CHAPTER 79

Continued …

Elizabeth woke up in what appeared to be a ward but she later realised it was the recovery suite. She was in a world of pain but as soon as she had spoken to the doctor attending her, she was given some pain killers via the IV in her arm and within ten minutes they had taken affect and the pain in her abdomen slowly became a dull ache.

Once the distraction of the pain was removed, she remembered her baby boys and her anxiety began to go up. Her raised heart rate on the monitors must have caused concern because a nurse came immediately to check on her.

"Mrs Thornton? Is everything okay?"

"My boys. Are they okay? Did they both make it?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realise the doctor didn't give you an update. Both babies are fine and are in NICU with your husband."

"The second one was struggling to breathe so …"

"He's fine. The NICU nurse updated me about ten minutes ago and after spending time with your husband, he is doing much better. We can move you to your room soon."

Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief, resting back into the pillows further.

"Hold tight, it won't be long" the nurse added, as she patted Elizabeth's hand before leaving the room.

Within the hour, Elizabeth was being moved and she was grateful to see she was placed in a private room. The nurse handed over to the maternity ward nurse, who rattled off facts and figures about Elizabeth's care while she stared at the door waiting for someone familiar to appear. As the recovery nurse left, the maternity nurse addressed her.

"Mrs Thornton?"

"Mmmm?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Honestly?"

The nurse nodded with a kind smile.

"Overwhelmed. This whole thing happened so suddenly. I was booked in for a caesarean in a few weeks' time but my babies had other ideas."

The nurse gave a little chuckle. "They tend to do that."

"Can you see where my husband is? I really need to see him."

"Certainly. I'll call NICU and find out."

She left but within two minutes, Jack's head emerged in the doorway.

"Jack!"

He rushed over to her, his arms wrapping around her as best as he could while trying not to press against her stomach wound. "Elizabeth."

Neither of them could contain themselves and Elizabeth broke down in tears again and Jack held her tight as his own eyes welled up. They held each other for some minutes before Jack could finally get composed enough to pull back and look down at her, before he immediately pressed his lips to hers.

"You did it, baby. Two beautiful boys."

"They're both okay?"

"They're perfect."

"Have you held them?"

"Only the second baby. They were worried about his breathing so he slept on my chest for about an hour and then he finally cried when they took him away. He's got wires and leads all over him at the moment though."

"So he's okay?"

Jack brushed the wet tears off her cheeks. "Yes, he's doing fine. A bit small but good."

Elizabeth nodded slowly and Jack leant down to hug her again, nestling his head in her neck and breathing her scent in.

"You had me so worried. Don't ever do that to me again" he whispered into her ear.

Elizabeth's fingers now ran through his hair as they clung to one another. "What?"

"I wanted to stay with you."

"You know they needed you. I knew I would be okay."

Jack pulled back again, his hand running down her face, resting on her cheek.

"I didn't know that. I just saw you cut open and a baby pulled from your stomach. Not something I ever want to see again."

"Well, you're in luck because I am never doing that again. We're booking your appointment to get the snip tomorrow."

Jack scrunched up his face.

"Hey, don't complain. You saw what I just went through. You can go through an itty bitty surgical procedure to ensure we don't have any more accidents."

Jack nodded reluctantly. "I guess so."

Elizabeth giggled and Jack was just glad to hear the sound, despite the fact that it was at his own expense.

"Where are the babies? Can I see them?" Elizabeth asked excitedly, shifting in her bed despite the recent surgery to her midsection.

"Well you can, but you need to be able to get into a wheelchair. They have to remain in NICU at the moment." Jack watched Elizabeth's face drop in disappointment. "But look what I have to show you."

Jack pulled out his phone and navigated through the photo gallery before handing it over to her and coming around to her side so he could see the pictures as well.

"Oh my …" was the only sound that escaped Elizabeth's lips.

She stared at the photo of the two babies side-by-side in their respective cribs. Tears welled in her eyes.

"I'm guessing this is baby one" she said pointing to the obviously larger baby.

"Yes, that's right."

Elizabeth zoomed the picture in so that she could take in every detail.

"Wow, Jack, they look even more like you" she said in amazement.

"What are you talking about? They look like mini versions of you" Jack said refuting her comment.

