“Let me tell you what’s wrong, Shea Adler!” she yelled, picking up one of the pieces of paper and shoving it in his face. “I’m at the doctors as you very well know, and well, the doctor said, ‘hey let’s see if we can hear a heart beat!’ I was like yea! Can’t wait, but then he puts the thing on my belly and guess what.”

Tate almost said “what”, but thankfully Shea beat him to it, “What?”

“The doctor smiled, and said, ‘I hear two strong heart beats.”

“Is that good?” Shea asked confused.

Tate knew that Shea had f**ked up before Elli even started screaming, “Shea Adler I am pregnant with twins! TWINS! Not one! But two! Two! Do you understand what that means!?”

“You’re having two babies? I made two babies?” he said, his eyes wide as his hand sat on his chest, but that only seemed to make Elli more angry.

“It means that I will have 4 children all under the age of two while you are skating around with no cares in the world!”

Everyone looked up at Shea, waiting for his answer, and when he said, “I made two babies?” Elli let out a loud scream that shook Tate’s ear drums before she stomped back out of the locker room. Tate glanced back up at Shea to see a slow grin go across his face. He looked around the room, and then nodded his head.

“That’s right boys, I made twins. Two babies, one shot,” he said with his chest puffed out.

“Oh shut up, Adler, most of us in here have made babies,” Lucas said with a chuckle.

“That is right, but have you made two? Because I have,” Shea said with the cocky confidence only he could have. Everyone around the room was laughing, joking around with Shea and congratulating him, but Tate sat in his locker area, strapping on his pads as jealousy ate at him. Tate would never have that opportunity to make two babies, or even one if Audrey’s condition wasn’t correctable.

For the first time that fact bothered Tate.

~*~

Tate sat between Phillip and Erik at the Assassins’ regular table at J Alexander’s. It was one of their favorite restaurants, and it never failed to deliver to the hungry players who would come in after practice. Today was no different, Tate’s food was on point and the company was just as great. Not only had Phillip and Erik come, but Lucas and Shea did too. Everyone wondered why Shea came when he had an angry wife who he needed to handle, but his answer was that he had an angry wife to deal with, so he was going to let her cool off.

It felt great though, Tate was surrounded by his friends, his brothers even, and he had never felt more comfortable. They made him laugh. They could bring him up after a loss. They were there for him, and they were his family.

Tate munched on his salad as Erik told his story of the night before.

“Dude, she had me in ways I haven’t been in weeks, it was great. But then I got her bent over the rail of the stairway right?” he said softly while everyone listened intently, “and man, I’m giving it to her, hard, then all of a sudden, she starts making this noise, and I’m like what the f**k? So I don’t know what I’m thinking but I keep going, and she gets louder and louder, until finally she is full out making goat noises. I had to stop I was laughing so hard because I swear, I was convinced I was f**king a goat.”

Everyone lost it, and Tate was glad they were in the back of the restaurant where no one could hear them. Tate shook his head, watching his friends laugh as he ate his food. They were a group of nuts, but he loved them all the same.

“That’s why I am a one woman man,” Shea said with a grin on his face, “I know her noises and always will, no crazy surprises, thank God.”

“Whatever dude, you wish you were me,” Erik teased, but even Tate knew Shea didn’t. When someone was married to someone as wonderful as Elli, why would he want something more?

“No way, I’ve lived those years,” Shea said with a laugh. He glanced over at Tate and smiled, “You know when I was your age, Tate, a steady girlfriend was the last thing on my mind, but boy, didn’t you choose a great one.”

Tate nodded, “She’s perfect,” he said while Lucas nodded his head. Tate’s chest was hurting from what he had been thinking about all through practice and then through the lunch. He felt bad for second thinking Audrey, but hearing Shea gloat about his perfect babies had done it. Tate didn’t understand it. He loved Audrey and he wanted only her. He had guaranteed her she was enough, so why now was he second guessing himself? Second guessing her? “But something has been bothering me,” he found himself saying.

All eyes rested on him, and when he glanced across the table at Lucas, he wished he hadn’t said anything.

“What, trouble in paradise?” Phillip teased.

“All of you know how I want to have children. I have never been quiet about that. Well, Audrey can’t have kids and I’ve sat here and told her it doesn’t bother me, that maybe something can be fixed and she will be okay, but today,” he said, glancing up at Shea, “when Elli came in pregnant with twins, I hoped that one day that would happen for me, but it won’t. Not with Audrey’s condition.”

No one said anything. Lucas’ mouth was hanging open. Shea had his thinking face on, and Erik and Phillip looked bored.

“Audrey can’t have kids?” Lucas finally asked.

“Who cares if she can’t? She’s great, you really like her, just adopt when it’s time to do all that,” Phillip said with a shrug, “It really isn’t a big deal. Kids aren’t everything. It’s about finding that person who makes you happy.”