by Lexi Blake
The door opened and Chelsea strode in. “Hey, sis. Looks like my nieces are eager to get here.”
Ian took that as a sign that he could step out for a moment. He kissed his wife and left her with her sister for the moment. Dr. Bates couldn’t have gotten too far. He had a few questions he didn’t want to ask around his wife.
He walked out the door and jogged to catch the OB who was standing at the nurses’ station. Melinda Bates was a lifestyle friendly doctor. There was a small network of them. Dr. Bates had grown up with a mom and dad who were full-on 24/7, and she understood. It made Ian infinitely more comfortable to have her watching out for Charlie. She wouldn’t look at them sideways if Charlie forgot and called out for her Master.
“Doc,” Ian began.
“Yes, Mr. Taggart? Is Charlotte all right?” Dr. Bates asked.
“For now. Shouldn’t we be doing a C-section? And isn’t it early? The babies are going to be premature. Shouldn’t we have things set up to take care of them?” They would be small. So fucking small. They would be fragile, and if anything happened to them it would be Ian’s fault. This was his family. His girls.
“Ian, it’s going to be fine.” She put a hand on his shoulder, obviously tossing aside formality. “If she hadn’t gone into labor this week, I likely would have pushed to induce her soon. The babies are at a good weight, and from what I can tell they’re already obedient little girls. They’re both in a heads down position and ready to be born. Charlotte’s placenta isn’t obstructing her cervix. This is a textbook case for delivering twins vaginally. Everything is going perfectly.”
“And if something goes wrong?” He didn’t even want to think about it. He would almost rather just get it all over with.
“Then we do an emergency C and she’s still fine. Look, nothing I say is going to make you feel better. You’re out of control and I can’t give it back to you. This is woman’s work and it always will be. There isn’t a man in the world who’s watched his beloved labor to bring their child into the world and not felt helpless,” Dr. Bates said with a sympathetic smile. “But Charlotte is strong and your daughters are strong. Let them do their work. For now, all you can do is let them know much you love them.”
He nodded, but her words didn’t really help. All he could see was Charlie looking pale in that hospital gown she’d had to change into.
So many things could go wrong. He could lose them all.
“Ian?”
He turned and Sean stood there. He was still in his chef whites, as though he’d walked out in the middle of prep for tonight’s dinner. Which given the time was the most likely scenario. “You didn’t have to come up here. It’s probably going to be hours.”
Sean simply walked up to him. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. My sous-chef can handle Top for the night. I’m staying here with you. Grace and Li stayed behind to close up McKay-Taggart, but they should be here very soon if not already. I think you’ll find everyone else is here. They’ve kind of taken over the waiting room. We are going to be hell on the volunteers.”
God, he hadn’t expected that. “Tell them to go home, Sean. Like I said, it’s going to be hours.”
Sean put a hand on his shoulder. “Walk with me. Chelsea’s got Charlotte covered for the moment. I want to talk to you.”
He stepped back, wary. “I don’t need touchy-feely shit.”
“Sometimes I wonder why we put up with you,” Sean said under his breath. “Fine. I’ll go to plan B. Ian, I’ve got lemon cookies Macon made in the waiting room.”
“Oh, I will take those.” As long as he wasn’t about to get some lecture about the step he was about to take. He didn’t want to hear about that. He kind of didn’t want to think about that. Sometimes it was best to simply let things happen.
He started to follow Sean down the hall.
“Do you remember the moment you decided you wanted kids?” Sean asked.
Touchy-feely territory. Yep. His brother was trying to get him there, but Ian was good at avoiding the land mines. Usually he would simply walk away, but he wanted those cookies so a little deflection was necessary. “Nope. I do remember the day Charlie said she was no longer on birth control and what was I going to do about it. Here’s a hint. I did not get snipped, which was the only option she gave me besides rolling the dice.”
“Seriously, that’s what you’re going to tell those girls?”
