Congratulations Chapter 4
She was tall for her age, six years old and she was almost a head taller than most kids her age. Amused, Donna reminded them that her parents weren’t exactly short, and besides, girls matured faster than boys. Jensen had been determined that he was not going to decorate that bedroom until he was eight months pregnant, but when he’d made that declaration he had no idea that he was going to have to decorate it for a little girl. Their little girl, who in reality was so much prettier than any picture.
When they met with Bill Walker the day after the doctor’s visit, he explained it all to them; Sarah had finally been able to get pregnant and was having a difficult pregnancy. Both she and her husband were suddenly out of work and were moving back east to his family, who had never been keen on the Ponds keeping Amanda in the first place. Suddenly her husband did not want another man’s child in the house, so she’d had to choose.
The Ponds had planned to just turn her over to Jensen and Jared with a brief explanation to her about how they were her real daddies, but Jensen and Jared wouldn’t let them just dump her like that. Both men thought that it would be easier to get her used to spending time with them, before having her move in full time. With all the money and time the Ponds had spent to take her away from them, they could spend three days doing what they should have in the beginning.
Sarah did take time to tell them about her allergies (courtesy of Jensen), what her favorite books were, her favorite movies and the fact that she was going to need some new clothes soon because she’d just recently had a growth spurt and they hadn’t the money to go shopping. Along with that information, she handed over Amanda’s birth certificate (it listed Jared and Jensen Padalecki as her birth parents), all the other medical information that they would need to get her registered for school and, more importantly, pictures of her growing up. She was careful to give them pictures of the little girl that she and her husband weren’t in. At the end of the three days, Amanda was theirs and they had the child and the paperwork to prove it.
The three of them had gotten to know each other as much as they could in three days, and on their first official day as a family, Jared and Jensen took Amanda to the zoo and out to eat. Because it was spring, the zoo was show casing the babies and Jared thought that it would be a good way to ease into telling her about her new baby brother or sister.
“How did you like seeing the babies Amanda?” Jensen asked, as he helped her open her juice box.
“I liked them… can we come back and see them again?” she shyly asked.
“Yes we can,” Jared quickly agreed.
Jensen thought that the afternoon went well. He didn’t want to spring the news of the babies to her on their first outing as a family, but he wanted to do it before he really started showing. Hopefully, by the time that they were born, Amanda would be comfortable with them and anticipating her role as the babies’ big sister.
Her first night with them, they walked back and forth watching her sleep as though if they didn’t, this would all have been a dream and she’d be gone in the morning. Well, they walked until Donna, who was sharing the room with Amanda, threatened Jared with bodily harm for keeping her awake.
“Why aren’t you threatening Jensen as well? He’s keeping you up too,” Jared whined like an overgrown five year old.
“You have to take all of the punishment because he’s pregnant,” Donna explained.
Jared just grinned at her reasoning and the pair went back to bed, but sleep was still a long time coming.
“You know we’re going to need a new house, right?” Jensen told Jared as they lay there in the dark.
“Whatever you want baby. I’ll call a realtor tomorrow,” Jared agreed as he pulled Jensen closer to him and rested his large hands on Jensen’s still mostly flat stomach.
They invited their friends over to meet her and introduce her to kids her age so she could make new friends to help make up for the ones she’d had to leave behind. They had made it clear that they needed a week before everyone could come barging in, but Chad and Kenzie bought their daughters by the day they bought her home, so that she’d have someone close to her age to help her get used to her new family.
“She’s beautiful Jensen,” Kenzie gushed.
“She is,” Jensen sighed, so damned happy to have her there, but worried about how she was going to take to loss of the only parents she’d known.
“So old men don’t have babies huh?” Chad teased, “They have six year olds so their children won’t be the kids with grandparents as parents.”
“You’re an ass, Chad,” Jensen replied.
“Yet you still love me,” he chided.
“Unfortunately, that honor is mine,” Kenzie stated, before she walked over to play with the girls.
As Kenzie left, Jared joined the two men and was accompanied by Chris and Steve, who brought playmates as well.
