Chapter Text
Chloe was already teaching a couple of undergraduate courses before she even got her masters degree as a grad student teaching assistant. The students loved her and so did the professors, that showered her with recommendations letter after her graduation. She ended up working part-time teaching at Bronx Community College after her graduation and working on her PhD. This allowed her more time at home and a more flexible routine. Besides, she was doing what she loved.
Aubrey too started making a few changes in the way she worked, working more from home if possible and avoiding late night hours in the office.
In the middle of March, Aubrey had a meeting in LA and Chloe jumped at the opportunity, making Aubrey's work trip into a family trip.
They sat in Beca's edgy living room, with a couple of golden records and Jesse's movie posters still hanging on the walls - they knew it was being hard for her after their break up, due to all the complications and demands that came with her transition from small producer to promising artist.
They saw each other regularly although the distance, since Beca was often in New York and they made sure to spent at least one holiday each year together. Last year, was Christmas. Aubrey and Chloe received all the Bellas in their apartment and no one ended up too wasted to find their way back into the hotels. They really were growing up.
That night they chatted over take out dinner about their friends back in Atlanta, FaceTimed Amy briefly before she excused herself to get into some wrestling competition, talked about future and next meetings.
Chloe was snuggled with Aubrey in an armchair, watching from afar as Beca showed Emma a few soundtracks from old movies that she had in her extensive collection of vinyl's.
The brunette reached out to grab a certain one from the shelf, but couldn't reach it. Emma just grabbed it and handed it to a flushed Beca.
Emma was eleven now, she was taller than all her friends - a trait she for sure got from her father. Her long legs made her the tallest ballerina in her class. Her hair was long and she liked it better in a messy bun. She lost some of the freckles she had on her face as toddler and her baby fat was practically all gone but the kind semblance was still there.
"Oh my God, Bree." Chloe gasped. "She's taller than Beca. Our baby is taller than Beca."
"Well, it's not like that’s a hard thing to achieve," Aubrey said distractedly, with a smirk, still watching the pair.
Chloe got silent for a minute, watching Aubrey's profile face. "Do you want another one?"
"Another Beca? No way," Aubrey said, sipping her wine.
"Another baby," Chloe said, seriously.
Aubrey's head snapped in her direction. That was an interesting question.
Exactly four months later, they sat with Emma in their living room for a talk. The girl seemed to realize that wasn't a casual talk, because she had a suspicious look on her face since the beginning.
"I thought I was going to be an only child forever," Emma said. "You guys not even gave me a dog."
"You have a cat," Aubrey pointed out.
"Ma, Fleur is actually a human spirit trapped in a feline's body."
As if understanding that she was being addressed, the Siamese Munchkin cat sitting by the floor meowed.
Aubrey thinks that Fleur's human spirit probably had some family relation with Lily - such a weird cat.
"So, really? Are you guys thinking about adopting?" Her tone voice was excited, and they took it as a good sign.
Chloe smiled at her daughter. "Yes. We are considering. We wanted to talk to you about it. We want to know how you feel about it."
"Really? So, if I say that I don't want you guys to do it, you won't do it?" Emma teased with a smirk.
Aubrey tried to not sound anxious as she spoke. "Your opinion matters, muffin. We want you to be a part of this decision."
Emma looked back and forth between her moms.
"Why now?" She frowned.
"We have better schedules now, we have a nice home. And since you are a big girl now, we thought that it would be a great experience for you too. You know, we think you’ll be a terrific big sister," Chloe explained.
Emma's excitement suddenly vanished, but she put up a fake smile to cover. When you raise a kid for years, you can tell when they are being sincere and when they are hiding something. Both women noticed the sudden change and exchanged a look.
"Okay. It will be fun I guess," Emma said, tugging up a smile.
Chloe looked at Aubrey before asking her daughter. "Muffin, are you sure?"
Emma opened her mouth to say something but closed soon after. She looked conflicted.
