When Emily and Alison find out they are having twins, Emily goes straight to panic.
Emily woke up unusually early, golden hair splayed on the pillow beside her. She loved waking up to the site of Alison every day, the other girl looked so incredibly beautiful in the mornings and Emily sometimes had to pinch herself to remind to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She couldn't stop the smile from creeping upon her face as she watched her girlfriend sleep. The blonde, so peaceful and serene, something that was a complete contrast to Alison when she was awake, especially lately with her hormones being all out of whack. If High School Ali was a bitch, she was nothing compared to Pregnant Ali, but Emily couldn't help but find it amusing every time Ali spat out a snarky comment to someone or that one time she cussed out the barista at The Brew for getting Emily's coffee order wrong. Yet, as bitchy as Ali would get, the sound of Emily's voice instantly melted the blonde, it was the only thing that could stop the other woman in her tracks as she spouted off venomous insults at whichever poor, unfortunate soul had crossed the wrong side of her that day.
Emily propped herself up onto her elbow, looking over Alison adoringly. She knew it was creepy but she loved mornings like this where she would wake early and just take a few minutes to watch the blonde sleep. It was the only time that the blonde didn't seem plagued with morning sickness, which Ali had dubbed 'all-the-time-sickness' since she pretty much had it morning, noon and night at the moment. All the books had said that after the 1st trimester, the nausea should ease, but Ali was well into her 2nd trimester now, and she was still as bad, if not worse, than she was at the start of the pregnancy. Some days Alison found that she could eat fine with barely any sickness, other days Emily struggled to even get her to keep water down. Emily hoped that it would ease soon, as she hated seeing the love of her life so ill, knowing she couldn't do anything to make it better. Still, as much as it sucked to see Alison so poorly, the sight of the ever-growing bump that housed their baby made Emily's heart warm to the very core. She loved pregnant Ali, it was becoming like a drug to her and part of Emily knew that she would be a little bit disappointed to see that glow disappear once the baby was here, even if that did mean that they would finally get to hold their little miraculous, even if unexpected, bundle of joy.
'You're staring again' came Alison's sleepy voice, and Emily could see the smile creeping onto the blonde's face. Alison rolled onto her back and looked up into Emily's brown eyes, feeling all the love in the universe flood from them and straight into her. She loved the way Emily made her feel, like she wanted to be someone worthy of all that love that radiated from the brunette. She wanted to be someone Emily was proud of, and it was the love of the other woman that kept her on the path to being a good person.
'I'm sorry' Emily half whispered, not wanting to break the calmness that was in the air. 'You just look so beautiful when you sleep' she added, softly placing her hand on Alison's swollen tummy. Alison smiled, a smile that reached from ear to ear and lit up those blue, ocean coloured eyes that Emily couldn't help but get sucked into. Emily leaned down to place a soft, sweet kiss to Alison's lips. It was something she would never get tired of doing.
'So, are you all excited for our appointment? Is that why you're awake so early?' Alison asked as they separated, already knowing that it was the precise reason Emily was awake. Today was the day that they got to see their baby again, and hopefully find out the gender of their child, and Emily had been jumping around like a kid at Christmas all week.
Emily had been great throughout the entire pregnancy, right from the start when Alison found out she was pregnant, Emily had vowed to be there even though they weren't even close to being in a relationship at that point. Emily had been there at the first Doctor's appointment and the first scan. Even when Alison set the date for an abortion, Emily had said she would go with her. Then when Alison found out about the baby being Emily's, she was terrified of telling the other girl, scared that she would run, but despite how angry and hurt she was, Emily never blamed Alison and stuck by her. She even begged Alison to keep the baby, though Alison knew in her heart she could never abort a baby that came from Emily. This was the baby of the woman she had loved almost her entire life; there was no way she could go through with the abortion. Sure, things had been complicated, but ultimately this baby brought them together, and now here they were, about to become their own, little family.
'Honestly Ali, I am so excited. I can't wait to see our little baby growing in there' Emily replied, practically bouncing on the bed as she spoke.
