like. The man Alex had pointed out did have a camera around his neck, but it was Spring-time in Baltimore and, if he took so much as a glance around, he noticed quite a few other people with expensive-looking cameras in their possession.
He needn’t have worried, though, because then that same man was looking up and grinning, right hand raising in a sort of hello. The man, Adam, was shorter and tanner than Jack had imagined him being… and he was bald. His eyes were a little on the big side, but he had a friendly enough smile and that was really the most important thing. He was someone Jack could see himself being friends with, but, then again, he was friends with virtually everyone.
“So I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say that you’re the Gaskarth-Barakat’s, right?” Adam said as he stepped forward, meeting the family halfway and extending his hand for a shake as a greeting.
Jack nodded, shifting out of Alex’s grip to properly introduce himself and the rest of his little family.
“What can I do for you today?” Adam asked as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and Jack looked to Alex, who merely shrugged.
“I have some ideas, I guess, but you’re the photographer here. Just anything, really. If you think it’ll be cute, we’ll do it.”
Adam, who’d never once photographed children, never mind newborn babies, nodded his head and turned, gesturing for them to follow until they were under the tree he’d made himself comfortable under only five minutes prior to their arrival.
“Alright, well, let’s see…” he trailed out, looking around the park before stepping around to see how big the infants actually were. He’d seen enough parental magazines in his time to at least think of some acceptable poses. “Jack, lay on the ground.”
The older man nodded, setting the diaper bag down and grabbing the blanket from within, spreading it out on the grass and then laying on his back, head tilted just enough to see Alex smiling down at him.
“Okay, roll over onto your stomach,” the photographer directed next, and Jack did so without a second thought, starfishing his body out and letting the side of his head press into the ground as he awaited further instructions.
“Prop yourself up on your elbows… just a little lower-yeah, just like that. Okay, Alex, grab one of the babies and put them on Jack’s back… Make sure they're facing his right side… perfect. Alright, can you get the other baby out for me?”
Not a single complaint left Alex’s mouth as he followed each order, soon finding himself mirroring Jack’s position with Perspicacity curled against his lower back. Both babies were still (thankfully) sleeping peacefully, small bodies bundled in their warm clothing with the extra heat and comfort of their parents keeping them from waking.
Adam clicked his tongue a few times, moving to kneel behind the young parents and lifting the camera up to his eye, peering through the viewfinder before removing it from his face and continuing with his directing.
“I want you both to take the arm closest to the other and fold them in front of your bodies. Turn your heads so that you’re looking at each other, and, Jack, put your left hand on the side of Alex’s face… elbow touching the ground, dude. Alex, kinda just lightly grip his forearm with your right hand… fantastic. You guys ready?”
Alex was smiling so big and so fucking beautifully, pressing his face just the slightest bit further into the warmth of his partner’s hand, that the words narrowly escaped Jack’s attention. He couldn’t bring himself to focus on such a trivial thing as what someone else was saying, especially not when Alex’s cheeks darkened to the cutest shade of pink, his gaze moving down as his teeth pressed into his bottom lip gently.
Adam sighed, reaching out both of his hands to nudge at either of their legs gently enough to pull their attention back to him while also keeping them from jumping. That would honestly just not end well on any level.
Alex was the first to look back while Jack resumed his staring, eyes wide and jaw slightly slack. The older man turned to face him once more, letting out a barely-there laugh and squeezing at his man’s arm to regain his focus.
“Jay, you ready to get this show on the road?” he asked, voice gentle and words passing his lips slowly so that they wouldn’t fly right over the younger’s head unheard. Jack nodded numbly, smiling when Alex smiled back at him.
“Alright, I'm gonna need bigger smiles than that so that I can see them from all the way back here,” Adam said, but of course Jack had to go against what he’d been told. Instead of smiling, he closed the gap between he and his husband, pressing their lips together no more than a second before the sound of the shutter closing hit his ears. The grip Alex had on his forearm tightened, only minimally so, but Jack certainly felt it.
When he pulled back after another few seconds of such an innocently sweet kiss, the first thing he noticed was how flustered Alex looked. His face had tinged a much deeper red than it was before. He was trying so damn hard to not smile, to not show how affected he’d been from one small, unexpected kiss, but he only dug himself into a deeper hole as the corners of his lips twitched and he refused to make eye contact.