"No. They're noses and lips are all you. I wonder what colour eyes they will have."

Elizabeth continued to flick through each of the photos, staring at them in avid detail, before going back through them again. The nurse brought in some food and water before leaving them alone again. Elizabeth barely wanted to eat but Jack talked her around.

"You should eat and have a rest and maybe we can convince a nurse to get a wheelchair for you when you wake up."

"I don't like my chances with this stomach wound" she said with a groan as she tried to sit up a bit higher.

"You just had twin boys. I'm sure they will help you wherever they can."

Elizabeth was too tired to argue so she did as she was told.

When Jack entered the NICU while Elizabeth was sleeping, Beverly immediately noticed him and called him over.

"We were just about to call you. Since Elizabeth's milk wouldn't have come in yet and due to her surgery we were just about to ask you if you would like to proceed with bottle feeding for the time being."

"Yes, that's fine" he replied, knowing Elizabeth would asleep for a few hours at least.

Beverly made the bottles up and helped Jack to get setup with the first baby.

"Did you have names picked out for the boys?"

"Yes. We had decided on Liam but we were still unsure for the second name."

"Liam is a nice name."

"It's after Beth's father, William."

"What is your father's name?"

"His name was Thomas or Tom but my brother also goes by that name and we are … distant, I guess."

"What were the other names you were choosing between?"

"Well there was Ashton or Ash, Jamie or Lewis. I'll have to wait and see what Beth thinks."

"And you have other children?"

"Yes, three girls" Jack said with a smile as he thought of his daughters.

"Wow. So two boys is perfect then!" Beverly said happily.

"Yeah it's all balanced out now."

"How old are your daughters?"

"Eight, six and four."

"They are the perfect age to be big helpers at home."

"Yes, Halley definitely will. Grace just broke her arm the other day so she won't be able to do much for a while. And poor Eve, I worry about her."

Beverly looked at him surprised.

"I just mean with all the change. She has been the baby for a long time."

"Children are resilient. In the time you are worrying about them, they have already sorted themselves out."

Jack smiled as he watched his newborn son drinking the milk in his bottle. "I think you're right. How's that little guy going?"

Beverly pulled the bottle from the baby's mouth and held it up to see how much he had drunk. "He's a bit slow but these little babies usually struggle a little bit. They're not very strong yet."

They continued their conversation, Beverly asking more questions about the girls. After feeding the boys, Jack sat between the cribs, a hand on each of his sons as he watched them sleep, exhausted from their feeds.

Later that evening, Jack went back to see Elizabeth. He found a nurse who was happy to move Elizabeth to a wheelchair if she wasn't in too much pain so that she could go see her boys. Jack knew Elizabeth wouldn't mention the pain if she knew it meant seeing her boys. Sure enough she lit up when the nurse mentioned visiting the NICU. Jack wheeled her slowly down the hallway and into the NICU ward. He rounded the corner to find Beverly gone and another nurse instead.

"You must be the Thornton's. Beverly mentioned we should be expecting you."

Jack wheeled Elizabeth closer to the cribs.

"Oh Jack. Look at them!"

"They are beautiful, aren't they?"

Elizabeth nodded hurriedly, craning her neck to get a closer look.

"Did you want to hold your boys?" the nurse asked as she came around the side of the crib.

"Yes!"

The nurse's name tag revealed her name to be Karen. She leant into the first crib and lifted out one of the oldest baby and handed him over carefully.

"Which is this one?" Elizabeth asked as she took the baby eagerly into her arms, sighing as he rested against her chest.

"That's the eldest one" Jack said confidently. "He's a little bigger than the second baby."

The baby stirred slightly before settling into Elizabeth's arms.

"He's beautiful, Beth."

Elizabeth looked up at Jack beaming. "He's perfect."

"Jack, why don't you hold the other baby?" Beverly said.

Jack came straight around to the crib and took the second baby carefully, avoiding the leads that still ran off to a machine to the side and brought him closer to Elizabeth.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Wow, they are similar aren't they?"

Jack laughed. "They are identical, babe."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him. "You know what I mean."

"They're both perfect." Jack leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Just like their mother." Elizabeth kissed him back before both of their eyes swept back to the babies in their arms.

