“They go in the cupboard by your head.”
“Thanks, that’s…” Desmond stops and turns around. He frowns heavily when he sees Alex stood in the doorway. “You’re not supposed to be back until later today.”
“Got an earlier flight.” Alex shrugs.
“Missed me, huh?”
“Yeah.” Alex nods and walks over to Desmond.
“How much?” Desmond puts his hands on Alex’s hips and pulls Alex towards him.
Alex leans in and presses a soft kiss to Desmond’s lips before pulling back slightly.
“Want to come upstairs and let me show you?”
“I don’t think we’re gonna make it upstairs.”
***
If Alex had managed to surprise Desmond when he came home, there’s no way that Neal does. He bangs the door, throws his bags down on the floor and calls out, all within the space of about five seconds.
“Hello?”
“In here,” Desmond calls out from the living room.
Neal throws his coat somewhere behind him and then walks through to the living room. He stops when he sees Alex sat next to Desmond on the couch. He stares at Alex for a minute.
“Why are you back now? You’re not supposed to be back until later.”
“I wanted to come home sooner.” Alex shrugs lightly and glances over at Desmond before looking at Neal. “I didn’t want to be away any longer.”
Neal eyes Desmond and Alex suspiciously for a minute.
“Seriously?” Neal rolls his eyes. He puts his hands on his hips and narrows his gaze at Alex. “You came home early so you two could have sex without me?”
Desmond opens his mouth to ask how exactly Neal managed to work out that that’s what they were doing, but Neal doesn’t give him the chance to say anything.
“Never mind. I missed you too much to get angry. I would like some hugs now, please.”
Desmond laughs lightly and shakes his head. He stands up and walks across the room. He wraps his arms around Neal and presses a kiss to Neal’s cheek.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” Neal smiles brightly and settles himself against Desmond. “Everyone else says ‘hi’, too.”
“I know- you told me that when you called me this morning and, well, every other time you called me too.”
“Now I’m telling you again.” Neal rests his head on Desmond’s shoulder. “I had fun and I’m looking forward to properly being part of that team after the babies are born. Everyone seems so nice.”
“I told you, didn’t I?”
“Mmmm,” Neal mutters. “Chrys was fighting with Levi again though.”
Desmond rolls his eyes and shakes his head.
“What about this time?”
“Something stupid- who’d look better with hair or who’s house is best, I don’t know. I think they’re made up again- I’m pretty sure I saw Levi sneaking into Chrys’ room when I was leaving. How do they fight so much?”
“I don’t know.”
Neal shakes his head and then turns to look at Alex.
“Alex? Hugs?”
Alex smiles softly as he stands up and walks over to Neal and Desmond. He leans in and presses a kiss to the side of Neal’s head.
Neal shifts around and rests his head on Alex’s shoulder instead.
“Do you want to feel the babies move?” Neal doesn’t wait for a reply before grabbing Alex’s hand and placing on top of his stomach. “They’re not properly kicking yet, but they’re moving around enough for you to feel it now.”
“I…” Alex’s eyes widen and he tries to move away when he feels some movement from within Neal’s stomach.
Neal chews nervously on his lower lip and pulls back slightly so he can look at Alex.
“Don’t freak out.”
“I’m not freaking out, I just…” Alex steps back and runs a hand over his head. “It’s… They’re really real now, you know. I mean, I know they were real before, but now I feel them and…”
“Are you sure this isn’t you freaking out?” Desmond stands behind Neal and wraps an arm around Neal’s stomach. He smiles brightly when he feels the babies moving. He looks up at Alex. “Alex?”
“I’m really not freaking out. Really. I just… Now I feel them moving, I know they’re going to be here soon and I’m just worried about everything we have to do before they get here and, well, how hard it’s going to be when they do get here.”
“We’ll manage.” Desmond reaches out with his free hand towards Alex.
Alex steps in and takes hold of Desmond’s hand.
“It’s going to be hard work.”
“There are three of us and two of them; we can do this.”
“But…”
“No ‘buts’.” Neal leans in and kisses Alex. “We’re going to be fine.”
Alex opens his mouth to argue, but decides against it- if Neal and Desmond are so sure about this, then he can handle it too. He smiles lightly and nods.
Neal grins at Alex and then glances back at Desmond.
“When we see the doctor tomorrow….”
“Oh, my God.” Alex’s eyes widen and he steps back. “Why are we going to the doctor? Is something wrong? Oh, my God.”
“Relax. It’s just my check-up.” Neal rolls his eyes, but then narrows his gaze at Alex. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”
“No.” Alex lets out a brief sigh of relief. “I just… My brain is all fuzzy from the jet-lag. I just forgot what day it was is all.”
“That better be it.” Neal gives Alex a serious look.
“It is.” Alex smiles lightly and nods. “I promise.”
“You…”
“So what were you going to say, Neal?” Desmond looks down at Neal and smiles as best he can.
“Oh. Well, I was going to ask whether we’d be able to find out if they’re boys or girls when we go to the doctors tomorrow.”
“Uh…” Desmond thinks carefully for a moment. “It should be soon enough, I think. Do you want to find out?”