It amazed Jack that he could do something like that to such a person. He didn’t think he’d ever get over the little things his husband did because of him. It also surprised him that even after nearly seven years of being exclusively Jack and Alex that they still had that spark that most couples lost after a few years or a handful of months.
Behind them, Jack could still hear Adam pressing his finger against the shutter, and he took advantage of that. Another short press of the lips was exchanged between the couple before he was lifting his head enough to kiss at Alex’s nose, earning him Alex’s own lips making contact with his stubble-covered chin by accident. His final destination was Alex’s forehead. He’d had to tilt the elder’s head down just a bit to reach it, seeing as how he couldn’t sit up with Ashley still lying on his back, but Alex had no objections to the gesture.
It was the feel of Ashley’s weight no longer resting against his body that had Jack’s heart threatening to leap right on out of his chest. He didn’t hear crying, but he didn’t want to move in case the infant was-
“You can get up now, dude,” Adam said, sounding so casual even though Jack was on the verge of a complete panic attack. The Lebanese man looked back to see the photographer cradling his son, looking only slightly unsure on whether or not he was holding the small child correctly. It wasn’t the first baby he’d ever held, of course, but, in his defense, it had been quite a while.
Jack took a moment to calm his hammering heart before moving into a kneeling position on the ground, pushing his body up and immediately reaching out to lift Perspicacity from her daddy’s back. Alex followed Jack’s initial lead, pushing his body from the ground (having to move a little slower than he’d have preferred, seeing as how the waistband of his pants pressed just that little bit tighter against his place of incision and it kind of really hurt) before turning and holding his arms out to relieve Adam from the baby boy.
“Alright, let’s see… You’re probably gonna hate me for this, but I think you should sit against the tree…” the youngest man said slowly, letting his eyes roam up the trunk for a bit as he tried to envision his next shots. “Jack, give me the baby and sit with your back touching the bark. Alex, hand that baby-”
“Ashley,” Alex interjected, not really appreciating the fact that his babies were just being referred to as ‘the baby’ and ‘that baby.’ They had names, damn it.
Adam nodded in understanding, picking up where he left off as though nothing had really stopped him. “Right, well, hand her-”
“Boy, bro,” Jack cut in. He wasn’t necessarily upset about the fact that his son’s gender had been confused (except didn’t the blue give it away?), especially with the fact that Ashley was the one with the full head of deep brown hair and was named… well… Ashley, but he felt that, as the baby’s baba, he had to let people know that his son was a boy and not a girl.
Adam’s eyes seemed to widen even further, but it wasn’t in a fearful way. More shocked if anything, really. “Shit, sorry, man, I just… okay, right, if you could hand him-Ashley-to Jack until you can sit on the ground, too… Jack, stretch your legs out and spread them a little more. Alex, sit down between them, your back almost to his chest… Jack, give the baby back to Alex… You can hold both of them at the same time, right?”
Alex nodded his head, adjusting Ashley’s position so that the boy was snuggled comfortably in the crook of his left arm. Nevertheless, Jack held his hands up in a silent demand to be given Perspicacity first. Adam obliged easily, being extra careful with the pass-off than was probably necessary. Jack definitely appreciated that.
He was then nudging his nose against the back of the elder’s neck as a way to get his attention. Alex hummed, turning his head as far to the side as possible in order to see what was happening behind him. A kiss to the cheek, and then Jack was doing his best to maneuver the baby girl into his partner’s right arm from behind. It didn’t take all that much effort, really, and by the time they were ready, so was Adam.
“Jack, wrap your arms around Alex’s waist. Alex lean back into him… dude, hook your chin over his shoulder… and big grins in three-two-one.”
A handful of pictures were snapped in that position (Jack being sure to push his lips against Alex’s cheek for at least two of them), and then Adam was helping them both to their feet once more.
“Don’t move, just… Alex, hand one of the babies to Jack. It doesn’t matter who. Okay, now I want you two to stand side-by-side,” he instructed, viewfinder already lifted to his eye before they could even get into the correct position. “Jack, put… uh…”
“Perspicacity,” Alex supplied. He would’ve been annoyed-and he kind of was-had he not been getting a free photo-shoot out of it.
