Forever and for Always

Walking into the house she shared with her husband of four months, Hunter tossed the mail on the top of the counter in the kitchen. She had walked past her husband who was passed out on the couch with their two puppies sleeping on the floor next to the couch. He had surprised her last month when she came home from a trip Los Angeles to find two puppies in her house. At first she thought he had forgot to tell her that they were going to be dog sitting, but when she picked one of them up and looked at its tag, it had her address on it, she knew he went out and bought them. One was a chocolate lab and the other one was a white lab. Both puppies were named before he got them and since the names seemed to suit each of them, they decided to keep them. The white female was named Lady and the chocolate male was Radar.

Placing the mail on the counter along with her purse, Hunter opened the fridge looking for something she could eat before they had to leave for the hockey game. New Jersey Devils were playing the Washington Capitals at the Prudential Center. Taking out the milk she set it on the counter, before closing the fridge. Making her way towards the pantry, she grabbed the chocolate chip cookies off the shelf she walked out as she ate one.

Gasping in surprise when she saw him standing there going through the mail, Hunter almost dropped the cookies. “So sleeping beauty returns to the land of the living.”

Looking up from the mail, he gave her a smile. “Good afternoon to you too, baby.” He said as held something in his hand.

“What are you looking at over there?” Hunter asked as she put the milk away after pouring some into a tall glass. “Did you get something interesting?”

“You’re pregnant?” he questioned her. “Is that what this is?”

Hunter didn’t know how to respond to him. This wasn’t how she planned to tell him.

“Hunter?”

“I know we said that we’d wait another year before starting a family,” Hunter told him, not meeting his eyes. “But it seems that it’ll be sooner than that.”

“We had a plan Hunter,” he told her. “I can’t believe this.”

“There were signs,” Hunter said as she finally looked at him. “You just weren’t looking for them Zach.”

“We aren’t ready for a baby.”

“Well then it’s a good thing we aren’t having one.”

“Then whose is this?”

“We’re having twins.”

“Two?” Zach questioned her.

Hunter couldn’t seem to form the words, so she just nodded her head. She couldn’t look into his eyes. Seeing how mad he was would just something she couldn’t handle right now. Leaving her snack on the counter, she walked passed him and into the living room before heading up the stairs. Slamming the bedroom door, Hunter crawled onto their bed and laid down and closed her eyes. Sure this was unplanned, but that didn’t give him the right to be an ass about it. She was already terrified enough without him adding fuel to the fire. All he was thinking about was himself and how it would affect him, well what about her? She was the one that would carry them as well as give birth, but did he care? Not at all, all he did care about was his stupid plan.

Hearing a soft knock on the door, Hunter ignored it. She got off the bed and went to the door and locked it before he tried to open it. Right now she didn’t want anything to do with her husband. There was another knock on the door, followed by another. “Go away, Zach! I want nothing to do with you!”

Twisting the handle of the door, the person on the other side found it to be locked. “Open the door Hunter Parise.”

“Go away!”

“You need to knock this off and open the door.”

“Why don’t you leave me alone?” she called back to him. “I don’t want to look at you. All you can think about your stupid plan. And I’ll remind you, I didn’t agree to it!”

Hearing the door turn again, she groaned. Forgetting that he had a key to the door was stupid. Giving him the key had become an even stupider mistake. Letting out a deep breath, Hunter didn’t move from her spot on the bed that she had made before going out to her doctor’s appointment and then to her god-father’s home for a bit of advice from his wife. She hadn’t really been in this type of situation before. Before they had gotten married, Hunter had a pregnancy scare right after Zach had proposed. At the time things were so great that she didn’t want to throw him off his game, so she kept it to herself. When he finally caught on that something wasn’t right with her, he questioned her about it until she finally told him. He hadn’t been excited like some guys would be, no he was void of anything which made her leave. She hadn’t planned on telling him since earlier that day she had received her period. So she wasn’t pregnant, simple as.

Feeling the bed sink down, she knew what he was trying to do. He knew she was upset and that he was an ass for acting like it was the end of the world, well she wasn’t going to put up with it. No, he wasn’t getting off the hook that easily. Feeling his hand on her arm, Hunter moved to the center of the bed and out of his reach. “Please don’t be like this, Hunter.”

