“And… relax.”
Nicole went limp and started to whine. “I can’t do it. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“Just a little bit more.”
“You’re doing great.”
“You’re being so strong.”
They were all trying to comfort her.
“Here comes another one,” the nurse warned.
On the count of three, Nicole pushed again, but with a little less vigor.
“Bear down! Bear down!”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Nicole yelled.
“Knees and chin to your chest and push HARD!”
Nicole started to shake her head, and Gemariah knew that she was tiring out. It was then that he heard something that brought his excitement and his panic both to the surface.
“I see a head!” the doctor exclaimed.
That was all Nicole needed to hear, it seemed. There was almost no break in between contractions, and she was holding strong.
“Okay Nicole. We need one more big push, and Baby A will be out.”
Gemariah brought his other hand over and cupped hers between both of his. “You got this. Just a little bit more.”
“One… Two… Three…”
Nicole took a deep breath, held it, and gave it all she could. With her eyes squeezed shut, she threw her head back and yelled to the ceiling.
As if all at once, she stopped screaming, but another sound filled the room. The noise was just as ear piercing as a few of Nicole’s screams had been, except it was different. It was the first sound he heard as a father, and it was a perfect baby cry.
“We got a boy,” the doctor announced.
Gemariah wouldn’t let go of Nicole’s hand, but did lean a little to the side to get a better view. He was red, wrinkly, covered in slime, and had a cone shaped head, but he was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
The doctor held him up a little higher so Nicole could see, and she let out a choked sob.
“He looks to be in good shape, almost as if he were a full term baby, but we better have him checked out anyway.” He turned his head to look at Gemariah, “Dad, would you like to do the honors?” he asked as he indicated the umbilical cord.
They didn’t have to ask him twice. With a kiss to the back of her hand, he let go of Nicole and tentatively walked over to where the doctor held his son. He took the medical scissors in his hand and did as they directed him, to cut the cord.
There had been many good times in his long life, but nothing would ever come close to topping that day, he thought.
The doctor handed away his son to a waiting doctor and turned to face Nicole. “Alright,” he said, “Let’s say that we bring this other baby home as well.”
There was nothing that Gemariah wanted more, but he was afraid the end result wasn’t going to be as joyful. Looking over at Malachi, he tried to show what he was thinking. Just to be sure, he projected to him.
Be ready…
Malachi nodded in understanding.
******
Her little girl…
Seeing her boy was the best moment in her life, but it felt incomplete. She needed to hold both of her children.
It seemed that she had only had a moment to breathe before the doctors wanted her to push again. There was a major difference, though. Now that she had seen the end result, a new sense of purpose had filled her.
When the nurse said push, she pushed. When the nurse said just a little bit more, she pushed harder. She felt the baby come out, but there was no sense of relief like there was when her baby boy came. There was silence when there should have been crying. The people around her started to buzz into action but with worried looks on their faces.
They didn’t wait for Gemariah to cut her cord, and when she saw the doctor pass their little girl over to another doctor, she saw a flash of discolored skin.
“What’s wrong?” she asked the best she could.
When no one answered right away, she tried to sit up but was held down by Gemariah. He leaned down and put his face directly in front of hers, successfully blocking her view.
Remember what I told you. She will be alright. You have to trust me.
She heard the voice inside her head, and gasped in shock. It was one thing to know it could be done, but it was something completely different to hear it personally. She didn’t just hear Gemariah’s voice, but it was as if a shiver of masculine energy passed through her.
Not knowing what to say, or even how to do it if she wanted, she looked into his eyes and nodded.
As if on cue, Tori stepped into the room and immediately the air started to shimmer around everyone. The doctor that was in the middle of transferring her baby girl to another person froze mid-step. Instead of being given to the other person in scrubs, she saw Malachi step forward and gently take her into his arms.
It was as if the air swallowed Malachi and her little girl when his image slowly started to disappear. Before he became completely invisible, a golden light, as bright as the sun, started to appear in his arms.
It only took a minute, but eventually Malachi’s form started to show once again, and she let out a sob of relief. She watched as he gently put the baby back into the doctor’s arms and stepped back.
A movement on her right caused her to look over, and she saw Tori slouch against the wall. Almost immediately, the air in the room became clear again.
Quickly she looked back over to see the doctor look down in her arms, in shock.
“Well I’ll be,” she heard her mumble before placing her daughter down to check her over.
Everything was so knew to her at that moment. The doctor that delivered the babies finished up with her, and she vaguely heard him say that her body was in incredible condition for just going through a twin labor. She knew that it had to be because of Gemariah and what he did to her, but didn’t give it too much thought as she looked over the doctors that were examining her babies.
She could hear bits and pieces of their conversation as if it were a radio station that couldn’t stay in tune. She heard the word miracle a lot, and slowly the tension started to drain away. They were going to be okay, and that’s all that mattered to her.
