God Bless the Broken Road

It was October and things were going great. Eric and I bought a new house big enough for our growing family and the season was starting. The two of us have been super excited since we told our family about being pregnant. Today we are even more excited because we were both finally going to a doctor’s appointment. I was hoping Eric wanted to know what we were having because I hate surprises and waiting would be the ultimate surprise and I couldn’t take it.

As I was waiting for Eric to get home from practice, I let Molly out and the yard caught my attention. As I stood there, all I could pictured was our children running around as Molly chased them. I laid my hands on my stomach and turned back to the house when I heard the front door open.

“Kenz?” Eric called.

I shut the sliding door and walked over to him, kissing him. “Hi there.”

“You ready to go?” He asked

I nodded and grabbed my purse before locking up behind the both of us. The car ride was silent and filled with excitement. Both of us could not wait to become parents, slowly we have been getting the nursery together and the more we added to the room the more excited we got.

“Are we going to find out what we are having?” Eric asked, taking my hand over the center console.

I shrugged. “We can. Do you want to?”

He was quite for a minute. “Yeah, I kinda do. Do you?”

“I do, I hate not knowing.” I chuckled.

Eric chuckled and kissed the back of my hand. When we pulled up to the doctor’s office, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see our baby again. We signed in and took a seat in the waiting room. As we waited to be called back, I was texting Heather and Cellina, they both where betting what we were going to have.

Jordy says you better be having a boy or he’s not going to be a part of its life

I laughed and showed Eric the text Heather sent me and he laughed too.
Tell Jordan he’s being a baby and he better be happy I’m not there.

“Mackenzie Staal.” The nurse called and I looked up from my phone and smiled. I never get tired of hearing Staal after my name. I followed the nurse to the exam room. “How have you been feeling?” She asked, once I was situated.

“I’ve been good. The morning sickness has finally subsided.”

She nodded. “That’s always good. Alright Mackenzie, the doctor will be in with you shortly.”

I looked at Eric. “I bet dinner tonight that we’re having a boy.” I smiled.

Eric’s eyes lit up and he gave me that signature Staal smirk. “I’ll match that bet, but I say it’s a girl.”

“Do you want a girl?” I asked, shocked. I thought that Eric would want a boy, to carry on the Staal name and teach hockey to.

“I don’t care what we have as long as they’re healthy. I wouldn’t mind a girl, there aren’t enough of them in this family.” He laughed.

“But what about teaching your son how to play hockey?”

He shrugged. “I can teach our daughter how to play too.” He chuckled.

I smiled and shook my head. I was happy to know that he didn’t care what we had. I know I didn’t care, just like Eric said, as long as they were healthy then I didn’t care. Just then the doctor came in and got started with the ultrasound.

“Well, would the two of you like to find out the sex?” She asked, with a smile.

“Yes.” Eric and I said at the same time.

“Congratulations, you are the proud parents of a healthy boy.” She smiled and I laughed. “And…” she trailed off.

“And?” Eric asked.

She nodded. “And, a little girl. Congratulations, you two are having twins.”

I looked between Eric and the doctor. “Why didn’t we find this out before?” I asked.

The doctor wiped the ultrasound gel from my stomach and printed out sonograms. “It’s possible that sometimes one of the twins will hide behind the other and sometimes their heartbeats can beat in time and sound like one. It happens.”

I nodded and accepted the prints. Eric and I left with a few instructions and smiles on our faces.

Twins!

We weren’t just having one kid, we were having two. The ride home was quiet, but you could feel the excitement between the two of us. I grabbed Eric’s hand, causing him to look at me.

I gave it a squeeze. “Twins, E. We’re having twins.” I whispered, tears burning my eyes.

“I know.” He smiled. “I can’t believe it. There are two of us in there.” He said, taking his hand out of mine and laying it on my stomach.

“You know we are going to have to buy one more of everything, right?” I laughed.

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

“It’s a good thing we bought the house with the big bedrooms. If we would have gotten the first one we liked, there wouldn’t have been enough room for two cribs in that room.”

“It’s a good thing we went for the big yard.” he smiled and I laughed.

The rest of the ride home was quite. When we got inside, we let Molly in and took a seat on the couch. We didn’t say anything as we wrapped each other in our arms, we didn’t have to. That was one thing that I loved about my relationship with Eric, we didn’t have to always talk, that we could simply just enjoy being with each other.

“We should tell your parents.” I whispered and Eric nodded, reaching for his laptop that was sitting on the coffee table. I sat up as he logged in and saw that Linda was actually online. I smiled when he hit the video chat button and Linda’s kind face showed on the screen.

“Eric, Mackenzie!” She gushed. “How are you two doing? We haven’t talk in a while.” She gave us a pointed look and we both blushed.

“Sorry mom, things have been a bit crazy here with getting things ready for the babies and settling into the new house, plus pre-season.” Eric said and I smiled when she didn’t quite catch on.

“How is that going?” She asked. “Do you guys need anything? Dad and I can come down and help out.”

I shrugged. “You two don’t have to do that. We are pretty much done with the nursery. We just have to buy a few more things.”

“Like what? I thought you had everything.” She paused and gave us a look. “You two are hiding something…something big.” She accused us.

Eric looked at his mom and then at me with a smile. “She thinks we’re hiding something. Kenz, would we ever hide anything from mom?”

I laughed as I saw Linda’s look. If we were face to face Eric would have gotten a smack upside the head for that comment. I went along with Eric despite Linda and hook my head at him. “We would never do that. Jordan and Heather on the other hand…” I trailed off and laughed.

“Eric and Mackenzie Staal.” I smiled. “You two better tell me what is going on before I kick both of your butts.”

I looked at Eric and bit my lip. “Should we tell her?”

