The Unexpected: An Mpreg Romance by Louise Bourgeois (1)

CHAPTER ONE

 

They barely wait for the water to warm up before they step in.

Alex pushes Neal against the wall of the bathroom in their luxurious hotel suite in Paris. It was shaping up to be their best vacation yet. He presses his lips to Neal’s- softly, at first, but then more urgently.

Neal puts one arm around Alex’s neck and pulls him further into the kiss. He opens his mouth and pushes his tongue forward. He grinds his hips against Alex’s. The water makes it difficult to garner any real friction, but he still enjoys the sensations of his cock rubbing against Alex’s. He hooks one leg around both of Alex’s and pulls him a little closer.

Alex breaks the kiss and leans his forehead against Neal’s. He frowns.

“Is something wrong?”

“I wish Desmond was here.” Alex runs a hand along his collarbone.

Neal laughs. He leans forward and kisses the tip of Alex’s nose.

“So do I.” He senses that hasn’t eased Alex’s mood. “Look, if you don’t want to…”

“I do.”

“Alright.”

Alex doesn’t hesitate before complying. He runs his hands down Neal’s sides and eventually rests them on his lower back. He pulls Neal in close and holds him tightly. The soft moans he receives in return make the pain completely worth it.

Neal kisses his way along Alex’s jaw. He nibbles at Alex’s earlobe, before whispering:

“I want more.”

Alex’s eyes flutter shut, for a second, and a low groan escapes his lips. He tries to turn around, but Neal won’t let him move.

“Where are you going?”

“Don’t you think we need something to make this a little more comfortable?”

Neal rolls his eyes.

“We’re in a shower- improvise.”

Alex glances around, at the various bottles and his expression is unimpressed, to say the least.

Neal notices and shakes his head.

“So, don’t bother.”

“Really?”

Neal shrugs.

Alex nods. He can’t help but be a little nervous though.

“All right. Turn around.”

“No way. I like watching you far too much.”

“Oh, I bet you do.” Alex smirks.

They kiss, again. It’s gentle- a reassurance that everything is going to be fine.

Alex loosens his grip on Neal.

Neal turns around, slowly.

Alex leans in and kisses Neal’s cheek, just next to his ear.

“Are you sure about this? We haven’t done this in a while and-”

“Yes, but if you don’t fuck me soon, I might have to change my mind.”

Alex feels his cock twitch in anticipation. He bites down, with only slight force, on Neal’s shoulder.

“For that, I might just have to take my time.”

Neal whimpers, slightly.

Alex just grins.

Neal shuffles forward. He puts one arm on the wall and rests his forehead against his forearm. He glances back at Alex and grins. He thrusts back, slightly.

Alex knows what’s happening. His arms dart out to grab Neal’s hips before he can move that much further. He winces as a bolt of pain, from the sudden movement, shoots through his shoulder. He shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“I’m not that brave,” he mutters.

“So, you really will take your time?”

“You mind?”

“I don’t care how long it takes you to get there as long as you do.”

Alex presses himself as close as he can to Neal.

Neal moans softly. He arches his back slightly and pushes against Alex.

Alex runs his hands up Neal’s sides and across his chest. He rests one hand in the middle of Neal’s stomach and rubs gentle circles with his thumb. He leans his chin on the back of Neal’s shoulder and whispers gently into Neal’s ear.

“I want you.”

Alex kisses Neal’s cheek.

Alex puts his hands on Neal’s hips, again, and leaves them there for just a second. Then, he slowly brushes his hands down the back of Neal’s thighs. He brings his hands back up, along the front of Neal’s thighs. He puts his hands back on Neal’s hips and stretches his fingers out. He rests his forehead against the back of Neal’s head.

Alex places one kiss on the back of Neal’s head. For a second, he considers kissing his way down the rest of Neal’s body, but decides against it- it would take far too long, when he has the promise of so much more. He moves one hand in slightly and presses down with the heel of his palm. Almost there. He doesn’t even realize that he’s said that out loud until he hears Neal let out a relived sigh.”

“So good already. I just want more.”

Neal lets out a groan of frustration- that is not exactly what he meant. He’s about to tell Alex how annoyed he is, but then Alex is kissing him and he forgets everything apart from Alex’s mouth against his. He’s about to move around, to get better access to the kiss, but then Alex stops him.

“No. You stay right where you are.”

Neal huffs, slightly, and pouts as he shifts his head back around to lean his forehead against his forearm.

“Sorry,” Alex mutters and kisses Neal’s cheek, lightly, “but if you moved, it wouldn’t be quite so easy for me to do this.”

There’s no movement for a while. Well, there’s no movement for all of three seconds, but that’s enough to make Neal impatient. He’s about to demand a damn good explanation or tell Alex to hurry the fuck up before he leaves. He literally gets as far as opening his mouth, but then Alex does move.

Alex hesitates, just for a second. He’s not regretting this, it’s just that… No- thinking is bad. This is good. He wants this. He wants Neal. Right now. He moves like he’s on auto-pilot. He licks along Neal’s jaw, uses the distraction to reach out and grab Neal’s cock.

Neal gasps loudly. He bites down on his lower lip.

Alex tightens his fist and moves it up and down slowly.

“Fuck.”

“Mmm.” Alex bites, lightly, on Neal’s ear. “That is the idea.”

“God, yes.”

“So, we’re not…”

“Do it!” Neal reaches behind him to grab at Alex’s leg- the first part of him that he reaches. He digs his fingers in.

Alex chuckles, softly. He tightens his fist around Neal’s cock, for a second, but then pulls away.

Neal whines, audibly.

“Shh, baby- it’ll get even better. I promise.”

Neal makes some kind of barely intelligible happy sound.

The noise goes straight to Alex’s cock. He takes a deep breath- can’t get too excited. Not yet. He drags his fingernails over Neal’s hip- there’ll be marks there tomorrow. He moves his head slightly and places a series of light kisses along Neal’s neck. He moves his hand down slightly and massages the top of Neal’s thigh. He steps back, just a fraction.

Neal moans at the loss of contact, but his annoyance doesn’t last long.

Alex slides his hand up over Neal’s ass. His touch is light at first, but then becomes even more intense.

Neal bites down on his lower lip, but by the time Alex’s touch has migrated into a squeeze, he can’t help himself and Alex’s name comes tumbling from his lips.

“I love how you say my name,” Alex whispers into Neal’s ear.

“Carry on and I’ll say it again.”

And, God, does Alex want that- the way Neal says his name is… perfect. He moves his hand in. Almost there and… He wants this- he really wants this- but that doesn’t mean he’s not nervous. His other hand is digging into Neal’s side. He shivers- a combination of nerves and apprehension. He looks down- his hand is shaking and…

“Please.”

Neal wants it like this and, in that very second, Alex wants nothing more than to make Neal happy. He looks at his hand- no more shaking. He allows himself a small smile, before turning his attention very much back to Neal.

Neal shudders at the sensation of Alex’s finger trailing down his spine. He sighs, when he feels Alex’s finger on his lower back because surely that means it’s nearly over. That’s how it happens, isn’t it? So close to greatness and then just over. Never any satisfaction, but…

“Oh, God.”

“You like that?”

“Stop talking.”

Alex kisses the top of Neal’s head. He rubs all over Neal’s stomach and chest as he pushes his finger further down Neal’s back. Then, his finger isn’t on Neal’s back anymore- it’s lower, much lower. He brushes his finger lightly over the tender area around Neal’s entrance. He pushes his finger inside.

Neal’s eyes fly open and he gasps loudly, when he feels Alex’s finger inside him.

“Did I…”

“Don’t stop!”

Alex feels himself grow harder at that utterance that’s somewhere between a moan and a plea. He rests his forehead against Neal’s head and breathes out heavily. He pushes his finger in deeper.

There’s a sharp intake of breath from Neal. He arches his back.

Alex pulls Neal towards him and holds him there, for a second. For a minute, he slowly, torturously, moves his finger in and out of Neal. Then, he hears, just barely, Neal chanting ‘more’ and he can’t ignore that. He adds a second finger.

Neal bites on his lower lip, possibly a little too harshly because he thinks he can taste blood, but then he realizes that he doesn’t actually care. He thinks, just then, that he’d love to be facing the other way, to see exactly what Alex is doing to him, to look into Alex’s eyes, but how this is right now is amazing and he doesn’t want it to stop.

Alex moves his fingers, twists his wrist, tries his best to make sure Neal is prepared. He keeps having to tell himself to slow down because if he goes too quickly, then he might hurt Neal and he doesn’t want to do that. It’s… some minutes later, when he considers pushing a third finger into Neal, but quickly dismisses that thought- there’s been enough. He removes his fingers.

Neal whines, but he’s quickly silenced.

Alex shifts over, just a fraction, and uses one hand to guide himself to exactly the right spot. He puts his hands on Neal’s hips and then gently presses himself inside.

Neal’s mouth opens- a silent gasp.

They stay like that for a minute. Everything’s quiet and just makes sense.

Then, Alex starts to move. He thrusts slowly in and out just a couple of times before he realizes something and stops. He runs one hand along Neal’s. He guides Neal’s hand over to his cock. He thinks he mutters something about how he likes the sounds Neal makes when he touches himself and how he’d love to hear those sounds now. He’s not sure though- it could just as easily be a series of moans.

Neal gets the picture though. He grasps his cock and moans at the sudden contact. He tightens his fist and starts moving it up and down. His movements are stilted, at first, but he soon finds a rhythm. He doesn’t realize, until a moment later, that the rhythm of his strokes matches that of Alex thrusting into him. It makes him smile, just a little.

Alex has tried to move slowly. It’s not because he’s nervous. It’s because that second that he’s completely inside of Neal feels so… perfect isn’t even a good enough word, but it’s the only one he can think of. So, yes, he tried to go slow, but he just couldn’t hold back so now he’s moving faster. His hands are back on Neal’s hips so that he can pull Neal towards him and hit that spot that makes Neal cry out.

Neal pushes himself back, forcing Alex in deeper. He only does that a few times, before he runs out of energy.

Alex can feel Neal tighten around him and knows that Neal won’t last much longer. He knows he won’t last much longer, either. He thrusts in a few more times- hard, fast, rough and… and…. He has no idea who comes first. In that moment, he knows nothing more than that blissful feeling of release. He moves back, just a fraction. He’s shaking slightly, but he notices that Neal is swaying almost dangerously so he acts quickly. He reaches out, puts an arm around Neal’s waist and holds him close.

“Okay?”

Neal nods. He smiles and leans his head back on Alex’s shoulder. He stays there, for a minute, to catch his breath and regain his senses. He turns his head, slightly, and kisses Alex’s neck.

“That was…” Neal pushes himself back and turns around to look at Alex. “It was…”

Alex smiles- he gets it.

Neal puts his arms around Alex’s neck and leans in to kiss Alex’s lips.

Alex smiles into the kiss. He rests his hands on Neal’s hips. He pulls back, after a minute.

“I think I can see a little baby in your stomach,” Alex jokes, poking Neal’s belly.

Neal grins.

***

When Desmond gets to Neal’s house, he’s surprised to find Alex already there.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Alex rolls his eyes.

Desmond shakes his head and steps into the house. He presses a soft kiss to Alex’s lips before turning around and hanging his jacket on a hook by the door.

“So, how’s Neal?”

“Not so good.” Alex pushes the door shut. “He’s not crying anymore, but he’s barely said three words to me since I’ve been here.”

Desmond frowns a little when he turns around to look at Alex.

“So he hasn’t told you what’s wrong?”

Alex shakes his head.

Desmond’s frown deepens.

Alex takes hold of Desmond’s hand.

“I’m sure we’ll get through to him.”

“I hope so,” Desmond mutters.

Alex smiles softly and leads Desmond through to the living room. He points over to where Neal is sat, curled up, in the middle of the couch.

“Hey.” Desmond walks over and sits down next to Neal. He reaches out and puts a hand on Neal’s shoulder.

Neal jumps a little when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He turns to the side and frowns a little when he sees Desmond.

“You came too? You didn’t have to do that.” Neal shakes his head.

“Of course I did.” Desmond smiles lightly. “Franc called me and said you were crying all the time. He’s worried about you and now I am too.”

“That’s what Alex said too.”

“That’s because I’m worried about you, too.” Alex walks over and sits down on the other side of Neal. “Crying all the time is not good, Neal, especially when you don’t talk to us about it. You haven’t talked to Franc either and you tell Franc everything.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Neal mutters.

“But you’re hurting, Neal, and we don’t want to see you like that.”

“I still don’t want to talk about it.”

“Neal, please.”

Neal lifts his head and glances between Desmond and Alex. He chews nervously on his lower lip for a minute or so before speaking.

“I’m pregnant.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

Alex’s eyes widen and he just stares at Neal.

Desmond puts a hand to his mouth. He takes a few deeps breaths before speaking.

“Neal, how… Did you…”

“I didn’t know I could… I didn’t know this was possible. For me, I mean. This wasn’t on purpose.” Neal quickly glances between Desmond and Alex, in fear.

“It’s okay, Neal.” Desmond takes hold of Neal’s hand. “Don’t worry about that. When… Uh… So when did you find out?”

“Um… I think maybe one week ago. I was getting sick for a while and Franc say: ‘Go to the doctor, I even take you’, but I go on my own and they say this.”

“Wow, that’s… Wow.” Desmond opens and closes his mouth several times before speaking again. “So how long…”

“Not sure really.” Neal shrugs lightly. “They say maybe two months or a bit less.”

“So… since Paris?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“This is big.” Desmond leans back against the couch.

“Actually, they say the baby will be very small now.”

