Jenna's Cowboys

by Laura Jo Phillips

  “I know,” she said. “I only meant…well…I’m just glad I don’t have to do this alone after all.” Cole nodded, then leaned down to kiss her forehead.

  “How you doing, Jenna?” Doc asked.

  “I’m nervous, but I don’t feel anything.”

  “How’s your heart?”

  “Squeezing a little.”

  “Try to relax and watch your breathing,” Doc said. “You’re doing great. Max is going to be the first to enter the world in just about a minute here.”

  “We’re gonna have to teach our little man some manners, Cole,” Dillon said, grinning across the table at him. “Ladies first.”

  Jenna laughed softly and squeezed their hands. “I love you guys, so much. You’re gonna be the greatest dads.”

  “With you to help us along, we will,” Dillon said. “It’s been a long journey to get here, Jenna, but I think we all learned a few important lessons along the way.”

  “I know I did,” Cole said. “As hard and painful as a lot of those lessons were, I think the only thing I’d change if I could is finding out about Anna sooner.”

  “I don’t know,” Jenna said. “In a strange, mixed up way, I think she helped us. Without her, I might not have decided to turn to you for help in the first place.”

  “Wait now,” Doc’s voice interrupted. “What’s this about Anna?”

  “She’s the one who’s been trying to kill Jenna these past few months,” Dillon said.

  “Anna?” Doc asked in surprise. “The waitress at Meg’s? That Anna?”

  “Yep, hard to believe, isn’t it? She got into the shop, knocked poor Susie out and went after Jenna, but this time Jenna had a Taser in her hand and she used it. I think the excitement is why she went into labor.”

  “Damn, you’ve utterly confounded me,” Doc said. “And…,” he broke off when Jenna interrupted him.

  “We know Doc,” she said with laughter in her voice. “You’re never confounded.”

  The operating room erupted into laughter, and Doc’s was the loudest. “Okay, hang on,” he said a moment later. The low murmurs from the other side of the curtain suddenly rose a notch.

  “Is everything all right?” Jenna asked, squeezing their hands more tightly.

  “Everything’s fine,” Doc replied. “Ah, there we go.” The lusty cry of a newborn baby filled the room. “Congratulations you three, your son Maxim James has arrived.”

  “How is he?” Jenna asked, tears already pouring from her eyes.

  “He’s perfect,” Doc replied. “A touch small, but we knew that. We’ll have the pediatric team give him the once over to make sure all is well.” More murmurs and the sound of hurrying feet. “Now, let’s see to your daughter.”

  “A son,” Cole said, his voice awe stricken. “We have a son.”

  Jenna chuckled softly despite her tears. “Yes, we do.” She looked at them with so much love in her big cinnamon eyes that it took their breath away. “I love how happy you are.”

  “We’re a lot more than happy,” Dillon said, leaning over to press his lips to her forehead before wiping her tears with gentle fingers. “Next to the day you married us, this is the best day of our entire lives.”

  Another wail cut through the low murmurs of the room, slightly higher pitched than the first one. “Your daughter is just as perfect as your son,” Doc announced, the smile in his voice obvious. “Marline Meghan has entered the world and she sure is a pretty little thing.”

  “Can we see them?” Jenna asked.

  “In just a few minutes, Jenna,” Doc replied. “I got some more work to do here, first. By the time I’m finished, the pediatric teams should be done checking Max and Marli.”

  “Okay,” Jenna replied shakily. She looked at Dillon and Cole. “Maybe you could…,” she trailed off when they both shook their heads vehemently.

  “Hell no,” Cole said. “We’ll see our children for the first time together.”

  “All right,” she replied, nodding.

  Time dragged by for them as they waited for Doc to tend to Jenna, and the other doctors to examine the babies. There were lots of low voices coming from beyond the sheet that blocked their view, but nothing they could make out. Finally a man in blue surgical garb approached with a big grin on his face.

  “Congratulations,” he said. “I’m Dr. Lee, head of our pediatric department. Your new son and daughter are a bit small at five pounds five and five pounds three respectively. We had our worries considering how difficult your pregnancy has been, Mrs. Howard, but you did a real good job. Their lungs are fully developed and they’re both strong and remarkably healthy. Since you’ll be here for a few days anyway, we’ll keep a close eye on them, but I foresee no difficulties.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Lee,” Cole said, shaking the man’s hand with an enormous grin on his face.

