Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I used to watch the show.

We got to meet Hannah and Ivy today after school. Well, not meet them, exactly, but see them in person even though we didn't get to touch them. Gram took us to the hospital and we went right straight to the NICU which stands for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit which sounds kind of scary but it isn't. A lot of premature babies have to go there. Everybody is nice and they're taking good care of the twins and helping them gain weight as fast as they can so they can come home. Abby said why didn't they feed them hot fudge sundaes because her friend Ava's mother said they were very fattening and Gram explained that babies couldn't eat that. I thought it was a great idea though.

First Mom and Dad blew us kisses from the other side of the window in NICU. They looked like doctors on TV because they had to wear gowns and things so they wouldn't be bringing a lot of germs in there. Their gowns were partly open on the top so they could hold the babies against their bare skin because that's what they need. Dad told me about it. It's called skin-on-skin contact but the nickname is kangaroo care because it's like a kangaroo with a joey, which is what you call a baby kangaroo. The babies had little hats on but they were naked except for diapers which is a good thing if you ask me. I remember when Otis and Abby were little and you never knew when they were going to pee or poop.

Dad was holding Hannah and Mom was holding Ivy, but it could have been the other way around because my new baby sisters look totally, exactly, completely alike which you could really tell when Mom and Dad walked right up to the glass so we could almost press noses with them.

"Hi, babies," I said. And then I thought hey, that's what we could call them, the HI's! Or just HI! Short for Hannah and Ivy.

"They're teeny," Abby said. "I thought they'd be bigger."

"I thought babies were bald when they were born," Otis said. "How come they have so much hair? Even with their hats on you can tell."

"Look around, kiddo," Gram said, and gave him a sideways hug. "Everybody in this family has a tremendous head of hair. All of you did, from day one."

Mom and Dad looked so happy but it wasn't very interesting to watch a brand-new baby, or two brand-new babies, because they didn't do anything but kind of nuzzle on Mom and Dad's skin and fall asleep. So we went to the waiting room til Mom and Dad came out and then we went to Mom's room so we could visit.

Otis and Abby and I got on the bed with Mom, which was a little bit squashed but fun. "I feel like I haven't seen you kids in weeks."

"It's only been thirty-three hours, Mom."

"Well, a lot's happened in thirty-three hours. That was the busiest Valentine's Day I ever had." She laughed. "What do you think of your new sisters?"

"I can't believe they're so little," Otis said. "Your stomach was so fat I thought the babies would be a lot bigger."

"That's not polite," Abby said. "When are you coming home, Mom?"

"Pretty soon, but I'm going to have to be at the hospital a lot while Hannah and Ivy are here, so I can breast feed them and cuddle them. It's not fun or good for them to be in their incubators all the time. We're hoping they'll be ready in two weeks, and then everything will be back to normal."

Then Dad asked, "Do you remember Julia? She came and stayed with you for ten days last year when Mom and I went on vacation."

"I love her. She made my hair into about a trillion braids."

Obviously Abby was the one who said that, and then Otis said, "And she made the best enchiladas in the whole wide world." Which was true but I hope that didn't hurt Dad's feelings since he makes good enchiladas but not as good as Julia's. She pronounces her name HOO-lee-ah because she was born in Mexico.

"Good, because she's going to come help us for a while."

"You mean until the other twins come home?" Abby said.

"Nope. Right through the summer. You and Otis will be starting first grade in September so she'll live with us until then. Maybe longer. We'll see. We'll have a lot more room now with the extra floor downstairs."

I can't wait to tell Scrapple. He loves Julia's enchiladas even more than Otis does.

We had to leave so we wouldn't wear Mom out. Dad came back later and had supper with us, and after Otis and Abby went to sleep and I finished my homework I went down to talk to him.

"The babies are really cute, Dad."

"They are, aren't they? You were, too."

"I've been wondering which one is Thumby and which one is Bumpy. Can you tell?"

"No, that's hard for me. They're not even a day old yet and you were the one who talked to them, so everything I learned about them was from what you told us."

"When they come home I'm going to ask them. And you know what else?"

"What? I bet you have another idea up your sleeve." He grabbed the cuff on my PJs and looked in it. "Can't see anything. You'll have to tell me."

Dad cracks me up when he does things like that. "I was thinking we could call them HI or the HI's, for Hannah and Ivy."

"Good thinking, my man. You know, since Gram's still here and it's not too late, do you want to go on a little adventure with me? To our storage room?"

We went down to the basement and it turned out that Dad had a big surprise for Mom. Two new bassinets for Hannah and Ivy. They're pale pink but not frilly. Mom doesn't like frilly stuff. The only decoration was ribbons threaded all the way around the top. "What happens if they throw up on those ribbons?"

"Aha! I was hoping you'd ask. You can untie them, wash them, and put them right back. It's just like putting in a shoelace."

"Can't they use the bassinets you had for Otis and Abby?"

"We gave them away. We didn't plan on–uh, we didn't know we were going to have more children."

"How come the cribs are down here then?"

"Good question. I guess I figured we might have a friend who could use them. And they don't take up too much room because you can take them apart, which you can't do with a bassinet. So, even though HI won't be home for a while, would you like to help me take these upstairs to Mom's and my room?"

We wheeled them into the elevator and when we got to our floor Gram opened the front door for us and oohed and ahed like she does because she's an actress, only she wasn't acting. You could tell she really meant it. She went crazy over those bassinets. "Katherine will adore these."

After we got them into Mom and Dad's room I said I thought we should put a sign on each one, Hannah or Ivy. "We need to put them back in the right bed, so they don't get mixed up."

"We could do that. You could do the lettering and the twins could decorate them."

"Okay. The big twins will decorate for the little twins."