Desmond looks over at Neal and can’t help but laugh softly. He raises Neal’s hand to his mouth and presses a kiss to the back of Neal’s hand.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I couldn’t figure out the good words to use.”

“So this is why you’ve been crying all the time?”

“I’m so scared, of everything.” Neal’s bottom lip starts to quiver.

“Hey.” Desmond sits forward and pulls Neal into a hug. “Don’t worry about it. We’re going to be okay. This is big and complicated and confusing and scary, but we’re going to be okay. We’ll work everything out, I promise.”

Neal sniffles a little and shifts closer towards Desmond.

Desmond smiles softly and concentrates on soothing Neal for a few minutes, before looking across at Alex.

“Alex?” Desmond frowns a little when he doesn’t get a response. He waves his hand in front of Alex’s face. “You in there?”

Alex shakes his head and snaps himself out of his daze.

“Uh… What was… What just happened?”

“Baby.”

“Oh.” Alex frowns slightly and tilts his head to the side. “Where?”

“In here.” Neal puts a hand on top of his stomach. He smiles for a moment before shifting around so that he can look at Alex. “Are you okay? With this, I mean.”

“I just… I didn’t expect this. Ever.” Alex frowns heavily and shakes his head.

“I didn’t expect it either, but I think it is good.” Neal frowns a little and glances back at Desmond. “You promised me that it would be okay.”

Desmond smiles and nods. He presses a kiss to Neal’s forehead.

“It will be okay.”

Neal grins at Desmond for a second before turning back to Alex.

“See- it’ll be okay. We’ll be okay and I think this is good.” Neal thinks carefully for a minute. “This is scary, but I really think it’s good. I think I’m happy for this.” He chews nervously on his lower lip. “Are you happy?”

After a long minute of silence from Alex, Desmond leans in towards Neal.

“Well, I’m happy.”

Neal grins at Desmond again, but then frowns at Alex.

“Alex?”

Alex knows now is exactly the right moment for him to tell Neal that the only thing he’s feeling right now is utter fear. He should say that, he really should, so they can have a serious conversation about all of this and figure everything out. He can’t quite bring himself to say that, though, for fear of destroying that amazing smile that Neal is wearing and making Neal and Desmond mad at him. Instead, he leans over and kisses Neal’s cheek.

“I’m happy.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

Alex is stood in the kitchen, clutching a cup of coffee and staring out of the window. He doesn’t realize that Desmond has even walked into the room until Desmond is stood right behind him.

“Hey.” Desmond puts a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “You okay?”

Alex jumps a little, but manages to refrain from spilling any of his coffee. He puts the cup down on the counter and turns around to face Desmond.

“I’m just thinking.”

Desmond smiles softly and brushes a hand over Alex’s cheek.

“You do that too much sometimes.”

“Well, this is the kind of thing that requires a lot of thought.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty…”

“Good?” Alex raises an eyebrow. “That’s what you think, isn’t it?”

“And you don’t?”

Alex shrugs.

Desmond frowns a little.

“So, before, when you told Neal that you were happy, it was a lie?”

“I just… I don’t know what I am.”

“Then why didn’t you say that?”

“I couldn’t just… It wasn’t the right time.”

“Oh, come on.” Desmond rolls his eyes. “It was the perfect time.”

“He was so happy about it and so were you; I didn’t want to ruin that.”

“So when were you gonna bring it up? In a few months’ time when we’re getting ready to bring the baby home from the hospital.”

“No, just... Just later.”

“Alex.” Desmond shakes his head. “First Neal isn’t talking and now you? You need to talk to me, please, and be honest because we need to be able to sort everything out and be okay before the baby actually gets here.”

“A baby?” Alex shakes his head- he still can’t quite believe that this is happening. “I don’t…”

Desmond steps in and takes hold of Alex’s hands.

“Just talk to me.”

Alex nods, but it’s a minute or so before he actually speaks.

“This isn’t something I thought would happen.”

“It’s not like I saw it coming either.”

“But you’re okay with it because you’ve got a mountain of kids already.”

“Five is not a mountain,” Desmond rolls his eyes, “and you love them.”

“Yes, but I never thought of having any of my own. At least not now.”

“But it is happening now.”

“I know.” Alex turns his head away. “I just… This wasn’t part of the plan.”

“You and your plans.” Desmond shakes his head. “Babies kinda fuck with the plans, Alex, even when you want them.”

“But I don’t… I don’t know what to do.” Alex sighs heavily and shakes his head. “It’s a tiny little person. What am I supposed to do with that?”

“What you’re supposed to do is take care of the baby.”

“But I… It’s a baby- a tiny baby. I can’t take care of a baby.” Alex nods furiously as if that makes perfect sense.

Desmond laughs softly.

“So that’s what you’re worried about? That, for once, there’s something you might not actually be perfect at?”

Alex narrows his gaze at Desmond.

“I don’t have to be perfect at everything.”

“Of course you do.” Desmond rolls his eyes, but then squeezes Alex’s hands tightly. “It’s one of those things that makes you who you are and we happen to love who you are, even if you can be entirely crazy and frustrating sometimes.”

“That’s not… A baby! How the fuck am I supposed to look after a baby?”

“You’re doing okay with the kids, aren’t you?”

“That’s different. They were already children- actual children and not babies- when we started this.”

“Ollison’s not even one. You were in the hospital the day she was born.”

“That’s not the point.” Alex waves away Desmond’s words as if they mean nothing at all. “The point is… Damn it. This is a tiny little baby of my very own that…”

“Our very own, Alex.”

“Fine.” Alex rolls his eyes. “It’s a tiny little baby of our very own that we have to take care of all the time, a tiny little baby of our very own that we are completely responsible for. See, it’s totally different. Don’t tell me that it’s not different because it really is.”

“Alex.” Desmond moves his hands up to either side of Alex’s face. “Just breathe.”

Alex nods and takes several shaky breaths.

“I know that it’s scary and no matter how many times it happens, it doesn’t get any less scary. I’m scared now and you can see that Neal is too, but I know we’re gonna be okay.”

“That doesn’t work with me. Neal might be fine after you tell him that, but I need more than that.”

“Alex…”

“I know. I know.” Alex rolls his eyes. “Breathe.” He takes a few deep breaths.

“You’ve got plenty of time to get used to this idea and it isn’t as if you have to do this on your own- Neal and I are gonna be there, too.”

“But…”

“Alex, seriously, you need to calm down.” Desmond places a gentle kiss on Alex’s lips. “You can do this.”

“But what if I can’t? This is serious. I have to be able to take care of this baby, now that it’s actually going to be born and all.”

Desmond can’t stop himself from laughing.

“You are going to be okay, but not if you keep freaking out like this. You might not know everything right now, but there’s time for you to figure it out. Anyway, there are some things that you won’t know how to handle until the baby is actually here.”

Alex frowns heavily because that all sounds fine, but what if it doesn’t work like that?

“If you’re worried, about anything, then you need to talk about it to us, okay?”

“Yes.” Alex frowns a little (because this is still terrifying) but nods. “I… I’m still scared.”

“I know.” Desmond smiles fondly. “That tiny little baby might be terrifying, but it’ll be adorable too. Seriously, when you hold that baby in your arms for the first time, all these worries will seem like nothing.”

“I hope so.”

Desmond hugs Alex tightly and kisses Alex’s cheek. He’s about to say something else comforting, but then Neal wanders into the room.

“I want cookies.” Neal puts his hands on his hips.

Desmond laughs a little and kisses Alex again before pulling away and wandering around the kitchen in search of cookies.

Neal studies Alex carefully for a minute.

“You freaked out, didn’t you?” Neal rolls his eyes. “Of course you did.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Desmond walks over and hands Neal a bag of cookies. “We talked and everything’s fine.”

“This is wrong.” Neal stares at the cookies. “I want my mom’s cookies.”

“There aren’t any.”

“There are.” Neal nods seriously. “I had some before.”

“Then you must have eaten them all because I can’t find any.”

“But I want them. I want my mom’s cookies.” Neal’s bottom lip starts to quiver.

“Hey,” Desmond hugs Neal tightly. “It’s too late now, but we could go over tomorrow and see if your mom has any cookies. Will that be okay?”

Neal nods.

“I think that will do.”

“All right then.” Desmond kisses Neal’s forehead. “And while we’re there, we can tell her that you’re pregnant.”

Neal whines softly and almost stamps his foot on the ground.

“I don’t want to.”

“Neal.” Desmond gives Neal a pointed look. “You’re going to have to tell her sometime and you might as well do it as soon as possible. She’s probably been worried about you the past week, too; I’m sure she doesn’t like to see you cry.”

“I suppose so. I just…” Neal sighs lightly. “I’m just worried about how she’s going to react.”

“Just lead with the ‘You’re going to have another grandchild’ line and everything will be fine.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

The following morning, Desmond is awoken at a much earlier hour of the morning than he would like and he’s completely confused for a second, but then he hears the bathroom door being opened closely followed by the sound of the unmistakable sound of someone throwing up. He groans softly and blinks a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes. He yawns and stretches out before getting up and walking through to the bathroom. He kneels down on the floor next to Neal and gently smoothes some hair back from Neal’s forehead.

“Hey.”

“Fuck off.” Neal swats Desmond’s hand away and then throws up again. “Ugh. I hate this.”

“It’s not going to last forever.”

“It’s still far too long.” Neal whines lightly. He takes a few deep breaths, hoping to soothe his nausea, but he just ends up throwing up again. He turns to the side and glares at Desmond. “You could at least try and do something helpful you know.”

“Well, I was gonna offer to hold your hair back, but that’s really not an issue, is it?”

“Also, I’m not a girl you idiot.” Neal punches Desmond’s shoulder.

“Ow.” Desmond gently rubs his shoulder.

Neal mutters angrily for a moment and then throws up again. He sighs heavily.

Desmond opens his mouth to say something, but Neal doesn’t give him the chance.

“You should just not be here; I would hate to have to punch you again.”

“Okay. I’ll go, but if you need me then just shout and I’ll come back, okay?” Desmond kisses Neal’s cheek before standing up and walking out of the bathroom. He smiles when he steps into the bedroom and sees Alex sat up in bed, staring. “Hey. He’s...” He glances back towards the bathroom. “Well, this isn’t the most fun part of this whole process so we’ll let him off.” He walks over and presses a kiss to Alex’s forehead. “I’m gonna start on breakfast. You want anything?”

“I’ll do breakfast.” Alex stands up a little bit too quickly and almost bangs into Desmond.

“Hey.” Desmond puts his hands on Alex’s arms, stopping him from leaving. “He already punched me- I think you’ll have better luck with him than I will.”

“But I…” Alex frowns heavily. “I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s Neal; you know how to talk to Neal. Just make him feel better.”

“I… I think it might be best if I go…”

“You can’t hide away from this forever, Alex. You can handle this.”

Alex looks worried for another minute before nodding.

“I can do this.” Alex takes a deep breath before marching through to the bathroom.

Desmond laughs a little and shakes his head. He walks downstairs and only briefly wonders whether Neal is going to end up punching Alex, too.

***

Desmond is stood in the kitchen, making another cup of coffee (he’s already had one and some food, too, but he’s been down here on his own for long enough for him to finish breakfast and now get another coffee because he’s still tired). He hears some sound from behind him, but doesn’t turn around when he calls out.

“Hey. Anyone want coffee?”

Neal walks over and rests his chin on Desmond’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry I punched you."

Desmond smiles softly.

“It’s okay.” Desmond turns around and gently kisses Neal’s lips. “You feel better now?”

Neal pulls back slightly and shrugs.

“I have to do this every morning?”

It occurs to Desmond, then, that he could tell Neal that the nausea could, in fact, last throughout the day, but he knows that would probably earn him another punch.

“It probably won’t last for much longer, though.”

Neal sighs heavily, but quickly moves on.

“Can I have…”

“No, Neal, you can’t have cookies for breakfast; that’s not healthy and, also, you ate the last of the cookies yesterday.”

“Oh.” Neal thinks carefully for a minute. “Then I want pancakes.”

“I can do that.” Desmond turns around and starts gathering things to make pancakes with.

“When are we going over to Mom’s?”

“After lunch.”

“Okay. And there will definitely be cookies there, yes?”

“Why don’t you call your mom now and find out?”

“Hmm.” Neal looks at his watch. “It’s still early. I will call later. Where are my pancakes?”

Desmond raises an eyebrow and turns to look at Neal.

“You’re gonna have to wait a little longer than that.”

Neal huffs a little. He stands up and wanders over to the fridge to get some juice.

“So did Alex freak out again?”

Neal opens his mouth to reply, but he doesn’t get the chance.

“No, I did not, thank you very much,” Alex shouts from the living room.

Neal looks at Desmond and nods.

“He did. You did,” Neal shouts back towards the living room, “but it’s okay because we still love you anyway.” He grabs a glass from the cupboard and fills it full of juice. He takes a few sips of juice before turning to Desmond. “So, my pancakes?”

“They’ll take even longer if you keep interrupting me.”

Neal narrows his gaze a little.

“I think I’m mad with you. I’m going to sit with Alex so I will have my pancakes in the living room.” Neal turns around and walks back into the living room.

Desmond rolls his eyes and turns back to the task at hand. Unsurprisingly, the pancake-making does go a lot more quickly without Neal interrupting him. He takes a chance and makes some extra pancakes in case Neal wants more than usual. He walks into the living room and hands Neal a plate of pancakes.

“There you go. There’s some left if you want more later.”

“That’s nice. I would like more juice now, please.”

“All right.” Desmond goes back into the kitchen and returns a few minutes later. He hands the juice to Neal and a cup of coffee to Alex. “There. Now is everyone happy?”

“Yes, Desmond.”

