You Could Have Stayed

Chapter 16

Her family could hear and feel the effects of Emma's labor even out in the hallway. The lights were flickering and her screams seemed to be piercing heir ears. "Oh Emma." Snow said sadly as she paced, nobody had really been able to sit still for the past 4 hours.
  Suddenly Emma's cries ceased and a wailing baby replaced it. Everybody looked at each other and smiled. One down, one to go.
  Inside the room, Emma got to hold her baby girl immediately. Skin to skin contact right after the birth was good for both mother and baby. She was slimy and squirming and crying but she was beautiful. She had a tuft of blonde hair on her head and she hadn't opened her eyes yet but Emma hoped they were blue. She looked up at Killian, he was crying with a big smile on his face.
  "Why don't we let her get cleaned up and bring her brother into the world." Dr Sully said and then the urge to push came back over Emma as her daughter was taken into the corner of the room where 3 nurses swarmed her. The look in Emma's eyes is what urged him to leave her and stand by their daughter, making sure they took good care of her.
  Emma let her instincts take over, she wasn't in quite as much pain as before. Their son was born exactly 11 minutes after his sister. But he didn't cry.
  "Why isn't he crying?" Emma demanded, trying to sit herself up.
  "Emma, no don't move. This happens all the time. Let the nurses handle him." The doctor tried to calm Emma down but she wasn't having it. She was having her baby.
  "Give him to me."
  "Emma-"
  "I said give him to me!" She barked and the lights started to flicker again.
  "Fine but then you have to let the nurses take him!" Dr Sully didn't hide her fear of Emma, she hadn't liked magic her whole life.
  The baby boy was set in Emma's arms, still silent. Killian had come over and was staring at the tiny little man. "Come on lad, let's hear it." He pleaded. Just like that, he coughed and started to wail just like his sister. Both parents breathed a sigh of relief and handed the baby over to the nurses. Killian walked back over to supervise after giving Emma a kiss on the cheek.
  "Alright Emma just the placentas now." Dr Sully said, ever cheerful.
  "Can't I just magically be done?" Emma groaned. She wanted her babies back before some evil woman came to steal them, that seemed to be a theme with babies in this town.
  "I'm afraid not."
Another hour later and Emma was officially done. Both babies and their mother were cleaned up and resting. The babies were swaddled in the stereotypical blue and pink for their genders. They both had plenty of hair for newborns and you could see the blonde peeking out of the pink cap and the very dark brown from under the blue one. They still hadn't opened their eyes yet but Emma hoped they both had Killian's eyes.
   There was a knock on the door and Hook called for them to come in. Emma was fast asleep in the bed so he was holding both children.
  "Oh my gosh!!!" Snow whispered as she practically sprinted over. Killian smiled proudly. "Are you sure you're holding them right?"
  "Yes I am. I'm not a complete simpleton." She gave him an unsure look but he kept his gaze steady, determined to show her that he could take care of Emma and their children.
  "Do you know what Emma named them?" Snow asked, stroking the girl's head very gently.
  "She wouldn't tell me, I thought she would have told you." Killian was surprised.
"Hope Cleo Jones and Liam David Jones." Henry said and everybody turned to him. "What? She told me to keep it a secret and it says it right here on the tags." He gestured to the heated tables where the babies had been examined and cleaned up, each one had a paper card on it with their names, weight, length, gender and date and time of birth.
Killian looked over at the still slumbering Emma. She had named their son after his brother. Brothers if he considered his father's third child his brother. He wouldn't tell Emma about him though, he would let her believe he only had one brother who was a hero and deserved the honor of having his nephew named after him.
"Those are some pretty great names. I think I like the second one better." Charming smiled, he loved having the baby named after him. Even if it was just the middle name.
"Who is Cleo though?" Snow asked, still infatuated with the baby girl.
"I guess we will have to ask her when she wakes up. It could just be a name she liked." Regina shrugged. She hadn't gotten her chance to see the babies up close yet and she was dying to.
  "She's got your eyes." Snow said quietly. Sure enough, Killian looked down and his daughter had opened her pale blue eyes to take in her surroundings. She seemingly saw too much at once and started to cry. Everybody laughed and Emma woke up.
  "Bring them here please Killian." She murmured, still tired. Everybody cleared his path and he stood awkwardly at the edge of her bed, he wasn't quite sure how to give her one at a time without upsetting the other. Emma smiled. "I got it." She took Hope and put her in the crook of her right arm, Killian placed Liam in the crook of her left. Hope opened her eyes again but this time she cooed instead of cried.
  "I was hoping they'd both have your eyes." Emma said quietly as she looked at Liam, hoping he would open his eyes to reveal that beautiful blue. "I won't be mad if he has mine but I like yours better.
  "Well I like yours better so I guess we're at an impass." Killian smiled and met eyes with Emma, she smiled back but they quickly looked away. They could get back to normal one day.
  "Who's Cleo?" Snow suddenly blurted.
  "Relax mom, I'm guessing you're just offended that I used dad's name and not yours?" Emma smiled knowingly.
  "That's not it at all!" She insisted with her brows furrowed.
  "Sure it's not. Cleo was...my mentor. She helped me get back on track after jail and got me interested in being a bail bondsperson. I made a stupid mistake and she ended up dying. I figured this was the least I could do." Everybody was staring at her. "Plus Mary Margaret was too long a middle name and no offense but nobody names their child Snow in this world." She tried to lighten the mood. It didn't work.