Burn Us Down

Moving his thumb over the screen of his phone, Gerard dialled Alex’s familiar number before he sandwiched the phone between his ear and shoulder, allowing him to take a sip form the lukewarm coffee that sat in his other hand. He had been making calls for hours. Olivia’s waters had broken the previous evening when they’d just about been heading to bed, and whilst the twins had yet to arrive, he had spent time trying to get a hold of their families to let them knew, something which had proved to be unsuccessful.

He knew that they were unlikely to answer. By the time that he and Olivia had arrived at the hospital and been admitted, it had been a little after one in the morning, but still he dialled the numbers, a little desperate for the distraction. He had tried sitting next to Olivia. He had given her his hand to squeeze, and tried to be as reassuring as he could, but the combination of being in hospital, which Olivia had never liked, and the pain had caused her to send him outside and had left him unsure of whether or not he could go back inside.

He knew that they were still a little away from the moment the babies came along. Whenever Olivia’s midwife ducked in and out of the room, he made sure to check that he hadn’t missed the moment that the babies were born, but still he sat out in the corridor, waiting for an invitation that he was pretty certain wouldn’t come until the very last minute. He hadn’t been entirely surprised by the request. He knew how she felt about hospitals and he knew that his proximity had probably contributed to her becoming overwhelmed, but it didn’t lessen the sting. He had wanted to be there for every single second, but he knew that if he had stayed, he would have only stressed her out more, something he didn’t want to do whilst she was in the process of pushing their children into the world.

Letting out a soft sigh, he listened to Alex’s phone flick over to voicemail before he slipped his phone away from his ear, stuffing it back into his pocket. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes for a few seconds before he heard the door open, something which caused him to whip his head up.

Olivia’s smile was tearful when his eyes reached her face. “Did you go and get coffee?” she asked.

Gerard blinked a couple of times, glancing down at the cup in his hand, before he breathed out a soft laugh. “Your midwife took pity on me” he replied “She bought me this a while ago. It’s awful, but I appreciated the gesture” he added.

Olivia grimaced, mostly out of pain as another contraction passed, but a little out of embarrassment. “I’m sorry I freaked out” she murmured.

Gerard shrugged, smiling up at her reassuringly. “I was being annoying” he quipped.

“You were trying to be comforting” Olivia replied “And I acted ridiculously, sending you out here. I just…it was all a little much and I needed someone to back off, and you weren’t the one offering me pain meds” she added, the faintest hint of a playful smile quirking up the corner of her mouth.

Gerard laughed, but didn’t say anything, allowing a moment of silence to hang between the two of them before Olivia stuck a hand out ahead of herself. “Come on” she said gently “We’re getting pretty close now and I’d really like you in there with me when the time comes” she added, smiling at him shyly.

Gerard couldn’t have stood up any quicker than he did. He moved to quickly, he almost tripped, but he did spill the coffee onto the floor, earning a scornful look from a nurse who wandered past the two of them, calling for a janitor.

Olivia laughed, making Gerard laughed gently too, before she wrapped her hand around his, guiding him back into the room.

~#~
Pressing the reject button on his phone, Gerard stuffed it back into his pocket with one hand, his other arm gently wrapped around the baby who laid against his bare chest, her sleepy blue eyes blinking as she tried to stay awake. She was the youngest. Fifteen minutes after her older sister, the younger had arrived, and Gerard still couldn’t quite believe that he was holding her, or that he was looking at her older sister who had barely spent more than a couple of minutes away from Olivia’s chest since she had arrived half an hour previous. He adored them. He had always known that he would, but the reality of it was overwhelming.

Watching the baby drift off, he quirked another smile down at her before he leant over, touching a tentative kiss to the top of her head.

“Who was it this time?”

Gerard looked over towards Olivia, his eyes first checking on the baby that she still cradled in her arms before they reached her face, something which caused her sleepy smile to widen ever so slightly. “Huh?” he asked.

“You rejected a call” Olivia clarified “My papa or yours?” she asked.

“Mine” Gerard replied “I will call him back, just not…”

“Not right now” Olivia finished for him.

Gerard nodded his head gently, his eyes gravitating back towards the baby who was sleeping against him. “I don’t want everyone to worry” he mused “They’d have woken up to so many missed calls, but I just know that as soon as they call them, they’re going to start showing up and whilst I can’t wait to show off how…how amazing they are, I don’t want that right now. I’ll call them later, once you’ve gotten some sleep and they’ve been properly checked over. Maybe even once we’ve come up with something to call them” he added.

Olivia shook her head, reaching a hand out of the bed so that she could smooth back his messy hair. “We don’t have to do that right away” she mused “For now we can just call them Mendes and Piqué” she added, pointing first to the baby she held and then to the one who looked so content in her father’s arms.

Gerard gently pulled her hand away from his hair, pressing a soft kiss against her palm. “I love you” he whispered, looking up at her.

Olivia’s eyes clouded over with tears, something which caused Gerard to kiss her hand again, smiling softly against her skin. “I love you too” she replied softly.

Gerard pressed a final kiss to her palm before he moved his hand back towards the baby, carefully settling it against her back as he cuddled her close.

Olivia couldn’t have stopped watching them, even if she had wanted to. Since the babies had arrived, her eyes had continuously flitted between the baby in her arms and the one who was in Gerard’s arms, and she couldn’t stop herself from marvelling at them, and at Gerard who had been so careful with the two of them. He was in awe of them, he couldn’t believe that they were finally there, and Olivia couldn’t either. She couldn’t believe that a year that had been so rough had ended with something so wonderful.