  “Yes, thank you,” Jenna added. “When can we see them?”

  Dr. Lee took a step back and peeked around the curtain. “I’m almost done,” Doc said. “Go ahead, but I don’t want Jenna holding them yet.”

  Dr. Lee gestured to someone they couldn’t see and a moment later two nurses approached, each carrying a baby loosely wrapped in a warm blanket. One baby was laid in Cole’s arms, the other in Dillon’s. Since neither wore a diaper as yet it was easy enough for Dillon to see that he held their son.

  He looked down at the tiny baby, the shock of dark hair, the blue, unfocused eyes, and the dimple in his left cheek, little hands and feet waving, and felt love unlike anything he’d ever known fill his entire being. He looked at Jenna and saw her looking up at him with pure joy in her eyes.

  “I have no words,” he said, and she nodded her agreement. He leaned down so she could get a good look. Then Cole did the same on her other side.

  When they traded babies, Dillon experienced the same emotion all over again with their daughter. He was thrilled to see that she had her mother’s wine red hair and cinnamon eyes. He didn’t realize he was crying until he saw the tears land on Marli’s blanket.

  A few short minutes later the babies were whisked away to be bathed and diapered. Not long after that Doc came around the curtain to congratulate them. “I was able to reduce some of your existing scarring Jenna, so I don’t think there’ll be a problem having a next time around.”

  “Thank you Doc,” Jenna said. “For everything.”

  “My pleasure,” he said, smiling happily. “The three of you did a fine job. I know it wasn’t easy, but the end result is a thousand times better than I feared it would be. I think they’re ready to take you to your room now, Jenna. I’ll be in to check on you a bit later.”

  Cole and Dillon shook hands with Doc, then followed behind as Jenna’s bed was rolled up the corridor and into the private room her husbands had insisted on. She was pleasantly surprised to find that it was furnished much like a bedroom, which helped her to relax a lot more than any normal hospital room could have.

  Once the nurses had her settled with her IV lines and a monitor to keep an eye on her heart, one of them, a middle aged woman named Beth according to her name tag, stayed behind while the others left. “Which of you is the father?”

  “We both are,” Cole and Dillon said at the same time.

  “Okay,” she said without batting an eye. “There’s two roll away beds in that closet there if you both plan to stay with your wife.”

  “We do, Beth, thank you,” Dillon said. Beth smiled, then turned to Jenna.

  “I’ll go get your babies now, Mrs. Howard. I’m sure they’re ready to be fed by now.”

  “Okay, thank you,” Jenna said. Beth left and Cole and Dillon moved to stand by the bed.

  “What’s the matter, baby?” Cole asked, seeing the little line between her brows.

  “I’m nervous about this. I read a lot of women have trouble with it.”

  “Would you feel better if we left?” Dillon asked. Jenna’s eyes grew wide.

  “No, I wouldn’t. Please stay.”

  “Don’t
worry angel, we want to be here as much as you want us here. Maybe even more.”

  For all of Jenna’s worrying, she had no trouble at all. She held her son in the crook of her arm, guided her nipple to his mouth and smiled when he latched on immediately. As she gazed down into her son’s unfocused eyes she felt peace, love, and unimaginable happiness fill her heart and soul. She brushed her fingers over the soft fluff of dark hair on his head and looked up at Cole and Dillon with happy tears in her eyes.

  Max didn’t suckle long, but Beth declared his first feeding a success. She took Max from Jenna and gave him to Cole, then proceeded to teach him how to burp their son while Dillon watched carefully.

  “Very good,” Beth said when Max burped quietly. “Now, Mr. Howard, if you’ll get your daughter for your wife, she can be fed too.”

  Dillon’s heart thumped with a combination of nerves and excitement as he gently picked Marli up from her bassinet, carefully supporting her head, marveling at how tiny she was. Her entire body didn’t even fill his two hands. He carried her to the bed and laid her in Jenna’s arms. A few moments later Jenna smiled when her daughter latched on as quickly as her son had.

