The rest of the story will be written in Mauras POV unless otherwise stated!
16 Weeks
"You cannot be serious." Jane complained, staring at me with a blank expression as I wheeled a wheelchair into the living room. I pretended not to notice Frankie chuckling in the corner of the living room.
"All of the books say that by this time in my pregnancy I need to be avoiding standing on my feet as much as possible." I told her, my face twisting in confusion as I tried to understand her reluctance to the wheelchair.
"Babe you are pregnant, not disabled." She said with an expression I could not read. Her eyes widened slightly and there was a subtle hint of a smile playing at the corners of her stupidly perfect lips.
"Jane I have two sixteen week old babies inside of me." I started, taking a deep breath as I pulled my blazer off, sweat starting to bead on my forehead. "The more energy I exert, the more blood that stops flowing to the babies and starts flowing to my muscles. Do you know what that means?" I asked her, placing both my hands on my hips.
"We'll have really pale babies?" I heard Frankie laugh louder now, and it was impossible to stop myself from turning to glare at him until he went back to being quiet. It was amazing what being pregnant made possible. I had started to notice that I could silence anyone with a mere look. It was strangely empowering.
"Preterm contractions and labour, that's what it means." I said, ignoring her blatant attempt at a joke. She held her hands up in front of me in surrender. She knew she wasn't winning this battle.
"Do you really think you'll need a wheelchair though, Maura?" She asked, looking down at the black wheelchair in front of me with disgust. I groaned loudly, pushing it away from me.
"You're right; forget it. You and your mother go." I huffed; annoyed that she wasn't giving me anything to work with. She wasn't the one who had to sit in the ugly thing. I moved to sit beside Frankie on the sofa. He shifted awkwardly before standing up and moving into the kitchen and I momentarily felt bad for being so moody around him. Jane knelt down in front of me, placing her hands on both my knees.
"I'm sorry." She said quietly, smiling apologetically as she rubbed my legs softly.
"I am so frustrated." I complained, pouting as I threw my arms down on either side of me. My stomach had really popped in the past two weeks, and everything felt like a huge effort. I found myself pulling a chair up to the dishwasher while I was loading it. It had even gotten so bad I couldn't stand through an autopsy. "This isn't easy." I told her, gesturing to my stomach that was six weeks larger than it would be if there was only one baby in there.
"And I'm not helping you." She added, earning a slow nod from me. "Okay, come on." She said, standing and holding her hands out to me. I let her pull me up off the sofa and I frowned as my feet started to ache almost immediately.
"This whole two babies thing sucks so far." I told her, earning a quiet laugh as I hair away from my face. I took a deep breath and remembered what it was we were doing today and a shot of excitement jolted through me. "Go get your mother and my mother." I told Frankie, who did as I said the second I said it.
"Should I put this in the car?" Jane asked reluctantly, placing her hands on the wheelchair sitting in the middle of the room. It was only then did I realise how ridiculous I was being.
"Did we just argue over a wheelchair?" I asked, frowning as I tried to comprehend why I had reacted so strongly to Janes objections. She pursed her lips and without saying a word, wheeled the wheelchair away. "I'm sorry. I just... After all we went through to get them safely…"
"I know." She hushed me, holding my face in her hands as she spoke. "You just want them to be safe, no one can fault you for that. But I don't think walking to pick out cribs will hurt them."
It had taken us so much to get here. It had taken so much money I tried to forget, it had taken an inhuman amount of strength and an incredible amount of love to get these babies where they are now. As silly as I felt for being so overly cautious, maybe the whole mothers instinct thing had some merit to it.
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"Do you know if they're identical?" Angela asked curiously, her arm intertwined with Janes who had a hand resting on my lower back. Jane frowned lightly as we made our way from the car to the first furniture store.
"What else would they be?" Jane asked curiously. I tried my best to stifle the giggle that was rising in my chest, but the second I heard my mother laugh from beside me I lost it. Jane looked at me with a frown.
"We could have fraternal twins." I reminded her, leaning across to press my lips to her cheek when she closed her eyes, shaking her head in embarrassment. "The doctor can usually tell with a sonogram." I started, directing my attention to Angela as I spoke this time. "Identical twins tend to share the same placenta."
"Interesting." Angela said as we walked into the store, my heart seeming to automatically settle on the first crib I laid my eyes on.
