Flicker

10

Stevie opened the guestroom door and Sulamith who was in the middle of the bed perked up. Cory ran and jumped on the bed slightly scaring the small animal, but Sulamith let her pick her up and play with her anyway. 

"Alright kiddo, so I see you're still in PJs." Stevie smirks.

"Yeah, daddy packed my bag but he's not good at picking clothes." Cory states. The little girl is only three but she has an extensive vocabulary and a heaping amount of sass and Stevie kind of loves it. 

"Oh, so you don't like to get dressed when daddy packs your bag?" Stevie questions.

"Nope, but gramma makes me." She pouts.

"Well, you know how Aunt Stevie makes clothes?" Stevie asks.

"Yeah." Cory nods.

"I brought you some clothes that I made just for you." Stevie kisses her little cheek before digging in her suitcase. 

She teases Cory for a while before she places six little outfits infront of her. The first one is a peach-colored, wide neck blouse with little buttons down the front and a pair of black skinny-legged pants with bows at the ankles. The second one was a pair of blue culotte pants and a plain tan long sleeve shirt. The third outfit was a sleeveless dress with many colors striped on it, there was tan, light blue, pink, army green, and red. The fourth outfit was a short-sleeved denim dress, much like Stevie's maternity denim dress that she had made for herself. The fifth was also a dress but this one was just simple army green, with a bow around the waist. Stevie had a maternity one just like that too. The final outfit was a pair of jeans, a white tank top, and a light blue chiffon kimono with lace along the hem and the sleeves. Stevie had that outfit also. 

"I love them, Aunt Stevie, can I wear one?" Cory questions.

"Of course you can. How about this...why don't you pick one of your new outfits out to wear and pick one out for me while I go get your bag." Stevie suggests. 

Cory nods and turns to Stevie's suitcase. When Stevie gets upstairs Cory had laid out her blue kimono outfit and held the miniature version out to Stevie. 

"Are we matching today?" Stevie asks taking it into her hands. 

Cory nods and Stevie smirks.

"Alright, let's see what's in your bag." Stevie sighs sitting on the bed. Stevie empties out a clean pair of underwear, a toothbrush, and a hairbrush and turns to Cory. 

Alright, let's brush our teeth first...do you want to do it together?" Stevie asks. 

Cory nods and Stevie leads her into the bathroom. After they had dressed and Stevie brushed their hair, she was following Cory down the stairs and she couldn't help but place her hands on her stomach. She suddenly couldn't wait until she had her own little baby...and she couldn't wait to match Cory to said little baby.

Ruth was plating the pancakes when the pair walked into the kitchen.

"Oh my goodness you two are so cute...did Aunt Stevie make you that outfit?" Ruth questions.

"Uh-huh. We now have three matching outfits. We're going to wear the green dress tomorrow and the jeans dress on Thursday." Cory cheers. 

"We are, are we?" Stevie asks lifting her onto the little booster seat. 

"Uh-huh." Cory nods. 

"I hope you have them with you." Ruth laughs.

"I do, she dug through my suitcase and found them. I've only been able to make myself so many maternity outfits because I got pregnant around award show season which that took over my mind until September and then I was starting to show so I quickly had to make up some clothes. I have about fifteen professional outfits, but like six casual outfits so normally if I'm not going anywhere or doing anything, I just wear my pajamas. Or Lindsey's shirts." Stevie shrugs. 

"I used to wear Morris' shirts when I was pregnant too. They just don't make cute maternity clothes." Ruth wrinkles her nose.

"They really don't and I'm thinking that once I put my baby line out in May, I'll start working on a maternity line." Stevie nods. 

"Are you off lines doing well. I know that for a while you were solely red carpet." Ruth states. 

"They are, I have a shop in LA, but Kohl's has approached me to start putting some stuff in their stores and I think I might. Gypsy and Buckingham aren't horribly expensive and I think it'll spread my brand a little bit more." Stevie says starting to cut into her pancakes. 

"What are you going to call these lines?" Ruth asks.

"I don't know...i'm thinking like Rock a Little for the Maternity wear. I don't know why but I just like it...and you do rock a baby. As for the baby clothes, I was thinking Angel. Cause I don't know, Lindsey calls me Angel and babies are a gift so I don't know...It's still in the works." Stevie shakes her head. 

"No, I like it." Ruth smiles. 

"Do you?" She asks.

"I do. So after breakfast who's going with me to the grocery store?" Barbara questions. 

"I wanna go." Cory chimes in.

"I need to get like coconut oil or something for my stomach," Stevie explains.

"Why do you not feel good?" Cory asks.

"Oh no...I feel fine honey, see I have a baby in my belly. And while she's growing and getting bigger she's stretching out my stomach and the skin on my belly is itchy and irritating so I need something to stop the itch." Stevie tries to explain to the best of her ability. 

"Oh, okay." Cory shrugs going back to her pancakes. 

"Any names yet?" Ruth questions.

"No...not yet, we've not really talked about it." Stevie shakes her head. 

***

Claudia was the first one at Ruth's, she came around three and cooed over Stevie's bump which was clearly displayed in her white teeshirt and then eventually Jeff and Anne filtered in and it just so happened, that Stevie had Cory on her hip when they did get there and Anne gasped at how cute they were. Jeff snapped a picture and then Anne started fussing with the kimono.

"Stevie, did you make these?" Anne questions.

"Yeah, there are six more up in my room. I'll go up and get them." Stevie places her hand on Anne's shoulder before leaving the room. 

After Stevie had shown the family everything she made for Cory, she moved to the garment bag she brought down. It had Lindsey's suit and her dress in it. But it also had Cory's dress in it.

"I um, I made her a dress for the funeral." Stevie sighs pulling it out, hanger and all and showing it to her brother and sister-in-law. 

"Oh Stevie, that's so cute...and that little Cardigan it's amazing." Anne coos grabbing at the dress.

The top of it is white lace and it ends about the rib line. From there it turns into a tiered chiffon black skirt. Paired with a black cardigan. 

"How did you get it done so quickly?" Jeff questions.

"Well, I had been sketching her a dress anyway. Because I'm in the process of putting out a children's line anyway, Dreams, and I had talked to Anne about making her some stuff I just changed the color of it. I had some fabric in Arizona because I've been making a whole lot of baby clothes and maternity clothes for myself so I just cut everything out there. Got in my car drove through the night on the eleventh. When I got to LA I slept for about six hours but then the baby woke up which woke me up and then I just sewed it together before we left yesterday." Stevie shrugs.

"You're too good at your job." Jeff chuckles. 

"I pride myself on it. I mean did I not make all of you guys your wedding attire in a decent amount of time?" Stevie asks.

She designed Anne's dress and Claudia's dress. She also designed the boys suits...hell she even designed her own wedding dress and Lindsey's suit. 

"You did do that. And it was the best wedding present we got." Anne rolls her eyes.