Don't forget to check the Facebook group page for a teaser on Sunday.

Chapter 21

Getting to know the ins and outs of the NICU

I yawn feeling my eyes roll closed. "It's time to go back to your room," Edward tells me.

"What? No, I am fine. Besides, my father hasn't gotten here yet." Edward looks at me and sighs.

"I'll see how close he is." Edward jumps up pulling out his cell as he walks to the door.

"Hi, Mrs. Cullen," someone says and I frown looking at them. "You are Mrs. Cullen, right? Jack and Anthony's mother?" I chuckle but nod at the man speaking to me. Should I find it strange being called that for the first time, or be alarmed that I don't find it as bizarre as I did being called McCarty?

"I'm Dr. Frank Dent. I'm the neonatologist in charge of caring for your sons while they are here in the NICU." He offers me his hand and I shake it.

"I thought if you had a moment, I could go through everything with you about the boys?"

"Can you wait for a few minutes? Edward, their father, just stepped out," I ask looking toward the door, in hopes he's on his way back.

"Sure, I'll look them over while we wait." He doesn't wait for me to reply, but gets to work examining Jack first.

My eyes seem to bounce between watching the doctor, and checking the door for Edward's return.

Just as Frank moves from Jack to Anthony, Edward comes back in making his way to us as fast as he can.

"Sorry, I made you wait, Frank," he says with a smile as he reaches out to shake his hand.

"These are your babies, Edward?" Franks asks with his head tilted to the side.

"They are and this is my beautiful wife Bella. Bella, love, this is Frank, he's the best neonatologist in the country."

"We've met, Edward; I just didn't know she was your wife," Frank smiles, and then goes back to examining Anthony.

"Both boys are doing very well," Frank starts off. "Jack is doing a little better than Anthony, but considering their premature and traumatic birth, they are both doing remarkably well. Tomorrow if Jack's still doing well, I would like to lower the oxygen level and move him to a nasal cannula."

I frown unsure of what this means; Edward clasps my hand making me turn to him.

"That means he will have a pair of small prongs to deliver extra oxygen through the nostrils. This is a good thing. It means he doesn't need the extra pressure to keep his lungs open, but still needs a little extra oxygen to maintain sufficient oxygen levels in his bloodstream."

I let out a breath, nod at him and turn back to Frank.

"That's right. His lungs are not causing me any concern. But tomorrow and over the next few days, I would like to perform a range of tests that will include examining his sight and hearing as well as running an EKG and drawing blood work. Don't worry, Bella, for a preemie he's doing great, a star pupil."

I feel myself smile, but Frank's face changes a little. "I would also like to do the same for Anthony as he has me a little more worried than I am about Jack."

I tighten my grip on Edward's hand, hoping my little guy will be okay.

"For now, he still needs full support to help him breathe. Also, his heart rate is a little slower than what it should be, so we will continue to monitor his pulse."

"He's ... he's … is he going to be okay?" I ask shakily.

"He's a fighter, and I am sure it has more to do with the delivery and being early than anything more serious. I have faith in his strength. To tell you the truth, if anyone else had been with you, he would have died enroute to the hospital, but Edward did the right things to help him. I'm sure I will know more in the next few days. For right now, he'll get all the support he needs to help him, and don't fear because he's a fighter."

Frank stops for a few seconds before he starts to go through everything the nurse has already told me regarding the incubators and monitors. "We'll talk more tomorrow," Frank says standing up and moving away from me.

"Love," Edward whispers softly and I turn to him to see that he is holding back his own tears.

"He's gonna make it; he's a Cullen. Remember you said that Cullens are fighters, just look at Jane," I tell him.

"I know you're right," he says kissing my head.

"Is it okay to come in?" my father asks standing a little away from Edward and me.

"Yeah, come on in and meet your grandsons," I say and he moves slowly to us.

"Oh, they are beautiful, just like their momma," my dad coos.

"Dad, this is Edward," I tell him softly.

"Yes, we've met," he says. I gulp but my father shakes his head. "I don't want to know the ins and outs, but you are married to him, right?"

I nod at him, as my dad hisses, "Yes!" He looks to Edward, grinning at him. "Can I just say that I told her you were a great guy?"

I roll my eyes but Edward just chuckles.

"Get her off to bed. She looks exhausted. Sue and I will come back tomorrow. If you can give me your parents' number, I can call them so we can all take turns being here with the boys and Bella."

"Of course," Edward takes a piece of paper from his lab coat pocket and jots down the numbers. He hands my father the paper along with a key.