After that I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, and got in bed.

"Scrapple?"

"Mmhmm."

"Everything around here is twins, twins, twins, twins. Twin this, twin that. I'm the only one who isn't a twin."

"Well, that makes you one-of-a-kind, Eliot."

"Thanks. It makes me lonely, though. You must have been a twin or a triplet or something. Do you know how many were in your litter?"

"Sure. There were five of us. Three boys and two girls. But it's not really the same. I haven't seen them since we were eight weeks old and I don't know where they are. I hope they live with nice families. I hope they're happy."

That made me sad. Even though Otis and Abby drive me crazy sometimes, I love them. We have fun together. Scrapple is a quintuplet but he doesn't know anything about his brothers and sisters, not even what their names are or what they look like or if they're in New York or Timbuktu. Which I looked up and is in Mali, which is in Africa.

"I hope they're happy, too, Scrap. I wish we could find them. But you know what I decided? I think you're my twin. Just because we're different species doesn't mean we can't sort of be twins. We're best friends. We always know what the other one's thinking. That's what a lot of twins do."

Wow, I've been so busy. That was ten days ago. I had a lot of work at school but also things are still crazy here. Even though Mom is home, she has to go to the hospital a lot for Hannah and Ivy and Dad does too and that makes Abby and Otis cranky. I was thinking about Mom saying things would be back to normal but they won't because normal was two grown-ups, three kids, and a dog, and now it's going to be five kids, and two of them are going to be making a lot of noise. I remember when Otis and Abby were babies they cried a lot. A whole lot. I might have to wear my earmuffs indoors. And then when Hannah and Ivy start to crawl and knock things over, yikes. It's a good thing Julia is coming to help with Twins Two. Sarah will still be looking after Twins One and me after school. Those are the new names I invented, Twins One and Twins Two. Secretly I call Scrapple and me Twins A and B, for Animal and Boy.

We've been to the hospital a couple of more times to see Twins Two, and it's not getting any easier to tell them apart. But last night I had an idea and I looked up stuff about identical twins. When we got to the NICU today I asked Mom and Dad to take off the babies' hats and then to turn my new sisters around.

"I know how to tell them apart!"

"What?" Dad said.

He couldn't hear me through the glass so I got out my notebook and wrote I CAN TELL WHICH BABY IS WHICH! With two exclamation points because there are two babies. I could read his lips when he said he and Mom would be out soon. I was so excited to tell them how I did it. We were all going home together in the car and I said I wanted to wait and explain there. Gram told me about something called dramatic buildup and I decided this was a good time to try it.

It was extra cold tonight so Mom and Dad said we could have hot chocolate which is supposed to make you stay awake but it doesn't. At least not us. I wish I could give some to Scrapple, but it's too dangerous for a dog.

Once everyone was sitting down I said, "Did you take the pictures, Dad?"

"I did."

"Did you print them?"

"I certainly did. That's why I left Mom in charge of the hot chocolate."

Dad handed me the pictures and I held them up, one in each hand, so everyone could see. "Notice anything?"

"It's the back of their heads. Borrrring," Otis said.

"Nope."

"Otis is right. It's just the back of their heads." Those two really stick together sometimes, even though they're not identical twins.

"I meant it's not borrrring. See this?" I pointed to a spot in Hannah's hair. "And this?" I pointed to a spot in Ivy's hair. "That's called a crown."

"A crown's what the queen wears," Abby said.

"Yeah, but it's also this spot on everyone's head where your hair whorls around. Hannah's is on the right side and Ivy's is on the left. That's how we'll know who's who. I looked up identical twins and once in a while there are ones called mirror twins who have things on opposite sides, like when you look in a mirror. One twin might have a dimple in her left cheek and one has it in her right cheek. With Hannah and Ivy it's their crowns. And you know what? I bet one of them will be left-handed like me and the other will be right-handed like you two. What do you think, Mom and Dad?"

I'd been so busy explaining to Otis and Abby that I hadn't noticed Mom and Dad but then I did and they were both smiling. And then they both clapped!

"I think," she said, "that we have another detective in the family."

"Definitely another detective."

"It's magic, isn't it, Mom and Dad? Mirror twins?"

Mom reached out and grabbed me and gave me a huge hug. "It is."

"Well, they better not shave their heads or we won't be able to tell them apart," Otis said.

"They're going to shave their heads," Dad said. He was trying to look serious, but I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

"That girl Ava in eighth grade did," Abby said. "It was a dare. I bet she's sorry because her head must really be cold."

"There will be no head shaving in this family until you're old enough to go to college."

"Does that mean Eliot can shave his when he turns nine?" Otis rolled his eyes. He looks just like Mom when he does that, which is funny because most of the time he looks like Dad. "He'll probably be in college by then."

Mom and Dad said it was bedtime, but I couldn't sleep. Finally I got up and took Scrapple with me and went downstairs. There were lights on in the living room so I knew Mom and Dad were awake. They were sitting on the sofa and Mom had her head on Dad's shoulder. They both turned when they heard Scrapple's toenails on the bare part of the floor.

"Eliot? Are you all right?"

"I can't sleep."

"Something's on your mind, isn't it? Come up here with Dad and me."

I'm seven years old so I really try never to be a baby, but sometimes I can't help crying and that's what happened right then. Mom pulled me on to her lap. "Hey. Hey, my little magician. What's wrong?"

"They wouldn't let Scrapple live in my room. And you and Dad wouldn't be there. I would be so lonely."

"What do you mean, sweet pea? Who wouldn't let Scrapple live in your room?"

"The college people. I don't want to go away to college all by myself when I'm nine. Not even when I'm ten."

TBC

A/N Thank you for all the encouraging words, which I so appreciate.