********
TITLE: Family Confidential
AUTHOR: Laragh
CHAPTER RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise belong to Joss Whedon, FOX, ME and a whole host of other entities, none of which are me.
SUMMARY: The promised sequel to
Hacker Confidential. How are Willow, Tara, JJ and all their family getting on 4 years into the future?
SPOILERS: Perhaps minor references to the show or stealage of dialogue, but mostly just spoilers for all of
Hacker Confidential . If you haven’t read that...well, you really will have no idea what’s going on lol.
FEEDBACK: Yes please
AUTHOR’S NOTE: And now, the end is near… and so I face the final curtain…
Epilogue next Wednesday everyone!
(PS thank you all so much for the well wishes!)
Chapter 63 ********
Previously:Quote:
Willow started clawing at the sheets, trying to find her wife’s hand.
“N-no, no. Tara! Tara!”
Tara finally registered the puddle of wet they were surrounded in, but didn’t jump to the right conclusion. She opened her eyes and kissed Willow's temple.
“Oh, honey, that’s okay, that happens,” she said gently with a reassuring smile and started to sit up, “I’ll just change the sheets. It’s fine, really.”
Willow was about to explain the misunderstanding but didn’t get a chance as she suddenly shot up in the bed, clutching her stomach as the sharpest pain she’d even experienced ripped through her abdomen.
“Dammit, Tara, I’m in labour!”
The words rang in Tara’s ears but didn’t quite register in her brain.
“Huh?”
Willow screamed as an even more intense pain squeezed through her insides and felt tears spring to her eyes as her teeth clenched together.
“Labour, Tara. I. AM. IN. LABOUR.”
Tara just looked at her wife as if she was trying to figure out a riddle she’d just been told, so Willow grabbed her shirt and began pulling aggressively.
“THE BABY’S COMING!”
Tara’s eyes went wide and she sprang from the bed.
“Holy crap!” she yelled, spinning around in circles, gesticulating wildly, “I-I-I have to call the midwife!”
Willow’s eyes widened in fear and pain.
“Don’t leave me, Tara, please don’t-”
Tara suddenly realised all at once that she needed to give herself a very brief moment to take a breath, and be the calm one in this situation - no matter how terrified she was, Willow was feeling it tenfold.
She climbed back onto the bed and gently took Willow’s face in her hands, leaning her forehead down against her wife’s, looking reassuringly into her tear-glazed eyes.
“I’m here, I’m here, I’m right here.”
Willow seemed to have an entire second of comfort before her eyes creased in agony again and she began to whimper.
“T-Tara, something’s wrong. I-it’s too much, too soon. I-It’s not supposed to be this fast.”
Tara swallowed, not allowing her eyes to show any of her fear and bumped Willow’s nose affectionately.
“Remember what the midwife said. Every birth is different and nothing in the books is going to prepare us. Now, I’m going to call her so she can come and help us, but everything is going to okay, I promise.”
Willow whimpered again but gave a very small nod of trust before her head dropped to her chest and her body tensed with a loud cry. Tara had to blink away her own tears at seeing her wife in such pain and offered her hand to be squeezed as she searched the stacks of books and odd bits of paper on her nightstand for her cell phone.
She finally located it and cursed her shaking hand as she tried to scroll and find the number, while Willow twisted and wailed beside her. After several failed attempts and sweaty swipes, the call finally went through and was answered in just a few seconds.
“Willow’s in labour!” she blurted, figuring she’d be forgiven for forgoing a greeting.
The voice on the other end was calm, saying she was on her way, asking questions, but Tara was struggling to answer in the same way.
“They’re not stopping, they’re every 30 seconds. S-she’s been cramping all day, but we didn’t think much of it, and then her water just broke and now she really seems like–”
“I need to push!”
Tara dropped the phone in shock at Willow’s yelled words.
“WHAT?” she yelled back, her voice taking a not-often-reached high tone, then she scrambled to the floor for her phone, which was completely blank with a large crack down the screen, “Hello? Oh my god, oh my god.”
She dropped the completely broken phone to the floor and was half a moment away from her second round of freaking out when Willow’s timid voice broke through.
“Tara.”
Tara quashed her panic and took another quick, deep breath as she gave Willow her other hand to squeeze too.
