"Why can't our son be named Matthew? What is wrong with the name Matthew?" Cammie nearly screamed.
"Nothing is wrong it, Cam, I just think it would work better as a middle name," Zach says calmly. They'd been having this conversation for the last two months. Ever since finding out that the baby who had been causing Cammie all the morning sickness and playing soccer with her organs was a boy, she had been pushing to name him Matthew.
"Why?"
"Cammie,"
"No, really, I want to know why you won't let me name my son after my father!" Although not the first time this argument had popped up, this was definitely the noisiest. They both kept looking at their bedroom door, waiting for their four year old daughter Morgan to walk in, upset by all the yelling.
"You can! I just don't want it to be his first name is all."
"Why. Not."
"Because I never knew him! I'm not comfortable naming my son after a man I never met. I know he was amazing, Cammie, I know he was a great man; I'm forever in debt to him because he gave me you. But Cam, it will kill you. Raising a son named after him… watching him grow into a man… take after a man he never even got to meet… Cam, do you really think you would be able to handle that? And what about Abby or Joe or your mom? Our little boy will grow up being a constant reminder of what you all lost, and I'm not willing to put him through that. I think it would be acceptable as his middle name, but never as his first," Zach explains.
"Then what do you suggest his name be?"
"Joseph."
"Joseph? How is that any better?" Cammie laughs.
"Because he has been like a father to the both of us. We love him and he loves both us and our children. He's the reason I am who I am today, and he is the man I want our son to become. And it would be a lot easier on everybody if they saw a miniature Joe running around rather than your father. Also, our son would grow up knowing the person he was named after, not just hearing the same stories over again and shown pictures of a man he never got to meet."
Cammie is silent for a while, contemplating what Zach has just said. "Are we really going to do this?" she finally asks. Zach smiles (yes, actual smileage) and nods. She drops her hands to her sixth month baby bump, "Joseph Matthew Goode it is."
Two months, 19 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 26 seconds later Cammie and Zach welcome their second child into the world. They announced their son's name to their closest friends and family as soon as Zach put him into Joe's awaiting arms. And if Joe actually cried a bit… well, at least he was in a room full of people who knew how to keep a secret (and also afraid to anger him).