Adam smiled his thanks before continuing. “Put Perspicacity… Perspicacity?” A nod to show that yes, he was pronouncing the name correctly, and he took a moment to engrave it in his mind. “Put Perspicacity in your left arm. Alex, put Ashley in your right, and lift your left hand so that it’s kinda, like, supporting him or laying against his torso or something, y’know? And, Jack, right arm around Alex’s waist. Big smiles in three-two-one…”
--- ---
An hour and a half-which consisted of even more poses, photos, two crying babies, one feeding, diaper and clothes change later-seemed to pass by in a complete blur. Natural smiles and stolen kisses had Alex feeling like he was a teenager again, on the very threshold of adulthood and meeting his husband for the first time. Jack made him feel like that a lot, really, but it was different. Not in a bad way, of course, but he just kind of felt… complete. Even more so than usual. It was a feeling he was more than eager to welcome.
He didn’t have too much time to think about it, though, because both parties were soon packing their things so that they could go their separate ways. He knew he had to speak up if he wanted the pictures he’d imagined before the family had even left the apartment that morning, but he didn’t know what to say or where to bring it up.
The only thing he could think to blurt out as Adam was saying his farewell, promising to send all of the pictures he took in an e-mail as soon as he was able to upload them to his laptop so that they could pick and choose which ones they wanted printed, was, “Can you take a couple more pictures for us?”
Adam visibly faltered, face contorting in slight confusion. Jack’s expression was much the same, but that was only considering the fact that Adam had already packed his camera away, and why didn’t Alex just ask for more shots when Adam had said he thought he had enough for them to be sufficiently happy with?
“Uh… I don’t see why not,” Adam said slowly, reaching around to grab at his camera bag. Alex shook his head, realizing that he had to actually elaborate on what he meant if he was going to get things his way yet again.
“I mean, I… you know those pictures where the babies are naked and covered in a blanket or held against their parent’s chest?” he inquired, not even reacting as Jack’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and he was gently tugged to the side until Jack could kiss at his temple.
“I think it’s a little too cold to do something like that today, dude,” Adam admitted, glancing around the park. He didn’t want to agree and have one or both of the infants get sick.
Once again, Alex shook his head. “Would you mind, like… coming back to our apartment with us and taking some like that there?”
Adam thought about it for a moment. He was getting a little cold, he was hungry, and he was pretty damn tired. Nevertheless, he nodded in agreement. “Sure. I mean, why the hell not? You definitely owe me dinner, though.”
Author: Jamie jamieall_over
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17 Overall
Warnings: Mpreg
“Are you sure that you really feel up for going out today?” Jack asked as Alex pulled on a pair of his tightest jeans. It was exactly a week after the elder’s surgery and, even though Adam was set to be in Baltimore for that day only (which, as though by magic, was a fairly warm day, meaning that they could go down to the park for their shoot), the younger man was still much more concerned about his husband’s overall well-being than anything else.
Alex, as per usual, was getting a little exasperated with his partner’s constant pestering (because he’d answered the same question, as well as variations of the same question, at least fifty times in what could’ve only been ten minutes), but he still bit his tongue and nodded all the same. He turned from where he had been adjusting his beanie in the bathroom mirror, hands instantly raising to rest against Jack’s chest as he leaned in for a short peck of the lips.
“I’m gonna be fine,” he vowed slowly, making direct eye contact so that Jack would know exactly how serious he was being. Even if he, for whatever reason, felt that he would be in pain, he’d more than likely just ignore it until some point after the fact. There was no way in hell he was giving up free, professional pictures of his family. “Besides, I need to move around some. It’s not good for me to just lay in bed for another, what, three and a half weeks? The fresh air will be good for me, it’ll be good for you, and it’ll be good for the kids.”
The Lebanese man sighed and nodded, setting his hands on Alex’s hips-thumbs pushing under the elder’s shirt to rub gently at the new gauze that had been taped into place only about a half hour before-and pushing a sweet kiss to his husband’s forehead before backing away and leaving the bathroom.
