Stand In The Rain

Fifteen

It was nearing nine o'clock at night by the time JJ and her family returned from church, and when they were all in their bedrooms, changing from their church clothes back to casual ones, JJ noticed that Emily was changing straight into her pajamas.

"What's the matter?" JJ asked her.

"The baby isn't cooperating with me right now and is making me feel wiped out." Emily laid down on the bed, sighing at the relief that the mattress brought her. "I'll be as right as rain in the morning, but I'm afraid I won't be much fun with you and my parents right now."

"Don't worry about, it Em. Lizzie and Max have completely taken to spoiling me like you said they would, and I think I imprinted on them like a baby duck. They like it, and so do I."

Before she left the room, she went to Emily's side of the bed and pulled her pajama shirt back just enough to expose her bump.

"Hey, little Baby Bear!" she cooed softly, placing featherlight kisses to the rounded surface. "You be good for mama right now and let her sleep, alright? She really needs it!"

Emily thought she was going to melt as JJ spent a few more minutes kissing her belly and talking to the baby; JJ was the most gentle person she'd ever been with, and the fact that she had the capacity to be gentle, despite all of the abuse she had suffered in her time with Baylor, simply amazed Emily.

So gentle was JJ, in fact, that her kisses and soft tone lulled Emily straight to sleep.

When JJ went downstairs, she found Elizabeth and Maximo in the front living room where the Christmas tree stood, fully decorated and surrounded by Christmas presents. The fireplace was roaring, and there were even yet-to-be stuffed stockings hanging from on the wall to the right of the fireplace. There was even a stocking for JJ, and she was both touched by the gesture and excited because even though she'd grown up in an upper middle class family, she'd never had a stocking before.

"No Emilia?" Maximo asked when they saw her.

"She's wiped out." JJ explained as she sat on her favorite oversized footstool adjacent to the fireplace. "I'm not, though."

"Fantastic." Elizabeth chirped. "We were trying to decide which Christmas movie to watch, but now that you're here, we're going to put that aside for just a moment."

JJ raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"We're very curious about you, JJ, and there's only so much that Emilia can tell us."

"And now you two are going to grill me, huh?" JJ joked as she moved her chair closer to the other two.

"In a non-stressful way, but yes." Maximo smiled. "What can you tell us about your siblings?"

JJ smiled. "I have a brother named Archer, and he's a decade older than me."

"What does he do?"

"He's an accountant at a business firm in Missouri."

Elizabeth asked, "Is he married?"

"Uh-huh. His wife's name is Cho, and she's from of Tokyo's largest and oldest power families. They have an eight-year-old girl named Kaida, but I know for a fact that they're planning on giving her a sibling in the coming year."