Weapons of War

"I come bearing a gift." Quinn announced as she walked into the house, finding Riley sitting on the couch, cross legged, with the pre-game on the TV.

Glancing over her shoulder to see Quinn approaching with Peyton on her hip Riley smiled and held her hands out, "If that gift is that sweet little baby I thank you very much."

Quinn handed the five month old off to Riley and dropped onto the couch beside her, saying, "Actually the gift was food. But feel free to entertain her, she's completely drained me."

"Exhausted?" Riley asked Quinn in both curiosity and amusement as she held Peyton against her chest, and rubbed her back. She fell asleep almost instantly.

"Sure, now you fall asleep." Quinn muttered with narrowed eyes. Riley chuckled quietly and Quinn told her, "She kept me up all night, and then convineiantly James had a bunch of stuff to do today so he wasn't home all day. She's lucky she's cute."

"She has one cranky mommy that's for sure." Riley said with a smile.

Quinn rolled her eyes and settled back into the couch, putting the bag of food between she and Riley. She then asked, "Where's munchkin?"

"He is at the game with aunt Kelly." Riley said, surprising Quinn.

With a brow raised she asked, "You gave up his first post treatment slash surgery game?"

"Yeah... I wanted to be there but I'm just not feeling so great the last few days." When she said this Quinn's brow raised again and Riley explained, "Just the usual. Nauseous, headaches, whole body hurts. Plus, I'm not moving the fastest these days if you haven't noticed."

"Oh I've noticed." Quinn said with a grin.

As if on cue Riley's phone beeped and so she pulled it off of the charger next to her and opened the text message from Kelly. It was a picture of Noah, her holding him up, with his nose pressed against the glass watching warm ups, and Shea leaning against the boards on the other side, gloved fist against the glass in front of Noah, a grin on his face.

The message Kelly sent with the picture was 'I think they missed each other.'

After saving the picture onto her phone and setting it as her lock and home screen Riley held her phone out for Quinn to see the picture. Quinn made a face, moon eyes and all, and said, "That's adorable. Shea is just too much with him."

Riley nodded her head, "Yeah... he's something else."

"I really hope that James has a bond with her the way Shea has with Noah." Quinn mused out loud and Riley smiled.

It really was something to see Shea and Noah together. Riley knew she would be in trouble when Noah got a little bit older, he would likely become Shea's little partner in crime. She had a feeling there would never be a dull moment in their household.

That was when it hit her. These moments were worth more than gold. These moments were everything. It was things like that, moments between Shea and Noah that made her realize that no matter what happened, what they went through, what they said to each other, they couldn't just walk away. That wasn't an option.

They had to fix things, it might be a lifetime job, but they had to do it.

"Hey space case." Riley turned her head to Quinn, who was grinning at her as she said, "I lost you there, I was trying to tell you that my kid is drooling all over you."

Riley looked down to find that Quinn was right, there was a large wet spot on her shirt from where Peyton was sleeping. Riley simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "Wouldn't be the first time a kid's drooled on me."

"The kid is a drool factory. She's needy, and drools and it's just like having two James' around." Quinn joked and Riley chuckled. 

"You're so nice." Riley stated and again Quinn grinned at her. 

"Hey Riley?" Quinn asked her, and when Riley turned her attention to her, with her eyebrow raised, Quinn said, "James and I were talking and we kind of decided that since our siblings get the aunt and uncle titles that we wanted you to be Pey's godmother."

Riley's eyes widened a little bit and she smiled softly as she looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms and asked, "Really?"

Quinn nodded, "You've become my best friend, I couldn't imagine asking anyone else."

"Does this mean I get to spoil her even more now?" Riley asked with a huge grin, making Quinn chuckle.

"I suppose so, not like you guys don't already." Quinn gave her a pointed look.

"Hey, that was one gift, and it was a baby shower gift even though you wouldn't let us throw you one." Riley stated, defending the gift she and Shea had brought over a week after Quinn and James had brought Peyton home.

"I wasn't talking about that one. I was talking about the other three." Quinn stated, and Riley stared at her in confusion. Quinn caught her confused look and said, "Shea has been over at our house like at least once a week and I swear he brings her something every single time."

