Weapons of War

"You're slowing us down." Shea informed Riley as he pushed the cart down yet another aisle in a department store. Riley was slowly walking behind him, which prompted him to tell her, a small smile on his face, "Hustle it the fuck up Ry."

She narrowed her eyes at him as he stopped and waited for her to catch up to him and she informed him, "I am not one of your teammates you know."

He blatantly checked her out, smirked, and told her, "That I do know."

Rolling her eyes Riley grabbed onto the cart to slow his stride down and she told him, "You have longer legs than I do, please slow down."

"You're killing me." He mumbled.

"I am pregnant, my feet hurt and are swollen and you've had me Christmas shopping for an hour, I am prone to fits of hormonal rage. Do not test me right now." She warned him, and he chuckled, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his side and pressing a soft kiss to her temple.

"I'll give you a foot rub tonight. We just have to kill another fifteen minutes." Shea informed her.

"Why?" She asked him curiously.

"I ordered us dinner to pick up on the way home. I got something for the kid too, don't worry." Shea told her and she let out a small chuckle. He stopped the cart and Riley almost walked right into it, and she rolled her eyes as he turned it to his left and started down a baby aisle. As they walked he said, "Just think in a few months we'll be really shopping in these aisles again."

"God help us." Riley muttered and when Shea turned to her with an amused look on his face she informed him, "When I was pregnant with Noah you bought everything you saw baby related."

"I just didn't know there were so many tiny things out there." Shea stated, defending himself even though he didn't need it. Despite mumbling and groaning about having to find a place to put yet another tiny pair of shoes or another tiny shirt and pants combination Riley loved it.

He was immediately drawn to a newborn onsie, it was pink and had a built in tutu and Riley couldn't help but smile and tell him, "If this baby has anything remotely similar to that you're on your own."

He turned to her, holding it up, and grinned, "Ry, do you really not think this would look cute?"

"On someone else's kid? Yes. On our kid? No, because this baby is a boy. I can tell." She told him, and Shea sent her a smile as he put the onsie back.

He asked her, "Do you want to know? If it's a boy or girl?"

She shrugged, leaning against the cart as she pushed it, trying to relieve some of the pressure in her feet. She turned to glance at him as he followed beside her, and she asked him curiously , "Do you?"

"No." He told her honestly, and quickly.

She arched her brow, "You were so set on knowing the last time, it drove you crazy not knowing."

"Well I mean, you knew. You had that maternal instinct or whatever it's called. So really it wasn't much of a surprise." She chuckled when he told her this and then, as they approached the check out section he said to her, "I don't know, I think not knowing is better. Gives us even more to look forward to."

She smiled gently, and she leaned against the check out til while Shea did all of the work. Riley couldn't remember when she had been so glad to get into a car, she dropped into the seat with a sigh and when Shea finished loading everything into the car and he got into the drivers side. He couldn't help but chuckle when she immediately pulled one of her feet to her lap and rubbed the bottoms of her feet through her socks.

Narrowing her eyes at him she reminded him, "This is your fault."

He shrugged, "I'd say I'm sorry but…"

He trailed off so Riley finished for him, "You're not."

"Nope." He told her, popping the 'p'.

When they arrived home and Shea put all of their Christmas gifts in their closet to await wrapping Riley dropped onto the couch between Quinn and James and without caring she dropped her head onto James' lap. He couldn't help but laugh and play with her hair as Shea raised his eyebrow at the scene before him as he dropped into one of the chairs adjacent to the couch.

Riley reminded him, "I do believe that I was promised a foot rub."

He sighed dramatically and told her, "After dinner."

"Oh my god, food." Shea hadn't seen her move that fast in a very long time.

He let out a laugh as he asked, "Hungry?"

She shot him a look, "You are the one who insisted on dragging your poor, tired, sort of very pregnant wife shopping for over an hour. Yes, I am hungry and yes my feet hurt."

He smirked, "Would you prefer our kid wakes up to no presents Christmas morning?"

"No, I'd prefer to just send you with a list." She told him, shrugging her shoulders. She then told him, "Besides, Christmas isn't even for another three weeks."

As if on cue Noah came sliding down the stairs, giggling when he landed on his butt on the floor. Riley shook her head in amusement and Shea told her, "Your kid."

"Puh-lease, I happen to know for a fact that you were a tyrant growing up." She told him.

Shea pointed out to her, "So were you so…"

She looked at him and said, "God help us."

James and Quinn chuckled, and Riley watched Quinn smile gently as Noah pulled himself up on the couch and then onto her lap. She brushed his hair from his forehead and joked, "I think your mama should get you a haircut."

