The Gang Leader's Shorty

Epilogue: 4

One Year Later:

As with every other moment I've fallen asleep for the past few evenings, I wake up to the sound of babies crying and I bolt out of bed and rush to the room next door, which is the baby's nursery.

One month ago, I gave birth to mine and Cole's children. Twins, two boys, which was very unexpected but also kind of predicted due to the lack of girls in both of our families. The oldest is called Liam James Stone and the youngest, by three minutes, is called Luke Douglas Stone. We stuck with the original names that we came up with and both of us feel incredibly blessed to have these little bundles of joy in our lives.

Max is Luke's godfather and Ryleigh is Luke's godmother. A is Liam's godfather and Tess is Liam's godmother. When we told them, they were all very excited and I couldn't be happier with the decision we made for godparents!

My pregnancy was a whirlwind, my mood stabilisers were all over the place, the doctors struggling to get the right balance since my hormones were flying off the handle and, since I was a high risk pregnancy, I required a lot of attention and Cole became somewhat of an helicopter husband. 

When I went into labour, it was three in the morning and I got a lot of backlash from my friends for the atrocious timing. I did tell them that they could just come when the babies were born, however, they insisted that they wanted to wait outside for the whole duration of labour. It was something about 'team spirit', however, I can't really remember much of that experience. 

Tess and Charlie couldn't make it because they have finally decided to live in Australia and they couldn't get a flight back in time, despite their promise to spend the final month of my pregnancy with me. I was disappointed, sure, but I'm happy they've finally settled down somewhere and I could see they were happy with their decision when I face timed Tess to show her the babies and ask her to be Liam's godmother. 

The funniest part of labour, and one of the very few things that I remember, was that Max passed out and they weren't even in the room! It was only Cole, the nurses and myself in the room. Cole held my hand the whole way, speaking words of encouragement to me, which most of the time I ignored because I was screaming so much but, as soon as I heard the last little cry, I recalled his words and they were actually quite sweet. Ineffective, but sweet all the more. 

Quickly, I take Luke, who is wailing, out of his cot before he can wake Liam up, who is the heaviest sleeper in history and whisk him out of the nursery and into mine and Cole's room, "Shh, honey, shh," I tickle his tummy and he starts to giggle and clap, which wakes Cole up.

"Fucking hell, can't a man get any sleep?" He groans and Luke stops, looks at his father and bursts into tears again. I lie down and place Luke stomach first onto my chest and he wraps his fingers around my hair as he sobs with his head between my breasts. I rub his little back slowly and his breathing calms ever so slightly and the screams lessen, fortunately. Many people say not to lie a baby on their stomach but Luke seems to prefer that position of all. 

"How do you do it, shorty?" Cole groans again and rubs his head, "Well, he was completely fine before you shouted," I whisper yell at him, "I'm sorry! I've been woken up so many times now!"

"You try dealing with them when they cry!" I say getting slightly irritated through lack of sleep and raging hormones, "How does Liam not wake up?" He asks me in bewilderment, "And the twins for that matter."

"I don't know but let's be glad because dealing with two screaming babies is not fun," I tell him and we both chuckle, "Aww, I think he's asleep, shorty!" Cole coos at the little one month old baby asleep on my chest, "I'm jealous that he gets to sleep there," He pouts and I slap his chest, only making him laugh.