“As long as you do get used to it- they need you.” Neal puts a hand on top of his stomach. He looks up at Alex and sniffles a little. “I need you, too.”
Alex smiles. He walks over and touches a hand to Neal’s cheek. He opens his mouth to speak, but he doesn’t get the chance.
“Well, that’s nice and warm and fuzzy, but, please, spare me.” Franc holds a hand up. He shudders a little and then points at Neal. “You need to call mom. I’m going to go home now and give all of you some time to think.” He stands up and starts walking out of the room. He stops in the doorway and turns back around. “Congratulations, by the way. I’m looking forward to seeing you try to handle this.”
“You leave now, Franc, or I might have to hit you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Are you sure that it’s okay if I fly? I don’t want to fly if it’ll hurt the babies.” Neal puts a hand on top of his stomach and gives Desmond a serious look.
“Neal, for the last time, it is perfectly all right for you to fly and it will continue to be perfectly all right for you to fly for months yet.”
“Really?” Neal thinks carefully for a moment. “For how long?”
“Another four months, probably.”
“Okay, and after…”
“Neal, seriously; I would love to talk about this some more, but if we don’t hurry up, we are actually going to miss our flight. Now, where is Alex?” Desmond starts looking around.
“I’m right here.” Alex rushes over. He folds his arms across his chest and narrows his gaze at Desmond. “I’m sorry I’m lagging behind so much, but I am carrying all of the bags.”
“You are not carrying all of the bags, Alex.” Desmond rolls his eyes. “You insisted on carrying Neal’s bags as well as your own.”
“Well, he’s not supposed to carry things.”
“I’m right here.” Neal puts his hands on his hips and glares at Alex.
“Oh, God.” Desmond rubs his forehead. “We have to go, right now, and if you do not stop arguing, I will leave you both here.”
Neal huffs lightly.
“We’re not the children, remember? Stop treating us like it.”
“Then stop acting like it.”
Neal opens his mouth to argue some more, but then he realizes that Desmond might have a point (a tiny little miniscule bit of a point).
“Fine.”
“Thank you.” Desmond smiles at Neal before turning towards Alex. “Well?”
“I’m just worried about Neal.”
“I’m not an invalid, I’m…”
“That is it.” Desmond growls lightly. “If you’re gonna keep arguing, you can finish it on the plane.” He points towards the gate. “Now, get moving.”
***
By the time they land, everything’s sorted and they’re all happy together. In fact, Neal doesn’t even complain when Alex, once again, refuses to let him carry his own bags.
“I think I really missed being here.” Neal smiles and nods when he steps into the house. “Yep. I definitely missed it.”
“That’s good.” Desmond smiles and pushes the door shut after Alex has walked into the house.
Neal takes another look around before turning back to look at Desmond.
“Hey. When do the babies get here?”
Desmond raises an eyebrow.
“You mean the ones living inside of you?”
“No, you idiot.” Neal rolls his eyes. “I mean the ones you already have.”
Desmond laughs lightly.
“All right. Max and Ollison will be here tomorrow afternoon and we’re picking Lukas and the twins…” Desmond’s sentence trails off and he frowns slightly. “We’re not going to be able to call them that anymore, are we?”
Neal thinks carefully for a moment.
“We can call Andrea and Bella the big twins and these twins,” Neal puts his hand on top of his stomach, “the little twins.”
“Yeah, that’ll work.” Desmond nods. “Anyway, we’re picking them up after school.”
“That’s good. I missed them all. Is it dinnertime now?”
“Uh… Soon.”
“Good. Can I have…”
“No, Neal; you can’t have cookies for dinner.”
“But…” Neal puts his hands on his hips and scowls.
“Neal, you need to have a proper meal. You can have cookies after, if you want.”
“Fine.” Neal huffs. “I want ice-cream, too.”
“Sure.”
Neal sighs a little before turning around and wandering off upstairs.
