Weapons of War

Can you pick up some infant Tylenol?

Shea slid his phone back into the pocket of his suit jacket after typing back a quick response to Riley as he got into his vehicle. Turning the keys in the ignition the engine turned over, he reached over and turned the music down, before he leaned his head back on the head rest and closed his eyes for a moment, a breath of air slipping past his lips. He was too tired to even breathe, or at least that’s how it felt. That’s how it felt a lot of times lately, between practices, home and away games, team stuff and home life he felt drained physically and emotionally.

He wanted to just sleep right here in the parking lot in his car but he didn’t have that option, so he opened his eyes, lifted his head from the head rest and put the car in reverse, backing out of his space. He went to the drug store closest to the house, and stood in front of the wall of different children’s medicine with wide eye confusion. There were three full rows of infant Tylenol, what the hell one was he supposed to pick up?

“Do you need a hand?” He turned his head to find a pharmacist standing beside him, watching with an almost amused expression.

He nodded, cleared his throat and asked, “I need something for a fever.”
 
She looked over the shelves, not quite as overwhelmed as Shea had been moments before and finally she reached up and pulled a box down, handing it to him. He took it gratefully, muttered out a thank you and made his way through the store to pay. He tossed it into the passenger seat and pulled out of the parking lot, every so often glancing at the red box beside him. What the hell did he know about infants Tylenol? He barely knew anything about adult Tylenol. His forte was not medicine, it was barely even anything that didn’t involve being the cause of a child’s giggle and maybe the occasional breakfast.

Riley’s car was sitting in the driveway in front of the garage door, he let out a small chuckle upon finding the back seat door not quite closed, so he grabbed the box of Tylenol in one hand and got out of his vehicle, quickly opening and then shutting the door to the car on his way past. A quick glance inside the back seat told him that she likely didn’t notice it wasn’t closed; there were toys all over the floor, even one in the passenger seat up front, he was assuming it was peanut butter spread across the back of the driver’s seat so he made a mental note to clean it tomorrow and the seat belt was hanging off the sides of the car seat.

He made his way up the driveway, and then the walk way, the door was unlocked so he pushed it open and stepped inside, slipping out of his shoes quickly. Riley came around the corner from the kitchen, dish rag in her hand, hair falling out of its pony tail confines. She shot him a small smile before she turned around and went back into the kitchen, which was where Shea went next, she was drying dishes, so Shea walked over to the floor by the dogs bed and picked up the crayons and coloring book.

He glanced at the page it was open to, smiling at the fact that Noah hadn’t even tried to color, he just ran the crayons across the page top to bottom. His eyes caught on a few crayon marks on the wall and he looked over at Riley with a smirk, “Who let him use the walls for a coloring book?”

He expected a laugh, at the very least a smile, but she simply turned around to look at him, and let out a breath of air before she said, “Only have two hands.”

That was how he knew it was a rough night. So he took a few long strides across the dining area and set the crayons and coloring book on the counter before he looked at Riley and asked her, “Should I even ask how tonight was?”

She shrugged, hung the dish towel over the handle on the stove and told him, “Tonight was… rough.”

“He still not feeling well?” He asked her, leaning against the counter as she did the same. He had seemed okay this morning, he was playing and chasing the dog around the living room which was something neither Shea nor Riley had seen him do in a long time. Had things really changed that much in a few hours?

She nodded her head, putting the Tylenol in the cupboard beside the sink, before she said, “He’s been sick all night. I told you running around like that would make him sick.”

Shea nodded slowly, he probably knew that too but it was just so nice to see him acting like a normal two year old for once that Shea did nothing to stop it. He watched her stare at her hands and he asked, “How are you?”

She looked up at him, “Don’t ask me that, you already know the answer.”

He did. He wasn’t sure why he had even asked in the first place. Reaching out he grabbed her hand and pulled her across the kitchen to him, pulling her into him he pulled the elastic loose and retied her hair before Riley leaned against him and he asked, “Is it adult bed time yet?”

She smiled, finally, and nodded her head, but they were interrupted by tiny feet on the floor and a little voice calling out, “Mama?”

Shea glanced around the island counter to find Noah standing on the other end of it, in his pyjamas, watching them with tired eyes. Riley walked around the counter toward him, and he lifted his arms up so she leaned down long enough to pick him up and shift him to her hip. She ran the back of her hand over his forehead, pushed his wet and matted hair from his face and asked, “You feeling any better?”

He shook his head and laid it on her shoulder, too sick and tired to even acknowledge Shea was home like he normally would. Riley walked over to the couch and sat down, and Shea followed them both. She rubbed his back gently, and Shea laid his arm over the back of the couch, his hand laying on Riley’s shoulder. Noah looked over at Shea and asked, “Win?”

