Weapons of War

"Daddy?" Shea was stirred awake by tiny hands pushing softly into his bicep, which was hanging off of his side of the bed. For a moment he wasn't sure what was going on, if he was dreaming or not, but when the pushing persisted he realized he wasn't. Again Noah asked quietly, "Daddy?"

He opened his eyes and tried to focus through the dark on Noah, who he knew was across from him. Eventually he turned the light on beside him and glanced at Riley, who was still asleep before he turned to Noah and asked softly, "What are you doing up buddy?"

He frowned, "No feel well."

She sighed and sat up in bed, telling him, "Go back to bed I'll bring you some medicine."

Once Noah disappeared back down the hall Shea got up and wandered into the closet, pulling on a pair of sweat pants before he stopped long enough to turn the bedside light off and determine they hadn't woken Riley up. She hadn't even stirred. He made his way downstairs and gave Dug a pat on the head as he passed him on his way into the kitchen. He brought the Tylenol with him up to Noah's room, and found him laying on top of the covers, curled up with his arms around his stomach and his back to the wall in the fetal position. He let out a little cry when Shea sat down on the edge of the bed beside him and with a quick fever check using the back of the hand to his little forehead Shea measured out a small amount of the Tylenol and forced Noah to sit up so that he could take it.

Once he was done Shea put the Tylenol up on his dresser and came back to the bed, tucking Noah under the covers. He glanced at the little clock on his dresser, it was quarter to four in the morning and as he looked back at Noah to find him in tears Shea sighed gently. He pulled the covers back and picked Noah up, laying down in his bed as best as he could, plunking Noah on top of his chest. He rubbed his back gently until little snores filled his ears and then he laid where they were until he as well fell asleep.

When Riley woke up at 9 am she was surprised by two things. The first was that she was alone in bed. The second was that she couldn't hear even a single noise in the entire house. So once she finished in the bathroom she stood at the top of the stairs to see if she could hear anyone down there and upon determining that the downstairs was empty she made her way down the hall toward Noah's bedroom.

She leaned against the door frame and watched the scene in front of her with a smile. Shea and Noah were curled up in his tiny bed together, and Dug was laying on the floor directly beside the bed as if keeping watch of his humans while they slept. Instead of waking them Riley headed downstairs into the kitchen where she checked on her phone to make sure Shea didn't have practice that morning. Once she knew he didn't she decided to let them sleep a little while longer so she worked on breakfast.

As she was turning the element on to cook eggs she heard a knock followed by the front door opening so she rounded the corner to see who was coming into the house. She shot Roman a smile as he slipped out of his shoes and made his way toward the kitchen, but she could tell this wasn't a social call. He kept his head down, eyes on the floor, his hair was a mess but hidden mostly by the hood of his sweater, and from the small glimpse she got of his face Riley wondered when the last time he got any sleep was.

As they both entered the kitchen she asked him, "You want some breakfast?"

He nodded his head and said, "Sure. Thanks."

Riley nodded her own head and started filing two plates with food. She handed him both plates and filled a glass for him with chocolate milk and a mug for her with tea before heading outside to the deck with Roman following her. Once they were seated at the patio table Riley explained to Roman why they were having their breakfast outside, "Shea and Noah are still asleep."

As he bit into a piece of bacon Roman nodded his head slowly but didn't say anything. After a completely silent meal he finally spoke, "Spence wants to know why you haven't been at any of the games this year… and me… I wanna know too."

With a small smile she told Roman, "I've been busy. It's hard to get there with Noah."

"I figured as much. We just miss you around there." He told her honestly.

When he yawned Riley asked him, "So why are you really here at nine thirty in the morning?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Stayed up way too late watching movies with Spencer."

"And you thought instead of making breakfast for your own little family you decided to come here and have breakfast with mine?" Riley asked in amusement.

Roman chuckled but assured her, "Bianca had to work and Spencer had Saturday morning detention."

"Detention?" Riley asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yeah, he didn't do his homework and got a little mouthy with his teacher." He told Riley.

