"I just got rode rough shod over again by her," Manning growls, scowling at the door that Abe and Maggie just exited through. "That woman has no respect for my authority. I should…"
"Get back in your limo and go home," Guillermo interrupts. "I told you nearly two months ago that trying to force her to go where she didn't want to go would only get people hurt. When she's ready to return, she will."
"She has no right…," Manning starts, rising from his chair.
"Stuff it, Manning," Hellboy snarls. "All you're doing is get more people pissed at you."
"You two," Manning orders, pointing at Hellboy and Liz, "grab the kid and let's go. I want you two back at the bureau ASAP."
"Not going to happen," Liz calmly states. "I just put Trevor down and there's no way I'm waking him up."
Manning stands there fuming, looking like he's about to blow a gasket.
"Dr. Manning, maybe we should discuss this in the morning," John suggest from the corner of the couch that he's been trying to hide in. "Everyone's tired and it's been a long day."
Manning turns towards his subordinate and opens his mouth.
"Don't go there, Manning," Hellboy warns. "Go find yourself a nice hotel to stay in for the night. We'll head for home in the morning."
Manning remains a few moments more before he storms out of the room, grabs his coat and heads out the door into the pouring rain. The others continue to stare at the door until they hear the limo start and drive away. Then they all let out a breath none of them knew they were holding.
"You work for that guy?" Steven asks Guillermo.
"More or less," Guillermo shrugs. "It's a lot more interesting there then back at the Library. And the company is much better."
"You talking about me or Abe?" Hellboy asks.
"Yes," is Guillermo's non-committal answer with a smile as he gets out of his chair and heads for the door. "John is right, it's late and a lot of us have had a long day. And since my presence is no longer needed here, I will be returning to the bureau in the morning. And that being the case, I better go pack."
"I've got two weeks of vacation that I just took," Ron states. "What am I going to do with it?"
"We could always take Vicki's down to my mom's and then we could have a little vacation all to ourselves down in Monterey or San Francisco or someplace like that," Sharon suggest as she leans into him and kisses him on the ear.
A lopsided smile slowly spreads its way across his face as he turns his lust filled eyes towards his wife. She smiles knowingly before she gets up and walks towards the door with a hip wiggle that would make Mae West jealous. Ron launches himself off of the couch at her and she lets out a little squeak before she tears out of the room with him in hot pursuit.
"Hm, going to bed sounds like a plan," Hellboy softly purrs while giving a Liz a smoldering look.
"Yea, I'm bushed," Liz agrees.
She gets up, stretches and then exits the room at a sedate pace. Hellboy follows her out and few seconds later they hear Liz give a startled "Red!" followed by giggling.
"Ah, to be young again," Peg sighs. "Well, since everyone else is hitting the old hay, I guess I will too. Good night, all."
"Sleep does sound wonderful right now," Susan agrees as she also leaves her seat.
"I guess I should join the exodus," Hodson states as she too gets up and leaves.
Good nights are exchanged as the women depart and the only people left are John and Steven. They look at each other for a moment before John gets the courage up to say something.
"Do you know where I'll be sleeping?" John asks.
"You're sitting on it," Steven answers pointing at the sofa. "I'll take the couch in the family room."
"I thought there were at least a dozen bedrooms in this house," John states in befuddlement.
"There are, but they don't all have beds," Steven responds.
"As Abe would say, 'Ah,'" John smiles.
"Come on, I'll show you where the extra pillows and blankets are kept," Steven replies with a smile of his own.
"They're mad at me, aren't they?" Maggie moans as she gets Morgan ready for bed.
"No, love, they're not mad at you," Abe assures her as he works on Dylan. "A bit surprised, but not mad. You did what needed to be done. They understand."
"I feel horrible for just sending them away," she mutters while she snaps up the pajamas.
"It needed to be done," he repeats. "You need to relax and let your body heal. Plus, how are you supposed to create a bond with the twins if there are a dozen people around wanting to hold them?"
"I suppose you're right," she sighs sadly while she lays the sleeping baby in the crib.
"Aren't I always?" he asks, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.
She casts him a withering glare as he lays Dylan next to his sister. She pokes him in his foam neoprene covered ribs, knowing it won't hurt him. He chuckles as he captures the offending digit, kisses it and then pulls her towards him. She resists for a moment before relaxing into his embrace.
