Page 84 of Embattled Ever After

She groaned, then cried out as she sank into another round of pain. When she resurfaced, Willow was counting with her as she panted. “Shannon, are you almost there? Where are you?”

“We’re a few blocks away,” she gasped out, trying to refill her lungs and remember the training from Lamaze class.

“Okay, you get in there and tell them your last contraction was two and a half minutes ago. I’ll call your doctor and tell him, okay?”

She nodded. “Yes. Thank you, Willow.”

“No problem, babe. Go have a couple of beautiful Palmer babies. I know it’s pain now but you can’t imagine the joy on the other side.”

Shannon dropped the phone to the center console and rolled her head to look at her husband. “You need to drive, Willow says, or you’re delivering the babies.”

John glanced at her, horrified. “Fuck that!”

She laughed weakly as he drove as fast as he could to the hospital.

When they arrived, there were people waiting for them at the emergency room door. Within minutes she was whisked upstairs, undressed and strapped with double monitors. The sound of two little heartbeats raced through the room.

Shannon lost track of everything but the pain as the hour wore on. A nurse practitioner she didn’t know checked her dilation, then seemed a little surprised when she reported, “Four centimeters.”

Oh, god, that meant the babies were coming. There had still some hope that this could be a false labor, but that just evaporated. And as if that weren’t enough, another doctor came in to give her an epidural, which pinched more than the contractions. After that the pain began to ease off and she could actually breathe again.

When Dr. Wehrum came in an hour later to check her, he immediately gowned up and brought in support.

“These babies are in perfect position, Shannon. You need to get ready to push.”

John was also gowned up and sat as close to her as he could get in the chair. They lowered the bed a little so that he could be closer and see her as the babies made their way into the world.

With a mighty squall, Wyatt Patrick Palmer arrived at four ten that afternoon, and his little brother Caden James arrived much more quietly at four eleven.

There was much bustling in the room as the babies were cleaned, weighed and checked. It took a while for the twins to be declared perfectly fine.

Shannon cried as she held Wyatt, the bigger of the babies at five and a half pounds. Not bad considering he was a month early. Little Caden came in at five pounds four ounces. Both were healthy and pink and everything she could have imagined them being. Both also had startling amounts of thick, dark hair, thanks to papa.

Exhausted, she looked to her husband. There was wonder, fear, and incredible joy in his dark eyes as he looked down at Caden. One hand spanned the little infant’s back. He looked so tiny.

“Aren’t they amazing?” she sighed.

When John looked at her a tear rolled down his cheek. “I can’t breathe right now with the love I feel for you and our family. You are the best part of me, and you’ve given me bounties of joy beyond any measure.”

They cried together and explored together, counting toes and eyelashes, measuring feet against thumbs. It was such a surreal time. In the midst of all that John snapped as many pictures on his phone as he could manage, and texted them out to friends and family. As soon as they were moved from the birthing room to the regular room, the visitors started arriving.

Willow arrived first, as Shannon had suspected, and there were her tears as well as she cooed over the babies. “Oh, my gosh. They’re so perfect! Look at them together.”

“Where is baby Raven?” Shannon asked.

“Flynn kept her home. When I get back, he’ll come down to see you.”

Baby Raven was a true gray-eyed, dark haired darling, such a startlingly beautiful baby. She’d been born four months ago on a chilly March morning, and she’d beguiled everyone she’d met in that time, including Flynn, her proud father. The change in the man had been astounding, still very serious and professional, he spent a lot of time wreathed in smiles these days.

Shannon could already tell that one of her boys, Caden, had very dark eyes, visible even as tiny as the boys were. Wyatt had very light eyes. But she knew there was a chance they could change from the fuzzy blue that they were now. She didn’t care. They were both beautiful to her, red-faced and all.

There was a knock at the door and Alex and Duncan walked in, and what a beautiful couple they made. It was still a little shocking to see Duncan leaning on his cane, but he moved so well these days he hadn’t needed it for months. Alex held a package in blue as they walked over to peer down at the babies. Duncan crossed to John, now holding baby Wyatt, and John peeled back the blanket for inspection. The men talked softly and Duncan reached out to stroke a finger down Wyatt’s cheek.

“This was brought to the office yesterday,” Duncan told them, holding up the present.

John looked at the tag on the bag. ‘Congrats big brother’. Then, pulling the tissue paper from the bag, he drew out two blue onesies. Duncan held them up and emblazoned across the midsection were the words ‘Big Brother Palmer’ and ‘Little Brother Palmer’.

They all laughed, because it was well-known that John had expected to be overwhelmed by two girls. When Aiden had been here though, he’d very clearly stated that John would be having two boys. He’d been so confident in his knowledge that he’d had personalized outfits done up for the boys.

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