Tracy was a nervous person by nature. Whenever something was off kilter in the office, he all but flew into a frenzy, and that was before he met Rae. He was so protective of her, he hated to see anything deviate, any hiccup in their plans or new obstacle in their lives.
Rae's first pregnancy was hectic. He was constantly scrambling, always nervous for his wife, as they were both unsure of the implications of the pregnancy, the parents being who they were. Rae tried to placate him throughout the first term, though it was more or less a lost cause, until the night baby Michelle was born, until the fright was over, replaced by the new terrifying, uncharted grounds of parenthood.
Tracy had no idea how to be a parent. The little things, like being able to put Michelle to sleep in the middle of the night, knowing what she needed and being able to take care of her while he let Rae sleep, those things seemed otherworldly to him, who had never known such unstable needs, nothing but organized paperwork and office hours. Still, he somehow seemed to know how to handle each situation on a subconscious level, and slowly the prospect of parenthood became less terrifying and more natural.
They raised Michelle, though having to explain to her about their small, happy family had been a task they'd put off for a while. Tracy and Rae knew that their union was an odd one, and that Michelle was an oddity in herself; while the adults were able to see past that, the children were not, and the discussion about love and marriage had occurred much sooner than either parent had planned.
It wasn't until Michelle was six - by human standards - that Rae was able to carry to term again, when little Lucas was born. After their second child was born, neither parent had expressed any plans to conceive again. But as they watched their children grow, Michelle graduating flight school and becoming an instructor, Lucas moving out to accommodate his schedule at the office, both parents realized how much they missed having young children, someone who was dependant, able to be taught and watched as they grew up before their eyes. They'd tried, for so long, to conceive again, but it never took, or something always went wrong. It was devastating, and the parents eventually gave up trying and hoping.
That's why when Rae told him that she was pregnant, that they were having twins, of all things, he leaned over the arm of the chair he sat in and kissed her, happily and fully, and he heard her laugh as he pulled back to see that tears had streaked little paths along her cheeks.
At the time he learned of the pregnancy, Rae was three months pregnant. They twins had survived the first trimester, and the chance of any mishaps had dropped considerably. It was entirely overwhelming for Tracy, who knew that he never handled these types of situations well to begin with. He found himself in a bit of a panic over the next few weeks, worrying about a whole new spectrum of problems that could arise from this pregnancy.
He dared not leave his wife's side when he could help it. He noticed how she advanced in her pregnancy much faster than she did with either Lucas or Michelle, which meant that she tired faster, sooner, that the hormones took their toll on her emotions, and that the next six months were highly unpleasant.
Tracy tried his best to comfort her during those trying months. She was more scared than he was, there was no doubt, and she would often wake in the middle of the night, convinced in her half-sleep that they'd lost the twins, and he would dry her tears and tell her that everything was fine, laying her back down and lull her back to sleep, rubbing a hand gently across the curve of her stomach, feeling a kick every now and then that simultaneously warmed him and sent shivers down his spine so that he would have to remind himself, that things would be allright.
Things would be fine, he told himself, and that was the truth.
They worked themselves into a bit of a routine, waking up from night terrors in the young hours of the morning, and perhaps that was why his reaction was a little slower than usual. She'd startled him awake with a cry, and he'd turned over to see her sitting halfway up, propping herself up on her elbows and gasping. "Tracy! Tracy, the twins!" was all that she managed, and he'd tried to placate her again, to tell her that everything was allright. When he looked up at her, he saw that she was not half-asleep as per the usual, that this was not the sleep-muddled result of a nightmare, and that she was wide awake. "No, no Tracy! The twins!"
As he threw the covers back and leapt from the bed, she let out a shrill laugh that sounded half elated and half terrified. He helped her stand, taking her in his arms and supporting her weight, seeing a large dark stain on the sheets where she'd been laying before he willed them from the house, right to the large double doors of the ward.
She let out a cry of pain and her knees buckled beneath her, her husband supporting her for the moment until a nurse came and took her away. Tracy kissed her forehead and told her he wouldn't be far behind, giving her hand a squeeze before she was torn from him.