"He's seven…" She stated, and when the patio door opened and Shea walked outside Riley tilted her head back to look at him and informed him, "Noah is being home schooled."

He raised his own eyebrow but their conversation was cut short when Noah came outside and upon seeing Roman jumped onto his lap. Riley watched the two interact with a small smile, for two people who were unsure about where they stood on the whole kids department Bianca and Roman sure were great with them. After a few moments Riley picked up their dishes and brought them inside, Shea following behind her.

She told him, "There's a plate in the microwave waiting for you."

As he got his own plate of food Riley pulled out an apple from the fridge and sliced it as she waited for the bread to toast. Once she covered the toast with peanut butter she put the toast and apple slices on a plate, set it at the table and stuck her head outside to tell Noah to come eat his breakfast. With Shea and Noah occupied in the kitchen Riley and Roman moved into the living room, both sitting on the couch. Riley covered herself with the throw blanket on the back of the couch and started playing Sudoku on her phone, and Roman chuckled at her, "You are a very strange person."

She smiled and shrugged and when she looked at him and found him watching Noah and Shea interact at the breakfast table Riley told Roman, "You ought to have one you know."

"What? Apples and peanut butter toast?" Roman asked, making a joke because he knew what she really meant.

Riley let out a chuckle but shook her head and said, "A kid. They're pretty great you know."

"Yeah?" Roman asked with an amused smile on his face.

Nodding her head Riley told him, "Yeah… surprised me too. I figured no way would this life sucking gremlin be that great but… turns out no they're pretty awesome to have around."

"So why don't you guys have more then?" Roman asked with a smirk, trying to turn her own conversation against her.

"Timing isn't right. You on the other hand… Spencers getting older… you don't want too much time between them you know?" When she asked this he nodded his head. He had thought about it a few times, if he was being honest more than a few times actually.

"I don't know if we're ready for that yet. It hasn't even been three years." Roman informed her with a pointed look.

She sent him an equally as pointed look back as she stated, "You and I both know this is it for both of you. You're not gonna be doing the dating thing ever again Roman, and you know it."

He sighed and nodded his head, "I mean… yeah I know but I think maybe this time around I should do the whole making a family thing the proper, more traditional, not quite as ass backwards way."

Riley let out a small chuckle at this and she nodded her head and then asked, "So what are we talking here? Like… marriage and then babies?"

"Why are you so bent on me having a kid?" Roman asked her in amusement.

She shrugged, "Someone in this group needs to have a girl like ASAP, so we can marry Noah off by like age five the latest."

He let out a laugh at that, before telling her, "You're gonna have better luck on that one with Nealer and Q."

"I doubt it." Riley mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest for good measure.

Roman watched her with a smile for a moment before he said, "Yeah he's getting pretty peeved with that whole process at this point. It's been what, almost a year?"

Nodding her head Riley said, "Yeah and he needs to be a little nicer to his girlfriend, you could tell him that next time you see him."

Roman cocked an eyebrow and asked, "Oh?"

"Quinn feels bad enough that it's her fault they have to do it this way, him being the way he is about it certainly isn't helping her." Riley stated, jumping when Shea took the spot next to her without her noticing.

"What are you two going on about over here?" Shea asked, holding back his laughter as Riley narrowed her eyes at him.

"We are gossiping about your teammates if you must know." Riley stated.

Shea asked her, "I thought you hated gossip?"

"Yeah I did, and then I became a mom who doesn't leave her house and has no contact to the outside world." When Shea and Roman chuckled at her comment she slapped both of their thighs and stated, "I need to know what's going on out there!"

"Are you afraid you'll miss something important?" Shea joked, a wide grin on his face as Riley narrowed her eyes at him again.

She nodded her head and stated, "Yeah. Like one day I'll rejoin civilization and Craig will have convinced Kelly to procreate and there will be like 25 mini Smith's running around."

"When pigs fly." Roman joked.

Shea added, "And hell freezes over."