"Son, we're okay at a hotel."

"No, sorry – you're my wife's father, and that means you stay at our home."

"If you're sure?" Edward nods at him and my father takes the key and pats his arm.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he whispers leaning into my ear and kisses my temple.

"Okay, momma, time for bed," Edward says and I look at my boys.

"They're safe here. You need rest so you can cope with the upcoming days."

"I know… just ... it's just … I don't want them to be alone."

Edward cuts me off and kneels down in front of me. "My mom is on her way back now to stay with them for the night and I'll have my pager. If we're needed, the boys' nurse will page me."

I frown at him unsure of why he thinks that would calm me down. "I'm spending the night here at the hospital with you, if that's okay?"

"I would really like that, are you allowed to stay?"

"Yes, of course. I may not be your doctor anymore, but I would like to keep a close eye on you, and be here for the boys."

I lean into Edward and wrap my arms around him "Thank you," I whisper knowing that he has done so much for me and the boys.

Edward takes me back to my room, and I use the restroom and get checked over by the nurse. After she tells me I am doing well, Edward comes back into the room. I look at Edward and then to the bed "Will you be sharing?" I ask shyly. I have only ever shared a bed with my girlfriends and Emmett.

"I'm okay in the chair."

"Oh," I say somewhat dejectedly.

"Bella, if you want me to sleep beside you, I will; I just didn't want to overstep—"

"You're not," I interrupt.

Edward nods at me, and I move into the bathroom and turn on the shower. "Do you think I could get more pain meds?" I ask looking out the door.

"Yes, but you need to eat something first," I sigh but nod at him.

I move back into the bathroom, closing the door before stripping off my clothes.

After taking a short shower, I get changed into a pair of my own pajamas, and feel better. I walk out to find Edward has also changed into pajamas. He moves to me, and helps me to the bed. "My mom dropped off some new pajamas; what she said was better undergarments, better pads, breast pads, and your own breast pump," he stops and chuckles. "She didn't like the one in the room, so ..." he clears his throat. "She got you these, too," he holds up a pair of fluffy slippers and a matching robe. She also brought us drinks, snacks and dinner because she said hospital food is not as good as her home cooking."

I feel myself blush as I get a little overwhelmed by everything she has done. Emmett's mother hated me from the get go. Over the years that Emmett and I dated and then were married, she never once bought me a gift.

"Thank you," I whisper to him and he grins winking at me. "She likes you, so don't worry about that." I tilt my head at him. "As I was telling you what she brought, I couldn't help remember that crazy-ass woman that yelled at you when you were in here sick."

"Renata ... yes, she's Emmett's mom, and she's never liked me. I was just thinking about how I've known her most of my life, and was in Emmett's life for almost ten years, but she never bought me a candy bar, never mind doing anything like this."

"My mother would never be mean to you, she likes you. I mean, she's nice to everyone, but she truly cares about you. My mom didn't like Rachel very much, but she was polite, and would include her in family dinners and parties. As for gifts, she would always buy her something she knew she would use, need, or like. But don't doubt that my mom did this stuff for you because she likes you and cares for you."

"Your mom seems very nice," I tell him truthfully. I yawn and feel my eyes start to close.

"Let's eat, and then we can get some sleep," Edward says and I nod.

Edward removes the lid off the container and I see what looks like a homemade egg salad sandwich and potato salad.

I nod and slowly start to eat the food, all of which tastes amazing.

I only make it halfway through my food, before I become too tired to eat anymore. I move up the bed and lay down facing Edward as he moves swiftly around the room, cleaning up. He switches off the light, and then moves over to the bed.

"Are you sure?" he asks softly and I move over so my back is to the bathroom wall, he smiles softly as he gets in.

As Edward lies down, I let out a soft breath and my eyes close.

~WHIVDAST~

I let out a soft hum as I slowly wake up. First, I am hit with the fact that there is something warm under me, but before my mind can question it, a cramping pain rips through me.

"Hey, easy does it," a warm voice says as I curl up.

I groan, feeling really tired and unable to open my eyes yet. "My stomach hurts and so do my breasts," I say with a bit of a whine.

"You need to express some milk, which will help relieve the pressure on your breasts. Your stomach will hurt for a while due to the fact your uterus is contracting back to its normal size." My eyes flicker open to see Edward's chest. Tilting my head a little, I see that he, too, looks sleepy, but is watching me.

"Okay," I mumble to him, and he slowly slides out from under me and moves swiftly around the room.

