He Who Conquers Others Is Strong, He Who Conquers Himself Is Mighty

Take It Easy

DANNY'S POV

It had been a week or a little over that since I came home from the hospital. Everything hurt like hell, and all I wanted to do was lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. Especially with how me and Jamie had been as of late. Don't get me wrong, we were trying to work through things, and I hoped that she saw that what I said was a total mistake. Like I'd ever wish to be back with Olivia? Never in a million years would I take her back over being with my Jamie. I shook my head at that thought- just as Penny came waddling into the room...

"Laugh it up Dola" she playfully glared at me, knowing exactly why I was grinning. "You look adorable waddling in here like a well stuffed Penguin" I chuckled. She scowled and flipped me the finger, making me laugh louder. "Why did Jamie ask me to baby sit you again?" she raised a brow at me. But then my laughter eased, and I pouted. She smirked at me and dropped down onto the couch beside me. She shuffled, trying to get comfy, prodding the cushion behind her back, so automatically I moved to help her- "argh fuck!" I hissed, clutching my ribs in pain. "oh my God Danny!" Penny squeaked, touching my shoulder. "are you alright?!" she gasped, looking at me wide eyed. "y-yeaahh..." I groaned out through gritted teeth. "I-I forget about this" I winced, pointing at my ribs. She scoffed and rubbed my shoulder. "You gotta take it easy!" she scolded me. "that includes being all Mother Hen around me!" 

I looked up at her with big eyes and she sighed. "It's lovely that you are here for me- for all of us," she swallowed, averting her eyes from me a little- showing she was feeling uncomfortable. "Danny, we love you, we really do. But perhaps you have to ease up on the nesting" She said, her sparkly green eyes finally meeting mine. "You need to heal; I can look after things here- Julian is pretty good at taking care of me" she smiled gently, "and, well...." She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked to the carpet. "You need to spend more time with Jamie than cooking me food..." she said softly. 

I didn't say anything for a few minutes. Just thinking over what she had said "Am I pissing you guys off with the baby stuff?" I asked her, feeling a lump crawling up into my throat. "I-I I just wanted to make sure you were eating well. When my cousin was Pregnant she was so tired all the time that she never had the energy to cook. I thought I'd help a little, being I know how much you like my cooking" I explained, "b-but I-I'm really sorry if I have gotten too carried away with it-" I stopped my sentence in fear of breaking down, but Penny grabbed my hand. "oh goodness no Danny!" she hushed me. "I love your food!" she smiled, "You've always been a great friend to me-as well as Julian." She turned to me properly and placed my bruised hand between both of hers and I glanced down at them before looking up to her eyes. "All I'm trying to say is- your attention is a little misplaced at the minute." She said, wiping her eye-noticing now that she was getting emotional too. "I love you so much Danny, and the fact that you are there for me and Julian, means the world to us. But you gotta focus on Jamie. She needs you now more than ever. And while you nesting and helping me with all my baby stuff is lovely, you need to show Jamie that she's even more important than that" she said, squeezing my hand. 

I let out a shaky breath and nodded. "man, I've really put her through it huh" I huffed, running my hand over my face. Pen shook her head and placed her hand on my shoulder. "Everyone has their ups and downs Danny boy. J and I could write a book" she chuckled, "but making it right is the most important part." she told me. I looked up at her feeling  a little lost. "now, I'm not going to say stop cooking me things..." she said with a wry smile, almost making me chuckle. "how about- instead of cooking when you're at home with Jame, why don't we have mini cooking sessions here whilst we're together? We can still do baby stuff and all the stuff J gets flustered with, and then when you go home to Jamie it's all about her and you?" she smiled at me. I sent her a teary smile and nodded. "what would I do without ya Pen?" I found myself asking her, "well, you'd still be taking advice off my husband. And that's not good for anyone..." she rolled her eyes making me laugh.

...........

me: Hey babe. How about we have a movie night tonight? Me, you and Clay?  Grab some take out and snuggle on the couch? x

Jamie: okay, sounds nice. I will be leaving the office at 6 tonight. Can grab some food on the way home? x 

me: whatever you want babe. Can't wait to be next to you xxx

I was feeling pretty good about later tonight. I was going to make it my mission to show her just how much she really did mean to me. I'd almost lost her once, I sure as hell wasn't going to do it again. I placed my cell onto the arm of the couch beside me, as I heard Penny shuffling back through from the kitchen. She still shot me a little glare as I smirked at her penguin like waddle. I don't think that would ever get old... 

"so." she declared, dropping a stack of books, magazines and her note book onto the coffee table in front of me. I glanced over the reading material and picked up the first magazine on the pile. "Gurgle?" I pulled a face at the name as I looked from it to Penny and she smirked, "yeah, Jules is so gonna have trouble looking through all of this" I chuckled. 

"well it's rich coming from him though" she scoffed, rolling her eyes. "he bought me half of these!" she exclaimed- the rest was from me... 
"he keeps telling me- along with Allie- that I should be making some kind of 'wish list' for things that I want for the baby?!" she said with a sort of distressed look on her face. I grinned at her and nodded. "yeah, that's pretty much the norm" I shrugged, wincing as soon as I did it.

She sighed, "ugh but I don't expect people to go out and buy me all this stuff!" she gestured to the mountain of books. "We chose to have a baby, so we should have the responsibility of buying everything he needs!" she said in despair. "but Pen, you've gotten the responsibility of bringing him up for the rest of your life. Not to mention all the shit he's gonna want as he gets older. And let's face it, he and Jules are gonna be fighting over the Xbox so you're gonna have to get two of them" I said bluntly. Penny looked at me with fright in her eyes. "oh God, I'd not thought of that...I'm going to have two of them to cope with!" she said looking fretful. But I chuckled, "better get writing that list" I smirked.

She huffed and picked up a book to start looking at all the extra little things that she wanted- but as she said 'wanted but knows she'll probably never use'... As she started talking about this dream list, the cogs started turning again in my head. And I know I had promised myself and Penny that I would ease up on the baby stuff, I just knew that I was made to plan her baby shower. I mean, I'm stuck in- banned from practice with time on my hands. Who better than the baby's Godfather to be all over this? It was going to be the best God damn baby shower Boston had ever seen.