Chapter Nine

Friday, February 17

Evening

"Sweetheart, what about Ian," EJ called out to his wife, his eyes peering through thick-rimmed black reading glasses from behind a book of baby names toward the bathroom located in their bedroom suite where Nicole was busily brushing her teeth.

"I don't know," she whined almost unintelligibly through a mouthful of toothpaste. Her next sentence was much clearer after she spit the contents of her mouth into the sink. "I like it but, it's just so...I don't know...ordinary, I guess."

"Well, what were you thinking? Was there a name you have in mind?"

"Well, maybe a few," she admitted sheepishly as she strode toward the bed and wasted no time slipping under the covers next to him.

"Really? Do tell," he said, kissing the top of her head after she nestled into her favorite cuddling spot.

"Well, I was thinking if they are both boys, I like Castor and Pollux, for a couple of reasons. If they're born on time they will be Geminis so they would be quite appropriately named, and Nicholas Cage in Face/Off really made the name Castor pretty badass."

"So what about Pollux? We have one badass kid and the other one is just his nerdy little follower?"

"Hey! That could be your son you're talking about," Nicole said giving him a playful smack to the cheek. "Actually, if you'd paid attention to the movie you would have seen that Pollux was the brains behind their entire operation."

"Well, it doesn't really matter darling because I am regretfully giving the names Castor and Pollux the official thumbs down," EJ said as he performed the appropriate hand gestures for further effect.

"Really," Nicole questioned disappointedly as she propped her elbows up on his chest. "I honestly thought you would really like those names."

"I do like them. Very much actually, but...they just don't seem to mesh well with DiMera."

"What, not Italian enough?"

"Oh, please, I am not my father. I promise you, our childrens' names do not need to end in a vowel."

Nicole sighed. "Well, I suppose there is still plenty of time to think of names. Maybe we should start focusing on the other things on the to-do list."

"Such as?"

"Well, the nursery for one. We need to come up with a theme and then hire a decorator. It could take a few months for the project so we'd better get moving on that."

"How about after the convention tomorrow we go shopping around for some ideas and then on Monday I'll arrange for us to meet with our decorator?"

"Sounds wonderful," she purred as her lips inched toward his for a quick kiss. "She did such a great job with Johnny and Sydney's rooms."

"Yes. It is quite a shame they'll never get to see them."

Nicole frowned as she watched him wince from the emotional turmoil reciting that statement had caused him. "Don't say that. We knew that this is something that wasn't going to be easy but we're never going to give up on them, right?"

"Mary was just in their rooms cleaning today. I think she thinks that one day Samantha's just going to magically show up and drop them on our doorstep."

"Well, you know if the old lady ever kicks the bucket anytime soon she just might do that. You're probably still one step above having to pay a babysitter, whiiich brings us to the next thing on our list."

"What? Doing away with Caroline Brady?"

"Nooo," Nicole cooed as her finger curled itself around the strap of his wifebeater tee. "I was thinking we should hire a live-in nanny."

"A nanny? Sweetheart, why do we need a nanny? We have Mary and I thought you wanted to be home with the children for at least their first year?"

"I know, and I do. I'm not trying to replace Mary it's just that, you know, she's not so youthful anymore and I just thought with two little ones to watch it might be a good idea to have someone around who's a little more quick on their feet, especially with us living so close to the river. I have these awful visions of one of the twins taking off toward the water and falling over the edge. I mean, there's some hillside there but it's pretty steep and with all those jagged rocks-"

"Alright, alright sweetheart, please, you've made your point," he finally interrupted, squeezing his eyes shut tightly as he shook his head in effort to erase the awful images of the potential tragedy created courtesy of Nicole. "Now that you've painted this lovely picture of a leisurely family outing gone terribly wrong I would have to agree with you but, do we have to start looking now? Why not wait a little while, at least until they start crawling. I'm going to be taking as much time off from work as I possibly can so I can be with you and the twins, and Mary can certainly handle a few bottle feedings and diaper changes."

"I know, but I just thought that if we are going to bring somebody in we want to know that we can fully trust that person, right? I think it would be a good idea to start looking now so that hopefully, we can spend at least a couple of months getting to know her, or him, before the babies are even born and then, if everything works out, then the babies will know her from day one and we'll never have to worry about leaving in them in her care when we finally both go back to work full-time, or even if before that we just want to go out for an evening."

"You know, it really irks me when you are right about everything," EJ teased with mock annoyance in his voice while the gentle touch of his fingers tracing circles around her back assured her he was anything but. "So Monday, we will meet with the decorator and add contact nanny agency to the list."

"See, just call me Pollux because I'm the brains behind this little operation we've got going here," Nicole teased, smiling triumphantly. "Without me you'd be better off giving up your current day job and hitting the runway."

"Do you hear this," EJ said as he slid out from beneath Nicole and scooted down toward the foot of the bed until his face was even with her stomach. He leaned in close to engage in a 'private' conversation with his unborn children. "Your mummy just basically told me that I, your daddy, am dumber than a rock. What do you think about that?"

Nicole and EJ both gasped in unison as they both felt their first, strong little baby kick. When the inital shock wore off, they both began to laugh heartily.

"Oh, god, you felt that too, didn't you," Nicole finally was able to question once her laughter finally begin to subside. "I don't think he thought much of me teasing his daddy."

"How do you know it wasn't she who was upset about it, hmmm?"

"Alright, alright let's not get into that all over again," Nicole said as she slid to the edge of their bed and proceeded to walk toward the door.

"Where are you going? You, my dear, need to get your sleep. It's going to be a very long day tomorrow."

"Ughhhh, tell me about it. I'll be so glad when this convention is over and done with. I'm surprised Kate wasn't here insisting she spend the night so she could make sure I was properly groomed." She chuckled at the thought as she swung open the bedroom door, then turned around to offer her hubby the explanation he requested. "I forgot to take my vitamins. I'm just gonna grab a glass of juice downstairs then I'm coming right to bed."

"Hurry back," he whispered with an adorable little pout which sent Nicole smiling all the way to the kitchen. He laid there, just smiling contently for a moment as he tried to remember if there had been any point in his life prior to this when he'd been so happy. He couldn't think of one. The only moments which even came close were meeting Nicole for the first time, their first ultrasound when she was pregnant with their little girl, their first wedding...in a nutshell, the only truly happy times he'd ever had all involved Nicole in some way.

He snapped out of his little reverie when his cell phone began to vibrate, still hidden away inside his suit jacket pocket. He'd ignored any incoming calls or text messages for pretty much the entire day, an action specifically aimed at ignoring the person the messages were most likely from. He sighed in disgust as he dragged himself out of bed to finally check his messages, deciding that it was at least the responsible thing to do. God forbid there was some kind of real emergency concerning an immediate family member and he hadn't checked his messages, just because he didn't want to be bothered with his father's nonsense. However, the first few texts he read assured him there were no such incidents this evening. The first few were from both Stefano and Kate, demanding to know the sex of the twins. About ten texts later, it was Stefano 'thanking' him for 'allowing' Mary to tell him that at least one of the babies was a boy. He'd almost given up on reading the rest completely but again, doing the responsible thing nagged at his brain. He really wished he hadn't read the last text, the one that made him pretend that he'd fallen asleep while Nicole was out of the room, just so they wouldn't end up in a fight tonight. The one that read:

The young man that your lovely wife went on a dinner date with was Nathaniel Warren. Thought you might like to know.