"I am going to switch on the lights," he says and I close my eyes, and then slowly open them. Feeling the need to use the restroom first, I get out of the bed, and walk to the bathroom. I take care of my needs as my mind does a fast rerun of what happened yesterday. I wash my hands, feeling weird—not only am I a mom, but I'm also a wife.

"Did yesterday really happen?" I ask him when I walk back to the bed.

"If you're talking about delivering the twins in a car, and finding out that you're married to a great doctor who's also a handsome guy, then yes," Edward says lightly as he hands me the breast pump.

"Oh, that's right, where is my handsome husband and great doctor at anyway?" I say as I look around the room.

"Hey, wife, I'm your great doctor and handsome husband. You must obey and respect me." I raise my eyebrow at him, and he rolls his eyes. "Fine; you found out you were married to a geek," he mutters making me laugh.

"A handsome geek," I say as I hook up the breast pump.

"I knew you thought I was good looking."

"Yeah, but I've been pregnant; my hormones have been all over the place!"

"Not when you married me, and allowed me to fu ... make love to you."

"I was very drunk," I tell him with a smile that makes him shake his head.

"I was blown away by your beauty both times I first met you." I frown as I look at him. "The very first time I saw you was at Jake's bar. And then the next first time was when I saw you in my office clutching my photo." I bite my lip as he smiles goofily at me. "Maybe if I had had my tattoos and green eyes showing you would have let me make love to you that day, too." I swallow hard as he leans closer to me. "I wanted to, and the fact that you were so wet didn't help matters for me at all."

I feel my face heat up. "I'm so sorry."

Edward shakes his head at me. "I'm not sorry at all, but I should have known then that Jill was you. I've only ever had that reaction to one girl and that's you. If I had thought about it, I would've realized you were the same girl as the one I married in Vegas."

I move forward kissing his lips. He leans into the kiss taking it over, but suddenly pulls back.

"Change breasts, Bella." I look down to see I have a good amount of breast milk this time. I smile, switch the pump to my other breast and tilt my head up so Edward can kiss me again. It's not long before I'm done expressing milk from both breasts.

"Would you like to come with me?" I look up at Edward. "I need to take this down to the NICU and I want to pop in to see the boys while I'm there. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yes, of course I do, love," he says with a smile.

"Is it strange that I miss them so much?"

"No, they've been a part of your life for eight months."

"They were a part of your life, too, I know you didn't know, and neither did I, but they always reacted to you and your touch." I drop my eyes from him not wanting to get any readings from his face. "Do you really think they will be okay?" I ask changing the subject.

I feel Edward's hand cup my face, he tilts my head up so that I am looking at him. "I am not going to lie, Bella, they have a huge fight on their hands. But I have to believe they will make it. They may develop problems, but I know we—together—can, and will overcome them."

"I—" I stop and shake my head. "Can you show me what to do? Educate me on what could go wrong with them. I can't be their mom holding them right now, but I can be a mom by learning what they will need me to do."

"I will, and you are doing great, Sweetheart." Edward kisses my head and smiles as he stands up.

"Put your breasts away so we can see our boys, but just for a short visit, because you still need to rest."

I snort as I tuck my breasts away, not even feeling remotely embarrassed by him having to remind me. I stand up and he takes my hand. Edward keeps a hold of my hand the entire way to the NICU. When we get there, the first thing we do is to label and put away the boys' milk. After that is stored in the refrigerator, we wash up and put on our gowns. Before we enter the room where the boys are, Edward takes my hand in his again.

As I approach the boys, my eyes move to Esme, who is sitting in between them knitting.

"Hey, Mom," Edward speaks in a low tone, making her look at us. "How have our boys been?"

"Just two little blips for Jack, and Anthony had five," she says as if she was telling us football scores.

"What– what's a blip?" I ask.

"She's talking about having to remind them to breathe; they are fine," Edward says pulling me down to sit in the rocking chair.

"Oh, Bella, I am so sorry." I look toward Esme as she looks at me apologizing. "That's what I called them when Edward was in here, and he had so many more than what Anthony's been having in his first few hours."

"Edward was in here?" I ask as Esme wipes my tears.

"Yes, you see, I ended up in surgery when I was seven months pregnant. Edward was born first followed by his twin sister, Elizabeth." I look away from Esme to Edward. I don't remember hearing about a sister named Elizabeth.

"She was stillborn," Esme says making me gasp.

"I'm sorry," I tell her quickly and she gives me a gentle smile.

"When Edward was in here, I couldn't handle it to say that he forgot to breathe ten times today, so I started calling it blips."