“Okay, darling. It’s all okay. I promise I won’t let anything bad happen, I’m going to keep you both safe,” she said with as much reassurance as she could, then took a look between Willow’s legs and had to stifle another ‘holy crap’ as she the baby was already crowning, “Oh my…”
She reached in and felt around, using the ‘finger’ method she’d been taught by the midwife to gauge how far along Willow was and had another round of tensing away her fear as she felt her the full 10 centimetres already, or at least very close to it
How did this happen? How did she not feel this happening? How did–“TARA!”
Tara shook her head free of her thoughts, deciding no matter how fast it seemed, Willow was deep in labour and it was happening now.
She also knew that this wasn’t something she could stall.
“We’ve got an impatient little one coming, so you need to start pushing,” she said with as much calmness as she could, not believing the words were coming out of her mouth and not the midwife’s.
“ARE YOU CRAZY?!” Willow yelled, ignoring the burning, stinging sensation she’d been told to recognise as a sign that the baby was ready and trying to get out, refusing to believe it.
Tara winced and squeezed Willow’s knees.
“Remember what we learned? Take short, panting breaths. Little breaths, little pushes.”
Willow shook her head furiously.
“T-The midwife.”
“I’m sure she’ll be here very soon,” Tara said soothingly, quickly realising that she was likely going to have to be the one to deliver their baby if things didn’t slow down; and they appeared to have no intention of it, “But you’ve got me.”
Willow felt that utterly overwhelming urge to push again and decided that she must be dreaming, that there was no way she’d gone from tossing and turning to lying in sheets soaked in amniotic fluid with a baby about to fly out of her body.
Her resolve face was about to set and she was ready to pinch herself into wakefulness when she caught sight of the look on Tara’s face staring down between her opened legs; shock, terror, awe all mixed together and knew what was happening was very real.
She squeezed both of her wife’s hands so hard that at a normal time she would have thought she might break them, but in that moment had only one thing she needed to say before she collapsed under the weight of pressure and pain.
“Don’t. Let. Anything. Happen to her.”
Tara raised her head and their eyes locked for an extremely intense moment before Willow did collapse back down, then forced herself back into sitting so she could push.
Tara pulled every ounce of discussion and practice they’d had with the midwife and doctor to the front of her mind, manoeuvring Willow’s legs open to where they needed to be and started to call out encouragingly, not able to even hear her own voice over the pounding of her heart between her ears.
“Sh-she’s coming, Willow! I-I can see her head! She has hair! Keep pushing, Willow, keep breathing, you’re doing it, she’s coming!”
Tara gasped as she put her hands gently on the baby’s head as she emerged, trying to delicately pull while blinking away tears, not wanting to cloud her vision.
“Shoulders…shoulders are almost out, Willow…breathe, honey, then just a few more pushes, just a few more.”
Tara’s mouth hung open in awe as a pair of shoulders twisted out, accompanied by a series of blood-curdling screams and the faint sound of a door banging until she was holding their baby in her entirety, watching her squirm and silently move her mouth, no cry coming yet.
Footsteps pounded in the hallway and the midwife appeared in the doorway, having let herself in with the spare key she had been informed was under the potted plant in one of their early birth plan meetings. She seemed surprised to see them in the position they were in for a moment before she snapped into professional mode and rushed over, dropping her bag and swooping the baby from Tara’s arms, checking her over.
“When did she come out?”
“J-Just now,” Tara replied, still in shock, before her attention focused away to Willow for a second, who appeared to be lying back, unconscious, body rigid and face stiff in agony. She dropped to her knees on the floor and skidded up to her, taking her face and leaving quick, wet kisses all over her, “You did so good. You did so good, honey.”
She kept repeating those words as Willow seemed to stir a little before her glazed eyes flew open and she jerked up as much as she could.
“-she? Where...she...my baby...”
“Right…here,” the midwife answered, coming forward with the baby, cleaned up but still naked and the cord still attached, “10 fingers, 10 toes, your perfectly healthy baby girl.”
She gently placed the baby down and Willow held her on her chest in reverence. Willow's mouth opened and closed as she stared down at the perfectly formed tiny, pink body with her small mop of light hair, still silently moving her mouth around as she got used to the sensation of breathing.
“She’s not crying,” Willow said in alarm, looking up through the sweaty hair flopped over her brow, “Why isn’t she crying?!”
“She’s breathing,” the midwife assured, “Don’t worry, she’s fine, just needs a minute.”
Willow looked back down and watched the gentle rise and fall of the baby’s chest as she heard Tara start to sing beside her; a slowed down, emotional, tender and almost husky rendition.
