Work Text:
After surviving everything thrown at them (literally and figuratively because apparently becoming a demon means you get telekinesis) Sam thought the troubles of the week were over.
Instead, she has been in the bathroom every morning throwing up whatever Jay has brought up to her minutes after eating it. The ghosts had filtered in and out throughout the day, most too repulsed by the sounds and smells to stay, but Pete remained.
“I dealt with sick kids all the time during my living days and still haven’t seen it get this bad,” he told her (un)helpfully. “Have you gone to the doctors yet?”
“We both know I hate doctor’s offices,” She replied before taking a sip of the cup of water Jay had helpfully left before spitting it back into the sink.
“You do have to admit it is getting concerning,” Jay said, gently pushing open the door. “I think it’d be better to figure out what’s wrong before it gets worse.”
“Fear not!” Isaac suddenly shouted, rushing into the room and running straight through Jay. Sam retched a few times and Jay nearly joined her. “I have figured out what’s the cause of your illness!”
“Please don’t say it’s dysentery,” Sam pleaded, bordering on tears. Whether from the smell or the thought that she may actually have it was undecided. Isaac, offended, scoffed and nearly walked away. “Wait, I’m sorry, please tell me what’s wrong.”
“Me and my lovely friend Sasappis,” The man quickly entered the room, careful to step around Jay and avoid making the same mistake as Isaac. “Have witnessed this sickness before, approximately a hundred forty years ago.”
She thought for a moment which ghost that corresponded with and shuddered. Hetty. “What old disease did I get living in this house?”
“No disease to be spoken of,” Isaac corrected. “My dear Samantha you are perfectly healthy.”
She gestured for him to go on but before he could Sass spoke. “We think you might be pregnant.”
“You were intended to leave that reveal to me!” Isaac yelled as Sam’s face drained of color and Pete squealed.
“You told her literally everything else!” Sass defended, the two quickly walking away bickering.
“You okay Sam, what did they say?” Jay asked, kneeling next to her and resting his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
“They think… Jay did we use protection the night you didn’t end up going to hell?” She asked, praying on a yes. The color on his face drained just as quick as hers.
“Oh babe,” Jay whispered, pulling Sam into a hug as she started crying. Pete took that as his cue to leave. “Hey, hey, we don’t even know if it’s anything yet. I’ll run to the store to get some pregnancy tests and your favorite chocolate.”
She mumbled a thank you as he gently picked her up bridal style and moved her to the bed. He gently kissed her goodbye before rushing out the door, probably falling down a couple stairs if the crash is anything to go by.
“Have you allowed Jay to indulge in his Sonic addiction with your knowledge or does he have a good reason to nearly rip my door off its hinges?” Hetty asked, having phased into the room shortly after Jay left.
“It’s our door,” she reminded for the millionth time. “And he’s going to the store.”
“Surely whatever he requires will be there even if he was not rushing,” she huffed, sitting next to her on the bed. Sam weakly chuckled and wiped away the remnants of the tears spilled earlier. “Is something amiss?”
“Isaac and Sass think I’m pregnant,” she spat out after an awkwardly long pause. “They think my symptoms are similar to yours when they watched you go through pregnancy.”
“Well that would certainly explain the vomiting,” Hetty commented for lack of anything else to say at the second. “Do keep in mind they have watched one woman go through pregnancy and that you are exhibiting a symptom of countless ailments.”
“Thanks,” Sam said, and she couldn’t tell if she was being earnest or not. “I just… I do want to have a family with Jay, but is now really the right time?”
“Samantha from how things have went in this house I don’t imagine there’s much better,” she commented and Sam felt like she should probably take offense. “And if you are already with child there isn’t much of an option.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Do you not know what an abortion is?”
“I do not, though I can assume it is a solution to this issue.”
“It’s a medical procedure to remove a fetus before it’s born,” She explained. Hetty scoffed.
“If women wanted to rid themselves of a baby in my day they would throw themselves down flights of stairs in hopes of miscarriage,” She said and Sam saw the layers of jealousy in that statement.
“Did you…” she mumbled, feeling her curiosity to know the answer to that question fade before she even asked it.
“Of course not,” Hetty snapped at her. “I miscarried naturally, there was no such need to put myself at risk.”
