A Year to Eternity

Part 2

Serena squalled, indignant in her current position and intent on making sure everyone within a mile heard about it. She batted at the floor with short arms for good measure, just in case anybody missed the screeching.

"I know, I know baby," Elena sighed, shaking a toy near her ear. The distraction failed; her limbs extended outwards as she kept crying. "I know you don't like tummy time, but you have to have tummy time."

She pulled the toy away so it resided in Serena's line of sight.

"Do you like the whale?" She gently pressed Serena's cheek with the blue toy. "You liked it yesterday..." slowly the indignation tapered off. "Yeah?"

Serena snuffed, considering the pink swirls in the whale's cheeks.

"There you go," Elena exhaled a sigh of relief, "we just needed something fun."

It had taken weeks to work Serena up to five minute stints of tummy time. They went through the ritual together three times a day, and three times a day her heart broke to the sound of her baby girl's tears.

"Do you know what today is?" She moved the whale aside; Serena's head turned with it. "Today you're three weeks old, and your belly button is all healed up, yes it is," she cooed. "And that's a little strange because the cord just fell off yesterday, so I need you to tell me the truth, little lady," her smile wrinkled her nose. "Did Elijah give you blood?"

Serena reached out, clumsy and slow, for her nose and banged Elena's chin instead. She liked Elijah. She liked Elijah a lot. The first time she had enjoyed tummy time was when the first time he visited. She spent the time on his chest.

She would treasure the candid photo of Elijah Mikaelson wearing a three-piece suit laying flat on his back with her tiny pink baby on his chest for the rest of eternity.

Literally.

Serena liked tummy time when she spent it on Elena's chest too, but since she couldn't do that every time they were both subjected to the upset of the floor.

"I'll call him later and get an answer."

The timer on her phone went off.

She sat up and lifted Serena, fitting her in the sling that had become a constant part of her post pregnancy wardrobe; Serena loved it, going so far as to happily coo when she was snuggled up close.

"Now we can do something you like." She got to her feet and snatched her heavy cardigan from the chair, carefully putting it on. "That's right, we're going for a little walk."

She went downstairs, adding the support of her arms to the sling, and out the glass door where a blast of fresh air hit her in the face.

"Cool, cool, cool," she sang.

Her arms closed the sides of her cardigan, trapping warmth around the baby. Then she took a small path into the woods, going twenty-odd yards to circle around a tree.

"I used to play here with uncle Jeremy," her eyes flicked upwards, "you can't see it, but there is a tree house up there. Maybe when you're bigger we can climb up. There's a really pretty view of the lake.

She started back and paced the length of the dock, giving Serena what she liked. Elena didn't understand what it was, but once Serena was fed and freshly diapered she enjoyed a turn by the lake; she loved something about the peaty smell of algae in the fresh air.

The gentle lap of water began to lull her to sleep.

"When you wake up from your nap we are gonna try something new, okay?" She stopped and kissed her cheek. "I, for one, am crossing my fingers that you like it so we don't have another tummy time fiasco."