The next 8 months fly by like leaves in the autumn wind.
It feels like it was yesterday where she called me to tell me about her being pregnant and now I sit on an bench in the hall of an hospital while Denise is giving birth to twins, yes twins, that's right.
Mikey, Ash and Luke who sit right beside me, well Mikey went to the cafeteria, but Ash and Luke try to distract me with dumb jokes. I actually think they make jokes to not fall asleep. We sit here since 8 pm and now it's 1:20.
At 1:40 am Mikey comes back from the cafeteria and sits down on the other side of the bench, not the side where Luke and Ash lean on to each other.
"Wow,when did these sleepy heads fall asleep?" Mikey whispers with the usual grin from on cheek to the other.
"About 10 minutes ago," I mutter, which's the only thing I'm able to do besides breathing, which's a one of the things my body does by itself, so even though I'm too tired to function my body doesn't stop breathing for me, human bodies are amazing. "Where have you been, you left an hour ago?"
"Dude, the queue for food was longer than my dick and you know what that means." He goes self-reliant.
"First of all it's almost 2 in the morning, normal people aren't hungry at such an early, well late time however you wanna call it," I go unable to keep myself from grinning over the bad joke Mikey just told me. "Second of all it isn't really hard for queue to be longer than your dick, just saying."
"Oh sorry Mr. I-know-everything-about-queues-and-dicks." He goes making weird waving moves with his small hands.
"Uh fuck off Mike, did you get food for me, after all?" I ask sounding excited which turns out to not be working.
"It's an insult that you're even asking me that, of course I brought food for you, I'm a good friend, man." He laughs handing me a small, really small container of Nutella.
"Seriously, bro?"
"Appreciate the fact that I thought about of you, you spoiled motherfucker." He mutters while dipping his finger into his own tiny container of Nutella.
"Whatever, it's better than nothing, I guess." I admit, dipping my finger into the container as well in order to suck it off of it.
"What would you do without me bro, you'd be a train rack."
"I probably wouldn't be sucking Nutella off my finger right now." I respond squinting at him.
"See, I'm a good friend." He mutters licking the last bit of Nutella off the lot of his now empty container of Nutella.
"Although I could imagine me having a better night, I can't complain about having bad company, to be honest." I say throwing both of the empty containers into the bin.
"Damn, bro, you're becoming the father of twins, how those that feel?" Ash wonders through his sleepy voice.
"I'm fucking stoked but also scared as balls, man." I answer scratching the back of my head and then rest my hand on my neck.
"Remember, having twins is still not an excuse to be late for band practice." Ash adds. All of the sudden the door in front of us opens. Blinded by the lights I see a shadow. "Mr. Hood, it's done. You wanna see your kids?" The nurse standing in the door asks kindly.
Excited I get up from the bench. "Are they allowed to come too?" I wonder pointing at the boys that still sit/lay on the bench behind me.
"Yeah of course."
"C'mon lads," I order. "Let's go meet my kiddos."
Sleepy they all get up and follow me I to the room, which has a room right behind it, we walk towards it and I feel my heart beat pounding in my head. I feel like my stomach is going to explode because of tension. A few steps away from the door I already here these weak voices crying from the top of their lungs. I push down the door handle and I see these tiny beautiful creatures. It's the moment I realize that I'm a dad, I brought two human-beings to this earth.
"Dude are you crying?" Luke goes teasingly.
"Oh my gosh shut up Luke, leave Calum alone." Mikey fights back.
I'm out of words as I put my finger on one of these tiny creators tender palms. The snippy fingers fold around my fingers which makes me all warm inside.
Gazing to Denise Her eyes fell shut but a smile still found its way on her lips.
The little one holding my finger fell asleep too, the other one, I assume it's the girl, looks at me with big light blue eyes just like her moms. Giving her an honest smile her face lights up within seconds.
"Wow, they're by far the most adorable miniature humans I've ever seen." Ash admits wiping a tear out of his eye.
"Do they have to stay here in the hospital?" I wonder turning around to the nurse.
"The little girl and Ms. Kuebler can leave tomorrow," she assures. "But he's to stay for at least a week, we're a bit worried about his health."
"What, why?" I ask astonished.
"Look, when we checked he checked him his heartbeat was irregular, alarmingly irregular to be exact." The nurse points out.
"Will he make it?" I mutter feeling as if someone stabbed me from behind.
"I can't tell you, we're gonna keep him here till we found out what's wrong."
"Oh, alright." I go through a shivering voice.
"Don't lose hope. Maybe it was just the excitement that changed his heartbeat. We can't tell you anything for sure, yet." Worry traces her face while her palm friendly rests on my shoulder.
"What about Denise, is she alright?" My gaze wanders back to her laying in the bed, looking all peaceful.
"She's alright, we sedated her. She worked hard for the last 5 hours, she needs and deserves to rest."
With a nod I walk up to the bed, strike Denise' hair out of her face and place a kiss on her forhead, aswell as I kiss our baby girl on the forhead. "Can I at least see him, once?"
"Sure, Mr. Hood. Please follow me."
We leave the room, I'm following her just as she told me to. Down the hallway we take the elevator upstairs and walk through one doorway that opens automatically.
Passing a long window, that I peek through to see 2 rows of 3 incubators each. We enter though the glass door which has a white sign with premie station written on it in black capitals.
She walks me to the incubator with our baby sleeping in it. "I'm gonna leave you alone for a few minutes, Mr. Hood."
"Mhm." I answer shortly trying to hide the unsureness that balls up in me.
"He's beautiful," I mumble at myself. Hunkering down to get to eye-level with the plastic incubator my eyes get wet, which makes me lay my hand over my eyes while the other hand leans onto the lit of the incubator.
Getting up from the hunkered position I scrunch my teeth and strike my thumb over one and my index over the other eyelid, stopping at the bridge of my nose, holding onto it.
"Hey buddy," my voice still shivery, "You can do this," then the tears pool up in my waterlines watching him sleep. He looks so peaceful, so fragile, not helpless at all. "I love you, buddy, don't give up." I speak under my breath as the nurse comes back.
"I think it'd be better if you leave now, Mr. Hood. You definetely in need for some rest."
"Yes, uh, sure," I fail to form a full sentence. "I'm pretty, you know, worn-out right now, I guess."
"You can pick her up tomorrow, in the afternoon, at like 3."
"Alright, see ya tomorrow," I peek down to her name sign. "Mrs. Toney, thank you for everything."
"I'm just doing my job, but I appreciate it, Mr. Hood."
Standing in the door, about to leave, I gaze back at her. "Good night, Mrs. Toney."
"Good night, you definetely deserve the rest," She smiles. "Just like your kids and wife deserve it."
With forced smile I leave the room and whisper to myself. "She's not my wife, not yet, not yet." my response time is so fucked up due to shortness of sleep.