Elizabeth and Jack decided to go with the two names they had originally decided on: Liam (after Elizabeth's father) and Ashton. Jack stayed the night by Elizabeth's side as she couldn't move too much just yet. Jack did go to the nursery during the night to help with the feeding although Elizabeth couldn't yet.

The next morning, the nurses determined that Liam was doing well enough to come out of the humidicrib and stay in Elizabeth's room but Ashton still needed more attention, so he had to remain in the special care nursery. Elizabeth and Jack had both debated separating them but Beverly assured them it was perfectly normal. As it was, they expected Ashton wouldn't be able to go home until a week or so after Liam at this stage due to his much smaller size.

Charlotte called Jack in the morning to let him know the girls were badgering her to bring them for a visit. Of course, Jack agreed, desperately wanting to see his girls, especially Eve who he had worried about most of the night.

When they arrived at the hospital, Jack came out to greet them where Eve threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own arms tightly around his neck almost like she was never going to let him go.

"Did you want to come and see your baby brother?"

"You mean brothers, Daddy" Halley corrected him.

"Well, actually you can only meet one of the babies today. One of them is in a special nursery and he can't have visitors just yet."

"Oh, okay" Halley said sadly.

"Let's go see Mommy. You need to be quiet though so as not to disturb the baby too much. Remember our quiet voices like we talked about."

"Okay" Halley and Grace both responded eagerly.

Jack held Grace's good hand as he led his daughters and mother into the room where Elizabeth was. Eve clung to his neck tightly and he could feel how anxious Grace was as they rounded the corner and saw Elizabeth.

"Hi girls. Did you come to see your little brothers?" Elizabeth beamed at them and Grace pulled away, rushing to Elizabeth's bed. Elizabeth patted the bed beside her and Grace climbed up with a hand from Jack, before curling into her mother's side. Elizabeth put her arms around her and hugged her back.

"How is your arm feeling, Gracie?" she said quietly to her as she kissed her forehead.

"It was really sore last night."

"We had some trouble getting her comfortable" Charlotte added from the corner of the room. "But one the pain medication kicked in, it helped her go to sleep."

Elizabeth nodded, kissing Grace again before addressing Charlotte. "Thank you for everything, Charlotte."

"Anything I can do to help, just let me know. Abigail was going to bring dinner over tonight, which I was not going to knock back."

Jack laughed. "Definitely not. I don't want my girls to starve."

Charlotte rolled her eyes and smacked his arm. "Don't sass me, young man. You may have just had a baby, but you don't get to knock my cooking abilities."

"What 'abilities'?" he asked, suppressing laughter.

"Hey, I've been getting better the last few years, haven't I Lizzy?"

Elizabeth looked between Charlotte and Jack. "I'm not entering into this discussion" she said warily.

The banter was interrupted as Halley stepped forward, immediately peering at the baby in the crib beside Elizabeth's bed.

"He's so small."

Elizabeth laughed. "He won't stay like that."

"What's his name?" she asked.

Elizabeth looked at Jack and gave him a nod.

"We've decided to call them Liam and Ashton. What do you think?"

"Baby Liam and Baby Ash …" Halley said, trying out the names. "I like it. So this is Liam?"

"Yep." Jack smiled and Elizabeth and his eyes met again.

"I like them too" said Grace as she peered past Elizabeth to get a closer look. Eve still clung to Jack but he could see her craning her neck to get a glimpse.

At that moment, Liam let out a big yawn which caused Halley and Grace to burst into a fit of giggles.

"Did you see that Mommy?" Grace said.

"I did. He's very tired. He will sleep for a while now."

"Can I touch him?" Halley asked.

"Yes, that's okay. Just be gentle."

Halley ran her finger gently over the top of Liam's head and Grace climbed down the bed and copied her movements on the other side of the crib. The girls asked Elizabeth lots of questions which she answered patiently. Charlotte hung back, not interrupting their family time, but getting to watch her grandson sleeping.

After a while, Liam began to fuss in preparation for his next feed. Jack reluctantly interrupted the conversation. "Alright girls. We have to go now and let Mommy and Liam rest. You can come back tomorrow."