Ignoring him, she scooted even further away as she felt him lean over to her. But that was to no avail. He laid down and wrapped his arms around her. His chin rested on her shoulder and he didn’t say a word and neither did she. Hunter knew she hadn’t done anything wrong this time, but Zach was acting like her having a baby, his baby would be the end of his career. It would be the start of their family. It didn’t matter when they started it, at least to her it didn’t. “Sometimes things don’t follow a plan and they turn out just fine. Look at us. You never planned on meeting me at Marty’s place, did you?”

“I had no intention of even showing up there.”

“But you did and we met and you fell in love with me and I with you and how we have a chance to start a family, together.”

“I don’t know how I got to be so lucky,” Zach told her. “To have such a smart and beautiful wife.”

“Zach…”

“I mean it Hunter,” he said as his hand took hers and laced their fingers together. “You weren’t exactly single when I met you. And Marty told me to leave you alone, yet here we are.”

“You didn’t exactly come off as someone I wanted to spend my time with.”

“I didn’t mean those things I said.”

“I don’t care, Zach!” Hunter said raising her voice as she attempted to get out of his grip, but he held her in place. “Just stop, okay? I don’t want to play this stupid game and I won’t be the one getting blamed for you showing up late.”

“Can you honestly say that you are ready for this?” Zach asked, placing a kiss on her neck. “Are you ready to give up traveling and interviewing hockey players?”

“It’ll be hard, but I’m sure that they can give me local stuff to do until I can go back to work, at least part time.”

“Remember, you wanted the big family, close in age and if start now, how long will you be able to work for, without making yourself exhausted?”

“I wouldn’t have to stop right away, Zach, I could still work for a bit.”

“Says the woman that wants four or five kids.”

“Excuse me?” Hunter asked, breaking out of his hold as she sat up and looked at him. “Where they hell did you hear that? I never said four or five. I’ve always said three or four at most. You make me really mad Zach Parise.”

“Do I?” he asked as he watched her take off the top she had on and slip on a white spaghetti strapped shirt on before taking the Langenbrunner jersey off the hanger and slipping it on over her head. Slipping out of the skirt she walked over to her dresser and opened the bottom drawer before squatting down in front of it to pick out a pair of jeans. Grabbing a pair of dark blue ones, she closed the drawer as she stood back up. Turning, she looked up surprised when the jeans were taken out of her hand. Looking into the eyes of her husband, Hunter glared at him. “I don’t know why you are looking at me like I’m the bad guy. Aren’t you hockey players all about shooting and scoring five hole? Guess what? You really did score five hole.”

Leaning down, he caught her by surprise in a kiss. It reminded her of why she had nearly been late to her appointment today. Zach made her feel things no other guy she had been with made her feel. Most of the time she would say that it was a good thing, but at the moment, she wanted to stay mad at him and she couldn’t do that if he kept kissing her the way he was. It didn’t help that she had a fistful of his shirt and was kissing him back with just as much passion as he was giving to her.

“I love you Hunter, I really do and I do want a family with you, but I just didn’t think this was a good time for us to start it.”

“Are you telling me something Zach?” Hunter asked, as she placed her hand over her stomach as she stepped away from him.

He stepped right back up to her and placed his hand on top of hers. “All I’m saying is that right now, I’ve never been so terrified in my life. Not even when I’m on the ice and I’m playing in a game seven in the cup finals. This is a life we are talking about.”

“Actually its two lives. We are having twins.”

With his signature grin, he kept his hand on top of hers. “This is our kids’ lives. Do you think we can do this? Now? While I’m still so active in my career?”

“If I waited for your career to end, then it would just be us and no kids for us, at least none of our own and I want our own kids Zach, so yes, I think we can do this. Together.”

“You have a lot of faith in me.”

“No I don’t,” Hunter laughed. “I have faith in us.”

Stepping closer to him she wrapped her arms around him and placed her head on his chest. “Now how about you take off this jersey and put on the red one that’s in the living room?”

“I’m not sure I should,” Hunter grinned. “Jamie usually has better nights when someone is supporting him.”

“He does have someone supporting him. His wife and kids.”