He shook his head. “Nah. Charlie really wanted kids. You’ve seen her with Carys. Besides, Carys deserves family. After you and Grace made the decision to keep her a single, it kind of fell to me and Charlie to give her cousins.”
“You make it sound like we did it to spite you,” Sean groused. “The doctors told Grace another pregnancy could be very difficult. She wanted to try. I said no. Carys needs her mother more than she does more siblings.”
This was the way it was with him and his brother. They worked out their issues through sarcasm. They didn’t need the therapy crap other people did. “Well, I think she needs cousins. I will say if I’d known about Case and Theo at the time, I totally would have shoved this duty off on them.”
“Don’t even say that,” Case said, walking up to them.
Theo was at his side with a big grin on his face. “I’m up to the challenge, big brother. Well, maybe not the actual babymaking challenge, but I’m willing to practice.”
Case rolled his familiar blue eyes. “He thinks he’s getting some in Africa. He’s absolutely certain Erin is going to fall into his bed while they’re fighting Ebola and stuff.”
Theo didn’t back down. “I’m optimistic. I’m getting her alone and I’m pleading my case.”
“Yeah, she’s going to respond by shoving her foot up your ass, little brother,” Case explained.
Ian kind of figured that Erin would try to shove her boot up Theo’s ass, but he also thought she might not fight him too hard. “Any way I can convince you to go to Africa and just get the job done?”
He’d often found that the people around him did exactly the opposite of what he asked them to, so he employed reverse psychology to get his way. In this case, it wasn’t exactly his way. It was Theo’s way, but Theo was going to waste a ton of time if he didn’t go after that girl and take her down. She wouldn’t respond to roses. She responded to a man strong enough to take her shit and protect her from whatever the hell she was afraid of.
Theo frowned. “I’ll try, but I gotta be honest. I’m probably not going to try very hard. Something about that woman does it for me. I can’t help it.”
Case groaned. “I swear I’m going to beat him to death if he bursts into song.”
Ian sympathized. “It’s disgusting, isn’t it? I had to put up with Sean singing about Grace for weeks.”
“I did not sing, asshole,” Sean shot back.
They continued down the hall. “I distinctly remember you singing and weeping and playing really bad guitar.”
“I did none of that,” Sean clarified.
“I’m pretty sure Theo’s been writing poetry.” Case fell in step with Ian.
Theo shook his head. “Never once in my life have I written poetry.”
Sean and Theo walked alongside but there was zero way to miss the similarities. Case and Theo might be twins separated by mere minutes, but they were he and Sean all over again.
Before they got to the lobby, Case put out a hand and held Ian back.
Shit. Was Case about to ask him not to send Theo to Africa? Case could be super protective of his younger brother. Another thing they had in common.
“What?”
Case frowned. “I just wanted to say something. I know I was kind of an asshole when we first met.”
“You can’t help it. It’s your personality.” He knew what Case was talking about. Case had always resisted acknowledging their connection as anything past a coincidental biological link. He was wrong, of course, but Ian didn’t bother to point it out.
Charlie, on the other hand, had been pretty specific with h
is brothers. They were family and therefore her responsibility, and she didn’t care if Case agreed. A while back, Case had broken his leg, and without bothering to ask the boy what he thought, she’d simply moved Case into the spare bedroom and taken care of him while Theo was off in Dubai.
“Yeah, well, it’s yours, too,” Case shot back. “Look, this is hard for me. Could you please shut the fuck up and listen? I’m sorry I was an asshole. I worried you would come in and Theo would look up to you.”
Ian felt for the kid. He remembered what it felt like to only have his brother. “I was never going to take Theo away from you.”
“I know, but I think you should also know that I wish it had been different.”
Ian could only imagine. “I’ll get Charlie to back off. It was never my intention to run roughshod over you, Case. I just wanted to get to know you.”
“That wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t mean I wish we hadn’t met. I mean I wish you’d been my big brother, too. All those years…I wish it had been you and Sean and me and Theo.”
