Home Is Where the Heart Is (Brittana)

Chapter 12

Brittany's POV

My body ached, but I felt happier than I ever had. My perfect baby girl was finally here, and I felt as though I could hold her forever. Santana and I lay on our bed with our baby, waiting for our families to make it to Columbus from Lima.

"What should we name her?" I asked Santana. It had been a few hours since she was born, but we hadn't even thought about giving her a name yet.

Santana replied, "I don't know. You know, I had a list of names that I liked for both girl and boy, but I don't think any of them suit her."

"You know, I was thinking about how we're going to love her forever, you know? And then the name Everly came to me. I don't know what it really means, but I like that it has the word 'ever' in it. Do you like the name?"

"I think it's a beautiful name for our daughter," Santana replied. "Everly...?"

"You should pick her middle name," I said.

She thought for a moment before replying, "What about Dawn? Since she was born at dawn."

"I love it." I smiled down at the baby girl in her arms who had just started to wake up but wasn't crying yet. "Everly Dawn Lopez-Pierce."

"Lopez-Pierce?"

"Yeah. She is ours, and I always figured we would hyphenate when we get married."

"But I can't officially adopt her until then."

"Okay, her name on her birth certificate won't have your last name, but we'll change it as soon as you can adopt her."

"That sounds good," she said, looking at our daughter. "Everly Dawn Lopez-Pierce."

---

Our families arrived just after lunch, and Santana had to leave our bedroom (where we'd stayed, except for using the bathroom, since Everly was born) to let them in.

"Hey Brittany," my mother said something first as everyone crowded in the bedroom.

"Hey," I replied. "Meet Everly Dawn."

Everyone cooed over the baby, even Santana's father, which she seemed surprised about. But, babies have a way of bringing families closer, and I knew Everly would do just that with Santana and her parents.

I passed Everly to my mom first and she slowly made her way to everyone. I could feel my eyes starting to close, exhaustion rolling over my entire body. Everly was perfect, and Santana was perfect, and that was all I could think about.

"Hey B," Santana whispered, waking me up.

"How long did I sleep?" I asked, shocked at just how raspy my voice sounded.

"Not very long. Our families are going to go back to the hotel now, so you can get some more rest. They just wanted to say 'goodbye.'"

"Okay."

Santana took Everly back from her mother before everyone left, then passed her to me to breastfeed, as she was starting to get fussy.

"We don't need to have any more visitors today," she said.

"No, it's okay. Jessie can come."

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep a little more?"

"I'm okay," I replied, looking down at Everly as she breastfed, a sensation that I still wasn't used to.

"Alright."

---

Santana's POV

As much as I loved our families and seeing how they interacted with Everly, I felt relieved when they finally left to go to the hotel in the late afternoon, saying they would come back the next day.

After eating Brittany's request (chocolate chip pancakes), we called Jessie to say that they could come over to meet our daughter. Jessie was our found family here in Columbus, so we couldn't wait for them to meet her.

When the buzzer went, I got up from where the three of us were relaxing, Brittany breastfeeding Everly, on our bed to let Jessie in.

"Hi!" they exclaimed in a whisper tone. "How is everyone?"

"Doing good," I replied. "The baby is eating, but she'll be done soon. They're in the bedroom."

I lead Jessie into our master bedroom, despite the fact that our apartment was small and they'd been there many times, to meet the baby.

"Hey," Brittany greeted, burping the baby as we entered the room.

"She's so cute," Jessie said. "What's her name?"

Forgetting that we hadn't told them her name yet, I looked at Brittany, allowing her to say the baby's name.

"Everly Dawn Lopez-Pierce," she said.

"Aw. She's got your last name too, Lopez," they teased fondly.

"Not officially yet," I replied, "but someday she will."

Jessie sat down in the chair we kept in our bedroom, since it didn't fit in the main living space. It was a very comfortable chair, and it was where our family had spent a lot of time holding Everly that afternoon.

"Would you like to hold her?" Brittany asked, passing the baby into my arms.

"Of course," Jessie replied.

I took the two steps over to the chair and gently moved our daughter into Jessie's arms.

"Wow, she's so little. I can barely believe you two have a daughter. I guess now I'll get to know the not pregnant version of Brittany," they joked.

"I guess so," Brittany said. "I still feel pretty pregnant, though."

"Twins?" they joked again, looking down at our beautiful daughter.

"No," Brittany giggled, "just my body returning to normal, I guess."

"So, how did you come up with her name?" Jessie asked.

"Brittany liked that Everly has the word 'ever' in it, since we're going to love her forever," I replied, "and she was born at dawn."

"That's adorable. And think of all the nicknames that come with Everly: Ever, Eve, Evie, I could go on."

"I never really thought of that," Brittany said. "Those are some cute nicknames though. Just not Eve; it doesn't sound like it belongs to a baby."

After Jessie left, Brittany and I were alone with Everly once more.

"You know," Brittany said, "I heard somewhere that the newborn phase is the hardest, but I highly doubt that. I imagine having a toddler would be much more difficult than this, even though I'll probably barely get to sleep for the next few months."

"I guess every phase is different, but I'm excited for every one of them."