Alex steps right up to Desmond.
“Do I need to go out for ice-cream then?”
Desmond turns around. He smiles softly and touches a hand to Alex’s cheek.
“I love you.”
***
“Oh, my God.”
Desmond sits there and shakes his head at Neal, who’s pacing up and down the kitchen.
Neal mutters several things and occasionally throws his arms out to the sides.
“I don’t know why you’re so worried, Neal; you have actually met them before.”
“But this is different.”
“How?”
“Because…” Neal stops pacing and frowns a little as he thinks. “Well, how are we going to explain this?” He points to his stomach.
“About the babies?” Desmond rolls his eyes. “They already know.”
“You told them?”
“Of course I did. They’re probably too small to understand, though, especially Ollison. Max seemed okay with it, but he might not remember now. You don’t need to worry about that, Neal; as long as we keep showing that we still love them, they’ll be okay with it.” Desmond smiles softly. “I think what you need to be most worried about is how pissed Andrea and Bella will be if you don’t give them at least one more little sister.”
Neal glares at Desmond.
“Now is not the time for joking.”
Desmond stands up and walks over to Neal. He takes hold of Neal’s hands.
“You’re worrying too much.”
“But…”
“Neal, you need to calm down. Even if they’re not completely fine with it right now, they’ll have plenty of time to get used to it.”
“But what if…”
“Seriously, Neal, we’ll just answer any questions they have and be there for them- that’s all they really want.”
***
Alex didn’t even realize he’s been sleeping until he’s jolted awake. He doesn’t know what woke him so he just lies there for a while, hoping to go back to sleep. He doesn’t get that chance, though, mostly because of the pressure he now feels on his stomach. He blinks a few times and opens his eyes to find Max staring back at him.
“Alex!” Max grins and claps his hands.
“Max, get down. We don’t climb on people, remember?”
Max looks over at Desmond. He sticks his bottom lip out and bats his eyelashes.
“It’s okay.” Alex stifles a yawn. “I’m up.” He sits up and settles Max in his lap. “Hi Max.”
“Hi! Story!” Max waves the book he’s clutching in front of Alex’s face.
“You want a story?” Alex takes the book from Max and holds it open. “All right. Let’s see what happens in here.”
***
“Again!” Max bangs his hands lightly on the book.
“Are you sure you don’t want a different story instead? Or maybe some juice?”
Max shakes his head.
“How about we go and see if Neal is nice enough to give you one of his cookies?”
Max thinks very carefully about that for a minute and then nods. He jumps out of Alex’s lap and holds his hand out towards Alex.
Alex smiles as he stands up and takes hold of Max’s hand.
Max pulls Alex through to the kitchen and then starts jumping up and down in front of Neal.
“Hi there, Max.” Neal smiles brightly. “What can I do for you?”
�
��Max was hoping you might have a cookie for him.”
Max looks up at Neal and nods seriously.
“A cookie for Max? I can do that.” Neal turns around and rummages through the cupboards for the bag of cookies. He finally finds the cookies and opens the bag (which isn’t exactly easy seeing as he has Ollison balanced on his hip). He grabs a cookie and hands it to Max. “There you go.”
Max grins and takes the cookie from Neal before running back through to the living room.
Desmond wanders into the kitchen a few minutes later.
“I hear you gave Max a cookie, Neal.”
“Uh huh.”
“So you’ll share with him, but not me or Alex?”
“Well, Max is cuter.” Neal shrugs.
Desmond rolls his eyes and walks over to Neal. He presses a kiss to Neal’s forehead and gently strokes Ollison’s cheek.
“I’m gonna head out and pick Lukas and Andrea and Bella up from school now.”
Neal’s eyes widen.
“You’re leaving me and Alex alone with them?” Neal looks down at Ollison and glance back towards the living room, where Max is, before returning his attention to Desmond.
“You’ve watched them before and you’ve been fine.”
