Weapons of War

"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there."

Riley stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, watching Shea on the couch reading to Noah. Noah was curled up in Shea's lap, wrapped in a blanket and all she could see was the top of his head of dark hair. She watched as Shea read animatedly to him, and pressed a kiss to his head.

Her eyes drifted over to the kitchen table where their mess of baking was. She had baked almost all day, and then earlier that evening she and Noah had sat down to decorate cookies, while Shea would steal their cookie 'toppings' when they weren't looking. She got started on moving all of the baking from the kitchen table into the storage room of sorts down the hall, closing the door tightly behind her when she was done so that Dug couldn't get in there.

When she came back into the kitchen she found Shea and Noah waiting for her. Shea told her, "I'm going to tuck him in but he needed to say goodnight to you first."

She bent down and ran her fingers through his hair which was when he leaned in and whispered, "Santa cookies."

"We almost forgot." Riley said as she stood up and Shea watched her in amusement as she looked around the house and then back down to Noah and asked, "Where should we put them?"

He shrugged his shoulders and held his arms up in an 'I don't know' fashion. So Shea played into the game and told her, "Well we can't put them on the coffee table, Dug will eat them before Santa gets here."

"Hmm.… maybe we should put them in Noah's room." Riley suggested.

"No!" Noah exclaimed, throwing his arms around her leg and hugging himself close to her.

She and Shea couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. He loved Christmas but the thought of seeing Santa terrified him. Riley was sure that if they took him to get his picture with a Santa at the mall he would be one of those crying and screaming kids.

Shea told him, "Okay, okay so not in Noah's room… how about on the kitchen counter?"

Noah contemplated it for a moment before he nodded his head and headed over to the coffee table where the snack plate had been left. Shea and Riley watched in amusement and confusion as he picked up just one cookie from the plate and walked back toward him. Riley smiled gently when he held the cookie against her stomach and said, "For you."

Shea quirked his eyebrow as Noah hurried back into the living room as fast as his tiny legs would carry him and got another cookie and came back to Riley and held it up and told her that one was for her. Shea asked him, "Dad doesn't get one?"

Noah shook his head, "Bed time."

Riley laughed, kissed his head and said, "Goodnight buddy. See you in the morning."

"Night mama." He told her as he shuffled his way to the stairs.

Riley watched Shea walk carefully behind him up the stairs to make see he didn't fall, and once she could no longer see them anymore she dropped onto the couch with a sigh. She covered her legs with a blanket and bit the arm off of a gingerbread as Shea came down the stairs.

He let out a laugh when he saw her and joked, "Those are for Santa."

"I am Santa." Riley deadpanned, before she told him, "I'd let you sit down but you have a lot of work to do."

He let out a loud sigh and headed into the storage room, coming back out with a few boxes. He sat on the floor beside the couch and started assembling Christmas gifts while Riley laid down on the couch and covered herself with a blanket. She grabbed another ginger bread cookie and tapped Shea's shoulder, before she set the cookie on his shoulder and went back to watching him.

When he cursed and pulled his hand away from the easy steer tricycle he was setting up Riley asked, "Do you need help?"

He shook his head, "I'm fine, stay where you are."

Riley rolled her eyes but instead of arguing like she normally would have she told him, "I think you should know that when you boss me around it makes me feel bad."

Shea glanced over his shoulder, eyebrow quirked and he said, "You know, the tools were supposed to be used only for serious moments."

Riley grinned at him and she told him, "I couldn't help it."

He smiled and went back to working on Noah's gift. So Riley grabbed her cell phone from the coffee table and snapped a quick picture of Shea, bent over a bunch of metal pieces that eventually were supposed to turn into Noah's Christmas gift, Santa hat nearly falling off of his head. She saved it to her camera roll but also sent it to Quinn with the caption 'Sexiest Santa I've ever seen.'

Quinn responded a few seconds later with a picture of her and James, with Nixon's ears in the photo and Snoop covering the side of James' face with his tongue and 'Happy early Christmas from us and our slightly challenged fifty pound babies.'

Riley laughed and turned her phone around for Shea to see, and upon seeing the picture he laughed too. Riley leaned over the back of the couch to take a picture of Dug in his bed and sent it to Quinn. 'He's bored of being an elf.'

