Baby

25

July 4, 1991

Stevie was rubbing her stomach with her right hand. Their baby kicking incredibly hard as the parade wailed and whizzed around them Misty was scared out of her mind at the sounds and the sights so Stevie had her in her arms and despite being slightly uncomfortable she was comforting the one year while Lindsey and Cordelia were up closer to the parade catching the candy and the treats being thrown at them. Later they'd be watching the fireworks and though Stevie was wary about keeping the girls up that late she was just happy she got to take her kids and start making family traditions. The parade was ending and as the sounds seized Misty stopped hiding into Stevie's neck and Lindsey and Cordelia made their way over to her showing off her loot.

"Good haul sunflower." Stevie smiles.

"What does that mean mommy?" 

"It just means that you got a whole bunch of yummy stuff...honey can you please take her, my back is killing me." She looks at Lindsey.

"You can put her down you know." Lindsey states taking her from her arms.

"She's so little and there are so many people." Stevie sighs grabbing Cordelia's hand.

"You do have a point." Lindsey nods 

They're picnicking at the park waiting for the fireworks to start, sprawled out on blankets. Stevie's sitting cross-legged but she's leaned back so her belly is in the air. Misty is playing with her toys on the blanket and Lindsey and Cordelia are up blowing bubbles and running around but Stevie was the happiest when Cordelia fell right into her lap straddling her hips and hugging her.

"What's the matter sunflower?" Stevie asks.

"I just love you is all." Cordelia smiles and Stevie's heart melts. 

"And I love you. so very, very, very much." Stevie coos hugging her tightly. 

"Mommy, what do you hope my baby brother or sister is?" Cordelia asks.

"I don't have a preference Sunflower, I just want them to be healthy and happy," Stevie explains kissing her head.

"I want another little Misty." Cordelia smiles.

"You want another Misty...well I'll try my best." Stevie laughs.

"What do you want daddy?" Cordelia looks up at Lindsey who had dropped onto the blanket. 

"Well, to be honest, I kind of want a little boy." Lindsey states.

"How come?" Cordelia questions.

"So I can have a little buddy," Lindsey smirks.

"I thought I was your little buddy?" Cordelia pouts.

"You're my little lovebug and Misty's my little butterfly. I want a little buddy." Lindsey explains.

"Oh, can we play some more?" Cordelia looks at him.

"I'll go." Stevie shrugs.

"Are you sure momma?" Lindsey questions lightly rubbing her belly. 

"I'm sure." Stevie shifts and she heaves herself up. 

Stevie takes Lindsey's place blowing bubbles with Cordelia and Lindsey takes a picture. The sun is setting behind them and Stevie's pulled Cordelia in her arms and she's slightly bent over revealing her belly, and while Stevie is laughing staring to the left, Cordelia is giggling staring right at Lindsey and the smiles on their faces are so precious and he just had to do it. But he also posed Misty for a picture too and when the fireworks started, Stevie and Cordelia collapsed back onto the blanket. Cordelia rubbing Stevie's stomach as she gazed up at the fireworks in the Los Angeles City Sky. 

***

August 15, 1991

Stevie was about 33 weeks pregnant and she was at a photoshoot for her Timespace album. She didn't want to be at a photoshoot this far along in pregnancy because she looked very pregnant and they would have to get creative with everything because she wanted to hide it and keep it to herself for as long as she could, she knew she would have to go in and do promo soon, and at that point, it would probably be inevitable but for right now she wanted to keep it to herself. 

"Are you sure you're going to be okay with the girls today?" Stevie asks.

"I'm sure...at this point, Cordelia is mostly independent so it's just trying to entertain Misty," Lindsey explains kissing her at the front door. 

"I can't believe I'm doing a photoshoot pregnant, and not a fun maternity photoshoot just a plain old stupid album cover photoshoot." Stevie pouts.

"Whose taking your pictures?" Lindsey inquires rocking back and forth with her in his arms in the entryway.

"Herbie," Stevie explains.

"Maybe you could have him take some extra pictures of you," Lindsey explains.

"I didn't think of that. But I don't have a pretty dress to wear for it or anything." Stevie shakes her head.

"That doesn't matter, I just know you and I think you'll want something like that done." Lindsey kisses her. 

"Alright, I'm going to go. I'll see you later, I love you." Stevie smiles.

"I love you too." Lindsey nods as Stevie leaves the house and climbs into Karen's car. 

After her initial photoshoot, she does ask Herbie to take some photographs of her and luckily he had his polaroid camera on his person so he offered to take pictures of her with the polaroid and she greedily accepted already knowing she was going to put them in a little picture book.  One of her outfits was a black mid-thigh dress with lacy detailing on her breasts and the velvet fabric flowed out around her stomach and that's the dress that she chose to do the photoshoot in. There weren't any props just the white background that they used for the album cover. One of the pictures was just her with both of her hands on the underside of her bump just staring down at it, a sweet small smile playing at her lips. She did a couple of other photos with just one hand on her stomach some with both of her hands on her stomach outlining the bump and others just her lying down with her bump on display. He gave her the polaroids and then she eagerly went home wanting to show Lindsey what she had done. 

When she walked into the house she heard screams and cries and she was immediately on high alert. She ran to the best of her ability into the living room and she saw Lindsey with a red face and two crying children.

"What happened?" Stevie asks.

"I don't even know, I was in the kitchen prepping dinner and I heard the screams and came out here to see that Cordelia had Misty pinned to the floor.

"Pinned how?" Stevie asks.

"Just by the shoulders but she's not telling me what happened they've just been doing this for twenty minutes.

"Alright, what happened?" Stevie asks her hand going to her stomach where the baby was kicking. 

Cordelia just screamed NO and Stevie sighed, "Cordelia what happened." 

"No." She repeats.

"Well Misty can't talk so you're going to have to." Stevie crosses her arms.

"She was throwing her blocks at me and one of them hit me in the face and I told her no but she didn't stop and she kept doing it and I got mad." Cordelia huffs.

"Honey you can't push her though she's just little and she doesn't understand no yet like you, daddy, or me," Stevie explains.

"Am I in trouble?" Cordelia questions sniffling.

"We'll let it go this time, but you can't do that again. She doesn't understand we just have to work with her on it. Come give me a hug." Stevie sighs opening her arms.