by Katie Dowe
“She has all these tubes strung up on her. Isn’t she uncomfortable?” Caitlin stared at her daughter and wondered if she was going to make it through the next morning.
“I can assure you that she is not.”
They spent two hours inside the nursery until she was instructed to go back to bed. But she could not sleep. She kept seeing the tiny baby strung up with all the tubes and could not get it out of her head. “What if she is in pain?”
Matthias stroked her back gently, trying to ease the tension from her. She could barely move without feeling the pinch from her C-section even though she had been given something to ease the pain and discomfort and now she was worrying. He was scared, but he could not let her see it.
“The nurses say she is not, and Dr. Fritz explained that the tubes were to help her to breathe,” Matthias explained.
“I want her to live.”
“So do I,” her husband said quietly.
Caitlin took a deep breath and spread her fingers on his chest, feeling the solidness of him that she needed at that moment. “She is going to have to stay here for a while.”
“I know and we are going to stay with her,” he assured her.
“What about your work?”
“You and my children come first, and I can work from here.”
“I wish my mom was alive,” she said with a sigh.
“Tell me about her,” he urged, trying to get her mind off their daughter. Truth be told, he wanted to take his mind off her as well, even for several minutes!
Caitlin smiled softly. “She was gentle and kind and loved flowers and living things. We used to have a birdhouse at the front of the yard, and she would encourage the birds by leaving things for them to eat. I used to think that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She never said an unkind word to anyone, she was always soft-spoken and honest, but not in an unkind way. My friends, Yvonne and Valerie, always used to hang out at my home because they loved her, and she loved them back. She had a very big heart and would tell me stories at bedtime.” She twisted her head to look at him. “Stories that she made up. She used to say that my dad and I were the same way, and she felt left out, but that was not true. She was very creative in her own way and just as smart as my dad. I had never seen them fight and they were always touching each other.”
“You were lucky,” he said huskily.
Her eyes met his. “Your parents were the exact opposite,” she murmured.
He nodded, his expression carefully neutral. “They were never emotional and discouraged any form of physical behavior. We would sit at the dinner table and there would be silence until the meal was over. It was like that throughout the time I spent with them and it never changed. My mother never tucked me into bed or kissed me goodnight and my dad never spoke to me unless he was telling me something pertaining to the business. I spent my childhood reading books and fantasizing about parents who loved me and took me out on picnics and the museum and the zoo.”
She stared at him in wonder. “That is why you grew up surrounding yourself with art.”
He nodded with a slight smile. “Whenever I read a book or looked at a painting, I saw beauty in them, and I realized how they made me feel. I learned to disappear into all that as a means of escape and it worked to a point.”
“That’s why you wanted to surround yourself with children.”
He nodded. “Maybe it was wrong of me, but I wanted to prove to myself that I am not my parents and that I could be more than they were. I was a very lonely boy, Caitlin, and I closed myself off from emotions.”
She snuggled against him, infusing him with her warmth. “It’s going to be different,” she promised him. “We are going to be very good parents. We have all of four children to practice on.”
“Is that so?” he asked her in amusement.
“Yes.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “I am going to teach you how to say the words, Matthias.”
“What words?” he asked, but he already knew what she was referring to.
“You know what words, darling.”
*****
“I have to say that seeing these babies makes me long to have one or two of my own,” Valerie murmured as she cradled the sleeping Michael in her arms. Yvonne had Mark and Caitlin was giving Matthew his afternoon meal. Her nipples were incredibly tender, but she had an overabundance of milk and was determined to give them breast milk to help with their growth. They were still not properly developed, and she was doing everything in her power to help with the process. Matthias was in the waiting room on his computer as he tried to run his business from the hospital. She had told him that he could leave to go to meetings, but he refused to leave. Meanwhile, flowers and gift baskets had been sent from the publishing house as well as from Kane and Kelly who said they would drop by to see them as soon as they came back from their trip abroad. Maxine had sent flowers and a gift basket as well and several of the wives she had yet to meet had sent cards. Her room was like a greenhouse and smelled like one. She had instructed that most of the flowers and baskets be shared among the staff and the pediatrics department.
“I am worried about Catherine,” Caitlin said, voicing her concerns.
“I am sure she will be fine,” Yvonne assured her as she stared down at the little boy. “He is so beautiful,” she added wistfully. “You did it, honey.”
“I just wish that our daughter would be strong enough to take home.”
Chapter 13
“The boys can go home,” Dr. Fritz told them three weeks later.
“What about Catherine?” Caitlin asked him. She had been staying in the hospital and slowly recovering from her surgery, getting stronger each day, able to walk around and help with her children. She had also learned to identify each one of the boys even though it was hard to do. Matthias had had to leave the last week to attend meetings, but he made sure to call her every day and came back as soon as he was finished. Her friends as well as her dad came by to see her every other day and several of the wives had also come by for visits. She and Kelly had gotten close over the three weeks as the woman had been to see her often.
