Roommates & Soulmates

Ch68: Tessa's Exhaustion

Tired. It was a word Tessa had known all her life, but until the birth of her daughter, she hadn't comprehended the full meaning of the word. This kind of tired was different, one in which you couldn't fully form thoughts, or remember simple things like how to get past the lock screen on your phone.

Tessa woke to the sound of a baby crying, and dragged her sore exhausted body into a sitting position. Thankfully Lucie's bassinet was right beside her bed. Tessa picked up her daughter, got her settled in for lunch, and laid back down. She managed to doze a little while Lucie nursed, though she felt not at all rested by the time she woke up. Lucie was still laying beside her though, now asleep rather than nursing. Some part of Tessa's semi-conscious mind knew Jem was somewhere in the house, and Will was working a night shift, but the rest of her world was hazy. She did know that Will often worked strange hours. He always contributed this to the fact that fires didn't take holidays.

Picking her sleeping daughter up, Tessa put Lucie back in her basset before laying down again and dozing off. Tessa woke a while later to light words spoken near her ear. She opened to eyes to see Jem standing before her. He was carrying Lucie who seemed to be awake again. Tessa blinked at him a few times before she registered what he was saying.

"Are you hungry?" Jem asked. Tessa searched around in her body for her stomach, looking for the answer to Jem's question.

"Yes," she said slowly. Jem smiled at her, kissed her cheek, then walked away carrying Lucie. Tessa was too sleepy to question how exactly food was coming, and decided to go back to sleep. What felt like five minutes later, she woke up once again to Jem's presence. For a brief moment she panicked since she couldn't see Lucie in Jem's arms, but then she noticed the baby rocker beside the basset was moving back and forth, as if keeping an infant asleep. Tessa relaxed again, knowing full well her panic moment had nothing to do with her trust of Jem, and everything to do with her irritative emotional state. It amazed her how tuned into her baby her brain had become. That, partnered with the lack of proper sleep, meant she had become prone to panic over small things.

"I made breakfast," Jem whispered gently. "All you have to do is come eat it. Then I am sure Lucie would like lunch as well."

"It's like a food chain," Tessa mumbled as she got up. "You feed me, I feed her."

"Now we just need to convince Will to feed me, and we'd have a complete line," Jem chuckled as he picked up the rocking baby carrier and left the bedroom. Tessa followed, lead by her nose and the delicious smell of waffles. She vaguely noted Jem placing Lucie and her rocking apparatus down, before sitting at the table and starting on her breakfast. Since she'd started breast feeding, she'd learned that she could eat a lot more than she could before. She'd sometimes had similar moments when pregnant, though it had been paired with nausea, which kinda ruined the effect.

"That was great, thanks Jem," Tessa said with a sign. The food had greatly improved her general awareness. As soon as she finished the last bite, Tessa picked up her now slightly fussy daughter, and continued the food chain line. Lucie was full and sleeping again when her father arrived home.

"I am so tired," Will said collapsing on the couch, and covered his face with his hands. Tessa couldn't help but snort, even if Will did look a little worn down.

"Try waking up every two hours to be a human bottle," Tessa said. "Then we can talk tired."

"I hate night shifts without fires," Will whined not even rising to the bait. "At least if we have stuff to do, it's easy to stay awake."

"Personally, I like it when you don't fight fires," Tessa said. "It means I don't have to worry about getting a phone call at the end of your shift instead of you."