AN: I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to update. I haven't forgotten about it and I'm not going to bore you with the details just know that my life has become really busy as I now have a job for the first time and it's also full time and I've had to get used to having no choice but it get up promptly and not allowed to ditch when I don't feel like going.

I'm not going to give a date as to when the next update will be but just know that this story is far from over and I will try to get chapter out as soon as possible.

Thank you so, so much staying with this and for still reading and now on with the chapter.

Chapter 6

Claire's POV

It feels so good to be home with my children. I've already been home for about a month now and finally the children have been given the okay to come home was well.

When I was told that they would have to stay in hospital longer and that I was able to go home I was not happy and Shane had to hold me back from hitting the doctor.

I was really happy cause it meant that I wouldn't have to sleep in an uncomfortable bed and I's be able to snuggle up with she now every single night but I wanted to be able to bring the children with mw so that I could feel like a proper parent.

Okay, I understand that they would have to stay longer cause they were not strong enough to be able to go home but I had yet to hold them and so to hear that I would have to spend less time with them I did not like at all. They also hadn't properly interacted with each other as they both in separate incubators and had all these wires and tubes coming out of them which I hated the sight of and whished every day that they weren't necessary.

Flashback

It was about mid-afternoon and Shane and I were sitting in my hospital room. Normally by now we would have gone to see the twins but the doctor had said that he wanted to speak to us and check to see how I was healing up and doing so we decided that we would wait together. I couldn't help but hope that his would mean that I would get to go home and therefore sleep in a comfortable bed all whist wrapped up in Shane's arms.

I was starting to get a bit agitated with how long we had to wait for the doctor as I really wanted to know what he would say and I was dying to see my children and see how they were doing. Then the doctor finally arrived.

"Sorry about the wait Claire. How are you feeling today?"

"Pretty good."

"Alright then, I'll just give you a final check over to make sure you are still healing up nicely and you will be glad to hear that I will rerelease you."

"Seriously? Yes, I finally get to go home."

He checked me over and did decided that I was ready to go home and then left to get the forms whilst I got changed.

When he came back with the forms for me to sign asked him if he knew anything about when their children would be allowed to go home or even just allowed to be held in mine and Shane's arms.

"Do you know when the children will be allowed to go home or at least able to leave their incubators?"

"As far as O know not for a few more weeks."

"Can you be a little bit more specific?" I nearly shouted.

"I'm sorry but it will all depend on how much they improve by each day."

That made me feel really frustrated cause surely the doctors would be tracking the progress made and then be able to give at least a round about time as to when they will be ready to at least leave their incubators so that I could finally know how it could feel to hold them in my arms.

"Okay thank you doctor." Shane said. The doctor then left us alone. "Claire, baby, calm down please. I know that you wanted to hear a definite date for when our children would be allowed to come home cause I feel the exact same way as you. We'll just have to be patient."

"I'm sorry Shane, it's just that when I do get the chance to see then I feel as though it's never for long and they are always surrounded by machines and things that I know they need but...I don't know, I just want them to be able to come home with us and have to rely on us for their care."

"I know Claire and they will eventually rely on us but not for a little bit longer alright. You could see this the longer they spend here the less time they will have spent being spoilt by our friends and family."

I was then calmer. Still annoyed, but calmer.

"Tell you what why don't you go ahead and see the children and I'll take your things down to the car and then join you." That perked me right up.

"How is it that you always know what to say and what I need to hear?"

"I call it a gift."

End Flashback

That first night home was one of the best nights since being in the hospital. It was probably cause I had spent so many nights sleeping in a really uncomfortable bed and now I was in one that was really comfortable ad I was now once again wrapped up in Shane's arms once again.

When Abigail and Ethan were able to go home I was so happy and a bit nervous. I know I had always said and gone on about how I really wanted them to be home and put into my care so that I could feel like a proper parent but now that I'm faced with it I fear that I'm going to end yup messing up due to the fact that I don't know that much about how to take care of a child and now two are being put in to my care.