Ashley and Perspicacity were lying on the bed, pillows boxing them in on all sides because Jack had been paranoid and what if they roll onto their stomach’s and start crawling, Alex? The older man had made a point that if they could magically start crawling at the tender age of a month old, they’d probably also be able to maneuver themselves over the pillows (rendering them completely useless) and, therefore, no matter how one looked at it, the one set up above the babies' heads and inches below their tiny feet were pretty damn useless as it was.
Jack was hearing none of it.
What he did hear, though, was the sound of crying mixed with the smell of-
“Baby, did you already pack the diaper bag? I’ll do that now if you haven’t. Cacity just… or was that Ashley…” he trailed out, looking down at the two as they both cried and screeched. Cocoa, who was on the bathroom counter and rubbing up against Alex at every chance she got, looked nothing short of absolutely appalled at the noises coming from just the room over-the odds of her ever getting used to such a thing were far slimmer than she was. Her owner, on the other hand, sighed at the fact that yet another shirt had to be changed because he loved his cat too much to tell her no and shoo her into another room.
“I packed it last night,” Alex finally answered, moving away from the bathroom and pulling his shirt over his head. “We used it a couple times earlier, so I would probably pack it all up again. Maybe we should bring them an extra-extra change of clothes?”
“You think the extra clothes we have now won’t be enough?” Jack inquired as he carefully picked up each baby in turn and, in doing the one distastefully horrendous job of parenthood, caught a whiff of their diaper-covered behinds through their onesies.
“Well, I mean, maybe they will be, but Ashley’s been throwing up more after he eats lately, and I think Perspicacity might have a stomach problem or something because the last few diapers I changed all had-”
“Diarrhea?” Jack guessed, grimacing as the overwhelming scent assaulted his senses. Alex didn’t bother continuing on his hunt for a shirt that wouldn’t be too unattractive, instead making a detour to grab the diaper bag to hand it over to his husband.
Perspicacity was exchanged for the bag so that Jack could set up a safe spot on their bed to change her, and Alex took the opportunity to cuddle her to his chest in an attempt to help her calm down again. “Baby girl,” he cooed, bouncing his arms gently and leaning in to press a delicate kiss to the top of her head. “Hey now, no need to cry; baba’s gonna make it all better.”
“You should try singing,” Jack interrupted, turning and holding his hands out for the child to be handed over. “Ash is clean, so I think it was just Cacity’s crying that set him off. I don’t think he’s hungry or anything because they only ate, like, a half hour ago, but if he cries too much now, he’ll get really sleepy. I don’t wanna keep him outside in the heat too long, especially if he’s tired.”
Alex nodded his agreement. It was their first time going outside for more than a handful of minutes at any given time, and he, just like Jack, didn’t want either of them getting too overheated or anything of the sort, even though it was still a fairly cool day, given the circumstances. The prospect was also pretty exciting, the thought of him being able to get pictures of his babies on their first real journey into the outside world. They would get to truly feel the wind and the sun, hear the sounds of birds and leaves as they hushed together on the branches over their heads, and he would be there to see it all.
He couldn’t wait to go out and introduce his babies to the world, and with a grin on his face, he lifted Ashley from the bed and huddled the child against his bare chest, bouncing on the balls of his feet and out into the living room to grab more diapers.
“Sh, sh, sh,” he hushed, cradling the infant in his left arm and leaning down to pick up the desired items, all spread out and waiting on the coffee table. “What’s wrong, handsome boy? Baba said you can’t be hungry and that your diaper’s all clean. What’s a matter, huh? Tell daddy why you’re cryin’. Baba said I should sing for you, but I think you need…. kisses!”
The mood changed almost instantaneously as Alex’s lips pushed to a chubby cheek, moving quickly and exaggeratedly. Ashley squealed, but it wasn’t the kind it had been before. It wasn’t the kind that made Alex feel upset as well, but it was the kind that made his heart feel like it could just explode with far too many indescribable emotions.
“Well, now that all my babies are happy again,” Jack said as he walked into the room behind his husband, Perspicacity in his own hold and empty hand slipping casually into Alex’s back pocket, “I think we’re about ready to leave.”
A final, drawn-out kiss on a chubby, slightly red-blotched cheek and then Alex was standing up straight to ask, “You packed more clothes for them just in case?”
