CoAi Week Day 5/Prompt: Secret
Summary: "Do you think they'll ever forgive me? If they manage to figure out all the secrets we have...Will they forgive us? Will they hate me?"
Another painful scream erupted from inside the closed door of the hospital room and into the hallway, causing Kudo Shinichi to wince and for his sweaty hands to ball up into fists. All his willpower to remain seated was slowly going down the sink as each minute passed and as more screams coming from inside the room filled his ears.
He banged his hand against the small wooden table beside him, causing one of the magazines on it to fall to the floor.
This was total bullshit–how dare they keep him from being by her side during this moment they've been preparing for almost a whole year!? And just because they lacked the curtain to cover her lower body and didn't want him to get "scarred" during the procedure. Heck, his line of work already did that for him with the corpses he's encountered.
He promised her, way back after they've come out of the doctor's office from her ultrasound appointment, that he'll be there by her side like the first time, clutching her sweat-covered hand, letting her squeeze his hand as hard as she'd want, and then finally embrace her after the whole ordeal was over, letting her know it all turned out well. Instead of being with her this moment, he was put in the hospital's waiting room, forced to sit patiently until the door opened.
Fourteen hours have now passed since he last saw her and he was still in the isolated waiting room with his worry-filled thoughts and frustrated anger keeping him company. The screams that he had heard earlier ceased for a period of time, at least 30 to 40 minutes, before resuming once more, along with the doctor and nurses shouting orders.
Worry was picking at his side like a thorn as the wailing and screeching from inside slowly faded away. What was going on in there? Did something bad happened? Or was this nightmare finally over?
"Kudo-san?"
Shinichi looked up from the floor to see who had addressed him. It was a nurse and the doctor, smiling warmly at him.
"Is she..?" Shinichi whispered, loud enough for only the two people in front of him to hear.
The doctor nodded softly. "All went well, no complications and both your wife and the children are doing fine. You can go inside now and meet your new son and daughter."
The young man didn't need to be ask twice as he jumped off the chair and ran to the room, bursting inside.
What a wonderful sight greeted him.
Right in the middle of the dimly-lit room, resting on the hospital bed was his wife and two little bundles cradled in both her arms. Through the dark rings under her eyes and her disheveled hair, he could see her beaming with joy and emitting a strong motherly glow as she whispered softly to their newborn twins.
A soft smile formed on his lips as he continued to watch.
She finally noticed his presence and looked up. "Come over here, they won't bite.", she teased and chuckled at the facial reaction he gave her. "They still have a long way to go before they start growing their teeth.", she continued when he had come over and pulled a chair closer to the bed.
"We'll use our past experiences and also baby remedies when that time comes around. There's no way I want to walk with baby drool all over my shirt again, Shiho." He responded with a small laugh before focusing his full attention back to the twins in her arms. "So, we have a second daughter and our very first son."
"Hai, fraternal twins." Shiho confirmed, a tinge of pride evident in her voice. "We won't be having problems guessing who's who."
Shinichi smiled as a response. "Care to tell me which one was born first?"
She nodded and gestured towards the baby on her left arm, who was silent and looking around with half-closed eyes unlike their other twin, who was still squirming and wailing loudly. Shinichi shimmied closer to the bed so he could get a better look at his child and to take in the small details; they had a small mass of sleek dark brown hair, a little button nose, red-tinged cheeks, and finally a set of dark brown eyes that looked straight at him.
"Your genes are pretty damn strong, Kudo-kun. First Aiko and now with our very first son! He looks so much like you, it almost seems as if you were reborn again.", Shiho commented, clarifying that the first twin out was their first son.
"I can see some things from you in him as well! For instance, look at those cheeks, they're chubby just like yours! He also has your small nose and lips. Hmm...that dark brown hair is definitely from my mother's side of the family and those eyes are exactly the same shade as my grandmother's.", Shinichi said as he reached out to caress his son's hair. The child closed his eyes at the contact but opened them once more after his father pulled back.
The detective flashed his newborn son a warm smile; the infant responded by yawning and averting his gaze back to his mother. This prompted a light chuckle from both parents.
"Now then, I reckon this one here is our second daughter?" Shinichi said, now focusing on the infant in Shiho's right arm. The little red-faced baby girl had stopped wailing and was now nothing but a bunch of sniffles and whimpers with eyes tightly closed. He looked her over, from the light reddish-brown strands of hair on her head to her quivering chin.
Shiho nodded as she bent down and softly pressed her lips against one of her daughter's chubby cheeks, kissing away a tiny tear.
"She took her precious time," Shiho said, laughing, "The doctor and nurses were beginning to think maybe she was too big to go through my entrance and had gotten stuck. They were this close to pushing me down to the surgery room for an emergency C-section, when her full head had managed to slide out."
"Oh man, don't tell me that." Shinichi groaned. "I was a nervous wreck wondering if everything was going well."
"You're talking like as if this was our first child.", the redhead teased.