'You're so fucking cute, you know that?' Ali replied, as her smile got impossibly wider. 'I love you'
'I love you too' Emily replied, her smile matching Alison's. She leaned down to kiss Alison again, but this time Alison tangled her fingers into Emily's flowing, brunette locks, anchoring her in place. She deepened the kiss, and Emily knew exactly where this was going. This was the other thing that she loved about pregnant Ali, she was constantly turned on.
'Em, stop tapping your foot, it's making me nervous' Ali said firmly, holding Emily's knee to still it. She knew that Emily was excited, but her constant fidgeting was making Ali nauseous and not helping her nerves. She hadn't told Emily, but she was terrified of this scan, scared that it might show something was wrong with the baby. This baby was what had brought her and Emily together and Alison was scared that if anything happened to the baby, then Emily might just leave her.
'Sorry' Emily replied, stilling her movements. 'Hey, what's wrong?' she asked, seeing the panic and fear in Alison's eyes. Emily could read her better than anyone, and she knew that something was bugging the other woman, but she also knew that if Alison didn't want to talk then she wouldn't. Alison marched to the beat of her own drum, she always had, and Emily knew that she would talk when she was ready, so she wasn't the least bit surprised when Alison replied.
'I'm fine, I just want them to hurry the hell up already and scan this baby' she growled, throwing in a death stare to the nurse at the counter for good measure.
'Alison DiLaurentis' called a friendly voice from beside them. Judging by Ali's mood and the perkiness of the nurse, Emily had a feeling that she knew how this would go down, and if she was right, she was in for a spectacular Alison smackdown. Emily gripped Alison's hand encouragingly as they rose from their seats and made their way to the room. She could feel Alison gripping her had tightly, which Emily knew meant only one thing. Alison was scared. She found herself automatically placing a comforting hand on the small of Alison's back as they walked into the room, only separating to sit in the chairs placed by the desk. Emily smiled when Alison grabbed her hand back, placing it on her thigh and holding it there for comfort.
'Good Morning ladies, so I believe that you're here for your 20 week scan, is that correct?' The nurse asked, her shrill, bubbly voice irritating Alison even more. Emily could sense this, and decided that maybe it was best that Alison keep quiet.
'Yes' she answered for the blonde, 'Ali's just over 20 weeks now. We had a scan booked for last week but Ali wasn't feeling too great so we rearranged' Emily explained, unable to keep the smile from her face even if she tried. As much as she was trying to stop Alison from ripping this poor nurse a new one, she couldn't help but be excited about seeing their baby.
'Ok then!' the nurse replied in a manner that was so over excited, it made Alison roll her eyes and scoff, which in turn caused Emily to grip her thigh as a warning to behave herself. 'Let's see if we can see this little one then, shall we?' the nurse continued, blissfully unaware of the silent exchange between the two girls in front of her. 'Alison, if you'd like to pop yourself up on this bed right here and lift your top, we'll have a little look inside that belly of yours and see if we can get a good look at that baby in there!'
Alison took a deep breath and gritted her teeth, trying so hard to stop herself from telling the nurse that if she didn't stop with the over the top, whiney, baby voice, she'd take the Ultrasound scanner right from her hand and shove it up her-
'That sounds great, right Ali?' Emily spoke up, squeezing Alison's thigh again to get her to say something and atleast acknowledge the nurse in front of her. Alison looked at the nurse, her eyes bugging so much with excitement, she reminded Alison of one of those lame Japanese cartoons that Jason used to watch when they were younger. She wanted so badly to cuss the nurse out, she could feel it bubbling up inside of her, but one look at Emily and those chocolate orbs that were silently pleading her to be nice, culled the fire inside of the blonde in an instant.
'Yeah. Yeah that sounds good' Alison managed to say, still letting herself get lost in Emily's eyes. She saw the pleading turn to delight the second she replied and this only helped to push away the hostility Alison had been feeling toward the nurse.