“I did. I put the blanket in the bag this morning, and all we need now is for you to put a shirt on and hand me those.”
Honestly, Alex had forgotten that he kind of wasn’t wearing a shirt, but that had him thinking about pictures he’d seen online and in magazines of shirtless parents with their naked babies held against their chests and he really hoped that, if Adam agreed, Perspicacity would be able to contain herself long enough for them to make it back to the apartment to do such a pose.
“Put Cacity in the stroller and go get dressed,” Jack prompted after a few moments of Alex just standing there, expression blank. The elder slowly blinked himself back into reality, looking back and nodding before a small smile graced his lips.
“Kisses first?” he inquired, to which Jack rolled his eyes playfully. He acquiesced nonetheless, pushing one, short kiss to his partner’s puckered lips and squeezing the hand that was still tucked away in the older male’s back pocket.
“Alright, hurry up. We’ve gotta meet Adam at the park in, like, twenty minutes.”
Another nod and Alex was back in motion once more.
--- ---
“He told me that he was gonna be by one of the bigger trees,” Jack said as they finished pulling all of their things from their car. Both babies had fallen asleep on the ride, making the journey and transition much simpler, but also escalating Jack’s concerns in the process. Alex had tried to assure him that it’s still a cool day; they’ll be fine, but that hardly made him feel any better. What if they got sick? What if they-
“Is that him over there?” Alex asked as they set off into the gated area. He hooked his left arm around Jack’s right and set his right hand on top of his left as the younger man pushed the stroller down the sidewalk, the (probably) overflowing diaper bag hanging from his own left arm.
If he was being honest, Jack had no idea what the infamous Adam Elmakias even looked like. The man Alex had pointed out did have a camera around his neck, but it was Spring-time in Baltimore and, if he took so much as a glance around, he noticed quite a few other people with expensive-looking cameras in their possession.
He needn’t have worried, though, because then that same man was looking up and grinning, right hand raising in a sort of hello. The man, Adam, was shorter and tanner than Jack had imagined him being… and he was bald. His eyes were a little on the big side, but he had a friendly enough smile and that was really the most important thing. He was someone Jack could see himself being friends with, but, then again, he was friends with virtually everyone.
“So I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say that you’re the Gaskarth-Barakat’s, right?” Adam said as he stepped forward, meeting the family halfway and extending his hand for a shake as a greeting.
Jack nodded, shifting out of Alex’s grip to properly introduce himself and the rest of his little family.
“What can I do for you today?” Adam asked as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and Jack looked to Alex, who merely shrugged.
“I have some ideas, I guess, but you’re the photographer here. Just anything, really. If you think it’ll be cute, we’ll do it.”
Adam, who’d never once photographed children, never mind newborn babies, nodded his head and turned, gesturing for them to follow until they were under the tree he’d made himself comfortable under only five minutes prior to their arrival.
“Alright, well, let’s see…” he trailed out, looking around the park before stepping around to see how big the infants actually were. He’d seen enough parental magazines in his time to at least think of some acceptable poses. “Jack, lay on the ground.”
The older man nodded, setting the diaper bag down and grabbing the blanket from within, spreading it out on the grass and then laying on his back, head tilted just enough to see Alex smiling down at him.
“Okay, roll over onto your stomach,” the photographer directed next, and Jack did so without a second thought, starfishing his body out and letting the side of his head press into the ground as he awaited further instructions.
“Prop yourself up on your elbows… just a little lower-yeah, just like that. Okay, Alex, grab one of the babies and put them on Jack’s back… Make sure they're facing his right side… perfect. Alright, can you get the other baby out for me?”
Not a single complaint left Alex’s mouth as he followed each order, soon finding himself mirroring Jack’s position with Perspicacity curled against his lower back. Both babies were still (thankfully) sleeping peacefully, small bodies bundled in their warm clothing with the extra heat and comfort of their parents keeping them from waking.
Adam clicked his tongue a few times, moving to kneel behind the young parents and lifting the camera up to his eye, peering through the viewfinder before removing it from his face and continuing with his directing.
“I want you both to take the arm closest to the other and fold them in front of your bodies. Turn your heads so that you’re looking at each other, and, Jack, put your left hand on the side of Alex’s face… elbow touching the ground, dude. Alex, kinda just lightly grip his forearm with your right hand… fantastic. You guys ready?”