“You miscarried?”
She seemed to realize what she had just said. “Four times. Don’t fret about being predisposed to it Samantha, you are sadly as far removed from my blood as you could be.”
Sam stayed quiet, though the thought that she was somehow still more likely to have a miscarriage now planted itself in her head, it’s not why she had asked.
“Besides, I am of the opinion that most of them were caused by Elias,” Hetty continued airily, she stared at the ghost with a mix of confusion and fear.
“How?” She asked, regretting it near instantly. Shes probably heard enough about Elias in her lifetime already.
“He was a violent man when under the influence, dealt many blows to my stomach whenever he decided I had become too hideous while carrying his child.”
If Sam was ever wondering whether or not Elias really deserved hell before (which she very much wasn’t, for the record) this definitely cemented her opinion.
That man deserves worse.
Sam and Jay had informed all the ghosts of her pregnancy the next day after she went through the entire box of test and they all came up positive (she did feel ridiculous using an entire box of tests but she’s heard too many stories of false positives okay).
They were all ecstatic (to a mildly concerning degree) and now she was being bombarded with a slew of advice every time the silence simmered a second too long. She could feel herself getting a migraine every time more than one ghost was in a quiet room with her.
It was at the dinner table when she had been attempting to eat a frankly disgusting combination of food the baby demanded when it finally came to a head.
“Shut up!” She yelled abruptly after just one too many things said to her that day. Thankfully the seven ghosts that had been pestering her endlessly listened, though not happily and their reactions further stirred the anger building in her chest. “For the last time, I’m not taking advice from the half of you that didn’t even have kids,” Flower and Sass shrugged it off, Alberta and Trevor (who seemed to very well know he was included now even though he had been defending that he did have a kid for days) opened their mouthed to protest before she continued. “Thor, you’re a thousand years old, none of the stuff you’ve told me applies to children today,” he grunted in disagreement, “and Isaac and Pete, I’m not naming my kid after you or your children.”
With everyone sufficiently angered, because that was definitely the goal here, Sam stood up intending to storm off when Pete spoke. “Sam, I know we’re being a bit much but we are trying to help. A lot of us have done the whole go-around with kids.”
“Great. That’s be perfect when my kid actually arrives in nine months, so come back then,” she spat, scraping the rest of her food into the trash since she couldn’t storm off. “None of you know what being a mother is like, there is one ghost in this house that does and…”
She trailed off as Hetty appeared in the doorway, probably in an attempt to find out what the yelling was by eavesdropping. “And what, Samantha?” She asked as the sentence was not continued despite the now eery silence.
“…and I will value your advice more than the other ghosts,” she lied, smiling in an attempt to be convincing. Hetty very much was not buying it.
“Yes, that is what you intended to say,” she said sarcastically.
“I think we all know what she was gonna say,” Alberta ‘whispered’ (nearly yelled in a hushed tone) to Trevor.
“Inform me, Haynes, what you believe Samantha was going to say,” Hetty demanded, having walked over to effectively tower over the woman.
“And that ghost raised a murderer,” Alberta spat before swiftly rushing out of the room before Hetty could retaliate. Every other ghost besides Isaac (who had done his usual routine of gasping loudly then complaining nobody else had) ran out soon after.
“Well?” Hetty asked, turning to a Sam who was halfway out the door and on the verge of booking it.
“Hetty,” she started hesitantly and both ghosts very quickly caught into the fact that Alberta was correct in her guess. “In my defense it’s a fair observation.”
“My word,” Isaac mumbled as Hetty stared at her silently. “Whatever happened to respecting your elders?”
“It is appalling how many people in this house believe Thomas’ actions were my fault,” She said and Sam knew the ghost was mainly talking to Isaac but it was certainly a jab at her. “When he was raised entirely by caretakers and is a mirror image of his father.”
“And you raised a perfectly fine daughter for years,” Isaac added and Hetty visibly stiffed. Sam blinked as if it would help her understand if she heard that right.
“Since when did you have a daughter?!” She shouted and Hetty quickly shushed her. Isaac seemed to realize his mistake in reveling that and said a quickly apology before phasing through the wall.
“I had two daughters,” Hetty said after Sam had been appropriately shushed. The two of them sat at the dinner table, both quickly glancing around for a stray limb that would reveal an eavesdropping ghost. “Esther and Deirdre.”