Something tells me though that this is how every first time parent feels about it and I know that I will have Shane to fall back on and will be helping me out. He doesn't k now much about taking care of children either so we are both in the same boat. If I get into too much trouble and really start to struggle I can always call my parents for their help.

There is a part of me that thinks that most of the worries are not necessary cause if I think about it it's going to b e mostly be all common sense and in truth I don't have much to worry about. Except for the things that every parent worries about when it comes to their children.

When we were able to bring the kids home at last from the hospital we were met by Eve and Michael (obviously) and also my parents who were probably desperate to see their first grandchildren again.

My mum and Eve came straight up to us wanting to see the children and hold them. I really do think that they are going to be spoilt as they grow up.

I handed Abigail to mum and Eve got Ethan from Shane.

I could have easily held both of them but Shane is still being adamant that I not carry too much at the moment even though it's been over a month now since I'd had the children and he puts holding both of the children under that.

Overprotective idiot, I like that he cares but seriously, I have to be able to hold them both when they want to be fed seeing as I've decided to go down the breast feeding root and at some point feed then both at the same time. Thankfully I haven't had to do that yet as they both like to kick their legs and move their arms around and I fear that they would end up kicking or hitting each other. Although in saying that I may never have to cause I think that Shane should get a chance to fed the children so I do make up bottles so that he can then bond with them.

"I bet you two are so glad to have them home at last." My mum said.

"It does feel so nice to have them home finally." I replied as I sat down next to Eve. "I'm not going to be thinking that much sooner am I though."

"No, you probably won't when it comes to them always wanting something in the middle of the night and possibly as couple of times during the night. Let's just hope that when it comes to it Shane will be there to help it as you have two of them and I remember when you were just born your father would never wake up to your screaming and if I needed his help I would have to resort to hitting him or something to get him to wake up. But I had just you so let's just hope that Shane isn't one to sleep through anything."

"I hope so to." I don't think that I'd be able to cope if I had to take care of both of them at the same time.

That night when we were putting them to bed I started to feel uneasy about it. I know that I have nothing to worry about but when living in a town that's run by vampires you can't help but feel wary as you never know what could happen and I couldn't help but feel that when if Shane and I leave this room at any point something bad is going to happen. I know that it's unlikely that should something happen that it would go unnoticed and that what I'm feeling is probably due to the fact that I didn't want to leave them even though we were only going to be next door.

Shane could sense that there was something wrong with me. He's good at doing that it can be a bit creepy.

"Claire, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I'm fine, really." I didn't particularly want to tell him how I was actually feeling as I knew that he'd just think that I was being silly which I already knew and didn't need him to confirm it.

"I know you're lying Claire. You know that you can tell me anything." He told me as he wrapped his arms around me.

"It's just that I can't help but feel scared that if we leave this room something bad is going to happen to our children. I probably shouldn't feel like this but I can help it. They've just come out of hospital and nothing can happen to them." I was now working myself into a right state.

"Shh Claire. Everything's going to be alright, okay. I can see where you are coming from but everything will be alright. Tell you what if you allow them to sleep in here where they belong tonight and if you still feel the same way tomorrow I'll move their cribs and things into our room until you're ready for them to be in their own room. But you should know that they will have to be on their own at some point."

"But what if they start crying and cause we are in our sleeping and we don't hear them even with the baby monitor?"

"The likely hood of that happening is that I can't see it happening. Claire judging by what you just told me I can see you coming straight in here to see them and check on them at the slightest sound they make. Okay, now I think that we should get some sleep cause now that they are home we should try to get as much sleep as possible before they decide that they are going to wake us up wanting to be fed or something."

I managed to leave then but it was partly due to the fact that I had a feeling that Shane would not be adverse to picking me up and carrying me to our room until we were needed. He did however walk behind me and I believe it was cause he'd think that I would easily turn around and go back and to make sure that I even actually let the room.

The first time they woke up Shane proved my fear that we wouldn't wake up when they cry to be a legitimate fear. I was up straight away at hearing my children cry but Shane just carried on sleeping. I tried to wake him up by hitting him with a pillow but he just rolled over and started hugging the pillow. The cries of the twins were starting to get louder and I saw that I had no choice but to go to them now instead of trying to get Shane up to help me when I could tell that it was not going to happen any time soon.

