Crying wakes me from the nap I had been taking. My eyes automatically blink open, the sun shining light throughout the room. The clock on the nightstand tells me that it is a few minutes shy of two in the afternoon. I had come up here over three hours ago, so the crying from the living room makes sense. The boys are probably starving.
Sure enough, the door to the bedroom is being cracked open, the crying getting louder. Ollie looks sheepish as he looks at me, both boys laying on his chest.
"Sorry to wake you, love, but I think the Ezra and Ellery are hungry." He walks over to the bed, carefully climbing up next to me. "You know how they refuse the bottle."
"So stubborn," I say, words coming out raspy from sleep. Grabbing the handy pillow that Virginia had bought us, I get it situated. Once I'm ready, Ollie set the boys down.
Ellery is crying his little heart out, eyes scrunched in his wailing. Ezra is just letting out little whimpers, gnawing on his fingers. It takes a bit of maneuvering, but eventually, both boys are latched, the room suddenly quiet. Ellery is still having some trouble with his latch, despite being a month old, and I have to pull his bottom lip a bit, making it more comfortable for both of us.
"Can you hand me my water, please?"
Ollie nods his head, leaning over to grab my water bottle. "How was your nap?"
Finishing off the bottle, I set it down on the bed. "Great. Thanks for taking care of them, love."
Ollie just rolls his eyes. "I'm their Opa. It's no problem for me to watch them on my own while you take a nap." His fingers brush over Ellery's head, causing the baby to whine, before moving to do the same to Ezra, who is already dozing. "But, it is nice to have help." He looks up at me then. "I wish I could stay home longer."
"You're not going back until November, Ollie. That's six months. By then, I can bring the boys with me to the coffee shop, so don't be making yourself feel guilty for having to go back to work."
He sighs. "I know, I know. I just don't want you to feel overwhelmed."
With my free hand, I tangle my fingers in his hair, pulling him down to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "It's bound to happen sometime, to both of us, especially with two babies. But we'll be fine. Our main stressor is gone, anyway."
Predictably, Ollie tenses at the mere mention of Aaron. "His court date is coming up."
"Do you want to go?"
His eyes meet mine. "No. Do you?"
Smiling, I look down at my babies. "No. I don't ever want to see him again. I just want to enjoy my family."
Ollie is smiling too. "Me too, love." He leans back against the headboard. "Besides, the police already got our statements, and Nico says that the case is pretty cut and dry. They won't need us to come speak at court."
"Good."
We are both silent for a while, the only sounds being Ezra and Ellery as they eat. They are both so different already, it astounds me. Ellery is so particular, only falling asleep when laid on your chest, and only eating small bits at a time. Despite being a month old, his hair is already wild, curling around his ears. His eyes are still the newborn blue, but they seem to be lightening.
Ezra, however, is a rather calm baby, going with the flow. Sometimes, we even have to wake him up to eat, since he will sleep for long periods of time. His hair is much thinner than his brothers, meaning that it most likely will be straight when he gets older.
My love for them is overwhelming, and I find my heart skipping a beat whenever I look at them. They are just so perfect. Despite refusing their bottles and waking us up at all hours, I am ever grateful that I get to be their Oma.
"What do you think is going to happen to Oma?"
Ollie's eyes are soft as he looks over at me, and I know he can see the hurt that I am trying to hide. "They cut a deal with her, in order to get more information about Aaron. She got two months in the women's prison a few towns over, instead of a year."
"I still can't believe she sided with him, even after he killed Janette. Nico is still in shock, but he was always closer to her than I was."
"She was too stuck on her ideals." He shakes his head. "Couldn't move past what she was taught, the culture she grew up in. At least your Ama has come around."
"Yeah," I whisper, hands rubbing along Ezra's and Ellery's backs. They are both fast asleep now, but I know better than to try and unlatch them. I'll have to give it another five minutes at least. "She's coming to brunch tomorrow at Virginia's. They've been getting along quite well."
Ollie chuckles. "Yeah, they've been pretty close. I think they are bonding over the loss of spouse."
"That's terrifying."
"You're telling me."
Carefully, I unlatch both of the boys, handing Ezra over to Ollie to burp. He just sleeps through the whole ordeal, waking briefly as he burps before quickly falling back asleep. Ellery, however, wakes as soon as I move him. He whines, only settling when he has his nose buried in my neck.
"I'm going to put him in his crib," Ollie whispers.
"Thanks, love."
Once Ollie closes the door quietly behind him, I look down at Ellery, whose eyes are half closed. He is stubborn when it comes to sleeping, not giving in easily. Reaching into the basket on the side of the bed, I grab a clean swaddle. The little boy whines as I swaddle him, but settles once I have the last piece tucked in.
"You're gonna be a handful, love, aren't you?"
Ellery just blinks up at me, taking the pacifier when I slip it between his lips. The little boy has me smiling, picking him up and holding him close as he finally falls back asleep.
*****
"Oh, let me see my boys!" Virginia takes both the car seats from Ollie as soon as we step into the house. "I missed them so much."
Ollie is instantly rolling his eyes but allows her to take the babies from him. It would be impossible to stop her anyway. "You just saw them on Thursday."
She just shakes her head, easily getting Ellery out of his car seat before doing the same to Ezra. "Too long."
Ama comes from the kitchen, a fond smile on her face. "Now that she's got them, I won't be able to hold them for at least another hour."
"Now don't get ahead of yourself, Deanna." Virginia has both boys tucked against her chest, already walking towards the back door. "You're lucky if I let you hold them before the end of the night."
Ama just rolls his eyes as Ollie wraps his arm around my waist, guiding me outside. It is so nice out here, the sun shining bright, and the wind light. The barbeque is already going, and music is playing from the speakers that Ama has hooked up out here. Nico and Maya are in the grass, Adalia crawling as fast as she can. Adira is currently enjoying a bottle while Maya holds her.
"Oh good, you made it," Nico says once we reach them. "She was going crazy waiting for you guys to get here. Got some more things for the boys and even got some clothes for Adira, even though we have plenty."
"She likes giving. It's impossible to get her to stop." Ollie scoops up Adalia as she moves to eat a ladybug she found in the grass. The baby squawks at being picked up, her little bottom lip poking out when she realizes that the bug got away.
"Hm, well hopefully she will be giving me those babies to hold sometime soon," Maya says, setting down the empty bottle and giving Adira to me before I can start making grabby hands.
"Not likely," I murmur, pressing kisses onto the little baby's cheeks. "I don't even know if she will give them to me when they get hungry."
That has them chuckling, and the conversation turns to how all the babies are doing. It is nice to have these regular family meals, everyone getting together once a week. It makes it easy to keep up and to not feel as if you are missing out.
Eventually, Virginia lets everyone hold the boys, but takes them back as soon as I am done nursing them. Her love for them just has me smiling. Our family may be different, but it's ours. We made it here, through the ups and downs, Aaron almost managing to ruin everything.
But Ollie and I made it, against all the odds.
And I couldn't be happier.
*****
Thank you, everyone, for reading! This is the end of the story and I want to say thank you so much to everyone for reading and commenting. It means so much to know that others are enjoying the stories I right.
Just in case anyone was curious, this story is around 60,000 words, and 200 pages. Thanks for sticking by through it all!