The Descendants' Descendants (Multi-Ship)

*22*

Three weeks flew by far too quickly for Jay and Lonnie's comfort. They rushed into hospital at 39 weeks when Lonnie realised her contractions were actually consistent and getting worse. While she maintained pride at beating her mother's record, she wished it hadn't come with so much pain. She managed it well enough to make Jay freak out that she wasn't breaking his hand, but she did ask for the epidural because she had no idea how long she would be stuck like this. She told Jay not to send any messages. Five hours after being admitted, she held baby Jack for the first time. She couldn't have felt happier in that moment. She decided she wanted to wait until they were home to announce his birth, so they could bask in his first few hours alone together.

Lonnie's parents drove them back to their cottage after she convinced them to stay with her and Jay in their own home. She came to the realisation that it was more practical for Jack to be brought home after the birth so he adjusted to sleeping in his own home. It was the next morning that she requested that the group attend their home. So, the friends and their babies headed over to Jay and Lonnie's cottage, Jay greeting them at the door. They all sat in the living room as Lonnie descended the stairs, bringing Jack with her.

"Everyone, meet Jack," she smiled.

"Wait, where are Jane and Carlos?" Gil asked. "I thought they'd be here on video call."

"We tried, but it rang out," Jay shrugged. "Guess they're busy at the moment."

"Oh, well, congratulations, guys," Evie smiled.

Everyone got their turn to cuddle, and it was about two hours in that the group chat pinged with a message from Jane. She sent them an address and asked everyone to meet her and Carlos there. The group frowned, minus Jay, Ben, Uma and Harry, who all grinned at each other.

•••

They all showed up to the cottage in South Riding in their own cars, wrangling their babies out of their seats. Everyone was surprised to see Belle and Fay open the door, urging them to hush. One by one, the couples and their infants filed in, being guided to different seats set up around the room. Fay headed upstairs momentarily, and following her back down were Jane and Carlos, each cradling a sleeping newborn. Everyone started losing it as quietly as they could manage it. Ben, Jay, Uma and Harry were the first to stand up and ask for cuddles, making it clear to everyone else that they had known about the secret babies for some time.

"Ben?" Mal asked, looking hurt.

"It wasn't for me to tell you, Mal," he replied sadly, cradling one of Jane and Carlos's babies. "I'm sorry. They wanted to do this privately, so we offered them that."

"How long did you all know?" Lonnie asked.

"Well, Fay was first to know after us," Carlos explained. "Obviously. Then I panicked about becoming a dad, so I asked Jay and Ben for advice."

"And then you guys started speculating," Ben sighed. "That was stressful in itself, especially since they'd decided they wanted to keep it secret for as long as possible. So, I opened up to Mom, but I didn't do it with the intention of outing them as the couple. She figured it out because Jane was the only one who hadn't gotten pregnant up to that point."

"And then I told Uma and Harry after they had Hunter," Jane finished. "At first, I was just worried that you would all make fun of me because I'm generally the most responsible out of all of us. But then, we realised how peaceful it was not to have so many people fussing over us and making it more than what it was. So, we decided just before the baby shower that we were going to hide the entire pregnancy."

"Our baby is over there if you two want a cuddle," Jay told her as he took the other twin.

"You guys had him?" Carlos smiled, tears filling his eyes.