What's In A Name
"Have you given any thought about names, my love?" Patrick asked his wife as they lay in bed that evening, her head resting on his chest as he drew his fingers lazily through her hair.
"Not really, Patrick. I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself. We don't even know if it will be a boy or a girl."
"Hmm." The sound came out as though part surprised, part hurt.
She looked up at him in the silence, his face a bit blurred without her glasses. "Patrick? Have you thought about it?" She placed her hand on his chin to guide his attention to hers.
"Would it surprise you if I told you I had?"
Shelagh smiled. "This marriage is full of surprises, Patrick." She stopped speaking as she realized the weight of her words. "I didn't mean-I just...I meant there's still so much for us to know about one another."
"I know, love. And we will, I promise." He reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it. As he let go, she raised herself up higher on his chest and kissed his lips softly.
"Yes, we will." She whispered as she pulled away. "Now, you didn't answer my question...have you thought about names?"
Patrick shifted in bed so that he could clearly hold her gaze.
"I've thought about names since the day I placed this ring on your finger in the parish hall." He answered her as his thumb brushed the back of her hand in comforting circles.
Her breath hitched at his confession as she smiled into his chest. "Well then, I suppose we ought to make a list."
He kissed her head and smiled, drawing her closer as they both settled down for sleep. "I suppose we should. First thing tomorrow."
After dinner the next evening, as soon as Timothy had left for Cubs, the expectant parents say in front of the fire with a notepad and pen debating possible names.
After half the page was filled, Shelagh gathered up the courage to ask her husband the question that had been bothering her.
"Patrick? Every name you've suggested is for a boy, except one. Will you...will you be upset if it's a girl?"
Patrick looked horrified at his wife. "Of course not! I'm going to love this child, regardless of gender. It's just- if it is a girl, that's the only name I can think of for her."
Shelagh, satisfied with his answer, felt her worries wiped away. "In that case, if it's a girl... I'd like to make her middle name Julienne. If that's alright, with you?"
"I think that will be perfect. She'll have a beautiful name, just like her Mummy."
Shelagh glanced at her husband, not missing the hopeful gleam in his eye as he kissed her hand.
"Don't get too excited, Doctor Turner. Our son will be home from Cubs soon and we still have boys names to go through..." She winked at him, silently acknowledging that what he was looking for would come later.
Less than a week later, the Turner family of three had become four. After a hectic afternoon, the details of which Shelagh could not remember to save her life, she walked back into her home holding her newborn daughter alongside her two attentive boys.
"Here, Shelagh. Let me take her so you can get your coat off." Patrick carefully lifted his sleeping daughter out of his wife's arms. "Tim, help-" he cut his speech short as his son was already taking off his mother's coat and hanging it on the peg. "Thank you."
He handed the blanket wrapped bundle back to his wife and reached into his pocket for his wallet.
"Timothy, your first act as big brother is going to be fetching dinner. I'm not going to ask Mum to cook." He explained as he handed his son a few notes.
"Quite. And we don't want to traumatize Angela with the stench of your cooking on her first day." Timothy said cheekily, never taking his eyes off his sister.
"I'll go make up a bottle. This young lady is probably going to want to be fed soon." Patrick said, kissing both his girls and moving into the kitchen as Timothy closed the door quietly behind himself.
Shelagh moved into the sitting room, taking up her usual spot on the sofa and staring down at the now-awake baby. She smiled as Patrick came back in and sat next to her, handing over the bottle of formula. As the baby began to eagerly feed, Shelagh relaxed into her husbands side as his arm came around her stroking her upper arm.
"Patrick?"
"Yes, my love?"
"I've been meaning to ask you, but things have been so busy this week and today, well...today has been so wonderful."
"Indeed." He stroked his daughters head as he watched her eyes dance about her surroundings as if trying to take it all in at once. "What did you want to ask me?"
"It's nothing really, just curiosity. What made you come up with the name Angela?"
"Do you not like it, Shelagh? We can still change it if you-"
"No! I love it. It suits her...I was just wondering."
Patrick smiled at his wife, an almost sad smile if she were to be honest.
"You know the day of the TB screening van? When you..." They both paused, remembering that fateful day and the painful months that followed. "When you helped that scared little girl to get screened?"
"Yes?"
"Well...her name was Angela."
"Oh!" Shelagh was shocked that her husband remembered that girl. That was the day he'd called her a natural and made her blush from the compliment. "But why-"
"Because," Patrick cut her off. "Without that little girl, we may never have known you were ill before...before it was too late."
He looked at his wife, tears evident in both of their eyes.
"That little girl brought you back to me, Shelagh. I'm sorry, I should have told you before.."
"No. It's perfect." She looked at the little pink bundle in her arms, her bottle finished and now wide awake. "Well now, Angela Julienne Turner...I think it's time Daddy had a cuddle."