Adam and Jean had both grown up as only children, and there was a particular kind of loneliness in that. The specific ache of being the only kid at every family gathering, surrounded by cousins.
So when Jean found out she was pregnant again, a little more than two years after Aegeus, they were ecstatic.
"He's going to have someone," Jean kept saying, over and over, in the weeks after, as if she still couldn't quite believe it. "Aegeus is going to have a sister."
Being dentists had its perks— Adam and Jean ran the practice together, a small, outdated office with a fish tank in the waiting room and a receptionist who had worked there longer than either of them had been born. But the best perk, as far as scheduling a pregnancy went, was flexibility.
So they closed early most days that final month. Jean saw fewer patients, who were mostly children, since she had the patience for it and Adam, by his own admission, did not. He was better with root canals than tantrums. It had always been a good division of labor.
Aegeus, for his part, had taken the news with unreadable seriousness. Unfortunately, that didn't work on them, as they both knew that he was just a little scaredy-cat terrified of roaches. Adam even thought the reason he acted so serious was an act of rebellion against the world for even allowing such creatures to exist.
Aegeus was sitting on the rug between them while his parents talked. He watched his mother's face with wide eyes as she broke the news to him. He looked from Jean's glowing expression to Adam's grin, processing the word in his own child-like logic.
"Baby," he said.
"That's right," Jean said, delighted, the way she still was every single time he spoke, because he still didn't do it often. "You're going to be a big brother."
When the day finally came, it came fast— faster than Jean and Adam expected, a whirlwind of car keys and half-tied shoes and Adam driving twelve miles over the speed limit while Jean breathed through contractions in the passenger seat and somehow, in between them, she still found the composure to tell him to slow down.
Aegeus rode in the back seat, silent, watching the streetlights blur past the window, his small hands folded very properly in his lap. He understood that something important was happening and the correct response was to stay quiet.
At the hospital, a nurse took him gently by the hand right at the doors to the delivery room, crouching down to his eye level with the kind of patience of someone who had done this a hundred times.
"You get to wait right out here, sweetheart," she said. "Your parents will come get you the second your sister arrives."
Aegeus considered this. He looked past her, through the small window in the door, to where his mother lay, and where his father stood holding her hand.
~Inside~
"Okay, Jean, one more big push," the doctor said, "you're doing great."
Jean did not feel like she was doing great, it felt much harder than last time.
Maybe because Aegeus was so small.
"You're doing amazing," Adam said, in a strained voice.
"Don't talk," Jean said.
"Okay."
"Just— hold my hand and don't talk."
"Okay."
And then, after one final push and a sound that Adam would later describe to anyone who would listen as "genuinely the worst noise I have ever heard a human being make" came the unmistakable indignant wail of someone who had just been evicted from the only home they had ever knew and had opinions about it.
"And there she is," the doctor said, and just like that, it was over.
The nurse cleaned her up quickly— and then she was in Jean's arms, red-faced and outraged. She was small too, though not quite as small as Aegeus had been, but still small. One tiny foot already working its way free of the blanket like she had somewhere urgent to be.
"Hi," Jean said, quiet, like she was afraid of startling her. "Hi, baby."
Jean laughed, wet and exhausted but entirely overjoyed, and looked down at her daughter, who had stopped crying and was now simply staring up at both of them with the deeply unimpressed expression newborns tend to have, as if she'd already found both of them slightly disappointing and intended to bring it up later.
"Hermione," Jean said. "Hermione Granger."
Adam looked at her.
Outside, in a plastic chair beside a door, a three-year-old boy sat, waiting for someone to come get him.
He didn't have to wait for long.
The nurse who'd been keeping him company was in the middle of asking him whether he liked dinosaurs when the door finally opened.
Adam looked wrecked, happy and overwhelmed.
"Hey, buddy," he said, crouching down. "You ready to meet your sister?"
"Yes," Aegeus said, and immediately stood up.
Adam laughed, took him by the hand, leading him through the door and into the room
Jean was in the bed, tired in a way Aegeus had never seen her tired before, but smiling, and in her arms was a small bundle that seemed, to him, to be mostly blanket.
"Come here," Jean said softly. "Come meet your little sister."
Aegeus approached carefully, and climbed up onto the small step stool Adam had thoughtfully set beside the bed, until he could just see over the edge.
He looked at her for a long moment.
She was red-faced, scrunched, her eyes were shut. And in his professional three-year-old opinion, not very impressive to look at.
"That's Hermione," Jean said. "Your sister."
"Hermione," Aegeus repeated,
He reached out one finger, slowly, the way he would touch something fragile, and pressed it very gently against her open palm.
Her fingers closed around it immediately. And Aegeus went very still.
Something stirred deep inside him, making his magic hum and prickle under his skin. He didn't have the words for what he was feeling, but a sudden, fierce warmth settled in his chest. Looking at her, a simple truth clicked in his young mind: that the person in front of him had to be kept safe at all cost.
_________________________________________________________________________
TO BE CONTINUED
~~~
What do you think? If you like my story, leave a stone, if you hate my story, throw a stone, maybe it would hit my head. You never know...
Tell me, did you leave a stone or throw one on this chapter?