CHAPTER 27

It was no wonder that Dawn Donnelly gave birth to a set of twins on a cool fall day during what might have been the worst storm of the year. What was curious was that no one was prepared for what happened during those final moments of her pregnancy.

“Okay, Dawn. We’ve got one baby, and we’re gonna need to get another one before we’re done,” the doctor told her.

It was rare to have twins naturally in a lot of places these days. Most doctors liked to keep the stress on both babies and the mother low, but in Dawn’s case, she wanted to keep it as natural as possible, and she was well suited to manage a natural delivery rather than starting off at a deficit with two new babies and a C-section that would limit her mobility.

“Okay, push for me,” the doctor told her.

Dawn panted, keeping her breath as even as possible as the delivery took place. Liam held her hand, though he probably regretted it based on the way she was about to squeeze his into each time a labor pain hit.

“That’s good. That’s good. Just one more, and we should be good,” the doctor was saying.

Dawn took several short breaths before a longer one, then pushed. She felt relieved as the second baby presented itself and the doctor cut its cord, but her relief was short lived as another pain nearly doubled her over.

“Something’s wrong,” she said. “Something’s wrong.”

The doctor handed the baby off to one of the pediatricians on call for the birth and began examining her again. Dawn felt frightened. What if something horrible was wrong? What if she died here on the table and left two motherless babies to be raised by a single father? How would Liam cope with that?

“Okay, Dawn. Just stay calm. Your monitor is going crazy because your heart rate is up, but it’s not because something is wrong. It is because you are panicking. I need you to calm down for me while I see what is going on.”

Dawn went back to her breathing. She should feel some relief by now, shouldn’t she? Why was she still in such pain? She tried not to think the worst, but it just seemed to be her nature.

“Oh wow. Oh, wow,” she heard the doctor saying. “This is a surprise.”

“What? What is it?” Liam said, craning his neck to see what he could from where he sat.

“In rare cases, mothers of twins get a little surprise, and it would appear that Dawn is one of those lucky individuals.”

“Lucky how?” Dawn gasped, feeling like she might pass out if this extended labor didn’t end.

“A bonus baby! You have triplets, Dawn.”

“What?” she and Liam exclaimed simultaneously.

“How is that possible?” Liam said. “We’ve had tons of tests.”

“It’s rare, but it happens. The baby is hidden by the others. A heartbeat can’t be detected because of their position, and that also hides them on the ultrasound,” she said, positioning herself to deliver another child.

Dawn and Liam were both thinking the same thing. How were they going to manage the office, renovations to the new house, and triplets? They were already going to have their hands full with twins, and now they had one more. They didn’t even have a crib for it!”

“Okay, Dawn. Push for me again. Let’s get this last one out of there before he gets distressed and we have to take him. No one wants that to happen.”

A few minutes later, Dawn had her final baby. The doctors checked them and cleaned them up, handing them all to the parents, who were both a mix of elation and exasperation.

“Look at that. Three healthy boys. Birth weight is not too low, but still small compared to most newborns. We’re going to have to take them down and get them in some incubators and keep them nice and toasty for a while and tend to Mommy a bit, but we promise you will get them back.”

Liam kissed Dawn on the cheek and smiled at her. She smiled up at him, feeling relieved but exhausted.

“Why must you always be such an overachiever, turd?”

“Because you love me that way,” she said with a little laugh.

“All right, Mr. Donnelly, get out of here while we patch Mommy up. They should have the babies set up at the nursery if you want to go take another peep at them while we get her finished up and out to the recovery room. We’ll see you in just a bit.”

Liam nodded at the doctor and kissed Dawn’s hand before leaving the room. A few moments later, he stood watching the three Donnelly boys as they were wrapped in blankets and put in incubators. Back in the delivery room, Dawn smiled as she read his thoughts and replied to the question on his mind.

“No, you cannot name them Larry, Curly, and Moe, you turd!”