Hello hello! I have to say I got a lot of writing done this week now that I was finally able to take my vacation time. I'm excited for this chapter and i hope you all like it as much as I do. Love it or hate it, let me know!
I am the only one to edit, sorry in advance.
Disclaimer: We've come this far, do I really need to say it again?
Stirring from sleep, I wipe my eyes and try to adjust to the darkness of the room. Dr. Chu asked that I stay overnight because my blood pressure hasn't come down as it should have after delivery. Looking over at the bassinets that are across from me, I see Artyom sleeping away, his nose twitching like Dimitri's does and I smile. Looking over to see Nadia, her bassinette is empty and my heart lurches. I bolt upright, gasping at the soreness of my body and try to get out of bed.
"Roza, what's wrong?" Looking over, Dimitri is sitting in the rocking chair by the window with his arms crossed.
"Where's Nadia?"
He smiles and looks down to his crossed arms, moving to the side to see her nestled there with her big brown eyes open. I let out a breath of relief and slump back into the bed. "She started fussing about ten minutes ago, I didn't want her to wake you or Artyom so I figured I could have some Papa time since you've hogged them while you are awake," he says softly, not taking his eyes off of Nadia, stroking her sweet cheek.
"I have not been hogging, I just couldn't stand to put them down," I say, smiling at the sight in front of me. To be fair, I did hog them but I didn't want them out of my arms.
The only time I let them out of my arms was to let Dimitri hold them, and when the nurses took them to run their screening tests. He chuckles and lifts her to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her head and moving to hold her to his chest.
"Have you slept?" I whisper and he shakes his head, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. Poor guy hasn't slept well since being kicked to the guest room, and if he's still up at three in our morning, he must be exhausted.
"I'm fine, I wanted you to get your rest."
I smile and shake my head, pulling myself up and stand, shuffling towards the bathroom.
"Do you need help?" he asks, and I snort a laugh. The first time trying to go to the bathroom was interesting, to say the least. I thought it was weird that the nurse followed me in with a squirt bottle, but when I went to do my business, I understood. It burned, and I thought I was going to die.
Doing my business and changing the post-partum pad, I wash my hands and shuffle back out to hear Nadia whimpering and snuffling in Dimitri's arms. I hobble to the bed and sit down, unclipping the gown and putting my hands out towards him. He places her in my arms and sits back down while I bring Nadia to my chest to feed. Not only does she look like me, but she has my appetite too.
"You can go to sleep you know, we're supposed to sleep while they sleep," I murmur as I switch sides. I look over at him only to stifle a laugh to see him fast asleep in the chair. After finishing Nadia's feeding and burping, I place her carefully back into the bassinette and take the blanket off the end of the bed, pulling it over Dimitri and kissing his cheek before climbing back into bed myself.
The next morning both me and the babies are discharged, and we are able to go home. Making sure they are nice and secure, I pice up Nadia's carrier and Dimitri picks up Artyom's and we head to the car. Heading through the halls, some staff stop to congratulates us, and some of the Guardians working smile or nod to us, but the happiest to see us was Dr. Carson.
"I heard that you came in yesterday, I'm glad to see you up already. How are you and the wee ones," Dr. Carson says, smiling at us and gesturing to the carriers.
"I'm ok, really sore and tired. But these two seem to be doing well," I say, turning the carrier in my hand to show him Nadia. Dr. Carson crouches down to look at her and a sad smile crosses his face.
"I'm really happy for the both of you, you deserve this happiness," Dr. Carson says, standing up and giving my shoulder a squeeze. I smile at him while looking down at Nadia, sleeping soundly in her carrier.
"Have you seen your sister's child?" I ask softly, and he gives me a sad smile.
"Only once, a few weeks after he was born. I named Declan; he looks just like her."
I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have to give up your family like that. I've only held Artyom and Nadia in my arms for a handful of hours and the thought of not having them makes my chest ache. "Can you visit him?"
Dr. Carson shakes his head and takes a quick glance before lowering his voice. "It's safer if I don't. The Alchemists have him hidden well, and I'd be putting him at risk if I went to him." I frown and look at Dimitri sadly, gnawing on my lip.
"It was lovely to see you all, but I have a patient waiting for me. I'll see you later," Dr. Carson says in far well before departing down the corridor.
"You have no idea how excited I am to shower," I moan as we step through the front door of our house, smiling at the thought of cleaning the grunge off my body. Both the babies are still sound asleep, and I want to use this time to quickly clean up and change into comfortable clothes before I snuggle them intently.
Dimitri smiles softly and leads me up to the nursery, and I frown when I remember that the nursery isn't finished because I went into labour early.
"Maybe later this week we can finish setting up the nursery?" I ask quietly and we reach the door. Dimitri has a mischievous look in his eyes as he soundlessly opens the door and I'm shocked speechless.
