Epilogue
I waddled slowly through the corridors of the care facility, Enrique and Donna both beside me, one either side, a hand on my back, another holding mine as if I were one of the poor invalid residents here. My due date wasn’t far off, and I had been ordered on bed rest, because of the twins I was carrying. But it was Mom’s birthday and I never missed her birthday. We entered the room and saw the nursing staff had set up a small table with a birthday cake for her. “Hey, Mom,” I said, settling down on the chair with a soft grunt.
“Hello, my darlings,” she said with a smile. It had taken her a short while to accept and understand the ‘special’ relationship I had with my bosses, but she had raised me to be open-minded about life, and she was just happy that I was happy. Even more so that she was about to become a grandmother, twice over.
“How’s your back?” she asked me.
“Been really sore this morning,” I said. “I’ve had a couple of twinges here and there, and couldn’t sleep last night.”
“She tossed and turned and kicked me at least five times.” Enrique smirked. Both he and Donna had brought me into their bedroom to sleep in their king-sized bed, even though I had my own king-sized bed in my room. I’d hardly used it since agreeing to become a mother.
“Hmm…” Mom seemed thoughtful.
“What?” I asked, huffing a little bit, even though I was sitting. Another twinge bit at my lower back.
One of the nurses came over and looked at me.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say…” the nurse started.
“She’s in labour, isn’t she?” Mom asked, with a knowing smirk.
“Yep. I’d say so.” The nurse grinned. “You might want to get to a hospital before…” I felt the sweeping wetness, and heard it dripping on the floor.
“Uh, this is embarrassing. I think I just peed my pants… Oh, I’m so sorry!”
“Nope, your water just broke. I’ll get some towels. And don’t you worry about a thing, honey, you just get your people to get you to the hospital.” Enrique and Donna helped me up and I waddled to the entrance. Mom followed in her motorised wheelchair.
“I love you, Lydia. You’ll be fine.”
“You’re coming too, Maggie. I’m not going to let you miss out on the birth of your grandchildren!” Enrique said, his excitement and nerves showing in his voice.
They loaded me into the car, while Enrique organised for my mother’s transport with the care facility. I felt the first big contraction hit while we were halfway to the hospital. “Breathe, Lydia, remember to breathe!” Donna coached me, as they had both been to my birthing classes, and had never missed a session, an ultrasound, or a check-up. I had been on bed rest for over a month, and nothing was done on my own––one or both of them were always there.
“I am fucking breathing!” I huffed as another contraction hit, my last words coming screaming out of my mouth.
“Almost there, Mrs Cortez!” the driver called over my near-hysterics. Enrique turned around in the front passenger seat, and as I lay sprawled across the back with Donna cradling my legs as she sat beside me, his hand reached out for me and I grabbed it in a death grip.
“This is your fault!” I huffed.
“I know. I love you too.” He grinned, kissing my hand. I closed my eyes as another damned contraction hit.
The car screeched to a halt and the doors opened. The medical staff waited for me, and I was helped out and placed on a gurney. Lights flashed as I puffed and panted my way through another contraction. My vision began to get blurry as the pain hit harder than ever.
“Oh god, I need to push…” I cried out.
“A few more minutes, we’ll be in the delivery room!” a doctor or a nurse or some asshole with no knowledge of what my body wanted to do without waiting, assured me. I reached over with my free hand and gripped his ugly purple scrubs. “I fucking need to push!” I screamed at his startled face.
“Get her in as fast as you can––I think I see someone is eager to meet the world!” another doctor-slash-nurse-slash-medical-asshole said, peeking between my legs. Enrique looked.
“Is that a head?” he asked, amazed.
“It’s the top of one, yes,” the doctor replied, as someone hooked monitors to my body.
“Doctor Connors, we need to get her in ASAP. I think baby number two is in distress.”
“What?” I panicked. Enrique and Donna looked at each other, Donna’s face paled and she reached over and stroked my sweaty brow.
“Lydia, it’s all right, we’ve got you. Honey, everything will be okay.”
“Prep her for a C-Section!” the doctor ordered as one of the machines began to bleep alarmingly.
I sobbed as my body cramped with another contraction again. “We’ll need to deliver this one naturally, the other one we’ll have to go in for,” I heard in the distance as my gurney was pushed through open doors and into an operating room.
“You’ll have to wait outside, I’m sorry,” someone was ordering Enrique and Donna.
“No, please let them stay, I need them!” I begged.
“I’m sorry, Mrs Cortez,” the doctor said, not realising I wasn’t Mrs Cortez, but I wasn’t going to correct him right at that moment.
“Oh God, another one’s coming…”
“Okay, we need you to push, Mrs Cortez.”
I pushed, hard, bearing down as it felt like I was being split in two. I stopped as the sensation passed. Something had definitely moved, and I heard a little mewling sound coming from my firstborn. Hot tears traced down my sweat-dampened face. I cried and panted.
“Okay, Lydia…” the doctor said. “We have to give you something, to help you relax, then we’re going in to get baby number two, okay? You will feel a pinch on your arm, then I just want you to close your eyes and relax. Your firstborn is looking good, a healthy boy.”
“My son…” I whispered as I felt the warmth of the drugs kicking in, and I closed my eyes to blissful rest.
****
I opened my eyes to the sounds of the mewling I’d heard when my son was born. The room was filled with concerned looking people. Mom held a blue-wrapped bundle in her arms, with Enrique and Donna cooing over him.
“Wha…” I mumbled, my throat and mouth feeling so dry. Enrique and Donna were at my side in an instant, Donna’s hand offering me the straw in a cup of water, Enrique asking how I was feeling.
“The other baby?” I asked. Enrique’s eyes shone with a little sadness, and I gasped, sitting up, before the pain lanced through my body. Enrique slowly pushed me to lie back down against the pillows.
“She’s fine, but they had to take her to the NICU to check she’s okay. The umbilical cord had wrapped around her neck during labour and they are concerned she didn’t get enough oxygen, but from what the initial tests have shown, she should be okay.”
“She’s alive?” I sobbed. Mom’s wheelchair was by my bedside in seconds.
“Yes, and she’s as beautiful as her older brother.” Mom smiled, offering the bundle to Enrique, who handed him to me after Donna raised my bed with the controller, so I could sit up without moving myself too much again and risking the stiches from my emergency C-section.
A nurse came in shortly after the doctor had checked me over, followed by another nurse, who wheeled in our daughter.
“Hi, Mom and Dad! The doctors are happy with her progress and we thought we’d bring her down to see you, seeing as we just heard Mom is awake,” the male nurse said, as he wheeled the pink-wrapped bundle in beside my bed. I felt the hot tears again, breaking free and trickling down my cheeks. Our daughter lay snuggled in the blanket, making cute little grunts as she slept. In my arms, my son seemed to realise his sister was nearby and squirmed a little in his blanket.
“You wanna hold your baby, Mommy?” the female nurse asked. I nodded, reaching out after securing our son in my other hand. Enrique and Donna were by my side, their hands resting om my body, as if to make sure I was still there with them. Our daughter was placed in my arm. I looked at the beautiful babies in my arms, then looked to the three next most important people in my life. “We make beautiful babies.” Enrique smiled, leaning his head against my shoulder.
He leaned forward and kissed the babies on their tiny foreheads, before he leaned forward and kissed me, and Donna did the same. I looked down at them, perfection in tiny blue and pink bundles.
“We certainly do.” I smiled at my lovers, my family.
At first, Mrs Cortez’s proposal had been indecent and highly unorthodox. But given the chance again?
I’d still say yes.
The End
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