Endings and Beginnings

Chapter 2

That sound. Don froze when he heard that sound. He knew what it meant. His wife was gone. He reached for her but she wasn't there. "Meryl!" Don startled awake; breathing heavily. He sighed in relief that his wife was sleeping in the hospital bed next to him; and their two miracles were beside his side of the hospital bed in their hospital bassinets. This was the third time he had woken up like this because every time he would start to fall asleep then the vision of his wife flatlining haunted him; but now she was waking up and he hated it.

"Don?" Meryl stirred. "What happened?"

Don sighed as he sat up and bed and helped her do the same when he saw she was struggling to sit up. "I'm fine, baby; you need to be sleeping. I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"What's wrong?" Meryl asked as she whispered, not wanting to wake the babies, as she rubbed his back and noticed his shirt was soaked as was his hair as she ran her fingers through it. "You're soaked with sweat, Don."

Don shook his head. "I'm fine; just can't sleep very well. I'll move to the recliner so I don't wake you up."

"No, you won't." Meryl said pulling on his arm so he didn't leave the bed; she could tell he didn't want to talk about it so she didn't want to push him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Don shook his head. "No, I want you and our babies to sleep!"

"Babies!" Meryl said as she sat up even more causing pain. "Shit."

Don immediately cupped her face in his hand. "Baby, you okay?"

"I just moved too quickly." Meryl whispered. "Don! We have babies! We have twins! Two babies; not just one."

Don tried not to laugh at his wife as it was obviously sinking in. "We do."

"How do I do this?" Meryl started crying. "I knew it would be hard with one at this age; but twins! What if I don't have it in me? What if I don't have enough to give? What if I don't have enough time for you or the other kids or..."

Don tried not to smile at the fact that she was having the same breakdown he had once it set in that they had twins while she was still in surgery and recovery; he tenderly kissed her lips to cut off what she was saying by softly kissing her lips. "You are certainly entitled to your meltdown; I had mine with Larry once it all sank in. If there is ANYONE who can do this then it is my amazing wife. You are a natural born mother; you have always said that you felt you were wired for family. I mean it when I say I know you can do this in your sleep. I know it will be harder this time around; but you aren't alone. We will figure out having two at once together. I will change one while you feed the other. We will both rock them together. We'll do baths at the same time. We can always hire help."

"No." Meryl said strongly. "I don't want anyone else to care for our babies but us."

Don smiled at her. "THAT is why I know you could do this with both eyes closed and your hands tied behind your back. Mer, what do you see when you look at them?"

"I see our family; I see these two precious gifts that were given to us when we shouldn't have been able to have anymore." Meryl choked as she looked at their sleeping babies. "I see my heart outside of my body. I literally miss them right now, Don; even though we just learned about Margaret."

Don nodded with a smile as he kissed her lips. "You can do this, Darl; there is no doubt in my mind about it."

"WE can do this." Meryl smiled. "I'm sorry for my little freak out it's just..."

Don laughed as he tucked her hair behind her ear. "A hell of a surprise."

"No one else I would want to figure out this amazing surprise with than you." Meryl whispered with a kiss to his lips.