When I went into the nursery I went to pick up Abigail first as she was nearest and noticed that she needed to be changed and so I had to deal with that first but then I knew that Ethan would need to be changed as well so after I'd changed her I would then have to put her back down and I have a feeling that she was also hungry and it made me feel as though I was being terrible cause her cries got worse when she was put back down.

Ugh, I wish Shane was here to help me with this. I can't handle this. I really need him right now.

When I had managed to change Ethan Shane had decided to turn up.

"Claire? What's going on?"

"Finally up I see. Our children needed us. I tried to wake you up but you decided to just roll over giving me no choice but to deal with them myself. Now that you are here can you take Abigail and feed her one of the bottles I made earlier as she's been waiting a while and probably hates me right now?" She was still crying but less so and probably thinks that her mum or anyone isn't going to go to her if she carries on crying.

I fed Ethan and just held him before I would put him down to sleep.

When Shane came back upstairs Abigail was asleep again and she looked so adorable and peaceful. If only it would last.

When Shane put her into her crib we then went back to bed to get some more sleep before we would be needed again. But not before having a go at Shane first

"Shane, can you promise me that you will not ever let me have to deal with both of them at the same time again? I don't know if I could go through that again. I started to feel as though Abigail hated me cause she would keep crying and no one would go to her and by the time you had come in her cries had started to actually lessen."

"I'm sorry that happened. I would never purposefully leave you to have to take care of them by yourself. I doubt Abigail hates you. No one could hate you. When you next try to wake maybe you should try to kick me out of bed when I won't wake up." I think he was trying to make me laugh or at least smile but I just turned onto my side and went back to sleep to try and get as many more hours as I could before we would be woken up again.

When they did wake up again it felt as though it had not been that long ago since they had just been up. And one again Shane didn't wake up straight away. But I did take his advice and ended up nearly pushing him off of the bed. He woke just before he fell and stopped himself

"What's going on? What's happened?"

"Kids." Was all I said as that was all I could really managed at this point, I'm going to be in such a bad mood tomorrow due to my lack of sleep I think.

With the thanks of Shane being here to help it didn't take as long thankfully. I got Abigail and Shane got Ethan.

Even though it didn't take as long for us to sort them out Abigail went right back to sleep after she Was changed and then fed but Ethan, who was fed and changed, didn't want to settle back down and would start to whimper when we would go to put him down. I think he just wanted to be held.

Eventually we were able to get back to our room where we just fell straight back to sleep and I may have even been asleep before my head touched my pillow.

This time we were able to get a good few hours of sleep.

Shane's POV

In the morning I was awake before Claire and for this I was thankful cause hopefully I would be able to make up for last night where I unintentionally pissed her off as I had not woken up when the kids needed us and so I think that she should have some extra time to sleep .

I think that it shouldn't be too hard to take care of them as I've slept some and don't feel all that tired. Now that I've said that I have a feeling it'll be the complete opposite now.

When I went into the nursery I saw that at the moment only my baby girl was awake and that Ethan was still peacefully sleeping and so it meant that how I was going to proceed was quite obvious. I guess this different from what Claire had been through as both children would have been crying and she would have also been tired and had to choose whop to see to first. I think that Claire would like for me to experience what she went through last night so that I could truly be sorry for giving her no choice but to take care of the children by herself. Me, not so much after seeing how she felt towards me after dealing with them on their own.

Changing Abigail was a bit difficult as she didn't feel like keeping her arms and legs still and after struggling I could hear her start to whimper and so that told me that I had to hurry up before she actually started to cry so that she didn't wake up her brother. Also the baby monitor was still on and near Claire so if she starts to cry and it wakes up Claire will ruin my plans for her to get some extra sleep.

"Shh baby girl, it's alright daddy's here." I made gently rocking movements with my arms in an attempt to sooth her and it did work slightly. By this point Ethan had had now woken up and so I had to put Abigail down so that I could see to Ethan and then feed them both.

Abigail didn't like being put back down and her whimpers started up again.

