Shattered

“Tori? Babe, wake up,” I heard as I felt myself being gently shaken awake.

“What? Sophie? Oh my God the babies!” I stammered as I jumped out of bed.

“Calm down, babe. The babies are still sleeping,” Jeff whispered, pulling me out of the room. “And Sophie isn’t back yet.”

“What time is it?” I asked as Jeff pulled me into our room.

“It’s nine,” he replied, leaning in to kiss me.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, leaning away from him. “I was supposed to have breakfast ready for you! Oh, babe. I’m so sorry. I’ll go do it now. The babies just didn – “

“Shh,” Jeff whispered, putting a finger to my lips. “I can get my own breakfast. I wanted to say good morning,” he continued, leaning in to kiss me again.

“Oh,” I whispered when he pulled away after a few minutes. “Well. Good morning.”

He cut off my laugh by quickly picking up where we had left off the previous night. “Jeff, stop,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “You have a game today. No sex on game day.”

“Fuck that,” he muttered, gently pushing me towards the bed. “It’s only nine in the morning. I don’t have anywhere to be for the next 6 hours. Plus, that isn’t even an actual like – rule.”

I felt myself giving in as the back of my knees hit the bed. The second I sank down Jeff knew that he had won. The only thing that made me hesitate was seeing the smirk on his face as he pulled my shirt over my head. “If you don’t stop smiling like you just won the Stanley Cup I’m going to put a stop to this right now.”

“You’re just so easy to break. It’s so flattering how bad you want all of this,” he said with a sleazy grin.

“Oh my God, stop,” I said, giggling. “Let’s just do this.”

When Jeff’s alarm went off at 11:30 I scrambled out of bed before I could even take a breath. As I pulled on my pajamas Jeff rolled over rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “Wha-what? What’s wrong?”

“Babies. Quiet. Too long,” I raced out to the guest room and smiled down at two grinning, cooing babies. “Well, you’re in a much better mood this morning than you were last night,” I muttered as Jeff came up behind me.

“Hey babies!” he exclaimed, way too excited for just having woken up. “Who wants to play?” He leaned over and picked up Lily. “Oh. I don’t think Lily wants to play. I think Lily wants a new diaper,” he said, screwing up his face and holding her out towards me.

“Well then. Isn’t Lily lucky that her Uncle Jeff just loves changing diapers! Jack needs to be changed too, babe. I’m gonna go make breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever.” I shot Jeff a smile over my shoulder and ignored the look of horror on his face. “Hey. Parenting books can’t even teach you the basics.”

Twenty minutes later I was finishing up the babies’ bottles when Jeff walked into the kitchen holding Jack and Lily.

“The fact that it actually took you twenty whole minutes to do that is very impressive.”

“That – was disgusting. And about a million times more difficult than I could have even imagined.”

“Hey, someone’s got to do it,” I replied, taking Jack from him. I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.
“Thanks for the help.”

“Whatever you need, beautiful.” He grabbed one of the bottles off the counter and started feeding Lily. “I can see why Sophie may be overwhelmed though. My God. Two babies and one person is a lot of work.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do starting at 3 this afternoon,” I muttered, staring at Jeff pointedly.
He just looked at me and sighed. “I think you should call your mom,” he said quietly.

“It’s gonna be real then,” I whispered, staring at the floor. I could feel the tears building up as he pulled me in for a hug.

“She can still come back, Tori. She’s going to come back. You just need someone here with you. I’ll pay for your mom to come down here. Just for while I’m gone. I’m not okay with you doing this by yourself.”

I started nodding into his shoulder as the tears started falling. “How could she just leave them,” I sobbed, trying to catch my breath. “She has two perfectly healthy, beautiful, amazing babies who need her and she just walked away.”

“And we’re going to pick up the pieces,” he whispered, rubbing my back. “She left these babies with two people who can do it. She knows they’re safe and they’re so loved here. She knows that. Now, call your mom and I’m calling Gabe. It’s going to be fine. I promise you.”

I nodded as he went back to feeding Lily. I watched him sit down on the couch and pull out his phone before I turned and pulled out mine.

“Mom,” I whispered when she picked up the phone. “I need you to come down here. I need your help.”

“Tori? What’s wrong? Oh, my God. Are you okay? Are you pregnant?!”

“No, Mom. I’m fine. It’s Sophie. She came here yesterday morning with the babies. She left before lunchtime and she hasn’t come back. The babies are fine – they’re here with me and Jeff but Jeff leaves for a four day road trip tonight and I can’t take care of them on my own and I don’t know what to do,” I rambled before she cut me off.

“Oh. Tori, baby. Are you okay? Where did she go? Is that why she wouldn’t answer my calls last night?”

“I don’t know, Mom. Can you just come down here so we can figure it out. Jeff said he’d pay for a
ticket.”

“Oh, honey. He doesn’t have to do that. I’ll check the flight’s alright? I’ll call you back when I have them booked. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I whispered as I hung up the phone.

Jeff came up to me with his hand outstretched holding his phone. “Gabe wants to talk to you.”

“Hey, Gabe. I’m sorry for freaking out on you yesterday. I was just stressed out.”

“I know you were and Tori, thanks for this. I’m so sorry she just dropped this on you. She’s never left them overnight before Tor. I don’t know what to do,” he cut off and I could tell he was getting choked up. “They’re okay right,” he asked quietly.

“They’re perfect, Gabe,” I said, trying not to cry. “They’re beautiful and incredible but I think they want to just come home.”

“I want them home, I really do but I can’t do it. She needs to come back. I don’t know how to be here without her. She’s always been here.”

“She’s going to come home. Just worry about your game, okay? She’ll call or she’ll show up. She’ll come to her senses. She has to. Just don’t worry about her. She’s responsible for her decision. Worry about winning. The babies are fine. My mom is coming down to help me out while Jeff is gone. They’re going to be well taken care of.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly. “I needed to hear that. But listen, I have a few games but I have four days off next week. If this madness is still going on I’m coming there. We’ll get this figured out.”

“Okay, Gabe. I’ll see you then.”

“Bye, Tor.”

Jeff was staring at me when I hung up the phone. “I’ve never heard him so… sad,” he said, shaking his head.

“His wife just left him and took his kids,” I replied. “Imagine Casey being alive and you still being unable to see her and it being completely out of your control.”

“I never thought of it like that.”

“Yeah, well. He misses his babies. Who can blame him. Now, eat your breakfast. Coach is going to yell at me if you aren’t in tip top shape tonight.”

Three hours later I was kissing Jeff good-bye and getting the house ready for the arrival of my mother that night.

By the time I got the apartment scrubbed clean and the bed changed in the guest room it was time to settle down and watched Jeff’s game. It felt weird watching it on TV rather than from the WAG box and I couldn’t help but wonder what rumours were already going on about me. I knew that all of the other WAGs wanted Jeff and I to break up – they were determined that we were way too young and it would never last.

The second I saw Jeff step out onto the ice it all went away. I set the babies down into their play pen and sat on the couch.

“Okay, babies. It’s time to watch Uncle Jeff! And guess what! Grandma’s coming. She’s going to fix everything.”

I didn’t verbalize the, “I hope” but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking it.