Chapter 9 The Bedroom #2
He slid down the wall to land beside Avi and Asa, while Lucas went directly to Cricket, perching carefully on the edge of her bed, one hand automatically going to her knee. “What’s happening?” he asked. “What did we miss? Are you okay?”
Atticus glanced up. “Her contractions are coming in fast now. About three minutes apart. I’m gonna check her cervix in another five minutes and we’ll see where we’re at.”
“Cricket wants to talk baby names,” Noah said. “Hopefully bad ones.”
Cricket looked at Lucas then August, her cheeks bright and body damp with perspiration. “We’re gonna have to decide on something soon.”
Felix straightened. “I’m so down. Let’s do this. Don’t be boring either. Let’s get creative.”
Zane raised a brow. “What are you hoping for? You want a nephew named Aquaman or Avalon?”
“You named—” Cricket shot back, then paused, eyes squeezing shut as another contraction rolled through. Her breathing went measured this time, practiced. Thomas watched Lucas mirror her inhale without thinking. “You named your kids after fashion designers,” she finished.
“Of course, I did. Who else would we use?” Felix said like the answer was obvious.
Noah scoffed. “Literally anything?”
Felix stuck his tongue out. “Have your own baby then.”
“Maybe we will,” Noah shot back, eyes going wide when they all turned to look at him in shock. His cheeks turned pink. “What? I said maybe.” When they continued to stare, he said, “It’s a figure of speech. Jeez.”
Felix and Zane narrowed their eyes but Asa broke the tension. “So the only criteria is it has to start with A, yes?”
“Obviously,” Noah said. “We’re nothing if not aggressively on theme.”
“Okay,” Zane said thoughtfully. “Oh, what about Atlas?”
Noah frowned. “Like a map?”
Zane rolled his eyes. “Like the Titan?”
August shrugged, then nodded. “I kind of like Atlas. Feels strong. Literary.”
Avi snorted. “Achilles is literary, too, but I wouldn’t want to have to go to school with that name either.”
Asa smirked. “Didn’t Atlas, like, hold up the world? Feels like too much pressure for a newborn.”
Zane huffed. “Fine. What about Apollo?”
Avi grimaced. “What’s your hard-on with gods?”
“Also,” Noah added, “every Apollo I’ve ever met was either deeply pretentious or incredibly feral. No in-between.”
“How many Apollos could you have possibly met?” Zane asked.
Noah squinted, thinking. “Just two. But, if I’m being honest, one was a drug dealer so it could have been a street name.”
“I’ve never met a single person named Apollo,” Zane said. “And somehow you’ve met two?”
Noah grinned at him. “What can I say? I’m cultured.”
Cricket snorted, then winced, hands gripping her belly. She inhaled slowly through her nose, jaw tight, then exhaled through pursed lips until the tension eased.
“Hard pass on Apollo and Achilles,” she said once it passed.
“But not Atlas?” August asked.
Cricket shrugged. “I mean, I don’t hate it.”
“What about Axel?” Noah offered.
Cricket stared at him. “I am not naming my child after a car part.”
“Or a rockstar with a drug addiction,” August added.
“And bad plastic surgery,” Lucas said dryly.
“It’s edgy!” Noah protested.
“It’s cursed,” she countered.
Felix leaned forward, clearly delighted by this exercise. “Okay, okay… what about Alabama or Arizona?”
“Why not just name the baby Arkansas or Alaska?” Noah added.
Cricket laughed, breath hitching just slightly. Thomas clocked the way Lucas’s hand slid instinctively to her knee again, grounding them both. “See? This is helping already.”
Zane grinned. “What about Ace?”
“That’s a dog name,” Asa said flatly.
“So is Chance, and somehow people keep naming children that,” Zane shot back.
“It’s too close to Asa,” Cricket said, glancing at him. “No offense, but one of you is enough.”
Asa grinned. “Agreed. I’m one of a kind.”
Avi snapped his fingers. “Archie.”
“Like Bunker?” Lucas asked, wincing. “You want to name our kid after a racist?”
Cricket frowned. “Wasn’t that the kid from Riverdale too? The redhead?”
“Yeah and Riverdale is based on the comics,” Noah said. “That’s kinda literary too?”
“Meh,” Cricket said, waving a hand.
“Alfie?” Felix tried.
“Sounds like a Victorian child dying of consumption,” Zane said.
“Ansel?” Asa offered.
“Too…nasal,” Lucas replied.
“Quick lightning round,” Noah said. “Everyone sound off. Atticus, you first.”
“Adonis,” Atticus said without looking up from his phone.
Cricket pointed at Asa. “Go.”
“Aspen.”
She pointed at Felix. “You.”
“Armani.”
She looked at Thomas. “What about you?”
Thomas shrugged. “Alaric.”
“He already has a name.”
