"Just emotional and dying to go and check on the babies."
"Just what I was thinking." Leaning over, he kissed her full on the mouth before turning to his father. "You made her cry."
"I sure did." Slapping his son on the back, he rose lithely. "Happy tears."
*****
The two rooms were adjacent to each other. They had decided to put the two boys in one room and their daughter in the other. They stopped first in the teal blue nursery with its jungle theme and its riot of animals. Shelves lined one wall, where stuffed toys of dinosaurs, lions and elephants were stocked neatly. The room was airy with floor to ceiling windows offering up a stunning view of the wooded area.
The nurse was just checking on them when they stepped into the room.
"Fast asleep and doing very well," the woman told them with a smile.
"Thank you, Nurse Franklin," Leanne said gratefully.
"You should take a break, go get something to eat," Christos advised. "My family are pigs when it comes to food."
"I'll bear that in mind. I just need to check on the little princess first."
Christos wheeled his wife over to the side by side cots.
"They look so much like you and your brothers." She reached out a hand to touch a bunched fist gently.
"That might change."
She shook her head. "No, it won't. All the boys in this family look alike. It's uncanny." She studied the sparse dark hair and creamy skin. Their eyes were closed, but when opened, it had a curious golden look that might turn a light green, or so they were told. They had the shape of their dad's face along with his determined chin.
And they were growing. Somehow, her milk had started flowing. Along with a gentle formula, she was breastfeeding her babies. They had also been told that in the case of preemies especially, the breast milk tended to hasten the healing process and growth patterns.
She wanted them as healthy as possible.
They went in to see to their daughter who was also fast asleep. "She gained a pound," Leanne whispered. She too had the look of her brothers, with the sparse dark hair and eyes a cross between green and gold. A very curious combination. Leanne liked to think that her daughter had at least inherited the shape of her nose.
Pulling her closer, Christos rubbed his hands up and down her arm.
"We should go back down."
"Just a few more minutes."
She stood there looking at the little miracle and felt the lump settling inside her throat. "All right, I'm ready."
*****
"What're you doing?" she asked curiously after he was in the bathroom for several minutes.
"Drawing you a bath. You must be exhausted."
The party had broken up after ten, during which, every member of the family had taken turns holding or touching the new members of the family.
"More like sleepy," she called out.
He came back in, the scent of raspberry and vanilla filtering out.
"Ready?"
"You didn't have to do that." Taking his hand, she eased out of the chair with only a slight grimace of pain. She was hopeful that by next week she would be fully healed and able to walk without assistance or the shooting pain from the incision.
"Should I fetch you something for the pain?"