“Of course.” Neal frowns slightly at Desmond. “Don’t you?”
“Yeah, I’d like to find out, but if you didn’t want to know then I’d be fine with waiting too.”
“Well, we’re finding out.” Neal nods definitively. He looks back at Alex. “Right, Alex?”
“Yes. I think it’ll help us to prepare- what color to paint the nursery, the clothes to buy and things like that.”
“All right then.” Desmond gently rubs Neal’s stomach. “Let’s just hope they cooperate.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“They’re misbehaving, aren’t they?”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh.” Neal blushes slightly and looks up at the doctor. “We were talking about finding out if they’re boys or girls today and I know they have to be in the right position and I really want to find out so I thought…”
“Neal.” Desmond leans in and presses a kiss to Neal’s forehead. “You’re rambling.”
“I’m excited.”
“Well, why don’t you let the doctor get started first before you start grilling him?”
Neal huffs lightly, but doesn’t say anything else. Not for a whole minute, anyway, until the doctor puts the gel on his stomach and starts moving the wand around.
“Can you tell yet? Are they okay? Are they growing like they should be? Do…”
“Neal.” Alex reaches out to put a hand on Neal’s arm. “Why don’t you just calm down and wait until the doctor can tell us?” He smiles at Neal for a second before looking at the doctor. “I’m sorry about this. We should never have let him stop at Starbucks on the way.”
“Alex!” Neal swats Alex’s hand away and glares at him. He sighs lightly and pouts for a moment before going back to talking with the doctor.
Desmond looks at Alex and shakes his head- he’s pretty sure Alex should have known better than to annoy Neal at a time like this, but then maybe Alex is nervous, too.
“Would you like to find out now?”
Neal’s eyes widen and he looks at the doctor. He nods enthusiastically.
“Yes, please.”
“All right then.” The doctor turns the screen around and points to one side. “This is your little girl.”
“Oh, a girl!” Neal grins and then looks up at Desmond. “Andrea and Bella will like that.”
“Yeah, they will.” Desmond smiles at Neal and then kisses Neal’s forehead before looking up at the doctor. “And?”
“This is your little boy.”
“Oh. That’s one of each.” Neal zones out for a minute as he thinks about what that will mean- what the babies will look like and what they’ll be like and how much they’ll love them and… He shakes himself out of his daze and looks at the doctor. “Can we get the pictures now?”
Desmond reaches out and gently nudges Alex.
“You okay there?”
Alex looks at Desmond. He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times before speaking.
“I have a son.”
“And a daughter.”
“And a daughter. That’s…” Alex frowns heavily. “Wow. I think sometimes I still can’t believe this is happening.”
“Well, it’s happening,” Neal mutters. “I’m getting fat to prove it.”
“You’re not getting fat, Neal.” Alex leans in slightly. “You’re getting more beautiful.”
Neal stares at Alex for a few seconds.
“Okay, I’m done being mad at you now.”
***
They’re not even out of the hospital before Neal is on his phone, babbling excitedly to his family in French (at least Desmond assumes so because he has no idea what Neal is saying) and Alex is on his phone, babbling excitedly to his family in Spanish (though Desmond suspects there’s a fair amount of nerves mixed in with Alex’s excitement).
Desmond stares between Neal and Alex for a minute before shaking his head. He’s at least going to wait until they get home before he starts calling people (he kinda has to, though, because he’s the one driving).
“Hey Neal, do…”
“Shh.” Neal holds a hand up and glares at Desmond for a second before turning his attention back to his phone.
“All right then. We’ll just go home.”
***
A few hours later, Desmond is sat in the living room, flicking through a magazine when Neal wanders in. He looks up at Neal and smiles.
“Hey. Your mom must have been excited if you were talking to her for that long.”
“She is. She was talking about going shopping with us when we go there for New Year’s.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah.” Neal nods. “Why is the phone making a funny noise?” He picks up the phone from where it’s resting on the coffee table next to Desmond’s feet. “Is it broken?”
“Oh, no. Andrea and Bella are just really excited to be getting a baby sister. They’ve been shrieking down the phone for like ten minutes.”
“And you’re ignoring them? You didn’t think to talk to them?”
“I tried. They just shrieked more.”
Neal rolls his eyes. He holds the phone up to his ear.
“Hi, girls; it’s Neal.”
Desmond raises an eyebrow and watches with mild amusement as Neal tries unsuccessfully to talk with Andrea and Bella before eventually just joining them in their shrieking. He rolls his eyes and goes back to his magazine. He looks up again when Alex sits down next to him a few minutes later.
Alex looks at Neal and frowns slightly before turning to Desmond.
“Is he still talking to his mom?”
“Andrea and Bella.”
“Oh.” Alex nods. “They’re as excited as you thought then?”
“You bet.” Desmond kisses Alex’s cheek. “How’s your mom?”
“Good. She’s talking about buying the babies matching outfits already. I think my sister is the most excited, though.” Alex leans back against the couch. “My brother was teasing me about being so worried though.”
“What are you worried about now?”