Shea smiled gently, reached out and pushed his hair back again from where it had fallen back after Riley did it and said, “Sorry buddy, no win tonight.”

He stuck out his bottom lip and pouted, and his pout quickly turned into a whole face scrunched up look, and Shea was quick to grab the garbage pail that was sitting by the end of the coffee table closest to him and hold it out. Riley rubbed Noah’s back as he emptied what little was in his stomach in the first place, and when he curled into Riley’s chest again Shea took the garbage pail to the kitchen and rinsed it out.

It wasn’t until he was approaching the back of the couch that Riley asked Noah softly, “You wanna try going back to bed again?"
 
He nodded, and asked softly, so only Riley could hear, “Daddy?”

She turned her head to look at Shea and smiled, asking him, “I don’t know, can daddy handle the tuck in tonight?”

Shea grinned and said, “Yeah, I think we’ll be okay.”

He reached over Riley and picked Noah up, carefully lifting him over her and toward himself, before Riley got up and walked over to them, kissing his little forehead she told him, “Night buddy.”

He nodded his head and held onto Shea tightly as he started up the stairs and down the hall toward his bedroom. Riley waited until she knew they were in his bedroom before she too went upstairs, but into their own bedroom and she got ready for bed while Shea read the third story of the night in an attempt to get Noah to fall asleep.

She was sitting in bed, back against the headboard changing the batteries in the baby monitor, which she was thankful that they only used on these nights where Noah was sick and restless now. She used to drive Shea nuts by putting it on mute at night because every little movement or squeak would wake her up. Shea walked into the bedroom, smiled gently at her and walked past the bed to the bathroom, and a few minutes later he was dropping onto his side of the bed.

Riley let out a small sigh and leaned over to rest her head on Shea's shoulder. He leaned his head on top of hers and asked, "You feeling up to this thing tomorrow?"

It was some kind of late beginning of the season team get together, this year it was being held at James and Quinn's. Quinn had decided to take it off of Riley's hands, knowing that it would be much too much to deal with on top of everything else. Riley shrugged her shoulders and asked, "Can we see how tomorrow goes?"

He nodded, "That's fine. I told Nealer I'd let him know as soon we knew."

"You're going." Riley told him firmly.

"I'm not going without you." Shea stated, as if it were no big deal. But to Riley it was, she wasn't going to allow him to skip out on things like this; it didn't look good for the captain to not show up to team stuff. No matter what was going on.

She shook her head at him and said, "You are. You need to be there Shea."

"The guys will understand." He told her softly.

"So you told them?" She asked curiously, and when he didn't respond she smiled gently and told him, "They're not gonna understand why you're blowing them off so often if you don't tell them what's going on."

"Honestly I wouldn't even know where to start or how to have that conversation. You know?" He asked, and when Riley nodded Shea added, "I just want to wait until we know more before we start telling people."

"I know." Riley told him, reaching out to rub the top of his thigh. She let out a small sigh and told him, "Truthfully I don't even know if I'm gonna have the energy for tomorrow."

"You should just let me call my dad." Shea told her, reminding her of that standing offer his father had made them months ago.

She shook her head and told him, "We'll be fine, your dad shouldn't put his life on hold for us. Besides… you're right we don't even really know what's gonna happen. We'll wait until we know more to make these decisions."

"Will you at least let me deal with the kid tomorrow morning so you can get some sleep?" Shea asked her curiously. Riley had been so hands on and stubborn about doing everything herself that if he was being honest Shea was beginning to get annoyed with it. They had done so much work on their relationship to get it back on track and now not even three years later it felt like they were headed back in that direction. Everything seemed to come down to Shea and his career.

Instead of arguing with him Riley smiled up at him and joked, "I thought you'd never ask."

Shea smiled gently and leaned down to kiss her before he told her, "I meant it when I said you say the word and I'll talk to management-"

"Absolutely not." Riley stated with a shake of her head.

He sighed and said, "This shouldn't just be on you Ry."

"I know, but right now we don't even know what it's gonna be like in a few months. I'm not going to let you put your career on hold Shea." She told him firmly.

"And I'm not okay with you taking 100% of this on your own. It's not right Riley. We're a family, all of this should be split 50/50 instead of you doing everything." Shea stated, and when she sighed he added, "I don't want you to do all this yourself. You shouldn't be."

"And I won't let you put your career on hold for us, because if you do that you're gonna regret it and the last thing I want is for you to resent us." Riley told him honestly.

Shea sighed and grabbed her hand, telling her, "I never would. I mean it when I say you're more important than hockey… both of you."

"And I appreciate that but Shea we'll be okay. And if there's ever a time when we're not I'll tell you." Riley told him gently.

Shea asked her, "You promise?"

"Promise."