36. Daisy
Labor was no joke.
I knew it was going to be painful, but my entire body felt electrified, and not in a good way.
“Is it too late for an epidural?” I asked Doctor Parrish as she took her spot between my legs so she was facing my business area.
“I’m sorry,” she grimaced. “You’re too far along.”
I nodded, steeling myself. “Okay. Let’s do this!”
As the contractions increased, the pain increased. Jeremy’s hand in mine became clammy, and his entire face pale and sweaty.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“You’re really in pain,” he admitted in a strained voice.
I furrowed my brow at him. Of course I was in pain! I was about to evict two small humans out of my body.
The nurse who was on the far side of the room chuckled. “Your bond mates will be feeling everything. You’d be surprised at how badly a lot of alphas take it,” she informed me.
I looked from Jeremy to Devon, who wasn’t looking so hot himself. “Do you need to sit down?” I asked him.
He shook his head adamantly. “I’m fine,” he insisted.
The nurse, bless her, gently grabbed a chair and placed it near Devon, clearly prepared for him to fall over. “Now, Mr. Dad, you cannot let yourself pass out. You’ve got to be here for your omega. If you drop, we won’t be looking after you. You can lie concussed on the floor until your babies come.” She paused for a second, thinking. “Actually, we can just push you out of our way and you’ll miss your babies’ birth.”
A particularly painful contraction took over and I scrunched my eyes up in pain, crying out.
“Okay Daisy, with the next contraction I want you to push, okay?” Doctor Parrish asked.
I nodded.
Jeremy let out a strangled sound with the next contraction and my hand was drenched in his sweat.
“Just move over, dummy,” Nate growled in a good natured voice, gently nudging Jeremy out of the way as he drifted over slightly, his hand resting on my leg, not wanting to stop touching me.
“Is he okay?” I asked breathlessly.
“He’s fine. He and Devon are just big babies.” Nate laughed lightly as he gripped my hand in his, his arm going around me. “Now squeeze, kick and scratch me all you need to, okay? Let’s get these babies out before those two fall over. I know you’re fine, handling it like a champ—those two I’m not so sure about.”
“I probably don’t look like I’m handling it well.” I groaned, tilting my head back as my uterus contracted painfully. My hair was plastered to my sweaty forehead, and I probably looked like a tomato.
“Bullshit,” Nate grumbled, gently placing a kiss on the top of my head. “You are fucking beautiful, Daisy St. James. In fact, you’ve never been prettier,” he said, his words full of conviction.
“St. James?” Jeremy looked at Nate, his eyes kind of hazy from the pain. “She’s my bonded mate. She’s a Monroe.”
“Wait…who agreed to that?” Devon asked.
“Guys!” Nate snapped. “Not the time. We can debate names later. For now let’s focus on getting the babies out, okay?”
“I like that one.” The nurse pointed at Nate.
“He’s all right.” I laughed.
“High praise, omega.” Nate smirked. His hand remained firmly attached to mine, tethering me in a way Jeremy’s sweaty grip didn’t. Their comforting, warm scenes soothed me.
“On three, I want you to start pushing, okay?” Doctor Parrish said, looking at me with a smile. “It’s time to have your babies!”
You know all that stuff they say in the movies about how you don’t know true love until you have a child?
I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that was the case, but one thing I was sure of was that I would happily stab anyone that dared to even dream of hurting my babies.
The girls came in rapid succession, placed on my chest for immediate skin to skin. “Baby number one is a girl,” Doctor Parrish had told us as the nurse had wiped some of the gunk off the squishy little angel’s face as I prepared to push out baby number two.
“A girl!” Devon exclaimed in a happy daze, looking at me with nothing but pure awe on his face.
Ten minutes later Doctor Parrish placed a second baby on my chest. “Baby number two is also a girl!”
Two girls.
Two daughters.
I was the mother of two adorable, fragile little girls.
“Holy fuck,” Jeremy muttered as he watched me. “You are amazing!”
“You did so good, sweetheart,” Nate told me, kissing the top of my head again, looking between me and the girls on my chest.
“Do they have names?” the nurse asked, carrying one of the cleaned girls back over to me, carefully placing her in my arms after they had been weighed and checked.
The baby’s small face was squashed up in sleep, and I had never seen anything more beautiful. It was like all the pain and suffering had melted away the moment I saw their faces.
It hadn’t actually, though. My body was going to need a good few months to heal. Ultimately, I thought it was worth it.
“This one is Poppy,” I told her, looking down at my daughter lovingly for a moment before turning to Jeremy who sat at my bedside, a matching pink bundle in his arms. “That is Petunia.”
“A floral theme, I like it. You certainly brought these girls into the world like a champion.” The nurse hummed, checking my blood oxygen monitor with a happy nod.
Seven hours of labor. That was all it took to bring my girls into the world.
I was pretty sure I had broken Nate’s hand from holding it so tightly at one point.
I was tired, I was sweaty, and I was filthy, but I had my girls. At first glance, they did look a little bit squashed, their faces scrunched up. But it had to have been difficult sharing such small real estate for the last few months.
The moment they were in my arms, my chest felt fit to burst.
“My little duckling. How can anything so small be so perfect? She’s smiling at me!” Jeremy marveled as he sat next to my bedside, Poppy resting in a pink swaddle in his arms.
“I think that’s gas,” Devon laughed as he walked over to my bedside, handing me an opened bottle of water.
“Well, it’s the most adorable gas I’ve ever seen,” Jeremy declared, unable to take his eyes off his daughter.
“How long until we can take them home?” Nate asked from his position in the corner of the room. As he didn’t have a baby in his arms, he had decided to try and build the strollers. They were fancy ones that converted into car seats, so they were basically little spaceships I couldn’t understand for the life of me.
“The doctor will give the babies a more thorough check up, but all seems to be going well, so probably tomorrow morning,” the nurse said.
“But what about Daisy?” Nate asked, looking between me and the nurse. “Is she okay?”
“She’s doing just fine. Your omega will get several checks before we discharge her. Now, I’ll let you guys bask in that new baby glow for a bit. Just use the call bell if you need me!” She gave me a big smile before leaving me and my alphas alone with our babies.
“You should try and get some sleep,” Jeremy suggested. “We’ve got the girls.”
“We outnumber them so between the three of us we can keep them entertained,” Devon insisted, coming over to me and making a grabby hand motion for Petunia who had just finished her first feeding.
Handing over the baby, I watched in contentment as he started to rock her, my eyelids growing heavy. Labor was exhausting, and I needed to rest. Shuffling down into the soft blankets—far nicer than any blankets I had ever imagined being used in a hospital—I let myself drift off to sleep.
We stayed in the hospital for less than twenty-four hours. I was eager to get back to my home, to my nest. The hospital quickly discharged us as soon as we had the all clear because postpartum omegas thrived in their own familiar environment.
Apparently, studies had even been done, and omegas who went home quicker to nest often healed faster, which despite being an omega myself felt bizarre.
“We just get to take them?” Devon asked with a frown. “It feels wrong. Like we’re taking babies that we shouldn’t be taking, because who’s trusting us with babies?” he said as Jeremy clipped them into their car seats.
“It’s hard to believe that we’re about to take them home,” I admitted. “I don’t know how to take care of them!”
“We’ll figure it out,” Jeremy said, never looking away from the babies, a smile plastered on his face.
Nate was tasked with driving us home, and he drove twenty under the speed limit the entire way back. I didn’t say a single word about it. I merely sat between my two babies in their car seats and grinned to myself.
All three of these alphas were treating my babies like they were the most fragile and loved creatures in existence, and it warmed my heart to see.