Twins

CPV

"What the hell did you do?" Aaron screeched in my ear.

"I didn't do anything," I kept my voice low. Bella was sleeping right behind the door to our right.

"Then why are you taking in a pregnant stray, cat?" I really hoped she was sleeping.

"She is not a stray cat," I pushed him away from the room.

"You're right. She's jailbait." He was being awfully loud. "Tell me that kid isn't yours." He begged.

"I didn't sleep with her. She probably is jail bait. She's in a lot of trouble Aaron and she doesn't have anyone. I'm going to help her. That is decided. The only question here is, are you going to help me?" we stopped at the end of the hall.

"This is the last time you are dragging me into any bullshit." He pointed his finger right in my face.

"You consented," I referred to no event in particular.

"What are we doing?" he asked with contained excitement. Aaron had a flare for trouble. He just wanted it to be my idea so he'd have something to bitch about.

"We're delivering a baby," I said casually.

"Don't BS me," he leaned against the wall.

"A baby vampire," I leaned opposite him.

"I don't get it," he said when I didn't elaborate.

"You do," I told him, "It's a literal vampire baby." I could tell he didn't believe me. "You should see her stomach," I went over to a chair, "It's covered in bruises. Every time it kicks her she gets a new bruise." He looked at me through squinted eyes.

"No shit?" he fell back into a chair.

"No shit," I said. He was still sceptical. He got up and headed for her room. He wasn't known for his tact. I tried to stop him but he made it to the bedroom but froze at the door. Bella wasn't in the bed. We inspected the room and heard her throwing up in the bathroom.

"She's a bit too pregnant to be throwing up," he said as we waited for her to come back out. "How far along is she anyway?" he suddenly realised he'd never asked.

"A little less than three weeks," I said to him.

"Have you forgotten all the medicine you ever learned all those years ago?" he raised an eyebrow at me.

"We're not dealing with a normal pregnancy here," I reminded him.

He laughed, "I'm beginning to think you believe what you're saying." He looked at me seriously. I shrugged. He'd get it at some point. He was distracted by a sound, "We have to get her out of here. She needs an IV before she dehydrates."

"I have an IV," I said then I knocked on the door and told Bella we're coming in.

"What are you doing with an IV?" Aaron lowered his voice as I picked Bella up off the floor.

"I'm going to treat someone before she dies," I hissed above her head. I put her in the bed and set up.

"How the hell did you even get this out of the hospital? You haven't practiced Medicine in almost ten years." He made the answer blatantly obvious even to himself. I just looked at him till he had no option but to believe it. "You stole an IV?" he asked. I just shrugged. He was making enough noise by himself.

"Bella, you have to eat something, okay?" I knelt by her bed. She nodded weakly. We tried everything. It all just came back up again. She couldn't even keep liquids down. She was dying and fast when Aaron stumbled into a solution. He literally stumbled and cut his hand in the bedside cabinet. She reached out to him.

"I'm alright," he shook his head when he saw what she was doing. She put his hand in his mouth and sucked hard. He was so creeped out he didn't even move. I was too creeped out to laugh at how creeped out he was. He finally got his hand free and held it in front of himself as though she would attack.

"Dr. Milner, could you get us ten units of blood? O-negative just to be safe." I said to snap him out of his trance.

"Unfuckingbelieveble," he whispered shaking his head as he left the room.

Have you ever watched a person drink blood? Not like you drink juice, like it was the life-blood… never mind. It's an image I would never get out of my mind, not if i lived forever. Within twenty four hours she was fine. We were trying to get to know her when she let out a small cry and held on to the bed with her back arched.

"Where does it hurt?" I got up and got closer. Aaron got up and stepped back. In his defence she did suck his blood last night.

"Don't touch it," she leaned away from me, "I think my rib is cracked. This one." She pointed.

"You can't be serious," Aaron said looking up.

"Aren't you going to tape her up?" I asked him when he made no move to get up.

"Counterproductive," he responded, "If we do that we risk pneumonia and lung collapse, from the treatment, not the fracture. It's better if we leave it alone. God knows this is trouble enough." He mumbled the last sentence. There were two more cracks the next day. Luckily all the equipment had arrived as well.

"We're going to deliver the baby," Aaron told Bella. She looked at me. I nodded reassuringly. She didn't look reassured so Aaron continued, "Thirty-four centimetres is often as good as it gets. The next time a rib gets fractured it might break off, puncture a lung, who knowa what else. The longer we wait, the more will go wrong. You seem like the type to sacrifice herself so let me tell you now, you die, the kid dies with you." He paused until she looked resigned. "This is going to be a c-section. It's as controlled an environment as we can offer in this situation. I'm going to cut through your skin and muscle with a scalpel," he held it up, "I'm going to have to cut through the amniotic sac with an angle grinder, not something I do everyday," his shoulders lifted of their own accord.

"Is the blade tough enough?" she asked with a frown.

"It cuts diamonds," I tried to convince her and us all.

"And that's about as tough as it gets," Aaron said before he put it down, "I'm going to give you an epidural. If you make it difficult for me to concentrate I will sedate you." He looked her straight in the eye so that she'd know he was serious. She didn't respond. "I have no interest in explaining the mundane stuff nor do I have the time." When she raised no complaints we moved her to the sterilised room we'd been preparing and scrubbed in the sink. The servants must be having a field day with this one. They may not have known what we were doing but they made up for that in imagination.

Bella was prepped and the time had come. I could see him panic below the cool exterior. He cut down to the sack and broke out the modified tool. This was going to be a little hard to watch. He made a clean incision but the damn sack would not move aside. We hadn't thought of that one. A head poked through and we jumped back. The baby climbed out, followed by another baby. My life was officially strange. They sat side by side and just looked at us. "Don't bite me," I said as I went to pick them up.

They seemed to understand me perfectly. I wrapped them up fed them while Aaron fixed Bella and told her she couldn't hold her babies in the trendelenburg position. She sulked for eight hours. We were like grown men who had just discovered magic really existed as we communicated with the twins, which wasn't far from the truth. It seemed that they could read minds because they knew what to respond to what we thought and could project their response straight into your head. God knows what they were getting from Aaron.

He and I sat on each side of the bed with a twin in each arm. I swear I could see them growing. Bella noticed it more because she'd been asleep for a while. After a little frowning and confusion we discovered that they couldn't read her mind but they could show her things. Slightly inconvenient but not troubling.

"What are you going to name them?" Aaron asked as though he were about to issue a birth certificate. Should he?

"This little man," she touched the twin in Aaron's arms, "Is Anthony," his eyes widened in wonder. I suppose none of us knows what it was like to try on our names.

"And this little man," she touched the wriggling mouse in my arms (who cut his eyes at me, oops), "Is Eli." I gave a surprised laughed.

"My middle name is Eli," I explained to her. She just nodded.

"You left your ID on the dresser three nights." She smiled at me.

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