It doesn't take long before she's practically falling asleep standing up. With a quiet chuckle, he scoops her up into his arms and carries her to bed. After lying her down, he starts to pull away intending on heading for the tub but is stopped by her holding onto one of his arms. He looks down and sees her looking up at him with pleading eyes.
"Stay with me?" she begs. "Just for a little while?"
"Of course," he answers with a loving smile.
He slides into bed next to her and she cuddles up to him, laying her head upon his chest and listening to his heartbeat. With a contented sigh, she relaxes into him and within a short time, she's sound asleep. He kisses her gently on the head before carefully disentangling himself from her and retiring to the bathroom for the evening.
It seems like he's only just fallen asleep when he's awakened by a hand shaking him hard enough to cause some of the water in the bath to slosh over the side. He opens both sets of eyelids and blearily looks up at a very distraught wife. He drags himself into a sitting position and as soon as his head clears the water he understands her distress. The babies are screaming at the top of their lungs.
Once she sees that he's awake and moving, she leaves the bathroom and heads back to the bedroom towards the wailing infants. He drags himself out of the tub as fast as he can, which admittedly isn't all that fast, dries off and gets dressed. By the time he gets in the bedroom, she's already changed their diapers and is setting herself up to feed them. He helps her get them latched on and then lies down on the bed next to her. Just as he's drifting off to sleep again despite the respirator around his neck, he's shocked back to wakefulness by first Morgan and then Dylan going off.
"What's the matter?" she asks in near tears. "Why won't they eat?"
"They are eating," he assures her as he takes a glove off and lays it on one of her breasts. "You're milk hasn't come in yet. All they're getting is colostrum and your body only makes a few ounces of that at a time.""So they're going hungry?" she demands, rapidly approaching panic.
"They're not stuffed, but they're not starving either," Abe states as he sits up and takes one of the squalling infants.
"But they're not getting enough to eat," she insists.
"They'll be fine," he replies. "In a few days your milk will come in and then they'll get all that they need."
"But what do I do in the mean time?" she asks. "I can't just let them go hungry."
"Abe's right, they'll be fine," Dr. Hodson states.
Both Abe and Maggie nearly jump out of their skins since neither one of them had heard the doctor come in.
"Shouldn't I be giving them a bottle or something?" Maggie questions. "So they're not so hungry."
"Absolutely not," Hodson snaps. "If you give them a bottle they won't nurse as often and if they don't nurse as much it'll be longer before your milk comes in and when it does you won't have a very good supply going. Your breasts will make enough milk for the twins but only if there's a demand for it and besides, colostrum is the best thing for them right now since they have very weak immunes systems and colostrum is full of antibodies to help them fight off diseases. Not to mention that they'll develop nipple confusion if you try switching them back and forth."
"But…," Maggie starts to argue.
"No 'buts'," Hodson retorts as she steps up to the foot of the bed. "Research has shown that babies that are breast fed are healthier and smarter than formula fed babies. Since we don't know what the effects of formula would have on these two, I highly recommend not finding out."
"But how do we stop the crying?" Maggie nearly has to yell over the screams.
"Walk with them, rock them, sing to them," Hodson suggests. "All I can say is keep trying different things until you find something that works. And what works for one might not work for the other, so you might have to try a combination of things."
Thankfully, Dr. Hodson stays and tries to help the new parents calm the babies. But after nearly two hours, Abe is frustrated, Hodson is stumped and Maggie is in tears. Just before Maggie can have a nervous break down, Susan and Peg quietly come in, take the babies and head back out.
"Where are you going?" Maggie sniffs.
"Out of ear shot," Susan answers as she closes the door. "Get some sleep, dear, we'll bring them back in a couple of hours."
"That sounds like the best plan," Hodson agrees. "Get some sleep. I'll check in on you in the morning."
"It is morning," Abe points out as he waves a graceful hand towards the clock showing that it's almost two in the morning.
"I'll be back closer to day break," Hodson replies with a mock scowl at the merman.
As soon as the door closes behind the doctor, Maggie really breaks down crying. Abe catches her before she can collapse and gets her back into bed. He lies down with her and holds her until the sobs turn into quiet hiccups.
"I'm a horrible mother," she whimpers. "I can't even take care of my babies and make them stop crying."
"You're not a horrible mother," he replies. "You're an inexperienced mother. Even Dr. Hodson couldn't figure out what was wrong with them and she's been through this before."
"She has?" she hiccups.
