Within a few minutes of Dr. Blair leaving a nurse had came in and discharged Sierra. Now, Rachel, Stephanie and the twins were making their way back across town to the art show. Both girls had fallen asleep in their car seats as soon as the van was started. It had definitely been a long evening and Rachel was more than ready to get back to her wife and spend some time with the girls before they too had to head back to the home. Speaking of which as they pulled up behind the art gallery, Nicky was already waiting outside to take over. He was up first in making trips back to the home so that the babies could have an evening snack and get to bed.
"How is she? Is everything okay?" Nicky asked with worry as he opened the side doors on the van to get the girls out.
"She's fine. No CT scan was needed or anything. He said just to give her plenty of snuggles and some baby Tylenol to deal with the pain." Stephanie smiled as Sierra stirred at being lifted out of her car seat. Nicky immediately cuddled the little girl to his chest while Rachel set about getting Samara out of her car seat as well. "Santana is waiting in the green room for you guys. She's been crazy busy working the floor so that she can get away for a while."
"Yay! Are you ready to go see Mami?" Rachel asked Samara as the little girl looked around widely trying to gather her bearings. It took a moment for her to realize that she was in Rachel's arms and back at the art show. Samara smiled sleepily before laying her head down on Rachel's shoulder as they entered into the art gallery.
Santana was helping Rich pack up diaper bags when Rachel, Nicky and Stephanie walked in. Santana immediately gave Rachel and Samara a kiss before reaching for Sierra. It felt good to have one of her favorite tiny humans in her arms again. She would have grabbed for Samara too but the tiny tot was on her way back to dream land on Rachel's shoulder. Santana looked around the green room, studying it's actual greenness. There were various chairs and a couch lined up against the wall with a coffee table in front of it. Santana walked over to the couch and sat down with Sierra, the little girl immediately straddling Santana's lap and resting her head on her chest.
"I have some news to tell you." Santana said as Rachel joined them on the couch with Samara. "Our parents are planning on coming back here in a few minutes."
"Oh boy, you two better wake up then." Rachel paused and looked down at Samara and then over at Sierra. "Your grandparents have never all been in the same room at the same time with you girls. They're going to pass you around like newborns."
Santana laughed as she rubbed soothing circles on Sierra's back. The little girl looked up at her with big brown eyes. "Mami."
Rachel turned to look at Santana with wide eyes. Santana was looking at Sierra with wide eyes. Sierra was just smiling away, happy with her new word. "Yes baby?" Santana asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking from emotion.
"Cup?" Sierra held out her hand waiting for the item.
"Cup...you want a sippy cup? Did she finish her milk at the doctors office?" Santana asked Rachel as she leaned forward and opened the diaper bag that Stephanie had sat down on the coffee table. She held her arm protectively around Sierra's back to keep her from falling off of her lap.
"Yeah, but she has a juice in the little ice box too. That other cup of milk in there is Samara's." Santana nodded her head at Rachel's words while unzipping the top of the ice box and pulling out Sierra's Nubby filled with juice. She absolutely loved this diaper bag with it's little ice box compartment. All you had to do was remove the ice packs from their pouches, freeze them and you had a perfect spot to keep at least four bottles or in this case sippy cups with flip straws, without them going bad. Nobody liked warm drinks, especially the twins.
Sierra took a long drink of her juice as soon as Santana handed it to her before sighing heavily and leaning back against Santana's chest. She laughed at herself when she released a tiny burp thanks to Santana patting her on the back gently. "Was that good baby?" Santana laughed along with Sierra. "Can Mami have a drink?" Santana opened her mouth. Sierra shook her head clearly catching on to Santana's question. Santana gasped in surprise. "You're not going to share with Mami?" Again Sierra shook her head in the negative. Santana playfully tickled Sierra on the sides making the baby laugh out loud and momentarily forgetting her headache.
"Knock Knock." Shelby said as she opened the door to the green room. "Can we come in?"
"Yeah, you and everyone else behind you can come in too." Rachel projected her voice so that everyone behind Shelby would be able to hear her too. She shook her head as all of the grandparents filed in and sat down randomly around the room. "Okay girls." Rachel and Santana turned the twins around on their laps to face their grandparents. "I don't know what everyone wants to be called, but all of these people are your grandparents and they are going to love you and spoil you and probably make you meaner than you already are."
Samara tilted her head back to look up at Rachel. "Mama, go?" She asked pointing at everyone and attempting to wiggle down out of Rachel's lap.
"Where are you going?" Rachel asked confused. Samara turned and looked back at Rachel before smiling and making her way over to Leroy.
"Hi cutie." Leroy greeted. Samara just stood there looking at him before laughing and placing both of her hands over her eyes. Rachel wasn't sure if she was being bashful or face palming at her grandparents. Either way, that was the start of Samara casually walking around in front of her grandparents, never interacting with each for more than a few seconds before moving onto the next.
