The Idea

It had been a few days, maybe a week since Erin had suggested that the pair had a baby. Whilst she was excited that Ella had agreed to the idea, she could tell that her wife wasn’t fully on board, but she didn’t know why. She hadn’t questioned her yet, because the keeper had hoped that it was just a mixture of nerves and surprise, and she would warm to the idea over time.

Both women were struggling to adapt to their roles, it’s almost if they had been reversed. Ella was going to be a mom, and Erin was going to play soccer- it was a done deal. Previously they hadn’t even been sure if they’d want to conceive in Sweden. Sure, they had checked out the clinics, finding out information, and handing in their details just in case. They had never had a formal discussion about it though, not since Ella had been signed.

Erin had been spending a lot of time by herself. Yes, she went to training occasionally to watch the girls, and she met up with the physios and consultants to discuss her options. But a lot of time was spent at home, or light sessions in the gym alone, trying not to stretch her knee. It meant that she spent a lot more time observing Ella when they were together, she noticed a subtle uncomfortableness in her wife when they spoke about children; something she had never noticed before.

It was a Thursday, Erin’s turn to make dinner. The pair often took it turns to make dinner, or one would cook, and one would wash the plates. Erin was minding her own business, cooking her signature tacos when she heard Ella’s voice. “I thought you wanted to wait until we were back home”

The voice of her wife made Erin jump, she thought that Ella was in the shower, since she had come in from training not long ago. Perhaps she had lost track of time. “I’m sorry, what?” the keeper questioned.

“I thought you wanted to wait until we were back home” Ella repeated, now sat at the breakfast bar with a glass of juice.

“We are at home? Until what?” Erin was a bit confused by the random questions.

“No, until we were back home in Canada- to have children. I know we talked about having children out here, but I wasn’t supposed to be playing, and now I am, so things have changed. I thought you would want to wait now until we were back home in Canada. I know the plan was only to stay out here for a couple of years anyway. I can talk to coach tomorrow if you want, I can ask to cancel my contract. I know you want kids, so I can quit and we can go home and have them at home, surrounded by our families…” Ella was rambling. This is obviously what had been bothering her ever since Erin had told her about the idea.

Erin had walked around the breakfast bar, and turned Ella on the stool to face her. Ella was looking down at her knees, so Erin took her hands into her own. “Listen, babe. This is your dream too, you wanted to play out here as much as I did. I am not going to stop you from playing, in fact I encourage you to play. You’re my wife, and I love you, and I will support any decision you make, but please do not quit soccer for my sake, I am more than happy to just be your wife and the mother of your child.”

Ella looked up to face her wife, “I love you too, thank you” she said, pressing a small kiss on her wife’s lips. “Wifey for lifey?”

“Wifey for lifey? Really Ella, really?” it made Erin smile when Ella came out with stupid comments like that, it was one of the reasons she had fallen for hr in the first place, “but sure, I will be your ‘wifey for lifey’ as you so poignantly put it”

“Thank you, but I hear there is some food to be cooked, and your wife is getting kinda hungry” Ella joked.

“Food coming right up ma’am” Erin saluted before heading back over to the cooker.

The two continued to talk whilst Erin cooked, just general chit chat about each other’s days. It was one of the things that they loved most about their relationship, the simplicity of it all, how easily they could carry a conversation. Everything that Erin did, Ella thought was beautiful. Ella had often spoken in interviews, about how beautiful Erin was, and even joked that she had had to fight women off. I mean really, who could look so good making tacos. By beautiful, Ella didn’t necessarily agree with the Manchester City jersey that Erin was wearing, but she had learnt to accept this common occurrence.

Obviously, the two still bickered about their different views on sports teams, but Ella had been winning recently. Since the reds had won the most recent derby, it had shut Erin up for a while.

Erin eventually finished cooking, and presented it to the younger girl, who had now set places for them at the breakfast bar.

“Mmm Mcleod’s famous tacos, my favorite. Our children are definitely having these.” Ella said, tucking into her food before Erin had even sat down.

Erin knew they were Ella’s favorite, that why she had made them. She had known something had been bothering her, and hoped this might have cheered her wife up. She was right, between the chat and the food, Ella was clearly starting to feel better about the whole situation.

The pair had decided to keep quiet about their decision to have a baby. They wanted for Erin to be pregnant, and have had the scan before they told anybody. It had been a way of their relationship really, not telling anyone things. From the first time they got together, it was a mutual decision to always make sure of things themselves before telling anyone anything. They hadn’t fully announced their relationship until about 18 months into it. Of course, their friends, teammates and families had known before that, but never the public. The girls didn’t even think that Randy had known until Ella had emailed him about the blog post. It was just their way, to keep quiet. Their wedding had been a quiet occasion, not many guests, and not announced until afterwards. They hadn’t really thought about informing fans about their wedding beforehand. It was a quick decision anyway.
Ella had known that Erin would be the one to propose, in fact Erin had told Ella not to propose. They felt so comfortable together, that neither of them proposed intentionally. It had just been part of a conversation over dinner whilst they were in Canada, and it had been decided to get married whilst they were there, before they resumed play back in the league with Houston. Only family attended, teammates weren’t even told until afterwards. Everybody had always believed that it was Ella who couldn’t keep the wedding a secret; but really it was Erin who wanted to tell the world. She was proud to have Ella as a wife, and she wanted everybody to see how beautiful her new wife looked in her wedding dress. And so it seemed only natural to keep the baby news quiet.

They wanted to be able to have some time, just them knowing the news. The pair knew that they had a big following, and they didn’t want everything to be thrown into the public when they had only just decided themselves.

Nobody really needed to know right now anyway, it wasn’t like A-rod or Syd, who had to leave the game for a while, Erin would already be out of the game, so people wouldn’t know until she started showing.

It was lucky that the girls had a couple of weeks of for the international break. It was the Euro qualifiers, so the league had a pause, because a lot of players were going to represent their country. The leagues out here in Europe were different to America. In America, when Canada or USA had games, the league continued without the international players. Ella preferred it this way anyway, she hated having to be apart from Erin, so the fact that the league broke for internationals had been a big positive for her. Plus she had always hated that in the NWSL, the international players were barely ever at the club.

With their two weeks off, after a surprise trip to Rome, (for Ella’s birthday) the girl’s had headed back to Sweden to go to their first appointment at the clinic. The timing had worked well really, Ella only had to do light workouts, since there was no club training, and so they had a lot more time on their hands than usual. It seemed like the perfect time to make an appointment without the rest of the team wondering what they were up to.

The only problem the pair had was a language barrier. They had a meeting with a Dr, who may or may not speak English.

A lot of the Swedish that the wives knew was based around soccer, yes they could do the basics such as counting, and ordering food in a restaurant. They hadn’t really needed to learn a lot of the language, some of their closest friends on the team, were from England and New Zealand, and the rest spoke pretty good English.

This was going to be very interesting appointment…