"Sanctuary" by Aly & AJ

It's been a week and a half since I had surgery and the doctor cleared my stitches were finally being taken out today. Murphy was driving me insane by not letting me do pretty much anything. But I knew it was because he loved me, even if it drove me fucking insane.

The nurse finished drawing my blood to check my iron levels to be sure that nothing was amiss. She insisted I'd be able to wait for the results in the waiting room so I flipped through a magazine while trying to ignore Connor staring at me. I finally huffed and closed it, staring at him back.

"Ye know Murphy's only trying to help," he smirked. I slapped him with the magazine. Not hard, but enough to make me feel better before flicking it back open and ignoring him again.

"McCarthy?" a nurse smiled as he walked over to us.

"Oh thank god," I muttered, standing a little too fast and getting lightheaded. Connor steadied me by grabbing my elbow.

"Are you the fiance?"

"No, brother of the fiance," Connor corrected.

"Ah, that complicates things."

"What? Is my blood low? Do I need a transfusion? Am I dying?" I asked, attempting to be humorous. He hesitated, looking back and forth at us.

"Do you want him to know?"

"I'll tell him in about five seconds so it'll save me some time if you just tell us both."

"Well, your levels are good. You're pregnant though, so congratulations on that."

I must have misheard him. After a few seconds, I leaned in closer, paying extra close attention to his lips as I asked him to repeat that.

"You're pregnant? It's impressive, really. I've never seen a baby survive that kind of trauma. It must be because you're so early along-"

I had blocked him out and was sitting back down.

"Cecilia," Connor snapped in front of my face. I'm going to have to tell Kelly and Declan that I was shot but I'm okay and that they'll have a new sibling. "Do you want an ultrasound?"

"Should I?" I asked, unable to put my thoughts into any sort of order. He sighed.

"Yeah, make sure she's okay. I'll go call my brother while ye take care of that," he ordered. The nurse led me to one of the other floors, trying to make some small talk.

"No offense, but I'm trying to figure out how to tell my twin eight year olds that mommy was shot and is pregnant when I was just supposed to be on fucking vacation. Oh, and that mommy and daddy are engaged now," I added, realizing that that was yet another thing they didn't know. I felt immensely guilty. Usually they're kept in the loop of everything. But they are just kids, they can't literally know everything the instant it happens. And telling them a week later won't make it any more or less true.

I need a drink. I can't have a drink. Oh god, did I drink a lot when I was already pregnant? That's not fucking good for it.

The nurse had me sit down while he talked to the receptionist to order an ultrasound. He must have called down to the front desk because Connor came and sat down a few minutes later.

"I'm a terrible mom," I said finally.

"Ye are not," he scoffed. "Murphy will be here in about ten minutes."

"You told him?"

"I just told him he should be here. The rest is on ye to tell."

"I just left them for a whole month."

"Cecilia, cut yourself some slack."

"I'm almost thirty seven. Isn't that old to have a kid?"

Connor slowly looked up from his newspaper and stared at me. I scoffed.

"It's different for you guys-you can be as old as you want when you have kids. You don't do any of the carrying, you just shoot some sperm in and then the woman's body has to deal with the rest."

"What exactly did I walk into?" Murphy asked, standing there looking bemused. Connor immediately stood.

"And this is where I draw the line on being involved in yer relationship," he announced, waving his pack of cigarettes in the air, stopping to talk to a pretty nurse before winking and heading outside.

"You should sit," I said.

"Ye look serious. Are ye okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. There is one thing though," I tried to find the right way to tell him. "You remember before we left for here? In the barn."

"Yeah, of course I remember," he said, exasperated that I would even insinuate he'd forget us having sex in a barn.

"You remember we didn't use anything that night?"

Realization crossed his face as he put his hand on my stomach. I nodded, shrugging slightly. Murphy immediately grinned, looking positively excited, and kissed me.

"I'm gonna be a dad. Again. But properly this time. We'll have to get a house. And get married! I'll have to get a job. We're going to live in Ireland, right? Da and your mom-"

"Okay, one thing at a time," I laughed, grabbing his hands. "We have like eight months to figure that out if my math is right. As long as nothing is wrong."

"It's Irish, nothing can be wrong."

I shook my head, smiling at him. God I love this man.

A doctor came over to bring us back into the ultrasound room. She had me lay back on the bed and pull up my shirt, unbutton my pants, and pull them down slightly so that my stomach was fully exposed. After that, she squirted out some gel onto my abdomen and began the ultrasound, using the wand to look around and make sure everything looked okay.

"Somehow that bullet missed the babies entirely," she said surprised. She paused on the heartbeats, looking pleased that they were strong.

"Babies? Twins?" Murphy asked, looking beyond excited again.

"Murph, love, that's three heartbeats," I said after a second. He looked at me and then the doctor. She nodded, pointing to the screen and counting them.

"Three," she confirmed.

"Three," Murphy repeated, sitting back in his chair.

"Fucking Irish fertility," I laughed while he let out an excited whoop and ran out of the room to find Connor.

"First kids?"

"No, we have two other kids. Twins. We were separated for most of it so he's extra excited now," I admitted. "And he's a twin, so he's going to tell his twin that he's done better than twins this time."

She stared at me, not quite sure what to say.

"Yeah, we're a weird family and we've done just about everything out of order. Maybe I'll write a book about it someday."

"I'll keep an eye out for it. It sounds like an eventful life."

"It has been and I don't think that's about to stop any time soon," I grinned. I motioned to my stomach to ask if I was done.

"Yeah, here's a towel. I'll be at the desk when you're done getting cleaned up."

"Thanks."

The twins were in the waiting room by the time I came out to check out. They were standing with a few other men singing in Gaelic. Most of the staff had stopped to see what was going on. When Murphy noticed me, he came over and pulled me into a kiss, causing Connor and the other Irishmen that they had somehow found to cheer. As we were leaving, the men all patted us on the back and offered congratulations and traditional colloquialisms in Gaelic.

Having these babies is going to be a lot different than having Kelly and Declan. And a lot more exhausting...but also a lot more fun.