Happily Ever Addendum (12 page)

I looked at her with pity.

"Hire a nanny to help you. Seriously."
She instructed with a laugh. "You will have two and it is exhausting with
just one, I can’t imagine."

"We already talked about getting a
person to help but I want to be the one who raises them. I want to be a mom,
you know?" I ran my fingers over Jimmy’s little, soft cheek.

"Oh, I know. That’s what I said. We
are currently interviewing help." She laughed. "James drives me
crazy."

"The baby?" I asked. She
usually called him Jimmy.

"No. James, the bigger baby."
I laughed. "He frets over every little sound that Jimmy makes." She
sighed heavily. "He tries to help with him but then gets all paranoid and
wakes me up because he thinks he’s sick." She shook her head. "It’s
crazy."

"Well, at least he’s taking an
‘active’ role." I tried to fight off the laughter that was bubbling up.

"Yeah. Active is a great choice of
words. If he could breastfeed, he would do it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s
tried when I’m not around." She laughed out heartily and my laughter
finally burst through. Apparently, my laughter startled Jimmy. He started
crying.

"Ohhhh….I’m sorry." I cooed to
him and rocked him.

"You’re definitely a natural at
this." Elora observed.

I shrugged.

"I don’t know about that. I’ve
never really been around babies, so I don’t know where it would come
from."

Elora and Jimmy had been at the house
for a couple of hours when James arrived.

"There’s my little man!” James
walked over and picked Jimmy up from his state of sleeping in his carrier.

"James, he was asleep!" Elora
scolded.

"Oh, he’s fine."

She shook her head and growled. He
looked at her quickly.

"I’m doing it again, huh?" He
asked and she nodded. "Sorry."

James cooed over Jimmy for about fifteen
minutes before he finally went over to Elora and kissed her.

"Are you about ready? My parents
want us to come over for dinner tonight."

Elora rolled her eyes. "Let me get
packed up."

I fought a giggle.

"If you don’t hear from me
tomorrow, send out a search party ‘cause I may be held captive at his parents.
They always try to get us to stay over with the baby." She rolled her eyes
again. "Like we don’t have a hard enough time getting him to sleep at
home."

After saying goodbye to Elora and James,
I headed toward the kitchen. I was almost to the doorway when I felt a sharp
pain in my lower back.

"Shhit!" I screeched out.

"Lilli?" Rachel came from the
stove and found me leaning against the wall. "Oh my god, are you
okay?"

I panted.

"I don’t know." I was about to
go on but the pain hit again. "OH, fuck!" I grabbed my stomach and
slid to the floor.

"Jay!" Rachel ran from the
doorway and returned with a phone.

Jay appeared and ran to my side, knees
to the floor.

"Mrs. Iverson, are you okay?"

I shook my head.

"It hurts. Pains in my back and
upper thighs." I croaked out and panted.

"The car is on the way up and the
hospital is waiting." Rachel stated as she ran around yelling for Alex.

"I’ll call Mr. Iverson." Jay
stood quickly and grabbed the phone. I couldn’t hear the conversation. I was
too lost in the pains.

Rachel appeared with Alex.

"Lilli?" His little face was
horror struck.

"It’s fine…little man… I got
this." I forced a smile for his sake, panting through the pain. All I
really wanted to do was shove my head through a wall.

Jay returned and scooped me into his
arms. We all climbed into the car as the driver rushed us to the hospital.

Rachel was right when she said that they
would be ready. There was a wheelchair, a gurney and three nurses standing by
the door. They helped me into the chair and wheeled me to the maternity floor.

I had only been in bed for about five
minutes when I heard running feet. The door made a thud sound as Aidan slammed
into the door and moved to me quickly.

"Are you okay? What happened? Did
you fall?" I put my hand up to stop his questions.

"I’m having pains." I said simply.
The doctor appeared then with Dixon at his side.

I looked at Dixon through my panting.

"I called him." Aidan stated.
"Just in case he could get here before me."

I smiled at Aidan and then panted
through a pain.

The doctor performed his examination and
then did some tests. I was moved into another room to do an amniocentesis
before being returned back to my room.

I had spent the night at the hospital. The
next morning I was greeted with a disheveled Aidan, who hadn’t left my side,
Viola, Liam, Maggie, Phoebe, Celia, Oscar, Dixon and James and Elora. The room
was packed full.

"Is everything okay?" Celia
asked as she slid into bed next to me and wrapped her arms around me, her hand
on my stomach.

I nodded.

"I started having strong
contractions but they gave me some medicine to stop them."

"So, it’s still too early for them
to deliver?" Dixon moved forward and grabbed my chart.

I nodded again.

"Yeah, the amnio revealed that
their lungs aren’t fully developed yet."

He nodded in agreement. "Well,
looks like you will have to stay off of your feet for a while."

I groaned. "I know."

"Aidan?" Liam addressed him.

"Yeah?" He forced a smile.

"Are you okay?"

I took a moment to examine him.

"You haven’t eaten. Go eat." I
said and rubbed his arm.

"I’ll stay here." He said as
he climbed into the bed on the other side of me.

"Aidan…" I warned, "Go
eat."

He shook his head. "I’m fine. I’ll
eat later."

"I’ll go grab him something."
Celia stated, climbing out of the bed. Dixon followed behind her.

Phoebe took Celia’s space on the bed.

"Don’t ever do that to me
again!" Phoebe scolded.

