Chapter 36
AJ's dream started in the delivery room at Bethesda, he stood next to the delivery table, holding Sarah's hand as she strained through another contraction. "You're doing fine, Mrs. Chegwidden!" the doctor told her. "Just a few more pushes and you will be a mother."
She looked up at AJ and tried to smile, "And you will be a daddy!"
He smiled back at her, "Have I told you how grateful I am that you had the courage to love an old sea dog like me?"
"How many times have I told you I would kick your six if you kept calling yourself old?"
"I really don't think I am in much danger at the moment!" he laughed.
"Oh, don't be too sure of that! Never underestimate a Marine! How 'bout it doc? Do I have time to kick this squid's six?"
"As much as I would love to see that, ma'am, I'm afraid you don't. I need a big push from you, now."
Three minutes later, and AJ was sure that Sarah could have told him how many seconds too, the doctor announced, "Well, you two have a son!"
They looked at each other, and AJ's eyes filled with tears, "A son, we have a son!" They had not wanted to know the sex of the baby before it was born, so this moment would be a surprise.
Mac smiled at him, "That is what you wanted all along," she accused.
"No, I just wanted the baby to be healthy, either sex would have been fine," he told her as the doctor placed the baby on her tummy.
"Get a quick look at him, and then the nurse will take him to clean him up while we start round two," the doctor told them.
Their eyes flew to each other's, Ms Bea had been right! Even though her doctor had insisted there was only one heartbeat, they were having twins! The little boy that the nurse took away would be Mathew Albert Chegwidden, after Sarah's uncle, and at her insistence after AJ; it had also not been lost on them when deciding on his name that his initials would be MAC. Twelve minutes later, Matt's little brother was born. This little guy would be named after a family that had come to mean so very much to both of them…..Robert after the Roberts', and again at Sarah's insistence, Jethro.
The dream shifted a few days, to the day that they were bringing the twins home. AJ parked the car in front of the house as the two of them sat there, stunned at what they saw. Harriett! She had to have been the one that planned this! There, across the front of the house was a banner proclaiming, 'It's TWO boys!' and the entire staff was waiting on the porch for them to get out of the vehicle. Mac and AJ grinned at each other and got out, both turning to the back doors and preparing to unload the two tiny new members of their family.
Suddenly, their friends and family surrounded them. Their two-year-old adopted daughter held tight to Harriett's hand, she had been staying with the Roberts' while Mommy had been in the hospital. Everyone wanted a look at the new arrivals; there were many helping hands to carry in the diaper bags and all of the flower arrangements that Sarah had gotten while in the hospital. The welcome home party lasted most of the evening, although the guests of honor and their sister had been in their beds long before the guests started leaving.
After the guests were gone, AJ and Sarah walked together arm-in-arm to the nursery to check on the children before going to bed themselves. Standing over the cribs, AJ said, "Can you believe that these little miracles are ours?"
His beautiful wife smiled up at him, "No more miraculous than the fact that you love me," she sighed.
"And have for so very long," he told her.
"All that time we wasted."
"Not wasted, we came to know each other so well during that time."
"Yes," she answered with a smile, "And now we are so blessed."
"Who would have thought it was one of Webb's crazy-ass missions that would have brought us together!" he chuckled.
"Should we have named one of the boys Webster?" she asked with a giggle.
"After the 'pool-boy'? No way in hell!" AJ laughed.
To be continued….