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

“We don’t have to go. We could always just not go, right?” Neal glances between Desmond and Alex. “We could do that. Stay here, I mean.”

“Neal.” Desmond gives Neal a pointed look.

Neal sighs heavily and looks to Alex for support, but Alex just shakes his head.

“I don’t want to.”

“I thought you wanted cookies.”

“But you could go and get the cookies and bring them here so I could have the cookies and not…”

“Neal.” Desmond gently pushes Neal towards the door. “You have to do this. I don’t know what you’re so worried about- you’ll be fine.”

“But what if she gets mad?”

“If your mom’s gonna get mad, Neal, she’ll get mad at me and Alex, not you.”

Neal doesn’t look convinced by that.

“And you want those cookies, don’t you?”

“I…” Neal frowns a little, but nods. “I want the cookies.”

“Then we’re gonna have to go.”

“I can do this.” Neal takes a deep breath and takes hold of Desmond and Alex’s hands. “I can definitely do this.”

***

“I’m pregnant.” Neal hadn’t really meant to blurt that out as soon as he sat down in his parent’s house, but of course that’s exactly what he’s ended up doing. He whimpers a little and looks down at the ground because he’s actually too scared to look up at his parents. He knows that Desmond and Alex are sat on either side of him, but he can’t really look at them either.

“Neal.”

Neal takes a long moment to look up.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, Neal; you have nothing to apologise for.”

Neal has a long conversation with his mother then. It’s nice and comforting and very much a relief (he keeps asking whether she’s mad at him or not and gets plenty of reassurance that that is definitely not the case). He’s not that worried that his dad hasn’t really said anything (this is such a big thing that it makes sense his dad would need longer to get used to it). He knows it’s probably a bit too early, but he does get excited when his mother starts talking about buying tiny little baby clothes. When she starts talking about decorating the nursery, though, he gets a little sad because the nursery the baby will be sleeping in for a lot of the time is going to be in a whole other country. He almost cries when his dad hugs him on the way out and says that he’s very happy. He lets out a brief sigh of relief when they step out of the house. He glances back at Desmond and Alex.

“You did remember the cookies, didn’t you?”

***

“That went well.” Neal nods and hangs his jacket on the hook by the door.

“I told you that you didn’t have to worry.” Desmond pushes the door shut after Alex has walked into the house.

“Well, I suppose you had to be right about something sooner or later.” Alex grins.

Desmond narrows his gaze and shakes his head.

Alex laughs a little and walks over to wrap an arm around Neal’s shoulders.

“Why don’t we get you some milk to go with those cookies?”

Neal grins and nods.

“I like that idea.”

Alex leads Neal through to the living room and Desmond follows a minute later.

“Oh, my God.”

Desmond’s eyes widen slightly when he steps into the living room and finds Neal all flustered.

“What’s wrong?”

Neal shakes his head.

Desmond looks at Alex.

“He’s worried about having to tell our parents now too.”

“Oh, Neal.” Desmond walks over and takes hold of Neal’s hands. “You need to stop worrying. It’ll be fine.”

Neal frowns a little.

“Don’t you think they’ll be happy about having another grandchild, too?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“There you go, then.” Desmond smiles and presses a kiss to Neal’s lips. “Now, why don’t you get another cookie?”

Neal turns around and wanders back over to the couch.

Alex looks over at Desmond.

“You’re good at that.”

Desmond grins.

“I’m good at everything.”

“What if…”

“Neal.” Desmond rolls his eyes and looks at Neal. “Seriously, stop worrying. You’re the pregnant one; no one’s going to get mad at you.” He shakes his head. “Like I said, it’s me and Alex that need to worry.”

“Why?” Neal frowns a little. “Who’d get mad at you?”

Desmond opens his mouth to reply, but the ringing of the doorbell interrupts him.

Neal rolls his eyes and stands up.

“I’ll get that.”

Alex watches Neal leave and then looks at Desmond.

“You think they’ll get mad?”

Desmond opens his mouth to reply, but, once again, he’s interrupted, this time by Neal returning to the living room and he’s not alone. By the look of fear on Alex’s face, he knows for sure who else is here. He slowly turns around and smiles.

“Franc. Steve. It’s nice to see you.”

Steve folds his arms across his chest and narrows his gaze a little.

“So which one of you knocked up my baby brother?”

Desmond turns towards Neal.

“You see what I mean now?”

Neal nods and then returns his attention to his brothers.

“Steve, I told you to be nice.”

“Neal…”

“No.” Neal points at Steve. “If you do not behave, I will tell Mom and then you won’t get cookies and Franc won’t get cookies and do you really want to explain to Giselle why Daddy doesn’t bring home Grandma’s cookies anymore, Franc?”

“Neal, this is serious.”

“I know this is serious. It has always been serious, but it has also always been right. It is still right now and there’s a baby. I am happy for this, we all are, and I hope you will be too.”

“Neal, we’re just worried about you.”

“You don’t need to be. I am fine, they take care of me,” Neal glances back at Desmond and Neal and smiles softly before returning his gaze to Franc and Steve, “just like you made them promise the last time you got all threatening like this and don’t think I know about that. If you can’t be happy about this or nice, even, then I would like for you to leave.” He turns his gaze away.

Steve walks over and pulls Neal into a hug.

“As long as you’re okay, Neal.”

“Well, I throw up a lot, but that’s normal.”

Steve laughs a little and shakes his head. He looks back at Franc.

“Franc?”

Franc walks over and smiles softly at Neal.

“We’re always going to worry about you, Neal, but if you’re happy then that’s okay.”

Neal sniffles a little and hugs Franc and Steve tightly.

“You should make babies soon, Steve; otherwise you will never be Mom’s favorite.”

Steve smiles fondly and rolls his eyes- that’s entirely the kind of thing he would expect Neal to say.

“I think it might be best if you leave now, anyway, before you scare Alex anymore.”

“I’m not scared,” Alex answers a little bit too quickly.

Desmond sits down on the couch next to Alex and takes hold of Alex’s hand.

Alex maybe shifts just a little bit closer to Desmond. He’s still really not scared, though. Except maybe he is a little bit (okay, Franc might not really be scary, but Steve is another thing).

Neal starts to show Franc and Steve out, but then he frowns a little.

“How did you find out so quickly?”

“Mom called the second you left.”

“Of course.” Neal rolls his eyes (he doesn’t begrudge his mother for being so excited, but he would like to tell people himself, even though he was worried about telling Franc and Steve anyway so this was probably easier for him, in the end). He pulls the living room door shut behind them. “Are you really okay with this?”

“It’s… It’s a surprise, but if you’re happy, then I’m happy for you. And I’ll be happy to be an uncle again.”

“And I’ve never been an uncle before, but I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

“I’m so happy for that.” Neal grins. “Now, you really should leave- we have celebrating to do.” He laughs a little when he overhears Franc complaining to Steve about over-sharing as they’re walking out of the door. He turns around and walks back to the living room. He really does want to celebrate, but first he wants another cookie.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER SIX

 

“You need to calm down, Neal.”

“You need to stop saying that, Desmond.”

Desmond rolls his eyes and leans his head back against the wall. He looks to the side, where Alex is sat.

“Alex?”

Alex’s eyes widen and he stares at Desmond.

“What? Oh, my God; is something wrong?”

Desmond closes his eyes and sighs heavily. He gently rubs his forehead and wonders exactly how they’re going to be able to get through the nine months of Neal’s pregnancy, let alone actually raising this child.

“I have to pee.” Neal stands up and tries to walk away. “I don’t know why they make me drink so much.”

“Neal.” Desmond grabs hold of Neal’s wrist. “Sit down and relax.”

“I’m so nervous.” Neal sits back down in the empty seat next to Desmond.

“But this will be our first time seeing the baby. Aren’t you excited?”

“Of course, but,” Neal chews on his lower lip, “what if something’s wrong?”

“Nothing is going to be wrong, Neal, and even if it is, we’re not going to love the baby any less. We’ll be able to handle whatever happens, okay?”

Neal nods briefly, but he’s still not entirely convinced.

Desmond touches a hand to Neal’s cheek and rests his other hand on Alex’s leg.

Alex stops shaking for a second when he feels Desmond’s hand on his leg, but then he’s right back to twitching nervously again.

Desmond shakes his head- there’s only so much he can do.

***

As soon as the doctor comes to meet them, Neal starts asking every question he can think of and doesn’t stop talking until he’s led down on the bed in the examination room.

“Okay, we’ll go over any questions you have after I’ve checked you over.”

“Fine.” Neal huffs just a little bit because he really wants to know all of this stuff now.

Desmond is sat next to the bed, near Neal’s head. He leans in towards Neal slightly.

“If you’d give her more than a second, then maybe you’d get some answers.”

Neal narrows his gaze at Desmond a little (okay, Desmond might be right, but that’s really not the point).

Desmond just about resists the urge to laugh. He rolls his eyes and then turns to look at Alex.

“You okay?”

Alex frowns a little, but nods.

“I just… Why does it take so long?”

“Because you’re just so excited.” Desmond smiles softly.

Neal giggles when the doctor puts the gel on his stomach.

The doctor turns towards Neal and smiles knowingly.

“Is it too cold for you?”

“No, it just tickles." Neal grins. He watches as the doctor puts the wand to his stomach and then looks over at Desmond. “Are you excited? I’m so excited.” He grins again and looks at Alex. “Alex?”

Alex smiles as best he can and nods.

“Let’s see what’s going on in here then.” The doctor moves the wand over Neal’s stomach. After a minute she frowns slightly. She presses a few buttons on the keyboard and leans in towards the screen. “Hmm.” She leans back in her seat and smiles. “If you’ll just excuse me, I’ll be back in a minute.” She stands up and walks out of the room.

“Oh, my God.” Neal sits up and, basically, starts freaking the fuck out. “Oh, my God.”

“Hey.” Desmond takes hold of Neal’s hand and squeezes it tightly. “Don’t worry about this. I’m sure everything’s okay. Right, Alex?” He turns to the side and sees Alex frozen in his seat with a look of utter fear on his face. He turns back towards Neal. “Just stay calm. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe the machine is broken and she went to get someone to fix it.”

“No.” Neal’s bottom lip starts to quiver, but he takes a deep breath. “Something’s wrong.”

“Neal…”

“No.” Neal points at Desmond. “You go and find out what is happening, right now.”

Desmond wants to argue that they should just wait here for the doctor to come back, but the way Neal is looking at him tells him that that would be a very bad idea. He stands up and places a kiss to Neal’s cheek.

“Try not to worry so much; I’m sure everything’s going to be okay.” Desmond smiles at Neal again before turning around and walking out of the room. When the door shuts behind him, he stops to take a deep breath- he’s freaking out himself, of course he is, but he can’t show that in front of Neal and Alex, not with both of them being so obviously terrified. He closes his eyes and takes another deep breath before storming down the hallway to where he can see the doctor is standing. He doesn’t even wait for the doctor to greet him before he speaks. “You are going to get right back in there,” he points back to the examination room, “and explain what the fuck is going on, right fucking now, because this is not on.”

“If you’ll just calm down…”

“No, I’m not gonna fucking calm down. You are going to explain.”

“Of course. I thought it would be best to explain to you all together, but I had to wait for a colleague first.” The doctor points towards a tall man at the other side of the corridor, who walks over and introduces himself as…

Actually, Desmond has no idea what this guy’s name is and he really doesn’t care. He growls a little before turning around and storming back down the corridor. He pushes the door to the examination room open a little too forcefully.

Neal jumps a little when the door slams open. He stares at Desmond

“Is… What did they say is wrong?”

Desmond just shakes his head and walks back over to sit down next to Neal’s bed. He takes hold of Neal’s hand. He’s a little bit surprised when Alex grabs hold of his free hand because Alex isn’t one for reaching out, even with something as small as this.

Neal frowns a little when the doctor walks back into the room and his frown deepens when he sees that she’s not alone.

“Who is he?”

“He’s a colleague of mine, who’s a specialist.”

“A specialist?” Neal whimpers a little bit. “For what?”

“Multiple pregnancies.” The doctor sits back down in the chair by the ultrasound machine.

“What?” Neal frowns again. “What does that mean?”

“If you’d lie back down, I can show you.”

Neal is too nervous, scared, worried, nervous and sacred some more, to argue so he nods and lies back down. He can’t quite bring himself to look at the doctor and he’s far too nervous to look at Desmond and Alex so he stares up at the ceiling instead.

The doctor moves the wand over Neal’s stomach again. After a minute or so, she turns the screen around and points to the image in the middle.

“Here. You see? You’re having twins.”

“Fuck.” Desmond has no idea what to say apart from that.

Alex can’t say anything at all.

Neal just stares at the screen. He leans forward as best he can and squints slightly.

“That’s two babies. I see them.” Neal manages to tear his gaze away from the screen after a minute and looks at the doctor. “How did that happen?”

“It’s basically the same as making one baby.”

“Okay.” Neal looks back at the screen. “Twins.” He shakes his head.

“I guess we really don’t do things by halves,” Desmond mutters. He shifts forwards slightly so that he’s closer to the screen. He has a brief flash of how much hard work it was having Andrea and Bella at the same time, but quickly pushes those thoughts away because this is an entirely different situation.

“There are really two of them?” Alex tilts his head to the side and frowns a little. “That’s so many more than one.”

Desmond wants to argue against that logic, but there’s not much he feels like he can say right now. He says the best thing he can think of, which he hopes is good enough for now.

“We’ll manage, I promise.”

