Thanks for the reviews people.

TessaTessa – sorry, but you're going to have to wait a little bit longer to find out about the babies' daddies.

Monday 19 February 2018 (still)

Later that night

Kate woke from her nap around 8.00pm, just as the babies were being wheeled into her room by Dylan and Pete, who were now dressed in casual clothes, and accompanied by a woman who introduced herself as Helen. Helen explained that she was a lactation consultant, and she was there to help Kate learn to breastfeed the babies.

It wasn't easy to get the babies settled into the right position to feed, but Helen explained how it was important for the babies to receive the colostrum and to begin to feed. It took a while but eventually both babies had a little milk in them.

Once the babies were burped, changed and settled back into their bassinets, Helen left and the three of them were left alone with their babies.

"Nikki's headed home for the evening. She said that she'll be back tomorrow afternoon after she finishes work. She did get to see the babies briefly before she left though, and thinks that they're both gorgeous. Sally and Chloe will be in tomorrow after Chloe finishes school. Andy and Lani plan to come in around lunch time." said Pete.

"Everyone sends their congratulations and love," added Dylan.

"Nice of them to wait to visit," commented Kate. "I'm not sure that I'm up for any visitors tonight apart from yourselves. It's been a pretty big day after all. I really think that I need a bit more sleep but not until I get hugs and kisses from both of my men." She held out her arms for the men's hugs. "And I suppose that we need to figure out our baby girl's name. Have you guys got any thoughts about names?"

Dylan began, "Well, you said that you wanted Nikki as godmother, so I guess that one of her names should be Nikki."

"All right, so how about Nicole then for her middle name?" said Kate. Both men nodded at her suggestion.

"You know people," started Pete "I've always liked the name Emma. It was my mum's name. I looked it up once and Emma means 'whole'. Our little girl was born second, and with her arrival she makes our family whole."

"Emma," mused Kate "Emma Nicole. I like it."

"So do I," said Dylan.

And so, their daughter was named.

Tuesday 20 February 2018

Late morning

As had been agreed when they first decided to try for a baby, no prenatal paternity tests had been done. Instead, they had decided undertake DNA testing after the children were born. Kate had done some research and located a privately owned testing laboratory that offered paternity DNA testing after birth. She had ordered and paid for the testing kits, and they had been one of the first things she had packed into her hospital bag.

Gathered together in Kate's hospital room, the two men swabbed the inside of their cheeks with the swabs that came with the kits, before pressing each swab onto the DNA card which had their name label on it. Meanwhile, Kate swabbed the inside of the babies' cheeks and carefully pressed each swab onto its respective card. Once all the swabs were done, she sealed them into the pre-paid postal bag and handed the bag to Pete. "OK guys. If you can post that when you leave here, we should get the results back in a week or so. The company said that they test and respond in 3-5 working days from receipt."

All three looked solemnly at the envelope that carried all their hopes on those four small cards.

Pete put the envelope down on the bedside locker and turned back to Kate before pulling something from his pocket, "Kate, Dutchy and I have been talking, and we want to give you this." He opened his palm and showed Kate what he was holding. "It's called a Russian wedding ring. We realise that, as things stand, legally I mean, we won't be able to marry you officially, but we thought that this was a good way to show that we're all together."

Kate took the ring from Pete's hand and admired it. It was made of three slim interlocking rings, one ring each made of white gold, rose gold and yellow gold. She slipped it onto the ring finger on her left hand. "It fits perfectly."

"The three rings represent our past, present and future, or you, me and Pete if you prefer," said Dylan "We thought it was the best way to show our commitment to you. Pete and I also bought rings for ourselves, although ours are a bit more solid than yours."

The men showed Kate their rings, which were also made with the three colour golds, but entwined together into a single ring, as opposed to her three rings. Each man's ring was slightly different. Pete's ring had the three colours twisted closely together, while Dylan's ring had the twists more open, and had an edge around it.

Kate held out her hand with the ring. Dylan put his ringed hand on top of hers, and Pete held her hand from underneath. "Together, now and forever," said Kate. The men repeated her commitment.

Later on, the guys had gone to get some lunch, and Kate was left on her own for a while. She looked at the ring on her hand and pondered how much meaning there was in such a small piece of jewellery. The rings represented their commitment to each other and their children. They could never have a church wedding, or even a civil one, but the rings the three of them now wore represented the bonds between them. Kate was moved that the men had thought of this wonderful symbol for that bond.

Afternoon

Sally and Chloe came to visit Kate in the afternoon as planned, after Chloe had finished school. The babies had just been fed and changed again and were starting to doze off.

After hugs and kisses had been exchanged and the babies admired, Kate asked "Hey Chloe, how'd you like to nurse our little boy?"

"Yes please! Can I really?" The little girl looked both overwhelmed and excited at the possibility of holding one of these little babies.

