So I wrote a one-shot I loved before this and when I started to write it, I realized that I would be spoiling my own story, so I had to publish this one first. I think you'll like it.
*This chapter contains spoilers*
*Takes Place After What to Expect When You're Expecting Parts 1 and 2*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because her belly was currently the size of a baby hippo (an exaggeration, of course), Nova was working full-time in the Artifacts department.
It wasn't the same without Callum.
Tina (Snapshot) was still there, of course, but not Callum.
Nova was mostly doing paperwork, as the thought of making a pregnant woman lift a finger might as well be equal to murder in Snapshot's eyes.
She insisted that she could do more, But Snapshot made her stay seated and not do any sorting or heavy lifting in case there was a dangerous object in one of the boxes.
Genissa came in the room.
"What are you doing here, Frostbitch?" Nova's hormones were not about to let her go easy on Genissa.
She's been insufferable since she got her powers back. She was trying to make her own organization that was basically the Renegades but led by a psychopath. Maybe a cult is a better word for it.
Nova wondered why she was still allowed through the doors.
"Just bringing back a weapon I rented. I made an improved one," Genissa said.
"This is one of a kind. It can't be made again or improved," Nova said.
"I guess that must be what an untalented person might think." Genissa snapped.
Nova rolled her eyes.
"I still can't believe Adrian knocked you up." Genissa laughed.
"I don't like that language, Genissa. He didn't "knock me up", he got me pregnant." Nova said.
The phrase "knocked up" always had negative implications, but Nova was happy she was pregnant. She wanted to be a mother.
Genissa was about to walk out.
"Hey," She paused.
"What?" Nova asked, already exhausted by seeing Genissa.
"Have you seen Magnitude lately?" Genissa asked.
Nova looked up from the paper.
"I'm sorry, Genissa. I haven't," Nova replied.
"Well, if you do, could you tell her that I'm sorry?" Genissa asked.
"You guys broke up when you were teenagers. You're in your twenties now," Nova said.
"I know. And I still miss her." Genissa said.
Nova hated Genissa. She hated Genissa with every fiber of her being, in fact, Nova started the trend of calling her Frostbitch. But she almost felt sorry for her.
"I'm sorry, Genissa, but that's something you'll have to tell her yourself." Nova replied.
Genissa looked down and hurried out of the department.
"Genissa was always a strange one. Seemed more bad to me than good," Tina said.
"She is. But under all that cold selfishness, there's a tiny heart and a shred of humanity."
"That's something Callum would have said," Tina said with a grin.
"Tina, is it my fault?"
"What?"
"Is his death my fault?" Nova asked.
"No, it's not. And it's not Evie's, either. You didn't kill him, did you?"
"No, but I'm the one who got the helmet and helped the anarchists."
"Humans love assigning blame. Pointing fingers, declaring who they feel is guilty. And I've seen that one of the worst perpetrators is themselves. People love blaming themselves, for many reasons, and it's almost always not where the blame belongs. You didn't kill Callum. Evie didn't kill Callum, Phobia killed Callum."
Nova looked down at her pregnant belly.
Then, she felt a certain wetness.
Her eyes widened.
"Tina, I think my water broke."
She heard Tina squeal, and the rest was kind of a blur. She remembered getting into Tina's car and Tina driving to the hospital while she called Adrian.
"Adrian, my water broke."
"What?!" Adrian asked.
"OSCAR! HER WATER BROKE! WHAT DO I DO?!"
"HOW WOULD I KNOW? RUBY HASN'T GONE INTO LABOR YET!"
"IDIOTS!" A very pregnant Ruby exclaimed. "GET INTO THE CAR AND MEET HER THERE!"
Obviously, Danna being the only one not panicking or filled to the brim with baby hormones, volunteered to drive.
Oscar sat in the front, and Ruby sat in the back with Adrian, making him do breathing exercises.
Then, they arrived at the hospital. Adrian and Danna ran inside while Oscar helped Ruby waddle to the entrance.
