Chapter 52

A few weeks later, Lewis and Cleo's house...

"Yeah that's..."

A phone ringing interrupted their talk.

"Hello? Lewis McCartney speaking,"

Cleo wondered who it was, she saw Lewis paling.

"Okay- bring her right over, see you soon" he hung up.

"Who was that?" she asked her husband.

"Zane. Rikki's in labour," he replied seriously

Cleo gasped and got the message. She placed Jennifer in her crib and helped Lewis to get the room ready for a mermaid delivery.

Rikki arrived at the McCartney's house carried bridal style by Zane into the delivery room. At first she had protested saying she could manage herself, however soon gave in to Zane's pestering for her to let him help her – she was in a lot of pain and probably couldn't manage the walk - she would not admit that he was right.

Rikki hadn't been swimming for the past week as she did not want to have the same traumatising delivery as Bella in mermaid for. She wanted a stress-less (well as stress-less as a birth can be) delivery – like Cleo had, in human form.

"God this is painful!" she yelled unceremoniously as she lay on the bed. She clenched Zane's hand as her contractions progressed.

"Ahh! Rikki, you're burning me!" Zane said

"Sorry," she released his hand quickly. He pulled his hand away quickly trying to sooth the pain.

"It's okay Rikki,"

Her contractions began getting closer together.

"Rikki, we need you to push," Lewis instructed her.

She did. The room started to heat up again. Once more her friends noticed that she was clenching and unclenching her fists. Zane put his hand over hers, peeling her fingers apart, releasing her power. She gave him an apologetic smile that turned into a grimace and a wince quickly when another contraction hit.

"You're almost there," Lewis encourage.

Rikki yelled again with pain.

A head appeared. "Keep going!"

A baby mermaid emerged and Lewis placed her into Zane's arms for him to wash and dry. Zane almost freaked at the sight of his daughters tiny tail.

"Here comes the second one!" It came out easier and quicker than the first child did.

"It's another girl. Rikki you have two beautiful baby mermaids,"

Rikki smiled at them exhausted. When the second little girl was washed and dried, Lewis placed her in her mother's arms while Zane held onto the first child.

"So Rikki, what are we naming them?"

"What do you think of Leila and Charlie?"

"Perfect," Zane replied smiling, "So, which is which – you can decide,"

"Okay...how about the one you are holding can be Charlie and the one I am holding is Leila."

"Sweet" he smiled at her again. "So what about middle names?"

"I didn't' think that far..."

"Neither..."

"I guess we'll have to figure that out later on," Rikki commented

"Thanks Lewis, for helping us out," Zane said

"Don't mention it," Lewis replied smiling.

OoOoO

Zane drove Rikki and his newborn twins home. As soon as she got there, Rikki collapsed into bed hoping for a long sleep. However this would not be. First, the babies began crying and the new parents finally figured out that they needed feeding. Cleo came over right away and showed Rikki how. Lewis also came over to chat with Zane who was also confused with the fathering thing. Rikki was handling it all very well for someone who 'hated' kids. It seemed as if she did not hate them so much anymore. Zane was not freaking out as much as he thought he would be. It looked as if they'd be promising parents. Then once the girls had quietened down, all the friends and family came to see the new children. Terry saw that Rikki was very tired and ferried everyone out of the room with Zane's help to let her sleep – after all deliveries take a lot out of you.

The girls cooed over the babies and the guys congratulated Zane. It seemed Jennifer and Jacob would have more friends their age later on.

A few days later...

"We really need to give our kids middle names," Rikki said to Zane as they lay in bed that night.

"Yeah..."

"How about we name them quickly – whatever comes to mid first – has to be a girls name that fits though. I mean, middle names aren't used overly much,"

"Yeah okay,"

"So, think of a name."

They thought and then Rikki said "Mary," and Zane said "Allison,"

"Okay, so which girl gets which?" Rikki asked.

"Leila Mary? Charlie Allison?"

"Sounds good."

So, in the end the twin girls were,

Leila Mary Bennett and Charlie Allison Bennett

OoOoO

A few months later...

"WHAT?" Anna shouted into the phone. She listened to the speaker, "I'll be right there,"

Anna packed up her stuff and knocked on her boss' office door.

"Mr Preston?" she asked cautiously,

"Come in," came the booming response.

Warren Preston was a large man with bushy eye brows and a large wart on the end of his chin. He was a very powerful man – he was head of a large architectural firm (which Anna Matthews worked at) and many other smaller businesses.

"Sit," he said gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. Anna sat.

"Sir, could I possibly get the afternoon off..."

"What possibly for deary?" he interrupted

"I was getting to that," she mumbled

"Speak up girl!" Preston boomed

"My fiancé has had a serious accident at that building site he's been working on...I really need to see him. Please sir?"

Warren Preston had always had a soft spot for Anna.

"Okay but you better be here pronto tomorrow morning,"

"Deal, sir, yes sir, thanks so much sir,"

"Well, leave then!"

"Thank you, sir"

Anna got up with her briefcase, hurried down to her car, and drove off to Ben's building site.

Meanwhile at the building site...

Ben was in agony. His chest and lower body was ringing with pain. A beam pressed into his chest, another across his legs, bricks and wood covered his body restricting his breathing. He could not see the light of day; he was completely trapped. How did he get there? He was on a scaffolding one minute, the next minute he was falling and now...well now he was trapped under a pile of debris. What had happened? Darkness took over as he lost consciousness.

From above it looked as if an earthquake had taken place. In reality however a construction worker had lost control of his bulldozer crashing into the scaffolding Ben was on and then into a brick wall. Bricks and wood from the collapsed scaffolding fell down, Ben amongst it. He however did not have a clue of what had happened. One minute he was laying bricks for the third floor wall and then he was buried. An emergency team was working away, trying to get to Ben and a few other men who had been up there with him.

Anna arrived at the scene, panicking at the terrible sight of debris, a pile that under she knew her fiancé was trapped with a few other men.

"Are they all right?"

"We don't know. Sorry."

Two men were pulled from the disaster zone, covered in gashes and moaning with pain, they were sent off in ambulances. Finally, Ben was pulled out. Anna gasped at the state of him. His handsome face was battered, bruised, and cut. There was a large gash in the back of his head, below where the helmet covered, bleeding freely. This blood soaked his T-Shirt. His helmet had a huge ding in it; there was no doubt that this helmet had saved his life. He was unconscious. She ran over to him and his rescuers, he was now on a stretcher.

"Ben!"

He was loaded on the last ambulance and taken to hospital. She was allowed to ride in the back with him.

"Please be okay..."

A/N: Some people were wondering when I would be uploading next, never fear there will be a new chapter within the week. I just happen to have exams coming up in 2 weeks, my birthday in the weekend and school starting tomorrow so those will be delays. I will try my best to upload - there are chapters planned, it just takes me a lot of time to edit and type them up. :) Thanks for reading, reviewing and your patience