Birth

[survivesitall]

Sleep has been elusive at best, something that she chases most nights. Her accelerated pregnancy and the worries that she had because of that were only part of it. There were the regular worries that impending parenthood brought. Her sleeplessness tonight was another thing entirely, she realised too late.

She'd called Mindy and had grabbed her bag before Clayton had driven her to the hospital. They had Mindy's word that there wouldn't be any questions about it, that she would manage that end.

Labor itself was terrifying, and took far too long in her mind. When it was over and she had two newborn babies clutched to her chest it seemed worth it. A boy and a girl, just like her future. But were these babies the same or different? That was something Elena wasn't ready to wrestle with. For now she would look at her children and be grateful.

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[beyoncepadthai]

So even though it's not actually Mindy's job to follow up half as much as she has with Elena, the unique situation has her working overtime, not handing responsibility over to the paediatrician but instead offering to do whatever she can for what she's calling a 'special case.' There's a part of her that feels a little – or a lot – morally guilty about having to lie to her peers about the accelerated pregnancy, but helping her patients is kind of the whole point of what she does, even if it means having to force herself not to let it slip that one of them is a werewolf.

Even if she happens to think it's really cool and almost wants to brag to Danny and the rest of them. She's a lot of things, but not a bad doctor, and throwing herself into ensuring that Elena's secret is safe is almost the perfect distraction she needs from her own personal drama. Not to mention, the twins are crazy cute, and she's only too happy to spend the time with the babies that she doesn't usually.

Finishing her rounds, it's a rare sight to see Mindy headed anywhere but the vending machine in the doctor's lounge, but instead she finds her way to Elena's bedside again, smiling at the bundles in her arms. "How are you feeling? Is that nurse still harassing you? I'm thinking we should just tell her that you're a Jehovah's Witness, that might make her leave you alone once and for all. Everybody totally backs off the minute you imply they might be a religious bigot."

[survivesitall]

The twins have just finished feeding and are both asleep, finally. Milk drunk, she thinks she's heard it called, and whatever it is, she's grateful for it, the exhaustion from the birth seeping in. Elena wants nothing more than to sleep for eight full hours, but is sure that's unlikely to happen in her near future.

"Do you think?" Elena shifts, propping herself up against the pillows behind her. The boy who'd she's already started to think of as Jeremy began fussing, and Elena twisted to hold him out toward Mindy, keeping her daughter close still. She is unsure enough about her ability to manage this that any help is welcome, especially that of a doctor. "I'm okay with that if it'll help."

[thewinterlady]

Molly tapped on the door and pushed it open carefully just in case Elena was sleeping. She'd yet to meet Elena's husband but she'd heard that Elena had had her babies and she couldn't resist going to pay her a visit. She hoped it wouldn't be intruding.

"Hello?" she said softly. "I come bearing coffee." She said, holding out a small cup from the little coffee shop they'd met up in a few weeks back.

[thelocalpsychopath]

Logically, Clayton knew that babies were supposed to be tiny but were they really supposed to be as tiny as the little creatures he was currently staring at?

Standing beside their bassinets, he tried not to let Elena sense his worry as he wondered how he was supposed to hold them. A nurse had offered to show him how but had quickly rescinded the offer when he glared silently in response.

Reaching down, he brushed a finger lightly against Jeremy's cheek and then Paige's before pulling back his finger at the way his daughter turned her head while moving her mouth like a gasping fish. "What is she doing?"

[survivesitall]

The twins are asleep, close to the bed in a bassinet and wrapped in blanket so they looks like nothing so much as bundled up little faces. Elena looks up, wariness fading and a smile growing when she sees who it is and what she's brought.

"Coffee. I think this makes you my favourite person right now."

[survivesitall]

She knows Clayton, and knows that he's unlikely to let anyone help him other than her or someone that he considers family. She's wrapped in a robe as she steps behind him, resting her chin at his shoulder to peer at Paige.

"I think that means she's hungry," Elena says with a grin. Feeding is something she's managed to get the hang of in the short time she's been a mother. Feeding two babies makes her wonder if she'll ever get a chance to rest between them, but for the moment Jeremy is still sleeping.

She moves around to lift her daughter, holding her close to her chest. "C'mere. Why don't you sit on the bed with me?"