“Why did none of us know?” Sam asked gently, though still a touch bitter. She wasn’t offended that she wasn’t informed, mostly, but mad on behalf of the daughters she seems to not have mentioned her entire afterlife if her reaction to Isaac revealing it was anything to go by.
“There wasn’t much to be said Samantha,” Hetty said and instead of the expected harsh reaction, there was sadness. “When Deirdre was born, I made the decision that I could not be a fit mother with Elias breathing down my neck so I sent them to live with my sister. Deirdre was barely a month old and Esther had just turned four when I saw them for the last time.”
“…I’m so sorry,” she said eventually, having sorted through about forty different iterations of ‘that must’ve been so hard’ and none sounded right.
“They lived better lives without me,” Hetty said definitely, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in her skirt. “Less wealthy, certainly, but happy in a way Thomas wasn’t.”
“You sacrificed everything for them,” Sam mumbled, more to herself than to Hetty but it was loud enough to be heard in the dead silent house.
“I loved them, more than anything,” She inhaled shakily, ears starry with tears. “My one piece of advice Samantha, understand how much you are sacrificing by having a child and decide if you are willing to do it.”
Jay found her an hour later still at the dinner table staring at an empty plate and decided he really needs to cut down on his hours at the restaurant.
Four months in and now that they knew the baby was a girl, Sam decided it was officially time to brainstorm baby names.
Was it a little early? Probably, but since she refused to listen to the ghosts advice they had been constantly throwing names at her instead and she would shamefully admit some of them sounded surprisingly good.
She had created a notes in her overcrowded notes app for it and then spent fifteen minutes staring at it endlessly with not a single name typed. She nearly went searching for one of the ghosts before they found her.
“Oh hello Sally,” Flower greeted, sitting next to her. Sam didn’t even bother correcting her. “And your little moon rock.”
“My what now?” Sam asked, scooting further away. This was absolutely a cult thing and she was not interested.
“That’s the baby’s name right?” Flower asked, entirely seriously. “Bruce said we had to name our children moon or rock if we ever accidentally got pregnant to honor our lord.”
“Flower, I wasn’t in your cult, and I’m not naming my baby after inanimate objects,” She sighed. It was probably better than the wide variety of fish names her boyfriend had been suggesting at the very least.
The hippie talked her ear off about why she should actually name her baby that before she eventually forgot and Sam was able to slip away. It wasn’t long until another ghost was pestering her about baby names.
“Why not?” Trevor demanded.
“Because Bela is Jay’s sister and you really need to understand how weird that would be,” She answered for the sixth time. “And no, naming her Champa is not any less weird.”
“What’s weird?” Jay asked, having returned from his most recent field trip with Pete to a gun range. She still wasn’t sure why the ghost decided to tag along.
“Trevor’s trying to get me to name our baby Bela or Champa,” She explained, giving her husband a kiss. Trevor gagged in the background and Pete quickly hushed him.
“It’s not such a bad idea,” Jay said after they broke apart, Trevor shouting ‘See!’ in the background. “People name their kids after family members all the time.”
“Yeah, but those family members are usually dead Jay, like for little Pete, and your sister and mother are very much alive,” Sam reminded.
“Wait, what about giving her your mother’s name Sam?” Pete suggested. She considered it for a second, which after deciding felt like a second too long.
“I’m sorry Pete but I really do not wanna name her Sheryl,” she said. “Mostly because I just don’t like the name but… my mom kept me away from my dad and our relationship was rocky at best. I don’t think I can give her that honor.”
Unlike if her mother was here, there was not a fight on the matter. They understood her reasoning perfectly well and the silence sat for a second before Trevor suggested ‘Bucky’ which was neither a human or girl name.
“Alright I’m making you guys delegate to Isaac if you want to suggest names,” Sam demanded after Alberta had stormed into the bedroom the previous night with a list of name ideas that she lost sleep over listening to.
“Huzzah! My role as dictator in this home reigns supreme,” he celebrated as the other ghosts groaned about having to deal with talking with him if they wanted to give her suggestions.
“Wouldn’t you be more of a vice president since you just help Sam?” Sass asked, sounding just curious enough that if he wasn’t smiling devilishly she could’ve mistaken it for a genuine question.