What a day, she thought. Correction, what a couple weeks she'd had. In that short amount of time, she found out that the world was not as she had once thought it to be. There were evil creatures and divine entities at war all around her. Heck, apparently she could have bumped into an actual angel and she would have never known it. It was all going to take a while to get used to.
However, everything that she had seen that night proved one thing to her. Her children and she had a very large family, because that was what she considered them all. Everybody came. Whether it was for her or Gemariah, it didn’t matter. If they came to help him, they also came for her, and vice versa.
Tori drained herself by doing what she could to help, and Nicole wasn’t sure that her daughter would have made it without the help of Malachi. In that night alone, she hadn’t just gained two children, she had gained an entire family as well.
Her thoughts were interrupted when two people in scrubs approached the hospital bed, each holding a tiny baby in their arms.
Letting go of Trinity and Gemariah’s hands, she sat up straighter in bed and a baby was placed into each arm. She looked closely at each one in awe. They looked like two beautiful and healthy babies. People were talking over her heard, but she didn’t care to listen as she held in her arms the two beings that she had once held under her heart. Part of her marveled at the feeling, but another small part missed the connection that there once had been.
Eventually, she looked up when she heard the words, “never seen anything like it,” from one of the doctors.
“So they’re healthy? Even though they’re so early?”
The doctor smiled and shook her head in astonishment. “That’s what baffles me. It’s a miracle, and in my profession, only a handful of doctors get to witness something so une
xplainable. It’s a nice change.” She reached down and caressed the head of the larger of the two babies. “In most twin deliveries, especially ones so early, both babies are much smaller than they would be if it were a single delivery. This big guy weighed in at seven pounds five ounces, lungs are fully developed and sound great, color is good… he’s perfect.
Your little girl is one I will never forget. When your doctor put her into my arms, I didn’t have a strong belief that she would make it. She was barely breathing and her skin had turned close to a shade of purple. Holding her, I guessed her weight to be below three pounds. Plus, her arm sat at an odd angle and looked to be broken. I looked back down at her when I got to the table, and it was as if someone had put a completely different baby in my arms. She is still small, weighing only four pounds two ounces, but she is completely healthy.” She then flashed them a slight smile and whispered, “Someone had to have been looking out for her today.”
If Nicole hadn’t been holding both babies, she would have grabbed onto Malachi to thank him. When she looked up at him to show her appreciation, she noticed the strain around his eyes. Then she remembered how weak Tori had gotten from putting up the invisible shield. She realized that she would never be able to pay them back for what they had given her.
CHAPTER 19
The next couple hours flew by. The doctors left but a nurse stayed behind to show her how to feed her babies. When that was done, she was moved into a room that she would have to stay at for a couple days. Through it all, Gemariah stayed by her side. He had turned into her rock. The thought scared her, but she could sense that he felt the same way.
Once she was all settled into the new room, she sat back in the bed holding her baby boy while Gemariah sat in a reclining chair across the room holding their daughter. It was a weird feeling to be separated from him by ten feet but feel as if he were only mere inches away. When he looked up at her and smiled, she could tell that he knew exactly what she was feeling.
It had only been a few minutes ago that she finally got to relax with her son. Gemariah had been holding both until she had managed to course him into letting one go. He is going to have to learn how to share, she thought with a grin.
Good luck with that…
“That’s not fair. I don’t even know how to do that.”
“It’s one of the easiest things to learn. Just talk to me without using your mouth. Think it in your head.”
She tilted her head to the side to think. She looked at him, the man she had grown to care so deeply for, the father of her children and the man she couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her long life with. There was only one thing she could think to say to him at that moment.
I love you.
He breathed in deeply. The look he had was almost blissful.
I love you too. So much that it hurts at times.
She knew exactly what he was talking about, but it was still different to hear such passion come from a man that was anything but passionate not too long ago.
He grinned wickedly at her.
Now that you know how to project, think of all the possibilities when your mouth is otherwise occupied.
She laughed at the same time that she felt her cheeks heat up. There was the Gemariah that I originally fell for, she thought.
When a shot of lust went through her, she shook her head.
Cool your jets, Buddy. The doctor said no sexual activity for six weeks.
First off, you’re a nephilim now. You will be completely healed by tomorrow, if not by the end of the day. So whenever you want to go there, you just gotta let me know. Second, I was talking about eating. Now, we know where your dirty little mind was wondering.
He was looking down at their daughter, and showed no outward signs of joking around, but she knew the playfulness she felt was coming from him. Nicole closed her eyes and shook her head in exasperation.
It wasn’t long before everyone came to meet the newest members of the family. Surprisingly, Conner had stuck around as well.
Everyone filed in. Terah and Trinity gushed over both infants and managed to talk Gemariah and her into handing them over while everyone else got comfortable around the room.
“Oh! She’s so adorable!” Trinity said as she looked down at the pink swaddled baby that she was bouncing. “What’s her name?”
