Run Away

"Merry Christmas, baby." John stood over her as she rubbed her fuzzy eyes.
Her blurry vision took a second to focus, but above her, stood her tall, handsome boyfriend, shirtless, in his boxers, a Santa hat sitting cutely crooked on his head. She giggled at the sight of him.
"Merry Christmas, John." she smiled, sitting up.
"Merry Christmas, other John." John grinned, leaning down towards her belly and putting his hand over it.
Lauren wrinkled her nose, and gazed down at his long fingers stroking her extended stomach.
"It's going to be weird calling both of you idiots John. Two of you? I can hardly handle one!" she laughed, putting her hand over his, turning it over, and wrapping her fingers over it.
"How do you know our son is going to be as dumb as me?" John chuckled.
"Gut feeling." she grinned, planting a kiss on his cheek.
"Mom has a Christmas breakfast planned, we should probably get dressed and head over there, or we're going to be late, and I won't get my gifts on time. My dad hates when I'm late for Christmas breakfast." John said, helping her out of bed.

"LAUREN!" Ross stood in the hallway, grinning at her, holding out his arms for a hug.
"He finally decided to get out of bed." Jenny laughed, as Lauren walked into his extended arms.
"How's my nephew doing in there?" Ross asked as she pulled away.
"Good, I would assume. I think he's probably just sitting there right now about the size of my hand, wondering what all of the ruckus is about." she laughed, as Ross stuck his hand out and touched her stomach.
"SHANE!!!" Jenny yelled up the stairs.
A few seconds later, Shane walked down in pajamas and a white shirt, his shaggy hair standing up everywhere.
"Lauren, John, miniature Lauren and John. When did you guys get here?" Shane laughed, fixing his hair around.
"About 5 minutes before you stumbled downstairs." Lauren smiled, giving him a hug.
Shane copied his brothers action by putting his hand on her stomach and smiling at her.
"Fucking bum." John laughed at his younger brother, who was clearly just waking up.
"Language, son." John laughed at his son, before setting the last plate down on the table.
"Next year we're gonna need a high chair!" Jenny smiled, before walking back into the kitchen.
"Need some water?" John asked Lauren, as she took her place at his side again.
"I can grab it baby. Help your dad with the rest of the table." she pointed over at his father, who was struggling to fold the napkins the way Jenny wanted them.
"Yeah John. Help dad." Shane playfully grinned, sticking his tongue out.
"You too Shane. Go get dressed or something. You're the only one who looks like they got scraped off the street." John laughed, and walked into the dining room.
Ross walked over to help Lauren up.
"I'm not that pregnant yet, Ross!" she laughed, looking down at her stomach.
"When mom had Shane, her back was so sore and her knees hurt really bad." Ross smiled.
"Thanks." she wrapped her arms around him again and headed for the kitchen.
"Hi darling, what time is your mom getting here?" Jenny asked, pulling a casserole out of the oven.
"She should be here any second. She texted me a few minutes ago saying she was on her way. I should walk down there and see if she's okay." Lauren sighed, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge.
"Any news on Calvin?" Jenny asked, figuring now was a good time to ask.
Lauren got a shooting pain in her stomach at the sound of his name.
"No one has seen or heard from my brother in a year and a half. I guess Calvin just decided to bail." Lauren sighed, talking about him for the first time in months.
"I'm sorry sweetie." Jenny frowned. "I shouldn't have asked."
"No, it's okay. I don't ever talk about him, the last time anyone has even said his name around me was 7 months ago." she said, looking at the ground.
"I'm sure he's okay. He was an independent one. If you don't mind me saying, we were never really sure why he left. He was so protective over you, nearly always by your side." Jenny said, walking over and wrapping her arms around Lauren.
"Mom!" John yelled from the dining room.
"Yes honey?"
"We're ready for the food, and Missy is here!" John replied, before walking into the kitchen.
"I can grab something." Lauren smiled, before walking over and picking up a casserole dish.

"How's the music coming along John?" Missy asked, before taking a sip of coffee.
"It's going alright. I've got some solid lyrics, I just need to run them over with the guys. We'll most likely all get together after this holiday thing is over. There's a Christmas party at Max's tonight, so everyone is doing their holiday stuff today, before we take off for Max's." John replied.
"How's work, Missy?" Jenny asked.
"It's going great, we've been overbooked for the holidays, but at least I could get out of that place for a little while. This casserole is wonderful, by the way. I'm going to have to snag the recipe from you!" Missy smiled.
"As long as you promise you'll put it on the menu." Jenny chuckled.
"I'll call it...' she trailed off, "something that has Jenny in it." Missy laughed.

They all gathered in the living room after dinner to unwrap gifts.
"PRESENT TIME!" Shane screamed, and ran up to his room.
"He never got around to putting his gifts under the tree." Jenny smiled, playfully rolling her eyes at her son.
They passed out their gifts, everyone opening theirs with a wide eyed look on their face, before smiling and hugging whoever it was from.
Lauren and John received a lot of gift cards and money from their family, mostly for baby things.
As Jenny threw the last of the wrapping paper that littered the floor into a ball and by the doorway, John stood up.
"I was thinking of doing this in some cliche, stupid way." he began, his voice shaking.
He grabbed Lauren's hand and pulled her up.
"Traditional works out just fine for me." John smiled at her.
"John, are you okay?" Lauren asked, squeezing his hand. Jenny sat down
"I will be in a few minutes. My entire existance has been spent close to you. Every second I've been breathing, you've been breathing with me. I was born 21 days before you were. Our mothers were friends while we were still in the womb. They would hang out, go to lunch together, and buy each other baby outfits. Little did we know, little did they know, our souls were already connected." John was shaking, and his mind was racing a million miles per hour.
"John, you're shaking." Lauren said, squeezing his hand again, a concerned look across his face.
"Fuck it, I'm just gonna cut to the chase." he said, releasing her hand and going into his pocket.
Everyone in the room gasped.
Lauren's hand went over her mouth.
John got down on one knee, and opened a box, with the most beautiful ring Lauren had ever seen in it.
"Lauren, do me the honor, marry me. Marry me Lauren. I love you ever so dearly. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" John asked, his voice shaky, and his eyes welling up.