***

The rest of the appointment passes in a bit of a blur because Desmond is the only one paying attention and even he’s only half doing that. He smiles and nods a lot. He doesn’t look at the pictures (they have about a thousand copies) when the doctor hands them over because if he even takes one tiny glance then he’ll be staring at them for hours and they actually have things to do today. He frowns a little when the nurse starts talking about Neal’s next appointment in a few weeks because they’re going to be back home by then (Ollison’s first birthday is coming up and there’s still a lot they need to do for that).

The nurse laughs a little and says that’s fine, just call the doctor back home and they’ll be able to sort everything out between them.

Desmond thinks he needs to say something more to Neal and Alex because they’re so quiet and that’s really disconcerting (especially from Neal, who never normally shuts up), but he can’t figure out what to say so he just wanders down to the car and really hopes that Neal and Alex are following him (they are).

“Can I have the pictures?”

Desmond shakes his head and turns towards Neal. He frowns a little for a few seconds before he realizes that he’s still holding the folder full of ultrasound pictures.

“Sure.” Desmond smiles lightly and hands the folder to Neal. He takes the long way home (he’s driving- he always drives when they’re all together and today it’s definitely for the best because, clearly, neither Neal nor Alex could concentrate enough to get them home safely) for the extra time to just think.

Alex spends most of the journey home staring out of the window, alternating between thinking too much about what’s going to happen and then trying not to think about it at all.

Neal flicks through the folder of pictures and stares at every single picture for a while (which is a little pointless because they’re just copies of the same few pictures over and over again). He stares at his stomach, too, and resists the urge to poke (just to see whether anything feels different yet) before flipping the folder shut and turning towards Desmond.

“Desmond, I would like to be at home now.”

Desmond snaps himself out of his daze and looks at Neal for a second before returning his attention to the road.

“All right, Neal; we’ll go home.”

***

They haven’t spoken in the time they’ve been home. In fact, they’re not even in the same room- Neal is curled up in the middle of the couch, staring at a point on the carpet; Alex is sat outside, on the phone with some of his family and Desmond is wandering between the two, hoping that they’re okay.

Sometime later (none of them are really sure because they’re too distracted to even pay attention to the time), the front door opens and then Franc walks into the house.

“Hello?” Franc wanders into the living room and then rolls his eyes. “Oh, you are here. Mom sent me over to find out why you didn’t call the second you got back from the hospital.” He frowns a little when Neal doesn’t immediately answer him. “Neal, are you okay?”

Neal glances over at Desmond (who’s currently stood in the corner of the room) before turning back towards Franc. He mutters something.

Desmond assumes that Neal is speaking French because he has no idea what Neal is saying, but Franc seems to understand every word.

Franc’s eyes widen and he puts his hand to his mouth. He says a few words (again Desmond assumes this is French).

Neal nods and holds one of the pictures out towards Franc.

Franc walks over and sits down on the couch next to Neal. He takes the picture and studies it carefully.

“Oh, Neal; this is… Wow.”

Neal nods slowly.

“It’s… I still don’t even know really.” Neal shrugs. “I think it will be more hard and more complicated, but I did not stop loving them. This is the most important, I think.” He looks between Franc and Desmond. “That matters, yes?”

“Of course it does.” Desmond walks over and sits down on the other side of Neal. He takes hold of Neal’s hand. “It’s… I can’t tell you how it’s going to work out, but I promise that it will and I promise that we will all always be there.”

Neal smiles lightly and nods.

“Speaking of which,” Franc puts down the picture and looks up, “where is Alex?”

“He’s outside.” Desmond nods in the direction of the back door. “He’s freaking out on the phone to his mom or his brother. I don’t…”

“Actually, I called them both.” Alex walks back into the room and folds his arms across his chest. “And, for your information, I did not freak out.”

“Liar,” Neal mutters. “You’re always freaking out.”

“I just…” Alex frowns a little. “Everything is happening so quickly and I need more time to get used to it.”

“As long as you do get used to it- they need you.” Neal puts a hand on top of his stomach. He looks up at Alex and sniffles a little. “I need you, too.”

Alex smiles. He walks over and touches a hand to Neal’s cheek. He opens his mouth to speak, but he doesn’t get the chance.

“Well, that’s nice and warm and fuzzy, but, please, spare me.” Franc holds a hand up. He shudders a little and then points at Neal. “You need to call mom. I’m going to go home now and give all of you some time to think.” He stands up and starts walking out of the room. He stops in the doorway and turns back around. “Congratulations, by the way. I’m looking forward to seeing you try to handle this.”

“You leave now, Franc, or I might have to hit you.”

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

“Are you sure that it’s okay if I fly? I don’t want to fly if it’ll hurt the babies.” Neal puts a hand on top of his stomach and gives Desmond a serious look.

“Neal, for the last time, it is perfectly all right for you to fly and it will continue to be perfectly all right for you to fly for months yet.”

“Really?” Neal thinks carefully for a moment. “For how long?”

“Another four months, probably.”

“Okay, and after…”

“Neal, seriously; I would love to talk about this some more, but if we don’t hurry up, we are actually going to miss our flight. Now, where is Alex?” Desmond starts looking around.

“I’m right here.” Alex rushes over. He folds his arms across his chest and narrows his gaze at Desmond. “I’m sorry I’m lagging behind so much, but I am carrying all of the bags.”

“You are not carrying all of the bags, Alex.” Desmond rolls his eyes. “You insisted on carrying Neal’s bags as well as your own.”

“Well, he’s not supposed to carry things.”

“I’m right here.” Neal puts his hands on his hips and glares at Alex.

“Oh, God.” Desmond rubs his forehead. “We have to go, right now, and if you do not stop arguing, I will leave you both here.”

Neal huffs lightly.

“We’re not the children, remember? Stop treating us like it.”

“Then stop acting like it.”

Neal opens his mouth to argue some more, but then he realizes that Desmond might have a point (a tiny little miniscule bit of a point).

“Fine.”

“Thank you.” Desmond smiles at Neal before turning towards Alex. “Well?”

“I’m just worried about Neal.”

“I’m not an invalid, I’m…”

“That is it.” Desmond growls lightly. “If you’re gonna keep arguing, you can finish it on the plane.” He points towards the gate. “Now, get moving.”

***

By the time they land, everything’s sorted and they’re all happy together. In fact, Neal doesn’t even complain when Alex, once again, refuses to let him carry his own bags.

“I think I really missed being here.” Neal smiles and nods when he steps into the house. “Yep. I definitely missed it.”

“That’s good.” Desmond smiles and pushes the door shut after Alex has walked into the house.

Neal takes another look around before turning back to look at Desmond.

“Hey. When do the babies get here?”

Desmond raises an eyebrow.

“You mean the ones living inside of you?”

“No, you idiot.” Neal rolls his eyes. “I mean the ones you already have.”

Desmond laughs lightly.

“All right. Max and Ollison will be here tomorrow afternoon and we’re picking Lukas and the twins…” Desmond’s sentence trails off and he frowns slightly. “We’re not going to be able to call them that anymore, are we?”

Neal thinks carefully for a moment.

“We can call Andrea and Bella the big twins and these twins,” Neal puts his hand on top of his stomach, “the little twins.”

“Yeah, that’ll work.” Desmond nods. “Anyway, we’re picking them up after school.”

“That’s good. I missed them all. Is it dinnertime now?”

“Uh… Soon.”

“Good. Can I have…”

“No, Neal; you can’t have cookies for dinner.”

“But…” Neal puts his hands on his hips and scowls.

“Neal, you need to have a proper meal. You can have cookies after, if you want.”

“Fine.” Neal huffs. “I want ice-cream, too.”

“Sure.”

Neal sighs a little before turning around and wandering off upstairs.

Alex steps right up to Desmond.

“Do I need to go out for ice-cream then?”

Desmond turns around. He smiles softly and touches a hand to Alex’s cheek.

“I love you.”

***

“Oh, my God.”

Desmond sits there and shakes his head at Neal, who’s pacing up and down the kitchen.

Neal mutters several things and occasionally throws his arms out to the sides.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried, Neal; you have actually met them before.”

“But this is different.”

“How?”

“Because…” Neal stops pacing and frowns a little as he thinks. “Well, how are we going to explain this?” He points to his stomach.

“About the babies?” Desmond rolls his eyes. “They already know.”

“You told them?”

“Of course I did. They’re probably too small to understand, though, especially Ollison. Max seemed okay with it, but he might not remember now. You don’t need to worry about that, Neal; as long as we keep showing that we still love them, they’ll be okay with it.” Desmond smiles softly. “I think what you need to be most worried about is how pissed Andrea and Bella will be if you don’t give them at least one more little sister.”

Neal glares at Desmond.

“Now is not the time for joking.”

Desmond stands up and walks over to Neal. He takes hold of Neal’s hands.

“You’re worrying too much.”

“But…”

“Neal, you need to calm down. Even if they’re not completely fine with it right now, they’ll have plenty of time to get used to it.”

“But what if…”

“Seriously, Neal, we’ll just answer any questions they have and be there for them- that’s all they really want.”

***

Alex didn’t even realize he’s been sleeping until he’s jolted awake. He doesn’t know what woke him so he just lies there for a while, hoping to go back to sleep. He doesn’t get that chance, though, mostly because of the pressure he now feels on his stomach. He blinks a few times and opens his eyes to find Max staring back at him.

“Alex!” Max grins and claps his hands.

“Max, get down. We don’t climb on people, remember?”

Max looks over at Desmond. He sticks his bottom lip out and bats his eyelashes.

“It’s okay.” Alex stifles a yawn. “I’m up.” He sits up and settles Max in his lap. “Hi Max.”

“Hi! Story!” Max waves the book he’s clutching in front of Alex’s face.

“You want a story?” Alex takes the book from Max and holds it open. “All right. Let’s see what happens in here.”

***

“Again!” Max bangs his hands lightly on the book.

“Are you sure you don’t want a different story instead? Or maybe some juice?”

Max shakes his head.

“How about we go and see if Neal is nice enough to give you one of his cookies?”

Max thinks very carefully about that for a minute and then nods. He jumps out of Alex’s lap and holds his hand out towards Alex.

Alex smiles as he stands up and takes hold of Max’s hand.

Max pulls Alex through to the kitchen and then starts jumping up and down in front of Neal.

“Hi there, Max.” Neal smiles brightly. “What can I do for you?”

“Max was hoping you might have a cookie for him.”

Max looks up at Neal and nods seriously.

“A cookie for Max? I can do that.” Neal turns around and rummages through the cupboards for the bag of cookies. He finally finds the cookies and opens the bag (which isn’t exactly easy seeing as he has Ollison balanced on his hip). He grabs a cookie and hands it to Max. “There you go.”

Max grins and takes the cookie from Neal before running back through to the living room.

Desmond wanders into the kitchen a few minutes later.

“I hear you gave Max a cookie, Neal.”

“Uh huh.”

“So you’ll share with him, but not me or Alex?”

“Well, Max is cuter.” Neal shrugs.

Desmond rolls his eyes and walks over to Neal. He presses a kiss to Neal’s forehead and gently strokes Ollison’s cheek.

“I’m gonna head out and pick Lukas and Andrea and Bella up from school now.”

Neal’s eyes widen.

“You’re leaving me and Alex alone with them?” Neal looks down at Ollison and glance back towards the living room, where Max is, before returning his attention to Desmond.

“You’ve watched them before and you’ve been fine.”

“Yeah, Neal; stop freaking out. That’s my job, remember?”

Neal glares at Alex.

“You’re not helping.”

“You’ll be fine, Neal.” Desmond gives Neal’s free hand a squeeze. He looks down at Ollison and smiles brightly. “You’re gonna be a good little girl for Neal and Alex, aren’t you?”

Ollison giggles madly.

“I think we need to be worried now, Alex.”

***

Later that evening, Neal is helping Desmond clean up, after dinner (well, Neal is leaning against the counter next to the sink while Desmond does the washing up, but he’s providing much-needed moral support so he’s totally helping).

“So, Andrea and Bella have a lot of questions for me.”

“Yeah?” Desmond puts another plate on the draining board and looks at Neal.

“Uh huh.” Neal nods. “Things like: ‘When will the babies be born?’ and ‘When do we find out if they’re boys or girls?’ and ‘How big are they?’ and ‘When do they start kicking?’.”

“Okay.” Desmond nods slowly and frowns slightly because he’s not sure where Neal is going with this.

“I don’t know the answers.”

“Why don’t you borrow one of Alex’s pile of baby books then?”

“It’s not a pile,” Alex calls out from the doorway.

“Fine.” Desmond looks back over his shoulder at Alex and grins. “Then it’s a stack.”

Alex narrows his gaze at Desmond. He walks over and puts several cups on the counter next to Desmond.

“I think I’m glad I’m bringing you more work to do.”

Desmond laughs softly and leans over to place a soft kiss on Alex’s cheek.

Alex still huffs lightly. He walks over and stands next to Neal.

“So what’s up?”

“I don’t know all the baby things.”

“I don’t either.”

Desmond rolls his eyes. He puts the cups into the sink, leaving them to soak for a while. He turns to the side so he’s facing Neal and Alex.

“You can’t know it all from the start. Some things, you just need to figure out as we go along. There are some things you’re not going to know about until they come up.”

“But we need to be prepared.”

Neal nods in agreement.

“You can prepare by decorating the nursery, buying baby clothes, stuff like that. You can’t prepare for every little thing that might come up at some point during their lives. You need to just go with it.”

“You’ve done this before. You’re supposed to be helpful.” Neal frowns at Desmond. “You’re not being helpful.”

“I’m not going to know all the answers to everything, either, and that’s fine. We just… We don’t know what’s going to come up next- we just need to be confident enough to be able to deal with whatever does happen.”

“But… But… The books.” Alex frowns a little.

