Title: Name Games
Author:
Faithintheboys Rating: PG
Characters: Dean, Lisa, Ben
Author's Note: This story is in the same universe as Five Times Dean Sees. Thanks so much,
twasadark for the beta. Any left over mistakes are mine. Feedback welcome!
Summary: Naming a baby is hard work.
Naming a kid was the freaking hardest thing to do in the world.
Everything else came pretty easy. The making it was the easiest, probably best part of the whole adventure, but the last time Dean pointed that out, he got hit. But naming the baby, that was hard work. Lisa insisted on piling Dean, Ben, and Jess into the car and hauling them all down to Barnes and Noble to pick out a baby-naming book Dean just figured you’d pull some names out of your head, put them on a list and that was it. But no, Lisa was determined to buy a book on the subject. Jess offered to pass on the one she and Sam used for the girls. But Lisa declined. She wanted her own. Which Dean didn’t fully understand and figured it was some weird woman thing.
Ben was a trooper during the whole ordeal. But as soon as they got in the bookstore he took off to the movies and music. Traitor. Dean was left with his wife and sister-in-law and three different shelves on three different bookcases of baby name books.
He stared at his wife as she took every book out and held it, some she didn’t even open, before discarding it on the shelf. Another woman thing.
“Honey?”
“Mmmm?” Dean asked, retracting his hands from his pockets and turning to Lisa.
“This one?” Lisa asked, hefting a huge book that proclaimed to be the only baby naming book you’ll ever need, it even had a picture of a baby smiling on it, as if to say: “See, the babies think it’s the best, too!”
He nodded. “Sure.”
Secretly, he loved this. He was actually having a kid. It was his and even though Ben was his, too, he hadn’t been there for his birth. Lisa was going to give birth to someone they had made together. The whole thing kind of floored him.
An hour and fifty dollars later he was back at home with Lisa sitting on the couch. Ben sprawled nearby, reading a comic he’d gotten at the bookstore.
“I was going to be Brianna if I was a girl.” Ben’s head popped up from where he was resting on the floor.
“We could name her Brianna,” Lisa said from her comfortable position, her head rested on Dean’s shoulder. He could feel her chin move against his shirt.
“How sure are you that we’re having a girl?” Dean asked, moving his head so he could look at his wife’s face.
“Because no higher power up there would let there be another two Winchester boys on this earth. And you just have to have a girl,” Lisa answered, flipping through pages to move onto B.
“Yeah, point taken,” Dean said. He had a feeling he was having a girl. Something in his gut told him that. He just wouldn’t admit it. “But I don’t think we should name her Brianna.”
“You don’t like Brianna?”
Dean thought about it for a second. He liked it. He remembered spotting it when he had been flipping through … one of those books. It meant “strong one.” But… “I don’t think we should have two Bs in our family.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t like it. It’s like Sam and his ten M’s.”
“Honey, Sam has three girls.”
“I know, but still.”
Lisa flipped from B’s to F’s and what good names were in F for girls? Faith? Francine? Nope, definitely not. He was glad when she flipped to the next letter.
“What about Grace?”
“Grace?” Dean asked, sounding out the word. He tried it mentally. Grace Winchester, get over here. Good job, Grace. Sounds old.
“Gracie,” Ben piped up again.
Gracie Winchester? Has a ring too it. “Nah,” Lisa vetoed it and flipped the page again. “Ls? Lilly? No, too creepy. Lizzie? Creepier,”
Dean smiled and made eye contact with his son, who was biting on his hand trying not to laugh. He and Ben had had a conversation that laughing at his mom’s outbursts of emotion, no matter how funny, was not a good idea, and would not be beneficial for the continued health of either of them.
Ben found motherhood rather puzzling. One day after he came home from school, Lisa hugged him for fifteen minutes, crying. Afterwards he asked Dean, “Why’s Mom acting funny?”
“She just watched Oprah,” Dean answered.
“She watches that all the time and she never cries.”
“It’s the hormones, kiddo.”
“The what?” Ben’s face scrunched up in confusion.
Dean hesitated, trying to think of a good way to tell him this. “They are like little computer programs that tell Mom’s body what to do in order for the baby to grow inside of her. They end up making her emotional.”
“Oh.” Ben nodded in understanding.
“That’s why when your mom gets like that. No matter what she says, we can’t laugh, okay? It’ll hurt her feelings.” He had learned that the hard way.