Quinn's response was a picture of both dogs on her, and 'I'll trade ya.'

Rikey chuckled and responded to tell her no way before she set her phone back onto the coffee table and after a few seconds of silence Shea asked, "You gonna tell me what happened this afternoon?"

She let out a small sigh, "Wouldn't even know where to start."

"At the beginning, that would be my guess." He joked and she narrowed her eyes at him but smiled nonetheless.

"I don't know honestly. When I sent her the time for dinner last night she said she'd be here, I guess something came up." Shea could tell she wasn't telling him everything so he shot her a look and she sighed before continuing, "I called her twice, no answer. Called the hotel and they told me she checked out late last night."

"Oh." He didn't know what to say to her. Riley's sigh caused Shea to turn to face her, and he reached out and grabbed her hand and he asked her, "Are we really that surprised?"

She shook her head, "Not at all. I guess I was just hoping it would be different this time."

"I know you were, and I was too but we knew there was a pretty high chance that this would happen. So I guess now we just put it behind us and remember this for next time." When Shea said this Riley nodded her head in agreement and he went back to building Noah's Christmas gifts.

He stopped what he was doing and turned around to face her when she sighed and said, "I just… you know her doing this to him bothers me more than her skipping out on my entire life ever did. It just pisses me off, like what the hell did he ever do? If she didn't want to come around why bother? Why get his hopes up like that?"

"Maybe she did want to be around." Riley glared at Shea, and he let out a small chuckle at her before continuing, "Maybe she did, but then she got here and she spent time with us and realized she really didn't. Or that this was more than what she expected. Maybe she just decided she felt differently."

"Well whatever the reason it's not okay. It's not that hard to pick up a damn phone. All she would have had to say was that she was going home and didn't think this was such a good idea after all. I would have been a hell of a lot less pissed off if she had done that." Riley mumbled.

"She wouldn't know that Riley, like you said, she skipped out on your entire life. She doesn't know you the way she should, so she doesn't know how to handle these kinds of situations with you. I'm not saying it's okay, because it's not, but we knew this was a possibility and now we've learned from it." Riley could tell that this was when Shea had reached his point of not wanting to talk about it anymore. She knew him, and she knew likely he was just as pissed off as she was but Shea liked to try to deal with his temper on his own.

So she shut up and let it go, "You about done there?"

He smiled and nodded, "Just about. Why?"

"I was thinking we could talk." When she said this Shea again stopped what he was doing and raised his eyebrow. She was quick to say, "Nothing's wrong, I just thought we could talk about things."

"What kind of things?" Shea asked her curiously as he put the finishing touches on the tricycle.

"I was thinking." Riley stated.

With a grin Shea said, "That's scary."

She grabbed the couch pillow and hit him in the back with it, before she settled back into the couch and told him, "You're mean."

He leaned over and kissed her cheek softly before he said, "Alright, I'm sorry, what were you thinking about?"

She took in a deep breath before she told him, "I think we should continue to go to Dr. Kent."

Shea's brows raised in surprise and he asked her, "After all that you want to go back?"

Nodding her head Riley explained, "It's pretty obvious to me that we have a lot of issues we need to work through, and that's okay, but that's gonna take time and I think it's obvious we need help to do it."

"I figured you wouldn't ever want to go back." Shea told her honestly.

"Part of me doesn't, but a bigger part of me loves you and wants to make this work no matter what. If that takes spending an hour every month spilling our entire life to some quack in a suit so be it." Riley told him and Shea couldn't help but chuckle. She smiled, and reached out to run her fingers through the hair at the back of his head and told him, "I know what you need from me, and I'm trying, but I need you to be patient. I know you've been patient for years, but just be patient for a little longer please. I can get there it just might take some time."

"That's all I ask; that you try." Shea told her honestly.

"You shouldn't have to… I hate that I make you feel like I'm not in this with you. You don't deserve that and I'm sorry I've made you feel like that." Shea got up from the couch when she said this, and he lifted her up to a sitting position and sat down on the couch.

With Riley leaning against his side Shea assured her, "Most of the time it's not really an issue for me. It's just times like now, when I'm trying to connect with you on that kind of a level and you can't get there. I don't blame you Riley, I get that the emotional side of our relationship is a struggle daily for you, what I said at that appointment… it wasn't right I was just pissed off and looking for someone to blame for things that are my own fault."

