After the contentious custody battle, Frank & Mary go on with their lives as usual. But it isn't until an eventful night at Ferg's that Frank starts to wonder if maybe his life might be missing something. Now that his niece has a normal life, maybe...
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Warnings: Adult Sexual Content
The first two and half weeks with Amelia seemed to fly by in a blur of sleepless nights, visitors, and just about every single member of the Adler-Kincade household googling a plethora of baby facts until they all felt like seasoned pros. Even Sam got on board and asked a million questions and it was adorable to overhear Mary quiz him from time to time like the little genius she was.
Even Alice, who was finally starting to sport a cute little baby bump, bonded with the baby and lovingly referred to Amelia as her, "little pretty guinea pig" since she had just as much experience with infants as Joey had and loved the fact that she could get some practice in before she gave birth to her own baby.
Both Joey and Jessie were thrilled that Amelia and Alice's baby would be less than a year apart in age and could grow up together the way that Joey and Alice had. But most of all, Joey couldn't wait for her boss, Sheryl, to become a grandmother for the first time. Because that gossip loving, quick witted, whiskey drinking florist was quickly becoming one of Joey's favorite people.
Sheryl, as always, was wonderfully supportive when Joey shared their news with her and gave Joey some more time off of work so she could bond with her new baby and get their childcare situation sorted out. She did offer Joey a proper maternity leave, but Joey refused her generous offer because she felt terrible for all of the time that she had already taken off to travel to Montana and then to recover from her ectopic pregnancy and subsequent surgery.
Sheryl didn't give up without a fight though and tried to pressure Joey into taking a longer maternity leave, and had even suggested bringing the baby to work with her. But all in all, the truth was, Joey's boss really did miss having her around and it was the cutest thing ever.
Those first weeks, Sheryl made a habit of stopping by the house at least twice a day to cuddle with Amelia and see if Joey needed anything. When it became apparent that they had everything under control, Sheryl still found reasons to stop by and instead set out to make sure that Joey's house always had an assortment of fresh flowers to celebrate Amelia's first weeks as a Kincade. Their house had usually been filled with extra flowers that Joey brought home from work, but this was on a whole other level and Mary was thrilled with each new beautiful bouquet that passed through their doors.
Joey had never had such a close relationship with an employer before and it still surprised her to this day that a friendship like theirs was even possible. Sheryl had officially given her more flowers than all of the men that she had dated in her life combined, and Joey couldn't have adored her more. Frank, too, for the matter, since Sheryl had taken to bribing him with a shot or two from her flask for time with the baby.
Joey used her time away from work to learn how to met Amelia's needs. It was scary, but Joey didn't let her nerves stop her from learning how to go from a single, carefree world traveler, to a mother of three with a newborn in under a year.
