Believe It Or Not (An Eddie Munson Story)

Midnight Snack

Eddie's POV:

"Eddie, Eds," Ripley nudges me in my sleep. I groan and curl into her more snuggly. I wrap my arms around her middle to keep her from wiggling and she huffs against me, annoyed. 

"Edward," she groans, rubbing her cold feet up my bare calves making me shiver. 

"What do you want?" I grunt, lifting one eyelid to peek over at the digital alarm clock on my nightstand. It's one-thirty two in the morning. We both should be fast asleep. 

"Ripley Michelle, there better be a damn good reason you're waking me up right now," I warn, rolling over onto my back and covering my eyes with the palms of my hands. Ripley rolls on top of me, laying across my chest and when I pull my hands away she is looking down at me. 

"I'm starving," she says and I furrow my eyebrows. 

"And you needed to wake me up for that because?" 

"Because I'm starving for pickles and ice cream and you have neither in your kitchen." 

"Baby, it's almost two o'clock in the morning," I sigh and she pouts down at me. 

"But I can't sleep when I'm hungry like this. Bean and I need pickles and ice cream otherwise I'll be up for the rest of the night." 

I groan again, resigned and I gently ease her off of me. I push the blankets off of me and shiver slightly in the cold early morning air. I grab a pair of sweats from atop my dresser and pull them on before shrugging into a hoodie. I reach up and pull my hair through the neck of the sweater and turn to look down at her, still snug in bed. 

"Do you want a specific type of ice cream or just plain vanilla?" I ask her and her face breaks out into an excited smile. 

"Just vanilla please," she says. "And whole dill pickles." 

I shudder internally at thought of the combination, but I don't say anything. Ripley's weird cravings started a few weeks ago, so I have gotten familiar with odd requests. This is the first time she has woken me up in the middle of the night though. I hope it will be the last, but I'm not too optimistic. I lean down and kiss Ripley's head before moving into the kitchen and grabbing my keys. 

I drive to the local grocery store, glad they are open twenty four hours. I keep my head down as I quickly move through the aisles grabbing first the pickles I know she will want and then the ice cream. When I get to the register, the middle aged man working smiles down at my items, shaking his head knowingly. 

"Pregnant wife at home?" he asks me with a grin and I nod, not bothering to correct him. 

"I remember those days," he chuckles and tells me my total. I hand him the cash and he gets my change. "Best of luck to you. It's definitely worth it in the end. Try to keep that in mind on these nights." 

I nod with a smile and thank him, taking my bags and walking outside. His words stay with me as I drive back to the trailer. When I get back inside, Ripley is sitting up in bed, flipping through a comic book. She smiles as I hold up the bag of goodies triumphantly and bounces slightly on the mattress. I had grabbed two spoons on my way down the hall and I hand them to her as I pull the pint of ice cream and jar of pickles from the shopping bag. Ripley peels back the ice cream top and sets it between us as I pop open the jar of pickles and hand it to her. She sits crisscrossed and places it between her legs. I take off my hoodie and rejoin her in bed, taking my spoon from her and digging into the ice cream as she fishes out a pickle. She crunches on it happily, a satisfied moan escaping her lips and I smile. 

"You're the best," she sighs, looking over at me and I laugh. 

"You act like I've just done something mind-blowing. All I did was drive to the Piggly Wiggly and get the food you wanted."