"What? No, Shea it's not your fault."

He nodded his head, "It is. You were right, I knew about all of this even before I married you. I shouldn't expect you to change overnight, that's not fair."

With her eyes welling up with tears Riley leaned up and kissed him, it caught him off guard and before he could even respond she pulled away and told him, "Thank you."

"For what?" Shea was so thoroughly confused.

Riley chuckled, both at herself and him, wiped under her eyes with her fingers and explained, "I've waited to hear that for so long. It's just nice to finally hear it."

"Sorry it took me a decade to say it." Shea told her, and Riley let out a small laugh.

She nodded her head, leaned forward and kissed him again and this time Shea had time to react and reciprocate. Finally, when Riley pulled away from him, she told him, "Better late than never."

He chuckled and nodded, before he looked at the mess on the floor in front of him and informed her, "Okay now you can help."

"What are we doing?" Riley asked, immediately taking a seat on the floor, making Shea laugh at her.

"You can wrap our gifts, I'll clean up this mess." He told her, and so while he made frequent trips into the garage to throw out the copious amounts of plastic and cardboard from the tricycle Riley started on wrapping the two little gifts she and Shea had gotten for Noah.

An hour later, with everything wrapped and waiting under the tree Riley announced, "Can Santa and his elves go to bed yet?"

"Elves?" Shea asked in curiosity.

Riley nodded, placed one hand on her stomach and said, "Your baby is making me very tired."

"Oh it's my baby now huh?" Shea asked her in amusement.

"When it makes me tired and uncomfortable and hot and did I mention uncomfortable? Yes, then it's your baby." Riley stated, nodding her head for good measure.

"Well, both my babies can go to bed. I'll be up in a minute or two." He told her.

"You sure?" She asked, and when she yawned he chuckled and nodded his head.

He pulled her up to a standing position, leaned down to kiss her stomach before straightening up to kiss her softly as well before he gave her a gentle push toward the stairs, "I'm sure. I'll be up in a bit."

"Hey Shea?" Riley asked as she stepped onto the first step of the stairs. She turned to look at him as he looked at her with an eyebrow raised and she smiled and told him, "I love you."

"Love you too. Now go." She let out a laugh as she climbed the stairs.

"So pushy."

- - -

"Can you get that?" Riley called out to Shea when the doorbell rang. She was in the kitchen, still cooking and she didn't have an extra Riley to go answer the door so Shea had to come inside from the backyard where he was burning Dug energy by playing fetch with him.

So Shea crossed the house and pulled the front door open, stepping aside to let Quinn and James inside. He and James started up a conversation as they headed to the kitchen and upon arriving in the kitchen Quinn immediately asked, "Where is my little munchkin?"

Noah's head popped up from the back of the couch upon hearing Quinn's voice, which made the adults in the kitchen chuckle. He shuffled off of the couch and came running at Quinn, who leaned down to pick him up with ease.

Riley watched the two of them with a small smile and her eyes caught James', after finding him watching Quinn and Noah with a smile of his own. Riley grinned at him and he rolled his eyes all while never losing his smile.

Shea groaned when the doorbell rang and asked her, "Can't we just prop the door open?"

"That's a great idea." Riley said and when Shea smiled she crushed his excitement by informing him, "And in five minutes we'll have neighbors calling about our dog and our two year old running wild down the street."

He groaned again and headed toward the door, bringing Roman, Bianca and Spencer with him this time. Quinn looked at Bianca and exclaimed, "Holy shi-"

Riley covered her mouth and told her, "Aunt Quinn, little boys have very big ears."

James laughed, Quinn elbowed him in the side looked back at Bianca and changed her wording, "I don't see you for like two weeks and all of a sudden you're like pregnant."

Bianca glanced down at her stomach, laughed and told Quinn, "Yeah… how 'bout that?"

James clapped Roman on the shoulder and said, "Let's go to the living room, she's clearly mad at you."

Shea chuckled and dropped onto the couch, and Roman took a second to kiss Bianca's cheek before he and James followed Shea. Riley glanced at Spencer and asked, "You wanna hang in here with us?"