"It's gonna take a while. The entrance is far away," Ruby said.
"That's ok. We'll miss all the boring stuff and hopefully the baby will already be born by the time we get there."
(I don't know about you, but the hospital in my hometown is HUGE and the parking lot is also very very huge. My mom works there and I once brought her purse when she left it at home and it took me like, ten, maybe fifteen, minutes just to get to the entrance.)
"Everhart. Nova Everhart. Where is she?" Adrian asked to the lady at the front desk.
She stared at him and then typed in the name.
"Floor 3, room 16," She stated.
Adrian went running, Danna close behind.
Adrian almost ran up the stairs, but Danna convinced him to slow down enough to use the elevator.
Three flights of stairs? She wasn't even going to make her swarm form do that much work.
Once the elevator announced, "Floor 3", Adrian booked it.
"Adr-" Danna started.
Then, she sighed and followed him.
"NOVA!" He screamed.
Two nurses paused, angrily looking at him.
"Sir, there are babies nearby."
"Right, sorry."
---------------------------------------------------------
Oscar and Ruby were halfway across the parking lot.
"Maybe you should go ahead, Oscar," Ruby said.
"No way. What if you fell?"
"I'm sure I won't...."
She tripped and Oscar caught her.
"You're sure you won't what, Ruby?"
She rolled her eyes and continued clutching his arm.
"We're getting there." Oscar said encouragingly.
-------------------------------------------------------
Adrian searched and found Nova's room.
"Who are you?" The nurse asked.
"Husband," Adrian said.
"Adrian? Is that you?" Nova asked.
The nurse let him in.
"You?" She asked Danna.
"A friend." Danna replied.
"Please wait in the waiting room." The nurse said.
Danna huffed, but obliged.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Adrian entered the room, not really knowing what to expect.
What he did not expect to see was a doctor looking at his wife's nether regions.
Nova was calmly texting someone, probably Leroy.
'How bad is the pain, Mrs. Everhart?"
"It's Mrs. Artino-Everhart," Nova corrected.
The doctor rolled his eyes.
"How bad is the pain, Mrs. Artino-Everhart?"
"Mmmm.... Probably a five."
"And how far apart are..."
Nova arched her back.
"Contractions?"
"Like, ten minutes apart?"
"Are you asking me?"
"I don't know! You're the doctor here!"
"Your wife is one of my more difficult patients," The doctor said as he exited the room.
"That's Nova for you," Adrian said.
"Where's the usual gynecologist?" Adrian asked.
"It's her day off," Nova replied. "I don't trust this new guy; he doesn't know anything about my pregnancy so far."
Nova arched her back and groaned.
"These contractions are cramps on steroids," Nova complained.
The doctor came back into the room.
"I just got your notes. Looks like you're having twins, correct?"
"Yes."
"Gender is a surprise, right?"
Nova nodded again.
"You didn't find out you were having twins until the second ultrasound."
"Everything is correct, doctor," Nova said.
"Ok, I'm just making sure," The doctor said.
"I still can't believe we're having twins."
"Identical twins," Nova corrected.
The doctors believed that the egg had split after the first ultrasound and that's why the first one showed only one entity.
Nova arched her back again.
She had tubes protruding from her stomach and Adrian realized that they were keeping track of the heart rate for both babies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"A couple more steps, Ruby," Oscar said
"Oh my gosh!" A nurse exclaimed. "Do you need a wheelchair?!"
"You mean that was an option this entire time?!" Oscar complained.
"Please," Ruby said. "It took us twenty minutes just to get this far."
The nurse set up a wheelchair for Ruby.
Oscar got Nova's floor and room number and pushed the the crowd.
"BEEP BEEP PREGNANT LADY COMING THROUGH!"
Oscar didn't think that the fact that Ruby wasn't in labor wasn't important.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea as he pushed Ruby towards the elevator,
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Adrian looked at the heart rates of his children on awe.
Then, one started dropping.
Beeping sounds emitted from the monitors.
