First Night

Posted on Saturday, 19 February 2022 - 11:20am by Crewman Leopold Eberhardt & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Crimson Kaleidoscope

Whilst it had, initially, caused an argument, the Eberhardt's had taken on board the responsibility of a new child alongside getting to grips with being new parents. Adrianna had helped Sophie settle in. Leopold had done a great job with making her room unicorn and ninja themed. For now, both their biological child and Sophie were in bed. Adrianna had just finished tucking them both in, though Emilia would inevitably be awake in two hours for another feed.

She flopped on the sofa next to Leopold. She wasn't sure if they were talking properly yet after the argument. Adrianna tied up her hair in a messy bun and offered a small smile to her husband. She timidly offered to break the silence, "thank you. Sophie, likes the room."

"I think she does too," Leopold replied letting out a sigh exhaustion. "I haven't meant to be such a grouch lately, Adrianna." He looked his wife in the eyes with a truly apologetic gaze. This was not what he had wanted nor expected. One child was more than enough of a surprise, but he had nine months to get ready for it. He did not have time to prepare for Sophie, not nearly enough at least.

He reached out to take Adrianna's hand. "I chose to marry you. I wanted a family, and Emilia came at the right time , something we knew was inevitable. I mean given what we had been doing...it was bound to happen," he teased. "Being a new parent is exhausting, adding a second child that was not planned just has caught me off guard."

Adrianna nodded, "it caught us both off guard." She grinned a little, lightly teasing, "at least one of the children can sleep through the night and it toilet trained."

"This is true," Leopold agreed. "However, you are talking to someone who works down in waste reclamation..." he just left that to trail and smiled. "Is this what the future is going to be like, us taking care of two kids barely getting enough sleep to function and still trying to serve on this starship?"

Adrianna mulled it over. "Even before children, we barely slept."

"Ja," said Leopold with a chuckle. "Because we were too busy trying to make the children."

Adrianna elbowed him playfully, "I didn't hear you complain." She looked to the door of Sophie's room, "she's going to be a handful. Do you think we'll be ok?"

Leopold nodded. "She has us. More than that, she has this ship, that's a lot of childcare providers if we really need it. We have a great support system. So, yes, I do think that we will be okay, Adrianna. Sophie will be fine, and so will Emilia."

"I'm glad you are such an optimist," she smiled, "you are definitely what I am not."

"Scruffy, handsome, and passable as Germanic?" the Ekosian said with a chuckle. "You are better than an optimist; You are a realist, Adrianna, an assertive one. You know when things are not going well, but you ensure they do not get worse."

Adrianna smiled. There was a silence for a moment before she finally asked, "I know we both still see the counselor, but do you still have nightmares? I feel my reality is being skewed."

"Most nights, at least briefly. Sometimes, bad enough that I wake up, but once I see you are there with me, I am not afraid to go back to sleep because I know that we made it, that we won."

Adrianna nodded. She understood what he meant. She did the same, to a point. "Sometimes, I don't think we escaped fully," she admitted, with a sigh, fidgeting her one hand over her opposite wrist as if feeling for restraints.

"Ekos," Leopold replied and sighed. "You can never fully escape that world. You always leave at least a small part of it behind, but that doesn't change that we escaped...maybe not entirely, but we did escape."

Adrianna smiled a little and rested her head on his shoulder, "as long as you still love me, it doesn't matter."

"Of course I still love you," he replied. There was no question about that. "I will always love you. You are my wife and the mother to our child."

"And the one that's fattening you up and making sure you feel loved," she kissed his cheek, "speaking of, we should go to bed."

"Good night, beautiful," Leopold replied, kissing his wife's forehead.