Weapons of War

"Ry." She turned to look at Shea, who was sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs against a long wall. He looked as exhausted as she was, but he wasn't the one mindlessly pacing the empty waiting room. He told her, "Sit down, please."

She sighed, but didn't move to sit down. She simply told him, "I can't."

Shea sighed and got up, but then sat back down with a loud breath of air leaving his nose. Riley instantly walked toward him, finally sitting down as he put his head in his hands and kept his eyes closed tightly.

She rubbed his back and asked, "How long have the symptoms been back?"

"Christmas." He told her shortly, and Riley didn't start an argument about him keeping this from her. He had been sidelined for three weeks now, and neither of them wanted to admit it but they were both rather enjoying the time together as a family that they wouldn't have normally gotten. The only downside was the symptoms; fatigue, headaches, dizziness, nausea, the works.

She rested her chin on his shoulder and asked, "Do you want anything?"

"For you to sit down and try to relax." He told her, and he didn't have to be facing her to know she was narrowing her eyes at him. So he told her, "You stressing out right now is stressing me out."

"They were supposed to be done hours ago Shea." Riley stated, as if he didn't know that already. When he sighed she continued, "It was supposed to be an hour or two and it's been four and no one has come to tell us what the fuck is going on."

"If something bad happened they would have already been out here. Just relax Ry, you heard the doctor this is an easy surgery. It's gonna be fine." Shea told her and Riley sighed. He grabbed her hand in his, squeezed it and told her with a small smile, "Tell you what, if there's no news in the next hour then we can panic."

"Fine." She said softly, looking down at their hands. She added, "I'm just scared."

"Me too, but that's not helping either of us right now." Shea reminded her.

Riley nodded her head. It had been a long morning. They had spent an hour having the doctor explain to Noah what was going on and why he had to be away from Riley and Shea to have his operation. He just couldn't quite grasp why they couldn't go with him, and Riley had nearly cried when Noah threw a fit and screamed and cried when they left the room. Shea practically had to drag her out.

Since then they had been sitting in the waiting room they were currently in for four hours. Pekka and Craig had stopped by early that morning, and Quinn and James had left an hour previous. Now they were alone and Riley didn't have the distractions of a flowing conversation because Shea was quiet, he was so, so quiet.

So, in an attempt to distract herself, Riley told Shea, "He keeps kicking."

Shea turned his head in his hands toward her, a small smile appearing as he asked, "He does?"

She nodded and looked down at her stomach with a smile before she joked, "I think you might have to give up your dream of a hockey dynasty here. Kids gonna be a soccer star."

He chuckled and reached out, running his large palm over her large stomach and he said, "I guess I could live with that. But we still have room to teach him the right way of life."

"Yeah, he's still moldable." Riley joked.

Curiously Shea asked, "You think they're gonna look anything alike? Him and Noah."

Riley shrugged, "Maybe, I hope not."

"No?" He asked in amusement.

She nodded her head and told him, "Not too much alike. More like you and your brother. I want them to look related but not too much alike."

Shea nodded, "I think, hopefully for my sanity and safety that this one looks like you."

She chuckled at his comment and then she rested her head on his shoulder and let out a small sigh. She admitted to Shea, "I'm so afraid of doing something wrong with this one."

"You're doing fine Riley." Shea told her, reaching out to grab her hand again.

"No I'm not." He turned in his seat to face her and he went to speak but she cut him off by saying, "Every time we go to see the doctor there's something wrong. My blood pressure goes up, I haven't gained enough weight, this and that. I'm terrified that I'm doing something wrong and that somethings going to happen."

"If the doctor isn't that worried then stop stressing yourself out." Shea told her softly.

They both looked up when Quinn and James walked into the waiting room. Riley raised her eyebrow and asked, "What are you guys doing back here?"

Quinn shrugged as she dropped into the seat beside Riley and as James sat down beside Shea he said, "We were bored. Figured you two could use the company."

Shea nodded slowly and Riley turned to Quinn as she asked, "How you doing?"

"Nervous." Riley stated and Shea nodded. She rolled her eyes and nudged her shoulder into his. He groaned, and as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose she asked, "You okay?"

He nodded, "Fine."

She rolled her eyes and muttered, "Stubborn ass."

James stifled his laughter and Shea simply pulled his hand from his face, turned to Riley and asked, "What did you just call me?"

She shrugged, "You heard me."

"You're the stubborn one." He stated.

She let out a short laugh and patted his cheek gently as she shook her head and said, "Oh babe, no. You are."

Shea rolled his eyes and reminded her, "You're supposed to be nice to me when I'm injured."

"Well you're not supposed to get injured so there." Riley fired back with a grin.

His eyes narrowed, "You're a really awful hockey wife you know."

"You're just figuring this out now?" Riley asked with a grin, and when Shea rolled his eyes she pushed even further, still grinning, "I've had you fooled for like fifteen years? Damn, I am good."

