After dinner Jack washed the dishes and put them away, Gina always tried to do them but Jack would never let her. She had cooked the food, washing up afterwards was his way of saying thank you. Gina always giggled at how long it took for him to complete the task, not knowing that Jack was often consumed with thoughts of Terri and a young Kim whilst he did them.
He had memories of the times when Kim would want to play 'grown ups,' and do the dishes, with her fathers supervision. The washing up liquid would produce bubbles and they never got any further along. Terri would clean Kim up and take her to bed afterwards, and return to see the cleaned dishes stacked up on the draining board still coated in foam. The memory made him smile the way Terri would when she would see the mess. A silly lopsided playful grin would spread over her face; only Jack didn't always realise he was mirroring the memory, one of the many he had tried, and failed, to deny himself.
Gina pulled him to the small shabby couch in the living room once they were done and they channel surfed through the programmes, neither interested on watching anything. Gina pressed the mute button and tossed the remote onto a chair in the corner of the small room, putting her feet up on to low table which separated the TV from the couch.
"I am beat," she stated, moving over to lay her head on his chest as Jack watched the dull and silent images on the screen without seeing anything.
"Hmmm," he muttered, tired himself. She was drawing patterns on the back of his hand without realising; it always made him smile.
Perking up Gina grinned as she sat back up, her hand still clasped around Jacks. "Which would you prefer, Ric, a boy or a girl?"
Jack was unprepared for the question although it was a thought which had twisted through his mind occasionally since he was told the news, weeks ago.
"I don't think we get to chose," he smirked, earning him a playful squeeze on his arm.
"I want one of each," Gina announced, settling back down in the couch.
"Twins?" Jack asked, the possibility new to him.
"Why not?" she laughed, "I'd love twins. One in pink and one in blue…" she said as she moved Jacks hand so it rested on her stomach. She was still small but the curves were becoming more defined as the days grew on.
"What about names," she asked, used to the structure of their conversations, prodding Jack for an answer.
"Well that depends," he said, appearing to be lost in thought.
"If we get a boy we could call him Richard, just like his daddy," she laughed, but realised instantly Jack did not like her suggestion.
"I' rather not," he said tensely, "it's a bit old fashioned," he said as means of explanation.
"Sure," Gina nodded, "coming from Mr. Tradition himself!"
"I am not traditional," he laughed, enjoying the playful banter.
"Okay what names do you like?"
"I really don't know," he sighed, thinking hard, "Thomas?"
Gina started laughing again, "that is an old fashioned name," she said, before giggling as Jack tried to tickle her, "but I like it."
"What if it's a girl," Jack dared to ask, too scared to answer the question himself. H didn't know how he could cope, having a baby daughter while allowing his gown daughter to mourn for him.
"I think we should pick a short name," Gina said seriously, making Jack laugh as his face curled up in confusion, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well I was thinking, if we get is a short name it will be easier for them to spell when they start school," she said seriously, it made Jacks grin grow even bigger as he tried not to laugh.
"No matter what we name it, its gonna learn to spell its name eventually."
"It," she mocked, "no, if the baby," she said putting emphasis on baby, "can spell its name easier than everybody else, then-"
"Then they will be smarter," Jack broke in, "honey the time it takes to learn its name doesn't matter - its intelligence depends on other things!" He laughed, but he could see she had been thinking about the idea. "Okay, what were you thinking?"
"Well Thomas could be "Tom," and if a girl, I don't know there's plenty… Jill, Jan, Kim…"
Jack drew in a sharp intake of breath causing Gina to stop and look at him curiously. He had paled.
"What's wrong Jack," she asked as she slowly grew more worried.
"Nothing," Jack tried to look normal but he couldn't, his hands had begun to tremble. Thinking hard he knew he needed some explanation or she'd be suspicious. "My mother was called Jan, that's not a name I like," he added with a slight frown. It was good enough to convince Gina who thought no more of it as they spent the rest of the night laughing and joking about the various names they could chose for there child to be.