Disclaime: Anyone recognizable belongs to JE
A/N: I've gotten several comments about the price of the house, and when my husband and I were house hunting one of the areas we checked out was Cherry Hill, NJ. It's a bit south of Trenton, but there were several great homes for under 150k. The house I described would be worth closer to 200k but because of the need for it to sell, I priced it at what the late owner would still owe on the build loan plus enough extra for the late owners family to take care of debt. It seemed fair.
I also wanted to touch base on the 3D/4D ultrasounds- I've had several done, and I absolutely loved them. I highly recommend it to anyone who is having a baby or knows someone who is. We got one done with our twins around 16 weeks, a full month before the doctor would do an ultrasound to even look at gender even though he was doing ultrasounds fairly frequently for us because of how high risk my pregnancies are. We were able to better prepare for our boys, which was good because they decided to show up much earlier than we had planned.
Also, a special thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I'd really like to acknowledge Angela Mueller and melyons here for their consistent reviewing- I've seen their names show up pretty frequently and in Angela's case I got a review that pushed me to keep going even though I felt like quitting.
Chapter Twelve
When Ranger pulled up in front of a small office building instead of a restaurant for lunch, I was a bit confused. We were supposed to be going to lunch together and I was pretty hungry so I didn't know why he was holding me off. He handed me a sandwich in Tupperware and told me to go to the second floor and someone would be waiting for me.
I huffed but went inside and took the elevator to the second floor. When the elevator doors opened, they revealed both of my moms and grandmas. Grandma Mazur and Grandma Bella weren't even arguing.
"What's going on?"
"Just come with us Stephanie!" My mother sang out to me, while Ma Morelli took my arm.
They pulled me to an open door with a tasteful painted sign that read Baby Bump Studios & Imagery. When we walked in, I immediately felt comfortable. There was soft music playing in the background, a big overstuffed sofa in the waiting room, and a mini fridge with bottles of water inviting you to take one. They also had a tastefully put together black folio menu of services they offered including partnerships with other companies that offered spa services, exclusively prenatal wardrobes, and handmade baby products including cribs, clothes, and baby gifts for grandmothers like handprints on s plate.
A receptionist came up to greet us, a sweet plump older woman. She handed me a clipboard with information to fill out and told us to have a seat it would just be a few moments.
My mom filled out the paperwork and I ate my sandwiches. Soon enough we were all getting called back to a relaxing room with two couches set up for viewing and a large flatscreen on one wall.
"Do you know what you're having, Mrs. Morelli?" Sunny, the ultrasound tech, asked me.
"Not for sure. My late husband visited me in a dream and said a girl and a boy, but I want to get that confirmed and make sure it's not just griefs wishes."
The tech nodded sympathetically and started probing my belly with her wand. She moved slowly, explaining everything she was looking at before she put the screen into the 3D view.
"Baby A is a girl, you can see here."
She showed us genitals, and her little feet and hands. She made sure go get several pictures of her face, clear on. It was magical. I had happy tears and I could hear both Ma Morelli and my mom crying next to me. Grandma Bella and Grandma Mazur were taking turns pointing out who's what she had. She appeared to have my nose, and my bow shaped lips. Her chin was mine, too. I thought she might look like me.
"Baby B is definitely not a girl!"
We all laughed as Sunny showed us the little guy. He looked just like Joe already. This moved even Grandma Bella to tears. Sunny got images of them right next to each other, head down, and of them separately. She printed out several copies, even giving us a DVD of the ultrasound and a CD of all the images for each of us. I couldn't believe Ranger had paid for all of that!
When I was done, I desperately needed the restroom, and Sunny directed me there. As soon as I stepped in my spidey senses went crazy, followed by me being slammed into the wall, back first. Thank god it wasn't my belly is all I could think right then, and then came the knife.
He was tall, maybe about six foot, and was wearing a ski mask. I could see nothing, not even his eyes, for he had sunglasses on. He held me by the throat, with the knife pressing against my bump.
"You need to back out of those searches, little bitch. If you don't stop trying to find us, we have proven we can find you."
He spoke low and menacingly, and his voice was completely unfamiliar.
"W-w-w-what searches?" I stuttered, having a pretty good idea.