"Yes, she has two grown children," he states quietly. "I saw her file when Manning was looking for a doctor to take care of Liz and I was helping him go through the candidates."
"Oh," she says softly.
"Go to sleep, love," he whispers. "You need your rest."
And like before, she lays her head upon his chest and is soon fast asleep. After slipping out of bed, he strips on his way to the bath and then crawls back into the cool water. Less than two hours later, Susan and Peg slip back in and lay the two sleeping babes in bed with their mother. Maggie curls towards them and cuddles them in her sleep
Early the next morning, Maggie and Abe come stumbling downstairs definitely looking the worse for wear. As they pass the family room, they find Hellboy, Liz, Sharon and Ron in there all looking like the waking dead. In fact, Hellboy's head is leaning against the back of the couch and he's not so gently snoring. Luckily Vicki and Trevor seem to be fine as they watch some educational kids show on the local PBS station.
When they get to the kitchen, they find organized chaos going on. Peg and Steven are both making pancakes, John is pulling a broiler pan full of sizzling bacon out of the broiler, Dr. Hodson is making coffee and orange juice and Susan is mixing up the pancake batter. Out of all of them, only Steven and John look like they got a decent night's sleep.
"Where did all of this food come from?" Maggie asks when she sees Peg open the second oven door to put a platter of pancakes in to keep warm and notices that there's already a plate in there.
"There's one of those warehouse stores near the pizza place we went to last night," John answers as he sticks a second broiler pan of bacon into the top oven. "Ron and I went shopping while waiting for the pizzas to be made. I mean after all, it's not like we can go to the local Denny's this morning."
"Remind me to pay you back," Maggie offers, still staring in wonder at all the people in her kitchen.
"Don't worry about it," John replies as he starts to removes the cooked bacon from the first pan and put it on paper towels. "Manning paid for it."
"Is there something we can do?" Abe asks.
"The table needs to be set," Susan answers as she starts making another batch of pancake batter.
"I never knew you could cook, Grandmother," Maggie states.
"I can't," Susan replies as she starts stirring and ends up dumping some of the pancake mix over the side of the bowl. "Peg is doing the cooking; I'm just mixing the batter. Now go set the table, child."
"Yes, ma'am," Maggie chuckles as she hands Dylan to his father and goes to do her assigned task.
About half an hour later, everyone is sitting at the table that's loaded down with more food than would normally be humanly possible to eat. But eat it they do and just like the pizza from the night before, there are no leftovers. Shortly after the dishes are washed, dried and put away, Liz, Hellboy, Trevor, Guillermo and John leave in the large truck. No sooner does the truck disappear down the drive then Ron is hauling suitcases down the staircase.
"When I asked you to leave, I didn't realize that you'd go so quickly," Maggie says sadly to Sharon as she follows Ron.
"Well, we talked about it and going on a vacation without Vicki just seemed to be a perfect idea, so why waste the opportunity," Sharon replies.
"How are you leaving?" Abe asks. "I don't think Manning would like it if you took one of the cars."
"I'll be taking them to a car rental agency," Steven answers as he makes his way down the stairs with his bag. "I need to get back anyways. Mom, how are you set for clothes and stuff?"
"I'll be fine," Peg replies. "If I really need something I can always buy it. I did pack a week's worth of clothes, you know."
"Yea, I remember teasing you about it, too," Steven chuckles as he hugs his mother and kisses her cheek. "Call when you're ready to come back and either Sean or I will come and get you."
"So, are you leaving so soon because I asked you to leave or because the twins woke you up last night?" Maggie inquires, eyeing the dark circles under Ron and Sharon's eyes.
"I refuse to answer that on the grounds that you will use as fodder to tease me until the end of time," Sharon retorts, trying to hide her smile.
"Kill joy," Maggie teases.
Hugs, kisses and handshakes are distributed all around before the last group of family leaves. Those remaining watch the customized car start up and start to pull away. They all jump as the radio is turned on and they can feel the bass of the music through their feet. A second later they see Steven reach over and turn off the radio and Ron looking thoroughly embarrassed. Peg and Susan chuckle knowingly as the Honda pulls away.
"So, what do we do now?" Maggie asks as they go back into the house.
"All in favor of going back to bed say 'aye,'" Dr. Hodson suggests.
"Aye!" everyone responds.
But before they can take more than a couple of steps, the twins wake up.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to PBS, Denny's or Honda.