When the Smoke Clears

Chapter Seven

Christian Brooks

Groaning my eyes slowly peeled open and I put my hand on my forehead. It felt like the sun was sitting in my lap. The sound of knocking caused my head to quickly turn left. Squinting to see who it was, I started my car and rolled my window down.

"What you doing out here?" Charlie said.

"I just got here." That was lie.

"Sooooo you missed the babies being born?"

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah."

"Fuck! What time is it?"

She looked at her phone. "It's 8."

"AM?!"

"Yeah, are you okay?"

"I fucked up, Jordyn is about to hate me."

"Well I'm going to head inside, I'll see you up there." Charlie walked away and I sat back and put my hands on my face. When I pulled up to the hospital last night the plan was to take a quick nap to sober up. I didn't want to be around all of those doctors drunk. The fact that I slept all night is crazy and just dug me into a deeper hole.

Climbing out the car, I headed inside of the hospital and up to the maternity floor.

The receptionist gave me Jordyns room number and a bracelet since I'm the father, then I headed to the room. I knocked on the door then walked in. Jordyn was sleep with one of the twins latched onto her breast.

"DADDY!" Imani yelled, running up to me.

"Hey princess." I picked her up and put her on my hip.

"Daddy, wanna see my new babies?"

"Yes I do."

She slid off my hip then pulled me over to the bed. "This is my sister, Ava and mommy is holding my brother Caleb."

"Ava and Caleb, I like it."

"Me too." I walked over to Jordyn and kissed her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open then she looked up at me. "Hey."

She let out a low chuckle. "So you finally decide to show up?"

"Baby I promise I'll explain what happened later, I just want to spend time with you and my babies."

"Chris you reek of liquor and weed. You could've at least went home and took a shower."

"The crazy thing is I've been outside of here the entire time. I was drinking last night and I didn't want to come in here intoxicated so I thought I could take a quick nap and sleep it off but a quick nap turned into 7 Hours. I'm so sorry and I promise I'll make it up to you. There's more that I wanna talk about but it can wait."

She just looked at me then down at the baby. "She's beautiful isn't she?"

"Wait that's not Caleb?"

"No, he's in his bed."

"Imani has things a little mixed up."

"Well She is a 4 year old." Jordyn laughed.

"I didn't think about that."

"I want you to hold him but you need a shower first. I'll call Tricia to bring you some stuff from the house."

I nodded. "So now we have to raise two little babies and a big baby huh?"

"Yeah, I hope that you help out because I'm obviously going to need it. I know that Tricia's there and I know you have a lot going on but I need you to put that on hold for a second and be there with me."