Two years later.
“Something’s wrong.” I can’t stop pacing the room and Lincoln’s hand lands on my shoulder, pushing me to one of the waiting seats.
“Nothing’s wrong. They do this all the time. You have to chill, Bro.” I glance over at my sister and she shrugs.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t know the first thing about babies.” She shrugs and I groan, resting my face in my hands. My sister’s been gone for a year and each time she comes home to visit it’s like she’s a different person than the girl who we all knew and loved. She’s more serious. She’s on edge all the time. I don’t know what the city’s done to her, but we need her back. She moved to Chicago completely out of the blue, leaving my brother and I to deal with her portion of West House. My parents were devastated but they’re still holding on to hope that she’ll be back one day and that this whole ‘needing to leave the nest’ thing is just a phase. Me? Not so much. If my sister’s anything, it’s stubborn. Lincoln and I are holding on to hope simply that she’ll come back for West House, but I don’t see her budging. She’s a big city girl now.
“Dude, they said they’d come get you. I’m sure they’re almost here.” Lincoln says, taking the seat next to me and wringing his hands together. We’ve been in this hospital over twenty four hours at this point. We’re all tired, we’re all on edge.
The door opens and I perk up, but when Wren walks through I groan and press my palms to my face again.
“That’s a welcome noise. Good to see you too, Ford,” she chuckles. “I take it no babies yet?”
Babies. Plural. Yep.
Mackenzie and I tried for well over a year to get pregnant again. We tried everything in the fucking book and nothing was working. Talk about a horrible way to start a marriage when all we wanted was a baby immediately. She’d get so low every time the month passed and she’d have another cycle. I spent months on end beating myself up for not being able to give her what she wanted. In the end, it wasn’t one specific thing or another. They said it possibly could have been from the trauma from the attack, but sometimes ‘things happen’ as the doctors and nurses told us so many times. Eventually, after seeing a fertility specialist and spending so much money on making these little nuggets, she landed two of them. I’m going to be a father to two tiny little beings in a very short amount of time. And I’m not sure I’ve ever been so terrified. The past day has been tiring on all of us and we’re all ready to be on to the next step of watching me try to figure out fatherhood. I’m going to be antsy and nervous until I can see the girl I love and the two babies she’s growing are healthy and safe.
“Mr. West?” The nurse walks through the door, holding a pair of scrubs. “She’s ready for you.” She’s smiling brightly and I’ve never moved so fast putting on clothes.
By the time we make it to the room everything’s a blur. One moment I’m kissing Mack’s forehead, terrified to look beyond that blue screen because just the Google searches I did a few months ago when the possibility of a C-section came up made me nauseous, and the next I’m holding my babies. A boy and a girl. And I can’t stop crying.
“You did it babe,” I whisper, wiping a tear off Mackenzie’s face. I know she’s not happy she couldn’t deliver them naturally and I hope she’s not beating herself up over it.
“They’re healthy?” she whispers, so out of it from the drugs they’ve given her.
Twenty five hours of labor and it got to the point of needing these babies out now. The last day has been more difficult than any of us would have liked, but we made it. She made it.
“Healthy and so beautiful,” I mutter, my lips on hers. “You did so good.”
“Time is it?” she mutters, her eyes fluttering closed. I glance at the clock.
“Just after midnight, babe.” I smile, taking a deep breath.
“We did it,” she whispers, smiling softly. “New Years babies.”
“You did it all, beautiful.” I press my lips to hers and she smiles and another tear slips out before I have a chance to wipe it away. She’s so beautiful, and strong, and proven a hundred times over that she’s too good for me but something keeps her around and I am still doing everything in my power to show her every damn day how much I love her.
They let me take the babies back to the room while they finish with Mack. It feels weird leaving her side. It feels weird staring at these two bundles of joy that I have to take home with me in a couple days. It’s all kind of surreal and I’m having a hard time fully grasping this but I’m the happiest I’ve been ever. And that’s saying something because the day she told me the procedures worked and she was pregnant I think I screamed so loud I strained my voice.
“Have you guys picked out names yet?” The nurse asks as she takes a few vitals from the kids. I can only smile, because we have and I love my wife even more for bending on her favorite names just to keep the family tradition strong.
“Kennedy,” I say, nodding towards the tiny pink wiggling blanket. “And for him, Franklin.”
She turns and smiles at me. “Those are some pretty strong names.”
“They’re gonna be some pretty kickass people, ma’am.” I pick up Kennedy and kiss her cheek, cradling her, unable to wipe the smile from my face. My life finally turned out absolutely perfect. I definitely had some massive speed bumps along the way and life was unstable there for a bit, but looking at these two babies right now, I definitely wouldn’t change any of it. Not one second. I didn’t think I deserved to be this happy, but now that I am, I’m not letting anything take it from me.