"So, what are you guys doing down here?" Hope questioned as she felt light headed.
"Uh, we came to visit. It's been a while since I've seen my baby cousin. Besides, Stefanie has this basketball thing that's a 6 hour drive away."
Stefanie nodded, "Yeah, I can't wait until I get there." Stefanie admits
"Yeah, and the plane also had an issue so we had to stop at the nearest airport and it happened to be in the same city as you. Isn't that lovely?"
"I guess so," Hope shrugged before looking back towards her phone. "Do you think the basketball life affects families?"
Amaia shook her head, "It shouldn't, I mean with my career I always happen to be in the same state of Stefanie's games and there's also Stefanie's best friend that can help us and Stefanie's 2 brothers and 2 sisters along with my brother, Nik."
Hope sighed. She didn't have that much help besides her aunts and uncles but they were living their own life and she was sure that they would rather live it than change dirty diapers here and there.
She really should have thought this all out but taking it upon herself to get herself pregnant; even if she was doing it to make Josie happy.
"So, how many months are you?" Stefanie spoke up as she looked around the dorm.
Hope looked down at her belly and stopped circling her hands around it. "I'm 7 months, 2 weeks I'll be 8."
"That's awesome, does that mean you know the gender of the baby?" Amaia questioned,
The auburn haired girl shook her head, "No, I have it in an envelope, I was kind of waiting for Josie so we can find out together."
"She'll be home in time to see your baby's birth." Amaia assured as she reached her hand out. "I'm going to go see if they fixed the airplane but I will talk to you later and see you at the family reunion in 5 months, hopefully with my baby cousin and a healthy relationship with your wife." Amaia assured as Stefanie took her hand and they walked over towards the door.
"Bye, Mia." Hope muttered as the door closed back. Hope took a deep breath as she circled her hands around her belly.
Maybe she needed some water. She hasn't had much of that lately. Besides, why else would she be out of breath this much?
The auburn haired girl walked over to her mini fridge and grabbed a water as she seemed to finish it in 5 seconds. That was her new record.
-
"Hello, Josette Forbes."
Josie crossed her arms, "Mikaelson."
Jade rolled her eyes, "Like I said, Forbes." She walked in circles around Josie. "Did you miss me?" Jade questioned as she stopped right in front of Josie.
The brown haired girl rolled her eyes, "I don't know why you can't just leave me alone. You were an ass in high school and you are still the same way."
"You don't know anything about me. Especially not the new me. Now, if you want to be on my father's team then you have to do what I say. Since I'm the co coach, it's your duty." Jade winked as she looked around to see if anyone was watching them. When she saw that everyone was busy with their own thing she turned around with a smirk as she leaned in a bit, "if I want you. I will have you." Jade assured her.
"JADE!" Her father called her over and Jade rolled her eyes.
—"I'll see you later on tonight. In my room. Unless, you don't want to be a part of the team."
Josie scoffed as she watched her walk away. There was no way that she was going to have sex with her in order to get on the team. How would that look on Josie's part if that ever got out?
Josie felt sick just thinking about the thought of betraying Hope. She was too much in love with Hope to even think about that shit.
"Don't worry, she can't force you to do that. Besides, she's not even the actual co coach." Josie heard a voice before she turned around and was met in the presence of her sister in law. "You didn't miss me too much, did you?" Nicole smiled before Josie ran and gave her a hug.
It had been so long since they'd seen each other and it was actually surprising since they had lived only 2 hours away from each other at some point.
"How are you?" Josie asked as they rocked back and forth in the hug.
"I'm amazing. I've been trying new things and I even got engaged too." Nicole pointed out as Josie pulled back and clapped; squealed for her, "you know him very well."
Josie palmed her face, "don't tell me it's Mg,"
Nicole crossed her arms, "I guess I won't tell you then." Nicole shrugged.
Josie smiled and chewed at her bottom lip, "I'm so happy for you guys! I can't wait until the party because I'm going to be there."
"I actually wanted to know if you could be my bridesmaid." Nicole said in a teasing voice as Josie nodded her head really fast as she tackled the girl into another hug. "I take this as a yes."
"Definitely!" Josie smiled
"Great, now I just have to ask Hope to be my maid of honor. Where is that short devil anyways?" Nicole asked as she looked around.
Josie frowned, "she's still at S.P.U. She stayed to finish her degree and then she'll join me."
"That's amazing. So how are you guys going to do the whole parenting thing seeing as you are 6 hours away and a newborn can't travel at this stage."
Josie raised her eyebrow, "We are having kids when we are both able to be in each other's presence." The brown haired girl assured.
"So what are you going to do with this one? Give it away?" Nicole joked, she was smiling until she saw the confusion from Josie. "I'm guessing she didn't tell you."
"Tell me what."
