How Green Becomes Wood

"You're welcome." Daizi said softly, giving them time to feel however they felt about it. After a few moments she said, "She deserved a mother's day gift, too."

"We have birdseed, from our other feeders. And I can help you put it where you want it." Dark added, mostly because it was all he could think of to say.
 
The twins took a minute, and Xander turned away to do a bit of quick, suspicious rubbing on his face. Once they'd gathered themselves, they were able to smile and refocus on their new family.

"I know exactly where I want to put it," Alec said, "but, first, do you want your presents now, or after eating when you can sit and enjoy them? I can't wait to give it to you, but food is important."

"Food is incredibly important," Xander agreed. "I say food first."
 
"I agree with you, Xander," Daizi said, once the mood began to lift, tucking her hair behind her ear, "Dark worked so hard, it's not fair to let it go cold!"

"It is not a problem..." Dark began to say, but Daizi shushed him.

"We can't enjoy gifts if we're all too hungry to think. I'm hungry, and your food is delicious, and I know you worked hard on it." She leaned in to kiss his cheek, gently, since it was on his bad side, and then sat back to enjoy her lunch with them.
 
Xander, as usual, basically inhaled his lunch and then the last bit of Alec's lunch since Alec almost never finished anything he got. He ate more now that he was working out regularly, but it seemed to be something he couldn't escape doing. Xander was only too happy to help him finish off his plate. both of them occasionally glanced at the bird feeder, and sometimes at the gift for Daizi. This one was the seersucker gift, and Alec was particularly proud of having found textured "gift wrapping." They didn't try to rush Daizi, deliberately trying to maintain a relaxed air, but they were excited.
 
Dark ate somewhat less than he typically did: he couldn't work out like he was accustomed to, and he was compensating for that. Beside him, Daizi happily finished her meal, chatting happily with everyone there, and often pausing to tell Dark how wonderful lunch was. When they finished eating, he stood up to clear the table, giving Ivy back to Daizi so she had an excuse not to help... but she still couldn't resist doing a little. She knew it was mother's day, but her husband had a broken rib. The twins may not have known, but she did, and she needed to help him.
 
The twins both moved to help, and Alec did attempt to beat Daizi at the cleaning. He failed, but he tried. They got everything cleaned and polished to Dark's level of satisfaction. Then it was finally time!

"I think Ba should go first," Alec insisted.

Xander nodded. "Agreed. Him first. Then Mini."
 
"Should we move to the living room?" Daizi asked, thinking there would be more space there, but Dark said he thought it would be alright. First, he took Ivy from Daizi and handed her to Alec, because his present, being a wooden statue for the garden, was a bit cumbersome and he didn't want Ivy to get knocked in the head. Xander having a concussion was bad enough, but he didn't even know what would happen if a baby received one. He hoped to not find out.

The statue was of Isis, like he had told Xander about. A year ago, Daizi had mentioned how Ancient Egypt had celebrated a holiday somewhat like Mother's Day to celebrate the goddess, and Dark had carved her to combine both classical Egyptian iconography while also adding a bit of his own style to it, in a way that he knew Daizi would appreciate. He didn't need to tell her what it was, but he did speak up to say, "I thought we could put it in with the rose bushes and our apple tree."

"So she can watch over our other children," She concluded, her voice tightening, and he wrapped one arm around her and pulled her close. It was something they heard for years, but something she had never really accepted about herself until recently, but Dark knew she had been a mother for a long time, longer than a year.
 
Alec took Ivy gladly and carried her into the living room, letting her sit on his lap and play with one of her toys. He held her close as they watched Daizi, tearing up as he watched. He loved Daizi so much and was so grateful to her and her huge heart, but he was also so sad that she'd had to go through so much pain to get to this point.