He slapped his hands onto the top of his head and shook his head vigorously as he exclaimed, "No! Uncle James hair!"

Riley glanced at Quinn, before the two of them burst into laughter and then Riley stated, "You're getting a cut tomorrow morning."

He pouted and Quinn asked him, "Don't you want nice hair like your dad?"

Noah let out a breath, that was supposed to be a sigh, and said, "Okay."

Riley ruffled his hair and James told Quinn, "You're so not allowed to cut his hair. I can't have my girlfriend taking that away from me."

"Like Riley would let me anyway." Quinn told him and James glanced at Riley.

She shrugged and ran her hand through Shea's hair, asking him, "Who do you think cuts his hair?"

Shea nodded, a respond to James' silent question, and then James told her, "Well I'd say you do a good job but that would mean I'd have to compliment Webs too so…"

Quinn reached out and smacked his arm, making Noah giggle. Quinn grinned at him and then she wrapped both her arms around Noah and squeezed him, before she whispered into his ear, "I think uncle James needs a hug. A biiiig hug."

He looked up at her before sliding out of her grasp and then he stood up on the couch and jumped across it to James, landing in his lap. James jumped forward, automatically wrapping his arms around Noah as he let out an 'oomph'. Quinn watched them with a small smile and eventually she turned to Riley and asked, "Should we go get everyone's dinner ready?"

So Riley walked beside Quinn, bumping her hip into hers, into the kitchen. Once they were in the kitchen Riley asked Quinn, "You okay?"

"I'm doing better now." Quinn said, nodding her head, and then she asked Riley, "What about you?"

"Im fine." Riley told her.

Quinn however called her out, "No you're not."

"I'm just nervous for Wednesday." Riley admitted, keeping her voice low so that Shea didn't hear her. She didn't want him to know that, it would only make his hovering worse. Quinn quirked her eyebrow as she plated food from the take out containers and Riley sighed, explaining, "I don't even know why. I guess I'm just nervous that I'm doing something wrong this time around you know? I don't want to do anything to screw this up but I feel like I am."

"You'll be fine, everything's fine you're worrying for nothing." Quinn told her gently but firmly.

Pushing her hair out of her face Riley told Quinn, "My blood pressure keeps going up every time I go."

Quinn turned to her, "Yeah, but it's not like a big thing is it? I mean it can't be that bad if you've never said anything until now."

"No, it's something we've always been worried about. My first appointment it was higher than normal but not bad and then the last appointment it was… way higher than it was before." Riley admitted.

"Riley! Why didn't you tell me?" Quinn exclaimed.

She sighed, "I didn't know how. I didn't want to bring up anything to do with babies for a while, I didn't want to hurt you or anything, I know how upset you are. Then the second appointment when it was so high I just… honestly I didn't want to tell anyone because I was just… I'm screwing up the one thing I can't screw up."

Quinn sighed and stopped what she was doing, she wrapped an arm around her shoulder and said, "Honey you're not screwing up. Our bodies are weird, and we don't always understand how they work. This doesn't have a reflection on you as a person or a mother."

Riley again sighed and then she said, "This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't pushing Shea and I even further onto different sides."

"You guys are still having trouble?" Quinn asked her curiously.

"Everything just kind of came back, you know? And it's been hard, we both want to fix things but it's always like one step forward two steps back for us you know? We have a good conversation, or a good moment and then something happens, one little comment is said and it turns into this huge thing and then we don't talk for a week."

- - -

When Riley had gotten back from Quinn's salon she found a giant tree in the living room and boxes that she knew held Christmas decorations in them in the living room. Shea and Noah were both nowhere to be found, so she called out, "I'm home."

She heard Noah before she could see him, "Mama!"

He came running around the corner at the top of the stairs and he slid down on his butt, as usual, and he came to stop directly at her feet. He grinned up at her and Riley couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of him in pyjamas made to look like a Christmas elf outfit, complete with a hat and all. She raised her eyebrow and looked up the stairs when she heard Shea shuffling down them, in a Santa hat.

He sent her a bright smile and told her, "I like your hair."

She brushed her fingers over her freshly cut hair, having decided, with a little convincing on Quinn's part, to cut her hair from mid back to the middle of her breasts. It was a change but she figured with all of the other changes in her life right now what was one more?

"What's going on here?" She asked Shea in amusement, motioning with her hand to he and Noah and then sweeping it over to motion toward the mess in the living room.

Shea smiled, "We got bored and decided to decorate the tree today."

"It's the 5th of December." Riley stated, as if Shea didn't know the date.