"You two need some serious psychological help." Riley deadpanned.

- - -

"Shea!" Riley called from the living room. When he didn't answer and she didn't even hear his feet upstairs she called out again, "Shea! You need to come see this. Hurry up!"

She then heard his feet on the floor and then the stairs and when he joined her in the living room he asked, "See what?"

"That." She told him, motioning with her right hand to the patio doors where just beyond them on the deck Noah was practically hanging off of Dug's neck as the dog paced back and forth. He clearly didn't look impressed with Noah trying to ride him but he didn't shake him off or anything of the sort, he simply soldiered on and allowed his tiny human the joy he was getting out of this.

Shea grinned and asked, "How long have they been at that?"

Shrugging Riley told him, "They've been out there for fifteen minutes so who knows."

They stood watching their boy play with Dug until Noah got bored and climbed off of the dog and came running inside the minute he saw Shea. Shea bent down and caught him, lifting him up into the air swiftly as Noah launched himself at him and Riley watched them with a smile as Noah's laughter filled her ears. It really was the sweetest sound.

Suddenly Noah reached out, and Shea nearly dropped him because of the sudden shift in his weight, and his little hands latched around the shoulder of the neckline of Riley's shirt. She turned to face him, stepping a little bit closer, and she let out a small laugh as Shea reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her into his side.

Noah leaned over, wrapped his tiny arms around her neck and spoke quietly, "Love you mama."

It wasn't quite 'love you' more like 'uv ooh' but every time he said it Riley got that warm and fuzzy 'it was all worth it' feeling. She looked over at Shea, who had a small smile on his face at watching Noah do that and Riley looked back at their little boy, who looked so much like his father it was almost scary some days. She smoothed out his hair and told him, "I love you too baby."

"You too daddy." Noah said, reaching out and tapping his index finger onto Shea's nose.

Shea smiled and mimicked him, "You too buddy."

It was their thing. Riley didn't get it, but she didn't have to. Seeing the smile Noah got when Shea said it back was worth it.

Interrupting the happy family moment Riley asked Noah, "Bedtime bud?"

He didn't pout, or cry, or ask for just five more minutes like any other kid would do. He simply nodded and cuddled into Shea's torso, his head on his chest, with a little sigh.

Shea took care of the tuck in again that night, Noah had increasingly begun to request for Shea to tuck him in whenever he was home. While he did that Riley locked up downstairs and hopped in the shower. When she was out, dried off and in pyjamas with her hair brushed into a neat bun, she walked back into the bedroom to find Shea sitting on the end of the bed in nothing but boxer briefs. The site made her smile as she leaned against the door frame of the bathroom.

He looked up at her and his eyebrow quirked and without a word Riley pushed off of the bathroom door frame and walked toward him. He stayed seated even as she stood in front of her, and his eyebrow raised again and stayed raised as she slowly unbuttoned the front of her pyjama top.

Halfway done the buttons she stopped and leaned down to kiss his lips softly, and she felt him smile against her lips. She let out a squeal, half muffled by Shea's lips as he wrapped his strong arms tightly around her waist and pulled her into him as tightly as he could with her standing and him sitting, though it wasn't much of a difference height wise this way.

Eventually they parted and Shea reached out and quickly undid the rest of the buttons on her shirt, pushing it down off of her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor. He was quick to push her pyjama bottoms down as well before again wrapping both arms around her and practically throwing her onto the bed with him on top of her.

Her laughter turned into a muffled moan when he skillfully pushed his hips against hers and she placed her face against the crook of his neck as Shea placed several sweet kisses on the side of her jaw and neck. His hands moved from her back to her hips and he gave her butt a squeeze as they ran over that before he grabbed a hold of her thighs and hiked her legs up so that they were hooked around his as he pushed his hips against hers with even more pressure.

She bit her lip and looked up at him and as his eyes met hers he warned her, "If you keep looking at me like that I'll be done before we even start."

With a small but playful smile Riley instructed him, "Shut up and kiss me."