"Of course. I wouldn't have offered otherwise. I need you to sit right back in the chair and then mum can give him to you, if you don't mind Sally." Kate smiled at Sally as she made the request.

Sally did as Kate asked and picked up the baby boy from his bassinet. She gave him to Chloe, making sure that Chloe had a good hold on him and was supporting his head and neck properly before Sally sat down in the other visitor chair. "He's a lovely baby Kate. Have you decided on a name yet?"

"Well, we initially planned on calling him Christopher. But then we decided to use Kester, which is an old English version of Christopher. Kester Evan actually, if that's OK with you Sally. Also, we want Chloe to be godmother to him."

"Oh Kate." Tears welled in Sally's eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Yes – to both the name and to Chloe. Swain meant a lot to all three of us. Of course, this little boy mightn't want to join the Navy like his parents, but hopefully he'll be just as caring and brave as his namesake."

Sally didn't say anything else for a moment as a few tears trickled down her cheeks. Once she had composed herself, she asked, "And what's your little girl going to be called?"

Kate laughed, "You know, it was so easy to think of a boy's name. We never considered any other boy's name for Kester. But we never really discussed what we would call a girl. We only realised that after she arrived. Anyway, we talked last night, and she's going to be Emma Nicole. Nikki's agreed to be godmother to her. I couldn't speak to her last night, she left the hospital before I woke up, but she dropped by this morning before she went to work, and I asked her then." Kate paused and had a sip of water before continuing. "And we were hoping that you would be her second godmother."

"Oh Kate. Thank you so much. I'd be really honoured." Sally hugged Kate and then brushed away the tears that had started to trickle down her face again. "Who have you chosen to be the godfather or godfathers?"

"Andy for both of the babies. He came in earlier today with Lani and we asked him then. He's over the moon about it. Also, once we know who Kester's father is, then the other one of the guys will be the second godfather. That way Emma will have two godmothers and one godfather, and Kester will have two godfathers and one godmother. We took DNA swabs of the babies and the guys this morning and the guys were posting them off when they left here earlier. We should know in a week or so."

"Any thoughts on that subject?"

"Oh yes, I've got my own ideas, but then I've had a number of ideas ever since I found out I was having twins. I know there's no real reason for it, but I just felt all along that I was going to have one of each. Although I never said anything – I mean, there was no factual basis for what I was thinking, just a feeling. And I have my own thoughts about who the babies' fathers are, but I'm not saying anything. It's better to wait for the test results."

"I know what you're saying – about the sexes of the babies I mean. From not long after I knew I was pregnant I was certain I was going to have a girl. I didn't say anything to Chris, but I just knew in my heart that our baby would be a girl. And she was."

The two women laughed before turning to look at Chloe and Kester, both of whom were being very quiet. Chloe was just gazing into Kester's sleeping face with a look of awe and love. "Sally, perhaps you'd like to nurse Emma before she gets jealous of the attention her brother's getting."

After Sally had picked up Emma and was comfortably holding her, Kate continued their conversation "We'll be having a blessing ceremony for the kids in a few months' time. We didn't bother about finding a church minister – we figured that our situation was probably unusual enough for most ministers to say a definite 'no'. Aside from the fact that Pete is Catholic, while Dylan and I are Anglican, well at least born Anglican even if neither of us attend church or anything. The celebrant who did Nikki and Conrad's wedding has agreed to perform the blessing whenever we want. We've got to arrange a date, but we were thinking maybe around the June long weekend, depending on her availability."

"And will Dylan's family come over do you think?" Kate had long ago told Sally about what happened the other Christmas with Dylan's mother. Sally didn't ask about Kate or Pete's families – she knew they both had no-one else anymore.

"Well, I suppose that will partly depend on the results of the DNA tests." Kate smiled wryly, "One thing's certain, they'll be staying at a hotel this time around. I won't have Pete insulted in his own home."

"And what's this?" Sally caught hold of Kate's hand and pointed to her new rings.

Kate smiled and her eyes softened as she looked at her hand. "A commitment present from the guys. They've also got rings for themselves. They gave this to me this morning. I … it was so thoughtful of them." Kate floundered for the correct words. She was still a bit overwhelmed by the thought that had gone into the men's actions in buying the rings.

Sally took note of Kate's emotions and settled for just saying, "It's lovely. I look forward to seeing their rings later on."

After Sally and Chloe had left a bit later, Kate had some time to herself. The babies were sleeping, and it would be a little while before the guys came back. She reflected on how happy Andy had been to be asked to be godfather to both the babies. He was an innately humble man, and had apparently never considered that he would be invited to take that role in the twins' lives. Kate could have sworn that he had a tear in his eye when he had said yes, and had hugged her, Dylan and Pete.