  “I think I’ll leave you to it,” Beth said, smiling at them. “If you need anything, just press the buzzer.”

  “Thank you, Beth,” Dillon said, hardly able to take his eyes from Jenna. Once they were alone he said, “When I’m a doddering old man and can’t hardly remember my own name, I’ll still remember this moment, and the sight of you feeding our babies for the first time, Jenna. Next to you, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.”

  Jenna smiled at him, her entire face glowing with happiness. “I’ll never forget it either,” she said. “Not any of it.” A minute later Marli released her nipple and starting fussing a bit.

  “What’s the matter?”” Dillon asked, immediately worried.

  “She needs to be burped,” Jenna said.

  “Do you mind if I do it?” Dillon asked. “I watched Beth show Cole what to do.”

  “Of course I don’t mind,” Jenna said. Dillon accepted Marli into his arms, then carefully lifted her to his shoulder before tapping gently on her tiny back with two fingers. Marli released a soft burp of air and Dillon grinned.

  “I did it,” he said, carefully lowering Marli so that she laid in his arms. Jenna laughed softly as she watched her husbands holding their new babies. The expressions of absolute love and utter joy on their faces were so beautiful she couldn’t make herself look away.

  “Thank you Jenna,” Cole said. She looked at him questioningly. “For loving us, for making us daddies, for giving us these beautiful children, and for making us a real family again.”

  ***

  When Cole and Dillon opened the door to the waiting room they weren’t completely surprised to find it packed with people. The grins on their faces were enough to tell everyone that all had gone well, and the tension in the room vanished in an instant.

  “Sparx has two brand new citizens,” Cole said happily. A restrained cheer went up at that. Peter, Meg, Hank and Jack got up from their seats and hurried toward them.

  “Congratulations,” Dillon said to them, “you’re all grandparents.” Peter hugged Cole tightly, while Dillon shook hands with Hank and Jack.

  “Jenna?” Meg asked. “How’s she doing?”

  “She’s great, Meg,” Dillon assured her, giving her a quick hug. “Got through it without a hitch. She’s asking to see you.” He looked up at the packed room. “We’re all real happy you came. Your love and support means the world to all of us. Thank you.”

  “We’re just happy and relieved everyone’s doing so well,” Luke said. “Don’t worry, we won’t be clamoring to see Jenna, Max, and Marli just now.”

  “Thanks Luke,” Dillon said. “I know Jenna would love to see all of you, but she’s real tired right now. Doc says she’s here for three days, minimum, and knowing Jenna, she’ll be bored stiff by tomorrow afternoon. So any of you who wanna come in after about noon to meet Max and Marli, and distract Jenna, are more than welcome.”

  “That sounds like a plan, Dillon,” Flo said. “We’ll work it out amongst us so we come in shifts. Tell Jenna we all love her, and we’re looking forward to seeing her, and meeting Max and Marli.”

  “I will Flo, thank you.”

  “Come on you four, Jenna wants you to meet your grandchildren,” Cole said, surprising Peter, Jack and Hank.

  “All of us?” Peter asked.

  “Of course,” Cole said. “You’re the grandparents, aren’t you? Come on now, she’s waiting.”

  “Lead the way,” Peter said, grinning. Cole and Dillon turned and went back through the door with the four of them close behind.

  “She really is doing good?” Meg asked as they walked up the corridor.

  “She really is,” Dillon said. “She’s gonna be a bit sore till she heals up, but that’s to be expected.”

  “I can’t wait till you meet Max and Marli,” Cole said. “They’re so beautiful.”

  They reached the door to Jenna’s room and Dillon opened it quietly, sticking his head in first so as not to startle Jenna. She opened her eyes and smiled.

  “We brought grandparents with us,” he said, opening the door wider and stepping in. Meg went straight to Jenna’s side, leaned down and kissed her, then smoothed her hair back with a gentle hand.

  “How you doing, Sugar?”

  “I’m fantastic, Meg,” she said, then grinned. “Congratulations, Grandma.” Meg didn’t even try to hold back the happy tears that spilled from her eyes.

