"Call Your Boys" by Iron & Wine
Well, a few weeks wasn't good enough for Romeo. He decided to extend his stay until the babies came. Klaus also surprised us by showing up out of the blue one day. He's done it so often that I'm never surprised by it any more. Apparently he had planned it so that he'd be able to see the new babies. Except I was late. So there were currently no new babies outside of my body. And, yes, I was very cranky about it. The only people exempt from my cranky rage were the kids.
Klaus and Murphy have also actually become friends now. I never thought that I'd see the day that would happen. But here we are. The only way it would be more perfect were if we had Rocco around. But wishing only goes so far when it comes to the dead, I guess.
I shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Romeo gave me a concerned glance, clearly terrified of me going into labor spontaneously while he was the only one home with me. Klaus, Connor, Murphy, Eunice, Adrienne, Smecker and Tyler were all out drinking while Mom and Noah watched the triplets. The twins were staying at friends' houses for the weekend. So it was just Romeo and I. Well, mostly Romeo. I was kind of falling asleep on the couch while he watched TV. The back door opened and roughly shut as someone kicked off some heavy boots. Klaus, probably. Too loud to be Connor.
"I'm back," Klau announced from the kitchen. "Taxi drivers are so nice here." He stumbled back down the hallway to the bathroom. I snickered to myself but stopped when I felt a contraction. Probably false labor pains. But I glanced at the clock anyway just to be sure. About twenty minutes later, I had another one. I quietly kept track and counted them as the time between them slowly shortened.
"Romeo, I don't want to freak you out," I said calmly. "But I'm gonna need you to get the bag in the front closet and take me to the hospital."
Romeo's eyes widened until I could see the whites around his irises. "What? No, no, no, I don't know how to get there. Can't you hold it in?"
"It doesn't work like that." I struggled to stand and made it as far as the kitchen before my water broke. "Well fuck."
I heard Romeo stumble around the living room as he attempted to grab his shoes, the car keys, and his jacket before he ran down the hallway and pounded on the bathroom door. I stuck my head into the hallway.
"Uh, Romeo."
Klaus opened the door, halfway in his pajamas and looked Romeo up and down before glancing at me holding my stomach. Without saying anything, he shut the door again and emerged fully dressed again. He was clearly drunk. "You drive, I'll assist Cee."
Romeo began struggling to get his shoes and jacket on while Klaus retrieved the bag I was pointing at. He looked at his boots, then his feet, and shrugged before walking out the door without them. Apparently they were too difficult to struggle with at the moment.
"Grab those, too," I laughed before grabbing my purse and waddling out the door with Romeo.
Klaus managed to direct Romeo to the hospital from the backseat while I focused on not dying in the front seat. Even drunk that man has an impeccable sense of direction. It's never ceased to amaze me and it probably never will.
Romeo managed to get the bag out of the car without entirely falling over. Time has not granted him the strength to perform well under pressure. Klaus, however, was still swaying a bit but was able to escort me into the hospital and help me into a seat.
"We've got a pregnant lady giving birth here!" Klaus said loudly as he approached the check in desk. The older woman looked up at him in confusion before looking over at me. I waved, pointed at my stomach, and grimaced from pain.
"Name?"
"She's in labor, does it matter?"
"Klaus, dear, just bring me the clipboard," I cut the conversation short. The nurse handed him the clipboard, which he brought back to me.
"Excuse me, sir, ye'll have to put on some shoes-"
"They're too hard. This is more important. It's fine." She looked like she was about to argue but decided it just wasn't worth her time to argue with a large German man and went back to what she was doing. Romeo ran through the front door a few seconds later, causing her to spill her coffee.
"I was afraid I missed it," he said when he saw me.
"It takes a while. Oh, you have my shoes. I can put those on now."
"I'll send someone out shortly," the nurse said curtly. I gave her a thankful look before watching Klaus slowly put on his shoes while Romeo tried to get a hold of anyone else to let them know we were here.
"I assume ye're the one I'm supposed to take to the delivery wing immediately?" A younger nurse greeted me with a smile.
I nodded at him and handed him the clipboard. "Yeah, that's me." Klaus helped me stand while Romeo also stood to go with us.
"Only one, I'm afraid," the nurse stopped them.
"Take the German, please," the nurse at the desk scowled at Klaus, who gave a friendly little wave and blew her a kiss. I rolled my eyes but smiled. He's not always so serious. Klaus looked like he was about to retaliate so I gripped his arm a bit more tightly while I had a contraction.
"Perhaps you shouldn't walk," Klaus said thoughtfully.
"Yes, I have a wheelchair here if ye'll just-"
Before the nurse could finish, Klaus had picked me up and was carrying me down the hallway. He turned around to stare at the nurse, who looked like he couldn't decide if he should reprimand Klaus or just go along with his antics at this point. After a few seconds, he decided on the latter and pushed an empty wheelchair behind us while giving Klaus directions to the room I'd be in.
A few hours later, Murphy finally got to the hospital and came into the delivery room. Klaus was, finally, not drunk and was actually being helpful. My cervix, however, was not dilated enough to begin labor. Three labors with five kids and you'd think they'd just fall out. They don't.
Klaus traded off with Murphy, heading back out into the waiting room with everybody else (all of whom had apparently refused to go home from the bar without seeing the babies for the first time).
Murphy kissed the side of my head and rubbed my back sympathetically. I groaned and put my forehead on my arm as I tried to massage away the headache. Standing helps with the pain a bit but definitely not as much as I'd like it to.
The doctor returned to check my cervix.
Finally, it was at 7cm. That meant I could actually deliver these little devilish angels. They aren't even out of the womb and they're already causing headaches. So they'll fit in with the family.
"I can only let two more people in at a time," a nurse outside of the door tried to reason with the loud, rambunctious group of people outside of the maternity room. Murphy looked at me and grinned before going to assist the poor nurse. We had already gone through the naming process, so I was just holding Freddie and Vittoria while they slept.
"Come on, we're not going anywhere. And I'm sure the lady at the desk doesn't want us around again," Adrienne reasoned.
"I just wanna see the babies," Eunice agreed.
"They'll be fine once they're in here," Murphy assured the nurse. He looked at Murphy before shrugging and deciding that it really wasn't worth it. That seemed to be the theme of the evening when dealing with our weirdly extended family.
Everyone crowded into the room, letting out various sounds of appreciation for the small humans in my arms. "Oh, look at their little faces," Smecker said, looking at them. "I understand why people have so many of these things now. They're all so cute."
"Only Cecilia's babies are this cute," Eunice rolled her eyes.
"That's true, most babies look like little old people," Klaus agreed.
"You know, they do, don't they?" Smecker realized. Tyler shook his head while Connor looked at all of them like they were crazy. Romeo, however, was just staring at the babies absolutely smitten.
"Ye okay there, Romeo?" Murphy asked from beside me.
"They caused so much chaos and now they're just sleeping like little angels," Romeo thought aloud. Romeo snapped out of his trance. "I mean, they're cute." Eunice laughed and gave him a one armed hug.
The nurse eventually came back to take the babies to the infant ward to sleep for the night. At some point after that, I fell asleep while everyone was still talking amongst themselves. I don't know what I'd do without these people in my life. I definitely need them in it. Always.