My mother was home every day and she was all ready to babysit whenever Miranda decided to go back to work. I wished she would just stay home, but she liked to get out a few days a week. I enjoyed being able to see her at lunch time on those days so there were positives to her working.
With my wife’s hand laced into mine, I rested my head against hers and let myself rest. Even after the accident and more than a day without a shower, her hair still smelled familiar. Our marriage wasn’t on the best of terms, but in that moment, I felt like it was.
I woke up to my phone vibrating and a very angry nurse looking down at me. I slipped out of bed and stood in front of her.
“Your wife is in no condition to be sharing her space. You could have hurt her worse.”
I stuck my finger in her face. “My wife wanted me to lay with her and after thinking she was dead, I needed to be close to her too. I wouldn’t do anything to harm her.”
She shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “Please put your finger down, Sir. We are breaking the rules letting you stay in here longer than normal visiting hours already, so I appreciate you following at least some of the rules. I came here to check Mrs. Mitchell’s vitals so that we could take her to see her sons.”
I put my hands in my pockets and shut the hell up real fast. Miranda turned her head to face us and I could see that she was smiling. I smiled back at her, feeling my heart race when I thought about her seeing our boys for the first time.
The nurse did what she needed to do and wrote everything down in the chart before releasing the wheels on Miranda’s bed. A male nurse came over and started situating both the bag of blood and fluids so that they could roll beside the bed as they moved her. “Am I going right now?” Miranda pulled her free hand up to mess with her hair. It was silly that she was worried about what she looked like.
“We’re moving you to a private room and then the babies will be brought in there with you.”
I grabbed Miranda’s hand and squeezed it. Her smile filled the room and I was ecstatic for her. “You ready to meet the cutest boys on the planet?”
“Yes.”
“Baby, wait til you see what my awesome sperm created.”
Miranda started laughing at my wise crack, but I caught the nurses rolling their eyes. I hated people with no sense of humor. Maybe they were just pissed cause my sperm was so awesome. I didn’t really give a shit about their opinion anyway.
“You know, I helped create them too,” Miranda added.
I leaned down and stole a kiss, before she could turn away. “I remember every single moment of that process.”
We had to walk really slow since each of us had some kind of object in our hands that was attached somehow to Miranda’s bed or body. By the time we got to the maternity ward, I saw my mom, Conner and his mom standing in the hallway talking to Van and Colt. I lifted my head, since my hands were too full to wave. A cocked eyebrow could be seen from Miranda’s mother. She knew something was going on between us. I was so glad Miranda hadn’t told her the truth.
It wasn’t like I’d gone out and purposely cheated on my wife. Even if she refused to believe me, I never would have done that.
Everyone had to stand outside of the room until we got Miranda situated and then they insisted that she try to eat something before she was overwhelmed with visitors. Once they did come in, the room filled with voices and Miranda seemed to be happy to see everyone. I caught her looking at me a couple of times and I knew it was because she wanted to meet our sons without the commotion of everyone around us.
I knew her mother would be pissed at me, but I cleared my throat loudly so everyone would give me their attention. “Sorry to interrupt, but Miranda has something that she needs to do and it would mean a lot to both of us if you let her have her first minutes with our sons alone.” I saw my mother in law opening her mouth and even my mom looked upset. “Look, you can all come in after a few minutes, but you’ve all had time with them already and she hasn’t.”
Everyone cleared out of the room without much said. I was glad, because I didn’t feel like getting rude with our family. Once everyone walked out into the hallway, Miranda hit her red button and told the nurse she was ready.
When they rolled each of the little plastic beds into our room, Miranda started to cry. She held her hands over her face as I stood by her side. The nurses wheeled them in on either side of her bed and lifted Jake to her first. They were still hooked to a couple tubes, but the nurses had wrapped them up good enough that you couldn’t notice. I got my phone out right away and took a picture of her holding him. She looked terrible and would kill me later for saving the photo, but I loved how happy she was.