MJ’s feet are resting on the coffee table a book in her hand, eyes lazily scanning the pages despite the fact that her brain is not absorbing any of the information on any of the pages, her hand rubs up and down her swollen stomach, mind swimming with a to-do list that just kept getting longer and longer. There was so much to do before the baby arrived and it was starting to seem like all of the exciting firsts of the pregnancy we’re being replaced with just constantly feeling exhausted and gross. The morning sickness had passed but it was replaced with swelling ankles, and sore boobs. MJ turns her head as the apartment opens, Peter instantly smiles at Michelle who smiles back at him. He puts his bag down and walks over the couch, leaning over the back of the couch Peter kisses her cheek.
“Hey, you.” Peter’s arm drapes around Michelle his head leveled with hers. “What are you reading?” He asks glancing over at the book in Michelle’s hand.
“Its like my billionth book on pregnancy,” MJ sighs closing the book and looking back at Peter. “They all contradict each other.” She laughs shaking her head. “I’m saying we just wing this whole parenting thing.” She teases, Peter laughs dropping his head down to rest on her shoulder. “Look we both have pretty high IQs I’m sure we can figure it out.” She continues, Peter laughs again, turning his head so he can kiss Michelle’s neck. She giggles and leans into him.
“I think you are going to be a great mother.” Peter whispers, he’s so close to her she can feel his breath on her neck. She smiles looking down at her lap before looking back over at Peter, who is watching her intently. “What are you thinking about?” He asks, he pushes off the back of the couch and wanders around it to take a seat next to her. She leans her head on his shoulder, letting out a deep sigh.
“We’re hungry.” MJ states, Peter laughs. MJ tilts her head up lips pressed together in a smile. “Be a doll and get us some food?” There was a hint of that MJ sarcasm in her question, and Peter looked back at her with the signature goofy Parker smile.
“Sure.” He nods, moving to stand up from that couch. “What do you want to eat?” He questions, Michelle has to think about, for a while. One thing that had changed for Michelle was her decisiveness, she used to always know exactly what she wanted but now, she was constantly changing her mind or not even knowing at all.
“Um, surprise me.” She shrugs letting her hands fall into her lap. Peter puts his hands on his hips, eyeing Michelle curiously. Michelle looks back at him equally as curious.
“Is that just another way to say you don’t know?” Peter questions raising his eyebrows at her. She looks down for a second, asking herself if she should deny the claim because Peter had been teasing her about her indecisiveness, he said it was payback for all the time she had done it to him.
“Yes.” She admits flatly, she doesn’t have to look up at him to know he is smirking down at her, but she does hear a soft chuckle fall from his lips. He leans over to kiss the top of her head before heading to the kitchen to start dinner. Their options were actually quite limited as there was a long list of things that MJ couldn’t consume because they weren’t safe for the baby, or they made her physically sick, she had an aversion to quite a few things. They would joke about how the baby was picky.
While Peter is making dinner Michelle decides to read something that isn’t a pregnancy book and that she can actually enjoy. The pregnancy books were starting to make her brain melt, while simultaneously scaring the shit out of her. MJ had no clue if she was going to be a good mother despite Peter constantly telling her she would be, she didn’t know if she had the mother instinct anywhere inside her, and that thought scared her way more than the terrifying pictures some of those pregnancy books had in them. She liked to think she was equipped for anything, but maybe she wasn’t equipped for this. Ok so maybe instead of reading a book while Peter cooked she sat on the couch staring off into space worrying.
“Em,” Peter’s soft voice catching Michelle’s attention almost immediately, she nearly jumps out of her skin. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Peter sits down on the couch next to her, holding a plate of food in his hand, she doesn’t even ask what it is, she just silently takes it. “Ok, so I know we’ve been putting it off but we should watch that birthing video, you got,” Peter announces after dinner. MJ looks over at Peter a small smirk growing on her face. One of the first things Michelle did when she found out she was pregnant was watching a birthing video, she wanted to get it out of the way and learn what exactly she could expect when it came to delivering, and she also knew that Peter was not going to handle this particular thing very well.
“First off, it is not we that have been avoiding this, its just you.” Michelle states pointedly, Peter sighs glaring at her. “And secondly, yes let's do this.” She finishes giddily, Peter has a look of regret on his face but he gets up from the couch anyway, picking up the tv remote and loading up the video before sitting back down. As soon as the thumbnail pops up Peter goes pale. Michelle leans over to whisper in Peter’s ear, “Wanna hold my hand?” She asks offering her hand to Peter, he glares in return but takes her hand anyway. Its starts off pretty ok, some breathing exercises, but then the breathing exercises morphed into screams. Peter flinches with every scream, squeezing MJ’s hand as he reacts to the video.
“Oh my god.” Peter screeches as the woman starts to push and Michelle just laughs at him. “Oh my god, how is she doing that?!” Peter dives for cover, snatching a throw pillow off of the couch using it to cover his face. “I think I’m going to throw up.” Peter looks at Michelle, who is thoroughly amused by his very dramatic behavior. “How are you not freaking out?” Peter asks incredulously, Michelle rolls her eyes at him.
“Because female bodies are made for this Peter,” She replies with a laugh, she gestures at the tv, where the baby is now crowning. “This is how you got here.” She adds with a shrug. She watches intently as the baby is fully pushed out. Peter’s face scrunches up at the tv, watching as the mother pushes the baby out the rest of the way. MJ watches him carefully as his face softens as the baby enters the world crying. The mother herself begins crying and so goes Peter along with her. MJ squeezes his hand, tears welling up in her own eyes.
“Are you ok?” Peter asks taking note of her sudden misty eyes. She nods back at him waving him off as she tries to blink back her own tears.
“Its just my damn hormones, they make me cry at everything.” MJ laughs as a few tears slip down her cheeks, Peter laughs with her, wiping a few of the tears from her cheek. “Today I cried at that commercial that has that weird animated talking phone book,” She tells him shaking her head. Peter laughs taking her cheeks in his hands.
“I love you,” Peter says softly, she laughs leaning to rest her forehead against his.
“I love you too, you dork.” She moves to kiss him, but jerks back suddenly. Peter looks back at her in concern. “Oh.” She sits back on the couch hand flying to her stomach.
“What? What’s wrong?” Peter shoots off the couch in panic. “Should I call the doctor? 911? Should we go to the hospital?” Peter starts firing questions at MJ frantically looking for his phone.
“Pete.” Peter continues his frantic ranting while MJ tries to get his attention again. “Peter. Peter. Peter!” Finally, Peter looks over at her, eyes wide. “The baby kicked,” Michelle tells him, her hands move across her stomach as more kicks follow.
“W-what?” Peter hurries back over to the couch sitting next to MJ, he hesitates for a second hand hovering over her stomach. He lays a hand on her stomach moving it around as he waits for another kick, then he feels it, and he gasps. “Oh my gosh.” He gets a little choked up which again makes MJ cry. “Look at the little guy go.” Peter looks up at Michelle, tears brimming in his eyes. “We made that?” Peter questions in disbelief.
“Well, yes. That’s kind of how it works.” MJ answers with a laugh. Peter glares at her for a second but then melts again when the baby kicks again. Peter lies his head in MJ’s lap whisper to the baby while MJ plays with his hair watching him in adoration. Ok so maybe they weren’t all done with all the firsts.