Everything Has Changed

Its A Wonderful Life

December 13th 2025
New York City, New York

Today was a happy day, for it was her thirty sixth birthday. Her first birthday with her beautiful daughter and her third celebrating it with Travis. Luckily the stars had all aligned and had meant that Travis bye week from the NFL fell exactly on the week of her birthday, allowing him to spend the entire days leading up to it and the day itself. 

They had woken up, tangled in bedsheets from their events from the eight before, ow safe to do freely and whenever they wanted due to Luna moving into her nursery and crib full time and to only for her naps. She felt him breathe against her neck, the soft stubble of his neatly trimmed beard brushed against her neck, the mixture of that and his husky morning breath making her ticklish. She shuddered under the sudden contact, feeling his arms wrap around her middle and pull her in closer to his naked body. 

"Good morning baby." She felt him breathe into her neck, causing her to grin widely. Ever since the start of the NFL season back in September and Taylor's slow transition back into full time work, Taylor felt like her and Travis were spending less and less time together like they had done before. Maybe she just hadn't truly appreciated the off season as much as she should have because she had been so ill and withdrawn. But things were different now. She was happy. But more often than not, Travis had left or was just leaving for practise by the time she had fully woken up. He had taken over the morning parenting duties in order for Taylor to get in her much needed rest, the therapy sessions she still regularly attended, a more preventative form of treatment now, still wearing her out pretty hard. But that left them very little time together besides the evenings they spent around the dinner table together or getting Luna ready for bed. Or their own bedtime routines which had become in synced with one another since they moved in with each other just over two years ago. 

"Hey." Taylor whispered, turning around in his arms so that she could face him, his arms now rested on the small of her back and stroking the delicate ski lightly, up and down. She craved moments like these. But as soo as she felt him pulling her in for a kiss, the baby monitor went off, and the piercing sound of Luna's morning cries filled the room. Taylor sighed, throwing her head back onto the pillow in frustration about how that girls timing was impeccably bad. But before she could get up to go deal with Luna, she felt Travis' arm pushing her back down into the covers.

"Hey, I got this. You stay here and rest." Travis yawned, pulling himself out of bed, fumbling around on the floor until he found what he was looking for: his slippers. He quickly slid them onto his feet before leaving the room and making his way down the corridor to where Luna's nursery was. They were back I New York to celebrate Taylor's birthday tied in with some obvious work business. Taylor rarely came to New York City anymore on account of having Luna, they hadn't been back since they had originally left the city to come back to Kansas City, where the hell had well and truly began. Travis had thought originally that moving back to Kansas City would have solved all of their problems, well Taylor's problemsms. But in reality, it was just the beginning. But they were past all of that now, and things were different. Looking up ad out, towards a brighter future. Travis knew that Taylor had to go into the study that day to record some new material and talk to Aaron about possible collaborations. Normally Taylor would travel to Long Pond Studios in upstate New York to work with Aaron, who owned the studio, but they didn't have the option to do that and so Aaron had so graciously offered to fly down for the couple of days they would be in the city. Plus Travis had invited him down to celebrate Taylor's birthday with them, not that she would know it. 

He opened the door to Luna's nursery, seeing the eight month old baby sat up in her crib with her bunny rabbit in one hand. Her eyes were puffy and wet with tears, and her cheeks were stained red from the crying and screaming. Travis was certain that she was going through another face of teething again, showing all of the same signs she had done before: red face, little interest in feeding or food other than Taylor's breastmilk, dribbling more than usual. Luna already had cut both of her bottom teeth in the middle and as Travis picked up the now calming baby, he noticed a new little milk tooth, poking through at the top.