Lightning crashes, a new mother cries.
Title: Lightning crashes, a new mother cries.
Author: Phelipa
Rating: PG
Pairing: Aaron + Kate (Familyish fic)
Wordcount: 639
Summary: A small fic through Aaron's eyes.
He wakes in the middle of the night to shrill, shuddering sobs coming from his Mommy’s room.
He takes a sip of water and wiggles out from under his race car bedspread, shivering when his little feet hit the cold floor. His footsteps are quiet as he tiptoes down the hall and peers into Mommy’s bedroom. By then the sobs have stopped and Mommy’s awake, feeding the new baby. She catches him peeking through the small crack in the door and asks,
“Aaron, what are you doing?”
He pushes the door open farther and runs to her big bed, scrambling up next to her and quietly explaining,
“I checking Devin.”
She smiles slightly but her eyes are sad, they always are nowadays, and there are lines next to her eyes that he knows make her yell a little bit more than usual and mean he’s less likely to have ice cream for breakfast. He cuddles in close to her and kisses her cheek gently, his long eyelashes fluttering against her cool skin.
When he looks up there are tears in her eyes and he gets scared; he doesn’t like it when mommy’s sad, especially now that his friend Jack is gone. Jack always knew how to make her feel better.
“Mommy?” He asks.
She smiles again and says she’s fine but she has a sad face and he doesn’t believe her, not one bit. She turns to look at the baby and eases her out from under the nursing blanket, propping her up against her shoulder and rubbing her back gently. When she lies back in the pillows and rests the baby on her chest, Aaron rests his head on her arm and studies the baby’s wrinkled face and blue eyes.
He touches her thin hair and whispers, “I like you.”
Mommy laughs and it makes his tummy feel funny because she hasn’t made that sound in a long time. He’s glad that she’s home, he missed her last week when she was in the hospital having the baby and he was staying with Aunt Sun and Ji Yeon, but she’s different now and sometimes he gets scared around her.
“Aunt Sun coming tomorrow?” He asks.
She shakes her head, “Not until Saturday, bud.”
He nods and looks up at her again, “I sleep here?”
“Devin might wake you up.” She warns, easing the baby back into her bassinette.
“It’s ok.” He says, scrambling under the covers and curling up next to her, patting her arm gently, “I stay.”
*
As the weeks go by, Mommy starts to smile again and sometimes she even has a happy face. Devin sleeps more at night and he doesn’t wake up at night when she cries, so he’s not so tired at preschool anymore. He likes to hold her; she’s little and she fits in his small arms and sometimes she smiles at him when he makes funny faces. She makes funny noises now and her head isn’t so wobbly against his arm (mommy still makes him put a pillow under his arm when he holds her though).
He especially likes to hold her when mommy’s making supper because she’s awake and she kicks her legs against his knees, making him laugh. He waits until mommy comes to get him for supper to look down at Devin, his pinky finger grasped tightly in her hand, and say,
“Mommy, my friend Jack will like to meet Devin.”
When he looks up she has the saddest face he’s ever seen and her eyes are red and wet. He’s terribly confused; if his friend Jack liked him he would probably like Devin a lot - she’s cute and small and she smells good (most of the time). But mommy’s voice sounds strange and a little scary when she says,
“No Aaron, Jack will never meet Devin.”