[thewinterlady]

"I figured you might be desperate after months of denying yourself." Molly said, grinning and closing the door behind her. She perched on the edge of Elena's bed and looked over at the sleeping babies. "Wow. They're beautiful. Great job!" she said giving Elena a goofy thumbs up. "You're going to have your hands full with them."

[survivesitall]

“Seriously, and I probably shouldn’t be having it yet,” she says with the cup halfway to her mouth. Elena can’t resist, taking a sip and letting out a soft groan. “Okay. That’s as good as the first thing you eat after being sick for a week.”

The coffee isn’t as important to her as the twins, and she smiles when Molly compliments them. “I don’t know that I did that much. I do know that I am probably going to need a lot of coffee. And that there won’t be much sleep.”

[thewinterlady]

Molly waved a hand. “If you can’t have a coffee today of all days then it’s a sorry world we’re living in.” She said. One of the twins fussed a little and instinctively Molly reached out to pat the little baby burrito before she caught herself and sat on her hands. She wasn’t particularly maternal herself, but she was an awesome sister and instinct drove her sometimes. She grinned at Elena. “Yeah – sleep and you are going to be strangers for a loooooong time. But your husband can help. I’m sure you can milk this whole ‘recovering from birthing twins’ thing for at least a couple of weeks.”

[cleverness]

In Hermione's mind, two is the perfect number of children to have. Two means that the child never has to be alone, but two isn't so much that parents would be overly strapped for time — instead, it promises that at least one parent can pay attention to a child at any given time. These are lessons that Hermione learned in childhood, watching Harry and Ron interact with their respective families, and she's eager to make her way towards that future now with Ron.

Though, she has to admit, she's glad that she isn't being saddled with two babies at once.

Still, there's a certain novelty as Hermione makes her way to Elena's side, seeing both of the babies laid out side by side, looking young and tiny and perfect.

"They're beautiful, Elena," Hermione says with a content sigh. "Oh, they're just so precious. I can't believe you have your babies already!"

[beyoncepadthai]

"We'll see," Mindy says, getting a little closer so she can get a better look at the baby boy, stroking his impossibly fine hair. They really are so cute, perfectly formed in spite of all of her medical knowledge telling her that they should be dangerously premature. It's just Darrow, she has to tell herself, lest she go fucking insane. "Usually they back off if I scowl enough. They're feeding okay?"

[notaretriever]

There is a small part of Luke that feels awkward being here, but for all he doesn't want to have another pack -- feelings due to his own guilt over the loss of his last one more than anything -- he has found himself growing quite fond of Elena. And he has always loved children.

So he comes with small gifts, two soft blanket collections, one for each of the babies, and when he enters the room, he smiles softly. "Hi," he says. "How are you feeling?"

[survivesitall]

Even Elena has trouble with how early the twins arrived. She's prayed that Jeremy had been right in his short time here, and that they will be fine, but until they were born and she held them she couldn't be sure.

"He's taking to it like a champion. She's more tentative at first, but seems okay?" She has nothing to base her opinion on other than what she's read and been told. Elena hopes that its enough.

[survivesitall]

"It's okay. I don't mind," she says when Molly pulls back. It's good that she did, allowing Elena to be the one to say it was alright, her sense of territory strong. "You can hold them if you want. Probably not at the same time..."

Elena smiles at the mention of Clayton. "He will. I think he'll be determined to see me in bed for a month just to make sure I've recovered. Which in turn would leave the twins fatherless, after I sttrangled him from frustration."

[survivesitall]

"Neither can I," she admits with a smile, knowing that her friend is one of the few that knows the truth of it. Elena has had to tell everyone at work that she became pregnant and didn't realise it for months, and that because of that she hadn't shown for a while. Otherwise there would be too many questions, questions she can't answer without giving away secrets.

"I'm happy they're both healthy. For a while-" For a while she's been afraid they were too early, no matter what Jeremy had told her during his short time here in Darrow. "Hopefully they don't keep growing up as fast."

[survivesitall]

Pack is a complicated thing to Elena, here in Darrow. She's surrounded herself with friends, most of them not even wolves and some not supernatural at all. It'll never be the Pack that she was changed into back home, but it is something, and it's something that a part of her needs. Family, friends, people who are important to her. Whatever it is they're called, in Elena's mind on some level it will always be a pack.

