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Kate was thirty weeks pregnant when it happened; having spent the past month or so on enforced leave, she was beginning to want to pull her hair out. The doctors had told her that she wasn’t putting on enough weight to be carrying twins and that any undue stress wouldn’t be helping the matter. She had pleaded with Ted, saying that she would be fine to keep working until her due date, and had even tried bringing work home with her at one point but the Gaffer was firm in his ruling and took the doctor’s advice suggesting that she should be staying at home to rest. Getting rest was all well and good, but Kate was beginning to get frustrated with the fact that she was still struggling to put on any weight, and that it was beginning to make her feel nauseous and dehydrated all the time. Of course Steve, despite insisting that he was completely relaxed about the whole situation, was constantly hovering over her like a mother hen, making sure that she always had a glass of water to hand, and that she was eating enough despite her nausea. It was quite endearing to start with, and Kate was never going to say no to a helping hand around the house, but after a week or so of her being on enforced leave, she was close to committing a murder.
It was a lazy Saturday night for the members of their household; Josh was over for the weekend, and both he and Livvi were in bed. Steve was also sound asleep, but Kate just wasn’t able to get comfortable. She had been feeling cramps in her lower abdomen all afternoon, but had dismissed them as brixton-hicks contractions (she had experienced them with both Josh and Livvi, so it would make sense that she was feeling them again with these babies). Despite reassuring herself that there was nothing to worry about, nausea washed over her in waves, and before long she found herself rushing from the room she shared with her husband to the bathroom, where she promptly emptied the contents of her stomach. Sighing and leaning against the cool wall, she tried to regain her composure; she couldn’t wait to treat herself to a cool glass of water before heading back to bed. That, however, didn’t seem to be on the cards as she felt a sudden popping sensation, followed by liquid running down her legs. ‘Shit,’ she stammered, cursing at herself for not turning the bathroom light on. ‘Steve?’ she called out, trying not to wake any of the kids up. When she didn’t get a response, she tried again but with a slight hint of fear in her voice. ‘Steve!’
Unfortunately for her, it was Josh who heard her calling, and he gently opened the bathroom door before turning the light on. ‘Are you alright mum…’ he trailed off, his eyes widening in shock when he noticed the puddle by her feet. ‘Have you wet yourself?’ he asked, sounding a little disgusted. Kate looked down at her feet and sighed, but she paled slightly when she noticed that she was also bleeding. ‘I haven’t Josh,’ she said as calmly as she could, though she was shaking slightly as this point. ‘I need you to go and get Steve for me please mate…’ she looked up at her son with an attempt at a calm smile. ‘And then I need you to call Ted and ask if he can come over to look after you and Liv, please. Tell him that the babies are coming.’ Josh didn’t waste any time upon hearing that, and minutes later Steve was rushing into the room, looking panicked. ‘You’re not full term yet,’ he babbled as he tried to wake up, but his wife shushed him. ‘Where’s Josh?’ she asked, only for her husband to tell her that he was making a phone call to Hastings as they spoke. ‘I’m bleeding, Steve,’ she whispered in an attempt not to let the little boy overhear.
Steve paled at the sentence, trying not to think about the possible risks, and began to help his wife get ready to go to the hospital. The pair of them had just finished getting changed when there was a knock at the front door and Ted Hastings entered, still wearing his pyjamas. ‘Are you alright, lass?’ he asked, looking concerned. Kate felt a familiar wave of pain wash over her and grimaced before taking a seat on the sofa, unable to formulate a response. Steve took the opportunity to fill their boss in on what was going on and bid him and Josh goodnight before helping Kate into the car and heading off to the hospital. ‘I forgot how much I hated this bit,’ she bit out as she breathed heavily through a wave of pain. Her husband nodded and placed a gentle hand on her knee as he kept driving. ‘We’ll be there before you know it,’ he said, more to soothe himself than anyone else. ‘And then they can check you over to make sure that everything’s okay.’ The couple sat in an uneasy silence for the rest of the journey, with Kate trying not to think about how early the babies were, or the blood that she was pretty sure was still seeping through her leggings onto the carrier bag she had insisted they put down.
