𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 𝐃𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐘 [MONTGOMERY DE LA CRUZ AU]

EPILOUGE

A CRY ERUPTS FROM THE OPPOSITE room from their bedroom in the middle of the night, starting as small wails then to loud ones.

Olivia groaned from Montgomery's shoulder and blindly brought her hand up to initiate a round of rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to tend to the other room.

Montgomery murmured, "Don't worry, my turn tonight. I'll go."

Olivia frowned at him, reluctant. "You sure? It's hard to make them go back to sleep again."

He places a small kiss on top of her head then whispered, "Go back to sleep."

She still looked unsure but smiled at the gesture and resolved with a small nod. She gives his arm a squeeze before untangling herself from him and rolling at her side of the bed.

He slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep off of his eyes as he walked instinctively in the dark to the hall and fumbled his way inside the nursery room. The room was dim-lit with a soft shade of yellow from the tiny night light beside the door, soft streams of the moonlight shone through the small slits of the curtains.

In the poorly lit room, he could see his 7-month-old baby girl standing wobbly on the corner of the crib, gripping the sides tightly for support, her cries loud and unapologetic.

Whereas, the little boy beside her sits by her foot, his cries small and quiet.

Montgomery rushed to the crib, wide awake now. He bent down to pick her up first before bending down again to pick up the boy this time. He balanced the two babies in his arms with ease in spite of the girl fussing wildly on his right arm.

They continued to cry despite his efforts of swaying them side to side, their different yet so alike version of crying overlapping and Montgomery closed the door with his foot to contain the noise, not wanting to wake Grayson up.

"Had trouble sleeping, princess?" He smiled faintly at the baby girl, her cries quieting down just a little from the sound of his voice. He then turns to the whimpering boy, "What about you, little man?"

The boy whimpered quietly, his chin trembling.

Montgomery sits down at the cushioned chair, adjusting his hold carefully. "You guys had nightmare, didn't you?" The girl tilts her head slightly to the side and studied his face, her sobs quieting down a notch. Her head slowly leaned on his upper arm, her big green eyes watching him. It had only been 7 months and yet it seemed like she's already a big Daddy's girl.

Montgomery would never forget the day they were born.

How could he, when he puked on the way to the hospital and puked again in the delivery room when the babies were almost there?

It was a breezy afternoon in mid-March. Three of Montgomery's old friends; Bryce Walker, Scott Reed and Zach Dempsey finally had a time off from their baseball season and headed down to California to visit them. They were in the middle of a 2v2 basketball game on their backyard and so far, Montgomery and Zach's side were losing.

"Bro, what the heck?" Zach cuffed the back of Mongomery's head. "We're losing $100 on this, I don't wanna lay money out."

Bryce laughs and followed the de la Cruz boy's line of sight, "I think he's scared the moment he looks away from Liv, the babies would somehow pop out of her out of nowhere."

"Shut up." Montgomery flipped him off and continued to watch Olivia a couple of feet away from them.

Olivia sits on her foldable cushioned sun lounger chair; a big bowl of cheese popcorn sits on top of her big belly, and a dessert bowl on her hand. On a table Monty positioned close to her side sits a glass with half-filled purple drink. She watches a movie from her laptop with Grayson cuddled next to her, crunching her face in pain every now and then.