From Now Until Forever

Chapter 31

It was just after 2:00 pm when Dr. Martinez came into the room with something in her hand which she handed to Derek before saying "we are going to get ready to take you down to the OR" Penelope smiled and said "let's go and have some babies" Derek made his way into the rooms bathroom and quickly changed into the dark blue scrubs that Dr. Martinez had given him he folded his clothes and left the bathroom just as the orderlies entered the room he put his clothes on top of Penelope's bag and made his way to her side as Dr. Martinez began disconnecting Penelope from the fetal monitors.

Fran stood up and hugged her son and said "good luck Baby Boy" when she let go of Derek she moved towards Penelope and leaned over and gently hugged her she heard the doctor say that they were ready to go and Fran pulled away and watched them walk out of the room Derek held Penelope's hand the whole way to the OR he could feel her squeezing it tightly but he didn't care he knew that she was beginning to get scared and he was going to be there for her no matter what when they reached the OR door Dr. Martinez said "Derek you will have to wait out here just until we get her settled and then I will have a nurse come and get you" she entered the scrub in area and grabbed a hat, mask and little booties to go over his shoes she came out and handed them to him and went back in where she began getting herself to perform Penelope's c-section.

Not 10 minutes later a nurse came out to get him and when he entered the OR he could not believe just how many people were in the room he guessed there had to have been at least 30 doctors and nurses, the nurses showed him to where he could sit beside Penelope he sat down and took her hand in his and said "I am here Baby Girl, I am here" when Penelope looked at him he could tell that she had tears in her eyes he bought his lips to her hand and kissed it gently, all of a sudden the room went quiet and Dr. Martinez said to no one in particular "is everybody ready" there was a chorus of "yeses" from around the room and she replied "ok Penelope you are going to feel some tugging and pulling but at any stage you begin to feel any pain please let the anesthesiologist know and he will top up you pain medication" Penelope said "ok" Dr. Martinez said "ok let's have some babies."

Dr. Martinez made the incisions and immediately set to work with the help of her associate Dr. Cameron in delivering the first baby she called out "baby A is a boy born at 2:20 pm" and boy did he have a set of lungs on him as he screamed at being taken from his cozy home Dr. Cameron cut the cord before Dr. Martinez handed him over to the team of nurses and the pediatric doctor, Dr. Cameron had smaller hands so she reached in and gently pulled the baby A's twin down from under Penelope's rib cage and was soon delivered and again called out "baby B is also a boy born at 2:22 pm" as she cut the cord he let out a little whimper as Dr. Cameron handed him over to a nurse who took him to the warmer to be checked over like his brother had been just a few minutes before.

Dr. Martinez had to break the amniotic sac that the girls were in and soon Baby C was delivered an she called out "baby C is a girl born at 2:24 pm" her cord was cut and she was handed over to a nurse, Dr. Cameron reached in and again gently pulled the last baby from under Penelope's rib cage and was soon being pulled out of the home that she had called home for the past 7 months and let out a high pitched cry to show her disapproval Dr. Martinez said "baby D is also a girl born at 2:26 pm" her cord cut and she was handed over to be checked out, Dr. Martinez asked "so Penelope have you got names for you little quad squad" Penelope smiled and said "Baby A is Zachary James, Baby B is Zavier Michael, Baby C is Madison Ivy and Baby D is Mia Francine each baby has the middle which is the first names of their grandparents and being that only one is still alive we though that would be something that they would never forget."

As Penelope was being sewn up a nurse bought each of the babies over so that Penelope and Derek could see them, Derek couldn't get over just how little they were Penelope could keep the tears from flowing freely down her cheeks once they had gotten to see each of the babies they were bundled into humidity cribs and taken out of the room and up to the NICU, Dr. Martinez had finished sewing and cleaning Penelope up, she then gave Penelope some medication to help her uterus contract back down to a reasonable size and then began to move her out of the OR and into recovery, Derek followed Penelope to her recovery room but was not allowed in just yet so he decided to go and find his Mamma and give her the good news and maybe they would let him and his Mamma into see the babies.

Derek made his way to the waiting room where he not only found his Mamma but the entire team sitting there waiting for any news and he couldn't hide the smile that was plastered on his face because at that moment he was the father to 4 healthy little babies, Fran was busting with excitement and said "come on Baby Boy don't leave us in suspense any longer" Derek laughed and said "ok Mamma, we have 4 very small but very healthy babies the 2 boys were born first and then the 2 girls I don't know how much they weigh just yet we were given a quick glimpse of each one before they were taken to the NICU but ohhhh my god Mamma they are so tiny" Fran hugged her son as tears rolling down her cheeks finally her dreams that her only son would give her some grand-babies that would carry on the Morgan name everyone else stood up and began to congratulate Rossi saw that Fran was crying and he wrapped his arms around her.

When Derek saw his Mamma wrapped in the arms of his friend he noticed that both of them were happy and it was then that he realized that that was what his Mamma was missing all these years she was missing the love of a man and now she had found that in David Rossi and he couldn't be happier for both of them, but that was not what the matter at hand the matter at hand was his fiancee and brand new babies he needed to go back to Penelope's room to grab the bag that had the babies knitted hats and blankets and take them to the NICU he said to his Mamma and the team "I need to get something's from Penelope's room and then I am going to head to the NICU to see if they will let me see my babies and if I can see them I will get some photos of them to show you" with that Derek left his family and made his way to the room.