Upon arriving at the hospital, she was admitted straight away and within half an hour, Kate was hooked up to various drips and other machines that beeped away. Steve, completely new to this situation, was trying to keep calm as he sat next to his wife. ‘Good evening!’ came the cheerful voice of Maggie, who was once again their midwife. ‘I hear you’ve been brought in about ten weeks early, Kate, so I’m just going to give you and the babies a quick check over now that you’re admitted.’ She wasted no time squirting gel onto Kate’s stomach and using the familiar ultrasound machine to look at the babies. ‘Well,’ she said after a few minutes of looking. ‘The good news is that they’re both ready to be born…’ Maggie trailed off as she turned the screen around to show the couple. ‘Both babies have turned over and are in the correct position to be born, it’s just a matter of us trying to bring them into the world as safely as possible now!’ Steve couldn’t help but note the slight worried undertone to the midwife’s voice as she carefully wiped the gel off of his wife’s stomach. ‘I’m just going to give you a quick check to see how dilated you are,’ Kate groaned at this as a stronger wave of pain came over her. She had been looking queasy and pale for a while now, much to Steve’s concern.
‘At least I’ve got gas and air this time,’ she warbled tiredly, the urge to sleep off the nausea and pain taking over now that she was drugged up. ‘Kate!’ Steve stated, alerting Maggie to what was going on. ‘Ah,’ she said, rushing to the other end and checking to make sure that Kate was okay. ‘I believe she’s just passed out from exhaustion,’ she came to the conclusion. ‘It’s her body’s way of trying to fight off any pain that she’s feeling now that she’s drugged up. She should be waking up any minute, but I’ll get someone to find her a face mask that’ll provide her with oxygen and any pain relief we can provide throughout her contractions.’ Steve nodded, grasping at his wife’s hand. ‘But she’ll be okay?’ he asked, and if he’d been any more self aware he would have cringed at how desperate he sounded. Maggie’s brow furrowed at the question. ‘She’s here ten weeks early, Steve,’ she said, trying to be as realistic as possible whilst also being kind. ‘She was also bleeding, which isn’t unusual for a premature birth, but we’ve got to be careful to make sure that she and the babies are safe.’ Upon realising that what she said had done nothing to settle Steve, she placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘We’ll do everything that we can. I promise that she’s in good hands, okay?’ With that, Maggie left the room only to have a nurse come in and place a mask over Kate’s nose a mouth minutes later.
About fifteen minutes passed of Steve anxiously waiting for his wife to wake up before she began to stir. ‘Steve?’ she croaked, taking in her surroundings; she was vaguely aware of the mask she was now wearing, and what she assumed her pain killers being pumped through her body. ‘Hiya, mate,’ he greeted, stroking her hand gently, careful not to knock the catheter that had been placed there. ‘I bet this makes a change from an OCG hangout, hey?’ Kate let out a small chuckle, though she was clearly spaced out from the drugs she had been given as her eyes failed to focus on anything in the room. Her face crumpled and she groaned as the pain returned, her eyes beginning to water and the familiar nausea washing over her once more. ‘Bowl,’ she managed to stammer out before yanking her face mask off; luckily there was one near by, and Steve held it out for her and gently stroked her hair back as she retched. ‘You’re okay, Kate,’ he whispered soothingly as he pressed a gentle kiss against her hair. ‘You’re going to be okay.’ The woman in question was clearly distressed, and groaned as the pain continued. ‘What did the midwife have to say?’ she asked after a minute or two of panting, trying not to let on just how uncomfortable she was. Steve responded by carefully placing the face mask back over her mouth and nose.
‘At this point, mate,’ he thought about how he was going to respond to her. ‘They’re just concerned about keeping you and the babies as safe as possible.’ As if by magic, Maggie returned at that moment with a clip board under her arm. ‘You’re awake, Kate, that’s good to see,’ she said cheerfully as she glanced over her notes. ‘So it looks as though you’re about six centimetres dilated at the minute, which is always good to see,’ Kate nodded along with the notes, gripping Steve’s hand as she took deep breathes. ‘Unfortunately we won’t be able to give you any stronger pain relief because you were bleeding when you came into us…’ tears filled Kate’s eyes again as she tried not to think of the amount of pain she had been in when Olivia was born. ‘It would also appear that both you and the babies are still quite underweight, however that’s not a reason to be worried for the minute. For now all we need to worry about is making sure you’re as comfortable as possible!’ The woman in question pulled her mask off once more before being sick again in the bowl being held by her husband. ‘You are far too cheerful for three o’clock in the morning,’ she commented, making the midwife chuckle as she did her final checks and took her leave.