"Emma, you seem bothered." Aubrey said that soft tone she used only for her daughter. "You can talk to us, muffin."
"Will they have your last name?" Emma asked Aubrey.
Aubrey and Chloe looked at each other in confusion.
They hadn’t even gone that far in their decision about adoption.
They kept their last names after the wedding; Aubrey for business reason, and Chloe because she was too attached to being a Beale and didn't feel comfortable with taking a name that her daughter didn't have.
"No," Aubrey decided. "I want them to share your last name. You'll be siblings, after all."
The thought that Anthony Posen may not be entirely happy with the fact that none of Aubrey's children would carry the Posen name was soon vanished with the look Chloe gave her. A mix of surprise, joy and thankfulness.
"But they will be your child." Emma said trying to not show she was upset.
"You are my child, Emma. Don't be silly," Aubrey said, without understanding.
"Legally, I'm not," Emma argued.
"Does that bother you? I had no idea," Chloe gave her daughter a sympathetic look.
Emma scrunched up her nose, a thing she did when she was trying to figure out something. "I mean, never mind. Let's forget about it. It's fine. You are my moms, I love both of you and that's it. And I'd love to have a sibling, really,” she said in that sudden positive tone she inherited from Chloe, giving them a tight smile. "Fleur and I are ready to be big sisters."
That fucking cat is not my daughter, Aubrey thought.
"Now, can I go to Jade's?" Emma asked before they could say anything else about the situation.
They were not so excited about the adoption anymore.
Aubrey couldn't get over the fact that Emma felt that way while in her mind Emma was undoubtedly hers.
That night, Aubrey and Chloe found themselves in their usual pillowtalk position – face to face, Chloe's hand fidgeting with Aubrey's ear, or collarbone, or stray lock of hair. They assured each other, once again, that Emma was independent of what they had, that even if someday – they said it horrified – they split, or Chloe died, Emma was still Aubrey's.
And it was true. Nothing could break the bond Aubrey build with Emma. Sometimes, Chloe would find similarities in them, and when she commented it, they would react in the exactly same way. And there were no doubts that Emma felt like Aubrey was indeed her mother. She always tells everyone she has two moms and gets highly defensive if someone points out that Aubrey is just her step-mom.
Even Todd acknowledges the third parent. “It takes a village to raise a kid,” he said when, many years ago, he was told about how little Emma chose a new parent to called hers.
Aubrey knocked on her Emma's door the next night. Emma was already in her bed, since it was her bedtime. She had her back against the bedpost with a thick book on her lap and Fleur laying asleep by her feet.
"You are not here to tuck me in, right?" Emma asked with a smirk. "I don't need it anymore."
"Of course, I'm not," Aubrey said, but rearranged the covers over Emma and fluffed her pillows anyway. "Do you want to talk about our yesterday conversation?
Emma scrunched up her nose, closing her book. "I snapped, didn't I?"
Aubrey chuckled. "No, you have every right to say how you are feeling."
Emma lowed her gaze to her hands over her space stamped covers. "I want you to adopt the baby. I overreacted, I know you are my mom and that doesn't matter what the law says. It's just a piece of paper, right?"
Aubrey wanted to object on that but decided to stay quiet.
"Just remember I am your first baby," Emma remarked with a grin.
Aubrey smiled genuinely at her daughter, pinching her nose, making her giggle. “You’ll always be my first baby.” She leaned against the bedpost beside Emma and opened an arm and the girl instantly snuggled against her mom. She kissed the top of the head covered in red hair. "Have you ever heard about a Petition for Appointment of Guardian?"
They only gave the adoption process a start after Aubrey was legally a guardian of Emma. It wasn't an adoption because Emma had both parents, and it wasn't the perfect solution, but assured Aubrey that if the worst-case scenarios happened, Emma would be safe with her. It was enough for Emma quit her doubts and allow herself to be extremely excited about having a sibling.
