“I like that idea.”
Alex leads Neal through to the living room and Desmond follows a minute later.
“Oh, my God.”
Desmond’s eyes widen slightly when he steps into the living room and finds Neal all flustered.
“What’s wrong?”
Neal shakes his head.
Desmond looks at Alex.
“He’s worried about having to tell our parents now too.”
“Oh, Neal.” Desmond walks over and takes hold of Neal’s hands. “You need to stop worrying. It’ll be fine.”
Neal frowns a little.
“Don’t you think they’ll be happy about having another grandchild, too?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“There you go, then.” Desmond smiles and presses a kiss to Neal’s lips. “Now, why don’t you get another cookie?”
Neal turns around and wanders back over to the couch.
Alex looks over at Desmond.
“You’re good at that.”
Desmond grins.
“I’m good at everything.”
“What if…”
“Neal.” Desmond rolls his eyes and looks at Neal. “Seriously, stop worrying. You’re the pregnant one; no one’s going to get mad at you.” He shakes his head. “Like I said, it’s me and Alex that need to worry.”
“Why?” Neal frowns a little. “Who’d get mad at you?”
Desmond opens his mouth to reply, but the ringing of the doorbell interrupts him.
Neal rolls his eyes and stands up.
“I’ll get that.”
Alex watches Neal leave and then looks at Desmond.
“You think they’ll get mad?”
Desmond opens his mouth to reply, but, once again, he’s interrupted, this time by Neal returning to the living room and he’s not alone. By the look of fear on Alex’s face, he knows for sure who else is here. He slowly turns around and smiles.
“Franc. Steve. It’s nice to see you.”
Steve folds his arms across his chest and narrows his gaze a little.
“So which one of you knocked up my baby brother?”
Desmond turns towards Neal.
“You see what I mean now?”
Neal nods and then returns his attention to his brothers.
“Steve, I told you to be nice.”
“Neal…”
“No.” Neal points at Steve. “If you do not behave, I will tell Mom and then you won’t get cookies and Franc won’t get cookies and do you really want to explain to Giselle why Daddy doesn’t bring home Grandma’s cookies anymore, Franc?”
“Neal, this is serious.”
“I know this is serious. It has always been serious, but it has also always been right. It is still right now and there’s a baby. I am happy for this, we all are, and I hope you will be too.”
“Neal, we’re just worried about you.”
“You don’t need to be. I am fine, they take care of me,” Neal glances back at Desmond and Neal and smiles softly before returning his gaze to Franc and Steve, “just like you made them promise the last time you got all threatening like this and don’t think I know about that. If you can’t be happy about this or nice, even, then I would like for you to leave.” He turns his gaze away.
Steve walks over and pulls Neal into a hug.
“As long as you’re okay, Neal.”
“Well, I throw up a lot, but that’s normal.”
Steve laughs a little and shakes his head. He looks back at Franc.
“Franc?”
Franc walks over and smiles softly at Neal.
“We’re always going to worry about you, Neal, but if you’re happy then that’s okay.”
Neal sniffles a little and hugs Franc and Steve tightly.
“You should make babies soon, Steve; otherwise you will never be Mom’s favorite.”
Steve smiles fondly and rolls his eyes- that’s entirely the kind of thing he would expect Neal to say.
“I think it might be best if you leave now, anyway, before you scare Alex anymore.”
“I’m not scared,” Alex answers a little bit too quickly.
Desmond sits down on the couch next to Alex and takes hold of Alex’s hand.
Alex maybe shifts just a little bit closer to Desmond. He’s still really not scared, though. Except maybe he is a little bit (okay, Franc might not really be scary, but Steve is another thing).
Neal starts to show Franc and Steve out, but then he frowns a little.
“How did you find out so quickly?”
“Mom called the second you left.”
“Of course.” Neal rolls his eyes (he doesn’t begrudge his mother for being so excited, but he would like to tell people himself, even though he was worried about telling Franc and Steve anyway so this was probably easier for him, in the end). He pulls the living room door shut behind them. “Are you really okay with this?”
“It’s… It’s a surprise, but if you’re happy, then I’m happy for you. And I’ll be happy to be an uncle again.”
“And I’ve never been an uncle before, but I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
“I’m so happy for that.” Neal grins. “Now, you really should leave- we have celebrating to do.” He laughs a little when he overhears Franc complaining to Steve about over-sharing as they’re walking out of the door. He turns around and walks back to the living room. He really does want to celebrate, but first he wants another cookie.
CHAPTER SIX
“You need to calm down, Neal.”
“You need to stop saying that, Desmond.”
Desmond rolls his eyes and leans his head back against the wall. He looks to the side, where Alex is sat.
“Alex?”
Alex’s eyes widen and he stares at Desmond.
“What? Oh, my God; is something wrong?”
Desmond closes his eyes and sighs heavily. He gently rubs his forehead and wonders exactly how they’re going to be able to get through the nine months of Neal’s pregnancy, let alone actually raising this child.
“I have to pee.” Neal stands up and tries to walk away. “I don’t know why they make me drink so much.”
