I'll Be Right Beside You

“Hey Princess! Come see Uncle Marc!” as soon as we’d put Andy down she was making a beeline for him – Jordan’s brother spoiled her like mad. All of them did, but Marc seemed to stand out the most for her. Her Baba and Papa also liked to spoil her; the first Staal girl in two generations apparently called for anything she could think of possibly needing. Jordan helped me out of the truck, seeing as my stomach was making things harder and harder all the time.

“Uncle Marc! Missed you!” Andy was coming on four, and just as Jordan had told me, she’d skipped really baby talking and had started with sentences just before she turned three. Now it was almost hard to keep up with her.

“How’s our two favorite Stanley Cup Winners?” Marc asked, the grin on his face humungous as he gave us each a hug with Andy on one arm; giving me a quick kiss to the top of my head as he eyed my stomach. Last season we’d actually played together; Henry and Linda had told us that if we wanted that – one season of being together, of making one last run at the Cup where we could do it at each other’s side – they’d move to Pittsburgh for the season and help look after Andy. It had taken the whole summer to think over, but finally we decided to go for it.

Thank God we did, because we got our Stanley Cup on June 17th, and everyone had been there to help us celebrate. Now, on Jordan’s Christmas break, I was trying to maneuver my five months pregnant body. It’d been a while since I’d last had to figure all this out.

And Marc liked to tease us about celebrating ‘a little too much’ since we’d announced our second child.

“Good – how’re you guys?” I asked, and before he could answer Andy was chatting away in his ear, and with a laugh we all followed him inside.

“Hey everybody!” I called out into his and Lindsay’s house, and soon heard feet rushing around. Parker loved doting on his baby cousin; the almost thirteen year old was big enough to carry her around and still knew how to be gentle with her. Levi wasn’t far behind, and neither was Mike. All of them were growing like weeds.

“Hi Aunty Cam! Hi Uncle Jordan!” Parker and Levi immediately came for hugs, and Parker squeezed me tight before giving my stomach a very soft pat.

“Hello little cousin!” Jord’s grin widened as Parker hugged me once more before sticking his arms out at his Uncle Marc. Andy immediately smiled and began squirming, wanting to go and play with her cousins. Parker had even been sucked into playing dolls with her a few times; even though he’d managed to get Andy to play some kind of hockey with them.

“Hey – good to see you,” I greeted Lindsay and Tanya, who both gushed over Andy and of course the fact that my belly was getting larger.

“How’s the ‘Burgh been? Is it weird not being on the ice this season?” immediately the questions were coming, and I did my best to keep up to all of them.

“Hey, hey – easy on my wife there girls,” Jordan winked at his sisters in law, making us laugh as we all made ourselves comfortable in the living room, the kids playing in the middle of the floor as we all caught up. The problem with not playing was I didn’t get to see everyone as often as I would’ve liked to. I missed the after-game visits more than I’d care to admit.

“Where’s Mom and Dad?” Jordan asked, and Eric chuckled.

“Picking up Jarhead from the airport; they should be back any minute now,” he replied, and the lightbulb look appeared on Jordan’s face, realizing his little brother wasn’t present either.

“Ah, gotcha. Still no girlfriend to be seen?” Marc and Eric nodded, and Jordan rolled his eyes.

“Jeez… he’s gonna be like a crazy cat person pretty quick – has he even gone out once in the last like six months?”

“Not really. I don’t know what it is,” Eric shrugged. “But he’s happy Jordan, so just leave him be. Things will work out.”

“Yeah, yeah. I wouldn’t say anything to him, I was just wondering,” he told them, and soon the conversation shifted to Christmas plans, which had the boys trying to inconspicuously ask for hints about their gifts, Andy crawling onto her Daddy’s lap and giving him the doe eyes. Usually Jordan couldn’t say no to anything once she gave him that look, so I was impressed he was managing to hold out on her.

After the remainder of the Staals arrived – with my mom and Uncle Rob in tow, which was why they’d taken so long at the airport – we tried to organize some dinner. It was a loud, entertaining affair, and after a lot of struggle we finally got Andy into bed. Granted, it was in bed with Parker, who’d offered to read her stories once he realized his little cousin was overtired and grumpy. He was a little angel when it came to his youngest cousin, and Jordan promised him we’d take him out skating as thanks.

“I love this,” he sighed, wrapping himself carefully around me as he crawled into bed. I nodded, resting my head on his chest and taking a deep breath, trying to make myself comfortable. Jordan had insisted he didn’t want to know what we were having, but I had asked at the appointment I’d had just weeks earlier, when he was on an away stretch. It was killing me not to tell him, because I knew he would be beyond excited. I knew in a way he did want to know, because the girls had told me he’d been talking with his brothers about it.

“I know – as crazy as it is, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I agreed.

“Good thing Marc and Lindsay bought this massive house… There’s so many people to fit into a Christmas anymore,” he chuckled, and I let out a snort.

“Just wait till the kids are all bigger and don’t want to share rooms when everyone piles in,” he let out a groan before laughing and rolling onto his back, letting me scooch into a more comfortable position with my belly.

“No… nope. Andy isn’t allowed to get any older. No boys… that was the deal,” he insisted, and I grinned.

“It’s going to happen someday hon,”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he grumped, and I grinned, kissing his cheek.

“She’ll be fine Jord; she’s got the four of you to help look out for her, and she’s already a smart girl. She’ll be able to take care of herself,”

“This is why we should’ve had a boy first, then he could step in and she won’t hate her dad,” he sighed. I felt my breath catch, before deciding to say something.

“Well, she may not have an older brother, but she’ll have a little one to help you look after her,” I tried to keep my voice casual, and Jordan bolted upright in bed, blue eyes wide as he stared at me.
“W-we we’re… did you say a little brother?” he asked, and I nodded, feeling my out-of-whack hormones act up as the tears started pooling.

“I did. She’ll have two, actually,” I corrected, and slowly the grin spread across Jordan’s face, before I realized there was tears in his eyes as well.

“Twins… we’re having twins? Boys?”

It had only been the last appointment where the ultrasound tech had actually detected the twin. She said it wasn’t extremely common to go this long without realizing there was two babies, but she said it wasn’t impossible. Sometimes they were so in sync, their heartbeats and positions that it could be incredibly hard to detect that there was more than one fetus. It took a lot of work, but the second child decided it was time to be seen, and she found that we were indeed having twin boys.

“Yeah we are Jord. Merry Christmas baby,” I told him, and he wrapped me in a hug, letting the tears fall.

“I can’t believe… Cam this is amazing. How did they miss the fact there was two of them for so long?”

“Incredibly in sync – she said it does happen once in a while. The last ultrasound appointment she noticed something was a little out of whack and discovered Number Two,” I explained, and he grinned.

“Well it does explain a lot,” he admitted. I couldn’t believe how much bigger I was with this pregnancy than with Andy, and although he didn’t want to make any size comments, I knew it was what he was getting at. This pregnancy was light years different from the first one.

“It does,” I agreed. We laid back down, Jord’s hand on my stomach, the smile still on his face.

“Two boys… maybe they’ll play hockey?” he asked, his voice soft, nearly talking to himself.

“I’m sure they’ll be just like their daddy,” I teased, and he groaned.

“I hope not… I was a little shit when I was young,”

“Karma’s a bitch honey,” I laughed at him, and felt someone give a little kick. Jord’s grin widened, and he kissed my cheek.

“First real kick too… this is officially the best Christmas ever,” he decided, settling back into the pillows.

“Yes, it is,” I agreed, snuggling back in and finally feeling myself drift off to sleep.