“Happy Birthday… to you. Happy Birthday…to you. Happy Birthday…Happy Birthday…Happy Birthday…to you.”
“Tara…” Willow whispered, barely audible as she instinctively rocked the baby lightly.
“I see her,” Tara replied in the same wonder-filled tone, “Hi little bean. Hi Robyn.”
She reached up to very gently stroke the baby’s head, straightening out a tuft of the strawberry-blonde hair until the midwife’s voice cut through the silence.
“Tara would you like to cut the cord?”
Tara turned to Willow.
“Can I? Is that okay with you?”
Willow just nodded, too caught up to say anything and the midwife helped Tara to cut the cord near the baby’s bellybutton, leaving the stub there to fall off in its own time. Tara fell back to her position on the floor, leaning over her girls, and started to just repeatedly kiss the side of Willow’s head, overcome at the emotion of the experience.
“Look at her eyes…” Willow whispered, not even noticing the midwife covering her with a sheet and examining her underneath, “They’re so bright. They’re…”
“Turquoise,” Tara replied with a joyous smile, leaning her head against Willow’s, “Blue and green.”
Willow affectionately stroked the baby’s nose.
“Wow…”
There was no sound in the room for the next several minutes apart from the midwife who was bustling around doing what she needed while giving the family some space until it was time for her to be needed in her professional capacity again.
“Willow, I just need a final couple of pushes from you to get the afterbirth out.”
Willow looked deeply conflicted at having to divert her attention so Tara reached out to stroke her cheek tenderly.
“Can I hold her a sec?” she asked, her arms aching to hold the little girl again, “I’ll give her right back.”
Willow’s face softened and she nodded.
“Of course,” she replied, very carefully holding the baby out, “Say hi to Mommy.”
Tara tried to control the shake in her arms as she cradled her baby girl and the tears that had been ready to fall for so long finally did as she leant down and kissed her square between her eyes.
“You beautiful, precious little girl.”
The midwife coached Willow in what needed to be done and started the clean-up procedure as much as she could while a deep, penetrating cry suddenly hit against the walls.
“That’s a healthy cry,” the midwife commented with a smile.
Tara instinctively held her crying daughter close to try and comfort her through her first cry, then saw the wrenching look on Willow’s face and decided her wife needed the cuddle more than she did in that moment, after all she went through.
“Do you want to go back to Momma?” she asked, exhaling shakily as she offered the baby back to Willow, “Here you go, here’s your momma.”
Willow shot Tara a grateful look and held Robyn lengthways so her tiny cheek rested against her own.
“You’re okay, pretty girl. We love you, we love you so much.”
Robyn quietened but didn’t settle completely, wriggling around as her eyes blinked open fully for the first time. The midwife stood over them from the opposite side and smiled warmly.
“Bethany is everything okay?” Tara asked, one hand stroking Willow’s hair, the other, Robyn’s, “Things happened…so fast. I mean, really…so fast. Our birth plan went right out the window. I don’t even think it was ten minutes from when Willow’s water broke to…her.”
“Water breaks the majority of the time only when you’re quite far progressed in labour,” the midwife explained, “You must have been in labour all day and not realised, Willow. You’re quite the trooper.”
“The pains were normal…just more intense,” Willow replied, turning her head in to kiss Robyn’s cheek, “I just figured it was because I was getting closer and closer. Guess I didn’t realise how close.”
Tara smiled lovingly at her two girls, then looked back to the midwife in question.
“There was no tearing or excessive bleeding,” she answered the silent question, “Everything should heal well and timely and your daughter is in perfect condition, we’ll just need to do a standard paediatrician visit over the next few days.”
Willow nodded absently, not having heard much after ‘your daughter’ until the midwife spoke up again.
“Do you want to try feeding, Willow?”
Willow kept her eyes closed and the baby in place, cheek-to-cheek, but looked surprised.
“So soon?”
“If you’re feeling up to it, now would be an ideal time,” the midwife replied.
Willow exhaled slowly and nodded.
“Okay, I’ll try.”
The midwife encouraged Willow on the other, not as destroyed, side of the bed and Tara got a blanket from the closet to cover her, holding the baby as she gingerly lifted her t-shirt over her head.
Willow took the baby back to her chest, gasping at the sensation of the skin-on-skin contact and Tara modestly covered them. Willow swallowed a lump of emotion as she guided the baby’s head into position and encouraged her nipple into her mouth.
