An odd sound filled the master bedroom and Ned woke up, confused.
"*cough* *cough* waaahh! " cried the baby monitor.
Ned got out of bed and rushed to the boys' room. JoJo was already up and was looking at J. J. through the bars of the crib.
Ned could see what the problem was.
J. J.'s face was scarlet red and he was coughing. His tiny nose was running as he cried.
"Come here." Ned said as he scooped up the child.
Sally heard the crying and came into the room. Ned was holding her baby in his arms and J. J. was crying and coughing.
"Oh, my baby." She said quietly as she came close.
Sally pressed her hand over J. J.'s forehead and felt something. Heat.
Fever.
"You've got a fever." She said. "I'll get the thermometer."
Ned sat on JoJo's bed and rocked his baby. "There there. Daddy's here, son."
JoJo looked at his brother and began to worry. What if J. J. had Whorona? Did he bring germs home from the observatory?
JoJo started to feel his heart race.
Sally returned with the digital thermometer. With care, Ned removed the top part of J. J.'s pajamas and they stuck the thermometer between his armpit and body.
After a minute, the thermometer beeped.
"102!" Sally said. "I'm calling the pediatrician!"
Usually at 3 in the morning, nobody likes to be woken up by a phone call. But Dr. Whobert was an exception. "Dr. Whobert, what can I help you with?"
"It's Sally McDodd! J. J. has a fever of 102! What do I do?" Sally asked.
"Does he have signs of Whorona?" The doctor asked.
"His face is red, he has a runny nose and he keeps coughing."
Dr. Whobert thought for a moment. "Get him to the emergency room immediately. I'll meet you there."
"Okay, bye." Sally said.
"Ned, let's go! Dr. Whobert will meet us at the ER."
That's when Ned's fatherly instincts started to kick in. He grabbed the diaper bag.
"I wanna come with you!" A voice caught their attention.
It was JoJo, getting a hoodie on.
"We need someone to watch your sisters." Ned said.
"Then call Grandma. I'm coming, too!" JoJo grabbed his phone and ran out the door.
Sally dialed her mom. "Mom, I need you over here. ... You need to watch the girls while we take J. J. to the ER. ... Just get over here, now!"
A few minutes later, a knock came at the door. Rose was there.
"I'm here. Now hurry!" She pushed all three out the door.
"WAAAAAAHHH!" J. J. screamed in the car.
"I know, my sweet baby. We're almost there." Sally whispered sweet things to her crying child. JoJo looked at his brother and took his tiny hand in his.
"You're going to be okay, little brother." He said to himself.
"We're here." Ned said.
Sally swiped her baby up and ran to the ER doors.
"Dr. Whobert!" Sally said as she saw the doctor at the kiosk.
The pediatrician took out her stethoscope and pressed it to the baby's chest.
"Get him a room, now!" She ordered.
"You three have to put these on." A nurse handed Ned, Sally and JoJo single-use masks.
They quickly put them on and followed the doctor to a room.
"Get him tested for Whovid!" Dr. Whobert ordered.
Sally's heart stopped. Whorona was fatal to babies. She started to cry and she felt shaky.
"Please help him! I can't lose another baby!" She cried.
Ned hugged her tightly and stroked her hair.
JoJo was confused. What did his mom say?
Hours passed. J. J. was asleep in the nursery and had an oxygen mask over his delicate face just in case he decided not to breathe.
After she sat in her chair, rocking herself back and forth with tears of worry falling down her cheeks, Sally passed out on Ned's shoulder and JoJo was looking at his dad from across the small waiting area. Ned was looking at his phone, passing the time with work emails as they waited for the doctor to come back with the test results.
JoJo couldn't stop thinking about what his mom said in the heat of the moment. Even though she was asleep, her eyes were puffy from crying. He decided to break the silence.
"Dad?"
Ned looked up from his phone and looked at his son. "Yes?"
"What did Mom mean when she said she couldn't lose another baby?" The boy asked.
Ned sighed and put his phone down.
"Are you guys hiding something from me?" JoJo asked.
"We wanted to tell you when you were a little older."
Ned began. "When you were about 7 or 8, your mom was pregnant. But this wasn't one of her normal pregnancies. She was pregnant with twins."
"But Mom has had twins before that. Harley and Hannah, Holly and Hilda, Hera and Helen..."
"I know that. I was there at their births." Ned said. Then he sighed again. "You see, son... you would've had two little brothers."
JoJo looked surprised. "Brothers? Plural?"
Ned nodded. "Your mom and I wanted to wait to tell you that you were going to have twin brothers, but something happened." Ned looked at something else in the waiting room.
"What was that?" JoJo asked when his dad trailed off.
"One day, your brothers just stopped moving around in your mother's belly. She started bleeding and we thought she was going into early labor, so I drove her to the hospital. When the doctor put the ultrasound microphone on your mother's tummy, they found that your brothers had died after they stopped moving."
Ned started to tear up. He rubbed his eye.
"After 2 days, I watched as doctors spent hours removing your brothers from your mother. I held her hand as they cut her open. I refused to let her see them. We had them cremated and didn't tell you kids."
JoJo was shocked. His parents had to go through that? And they went through it alone?
"What were their names?" He asked.
Ned choked back a sob as he told his son.
"Jacob and Joshua." Ned sobbed as he threw his face into his palms and began to cry.
JoJo reached over and grabbed his dad's hand. It was wet from tears, but JoJo didn't care. He had to comfort his dad.
"They're with Seuss now. They're looking down at us. J. J. will get better. He's not going to end up like them. You and Mom did your best with them. It wasn't your fault."