“Semantics,” Isaac waved off. “Alright my fellow ghostly men and women, I will be accepting a list of ten names each day and hold the power to veto any if I think they are too ugly. This list will function on a first-come first-serve basis so get your suggestions in soon.”
As the ghosts began shouting their suggestions at him, Sam quickly scurried away with a certain robber baroness following swiftly behind. The two collapsed on the bed next to each other, utterly exhausted with the other members of the household.
“How did you come up with your kids names?” Sam asked after failing to fall asleep when she only closed her eyes for a minute.
“Thomas was Elias’ father’s name, so I had no choice in that matter,” she started and Sam frowned, assuming the others would follow a similar path, before she swiftly moved on. “Deirdre means sorrowful and broken-hearted, which I believed I had inflicted on her by being her mother. Esther is a shorter version of Estherella, which was my mother’s full name, though my father only ever called her Ella. Elias was unaware of my mother’s full name, so he unknowingly allowed the shortening of it.”
“That’s really smart,” Sam complimented as she sneakily wrote all three variations of the name in her notes app. Sue her, they were the first good ones she’s heard all day.
“Samantha you must take your ruling back I cannot deal with these maniacs,” Isaac said in a flurry as he forced his way into the room.
“I’m actually not taking name suggestions anymore,” she told him which judging by how fast he ran out was going to be relayed to the other ghosts.
“Are you stealing my daughter’s name young woman?” Hetty said, feign made. Sam leaned into it, a thin act of innocence over a very obvious amount of playful guilt. “I am truly honored Samantha, and… they would be too.”
“I’m just glad I have at-least one idea now,” she replied absentmindedly, looking at the now not-empty note on her phone.
“How heartfelt,” Hetty deadpanned and Sam’s brain finally caught up to what she had said.
“I’m so sorry, of course! I’m glad I can honor them.”
“Just stop.”
“Gladly.”
“Hey mom,” Jay greeted casually, though all the ghosts had witnessed him bite his finger nails to death before making the call. “Yeah, the BnB’s doing well, yes so is the restaurant, you sound like dad,” he inhaled as he realized he was getting off script. “Mom I actually called to tell you something important.”
There was a dramatic pause after the sentence and the ghosts groaned. Now they knew what it felt like to be Jay himself, only getting snippets of conversation between excruciatingly long pauses. “Mom! No me and Sam aren’t getting a divorce and the baby’s fine,” he spoke eventually, exasperated. “We just decided who all is going to be in the delivery room.”
“What purpose does having a whole room dedicated to birth serve? This house functions just fine,” Isaac commented but the others quickly shushed him, accompanied by a range of judgmental looks his way.
“Sam’s decided it’s just going to be the two of us there,” Jay said firmly and the ghosts nearly phased through the man trying to hear his mother’s response to it. “And no this doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you and dad, and I still love you, and… you’re not mad?”
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Jay laughed with a pure unbridled joy that had been lacking in the house recently with stress over busy seasons and the baby and the ghosts. “Okay, thank you so much mom, love you bye!”
“So what’d she say?” Sam asked, leaning on the door in a similar fein-casualness Jay had started the call with.
“She understands!” Jay replied, ecstatic. “She told me about how after having the whole family in the room for my delivery she kicked everyone out for Bela’s, even my dad for an hour.”
“Sounds a little harsh,” Sam chuckled, though now visibly relaxed. “I’m glad that’s settled, I was so scared she’s going to demand we have your giant extended family in the room.”
“My mom is not that unreasonable,” Jay argued and at a raised eyebrow from everyone, though he couldn’t see them, it shattered quickly. “Okay fine, but that’s not happening so it will definitely just be us two in the room and probably some of the hospital ghosts.”
Sam groaned. “God don’t remind me, I was starting to forget about that.”
“Oo! I have an idea!” Pete said, raising his hand like a school child. Sam vaguely gestured for him to share. “What if I tag along and stand guard outside your room?”
“Or better yet, you do as we have suggested and do the birth here!” Isaac said for the twelfth time.
“I am not giving birth in the house guys, we’ve been over this,” Sam said yet again. She needs to start leaving sticky notes of things she has repeated herself about to make sure the ghosts actually remembered.
