CHAPTER NINE

"You can't differentiate synonyms," Galinda said, brows furrowed as she stared at the paper that was given to her. "They mean the same thing. You can only differentiate words that are actually different."

"Maybe it's a typo," Pfannee said.

"Dr. Dillamond doesn't make mistakes like that."

"There must be something different between them," Shenshen said.

"Yeah, the words themselves. But the definitions are the same. It doesn't make sense," she said before looking up when the classroom door was opened. She recognized the student as a note runner, so she went back to her paper.

"Oh, he's cute."

"Yeah he is," Pfannee said. "Galinda, look at that beautiful man."

"I'm married," Galinda said.

"You can still appreciate the beauty of a man."

"And I appreciate the beauty of my husband. Who wouldn't?" she asked, glancing over to Fiyero with a dreamy smile.

"Mr. and Mrs. Tigelaar," Dr. Dillamond said, causing them both to look up. "You're both needed in the infirmary."

"Why?"

"I don't have details, just that your children have spiked fevers and were taken to the infirmary by daycare staff."

Galinda and Fiyero both got up and rushed out of the room, their running not stopping until they got to the infirmary.

"Julian and Jade Tigelaar, where are they?" Galinda asked the receptionist. "We're their parents."

"Just down the hall in room 7," the Lemur said.

They both made their way to room 7 quickly, each of them going to a baby.

Galinda's hand ran over Jade's head softly as a nurse tended to her. "What happened?"

"They both have high fevers," the nurse said. "It's possible it's a virus. We're just waiting on a few tests to see what was picked up."

"Is it serious?"

"We don't know what it is yet. We only know they have high fevers."

"When's the last time they ate?"

"I don't know, ma'am."

"Who brought them?"

"Someone from the daycare."

"Are they still here?"

"I don't know, ma'am."

"Well, what the fuck do you know!"

"Galinda," Fiyero said, walking to her. "Calm down."

"Our babies are here, not feeling good, with high temperatures, and they're probably hungry, but she doesn't know shit!"

"I know. It's flusterfying. But you can't expect her to know everything."

"I expect her to know the details of the patients she's caring for!"

"You need to calm down. They're gonna be okay," Fiyero said, pulling her into him and wrapping his arms around her, kissing her head. "Why don't you feed Jade? I'll see if whoever brought them in is still here and I'll ask what happened."

"But-"

"But nothing. Feed Jade. I'll go see if they're still here and I'll be right back."

Galinda sniffled. "They're our babies," her voice cracked.

"I know. They'll be okay," he said, running his hand over her back.

"You don't know that..."

"You don't know they won't be," he said, kissing her head again. "I'll be right back. Feed Jade."

After sharing a kiss, Fiyero walked out of the room and went back to the Lemur's desk. "Are the people that brought the babies in still here?"

"She's right over there in the waiting area. She wanted to wait until you got here," the Lemur said.

"Thank you."

Fiyero walked over to a Gorilla. "Thank you for bringing the twins in. Galinda's with them right now. What happened?"

"Jade's fever spiked first," the Gorilla said. "We noticed Julian's rising about an hour after Jade's started. We gave them medicine, but it didn't do much and their fevers kept rising, so we got worried and brought them here in case it was an emergency. We normally just have the parents pick their babies up, but this happened suddenly out of nowhere. None of the other babies have been sick lately, so we don't know if they caught something or not."

"So nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Not until the fevers. Not that we noticed."

"When was the last time they ate?"

"They'll be due for a feeding any time. We brought them before we could feed them."

"Okay. Thank you for bringing them in. You don't have to wait, we're both here now."

"We hope it's nothing serious and that they feel better soon."

"Galinda or I will call you to let you know as soon as we find out what's going on. Thank you again."

Fiyero made his way back to the room, walking over to Julian and running a finger over his cheek as he fussed. "It sucks not feeling good," he said, picking his son up and sitting on the couch next to his wife. "How's our princess?"

"Hungry, but that's nothing new," Galinda said.

"The caretaker said they just spiked fevers randomly. No other baby has been sick recently."

"Great. So we're gonna get blamed for someone else's kid getting sick if they caught whatever this is."

"We didn't send them to daycare sick. They didn't have any symptoms."

"You know how people are," Galinda said, watching Jade eat for a few seconds before looking at Julian. "You're next, buddy. It won't be long."

"You can feed them at the same time," the nurse said.