Nicole looked over at the coach, "What's that? Coach, you called me?" Nicole faked as she rushed away from Josie.
Josie glared before sighing.
-
Josie arrived back in her hotel room and she was exhausted.
She needed to call up Hope before she went to sleep.
That's what they did every night and that's what they would continue to do. It was something they did to secure their relationship.
Josie tossed her bag to the side as she took her phone out and called up her wife.
"Hey, Shorty.." Josie smiled as she heard the phone line click.
"Hey baby, how was your day?" Hope was breathing heavily. She was out of breath from just getting up to use the bathroom.
—"It was weird. I ran into someone from the past and they pissed me off and then I ran into your sister. She's engaged."
Hope smiled, "Really? That's wonderful."
"Yeah, and funnier story, she thinks that we're having a baby right now." Josie says before she chuckled a bit.
Hope cleared her throat, "Yeah, funny story—I'm tired, I'll call you tomorrow."
"Wait I didn't even get to ask you how was your-" the phone line clicked and Josie looked at her phone weirdly. "day."
She wondered what the hell just happened but she didn't want to call Hope back up after she said that she was going to sleep but she didn't want to go to sleep confused and she was sure that Hope was somewhat angry.
That's never good.
Josie sighed as she grabbed her suitcase and started packing her things.
It didn't take long before she was done. She walked up to the door and opened it which revealed Jade.
The brown haired girl couldn't even think without being embraced in a kiss. It didn't even take a second for Josie to pull away. She held her stomach and ran towards the bathroom and threw up.
She felt like she just committed the most terriblest crime in the world. Even if she wasn't the one that did it.
"Ew, oh my god. What the fuck are you doing here?" Josie asked as she wiped her mouth with a towel.
"I told you that I would be over here tonight." Jade winked as she walked in and sat on the bed.
Josie rolled her eyes with disgust written all over it, before she got up and rushed over towards the door.
She couldn't even process everything right now. First priority was getting towards Hope at the moment. She already knew there was going to be some issue once the auburnette finds out about the kiss but it wasn't her fault. It wasn't like Josie went over to Jade's hotel and made out with her—but this wasn't going to go well.
-
Hope woke up with her head still light headed. She must have got up too fast because her whole body fell back down to the bed.
A pain in her heart was felt and the urge for help was called.
A knock at the door was heard.
Hope got up slowly as she started to make her way to the door. "I'm..." Hope passed out right in front of the door as everything went black.
Amaia was the one to run in and help her. "Stef, call for help..." Amaia freaked out.
-
Hope woke up and she looked around where she was at. She realized that the place wasn't as familiar as her dorm and that she was in a hospital.
The doctor looked over at her and smiled, "Hey, you're awake."
Hope sat up as the sight of belly came into eyesight. "Obviously—where's my baby? Where's my wife? Please tell me you didn't contact her." Hope said worriedly as her face seemed to fall.
The doctor scratched the back of his head, "You went through some severe injuries and I had no choice but to act in the moment."
Hope raised her eyebrow, "what exactly does that mean?" The auburn haired girl questioned,
The doctor sighed, "Your babies should be with you in a moment. The nurses are running some tests to see if the baby is alright along with the mother so everything is okay."
Hope sat up as she swallowed down hard, "are you talking about the blonde haired girl because she's actually my cousin and that emo brainiac with her is her wife not mine. My wife happens to be a brunette with brown eyes and she's about 5' foot 6. She has a pout that you can't resist and she has a slit on the side of her eyebrow."
The doctor looked at the clip board. "Yeah, that's her. She's with the babies right now."
Hope cleared her throat, "Babies? Why do you keep saying babies?"
"You really don't remember anything do you?"
"What's there to remember? I was in my dorm and I was getting up to open up the door for whoever knocked and next thing I know everything went black and now I'm in the hospital, my child's born and my wife is here for some reason."
The doctor said before placing a pen into his coat pocket. "We had to form a C-section and get your babies the proper help they needed. Having a baby at 7 months is very dangerous seeing as they aren't even supposed to be here until 2 more months. You'll have a lot of difficulties with their health and it's going to cost a fortune if you don't have insurance."
Hope shook her head, "I'd do anything for my child. So, can you tell me what the hell happened and stop dodging the question. I don't care if the news is bad or good; I just want to know what happened."
"Well...I can't tell you the story of this. I only know that I delivered your babies and immediately took them in for testing. The rest is up to your cousin to tell you. She was here through most of it."
Just as he said that, Amaia walked in. "The nurses said you were up. You had a pretty rough night last night."
"What the hell happened?" Hope asked in an exhausted voice.
Amaia cleared her throat, "it started when you collapsed."
-
Hope got up slowly as she started to make her way to the door. "I'm..." Hope passed out right in front of the door as everything went black.