"Well, this is our first time having twins. Then there's the fact something bad could go wrong.", Shinichi said, defending himself. "Anyway, look at her….Seems like someone finally managed to inherit most of your genes."
"Yes or maybe one of your sperm lacked your genetic coding.", Shiho smirked.
His brows furrowed in playful annoyance as he carefully reached out and grabbed his daughter from her arm and into his arms, cradling her. She responded to this by squirming and whimpering, her lip quivering as if she were to cry again.
"Same hair color, only maybe a shade lighter.", he noted.
"It'll darken later. You should've seen my baby pictures.", Shiho commented.
"Now that, is something I would definitely want to see. After all, you already got a full glimpse of all mine thanks to my mother."
Shiho giggled. "Yes, and they were definitely worth it."
Shinichi rolled his eyes playfully.
"Our little daughter here looks a lot like you–a baby version of you."
"Except with some of your traits thrown to the mix."
"Hai, like her eye color! My paternal grandfather had this shade of blue."
"And so do you, baka."
The detective opened his mouth, ready to retaliate, but the muffled ringing of his phone in his jacket had quickly interrupted him. He handed Shiho their daughter back and grabbed his phone to take the call.
"Moshi moshi? Oh, Akai…..Yes, the twins were just born...Like at least an hour ago or so…..Yes, she's doing well….Wait, right now?? I thought you were coming later this week….Oh okay….Okay, see you soon."
He hung up and looked at his wife, who now had a displeased look on her face.
"What did he want?" She asked, venom dripping at the edge of her sentence.
Shinichi sighed, scratching his head nervously.
"He's coming over right now to check on the twins' info, like time of birth and weight, and put it on the FBI database. Along with applying them under your name in the witness protection program, just like how they did with Aiko when she was born."
Shiho scoffed, shaking her head.
Her husband replied to this by sighing. Even though the whole truth about Akai Shuichi have been let out of the bag, Shiho still held a grudge against the FBI agent. The idea of him coming over to check up on her newborn children did not sit well with her, just like when she had her first child and he had come over for the same reason. She didn't even take into reconsideration a change of attitude when it came to light that they were both related through their mothers.
"Shiho, he's–"
"If you think it's because of my sister and the fact he's been lying to me this whole time–no it's not. I just don't want our children to get drag into this fucking mess. All I want is for everything involving the organization to be left behind in the past where it should. No more living in a world shrouded with secrets and lies, cruel-filled lies.", the woman snapped.
The twins began to wail loudly as her outburst had terrified them.
Shinichi watched as his wife's demeanor changed in a matter of seconds and she looked with horror at what she had caused. Quickly, she began to hush the two, whispering small apologies for frightening them until their wails had become nothing but sniffles and whimpers.
"You know as well as I do that we're still in danger from the organization. What Akai and the FBI is doing is to ensure protection not only for you and me, but also for the twins and Aiko. Isn't that something you want?", he said after he was sure the twins have finally calmed down.
His wife turned towards him. "It is something I want," she began, "But the fact that we have to lie to our children is breaking my goddamn heart. I don't want to live in a world full of secrets, Shinichi. It's hell and I don't want to go through it again, especially with our children. I'm okay with just shrouding away my past, who would even want to know their mother was a killer scientist who worked for the mafia. I was hoping we wouldn't have to get our children involved into this, but no. Then there's the fact that remains of that fucking drug is running through their veins thanks to us–Do you think they'll ever forgive me? If they managed to figure out all the secrets we have….Will they forgive us? Will they hate me?"
"Shiho," Shinichi reached out and grabbed her trembling hand, "There's no way our kids will ever hate you. You're the one who carried them in your womb for 9 months and who gave them life. They'll love you for who you weren't back then, but for who you are now; they'll remember you in their childhood as a loving caring mother who would do anything to make sure they were happy and safe." Softly, he kissed her lips and ran a hand through her hair.
After breaking the kiss, he looked deep into her turquoise eyes.
"Tell you what, to make sure this doesn't bother us for the rest of our lives, why don't we tell them when they're much older, say when Aiko is at least in her 20s and the twins are 17 or 18. I'm sure they'll understand when we explain everything. Hopefully around that the time, that damn organization will be fully eliminated."
"And if they aren't gone, then we won't.", Shiho whispered softly. "I don't want those fucking bastards anywhere near them. It'll be over my dead body."
"Mine as well," Shinichi said, squeezing her hand, "Don't worry, all this keeping secrets will come to an end at one point and hopefully no one is going to get injured badly or worse, killed."
Her lips formed a soft smile.
"I hope you're right, Shinichi," she whispered, "I hope you're right….."
For the next 20 minutes, they sat there, anticipating their 5-year old daughter's reaction when she gets to see her new little brother and sister, reminiscing of the good things that have happened in their troubled life, pondering what the future will bring for their now family of 5, and cooing over their newborn twins, who were lulled to sleep by their parents' conversation.
Froody's Afternote: Yesss more ShinShi babies lmao