For All Eternity

Raspberry

"...So yeah. You can't tell anyone but there's a very little baby growing in Mummy's tummy. Very little. You're not even supposed to know yet." Joe elaborated, after he had explained away Connie's initial shock. It had taken nearly ten minutes for her to calm down and stop squealing; that was before he had even confirmed anything. Then they had gone through the whole this is a big surprise and now they were here, ready for when the questions started pouring out of her.

"How much little?"

"Let me check," he said, pulling his phone out to google it. Joe had no doubt that Connie was about to ask questions they hadn't thought of yet.

"Can I see your baby, Mummy?" Connie asked, noticing her Dad had taken his hand away, finally.

"Of course you can, there's nothing different at the moment, my uterus is just making a space for it to grow. It just looks normal, baby," she lifted her top up, stroking Connie's hair, as the little one leaned down to gaze at her stomach, so close that her nose was grazing the olive skin near her belly button.

"The size of a raspberry. So, our little baby is the size of one raspberry."

"I've got questions," she looked between them.

"Okay, go on then! Ask them all at once," Joe encouraged, smiling at her hand still being stuck on his girlfriend's stomach.

"Is it a boy baby or a girl baby? How did it get in there? What in the heck is a you-you-"

"Uterus?" Dianne offered, reclining back slightly, as her back began to ache. She was beginning to resign herself to the fact that she was indeed experiencing more symptoms than she initially thought.

"Mmhmm, one of them? And do I have an unterus? How old do you have to be to have a baby? When's it arriving? Ibby said that his Mummy she been to the doctors loads before Amara happened to show up, have you been to the doctors?" She paused for a breath, "can you see the baby before its arrived. Wait did you and Daddy eat something to get the baby in there? Why can't boys have a baby? What will it look like? Will it love me as much as I love it?"

"Okay, that was a lot. Let's see. So first of all, the baby will definitely love you as much as you love them. I bet when they're born, they'll be so excited to see you," Joe explained, tucking her hair behind her ear, despite not being able to see her face due to their positions. He knew it was bothering her because her hand kept jumping from Dianne's belly to her head and then back again.

"And also, Connie, we'll love you and the baby the same amount. Equal."

"Even though you not made me?" She looked up at her mum with her big brown, Disney character eyes.

"Of course! It doesn't matter if you have a different tummy Mummy to this baby, me and Daddy will love you both exactly the same, you don't need to worry about that at all. At all."

Joe was glad she had elaborated on this, knowing his daughter would worry but wouldn't dare bring it up in case she upset someone.

"Okay, next one!"

"Right, so we don't know what the baby's going to look like yet, but we do know it will be a perfect mixture of me," he pointed to himself "and Mummy."

"Yep. And me?"

"And probably a bit like you too. We won't find out until it's born."

"How does it get born?" She asked snuggling into Dianne's side. The eldest woman had twisted around and laid back against her boyfriend, bringing Connie with her. Connie's hand had momentarily detached from her abdomen, but had immediately returned and even stroked her belly button.