Everything happened so fast after that.

Heather was laid on a cushioned table by two nurses, as a third raced to the hallway, calling out for the doctor to hurry and get his scrubs on. Her legs were being forced apart and Heather would have been scrambling to cover herself up if she wasn't in so much pain. Each time a contraction hit, each time her stomach tightened and cramped, it felt like she was being repeatedly punched in the gut.

The doctor hurried inside, pushing up the frames of his glasses before he pulled on a pair of latex gloves, all the while asking the nurses various questions about Heather and - and she could barely understand them, her mind was so numb with pain, she couldn't even follow the simplest of phrases.

It took her a while to understand that the doctor was looking straight at her and demanding her to push. Push, push, she thought, she needed to push, just a few pushes and her baby would be here. So Heather pushed as hard as she could, absentmindedly listening for when the doctor would tell her to stop and start.

Heather pushed a total of eight times before she stopped, out of breath and out of strength. Her shoulders shook with her sobs and she felt beyond weak - it was like in that moment that all of the fight left in her had just disappeared and she was just tired. She just wanted the pain to go away, she just wanted the world to go away.

A nurse by her side, a woman that could have been her grandmother, must have noticed this and she leaned down to whisper in Heather's ear. "Now, you listen," she insisted firmly, "I know you're scared, I know you're hurting. But you're not giving up - "

" - I can't do it, I can't - "

" - Yes, you can," her whispers were harsh now, "You can and you will." There was a pause, before the nurse continued, "Honey, you can try and give up, but the person that needs you the most right now is going to find a way out one way or another. So I'd suggest you help 'em out." Heather's sobs calmed slightly, as she nodded franctically, before the nurse leaned down once more and said, "You're not alone."

You're not alone.

Heather squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the escaping tears but she couldn't help herself. With her hand finding the older nurse's, she found an extra bit of strength, pushing once more with all her strength, giving it her all and even letting out a scream as she did so.

It took a few more pushes before Heather felt the pain and pressure in her stomach - ease up and, just as she was going to make a comment about it, she heard a high-pitched wail.

She blinked, her eyes just tearing up at the sound of the cries and her heart beating insanely, before she lifted her head from her pillow to catch a proper look at her baby. It was a squirmly little thing, smaller than what she thought it would be, and it was covered in blood and god knows what else, but it was the most beautiful thing Heather had ever seen.

"It's a boy," the doctor announced and Heather tried not to cry, but she was failing. She had a son, she had a little boy. She reached her arms out for him, her heart hurting with every screech the boy let out, but to no avail. "Give him to me," she tried, but the doctor passed him off to another nurse, who hurried him out of the room. "No," Heather protested, trying to crawl her way off of the table and out of the room, "No, he - he needs me. Can't you hear him? He needs - he wants his mom, please."

The remaining nurses restrained her and Heather struggled against them, her maternal instinict against scaring herself. They held her there until she calmed enough for them to release her - though they all glanced at her nervously, as if they were expecting her to jump up and start running at any point.

Heather, on the other hand, had no desire to run at that point. While she deseprately wanted to see her son, she was feeling - gross. Her stomach was doing somersaults and she felt so hot and sticky and so close to vomiting.

It was five minutes later that the burning started.

Heather moaned and groaned weakly, her hands finding her still prominent stomach. "You must be delivering the placenta," the doctor reasoned and she was about ready to whoop this man's ass. No one had ever told her that she had to deliver the goddamn placenta too.

She believed him for another minute, until he let out an, "Oh my god!"

Heather panicked. Something was wrong. Something was wrong with her. Or her son. God, please don't let there be anything wrong with him, she hadn't even held him yet - "She's crowning!" The doctor yelled, and before Heather could question it, he added, "There's another baby!"

"What?" Heather screeched. Now she was definitely going to kick his ass. "Another baby? I have to - " The doctor looked up at her and nodded, "You have to start pushing again." The pain wasn't as bad as the last time, but it still hard like a bitch. Not to mention, Heather was terrified. Two babies, not one but two. She was going to have to raise two children - twins.

She didn't have much time to even process the idea of now having two kids before another high-pitched cry filled the air. "It's a girl!" The doctor announced proudly, lifting the small, red faced baby up to show her off, and Heather's heart felt warm and gooey. A little girl. She'd always wanted her own daughter and now - now she had one and now she had a son.

The girl was taken away quickly, just like her brother had been, and with the pain slowly fading away into a dull throb, Heather promptly passed out.

Heather woke up to a clean, warm room and a new pale purple gown. The curtains were drawn, making it impossible for her to tell how many hours had passed since she had the babies.

The babies.

Oh god, they only had one crib. And one of everything else. She was going to have to have one of the boys run and get an extra crib and more diapers, and she wanted more clothes for them, pink and blue galore, and they needs socks, oh god, their little feet were going to get cold, they needed all the socks they could find and -

Heather's thoughts were stopped when a tall, blonde nurse walked in with two whining bundles - one in blue and one in pink. She glanced between the two and the nurse cautiously, before asking, "I can - Can I hold them?" The nurse smiled and said, "Sure thing," before making her way to the side of the bed.

Her son and daughter fit easily in her arms, as if they were a puzzle piece, completeing a part of Heather that she never knew was missing. They were both small, just barely over 6 pounds each, and both looked equally frog like with their puffy cheeks and wide noses. They both had light brown tufts of hair; the boy's stuck up in random directons and if she had had a free hand, she would have fixed it.

Both had stopped whining the minute they were placed in Heather's arms and that was enough to make her tear up. The boy had fallen into an easy sleep, while the girl blinked a few times, her dark blue eyes squinted as she tried to focus on everything before her.

"They're perfect," Heather whispered to the nurse, before the other woman asked, "Do you have names picked out?"

She paused for a moment, thinking over the names she'd chosen beforehand, repeating them to herself over and over to see if they fit, before finally responding.

"Yeah, Joseph James and Charlotte Edie."

So as you may have noticed Twins (boy and girl) won! Yay, so Erik and Heather officially have a baby boy and girl. Big thank you to everyone that voted, I was surprised by how many of you actually did it!

You may have also noticed I changed the names.

Sorry.

I felt like these ones were more meaningful than Christopher and Christine (which are also the male and female versions of each other, which is kind of weird?). So Joseph and Charlotte it is. These kids are going have some wild nicknames.