The Taggart brothers. “You understand I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”
“Jesus, man. Is that a tear?” Case looked properly horrified.
“It’s manly hug time.” He caught his brother and gave him a good pounding on his back. “And now we’re done.”
Case’s mouth turned up. “Thank god because Theo would have drawn that shit out.”
Sean popped back out of the waiting room. “What’s going on?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Ian lied because Sean would drag that shit out, too, and the last thing he needed was a bunch of crying dudes hanging on him.
“Not a thing, brother.” Case gave him a nod and joined the rest.
Sean stared at him suspiciously. “Yeah, I believe that.” He sighed. “You know you’re going to be good at this, right?”
“I’m good at everything.” But not this. Maybe he would be awful. He was sarcastic and didn’t particularly believe in showing his emotions to anyone but Charlie. He worried that he was going to resent the kids for taking time away from her, and didn’t that make him a complete asshole?
“Joke all you like, but in this I’m the leader, brother. I know what this feels like. I know how awful it feels to watch your wife do something you can’t help her with. You can’t take this burden from her.”
Ian shrugged. “Charlie’s tough.”
“And I also know what it feels like to worry that your whole world is about to change,” Sean said, ignoring him completely. “And guess what—it is. Nothing you’ve gone through prepares you. A lot of people will tell you you’ve already been a parent to me, and in some ways you were. You took care of me. I know what you sacrificed, but Ian, I wasn’t your kid. You have no idea how you’re going to feel when they put that first baby girl in your hands, and nothing I say will prepare you for it. But I am going to say this.”
“Do you have to? You know I really think those dudes back in the sixties had it right. We should go and sit in a bar somewhere and a nurse will call us and tell us the baby’s here.”
Sean put a hand on his shoulder. “Wasn’t that the life? Sorry. Come in here and you’re going to figure something out. I know you say you’re not afraid, but I’m going to do this anyway.”
He led Ian through the doors of the waiting room, and Ian was shocked at how they’d taken up all the space.
Li and Avery sat with Jake and Adam and Serena. They’d set up a small playpen and the boys were sitting in it while Carys held court between them. Grace was talking to Eve while Alex was pacing the floor and talking on his cell phone.
“Yes, Damon. I’ll be sure to call when they’re born,” Alex was saying. “Yeah, I know. Two girls. They’re going to drive him absolutely insane. Say hello to Penny for us.”
Simon was sitting with Jesse and Phoebe, and at least half of the members of Sanctum were here, too.
“I know one thing in this world and that’s the fact that Ian Taggart knows how to create a family. None of us would be here without you, you sarcastic asshole brother of mine. So go and help your wife make our family a little bigger.”
Ian did just that because the last thing he wanted any of them to see was the way his eyes had watered.
They’d come together because they’d all been defeated one way or another. They’d all been broken—by death or loss or failure. Ian hadn’t wanted to lose them. He hadn’t wanted to lose himself, so he’d started McKay-Taggart in order to give them all something to do.
How had they become more than friends? More than colleagues? Those people had become his family.
And his family was about to welcome another two of their own.
He slipped into Charlie’s room, ready to face the future.
Ten hours later, he was fairly certain his hand was going to break.
“One more big push and the first one will be out, Charlotte,” Dr. Bates said. “You’re doing great. I wish all my twin deliveries went like this.”
Charlie grunted and squeezed his hand and seemed to put all her willpower into her task. Then again, she was trying to push two whole human beings out of her vagina. She glanced up at him. “You could say something helpful.”
“Nope.” He really couldn’t. He’d spent hours watching her in pain and not being able to do or say anything that could make it better. He hated this. He hated every part of it. They were never doing this again. These two girls better like each other because they weren’t getting siblings. No way. No how. For the first time he actually thought about getting snipped so she would never have to deal with this kind of pain again.
“Wimp.” Somehow Charlie managed a smile right before she screamed again. And then with a long sigh, she laid back.