“I don’t know, we already gave her clues and she hasn’t gotten it yet.”

“Eric” Linda warned and I laughed.

“Linda, I don’t know if you caught it earlier, but Eric said something about getting ready for the babies…”

Linda gasped. “I’m sorry, did you just say babies? As in more than one baby?” Her eyes lit up.

Eric and I nodded. “Yes mom, we are having twins. We just got back from the doctors. Everything is fine and everyone is healthy. We should be expecting our little boy and our little girl in five months.”

“Or four. She said that sometimes twins come early.” I reminded him.

“You’re having a boy and a girl? We’re going to have another girl in the family?” She asked

Eric chuckled, shaking his head. “You would be excited about the girl.”

I smacked his arm. “Let her be excited. We need more girls to balance out you and your brothers, you said so yourself.”

Linda smiled. “I’m so happy for the two of you. You can expect Henry and I down there in four months. We want to be there for the birth of our grandbabies.”

“We’ve got plenty of room for you guys.” I smiled.

Just then we noticed two boxes in the right hand corner pop up, Marc and Jordan had both just got online. Eric didn’t say a word as he added the two of them into the conversation.

Marc was the first one to answer. “Wow E, stalking me are you? Hey there Kenz. Hey mom.” Marc waved and Linda waved back.

Jordan finally answered. “Why isn’t mom answering me?”

“Because she doesn’t love you anymore.” I shot back and busted out laughing at his expression.

Eric bumped my shoulder and Marc gave me a virtual high five. “Behave you five.” Linda smiled. “I still love you Jordan and the reason I didn’t answer is because I am having a pretty important conversation with your brother and sister. Eric, Mackenzie do you want to fill them in?” She smiled again.

“Guys, Eric and I just got back from the doctors…” I trailed off and saw both of them sit up straighter.

“Is everything alright?” Marc asked at the same time as Jordan did.

I nodded. “Everything is fine, we should be expecting the twins to arrive in either four or five months.”

Marc’s face lit up. “Kenz that’s wonderful! Congrats guys.”

“Whoa, so there are two of you coming?” Jordan joked. “That’s awesome. Heather is going to be so excited.”

“Cellina too. What are you having?”

“A boy and a girl.” Eric smiled, wrapping his arm around me.

“I bet you’re excited about the girl, eh mom?” Marc smiled.

She nodded. “You have no idea. She is not learning hockey.” She scolded her sons.

I chuckled. “She can if she wants to, but no pressuring her, boys.” I looked at Eric, “That goes for you too, daddy.”

“Of course.” He said, kissing my cheek.

I rolled my eyes as we continued to talk to our family. When we finally disconnected, I was falling asleep on Eric. He moved so we were both laying on the couch, my back against his chest. He laid his hand on my stomach and I smiled.

“You know, we both won that bet.” I whispered.

Eric kissed my neck. “Looks like we just have to go out to dinner.” I could hear the smirk in his voice.

And that’s what we did. After we took close to a three hour nap, we got ready and went out for the night. When we got home I was tired despite the nap we took, so I put on a movie and crawled into bed.

Eric came in and took a look at the screen and then looked at me with a ‘really’ look. I just shrugged and started the movie. I smiled when Eric joined me in bed and wrapped his arms around me.

“Have you thought of names?” He asked quietly, placing kisses on my neck.

I was quiet for a minute. “I love the name Elizabeth for a girl…plus it was my mom’s middle name.”

“I like it, so Elizabeth”

“What about her middle name?”

“Rose.” He said right off the bat. “I don’t know why, I just like it.”

“Elizabeth Rose Staal?” I said trying it out. “I like it” just then I felt a fluttering in my stomach. “Oh!” Eric sat up straighter and looked at me and I just smiled and grabbed his hand, placing on the spot. “I think she likes it too, don’t you Elizabeth.” She kicked again and Eric gasped.

“That is so cool.” he whispered. “So, Elizabeth Rose. Now what about our little man?”

“I don’t know, do you have an ideas?”

“Jason, I like Jason.”

“Jason Michael Staal?” I said, and Eric nodded. Just like with Elizabeth, there was a fluttering. I laughed. “He likes it too.”

Eric smiled. “So Elizabeth and Jason. I can’t wait until they are here.”

“Me either.” I was quiet for a moment. “You know, I never thought I would be here.” I said quietly. “Especially after everything I went through with my dad.” Eric tightened his hold on me, but didn’t say anything. He just let me talk. I turned and looked at him. “Is it wrong that I am okay with the fact that my dad isn’t here for this?” I asked, tears filling my eyes. Just thinking that made me feel guilty.

Eric gently pushed hair out of my face. “It may seem like it’s wrong, but you have every right to feel that way. He treated you so harshly, you didn’t want to raise your children around that, did you?”

I shook my head. “He was a great father though. You didn’t know him before he started drinking. Hell, Eric, you didn’t even know him when he was drinking. You just saw what he did to me and heard the stories. I don’t talk about him much because, yes, all I can think about were the times that he got drunk and came into my room to beat me. But he was a loving father and husband.”

Eric looked at me. “I’m not saying he wasn’t, but I can’t help but think about the night we ran into you. You were a mess, Kenz. You flinched at the littlest noise and you were constantly looking over your shoulder.” He took a deep breath. “What I’m saying is that, no it’s not wrong you are feeling that way. He was your father though and you have the right to feel guilty about feeling that way.”

“He loved me, Eric. You may not believe that, but he did.” I said quietly.

He kissed me. “I don’t doubt it.”

The two of us got quiet and I turned my back to Eric, the movie forgotten, and gripped my locket as tears freely fell down my cheeks. I heard Eric sigh and felt his arms around me. He didn’t say anything, he just held me until I fell asleep.