A nurse rushed in with a clipboard.
"Oh no," She said, running out.
"What's happening?" Nova asked.
"I don't know," Adrian said.
The doctor rushed in.
"We're preparing you for an emergency C-section, Mrs. Everhart," He said.
This time, Nova didn't correct him.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"We made it!" Oscar exclaimed as the elevator to floor 3 opened up.
Oscar pushed Ruby out.
"Room... eighteen, right?" He asked.
"No, room nineteen." Ruby replied.
"No, it wasn't room nineteen." Oscar said.
"Was it room sixteen?" Ruby asked.
"No, doesn't sound right. Room seventeen?" Oscar offered.
"No, I don't think so." Ruby answered.
"Room fifteen?" Oscar asked.
"It was definitely a teen," Ruby said.
"Room thirteen?"
"That sounds right..."
"Or we could ask Danna," Danna said, standing up from her seat. "They stuck me out here cause I'm not family."
"Oh, so we won't be allowed in, either?"
She shook her head.
"It's room sixteen. I saw some doctors rushing in and out and I got worried. I asked a nurse but she said she wasn't at liberty to discuss it," Danna explained.
Oscar and Ruby exchanged worried glances.
Oscar spotted Adrian's dads and Max coming towards them.
"What did we miss?" Simon asked.
"No one's telling us anything, but the way the doctors are running in and out of the room doesn't look good," Danna said.
"Well, seeing as we're the grandpas, we might be able to get more information," Hugh said, going to the front desk.
As Hugh talked to the nurse, Leroy and Evie joined the small circle that Danna, Ruby, and Oscar started.
"It doesn't look good," Is all Danna said. She was tired of explaining.
Hugh came back. Simon was wringing his hands.
"The good news is they told me," He said.
"The bad news is that Nova is getting an emergency C-section. Something about fetal distress."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the nurse handed Adrian some scrubs and protective gear, he thought to himself.
He had never seen Nova cry. Nova Artino-Everhart was not a crier.
But as the nurse told Nova that one of the fetus's heart rates was dangerously low, and the doctor noted that one of the babies might not make it, Nova burst into tears.
It was the first time he saw his wife cry.
Even now, as he got dressed in the bathroom in her hospital room, he heard her sobs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danna paced.
She was a pacer.
She paced back and forth.
Ruby nervously hummed as she rubbed her stomach and Oscar dug into a bag of chips. He was a stress-eater.
Simon and Hugh whispered to each other. Max repeatedly kept checking his pocket, like he was making sure something was still there.
Leroy looked like he was fine, but they all knew he was freaking out inside. Nova was like a daughter to him. He nervously tapped the arm of his chair.
Evie was fidgeting with one of the shiny things she kept in her pocket. After the whole battle fiasco and finding out she was Nova's sister, she changed her name from Maggie to Evie. She was still getting used to it, but felt it was a better fit.
She lost her parents and was terrified that the c-section was going to go wrong and claim the life of her only living family member left.
After what seemed like hours of tap tap tap from Leroy and several repeats of nervous Swanee River humming, the doctor came out.
Danna stopped pacing and they all formed another circle.
"Nova is fine, and so are the babies," He said.
"Wait... Babies? Plural?"
"Yes... Mrs. Everhart was carrying twins. Did she not tell you?" The doctor asked.
The group shook their heads. Evie smiled. She was the only one who knew.
"You may go in, two at a time." The doctor said.
Danna grabbed Evie's arm and walked in.
"So I guess grandpas are not important," Hugh said.
Evie looked at her sister, whose eyes were closed.
Adrian was looking at his two babies.
"Gender?" Danna asked.
"Both are girls," Adrian said.
Nova opened her eyes. "And they're not identical. The doctor thinks that during the first ultrasound, one was hiding behind the other."
"Yeah. I guess one of them was always smaller than the other," Adrian said, stroking the forehead of the smaller one.
Nova closed her eyes again.
"It was so bad," She whispered. "I was so scared I was going to lose one."
"She cried," Adrian said.