“Why not? Hetty did it,” Sass pointed out and the ghost flushed redder than her hair as Sam looked mildly ill.
“Because there was no other option at the time,” she hissed through her teeth. “And might I remind you the difference in wealth between myself and Samantha. She certainly couldn’t afford to transfer doctors here.”
“Thanks Hetty,” she mumbled. A reason is a reason, as long as it gets the ghosts to stop bothering her about it.
“Do you really need doctors though? There only needs to be someone to catch the baby and Jay could do that,” Sass said and the mischievous glint in his eyes told her that even he knew that this wasn’t a good solution. It didn’t make her feel any less weird thinking about it.
“Putting aside the fact that he would not wish to and could not do that, why would Jay accompany Samantha in this endeavor?” Hetty asked and unlike Sass, it was completely serious.
“…because he’s her husband?” Alberta said, glancing around to make sure nobody else was agreeing with the Victorian woman.
“Which serves no purpose in this endeavor,” Hetty argued. “Elias was away when I had delivered and nothing went awry, likely because he was neither a doctor nor midwife. A husband has no reason to remain in the room.”
“Hetty you have got to be joking,” Trevor said with a fake laugh. At the confused look she gave, he very quickly realized that she was indeed not. “Dude, a husband is like the second main person in the babies life, of course he wants to meet her right away!”
“And Jay can provide the emotional and verbal support that doctors can’t,” Pete added. They all stared at Hetty, waiting to see if she had another (mildly concerning) argument to add.
“It has dawned on me that comparing Samantha’s connection to Jay with mine to Elias is a significant oversight,” she admitted. “Keep your wildly unhelpful husband in the room if you wish Samantha.”
“So do you want to tell me why the ghosts are suggesting we do a home birth or should I wait another ten minutes?”
“They’re just excited to meet the baby and Isaac, the one who suggested it, knew that Hetty had one,” She explained, deciding to omit the suggestion that Jay help her give birth and the whole argument.
“The ghosts are gonna meet the baby before my family, they can survive a couple hours,” Jay said before dragging her off to the kitchen as he realized what time it was.
“So did yall like… actually see Hetty give birth?” Alberta asked Isaac, and he opened his mouth to answer… before glancing over at the woman herself, who was trying to kill him with a look.
“Not see. Hear,” Thor answered and Sass gained a wicked grin on his face.
“We dared Isaac to go in there once and I don’t think I have ever seen him run away faster,” He said before quickly ducking behind Thor as both ghosts turned towards him with palpable rage.
Sam learned a lot of old swear words that day.
Sam was really glad she had decided to stay overnight at the hospital because the second she got home, everyone was immediately in a semicircle around her to gawk at the baby.
It took about an hour before the novelty wore off and they finally dispersed. Sam finally let out an uninterrupted breath and noticed an absence she hadn’t in all the chaos.
Hetty was nowhere to be seen, the familiar blue dress and red hair hadn’t been spotted since they got home. Sam glanced around now that the ghosts had dispersed, maybe she had just been more on the sidelines, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Hetty?” She asked to the last remaining ghost in the room, Alberta.
“Prolly sneaking around with Trev again.”
“I am right here,” Trevor said, poking his head through the door. “And we stopped doing that ages ago.”
“Uh huh,” Alberta said, clearly not believing the pants-less ghost.
“We did! And I’m pretty sure I saw her go up to the attic,” he added before phasing back through the door. Alberta scoffed, gesturing as if to say ‘I told you so’. Sam didn’t quite see her point.
“Should I wake Stephanie too?” She asked, gently bouncing Ella in her arms. “Or would she not care about meeting the baby.”
“You can wake her but she might try to punch you,” Alberta warned before she strode away.
“Are we really trusting creepy chainsaw lady around Esther?” Jay asked, a touch concerned.
“You need to stop calling her that,” she told him. “And what is she gonna do? She’s a ghost and as far as we know, doesn’t even have a power.”
“Alright fine,” he surrendered but still clearly wasn’t thrilled about the prospect. Sam imagined Stephanie wasn’t going to be thrilled to see Jay either, the teen was not a big fan of him.