Alex was smiling so big and so fucking beautifully, pressing his face just the slightest bit further into the warmth of his partner’s hand, that the words narrowly escaped Jack’s attention. He couldn’t bring himself to focus on such a trivial thing as what someone else was saying, especially not when Alex’s cheeks darkened to the cutest shade of pink, his gaze moving down as his teeth pressed into his bottom lip gently.
Adam sighed, reaching out both of his hands to nudge at either of their legs gently enough to pull their attention back to him while also keeping them from jumping. That would honestly just not end well on any level.
Alex was the first to look back while Jack resumed his staring, eyes wide and jaw slightly slack. The older man turned to face him once more, letting out a barely-there laugh and squeezing at his man’s arm to regain his focus.
“Jay, you ready to get this show on the road?” he asked, voice gentle and words passing his lips slowly so that they wouldn’t fly right over the younger’s head unheard. Jack nodded numbly, smiling when Alex smiled back at him.
“Alright, I'm gonna need bigger smiles than that so that I can see them from all the way back here,” Adam said, but of course Jack had to go against what he’d been told. Instead of smiling, he closed the gap between he and his husband, pressing their lips together no more than a second before the sound of the shutter closing hit his ears. The grip Alex had on his forearm tightened, only minimally so, but Jack certainly felt it.
When he pulled back after another few seconds of such an innocently sweet kiss, the first thing he noticed was how flustered Alex looked. His face had tinged a much deeper red than it was before. He was trying so damn hard to not smile, to not show how affected he’d been from one small, unexpected kiss, but he only dug himself into a deeper hole as the corners of his lips twitched and he refused to make eye contact.
It amazed Jack that he could do something like that to such a person. He didn’t think he’d ever get over the little things his husband did because of him. It also surprised him that even after nearly seven years of being exclusively Jack and Alex that they still had that spark that most couples lost after a few years or a handful of months.
Behind them, Jack could still hear Adam pressing his finger against the shutter, and he took advantage of that. Another short press of the lips was exchanged between the couple before he was lifting his head enough to kiss at Alex’s nose, earning him Alex’s own lips making contact with his stubble-covered chin by accident. His final destination was Alex’s forehead. He’d had to tilt the elder’s head down just a bit to reach it, seeing as how he couldn’t sit up with Ashley still lying on his back, but Alex had no objections to the gesture.
It was the feel of Ashley’s weight no longer resting against his body that had Jack’s heart threatening to leap right on out of his chest. He didn’t hear crying, but he didn’t want to move in case the infant was-
“You can get up now, dude,” Adam said, sounding so casual even though Jack was on the verge of a complete panic attack. The Lebanese man looked back to see the photographer cradling his son, looking only slightly unsure on whether or not he was holding the small child correctly. It wasn’t the first baby he’d ever held, of course, but, in his defense, it had been quite a while.
Jack took a moment to calm his hammering heart before moving into a kneeling position on the ground, pushing his body up and immediately reaching out to lift Perspicacity from her daddy’s back. Alex followed Jack’s initial lead, pushing his body from the ground (having to move a little slower than he’d have preferred, seeing as how the waistband of his pants pressed just that little bit tighter against his place of incision and it kind of really hurt) before turning and holding his arms out to relieve Adam from the baby boy.
“Alright, let’s see… You’re probably gonna hate me for this, but I think you should sit against the tree…” the youngest man said slowly, letting his eyes roam up the trunk for a bit as he tried to envision his next shots. “Jack, give me the baby and sit with your back touching the bark. Alex, hand that baby-”
“Ashley,” Alex interjected, not really appreciating the fact that his babies were just being referred to as ‘the baby’ and ‘that baby.’ They had names, damn it.
Adam nodded in understanding, picking up where he left off as though nothing had really stopped him. “Right, well, hand her-”
“Boy, bro,” Jack cut in. He wasn’t necessarily upset about the fact that his son’s gender had been confused (except didn’t the blue give it away?), especially with the fact that Ashley was the one with the full head of deep brown hair and was named… well… Ashley, but he felt that, as the baby’s baba, he had to let people know that his son was a boy and not a girl.