“We are going to have to keep her for longer,” he said with regret.
“I am not leaving her,” Caitlin told him.
“What if we hire a nurse to take care of her needs while she is at home?” Matthias asked him. During the time Caitlin had been in the hospital, he had bought a house not far from the apartment where they had been living. Caitlin had not been there yet but had seen pictures of the sprawling ranch-type house with the four-bedroom suites and three other single rooms with bathrooms for each one. The yard was several acres large with a tall perimeter fencing and palm trees along the fencing. An electronic gate was there to keep out intruders and the garden was a profusion of flowers. The decorators had worked overtime to get the place ready and it was.
Dr. Fritz looked at his colleagues. “I can recommend an excellent nurse.”
“Can she be available to start right away?” Matthias asked him.
“Let me make a call and get back to you.” He and the others left the room.
Matthias went over to his sons who were by this time fast asleep. In the three weeks since they had made their appearances, they had grown two inches and had each put on three pounds which had the doctors pleased with the progress, but his daughter was still fighting for her life. The doctors said that she had improved drastically but was still not out of danger and he knew Caitlin was worried about that. He touched them gently and went over to look at his daughter in the incubator. The tubes had been removed from her nose which was a very good thing because he had not been able to look at her and not think that she was in pain, even though he had been assured she was not.
“Do you think I am overreacting?” Caitlin asked him as she sat there looking at the little girl who she could not wait to hold in her arms and feed.
“If you are, then so am I.” He rubbed her shoulders absently as they both looked at her. �
��I want all of them home where they belong.”
“I keep thinking that I am going to go to sleep and wake up and find that she is no longer with us,” she whispered as she leaned back against him.
“And I cannot afford to think that,” her husband said firmly. Both had been so preoccupied with the four children that they had not been able to think or to speak of anything else but as soon as the worries were over, he would find a way to get back to them.
“You are right.” Caitlin gazed at her daughter again. Before she could say anything else, Dr. Fritz came back into the room.
“I have good news. Nurse Jacobs is available as of yesterday and would be willing to come and take care of Catherine for you. She is a pediatrics nurse and is very good at her job. She is the only one I would trust to be there for your daughter.”
“So, we can leave today?” Caitlin asked him.
He smiled at that. “I hope that is not a reflection of the hospitality here, Caitlin.”
“The place is lovely, I hardly remember that I am in a hospital and the food is excellent, but I need to go home and just be with my husband and children.”
“I understand.” He nodded. “I will just get the rest of the doctors to do a general check before we do the discharge papers.”
*****
Matthias had hired a full complement of staff, which included the housekeeper who had been at his apartment before, a chef who was so tall and gaunt that had Caitlin wondering if he ever ate anything he prepared, a maid, and three nannies to take care of the boys. His assistant, Maxine, had done the necessary vetting of the entire staff, even though Caitlin had wanted to have a say in the people hired to take care of the children.
“We did not want you to have to worry about that,” Matthias had told her firmly when she had voiced her protest. “I trust Maxine’s judgement.”
She fell in love with the sprawling ranch-type home the minute they drove through the gate and along the winding driveway. The nurse had been given directions to the home so that she could arrive and set up the room the way she wanted to. When they came to the front door, it was flung open by the housekeeper who along with the rest of the staff came out to greet them and they were all in uniforms.
“I am not used to this,” Caitlin said as she stared at the group of people standing there, waiting for them to get out of the vehicle.
“You will,” her husband told her as he came around to help her out of the car. Nurse Jacobs, a tall, pleasant looking woman with greying black hair and smooth white skin, came forward to greet them. “Very nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Zeng.”
“Oh, please, call me Caitlin and I am sure my husband would not mind the informality.”
“In that case, I would like you to call me Carol.” She went to the back of the vehicle to look at the children. “They are so beautiful!” she exclaimed. “I had seen the pictures in the papers and wondered how that photographer could have gotten so close to take them all at once.”
“He snuck into the hospital, posing as a doctor,” Caitlin said with a shake of her head. The three nannies came forward. She had already spoken to them and knew their names. Sally, the middle-aged black woman, was going to oversee Matthew, Angie, the Swedish woman with the white blonde hair and faint accent, was going to oversee Mark, and Carmen, the raven-haired Mexican native, would oversee Michael. They had all been vetted and background checks done on them and their entire families before they had been hired. As Matthias had said, Maxine was very thorough and incredibly good at her job and he was taking no chances where his children were concerned.
They made their way inside after they had greeted the rest of the staff with Caitlin going into the nurseries to make sure that the boys were all settled in before going with the nurse to see what she was doing with regards to Catherine.
“Have you taken care of preemies before?” Caitlin asked as she watched the woman carefully turn the little girl onto her side and change her. She had slept the entire time on the way from the hospital and was still sleeping even now.