“Yeah, Neal; stop freaking out. That’s my job, remember?”
Neal glares at Alex.
“You’re not helping.”
“You’ll be fine, Neal.” Desmond gives Neal’s free hand a squeeze. He looks down at Ollison and smiles brightly. “You’re gonna be a good little girl for Neal and Alex, aren’t you?”
Ollison giggles madly.
“I think we need to be worried now, Alex.”
***
Later that evening, Neal is helping Desmond clean up, after dinner (well, Neal is leaning against the counter next to the sink while Desmond does the washing up, but he’s providing much-needed moral support so he’s totally helping).
“So, Andrea and Bella have a lot of questions for me.”
“Yeah?” Desmond puts another plate on the draining board and looks at Neal.
“Uh huh.” Neal nods. “Things like: ‘When will the babies be born?’ and ‘When do we find out if they’re boys or girls?’ and ‘How big are they?’ and ‘When do they start kicking?’.”
“Okay.” Desmond nods slowly and frowns slightly because he’s not sure where Neal is going with this.
“I don’t know the answers.”
“Why don’t you borrow one of Alex’s pile of baby books then?”
“It’s not a pile,” Alex calls out from the doorway.
“Fine.” Desmond looks back over his shoulder at Alex and grins. “Then it’s a stack.”
Alex narrows his gaze at Desmond. He walks over and puts several cups on the counter next to Desmond.
“I think I’m glad I’m bringing you more work to do.”
Desmond laughs softly and leans over to place a soft kiss on Alex’s cheek.
Alex still huffs lightly. He walks over and stands next to Neal.
“So what’s up?”
“I don’t know all the baby things.”
“I don’t either.”
Desmond rolls his eyes. He puts the cups into the sink, leaving them to soak for a while. He turns to the side so he’s facing Neal and Alex.
“You can’t know it all from the start. Some things, you just need to figure out as we go along. There are some things you’re not going to know about until they come up.”
“But we need to be prepared.”
Neal nods in agreement.
“You can prepare by decorating the nursery, buying baby clothes, stuff like that. You can’t prepare for every little thing that might come up at some point during their lives. You need to just go with it.”
“You’ve done this before. You’re supposed to be helpful.” Neal frowns at Desmond. “You’re not being helpful.”
“I’m not going to know all the answers to everything, either, and that’s fine. We just… We don’t know what’s going to come up next- we just need to be confident enough to be able to deal with whatever does happen.”
“But… But… The books.” Alex frowns a little.
“Yeah, they’re a good start, but they can’t tell us everything. Like when the babies actually get here and they’re crying, you’re not gonna be able to tell from books whether they’re hungry or they need changing or they just want some attention.” Desmond shrugs lightly. “I’m sorry if that’s not helpful, but contrary to popular belief, there isn’t actually a manual to raising a child.”
Neal frowns slightly for a moment.
“Then we need to practice.” Neal nods definitively. “We have Ollison and I’m sure Franc will let us borrow Giselle sometimes too.”
“You are not using them for practice, Neal.” Desmond shakes his head. “When the babies get here, you will know what to do.” He smiles softly and reaches out to take hold of Neal’s hand. “I believe in you,” he takes hold of Alex’s hand, too, “both of you. Isn’t that enough?”
Neal glances at Alex before looking back at Desmond.
“Okay. I think that will do.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
When Desmond wakes up, he yawns and stretches out. He frowns a little because usually when he stretches out, he ends up hitting someone. He frowns a little and opens his eyes. He turns on his side and instead of being faced with Neal like he usually is, he finds Alex staring at him. He smiles softly and leans in to press a brief kiss to Alex’s lips.
“Mornin’.”
“Hi.” Alex smiles brightly and settles himself against Desmond.
Desmond lets his eyes drift shut again and wraps his arms around Alex.
“Where did Neal get to? Is he getting sick?”
“No. He got up some time ago to start setting things up for the big party today.”