He nodded and grabbed her hand, dragging her into the living room. He set her down on the couch and pushed the three boxes to her and instructed, "We have an assembly line. You hand us the ornaments, Noah does the bottom of the tree and I do the top."

She had to admit, Shea's enthusiasm for decorating their tree was endearing so she opened the box and started handing them things. She said softly, "I miss having a real tree."

Shea turned to her with a big, wide grin and he informed her, "I'll go outside and cut down a real one right now if you want."

She laughed.

They were half done the first box when she pulled out a ball of bubble wrap and carefully unrolled it into her lap. Inside it was a handful of ceramic ornaments. The first was a picture of she and Shea on their very first Christmas in Nashville together, the second was a little hockey player figurine, and the third was one of those cliche 'baby's first Christmas' ornaments of Noah.

"Mama?" Riley looked over to find both Shea and Noah staring at her, clearly waiting for the next set of ornaments to put on the tree. Noah approached the couch, looking down at what she was holding that had disrupted their assembly line.

He put his tiny finger on the ornament with his picture on it and Riley informed him softly, "That's you."

He looked up at her with wide eyes before he turned to Shea, as if asking him if Riley was lying, and Shea smiled gently and nodded his head. Riley handed Shea the three ornaments, she wasn't allowing Noah to put anything breakable on the tree, before she went back to digging through the box.

When they were looking for a few last things to fill space on the tree, Riley and Noah looking through one box with Shea looking through another, Shea said, "Ry."

She turned to look at him and he held up a homemade ornament, it was a popsicle stick star with a picture in the inside. A picture of Riley, at the age of five or six he guessed, and Dave. She held her hand out and Shea handed it to her, and as she looked at it Noah peeked over to see it and asked, "Who's that?"

"That is my dad." Riley told him and Noah looked up at her for a moment before he held his hands out and Riley placed the ornament in his palms. He inspected it for a moment before he shuffled off of the couch and walked up to the tree, still holding the ornament carefully in his hands. Riley and Shea both watched him inspect the tree before he stuck it in the branches. As he came back toward her Riley asked him, "How come you put that one up?"

"Because mommy's and daddy's go on the tree." He told her, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. When her eyes welled up with tears he asked her, "Why you cry?"

She reached out and pulled him onto the couch and into her lap, kissed the top of his head and cuddled him against her as she told him, "I just really, really love you."

"Love you too."

Shea got up off of his chair and joined them on the couch, and he asked Riley, "Can we tell him yet?"

She glanced at Noah, and then she looked at Shea and she smiled, "I think we could."

Noah glanced between them in confusion as Shea asked Riley, "Do you want to do it?"

She shook her head, "You do it."

Noah immediately pulled himself out of Riley's grasp and crawled onto Shea's lap and stared at him, as if expecting Shea to speak. Shea smiled at him and he told him, "Well, mommy and I wanted to tell you something."

"And I think you're gonna be very excited." Riley told him, smiling as she reached out and rubbed Noah's back gently.

"Tell!" He exclaimed, making Riley and Shea share a smile.

"Well…" Riley watched Shea lean over and whisper into Noah's ear, and then she smiled when he pulled away and Noah stared at him in surprise and confusion so Shea told him, "You're gonna be a big brother."

Noah turned to Riley, head tilted the way a dog would when it was being spoken to, and asked, "How?"

Riley looked at Shea, laughed and told him, "This is all you buddy."

Shea didn't go into the birds and bees, it was far too early and likely to confuse Noah more than he already was, he simply leaned over and placed Noah's little palm under his large one on top of Riley's growing stomach and told him, "Well, just like you, this baby is in here and in a few months we'll have a new family member."

Noah stared at his hand under Shea's for a moment, Riley could tell he really didn't understand a word Shea was saying, and she smiled as Shea leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of her stomach. Noah watched him do this and when Shea pulled away he leaned down and did the same.

Riley pulled him back into her lap as Shea explained to him, "So we have to be really careful with mom right now, and I'm gonna need you to be on your best behavior and be really good boy to help her out when I'm gone."

"I good. I help." He stated, nodding his head up and down. He laid his head against Riley's chest and she brushed her fingers through his hair gently.

Shea looked over at Riley, and she asked Noah, "Are you excited to be a big brother?"

He nodded his head and asked, "Play?"

Riley smiled, "It won't be able to play for a while, it's gonna be really little and you'll have to be really gentle."

"Daddy play?" Noah asked, looking over at Shea.

Shea smiled and Riley assured Noah, "Yeah, daddy will play with you whenever you want."