Weapons of War

Riley found Shea sitting out on the back deck throwing a ball into the yard for Dug when she came downstairs. She was bored of being alone upstairs in bed so she decided to see what Shea and Noah were up to, only to find Noah nowhere to be found and Shea outside.

He turned his head over his shoulder to look at her when he heard the patio door slide open and he reminded her, "You're supposed to be in bed."

"I'm allowed to get up and move around." She countered back with, dropping into the patio chair beside Shea's. She had been on 'bed rest' for almost a month now, and to say she was sick of it was the understatement of the year.

Dug came running up to the deck, and right up to Riley the minute she sat down and she smiled as he gave him a good scratch behind his ears. Once he was content with the level of love from his human he nudged Shea's leg and Shea tossed the ball back across the yard.

It was then that Riley asked him, "It's awfully quiet, I couldn't help but notice there's no mini Shea running around."

Shea smiled and told Riley, "He's spending the day at Brooke and Pek's."

"Is he now?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nolan needs money, he's about to be a poor student you know." Shea reminded her and Riley chuckled.

"So what, Nolan's our babysitter now?" She asked in amusement.

Shea shrugged his shoulders, "It works for now. Once a week, remember?"

"I remember." She said, almost sadly.

Shea was curious, so he asked the question, "This whole not wanting help… does this have anything to do with whatever you and the doctor talked about?"

Riley was glad he had brought the subject up, truthfully she had been trying to find a way to talk to him about everything but she couldn't figure out how to bring it up. So she told him, "I think it's a combination of a lot of things I guess."

He was tentative as he asked, "Can I ask what it is that you talked to the doctor about?"

She didn't answer right away, and Shea knew that she was either not going to answer or she was trying to figure out how to answer his question. He simply waited patiently, and finally she told him, "I went to see her because I was… struggling with a lot of stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" He asked her curiously.

The expression on his face changed from curiosity to real, genuine concern when Riley's eyes welled up with tears. She wiped at her cheeks, took in a deep breath and told him, "I'm sorry I haven't told you any of this, I didn't not tell you because I thought you didn't deserve to know or anything. I just didn't know how to tell you, and frankly it all scared me to death and I just… I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, and I'm really sorry I lied to you about where I was."

"It's okay Riley, you're telling me now. That's enough for me." Shea told her honestly, reaching out to clasp both of his large hands around hers.

She took in another deep breath and finally she told him, "I've been having trouble with the way I've been feeling through this pregnancy, especially compared to when I was pregnant with Noah."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want you to think I'm this horrible person, or that I don't… Shea… this has been hard for me. I don't know what's going on, but I just… when I was pregnant with Noah I was so happy and I just… I wanted to cry every time he kicked because I was so happy."

Shea reached up and wiped her tears for her and he asked her curiously, "Are you not happy?"

"I don't know. I told you, I don't know what's going on I just know that I don't… I've been struggling trying to feel that connection again… I'm not saying I want to go throw myself down a flight of stairs but a lot of the time I wish I wasn't pregnant." She wouldn't meet his eyes when she said that and Shea was immediately struck with guilt. Not because he felt like this was his fault, but because he hadn't noticed the way she had been feeling. He hadn't noticed any of it.

So he told her, "I'm sorry I never noticed. I'm sorry I wasn't around for you, and I'm sorry you were afraid to tell me this but just so you know Ry, this doesn't make me feel or think any differently about you. If anything, I think I love you more now than I did ten minutes ago."

She smiled gently but didn't respond to his words, instead she admitted, her voice soft, "I am terrified of what's going to happen after he gets here. I don't want to feel like this, I hate feeling like this but what if it doesn't get any better once he's here? What if it gets worse?"

"Then we'll figure it out. If that means you need to see someone that's fine, hell if you wanted to go away for help we would be okay. Your health is the most important thing to me Riley, what's the point in having a family if it's not with you? I'll do whatever I have to, to help you."

- - -

"Good evening, I come bringing food, and a cranky baby." Riley glanced over her shoulder from the couch to Quinn as she walked into the house with Peyton on her hip and a take out bag in the other hand. Quinn grinned and joked, "Why is that always my line when I come here now?"

Kelly laughed and said, "Because if there are any two things that are so incredibly Quinn like it's food and babies."

"This is true my friend." Quinn stated, handing Kelly the bag of food before she dropped onto the couch between Riley and the arm of the couch. She spread a blanket on the floor by her feet and placed Peyton onto her stomach, putting a few stuffed toys down for her to occupy herself with. With Peyton occupied Quinn turned to Riley and asked her, "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, mostly just bored out of my mind, and surprisingly doing next to nothing all day is exhausting." Riley admitted.