"Do you want to find out?" My mother asked, running her hand along the length of a beautiful mahogany crib.
"There are more risks with identical twins when it comes to giving birth, so if anything I would like to know merely so we, and the doctor, can prepare." I made a point to look around and make sure Jane was still close by. Taking her anywhere with cute baby clothes and toys meant always running the risk of losing her. Thankfully today she was seeming to keep her focus.
"Do you they make cribs for twins?" Jane quizzed, standing in one spot and looking around the large showroom, trying to find the answer to her question.
"Why? Do you plan on keeping them both in the same room?" My mother asked with a slight expression of confusion and worry on her face. I bit down on my bottom lip and realised Jane and I probably had far more important things to be talking about than paint colours.
"Why would we separate them?" Jane asked with raised eyebrows, looking at me now.
"Well, what if one wakes up in the middle of the night and wakes up the other?" I questioned, realising why my mother had asked at all. Jane pursed her lips, frowning slightly as she tried to come up with an answer.
"Then we both get up." She said, gesturing between the two of us. "I don't want them to sleep in different rooms." She added, leaning closer to me so the words were shared only between the two of us.
"Worst case scenario we can just move one of the cribs." I realised, noting that there was no real issue here at all. I had to admire how well we had just worked that out considering neither of us had thought to think of it until today.
"Let me buy this for you." My mother chimed in suddenly, her hands still resting on the mahogany crib I had first seen when we came into the store. My eyes drifted up to the price tag and I felt my stomach drop. I started shaking my head, placing a hand over the top of my mothers.
"It's too expensive, and we need two, mother. I cannot ask you to…"
"I'll get the second one." Angela chimed in suddenly, catching us all off guard. "I needed to get you a baby shower present anyway." She shrugged, her eyes widening slightly when she noted the price tag.
"We really don't need designer cribs." Jane said nervously, not knowing how to accept the gift from both our parents without seeming rude. I nodded in agreement, turning back to look at my mother who had a frown on her face.
"You're saying no to my gift?" She said, and I atomically mirrored her frown, knowing exactly what she was trying to do.
"We accept it." Jane said before I had the chance to stop her. My mother smiled smugly at me, lifting a hand to gesture to one of the women at the store that we were ready. "What else did you want to get today?" Jane asked as my eyes scanned the room for a seat.
"I want to get as much out of the way in one trip as we can." I told her as I took a seat in an old fashioned rocking chair. My lower back started to ache like I had never felt it ache before. I took a few slow, deep breaths before I spoke again. "Right now though I think I need to lay down." Jane smiled down at me sympathetically; placing her hands on the arm rests of the chair before she leant down and pressed her lips softly to mine.
"Let's get you three home." She whispered, pressing one more soft kiss to my lips before she helped me stand.
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"I've been thinking…" I started, biting down on my bottom lip nervously as we sat on the sofa eating an incredibly healthy, delicious dinner Angela had prepared for us earlier.
"What's new?" Jane smirked, her eyes never leaving the baseball game on the television. I chose, as usual, to ignore her sarcastic comment. I sat in silence for a few moments, knowing she wasn't going to agree with what I was about to suggest.
"I don't want to know the sexes." Her head snapped in my direction, a frown on her face instantly. She placed the glass of wine that was in her hands on the coffee table and turned her whole body to face me, turning the TV off without breaking eye contact with me.
"Are you insane?" She asked, taking both my hands in hers as she spoke.
"Don't you want the surprise when they're born?" I said, dodging her condescending question as I took one of my hands out of hers so I could continue eating the kale that was sitting on the plate in my lap.
"I want to paint the nursery and buy sweet outfits and brag to people that I'm having a son and a daughter, or two daughters, or two sons." She rambled, her frown still deep on her face as she continued. "I want to know." Her voice was quieter, more serious when she spoke now.
"This really means something to you." I said, noticing only for the first time just how into this whole thing Jane was. She rolled her eyes playfully, moving back to where she was sitting and picking her wine glass up. "We'll find out, I promise."
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You are all amazing! Thank you for all the lovely reviews and even more lovely messages! I've had a few people complain that they don't think that I'm being factual when I speak of certain aspects of pregnancy.
I assure you, I have two different webpages open with week by week break downs of twin pregnancies to ensure I'm not giving you false information.
Enjoy!