Emily rose with Alison and guided her to the bed, watching as the blonde laid herself down and pulled her top up over her protruding bump. Emily took a seat beside the bed, holding Alison's hand between both of her own. Alison could feel her heart pounding out of her chest as the nurse pulled on her gloves and grabbed a bottle of gel.
'Ok, so this will be a little cold, which could make baby jump, but it's nothing to worry about' the nurse said, her sing song voice no longer an issue for Alison. Now she was faced with the reality that she was about to see her baby and the fear from before rising rapidly. Alison was beginning to feel as though she couldn't breathe, she was so focused on trying to calm herself that she didn't even feel the cool gel hit her stomach. She gripped Emily's hand so tight, her knuckles began to turn white. Emily felt the squeeze of Alison's hand and looked at her girlfriend concerned. She could see that same fear and panic in her face, and Emily couldn't help but be worried about the other woman. She wanted to hold Alison, comfort her and calm her but before she could say anything the nurse said something that broke both girl's out of their mild panic attacks, and caused a whole other panic to fall over them. They both snapped their attention to the monitor in front of them.
'What did you say?' Emily asked in shock, wanting to make sure she had heard correctly. She felt a cold sweat forming on her brow as the nurse repeated herself.
'It seems as though you've been blessed twice! Miss DiLaurentis, Miss Fields, congratulations. You're expecting twins!' the nurse stated calmly, yet still with far too much excitement for either of the girls to handle.
'Twins?' Emily replied monotonously as the word seemed to circle around her head. She had just gotten her head around them having one baby and now they were about to become mothers of two. She began to crunch figures in her head, trying to figure out how they would financially manage two newborns. That was twice the amount of diapers, two cribs, two strollers, two car seats. Double of everything...and half the amount of sleep. As Emily tried to get things straight in her mind, she heard Alison let out a sob.
'Hey, it's ok. We'll figure this out, ok?' Emily said, pulling Alison into a tight hug. Suddenly, Alison went from sobbing to laughing hysterically, which made Emily go from panicking to downright confused.
'You should see your face' Alison managed to laugh out, which just confused Emily even more. Wasn't Alison worried about this? Why did Alison find this funny!? When Alison realised that Emily wasn't laughing with her and still had that scared, worried look on her face, she calmed herself.
'Sorry, could we have a moment?' she asked the nurse politely. She needed to talk to her girlfriend, they needed to talk this through. They hadn't planned for two babies. The nurse nodded silently and left the room, knowing that the two ladies in front of her had just received a huge shock which would take some time for them to process. As the nurse left the room, Emily felt herself let out a deep, long breath.
'Ali…..twins?' was all Emily could manage to say. Alison couldn't help but smile at Emily's face, still so conflicted and worried.
'Em' Alison started to say, as she gently brushed Emily's hair behind her ear, something she knew would calm her girlfriend. 'Before we came in here, I was so scared. Scared that something had happened to our baby and that you would leave me because of it' Alison explained. Emily went to protest, but Alison cut her off. 'I was so scared. So to me, yes two babies is a huge shock and will be a huge change to our plans, but we have two healthy, beautiful babies, who are both a part of you. Look at everything we've been through to get here. We've literally been to hell and back, and if we can handle everything we've been through, I'm sure we can handle two little babies' Alison finished, smiling at her beautiful mermaid. Emily couldn't stop the happy tears from forming in her eyes.
'We're having twins' she whispered through the tears, a smile finally forming on her face as the worry disappeared. Alison nodded, her own tears forming as she smiled back. 'I love you so, so much' Emily choked through the tears, before leaning forward to place a long, hard kiss on Alison's lips.
'I love you too, Em' Alison replied.
'How hard could two babies be, anyway?' Emily joked, the shock finally wearing off.
6 Months Later
Emily jumped when she heard a cry, practically falling out of the bed. You'd think she'd be used to this by now, yet every time she was woken in the night by a crying baby, it felt like the first time all over again. The only difference was that after only six week of crying babies, the joy was fading fast and Emily's patience was wearing thin. She hauled herself up with a groan, feeling Ali sit up beside her.
