From: AstaLuna13@aol.com
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 21:13:38 EST
Subject: Change by Asta Luna
Source: direct

Title:  Change.
Author:  Asta Luna.
Rating:  PG.
Spoilers:  None.
Distribution:  Anywhere - just alert me, please. 
Disclaimer:  They're not mine. But hey, I guess they're not anybody's 
anymore, huh?
Summary:  I laid back in the armchair . . .
Prequel:  "After" published at Gossamer 07-26-03.

For my Mike, Gracie and Lucas Adam.


Change


I laid back in the armchair.  It felt like the first time I had sat down in 
weeks.  I rested my head against the back, and closed my eyes, for just a 
minute . . .

"John?  John?"  I felt something poking my shoulder.  "John, wake up.  It's 
your turn to change the baby."  

I opened my eyes to the sight of Monica, looking harried and unkempt and 
exhausted, holding our infant son in her arms.  He was squirming, obviously 
uncomfortable, and he reeked.  I quickly changed him on the living room floor with 
the accuracy and speed of someone who had been through this many times before.

He squinted at me, his face red.  He had my eyes and Monica's dark hair, and 
the lungs of an auction caller.  We named him Ezra Seth but called him Elf, 
since he was born on Christmas Eve.

He slept during the day and screamed all night.  Monica had never had 
children, and she played the part of first-time mom perfectly.  She slept in fits 
whenever Elf was asleep, she went days without a shower, and she only spoke to me 
when asking a favor or direct question.  I went to work and tried to look 
after Elf at night so Monica could get some sleep.

"John, do you want anything for dinner?"  She stood in the kitchen, looking 
at me and twirling her engagement ring around her finger.  I'd proposed to her 
when she was eight months pregnant, when we were sitting on the couch watching 
CSI: Miami.

"Uh . . . we got any of those Hot Pockets left?"  I lifted Elf up and rested 
him against my shoulder.  He kicked his legs and promptly drooled on my 
tee-shirt.

She looked in the freezer.  "Yeah, Philly cheese steak or chicken and 
broccoli?"

"I dunno . . chicken."  

Elf squeaked as I placed him on his back in the bassinet.  He blinked at me, 
drool running down the sides of his mouth.  I smoothed the dark brown hair on 
his forehead and remarked how much he looked like Monica.

Monica was unwrapping the Hot Pockets when I walked up behind her and wrapped 
my arms around her waist.  "John, what are you doing?"

"Nothing," I said as I kissed the side of her neck.  "I've missed you, Mon."

She furrowed her brow.  "But I've been here.  What do you mean 'you missed 
me?'"

I snaked my hands up underneath her shirt, cupping her tender nursing breasts 
with both hands.  She moaned softly, and I knew she understood what I said.

"You know what," I said softly.

"What?"

"We make damn cute kids."


***

End.