“I need to see them, Greg. I need to see our babies!” I have no idea if he can understand me, but he nods and promises me that as soon as the doctors allow it he will take me to our girls.
“You wouldn’t believe it, Beauty, but they look just like you. So tiny, but absolutely the most precious and beautiful babies in the world.” He pulls out his phone and holds it so that I can see picture after picture of our daughters. When he gets to one of him holding one of their tiny bodies against his naked chest, his whole hand almost swallowing her small body, I lose it again.
“Hey, they’re okay. This is Lyndsie. She’s had the harder time between the two of them, but every time I’m able to hold her skin to skin, she eats better. She hasn’t been able to suck well, and she has some reflux problems, but she’s doing great, Beauty. I held her earlier for a while just like this. Lillian, oh baby—she is a warrior. The doctors think she’ll go home before Lyndsie because she’s breathing on her own now and eating well. She’s gaining weight quickly. I bet she’s a chunk before we know it.”
I suck up each word he speaks while he flips through hundreds of pictures of our little girls. I can hear the pride in his voice when he speaks about them. I push back the jealousy I feel when he talks about holding them. I need to see my babies, to feel my babies, so I know that they’re okay.
“… so good, Beauty. You did so good.” He drops the hand holding his phone, and I look over to him, smiling when I see the happiness in his eyes. “I was so scared, Melissa. So scared that I would never get this. Every day you slept, I worried more and more. The doctors kept telling us that you would wake up when you were ready, but God…I was so scared.”
“How long was I out?” It feels like I just went to sleep hours ago, but the way he speaks, it’s been a lot longer.
“Two weeks. Two long weeks.”
“Oh my God.”
“You’re here now, and we just need to focus on getting all my girls out of this damn place and home. I need my family home.”
We spend the rest of the night and into the morning whispering softly to each other in between small bouts of my sleeping. Every time I wake up, he’s still sitting in the same chair, his crystal blue eyes just watching me sleep.
Finally, sometime when the sun is creeping into the sky, I open my eyes from another nap to see his head against my thigh and hear soft snores echoing through the room.
Chapter 16 – Melissa
“I’m so nervous.” I look over at Greg, who is standing against the wall of the elevator as it climbs the two floors that will take me to my girls. “So damn nervous,” I whisper again.
“Stop, Melissa. Once you see those two little princesses, all of those nerves will just wash away. When you feel their soft skin against your own, look at their small faces that are little mini versions of your own…all of that will just vanish, and the love you’ll feel take its place is like nothing you have ever felt.”
I have to blink away the tears that his words cause. My nose burns with the force of my emotions.
The doors open and Greg takes his place behind my chair, pushing me onto the floor where my girls are. With every step he takes, my wheelchair moving closer and closer, I feel like I can sense my girls. Like my body knows that I’m nearing my daughters.
We stop so that he can help me wash what feels like my whole body and push my arms through the gown I have to wear. It’s hard with my cast to get everything situated, and by the time we finish, my frustration is strong. I just want to see my babies. I’m so close to my girls.
“I can see your mind working. We’ll be in there in just a minute, but we have to follow the steps to make sure they are safe, Beauty.”
I know he’s right, but that doesn’t stop the irrational mama bear that just wants her little cubs in her arms.
We finally get situated and he helps wheel me into the room. I know which incubator holds my girls before we’re even all the way into the room. I see Cohen’s bright red cape with its royal blue trim like a flag waving me home draped across one of the incubators.
“He wanted his magic in here. You should have seen him, Melissa. He had so much determination to get that in here so that he could save his sisters with his powers. That boy is something else. He’s been amazing the last two weeks. So strong.”
“That sounds just like him.” I smile but never move my eyes from the flash of red in the otherwise very dull room.
He pushes me closer until I’m eye level with the two little babies nestled close to each other inside the small incubator. I don’t even realize I am crying until I feel Greg wiping the tears from my face.
“They’re beautiful,” I whisper in awe.
“They sure are.”
I just keep looking at them, taking in every single feature on their bodies as I feel the instantaneous love take over my nerves—just like Greg said it would.