"It's too difficult to do it at the same time."

"Not if you know what you're doing."

"Do your job and don't worry about how I feed my kids," Galinda snapped.

"Claire, maybe you should step out. You're frustrating Mom," a doctor said as she walked in.

"She's just a snob," the nurse said before leaving the room.

"I'm sorry about her," the doctor said. "I'm Dr. Winetka. I have good news and not so good news."

"Are they okay?" Galinda asked.

"They will be. They have a virus. The good news is, we have medicine we can give them. The bad news is they can be under the weather for about a week. We'll give them their first dose today and when their fevers come down a little, you can take them home and administer their medicine yourselves. I see you breastfeed, but if you can get them to eat from a bottle, you can put the medicine in a bottle instead of giving it to them straight."

"They go back and forth. Every other feeding is bottles, the other is nursing."

"That's a good routine. Once you're done feeding and burping, I'd like to start IV lines on them to get their fluid intake a little higher. They're a little dehydrated so I wanna get that taken care of."

"Will it hurt?"

"Just for a second. It's over as soon as it starts."

"They need it, Galinda," Fiyero said. "A little bit of pain for a few seconds is worth putting them through to get them better."

"I just don't want them in anymore pain, they already don't feel good," Galinda said.

"They won't feel better unless they get the IV's. We can't protect them from pain forever. Especially with medical intervention. This is going to help them."

Galinda sniffled, kissing Jade's head as she stayed silent for a few seconds. "...Okay. As long as it's not long lasting pain."

"It's just a quick poke," Dr. Winetka said. "Super easy and fast."

"Okay... but I won't like you very much."

"That's okay. My job isn't to make you like me, it's to keep your babies healthy."

"No Momsie, they're a little better now," Galinda said into her phone. "They don't have fevers anymore and their moods are improving every day."

"Are you sure Galadriel and I can't come help with them?" her mother asked.

"You are more than welcome to come visit. You can't come out every time the twins don't feel good, though. I promise Fiyero and I can handle a couple sick babies."

"I just know how stressful it is to have two sick babies at once. You and Galadriel were always sick at the same time, it was a hassle."

"A hassle it may be, but it's not the worst we've dealt with. You can visit whenever you want, but I promise they're okay and we can handle it."

"We'll make a trip out next week."

"Okay. They should feel better by then. Just let me know what day you plan on coming."

"I'll call you later this week to let you know."

"Okay. I love you. Tell Popsicle and Gilly I love them, too."

"We love you too. And Fiyero."

"I'll tell him. Have a nice night."

As Galinda hung up, she smiled at Fiyero when he walked through the door, but it immediately dropped when she saw Boq come in after him. "Oh. Hello, Bick."

"It's Boq," Boq said.

"I don't care."

"I'm saving him from Chuffrey," Fiyero said, kissing her lips gently. "He's staying the night. I brought dinner home."

Galinda's eyes narrowed. "He's what?"

"Just for tonight."

"Hm... Well, you just keep in mind this is our house," she said, glancing at Boq. "And I won't apologize for whatever noises you hear from our bedroom."

"It's not like I'll be purposely listening," Boq said.

"How are the babies?" Fiyero asked, placing a bag of food on the kitchen counter.

"Not as grumpy," Galinda said. "Momsie called. She and Galadriel are going to visit next week."

"Your sister's coming?" Boq asked.

"Keep your impure thoughts to yourself and away from my sister," Galinda said, walking over to the playpen then twins were in. "Who's crying? What's the matter, buddy?" she asked, picking Julian up and kissing his cheek.

"Maybe he's hungry," Fiyero said. "Good evening, Prince Julian."

"Daddy's home. Who is that? Is that Daddy?"

"Dada," Julian said, reaching his arms out.

Galinda gasped and looked at Fiyero, both of them sharing a look of surprise. "That's his first word!"

"I'm Daddy, good job, little dude," Fiyero said, taking Julian from his wife.

"Dada," Julian repeated.

"Oh, my baby," Galinda's voice cracked. "His very first word."

"Jade won't be far behind him," Fiyero said.

"You better say Mama first, I didn't push both of you out of my body just to be disrespected by both of you saying Daddy's name first," she said, taking Jade out of the playpen.

"It couldn't have been that bad," Boq said.

Galinda snapped her fingers and Boq fell to the floor with a thud.

"Babe!" Fiyero said.

"No vagina, no opinion."