The room is set up exactly like I dreamed it would be. The dark brown cribs are put together and pushed against the far wall, with the rocking chair between them. The characters are painted in the classic styles all over the room, and above the cribs in beautiful scrips is written 'As Soon As I Saw You, I Knew An Adventure Was About To Happen'
The changing table is set up on the adjacent wall, stocked to the nines and the bedding is done up proper in the cribs. Around the room is stuffed animals and a big Welcome Home balloon.
I look over to Dimitri with a joyful smile and he leans down to kiss me softly.
"Lissa helped get this set up. Your dad, Eddie, Mia, Adrian, and Christian were all here yesterday trying to finish it. Lissa came in after you had given birth to finish the finer details. Do you like it?" he says softly, setting Artyom down and carefully removing him from the carrier, kissing his head with the utmost tenderness. I set Nadia down and remove her from the carrier as well, cradling her in my arms and walking to the rocking chair, sitting and rocking her gently.
"I love it. It's perfect," I say, staring down at the little miracle in my arms. I sit there rocking for what feels like hours before my eyes start to droop and I snap my head back up. Dimitri chuckles from where he is sitting on a plush looking chair and stands to place Artyom in one of the cribs. He looks down at him for a moment before taking Nadia from my arms and placing her in the other crib, kissing her head as well. I smile while watching Dimitri dot over our children, and my heart feels fuller than I ever thought possible. I have a family, something that I never thought I would ever have in my life.
I stand up and wrap my arms around Dimitri's waist, looking down at our babies sleeping in their cribs, smiling jubilantly.
"I want to shower, but I don't want to leave them," I whisper, and Dimitri kisses my head then resting his cheek on my head.
"I know," he whispers and I sigh, pulling away and forcing myself to shower. Walking gingerly to the bedroom, I pull out my clothes to change into and wander into the bathroom, turning on the shower and undressing.
This has got to be the best shower in the existence of my life. I stand there basking under the hot water and soaping my hair with a content grin on my face. Rising and washing my body down, I step out and get dressed, grimacing at the maternity pad that I will be stuck wearing for the next few weeks along with the awkward-looking paper underwear the hospital gave me. Piling my wet hair on the top of my head, I secure it with a hair tie and wander back into the nursery to see Dimitri standing in front of the cribs holding his phone.
I creep into the room, wrapping my arms around his waist and peer around him. "Whatcha doing comrade?"
"I sent a few photos to Mama, she has been blowing my phone up since I told her you went into labour," he says, shooting off a text with the photos of the twins and closing his phone. He leans down to turn on the baby monitor and guides me out of the room into our bedroom and lays down. I crawl up next to him and rest my head on his chest.
"I have never been happier in my life than I am right now," he says. I smile and press a kiss on his chest and snuggle closer, I have not been able to be snuggle with him like this in months.
Leaning back on the couch a few hours later, I adjust my arm that's holding Nadia while breastfeeding the two of them. It took a few minutes and with Dimitri's help, I was able to position both babies in a football/cradle hold that was comfortable for me and put them in the best spots. Being that we are alone, I ditched the blanket and sat on the couch shirtless. Hey, Dimitri has seen it all before, and it's just uncomfortable to have a bra on right now. The pillow in my lap being a saving grace to my arms, give me the proper support to hold them.
"You are almost a pro at this," Dimitri jokes and I roll my eyes at him. Not ten minutes ago we had two crying babies protesting for their hungry bellies and I panicked a little. But Dimitri being the person he is, helped me calm down enough to feed them. "You're hilarious," I say dryly.
I groan when there is a knock at the door and move Artyom to rest in the dock-a-tot beside me. I remove Nadia from my breast to pull my folded shirt over my head as Dimitri opens the door. Lifting Nadia and burping her while listening for Dimitri at the door, I smirk when two different accented voices fill the hall. My parents walk into the living room, Abe holding a humongous bag and Mom smiling widely at me, I shake my head and wave them over.
Mom leans down to kiss my cheek, and she gazes down at Artyom. "I can't believe they're here!" she whispers excitedly, and I wipe Nadia's mouth and lift her up to my Mom.
Mom takes Nadia from my arms and sits on the other couch, speaking quietly and gazing over her granddaughter with adoration.
"Hey Kiz, you look great," Abe says coming over and giving me a hug.
"I feel great," I roll my eyes and gesture for him to sit next to me and settle Artyom in Abe's arms. I watch as my parents gaze down at the twins and I move the pillow onto the coffee table to make room for Dimitri to join us. Pressing a kiss to my lips and he sits beside me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders, I marvel at how these two badass people turn into a pile of goo.
"What did you name them?" Abe asks distractedly, smiling at Artyom and stroking his cheek. I smirk at Dimitri, canting my head to let him do the honours.