Xander carried in their gift and sat farther away mostly to keep Ivy from trying to rip at her mother's present. He watched in silence, seeing the joy and the pain in Daizi's face. He wasn't sure he understood or could ever understand the desire to have children. They brought so much pain into one's life. He should know. He was quite the pain in the a** for his mother, and for Dark and Daizi especially during the early days. Was it really worth it? He supposed someone had to think so for the sake of the species, and Ivy was truly precious, but... was it? He wanted to say no, but, strangely, watching Daizi in pain, he wasn't so positive.
 
Daizi shut his eyes and turned in towards Dark, burying her face in the crook of his neck, and he held her tenderly, stroking her hand with one hand until she was ready to pull away. Ivy was wonderful. Alec and Xander were wonderful. But they didn't take away the grief they felt for all of the ones they nearly had before them.

Of course, Dark knew, because he grieved for them, too. But the fact that he thought to include them for Mother's Day made Daizi feel understood to her core. He really, truly, knew her. "I love you, Goose," she mumbled into his shoulder, and he kissed the top of her head before resting his cheek against her hair until she was ready.

"I love you too, Spider." He murmured, forgetting everything except for her just for the moment. When Daizi finally did pull back, openly wiping her face, he swallowed, dried his own eyes with his thumb, and picked up the smaller gift. "Okay. This one is from Ivy."

"Okay," She said, also taking a breath, and turning to Ivy with a smile, switching into her happier, baby-talk voice, "Hummingbird! You got Mama a present? What did you give me, baby?"

The little clay print of her hands made her smile, and she absolutely adored the tactile picture Dark had printed for her, and she made everyone look at it, even though it was, admittedly, a bit creepy for those who were sighted, since it wasn't made for aesthetic pleasure. She scooped Ivy back into her lap and peppered her with kisses. It was a sweet keepsake of her baby girl and her family.
 
"That's so cute!" Alec cooed, showing the appropriate amount of excitement for a tiny handprint in clay. Xander just looked at it doubtfully, trying to imagine keeping something like that as an actual keepsake. He supposed it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen kept as a keepsake, but it was still... weird.

"Okay! Ours next! And this is from both of us!" Alec said, handing over the long, rectangular box wrapped in seersucker fabric.

Inside the box was a piece of leather stretched over a piece of wood to turn it into a hanging artwork. It was about a foot and a half long by half a foot wide with gently curved edges a bit like rolling waves. The soft tan leather was painted with an image of a flower garden at sunrise, mostly impressionistic with primarily muted colors, and it looked pretty, but seemed like an odd gift for someone without sight. Until you touched it. Xander had carefully indented the garden and sunset into the leather and Alec had painted over the indentations, but when you felt it, there were hidden figures in the garden, figures that were not visible in the painting. They didn't have any recognizable features other than they seemed to be small people, but, interestingly, there were as many figures as there were extra special plants in the garden plus three.
 
Daizi felt the leather with her hands, taking her time to piece together the illustration. Her realization of what it was wasn't immediate by any means, but when it hit, it hit hard, and would have regardless, but in combination with Dark's gift, she didn't have words to express what it meant to her. Her attempt at a thank you was little more than a squeak, and her face flushed, trying to prevent herself from sobbing.

Since Dark couldn't see the figures, he couldn't quite understand her reaction, but when he murmured, "Spider?" she took his hand to show him, and he understood more quickly than she did. It was when Ivy, looking at her mother's face and not understanding, babbled a small, confused noise, that Daizi couldn't take it and she began to cry. As much as Dark wanted to hold her tightly, he knew Alec would want to, so he settled for squeezing her hand in his.
 
Alec and Xander both watched her, their anticipation tinged with worry. That worry grew deeper as Daizi first couldn't speak and then started to cry. Had they completely screwed up and completely ruined her Mother's Day? They'd wanted to pay homage to the other children in their family, the ones they'd never meet and would likely never actually feel any attachment to, but now they worried they'd rubbed salt in a wound they never should have touched.

"It's okay, Ivy, it's alright," Alec soothed, forcing his voice to be happy and cheerful for Ivy's sake as he gave her a little bounce and turned her away. "Don't worry. Everything's fine."