"He has?" Riley asked her in surprise. Shea hadn't told her that.

Quinn nodded, "I think he just misses when Noah was that little, and he can't wait another three months apparently. Honestly it's actually adorable, he'll stop by to 'see James' and just like sit on the floor with Peyton for like an hour and a half straight."

Riley smiled gently, "Yeah, the man kind of has baby fever."

Quinn reached out and rubbed Peyton's back gently, before she pulled her shirt down a little more as it rode up, and she said softly, "Well little miss attitude sure does love uncle Shea."

Riley couldn't help but smile again at that, and she said, "Poor girl is never gonna be able to bring a boy home. Between her dad, and Shea and Craig... oh you poor, poor baby."

Quinn let out a laugh and said, "It'll be the same one day when you and Shea have a girl."

"Probably worse." Riley stated and Quinn nodded her head in agreement.

Hours later, with a win over the Blackhawks and Noah tucked into his bed, fast asleep, Riley was sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of ice cream waiting for Shea. She knew he would be a while, but she didn't want to go to bed just yet. That was when the house phone started to ring, so she got up slowly and grabbed the phone from the counter above the dishwasher before she carried it back to the kitchen table. She hit 'talk' as she sat down, "Hello?"

"Hi Riley." She was surprised to hear Christina's voice on the other end of the phone. Riley didn't know what to say so she didn't respond right away, instead Christina asked, "How are you?"

"How am I? Don't ask me that." Her tone was sharp, and Riley didn't even care about being nice anymore. That little voice in her head telling her that bringing Christina back into her life was a bad idea had been right all along.

"I know you're angry." Damn right.

"You're three months too late on this whole conversation." Riley stated shortly, and when Christina didn't answer right away Riley went on, "Where the hell have you been? I spent two weeks trying to get a hold of you, it took you three months to call me back?"

"I figured that some space would be a good thing for both of us." She scoffed when Christina told her this. So Christina explained, "I didn't want to hurt you."

"Could have fooled me." 

Christina sighed, "Riley, I just... I don't think that it's a good thing for me to be around right now. I don't think it's such a good idea. You have a wonderful son, but I just...I don't agree with the way that you... with your lifestyle, and it's not my place to say anything so I just think it's better for us to just go our separate ways the way we have been for so long."

She didn't agree with her lifestyle? Riley didn't even know what the hell that meant. What, she didn't agree with Shea's career? Or the fact that Riley's job was being a mom? Both? Riley was sure she had never been so insulted and so angry in her life.

It showed in her voice when she exclaimed, "My whole life I've been waiting for my mother to step up, and now... now it's pretty clear to me that you are not my mother. Because a mother would neverdo the things that you've done, a mother would neverabandon her child, show up twenty years later and try to make amends and then disappear again because the child she never raised wasn't living her life the way she wanted her to. That is not a mother. I thank God that I never had you around growing up now, I'd be even more fucked up than I already am." 

"Riley-"

"I wasn't finished." Riley stated harshly, taking in a breath of air before she continued, "I have a beautiful little boy who's warm and kind and loves everything, and I have a husband who loves me more than anything in the world, who cares for me and provides for his family and protects us. I have a family that I love more than I've ever loved anything, so don't you dare try to tell me that you don't agree with my lifestyle, because what you're telling me when you say that is that you don't want me to be loved and cared for and happy. I am happy. I love Shea, and I love Noah and I would never even imagine doing what you've done to me to him, because I am a fucking mother, you aren't. If you have a problem with any of those things, that's your own issue to deal with. Do not call me again."

She hit 'end' on the phone and got up, bringing it and her bowl to the kitchen counter. She put the phone back into the holster and her dish and spoon into the dishwasher before she made her way upstairs slowly, leaving the lights on for Shea when he got home. She stopped by Noah's room down the hall to check on him, only to find it empty, and she made her way to her bedroom in confusion, right up until she found him asleep in the middle of she and Shea's bed. She leaned against the door frame and smiled as she watched him for a few minutes. 

Finally she pushed away from the door frame and she pulled the covers back gently, and she carefully crawled into bed with Noah, who woke up from her movement. Once she was laying down beside him Noah curled up with his head against her chest and one of his little arms across her stomach, and he said quietly, already half asleep, "Night mama, night baby."