I wonder if this is what Claire ha to do last night on her own.

I managed to get Ethan changed fairly quickly meaning that I was then able to pick them both up which I'm not quite sure how I managed cause I had to make sure their heads were supported but I managed it and was then able to take them downstairs so that I could feed them.

I did then start thinking about how I would go about feeding both of the children as I only have one pair of and they are being used to hold the children.

However when I walked into the kitchen Eve was already in there (I guess she has work) and so hopefully she would be willing to help me out.

"Hey Shane, I'm surprised to see you up so early."

"The kids were up and so am I."

"I knew it would be due to them but I thought it would be Claire who was awake at this time."

"I got up instead cause I wanted Claire to get some extra sleep as I may have accidently made Claire have to take care of the kids by herself."

"How did you mange to do that?"

"They started to cry which Claire heard and therefore woke up due to it but I stayed asleep. She tried to wake me up but all I did was roll over onto my opposite side and then only woke up when I realised that she wasn't in bed with me anymore and now I'm trying to make it up to her by taking care of them and letting her get a couple of extra hours of sleep."

"You are such an idiot. How do you plan on feeding them?"

"Would you be willing to help me as I have my hands full?" I was a bit embarrassed as I would have had to have found a way to do it should she of not been there.

"I would love to."

She took Abigail into her arms which then enabled me to still hold Ethan but be able to get their milk warmed up so they could be fed as soon as possible.

When they were fed and had stopped being fussy we were then able to put them in their mosses baskets that we have downstairs so that we don't have to be constantly going up and down stairs when they fall asleep after being fed.

Eve left at some point but I was unaware of that as I just couldn't tear me eyes away from them. I know that it probably sounds weird but when I see them sleeping they just look so completely adorable and it then makes me think how is it that when they are awake they are able to make the amount of noise that they make when crying. Although it could just be that when one starts crying it then sets the other off and then they end up crying at the same time and therefore end up being really loud.

A couple of hours later I thought that it might be best if I went and checked on Claire. If she's still sleeping that would be good but if she's awake the first thing that she would do would be to check on the kids ad she would then completely freak out if she were to find out that the kids were not where she thinks they should be, especially after how she felt when we were putting them into their beds last night.

Although in saying that I think that she is going to most likely to still be asleep or just about to wake up cause I know that if she was awake there would probably be screaming by now for which I'm thankful for cause I worry that if she was to freak out that it would somehow make what I'm trying to do seem like a bad thing when it's meant to make up for last night.

When I went into the room Claire was just starting to stir and I could see the arm that was closest to my side of the bed move around as though she trying to find me but coming up empty.

Then she woke up and first looked at my side of the bed and looked really confused as she would have expected me to still be there. I guess its cause I left her to sleep and she has a tendency to wake up before me of I'm awake I stay in bed with her still as she's always in my arms when we sleep. Then she noticed me standing by the door.

"Good morning Claire." I said then placed a kiss on her lips.

"It defiantly is." I could see that she was about to say something and I had a feeling that it was going to be about the kids so I decided to beat her to it.

"Before you even say anything I know what you're thinking and they have already been fed, changed and dressed and are now sleeping so you have nothing to be worried about."

"Thank you. How did you cope with handling them?"

"Would you be willing to accept my most sincere apology for making you have no choice but to take care of them both whilst they are wanting you and needing you at the same time?"

"Yes I would. I'm going to guess that it was hard?"

"Defiantly but you had it harder as you would have been tired and pissed at me for not waking up to help you out."

I pulled her into my arms so I could hold her and kiss her again, trying to show how much I love her, before we headed down for breakfast.

After breakfast we then went into the living room where the twins were. Just as we entered the room they started to cry.

Brilliant timing was my immediate thought.

I got Ethan and Claire got Abigail and much like last night when I was there to help her deal with them we got them sorted out fairly quickly.

When they had settled back down we both had the same thought which was that we couldn't resist a chance to watch them sleep peacefully from the comfort and in the safety of our arms.

"Would you be willing to move the cribs today into our room? After how I felt last night I don't want to feel it again and although I don't know if I will feel it tonight I don't want the chance to feel it again."