“Jared introduced himself at the door, but Jensen, I’d like to introduce you to Malik, Jaden, and Sasha,” Chris beamed.
Kneeling down Jensen reached out his hands to the two little boys, smiled and greeted with a soft, “Hello guys, it’s great to finally meet you.”
Steve was holding Sasha, but the boys said a quick hi before they grabbed Chris’ pants legs and shyly hid their faces.
“Hey, guys, the cool kids are over there playing, why don’t you go and make new friends instead of hanging out with us old guys,” Jensen encouraged, and stood back as the boys ran to play.
“Me pay too,” Sasha demanded as she pulled on Steve’s hair, her way of asking to join the other kids. Her feet had barely touched the ground before her chubby little legs carried her towards the other kids.
“Should have known this lot wouldn’t have waited,” Jared said as he saw Misha and Vicky make their way to the back yard followed by their youngest, who needed no invitation to run and join the other kids.
“So, no food huh?” Misha asked, glancing around the yard.
Jensen just stared at Misha, because he knew that Misha knew that they weren’t supposed to be here. This was supposed to be a day of the Padaleckis adjusting to each other, but somehow making that announcement was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. It seemed that everyone they knew heard ‘keep away’ as an invitation to bulldoze their way in and welcome Amanda home.
“That’s a good idea, Misha, get the grill going,” Chad directed as he headed off a tirade from Jensen, “Jared and I are going to get something to put on it.”
“It’s my house, Chad, I can start the fucking grill,” Jensen argued, glaring at the two men as they began to walk away.
“You’re old and pregnant. Misha’s just old, so let him do it.” Chad informed him as he walked out of striking distance, because he knew Jensen would have hit him.
“Vicky, can you please go with them, or all we’ll have is steaks and beer.” Jensen begged the laughing woman.
Before Jared, Chad and Vickie had even left, Jensen joined the kids as they played, and he was so dammed happy because this time one of the kids was his. Sometimes they had to get his attention ,because he stared at her, marveling at the fact that Amanda was so much like Jared. Not so much in looks, but in her outgoing personality, and as he bent down so that she could wrap her arms around him, he gathered that she apparently was a hugger as well.
When the trio came back with the food, the coals were ready and Jensen had a smile so big that he felt stupid. He had always considered his friends his extended family, but now he and Jared had a real family. Amanda was with them and they had a pair growing under his heart as well.
Jensen was strong, he knew he was, but when his doctor’s appointment for the results of his amniocentesis arrived, there was no way he was going to face it alone. In his heart, he wanted to believe that since he made it through the fourth month, everything was okay, the baby was healthy, but, in the event that it wasn’t, he wanted Jared there with him.
Jensen was nervous as he walked into the examination room and he was so glad that he had the activity of undressing and putting on that hated paper gown to eat away at the time spent waiting for the doctor. Once he’d finished and was sitting on the end of the table, he looked over to where Jared was sitting in the chair next to the table, and for the first time, noticed that Jared couldn’t seem to keep his leg still, a sure sign that the younger man was nervous as well.
“Jay, you’re nervous?” Jensen asked the surprise evident in his voice.
“Why wouldn’t I be Jen?” Jared asked, “This is your health and our child’s health, and until the baby is born, I will be nervous.”
“I’m just surprised, that’s all. You’ve never been nervous or scared before,” Jensen explained.
“Of course I have Jense,” Jared countered as though that explained everything.
“What-” Jensen started, then counted to ten in his head to curb his mounting anger before he continued, “What do you mean ‘of course you have’, I’ve never seen you exhibit either before.”
“I didn’t express it before Jen, that’s all, but trust me I felt the same worry, fear, hurt and disappointment that you did.”
Jensen heard the ‘I just kept it to myself’ that Jared left unsaid and it made him furious. Now the conversation he’d had with Chad months earlier made sense. Jared went to Chad with his fears instead of coming to Jensen so that they could work through the pain together.
Was this why everyone thought he was so fucking fragile? Was it because Jared was so stoic around Jensen, but fell apart when he was around their friends?