"Artyom Ibrahim Mason Belikov and Nadia Ivanna Marie Belikova," Dimitri says proudly, and both my parents remove their gazes from the babies to look at us.
Abe clears his throat as tears well up in his eyes and he lets out a chuckle. "You gave your son my name?" he asks and I lean over to kiss his cheek. "Yes, Baba. We gave our son your name."
"Nadia means hope," Mom says and I nod, amazed to see so much happiness on her face.
Spending the next two hours switching the babies between the four of us, we catch up on our day to day lives; Abe filling us on his business, me with business here at court, and Mom drops the bomb that she is planning to retire. I am almost as shocked at hearing this as I was when I found out I was pregnant. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?" I choke.
"Don't you dare drop that baby," Abe says, and I cast him an eye roll and hold Nadia closer to my chest.
Mom shrugs her shoulders and presses a kiss to Artyom's head. "It's time, besides, I was given a very tempting offer," she says before glancing over at Abe and I put the two together.
"When do you officially retire?" I ask, patting Nadia's bottom to soothe her when she starts to fuss.
"Once we find Tasha and Robert," Mom says, running her fingers over Artyom's tufts of hair. "And Victor," I add, furrowing my brows when the three other people fall silent.
"What? Victor is just as much of a threat as the other two," I say handing the bundle in my arms to Dimitri, who has a guilty look on his face.
Abe laces his hands together, looking down at the baby next to him before speaking. "Victor is dead. His body was found two days ago."
I scoff out a laugh, moving to tuck my legs under my body and place my hands in my lap. "Why didn't any of you tell me? Why didn't you tell me?!" I exclaim, turning to look at Dimitri, eyebrows raised.
Dimitri rolls his eyes at me. "Rose, when I found out, you were in the throes of labour. I wasn't about to tell you anything that set you off. You yelled at for twenty minutes because you ruined your pants," Dimitri says with a chuckle and I groan, putting my face in my hands. I don't remember much of what I said while in labour, but I do remember that.
"I did say I was sorry," I grumble, and Dimitri leans over to kiss my temple. "Do we know anything else about Robert and Tasha? If Victor is dead, Robert will probably be more unstable than usual."
"Not much. Tasha was spotted in Pittsburgh about two weeks ago at a gas station, but we have not seen Robert. Both of their bank accounts have been locked and monitored," Mom says as she sets Artyom down in the dock-a-tot and sits back on the couch, crossing her legs and smoothing out her shirt.
"But we can discuss this more another time," Abe says, placing a hand on my mother's knee, ending the gloomier discussion.
The twins have been here for three weeks, and I feel like I haven't slept for more than a few hours at a time. While they sleep well during the day, at night it's a completely different story. Dimitri and I have been taking turns getting up with them, but we are still exhausted. The most concerning thing is Artyom's behaviour.
"Rose Hathaway?" a nurse says as she comes out and I quickly pick up Nadia's carrier and place my hand over Artyom's back as he lays in his sling, whimpering and crying. I follow the nurse and set Nadia down on the chair and turn to face the nurse.
"Alright, what seems to be the problem?" she asks. I force myself not to roll my eyes at the nurse as Artyom's cries reach an ear-piercing level. "It's my son. He cries and screams all the time, and no matter what his father or I do nothing helps," I explain as I pull Artyom out of the sling, bouncing him lightly to soothe him. The nurse writes something on the clipboard and nods before walking out.
I look over to make sure Nadia is still asleep and I resume my bouncing, shushing Artyom softly and holding him against my chest. A knock on the door draws me away from my inner musing and Dr. Chu pokes her head in the room.
"I saw that you were in here, everything ok?" She asks as she comes in with a frown on her face.
"He-he doesn't stop crying! I don't know why or what to do," I exclaim over Artyom's cries. I shift my grip on Artyom as he starts to squirm and his face turns red. Dr. Chu gives me a sympathetic smile and takes Artyom from my arms and lays his down on the tissue covered bed, rubbing firmly over his back. I watch for a few moments before his cries quiet down and it turns to whimpers instead.
"What did you do?" I breathe, sinking down on the stool beside Nadia's carrier. Dr. Chu gives me a small smile. "Your son is colic. It happens in twenty-five percent of babies. Try putting pressure on his stomach by holding him on your forearm or giving him his soother. It's good to hold him closer to your body too like you did right after he was born. This is not something you did," Dr. Chu explains and I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. A few tears slip over at the realization that he isn't like this because it is something I did.
Dr. Chu picks Artyom back up and places his stomach down on her arm, showing me how to properly hold him in this position. "Colic babies are a lot to deal with Rose. You and Dimitri are going to feel overwhelmed and may get emotional while trying to get your son to calm down, just take a breather. He should grow out of it by six months."