Tara watched it all play out in awe, but Robyn didn’t seem willing to latch on.
“She might not be ready yet,” the midwife said reassuringly as she saw Willow's brow crease, “You could have a bath or a shower and try again if you'd like.”
Willow whimpered at the thought of having to give up her hold again and Tara stroked both of their hair at the same time.
“I’ll hold her right beside you.”
Willow sleepily agreed, wanting to just be clean and ready to have non-stop snuggles with her wife and daughter. She delicately stood, uncaring that was completely naked, and kept Robyn close to her chest as she and Tara walked into the bathroom.
Tara set the shower up for Willow and lined the floor with towels so the curtain wouldn’t have to be pulled and she could just sit on the toilet with the baby while her wife stood under the nozzle.
Willow held onto the shower rail as she stepped under the water, her knees bent outwards to alleviate the ache she was sure would be there for a while and spent several long moments just staring down at Tara cooing and cradling their baby.
“I can’t wait for JJ to meet her. Should we call him?”
Tara shook her head softly.
“Probably best to wait until the morning. It's the middle of the night. You could use a little rest and she could too.”
Willow gently wiped herself down with a washcloth as she had been instructed by the midwife, but was barely grazing her skin as she found herself quite easily distracted.
“Tara, she’s perfect. We made a perfect angel.”
Tara was silent but the way she was looking down at the baby, who appeared to have fallen asleep, was indicative that she very much agreed. She peppered Robyn’s face with small kisses before looking up at Willow, eyes shining with emotion.
“You…” she trailed off as she swallowed a lump, “I will spend the rest of my life trying to thank you for this and I won’t ever come close. Are you okay? Are you in pain?”
“It's...it goes away anytime I see her,” Willow replied, smiling as she looked at her sleeping daughter’s features, recognising Tara’s cheekbones, “She looks like you.”
Tara shook her head, clearly seeing a widow’s peak in their baby’s hairline that matched Willow’s.
“She looks like you.”
“She kind of looks like…us,” Willow responded, realising how much of themselves had managed to mix in her, genetics or not, “Her eyes…and her hair…and everything. All mishy-mashy, Willow-Tara-y.”
“And all herself too,” Tara whispered, “Her tiny self.”
Tara decided it was an opportune time to demonstrate the baby’s tininess by gently stroking her fingers and holding them up to stare in awe until her attention was pulled away by a quiet knock on the door.
The midwife was standing there, keeping her eyes directed at Tara so as to not cause Willow to be uncomfortable.
“Tara? Are your spare sheets in the closet?”
“You don’t have to…” Tara started before just smiling softly, “Yes. First shelf. Thank you.”
“She might be ready to try feeding again whenever you feel able, Willow,” the midwife said, smiling briefly before disappearing again.
Robyn apparently agreed as her eyes flicked open and her mouth opened in a low but needy cry.
“Hungry, baby girl?” Tara asked, then looked up to see Willow’s nipples had begun to leak, “Looks like you’re ready.”
Willow glanced down in surprise for a moment, then started to step from the shower.
“Let me help, let me help,” Tara said, quickly standing and offering her shoulder to lean on.
Willow stepped out onto the towels and looked to Tara in a silent request. Tara gave the baby back to her wife and Willow let herself be wrapped in a towel before they slowly walked back into the bedroom, which showed no sign of having been the scene of childbirth less than an hour before; the bed-linen changed into fresh white sheets with a trash bag in the corner housing the old ones.
Willow went straight to the bed to lie with Robyn on her chest and the midwife whispered something to Tara, who disappeared out of the room and came back just a few moments later with a pair of underwear with a pad in it, which she quietly helped Willow put on before taking her place beside them.
“Willow, did you want to try feeding again?” the midwife asked and Willow nodded.
The midwife helped Willow get into a good nursing position and tried some of her tricks on getting Robyn to latch on, but the baby was struggling.
“She doesn’t want me,” Willow said forlornly, looking up with creased eyes, “Does she know I’m not…that she’s not mine…biologically?”
Tara pressed her lips against Willow’s cheek and brushed a finger across Robyn’s.
“Look at that resolve face,” she whispered, “All yours.”
Willow sniffled but then gave a small smile at the resolute features that appeared to be on their daughter’s face.
“That does look like a resolve face.”
“Just give her a moment,” the midwife encouraged, recognising the movement the baby had started to make and smiling when her mouth finally connected just a second later.