"Do we want a boy?" Chloe asked, looking at the laptop screen sitting by the kitchen island one night.
"Oh, Emma will not like that. I grew up with boys, they were awful. Maybe we want a girl," Aubrey answered, writing on her legal pad ideas of what they were going to upload to their profile for the adoption:
- Family picture in Rome
- Wedding picture (the one in which we are smiling at each other)
- Christmas card picture from 2019
- Picture with Chloe in Central Park
- Mention that Chloe was a high school teacher
And two last items in Chloe’s loops calligraphy:
- Mention that Emma is adopted by Aubrey
-
Picture with Beca so they know we have famous friends
"No way, I had three sisters, Emma will not want that," Chloe retorted. “Can we play the Stuart Little card and adopt a rat?”
Aubrey initially wanted a toddler, an age she was more familiar with. But Chloe insisted Aubrey should have the newborn experience once and that’s the whole story of how they immersed themselves into hoping a unrequitedly pregnant woman was going to give an homosexual couple their baby.
They were ten months and twenty two days in the waiting list when, one day, an e-mail dropped from their adoption agent.
A biological mother liked your profile. She is four months pregnant and wants a closed adoption. I think this match is perfect, I'm emailing you more details right now.
Aubrey's heart skipped a beat.
Those months passed as if they were years.
They busied themselves with reading books and sending pictures of baby clothes on their group chat. They turned the spare bedroom – and now Beca was going to sleep on the couch – into a nursery in neutral colors. They reserved a Sunday to paint it themselves, mint green wall paint all over the walls and the three of them.
"Can I name her?" Emma asked as they lounged together in her parents bed before bedtime one night.
They had gone on a checkup medical appointment with the biological mother that evening. They got home ready to count the days until the new member of the family came home.
"I suppose you are going to suggest some Harry Potter name?" Chloe asked, and the girl nodded. "Then no. And it may be a boy, we don’t know."
“It’s a girl, I just know it,” Emma said, excited.
Aubrey laughed. His name was going to be Henry. She was sure it was going to be a boy.
She was wrong.
Charlotte Louise Beale weighted five pounds and four ounces the day she was born. She was tiny, very tiny and very defenseless. Aubrey knew she couldn’t let anything happen to her. Ever.
Aubrey was quite useless during the birth. She just sat beside the doctor and waited for the baby to appear from inside the mother’s vagina. It’s not like she did on purpose, she was just wonderstruck by the happening.
Chloe though, had been there before and it was quite a relief that she wasn’t the one pushing the human out. So she stood by the mother side, held her hand, gave her ice chips and kept glancing at her dumbstruck wife.
Charlotte cried because being born into this world is difficult. Aubrey cut the cord. Then Aubrey cried, because she was never a parent at first sight before. And the mother cried because it couldn’t possibly be easy for her. And Chloe cried for all those reasons and her owns.
And everyone had their lives changed forever.
It was morning when Emma arrived in the hospital, her babysitter dropping her in.
Chloe took Emma by the hand and they headed to the room where the rest of the family waited.
Aubrey was sitting by the armchair with the baby in her arms and the golden morning sun bathing them with the promise of a new day.
Chloe knew her wife was already in love from the moment she saw her leaning down and talking to her in that voice that until now was reserved for Emma and Emma only.
“Muffin, come meet your sister,” Aubrey called Emma softly.
Emma obediently sat on Aubrey’s lap without disturbing the little bundle dressed in white. She looked down at her sister and smiled. “I told you it was a girl. What is her name?” Emma asked in a hushed voice even if the baby was awake.
“Charlotte.” Aubrey looked up to her older daughter. “Do you like it?”
Emma nodded with a smile, exhaling calmness.
Emma, who once was, not so long ago, just as tiny as Charlotte was now a big sister.
Chloe approached them, sitting on the arm of the chair and looping an arm around Aubrey and the other around Emma.
She had her whole world inside her arms.