'It's ok, I got it' Emily whispered to her, 'You get some sleep' she added, giving Alison a quick peck on the lips before leaving the room. Alison laid herself back down without argument, the more sleep she got the better. They had tried breastfeeding, but it had been too hard on Alison to do all the night feeds, so they had decided that Alison should express her milk, that way they both got to share the load.
Emily sleepily made her way to the nursery and found the crying baby, red cheeked and screaming bloody murder. Despite her lack of sleep, she couldn't help but melt whenever she looked at one of their gorgeous babies.
'Hey Lily, it's ok' she soothed, lifting the tiny baby from the crib. She rocked the baby as she left the nursery, bouncing Lily gently against her body as they made their way to the kitchen. Emily took the bottle from the refrigerator and placed it in the bottle warmer as she began to sing to the baby in her arms, who was still screaming the house down.
'Ok, it's ok' Emily continued to coo, hoping that she could soothe her daughter. Emily had learned quickly to juggle screaming babies and bottles very quickly, and surprisingly with minor injuries. She had almost dropped Grace on her head when the twins were a little over a week old and Emily wasn't yet used to the sleep deprivation the way she was now. That incident had scared her enough to whip herself into shape. She found herself balancing all sorts of objects in her arms; Alison had thought that the lack of sleep was slowly driving her girlfriend crazy.
Once she had tested the bottle temperature, Emily made her way to the couch and settled in with Lily. The baby instantly soothed as soon at the bottle was placed to her tiny mouth, letting out a tiny sigh of satisfaction as she began to drink the warm milk. As Emily looked down at her tiny daughter in her arm, she realised that it was these times, late at night in a silent house, that she loved the most. She loved snuggling up with one of her daughters doing the night feed, and while she was in those moments, the lack of sleep felt like a distant memory.
Lily had been asleep for a few minutes now, but Emily knew better than to take the bottle away. She left the baby suckle the last few drops from the bottle before taking it from her mouth. Once she had successfully burped Lily, she made the short trip upstairs to place her back in her crib. This was the part Emily hated; it was like trying to place down a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment. One wrong move and it was game over. She gently placed Lily back in the crib and backed slowly out of the room, silently celebrating in her head for getting the baby down without waking her again. She entered the room that she and Alison shared and smiled when she heard the faint snores of Alison from the bed, the blonde practically face down in the pillow and lying on her front. She had been lying this way a lot since she had given birth, she had said to Emily that it felt nice being able to lay on her stomach again without having a beach ball in the way.
Emily silently made her way across the bedroom and slid her way into bed. She snuggled herself into Alison's side, to which the blonde reacted by rolling onto her side and pulling Emily in close. She didn't even wake, which Emily was more than impressed with. Emily leaned in and placed a gentle kiss to Alison's lips, before settling herself down to sleep.
'I love you babe' Alison mumbled as her eyes fluttered open, blue meeting brown.
'I love you too' Emily whispered back with a smile. Alison leaned in for another kiss, needing to feel close to Emily. She felt as though they had been like passing ships lately as they both juggled dealing with the two babies. Emily kissed back longingly, needing to feel that same connection. She was just about to deepen the kiss when she they were suddenly broken apart by the sound of a baby crying over the monitor.
'Fuck it!' Emily cursed loudly as she threw herself back into the pillows, causing Alison to giggle. Emily never swore, only when she was extremely frustrated or angry.
'It's ok babe, I've got this one' Alison said, still giggling. She placed a soft kiss to Emily's lips before jumping out of bed and making her way across the room. She reached the door and paused.
'Hey Em?' she said as she turned on herself, 'Remember when we found out we were having twins, and you said that two babies couldn't be that hard?' she reminded the brunette, who hummed in recollection, knowing full well where this was going. 'You still feel that way now?' Alison asked with a chuckle. Emily grabbed a pillow from the bed and launched it across the room at her girlfriend, causing the blonde to let out a small scream and laugh harder. Emily rolled her eyes and followed the other woman down the stairs. She figured if they were both awake, they might as well make the most of spending at least a little time together.