“Just that we won’t have enough time to get everything ready before they get here. We don’t have that much time left you know.”
“We’ve got plenty of time left, Alex. We’re gonna be okay. These babies already have a big family. We have plenty of people to help us get everything sorted.”
“I just want things to be perfect for them. We should give them the best start in life we can.”
“And we will.” Desmond wraps an arm around Alex’s shoulders and kisses the top of Alex’s head.
Neal hangs up the phone several minutes later. He lowers himself into the space on the couch and leans his head on Desmond’s shoulder.
“I promised them we’d go and visit before we leave on Sunday. I know there’s not a lot of time, but they’re so excited and…”
“It’s okay, Neal- we’ve definitely got the time.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“So what color are we going to paint the nursery?”
That should have led to a nice conversation with lots of adorable moments and happy things. Instead, it’s led to an argument.
“No. No pink.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
“What’s the problem? You don’t mind blue for our little boy. What’s wrong with pink for our little girl?”
“I said no pink.”
“Why?”
Desmond steps in, hoping to avoid further arguments. He smiles softly at Neal.
“How about yellow? That’s nice for a girl, too, isn’t it?”
“Oh, great thinking, Desmond.” Neal rolls his eyes before stomping away.
Alex watches Neal leave and then slowly turns to face Desmond.
“I’m calling the doctor.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s gone crazy.” Alex has walked to the other side of the room and picked up the phone before Desmond catches up to him.
“You don’t need to do that. He’s just… It’s the hormones catching up to him.”
“That’s not just hormones.” Alex points in the direction that Neal left in. “He’s lost his mind.” He gives Desmond a serious look.
“Of course not and you know I didn’t mean anything bad by suggesting yellow. Neal’s just having a hard time, right now- he’s carrying around two tiny little people inside him, he’s tired all the time and he’s away from his family.”
“That’s no excuse for him to be like this.”
“Yeah, I know it’s not nice, but we have to try and be a bit more understanding.”
“I have been understanding, but there’s only so much I can take. I know it’s not all his fault, but that doesn’t mean he can get away with some of the things he’s been doing. You said that yourself even.”
“I know.” Desmond sighs lightly and rubs his forehead. “I just don’t want to risk upsetting him right now. We should talk to him about this, definitely, but we need to be gentle in how we explain it, okay? So even though you think he’s crazy, don’t be so blunt about it and, please, for the love of God, do not yell at him- the last thing we need is another argument.”
Alex just about resists the urge to roll his eyes and sighs heavily.
“You’re probably right about the arguments- that’s not a good thing. I need more time to calm down then because I’m still mad at him so I’ll talk to him later.”
***
Neal spends the rest of the evening hiding upstairs. He’s asleep (well, he’s pretending to be asleep) by the time Desmond and Alex come up to bed.
Desmond wakes up sometime in the night and he’s confused for a minute. He has no idea what woke him, but it feels like it’s important that he’s awake right now. He starts going through everything that might possibly have woken him- did he leave the cooker on? Did he call his mom back? Did he say goodnight to the kids? He groans softly and decides that he’s going crazy and it was probably some already forgotten dream that woke h
im up. He shifts around slightly to a more comfortable position and tries to go back to sleep. That’s when he hears it. He frowns slightly as he tries to work out whether he’s really hearing those soft whimpers that he thinks he is. He slowly opens his eyes and then sees that he’s not imagining things- he’s faced with Neal who has tears streaming down his face and his mouth is clamped shut to stop his sobs from escaping. He blinks a few times to makes sure he’s not imagining seeing this- he’s not.
“Neal? What’s wrong?”
Neal just shakes his head.
“Oh, God.” Desmond wraps his arms around Neal and pulls Neal right up against him. He doesn’t know what to say so he just settles for gently rubbing Neal’s lower back and muttering soothing words into Neal’s ear instead.
Neal buries his head in Desmond’s neck and just cries.
Desmond frees one of his hands and reaches out to poke Alex in the side.
Alex is jolted awake suddenly when Desmond pokes him. He turns to face Desmond.
“What the fuck?”
Desmond nods towards Neal.
Alex frowns slightly and looks at Neal. He can’t really see Neal’s face so he doesn’t know what’s wrong, but then Neal shifts slightly and he can hear Neal’s whimpers. His eyes widen slightly and it takes him a few seconds to recover. He wraps his arms around Neal’s stomach and presses a soft kiss to the back of Neal’s neck.
Neal cries for at least another fifteen minutes (he’d been crying for a while before Desmond had woken up and seen him). Then, he just squeezes his eyes shut and tries to concentrate on evening out his breathing again.
Desmond looks up and shares a worried look with Alex before returning his attention back to Neal.
“Do you want to tell us what’s wrong now, Neal?”
Neal is quiet for a minute before speaking.
“I’m sorry about what I said before.” Neal looks back over his shoulder at Alex. “he looks back at Desmond, “I just…”
“It’s okay.” Alex was entirely bothered by what Neal said before, but now it doesn’t matter, not even a little bit. He presses another kiss to the back of Neal’s neck. “Don’t worry about it.”
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