He shrugged and sat down on a chair at the island counter, pulling a book out of Bianca's purse. Quinn glanced at him, and as she filled her wine glass she asked him, "Spence, are you excited to be a big brother?"

"Meh." He stated, again shrugging his shoulders.

Bianca, Quinn and Riley laughed, and as Riley handed Bianca a ginger ale Quinn grabbed three beer from the fridge and brought them to their 'hard working' men in the living room. Noah, still on her hip, tugged on a strand of her dark hair and said, "Love you."

Quinn smiled warmly at him, poked the tip of his nose and said, "I love you."

Noah giggled and the doorbell rang again but before Shea could get up Quinn was already heading in that direction. Pekka walked into the kitchen and asked, "Anyone want tequila?"

Riley glared at him, pointed a chopping knife in his direction and stated, "That is mean."

As everyone laughed Pekka told her, "Just think, you can save it and crack it open after…"

He made a motion with his hand and Quinn joked, "After she's done harboring the uterine parasite?"

"A what?" Spencer asked curiously.

"Nothing, finish your chapter." Bianca told him.

Riley looked at Quinn and told her, "Your kid is gonna have the world's worst potty mouth."

"We'll never have any doubt it's Quinns, kid will be like a mini big mouth." James commented from the couch, making the guys chuckle.

Quinn rolled her eyes and fired back, "Well maybe if someone would get their shit together and get me a damn baby I'd have practice at not having a truckers mouth."

"And how am I supposed to do that? Go steal the first baby I see on the street?" James asked her with an amused smile on his face.

"It's a thought." Quinn stated seriously.

"God I love Christmas here." Pekka stated, putting his usual two bottles of tequila in the cupboard for the time being. Since the first year Shea and Riley had done Christmas at their house Pekka had been bringing bottles of tequila. It was a tradition that he wouldn't change even with Riley being pregnant. They all knew it.

"Nolan at his grandparents again?" Riley asked Brooke, who nodded her head.

Pekka grinned, "Kid. Free. Evening."

Brooke rolled her eyes at him and told him, "Please, he's never home anyway."

"True." Pekka said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Purposely trying to stir up shit Shea asked Brooke, "So… got any plans for his birthday?"

Pekka narrowed his eyes and Brooke shook her head, "Nope. My once sweet little innocent baby does not want to spend his eighteenth birthday at home with his mom. Go figure."

Riley smiled and said, "I didn't spend my eighteenth birthday with my dad either."

Shea grinned, and Pekka told her, "We don't need to know the details of you and Webs on your birthday."

Riley rolled her eyes and informed him, "Actually it was like the cheesiest birthday of my life, and for your information whatever you're thinking happened didn't."

"Yeah, we had curfews when I was in juniors." Shea told the goaltender.

Pekka was quick to turn to Shea and say, "You poor souls."

Riley shook her head in amusement as everyone laughed, and her eyes glanced over to where Quinn sat on the living room floor with Noah while he showed her what he got for Christmas, and she watched as Quinn animatedly spoke to him, showing interest and excitement every time he showed her a toy or a book that he had gotten from relatives and friends. She watched Quinn lean over and kiss the top of his head as he showed extreme excitement in the gift she and James had gotten him and then Riley glanced over at Shea to find him also watching Noah and Quinn.

Their eyes met, and Shea smiled gently, and as Quinn pulled Noah into her lap so she could see the books he was showing her better Shea pulled his phone from his pocket and took a picture of them, being sure to send it to both Riley and James. Riley watched as James pulled his phone from his pocket as well upon hearing it beep, and he had clearly been confused to find a message from Shea waiting for him but his confusion morphed into a smile as he opened the picture.

They would make incredible parents. Riley already knew it, but moments like this made it even more obvious.

Riley glanced around, and eventually she abandoned her post in the kitchen to drop onto the love-seat beside Roman, who turned his head toward her and smiled. Riley sat beside him in silence while he talked to Shea, and then eventually, their conversation came to a halt and Roman turned his attention to Riley. He watched as she slowly moved her hand back and forth across the top of her stomach as she watched Noah play with Quinn on the floor beside them. Finally, Roman told her, "You look happy."

"I am happy." Riley told him, nodding her head as well. She glanced at Noah once more before she turned to Roman and said, "Very happy."