“She’s latching! She’s doing it!” Willow exclaimed excitedly as she watched and felt the pressure around her nipple, “You’re doing it, Robyn!”
Tara reached to stroke the baby’s hair, but pulled away, afraid of disturbing her, so contented herself with resting her chin on Willow’s shoulder.
“Wow.”
“She’s feeding from me,” Willow gushed, her wet hair falling into her face.
Tara tenderly brushed it aside.
“I know. It’s amazing,” she said softly, stroking Willow’s wrist on the hand under Robyn, “What does it feel like?”
“Weird. And sore,” Willow replied with a giggle before smiling, “But wonderful.”
Robyn suckled on Willow’s breast for a few moments before dropping off. Willow looked up worriedly.
“Is that enough?”
“She’ll tell you how much she wants and how often, you’ll settle into a routine,” the midwife replied with a kind smile, “Probably a good idea to get a diaper on her.”
“Could I?” Tara asked hopefully, wanting to feel something to connect to the baby after watching her feed.
Willow lifted Robyn and gave her a gentle kiss on the head while Tara covered her with the blanket, then gratefully took the bundle into her arms.
“I love you, Robyn,” she whispered, then looked up to Willow, “Can I get you anything? Anything at all?”
Willow shook her head softly.
“Bring her right back so we can all snuggle together.”
Tara smiled and nodded before slipping off the bed, to where the midwife had laid out a towel and a diaper, ready to go.
“I’ve left some breastfeeding cream here. You can help her apply it as often as she needs,” the midwife said to Tara as she knelt down, “I assume you remember how to do this?”
“Oh yes,” Tara replied, leaving the baby down with some soothing coos, her hands trembling as she lifted her up and secured the diaper around her, not realising the shakes were coming from herself, “Is she cold? Should we put clothes on her?”
She stood back up and held Robyn’s head against her chest, rocking her slightly.
“I would encourage as much skin to skin contact as she can, certainly for this night,” the midwife replied with a reassuring squeeze on Tara’s arm, “I’m going to give you guys some time alone, but stick around just for a few hours to make sure everything is okay. Is it alright with you if I just sit in your living room and make a coffee?”
“Of course,” Tara replied, looking to the woman with deep gratitude, “Thank you… so much.”
The midwife smiled back and picked up her own medical bag and the bag of things to be disposed of that she’d gathered by the door before leaving silently. Tara moved back to the bed and left the baby on Willow’s chest, then knelt down on the floor beside them.
“Would you mind if I took my shirt off and cuddled with you both under there?” she asked quietly, “The midwife said skin-to-skin contact was good for her…I’d like some too.”
“You don’t even have to ask that,” Willow replied as if she was crazy to think she’d say otherwise and smiled as Tara lifted her shirt over her head and snuggled in beside them, “Look, it’s Mommy. Look how beautiful your Mommy is.”
Willow manoeuvred them so the baby was lying on both of their chests, with both sets of arms holding her steady comfortably.
“You’re so beautiful, Robyn,” Tara whispered, bringing Robyn’s hand up to kiss her tiny palm, then leaned over to kiss Willow softly, breathing into her, “You’re so beautiful, Willow.”
Their lips gently caressed each other, the first time since their very abrupt awakening, until Tara felt a pressure around her finger and looked down to see Robyn’s little hand curved around it.
“Willow, look.”
“She’s so strong,” Willow remarked quietly, “I can’t believe she’s here.”
Tara moved her finger up and down as if she was shaking the baby’s hand and felt Willow slump a little against her.
“You should try and sleep.”
Willow shook her head, her gaze never leaving Robyn’s face.
“I just want to watch her forever.”
Tara turned and looked at Willow intently.
“I’ll keep you both safe.”
Willow smiled softly.
“She will, Robyn, your Mommy’s the strongest person I know,” she said to the baby lovingly, “You are safe, and loved.”
Minutes and hours passed with kissing and caressing between all three, the only words spoken that of awe and wonder until the midwife came back to give them a final check before leaving.
“What do we do now?” Willow asked as very early-morning sunlight streamed in through the window, “Do we let everyone know? It’s morning.”
Tara ran her finger over the curve of Robyn’s ear and smiled.
“There’s time for that. I think right now all we need to do is keep cuddling our little girl.”
Tara opened the front door; only moments after the doorbell had stopped ringing, and smiled widely when she saw JJ and Xander standing there. She bent down and scooped JJ into her arms, holding him tight and dropping kisses all over his face until his squirming forced her to stop and stand.