"Good for nothing." Shea mumbled, a small smile on his face.

She shrugged, "Well we can't all be good at skating on ice, have a massive slap shot, have really nice hair, and be really good at knocking people up, which by the way I'm keeping score."

Shea, who had just lifted his bottle of water to his lips and took a drink, choked, sputtered, coughed and turned to her as Quinn and James laughed at him, and asked, "What the hell does that mean?"

"I'm keeping count here, I've decided that for each time you have knocked me up without my knowledge of it you owe me a whole year of post retirement doting." Riley stated, nodding her head, and when Shea raised his eyebrow she informed him, "You're at two years now. Better stop while you're ahead."

Shea rolled his eyes and informed her, "You could have remembered to use protection too."

Riley, ignoring his comment, stated, "I haven't been on birth control like my entire life so really, the fact that we went over a decade without having a kid is pretty fuckin' impressive if you ask me."

Quinn raised her eyebrow, "You have never been on birth control?"

"No? I mean I tried the pill when I was like fifteen but it made my mood really fucked up. So I just never bothered with other kinds, condom's worked fine for over a decade... you know... until someone decided not to use one and we got blessed with that adorable little monster who wakes me up at ungodly hours of the day." Riley stated, giving Shea the side eye. He rolled his eyes and she grinned at him.

"Actually that's really impressive. That is pat yourself on the back impressive." Quinn told her and Riley let out a laugh at her comment.

"I like how the two of you are just sitting in a hospital waiting room talking about birth control." James stated, and Shea nodded in agreement.

Riley shrugged, "It's a hospital, like they haven't heard worse."

Quinn told him, "Hell I've heard worse. Do you not remember having to listen to two nurses in the hospital in Pittsburgh talk about having to remove foreign objects-"

"I do not need to remember that conversation." James stated, shaking his head as if it was an Etch A Sketch and he could make the conversation disappear with a shake.

"I kind of sort of want to hear this story." Riley stated, making Shea laugh and James gag.

Quinn grinned, "I knew you would. This is why we're friends, we like disgusting stories that we can not so silently judge people for."

"Truth."

"So I decided one night it would be a good idea to say fuck the doctors recommendations and go to one of James' games." Quinn started.

James interrupted to tell Riley, "Which I was not happy about."

Quinn rolled her eyes and continued on with her story, "So I go to the game and then by the time we were on our way home I ended up getting really sick. He had to pull over like four times so that I could puke and my stomach hurt and all that other fun stuff. So James takes me to the hospital, I get medication and a nice lecture from my doctor about following rules and then when I was waiting to be discharged there was two nurses standing outside of my room talking about this guy that came into the ER with a hairspray bottle... yenno... I think you get the picture here."

Riley stared at Quinn for a moment before she couldn't stop herself from tilting her head back and laughing, Quinn laughing as well. James made a face and Shea simply shook his head more so at the two women beside him. Once they stopped laughing Riley asked, "Like... how dumb does someone have to be?"

"The best part is, apparently he told the nurses he 'fell'. Like... what?" Again the two of them burst into laughter, this time Shea let out a small chuckle as well but James simply shook his head again.

Once they all stopped laughing Riley pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and Quinn leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing, asking, "What are you doing?"

Riley looked over at Quinn for a moment before she looked back down at her phone and said, "Baby shopping."

"Ooh! I love online shopping." Quinn stated with a grin.

James smirked, "I know."

As Shea chuckled Quinn rolled her eyes and informed him, "You're worse so watch it."

Shea's chuckle turned into laughter and James simply told Quinn, "At least I don't order olive oil and food seasoning online."

"Yeah, you go stand in line at stores where people bug you. A few clicks on a computer and boom, we have olive oil and food seasoning in the cupboard in 1-3 business days. I win." Quinn told him, grinning when he rolled his eyes at her.

"Oh... online shopping for food... that is genius." Riley stated, scrolling through pages of baby clothes and toys. She looked up at Shea and said, "We should start doing that."

"What, and give up my hour of time away from you and our adorable little monster who wakes us up at ungodly hours of the day? I don't think so." Shea told her with a smile, she rolled her eyes and poked him in the ribs.

She and Quinn went back to shopping online, and Shea simply stared across from him. He made fun of Riley for being so nervous, but, even though he knew she probably already knew it, he would never admit that he was nervous as hell himself. He had been since the night before, in fact, he had barely slept all night which certainly didn't help his concussion any at all. He was still waiting to hear about whether or not he would be cleared to play, so far his status was 'close but not there yet' and Shea wasn't sure he really cared that much.