"I have no idea what she is doing." Santana mumbled to herself. Sierra had yet to show any interest in getting down, which was odd since she was usually the more talkative and active one. However, she obviously still wasn't feeling well and was content to just hang out with her Mami and observe her sister. That was fine with Santana, she was just as content to sit and hold Sierra especially since their time together this afternoon would be coming to a close soon.
Stephanie had came in the room at one point while Samara was playing with her grandparents to announce that she and Nicky were taking the first group of kids back to the home. It was getting later than they had anticipated and they had to make sure the babies were on their way to sleep before Nicky came back for another group. There was still a good two hours left of the show, but Stephanie was right, the little ones needed their snack and to head to bed. Santana and Rachel both realized in that moment how truly lucky they were that Stephanie was breaking the rules by letting Sierra and Samara stay at the show for a little while longer.
"Do you want to go see your grandparents before you have to go?" Santana asked Sierra, looking at the clock and realizing that soon Nicky would be back to take a group of older kids back to the home. She really wanted Sierra to interact at least a little bit with her grandparents. Sierra seemed to think about what Santana was asked before she hesitantly slid down out of Santana's lap, sippy cup in hand and went to join her sister.
Rachel scooted closer to Santana and rested her head on her shoulder. "Look at them. They're so cute." Rachel sighed happily as she watched Samara giving kisses to Shelby and Cassie while standing on Cassie's lap. Sierra had taken a great interest in Maribel and Marcus, she had even offered Maribel a drink from her sippy. Santana was only mildly offended.
"I know and they're going to be ours, no they are ours." Santana tilted her head so that her cheek was resting on the crown of Rachel's head.
"I wonder how many more paintings have sold since we've been back here?" Rachel thought aloud.
"I don't know. We can find Denise and check with her when we go back out." Santana assured Rachel. She was sure a good portion of the paintings had sold, plus they still had plenty of time left tonight.
"We need to go back out there soon, this is still your show you know?" Rachel giggled.
"Yeah. But I just want to stay back here until the girls leave. We probably won't be able to see them for a few days after tonight. You have work and we have doctor's appointments for the case plan and meetings with the adoption agency. They're going to run us ragged before we get to bring the girls home." Santana sighed heavily, the more she thought about it, the more overwhelmed she was beginning to feel. In addition to all of that, they still had wedding planning and the ongoing court case with Jasper. Life was just a bumpy road at the moment.
"It will be definitely be worth it in the long run." Rachel smiled up at Santana. "Oh, I was meaning to ask. Did anyone say anything about the girls calling us Mama?"
Santana shook her head. "I don't think as many people heard us as we thought."
"I think the ones that might have heard, just went with it. We've not heard anything since Santana told us about it earlier tonight. From what I've seen, that whole room of people out there is only interested in the art, which is the way it should be." Marcus said as he opened a lollipop for Sierra who sat perched on his knee.
Santana inwardly groaned, that child was going to be a sticky mess. Her brand new dress was about to be ruined. Quickly Santana dug through the diaper bag and pulled out a bib. She took quick strides across the room to reach Sierra in time. Marcus chuckled with a sheepish grin as Santana playfully scowled at him for offering the lollipop to Sierra. "I hope you have another one in your jacket pocket, because as soon as Samara sees it she is going to want one too." At the mention of her name, Samara turned her head quickly, her eyes zoning in on the lollipop that Sierra was eating. She wanted one too! "See, look at her. She knows and now she wants one."
"Well she can have one too." Marcus dug around in his jacket, pulling out a blue lollipop and passing it across the room until it reached Cassie's hands so that she could pass it off to Shelby to open.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, everyone turned to look as Rich entered with a saddened expression on his face. "It's time to go. We're parked out front this time since the show is starting to wind down a bit." Santana looked down at her watch, there was only about forty-five minutes of the show left. Her eyes widened in alarm, had they really been back here that long? She really needed to get back out there, shake some hands, meet some new buyers and thank everyone that was still here that she hadn't thanked earlier. To everyone she had missed, she would send them apology letters with thank you cards for attending. "The crew is looking for you too, they want to film a few shots before they wrap up tonight." Rich informed everyone as he helped Rachel pack the girls diaper bag back up. The crew, turns out, had been outside filming some of the people coming in at the start of the night, Santana hadn't even seen them. Her mind had been elsewhere at the time though, so it was excusable.
"Can we walk them out with you?" Rachel asked Rich hopefully.
"Of course you can." Rich smiled politely, he couldn't even begin to understand how hard this must be for Santana and Rachel. Therefore, he would do whatever he could to help make the visit endings just a little bit better. He watched the women with sad eyes as they each took a twin and held them out to each grandparent for a hug and a kiss. He left the room after that, giving them all a moment to themselves before he made his way towards the front of the gallery, Santana and Rachel both following close behind a moment after.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates today! Thank you for all of the views, reviews, favorites and follows. I appreciate you guys so much.