"Oh! A boy! What are we going to name him?"
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Adam sits with his back hunched over and his hands on his knees. Chuckling softly, he glances up to his wife, who is happily bouncing about.
"Barbara, you've been going on about it all day! We said that start deciding on names when we actually found out what the gender of the child was."
"But we did!"
"How?"
"Well, my mother always told me that if one is carrying low, it's a boy. Besides, I thought you would know that."
Today was the eventful day of yet another ultrasound. Of course, both of the Maitlands went, but Barbara seemed especially giddy about this appointment. No, it wouldn't officially determine whether the Maitlands' baby was a boy or a girl, so, in all honesty, there wasn't much to get excited over. Then again, if you were in Barbara Maitland's position, it would be normal to get excited over going to yet another ultrasound appointment, considering the fact that you were a woman who had already tried many times before to conceive children but failed each time.
It was about a month after Adam had finally finished his model of Winter River, and a few months after a certain day in which Jane, the Maitlands' realtor (whom they don't like very much), finally confronts Barbara about selling their house because it would be better off for a couple with a family. . . . It hurt, and to top it all off, Jane didn't really seem to care all that much, either. She even went to Adam right afterwards to convince him to sell the house, too! Well, it was all behind them now, for they were finally going to have a child of their own, and Barbara was convinced that it was a boy.
Adam was already under the covers as his wife kept insisting that they were going to have a boy. His hands drummed across his nude chest (Adam, well, at this young age, didn't feel the need to wear a shirt to bed; Barbara didn't either with her pregnancy, but she did wear underwear, mind you) as his lips curled into a smirk. Taking off his bifocals, he leaned over to the nightstand on his side of the bed to put them away before coming back to his wife who was still babbling on about names, only now she was sitting beside him in bed.
"So, names?" Barbara prompted, nudging her husband in his side.
"Oh! Ah, well . . ." His blue eyes looked around the room for an answer, as if he wasn't prepared for a question like this—which he wasn't.
The brunette frowned, throwing the blanket over her somewhat rounded belly. "Adam! You always told me that you'd think of names from time to time."
"I did, Barbara. But I was expecting that we were going to have a girl."
Leaning back, Barbara blinked in both minor confusion and contemplation. And, after she had thought about it, Adam did seem like the type of man that would want a baby girl. He was very laid back and relaxed, rather than the type of man that was always athletic and hyper. She could easily picture Adam sitting down and watching their little girl read rather than him outside with their little boy, throwing a football . . . Or attempting to throw a football, I should say. And now, for some odd reason, Barbara wanted a girl too. Or did she really want a boy? Heck, all she knew was that she wanted a baby, and after she thought about it, she honestly didn't care whether it was a boy or a girl—er, well, perhaps not caring would be the wrong words here; not minding the baby's gender seemed much nicer.
Barbara returned Adam's earlier smirk. "So, you did think of baby names—for a girl, that is."
"I sure did," he proclaimed, sounding quite pleased with himself.
She nudged him.
"Oh! Yes. Well, they're a bit silly, but I thought of: Cathy, Jessica, and Margo. . . . I also thought of a few others, but I don't know if they could compare."
"Margo?"
Adam shrugged. "I always thought it was a pretty name."
Barbara raised a brow. "It is, but Margo Maitland?"
"Oh, that doesn't really sound right." He glanced down in shame, but it didn't last long, for he was glancing back to his wife with a small twinkle in his eye. "But I really did like the name Cathy. I don't really know where it came from, but it just popped into my mind one day and I ended up really liking it, I suppose."
"Cathy . . ." Barbara repeated, letting her hands roam over her growing bump. "Cathy Maitland. I like that. I like that a lot, actually."
"And what about your names, hm?"
"Excuse me—"
"Well, you were getting all excited about names for a boy. I would imagine that you must have some, right?"
"Of course I do!" The pregnant woman huffed slightly before continuing. "I thought about a few, but I especially thought that Oliver would be a good name. Or"—scooting closer to him, Barbara fit their bodies together like two puzzle pieces, nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck—"we could name him after you. Just think about it"—her arms raised in dramatic gesticulations for emphasis—"Adam Maitland junior!" Looking up to Adam Maitland senior, she beamed. "Cute, isn't it?"
"But why name him after me?" The question came out more in a statement-like tone rather than a questioning one. "And why cute?" He moved closer to his wife's neck and brushed some of her curls out of the way before planting tiny kisses up and down it. He pulled back to continue. "Is it because I'm cute?"
"—! Adam!" Barbara tried prying her husband from her neck, but it was apparent that the man had resorted to now sucking upon it. Raising one of her legs, she tried pushing him off by his thighs, and actually managed to do so before scrambling back to her side while he was still readjusting himself on the bed.
"You're quite the fighter!" the man joked, while letting his wife curl up to him again. "Maybe there is a little boy growing inside of you"—he rubbed her stomach—"and if that's the case, then he's definitely going to be a bruiser. I can tell."
Barbara laughed and Adam found himself laughing too. It wasn't long before the laughter died down and the both of them were left in silence, Barbara clinging onto Adam. After a few minutes of staring ahead, Adam glanced down to Barbara to make yet another comment on baby names, but when he discovered that she had fallen asleep, he gingerly kissed her forehead before stretching over to his nightstand to turn off the light.
"We'll talk about baby names in the morning."
Okay, so, I was going to go with Adam saying that he liked the name Lydia, but I thought that would be too foreshadow-y and cliché. Some of you might know, but Cathy is actually the name of the girl in the original "Beetlejuice" script that can see the Maitlands instead of Lydia; Lydia actually happens to be this girl's older sister. And, to be honest, I actually think that Cathy Maitland sounds pretty nice, actually.