“Yeah, they’re a good start, but they can’t tell us everything. Like when the babies actually get here and they’re crying, you’re not gonna be able to tell from books whether they’re hungry or they need changing or they just want some attention.” Desmond shrugs lightly. “I’m sorry if that’s not helpful, but contrary to popular belief, there isn’t actually a manual to raising a child.”

Neal frowns slightly for a moment.

“Then we need to practice.” Neal nods definitively. “We have Ollison and I’m sure Franc will let us borrow Giselle sometimes too.”

“You are not using them for practice, Neal.” Desmond shakes his head. “When the babies get here, you will know what to do.” He smiles softly and reaches out to take hold of Neal’s hand. “I believe in you,” he takes hold of Alex’s hand, too, “both of you. Isn’t that enough?”

Neal glances at Alex before looking back at Desmond.

“Okay. I think that will do.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

When Desmond wakes up, he yawns and stretches out. He frowns a little because usually when he stretches out, he ends up hitting someone. He frowns a little and opens his eyes. He turns on his side and instead of being faced with Neal like he usually is, he finds Alex staring at him. He smiles softly and leans in to press a brief kiss to Alex’s lips.

“Mornin’.”

“Hi.” Alex smiles brightly and settles himself against Desmond.

Desmond lets his eyes drift shut again and wraps his arms around Alex.

“Where did Neal get to? Is he getting sick?”

“No. He got up some time ago to start setting things up for the big party today.”

“Are you kidding?” Desmond opens his eyes wide and stares at Alex. He glances over at the clock. “It’s barely seven o’clock.”

“Yeah, well, you know Neal.” Alex rolls his eyes.

Desmond laughs lightly and shakes his head.

“You think we should get up and help?”

“And risk getting yelled at for being in the way? Nope. I think we should stay right here.”

“Yeah?” Desmond grins and shifts a little closer to Alex. “And did you have anything in mind?”

“Why don’t you let me show you?”

***

It’s over an hour later (in fact, it’s closer to two) when Desmond and Alex finally get up and go downstairs.

Alex stops in the middle of the living room, causing Desmond to turn to face him.

“What is it?”

“Well, I think I want breakfast, but Neal’s…” Alex waves his hand towards the kitchen.

“Neal’s what?” Neal appears in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. He puts his hands on his hips and glares at Desmond and Alex. “Doing all the work while you two are entertaining each other? Because that’s exactly what’s going on.” He shakes his head. He turns around and walks back into the kitchen.

Alex turns towards Desmond.

“You wanna go out for breakfast then?”

“Don’t you dare leave this house,” comes Neal’s shout from the kitchen.

“I guess we’re going hungry then,” Desmond mutters.

Alex rolls his eyes before walking into the kitchen.

A minute or so later, Desmond hears a yelp and then Alex comes back into the living room, shaking his hand.

“What happened?”

“He hit me with a spoon because I tried to take a cupcake.”

“You tried to steal a cupcake? Do you have a death wish?”

Alex shakes his head and sighs lightly. He glances back towards the kitchen before looking at Desmond.

“I don’t know why he’s making such a big deal about this. He knows that Ollison will probably asleep through most of the day, yes?”

“Well, yeah, that’s probably true, but it is her first birthday and Neal just wants to make sure that it’s special for her. I mean, you remember him on Giselle’s first birthday, don’t you? And Max’s, too?”

Alex opens his mouth to reply, but he doesn’t get the chance because Neal walks back into the living room.

“That’ll teach you to steal food.” Neal points at Alex. “I need to throw up.”

“Uh… what?”

Neal rolls his eyes and walks across the living room. He stops in the doorway and turns back around.

“And not one word about my hormones.” Neal gives Desmond and Alex a serious look before turning around and rushing upstairs to the bathroom.

Alex turns towards Desmond.

“You wanna get breakfast now, then?”

“Sure. Just don’t steal any cupcakes, remember?”

***

As it turns out, Alex is right and Ollison does sleep through a lot of the day, but not as much as Neal sleeps.

Neal whines a little when he wakes up and realizes how much he’s missed (they’ve got the whole day on video, though, so he’ll get to see it later), but he cheers up when he realizes that there’s plenty of birthday cake and cupcakes left. He only glares at Desmond a little bit when Desmond tells him that he needs to eat actual food as well, so he can stay healthy for the babies (he would have glared more, but he’s too tired and hungry for that). He plays with Max and Ollison for a while, but then it’s almost bedtime for them so Anna is taking them home (he might cry just a tiny little bit when they leave, but that’s allowed because he’s going to miss them). He wants to help clear up (it’s the right thing to do), but Desmond insists on him sitting down and not over-exerting himself and he’d be annoyed at Desmond fussing over him if he wasn’t actually so tired. He still feels kind of guilty about sitting on the couch and watching Desmond and Alex clean up, though, but it is nice to sit down and relax for a while. He relaxes so much, in fact, that he falls asleep.

Alex kneels down beside the couch and gently shakes Neal.

“Hmm?” Neal blinks a few times and frowns at Alex. “What?”

“It’s time for you to go to bed.”

Neal whines a little and sits up.

“But I…”

“Neal.” Alex takes hold of Neal’s hands. “You’ve just fallen asleep again and you’ve been up all day. Please, go to bed.”

“But I should help.”

“No. We can finish up here. You go to bed.”

Neal chews on his lower lip and frowns slightly. He looks over at Desmond.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Desmond smiles and nods. “Go and sleep. We’ll be up soon.”

Neal nods. He stifles a yawn and stands up. He starts walking out of the living room, but stops and turns back around when he’s stood in the doorway.

“I’m sorry for shouting before. I just…”

“Don’t worry about it. Just go to bed.”

“‘Kay.” Neal nods and wanders off upstairs.

Alex walks over and rests his chin on Desmond’s shoulder.

“Do you think we should be worried about him?”

“No. Like you said, it’s been a long day for him.” Desmond gently kisses Alex’s cheek. “Now, come on- let’s get this finished so we can get to bed too.”

“You know, I think that offer might be a lot more enticing if it was going to end with sex and not just sleeping.”

***

Desmond wakes up in the middle of the night. He looks at the clock and groans softly when he sees how early it is. He turns on his side and reaches out to pull Neal towards him, except that he can’t feel Neal at all. He opens his eyes and sees that Neal is, in fact, not in bed, but he’s relieved to see that at least Alex is still there. He leans over and presses a kiss to Alex’s forehead.

Alex turns over and mutters softly, but he doesn’t wake up.

Desmond climbs out of bed and wipes the sleep from his eyes. He looks in the bathroom, but Neal isn’t there so he walks out into the hallway. He stands there for a few seconds, wondering whether there’s any point in checking any more of the rooms upstairs. He decides to check the nursery (not that it’s actually the nursery yet, but rather still the room that is officially going to become the nursery whenever they get around to decorating it), but Neal isn’t there either so he goes downstairs (there probably isn’t another room upstairs that Neal would be in). He looks in the living room, but Neal’s not there- nor is he in the dining room or the kitchen. That’s when he starts to get worried. He turns around and he’s about to leave, but then he notices the light on the back porch is turned on. He leans forward and looks outside. He frowns a little when he sees Neal sat huddled up on the bench by the back door. He watches Neal for a few minutes before walking outside. He sits down on the bench next to Neal and puts a hand on Neal’s shoulder.

Neal jumps a little- he hadn’t realized Desmond was here.

“Are you okay?”

Neal just stares at Desmond for a moment.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Well, you have been napping for most of the day. That probably…” Desmond’s sentence trails off and he frowns at Neal. He hesitates for a few seconds before speaking. “Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

Neal sighs lightly and lets his legs drop down to the floor. He leans his head on Desmond’s shoulder and smiles lightly when he feels Desmond wrap an arm around his waist.

Desmond kisses the top of Neal’s head.

“Talk to me.”

“Today was a good day, yes?” Neal glances back at Desmond. “We were all happy?”

“Yeah.” Desmond frowns slightly but nods. “Why do you ask?”

Neal sighs lightly and pushes himself back so he can look at Desmond.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about this, but today I think about it more.” Neal looks down and folds his hands in his lap. “I liked today- celebrating and everything- but we still had to hide. We still have to hide everything. I have to pretend I’m not here with you and Alex, celebrating and being happy like we were today.”

“Right.” Desmond nods slowly. “That’s what’s bothering you? You don’t like pretending.”

“No, I don’t.” Neal shakes his head. “It was easier, safer, before, but now…”

“We’re not gonna be able to pretend much longer.” Desmond runs a hand down his face- this thought has crossed his mind, too. “You’re right. We’re not gonna be able to keep this a secret anymore.” He touches a hand to Neal’s cheek. “You’re not worried about that, are you?”

Neal shakes his head.

“It will be a relief to not hide anymore. I’m scared about what happens after. People might say bad things about us. Maybe we don’t get any more rest from them. Maybe it will be too hard for the babies.” Neal shrugs lightly. “Things like that.”

Desmond pulls Neal into a tight hug.

“I wish I could promise that it would all be okay, but you know I can’t promise that. I don’t know that it’ll be easy for us, but, no matter what people think about us, I’m always going to love you and them, too.” Desmond moves one hand to Neal’s stomach. “And you know what Alex’s like- he’s not going to let any negative words get in the way of this. We’ll be okay, Neal, as long as we stick together.”

Neal nods as best he can.

“I just… I don’t like it when people say bad things about me- it’s hard enough anyway, but it will be even harder now.” Neal puts his hand on top of Desmond’s hand that is resting on his stomach. “I have to keep them safe.”

“You will, Neal; we all will.”

Neal can’t really argue anymore so he just settles against Desmond. He relaxes after a while, but he jumps back when he hears the back door bang open. He looks up with wide-eyes to see Alex stood just outside.

Alex glances between Desmond and Neal for a few seconds. He wants to say something, but he can’t quite manage it (he’s just run all the way down from the bedroom). He puts his hands on his hips and takes a moment to catch his breath.

“Hey.” Desmond smiles softly and holds a hand out towards Alex. “Come sit down.”

Alex frowns a little, but nods. He sits down on the bench next to Desmond.

“So… Okay, well, what the hell is going on? I mean, I wake up in bed and you’re both not there.”

“Well,” Desmond shifts round so that he can look at Alex, “you’re not the only one who’s freaking out, anymore.”

Alex shifts forwards slightly so he can look at Neal.

“What are you worried about?”

Neal shrugs lightly.

Desmond rolls his eyes and turns to look at Alex.

“We’re gonna have to tell people soon. We’re gonna have to tell everyone everything about us and he’s worried about what happens after.”

Alex’s eyes widen slightly.

“Oh, God,” Desmond mutters. He grips one of Alex’s hands tightly. “Please don’t you freak out too.”

Alex takes a few deep breaths because Desmond is right- if Neal’s already scared, then it won’t help for him to get scared too. He nods slowly and then smiles softly at Neal.

“We’ll make it okay, Neal- whatever we have to do, we’ll make it okay for us and for the babies.”

***

A short while later, they’re all back inside.

Neal is curled up in bed, fast asleep.

Alex is sat on the bed next to Neal and he’s running a hand through Neal’s hair.

Desmond is sat at the end of the bed, watching over Neal and Alex.

“I think we should do this soon.” Alex tears his eyes away from Neal to look over at Desmond. “We need to tell people soon and get this out of the way so we can forget about it and move on.”

“Yeah.” Desmond nods slowly. He rubs the back of his neck. “We need time to figure it all out, though. I mean, what we’re going to say and… It’s probably only fair that we give some people a bit of warning, too.”

“But not too long. He doesn’t need that.” Alex looks back down at Neal and smiles softly. “And we don’t need to drag this out any longer than necessary.”

“You’re right. We’ll start making calls in the morning.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

 

Desmond has been trying to ignore the incessant chatter going on in both his ears for what feels like forever and now he’s just snapped.

“Stop it. Stop it right now.” Desmond stands up and takes a few steps forward- it’s quite a relief to get even slightly out of the situation where he was just literally stuck between Neal and Alex with Rehan and Boris on either side of them. He might be relieved now, but he’s not any less angry. He turns around and puts his hands on his hips. He tries to take a deep breath, but somehow ends up growling. He looks between Rehan and Boris. “Frankly, I could do without either of you here, but, apparently, they need you here for support. This sniping you’ve been doing towards each other is not helping so either you both shut up or you both get the hell out.” He points towards the door.

Neal’s eyes widen and he just stares at Desmond. It takes him a minute to recover. He opens his mouth to reply, but Desmond doesn’t give him the chance.

“And you can shut up, too.” Desmond points at Neal. “You don’t get to pout and bat your eyelashes and always get your own way. You don’t get to say whatever you want and expect us not to call you on your shit. You don’t get to sit around and do nothing for the next six months because you have to take care of yourself and the babies, but that doesn’t mean you get to be a lazy son of a bitch. And you.” He turns towards Alex. “It’s not you against the world, all right? You don’t always get to play the fucking victim. You can’t expect us to let you get away with some of the shit you do just because we’re still going to love you at the end of the day. The world does not revolve around you- this is about all of us, especially now, and I think you really need to remember that.” He can’t quite believe he’s just said all of that. He takes a deep breath. Well, that didn’t help- he’s still angry and not quite over the fact that he’s just said everything he’s been keeping locked inside for such a long time now. He shakes his head and then just walks out of the room- he needs to be somewhere else, somewhere on his own, right now. He ends up sitting in a chair at the far end of the hallway. He just about registers that a few people walk past and he’s pretty sure they’re all wary of the crazy ranting he’s doing. He’s staring at the ground, busy trying to work through it all, when he hears someone approaching him. He’s expecting it to be one of the staff telling him it’s time to go out there and start this thing, but when he looks up he sees Neal stood in front of him. He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times because he’s really not sure what to say.

