Developments // Jenlisa

Three

It's not until she's fourteen weeks that Lisa actually physically notices that it's actually happening.

Lisa has no work scheduled and they both got nowhere else to be so they've been hanging out together.

Jennie falls asleep on Minnie's couch one day for no reason whatsoever. Her cold toes are tucked under Lisa's thigh and Lisa can't find it in her to move away or get up, so she just stays there and keeps reading her book until Minnie knocks over something in her room. Jennie jolts awake and Lisa reaches for her when she almost falls of the side of the couch.

Jennie smiles at her gratefully before sitting up. The blanket falls off of her when she stretches up and Lisa's eyes automatically fall to her stomach when she sees her shirt stretching up.

That's when she finally sees it. The tiny swell of her stomach, the rounded edges Jennie never possessed there before. Lisa's eyes widen and she gasps without meaning to. Jennie lets her arms drop and narrows her eyes at her curiously.

"What?" she asks, confused.

Lisa lifts her hand and points, her mouth not really wanting to work around words right now. She clears her throat a few times before laughing awkwardly.

"You're pregnant," she finally manages to whisper.

Jennie's face falls and then she grins. She laughs and then drifts her hand down to push up another of the loose-fitting shirts she's taken to wearing to reveal her stomach. She still hasn't told anyone yet, even though she knows it's safe. Lisa thinks she's just worried about how they'll react, that they might ruin this quiet excitement in her that seems to be growing with every day.

Lisa hasn't questioned it. She kind of likes being one of the few people that knows. She likes being the person that everything is shared with. She likes moments like these when Jennie's shyly rubbing her fingers over her tiny new bump. They make her feel important.

"A little bit," Jennie comments with a shy smile, lying back down.

Lisa returns it and then reaches out to gently poke her in the tummy with the tip of her finger. She doesn't expect Jennie to chuckle and take her hand before pressing it to her stomach. She holds her breath to steady herself before breathing out. She wants to move her hand but she can't. She likes the way her hand curves over Jennie's skin, the way that Jennie's hand is warm over hers.

"Can you feel anything yet?" she asks. Jennie shakes her head.

"Not really," she says, her hand relaxes over Lisa's. "It's weird. Sometimes I feel like I do. It just feels like... butterflies or something."

Lisa looks at her hand on Jennie's stomach when Jennie lets her own fall away and plays with the cuff of Lisa's sweatshirt instead.

"It'll be soon, though," Lisa says softly.

Jennie looks at her softly and smiles. "I hope so," she whispers and Lisa looks away, feeling like she's talking about something else.

//

Jennie makes it to seventeen weeks before anyone finds out.

By the time they do, Lisa finds it really hard to care because she's got more important things to worry about.

Like the fact that she's getting a call from the hospital at 3:24 in the morning telling her that Jennie's been in an accident and she's been marked down as her next of kin.

All she hears is "accident" and it isn't until she finds Jennie sitting up and talking to one of the nurses that she can think of anything else.

She hugs Jennie tightly and then pulls back to check her over, only realizing then that the nurse she's talking to is applying steri-strips to a cut on her hairline. She clicks her tongue and feels her worry spike again.

"Everything's fine," Jennie tells her quickly. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"What the hell happened?" Lisa whispers. "I mean... why the hell were you driving anywhere at three in the morning anyway?"

Jennie blushes then laughs. She tugs on Lisa's hand until she's sat at the edge of the bed. The nurse finishes applying a dressing pad to Jennie's head and leaves with a knowing, kind smile, closing the curtain behind them.

"I got a craving," Jennie admits guiltily. "I wanted a damn avocado burger. I tried to go to sleep and just forget it but I couldn't so I thought I'd quickly go get one, but..." She rolls her eyes and groans. "Someone started following me-dispatch, I think-and I kept paying more attention to them than on the road. I broke hard so I didn't hit the guy in front of me but failed. I'm pretty sure they hung around long enough to hear me admit to the EMTs that I was pregnant, though, so... that'll be fun."

Lisa clicks her tongue. "Fuck that. Who cares as long as you're okay?" She shakes her head. "You're sure you're okay, right?"

Jennie rolls her eyes and pulls her back in for another hug. "I'm fine," she whispers. "Apart from still really needing a fucking burger, but... I'll live."

Lisa snuggles into her shoulder and sighs. "I thought something bad had happened."

"I'm fine," Jennie promises. "We're both fine."

Lisa feels silly when she starts crying, more from relief than anything. Jennie chuckles and rubs her back.

"Sorry," Lisa whispers around her sniffles. "Sorry."

"No," Jennie whispers. "Don't be sorry."

//

Minnie texts her, as they're letting Jennie go from the hospital, to let her know that it's all over the internet. Lisa sighs and when she looks up she finds Jennie looking at her knowingly.

"It's out?" she asks softly.

Lisa nods and pockets her phone. "Yeah."

Jennie reaches into her jacket for her phone. She hands it to Lisa wordlessly. "Can you, um, can you handle that for me? I turned it off to save the battery."

Lisa takes it and nods, understanding what she wants. "Sure," she whispers and then pockets that one too. "Let's get you home first."

Jennie pauses and looks at her. "Can we-"

Lisa laughs. "Yes, we can get you a damn burger," she says, unprepared for when Jennie wraps her in a hug and kisses her sloppily on the cheek.

//

Jennie's clutching a bag of food to her chest by the time that they pull up at Minnie's place. Minnie's up waiting for them and she looks relieved when she sees them.

"Thank God. I thought you were going to go back to Jennie's..." she mumbles and then she sees the bag of food in Jennie's hands. "What the hell?"

Jennie ignores her and moves to the couch to start eating. Lisa watches her as she kicks off her shoes and turns the TV onto something else. She sips coffee in the kitchen with Minnie until Jennie eventually lies down and falls asleep within seconds. Minnie rolls her eyes before wandering back to her room to get ready for the day. Lisa smiles and shifts Jennie until she's more comfortable, then covers her with a blanket before sitting on the floor in front of her.

She turns down the volume on the TV and reaches for Jennie's phone, finding her own charger and plugging it in before she turns it on. There's a million messages on there already and she just sighs and scrolls through them. They're all friends, family, work colleagues, her manager, her publicist, asking her if she's really pregnant over and over again. None of them ask her if she's okay and Lisa just shuts it off annoyed and tosses it onto the coffee table.

The sleep suddenly starts to kick in.

"Why don't you go sleep on my bed?" Minnie says as she comes down and finds her falling sideways.

Lisa just nods and gets up.

She's pretty sure she blacks out the minute her head hits the pillow.