“Neal.” Desmond grabs hold of Neal’s wrist. “Sit down and relax.”
“I’m so nervous.” Neal sits back down in the empty seat next to Desmond.
“But this will be our first time seeing the baby. Aren’t you excited?”
“Of course, but,” Neal chews on his lower lip, “what if something’s wrong?”
“Nothing is going to be wrong, Neal, and even if it is, we’re not going to love the baby any less. We’ll be able to handle whatever happens, okay?”
Neal nods briefly, but he’s still not entirely convinced.
Desmond touches a hand to Neal’s cheek and rests his other hand on Alex’s leg.
Alex stops shaking for a second when he feels Desmond’s hand on his leg, but then he’s right back to twitching nervously again.
Desmond shakes his head- there’s only so much he can do.
***
As soon as the doctor comes to meet them, Neal starts asking every question he can think of and doesn’t stop talking until he’s led down on the bed in the examination room.
“Okay, we’ll go over any questions you have after I’ve checked you over.”
“Fine.” Neal huffs just a little bit because he really wants to know all of this stuff now.
Desmond is sat next to the bed, near Neal’s head. He leans in towards Neal slightly.
“If you’d give her more than a second, then maybe you’d get some answers.”
Neal narrows his gaze at Desmond a little (okay, Desmond might be right, but that’s really not the point).
Desmond just about resists the urge to laugh. He rolls his eyes and then turns to look at Alex.
“You okay?”
Alex frowns a little, but nods.
“I just… Why does it take so long?”
“Because you’re just so excited.” D
esmond smiles softly.
Neal giggles when the doctor puts the gel on his stomach.
The doctor turns towards Neal and smiles knowingly.
“Is it too cold for you?”
“No, it just tickles." Neal grins. He watches as the doctor puts the wand to his stomach and then looks over at Desmond. “Are you excited? I’m so excited.” He grins again and looks at Alex. “Alex?”
Alex smiles as best he can and nods.
“Let’s see what’s going on in here then.” The doctor moves the wand over Neal’s stomach. After a minute she frowns slightly. She presses a few buttons on the keyboard and leans in towards the screen. “Hmm.” She leans back in her seat and smiles. “If you’ll just excuse me, I’ll be back in a minute.” She stands up and walks out of the room.
“Oh, my God.” Neal sits up and, basically, starts freaking the fuck out. “Oh, my God.”
“Hey.” Desmond takes hold of Neal’s hand and squeezes it tightly. “Don’t worry about this. I’m sure everything’s okay. Right, Alex?” He turns to the side and sees Alex frozen in his seat with a look of utter fear on his face. He turns back towards Neal. “Just stay calm. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe the machine is broken and she went to get someone to fix it.”
“No.” Neal’s bottom lip starts to quiver, but he takes a deep breath. “Something’s wrong.”
“Neal…”
“No.” Neal points at Desmond. “You go and find out what is happening, right now.”
Desmond wants to argue that they should just wait here for the doctor to come back, but the way Neal is looking at him tells him that that would be a very bad idea. He stands up and places a kiss to Neal’s cheek.
“Try not to worry so much; I’m sure everything’s going to be okay.” Desmond smiles at Neal again before turning around and walking out of the room. When the door shuts behind him, he stops to take a deep breath- he’s freaking out himself, of course he is, but he can’t show that in front of Neal and Alex, not with both of them being so obviously terrified. He closes his eyes and takes another deep breath before storming down the hallway to where he can see the doctor is standing. He doesn’t even wait for the doctor to greet him before he speaks. “You are going to get right back in there,” he points back to the examination room, “and explain what the fuck is going on, right fucking now, because this is not on.”
“If you’ll just calm down…”
“No, I’m not gonna fucking calm down. You are going to explain.”
“Of course. I thought it would be best to explain to you all together, but I had to wait for a colleague first.” The doctor points towards a tall man at the other side of the corridor, who walks over and introduces himself as…
Actually, Desmond has no idea what this guy’s name is and he really doesn’t care. He growls a little before turning around and storming back down the corridor. He pushes the door to the examination room open a little too forcefully.
Neal jumps a little when the door slams open. He stares at Desmond
“Is… What did they say is wrong?”
Desmond just shakes his head and walks back over to sit down next to Neal’s bed. He takes hold of Neal’s hand. He’s a little bit surprised when Alex grabs hold of his free hand because Alex isn’t one for reaching out, even with something as small as this.
Neal frowns a little when the doctor walks back into the room and his frown deepens when he sees that she’s not alone.
“Who is he?”
“He’s a colleague of mine, who’s a specialist.”
“A specialist?” Neal whimpers a little bit. “For what?”
“Multiple pregnancies.” The doctor sits back down in the chair by the ultrasound machine.
“What?” Neal frowns again. “What does that mean?”
“If you’d lie back down, I can show you.”
Neal is too nervous, scared, worried, nervous and sacred some more, to argue so he nods and lies back down. He can’t quite bring himself to look at the doctor and he’s far too nervous to look at Desmond and Alex so he stares up at the ceiling instead.