Luke is starting to become one of those people, even if there's no formal recognition of such. She smiles when she sees him, pushing herself up in the bed. "Hey. Okay, I mean, I did just have twins, right?"

But she healed faster than a human, and for all that she was still tired most of the pain was a memory. "In a bit of a haze still. I fon't think I can quite believe I'm a mother. Of twins."

[thewinterlady]

Babies were the only thing that Molly really got mushy over so she squeaked a little when Elena said it was okay to hold them. Moving quietly over, Molly picked up the fussy twin carefully and bounced the little bundle gently. She smiled at Elena, huffing a laugh at her turn of phrase.

“I can see you’ve got it all planned out already.” She said. “Although that be counterproductive later on when the dirty nappies come in pairs at the same times.”

[notaretriever]

"You did, but you're a wolf, too," he says with a grin. In his pack in Idris he'd seen new mothers up and around within an hour or so of giving birth, while he had never entirely understood it. Luke had always encouraged them to take more time off, to relax and spend time with their new babies, but things had worked differently in that pack. Manhattan had been another story, when they had all been trying to pass as human, when they'd wanted people to think it would take them several days before they felt like they were up to much of anything.

"Twins," he agrees with a soft, low whistle. It's going to be a lot of work, but he can't imagine being anything but excited. "They're beautiful."

[cleverness]

Hermione looks up when Elena's voice cuts off, but when Elena doesn't elaborate, Hermione doesn't try to push. She knows from personal experience that being pregnant is stressful enough without anything being abnormal, and can't imagine how she might have felt in Elena's situation. She's glad that at the end of everything, the outcome is as simple as Elena getting to meet her children earlier than most mothers would have.

"They certainly seem like they're about ready to take over the world," Hermione remarks, smiling down at the pair again. "But I'll certainly send that same hope in your direction. I always hear that children grow up so quickly, more quickly than any of us are ready for. I want you to have as much time as you can to enjoy your two little dears. Have you chosen names?"

[survivesitall]

"True, but that's something I don't want most people out there to know," she says, smiling and shifting out of the bed. The religious reservations notes on her file will only get them so far if she or the babies act too much out of the ordinary. Elena is playing along and grateful for Mindy as her doctor running interference.

But playing along doesn't mean she has to stay in bed, not with a friend here. "I can't disagree with you there," Elena says, looking down at them affectionately. Any worry that she wouldn't love them the moment she saw them vanished the moment she held them both. She fusses, and Elena reaches out to touch her cheek. "They're amazing."

[survivesitall]

Elena shifts out of the bed, wrapping her robe around herself as she steps over to the bassinets. They're fussing in a way that Elena is learning means nothing; only that they're asleep and active at the same time. "Probably. They'll be running around before we even notice, and we'll dream of the days of diapers and having them practically tied to us."

She reaches out to touch the boys cheek. "I think so. At least, I have names but I haven't told Clay yet. I think he's a Jeremy."

[survivesitall]

It's the one she's already thinking of as Jeremy, even though they haven't agreed on names yet. He seems to like Molly, whether it be her warmth or the movement, Elena doesn't know but she doesn't really care either.

"You're right. I'll keep him around for a while longer," she allows, still sipping at her coffee. It's something to be savoured, a treat after a long few days. "Honestly, I couldn't do it without him. He's the one who's always wanted a family."

[notaretriever]

He's always wanted children of his own, but Luke suspects Clary was as close as he'll ever get. And there's nothing wrong with that, he loves her as he would his own child, but he missed the first five years of her life. He's missing more now.

"May I hold one of them or are you still in that place where you can't imagine letting them go?" he asks with a small smile.

[thewinterlady]

Molly smiled and raised an eyebrow at Elena. “You didn’t?” She asked, giving the little one her little finger to suck on. The baby – she glanced at his tiny plastic hospital ID bracelet and saw this one was a he – would be wanting his mom for a feed soon but Molly could keep him quiet for a while longer. Long enough for Elena to finish the coffee she was clinging to like it was going to abandon her. “Not really your thing?”

[survivesitall]

“You can,” she says, grateful that he asked. Her territorial nature has gone into overdrive since they’ve been born, and she knows Clayton’s has too. They’re her children and that means they’re the things she’ll protect, even at the cost of her own life. Hopefully in Darrow that won’t be necessary. “I think I’m just past that now. A couple hours ago I was still trying to juggle them both.”