“Are hormones the reason Aunt Jessica was acting funny when she was pregnant with Maggie?”
“Exactly.” Dean nodded. “So we have to be extra nice to your mom, okay? Like give her lots of hugs and make her dinner and bring her chocolate.”
Ben nodded. “Okay.”
Dean ruffled the hair on the top of his head. “Good boy.”
Dean didn’t know a lot about pregnant woman apart from myths and legends about them, but at least he knew more than Ben. He hoped. Anyhow, Lisa wasn’t that bad, a little emotional, but not extreme. Thank God. The truth was that he loved Lisa pregnant and that was something he was willing to admit to his wife and anyone who asked.
“Damn Sam for already taking ‘Maggie,’” Lisa said suddenly, bringing Dean out of his thoughts.
“You like ‘Maggie’?” He asked, turning again to face her.
“Mmhmm.” Then she pouted. “Well, I actually kind of like M names in general.”
“Really?” Dean raised an eyebrow at her.
“I know, I know. Too many M’s in the family. But it’s just when I was a little girl and I had all these dolls I would name them all with M’s. Mary, Molly, Ma-“
Ben giggled and Dean gave him a quick grin before turning back to Lisa.
“I just have this one name picked out. Remember that dream I told you about last week? The one where we were at Disney World and I kept calling for Maddy.”
Lisa said flipping through the pages of the book.
“I really like it. I think it’s the right one,” Lisa said and pointed out a name from the book.
“And you know,” Lisa continued. “Mothers know when they’ve found the right name for their child.”
Dean wondered if his mom had been sure about his name. It meant “leader.” Definitely a good name. But where were his parents’ heads when they picked Sam’s name? Did they pick it because it sounded good with Dean’s name? DeanandSam.
Benand…. “Madison.”
Dean looked at Lisa, who had sat up then. “Madison.”
“Yes, Madison Winchester.”
Dean felt a smile form on his face and saw it reflected in Lisa’s eyes. “I love it,” he said and leaned in to kiss her.
“I like it, too!” Ben said, getting up to join them on the couch.
Lisa smiled and scooted over to allow for Ben to get between them. She sat back. “Mission accomplished. We have a name.”
Dean picked up the baby book and flipped to the M’s. “Madison means ‘son of mighty warrior,’” he read aloud.
Lisa looked at him. “Well, how about we change that to ‘daughter of a mighty warrior’?”
Dean laughed. “I’d like that.”
“What about middle names?” Ben asked. “You have to give Maddy a middle name.”
Dean and Lisa shared a look, maybe because their son just called their daughter Maddy or because the middle name thing hadn’t come up yet and was possibly going to be an issue.
“Well…” Lisa started.
“Is there a book for middle names, too?” Dean asked.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you call Sam and asked him how they came up with middle names for the girls?”
“I don’t need any of his help.”
“You just don’t want to tell him that there’s going to be another M-name in the family.”
“Maybe, but I mean, it can’t be that hard, right? Madison Maria. Oh, hell no.”
“What?” Lisa asked.
“That doesn’t work.”
“Madison Elizabeth?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Lisa asked. Dean swore she was pouting.
“Because. Her initials will be MEW.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I don’t want my daughter’s initials to spell out anything. Look at Ben, his initials are BIB.”
“I did a fine job of naming him, thank you.”
“Ben Isaac?”
“Yeah? And?” Lisa asked.
Dean couldn’t think of a reason why he didn’t like, he just didn’t. “Just, it spells out BIB.”
“Actually it’s BIBW.”
“Huh?”
Ben leaned forward. “My initials. Ben Isaac Braedan Winchester. If you want to get technical.”
“See?” Lisa said.
“Okay, okay. Just, no MEW okay?”
Lisa nodded. “Alright.”
They sat silently for a moment. Over Ben’s head Dean and Lisa’s eyes met, doing the silent communication that Ben and Sam’s girls had been trying to figure out for ages.
“What do you think?” Dean asked.
“What?” Ben asked after Dean nudged him.
“Sweetie, what name do you think would be a good middle name for your sister?”
“I get to name her?” His eyebrows rose.
“Sure, what middle name do you like?”
Ben sat up and thought about it for a second. “Alyssa.”
“Alyssa?” Lisa echoed.
“Yeah.”
Lisa looked at Dean. “Madison Alyssa Winchester?”
Dean grinned this time. “Yeah.”
“It spells out MAW,”
Dean laughed. “It’s perfect.”