Page 123 of In Control

“Is this baby healthy too?” Esra asks, squinting at the screen.

“Yes, perfectly healthy.” The nurse presses the buttons a second time, capturing the image of our second baby.

“I’m just going to check we have no more lurking about in here.”

“Oh god,” Sophia says, glancing up at Liam.

The nurse sweeps the probe over Sophia’s stomach a final time.

“No, just two.”

“Just?” Sophia says, shaking her head. “Thank goodness.”

“You’re going to be just fine,” Gabe tells her, kissing her forehead. “You have your own personal doctor on call day and night.”

“He’s an orthopaedic surgeon.”

“I did a stint in obstetrics when I was training.”

On the other side a printer rattles and then the nurse hands Sophia printouts of the images of our babies.

She cradles them to her chest as though they’re the most priceless things in the world.

I think they possibly are.

“Can we have one more peek before we go?” Liam asks the nurse.

She peers up at the alpha towering above her. However, now she’s learned he’s a doctor, she seems more amenable. She nods and zooms the image right out so this time we have a view of both our babies side by side floating about like little aliens in our girl’s stomach.

My heart swells violently inside my chest and I know that what I told Sophia out there in the corridor was true, every single word. I’m going to love these two little people to the end of my days.

* * *

We claimour sofas at the back of our favourite coffee shop, spreading the pictures of the babies across the table. We sit staring at them, each of us wearing a ridiculously wide grin on our faces.

“They’re the most beautiful babies in the history of the world, right?” Gabe says for about the one hundredth time.

“Sure are,” I say, “but that was never in doubt considering who their parents are.”

“You can see this one has my nose,” Gabe says, pointing to the twin on the right. “And this one has Sophia’s chin.”

“Is that a chin or a foot?” Esra asks, and Gabe pinches him on the bicep affectionately. Esra kisses our omega’s brow. “Chin, foot, it’s still darn adorable.”

“Did you see how much they were jiggling about inside me, though,” Sophia says resting her hand on her little belly bump. “These two are going to be a handful.”

In the last week, she’s started to feel flutterings in her belly, all of us running to her whenever she experiences a new one. Belly flutterings and cravings. Each of us has been sent out late at night in search of strange food sources. Yesterday I had to track down lemon meringue pie.

“If they’re anything like you and Gabe, then yes, they’re going to be a handful,” Liam agrees.

“If they’re anything like Gabe and Sophia, they are going to be the two most adorable babies ever,” I say, lifting one of the images to my face and gazing at it in awe.

“Our lives are going to change so much,” Sophia says wistfully, resting her head on my shoulder and staring at the image too.

It already has.

It’s been a month since Sophia moved in with us, nearly four weeks since we found out about the pregnancy and bonded her. So much has changed in that time. So much has changed for the better.

But she’s right. Life is going to change some more. For all of us. Sophia hopes to finish her PhD in a month or two, and Gabe’s already handed in his resignation at the ballet. He’ll dance his last performance at Christmas time, right before these babies arrive.

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