I nod and take Artyom from her and let her correct my hold. "Thank you," I say quietly with a small smile. Dr. Chu strokes Artyom's hair before turning to a sleeping Nadia and runs her finger over her sleeper-covered foot.
"You haven't had any issues with little miss?" she inquires. I shake my head and rock from side to side. "No. Honestly, she is so quiet. She sleeps through most of Artyom's meltdowns," I say. Dr. Chu nods and walks over to the wall of pamphlets and skims over them, plucking a few out and sticking them into the diaper bag.
I raise my eyebrows at her and she chuckles. "Just some literature for you to look over, helpful tips and tricks," she says and nods. I look down to find my little guy almost asleep and gently put him down to put the sling back on and then slip him in. I thank Dr. Chu and head back home, praying both of them will stay asleep until then.
"You should try and get some sleep, baby," Dimitri says quietly, laying down behind me and putting his arm around the two of us. I hum and look up to the playpen that Nadia is in. I moved the playpens in here so that it was easier at night, plus I was constantly getting up to check on them, I figured it would be easier to have them in our bedroom so I wasn't disturbing Dimitri.
"I know, I just want to make sure he is asleep," I say, continuing with my ministrations on his little stomach. Artyom has managed to get one arm loose and has his fist up by his lips. I don't want to risk unwrapping him to put his arm back in the blankets, so I leave him be. I sit up and climb off the bed to put Artyom in his crib, and then crawl back into bed with Dimitri. Curling into his chest, I press kisses against his chest and wrap my arms around him.
"How was your meeting?" I whisper, wedging my leg between his. The Guardian council and Tatiana have been trying to pull the two of us in for meetings about Tasha, but with Artyom and Nadia, I wasn't ready to leave them alone with anyone other than Dimitri. So Dimitri went alone, and I stayed here with Mom for the day.
Dimitri rubs my lower back and kisses my head. "It was ok, you didn't miss much."
I chuckle, knowing that he was probably bored out of his mind during the meeting and that I would have fallen asleep if I were there. "Hey,"
Dimitri hums half-asleep, shifting onto his side and pulling me flush to him. "They've both been asleep for forty-five minutes," I whisper excitedly, and Dimitri's body shakes silently in a laugh and pushes his face into my shoulder, breathing in deeply. Maybe we will be lucky and get a decent night's sleep.
Excitedly dressing the babies in the onesies we bought on our first shopping trip in Goderich, I snap the closure on Nadia's onesie and pull the little skirt over her legs and place her in the cloth sling wrapped around my chest before picking up Artyom and putting him in too. I make sure their soothers are still in their mouths I pick up the diaper bag and head to the front door.
I step out and lock the door to head towards Lissa's house and see a tall figure coming closer to me. "I thought you were in a meeting?" I say when Dimitri gets closer and takes the bag off my arm.
Leaning down and kissing me quickly, he smiles, "It finished earlier than expected."
The walk was short, but it is different having the babies strapped to my chest, so in a way the five-minute walk was a mini-workout. Dimitri knocks on the door and we can hear Lissa's excited voice moving closer to the door before she whips it open.
"Hi!" she squeals, ushering us into the house and taking the diaper bag from Dimitri. "I hope you don't mind; Eddie, Adrian and Mia are here too."
I chuckle and place my hand against Artyom's head as he starts to fuss in the sling. Moving into the living room I sit down on the couch and start to unwrap the sling, handing Nadia to Lissa as she extends her arms excitedly towards me. Christian folds himself down onto the floor at Lissa's feet, looking at Nadia with a small smile on his face. I lift Artyom and flip him onto his stomach in my arms, bouncing him gently, this seems to one of the few positions that soothes him.
Mia cooes from her spot on the opposite couch, marvelling over the babies while Eddie and Adrian sit quietly with smiles on their faces.
"This is Nadia Ivanna Maire and Artyom Ibrahim Mason," I say to the others in the room, and I watch a larger smile cross Eddie's face and a tear slides down his cheek at the memory of his best friend. Lissa and Christian have met the twins a few days after I gave birth, but all of our schedules became so busy that this is the first time all of us have been in one place.
Eddie stands up and comes over to where Dimitri and I are sitting, opening his hands towards Artyom and I place him in Eddie's arms, showing him how to hold him so he will be comfortable. "He's beautiful," Eddie whispers as he rocks Artyom in his arms, looking over to Dimitri and me with a smile. I lean into Dimitri as he wraps an arm around me.
"Who picked out this adorable outfit?" Lissa asks as she coos at Nadia. "Dimitri did, he picked out both of them," I say with a chuckle.
Out of all people in the room, I'm shocked to see how Adrian interacts with the twins. He is so excited and happy, openly gushing over his cousins that he insists on calling his niece and nephew.
In this room sits one large family and I couldn't be happier that I can call them all mine.