Xander looked down at the floor, a knot in the pit of his stomach. "I can get rid of it," he mumbled. "Sorry. It was my idea, but it was a stupid one. Sorry."
 
"No," She managed to say, keeping her hands on the figures on the painting, "I love it, I really love it." With some effort, she took a deep, difficult breath in, and tried to say more, but it was too difficult. It was her children, it was all of her children. Even the ones she never got to know. They got to be part of it, same as her living children. With great effort, she managed to say, "Thank you."
 
Xander and Alec both relaxed a little, relief flooding away the horrifying realization that they might have messed up badly. Alec smiled and hugged Ivy a little more tightly for just a moment before lifting her up and cooing at her, trying to keep her from crying. Xander moved closer to Alec and Ivy, leaning back and relaxing. She liked it. Loved it, even. He felt a deep sense of relief and happiness.
 
When it was clear nobody else was going to, Dark pulled Daizi in close and rocked her, his eyes a bit wet. They were his children, too. He liked them being remembered. Still, even if they weren't, with Daizi crying from all of the emotions the art stirred in her, he would find it difficult to not cry with her.

"I'm sorry," She said, at last, collecting herself enough to speak, "It's just---hard. It's a hard thing to experience once, let alone..." She inhaled shakily, leaving the number uncounted, "and it never felt right calling myself a mother when I never... had the chance, but now I have a-all of you, and I am a mother, and they're all still mine."
 
"Of course they are, and of course you are," Alec said promptly, looking over Ivy's head. "That was never a question in my mind. You have always been a mother for them, and, now, you're the best mother ever to even more!" He looked between Dark and Daizi soberly. "You've always been parents. The safe ones."
 
Both adults paused, their arms snaked around each other. Dark looked over Daizi's head in much the same way that Alec was looking over Ivy's, and Daizi half turned so her face was towards him. Neither quite knew what to say to that. They had always been parents, always been safe ones. They both knew, now, that they wouldn't have been good parents when they had their first miscarriage, and they didn't know which was the first baby they lost they could have been good parents to. Running his tattooed fingers through Daizi's hair and feeling her soft arms wrapped around his neck, Dark looked down at his wife, who had suffered so much. He remembered how hard she had cried, how much she had hurt, how much blood he washed out of her clothes. He remembered lying with her on their bathroom floor and tasting blood in his mouth from how hard he bit his tongue when he had to take her to a clinic when everything that was supposed to pass didn't, and they had to walk past the picket line.

She was the strongest person he had ever known. And she made him want to be better, for years he had wanted to be better, for her. They had been through so much together. Dark had died, once, Daizi came near to coming near to it it after Omar, and might have, if he wasn't home and noticed something was wrong.

Reaching up and running her finger against his jawline, Daizi took a trembling breath but smiled at him. It had been a little over a year, but they had raised good kids in that time. They made good kids--Alec and Xander may not have been made by them genetically, but they had been shaped by them. They had made a beautiful, painful life together. Not for the first time did Daizi think about how she'd marry him all over again, if she could.

"We didn't name most of them," She said, at last, sitting back, but holding her husband's hand, "I don't think we will, now. But I love all of them."
 
Alec smiled at Daizi. "Do you want to hold your newest baby?" he offered. He enjoyed eing with Ivy, but if Daizi - or Dark - needed to hold her, he'd happily give her up to them.

Xander cleared his throat. "Right. So. That's the last of the gifts. Did anyone have any ideas for what we're doing next?"
 
"Yeah," Daizi said, holding out her arms, "Give her here."

Once Ivy was in her arms, she smiled big and spoke to her in Arabic in a light, happy tone for a few moments and Dark held them both in his strong arms, ruffling his daughter's hair with one hand.

"Oh, I don't know," Daizi admitted, "All I wanted was to spend time with my family, and we've done that. It's been wonderful, I don't know what else to spend the day doing."
 
"You guys could all go to the park," Xander suggested. "Or we could decorate cookies or something."

"If we go to the park and you stay home, then our family wouldn't all be together," Alec pointed out.
 
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