“Did you have a nice night?” she asked and got a happy nod.
“We had pizza and ice-cream and watched Transformers 1
and 2! I stayed up super late!”
Tara let out a low chuckle.
“Your evening sounds almost as eventful as ours.”
Xander shot Tara an odd look at that, thinking it unusual for her to make any reference to sex in front of the little boy but Tara didn’t see it as she leant down to JJ’s level.
“Hey, me and Momma have a surprise for you,” she said with a winning smile, “Do you want to meet your little sister?”
“No freakin’ way!” Xander blurted, his mouth hanging out.
Tara smiled up at Xander but kept her attention on JJ, who was wide-eyed.
“She’s not in Momma’s tummy no more?”
Tara shook her head.
“She’s in the living room and she can’t wait to meet her big brother.”
JJ looked towards the living room door, scared, and Tara took his hand. She motioned for Xander to follow if he wanted and slowly walked with JJ, rounding the doorway to see Willow sitting on the sofa, cradling Robyn in the white dress Tara had bought for her in Sunnydale.
“Hi, buddy,” she said warmly as she saw him enter, “Look who I have. Come say hi.”
JJ clung to Tara’s leg, unmoving, completely unprepared for having come home to the baby being there. Tara leant down and spoke to him quietly for a minute before they both approached the sofa.
JJ carefully and tentatively climbed up beside Willow, peering into her arms at Robyn’s sleeping face.
“She’s weally small.”
“She is,” Tara replied, scooting close beside them, “Would you like to hold her?”
JJ looked wary.
“Will I bweak her?”
Tara shook her head and gave him an encouraging look.
“No, you just have to hold her head extra carefully.”
JJ stared at the baby for another moment before sitting back with his arms out. Willow leaned over and slid her into his arms, both she and Tara at the ready to catch her if there was a stumble but JJ held a tight and secure grip on her straight away.
“JJ, meet your little sister, Robyn Ruth Rosenberg-Maclay.”
“Hi Wobyn,” JJ said to her, still mispronouncing some letters due to his missing front tooth, “I'm Jacob James Rosenberg-Maclay. We have the same last name 'cause I'm your big bruvver!”
Robyn stirred then and Willow was ready to take her back if she started to cry but she remained mute, looking up sleepily at JJ. JJ stared down at her with a little bit of wonder before giving a wide grin.
“She’s pwetty.”
“Tell her,” Willow encouraged.
“You’re pwetty!”
JJ smiled widely down at her and if Willow wasn’t sure it was way too soon for her to have that kind of facial control, she would have sworn Robyn smiled back. Willow looked up at Tara, who was looking down at the two lovingly, apparently seeing the same thing.
Willow stroked Robyn’s hair and leaned down to kiss JJ’s head before rubbing Tara’s arm to get her attention.
“We wanted him to see her first, I guess this means we can call in the cavalry.”
“I can do that!” Xander piped up loudly from where he’d hung back around the doorway “Do you guys need anything else, food or diapers? I’ll get Anya to bring some!”
Willow looked at him gratefully and he whipped out his cell phone, walking over in front of him.
“Hey, dude, smile with your sister!”
JJ looked up and grinned wildly while Xander snapped a pic to send off to everyone.
“How much did she weigh?” he asked as he started to type.
“6 pounds, 3 ounces,” Tara answered proudly.
“6…3…” Xander replied, then smiled, “I think my phone’s going to explode in about 7 seconds.”
He tucked his phone away and shyly approached, leaning down to kiss Robyn’s forehead.
“Welcome to our wacky family,” he whispered to her, “You’re a lucky little girl.”
“Thank you, Xand,” Willow smiled up at him, squeezing his upper arm.
Xander just grinned goofily and tapped the baby’s nose before the first shrill of his phone started and he quickly exited so as not to disturb the calm in the room.
Willow watched proudly as JJ kept a firm and protective hold on his little sister and tenderly kissed the side of his head.
“What do you think?”
JJ turned his head in thought and appeared to thoroughly examine Robyn’s features before smiling with a definitive nod.
“I think I like being a big bruvver!”
Willow beamed and she extended her arm about above the kids to hold Tara’s shoulders.
“And what do you think, missus?”
Tara’s smile could have lit up the whole room as she reached across JJ and Robyn to squeeze Willow’s knee, closing the embrace and holding them all together in a bundle.
“I think I have just about the best family in the world.”