Improving Perfection - Chapter 19

[moffel83]

Title: Improving Perfection (Bittersweet 3)
Author:  moffel83
Pairing: Domlijah of course
Rating: NC 17 (for the complete series)
Summary: Dom, Elijah and Luke are a happy family. Can they improve that perfection? And will trying to improve it maybe put what they have in danger?
Disclaimer:  As far as I know this is not true! It's all just in my head;)  This story is an Mpreg and Mpreg doesn't exist in real life.
Author's Note:Thanks to my lovely beta spikessweetgirl
Chapter: 19/22
Word count: 2373

Previous chapters



“…when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented,” Elijah ended the story, closing the fairy tale book in his hands and looked at Luke who was looking up at him from his expressive eyes.

“And what happened to the evil witch?” Luke asked as Elijah put away the book and moved to sit away from his former position. He had sat leaning against the wall, Luke cuddled into him while Elijah read the story to him and now moved to the edge of the bed, helping Luke to lie down under the cover, gently pulling it up to his little face.

“She was very mean and probably died one day all on her own with no one there,” Elijah answered, leaving a kiss on Luke’s forehead.

“And Rapunzel’s parents? Did she see them again?”

”I am sure that she and the King’s son went to look for them and found them and they all lived happily ever after.”

”That’s good,” Luke nodded, holding out his arm for his favourite teddy bear which Elijah dutifully gave him.

“Yeah, it is!” Elijah agreed, about to get up from the bed when Luke’s small voice made him sit down once again. In utter shock.

”Can we sell the baby, Papa?”

Elijah looked at his son in utter shock and confusion and needed a second to school his face into a mask of curiosity, trying to hide the sting he really felt at Luke’s words.

”Why would we sell it, honey?”

”I don’t want it,” Luke just replied, looking at Elijah from slightly sad looking eyes.

“I thought you were looking forward to being a big brother,” Elijah said, wondering why Luke would suddenly say something like this. He had been excited about becoming a big brother ever since they had told him about the new baby and seeing ultrasound pictures, going to the ultrasounds with him and Dom, helping with the nursery and buying clothes for the baby had all been things that had excited him. So to say that Elijah was surprised by his statement was an understatement.

“Not anymore,” Luke just said, looking at his teddy and then back at his papa and Elijah could see that he looked even sadder now.

“Why not, honey? What made you change your mind? Don’t you want to play with the baby anymore?”

“I want you to love me, not the baby,” Luke said quietly and quite seriously for his age as he stared Elijah squarely in the eye.

Elijah was slightly taken aback by Luke’s response and wondered what had brought this on. He reached out his hand to gently stroke his son’s cheek and told him in a serious voice that he loved him and always would and that the new baby wouldn’t change that.

“You’ll love the baby more than me,” Luke said, his eyes getting glassy and soon after the first tears appeared in his eyes, wetting his cheeks shortly after as they made their way down his face.

Elijah pulled back the covers and gently took Luke in his arms, pulling him up into his lap and hugging him tight, softly wiping away his tears as he cried in his arms.

“Oh honey, don’t say that. It’s not true! I love you and always will and the new baby won’t change that. I will always love you just like I do now, new baby or not. And so will daddy…Honey, nothing will change in how much we love you. I promise!”

“Will you still play with me?”

”Of course I will and so will daddy,” Elijah immediately replied, kissing his son’s forehead. “We will still play with you and we will hug you and will cuddle with you and we will tickle you and do all the things we do now. Even when the new baby is here. Daddy and I will love you both, honey. You and the new baby! We’ll love you just as much as we love you now and we’ll love the new baby as well. But we won’t love the new baby more. Don’t think that.”

“But…,” Luke looked up at Elijah from wide, scared eyes, clearly doubting his words. “Michelle said you will not love me when the new baby is here.”

“Who is Michelle?” Elijah asked, feeling like they were getting to the bottom of what was going on.

“She always plays with me in school. We play with Lego together,” Luke informed his papa and Elijah remembered that Luke had mentioned her name before and that he had seen them play together when he had picked Luke up a couple of weeks ago.

“And why would she say something like that to you?”

”She has a new sister and now her mommy and daddy don’t love her anymore,” Luke went on, answering Elijah’s question.

“Oh baby,” Elijah said, looking at Luke and smiling. “I am sure her mommy and daddy still love her like they always did. They’re probably just really busy with her new sister. A baby is a lot of work, honey.”

“Will you be busy with the new baby?” Luke immediately asked and Elijah thought for a second that maybe lying would be a good idea and that it was important to calm Luke’s fears and that he should tell him that they wouldn’t be busy and would still have as much time as they always had had for him before, but Elijah knew that it was a lie and he didn’t want to lie to his small son who was so sad right now. Elijah wanted to be honest, but tried to come up with a way to still be gentle about it.

“You know, when a baby gets born the baby needs a lot of help in the beginning. It can’t eat on its own and it can’t dress or walk or move or even talk like you do. And it needs its parents to help him with that. So yes, daddy and I will be busy with the baby because we will have to feed it, will have to dress it and will have to play with it and all the things we also did when you were a baby, but you know what, honey?”

Luke shook his head slowly and looked at his papa waiting for what he would say next. “Even though we’ll be busy taking care of the baby, we’ll never be too busy to still love you! We will love you and will do the things we always do with you even when the new baby is here. And you know what? You’re a big boy then, you’re the big brother of the baby, so you can even help us if you want to. How does that sound?”