“Jensen, Jared,” the doctor greeted as he entered the examination room, “how are we today?”
“We’ll be much better once you give us the results from the tests,” Jensen drily replied.
“Well then, let’s look, shall we? Well, as you know I was concerned about spinal bifida and Down’s syndrome, as well as several other birth defects, but I’m happy to report that all of the tests came back negative,” he announced with a smile.
Reaching behind him, the doctor came back with his blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around Jensen’s bicep and there was a look of displeasure on his face when he read the LED screen.
“Jensen, you have told me repeatedly how much you want these babies, but a reading of 185/95 will put both you and the babies in danger. Please know that I am not above putting you on complete bed rest,” he warned.
“Yeah, and I would not be above forcing you to stay there,” Jared threatened.
“I was just worried about the tests,” Jensen explained. “I’ll bet if you took Jared’s his would be high as well.”
“Probably,” the doctor agreed, “but Jared’s not pregnant. Just keep the stress level low, follow your diet, and you should be fine. Just because you’ve made it this far, doesn’t necessarily mean smooth sailing Jensen, so control the things that you can.”
Jensen vowed that he would follow the doctor’s orders, but that didn’t stop him from being angry with Jared. He was going to let him know as soon as they got home because he didn’t want to have this argument in the car. Amanda had gone shopping with Donna, Danneel, and Danneel’s eight-year-old mini-me daughter, Addison, because they didn’t trust the two men to get all of the things a little girl needed.
Once they arrived home, Jensen just couldn’t hold in his anger any longer. “Jared, why did you let me think that you were okay all these years?”
“What are you talking about Jensen?” Jared asked.
“I thought that I understood, and that I’d gotten past it, but you need to explain Jared. Explain why you let me believe that you weren’t as affected by all of this baby business as you obviously were!” Jensen began. “You talked to Chad, and god knows who else, about what you were feeling, but you cheated me of the ability to share that pain with you, for us to heal together, and I want to know why.”
“Jensen, I thought that we had covered this. Why are you bringing this up again?” Jared sighed.
“Because I thought that you didn’t care as much! Nothing ever seemed to bother you, and now I find out differently.” Jensen was yelling now. “If I had known what I was doing to you, I’m not sure I would have kept trying, but you confided in everyone but me, your husband.”
“You say that Jensen, but would you really have stopped?” Jared asked, now shouting back at Jensen, “Would you have given up on your almighty quest to procreate?”
“I guess we’ll never know now, will we because…” Jensen cut off his sentence as he looked away from Jared and saw a pair of terrified little green eyes staring at him in shock before Amanda ran upstairs to her bedroom.
“You two are idiots,” Danneel hissed at them. “Go after her,” she told Jensen as he stood there reeling in shock over the fact that the little girl was there when they were yelling at each other.
As Jensen made his way upstairs, he heard Danneel tell Jared, “You two need to remember that she’s here now.”
Jared mumbled something in reply, but Jensen didn’t hear him because he was too busy listening to his own heart break at the sight of his little girl crying her eyes out. He silently walked to her bed, sat down beside her, and just rubbed her shaking back.
“Amanda,” he began, “Why are you crying baby girl?”
She answered with a loud sob.
Following his instincts, Jensen reached down and picked her up, sat her in his lap and let her cry. While she cried, he rocked her small body and began to hum in an attempt to soothe her.
“Mandie,” he tried, unaware that he had shortened her name. “Did the arguing scare you?” Jensen asked the little girl.
“Yes,” she whispered into his neck.
“I’m so sorry that you had to hear that,” Jensen apologized. “Sometimes grown-ups don’t agree with each other and instead of talking to each other as they should, they try to see who can yell the loudest instead.”
“Shouldn’t do that,” she admonished still speaking into his neck. “It scares little girls.”
Chuckling at her answer, Jensen explained to her that he thought that she was still shopping with his mom and Danneel, but from now on, they would try not to argue, but if they did, then they would make sure that they were alone.
As he continued to rock the little girl, he noticed that Jared was standing in the doorway looking at them. He walked over to the bed, rubbed her hair and told her, “I’m sorry as well, munchkin. Sometimes adults behave like little kids.”
