the kennedy's daughter

somewhere over the rainbow

February 27, 1988

Washington D.C.

Now Matt and Kate had one child, a little girl

Elizabeth Lee Hayes was born December 24, 1987

She was precious and the love of her mother and father's life, she of course had deep brown eyes, light brown hair, and was extremely small. She had been born almost a little over two months ago, and still hadn't left Washington. Jack had been begging and begging Kate to bring her to Hyannis, but because of Matt being deployed again it was pretty hard for to balance a two month old on a plane for that long.

But today she was buckling the small little girl into her car seat, and walking onto a plane. Once she woke up, she wasn't happy, therefore Kate held her for the remainder of the flight, which put her to sleep pretty quickly.

Kate's stomach turned as the car pulled up to the Hyannis home, she and her dad had been talking back and forth, but she had become independent, she could handle herself. She hadn't had a medical scare in awhile, and the last one Matt and herself handled, she didn't even tell Jack. They were drifting apart.

She knocked on the door to her father's answer of,

"Come in!"

Luckily Jack hadn't got any worse, but it was for sure that he wasn't getting better either. With the help of his nurse, Grace, he did what he wanted in Hyannis, on the beach everyday, and family Sunday lunch after mass almost every weekend. Kate thought he enjoyed being in Hyannis.

Slowly Kate walked into the huge house, Elizabeth starting to wake up in her car seat.

"Daddy?"

"Katie!" He said wheeling around the corner with a huge smile on his face

"Oh, who do we have here?" he said moving over to the couch, transitioning himself

"Hello, Kate!" Grace said walking around the corner and sitting down in one of the chairs near Jack

Kate slowly unbuckled Elizabeth and held her itty-bitty baby in her arms

"This is Elizabeth Lee Hayes"

"Named after your mother?"

"Of course, I figured if I named her after grandma, I would give her a touch of mom too"

"I think it's beautiful, can I hold her?"

"Of course" Kate said swaddling her a little tighter, so it would be easier for Jack to hold her

He picked her up and immediately fell in love, he couldn't believe his baby had a baby, before he got caught up in the moment Kate interrupted

"I have to take her in next week"

Jack's heart sank for his daughter, he remembered how he felt finding out Kate had heart problems, but now Liza was at risk for everything he could think of

"Daddy, she's at risk for addisons, heart, lung, and stomach problems, not to mention Matt's side which she would be at risk for cancer and diabetes" she said counting on her fingers how many she named

"Kate, calm down, she's probably fine, and if she's not you can deal with it, I know you can" he said looking right into her brown eyes that he loved

——

That night Kate, Liza, and Jack joined the other family at the big house.

"This is Elizabeth Lee Hayes" she announced to her Grammy

Suddenly tears came from Rose's eyes, as she held the little girl close. The night was spent with every single family member holding Elizabeth, but she didn't mind at all, she loved to be held.

Kate had her way back to her fathers home, and when she opened the door she heard nothing. No baby cries, not babbling, nothing. She walked up to the room her and Elizabeth where staying in, nothing. As she wondered and wondered where her father had put her two month old baby, it came to her.

Slowly she opened Jack's door to find him rocking Liza in his favorite place, his rocking chair. It eased his pain, and since Kate got him a brand new one for Christmas he had spent quite a bit of his time in it. And beside him was one of Kate's old bassinets.

"She cried when she was alone in the other room, so we just brought her in here. But when she started crying, I gripped everything I could find to get over here. Now she's fast asleep, you did the same thing when you where this age, you ONLY wanted me to rock you"

"Daddy stay here, I'll go put Liza in her crib"

As she placed her into the crib, she kissed her on the forehead, and whispered to her favorite lullaby

"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby" she sung on and on

She yawned as she turned around to see her father wobbling in her doorway.

"What the hell are you doing?" She whispered yelled

"I heard somewhere over the rainbow, I had to investigate"

Kate walked over to her father and helped him into his room and back to bed. And to Jack's surprise, Kate didn't leave she turned the bed and got in on what would be her mothers side. She snuggled up to her father

"I missed you daddy"

"I missed you Kate"

And before you know it Kate was fast asleep, and soon Jack started to drift in and out

Thinking of his daughter, her daughter, and his wife he fell asleep with us daughter warmly on his chest