rosa didn't like her birthday, everyone knew that, however the sergeant couldn't help but smile when she was greeted by her little family waking her up on her birthday by singing happy birthday.

'happy birthday momma,' the almost three year old said as she led down on top of rosa.

'thank you ig,' she smiled before looking at her fiancé and youngest daughter standing next to the bed.

'isla don't do that sweetie,' gina removed rosa's birthday card from the girl's mouth. 'do you really have to eat everything?'

isla just giggled and reached for one of her toys that was on rosa's bedside table. the redhead handed her the toy before turning her attention back to rosa and giving her the now wet card.

'thanks,' she smiled as she opened it. her face dropped as she read the words you are invited to celebrate the birthday of rosa diaz, 'what did you do...'

'nothing bad, i promise.'

rosa looked at her other half, unconvinced.

'i swear, there's no party. nothing big. we're not seeing anyone from work. your dad's gonna take the girls for a little bit later and then we're doing something here tonight.'

'what do you think ig, should i trust mommy?'

iggy shook her head, 'mommy say no moana lat-'

'because it's momma's birthday and we're gonna do what momma likes to do.' gina cut in before iggy could say anymore about the movie night she had planned

'we can watch moana tomorrow okay? i'd say we can watch it today but mommy has stuff planned.' rosa smiled

'mhm, and the first thing planned is breakfast. what do you wanna eat?'

'we should make cookies.' rosa grinned

'you're gonna throw flour on me aren't you...' gina asked, not wanting to know the answer

'i never said that... but maybe.'

—————

making the cookies was eventful. isla was sat on the counter the whole time and somehow managed to find her baby biscuits and open them, iggy was running around the kitchen, occasionally 'helping with the cookies' which was just eating a few chocolate chips, rosa had put flour on gina's nose which of course resulted in what looked like a flour snow storm all over the kitchen and gina managed to both almost burn the butter and keep some of it solid when she was just meant to melt it in the microwave. maybe eventful was an understatement.

the four of them were now, however, sat at the table with their cookies.

'they taste pretty good considering it's only 9am and we made them from scratch.' rosa stated, 'how did we even make cookies before 9am with two little kids and you.'

'what do you mean 'and you',' gina looked at her

'babe, you can't bake to save your life.' rosa laughed

'well iggy thinks i'm a good baker, right ig?'

iggy had just taken a bite out of her cookie and had no idea what the two were talking about, but nodded regardless.

rosa smiled, breaking a few more little pieces off her cookie and putting them on the tray attached to her youngest daughter's high chair.

'if you say so,' rosa held her fiancé's hand under the table.

—————

'feliz cumpleaños mija, see you later.' oscar diaz waved the couple off, holding his youngest granddaughter in one arm and the two year old's hand in the other hand.

when the pair were back in the car, rosa took gina's hand in hers. 'i love you so much but i have no idea what to do without a kid.'

'i've got something planned, it's nothing special but we never do anything just me and you.' gina told her as she took her hand back and began driving.

'am i allowed to know where?' rosa questioned

'we'll be there in like two minutes ro, it's not far.'

rosa looked at her confused, and spent the rest of the drive thinking about where they could be going.

'we're here,' gina announced around five minutes later. 'told you it wasn't far,' she looked up from the steering wheel at an extremely happy rosa

'the gun range,' she beamed. 'i love you so much.'

'i wanna show you something inside tho,' gina smiled, getting out of the car. rosa followed her girlfriend inside, being stopped in her tracks when she saw what was inside.

'no way,' she paused, stunned. 'no. way.'

when the sergeant finally picked her jaw up off the floor, she started again, 'babe there's like almost every type of gun that exists in here and there's literally nobody else here. you did all this?' the latina watched her fiancé nod before wrapping her arms tightly around gina and kissing her hair. 'gina linetti, i love you so so much.'

'i love you too.' she smiled. 'you ready to shoot some stuff?'

'fuck yeh,' rosa said as she picked up her first gun.

'you look hot with a gun,' gina leaned up and kissed her girlfriend

'you look hot anyway.' the cop said as she pulled away

—————

all four of them were in their pyjamas and in the den, that gina somehow had somebody make in the time they were out of the apartment, with bowls of popcorn and packs of sweets in front of them.

they were watching rosa's favourite (non-violent, suitable for children) movie, but gina had promised that they could watch something violent or scary later on.  they'd tried moana first, but isla didn't like it very much today. sometimes the girl would watch it and other times she'd just cry through it.

'isla's asleep babe,' gina said as she looked at the sleeping child in her arms. 'i'm gonna go put her to bed,' gina handed rosa the baby. 'hold her for a sec?'

rosa took the infant out of gina's arms and kissed her head, 'night night baby.'

gina got herself out of the den and took the baby off her fiancé again, 'you gonna come say goodnight to your sister, iggy?'

the two year old nodded eagerly before crawling out of the den and running off to her little sister's room. rosa smiled, thinking about her perfect family and how happy it made her.

'happy birthday momma,' iggy returned a few minutes later holding a box that she could barely hold in her hands.

'thank you princess,' she smiled as iggy sat on her knee as gina rejoined them in the den, sitting next to the pair. 'you gonna help me open it?'

'no, she's gonna sit on my knee and watch you open it.' gina told her, moving the child from her girlfriend's knee to her own

'i don't mind her helping me... or just opening them for me. she likes it.'

'this one's special ro, you'll see when you open it.'

'is it a knife?' rosa asked eagerly as she took the lid off the box. she moved all the shredded tissue paper out the way so she could see what was actually in the box. for the second time that day, rosa was stunned into a silence. 'really?' she turned to gina with tears in her eyes

'mhm,' gina smiled

the latina looked back down at the papers in the box, rereading the words adoption order over and over.

'look underneath, there's another few papers.' gina told her girlfriend

rosa lifted up the top few papers and grinned. legal name change.

'you're isla's legal guardian and she has your last name too, i know it doesn't matter to you and it doesn't matter to me either and you don't have to sign them but we'll all be linetti-diazes soon and i want ig to be too... and if anything happens to me i want you to be able to look after her and this will make sure of it.'

rosa hadn't said anything for a couple of minutes.

'you don't have to sign them.'

the ravenette broke her silence, 'iggy linetti-diaz, i love you so so much.' she told her daughter as tears fell from her eyes. she took the girl off gina's knee and put her on her own. 'i love you and i never want you to forget it. this ring,' she gestured to the promise ring rosa had bought her that was on the necklace around her neck, 'means that i'll always look after you and love you forever and ever, no matter what happens.'

iggy looked at rosa like she was talking nonsense, but obviously understood the word 'love' since she flung her arms around rosa and said, 'iggy love you momma.'

the sergeant wrapped her arms around the girl and smiled before looking over at gina and mouthing, 'thank you.'

written: august 2021
published: august 2021