Kelly's brow raised, "Really?"

"All I want to do is sleep." Riley stated with a confirming nod of her head.

"You probably need the extra sleep though, you know… in preperation for baby Webs." Kelly pointed out and Quinn nodded her head in agreement.

Riley chuckled and nodded but as she rubbed her palm across her stomach she mused out loud, "I have a feeling I'm going to get very little sleep for the rest of my life with this one."

"High maintenance or what?" Quinn asked with a grin.

Riley nodded and the conversation lulled, which was when Kelly asked her curiously, "You guys pick any names yet?"

"No. Shea likes Jagger, I like Reid. We can't decide." Riley told her.

"I like them both." Quinn stated.

Kelly nodded her head in agreement and she grinned as she asked, "What if it's a girl?"

Riley narrowed her eyes and said, "That's even worse. Shea's got a list of names if it's a girl and I have like one and it's borderline liking."

"Oh?"

So Riley said, "Shea likes Arizona, Finley and Eden and I like Kinley."

"Kinley is adorable." Quinn stated.

Kelly asked her, "What about middle name?"

"Same as for a boy, but with a Y not an E." Riley explained to them, and Kelly nodded her head in understanding. The topic of names was something she and Shea had to stop discussing, they would get into arguments over it. Who knew it would be this difficult to find a name they both liked?

Hours later, when Kelly and Quinn had gone home and Noah was fast asleep in his room Riley was laying in bed eating a bowl of frozen yogurt while watching some trashy reality TV show when her phone lit up and started buzzing with an incoming call.

She grabbed it from the nightstand and found it was a FaceTime call from Shea. So she hit accept and curled up on her side in bed, propping the phone up against a pillow as he appeared on the screen, also laying in bed.

"I miss you." Was the first thing he said when he saw her.

Riley smiled gently and told him, "I mean, I moderately miss you as well."

"You damn well better." He told her with a small smile.

Her brow raised and she stared at him in amusement as she asked, "Shea… have you been drinking?"

"No… okay maybe, maaaaaybe I had a drink or two with the guys tonight." Her brow stayed raised as he said that so he sighed and added, "Alright more like five or six…or eight or I lost count."

She was glad, he needed to unwind and let loose, especially lately. She told him, "Hey, no judgement. I'm just jealous."

He chuckled and told her, "Few more months."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She joked with an eye roll. Shea smiled at her and curiously she asked, "Which guys?"

"Worried about me eh?" He asked with a smirk.

Her eyes rolled again and she informed him, "Don't sound so stereotypically Canadian."

"You love me." He said with a proud grin.

She chuckled, "Alright, I love you."

"It was just Pek and James." Shea told her, and he added, "There were no strange scantily clad women, scouts honor."

"I'm glad to hear that but for your information I would only be worried about hoes if you went out with Colin." Riley stated and Shea chuckled and nodded his head in agreement.

"Truth." Riley damn near snorted. His brow raised quizzically, "What's so funny in the peanut gallery?"

"Nothing, I just… I've missed drunk Shea that's all." Riley informed him.

His eyes rolled, "I am not drunk."

"You are." Riley stated.

"No." He told her.

"Sure."

Riley had to keep herself from giggling when he sighed and told her, "I'm just lonely babe."

She had a small smile on her face when she told him, "You'll survive."

"No I won't." He was damn near pouting.

"Do you need me to call Pekka and see if he'll cuddle with you? He would do it if I asked him." She asked, and she let out a laugh when Shea narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're mean to me." He told her.

She grinned, "Two decades together and you're just figuring this out?"

"Babe." He whined.

"Babe." She mimicked with a smile.

"I. Am. Lonely." He stated slowly, emphasizing each word.

"I'm sure there's some lotion in the bathroom. I can give you some privacy if you'd like." She joked.

His eyes narrowed and again he whined, "Stop being mean."

"Alright alright I'm sorry. What do you want to talk about?" She asked him, and when he opened his mouth she cut him off to warn him, "If you're about to ask for phone sex the answer is not a chance in hell."

"You are so no fun anymore." Shea stated and Riley smiled.

"That's what happens when you've got a parasite hiding in your uterus. It's sucked the life out of me Shea."

"And dramatic. You're very dramatic." Shea told her and she laughed. He asked her, "What did you do today?"

"Mmm... Noah went to the park with aunt Kelly, I needed Quinn's help getting up from the couch tonight... and then I read three stories to the kid and we had a little cuddle sesh and he went to bed and now I'm watching reality TV to make myself feel better about myself." She told him.

"I'm gonna ignore the fact that you tried to squeeze in the cuddle sesh thing to make me jealous." Shea told her and Riley giggled. He then went on to ask, "You stayed off of your feet for the most part?"