“For twenty years,” the woman said with a smile as she tended the baby. She looked over at Caitlin who was seated on one of the cushy sofas inside the pink and lavender room. “You don’t have to worry about her, Caitlin, she is going to do just fine. Dr. Fritz told me that she weighed three pounds when she was born and is now weighing three and a half pounds now. That’s progress.”
“She is so tiny that I cannot help but worry that she is not going to make it.”
“She will make it,” the woman told her firmly. “I am here to help, and I can assure you that I am experienced when it comes to taking care of preemies. Now as a nurse, it is my duty to advise you to go and take a rest while the boys are being tended to. We are here to take the burden off you, so please take advantage of it and don’t feel guilty about wanting to spend some time with your husband.”
“You are right,” Caitlin said with a smile. “A lot of things have been neglected since before I gave birth to the children.”
“Go on,” Carol urged. “Your daughter is in good hands.”
Caitlin discovered Matthias just coming out of the boys’ room. Two of the bedroom suites had been given to the nannies, but the nurse had told them that she would prefer to have a cot put in Caitlin’s nursery so that she could be there for her during the nights as well for now so arrangements were being made for that. “How is she?” her husband asked as he came towards her.
“In good hands, I think,” she said with an uncertain smile as she looked up at him. He had been such a wonderful support that she could never complain.
“She is in good hands.” He put a hand beneath her arm and guided her into what appeared to be a solarium and a sitting room combined. Brilliant sunlight streamed through the glass room and bathed everything in the large airy room with its light. He gestured for her towards the loveseat and she sank down gratefully and stretched her legs out. She had put on forty-five pounds during the pregnancy but had shed ten pounds already and was determined to take off the rest. “I have asked the chef to prepare something for us to eat in here. I want us to have dinner, just the two of us, Caitlin, without worrying about the children.”
She wrinkled her small nose at him. “Are you sure you can do that?”
“I am positive, but I am more worried about getting your attention for as long as dinner lasts,” he told her wryly. He moved over to a cabinet built into the wall and prepared drinks for them. He came over and handed her the fruit punch and carried his own fruit drink with him to his chair. “How do you like the place?”
“I love it.” She sipped the drink and stared at him. “I am thinking of taking a walk around the grounds later today, after dinner.”
“We can do it together.”
She nodded. “There is something I need to ask you.”
“Go ahead.”
“We have not-” She stopped and then tried again. “We have not been intimate in almost six weeks.”
He lifted a brow and waited for her to continue.
“Is that a problem?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you suffering because of it?”
Matthias put his drink away, his expression openly amused. “Are you willing to do something about it now?”
Caitlin looked at his wryly. “It’s just that with the worries of the children and everything else, I have not thought about it until now.”
He inclined his head. “You carried four children inside you and went through an operation to get those children out. The doctors told me that your blood pressure was so high that they were afraid you might have stroke. Trust me, I really have not been thinking about that either.”
“Are you sure?”
“Caitlin, I am fine. Stop worrying about that.”
“We used to make love every night.”
“And we will get back to that. Right now, I just want to know that you and my children are going to be okay.”
She nodded. “We should
have a housewarming party.”
“Not just yet.”
*****
“I can just see the boys running around the yard and making all sorts of mischief,” Caitlin said as they went on their walk. She had no idea the place was so big! There was a tennis court and a basketball court and a large pear-shaped pool that she had every intention of taking advantage of! Trees dotted the backyard and stretched for several acres where there was a natural stream making pretty noises as it ran over smooth stones embedded inside the earth.
“And leaving their sister behind,” Matthias murmured as he kept her hand in his. He was happy to see her looking so relaxed and less stressed and was glad that he had insisted that they take the walk even though it was approaching eight P.M. The sun was still high in the sky and a slight wind was shivering the leaves on the trees.
“Catherine might just surprise us by being the leader of the little pack.” She shivered suddenly and he wrapped his hands around her, bringing her closer to him.
“Cold?”
“A little bit,” she admitted. “But I don’t want to go in yet.”
“A few more minutes then.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind and she leaned back against his solid length.
“It’s so lovely and peaceful,” she murmured as she inhaled the scent of gardenias and peonies nearby. “My mom would have loved this place.”
“When the realtor first showed me, I fell in love with it and knew you would too.”
She twisted her head and looked up at him. “Thank you.”
His intense dark eyes looked into hers. “Do you have any idea what you did for me?”
“I have some idea,” she teased him.
“You gave me the world,” he told her huskily. “And I will never be able to thank you enough for that.”
She lifted her head and he bent his to take her lips with his, keeping the kiss light so as not overexcite them but even the slight touch ignited the dormant fire inside them. He broke off the kiss and stepped away from her. “I think we should go back in,” he told her brusquely.
