the Remainders

Chapter 12 Syndir

All I can utter is 'Can I see her, doctor?'

He smiles half-heartedly. 'Of course sir, I'll lead the way!'

Sezi just walks with me in silence down the long stretch of hallway, beige and white painted walls and white tile flooring. Everything looks so crisp and clean all of the rooms look the same as we pass each one. Perhaps every room has its own tragedy.

The doctor points me into the room 109 and I am able to see my wife strapped to all of these machines, and when the doctor turns to walk away I mumble 'Doc, my wife's alive?'

The doctor shakes his head in confusion and proceeds to answer despite obviously being puzzled by my inquiry.

'Yes sir, she made it through and will make a full recovery. Your son won't.'

I gasp out of grief and surprise. The entire time I have been hoping for a daughter and yet, I am happy and I love my child even though I have not met him yet. 'I have a son?'

The doctor smiles lightly while scratching his semi-bald head as he's no doubt unsure of how much I heard just moments ago. 'Mr. Hastings, you have a son and a daughter!'

'Twins?' I smile and laugh nervously.

'Yes, twins.' He looks at Sezi and nods as if he knows I am in disturbed and had tuned him out. He no doubt thought it would sound better coming from her and with that the doctor walks away.

'Syndir, you have twins... A boy and a girl. The girl is going to be just fine, she is healthy and is expected to stay that way... The boy however, he's not going to make it. I am so sorry! He's just not strong enough and he suffered many complications'

Reality hit when Sezi's words ring loudly in my head and shatter my heart. I sit down before entering the room. I inquire 'How long? How... Long... Does he have?'

My voice is shaking and I'm fighting the pending doom we are going to face. An emotional rollercoaster is definitely a good description considering I feel down, up, down and now confused... Would that be the loop part?

'At most weeks. Minimum... Minutes. I'm sorry Syn.' My face went blank. My expression went from sad to happy, back to reality again. 'I have to tell her alone Sezi. Then I will tell everyone else.'

'Okay! I won't say a word I can guarantee that. Go see her! We'll all be waiting, we are not going anywhere.' She assures me and touches my shoulder before walking away.

I spend time looking at her through the little window in the door memorizing how she sleeps peacefully my wife has a slight smile on her face, resting undisturbed as the hair falls in her face, I stand there before I begin entering the room.

I then realize we may not have much time with our son so I barge in and pick up my children. They wake up and stare at me, my son with his big brown eyes and daughter with her ocean blue eyes... Tears drop onto them and they both start to smile. Curious expressions appear on their beautiful faces. My daughter being a healthy shade of pink whereas, my son is blue and pale at the same time. Ale wakes up and sees me. She calls me to her in a quiet and weak voice. In this moment we are both so elated and at peace. What could've been the worst day turned out to be one of the best!

'Hey bug, look at all of you! You did so good! My Hasting troopers!'

She smiles lightly and broadcasts 'I want to hold them!'

I nod and let her grab both of them. I kiss her forehead and we remain silent taking in this beautiful moment, not tainting it even with our voices and then, I remember what the Doctor and Sezi revealed to me!

I refuse to ruin this moment. I just want a good moment with my kids and my wife. I don't want all of our moments especially our first ones to be only of grief. Ale looks at me and smiles one of happiness and relief.

'Syn what should we name them?'

We thought of this for months now. We had names in case we had a boy or a girl. We didn't even have time to decide if we wanted to know the gender, let alone find out there were two of them! Looking at these tiny humans in our arms. Our son weighs 3 pounds and 6 ounces and we decide to name him Casetyn. We name our baby girl who weighed 5.8 pounds 7 ounces Ezaria.

Before letting everyone meet our little family we sign the birth certificates and then I tell Alena the news... She new obviously something was wrong because of his coloring but she didn't want to think about it or admit it. She sobs into my scrubs as I had done for sometime before knowing how things would turn out!