Neal folds his arms across his chest.

“You were mean before and I did not care for it.”

Desmond opens his mouth to apologise, but stops when Neal holds a hand up.

“You might also have been a tiny little bit right about some of the things you said. And I… You’ve been thinking about that for a while, haven’t you? You wanted to say this before?”

“I guess,” Desmond mutters and shrugs lightly.

Neal frowns slightly and looks at Desmond.

“I didn’t like what you said or even that you were thinking it, but I don’t like that you didn’t say it before, that you kept it secret from us. Don’t do that anymore.”

“I promise.”

Neal softens slightly. He takes another step forward and holds a hand out towards Desmond.

“We don’t have long left now and I think we should all be together before.”

Desmond nods. He hesitates for a second before taking hold of Neal’s hand and standing up.

“I’m sorry about what I said. I didn’t mean it like it came. I’m not… It’s just so stressful and…”

“It’s okay. We’ll talk about it later.” Neal squeezes Desmond’s hand tightly and then starts leading him back down the hallway.

Desmond is intending to stay quiet and basically ignore everyone else in the room when he steps back through the door, but the first thing he sees (and hears) is Rehan and Boris about to start arguing again.

“I swear to God, if you don’t stop this right now you’re both fired.”

“Um…” Neal leans in towards Desmond slightly. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Yes, it does.” Desmond fixes Rehan and Boris with a serious look. “I mean it- one more word and neither of you will work again. Got it?” He doesn’t wait for any kind of reply before walking across the room and standing by the window. He looks back and smiles lightly when Neal walks over and stands behind him. Apart from that, he spends most of the next several minutes just staring outside. He hears some noise behind him after a while and turns around. He frowns a little when he sees that Alex is stood just in front of him and everyone else apart from Neal has left the room.

“They say it’s time for us to go out there now.” Alex hesitates for a second before turning around, ready to leave the room.

Desmond reaches out and puts a hand on Alex’s shoulder.

Alex stops and sighs lightly before turning back around to face Desmond.

Desmond leans in and presses a soft kiss to Alex’s cheek.

“I love you.”

“You better,” Alex reaches out and squeezes Desmond’s hand tightly, “but we have other things to deal with before we talk about that.”

“I know.” Desmond sighs heavily and then takes a deep breath. “You ready to go?”

***

“You have to switch with me.”

Desmond frowns a little and looks up at Neal.

“Uh… what?”

“You have to switch with me. I don’t want to sit in the middle- everyone will be looking at me.”

“But everyone…”

“No. Switch.”

“All right. All right.” Desmond holds his hands up and shifts across to the next seat. He watches as Neal lowers himself into the next seat and lets out a relieved sigh. “That better?”

“Yep.” Neal smiles lightly and nods. He avoids looking at the assembled crowd of press and turns to the other side to talk with Rehan instead.

Desmond just about manages to resist the urge to roll his eyes and then turns to Alex who’s sat on his other side.

“You okay?”

“I guess,” Alex mutters. “After all the shit we’ve had to come out here and answer for, this should be easy for us, right? So why does it feel like the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do?”

“Because it’s not about us, this time, is it? It’s about the babies now.”

“They better be some really fucking great babies then.”

Desmond can’t stop himself from laughing.

Neal leans forward slightly so he can see both Desmond and Alex.

“What? What is it? What?”

“The babies are gonna be great, right?”

“Of course they’ll be great.” Neal rolls his eyes. “They’re a part of me.”

“Don’t you mean because they’re a part of all of us?”

“Nope.” Neal grins and shakes his head.

Desmond opens his mouth to respond, but then there’s a voice behind them all.

“It’s time to start.”

Neal’s eyes widen and he stares at Desmond.

“Will you do speaking? I am not good with the words.”

“Sure.” Desmond frowns slightly because he’s just a little worried about Neal. “They might have questions for you later, though.”

“Later is okay. I am not ready now.”

“All right.” Desmond smiles at Neal for a second before turning to look at Alex. “Is that okay with you?”

“You should start.” Alex nods briefly. “I mean, we have a lot of the story to tell before Neal, anyway.”

“Then let’s do this.”

***

Desmond feels like they were all stuck in that room, telling the story and answering all the questions ever for almost a lifetime (it was just a couple of hours, though), but it’s over now and they’re in the car on the way home.

“I still don’t understand some of the questions, though.” Neal leans his head back against the seat. “I mean, why would we have names for them? I’m not even getting fat, yet- it’s far too soon for them to have names.”

“Well, actually…”

“What?” Neal turns to look at Desmond and narrows his gaze slightly. “Are you saying I am fat?”

“No, of course not. I was going to say that some people decide on names this early on and sometimes people have nicknames so they don’t have to call the baby ‘it’.”

“That makes sense.” Neal nods slowly. “Did you do that before?”

“Yeah. You know we did.”

Neal nods again.

“I think it’s better now that we don’t have to keep a secret.” Neal turns to look out of the window. “Definitely easier now.” He’s quiet for a minute before speaking again. “Do we see the babies again before we leave? Not these babies.” He puts a hand on his stomach. “I mean Max and Ollison and Andrea and Bella and Lukas. Those babies- do we see them?”

“Yeah, they’re with us at the weekend.”

“That’ll be nice.”

Desmond frowns slightly at Neal for a second before turning his attention back to the road.

“Are you okay, Neal? You seem…”

“It’s just been a long day- so much has happened and I’m just tired.”

“You wanna take a nap when we get home then?”

“I thought you wanted me to help out more.”

Desmond feels himself blushing slightly.

“I want you to take care of yourself so if you’re tired then you should rest.”

“Okay.” Neal almost falls asleep then, in fact, but he’s jolted back to full awareness by the sound of a mobile phone going off. He whines softly.

“Sorry,” Desmond mutters. He goes to reach out for his phone, but then thinks the better of it because he can’t really use his phone while driving. “Can someone get that? It’s probably not the only message any of us will be getting today and it’s probably shit- just delete it or whatever.”

“I’ll get it.” Alex leans forward and reaches into the front of the car to grab Desmond’s phone. He leans back and presses a couple of buttons on the phone. “It’s from George- he says Calvin is pouting because we’re stealing his thunder.”

Desmond can’t stop himself from laughing- that sounds exactly like Calvin. He shakes his head and smiles fondly.

“Ugh.” Alex groans softly and practically throws Desmond’s phone back into the front of the car. “What in the fuck is his problem? I mean, doesn’t he think about people other than himself once in a while?”

“Alex, stop being a bitch.” Neal yawns and stretches out. He wipes his eyes and sighs lightly- no way he’s getting any sleep now. “You know as well as I do that that’s just how he is. Of course he’s happy. I’m sure this is just a surprise for him, for everyone, and so it seems like he’s not happy.”

“Well, maybe he needs to start thinking more before he speaks. Maybe he needs to start thinking more in general.”

“Alex, seriously- let it go.” Neal looks back over his shoulder at Alex. “He just got to be world champion- it’s the biggest thing he’s ever got in his career and he’s allowed to want people to talk about that for some time. He should want that. Then here we come with this huge news and no one is talking about anything else. He’ll get used to the idea and be okay with it all. Not everyone will be so nice about it eventually. Those are the people you should be worried about- not people who are really our friends.”

Desmond glances over at Neal and raises an eyebrow before turning his attention back to the road.

“What?” Neal frowns slightly at Desmond.

“You seem so…”

“What? Stupid?”

“No- sensible. It’s… different.”

Neal narrows his gaze slightly.

“I think you were mean again there- you need to stop doing that.”

“Sorry.”

Neal rolls his eyes before turning his head to look at Alex.

“Well? Are you going to stop being mean to him?”

“Why should I?” Alex folds his arms across his chest and sticks his bottom lip out slightly. “He’s never nice to me.”

“Because you never gave him a chance. Did you ever think about that?”

Alex opens his mouth to reply, but Neal doesn’t give him the chance.

“I don’t say you have to like him, but you have to be civil because he will be around sometimes because George is Desmond’s best friend. You have to get used to the idea.”

Alex grumbles for a moment.

“Besides, it’s not like we love all the people you know either.”

“Hey.” Alex scowls. “I have amazing friends, thank you very much.”

“Not all of them.”

“Can we please not argue, right now?” Desmond glances quickly between Neal and Alex. “It’s been a hard enough day as it is.”

“Fine.” Alex huffs. “We’ll talk about this another time.”

***

“So, seriously, which of my friends do you not like?”

“Alex.” Desmond gives Alex a serious look. “You should let it go.”

“All right, then we’ll talk about why you hate me.”

Desmond rolls his eyes.

“I don’t hate you.” Desmond takes hold of Alex’s hand. “I swear.”

“Then why else would you say I’m always being the victim?”

Desmond looks down and blushes slightly.

“I didn’t mean to be so…”

“But you did mean what you said, didn’t you? That’s really how you see me?”

“No.” Desmond looks up at Alex and shakes his head. “I…” He sighs heavily. “I love you, I really do, but sometimes I think…”

“What?” Alex shifts closer to Desmond. “Because we need to be honest with each other, all of us. We all have to be able to tell each other everything and be okay with each other- we can’t, shouldn’t, bring these babies into the world if we’re not all okay.”

Desmond nods slowly. He’s quiet for a minute before speaking.

“I just think that sometimes you… It feels like you don’t always… I think you want everything to be your own way and if you don’t get that then you shut yourself off or something. Sometimes, I don’t think you understand compromise. I’m not saying that you have to change everything or give in all the time, but sometimes it feels like Neal and I are always the ones giving in to you. It feels like you’re always the one with all of the control and it’s not fair and I hate it.”

Alex frowns at Desmond for a minute.

“You really think that? Because I didn’t move to a whole different country for you or risk people disowning me to be with you or…”

“I didn’t mean it was all the time and I didn’t mean you do it on purpose- I know you wouldn’t do that- but, yeah, sometimes that’s how I feel.”

“You’re not perfect either, you know?”

“I’m not saying that I am. I’m sure there are things you need from me that maybe you’re not getting already. We should work them out- I don’t want to lose you. We owe it to ourselves to work everything out and be as happy as we can before the babies get here.”

Alex nods. He leans against Desmond.

Desmond wraps an arm around Alex’s shoulders and presses a kiss to the top of Alex’s head.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before now, but I didn’t want to make things complicated or difficult- we need things to be easy right now. It’s no good for any of us to get stressed out.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Alex mutters. “Just don’t ever do it again, okay? From now on, you need to tell us everything.”

“I promise.” Desmond smiles softly.

“I don’t think I’m surprised you finally snapped today- it was one of the hardest days ever and Boris and Rehan definitely weren’t helping, with the sniping and everything, but that’s how they are with each other and I think it’s important that they’re there.”

“Yeah, we need all the help we can get and I know they’ll be there, even if they can’t get along.”

“I think they might be willing to try now, after you yelled at them.”

“Wanna know a secret?”

Alex glances at Desmond.

“Sure.”

“I’ve been wanting to yell at them both for years.”

Alex laughs and shifts to a more comfortable position against Desmond.

“So now you feel better, yes?”

“Yeah.” Desmond hugs Alex tightly. “I feel better.” He’s quiet for a few minutes. “Do you know what Neal’s up to in there?” He nods back towards the kitchen.

Alex glances towards the kitchen before looking at Desmond and grinning.

“I’m not allowed to tell you.”

“Oh, so it’s okay for you to keep secrets, but not me?”

“It’ll be a nice surprise, I promise.”

Desmond frowns for a moment, but then nods.

“All right. I can wait.”

Ten minutes or so later, Neal comes wandering back into the living room looking slightly disheveled.

Desmond turns to look at Neal and frowns.

“What have you been up to?”

“I made dinner.” Neal grins.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I did.” Neal nods seriously. “I need to help out more- that’s what you want.”

“I don’t…”

“It’s the right thing to do as well.” Neal shrugs lightly. “I think maybe I have been taking too much advantage. You never tell me it’s wrong so I keep asking for everything and you give it to me and then I ask for more. I know it’s wrong now so I have to stop and try to be better. I have to help out more.”

“You’re already growing the babies, Neal.”

“I know, but it can’t be just that so I will help out more, now, and I started with making dinner.” Neal frowns slightly. “I don’t think it’s very good, though, but you still have to pretend to like it.”

“Okay.” Desmond smiles brightly. “I can do that.”

“Do I have to?” Alex leans forward slightly and looks at Neal.

Neal folds his arms across his chest and glares at Alex.

“Uh… All right, I can do that too.” Alex smiles at Neal. “I’m sure the dinner you made will be amazing and I love you.”

“That’s the least you can do. Now, are we going to eat or are we going to sit around here talking about it all day?”

Desmond and Alex share a brief look.

“We’re going to eat.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TEN

 

George wakes up in the middle of the night and he realizes that he’s alone. He blinks a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes and then looks around the room, but can’t see Calvin anywhere. He groans softly and sits up. He calls out, just in case Calvin is somewhere close by, but he doesn’t get an answer. He climbs out of bed and takes a quick look in the en-suite bathroom to check whether Calvin is there, but he’s not. He walks out of the bedroom and looks up and down the hallway to see whether he can tell where Calvin is, but it looks like the upstairs is empty so he walks downstairs. He checks in the living room, but doesn’t see Calvin there. He’s going to walk across the hall, but then he notices there’s a light on in the kitchen. He walks into the kitchen and finds Calvin sat at the kitchen table, his laptop open in front of him.

“Mark, what are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”

Calvin shrugs lightly and scrolls through some more pages on his laptop.

George rolls his eyes and walks over to Calvin. He stands just behind Calvin and leans in to see what Calvin is looking at.