Of course he wanted to be out there with his teammates, of course he wanted to be playing, of course he missed it and of course he wanted to get back out there but at the same time he couldn't lie, the time off the last three weeks had been nice. It was extremely rare for Riley and himself to get to spend this much time together, he was getting to experience things he never would have been able to otherwise. Things like helping get Noah ready for his surgery, being able to be here for his surgery and knowing he would be home to help out for at least another week after they took him home. Things like being able to experience this second pregnancy with Riley, at least as much as he could without going through it himself; he got to go to all of the doctors appointments and he got to really see her grow, he got to be there for things he needed to be and that was something that he was extremely grateful for, even if it came with the occasional headache, some nausea and a few dizzy spells here and there.

Shea was pulled out of his thoughts when Quinn exclaimed, "Oh my god that's the cutest thing I've ever seen."

Riley smiled and nodded, telling Quinn, "We're doing yellow and grey."

"I love that. It's gender neutral but also cute, and not super popular like green or brown." Quinn told her, and Riley nodded again. Quinn curiously asked her, "Have you guys picked out any furniture yet?"

"Not yet, we should probably get started on that I guess." Riley said with a small smile, giving Shea's knee a gentle push, and he nodded his head.

"Whenever you want." He told her.

Riley shifted to get more comfortable in her chair, and she winced as she put a hand on her stomach before she said, "God I forgot how much I hate baby kicks."

James couldn't help but state, "I thought all women thought pregnancy was this beautiful miracle."

Riley let out a short laugh and shook her head, "Not this one. There is nothing beautiful about this. Nausea, heartburn, you're tired all the time, there's that whole issue with the constant need to pee and don't even get me started on the touching."

Shea turned to James and told him, "She's a little emotional these days."

Riley rolled her eyes and said, "I just do not understand why it's like my stomach is public property and everyone get's to have an opinion. You know, I had a woman at the grocery store last week ask me if I was going to have him circumcised. A total stranger felt it was perfectly okay to ask me about my unborn child's penis in the cereal aisle."

"That's fucked up." Quinn stated as Shea and James tried their best, and failed, at holding their laughter in.

Riley, ignoring them, nodded and continued her rant, "And what is with people thinking I can't do anything for myself. It's like I'm wearing a sign that says 'look out people, pregnant woman coming through.'"

"I think you need a snickers." Quinn stated, grinning when Riley narrowed her eyes at her.

"I just need people to understand that I'm pregnant not elderly." Riley mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest as she narrowed her eyes.

Quinn put her hand over Riley's chest and said, "Jeez woman, are you trying to cause an accident here?"

Riley glanced down, swatted Quinn's hands away and pulled her shirt up, not that it did much, and she asked, "I don't see how my chest is gonna cause an accident."

"Because that twelve year old doctor over there just about walked into the reception desk staring at you." Quinn told her, and all three pairs of eyes turned to where Quinn was looking.

Shea narrowed his eyes at the sight of a clearly very young doctor who was now very intently staring into a chart, Riley grinned, "At least someone is enjoying them, I know I'm not."

"For your information-"

Riley interrupted Shea, "You don't count."

He rolled his eyes as James and Quinn chuckled, and then Quinn looked down at her watch, got up and said, "We're gonna get out of here."

"You don't have to." Riley told her.

It was James who spoke next, "We kind of do actually, but let us know when he's out and how it went?"

Riley nodded and gave Quinn a gentle hug before she watched them get into the elevator. She then turned to Shea and asked, "Can we panic yet?"

He let out a chuckle, but his eyes caught on Noah's doctor heading toward them and he told Riley, "I think we don't have to now."

Riley's brow raised but when Shea got up she turned, saw the doctor, and also go up. Once he came to a stop before them Riley held her breath, afraid of what he was going to say to them. Shea slipped his hand into hers, keeping a gentle squeeze while the doctor told them, "He's in the recovery, he did great, we got it all."

"Oh thank god." Shea said as Riley let out a breath of air and leaned into Shea's side.

"There was a little complication." Both their heads snapped back to the doctor when he said this, but he assured them, "He's fine. We did end up having to remove the whole left kidney, but it's fine. Plenty of people live with one kidney and they do exceptionally well. He's young, kids are resilient."

Shea had so many questions, but before he could ask them Riley asked, "Can we see him?"

They were lead to his room and left alone, Shea having made arrangements to talk to the doctor tomorrow to get answers to all of his questions, giving himself enough time to be able to logically think of the right questions to ask. Riley stood outside of Noah's door for a moment, even as Shea went inside, and he turned to look at her in confusion, "You coming?"

She looked up at him, smiled and nodded, taking his outstretched hand and walking into the room. Riley stood by Noah's bed, brushing his hair from his forehead as Shea sat down in the chair by his bed and simply stared at him. Noah, shifted from the feeling of Riley's hands on his head, opened his eyes slowly and croaked out, "Mama?"

Riley nodded and smiled, trying not to cry, as she said, "Hey buddy."

"Good?" He asked her quietly.

"You did so good."