I Could Rest Beneath Your Smile

As soon as the door shut behind Brooklyn, Max looked towards Sid and Kris, who were each holding a child. “We’re going to be just fine by ourselves, aren’t we?” he asked them, and both Sid and Kris nodded, telling him that he was right.

All of a sudden, Elise started crying, and Sid tried rocking her to get her to quiet down. He looked to Max for help when she continued screaming, and Max held his arms out to take his daughter. “Aw, baby girl, are you missing your mommy already?” he asked her. “Don’t you want to spend time with your daddy and Uncle Sid and Uncle Max?” He continued rocking her, talking to her the entire time and she finally began to stop crying, just as Noah started crying.

“Do you think they’re doing this on purpose?” Kris asked as he tried to calm Noah. “Because it’s something that your kids would do, Max,” he pointed out.

“And, what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Max asked Kris.

“That your kids would be troublemakers even when they’re only six weeks old,” Kris said with a laugh as Noah continued to cry.

“Are you calling this little girl a troublemaker?” Max questioned, turning Elise around so she was looking at Kris. Max gave Elise back to Sid so he could take Noah from Kris to calm him down. “And, this boy isn’t a troublemaker. He just doesn’t like his Uncle Kris right now,” he told him.

“No, I’m pretty sure he’s just taking after his father,” Kris retorted, and Max laughed at him.

Twenty minutes later, the twins were finally settled down, and Max put them in their cribs, watching them for a moment to make sure they were alright. He then walked back out to the living room, sitting down on the couch and grabbing the remote next to him, turning it to ESPN. Kris and Sid sat back, getting comfortable as they listened to the announcers ramble on about the latest hockey games.

An hour and a half later, both kids were up once again, and the three men were trying to play with them to keep them occupied. A few moments later, Kris looked up at Max. “Um, Max, I think your daughter needs your attention,” he announced, holding Elise out towards him.

“What?” Max asked, confused, walking over to the two of them. As soon as he reached them, everything became clearer, as it was obvious that Elise needed to be changed. “You couldn’t just do it?” Max joked, taking Elise from him and laying her down as he went to go get a new diaper, along with the cream and baby powder.

“She may be the cutest girl ever, but she’s still your daughter, meaning you’re the one that’s going to change her,” Kris replied.

Max looked at the diaper on the way back to his daughter, continuously flipping it over. “Um, guys, which side goes in the front?” he asked, confused.

“Have you never changed your daughter before?” Sid questioned, looking over at Max in disbelief.

“No,” Max admitted. “Brooklyn’s always done that. And, don’t give me that look,” he told Sid. “We’ve been gone for the last two weeks, so it’s not like I’ve had much practice.”

“And, the four weeks before that?” Sid asked.

“Like I said, Brooklyn always did the changing of the diapers,” he whined. “Can you forget about that for a minute and help me out, though! Which side goes in the front?” he asked once again.

Sid grabbed the diaper out of his hand, looking at it. He flipped it over before turning it back over once again. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he told him. “Just pick a side and hope it’s the right one. Because you can’t just leave her sitting here naked,” he pointed out.

“Okay, Elise,” Max said to his daughter. “We’re going to hope that I put this on right because if not, I’ll never hear the end of it from your mother,” he told her, as he took her diaper off, distorting his face from the smell. “How can something that smells like this come from such a beautiful girl?” he asked, looking at his teammates, who both had the same face as Max. He cleaned her up before putting the new diaper on, hoping it was the correct way. “Well, that looks good, doesn’t it?” he asked, holding Elise up and showing her to Sid and Kris.

“Yeah, it looks good to me,” Kris said, shrugging his shoulders. Max nodded his head, giving Elise back to Kris as he got up and went to the kitchen, getting some food for everyone.

Ten minutes later, Sid, called out to Max, “I think your assistance is needed again!” Max walked out of the kitchen, giving Sid a confused look. “This one needs changed now,” he said, pointing towards Noah, who he was currently holding.

“Seriously, what good are you guys? You don’t help change them or anything!” Max exclaimed, grabbing a diaper on his way over to Noah.

“Hey, you’re the one that decided to get Brooklyn pregnant and have twins, not us. And, until we have kids of our own, we don’t have to change any diapers,” Sid said with a laugh as Max began to take Noah’s diaper off.

“Well, at least this one doesn’t smell,” Max stated as he put the old diaper aside.

