Snapshots: Coming Home
"This is it!"
Jethro Gibbs turned away from where he was stacking the dishwasher and moved towards his partner who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen with an excited grin on his face.
"Really?" Jethro asked. He had heard the telephone ring but had left it to Tony to answer it. They had both been on tenterhooks for days waiting for news but now that the phone call had come, Jethro suddenly felt himself even more nervous. Tony reached out a hand and placed it on the older man's forearm.
"Really," he assured him, allowing his thumb to stroke Jethro's arm soothingly, sensing his partner's anxiety. "Steve just called and Amber went into labor at 6 this morning and they've just arrived at the hospital. They're getting checked-in right now," he added.
Jethro looked down at his watch and then back at Tony. "It's 1146, Tony. She's been in labor for nearly 6 hours and they've only JUST called us?"
"Relax, Jet," Tony said, trying hard not to laugh at the man in front of him. Jethro Gibbs was renowned throughout NCIS for being a hard ass and not accepting any shit from anyone and now, to see him reduced to a nervous wreck, Tony thought it was quite a funny sight. Not that Tony wasn't nervous himself. This was a huge step for both of them. There had been weeks of discussions between the two of them before the search had begun to find the perfect donor and the perfect surrogate to carry their child to term.
Amber had been the fourth woman they had contacted. A mother of three in a happy marriage, Amber had immediately set their minds at rest, answering openly and honestly any questions they'd had and asking a few of her own. Most importantly though, Amber hadn't approached surrogacy as a money making venture. She'd told them that she wanted childless couples to experience the same joys of parenthood that she and her husband had experienced with their children. The most important factor for Amber was that the couple were in a committed relationship and that they were in a position, both emotionally and economically, to provide for a child and Tony and Jethro had more than ticked the right boxes on that front. So, apart from accepting money for medical and clothing expenses, Amber had asked nothing of the two men. Her pregnancy had progressed in a textbook fashion, and she kept Tony and Jethro in the loop constantly. She was more than happy for the two men to accompany her to her sonogram appointments. It was at her second sonogram appointment that something unusual had been discovered.
A second heartbeat.
Tony had felt Jethro tighten his grip on his hand when the doctor had delivered the news that Amber was expecting twins. At home later that evening, Tony and Jethro had sat watching the sonogram video over and over again, marvelling at the fact that they were going to become parents to identical twins.
Tony smiled at his partner and pulled him into a warm hug.
"Do you realise that the next time we're in this house, we'll have our children with us?" Tony whispered into his ear. Jethro could feel Tony smile against the side of his head and his own lips curled up into a grin.
"I like the sound of that," he said, placing a chaste kiss in Tony's hair. "Let's go get our babies."
Tony and Jethro arrived at the hospital an hour later and quickly located Amber's room on the third floor. Tony knocked and tentatively pushed open the door, unsure as to what lay behind the door.
To his relief, the scene before him was calm. Amber was lying back against the pillows, her eyes closed. Her husband, Steve, was sitting at her bedside, her hand held loosely in his. At the sound of the door opening, Steve looked up and smiled, beckoning the two men into the room from where they were hovering in the doorway.
"How is she?" Tony asked Steve, before settling into a chair on the other side of the bed.
"I've been better,"
All three men turned to look at Amber whose eyes were now open. Tony noted how tired she looked and automatically reached for her hand. She gripped it tightly as a contraction swept over her. Jethro watched from his place behind Tony as her stomach went rock hard and then relaxed as the pain eased. He was still amazed that this woman was prepared to go through all this pain so that he and Tony could have the family they so desperately wanted. He knew that both of them would be eternally grateful to her.
Amber took a few moments to recover from the contraction and then directed her attention back to Tony and Jethro. "I got examined a half hour ago and I was 6 centimeters dilated. The contractions are coming roughly every 4 minutes so I would say it won't be too long before we see some babies."
Jethro squeezed Tony's shoulders and his partner smiled up at him. Tony opened his mouth to ask Amber if her waters had broken but before he could the door opened and a doctor came in. she looked around before saying "I'm going to do an internal examination, so anyone who isn't the father can wait outside."
Amber looked at Tony and Jethro and then said to the doctor "Tony and Jethro are the babies' fathers so they can stay but," and she turned back to Tony, "I'd like Steve to stay too. If that's ok?"
"Of course that's ok, Amber," Tony smiled.
The doctor looked at the assembled group and shrugged. "Oh well, it's a party I guess. So, let's see where we're at."
3 hours later and Tony and Jethro were each holding a baby in their arms.
"I can't believe it," Tony said, staring down at the tiny infant in his arms.
"I know," Jethro smiled, as he looked at the identical infant lying in his own arms.
"So, who's who?" Tony asked, knowing that they had picked names but unsure of how they were going to decide which name was given to which baby.
"Jake," Jethro said, indicating across at his son his partner was holding, "and Oliver," he said, bending down to place a kiss on his son's forehead.
"Hi, Jake," Tony whispered to the sleeping infant.
The four of them sat quietly in the room that had been set aside for them. Amber was resting after the delivery and at her insistence, Steve had gone home to relieve her parents, temporarily, of their babysitting duties.
After 20 minutes on their own, two nurses came into the room.
"Mr Gibbs, Mr DiNozzo. I'm Maggie and this is Sarah and we're two of the nurses who will be looking after your sons in the nursery. If it's ok, we need to take them back there for a little while for some tests but we'll get you in in about an hour and show you how best to feed them and how to change a diaper."
Tony and Jethro reluctantly handed over their children to the two nurses who quickly disappeared out the door.
"So," Jethro sighed, already missing the weight of a baby in his arms.
"So," Tony nodded. "Coffee?"
Forty-five minutes later, unable to stay away any longer, Tony and Jethro stood outside of the nursery, watching their children through the glass. Tony caught Maggie's eye and she gestured for them to come in.
"Mr DiNozzo, Mr Gibbs, you have two beautiful, healthy little boys. We'd like to keep them in overnight but I see no reason why you can't take them home tomorrow."
"Excellent," Tony smiled.
"You can stay in the room you were in if you like but I suggest you get a good night's sleep. It'll be the last you have for a long time. But first, I think your sons have provided a little something for your first diaper lesson."
"Jet, I think you can drive a little faster."
"I don't want our babies first car journey to be a traumatic experience," Jethro said, as the car crawled along at 20mph.
Tony sighed and looked in the wingmirror at the line of traffic that was steadily growing longer behind them. He winced as the tooting horns grew more insistent and he turned in his seat to check if the noise had woken the sleeping babies in the back. Both Jake and Oliver were fast asleep, oblivious to the racket going on around them.
"Look, Gibbs, they're obviously going to be just like you. They'll be able to sleep anywhere and through anything so I don't think that they're going to be traumatised if you put your foot down and accelerate to oh, I don't know, 30! I, on the other hand, am going to shoot the next person who beeps at us so unless you want to raise these children alone while I languish in jail for murder, I suggest you speed up."
Jethro sighed and taking a look at the expression on Tony's face, put his foot down on the accelerator.
Pulling up in front of the house they shared, Gibbs switched off the engine. He turned to Tony.
"We're on our own now. Dirty diapers, midnight and 6am feeds – it's all down to us now."
"I know, aren't you excited?" Tony asked, getting out of the car and opening the back door as Jethro did the same on the other side. Walking up the path, each of them holding a baby seat, Tony stopped at the front door.
"We should make a wish," he said.
Jethro shifted the baby seat into his other hand and placed an arm around his partner.
"I have you and our babies. I already have everything I've ever wished for."
End.