Dr. Illias laughs. “Stop jumping to conclusions, everything is fine, in fact it’s perfect.”
I shake my head. “Something’s off about it. You’re lying. Tell us like it is.”
“No,” she laughs again. “I’m serious. This is a beautiful ultrasound.” She points at the screen. “See there, that’s baby number one, and there is baby number two.”
Silence.
I look at Nova, she looks at me, and then we both look at the doctor.
“Excuse me,” I start, clearing my throat, “what do you mean, baby number one and baby number two?”
She looks at me completely amused. “Exactly what it sounds like—you’re having twins.”
“Oh, my God.” Nova bursts into tears and I have no idea whether they’re happy or sad. All I feel is shock.
Two babies?
Twins.
She has to be lying. There’s no way.
“There’s no way,” I voice. “You’re lying.”
She shakes her head. “No, look here.” She points again. “That’s definitely two babies, and from the looks of it, they’re going to be identical. It’s far too soon to know if they’re boys or girls.”
The family of three we dreamed to be and quickly lost, is now going to be a family of five—because there’s no fucking way we can leave out Beckett.
Nova sniffles and I turn my attention to her. “Are you okay? What are you thinking?” I ask her.
She reaches up and wipes her tears away. “I’m not going to lie, the thought of twins is scary, but I’m really, really, really happy.”
I lean over her and kiss her. When I sit back down, I tell her, “I’m scared too, but this … this feels like we’ve been given a gift.”
“I’ll print off some photos for you guys to keep,” Dr. Illias says.
I stare at the screen a bit more, at those two little life forms that are barely more than blobs, but are made up of pieces of us.
Twins.
Two babies.
What are the chances? Identical twins. Fuck. We’re going to have our hands full. But we’ve made it this far, so twins should be a piece of cake.
I hope.
“Here you go.” Dr. Illias hands me the ultrasound photos and finishes up. “We’ll be monitoring you closely this time around, not only because it’s twins, but we don’t want what happened last time to happen again if we can prevent it. If either of you have any worries please call me. I’m here for you and I want this to be a good experience, because that’s what it should be.”
Nova nods. “Thank you, that means a lot.”
We never knew the exact cause for Beckett passing away, all his tests came back normal, so this goes a long way to making me feel better, and I’m sure it does Nova too.
Dr. Illias gives us one last smile before ducking out the door.
Nova doesn’t move, I’m not sure she’s even breathing.
I reach up and brush her hair off her forehead, the gesture causing her to turn her head toward me.
“Are you okay?” I ask.