"Okay as I don't want to see you like that either. So, I have a question to ask, do you know when you'll have to get back to work with Myrnin?"

"No. I do know that'll be allowed a few months off so that I can bond with them and recover but the exact amount of time I'll be allowed I don't know. I'm hoping that it'll be for a few months but when I did tell Amelie that I was pregnant she was not all that happy about me wanting to having time off and leaving Myrnin on his own. I guess she doesn't trust him to be on his own and therefore needs me there to make sure that he doesn't do something stupid. I suspect that Amelie will find me or come here and tell me when I have to be back at work."

We didn't have to wait long to find out how much time Claire would have off as Amelie came around in the evening after we had just put the kids down. I was just about to go downstairs when I heard Amelie talking to Claire and thought that it might be a good idea if I just let them talk as I thought that it might not be a good if I don't like what's being said.

"I've come to let you know officially how much time you can have off and when I expect you to be back working with Myrnin. I'm going to allow you to have two months off from work and then I expect you to come back and you will be working Monday to Friday from nine until two for the first five months and from then on you will be working nine till five from then on. I'm not very happy about this as the barriers are still down and we cannot have people knowing that they will be able to leave without any vampires knowing." She can't be serious that's barely any time off at all.

"But what will then happen when everything's fixed, will I still have to work for Myrnin or will that be it?" Please say she'll finally be free from him, please.

"You will still have to work for him as you will be there to help keep the machine working and should it fail again or should any problems occur you can start to fix them or sort any problems out straight away" Damn it.

"That's fine then." What? "I will say this though I do have a problem with the amount of time you want to give me. Don't get me wrong I'm grateful that you are but I just feel as though I could do with having more time off to get used to a routine that involves lack of sleep."

"Well I'm afraid to tell you this Claire but I find it impossible to give you any more time than two months before you have to get back to work. It's already been too long for the barriers down and I fear that should they be down much longer then the humans will start to revolt, resulting in there being many casualties on both sides of the fight."

"Well can't Myrnin work by himself to get the machine working again?"

"He already is and I need to know that there is someone with him to keep him in line whilst the work is going on so that I know that things will go as planned and so that we won't end up with the problems we had with Ada."

"Do I get a choice in this?"

"That would all depend on how you look at it. You can choose to come back to work with no hassle or you can refuse and risk facing the consequences should you not. Either way you will be back at work with Myrnin." So she basically has no choice in the matter.

"Okay fine I accept what you've offered me." Claire replied dejectedly. I've always hated it when she sounds like that.

"Excellent. I'll see you in two months at the lab."

She left after that.

When I got downstairs I could clearly see that Claire was not happy with what had just happened. I sat on the settee next to her and then pulled her onto my lap.

"I heard you talking to Amelie. Just so you know I don't like it anymore than you do."

"If you heard it why didn't you come down here as well?"

"I thought that it might be best if the conversation was better left between you and Amelie cause knowing me when I'm not happy about something, I would have said or done something that would have led to me getting into trouble. I can't believe that you don't have a choice in whether or not you work for Myrnin. It sucks."

"I know that you don't like me working for him but I actually enjoy it and since the cure was found for the disease all the vamps suffered from he's been a lot better and constantly out for my blood. I know that he could still easily kill me but please trust me when I say that I will always come home to you and our children alright."

"I guess I'll just have to live with it won't I" Claire just nodded and snuggled up closer to me. "Now, I think that we should head upstairs before we get woken up."

I then carried her up to our room which she protested against at first but I guess she then saw that I had no intention of putting her down she stopped.

It was nice walking into our bedroom and hearing the soft breathing of the children. I now think that this having the children in here would be a good thing cause now I believe there is a better chance that I'll wake up straight away and be able to help Claire out instead of having to have Claire hurt me cause it can hurt when she pushes me out of bed.

I hope she never finds that out, she might do that when she's pissed at me and then make me sleep on the settee.

AN: Again I would like to say thank you for still reading this story.

I will try to update as soon as possible. Feel free to send me a review or PM with you thoughts.