Amaia was the one to run in and help her. "Stefanie, call for help..." Amaia freaked out.
Stefanie immediately took out her phone unsure of what to do next as she ran her hands through her hair. "What just happened?"
Amaia checked Hope's pulse and was assured that the young auburn haired woman was still breathing—barley. (But she was.)
"She passed out. I don't know what happened or why it happened but she passed out." Amaia admits in a voice that shows she was scared.
Stefanie took a deep breath. She then raised her hand up to her ear and she dialed '911'. "Hello, I'm calling because my wife's pregnant cousin passed out on the floor."
"Okay...how many months is she?"
"How many months is she?" Stefanie asked Amaia as the blonde held up 6 fingers. "She's 7 months." Stefanie assured, "How fast can you get here? We are at S.P.U college."
The nurse clicked away on her computer and then nodded, "I have a local Emergency Medical Center around there just 15 minutes away. I'll send them as soon as possible."
"Is anything going to happen to her?" Amaia asked as she raised her eyebrow,
Stefanie repeated the question to the nurse only to get the response of, "I can't really tell you that but if she's 7 months and she passed out it could just be a dehydration." The nurse assured, "best bet is that we have to call the father and sign off on things."
"Well, she's gay miss. And she's an idiot so calling the father is going to be a problem." Stefanie pinched the bridge of her nose, "So, should we call the baby's daddy or should we call Hope's daddy?"
Amaia shook her head in disbelief, "Stefanie! Be serious for one moment!"
"Call both." The nurse says before hanging up and leaving Stefanie to scoff.
The brunette shook her head, "That rude, bitch. She didn't even say goodbye."
"Come over here and help me bring her downstairs."
-
Josie was finally getting off of the plane. She needed to stop by a store to grab some flowers and then some of Hope's favorite chocolate.
It was like Valentine's Day but instead it was a surprise—a very special surprise.
The brown haired girl marched her way up to the store as she grabbed Hope's favorite dozen of flowers (even though she hated flowers; it was the thought that counts) and picked out an almond Hershey. For some reason, Josie had a feeling that Hope was going to need some chocolate.
After that, Josie called up a friend to bring her back to S.P.U.
"Mg, Hi. It's wonderful to see you."
"You mean after you were supposed to do that project with me and Hope and it turned out that you rather took that 0 other than actually doing the project with me? Yeah, it's lovely to see you too." He said as he sat in his B.M.W. "Get in the damn car before I change my mind."
Josie smiled before getting into the car.
They took off driving and the brown haired girl ran her hands through her hair, "So, How are you?"
"I'm good. I've been doing even better since I've proposed to Nicole." He grinned as Josie gasped and acted surprised, "you should have seen the look on her face."
"Yeah, it probably was the look I gave her when she asked me to be the bridesmaid."
Mg gasped, "you could have told me that you knew from the start. Now I've wasted my breath."
"Kind of like you're doing now?"
Mg rolled his eyes, "you could walk."
Josie frowned. "No, that'll just waste time for me to see my wife and I'm getting very anxious for her."
Mg scrunched his nose, "Save that for someone else to hear. That sounds like you're leading to something disgusting."
A little after the conversation dialed down, Mg and Josie arrived at the dorm.
Josie took her flowers and candy before running up to her wife's dorm—her old one. As she got up to the dorm she took out her key to open the door.
Once she walked in she didn't see any sight of Hope. She knew that classes weren't until 2 more hours and she expected her wife to be in bed at this time.
But Josie also thought that maybe things would change since she has technically seen her wife in person in over 7 months.
The brown haired girl took out her phone to call up her wife but an incoming call was already read on her phone. It was a good thing that she answered it because the next few words she heard were going to change her life.
"Hello, I'm Stefanie Salavtore and you may not know me; which you should because I'm such a badass; but that's not the point. The point is your wife is in the hospital, she's going for an early birth with your baby and the nurses said I should call the daddy of both the baby and patient. Now, I don't know if that's what she calls you but that's sick." Stefanie had humor hidden in her voice.
Josie shook her head as she ran her hands through her hair, "My wife is in the hospital? And she's pregnant? Since when?"
"Since she got pregnant by a donor, come on keep up, I think they might have put the wrong wife into this hospital."
Josie then heard some muffling, "She's in pain, I advise you to get your ass down here. I'll send you the address if you want."
"I'll be there. As soon as I can."
Josie then hung up the phone and called up her mother, Caroline. "Hello, mom." She felt tears leave her eyes.
"Hey, sweetie. What's wrong?"
"You're going to be a grandmother. You're old."
Caroline scoffed, "I am not old. A grandmother could never look as good as I do." the blonde assured with a smile, "Did you guys finally find a donor?"