All of a sudden, Max started yelping in pain, and Sid and Kris both whipped their heads around to look at him, seeing him grabbing his eye.

“What happened?” Kris asked.

“He peed in my eye!” Max exclaimed, continuing to hold his eye, as he ran to the bathroom, examining his eye in the mirror. He could hear Sid and Kris bursting out laughing, and he yelled, “It’s not funny! It hurts!” He walked back out into the living room , seeing Sid on the floor holding his stomach, while Kris was wiping his eyes from the tears that had formed from laughing so hard. “It’s not funny!” Max repeated.

“He peed in my eye!” Sid mocked Max in between his laughs. “Oh, God, this is hilarious!”

“It burns,” Max whined.

“How did he pee in your eye?” Kris asked, looking down at Elise to see her staring up at him.

“What do you mean how did he do it? He peed in my eye. It’s self-explanatory! I can’t believe my own kid peed in my eye!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, I can’t wait until Brooklyn hears of this,” Sid told him. “I can just imagine what she’ll have to say about all of this.”

“Oh, no, Brooklyn’s not going to find out because neither of you are going to tell her. Because if you do, Tia and Jocelyn will hear all about that time you both got drunk while we were in Sweden and you decided to parade around downtown in just…” he began.

“Okay, Brooklyn will never find out,” Kris promised, not letting him continue his trip down memory lane, just as Elise started to get fussy. Kris tried rocking her as Max put the diaper on Noah. Max then took Elise out of Kris’s hands when she was still crying.

“Why won’t she stop?” he questioned fifteen minutes later when she was still sobbing.

“Maybe she’s hungry?” Sid suggested.

“Yeah, that must be it!” Max exclaimed and gave Elise to Sid as he walked into the kitchen. “I know Brooklyn left some bottles of milk in here,” he said, rummaging through the refrigerator. Sid and Kris followed him into the kitchen, watching as he pulled two bottles out of the refrigerator. “Noah’s probably hungry, too,” he explained, and both men nodded their heads.

He started to hand the bottles to the babies when Kris yelled out, “You can’t give them cold milk! God, don’t you know anything about children?”

“So, what do I do?” Max asked, looking over at Kris.

“You heat the bottles up,” Kris replied as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. Max nodded his head, quickly heating the bottles up. “And, before you try to give those to them, you need to make sure it’s the right temperature,” he told Max, who gave him a questioning look. “Put a little on your arm to make sure it’s not too hot.”

Max did as he was told and immediately cried out in pain, adding in a few French expletives. “Hey, there are kids in the room!” Sid yelled at him, recognizing the words as some he had heard out on the ice.

“Yeah, well, you can talk to me about censoring myself after you’ve just burnt your arm!” Max yelled.

“See, and you were going to give those to Noah and Elise like that,” Kris pointed out, earning a glare from Max. “Just wait a few minutes to let it cool down and then test it again before giving them to the twins.”

Max obeyed, and five minutes later, the twins were sitting happily eating their food, as Max breathed a sigh of relief. “God, if this is how it is after taking care of them for just a few hours,” Max began. “I can’t imagine how Brooklyn lasted for two weeks by herself.”

“She’s a special girl,” Sid said with a smile.

“Yeah, she’s my special girl,” Max agreed.

A few hours later, Brooklyn, Tia, and Jocelyn walked through the front door to see all three men collapsed on the couch with the twins nowhere in sight. “Where are Noah and Elise?” Brooklyn asked, and all three sat up.

“They’re asleep in their cribs,” Max explained, and Brooklyn nodded her head, making her way back to the twins’ room to check on them. When she was satisfied, she walked back out into the living room.

“So, how was your day?” she asked them.

“It was great,” Max told her, while the other two backed him up by nodding their heads.

“No problems?” Brooklyn asked.

“None at all,” Max said, a smile on his face. “They were angels.”

“Good,” Brooklyn said, giving him a kiss. “I guess this means I don’t have to worry about leaving you boys alone with the kids anymore.”

“Are you thinking that this is going to be a common occurrence?” Max asked, concerned, and Brooklyn glanced over at him. “Not that I would mind,” Max added quickly. “I loved spending time with my children today.”

“Good,” Brooklyn said with a smile. “Because you never know when I’m going to need another off day. And, now that I know that you three can take care of them, I’m not worried about taking that day off when I need it,” she told him.

“Good,” Max said, plastering a smile on his face. “Take all the days off that you need.”