"Yes. I made breakfast and then I sat on the couch while Noah played with toys. He had lunch with Kelly and did the park thing and I had a nap… then we may have ordered in for dinner and hung out all night. Your dog is really loving that Kelly has taken him for a walk every night this week."

"My dog huh?" Shea asked in amusement.

"When he tore a hole in the screen door out back yes, he is your dog." Riley informed him.

Shea made a face, visibly gulped and said, "Sorry. I'll fix it tomorrow."

"You're gonna fix a screen door tomorrow? When you're hungover? Good joke." She said, smiling as he narrowed his eyes.

"I am not going to be hungover. I'm barely even drunk." Shea said, defending himself.

She chuckled and told him, "Go to sleep so that you can get home to me sooner. I really do miss you."

"You just miss me doing everything for you." Shea joked.

"You caught me."

- - -

The next morning, with Noah occupying himself with Dug and toys in the backyard Riley sat in a patio chair on the deck and watched him, drinking her tea. She knew the guys were likely getting situated on the plane now, and should be home in two hours and she couldn't help but get excited.

"Mama!" Noah called out and she looked over at him to find him laying on his back in the grass, Dug licking his face up and down and Noah squirming and squealing.

Riley smiled, and she watched for a few more minutes before she whistled and got Dug's attention. He came trotting over and she held out a treat for him, which he took back to the grass to eat while Noah ran around the backyard and Riley simply watched him. She was sure, that after so many months of him being too tired and too sick and in too much pain to do much playing at all, she would never get tired of watching him run around and act like a kid.

She picked up her phone and snapped a picture of him, arms wrapped around Dug's neck giving him a kiss to the top of his head and she sent it to Shea. When she didn't receive an answer right away like she normally did with pictures of Noah Riley pulled up a new text message and sent one to Pekka.

How hungover is he?

A few seconds later she received a picture from the goaltender that made her laugh. Shea, propped up against the wall of the plane, zip up sweater over his suit, hoodie over his head, ball cap pulled low over his face and she could see the bottoms of a pair of sunglasses on his eyes.

Pekka included in the message; Old man can't keep up with us young kids anymore.

She laughed again.

Young kids. Sure.

She received another picture. This time it was of Pekka, leaning over to Shea, making a silly face while Roman stuck his tongue out of his mouth from the seats behind them.

So Riley snapped a picture of the scene before her; Noah and Dug, her cup on the table beside her and the beautiful Tennessee morning.

He responded with Put down the coffee woman.

It's herbal tea blondie.

Oh… carry on then. See you in a few hours, I'll be dropping off your half dead husband.

Two and a half hours later, as promised, Pekka's vehicle pulled into the driveway and Riley watched from the couch as Shea dragged himself and his bag into the house. He dropped his bag by the door, kicked his shoes off and, in the foyer of their home, stripped himself right down to his navy boxer briefs before he approached her and dropped onto the couch next to her.

He put his head in her lap and as she ran her fingers through his hair he told her, "Don't even say it."

"I wasn't gonna say anything." She said, trying her best not to smile and or laugh.

He kept his eyes closed as he sighed and said, "I did not think I'd feel this shitty today."

Riley knew he would. Shea wasn't an avid drinker. Sure, he enjoyed a beer or two with the guys, the occasional glass of wine with her or some scotch with his dad but never more than one or two drinks here and there. She knew full well how hungover he would be after a night of drinking with the guys and it was, admittedly, a little funny to her that he thought otherwise.

"Shea?" Riley asked softly, and he opened his eyes just a crack, brow raising.

"Hmm?"

"I love you." She told him softly.

"I love you too." She was sure he was asleep before he even finished the sentence.

Riley sat like that on the couch with Shea's head in her lap while he slept for a few hours, so long that when he woke up she was starting to nod off. So he sat up, and the sudden loss of the weight of him against her caused her to wake up herself.

His cheeks flushed and he told her, "Sorry, I didn't want to wake you."

"It's fine. You should get some food in you." Riley told him, and as he headed into the kitchen she slowly got up off of the couch to follow him.

She was just reaching the kitchen island when she grabbed the counter and bent over in pain. Shea turned at the sound of a whimper and a deep breath, and he watched her in concern. He placed his hand on her back and asked, "What's going on?"

It was a moment before she looked up at him, straightening up slightly but keeping her hand flat on the counter top as she told him, "I'm almost positive that was a contraction."

"Are you sure?"

She looked up at him, slightly narrowed eyes and said, "I have had them before."

"I know. I'm sorry." He was pulling his cell phone out of his pocket before she could even say a single word to him, and he told her, "I'm calling the doctor, don't argue with me."

"I'm wasn't going to."