"I didn’t—"

"Not you!" Phoebe stopped me.
"You two." She poked my stomach. "You stay in there and grow."
She paused and leaned against my stomach, "you have to wait until I have
your wardrobe perfect. It’s not ready yet."

We all laughed and I shook my head.

I had to spend one more night at the
hospital before they released me.

Staying in bed, or on a couch, had
become my standard day. Viola came over a few times a week to discuss the foundation
since I was no longer allowed to travel.

Days passed and, before I even thought
twice about it, the baby shower was upon me. Phoebe arrived on Friday afternoon
to go over my wardrobe. She wanted the best outfit from a sitting position. I
had stayed in bed for the past three days, only getting up to work out a leg
cramp or to use the bathroom or shower. I was actually looking forward to being
out of bed and having company.

The Saturday before the shower came and
I could hear the active workers downstairs putting the party together for
tomorrow. Phoebe and Viola had decided that swans would be more fitting for the
shower than ducks. It took everything in me not to burst out laughing. I didn’t
want to hurt their feelings, but come on…swans are kind of corny.

I was still lying in bed reading when
Aidan slid in next to me. I kept my eyes on my book as I threaded my fingers
into his wild hair.

"I love you." I heard him say.
I kept reading, assuming that he was talking to my stomach again. Then I saw
the tip of his finger as he pulled my book down. "I love you." He
said directly to my eyes.

I smiled.

"I love you, too." He leaned
up and kissed me. All of a sudden he seemed really excited. A huge grin split
his face as his body resembled that of a kid in a candy store.

"Come with me." He stood and
put his hands out. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on!" he urged
with excitement.

"Where are we going?" I asked
as I took his hand and got out of bed. "You never let me get up."

He laughed.

"It’s a surprise."

"Aidan…" I groaned.

"If you love me you will just go
with this."

I scoffed at him.

"That is so not fair!"

He laughed.

"Come on!" He pulled my hand.

We walked out of our bedroom door,
stopping at the first bedroom next to ours. I looked at him curiously.

"Close your eyes."

I closed them and heard the double doors
open. I felt him move around me and into the room. "Okay, open."

I opened my eyes and gasped. The whole
room had been decorated for the babies. "When…? How…?" Then it all
dawned on me. I was an idiot. "How did I miss all of this stuff getting
brought in?" I turned to him.

He was smiling so widely.

"Oh, just enjoy it. This is my gift
for the babies. For you." He wrapped his arms around me.

I took a moment to take in the whole
room. The ceilings and walls were painted light blue with clouds spanning
across the surface, imitating the sky. The baby cribs were vintage, painted
white. Keeping up with the theme, one was adorned with vintage blue blankets
and the other with pink. Vintage white geese, humpty dumpty, rabbits, and all
the small characters from the nursery rhymes were adorned throughout the room
and stitched on the vintage quilts.

"I love it, Aidan! Thank you!"
I turned in his arms and pulled his face down to kiss him hard.

As we were kissing one of the babies
moved. Aidan felt it against his stomach and knelt to the floor.

"Does that mean you like it too? Or
are you just happy that mommy is happy?" He kissed my stomach and
continued to talk to them about all of the things that were in the room; books,
music boxes, stuffed animals, toys...it was really just too much but so
beautiful.

"I had the baby monitors installed
close to their cribs and up there." He pointed to the corner of the room.

"Huh?" I squinted, looking
into the corner.

"Video cameras." He shrugged.
I looked at him astounded. "What?"

"You have video cameras in their
room?"

He nodded. "The monitors will be
attached to all of the TV’s in the house just like the security cameras. Oh,
and these…" he grabbed two portable, little, white boxes that looked like
a thicker version of an iPhone. "These are the portable monitors. One
controls all of the cameras." He had a big tech-geek smile on his face. I
laughed.

"What?"

"You’re such a loser." I
laughed louder.

"That’s just code for you love
me." I raised an eyebrow at him. "I’ve got you figured out, Lillian
Iverson. You’ve always loved me and ‘loser’ was just the code word." He
acted smug.

"You wish, Iverson!" I poked
his stomach and walked around the room, taking in all of the small details.

There was a rocking chair and a large,
comfy reclining chair in the room between the twin’s beds. Their dressers
coordinated with everything. It was such a pretty, but not overdone room. It
was then that a noticed each bed had a swan with a pink or blue ribbon on it.

"Viola?" I pointed to the one
with the blue ribbon and smiled at Aidan as he nodded. "I figured."

Sunday morning I was greeted with
breakfast in bed. Pancakes. I swear I moaned with each bite, not that I could
eat as much anymore. My stomach was so squished that I could only eat a small
portion of my food before I was full, leaving me ravenous an hour or two later.

Aidan was getting dressed to go out with
the men in his family while I ate.

"Hey." I said with a mouthful
of pancakes. He laughed and walked over, kissing my syrup covered lips.
"Here." I said after I swallowed.

"What is this?" He held up the
brown, paper bag that I had just given him.

"It doesn’t look familiar at
all?" I questioned.

"No.” He shook his head and reached
into the bag, pulling out a book with a bright yellow cover, ‘Daddy’s Handbook
for Dummies’. He burst into laughter. "Now I have a collection."

"You still have the other
book?" I questioned with the fork hovering in front of my shocked face.

"Yeah, why wouldn’t I?" He
shrugged. "It’s in the library, where this one will go."

"I figured you would’ve just tossed
it or something."

"Nah, it was the first thing you
gave me." He winked.

"Technically, the first thing I
gave you was a drink." I winked back and he chuckled.