“Oh, Mark.” George rests his hand on Calvin’s shoulder. “Please, just let it go and come back to bed.”

“I can’t let it go.” Calvin shrugs George’s hand away.

“Mark, please.” George kneels down next to Calvin’s chair. “Keeping staring at all of that isn’t going to change anything; it’s happening, they’re having those babies. Can’t you just be happy for them and…”

“You think I’m not happy for them?” Calvin pushes himself back slightly and turns to stare at George. He shakes his head. “I see them together and, god knows how, but they make it work.”

“Then what’s your problem? What do you have against this? Because you know they didn’t do this on purpose, right? They weren’t planning on this right now. They probably weren’t planning on this ever happening. It’s not like they went and did this right now just because you were getting some attention and they didn’t like it.”

“It’s not about that.” Calvin folds his arms across his chest and looks away.

“But you said…” George frowns heavily. “Mark, what’s going on?”

Calvin sighs heavily and then turns back to look at George.

“They’re happy right now, I know that, but what about the rest of the time? You know how much they fight, how many times they’ve been apart and not okay. And now they’re having children?”

“And now you’re worried? Mark, you know they’re going to look after those children no matter what.”

“It’s not about that,” Calvin mutters. He looks down at the ground. “How many times have we fought like that? How many times have we been apart? How many times have we said we hated each other? Hardly any, that’s how many. So why…” He lifts his head to look at George. “Why do they get to have children and we don’t?”

“Oh, Mark.” George touches a hand to Calvin’s cheek. He’d never thought that this could be what Calvin was really thinking about. Yeah, they’d talked about having children, but not for a while yet.

“We’re happy, aren’t we? We’re good together? We’re going to be together forever? So why don’t we get that? Why don’t we get to… It’s not fair.” Calvin squeezes his eyes shut to stop his tears from falling. “It’s just not fair.”

George leans up slightly and pulls Calvin into a hug.

Calvin wraps his arms around George.

“We’re not bad people, are we? We haven’t done anything wrong?”

“Don’t ever think that.” George presses a kiss to Calvin’s cheek. “We’re not bad people, not at all. I don’t know how or why, but I promise this is going to happen for us. Maybe not now or not anytime soon, but it is going to happen eventually.”

“You can’t promise me that.”

“It’s meant to happen, Mark.” George pulls back slightly and gently brushes his fingers over Calvin’s cheeks. “God wouldn’t have given you those eyelashes if you weren’t supposed to pass them on.”

Calvin laughs for a moment, but then his face falls.

“It’s just not easy to see people I know having something I want so much.” Calvin sighs lightly. “Desmond is your best friend so I’m going to be seeing them so much and… I can’t just ignore it. I don’t want to ignore it either; I want to be happy for them, but I… I guess I’m just not done being jealous yet.”

“You don’t have to be over it yet, but stop torturing yourself.” George reaches out and pushes Calvin’s laptop shut. “Just come to bed.”

Calvin nods slowly.

George smiles and stands up. He holds a hand out to help Calvin to his feet.

“Don’t worry so much, Mark- it’s all going to be okay.”

“You still can’t promise me that.”

“But I can promise you that I’ll love you forever. Is that enough?”

“I think it’ll do.” Calvin smiles softly. “I should… I should probably apologise to them, shouldn’t I?”

“You can save that until the morning, Mark; please, just come back to bed now.”

“All right- we’ll go to bed.”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

“Are you sure you’re not going to miss us too much?”

“I’ll be fine, Neal.” Desmond rolls his eyes. “I’ve been on my own without you both before and managed.”

“I wasn’t talking about Alex- I was talking about me and the babies.”

Alex narrows his gaze at Neal.

Neal grins.

Alex shakes his head.

Desmond just about resists the urge to laugh.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay, though? Because I can…”

“Neal, seriously, I’ll be fine. You’ll be calling me every five minutes to check anyway.”

“No, I’ll be calling you every ten minutes.”

“As delightful as this conversation is,” Alex mutters, “you’re going to have to hurry up now, Neal, or you’ll miss the plane.”

“There’ll be another one in like three minutes.” Neal waves away Alex’s concerns. “And why aren’t you rushing to get your plane?”

“Because I don’t have to get on my plane for an hour. Now, come on.” Alex gently nudges Neal. “I know you’re excited to go.”

“Well, yeah.” Neal looks down and scuffs his shoe on the ground. “I have missed everyone. I feel like I haven’t seen Franc in forever.”

“You saw him last week. You sat next to him when we had dinner with your parents.”

“That’s not the point, Alex.” Neal huffs for a moment and then looks up. “So who’s carrying my bags?”

“Your bags are on the plane, Neal.”

“Not this one.” Neal points to the smaller, carry-on bag at his feet.

“I’ll get it.” Desmond picks up the bag and then gives Neal a serious look. “Only because you’re not supposed to be carrying things and not just because you batted your eyelashes.”

Neal leans in towards Alex.

“I like that he thinks that.”

Desmond narrows his gaze slightly.

“Get moving.”

***

“So when Neal said he was going to call every ten minutes, do you think he meant it?” Alex flicks at his coffee mug and glances up at Desmond through his eyelashes.

Desmond raises an eyebrow.

“You have met Neal, right?”

Alex leans back in his chair and shakes his head.

“So that’s a ‘yes’, then?”

“Of course it is.” Desmond smiles fondly. “And then Franc will call to complain about how Neal is driving him crazy with all the baby talk and then Jacob will call to complain and Fabian and…”

“Okay. Okay.” Alex holds a hand up. “I get the picture.”

“Only you won’t be hearing the complaints will you because Boris’s gonna take your cell phone off you the second you get off the plane, right? So I’ll spend the next two week hearing from Neal a thousand times a day, even when I’m sleeping, and all the complaints, too.”

“Uh…” Alex glances at Desmond. “Sorry and I love you?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” Desmond laughs lightly and shakes his head. “I know you’re looking forward to it, though, so I guess I can’t be too mad about it.”

“Thank you.” Alex reaches out and squeezes Desmond’s hand tightly. “I promise not to have too much fun without you.”

“You’re so good to me.”

“Well, I try.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

Desmond finds it strange to be in the house by himself. Not that he’s there by himself all the time- he has his children there at the weekends, but the rest of the time it’s just him. He’s gotten used to having someone there with him and he didn’t quite realize how much he’d miss that until Neal and Alex were gone. He speaks to them every day, though- well, he speaks to Neal every day; Alex less so because Alex isn’t allowed his phone with him all the time, but he gets lots of e-mails so that’s something at least. He manages to occupy himself, mostly by cleaning out the room that will be the nursery; he’s surprised by how long it actually takes and then he starts dreading having to do that at least two more times because the babies are going to need rooms to sleep in when they’re abroad. He Tweets a picture of the empty room and laughs when Neal replies almost immediately about how he should be ashamed of putting Max to work like that (he was cleaning things out at the weekend and Max insisted on helping- well, mostly Max sat in the corner and played with his toys, but he wanted to be there and that totally counts). He’s happier than he thought he would be when the day that Neal and Alex are supposed to come home finally arrives. He’s trying to distract himself because they’re not supposed to be back until later today. He’s stood in the kitchen, holding a cup and trying to remember which cupboard they’re supposed to go in.

“They go in the cupboard by your head.”

“Thanks, that’s…” Desmond stops and turns around. He frowns heavily when he sees Alex stood in the doorway. “You’re not supposed to be back until later today.”

“Got an earlier flight.” Alex shrugs.

“Missed me, huh?”

“Yeah.” Alex nods and walks over to Desmond.

“How much?” Desmond puts his hands on Alex’s hips and pulls Alex towards him.

Alex leans in and presses a soft kiss to Desmond’s lips before pulling back slightly.

“Want to come upstairs and let me show you?”

“I don’t think we’re gonna make it upstairs.”

***

If Alex had managed to surprise Desmond when he came home, there’s no way that Neal does. He bangs the door, throws his bags down on the floor and calls out, all within the space of about five seconds.

“Hello?”

“In here,” Desmond calls out from the living room.

Neal throws his coat somewhere behind him and then walks through to the living room. He stops when he sees Alex sat next to Desmond on the couch. He stares at Alex for a minute.

“Why are you back now? You’re not supposed to be back until later.”

“I wanted to come home sooner.” Alex shrugs lightly and glances over at Desmond before looking at Neal. “I didn’t want to be away any longer.”

Neal eyes Desmond and Alex suspiciously for a minute.

“Seriously?” Neal rolls his eyes. He puts his hands on his hips and narrows his gaze at Alex. “You came home early so you two could have sex without me?”

Desmond opens his mouth to ask how exactly Neal managed to work out that that’s what they were doing, but Neal doesn’t give him the chance to say anything.

“Never mind. I missed you too much to get angry. I would like some hugs now, please.”

Desmond laughs lightly and shakes his head. He stands up and walks across the room. He wraps his arms around Neal and presses a kiss to Neal’s cheek.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Neal smiles brightly and settles himself against Desmond. “Everyone else says ‘hi’, too.”

“I know- you told me that when you called me this morning and, well, every other time you called me too.”

“Now I’m telling you again.” Neal rests his head on Desmond’s shoulder. “I had fun and I’m looking forward to properly being part of that team after the babies are born. Everyone seems so nice.”

“I told you, didn’t I?”

“Mmmm,” Neal mutters. “Chrys was fighting with Levi again though.”

Desmond rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

“What about this time?”

“Something stupid- who’d look better with hair or who’s house is best, I don’t know. I think they’re made up again- I’m pretty sure I saw Levi sneaking into Chrys’ room when I was leaving. How do they fight so much?”

“I don’t know.”

Neal shakes his head and then turns to look at Alex.

“Alex? Hugs?”

Alex smiles softly as he stands up and walks over to Neal and Desmond. He leans in and presses a kiss to the side of Neal’s head.

Neal shifts around and rests his head on Alex’s shoulder instead.

“Do you want to feel the babies move?” Neal doesn’t wait for a reply before grabbing Alex’s hand and placing on top of his stomach. “They’re not properly kicking yet, but they’re moving around enough for you to feel it now.”

“I…” Alex’s eyes widen and he tries to move away when he feels some movement from within Neal’s stomach.

Neal chews nervously on his lower lip and pulls back slightly so he can look at Alex.

“Don’t freak out.”

“I’m not freaking out, I just…” Alex steps back and runs a hand over his head. “It’s… They’re really real now, you know. I mean, I know they were real before, but now I feel them and…”

“Are you sure this isn’t you freaking out?” Desmond stands behind Neal and wraps an arm around Neal’s stomach. He smiles brightly when he feels the babies moving. He looks up at Alex. “Alex?”

“I’m really not freaking out. Really. I just… Now I feel them moving, I know they’re going to be here soon and I’m just worried about everything we have to do before they get here and, well, how hard it’s going to be when they do get here.”

“We’ll manage.” Desmond reaches out with his free hand towards Alex.

Alex steps in and takes hold of Desmond’s hand.

“It’s going to be hard work.”

“There are three of us and two of them; we can do this.”

“But…”

“No ‘buts’.” Neal leans in and kisses Alex. “We’re going to be fine.”

Alex opens his mouth to argue, but decides against it- if Neal and Desmond are so sure about this, then he can handle it too. He smiles lightly and nods.

Neal grins at Alex and then glances back at Desmond.

“When we see the doctor tomorrow….”

“Oh, my God.” Alex’s eyes widen and he steps back. “Why are we going to the doctor? Is something wrong? Oh, my God.”

“Relax. It’s just my check-up.” Neal rolls his eyes, but then narrows his gaze at Alex. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“No.” Alex lets out a brief sigh of relief. “I just… My brain is all fuzzy from the jet-lag. I just forgot what day it was is all.”

“That better be it.” Neal gives Alex a serious look.

“It is.” Alex smiles lightly and nods. “I promise.”

“You…”

“So what were you going to say, Neal?” Desmond looks down at Neal and smiles as best he can.

“Oh. Well, I was going to ask whether we’d be able to find out if they’re boys or girls when we go to the doctors tomorrow.”

“Uh…” Desmond thinks carefully for a moment. “It should be soon enough, I think. Do you want to find out?”

“Of course.” Neal frowns slightly at Desmond. “Don’t you?”

“Yeah, I’d like to find out, but if you didn’t want to know then I’d be fine with waiting too.”

“Well, we’re finding out.” Neal nods definitively. He looks back at Alex. “Right, Alex?”

“Yes. I think it’ll help us to prepare- what color to paint the nursery, the clothes to buy and things like that.”

“All right then.” Desmond gently rubs Neal’s stomach. “Let’s just hope they cooperate.”

 

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

“They’re misbehaving, aren’t they?”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh.” Neal blushes slightly and looks up at the doctor. “We were talking about finding out if they’re boys or girls today and I know they have to be in the right position and I really want to find out so I thought…”

“Neal.” Desmond leans in and presses a kiss to Neal’s forehead. “You’re rambling.”

“I’m excited.”

“Well, why don’t you let the doctor get started first before you start grilling him?”

Neal huffs lightly, but doesn’t say anything else. Not for a whole minute, anyway, until the doctor puts the gel on his stomach and starts moving the wand around.

“Can you tell yet? Are they okay? Are they growing like they should be? Do…”

“Neal.” Alex reaches out to put a hand on Neal’s arm. “Why don’t you just calm down and wait until the doctor can tell us?” He smiles at Neal for a second before looking at the doctor. “I’m sorry about this. We should never have let him stop at Starbucks on the way.”

“Alex!” Neal swats Alex’s hand away and glares at him. He sighs lightly and pouts for a moment before going back to talking with the doctor.

Desmond looks at Alex and shakes his head- he’s pretty sure Alex should have known better than to annoy Neal at a time like this, but then maybe Alex is nervous, too.

