Lotto

29

March 27, 1982

Stevie was nineteen weeks pregnant and she was officially showing and she had to make Lindsey go up into the attic and pull out her maternity clothes but she gasped when she realized that most of them were winter clothes and in a flurry of emotion she started crying. So Lindsey promised her that after the spring carnival the three of them could go maternity and baby shopping. 

The alarm hadn't gone off yet but Stevie woke up to their bedroom door opening and the light came streaming in from the hall.

"Freya what are you doing?" She whispers.

"The sun is up so I'm up." She points to Stevie's balcony and Stevie groans sitting up in bed and peering at the clock.

"It's seven-thirty the carnival doesn't even start until eleven please go back to sleep." Stevie begs.

"But mama." She whines.

"Look, I'm not leaving this bed, so you can either go back to your bed and try to get some more sleep or you can crawl right on in here and try to get some more sleep." Stevie explains. 

Freya just huffs but she climbs on via the foot of the bed and settles in Stevie's arms but the way she settles, Stevie can't move. So she's left in an awkward position that she knows is going to kill her back but she doesn't dare move Freya. 

When Lindsey wakes up Stevie is in and out of sleep still in the awkward position and he looks at the girls. Freya had her head on Stevie's chest, one arm was flung over Stevie's hip the other was up on Stevie's shoulder and her little legs were doing the goddamn cricket thing that Stevie still does that Lindsey still hates but her legs are draped across his.

"What the hell, how did this happen?" He asks.

"She came in at the ass crack of dawn wide awake." She rolled her eyes.

"But you look like you're in pain." He smiles.

"My back, Linds." She answers.

"We should probably wake her up." He smiles sitting up. 

Stevie just rolls her eyes and starts raking her fingers through Freya's curls.  The little girl shakes her head but Stevie lightly chuckles tracing her finger across Freya's forehead and cheek gently and that's what pulls her out of sleep.

"Wha Mama?" 

"It's finally the proper time to be awake. C'mon what do you want for breakfast?" Stevie asks.

"Waffles with nanas?" 

"I can make you waffles with bananas. C'mon munchkin let's get up and let daddy get in the shower. We'll get you dressed and then we'll go down stairs to make breakfast." Stevie sits up wincing as the pain shoots through her back but she gathers herself by sitting up completely and just placing her hands on the underside of the bump. Lindsey seeing his wife's distress reaches over and kneads on her back slightly and she gives an appreciate smile before she makes her way out of the bed. 

The outfit that Freya chose to wear was a white t-shirt under a yellow chiffon kimono because she was her mother's child and a pair of black leggings and she had pushed her brown boots toward Stevie.  Do you want mama to match you today?" She asks after a moment.

"What?" Freya questions.

"Come on." She motioned her head and the two of them headed back into Lindsey and Stevie's bedroom. 

Lindsey had the shower going with the door cracked slightly, not enough for anything to be seen but just slightly a jar and he was singing at the top of his lungs in the shower, and Freya who loved when her dad sang headed straight for the cracked door but Stevie intercepted her and shut it before she meandered Freya into her closet. The box had been rooted through from but she pulled out a white tight tank top dress that was a couple sizes too big for her, qualifying it as maternity, but early on maternity because as soon as June hit it wouldn't fit her anymore. And then she pulled out her own yellow chiffon kimono. 

"yeah momma match." Freya beams. Stevie smiles and strips in her closet right in front of her. She's not wearing a bra but she grabs the one she wore the day prior from their clothes basket but Freya stops her. 

"What?" Stevie inquires still there standing mostly naked. 

All Freya does is puts her hands on her belly. "Mom your belly's gettin big." 

"Yeah that means Luna is getting big." Stevie nods. 

"How much long until she's here?" 

"Oh about four months." Stevie tells her running her fingers through Freya's blonde curls. 

"Can I give her a kiss?" 

"Well sure...you can give her a kiss." Stevie smiles all of a sudden feeling wet slobbery lips on her stomach. 

***

Walking into the carnival Stevie and Lindsey can barely pay for the tickets when Freya breaks free from them and runs right to her best friend. Annabel was a sweet little girl, at least Stevie liked her. She wasn't Stevie's student at all but if she'd pass Stevie in the hallway she'd reach over and give her a quick hug and she always said Good Day Mrs. Buckingham whenever she saw her. Stevie's driven her home from school a couple of times and she's come over a couple of times as well and it was becoming increasingly clear that Freya and Annabel were inseparable much like her and Robin had been before husbands and babies. 

"Stevie you're finally showing." Christine smiles reaching up and patting her stomach.

"Oh I know, it happened on Friday morning I had to make Lindsey go up in the attic and get my maternity stuff. But I was going through it and I realized something..." Stevie trails off.

"What did you realize?"

"I didn't show with Freya until maybe September, I was around five months just like with this one, so from September to February. Most of my maternity clothes is winter and I'm sitting there crying because when we leave here I have to go sit in a maternity store and go through the tortures of buying maternity clothes a second time." She pouts.

"But look at this way, you'll have clothes for every season for when the third one comes." Rebecca points out.

"We are NOT having a third one." Stevie rolls her eyes.

"That's what you said about the second one." Christine points out. 

Stevie just pouts and places a twenty on the table and holds her hand out for the tickets.