They started to complain before Charlotte cut them off. "We're going to go to the shops now and buy the babies a present, remember?"

That changed their tune and they hurriedly said goodbye to their parents.

"Bye Mommy" Grace said reaching up to kiss Elizabeth's cheek. Halley did the same and headed for the door. Jack bent down with Eve so she could do the same.

"Be good, girls. I'll see you tomorrow."

Jack walked them out, handing Eve over to his mother.

"Thank you so much, Ma."

"No problems Jack. Just enjoy your time with Lizzy."

"I am. I will try and get home tonight. I will just see how Elizabeth is doing. I will let you know later."

"It doesn't matter to me. I will stay in the guest room either way. Then you don't need to worry if and when you want to come back here."

Jack gave her a quick hug. "You're the best."

"I know" she said with a laugh as she led the girls back out of the hospital.

Jack returned to Elizabeth's room and found her nursing Liam, her eyes watching him intently. He sat down beside her, watching the pair.

When Liam had finished feeding, Elizabeth easily shifted him to her shoulder and rubbed his back. When his stomach was settled, she shifted him back onto her lap and wrapped the blanket more tightly around him. Jack watched in awe as she moved with such ease.

"Would you like to hold him?"

Jack nodded and Elizabeth moved the baby away from her body and into his awaiting arms. Jack took him, resting Liam's head in the crook of his elbow.

"I feel like I'm going to break him but I kind of remember this feeling."

Elizabeth smiled. "Of course, you should. You've done it three times already. It's not a feeling that's easy to forget."

After five days, Elizabeth was ready to leave the hospital but she was torn. Both babies were way too small to go home yet and Ashton had a whole range of issues that would prevent him from going home for some weeks yet. Although Elizabeth wanted to escape the hospital and just go home, she felt like her heart was breaking to leave them behind but at least they had each other.

After another week, Liam was permitted to go home with Jack and Elizabeth. Elizabeth dressed him up in a cute little blue outfit that her daughters had hand-picked for their little brother. He let out another yawn as she bundled him up in a baby blanket and placed him back in the crib ready to go home. Jack came into the room after completing all the paperwork, going straight to Elizabeth's side and pressing his lips to her cheek.

"Are you ready?"

"I guess so" the uncertain feeling in her stomach still made her feel unsettled.

"Let's go then."

Elizabeth nodded before turning to the crib that would remain behind. Ashton. She put her hand on his chest, feeling his heart pulsing beneath her fingers.

"Goodbye, my little boy. I will be back soon."

Jack put his arm around her waist. "I was going to drop you and Liam home and come back anyway."

Elizabeth nodded before taking one last longing look and moving to the door with tears in her eyes. Jack nodded toward Beverly as he slowly wheeled the crib with Liam inside out of the room. Elizabeth waited at the door with tears now flowing down her cheeks. Jack stopped walking with the crib and embraced her quickly, pressing a kiss to her forehead before continuing to walk. Elizabeth followed with her hand wrapped around Jack's arm. They walked toward the exit of the hospital in silence. Jack left Elizabeth in the lobby so that he could bring the car around for them.

After Liam was secured in the car and Elizabeth was in the passenger seat, Jack pulled away from the curb. His hand rested on her knee, trying to get her attention.

"You okay?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. This is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It feels like I'm leaving part of myself behind."

"You are, Beth" he said as he took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

It was three more weeks before Ashton had finally put on enough weight and was well enough to be permitted to go home. It was three weeks that consisted of Jack and Elizabeth getting the girls ready for school, dropping them off, going to the hospital, one of them visiting Ashton while the other stayed outside with Liam, picking up the girls from school, homework and dinner, breast pumping and freezing milk for Elizabeth, waking up every three hours through the night for Liam. Then repeating the next day. Both Jack and Elizabeth were mentally and physically exhausted.

On the day that Ashton was finally permitted to come home, the whole family went to the hospital to pick him up. When everyone was finally buckled into the seats of their new minivan, with Grace and Halley sitting in the rear seats and Eve squashed between her two baby brothers in the middle seats, Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief. Finally, they were all together. She was so happy to see the hospital disappear in the rear-view mirror and even more happy when they pulled their car into the drive. All of their family were finally home - together.

One chapter to go … finally!