[Berk!] -- Backdated to yesterday!
For a birthday, it sure didn't feel like it.

Normally, birthdays for the Bones children were a big event. The whole family got together and had a party and cake, and they talked and laughed and ate until any of them could barely Apparate home. That was something that her parents had always done for their kids, even though all of them were grown up and married and had families of their own to do that for them now. It was nice, it brought the family together away from their busy and individual lives for a rare moment to revisit their childhood. It was something Amelia had loved, despite that she was now nearly 30 years old and had far outgrown her mum's annual pink-and-yellow princess cakes and fuzzy birthday crown.

On the up side, though, at least it was her birthday she'd ruined first. If it had been Ed's or Jonathan's---well, she didn't need to give either one of her brothers any more reason to hate her than she already had. Not that they would admit to any animosity they were feeling towards her, of course. Merlin, she would have been relieved for either of them to lash out at her for even a second. Amelia knew that they had to blame her, at least a little. Just acting like none of this had happened due to her own actions only made the whole situation that much more painful. That---and the sympathy she had coming from Megan wasn't doing much either. Her sister-in-law, who had been weepy and pregnant and hormonal and doing just about everything she could to try and make things better, had even offered to throw her a party. A party she neither needed nor deserved, and the guilt was driving Amelia up the bloody wall.

That was why she was now sitting home, laying back on the couch and very adamantly refusing to answer any of her family's owls pecking at the kitchen window. Mara, who was sitting supported on her stomach, watched the birds curiously, occasionally giggling and reaching out as if she could touch one. Amelia ran her fingers through the baby's soft curls and sighed in response to the smile on her face. "Oy, at least someone's happy today."