Penelope was dozing in recovery she couldn't believe her miracles were here they were so tiny but she knew from their birth that each of them were going to be ok, she opened her eyes and looked around the room for Derek but he wasn't there so she figured he must be out talking to his Mamma or he was visiting the babies, she tried to move to get herself into a more comfortable position but was hit with a sharp pain across her incision site but luckily she had a button that she could push to administer some pain relief within a few minutes the pain relief kicked in and she fell asleep again.

Derek retrieved the bag of hats and blankets as well as his camera, Fran and the team followed him from the room down the hall towards where the babies were, when they reached the NICU Derek spoke to one of the nurses at the desk and she checked the bracelets that he had on his wrist to make when she saw that the ID bracelets matched the name on the newest arrivals she couldn't help but smile and she said "you are fine to go in you can take one family member in with you but I will need you to wear a gown and sterilize your hands before and after you leave" Derek said "that is fine I was wondering if I could take these in there with me, we have given each of our babies a certain color so that we know who is who being that both the boys and the girls are identical" he held the bag up for the nurse to see and she "of course you can take them in there, it is nice to see premmie babies wearing something from home rather than hospital issued items" Derek turned to his Mamma he didn't even need to say a word and she knew what he was asking.

Rossi called out and said "we will go and see if Kitten is awake or find out when she will be back in her room" Derek nodded as the nurse took them to get suited up so that they could see the babies, once they were suited up they entered the room where there had to have been at least 10 babies some were smaller than their quads a nurse greeted them and asked "you are new faces in here can I see your ID bracelet Derek pulled the sleeve of his gown up a little and held his hand out to the nurse she gasped and said "I am one of the nurses looking after your little quad squad" she looked behind Derek and saw Fran and asked "who have you bought in with you today" Derek stepped sideways and said "this is my mother Fran" Fran waved and the nurse began walking towards the quads who were all side by side in their warming beds.

Fran could hardly contain her emotions she couldn't believe just how small they were she had tears rolling own her cheeks yet again as she looked at each of her grand-babies each of them had a nasal cannula giving them a little oxygen they each had several IV drips connected to their tiny bodies she faintly heard Derek asking "can we put these on the babies please so that I can take some photos for my fiancée" the nurse nodded as Derek opened the bag and pulled out the first set which was blue and he said to the nurse "that is for Baby A" the nurse walked over to the bed that was marked A and carefully took the little cotton hat off his head and put the knitted one on before placing the blanket over him she moved to the next bed marked B and Derek pulled out the green hat and blankets again she carefully took the cotton hat off and put the knitted one and then placed the blanket over him again they moved to the next bed marked C he pulled out the purple set and handed it to the nurse she quickly but carefully put the hat on and covered her with the blanket and last but certainly not least was the youngest he gave the nurse the pink hat and blanket and she put the hat and placed the blanket over her tiny body.

Derek went back to baby A and he noticed that the announcement card didn't have the babies names on them he called the nurse over and asked if she could write each of the babies names on the cards she happily obliged Derek said "this handsome little man here is Zachary James, also is there anyway that I can get each babies weight please" the nurse smiled and went to get a scrap piece of paper so that she could write them down for him Zachary weighed 2lb 10oz, they move on to baby B he said "this handsome little prince here is Zavier Michael, it starts with a Z not an X" the nurse wrote Zavier's weight down on the piece of paper which was 2lb 9oz, they soon came to baby C and he said "my little princess here is Madison Ivy" he smiled as his little princess opened her eyes the nurse wrote Madison's weight down which was 2lb 8oz finally they stopped at baby D he said "this little angel here is Mia Francine" Fran smiled knowing that each of the babies had their grand-parents first names as their middle names again the nurse wrote down the weight and Mia weighed 2lb 7oz, Derek took several photos of each baby.

Derek said "are we allowed to touch them" the nurse nodded and Derek leaned in and kissed each and everyone of his babies foreheads before he said "come on Mamma let's go see if Penelope is awake and back in her room, before Derek and Fran left the NICU Derek asked "is there anyway to be informed of when they are going to be fed because if it is ok I would like to be here to help feed one them" the nurse said "we are going to get ready to feed them within the next 30 minutes and I don't see why you can't come and help, your babies are the strongest set of quads I have seen born at 30 weeks they are doing really well" Derek couldn't help but smile when he heard that because he knew Penelope did what ever she could to keep them in as long as possible.

Penelope was being moved back to her room and she was desperate to see her Hot Stuff she wanted an update on her babies but when she asked one nurse she said she would find out but never came back to tell her anything, as Penelope was being pushed towards her room she saw the team standing there waiting for her smiled and gave them a little wave she also noticed that Derek and Fran weren't there, once Dr. Martinez got Penelope settled again she exited the room and said "Penelope is asking for you, so go on in she might be a little groggy still but you are welcome to sit with her" Rossi smiled and said "thank you doctor" and they headed into her room.

A few minutes later Derek and Fran returned to Penelope's room and found Penelope chatting quietly with the team as Derek walked in the door Penelope looked up and smiled before saying "how are our little miracles doing Handsome" Derek moved over to her bedside and turned on his camera and began to show Penelope the photos that he had taken of each baby and she knew by the colored hats and blankets which baby was which when she saw the photos of the boys she said "I think our boys look just like you Handsome" Fran said "they look exactly like Derek when he was a baby but they are just smaller" Derek turned back to Penelope and said "I think our little girls look just you Goddess" once Penelope had seen the photos Derek passed the camera around so that the rest of the team could see the pictures of the babies.