“Maybe one day you’ll have that too.”

“You think you are just so funny, don’t you?” Zach asked, as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders to bring her closer to him. “I love you, you know.”

“Really?” Hunter grinned as she went to walk around him to where he threw her pants. “Or are you only saying that because I’m the mother of your unborn children?”

“I could show you,” he suggested. “We have time.”

“No we don’t.”

Slipping one leg into her pants, she felt Zach stop her from getting the other leg into it by placing his hands on hers. “Are we okay, Hunter?”

Turning her head slightly she leaned back a bit and placed a kiss on the side of this mouth before stepping away from him and getting her other leg into her pants before pulling them up and buttoning them. “All that’s changed is that we are extending out family, Zach. Nothing else has to change, beside me not working so much.”

“We could do the nanny thing.”

“No we can’t,” Hunter said. “I won’t have my kids raised by someone else. No way. I’ve seen what happens to kids that are raised by people that aren’t their parents and that’s not going to be us, Zach. Out of the question.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Taking a deep breath, Hunter smiled as she walked into the bedroom where Zach was fast asleep. It had been a tough game against the New York Rangers, but they had come out on top and now only two days shy of her due date, her water broke. It was two thirty in the morning and although she was tired, there was no way she could wipe the smile off her face. Leaving the bathroom, she flipped the light switch on. Glancing over to the bed, she saw her husband on his stomach with his head buried into the pillow. Making her way over to the bed, she knew that if she was nice about waking him up, she’d be there until he was ready to get up. Grabbing his pillow, she yanked it from under his head and watched as his head fell onto the mattress. Turning his head he, looked at her through blurry eyes.

“Do you mind?” he asked reaching for the pillow that was still in his wife’s hands.

“I do,” Hunter said. “I need the pillow.”

“What for?” Zach groaned as he reached for the one on her side of the bed.

“I’m taking it to the hospital.”

“Baby, just come back to bed, its early and I don’t have to be at the rink until noon.”

“Zach, get up,” Hunter said as she tossed the pillow onto the chair near the closet. “My water broke, so you need to wake up.”

“The babies?” he asked, his attention on her face.

“Yes, the babies are coming so let’s get going.” Hunter smiled as she walked to her closet to get a change of clothes. She was not going to the hospital in her night clothes, no way.

After changing they were both dressed, Hunter grabbed the baby bag while Zach took her small suitcase. Walking out the door of their home, she knew that when they came back here, everything was going to be different. Everything was about to change. Pulling on the handle to his SUV, Hunter found it still to be locked. “Did you grab your keys?”

Placing the suitcase on the ground Zach walked back into the house to where he kept his keys, when he remembered to put them on the hook in the kitchen when he had come home earlier that night. Grabbing his keys, he ran out of the house and locked it as he hit the unlock from the automatic lock on the ring of his keys. Carefully getting inside the car, Hunter closed her eyes and tried not to let the panic show on her face. She didn’t want Zach to know how scared she was.

The drive to the hospital went well; well as well as to be expected. Hunter was glad when they were finally there and checked into their own room. She hadn’t wanted to share; it was just what she preferred. Zach might have had something to do with that, but at the moment, she could care less.

Lying in the hospital bed, she looked over at him as he walked in with ice chips. She had sent him for a pickle and he came back with ice. “I’m glad you’re awake. There is something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“You sound so serious,” Hunter smiled as she placed her hand on her large stomach. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he smiled placing his hand on top of hers. “I just wanted to tell you something that I should have said awhile back.”

“Zach…”

“I love you Hunter and I’m sorry for the way I acted when I found out you were having these babies. I was scared and I didn’t think. I love them and I love you so much. The best things in life don’t follow someone’s plan.”

“Why are you trying to make me cry?” Hunter asked as she wiped her eyes with the pads of her fingers. “I hate you for making me cry, but I love you for it at the same time.”

“I gotta tell you,” Zach said. “I don’t think I could do this without you.”

“Well you can’t do this without me,” Hunter smiled. “And I’m glad you’re the father of my children.”

“It’s a gift I plan on treasuring for the rest of our lives.”

“I love you Zach,” Hunter said. “Forever and for always.”