  Cole and Dillon led the other men over to the bassinets. “This is Max,” Dillon said, looking down at his son with love and pride.

  “And this is Marli,” Cole said with the same expression on his face.

  “Oh my goodness,” Meg said, joining them. “She looks just like Jenna.”

  “Yeah she does,” Cole said, stroking the red hair lightly with one finger. “She’s even got her momma’s cinnamon eyes. Ain’t we the luckiest men on the planet?”

  “I gotta agree with that, but I think the rest of us are running a close second,” Hank said as he looked down at the sleeping babies.

  “Max looks just like the two of you,” Peter said thickly. “They sure are a beautiful sight.”

  “Max even has a little dimple in his left cheek,” Jenna said. “I love that.”

  “They’re so small,” Jack said with a wondering expression on his face none of them had ever seen before. “I had no idea babies were so…little.” He frowned. “Are they supposed to be that little?”

  Meg and Jenna laughed, though Jenna’s was short lived. “Ouch,” she said. “Don’t make me laugh Jack. Not just yet anyway.”

  “Sorry, hon,” he said apologetically.

  “Yes, they’re supposed to be that little,” Meg said after giving him a quick kiss.

  “You can hold them if you want,” Jenna said.

  “I’d love to, Sugar,” Meg said. “But they’re sleeping, and you look like you should be doing the same. Besides, I been working all day in these clothes. I’m nowhere near clean enough to be holding brand new babies. Tomorrow’s another story, though.”

  “Meg’s right, hon,” Jack said. “Tomorrow you’ll need to pry them out of our arms, but right now you need to get yourself some sleep.”

  “Is there anything you need us to do for you?” Peter asked after spotting Jenna’s bag on a chair. He’d been worried about it getting to her when the nurse had taken it earlier since it didn’t have her name on it.

  “Yes, Peter, there is,” Dillon said. “If you don’t mind, could you bring a change of clothes for Cole and me, and our shave kits too?”

  “You’re spending the night here?”

  “Yeah, they have roll up beds for us. Jenna can’t get up yet, so we’ll need to carry Max and Marli to her when they wake up for a feeding.”

  “One of the nurses said she’d give us a lesson in diaper changing too,” Cole sa
id with an eager look on his face that made everyone grin.

  “You need those things tonight?” Peter asked Dillon.

  “No, tomorrow’s fine.”

  “Oh,” Jenna said suddenly, and everyone turned to look at her. “I just remembered that the car seats are still sitting in the garage at home. We can’t take the babies home without them.”

  “Oh yeah,” Dillon said with a grimace.

  “What’s the face for?” Peter asked.

  “You ever installed a car seat, Peter?”

  “Matter of fact, yes, I have,” he said. “For Maxi and Marli, and also for the two of you when you came along.”

  “Well, I think they’ve changed some since then ‘cause you need an engineering degree to get ‘em in now.”

  “Luckily, I happen to have an engineering degree,” Hank said. “I think we can manage to get them installed in time for you to take Max and Marli home.”

  “Good luck with that,” Dillon said with a smirk. “I’ll ask the nurse where we can go to get them installed in the very likely event that you can’t get ‘em in.”

  “They have places that install car seats?” Meg asked in surprise.

  “They sure do,” Cole said. “And for good reason, too.”

  “They have places that inspect your installation to be sure you got it right, too,” Dillon said. “Trust me, it’s a major pain in the hind end. I don’t think Hank’s gonna do much better than we did.”

  “I’m gonna have to make you eat them words, Dillon,” Hank said.

  “If you get them in right, then I’ll be glad to.”

  “Just remember they have to be facing the back of the vehicle,” Jenna said, carefully not looking at Cole or Dillon though her eyes were dancing as she met Meg’s gaze.

  “What?” Hank asked.

  “You heard her,” Cole said morosely. “It took us…well, never mind how long. The point is we actually did get them installed. Then we made the mistake of carrying Jenna out to see them and she went and burst our bubbles with that bit of information. We went online to prove her wrong but since she wasn’t wrong, we had to take them back out again. Hell, getting those things in facing forward was hard enough. Getting them in backward was downright impossible.”