"Oh, my God, what's wrong with them?" Lissa's eyes were swimming with tears. "Where are they, I want to see my babies."
"Follow me. Joan will be glad to see you."
Julio's fingers entwined Lissa's and he held onto her hand tight as they followed Abby through the maze of hallways, before finally arriving at the infants and children's ward.
Joan rose from her seat, as she saw them come in, and came running over to her sister.
The two women hugged.
"What's going on, Joan?" Lissa asked.
"I don't know, they won't tell me anything," Joan said, and then she collapsed back in to her seat and buried her head in her hands.
Abby spoke. "There's the doctor."
They all looked up as a diminutive woman with striking grey hair and even more striking grey eyes walked towards them, in her white doctor's coat and stethoscope wrapped around her neck. She walked up to Julio and began speaking to him in rapid Spanish.
Julio nodded, and then his face broke into a relieved semi-smile.
"Gracias, doctor," he said, as the doctor scurried away.
"What? What's going on? Are my babies alright?"
Julio guided everyone to the seats. "Sit down, and yes. It's good news but I'm not going to tell it to you standing up."
Lissa felt relief flood through her, and almost burst into tears of happiness. Her worst fears weren't materializing. Her boys were going to be okay.
"What is it? Julio, tell us!" demanded Joan.
"Apparently, the boys have contracted some kind of infection. Marco had it the worst, and he's going to need the most time to recover, but the other boys were treated in time, so they're already coming around. Either way, they want the three of them to remain here for a few days."
"When can I see them?"
"He said that a room was being prepared and that the two less sick boys would be in there within the hour, but that Marco would need to remain on the intensive care unit until further notice. He said, that we could come back and see him in about thirty minutes, but just two people at a time."
Thirty minutes later, Joan and Abby insisted that Julio and Lissa go back first. They followed a nurse into the back of the ward and were taken to a viewing room.
"Can't we go in?" Lissa asked, as she realized that they were to only look at their sick baby through a window.
"Nurse?"
"Si, ?"
Julio spoke to the nurse in Spanish, then translated. "No one is allowed in the intensive care nursery except doctors and nurses."
Lissa sucked in her breath, her eyes filling with tears at the sight of her first born, her largest baby, looking weak and small in his glass enclosed crib, flanked by medical devices mounted to movable stands. Her baby lay there naked, save for a diaper, and all the tubes and monitor tags stuck to his skin.
"Isn't he cold?" she asked.
Julio spoke to the nurse.
"No, she says the room is quite comfortable."
Her baby's eyes were closed, as if sleeping. She could see a tiny flutter of the eyelids and hoped his dreams were sweet and pain free. "I love you, Marco Julio," she said through the window.
"Come on," Julio said with a catch in his voice. "There's nothing we can do for him now, let's go see our other boys."
It wasn't until two days later that their three babies were released from the hospital. While they'd been waiting for the children to recover, work had come to a grinding halt, and Julio's mother had insisted that they bring the children to her home in Barcelona, so they could recover fully.
Lissa didn't argue, she had only one thought on her mind, bringing her boys back to health.
When they arrived at the home in Barcelona, Julio's mother showed them to the living room which had been converted into a makeshift nursery, complete with a day bed and three cribs. Japanese Shoji screens for privacy. Lissa and Joan settled in with the babies, as Julio went upstairs to his room.
Julio's mother, Gracile Torres was a tall, athletically built Spanish woman, with olive toned skin and dark, piercing eyes. When she moved, she had a grace about her, belying her age. Several of her female relatives, a sister, a sister-in-law, Lissa couldn't keep track, had moved into to one of the guest rooms. They helped with the cooking, the cleaning, and the tending to the three babies. But, no one was more constant than Lissa. She never left their side except to go to the bathroom. She prayed and spoke and tried to make up for all the time she'd not been near them, her heart still reeling from what could have been an unspeakable loss.
She barely slept, and in the morning, the sun rose in Barcelona, and the fragrance of homemade bread and coffee filled Julio's family home.