“Would you like to find out now?”

Neal’s eyes widen and he looks at the doctor. He nods enthusiastically.

“Yes, please.”

“All right then.” The doctor turns the screen around and points to one side. “This is your little girl.”

“Oh, a girl!” Neal grins and then looks up at Desmond. “Andrea and Bella will like that.”

“Yeah, they will.” Desmond smiles at Neal and then kisses Neal’s forehead before looking up at the doctor. “And?”

“This is your little boy.”

“Oh. That’s one of each.” Neal zones out for a minute as he thinks about what that will mean- what the babies will look like and what they’ll be like and how much they’ll love them and… He shakes himself out of his daze and looks at the doctor. “Can we get the pictures now?”

Desmond reaches out and gently nudges Alex.

“You okay there?”

Alex looks at Desmond. He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times before speaking.

“I have a son.”

“And a daughter.”

“And a daughter. That’s…” Alex frowns heavily. “Wow. I think sometimes I still can’t believe this is happening.”

“Well, it’s happening,” Neal mutters. “I’m getting fat to prove it.”

“You’re not getting fat, Neal.” Alex leans in slightly. “You’re getting more beautiful.”

Neal stares at Alex for a few seconds.

“Okay, I’m done being mad at you now.”

***

They’re not even out of the hospital before Neal is on his phone, babbling excitedly to his family in French (at least Desmond assumes so because he has no idea what Neal is saying) and Alex is on his phone, babbling excitedly to his family in Spanish (though Desmond suspects there’s a fair amount of nerves mixed in with Alex’s excitement).

Desmond stares between Neal and Alex for a minute before shaking his head. He’s at least going to wait until they get home before he starts calling people (he kinda has to, though, because he’s the one driving).

“Hey Neal, do…”

“Shh.” Neal holds a hand up and glares at Desmond for a second before turning his attention back to his phone.

“All right then. We’ll just go home.”

***

A few hours later, Desmond is sat in the living room, flicking through a magazine when Neal wanders in. He looks up at Neal and smiles.

“Hey. Your mom must have been excited if you were talking to her for that long.”

“She is. She was talking about going shopping with us when we go there for New Year’s.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah.” Neal nods. “Why is the phone making a funny noise?” He picks up the phone from where it’s resting on the coffee table next to Desmond’s feet. “Is it broken?”

“Oh, no. Andrea and Bella are just really excited to be getting a baby sister. They’ve been shrieking down the phone for like ten minutes.”

“And you’re ignoring them? You didn’t think to talk to them?”

“I tried. They just shrieked more.”

Neal rolls his eyes. He holds the phone up to his ear.

“Hi, girls; it’s Neal.”

Desmond raises an eyebrow and watches with mild amusement as Neal tries unsuccessfully to talk with Andrea and Bella before eventually just joining them in their shrieking. He rolls his eyes and goes back to his magazine. He looks up again when Alex sits down next to him a few minutes later.

Alex looks at Neal and frowns slightly before turning to Desmond.

“Is he still talking to his mom?”

“Andrea and Bella.”

“Oh.” Alex nods. “They’re as excited as you thought then?”

“You bet.” Desmond kisses Alex’s cheek. “How’s your mom?”

“Good. She’s talking about buying the babies matching outfits already. I think my sister is the most excited, though.” Alex leans back against the couch. “My brother was teasing me about being so worried though.”

“What are you worried about now?”

“Just that we won’t have enough time to get everything ready before they get here. We don’t have that much time left you know.”

“We’ve got plenty of time left, Alex. We’re gonna be okay. These babies already have a big family. We have plenty of people to help us get everything sorted.”

“I just want things to be perfect for them. We should give them the best start in life we can.”

“And we will.” Desmond wraps an arm around Alex’s shoulders and kisses the top of Alex’s head.

Neal hangs up the phone several minutes later. He lowers himself into the space on the couch and leans his head on Desmond’s shoulder.

“I promised them we’d go and visit before we leave on Sunday. I know there’s not a lot of time, but they’re so excited and…”

“It’s okay, Neal- we’ve definitely got the time.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

“So what color are we going to paint the nursery?”

That should have led to a nice conversation with lots of adorable moments and happy things. Instead, it’s led to an argument.

“No. No pink.”

“Why not?”

“Because I said so.”

“What’s the problem? You don’t mind blue for our little boy. What’s wrong with pink for our little girl?”

“I said no pink.”

“Why?”

Desmond steps in, hoping to avoid further arguments. He smiles softly at Neal.

“How about yellow? That’s nice for a girl, too, isn’t it?”

“Oh, great thinking, Desmond.” Neal rolls his eyes before stomping away.

Alex watches Neal leave and then slowly turns to face Desmond.

“I’m calling the doctor.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s gone crazy.” Alex has walked to the other side of the room and picked up the phone before Desmond catches up to him.

“You don’t need to do that. He’s just… It’s the hormones catching up to him.”

“That’s not just hormones.” Alex points in the direction that Neal left in. “He’s lost his mind.” He gives Desmond a serious look.

“Of course not and you know I didn’t mean anything bad by suggesting yellow. Neal’s just having a hard time, right now- he’s carrying around two tiny little people inside him, he’s tired all the time and he’s away from his family.”

“That’s no excuse for him to be like this.”

“Yeah, I know it’s not nice, but we have to try and be a bit more understanding.”

“I have been understanding, but there’s only so much I can take. I know it’s not all his fault, but that doesn’t mean he can get away with some of the things he’s been doing. You said that yourself even.”

“I know.” Desmond sighs lightly and rubs his forehead. “I just don’t want to risk upsetting him right now. We should talk to him about this, definitely, but we need to be gentle in how we explain it, okay? So even though you think he’s crazy, don’t be so blunt about it and, please, for the love of God, do not yell at him- the last thing we need is another argument.”

Alex just about resists the urge to roll his eyes and sighs heavily.

“You’re probably right about the arguments- that’s not a good thing. I need more time to calm down then because I’m still mad at him so I’ll talk to him later.”

***

Neal spends the rest of the evening hiding upstairs. He’s asleep (well, he’s pretending to be asleep) by the time Desmond and Alex come up to bed.

Desmond wakes up sometime in the night and he’s confused for a minute. He has no idea what woke him, but it feels like it’s important that he’s awake right now. He starts going through everything that might possibly have woken him- did he leave the cooker on? Did he call his mom back? Did he say goodnight to the kids? He groans softly and decides that he’s going crazy and it was probably some already forgotten dream that woke him up. He shifts around slightly to a more comfortable position and tries to go back to sleep. That’s when he hears it. He frowns slightly as he tries to work out whether he’s really hearing those soft whimpers that he thinks he is. He slowly opens his eyes and then sees that he’s not imagining things- he’s faced with Neal who has tears streaming down his face and his mouth is clamped shut to stop his sobs from escaping. He blinks a few times to makes sure he’s not imagining seeing this- he’s not.

“Neal? What’s wrong?”

Neal just shakes his head.

“Oh, God.” Desmond wraps his arms around Neal and pulls Neal right up against him. He doesn’t know what to say so he just settles for gently rubbing Neal’s lower back and muttering soothing words into Neal’s ear instead.

Neal buries his head in Desmond’s neck and just cries.

Desmond frees one of his hands and reaches out to poke Alex in the side.

Alex is jolted awake suddenly when Desmond pokes him. He turns to face Desmond.

“What the fuck?”

Desmond nods towards Neal.

Alex frowns slightly and looks at Neal. He can’t really see Neal’s face so he doesn’t know what’s wrong, but then Neal shifts slightly and he can hear Neal’s whimpers. His eyes widen slightly and it takes him a few seconds to recover. He wraps his arms around Neal’s stomach and presses a soft kiss to the back of Neal’s neck.

Neal cries for at least another fifteen minutes (he’d been crying for a while before Desmond had woken up and seen him). Then, he just squeezes his eyes shut and tries to concentrate on evening out his breathing again.

Desmond looks up and shares a worried look with Alex before returning his attention back to Neal.

“Do you want to tell us what’s wrong now, Neal?”

Neal is quiet for a minute before speaking.

“I’m sorry about what I said before.” Neal looks back over his shoulder at Alex. “he looks back at Desmond, “I just…”

“It’s okay.” Alex was entirely bothered by what Neal said before, but now it doesn’t matter, not even a little bit. He presses another kiss to the back of Neal’s neck. “Don’t worry about it.”

Neal sniffles a little and nods as best he can. He takes several deep breaths.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like being like this- I don’t ever want to make either of you sad.”

“So why?”

Neal closes his eyes and sighs lightly before replying.

“I’m just so tired. This is so much hard work. I want these babies so much- I love them already- but being pregnant is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m tired of it. I hate it. I want it to be over already. It makes me think these things and do these things I don’t really want, but it’s like I can’t stop myself. I just… I don’t want to do this anymore, but I have to. I know I have more months of this so I can get them here safely.”

Desmond hugs Neal tightly and kisses Neal’s forehead.

“Anything we can do to help, you know we will.”

“I know.” Neal nods. “Thank you for that. Both of you.” He smiles at Desmond and squeezes Alex’s hand tightly. “I know you help as much as you can, but you can’t do anything about this. It’s not as if you can start growing the babies instead of me. I have to do this. I just… I never thought it would be this hard. I want this to be finished and to have our babies.”

“I’m so sorry you’re hurting this way.” Alex tightens his arms around Neal. “I would make it all go faster to stop you getting so upset. I would do anything I could to make it easier for you.”

“I know that. I know you both would. This is why I’m so sorry for saying… I don’t want to push you away- you’re the ones I want with me most. I didn’t mean any of what I said, I really didn’t.”

“It’s okay, Neal.” Desmond smiles at Neal. “We don’t like seeing you like this so don’t let yourself get to this place again, okay? You can talk to us, you know.”

Neal nods.

“I… It just got all on top of me this time. I just can’t wait for this to be over.”

“It’s almost half way,” Alex mutters softly.

“Yeah.” Neal nods slowly. He thinks about it for a moment. “I think that helps.”

“I’m glad.”

Desmond reaches up and wipes the tears from Neal’s cheeks.

“Better?”

“Better.” Neal smiles lightly and nods. He leans in and presses a soft kiss to Desmond’s lips. He turns to look at Alex. “It’s okay if our little girl wears pink.”

Alex laughs softly and hugs Neal tightly.

“That’s nice of you to say, but why not something different? Why don’t we have her in purple instead?”

“Purple?” Neal thinks carefully about that for a minute. “Yeah, I like purple.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

Desmond stops packing his bag and turns to see Neal stood in the doorway.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing?”

“Packing.”

Neal nods slowly.

“You’re going to bring Alex back.” Neal doesn’t need to pose that as a question because he already knows that’s the answer.

“I promised.”

Neal sighs lightly- he doesn’t like it, but Desmond did promise and it’s probably too late to change his mind now. He watches Desmond (he’s gone back to packing) for a moment.

“Then why are you packing my things too?”

“Because you’re coming with me.”

“No.” Neal folds his arms across his chest and glares at Desmond. “I’m not going.”

“Neal.” Desmond puts down the shirt he’s holding and looks at Neal. “Please.”

“I’m not going.”

“Can’t you…”

“No.”

“But…”

“I said ‘no’!”

“You’re acting like a child, Neal.”

“I’m acting like a child?” Neal throws his arms out to the sides. “He’s the one who ran away.”

“Did you give him a reason to stay?”

“So you’re taking his side?” Neal rolls his eyes. “That’s great.”

“I’m not taking his side, Neal, and I’m not taking your side either. I’m not fighting with either of you, but I’m the one who’s ended up missing out here. I’m the one that’s stuck in the middle. I’ve got no problems with either of you, but I’m losing out on both of you right now. I’ve been here with you, Neal, because you’ve needed me, but he needs me too. He’s half way across the world all alone because I stayed with you. I can’t do that to him anymore. I miss him and I want to see him. I need to see him.”

“You think I don’t? You think I like this?” Neal shakes his head and turns away. “This is just about tearing me apart.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything to fix it? Why won’t you come with me?”

“Because it still hurts!” Neal turns back to face Desmond. “Do you understand that? It still hurts me! All those things he said, the things he did; they still hurt. I look at him, I think about him and it hurts. I can’t get over that yet. I’m not ready to forgive him. I want to fix this. I want it all to be okay then, but I can’t forget yet. I just can’t.”

Desmond walks over to Neal. He reaches out and touches a hand to Neal’s cheek.

Neal looks up at Desmond.

“I know what you’ll tell me now. You’ll tell me that he’s feeling the same way about me so we should work together to make it better, but I’m just not there. I can’t do it.”

“It’s okay.” Desmond pulls Neal into a hug. “You’re not forgetting about him, about us, I see that, and I suppose it isn’t fair to ask you to go into something before you’re ready, but…”

“I know. I know. Forever is too long. I know we need to fix this or to be okay with each other, at least, before the babies come.”

“It shouldn’t be just about them, though.”

“But it should. We need to make the right choices for them.”

Desmond laughs softly and presses a kiss to Neal’s cheek.

“You grew up.”

“You don’t need to be so surprised.” Neal pulls back slightly and looks at Desmond. “I’ll miss you, but I’m not mad at you for leaving. I can’t expect you to always be here and he needs you too.”

Desmond frowns slightly for a moment.

“If you’re not going to be okay, of you really need me, I will stay with you.”

“It’s okay.” Neal smiles softly. “You should go. I’ll be okay on my own.”

“Are you sure?”

Neal nods.

“All right then.” Desmond presses a brief kiss to Neal’s lips. “If you need anything, you can call me any time and I swear I’ll answer.”

“I know.”