"Hope did, actually, I think she's ready for birth. I don't know how many months she is though."
"How don't you know?"
Josie cleared her throat, "it's a long story that I'm not even sure I can tell you, but I will see you soon. I have a wife to get to."
-
Josie stood outside of the glass window as she looked at the doctor's delivery of the baby.
Just a few minutes ago she learned that since it's way too early to deliver the babies that Hope could either die or the babies could die or both.
Josie had to make a decision on whether to save the babies or Hope.
She didn't choose the babies in particular but she knew that Hope would die either way. If the babies died then Hope would wake up and kill Josie and then herself. So Josie did what any smart person would do.
She saved the kids. It was a long shot but Hope could still be alive and there was still hope.
"Here's some coffee." Amaia walked up to Josie as she handed her the coffee. "By the look and shock on your face, I can assume you didn't know anything about this."
Josie nodded and confirmed before taking the coffee. "You know. I should be really pissed at her for this. But I'm not pissed. I can't be pissed. Especially since this is the only time we had some type of miscommunication. We are always confirming things with each other and talking about everything and our feelings. But this is a whole new step."
Amaia sighed as Josie turned over to her, "It'll be okay. You have a lot of help and you guys wanted to do this anyways so what's the difference from getting what you wanted now instead of later on in life? You don't know what the future holds."
"Yeah, it's not like I'm going to disown my child. I just wished she would have said something to me. I would have been here. I would have quit everything and came back as I planned to. I guess maybe she wanted it to be a surprise."
Amaia shrugged, "or maybe she was scared to tell you." The blonde then looked over through the window, "Look, there's your little girl right there."
Josie turned over to the window and her eyes widened in awe. She couldn't believe how little the baby's hands were.
"She's beautiful." Amaia commented.
"She's covered in blood." Josie commented before the doctor handed the nurses the baby and then reached back down. "What the hell is he doing?" Josie questioned.
Amaia covered her mouth as she held back some laughter, "I think you have another baby in that oven."
Josie's eyes widened from terror as the second baby was held. "And it's a boy. I know nothing about boys. I thought I dreaded that when I made it known that I've only ever dated girls."
"You'll be fine. But boys are really hard to handle. Good luck with him."
Amaia then sighed as she finished telling the story, "Now you have two somewhat healthy babies and you're alive. So, when your wife comes in here you better hug her tight because she's been in hell trying to make sure that you were okay. You don't understand the struggle that she had."
Josie cleared her throat as she stood at the door, "Baby boy needs to be reported to Philadelphia for a further test. It seems he has a hard time breathing and he may need a tube to help him eat. Baby girl is fine though, she's a true survivor. But she needs to stay on medication for 2 weeks and then she'll be free to go home."
Hope chewed at her bottom lip, "Are you mad at me?"
"Very. But after holding the twins I've come to the conclusion that I can't be mad for long seeing as you have given me the best gifts of my life."
Amaia sighed before getting up and leaving out to give them some space.
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner." Hope spoke up as she fidgeted with her fingers, "I wanted it to be a surprise but then there was never a right time to tell you and I didn't want to say it over the phone. But then I realized that I should get it over with and tell you but then you said you didn't want the baby so I just got lost and..."
Josie shook her head, she then walked up to Hope as she moved loose strands of hair behind her wife's ear. "I love you, Hope. I love you and I love those gremlins out there. I would do anything for you and I know I said I wasn't ready but all it took was the sight of them and my mind was made up. So I'm going to call the basketball coach and tell them I can't go back there. I have a family to look out for." Josie smiled before picking Hope's hand up and placing a small kiss on it. "I'm ready for this."
Hope shook her head before lifting one hand and cupping Josie's face, "Aw, Jo. I can't let you do that. Then you'll look back on the what ifs. Then you would be wondering about the times you could have had instead of settling down with a family at 23." Hope sighed, "Other people are out there still sleeping after the hangover they had last night."
Josie scoffed, "Well, I'm not other people. I'm a mom and a wife. I'm a Mikaelson and that name stands over every crazy thing I just said." Josie teased
Hope smiled softly, "I still don't want you quitting the team. We will find a way, like we always do." The auburn haired girl assured, "Now, I want you to tell me all about them."
Josie raised her eyebrow, "Why tell you when I can show you? But you can't move that much. You're still on medication right now because of the surgery you went through 6 hours ago. You need 48 hours of bed rest here and 6 weeks of time off of your feet. So, I convinced the Dean of S.P.U to let you continue the year from home and in June you'll get to graduate in person after the year is over and I can move out wherever you would like, but now that you want me still to play for this new team then I guess you can move into my families home."
Hope grinned, "and I'll call up my aunts to send down the cribs and stuff that I ordered."
"This is going to work. You've fought every battle that came to us so we can't give up now."