"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

hope is for suckers

"Aaron", she whispered sleepily as she woke up. She discovered his head resting on the edge of her bed, he was asleep. He had waited until she had fallen asleep the previous night and then had closed his eyes as well, sitting on the chair next to her bed.

Emily softly ran her hand through his dark hair as she tried to process what they had discovered the day before.

Twins. Two children. Two lives. There was this part in her that would worry about suddenly having four children to take care of, but she would mostly worry about the high risk of a miscarriage. She was even too scared to move around a lot, fearing to hurt her children. They had only known for approximately 24 hours, and they were already exhausted. How should they be able to live with these fears for the next seven months?

Aaron would never show it, she knew. He would try to stay positive and supportive, just like Dr. Meyer had told them to. But he wouldn't be able to stay strong all the time. He would break, too.

She looked at him as he mumbled something, before opening his eyes slowly.

"Good morning", she smiled weakly.

"Hey", he whispered and sat up, letting to a slight groan. His back hurt due to the position he had slept in.

"You promised you would go home to get some sleep", she raised her eyebrows.

"I'm not going to leave your side", he replied. "not even when you're asleep."

She smiled a bit more and interlaced their fingers, running her thumb over his knuckles. "What about Jack and Kaia?"

"JJ wanted to bring them here around 1, I hope that's okay", he looked up at her.

"Sure."

"And afterwards Haley would take them home and stay with them until we get back tomorrow", he explained.

"Wow, someone's organized", Emily chuckled.

"Well, I have to be as a future Dad of four", he smiled.

She froze. How could he be so sure that everything was going to be fine? Why was it so hard for herself to hope for something? In early times, she had used to believe that hope is for suckers and if you don't hope for anything, you wouldn't get disappointed. "Yea", she just whispered and looked away to hide her eyes, which were filling with tears.

But he saw it.

"Em", he whispered softly. "Look at me. Please."

Letting out a small sigh, she turned her head into his direction, looking at him with watered eyes.

"We can do this", he squeezed her hand. "I know that you are scared of losing but if you don't even try, we will never know. This is probably the hardest challenge we have ever faced, but we can do this, okay? For our babies."

"It sounds weird, doesn't it?", she then whispered. "The plural. Babies. I have two babies inside of me."

A smile creeped on his lips. "How do they even fit in there?"

"I don't know", she chuckled and a small tear managed to slip out of her eye, but he caught it with his thumb.

"See, that's the right thing to do", he then said. "I bet the babies prefer the sound of your laughter more than the sound of you crying. Right?", he looked down at her stomach.

Another chuckle left her mouth and she reached out with her free hand to pull him closer to her face. "I love you", she whispered before her lips touched his and both of them smiled into the kiss.

-

"There are two of them inside your tummy?", Jack looked at Emily skeptically.

JJ had brought them to the hospital about an hour ago but had already headed off to work again. Jack sat on the bed to Emily's feet, while Kaia sat on Aaron's lap, who was sitting on the chair next to the bed.

"Exactly", Emily nodded.

"Is at least one of them a boy?", the 8-years-old asked.

"We don't know yet", Aaron smiled.

"I want to have a brother!", Jack exclaimed.

"Bother!", Kaia giggled as well, making all of them smile. Jack had become some kind of role model to her and she tended to repeat things he said.

"We can't promise anything, buddy", Emily chuckled. "But since there are two of them, maybe you are lucky."

"I could play football with him! And he could share a room with me! I could take care of him when you're not there!", the boy got totally excited.

"And you couldn't do that with a sister as well?", his father smiled. "I mean, you are good at taking care of Kaia as well."

"I like Kaia, but sharing a room with a girl?", Jack looked at him in shock. "Only adult boys and girls share a room, Dad, like you and Emily do!"

Emily had a hard time to hold back her laughter as Jack shook his head in disbelief. But concerning the rooms, Jack was right. They would have to look for a new house, which would have enough space for two more children since Emily definitely wanted each one to have their own room.

Aaron felt the same way, and he knew that they would have to take a look at new houses as soon as Emily got better. It would make things easier if they move before the babies would be born.

"We'll take care of the room-problem, don't worry", he assured Jack and ruffled his hair.

"When will we know whether there is a boy inside your tummy or not?", Jack then asked Emily, coming back to the actual topic.

"In some weeks, I guess", she replied.

The boy let out an impatient groan, and both, Emily and Aaron could relate. Everyone was thrilled to find out which gender their babies had.

And in this moment, Emily realized how much better everything was when she stayed positive. She planned for their twins, she talked about and to them, she imagined a future with them just as if everything was fine, like she did when she had been pregnant with Kaia. It made her whole body relax, and especially situations like this, where she was surrounded by the people she loved, made her forget about the actual problems a bit.

They would make it, she told herself. They would.