just an fyi that the next 2 chapters are going to be posted pretty close together next week so that there's a week of suspense before the grade finale chapter! enjoy this one, it's pretty funny if I do say so myself.
"There is no way I'm getting off this couch," Hailey announced five seconds after sitting down. She looked up at her husband, whose arms were full of grocery supplies, luggage and both his and Hailey's coat. "I would help but…"
"You're nine months pregnant," Jay finished for her. He rolled his eyes but Hailey knew he was just teasing. She'd been using that excuse for the last three months of her pregnancy, and more than ten times a day in the last week. Half of the things Jay already did for her, such as make her tea and bring her whatever food she could stomach. Other times Hailey just loved to annoy her husband. This weekend, the last getaway they would ever have when it was just the two of them in their family, would be no exception to all the funny ways Hailey could push Jay's buttons. He teased her back by suggesting the worst baby names he could think of, and tickling her feet. Hailey hated the last one because her stomach got in the way of her aiming back at him. The name game was just awful at this point—so bad that the girls group chat had forbidden Hailey from sending them updates about it because each idea made them want to crawl and hide.
After unloading the car and putting stuff away, Jay came back inside and collapsed on the couch next to his wife. He kicked off his shoes, put his feet up on the coffee table, then turned so that he could face Hailey better. "So, while I was shuttling things back and forth, I came up with some other good baby names. Detective case inspired ones!"
Hailey let out a loud groan. She almost considered making the effort to hoist herself off the couch in order to get away from Jay and his stupid suggestions. But he would just follow her and frankly, Hailey was not motivated enough to get up. So she looked at her husband and sighed. "Okay, give 'em to me."
"Remember when we discussed gender neutral names? Well I think Sergeant is a good option. Sargie for short." Jay took one look at Hailey's face and decided that was off the table right away. He wasn't concerned; he had a few more options under his belt. "Rob has real potential even as a girl's name. Robbery for her legal name though."
That one earned a chuckle from Hailey. "Imagine if we called our daughter Robbery. I think we'd be the ones ending up in jail for that."
"Hey, that one had potential! I guess Sher-short-for-Sheriff, PD-short-for-police department and Tess-short-for-testimony are also going to be 'no' if you hated Rob so much." Jay stuck out his lower lip, pretending to pout.
Hailey raised an eyebrow at him. "When you can think of some actually decent names, I'll listen. Until then, what should we do? We have this whole cabin to ourselves, no work for three days and after that, only a little bit longer together until our daughter comes." The thought made Hailey happy and sad all at once. She couldn't wait until their daughter was born but she was also a little scared and would miss the nice quiet she and Jay had now. It had been just them for the longest time and suddenly, a new person would enter their lives, forever. It made Hailey a bit nervous about how to live with a newborn too. Despite all the practice Jay and Hailey had had with Isla and Shayden, plus the classes they took at the rec center, they were still far from prepared.
Their apartment was also something that would change. Jay and Hailey knew right after they got pregnant that it wasn't going to work with a baby, and that their only option was to move. Luckily their daughter would be sleeping in their room for at least a couple months which gave them some extra time to keep looking for a place. The house market was affordable at the moment, but they hadn't found a good location yet. Hopefully they would soon, because with the baby due in a week or so, their window of time was only getting smaller and smaller.
Jay thought about the question Hailey was posing. Any other time he'd suggest an activity that involved their bed and little-to-no sleep, maybe with the occasional bathroom break and for something to eat. However, Hailey was nine months pregnant and had zero desire to engage in any idea Jay had in mind. Which meant that if Jay wanted to have a say in what they did, he had to think about it. "Why don't we actually think of baby names? Because we're nowhere closer than we were a few months ago. You said you don't want Anne to be anywhere in her name, so that's off the table." Hailey's excuse had been that Anne was her mother's name and that she had no intention of giving that to her daughter after the actions her mother failed to take to protect her own kids from the abuse they grew up with. Jay thought that was totally valid but it was unfortunate because they were back at square one with figuring out two baby names.
"Sounds like a plan. I'll pull up a list and we can read them off," Hailey decided. The first few names were ones she and Jay had already said no to, so she started halfway down. "Georgia, Holly, Lily, Susanna, Bethany, Jackie, Taylor. Oh haha, Kimberly's on here! I wonder what Kim would say if we named our kid after her. Not that we're gonna do that, it would just be funny. Veronica, James—for a girl? Actually nevermind there's been some other gender neutral ones on here we've questioned. Sarah, Ainsley. God we're never going to pick a name, are we?"
Shaking his head, Jay began to read off the different list he pulled up. "Lela. Jess. Bailey's cute but is way too close to your name. Daisy. Poppy! Violet. What's with all the flowers?" Jay asked, looking confused.
"I've actually seen a few nature-themed ones recently. They aren't bad, I actually think some of them are sweet. Maybe we should try a few more of those, if you don't mind them."
"Sure, I think they have more potential than others." Jay smiled and pulled up a different list. "Here's some thought-worthy names. Oakley, because of Oak trees. I think that's cute."
"Definitely. It's not a total veto." Hailey glanced at Jay's phone. "I like Meadow. I know it's not common but there's something about it that is calming."
"I agree." Jay smiled at his wife, because for once they were finally agreeing on names! Most of the time the suggestions were just outright awful, then whenever one of them had a suggestion that was halfway decent, the other person didn't like it. The reason Jay started the 'name game' was because he and Hailey needed comedic relief in and amongst all the name choosing.
There was a pause then Hailey said, "I like Wren but I would think too much about birds. Willow's cute though."
"We can add it to the list. I like the names that start with a consonant letter better than vowels. And as much as Autumn is sweet, this baby will be born in the Spring. Wouldn't want to confuse the heck out of her," laughed Jay.
"Sky is also very sweet. Hazel too. Now we have too many options!" Hailey shook her head. "How are we ever going to decide? I honestly wish we had someone to name our baby after, because it solved so many problems for Stella and Severide. Shay turned into Shayden, adding Kelly for his middle name? Done. There's no way we're making her middle name Hailey because then her name will be blank Hailey Halstead and I just can't deal with the alliteration."
"Um excuse me, you just stated your own name."
"Oh shush. Hailey Halstead is rarely what I'm called, especially at work. Upton is practically my first name at this point." Hailey rolled her eyes. "Anyways, even if we wanted to include someone important in her name, the most important people in our lives are our friends and then your brother I guess."
"We're not naming our daughter Will," Jay said quickly. He loved Will, but had no desire to have similar connotations to his child with the same name.
"No we aren't." Hailey concluded. She leaned back and closed her eyes, wondering if somehow she would come up with a name that settled all the debates. After a moment, there was still nothing. "Well I guess we could try to make it through more of that baby book Kim lent us. They named Isla from it somehow so we can name our daughter, right?"
With a sigh, Jay nodded. "I'm sure. It's our best option."
"It's in the duffel bag we brought. Do you mind grabbing it for me please?" Hailey asked.
"Sure, I'll grab it. Be right back." Jay moved to stand up, but stopped when he felt Hailey tugging at his shirt.
Hailey looked up at him with big eyes and a pouty lip. "Can you also make me tea and bring me pickles and crackers? I'd get them myself but I'm-"
Jay let out a laugh and answered, "Nine months pregnant!"
only 3 more chapters left (technically 2, plus the final chapter which is basically a really long epilogue)! it's bittersweet you guys. anyways, i hope you guys are looking forward to what i have in store coming up. stay tuned! find me on tumblr at thedefinitionofendgame. thanks for reading!