The Brothers

5 - {The Boys}

"Chance!" Mrs. Heller called from upstairs. When their ten-year-old boy poked his head in the room his parents were both in, he was quickly greeted by them blocking the door. "We have a surprise for you, honey," his mother smiled, holding her husband's arm with tears starting to form.

"Is it a puppy?" Chance asked curiously, trying to sneak a peek with no success. His parents laughed at the guess, making him feel like it was a challenge to figure out what his surprise was. He wasn't much of a competitor, but more of anyone that loved making challenges for himself, or when others made small things that can easily be taken as challenges. "If it's a bird, I'm moving out." He was terrified of birds, but parrots, even more because of their talent to repeat the sounds or words they hear.

He always thought they were animal spies or something creative like that. His parents stepped back, smiling widely and whispering to each other when their little boy wandered inside. The walls were painted half-blue and half-pink, and there were two separate cribs. One had a blue blanket and a teddy bear sitting beside the pillow, and the other against the opposite side had a pink blanket and a doll. That's when he heard babbling from the blue crib.

Chance quickly walked over to one of the cribs with the blue aesthetic. Inside it, trying to make grabby hands at him was a small human wearing baby shorts that were connected to the straps of his overalls. The baby had obviously short, brown hair starting to grow in. Being the curious kid he was, Chance lifted the baby in his arms, and his parents were trying to tell him the proper way to hold a baby, but he managed to do it on his own like he was holding a baby puppy. "Puppy?" he asked his parents again.

"No, no Chance. Baby brother."

"Brother?" he looked down at the baby he was somewhat cradling in his arms, watching the small infant make bubbles with his spit, something other babies sometimes did to entertain themselves. It made the older boy giggle at his new baby brother's adorableness. "Cute brother," he looked up at his parents again. "What's his name, Mommy?"

Mrs. Heller wanted to take a picture to remember this moment, or to show the boys when they were older. "His name is Liam, sweetheart. And that isn't the only surprise...."

"More brothers?" Chance's eyes lit up with excitement, thinking he was going to have at least six or seven more brothers in the family.

"Sister, actually. We haven't decided on the perfect name for her yet, so we would like you to help us."

Mr. Heller was about to hand the boy the small list they wrote for baby girl names before realizing he couldn't take it because of the baby he was holding. Instead he crouched down to his level and showed him the list, careful not to let the brunette boy snatch it with his grabby-hands. On the sticky note, there were five names to pick from, along with very short descriptions of the names: Theodosia, God's gift; Abigail, joy and love; Adalyn, peace and harmony; Blossom, rebellious and beauty; and Chloe, introvert and thoughtful.

Chance bounced the baby boy in his arms a little when he was starting to whimper, carefully going over the different names that their parents thought of for the third baby. "Theodosia!" he told them with pure happiness and excitement in his eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Heller gave each other a look at first, and when they saw how happy both of their boys were about the final decision, they had no choice but to consider it.

Their father sighed in relief that they didn't need to stress over the name for much longer, taking his wife with their fingers intertwined. "We should get dinner ready. Chance, do you want to play with your brother while your mother and I set up the dinner table?" he inquired, getting a grin in response. He nodded and took his wife downstairs to prepare dinner.

"I'll protect you, Liam," Chance sat on the floor cross-legged, letting the baby sit sort of comfortably in his lap. "You and Theodosia will be safe forever, okay?" The infant was a giggling ball of joy, making grabby-hands, whining for the older boy's hand. When he grabbed for it in success, Liam tried to chew on one of his fingers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We'll have to settle for it for now, Theodosia's still our baby after all." Chance overheard his parents talking downstairs, but the one thing that caught his attention was the sounds of a babbling baby. He picked up his younger brother in his arms, hurrying down the stairs quickly to meet their new baby sister.

He was expecting to see a baby girl wrapped in a pink, fluffy blanket, and their parents cooing to her. But instead he saw a baby in a blue blanket, making him a little more confused than usual. "Where's Theodosia?" he asked his parents, walking reluctantly over to them. Why did they get a baby boy?

"This is Theo, Chance," Mr. Heller said, bouncing the little sunshine in his arms, as Mrs. Heller re-adjusted the blanket to cover his body. "We were sure it was going to be a girl, honestly. But we were misinformed, and instead of pretty Theodosia, we have cute Theo. Isn't that wonderful? Now you and Liam have another boy in the family!" he was trying hard to make it all okay for the boys.

Mrs. Heller took the wrapped up boy from her husband, kneeling down to hand over to Chance. The boy looked up at his parents and let his father hold Liam while Chance took baby Theo in his arms, immediately feeling the need to protect the little human. "I'll protect you...." he whispered, doing what he saw his parents do with Liam, which was lightly bouncing the infant to make sure he was still happy.