Marco, the sickest of the boys, the one she could have lost, was sitting on one of the Aunt's lap, laughing, and looking like his old self-again.
"Marco Julio," Lissa said, as she gently reclaimed her son from the older woman's arms. She kissed her boy softly on the head. "Do you feel better? Momma's so happy, you feel better."
Her other boys heard her voice and were trying to stand up in their cribs. Ryland reached out his arms to her. He looked much better as well.
"I think these boys have seen enough of those cribs."
Julio stood in the doorway, a huge smile on his lips. His mother walked into the room. "Bring them into the kitchen, Lissa, I had Julio set up a big area where they can play while we have breakfast."
While they ate, Lissa began to relax for the first time in days. The boys were back to their normal, healthy selves and they were having a blast playing with in the makeshift play pen in the middle of the large kitchen.
Lissa was starved and the food was delicious. She reached for another hot rosemary biscuit, slathering it with butter and washing it down with the delicious coffee and fresh cream.
"Mamacita," Julio said, "What do you think of my new family?"
Lissa felt his hands rest gently on her shoulders, he was standing right behind her. The touch of thumb as it grazed against the exposed skin of her neck felt like fire. She stiffened. What did he mean? Exactly.
Julio's mother didn't say anything, she just waved a wooden spoon at his head and glared at him. Julio laughed, and Lissa wondered what that was all about.
He went over to the play pen and let himself in. A moment later, he and the boys were laughing and playing together. Lissa's heart swelled. If only, he wanted more than just a drive by family. If only this would be permanent.
Her appetite, suddenly fled. He'd joked before about his mom wanting a wedding, but there would be no wedding if he didn't ask her to marry him. That was obviously not in the cards. He liked having sex with her and having his kids around, but clearly that was as far as he wanted to take things.
Over the next few days, Julio was gone, back in work mode, leaving Lissa and Joan and the boys as continuing house guests in his family home. Lissa had offered to help out with the work, but Julio refused. Telling her to take a break, to relax and enjoy all his relatives. He insisted that he had everything under control.
The days were full, as everyone of Julio's numerous relatives stopped by to visit and meet the new additions to the family. They went on outings into the city, spent hours in the kitchen learning how to cook, and went shopping. Julio's mother, had a big surprise. One afternoon at Senora Torres's insistence, Lissa and the two aunts helped her push the three strollers through the business district of the old city. It was stunning, and it was also nice for each of her boys to have a stroller of their own.
To date in their young lives, the triplets had gone on their outings in chariots of a different nature. With only Auntie Joan and momma Lissa to take them for the rare stroll's around Central Park in New York, they'd determined from the get-go, that with only two sets of hands – three strollers would be impossible. Lissa had no interest in putting the lives of three baby boys at risk by stuffing them into one of those ungainly triplet's stroller contraptions.
As they strolled up the ancient cobbled streets of the Plaza Dominica, attracting curious looks and smiles from everyone they passed, Ryland began to fuss. She wondered if that was because he'd never once had a stroller all to himself. Ryland, was in no hurry to get anywhere. He had the most laid back personality of any of her boys. But, he didn't like being alone, ever.
When they'd first stated going on outings in the double and single strollers, Joan thought it would be a good plan to mix up, who got to ride shotgun and who got to be in front, and also who got a stroller all their own. But, it became quickly apparent, that Ryland was only happy in one spot, the spot in the back of the double stroller. Marco didn't care which stroller he was in, provided he was in the front. He was the most eager of her baby boys, the most competitive, the most likely to walk first. But, since Hunter was a squirmer and his fussing eventually got on Marco's last nerve, they'd adopted a consistent pattern. Marco in the lead in the double stroller with Rlyand in back, and Hunter in the single stroller, where he could squirm to his hearts delight.
But, here on the Plaza Dominica, Ryland was fussy because he was facing the world without one of his brothers close at hand.
"Let's go in here," Senora Torres said, and she pointed to a tiny tailor's shop with beautiful men's and women's suits in the window.