"Stephen?"
"No."
"Rosemary?"
"No, Roger."
"What about Jules?"
Rebecca lowers her book to glare at him, "No."
"Jules is a great name!" he tries to protest but one last look from her has him holding his hands up, "Alright. Then how about..."
"If this has anything to do with Last of the Summer Wine, I'm divorcing you," she says seriously, picking up her mug of tea.
"It doesn't," he promises, "If Sprout is a girl, how about Taylor-Anne?"
Rebecca takes a loud slurp of her tea, "Taylor-Anne? You'd want to name our daughter Taylor-Anne Taylor?"
"I think it's got a nice ring to it."
"No."
He huffs and crosses his arms, pouting like a child, "You've shot down every single one of my ideas. Let's hear some of yours then."
"I've shot them all down because I think they're awful. And I don't have any. I don't think we'll know their name until they're here. Even if we agree on a name, I know we're going to take one look at their little face and say it's wrong."
"So you want to wait?"
She nods, "There's no rush. We have forty-two days after Sprout is born to do that."
Roger furrows his brow, "Is it just me or is Sprout starting to sound really good?"
"Roger!"
"Alright," he laughs, pointing to her mug, "Refill?"
It was just a waiting game now. Rebecca thought that she was in labour a couple of days ago but it turned out to be a false alarm and now, Roger had forced her onto the couch where they'd spent the majority of the last two days. He wasn't letting her do anything and while it had been fun at first, now she was bored.
"Ow," she mumbled as Roger returned from the kitchen. She could feel Sprout squirming around in there and while it did make her smile, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable of things to experience any more. There wasn't a lot of room.
"You okay?" he asks, placing the two mugs down on the coffee table before taking his seat by her feet.
"I'm fine," Rebecca sucked in a breath when there was another harsh assault on her insides, "Christ. Sprout is active today."
"Does it hurt?" he frowns, leaning forward to rest his forehead against her stomach.
"Careful," she muses, "Might get a foot to the face here."
Laughing, he moves away but puts his hand there instead. "Hey," he soothed, rubbing the spot slowly, "We've talked about this, haven't we?"
Sprout had always reacted more to his voice than hers. Sometimes, all Roger had to do was start talking for them to start kicking.
"You've got to be nice to your mum, don't you?" he pauses to let the baby kick again, as if he was getting a verbal response and he tuts, making Rebecca giggle, "Hey now, less of that. I know you haven't got a lot of room in there now but we're just waiting for you to make a decision. They get that from you."
"Excuse me," she laughs, "Mr I don't know what shoes to wear to this meeting. Took you almost an hour and you ended up going with your pink converse."
"They're comfortable!"
"They looked ridiculous with that suit."
"Anyway," Roger says loudly, shutting her up, "What I'm saying, Sprout, is that you can come whenever you are ready. Just don't come tonight. Juliet Bravo is on."
Rebecca groans as Roger disappears to the bathroom and making sure that he's out of earshot, she rubs her stomach, "If you wanted to come during Juliet Bravo, that really wouldn't be the worst thing."
||-||
"Do you mind? I'm trying to watch this woman be eaten by a shark."
Rebecca huffed beside him, fidgeting to try and get comfortable, "I'm sorry. Just can't-'m not comfy."
"No wonder," Roger tuts. Her legs were crossed over each other where she had them propped up on the coffee table, "Put your legs here."
Rebecca was relieved when he suggested she do that and moved them so they were stretched across his lap. This truly was the most comfortable position but Roger had been rubbing her swollen feet and ankles almost every day without complaint. They were pretty disgusting and she didn't want to seem like a burden.
"How's that?" he asks, hands automatically moving to do what they do best and she silently sinks further into the soft cushions behind her.
"Yeah, thanks, Rog."
"Just a little longer," he whispers and she nods, pulling her blanket up to her chin.
The weather was positively horrible; wet and windy but the two of them were snug and warm in their living room. Making the best out of a shitty day, Roger had lit the fire, made Rebecca comfortable on the couch before making them some hot chocolate and got some videos out for them to watch, letting her have the first choice and to his surprise, she picked Jaws.
"You were supposed to take me to see it in the cinema when it came out," she'd shrugged when he asked.
Twenty minutes later, Roger looked his way as Roy Scheider uttered his iconic line only to see her squirming around once more, looking frustrated more than anything else.
"Still not comfortable?" he frowned, wishing that he could do something to help her. He felt useless - especially the last couple of weeks.
"'m just achy," she mumbled. No matter how many pillows and cushions she used to prop herself up, there was still a dull pain in her lower back and hips and the closer she got to her due date, it was only going to get worse.
"Anything I can do?"
She sighs and fell back against the pillows, "I don't-can you rub my back?"
"Yeah, of course," he gets up quickly, so eager to do something to help her, "How do you want to do this? Here? What do the books say?"
"They say it's best to do it by the side of the bed," she answers and he holds out a hand to help her up, "So I've got something to lean on."
Rebecca swears that Roger's hands are made for massages. He's always so good at knowing where she's hurting - even without her telling him.
And quite honestly, she feels pathetic as she tosses two pillows down onto the floor so she can kneel on them (according to the books, having her on her knees with her arms resting on the bed was the most effective way to relieve her pain).
"How's that?" he asks once she's comfortable and he's got started, "Pressure alright?"
"Yes," she practically moans, feeling his hands still just for a second, "Can you go for a bit lower?"
He wordlessly does as she asks and when he does, her head falls forward to rest on the mattress.
"Sounds like you're having a little bit too much fun there, love."
"Shut up!" she laughs, feeling him kiss the back of her exposed neck.
"Is this helping any?"
She nods, "Yeah. You're so good at this, Rog. Swear you've got magic hands."
She doesn't have to turn around to know that he's smirking as he replies.
"I won't argue with that."
||-||
After her glorious massage, the pair return downstairs and Roger rewound the video while she got herself comfortable on the couch again but he needn't have bothered. Rebecca's sound asleep by the time he sits down.
When she wakes, some thirty minutes later, she was covered by her blanket again and she opened her eyes to see Roger in his armchair, hunched over something that's on the floor.
He looked at her when she yawned, giving her a soft smile as he took in how snug she looked, "Feeling any better?"
"I am," she nodded, clearing her throat, "What are you doing?"
"Well, it has just occurred to me that your due date is in two weeks."
"Two?" she paled, "That-"
"I know," he mumbled, "Twenty-fifth of January. It's the fourteenth today."
Two weeks? That's all she had left?
"But anything can happen, right?" he asks, "So I thought, just in case, we have a little go-bag ready."
"Yeah?" she yawns, "Well, what have we got?"
"Well, so far, we've got your favourite nightgown, slippers...I'm gonna out in a toothbrush. For Sprout, we've got the onesies, those little mittens to stop them scratching, blanket...nappies."
Rebecca can't help but smile as he starts listing all of the other things he's got ready to go, smiling when she sees he's actually made a check-list.
They were ready for this.
||-||
GUYS, THIS IS MY HEDGEHOG. IT CAME BACK! and i was so scared that the bright light that we have at the back door was going to blind it but thankfully, it seemed unfazed! it was eating something when i managed to snap this. silently debating on whether or not to try DMing Brian on insta to and asking for help on how to keep it safe 😂