She could have cried. 

When Shea got home it was late, closer to midnight, he had been kept way too long by post game media and he had been annoyed leaving the arena. He loved what he did, but sometimes, the media side of it got to be just a little too much for him. It was like they didn't understand that they had families waiting for them at home after games, or, that after a big win over a team like Chicago that he might have better things to do than discuss every play that was made in the game, and why the score was only 2-1 instead of 4-1. 

The kitchen lights were on, as usual, and he didn't even bother turning them off, instead he simply gave Dug a good pet at the front door, locked up, turned the alarm on, left his dress shoes on the mat and headed upstairs. The bedroom door was hanging wide open, as usual, but he carefully walked inside, pulling his tie loose as he did so. He paused, a foot inside the door, when he found Riley and Noah curled up together in the bed.

He dropped the undone tie onto the dresser beside him, and he simply stared at his family, both asleep, Riley holding onto Noah with both her arms, her cheek resting against the top of his head as he laid beside her with his  head on her chest. Some days, like today, he really, honestly couldn't believe how truly lucky he was that he got to come home to this almost every single night.

Riley shifted in her spot, and her eyes opened slowly, and they met his and she smiled, the first real smile from her in weeks and Shea, right then, if he were an emotional mess, could have cried when she patted the spot next to her and told him, a quiet, sleepy voice, "We've been waiting for you to get home. We miss our cuddle buddy."

He smiled, big and wide, and was quick to get out of his suit, hanging it up in the dry clean bag before he crawled into bed with them, and Riley immediately moved to rest her head on his bicep, Noah was cradled between the two of them, with his head still on Riley's chest, and Shea reached out and ran his palm across her stomach, telling her, "I love you, all of you... so much."

She smiled but didn't open her eyes, instead she reached out and rubbed her palm up and down his side soothingly and told him, "Me too."

He kissed the top of her head and instructed her, "Go back to sleep."

He was sure she was out before he even finished his sentence, and it made him smile as he looked down at her and Noah again, he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight and he knew it.

Hours later, close to four in the morning, Shea was stirred awake by movement in the bed, he rubbed at his eyes with his free hand, and upon noting the lack of weight against his other arm he turned to look over at Riley, was was sitting with her back to him on the edge of the bed. She got up, and Shea moved, the noise caused her to turn to look at him and he asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm just gonna go walk around downstairs for a bit." He started to get out of bed as she made her way to the door, so Riley stopped and told him, "It's fine Shea, go back to sleep, you need it."

But as she headed down the stairs Shea got up, throwing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt on before he followed her. She wasn't surprised to find him walking into the kitchen as she filled a glass with water, she should have known he would follow her anyway. So as she took a seat on the chair at the kitchen island to drink her water Shea took a seat on the chair beside her, and he grabbed her feet, pulling them up onto his lap. 

As he started rubbing her calves he told her, "You had restless leg syndrome really bad the last two months with Noah."

Riley smiled gently and nodded, "I remember."

"Is it that bad this time?" He asked her curiously. When she had been pregnant with Noah Shea could remember waking up in the middle of the night to Riley practically pacing up and down the hall, they would sit down to watch a movie and halfway through it she would need to get up and walk around. It was hell for both of them.

Shrugging her shoulders Riley told him honestly, "It's only happened a few times. Usually I can ignore it, but I just needed to move around a bit and I didn't want to wake you guys."

Shea shrugged, "I wasn't sleeping very well anyway. It's hard to when Noah sleeps with us, all I want to do is hold him and stare at him because I know he's not gonna be this little and want to crawl into bed with us for very much longer."

"Yeah, he's growing too fast." Riley mused in agreement. 

She drank her water while Shea rubbed her legs, both of them in silence, until Shea asked her softly, "Better?"

She nodded her head and said, "Much, come on, time to go back to bed."

She stood, and looked up at Shea, wobbling slightly at the site of three of him. The minute Shea saw her grab the edge of the counter and wobble on her feet he got up and held onto her arms, his voice slightly panicked as he asked, "Riley?"