"You know what searches, cunt. If you don't stop, just think what will happen to your dead cops children… you saw what we did to him. Does it haunt you? Is it all you can see when you close your eyes?"
I heard the familiar bzzzzt right as my world went dark.
Ranger POV
I knew something was wrong the second I pulled up to the ultrasound place. There was an ambulance and Morelli's mom was wringing her hands while Bella yelled in crazy Italian they had better do their damn job.
"E meglio prendere cura di mia nipote. Io metterò l'occhio su di voi. E assicurarsi che i miei bambini sono al sicuro!"
Per my rough understanding of Italian, she had said "you better take good care of my granddaughter. I will put the eye on you. You make sure my babies are safe!"
Fuck. I jumped out of the SUV, leaving it illegally parked and ran to the ambulance. I used my commanding tone and demanded to know what had happened. They told me they were taking her to St. Francis and someone there would fill me in, but they had to go. I ran back to my SUV and I followed them. I wasn't leaving her to chance. I parked illegally at the hospital, too, hanging my official FBI parking badge over the rear view and I went seeking answers.
Three agonizing hours later, they finally let me see Stephanie. Both her and the babies were okay, just shaken up. They'd wanted to make sure that the volts from the stun gun didn't cause labor so they were keeping her overnight. Every once in awhile she'd have a contraction, but nothing out of the ordinary for twins.
After what felt like forever, but was really only a few hours, Stephanie's eyes opened.
"Babe!"
She looked around in a panic and I rushed to assure her she was fine, the babies were fine. When she told me what happened in the bathroom, after much freaking out, I was livid. My blank face had slammed down and I knew it. Stephanie stroked the side of my face, before smiling.
"I know something that will cheer you up! Where's my purse? Do you have your laptop?"
I handed both to her and watched as she inserted a disc into the drive. She turned the screen to show me the images and right there, I could see, was a mini Stephanie and a mini Morelli. One of each gender, and one that would look like his dad and one that would look like her mom. They were beautiful. I flashed back to that memory of Morelli's on the beach and I could see the same thing eight years from now, but with us as the adults.
"What are you thinking of naming them, babe?"
"Joe and I talked about that. He wanted Sophie Isabella and Luca Dominic… but in light of everything that is not the same now, I think I'm going to name her Sophia Josephine. I'll keep Luca Dominic…"
I smiled, "Those are beautiful names. I can't wait until it's time to meet them."
I placed my hands on her bump and felt the peace settle over us. These weren't my babies, not technically, but there's no law that said I couldn't love them as if they were.
"Carlos?"
"Yeah, babe?"
"Can you check on Bob and grab my cookie jar and the duffle bag I have packed? I want to move in with you until it's time to move into my house, if that's okay. And I'd really like it if you could stay with me there for awhile… I don't feel safe."
My heart broke a little. Stephanie almost never asked for protection. She waited until the last possible second. I acquiesced easily and promised to take the dog back to Rangeman with me for the time being. I had her call her mom to see who wanted to visit while I went to take care of the details. I also put a guard up at her door. The labor and delivery wing was one of the most secure but I trusted my men not to be bought.
You don't mess with the woman I love, and for damn sure you don't mess with her kids.
These Castnet fuckers had no idea what was coming to them.
Me.
A/N : some facts about twins that really interested me- on average twins arrive by 36 weeks. Most twin pregnancies are considered full term by 38 weeks. I made it to 34-35 (there's some discrepancy in my dating). You're t higher risk of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, and in my case I suffered 8 straight weeks of contractions 3-5 minutes apart. So bad I could barely walk. I won't be doing that to Stephanie though. Also, I know several women who have had what is referred to as a double whammy. It's half vaginal birth (twin A) and half csection (twin B). Sometimes they even schedule it that way. I wanted to make this easy on Steph so I also positioned both twins head down. Mine were breech and transverse (feet down and sideways). They stayed that way from the very beginning. I also wanted to address the name change from the polls- I liked Luca & Dominic evenly and they had the same number of votes so I just combined.
thank you all for your patience on this update. I had a trying few days followed by my husbands birthday and I just needed to read a little and regroup. My brain atrophies if I don't read a little bit. :)
