Day One (kaylor fanfiction)

10 (pictures)

The evening had been lethargic.

Taylor and Karlie had retired to the couch and had no plans on moving. The Food Network was on, although neither of them were paying attention; the TV was mostly dull noise in the background.

They were both two steps away from falling asleep. Taylor had finally given in; she had just closed her eyes when Karlie abruptly gasped.

"Oh my god!" Karlie exclaimed suddenly. Taylor's head shot up as she was pulled from her almost-sleep. But before Taylor could ask what happened, Karlie got off the couch and was almost running out of the room. Taylor got up quickly and started to follow her.

"Karlie, what's wrong?" Taylor asked, hurrying down the hall after her, "What happened?"

"I just remembered." Was all Karlie responded.

She looked over her shoulder at Taylor; her eyes were wide, the green in them almost dancing with excitement. She got a ladder out of a closet and dragged it across the hall.

"What? You just remembered what?" Taylor asked, trying to piece together this bizarre and sudden behaviour.

Karlie opened another closet and placed the ladder in front of it. As she started to climb it, Taylor grabbed it to steady her.

"Don't fall." Taylor said, looking up at Karlie.

"I'm not going to fall." Karlie's voice was muffled as half her body was now in the upper part of the closet and out of sight. All Taylor could see where her legs and feet.

"I don't want you to die." Taylor called up in her general direction.

"I'm not going to die." Karlie countered.

"I can't be a single mom, Karlie. I can't handle that." Taylor continued, "A baby needs a mother and then another mother. That's what everyone always says."

"No one says that." Karlie said, now reappearing and beginning to descend the ladder. "I got it!" She announced as her feet made contact with the floor again.

She was carrying a shoebox that looked like it had seen better days. The corners were being held together by tape and the lid on the shoebox didn't match the box itself. On the top, the words "old pictures" were written in thick black sharpie.

"My mom gave me these when I first moved to New York. I knew I put them somewhere when I moved in here." Karlie took Taylor's hand and led her back to the couch. She put the box down on the coffee table carefully and took off the lid.

Inside the box was a random array of pictures. They were all different. They showed Karlie at every stage of her childhood. On the top was a picture of Karlie missing two teeth; she was grinning so enthusiastically for the camera it forced her eyes to shut. Taylor picked it up and laughed.

"I think you still make that face." She said. She turned to Karlie and leaned back, holding the picture up right next to Karlie's face. Karlie mimicked the picture, smiling with as much teeth as possible and her eyes shut.

"Yep. Still you." Taylor said, "Although I am glad those teeth came in." Karlie threw her head back and laughed.

"I know you are." Karlie teased as she fake-bit Taylor's shoulder. Karlie laughed again when Taylor's squirmed away and slapped her knee.

Karlie picked up another picture and smiled.

"This was the day the twins were born." It was a picture of Karlie and her sisters, all on one hospital bed. Karlie and her older sister were each holding a white bundle of blankets with the smallest sliver of a head poking out of the top. Two-year-old Karlie was beaming; she was smiling the same smile as the last picture, although in this one she hadn't lost her teeth yet.

"We were really mad that they couldn't come home with us that night." Karlie explained.

They spent the rest of that night going through the box of pictures; Karlie baking with her grandmother, up to bat at a tee ball game, having a bath in the kitchen sink, smiling with her sisters in front of Niagara Falls.

It went on and on; each picture with a memory in it. Taylor had a good laugh at Karlie's prom picture, where she was an easy foot taller then her date. When they got to one of Karlie arm in arm with a childhood friend Taylor had never met, Karlie spent the next twenty minutes telling stories about her; each one starting with, "okay so this one time,". She was barely able to get through some of them because she was laughing so hard.

Taylor smiled back at her. As much as she wanted to think she knew everything about Karlie, she was once again reminded that there was still more to discover. Which was okay because even now, every new thing Taylor learned about her was the happiest of surprises; it was like finding money in the pocket of your coat at the start of winter. And watching Karlie recount stories from her childhood with such exuberance made Taylor incredibly happy.

By the time they were nearing the end of the box, Taylor was almost falling asleep. She was leaning against Karlie for support, her cheek pressed against Karlie's shoulder.

The last picture laying lonely at the bottom was wildly appropriate; Karlie on the day she was born.

In the picture Karlie's mom was holding her, still in the hospital gown. Karlie had one small fist in the air and one leg poking out of the hospital blanket. The photograph itself looked worn with it's edges peeling and curling up at the corners. Taylor wondered who had been the one wearing it out; Karlie or her mother.

In the picture, Karlie's mom was smiling, but not at the camera; she was looking down at Karlie. She looked happy and proud but mostly at peace; like nothing else in the world mattered other then this tiny droplet of life in her arms. Taylor's hand slowly and involuntarily went to her stomach. Karlie flipped the picture over and on the back in delicate cursive were the words,

Since day one.
Love, Mom xoxo

Taylor smiled when she read the words and out of the corner of her eye she could see Karlie smile too. Karlie flipped the picture over and they both looked at it again for a brief but meaningful moment before Karlie put back in the shoebox.

"Well," Karlie sighed happily. "I should put you to bed. Thank you for indulging me."

"It was fun." Taylor said sincerely, "You were cute."

"Were?" Karlie faked offence, "How dare you, Ms. Swift-Kloss, how dare you."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Swift-Kloss." Taylor grabbed Karlie's face with one hand and planted a hard and exaggerated kiss on her cheek. "You are still very cute."

"Damn right." Karlie said. They put the photos back in the box, Taylor lingering on Karlie's prom picture and laughing at it all over again. Karlie almost wrestled Taylor's phone away to stop her from taking a picture of it, but when Taylor's reminded her (although screamed at her was probably a more accurate description) that she was pregnant, Karlie backed off and Taylor got her picture, although Karlie was very vocal about how she was not happy about it.

The shoebox of memories went back on the top shelf of the hall closet.

Taylor and Karlie held hands as they went upstairs to bed. Taylor caught herself thinking of a shoebox her and Karlie will fill; of all the moments they will trap in photographs and burrow away for the next generation. They will take their own pictures; a brand new set memories. And it will be all theirs.