Chapter 17: Musings

December 2012

New Year's Eve arrived and the group met at the mansion to ring in the new year. Luna was close to her due date and very uncomfortable. "Hey, babe, you okay?" Joey asked, as she rubbed her belly.

"Yeah, just uncomfortable." Luna gave him a smile. "Don't worry about me."

"Never going to happen." Joey gave her temple a kiss. "But let me know if those two are coming, okay? I don't want you to give birth at the mansion."

"Okay." Luna nodded.

Luna became increasingly uncomfortable as the evening wore on and finally she had to admit to herself and the others that she was in labor. "Guys, I think there's going to be more than fireworks tonight." She panted after a particularly painful contraction.

"We better get you to the hospital." Joey said at once, jumping to his feet. "Hali, will you run back to our house and get her bag? Hailey, go run to get my car."

A hand tapped on Joey's shoulder and Joey looked over. Seto was handing him a set of keys. "What's this about?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow, as the women ran to do what he asked.

"This will get you there faster. Don't worry, it's not a sports car. Just have the seat cleaned before you return it." Seto instructed, dropping the keys onto his palm.

"Thanks, Kaibba." Joey helped Luna out to the SUV that Seto had given the keys for. He helped her inside and drove her to the hospital.

The group arrived ten minutes later, except for Ishizu. "How is she?" Hali asked Joey.

"She's progressing just fine. The doc said she might have the first babies of the new year." Joey grinned.

A nurse poked her head out of the room. "Mr. Wheeler, your wife is asking for you."

"Gotta go." Joey headed for the door.

"Give her a kiss for us." Hailey smiled.

"Will do." Joey went inside.

Midnight passed before Joey finally emerged, looking pale and exhausted but happy. "Well?" Lena asked impatiently.

"Two healthy babies. Leah and Jacob. Jacob was born before midnight and Leah was born after, actually." Joey chuckled.

"They've got two different birth dates?" Atem asked, surprised.

"More like they were born on a different year as well." Hailey giggled.

"Can we come in and see them?" Hali asked, excitedly.

"Yeah, Luna's just resting." Joey led them inside where Luna was asleep and two baby warmers were beside the bed.

The group went over to the baby warmers. "Aw, they're adorable." Hali smiled, looking down at the twins. Both babies had tufts of blond hair poking out from under their color coded hats.

"Yeah, Leah, the one on the left, looks just like her mother." Joey replied proudly.

"Unfortunately, the boy looks like you." Josiah teased, giving Joey a smirk.

"You do realize you look a lot like me, bro?" Joey raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I just had to tease ya." Josiah grinned.

"Would you boys shut up so I can sleep?" Luna grumbled from the bed.

Joey went to Luna's side and gave her temple a kiss. "Sorry, babe. We were just admiring the babies."

"Sounded more like you were teasing each other." Luna grumbled, looking up at him.

"Just brotherly affection." Joey dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "You get some sleep, we'll be quiet now."

"Good." Luna yawned and quickly fell asleep.

Luna and the twins were released from the hospital the next day. Joey picked her up and drove her home, where the group was waiting with Luke and Joanna. "Can I see my sister?" Joanna asked, excitedly.

"You have to speak quietly, Jo. You'll wake them." Joey advised, setting the baby seats on the couch. "Come have a look."

Luke and Joanna got up on the couch and looked down on their siblings. "Ooooh, she's pretty, Daddy." Joanna whispered.

"She looks like you and your Mom." Joey said proudly. "I have beautiful girls and handsome boys."

"I'm not just handsome. I'm ruggedly handsome." Luke said proudly with a smirk.

Joey laughed quietly and Atem poked him in the ribs. "Yeah, he's acting more like you every day."

"True, I don't know if that's always a good or a bad thing." Joey snickered.

"True, Ryan takes my mischievous streak and does it tenfold." Atem grinned.

"And Alisa's shy like me." Yugi chuckled.

"We have a lot of twins." Loretta noted, glancing at her own twins.

"Yeah, we must have twins in our family." Atem chuckled. "Hali definitely has, but we must have as well."

"Maybe further back than we know." Loretta mused. She touched her baby bump. "I'm just glad I'm having one this time."

"Yeah, doing twins back to back is a pain in the butt." Hali grumbled. "But I wouldn't change it."

"Me neither. It's definitely worth all the pain and heartache they cause." Luna smiled, seeing her oldest interact with their baby brother and sister.

The others nodded and murmured in agreement.