Days of Black and Gold

My eyes fluttered, briefly, at the feeling of rough skin on my cheek. Exhaustion had overtaken me, though, and no matter how much I wanted to fully wake, my body had other ideas.

“Mr Crosby, you made it.”

The voice was faint, almost like I was imagining it in my state of hibernation.

“I just got the message.”

“Well, I’m sure Margot will be happy to see you. She hasn’t woken yet, has she?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Maybe you could wake her? The nurse will be in soon for the next feeding.”

“I can do that. Everyone is healthy, right?”

“Everyone is healthy, Mr Crosby. You are the proud new father of two very healthy babies.”

“Thank you,” he said, as rough skin ran across my cheek once more. “Margot. Margot, wake up.”

My body shook, but my eyes were slow to open. “Sidney?” My voice came out raspier than I had planned, resulting in a small cough.

“Doc wants you to nurse.”

“I just did,” I yawned, trying to turn to my other side.

“I don’t think so.”

“I did,” I grumbled. “You weren’t here.”

“I’ve been here for an hour, Margot.”

“No you haven’t.”

“I have,” he argued, anger evident in his voice. “You’ve been sleeping for while.”

Groaning, I forced myself to sit up. “Have you really been here for an hour?”

“Knock knock,” the nurse smiled from the door. “How’s Mommy feeling?”

“Completely zonked,” I muttered as she approached with the twins. “Sidney said I’m to nurse again. How long have I been asleep?”

“About two hours,” she shrugged. “Their last feeding was two and a half hours ago. You’ll find that they will be hungry a lot over the first couple of weeks.”

I nodded, and let out a yawn.

“Do you want me to stick around for this one?”

“I think we’ll be okay,” I grinned, taking one of the babies from the woman. “Sidney, do you want to meet your daughters?”

“Daughters?” Sidney asked, a smile falling onto his plump lips. “Both of them?”

“Yes,” I nodded, baring one of my breast. “They have your eyes.”

“They’ve stolen the hearts of all the staff,” the nurse informed us before leaving the room to give us some privacy.

“I never named them,” I whispered, adjusting myself to help the tiny human latch on. “I guess I hoped you would help. Plus, we probably should have talked about names before the whole…”

“Did you have something in mind?” His eyes were stuck to the girl in his arms.

“Not yet. Mom’s side is French, so she’s been pushing for Bernadette, but I really don’t want my daughter to be known as Bernie.”

“I can agree with that.”

“That’s a relief,” I sighed, letting a tense silence fall over us as the first child finished her meal.

“Do you mind?” I asked, holding her toward him. “You can place Baby Girl Two on my stomach, if you’re more comfortable with that.”

Nodding, he placed the girl on my stomach carefully, and took the other baby in his arms. “They are never allowed to date hockey players.”

“We’re not all bad,” a French accent sounded from the doorway.

“Kris, Cath,” I grinned, pulling a blanket up to cover my bare anatomy. “You came back.”

“We said we would,” Catherine chuckled, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Sid, it’s good to see you. Have you been here long?”

“Just over an hour,” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact with the woman.

“Are you going to practice?”

“I don’t see why I wouldn’t,” he shrugged.

“Perhaps it has something to do with-”

“Catherine,” I snapped, giving her a harsh look. “Let it go.”

“What’s going on?” Sidney asked, looking between us two women.

“Nothing,” I hissed, as the second child stopped suckling. “When is your practice?”

“We should probably leave soon,” Kris commented, checking his watch. “Do you mind if I grab a ride with you, Sid? Then I can leave the car for Cath, in case she wants to go home early.”

“That’s fine,” Sidney nodded, hesitating before handing the baby to Catherine.

“Sidney,” I said, as the men headed for the door. “If you’re not planning on coming back, can you at least text me suggestions for names?”

“I’ll give it some thought,” he compromised before turning and heading down the hall behind Kris.

“You should have let me finish,” Catherine sighed. “He deserved every word of it. The way he’s been treating you is unfair, Margot.”

“I’d like for him to keep coming back over the next couple of days. I’d also like his help naming the girls.”

“Come on, Margot. He needs a swift kick in the ass. Yeah, you kept a pretty big secret from him, but not talking to you for two months is ridiculous. On top of that, he didn’t even show up for the birth of his children.”

“Cath, you are much angrier about this than I am.”

“Really, Margot? How can you not be steaming? Kris and I showed up last night after the game. Marc and Vero showed up after the game. Even Geno and Anna showed up after the game. Where the hell was the girls’ father?”

“I never got a chance to ask,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Does it really matter? He showed up. That gives me some hope that he will want to be involved with their lives, even if it means he won’t be in mine.”

“You’re just giving up?”

“What choice do I have? Like you said, it’s been two months since he’s really talked to me. Why should I continue to humour myself with the idea of being one big happy family?”

Catherine opened her mouth to respond.

“Don’t even think about saying he’ll come around. I know that the guys on the team, who know what’s been going on, have been trying to get through to him. Even Phil has been checking up on me. That doesn’t exactly scream good fortune. Now, can we talk about something else?”

“Like how you haven’t named your children?”

“That’s a bit hard, too. What if I name them something that he hates?”

“Just don’t name them after any exes, and definitely don’t name them after Ovechkin.”

“I couldn’t even imagine having a daughter named Alex.”

“Thank you for that,” Catherine chuckled.

“You know that’s not what I meant, Cath. Your Alexander is absolutely adorable, and will never grow-up to be anything like Ovechkin.

“I’m just bugging you,” she smirked. “What were you thinking?”

“I have no idea. Do I give them my last name or his last name? Do I go with traditional names or do I go with something unique? I don’t want them to have awful nicknames either.”

“His last name, or both. And awful nicknames?”

“I told Sidney that my mom wants me to call one of them Bernadette. You know everyone is going to shorten that to Bernie. Stupid hockey player mentality.”

“Maybe you can go with traditional and non-traditional. You do have two kids.”

“I would like some input from Sidney, but maybe we can brainstorm so I have some suggestions.”