“Are you kidding?” Desmond opens his eyes wide and stares at Alex. He glances over at the clock. “It’s barely seven o’clock.”
“Yeah, well, you know Neal.” Alex rolls his eyes.
Desmond laughs lightly and shakes his head.
“You think we should get up and help?”
“And risk getting yelled at for being in the way? Nope. I think we should stay right here.”
“Yeah?” Desmond grins and shifts a little closer to Alex. “And did you have anything in mind?”
“Why don’t you let me show you?”
***
It’s over an hour later (in fact, it’s closer to two) when Desmond and Alex finally get up and go downstairs.
Alex stops in the middle of the living room, causing Desmond to turn to face him.
“What is it?”
“Well, I think I want breakfast, but Neal’s…” Alex waves his hand towards the kitchen.
“Neal’s what?” Neal appears in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. He puts his hands on his hips and glares at Desmond and Alex. “Doing all the work while you two are entertaining each other? Because that’s exactly what’s going on.” He shakes his head. He turns around and walks back into the kitchen.
Alex turns towards Desmond.
“You wanna go out for breakfast then?”
“Don’t you dare leave this house,” comes Neal’s shout from the kitchen.
“I guess we’re going hungry then,” Desmond mutters.
Alex rolls his eyes before walking into the kitchen.
A minute or so later, Desmond hears a yelp and then Alex comes back into the living room, shaking his hand.
“What happened?”
“He hit me with a spoon because I tried to take a cupcake.”
“You tried to steal a cupcake? Do you have a death wish?”
Alex shakes his head and sighs lightly. He glances back towards the kitchen before looking at Desmond.
“I don’t know why he’s making such a big deal about this. He knows that Ollison will probably asleep through most of the day, yes?”
“Well, yeah, that’s pro
bably true, but it is her first birthday and Neal just wants to make sure that it’s special for her. I mean, you remember him on Giselle’s first birthday, don’t you? And Max’s, too?”
Alex opens his mouth to reply, but he doesn’t get the chance because Neal walks back into the living room.
“That’ll teach you to steal food.” Neal points at Alex. “I need to throw up.”
“Uh… what?”
Neal rolls his eyes and walks across the living room. He stops in the doorway and turns back around.
“And not one word about my hormones.” Neal gives Desmond and Alex a serious look before turning around and rushing upstairs to the bathroom.
Alex turns towards Desmond.
“You wanna get breakfast now, then?”
“Sure. Just don’t steal any cupcakes, remember?”
***
As it turns out, Alex is right and Ollison does sleep through a lot of the day, but not as much as Neal sleeps.
Neal whines a little when he wakes up and realizes how much he’s missed (they’ve got the whole day on video, though, so he’ll get to see it later), but he cheers up when he realizes that there’s plenty of birthday cake and cupcakes left. He only glares at Desmond a little bit when Desmond tells him that he needs to eat actual food as well, so he can stay healthy for the babies (he would have glared more, but he’s too tired and hungry for that). He plays with Max and Ollison for a while, but then it’s almost bedtime for them so Anna is taking them home (he might cry just a tiny little bit when they leave, but that’s allowed because he’s going to miss them). He wants to help clear up (it’s the right thing to do), but Desmond insists on him sitting down and not over-exerting himself and he’d be annoyed at Desmond fussing over him if he wasn’t actually so tired. He still feels kind of guilty about sitting on the couch and watching Desmond and Alex clean up, though, but it is nice to sit down and relax for a while. He relaxes so much, in fact, that he falls asleep.
Alex kneels down beside the couch and gently shakes Neal.
“Hmm?” Neal blinks a few times and frowns at Alex. “What?”
“It’s time for you to go to bed.”
Neal whines a little and sits up.
“But I…”
“Neal.” Alex takes hold of Neal’s hands. “You’ve just fallen asleep again and you’ve been up all day. Please, go to bed.”
The Unexpected: An Mpreg Romance Page 4