Adam’s eyes seemed to widen even further, but it wasn’t in a fearful way. More shocked if anything, really. “Shit, sorry, man, I just… okay, right, if you could hand him-Ashley-to Jack until you can sit on the ground, too… Jack, stretch your legs out and spread them a little more. Alex, sit down between them, your back almost to his chest… Jack, give the baby back to Alex… You can hold both of them at the same time, right?”
Alex nodded his head, adjusting Ashley’s position so that the boy was snuggled comfortably in the crook of his left arm. Nevertheless, Jack held his hands up in a silent demand to be given Perspicacity first. Adam obliged easily, being extra careful with the pass-off than was probably necessary. Jack definitely appreciated that.
He was then nudging his nose against the back of the elder’s neck as a way to get his attention. Alex hummed, turning his head as far to the side as possible in order to see what was happening behind him. A kiss to the cheek, and then Jack was doing his best to maneuver the baby girl into his partner’s right arm from behind. It didn’t take all that much effort, really, and by the time they were ready, so was Adam.
“Jack, wrap your arms around Alex’s waist. Alex lean back into him… dude, hook your chin over his shoulder… and big grins in three-two-one.”
A handful of pictures were snapped in that position (Jack being sure to push his lips against Alex’s cheek for at least two of them), and then Adam was helping them both to their feet once more.
“Don’t move, just… Alex, hand one of the babies to Jack. It doesn’t matter who. Okay, now I want you two to stand side-by-side,” he instructed, viewfinder already lifted to his eye before they could even get into the correct position. “Jack, put… uh…”
“Perspicacity,” Alex supplied. He would’ve been annoyed-and he kind of was-had he not been getting a free photo-shoot out of it.
Adam smiled his thanks before continuing. “Put Perspicacity… Perspicacity?” A nod to show that yes, he was pronouncing the name correctly, and he took a moment to engrave it in his mind. “Put Perspicacity in your left arm. Alex, put Ashley in your right, and lift your left hand so that it’s kinda, like, supporting him or laying against his torso or something, y’know? And, Jack, right arm around Alex’s waist. Big smiles in three-two-one…”
--- ---
An hour and a half-which consisted of even more poses, photos, two crying babies, one feeding, diaper and clothes change later-seemed to pass by in a complete blur. Natural smiles and stolen kisses had Alex feeling like he was a teenager again, on the very threshold of adulthood and meeting his husband for the first time. Jack made him feel like that a lot, really, but it was different. Not in a bad way, of course, but he just kind of felt… complete. Even more so than usual. It was a feeling he was more than eager to welcome.
He didn’t have too much time to think about it, though, because both parties were soon packing their things so that they could go their separate ways. He knew he had to speak up if he wanted the pictures he’d imagined before the family had even left the apartment that morning, but he didn’t know what to say or where to bring it up.
The only thing he could think to blurt out as Adam was saying his farewell, promising to send all of the pictures he took in an e-mail as soon as he was able to upload them to his laptop so that they could pick and choose which ones they wanted printed, was, “Can you take a couple more pictures for us?”
Adam visibly faltered, face contorting in slight confusion. Jack’s expression was much the same, but that was only considering the fact that Adam had already packed his camera away, and why didn’t Alex just ask for more shots when Adam had said he thought he had enough for them to be sufficiently happy with?
“Uh… I don’t see why not,” Adam said slowly, reaching around to grab at his camera bag. Alex shook his head, realizing that he had to actually elaborate on what he meant if he was going to get things his way yet again.
“I mean, I… you know those pictures where the babies are naked and covered in a blanket or held against their parent’s chest?” he inquired, not even reacting as Jack’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and he was gently tugged to the side until Jack could kiss at his temple.
“I think it’s a little too cold to do something like that today, dude,” Adam admitted, glancing around the park. He didn’t want to agree and have one or both of the infants get sick.
Once again, Alex shook his head. “Would you mind, like… coming back to our apartment with us and taking some like that there?”
Adam thought about it for a moment. He was getting a little cold, he was hungry, and he was pretty damn tired. Nevertheless, he nodded in agreement. “Sure. I mean, why the hell not? You definitely owe me dinner, though.”