“I need blood over here!”

“What’s the status of the babies?”

“Goddammit Jenkins, get your head out of your ass and scrub up!”

The words fly around my head in a flurry of noise and light, pain pulsing between my ears as I try to make sense of what’s going on. I’m in a hospital, I can tell that much, but everything around me seems to be chaos.

“The babies… what about my babies?” I mutter, looking around. I can’t feel anything below my midchest, and trying to look down I can barely move my neck. “What’s going on?”

“Mrs. Kelley, my name’s Dr. Valentine. The head of OB is coming in, but she’s still an hour out… we need to move now.” I look and see a doctor, already wearing scrubs and a mask, his blue eyes wide with focus. “Don’t worry, I’m a surgeon as well as an OB/GYN.”

“Why?” I ask, panic starting to set in as I remember Harvey kicking me. “The babies!”

“Mrs. Kelley, we need to do an emergency Cesarean section,” Dr. Valentine says. “You were assaulted, and we need to get your babies out now.”

“It’s still early,” I protest, my head ringing. “They’re not due for another month.”

“Either they come out through C-section or at least one of them is going to die,” Dr. Valentine says. “I need your permission.”

“Do it… wait, call Dr. Gordon!” I blurt out, grabbing Valentine’s hand. “The cord blood, they have to preserve the cord blood!”

Valentine nods, and turns to a nurse. “Get Gordon on the phone, tell him we have Su Lin Kelley on the table. Something about cord blood. And preserve both of those cords!”

I lay my head back, letting myself drift away. Maybe I’ve got a concussion, maybe they’ve just doped me up with some really good drugs. But either way, I don’t have the strength to keep my eyes open much longer.

* * *

“Hey… hey, wake up Mommy.”

My eyes flutter open, and I blink twice as I see Freida standing next to me. I try to reach for her, but my left arm’s stopped and I have to look over, seeing that I’ve got an IV in my arm. “What the hell happened?”

“You were bleeding internally,” Freida says softly, taking my other hand. “You won’t be sitting up much for the next few days, but they were able to fix you up pretty well. Your hoo-ha’s hideously disfigured and wrinkled, but nothing that’s any different than before.”

She clears her throat, and I can tell that whatever happened, it obviously is worse than she’s letting on. “How bad?”

“They… I had to take down Harvey, already talked to the DA. He took one look at the internal security cameras and said he’s going to charge Harvey with attempted murder. You…,” she clears her throat again, blinking furiously, and I’m touched at how hard Freida’s working to keep herself under control. “They had to put you under for quite a while.”

“The babies?” I ask. “Are Alexander and Roxanna safe?”

Freida’s glimmering eyes clear and she smiles. “Safe, sound, and loud as hell. I think it’s because they’re worried about their Mama, and they hate the fact the nurses keep trying to shove rubber nipples in their mouths.”

“Get them,” I say. “I’m sure they just need a little bit of comfort.”

Freida leaves, and in the few minutes of silence I close my eyes, giving myself a quick self evaluation. My midsection feels like that time in high school when a wushu sparring went ‘street,’ as some of us used to say, and I didn’t realize the girl I was sparring with was also versed in the harder contact styles and could throw knees like a Muay Thai artist. If I roughly triple that amount of pain, I think I’d be close to how I feel right now.

“How in the world am I going to get to the toilet?” I wonder quietly as I open my eyes. The rest of me feels more or less in one piece, I guess Harvey was obsessed with only my womb, although my low back isn’t exactly happy right now either. I know I should feel slightly offended, but more than anything I feel grateful.

I hear the approaching sound of screaming babies, and a squeaky wheel that would probably have me screaming too if I were less than a week old and had to listen to it all the time. The door to my room opens and Freida comes in with a nurse. “Look who we have!”

The screaming, if anything, gets louder, and I open my mouth. “Alexander… Roxanna… shhh, it’s okay. Mommy is here.”

I repeat myself in Mandarin, and like a light being turned off both screams stop. The nurse, who looks like she is ready to gouge out her eardrums, looks down with absolute shock. “They… those two haven’t stopped for the past two hours. How?”

“They know their Mama,” Freida says with a smirk, reaching into the clear plastic cradle and lifting out a baby. As soon as I see the small, pink wrinkled face, my heart melts and I reach out with my arms. “Su Lin, say hello to Alexander, born at exactly four nineteen PM. Alex, this is your Mommy.”

Alex fidgets as Freida carefully puts him in my arms and lets my bed recline a little bit more. Alex seems to immediately know what to do though as he wiggles and adjusts himself, guided by instinct until I feel his tiny mouth fasten around my right nipple and he starts sucking hungrily. Freida watches in absolute wonder as the nurse brings Roxanna over, and I’m soon holding both my children as they nurse for the first time. “Hello little ones. So Roxanna, when were you born?”

“Four twenty,” the nurse says, giggling. “Sorry… we always have a laugh whenever a baby is born at four twenty.”

“Huh?” I ask, but Freida waves it off, she’ll explain it to me later. I nurse my babies, knowing that they’re the first focus right now, stroking their tiny little heads with my thumbs. As I do, I let them bond with me, knowing they need it. “I’m glad they got my hair.”

“Well, black is kinda one of those dominant colors,” Freida says with a smirk. “I can already tell, we’re going to have to be careful with both of them when they get to their teen years… you know how to use a shotgun?”

“Nope. But I think my swords will send the proper message,” I note. Roxy squirms a little more and lets go, and I see her yawn before closing her eyes. “That’s it baby, you just rest right here. I’ve got you.”

The nurse steps forward to take her from me but I look up, backing her off with a light growl. Freida lays a hand on the nurse’s shoulder, giving her a small shake of her head. “I’ll help out. Don’t worry, these are two of the safest babies in the world right here.”

The nurse shrugs, and makes a note on the clipboard attached to the end of the twins’ crib before leaving, closing the door behind her. Once we’re alone, I lean back, letting Alexander drink his fill. “Were they able to save the cords?”

Freida nods, biting her lips in worry. “I’m still worried, Su Lin. But Gordon says they’re going to get the treatments started within twenty four hours. He said that in some ways the early delivery could be a blessing in disguise. The team didn’t think they’d be able to start treatments for another few weeks. But with the extra time, they can get a head start, and that means less deterioration that they have to overcome.”

I nod, laying my head back. “So the odds are better?”

“We’re still playing the Triad lottery here, Su Lin,” Freida says softly. “I’d like to pump you up babe, you know that… but the odds are slightly better.”

I close my eyes again, feeling sleep tug at me unexpectedly. “I know,” I murmur as I feel Alexander let go of my nipple and snuggle against me too. “But we have a chance. Stay with me?”

Freida leans over, giving me a kiss on the forehead. “You know it.”