"Good, because if you weren't I'd have to beat Webs up." Roman said, and then he lowered his voice even more, leaned toward Riley and told her, "Don't tell him, but I totally like you more than him."

She let out a small laugh, which caught Shea's attention and his brow raised, Riley simply winked at him and he went back to his conversation with Brooke and Pekka with a smile on his face. That was when Riley turned back to Roman and said, "We know that."

Roman chuckled and he glanced over at Bianca, who was sitting in a chair beside James, laughing at something he had said, and then he looked back at Riley and mused, "It's kind of weird, how we're all here again and how much everything can change in a year."

Riley reached out and gently rubbed his forearm, and asked him, "How was today?"

"Pretty easy actually. I mean... obviously I think about them, especially on days like today, but it's not so hard to think about anymore. I have a life now, people who depend on me, a family, and that helps a lot. Today was good, it get's better and easier every year." Roman admitted, unsure of how that might make him sound.

Riley, as if sensing his confusion and possible nervousness over what he had said told him, "That's good. It's really good. I'm very glad to hear that, and I'm so happy for you and Bianca, really. Shea and I already decided we're demanding babysitting duty with that little baby."

"It's a boy." Roman told her with a soft smile, and Riley grinned.

"Really?" She asked him excitedly, and when he nodded she said, "Oh I can't wait to babysit him. Kids gonna be pretty freakin' handsome."

"You think? I think so too." Roman joked, making the two of them laugh, catching the attention of everyone in the living room.

Going on with their private conversation as if a room of people weren't staring at them like they were crazy Riley told him, "You're gonna make an amazing dad."

"I hope so." Roman told her, glancing down at his hands. He then told her softly, "If I'm being honest, I'm kind of terrified that I won't be any good at this."

"You're crazy to think that." Riley told him, and when he glanced over at her with questioning eyes she reminded him, "You're pretty great with Spencer, always have been, and I see you with Noah when you think no one's watching. Roman, you're gonna make a great dad, don't think otherwise."

He smiled gently, bumped his shoulder into hers and told him, "Thanks."

Riley herself smiled, and she mimicked him by bumping her own shoulder into his and then telling him, "Any time, that's what family is for."

It was Bianca this time who got up when the doorbell rang again, and Riley let out a laugh when Kelly and Craig came bustling in, Kelly exclaiming, "Sorry we're late, I decided to have a twenty minute nap and woke up like three hours later."

"It's fine, you didn't miss dinner." Riley assured her, getting up off of the couch beside Roman, but she didn't get very far when Shea grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down onto his lap. She turned her head to look at him, giving him a questioning glance as she asked, "What are you doing Mr.?"

He shrugged, "Giving my wife some love."

"Well she appreciates it, but if you don't move your bony ass knee she's not going to appreciate it very much longer." Riley told him, making Roman and James laugh. Shea rolled his eyes but moved his knee anyway, and that was when Riley grinned at him, kissed him quickly before she said, "Good boy."

Again he rolled his eyes and warned her, "Don't make me push you off of me."

"You wouldn't do it anyway." Riley told him with a knowing smile.

He sighed dramatically, placed a free hand on her stomach and then told her, "I would have six months ago."

"I know, you're so much nicer to me when I'm pregnant you know." Riley stated and Quinn stifled a laugh.

Shea raised his eyebrow, but then he smirked and told Riley, "See, we should just have a bunch more kids after this one. You'll get a good solid few years of me being nice and doting."

"Hah, dream big bub." Riley told him, patting his cheek gently as everyone laughed.

An hour later, with everyone sitting at the table dishing up food it was Roman who announced, "Alright, speech time."

Everyone turned to Riley, who laughed and shook her head, "Oh no way, I've done it the last like five years in a row. It's someone else's turn."

Everyone seemed to turn to Quinn, who rolled her eyes and said, "Nope, not a chance. I've been told like five times today that I have a truckers mouth, I'm not giving you guys any more ammo against me."

With a round of laughter out Riley turned to Shea, grinned and told him, "You're up!"

He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically before he said, "Alright... to our wives... and girlfriends and hopefully they never meet."

Riley narrowed her eyes at him, but she couldn't help but laugh with everyone else. She then told him, "Cute."

"I know." He told her with a grin.