“Well, we don’t have names yet, for either of them,” Nicole explained.
Gemariah shifted in his chair. “I actually had an idea for the girl.” He looked almost nervous. “I was thinking, Isabella. It means ‘God is my Oath’. I thought it only fitting after everything that she had been through, everything I want for her, and everything that I owe because she’s healthy and alive.”
If you like it…
“I love it,” she said aloud.
“Then it’s settled,” Trinity said before leaning down to talk to the little girl. “Hi Baby Bella, I’m Auntie Rin, and I am going to spoil you so much that it will rival even your daddy.” Looking up, she winked at Gemariah then continued to bounce the baby around.
Malachi looked dreamily towards his wife, but then turned to address them both. “What about the boy?”
Tori adjusted her seating on the window sill and nodded to the lone figure leaning against a far wall. “You should ask Gideon. He knows what all those biblical names mean. You don’t want to end up naming your kid something that means weak duck.”
Gideon stood a little taller when everyone turned to look at him. Nicole could tell that he wasn’t comfortable with all the attention. “Don’t look at me,” he said with a scowl. “I’m not naming your kid.”
“Does it have to be a biblical name?” Nicole asked.
Gemariah shrugged before saying, “We all have them. I guess it’s just a way of passing a part of us along. Such as, mine means, Perfection of the Lord.”
“Oh brother...” Nicole rolled her eyes and laughed which successfully made everyone else laugh.
“You’re so funny,” he said sarcastically with a smile before continuing. “Malachi means My Messenger or My Angel.”
At his ploy to turn everyone’s attention to someone else, their moods became more playful.
For the first time, Conner spoke up from his seat on the arm of the couch. “That’s awesome. What’s mine mean?”
No one knew so Tori quick looked it up. “Wolf lover, she said with a grin.
“What? Ok, I was jipt. Who’s up for a name change?”
Conner’s reaction caused everyone to laugh even harder.
Smiling, she turned to look at Gideon. “What about you? What does your name mean?” It was the most she had ever spoken to him, and she thought that he might lighten up if she could bring him into the conversation.
He sneered, “Destroyer.”
“Oh.” Not knowing what else to say, she found herself saying, “That’s nice,” before she could stop herself.
Silence filled the room, and as she looked at everyone, she could tell that they were all trying not to laugh. Afraid that she had offended him, she quickly looked back to Gideon and saw his lips twitch into a small grin.
Sighing loudly, Gideon rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Okay, what do you want to know?”
That was when everyone started to yell out names and meanings.
“I know Thomas means Twin,” Tori said.
Nicole scrunched her nose at the thought. “It’s a nice name and I want him to love being a twin, but most of all I want him to have his individuality.”
“I agree,” Gemariah put in.
“He’s already really strong.” Malachi said before looking at Gideon. “What’s that name?”
“Ethan, or there’s also Ezeakiel which means Strength of God.”
“I don’t know.” Nicole wasn’t sure if either of those two names fit.
There’s also Jarius that means My Light or Nathanel means The Gift of God.” Gideon just started to name off names and meanings while everyone in the room argued over which ones were better. All
the noise was starting to give her a migraine until everyone was silenced by one voice.
“His name is Alexander,” Terah said as she stood up from the couch.
Nicole thought back, but didn’t remember her ever getting involved in the conversation before.
Ignoring everyone else, Terah continued to walk over towards Nicole until she was close enough to gently place the baby into her waiting arms.
Looking up at the small flame haired woman, Nicole asked, “What does Alexander mean?”
“Protector of Mankind.” She reached down and slipped her finger into his little grip. “This little guy showed me something very interesting.”
Nicole was already lost. Her brain was already on overload, and she didn’t know how much more new information she could take.
At her confused expression, Terah smiled down at her. She had a sweet face and a pleasant smile that said how nice she was, but Nicole didn’t doubt for a minute the strength behind the small frame. “I have the gift of sight,” she explained. “I can see past, present, and future. I don’t see everything, but when I do, it doesn’t differentiate between the three.”
“You said that my son showed you something?” Out of instinct, Nicole held the baby a little tighter to her chest.
Still smiling, Terah sat on the edge of the bed. The entire room was still quiet. It was almost as if everyone had stopped breathing so they didn’t miss what she was going to say. “He showed me…” She stopped to think. “I’m trying to figure out how to word this without freaking you out.”
Gemariah slipped down to sit next to her on the bed, and he placed his hand on her leg. She hadn’t even known that he had stood up, let alone come to her, but it felt right to have him there. “Just say it,” he urged.
“Okay, he showed me what happened inside you.”
Nicole felt her breathing stop, but relaxed once again when Gemariah gently rubbed back and forth on her leg.
“He was a kicker, wasn’t he?” Terah asked.
Nicole couldn’t stop her smile, and she leaned down to rub noses with her baby boy that was sleeping peacefully. “Yes. Yes, he was.”
The Divine Whisper Page 32
