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“Cory, relax. I can walk over. It’s only starting.” Cory gave me a helpless look. He slowed but didn’t let me down, so I tried again. “Cory, let me walk.”
“No, I’ll carry you.”
“Studmuffin, I love you, but this is uncomfortable. I’m all squished up,” I told him, looking down pointedly at how I looked like I was being folded in two, the giant stomach almost touching my chin. Cory finally let me down with a blush, and we walked over to the hospital. Mom was already waiting for me with a wheelchair, and I rolled my eyes.
“I can walk, Mom.” We settled me into the room, and people popped in and out through the afternoon and evening.
I was still not fully dilated by eleven that night, but I’d heard that it took time for first-time moms, so I wasn’t concerned, only uncomfortable. Mom came to check in on me before midnight, and I noticed the slight frown before she left the room. I didn’t like it, but when I tried to mind-link her, it was blocked. She came back a few minutes later with Aunt Nat and an ultrasound machine.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” I asked.
“Hopefully nothing, sweetie, but one of the pups’ heartbeat is a little strained, and I just want to make sure everything’s okay.” We sat silently while Mom turned on the ultrasound, and Aunt Nat came to sit by me.
“Can I check, Evie?” she asked. I nodded and gripped Cory’s hand a little tighter. I didn’t like the way her brow furrowed.
“The cord is wrapped around one of the pups, Evie,” she said before standing back, confirming something for Mom because she nodded grimly in response. Mom put the wand to my stomach to verify the findings, and ten minutes later, we were being wheeled out to the OR room. They allowed Cory to be in the room but warned him to keep himself and Tenoch in check.
I didn’t feel anything, and I wasn’t allowed to see anything, but thankfully, a little over an hour later, I heard the cries of my two little boys. Cory leaned down and kissed me hard, whispering words of love and pride. They put them both on my chest as they stitched me back up, before taking my pups, cleaning them up, and giving them to Cory to hold.
They finally wheeled me back to my room, with Cory walking next to me with our pups. Everyone stood as we approached our room, but Mom backed everyone up, letting them know they would get a chance to see us and the babies soon, but that she needed a few minutes first.
“What are their names, baby,” Mom asked once we settled in the room and she wrote down a bunch of readings from the monitors, weighing the babies and filling out paperwork. All with a giant smile on her face.
“This Leonardo,” Cory motioned to the little bundle of black hair on his right. Mom wrote the name on a patient identification band and placed it around his wrist.
“And this is Lucas,” Cory motioned to our second pup. The pups were fraternal twins, just like Cory and Bells, but right now you couldn’t tell.
Once everything was filled out, only our parents were allowed into the room. Cory stepped out for a moment with the babies before everyone left so they could meet them briefly before returning to me.
The rest of our family was allowed to visit for a few seconds, but kicked out promptly. They were allowed in for a long visit the following day, though I wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital until the fourth. Cory didn’t leave me, and my pups were allowed to sleep in the room with me, so I didn’t complain. Bells made it out after I was home, and she was instantly taken with the boys.
“Which one is going to be the next heir of Crescent Moon?” she asked, rocking Lucas in her arms while I nursed Leo.
“We don’t know,” I answered. “They were born via cesarian so there’s not technically a first born."
“So, how are you going to decide?” she asked, her brows furrowed and I looked over at Cory to answer. We had been wondering the same thing too and even asked Markus and Alexander what the precedent was. There wasn’t one so we were now wading in new waters.
“We figured we’d let them grow up first before we decided,” Cory answered.
Bells answered by bending down to my son’s hair and sniffing Lucas. “Ugh, that new baby smell. Bottle it and send some to me weekly,” she begged, making me laugh.
“How’s everything going back at Redmon?” Cory asked.
“It’s going,” was all she said with a shrug, then changed the subject. I passed Leo to Cory to burp, then Bells passed Lucas to me, who quickly latched on to the nipple. He was always hungry.
A few weeks passed, and I settled into a rhythm with my pups. I planned on working from the Luna office for the first year, setting up meetings there, and letting Zi be my eyes and ears at the lab. Cory was great at taking breaks and playing with the pups so I could get work done or nap, and I had a newfound respect for Celeste for having raised twins and a newborn in the first few years without becoming exhausted.
Life was quiet and wonderful and exhausting and the only thing that would make things better would be to see my friends have pups to raise alongside mine.
Epilogue
Helios
-Six Months later-
“Has she been out yet?” I asked Nat when she walked into my office.
"No. She doesn’t want to leave the room. She’s binging a lot of TV though,” she chuckled.
