(Untitled)

[playingtheenemy]

If you asked Ainsley if she expected this to be the general way her life went, she wouldn't have thought that she would up here in a clinic in the woods of a strange Island with a baby resting nearby, Josh still feeling freshly disappeared, and feeling weaker than she ever had before. She knew that the old adage ought to be true. Whatever didn't

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[abbysciuto]

Abby had brought food, specifically blueberry cobbler. When there was a major family realignment event of any kind, the required thing was to bring food, even if the family already had food. Plus, Ainsley had just given birth and that took a lot of calories, so she needed cobbler to help her get her strength back.

She held the covered cobbler pan in one hand and gently knocked on the doorframe so she wouldn't interrupt the cute little family tableau currently occurring, but still would let Ainsley know someone was here.

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley smiled tiredly as she heard a knock at the door, adjusting the baby in her arms as he gave a tiny sound as he was moved. "Don't mind me," she offered, inviting Abby in with a cant of her head. "I was just telling the little one here that we're going to stage a prison break one day soon. Come in, please!"

[abbysciuto]

With permission given and family tableau over, she was willing to move into the room. She only bothered with tact some of the time, but this was a time.

"Darn, I wish I would have known you wanted to prison-break. I would have baked a file into this," she replied, lifting the cobbler a little in illustration.

"Although, what kind? Manila, maybe? It's sort of like vanilla, but not."

[playingtheenemy]

"Well, we can always work on distracting the guard later," Ainsley assured, grinning slightly at the thought of going to great lengths to organize a very efficient break-out of a very calm and easygoing clinic. "And right now, honestly, I don't even care what flavors are in there, I am starved and that looks incredible."

[abbysciuto]

"It's a deal. I'll show a little leg. Guys fall for it every time," Abby replied conspiratorially.

"It's blueberry cobbler, from the first of the blueberries this year, so some of them might be more tart than others. I didn't have enough hands for whipped cream or ice cream or anything, but I did bring spoons."

She whipped the spoons out of a pocket with a flourish, because that was the rules.

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley gave an almost indecent groan when she saw the spoons and reached out, knowing that she was being slightly grabby, but she couldn't bring herself to care. "You are a godsend," she announced and shifted Josiah in her arms. "I know this makes me a terrible mother, but I'll trade you my baby for some of your cobbler?"

[abbysciuto]

Abby laughed and put the cobbler down on the table next to the bed.

"It doesn't make you terrible, just hungry and in need of something other than staring at the tiny little Winston Churchill being there. And yes, I will take Josiah so you can have some cobbler."

She'd held the girls plenty of times when they were itty bitty things and although it still hadn't made her biological clock go off, she did kinda enjoy holding babies.

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley gave a slight noise of gratitude as she gently offered Josiah out to Abby, her grasp as steady and strong as ever even though she had felt the weakest that she was in her whole life during the past few days. "It smells incredible," she praised. "He's a good baby. He cries, but I expected crying. Crying is normal. I'm just happy that he exists when during the birth I had moments of...well, not thinking that either of us were going to make it," she confessed quietly.

[abbysciuto]

Abby took the miniature human from his mother and cuddled him close so he'd feel secure. He responded by squinching up his little face for a second, but thankfully did not howl immediately.

"Well, you did, and he did, and everything's good now," she replied firmly. She hadn't known that it was that bad, but she was glad it had been okay in the end. Who else was gonna eat such massive quantities of cobbler?

"He definitely exists. No illusory babies here!"

[playingtheenemy]

"If there were, I think I'd be getting slightly concerned," she admitted with a slight smile, so proud and delighted when Josiah seemed to abide by being taken by someone else. She had been so worried that he wouldn't adjust to other people, wouldn't allow himself to be held. "He's tiny. I thought, given Shadow, that he'd be bigger."

[abbysciuto]

"Yeah, that might indicate a psychotic break or something, so it's good that you haven't had one of those," she agreed with a slight chuckle, bouncing Josiah gently to keep him content while Ainsley had a little break from him.

"Oh, I bet he won't be tiny for long, but right now he's pretty cute in his minisculeness."

[playingtheenemy]

"I was just grateful he was small. Though, he didn't exactly come out the traditional way," she admitted, a hand over the scar on her stomach. "I'm just happy he's here. He's the only one I'm going to get and the only one I want and I love him," she said, so effusively in love with her little boy that words weren't enough. "I love him so incredibly much that I didn't know you could love another little human being like this."

[abbysciuto]

That kind of sentiment was pretty common for parents, but it never got less Awww-worthy and Abby smiled.

"That's evolution for you. If we didn't form attachments to our young, the species would never survive," she pointed out. "Not that it isn't adorable and true, of course."

[playingtheenemy]

"I just really never thought I was going to be one of those mothers," Ainsley confessed as she tugged on the blankets and arranged them over her until she was swaddled with warm blankets and delicious cobbler. "Even through the pregnancy, it was mild, but when I saw him...well, let me tell you. It definitely kicked in."

[abbysciuto]

"So those adages about it being different when it's your own are true then?" she asked curiously. She still didn't have any desire to have a kid and be anything other than Auntie Abby, but it was still interesting.

She glanced down at Josiah, who was possibly looking at her with interest and possibly staring at the ceiling. Babies weren't so good at focusing at this age.

[playingtheenemy]

"I'm not sure, but after what the kiddo and I went through, I'm not ever letting him out of my sight," she declared, making a firm gesture with her hand. "Ever. He's going to have to get used to being eighteen and me on his tail. And speaking of him growing up, you need to help me find a better nickname than Karen's." She grimaced mildly. "She's taken to calling him Josie."