Luke seemed to think about Elijah’s words and much like Elijah had expected, the mention of him being a big boy and being allowed to help had caught Luke’s attention. “I can help?”

“Sure, honey. You can help me and daddy feed the baby and you can cuddle with it all you want. We can all cuddle together. How does that sound? Would you like that? You, me, daddy and your new brother or sister?”

Luke nodded and leaned his head against Elijah’s chest.

“I promise that we will always love you, honey! Always! The new baby will not change that. Daddy and I love you and always will!”

“I love you, Papa,” Luke whispered, slowly climbing down from Elijah’s lap and returning to his spot on the bed.

Elijah ruffled the boy’s hair and smiled. “I love you, too.”

He then smiled when Luke’s small hand wandered to his belly and gently stroked it. “Maybe we can keep the baby,” Luke said, looking up at his papa.

“Yeah, maybe we can,” Elijah agreed before leaning down and kissing his son goodnight before pulling up the covers again and getting up from the bed. “Sleep tight, honey and have sweet dreams,” Elijah said as he made his way over to the door where Dom was already waiting to take over and give Luke a goodnight kiss as well.

Whenever it was possible they both tried to put him to bed together, one of them helping him change and bath and brush his teeth and the other one reading a story to him or telling him one. In recent weeks Elijah had mostly read the story and Dom had taken care of everything else, trying to give Elijah as much rest as was possible and Dom had been busy cleaning up the bathroom and putting away Luke’s things and had therefore missed their earlier conversation.

Dom had just appeared in the doorway when Elijah had wished Luke sweet dreams, so Elijah wasn’t surprised to see him walking over to Luke’s bed as if nothing had ever happened.

Dom sat down next to Luke and tickled his belly for a bit before kissing Luke goodnight as well and wishing him sweet dreams, too. Once Dom was done, Luke snuggled into his pillow with his teddy by his side and Dom turned off the light, leaving on only the small night lamp close to the door.

He left the door slightly ajar as they always did and together he and Elijah moved downstairs into the living-room where they settled on the couch.

”Did you hear what he said?” Elijah asked and had expected Dom to be confused by that question.

“Who?”

”Luke? About the baby?”

”No, what did he say?” Dom asked, looking at Elijah, expecting to hear some cute story.

“He wants to sell the baby,” Elijah just said and Dom did a double take at that, clearly not having expected to hear something like that.

”Sell the baby? What?”

”He thinks we won’t love him anymore when the baby is here and he doesn’t want that. He wants us to love him and not the new baby.”

”Why would he say something like that?” Dom asked, looking at Elijah in confusion, trying to remember if something had been off recently, but all he remembered was Luke being excited about being a big brother soon. As far as Dom was concerned, Luke had looked forward to the new baby. He had loved helping with the nursery and shopping for baby clothes and things they would need and had always wanted to touch Elijah’s belly and feel the baby kick whenever it was possible.

“Someone in school told him that it had been like that in her family when they had a new baby and I think it scared him,” Elijah mused, looking at Dom. “I think he’s really scared we won’t love him anymore.”

“What did you tell him?” Dom asked, trying to think of what he would have said if Luke had told him and not Elijah.

“That it was bullshit and that we would always love him, no matter what. That we would love him just as we would love the new baby and that we might be really busy in the beginning with the baby, but that we would never stop loving him and I promised him he could help us taking care of the baby. That kind of thing,” Elijah replied, looking at Dom, hoping Dom didn’t think he had gone the wrong way about this.

“Yeah…yeah, that’s good. I think I’d have said something like that as well,” Dom said, wearing a thoughtful look.

”We should make sure that we’ll find a way to make time for him as well. Things will be so busy when the baby is here, but…I think it’s important that we always try to make time for Luke and try to show him that we still love him, too. I hope we won’t get too caught up in the baby to forget about Luke,” Elijah whispered, putting a nail to his hand and biting on it nervously.

Dom smiled to himself when he saw the hand at Elijah’s mouth, amused that Elijah still hadn’t kicked that bad habit and as he always did, Dom tried to save the poor nail from its early demise by taking Elijah’s hand and pulling it away from his mouth.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, baby. We will make it work and we will find a way to also make time for Luke. He’s not going to become the unloved kid now,” Dom chuckled, relieved when he saw Elijah grin as well. “We’re going to figure it out, I am sure. Other people managed, too and I am sure we will as well. Somehow.”

Elijah nodded, knowing that Dom was right. “Yeah…”

“And we definitely won’t sell the baby,” Dom said in amusement as he moved over to Elijah and put his hands on his belly. “You hear me, sweetheart? Daddy won’t allow for Luke to sell you. You’re going to stay here, don’t worry.”

Elijah laughed at Dom’s antics, glad that he had lifted the mood and hadn’t allowed them to dwell on it for too long and the longer Elijah thought about it, the more he wondered if this wasn’t something every kid went through when a new baby was about to arrive. He wondered if he had been like that as well when his mom had been pregnant with Hannah. He would have to ask her, because he had a feeling she might have to share a story or two about some of the things he had said as well when she had been pregnant with Hannah. Though admittedly Elijah had been younger than Luke was now and maybe he hadn’t said something like that yet.