They cautiously made their way up to the attic where Stephanie was sleeping as usual but Hetty was still nowhere to be seen. Sam decided that without the lady of the house the attic was now a worthless endeavor and quickly left, not bothering to wake Stephanie. She’d meet the baby sooner or later.
Sam searched around the rest of the house for the ghost, much to Jay’s annoyance and against his wishes for her to actually rest, until she gave up and decided it was time to put Ella down for a nap anyway.
She forced Jay to open the room to the nursery, which had been redecorated about ten times until they landed on the baby blue with scattered yellow stars it was now. She stepped inside to put her in the matching star-themed cradle when she finally found where the missing culprit had been.
Hetty was staring at the empty cradle from her place seated on the floor, a startlingly lost look on her face. She barely seemed to register that other people were in the room until Ella began fussing.
“Hey Hetty,” Sam greeted, gently setting the baby down in her crib before taking a seat next to the ghost on the floor. Jay quietly crept out of the room and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“Samantha,” she replied and her voice sounded oddly detached. “It appears everything went well.”
“Yeah, I mean it still hurts a bit but it was so worth it for her. And the ghosts didn’t even bother us! Apparently they avoid the maternal ward because it’s too loud,” she laughed.
“That’s good to hear,” Hetty said dryly, not taking her eyes off the now sleeping baby. Sam glanced between them, trying to figure out what exactly was up when she spoke again. “She looks just like you.”
Sam nodded, not knowing quite what to say. It was kinda uncanny how much Ella resembled her old baby photos, the only difference was the darker hair and skin.
“Hetty are you okay?” Sam blurted out after a far too long and far too awkward silence. Another one quickly followed.
“Samantha would you be willing to do something for me?” She asked in lieu of a response. She nodded, now even more concerned. “There’s a portrait in the basement I would like you to retrieve, please.”
“Of course,” she said, standing with much assistance from the cradle. “Are you coming with?”
“I don’t believe there’s a reason for me to,” she said cryptically. Sam nodded hesitantly before walking away.
The basement ghosts (besides Nancy, of course, who she quickly hushed) seemed none the wiser about her previous pregnancy and now the baby currently residing in the home. They greeted her stiffly as she sorted through stuff until eventually they guided her to what she hoped was the last portrait in the house.
There was a thick layer of dust covering it that she attempted to wipe away as she made her way back upstairs. A majority of it was scrubbed off with her sleeve but a few stubborn bits remained until she felt like finding an actual cloth.
“I found it,” she announced as she re-entered the nursery. Hetty was in the same spot she was earlier but this time she finally looked away from Ella to see the portrait.
Sam finally got a good look of it herself as Hetty poured over it. The painting was of the ghost herself, who she almost didn’t recognize with the lack of an extravagant dress and pinned up hair. She looked bone-dead tired, in a way that was neither flattering nor entirely unflattering.
At her side was a small toddler who resembled Hetty in every way. She was practically a mirror copy of the woman beside the smile, brighter than Sam had ever seen.
Finally, the baby in Hetty’s arms could only be Deirdre. The newborn was similar to Estherella in that she mostly resembled her mother but the hair and complexion were at-least slightly influenced by the father. And the two had the same small curl in the center of their forehead which Sam realized everyone in the painting had, maybe she was closer to Hetty than she thought.
“I will not demand you display this,” Hetty said after she finished staring at the painting. “It is entirely your discretion what you choose to do with it, I just… needed to see it once more.”
Sam had already decided where the painting was going before the ghost even spoke. “I’m putting it in the hallway, right outside the nursery.”
She smiled softly and finally followed her out the door to watch her hang it on a stray nail, a sense of familiarity coming back as she harshly critiqued every way Sam attempted to hang the thing. She couldn’t even find it in herself to be mad.
“Now I need to go lie down before Jay starts demanding he carries me again,” Sam complained, striding toward their bedroom. The ghost didn’t follow.
“I’ll watch over Estherella,” Hetty said, more to inform than to ask. The ghosts had already decided that they would watch the baby in shifts and she happened to get the first one.
And if she lost a lot of back rubs bidding for it there was no proof.
Hetty knew she could have probably left the nursery hours ago, there truly was no purpose to observing a perfectly healthy child sleep when she couldn’t do anything but call for Samantha in the unlikely event things went awry, but she still remained seated in the nursery.