Everyone turned to look at Allister, who had shifted from his spot. He laid on his stomach, watching them all with luminous eyes.
“What did you say, baby?” Cricket asked softly.
“He already has a name,” Allister said, voice hushed like it was a secret.
The room went quiet—not alarmed, just attentive.
Lucas stilled, voice gentle as he asked, “What do you mean?”
Allister frowned, small brow furrowing. “The baby. He already has a name.”
Cricket blinked, then laughed gently. “He does?”
Thomas felt something settle in his chest, heavy and electric all at once. Lucas’s hand tightened just slightly on Cricket’s knee, glancing at August with something that looked a lot like concern.
Allister nodded.
Silence fell, not the awkward kind, but the kind that felt charged.
Cricket spoke first. “Come here, baby.”
Allister hesitated, then pushed himself up, fingers slipping into his mouth as he crossed the room. His shoulders were tense, like he was bracing for something.
Lucas and August moved closer.
Lucas crouched in front of him, lowering himself to eye level. “What do you mean he has a name?”
Allister sucked on his fingers, eyes darting briefly to Cricket, then to the bed, then back to Lucas. He shrugged.
Thomas felt something twist in his chest. The boy carried too much for someone so small.
“You’re not in trouble,” Cricket assured him quickly, combing her fingers through his soft baby hair. “We’re just curious what you mean.”
“When I see him, he already has a name.”
Cricket exhaled slowly, one hand drifting to her belly as another contraction began to build. She closed her eyes, breathing through it, while Lucas stayed exactly where he was, even as he held Allister’s gaze.
“When you see him?” August prodded gently.
Allister nodded. “I see him all the time. When I see him, we’re all playing together. We’re older then. But he has a name and it’s not any of those.”
“Oh,” Lucas said.
Allister’s little eyes drifted upwards and to the right like he was recalling something. “Mommy calls him Apple.”
Zane snorted. “There’s no way Cricket would Gwenyth her kid.”
“Or that August and Lucas would agree to it,” Noah added.
“That’s not his name, it’s his nickname,” Allister said, sounding embarrassed at having so many eyes on him. “His name is—” He looked at the others, then leaned in and put his lips to Lucas’s ear, whispering.
Lucas sucked in a breath. “Oh. Yeah. Actually, that does sound…right?”
The room felt like it tilted, just slightly. Lucas whispered to August, then Cricket, who both seemed to contemplate it, then nodded.
“Well, what is it?” Noah asked. “What’s his name?”
Cricket looked at August and Lucas, then the others. “I’ll tell you after he’s here and I can confirm it.”
“Is he saying he’s seen the future?” Felix asked quietly, his voice stripped of its usual humor.
Cricket continued to comb her fingers through Allister’s hair, slow and steady, like she was afraid to stop touching him. “You see the new baby? Like in your dreams?”
Allister nodded again. “He has hair like me and eyes like Mommy and a red mark right here.”
He lifted one small finger and pressed it to his temple.
“A red mark?” Lucas asked softly. “Like a birthmark? Like this?”
He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the small strawberry mark Thomas had somehow never noticed before, unremarkable, easily overlooked, the kind of thing you didn’t see until someone pointed it out.
Allister nodded. “But his looks different. Bigger. Like an apple.” He paused, then added, very matter-of-fact, “That’s what Mommy calls him Apple.”
“Apple…” Cricket echoed, one hand drifting instinctively to her belly.
Her breath stuttered as another contraction rolled through, sharper this time, her fingers curling into the sheets as she waited it out.
“So it’s like a nickname?” Noah asked gently.
Allister nodded. “He sees things… like me.”
The room went very quiet.
Cricket’s eyes filled with tears as she looked from Lucas to August, emotion flickering across her face too fast for Thomas to name, fear, awe, something like relief.
“Am I in trouble?” Allister asked suddenly, eyes wide, fingers hovering near his mouth again.
Lucas was there instantly, cupping his face. “Of course not. Why would you be in trouble?” His voice softened. “But why didn’t you tell us you were seeing these things?”
“You didn’t know?” Zane asked.
“We knew he got impressions like Lucas,” August said slowly, “and that he has nightmares, but not that he could… see more than that.” His voice trailed off, the weight of it settling on him.
Thomas watched August’s expression carefully.
It was clear he was struggling, not with believing Allister, but that he had somehow missed something so huge.
He understood Lucas’s gifts, understood that as a scientist there was still so much about the universe they just didn’t know.
But knowing his husband and child picked up impressions from objects was not the same thing as learning your child had seen glimpses of the future.
Thomas had no doubt Allister was telling the truth. The boy didn’t know how to lie, not about things like this. Not about things that felt this heavy. He knew that nobody in this house doubted his words. It didn’t make them any lighter.
“Dude,” Avi said, breaking the tension like only he could. “Hurry up and pop out this baby so we can see if he has the birthmark.”