“Oh, hello pretty girl,” Dr. Bates said. “Ian, do you want to cut the cord?”
He wasn’t getting anywhere near that. He didn’t even like the symbolism. “I’ll pass.”
He needed to stay with Charlie. He needed to make sure she was all right.
“You are lucky, Charlotte,” the nurse said. “Any longer and you would have been giving birth to two toddlers. The first twin is five and a half pounds. She’s perfect.”
“Go and see her,” Charlie said.
“I’m fine. I can wait until the other one is out.”
“That could take a while,” the nurse said. She was holding a tiny bundle in her arms that looked absolutely nothing like a toddler. Toddlers were resilient, if Carys was any indication. The kid could bump all day and not really come to any harm. But whatever was in that little pink blanket, that was a fragile thing.
He was far more used to killing than nurturing.
“Show her to your wife,” the nurse urged.
Ian shook his head. “Charlie should hold her.”
Dr. Bates looked up from between his wife’s splayed legs. Yeah, it was that kind of a day. “No. I think this one is close. Charlotte needs to push again.”
Charlie nodded. “I can feel it. This one isn’t going to wait. Let me see her, Ian.”
Deep breath. He could do this. It was just one tiny baby that had recently been expelled from his wife’s body. He could handle one small female. Hell, he was the Dom of Doms. He was the ultimate authority figure.
The nurse placed the little bundle in his arms and Ian looked down.
The baby looked up. Not the baby. His baby. His daughter. She had Charlie’s eyes and the sweetest little cap of strawberry blonde hair. There wasn’t much of it, but it was there. She had a little bow mouth and a tiny little nose. And a totally misshapen head.
“She looks like an alien.” An alien version of a baby Charlie. A gorgeous baby girl with a cone for a head.
“If you don’t show me that baby right now, Ian Taggart, I am going to pull your balls off,” Charlie growled.
He knew when to obey. Even the baby’s eyes had popped open, as though she knew the sound of her mother in a killing rage. “I think this is the one who tried to take out crazy eyes
. I’m naming this one.”
He lowered his daughter down and watched in wonder as Charlie’s eyes softened and she reached to touch her daughter for the first time.
And then her body seemed to seize. “Oh, here comes your sister.”
He cradled baby number one in his right arm and held Charlie’s hand with his left. He kept switching his gaze between his girls. The baby in his arms was yawning as though the whole event had really been tiring but no big deal.
Her sister was born three minutes later, and ten minutes after that he found himself following his daughters down to the nursery. He stood outside, watching through the glass as the pediatrician began checking the babies over. Baby number one was wrapped in her pink blanket and number two was in yellow. It was a good thing because he couldn’t tell them apart by looking at them. He wouldn’t let them out of his sight and explained in no uncertain terms that his daughters wouldn’t be left there overnight. Charlie had been very specific about it. She was keeping them in the room with her unless they needed to be checked out, and then Ian would be watching. At the time, he’d thought she was being unreasonable. She was surely going to need sleep. He’d been planning on quietly letting the girls go to the nursery.
Never. Not even once was he letting those babies out of his sight. They were his.
This was what Sean had meant. When they’d put baby number two in his arms and he lowered them both down to Charlie, he’d finally understood. He’d protected Sean, but Sean hadn’t been his.
These two small things were his and Charlie’s. They were proof beyond all doubt that they loved each other. Those girls were immortality, a way for his love for his wife to always live on. In that one moment, he understood what it meant. His love for his wife could be selfish. He wanted things from her. Love. Affection. Sex. Submission.
He wanted nothing from these girls except the right to love them, the right to protect and teach them.
Loving Charlie had made him a man, but these girls made him a father, and that was so much more.
“Look at that,” Sean said, coming to stand beside him. The rest had gone with promises to come by in the morning, but his brothers had stayed. Oh, Case and Theo had both fallen asleep in the waiting room, but they were here.