I nod at her in understanding. "It does sound much better, just this is all new, I feel ..."

"Clueless? Like you're being judged for not knowing the right way to do things, or what to do?" I nod at her again, because that is exactly how I am feeling.

"I felt like that, too. I know it seems overwhelming, and that there is so much to learn with the boys being in the NICU. But, Bella, I have faith that you can and will learn and be fine," Esme kisses my head and stands up.

"I think I'll leave you two with your boys. I need coffee – do either of you need anything?"

I shake my head at her and she smiles at me again before turning and walking out of the door.

"I am so sorry," I tell Edward hating that I was rude to his mom.

"What for, love?"

I turn to him, and see he's looking over the chart from Jack's bed. "I was so rude to your Mom a few moments ago."

Edward frowns and his head turns to me. "When?" he asks, and I wave my hand. "Bella, she's been in your shoes. Believe me if anyone understands how you feel right now, it's my mom."

"I get that but she was just answering you and I freaked out a little bit."

"You didn't, you're just tired, stressed and didn't know what —"

Edward gets cut off by Anthony's alarm. We both jump up and Edward takes my hand in his, and jointly we tap Anthony's foot until the alarm stops.

"That's all there is to it, Bella. They just need a tap or a foot wiggle and that will remind them to breathe." I let out the breath I was holding while nodding at him.

"Thank you for showing me," I whisper leaning my head on his shoulder "How are the charts; are they doing okay?"

"Good, they're both due to eat in about twenty minutes. I say we stay for that, and then head back to bed for a little bit. You need your rest, love."

I pout looking at him.

"Bella, love, you can't stay with them all of the time. You need to rest so that you can heal, and be fit and able for when they come home with us."

"I know it's just hard to not be here with them."

"Believe me, I know. I could spend all day with them, too, but you need to rest. You just gave birth in a moving vehicle. You had two tiny people come out of you in a less than desirable way. If this went the way we talked about, they would be spending time in the nursery to give you time to recuperate, so this is not really any different. Well, except the way it happened was faster and sooner than we wanted."

"But this feels harder."

"Because you're leaving them?" Esme says softly and I nod at them.

"Take a photo of them to take back to your room. Then, I'll take two of you and Edward to leave with each of the boys. That way you'll always be together, even when you are resting and healing."

"That sounds like a great idea. I want them to know that I—" I stop and look at Edward. "That we love them."

"They know, Bella, believe me they know." She stops talking and sits down, picking up her knitting from a bag.

The nurse comes over and feeds Jack and Anthony. The entire time, my hands were itching to move her out of the way. It felt as if she was stealing my job. Not that I have the first clue on how to feed them breast milk through a tube.

"Mom, can you take a photo of Bella and me?" Edward asks softly handing his mom a camera. He sits next to me and pulls me close. "Smile, Bella, this is for our boys."

I force a smile on my face and Esme clicks taking hold of the photo as it pops out. "One more for Anthony," she says quickly taking another.

As she waves them in the air to dry, she passes one to Edward and the other to me. I look down at it as both Edward and my images appear. A small gasp escapes me as I see that Edward's eyes are looking at me. Where I can't see his eyes, I know and feel that they have more emotion in them looking at me, than Emmett ever had.

"These are good," I whisper, even with the fact I have dark rings around my eyes. I look a little paler than usual, but there's also a happiness in my eyes that makes me seem better than what I really feel.

"Okay, let's put these pictures in with the boys, and get a picture of them for you two."

Edward stands up and snaps a photo of each boy, and then sets them down to dry as he attaches our photos to the plastic cover on each bed."

"Are you ready to head back up to bed?"

I look up at Edward to say no, but stop myself. Edward looks so tired. He also has dark rings around his eyes and looks almost asleep on his feet. I clear my throat knowing it's not just me that doesn't want to leave, but that he also needs to rest. With all that in my mind, I nod at him and stand up.

"See you in a few hours, Mom," Edward says as he takes a hold of my hand, leading me back to my—our—room.

A/N: So this chapter was filled with sugar sweetness, but it gave Edward and Bella both the information they needed. So a few of you on the Facebook group page decided they wanted to hear from Edward. See his thoughts on the birth, learning Bella was his Jill, what he's keeping from Bella, his conversation with Charlie, as well as how he is taking all this news. So there will be a special update coming, in an Edward POV chapter. It is almost done, and once it is, and it's beta'd we will post it, no matter what day it is. So what did you think of this chapter? Got any questions you want answered? Let us know, and we'll see about getting another Q/A done.