A/N Apologies, once again, for the time taken to update. Thank you all for the reviews for the last chapter.
Snapshot Eleven
"They're football players, aren't they?" She'd initially been impressed that he'd actually thought about names without any prompting but when the list had continued, and they had all been boy's names, she had become suspicious; she might be heavily pregnant and awash with raging hormones but she was still a detective.
"Not just any players," he justified, a little put out that she wasn't even contemplating his suggestion, "League Cup winning team." That had been a great cup run - beating United in the fourth round had been a particular highlight and he'd lorded it over Sam Tyler for some time afterwards.
She sighed but with a smile: she couldn't imagine Gene being so so keen on the idea back - or should that be forward? - in 2008 when most teams had a fair amount of foreign players, and therefore foreign names, on the teamsheet. "Why didn't you say so earlier? That makes it perfectly okay," she said dryly. The faint smell of beer that resided on his breath floated by; though she certainly hadn't asked him to refrain from going to Luigi's with the team now that she no longer had the energy to - but it would be fair to say she'd be as pissed as he was drunk if he had continued with the long boozy nights out - they seemed to have come to some sort of unspoken compromise wherein he stopped off for a couple and then came home, usually with something to eat. He was living up to his promise, and so much more, and it gave her hope, certainty even, that they could make this work. When he remained silent she wondered if he had missed the sarcasm in her voice or was deliberately ignoring it and was taking her seriously. From her position on the sofa, propped up both against it and him, she couldn't really be sure without craning her neck backwards to look at him and she was far too comfortable to do that. "You want to give our child eleven forenames? And what if it's a girl?"
"Ten," he corrected, as he discretely altered his position against her; he couldn't really complain about her using him as an extra cushion - it was probably more than his life was worth if he did anyway - as he knew she was far more uncomfortable, and for much longer, than he currently was. "Two players had the same name," he continued earnestly, pleased that he had moved unnoticed, "And we're having a boy."
"You don't know that, Gene," she warned gently. She almost hoped they were having a boy because she wasn't sure how she felt about having another daughter. And she wasn't sure how Gene would cope with a little girl either; he'd probably be either the most over protective father in the world and their daughter wouldn't be allowed to date until she was thirty - if at all - or she'd wrap him around her little finger and end up getting away with murder.
"You don't know that I'm wrong either," he argued softly. He'd love a son, partly because he'd be unfairly outnumbered if it was a girl, partly because kicking a ball about in the garden with his boy was an image that had been floating around his head ever since she'd relegated him out there to smoke.
She smiled again, rubbing a hand over her ever increasing belly. With just over a month to go she was at the point where she just wanted the baby out and the pregnancy over with. As if in response she felt a defiant thump from within and she reached for Gene's hand without a second thought, directing his palm to the area under attack - an action that had become familiar between the two of them. She could now feel him grinning against her cheek, a smile that was becoming a somewhat regular appearance - if only in private - and one she was starting to adore. She almost retracted her earlier thought, wishing instead that they could stay like this forever. She hadn't imagined it would be like this all those months ago when she'd fallen pregnant and had worried about telling him. She hadn't imagined that he would be like this; able to keep up the gruff 'Guv' persona but to also open up to her - it may have taken a great deal of patience and understanding on her part but it - he - had, without a doubt, been worth the effort.
"Going to play for City," he whispered into her ear. It could have been a knee or an elbow for all he knew - Alex had one mean left hook so it could have even been a fist - but he couldn't help but tease her further. Whichever way it went, boy or girl, his main objective was to not be anything remotely like his own father. Happily that bastard was long dead but it was a shame that his mother had passed too; another reason for him to have made the journey down south but one that also left his child without any grandparents - without any family at all for that matter, besides himself and Alex. They did however have a 'family' of sorts in the people around them; blood wasn't necessarily thicker than water. "I think Luigi is angling for an honourable mention in the name stakes," he said with that thought, recalling his earlier conversation with the bar owner which had actually prompted this little discussion about names. "Is there something you need to tell me, Bolls?" he growled low into her ear and she laughed in response.
"No," she reprimanded, giving the arm that was snaked around her middle a playful slap at the suggestion, "But people do name their children after the places they were conceived and we did spend a great deal of time in my flat..." She wasn't seriously considering calling their child after an ageing Italian bar owner but if he could suggest an entire football team then she could play that game too.
He considered her reasoning for a moment but he'd never heard anything so bloody stupid; surely, if that was the case, there'd be more kids running around named after cars. Good job they'd never tested out the back seat of the Quattro though there were other places... "Well, there was that time in my office," he smiled, thoughts of the evening that they, albeit she unknowingly, had acted out his doodle entering his head. Even now he found it hard to look at his desk without getting... well, hard.
"I don't know how I let you talk me into that," Alex complained lightly but her brain was already calculating the dates – something she hadn't previously bothered with. Though she couldn't be exact there was the distinct possibility he was on to something.
"Didn't take much convincing as I recall," Gene smiled, kissing her cheek.