"I cried," Nova agreed.
Evie peered at her nieces.
They looked so... normal.
They were like regular babies but were the daughters of two of the strongest renegades out there.
"The doctor says it's tome to let us in," Ruby said, out of the wheelchair, and carrying a large bouquet. Oscar had another bouquet.
Danna and Evie left.
"These are from the Former Renegades Fan Club," Oscar said, putting the two bouquets down.
The Renegades Fan Club was no longer the Renegades Fan Club, because most of the members gained useful powers and became renegades, achieving their life-long dreams, but they still got together sometimes to do nice things for other Renegades.
Some Renegades took to calling them "The Hufflepuffs of Gatlon".
"What are the genders?" Ruby asked.
"Both girls."
"Why didn't you tell us you were getting two for the price of one?" Oscar asked.
"We thought it would be a fun surprise. And for a minute there, it seemed like we might actually only have gotten one. But we got a fighter and she wasn't planning on leaving us. She's a little beaten up, but she and her sister are just fine." Nova said.
"Well, Hugh and Simon are patiently waiting, and kind of mad that Danna and Evie went in first, and them even more mad that we called dibs on second." Oscar said.
They headed out and Simon and Hugh rushed in.
"Girls," Adrian said, before they could ask.
"You didn't tell your own dads that they were twins?"
"We wanted it to be a surprise," Adrian said.
"What are you going to name them?" Simon asked, letting the larger baby hold his pointer finger.
"Georgia and Tala," Nova said.
"Tala is the smaller one, since the original Tala, my mom, was short." Nova said
Hugh gasped.
"That's beautiful," He said. "A tribute to your mothers."
"If your mother was alive, Adrian, today would surely be the happiest day of her life, aside from the day you were born." Simon said.
They left, and the two leftovers, Leroy and Max, came in.
"Their girls," Nova said. Max looked at his nieces.
"I thought they might want a toy," Max said, taking Turbo out of his pocket. "He doesn't bite anymore."
Adrian took the little toy. He stared at it.
Then, he stood up and hugged his little brother.
"He'll go on the dresser and guard them," Adrian said.
Leroy couldn't touch the babies, due to the whole poison leaking from his pores thing, but he smiled.
"What are their names?" He asked.
"The smaller one is Tala, and the larger one is Georgia," Nova said.
"After your mothers?" Leroy asked.
Nova nodded.
--------------------------------------------------------------
About a day later, Nova was discharged from the hospital with Georgia. The day after, Tala was discharged. She was kept around for an extra day for monitoring, since she was still a little sickly.
It was one-thirty in the morning, and Nova couldn't sleep. She quietly crept into the babies' shared nursery and sat on the rocking chair.
She thanked every God she could think of that both girls had survived. She didn't carry both of them for nine months just to have one die on her.
Nova Artino-Everhart was not a crier.
But just this once, she let herself shed a few tears of joy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So It is now 2:30 where I live when I finished this. I apologize for any typos, they're probably a result of writing this so late. Ever since the quarantine started, my sleep schedule has been messed up.
My job is essential, so I'm still working, but that doesn't really affect my sleep schedule, since I rarely have to get up early.
I need coffee. Like, so bad. But where the heck can you get coffee at 2:30 in the morning?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I have never been pregnant, much less pregnant with twins (and I don't plan on getting knocked up any time soon) so I'm not really sure how fetal distress goes or how delivering twins is, and I did minimal research. The most I know is that most twin pregnancies are c-sections.
If I get it wrong, then I am sorry. If you know a thing or two and want to tell me, then, by all means, do it. I won't be offended.
Also, I wanted to give a shoutout to my readers in New York and Italy (if I have any), I should have done this a long time ago. Stay safe. I don't want any of my readers getting hurt. I love you guys. I know that New York and Italy are both facing a worse crisis than the rest of the United States, and the Midwesterners (I am one of these Midwesterners, Ope.)
Anyway, I'm getting off topic.
Until my next update,
Keep reading!