The doctor moves the wand over Neal’s stomach again. After a minute or so, she turns the screen around and points to the image in the middle.
“Here. You see? You’re having twins.”
“Fuck.” Desmond has no idea what to say apart from that.
Alex can’t say anything at all.
Neal just stares at the screen. He leans forward as best he can and squints slightly.
“That’s two babies. I see them.” Neal manages to tear his gaze away from the screen after a minute and looks at the doctor. “How did that happen?”
“It’s basically the same as making one baby.”
“Okay.” Neal looks back at the screen. “Twins.” He shakes his head.
“I guess we really don’t do things by halves,” Desmond mutters. He shifts forwards slightly so that he’s closer to the screen. He has a brief flash of how much hard work it was having Andrea and Bella at the same time, but quickly pushes those thoughts away because this is an entirely different situation.
“There are really two of them?” Alex tilts his head to the side and frowns a little. “That’s so many more than one.”
Desmond wants to argue against that logic, but there’s not much he feels like he can say right now. He says the best thing he can think of, which he hopes is good enough for now.
“We’ll manage, I promise.”
***
The rest of the appointment passes in a bit of a blur because Desmond is the only one paying attention and even he’s only half doing that. He smiles and nods a lot. He doesn’t look at the pictures (they have about a thousand copies) when the doctor hands them over because if he even takes one tiny glance then he’ll be staring at them for hours and they actually have things to do today. He frowns a little when the nurse starts talking about Neal’s next appointment in a few weeks because they’re going to be back home by then (Ollison’s first birthday is coming up and there’s still a lot they need to do for that).
The nurse laughs a little and says that’s fine, just call the doctor back home and they’ll be able to sort everything out between them.
Desmond thinks he needs to say something more to Neal and Alex because they’re so quiet and that’s really disconcerting (especially from Neal, who never normally shuts up), but he can’t figure out what to say so he just wanders down to the car and really hopes that Neal and Alex are following him (they are).
“Can I have the pictures?”
Desmond shakes his head and turns towards Neal. He frowns a little for a few seconds before he realizes that he’s still holding the folder full of ultrasound pictures.
“Sure.” Desmond smiles lightly and hands the folder to Neal. He takes the long way home (he’s driving- he always drives when they’re all together and today it’s definitely for the best because, clearly, neither Neal nor Alex could concentrate enough to get them home safely) for the extra time to just think.
Alex spends most of the journey home staring out of the window, alternating between thinking too much about what’s going to happen and then trying not to think about it at all.
Neal flicks through the folder of pictures and stares at every single picture for a while (which is a little pointless because they’re just copies of the same few pictures over and over again). He stares at his stomach, too, and resists the urge to poke (just to see whether anything feels different yet) before flipping the folder shut and turning towards Desmond.
“Desmond, I would like to be at home now.”
Desmond snaps himself out of his daze and looks at Neal for a second before returning his attention to the road.
“All right, Neal; we’ll go home.”
***
They haven’t spoken in the time they’ve been home. In fact, they’re not even in the same room- Neal is curled up in the middle of the couch, staring at a point on the carpet; Alex is sat
outside, on the phone with some of his family and Desmond is wandering between the two, hoping that they’re okay.
Sometime later (none of them are really sure because they’re too distracted to even pay attention to the time), the front door opens and then Franc walks into the house.
“Hello?” Franc wanders into the living room and then rolls his eyes. “Oh, you are here. Mom sent me over to find out why you didn’t call the second you got back from the hospital.” He frowns a little when Neal doesn’t immediately answer him. “Neal, are you okay?”
Neal glances over at Desmond (who’s currently stood in the corner of the room) before turning back towards Franc. He mutters something.
Desmond assumes that Neal is speaking French because he has no idea what Neal is saying, but Franc seems to understand every word.
Franc’s eyes widen and he puts his hand to his mouth. He says a few words (again Desmond assumes this is French).
Neal nods and holds one of the pictures out towards Franc.
Franc walks over and sits down on the couch next to Neal. He takes the picture and studies it carefully.
“Oh, Neal; this is… Wow.”
Neal nods slowly.
“It’s… I still don’t even know really.” Neal shrugs. “I think it will be more hard and more complicated, but I did not stop loving them. This is the most important, I think.” He looks between Franc and Desmond. “That matters, yes?”
“Of course it does.” Desmond walks over and sits down on the other side of Neal. He takes hold of Neal’s hand. “It’s… I can’t tell you how it’s going to work out, but I promise that it will and I promise that we will all always be there.”
Neal smiles lightly and nods.
“Speaking of which,” Franc puts down the picture and looks up, “where is Alex?”
“He’s outside.” Desmond nods in the direction of the back door. “He’s freaking out on the phone to his mom or his brother. I don’t…”
“Actually, I called them both.” Alex walks back into the room and folds his arms across his chest. “And, for your information, I did not freak out.”
“Liar,” Neal mutters. “You’re always freaking out.”
“I just…” Alex frowns a little. “Everything is happening so quickly and I need more time to get used to it.”
The Unexpected: An Mpreg Romance Page 3