The other ghosts had joined her when it was their designated shifts but as afternoon melded into night then back into morning, she found herself with only the company of a sleeping baby.
As the sunlight streamed through the window she finally found it within herself to stand. She glanced towards the door before approaching the cradle where Estherella now stared back up at her, eyes wide. She hardly seemed startled at the unfamiliar person in the room, only staring at her silently instead of throwing a fit like she had many times throughout the night for food.
Hetty slowly reached her hand into the cradle, watching the baby follow it. There was no question the child possessed the same gift she had, seeing ghosts at a young age. Only time would tell if Samantha could truly pass on her gift to the child.
She mostly watched as the child’s eyes followed her hand as it moved in-front of her face, unable to interact directly with her, but eventually she gave into the urge to attempt mess with the small patch of hair decorating the girls forehead. It was one that had been present in the Woodstone name for generations and she had falsely assumed it had been lost to the ages.
The baby giggled as her hair was toyed with and Hetty realized with a few seconds of delay that she had actually been able to mess with the hair instead of simply having her hand pass through it.
Gently, she reached entirely into the crib to discover it was not a fluke. Estherella was safely within her arms and no corpse remained behind. Hetty had become corporeal.
She should’ve raided the old drug drawer, the wine cabinet, either medicine cabinet, with this newfound ability. So much should have been done and yet she remained in the nursery, cradling a baby in her arms while sitting on the floor incase this sudden power were to dissipate. She would not risk the girl falling because of ghost shenanigans, enough has happened because of them already.
Time ebbed and flowed around them, twisting in ways that made her believe she was back in the 1800’s and lying in her bed holding her own daughters. She wasn’t sure how long it was until the door creaked open.
Jay stepped in, a bottle in hand. He naturally looked at the cradle first, opening his mouth to say something but quickly realizing there wasn’t a baby there to say it to. Thankfully it wasn’t long before he opened the door fully and spotted the two.
Hetty lightly clasped her hands over the child’s ears before Jay screamed, nearly dropping the bottle in his hand. She hissed at him to compose himself before lightly humming the lullaby that had worked on her so long ago as Estherella began fussing.
“How… when…” Jay muttered, lost for words. She didn’t bother answering, gesturing for the man to hand over the bottle which he attempted to do. It phased through her fingers and fell to the ground, thankfully still entirely intact. A pity she was unable to interact with objects, but being able to solely interact with the livings served her just fine.
Jay picked the bottle back up and rushed out calling for Samantha. The other ghosts were quick to gather at the commotion, following the two livings as they made their way back into the nursery.
“If any of you scream I will enlighten you to how much this cord hurts,” she said immediately, not willing to take chances with the ghosts all freaking out and startling the poor infant.
“Hetty how…” Samantha questioned, just the same as her husband.
“It is my heritages holiday, and it appears my ghost power scales in power each year. Now not only am I visible, I can physically interact with livings,” she informed her, carefully standing.
“Jay take Ella real quick?” Sam asked. Hetty very reluctantly handed the child over, quickly mourning the loss of a child in her arms before Samantha enveloped her in a hug. “You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do this”.
Jay finally gave Estherella her bottle as he smiled watching the two (admittedly tearfully) embrace. Sam was quick to retrieve the baby from her husband’s hands so he was able to do the same, although for a far shorter time and neither of them were in waterworks that time. It still meant the world to her, being able to interact with her family after so long.
The ghosts had broken into jealous whisper as the baby was handed back to her once the bottle was empty. She gleefully strode past them, not caring for the self-deprecating sentiments about their own powers or the wishes that they could do the same. She had one day to interact with Estherella and she would not waste it on listening to others sorrows.
Throughout the entire rest of the day, Hetty was either holding or right next to the baby. Sam and Jay both expressed their annoyance with the fact that the second they needed to take her for feedings or changing, she would immediately start tearing up and crying until she was returned to Hetty’s arms where she was now constantly giggling and smiling.
It was near midnight when she finally set the baby down back into her cradle, ending the day as it started, toying with the patch of hair on her forehead until her hand once again passed through it.
She would mourn the loss of a year without being able to do that again, but after a hundred forty years without the feeling of a child in her arms, today certainly made up for it.