Life with Coco was different and the same as always at the same time.
(Yes, Coco.
Emma immediately started calling her Coco, and soon Chloe was calling her Coco, but Aubrey was hesitant, not understanding why she should stop using the beautiful name they gave their daughter to honor her beloved grandmother.
And then one day it happened:
“Coco, baby, make it easy for mama, please,” Aubrey begged the baby to stop crying.
Chloe and Emma exchanged a glance and started laughing.)
As said, it was different.
Aubrey took maternity leave from work as soon as Coco came home and would spend her days with the sleepy baby in tow, addicted to the feeling of having her close, to the smell of her head, to the way the color of her eyes seemed to change every single day.
Coco is a good one, don’t worry, Chloe would tell her over the phone every time she called her wife to clear her doubts. Chloe would say that because the baby slept a lot, leaving Aubrey with a lot of time in hands to be paranoid.
They decided to use their maternity leaves wisely, not at the same time. So Aubrey got in first and when hers was finished Chloe’s was going to step in. And that day came too fast to Aubrey’s liking.
“I swear for the love I have for my daughters, if you give me one more recommendation about my own baby you are sleeping on this couch tonight,” Chloe said to Aubrey as she hesitated before going out of the door that morning.
The blonde turned back to the couch where Chloe was sprawled on with Coco laying on her chest and pecked her lips. “Thank you for pulling up with me.”
Chloe rolled her eyes and took her turn pecking her wife’s lips. “You’re just lucky that you’re cute.”
But, as previously said too, life with Coco was basically the same.
They still had breakfast together and Chloe still dropped Emma by school on her way to work. Aubrey still would take her time to watch Emma’s ballet class at least once a week. They still had jobs to attend, friends to see and families in another state to travel to see. They just had one more member in their small gang now.
Chloe always knew she was going to end up like this. Nothing breakable in her house was less than one meter and a half close to the floor. Her kitchen cabinets had way too many sippy cups. There was always a rubber toy lost in one of the tubs. A picture of a rare moment - her kids napping together in her bed – as wallpaper. She thought she was going to have a husband, though. That there would be at least one little boy around. That she would be living in the suburbs with a backyard and a dog. So it was only in part a surprise that she end up in the big city, with two girls, a psychopath cat and an uptight wife that still made her heart beat faster. Because she knew she was going to end up like this, and she couldn’t remember the other replaceable details anymore. She knew she was exactly where she was meant to be.
Life was a mosaic of pushing strollers through parks. Little hands raised as a silent plead to be carried. Buying cat food on the way back home from work. Kissing in the shower under the warm water running down their naked bodies. Classic music playing on the background as Aubrey maneuvered long red hair into a neat bun in the last minute before a ballet class. Joni Mitchell songs as lullabies. Stolen date nights when they could find someone to watch the kids.
Chloe turned off the kitchen light after she put the last dish in the dishwasher and wrapped her arms around Aubrey’s neck. “I’m going to bed,” she whispered against the blonde’s lips. She could only see Aubrey because of the living room’s light that entered the room.
The kids were in bed and the kitchen was finally clean after dinner. There were no papers to grade or contract to review. Not even a novel to finish.
“Is this an invite?” Aubrey asked, leaning her back against the kitchen counter and holding Chloe by the waist.
Chloe kissed the corner of Aubrey’s lips. “Maybe.”
“All right.” Aubrey smirked and kissed the spot below her ear. “Go ahead. I’ll just make sure we locked the front door. I’ll be there.”
Chloe let go of her with one last peck on her lips and turned to look back before leaving the kitchen.
“See you soon?” She asked, with soft smile.
Aubrey smiled too, heart swelling with all the memories those words carried, all the moments that were only possible because one rainy day they dared to exchange them in a suburban street in Atlanta.
“See you soon,” she said. The way Chloe’s smile grew with the line made her heart skip a beat. It also made her think about how no one, in the world the entire world, was as lucky as the two of them.