It must have been a combination of the rocking and the crying, because while they were still apologizing to her, Amanda’s little body went still as she fell asleep. They tucked her in and made their way downstairs to face Donna and Danneel.
“What were you thinking?” Donna asked, as they entered the kitchen where the women were discussing the day’s events.
“We didn’t know that you guys were back,” Jared defended Jensen. “There is no way we would have had that argument knowing that she was around.”
Jensen sent his husband a smile for coming to his defense, but for the past twenty years they had been able to say or do whatever they wanted without worrying about a child hearing them. It would take them more than the few days that they’d had Amanda to get used to censuring what they said or did. Had she been with them from day one, then they would have been used to having her around, but the three of them were still adjusting to each other.
“Mom, give us some credit here,” Jensen said.
“I know Jensen. I just want her to be comfortable here.”
That’s all they wanted as well. Hell, they didn’t even know what she was going to call them, because she still thought of the Ponds as her parents. It would be wonderful to hear her call them daddy or papa.
“Let’s look at the clothes that she picked out today,” Danneel suggested, changing the subject. She and Donna reached for the sea of bags that they had brought in from the car while Jared and Jensen were upstairs with Amanda.
“I would rather wait until she was awake so that she can show us,” Jensen said, and Jared agreed by nodding his head.
“Okay,” Danneel assented. “But when you’re ready to decorate your nursery, call me, because I know this great little place.”
When she woke up an hour later, Amanda shyly showed her fathers the new clothes she had purchased. At first, she was hesitant, but by the time that she reached for the fourth bag, she couldn’t hide her excitement and rewarded them with a smile that made Jensen want to go and buy out every store in Los Angeles, just so he could get another one.
The next day started out badly for Jensen, because for some reason, morning sickness decided to make an appearance. Jared told him to go back to sleep, and he would take care of Amanda, but as much as he wanted to crawl back into the bed, he couldn’t. They were registering her for school and there was no way he was going to miss that.
When they reached the school, Jensen was still a little green, although the sickness had subsided, but he forced himself to carry on. There was another little girl there. Apparently she was being registered as well, and she made her way over to Amanda to introduce herself.
“Hi, I’m Carrie. What’s your name?”
“Amanda,” their girl answered.
“Since we’re both new here, we can be friends and that way we won’t be alone on our first day,” Carrie decided with childish logic, and Amanda agreed as though Carrie’s reasoning made perfect sense to her.
Once Jensen, Jared, and Carrie’s parents had completed the paperwork, they all sat and watched the girls become acquainted with each other while they waited for the principal and the teacher to show them to their assigned classrooms.
“Are those your dad’s?” Carrie asked Amanda.
Amanda quickly glanced over at her biological parents, and Jensen became saddened at the confusion that he saw on her face. He could tell that she wasn’t exactly sure what they were to her, even though it had been explained. She understood it as much as a six year old could.
“That’s my… Jense and Jared,” she told Carrie.
It must have been explanation enough because Carrie told her, “See, that’s why we’ll get along because I have two daddies too!”
Carrie must have known something that the adults didn’t, because when the girls were shown their classroom, they did indeed have the same teacher. Once Jensen saw how the two girls banded together in the classroom, he felt better about leaving Amanda there.
School was going to be dismissed at two-thirty but Jensen ran out the door, Jared’s laughter ringing in his ears, because he wanted to get to the school at two. He wanted to be early because he had missed six years of her life, and was jealous of the time that she had to spend in school.
When they arrived home, after a quick stop to get something from the studio, Jensen laughed because Jared was standing at the door anxiously waiting for them.
“Looks like I’m not the only one who missed you today, baby girl,” Jensen teased as he reached up to kiss away the frown from Jared’s face.
“Go put your things away and then come back down for your snack,” Jared told Amanda.
Once the little girl had disappeared up the stairs, Jared turned to Jensen and gave him his phone. “It’s Sarah Pond, and she says that she wants Amanda back.”
chapter 3 chapter 5