Saints and Angels

((Post-series future fic - Rating: T; Words: 677))

lyrics from the Simon and Garfunkel song "Cecilia"

Celia, you're breaking my heart

You're shaking my confidence daily

Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees

I'm begging you please to come home

Come on home

.

The silence is un-fucking-bearable and Drake knows that that's exactly why Mindy has chosen to give him the silent treatment. He thrives on aural stimulation. He needs sound and she knows that. Just because she can get by with only the voices in her head…. It's an angry, spiteful thought from the teenage boy who's still inside of him despite the near decade he's spent trying to become a decent man.

It's been two days. Two days. And all she's said to him is "I love you." The first time after their disagreement (in which she called him a stubborn jackass who needed to learn how to listen), she had prefaced the "I love you" with a handwritten note informing him that she would hate for something to happen to one of them which would result in the other regretting that the last time they saw each other, they said nothing, so, until he apologized, she would still say those three words to him before bed and before one of them left the house.

Post-its, text messages, notepads.

He doesn't know how she does it.

He misses the sound of her voice. God, he can barely remember when he dreaded hearing her voice, when everything about her had grated on his nerves just as much as everything about him had grated on hers. But then through time and chance, fate and destiny, somehow there was love.

And now she's giving him the silent treatment. He'd rather that she yelled and screamed, slammed doors, dropped objects, but no. She's calm and arrogant, proud, because she is convinced that she is right and soon enough he's going to realize it and give in and admit that he was in the wrong.

Mindy's comparing paint swatches, because first she decided she hated mint and now she hates buttercream for the nursery but she still wants a calm, soothing gender neutral color scheme, just in case the doctor's wrong.

Drake leans against the doorframe and grumbles, "Fine. You win. Sorry I wanted to have a say in our daughter's name. I guess I was wrong thinking that as the father that maybe my opinion would be taken into consideration. My mistake."

She gives him a cool look. "All I had said was that I had already picked out a middle name. I wasn't cutting you out of the naming process, Drake, I was just informing you of a decision that I am quite adamant about."

He wrinkles his nose. "What's so great about the name 'Cecilia' anyway?"

Mindy rubs her rounded belly, the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes clearly indicating that she's about to make him feel like a dumbass, something she's spent the past few years trying her best to avoid doing—except for when he's acting like an idiot or jackass. "She's the patron saint of music. I thought that you would appreciate the significance."

Oh. Well. He does feel like a dumbass.

"Sorry?"

"It's okay. I suppose it may have helped if I had mentioned that when I said I wanted to name her Cecilia."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure your exact words were: 'We are naming her Cecil—'"

"Not helping us make up."

"Right." Drake glances around the barely furnished nursery before his eyes settle on Mindy again, seated in the rocking chair. "Cecilia, huh?"

"Uh-huh. The ancient poets used to invoke the Muses, some musicians call upon Saint Cecilia to bless them with inspiration."

"Wait—is that what that song is about and not some chick who's sleeping with two different guys? Wow. It totally makes sense now," he says, walking further into the room.

"Congratulations on your epiphany," she snorts.

Drake stands beside the rocking chair and squats down, placing a hand over one of Mindy's. "You know, it's not just the baby that inspires me. You inspire me too."

She smiles at him, letting the swatches rest on her lap, and leans over, giving him a kiss. "You're forgiven."

"So I can choose her first name?"

"Don't push it."

.

Jubilation,

She loves me again,

I fall on the floor and I'm laughing

.

*** Finis ***