Once Maggie was gone, Kate slumped back into the bed once more, her eyes filling with fresh tears. ‘What’s wrong?’ Steve asked, immediately concerned. His wife fiddled with the mask, making sure it was back over her face before she tried to get a response out. ‘I’m underweight, and so are the babies,’ she cried, clearly delirious from the amount of pain medication that was being pumped through her. ‘What if something goes wrong? What if they’re too small, Steve? I can’t loose these babies.’ By this point she was sobbing and her husband stood from his chair before taking a seat on the bed and pulling her into a hug. ‘You heard Maggie,’ he soothed quietly. ‘They’re going to as much as they can for the babies, yeah?’ Kate nodded, and he wiped the tears from her cheeks gently. ‘And you and me are going to be fine, aren’t we?’ he continued, trying to find a positive angle for all of this. ‘We’ve got each other and our wonderful little family which is going to be a bit bigger soon.’ His wife nodded once more, calming down momentarily before she let out a low groan and began to pant heavily. Once the most recent wave of pain had passed, she relaxed and her eyes began to droop. ‘Sleepy…’ she mumbled, still holding onto her husband. Steve shifted so that he was sat fully on the bed, allowing her to curl into his side and use his chest as a pillow. ‘You get some sleep, mate,’ he said with a fond smile. ‘I’ll be here when you wake up, yeah?’
Kate woke up an hour or so later, still drugged up to the nines and feeling restless so she and her husband decided that they would try doing small laps of the room she was in. Ted called not long after she was tucked back into bed despite it being early in the morning, wanting to know any updates. ‘How’s everything going?’ he asked, trying not to sound too concerned. Kate went to answer, but was cut off as her face crumpled in pain once more. Steve rubbed soothing circles into her back, trying to keep her calm as he spoke to their boss. ‘We’re nearly at the point where things are going to moving quite quickly, but for now we’re just taking it one step at a time,’ he replied, ignoring Kate rolling her eyes. ‘I think you mean I’m taking it one step at a bloody time,’ she said bitterly, though there was a tone of humour in her voice. The pair could hear Ted chuckling down the phone at the couple’s antics; hearing Kate’s sarky response reassured him that Kate was okay, at least for now. ‘Keep me updated, the pair of you,’ he said. ‘I won’t have either of you going radio silent on me at a time like this!’ Steve and Kate smiled at one another before saying their goodbyes to their boss. ‘I honestly don’t know what we’d do without the Gaffer,’ Kate said as she propped herself up on her elbows. Steve simply nodded; the older man had become a father-like figure and mentor to them both over the years.
The young couple were snapped out of their thoughts by Maggie walking into the room once more. ‘How’re you both?’ she asked cheerfully as she pulled on her gloves to examine Kate for what felt like the millionth time that evening. ‘Knackered… uncomfortable,’ came a sarky response from the woman on the bed, making the midwife smile sympathetically. ‘Well…’ she trailed off after doing her checkup and making a couple of notes on the clip board. ‘You’re pretty much ready to go, Kate so it shouldn’t be too long now!’ anything else she was planning on saying never happened as the woman in question suddenly gripped Steve’s hand and let out a loud groan. ‘We’re never doing this again after this time, so don’t get your hopes up,’ she snapped, and Steve nodded, slightly scared of his wife. Maggie let out a light laugh at the interaction as she left the room once more to go and grab some water for Kate. She was only gone for ten minutes or so, but was in that ten minutes that suddenly everything began to move a lot quicker; Kate started complaining about something feeling different, and a nurse was called in. Before either member of the couple of knew what was going on, she was surrounded by Maggie, Steve and another nurse.
Forty minutes and a lot of yelling (mostly at Steve) later, and a the first baby was born; he cried and cried and cried, much to the relief of everyone in the room. ‘I think this little one just wants his mum,’ Maggie commented with a proud smile as she handed him over to Kate. Both her and Steve were in tears as they cooed over the baby. The joy was shortly lived as before long the baby was being passed to a nurse, and Kate was back in action. The second baby was born small… scarily small, and the room was silent. ‘You’ve got a little girl, Kate,’ Maggie stated, trying to stay optimistic as she looked after the baby. ‘Why isn’t she crying?’ the woman in question asked, tired and steadily growing more frantic. ‘Steve, why isn’t she crying?’ Her husband stood in front of her holding her close and whispering soothing words into her ear as he blocked the view of Maggie and the nurse working. The room was silent for a couple of minutes, each second feeling agonisingly long for the couple before a sudden shrill cry filled the room. ‘There we go!’ Maggie smiled widely as she cradled the tiny baby. She walked over to the couple and carefully handed her over to Kate, who had fresh tears streaming down her cheeks.
‘She’s so tiny,’ she stated. ‘Will she be alright?’ the midwife nodded and smiled at woman. ‘Now that she’s up and screaming, she should be okay but we’ll keep her in an incubator tonight and re-asses the situation in the morning.’ Both Kate and Steve nodded at this information, both thankful that both of the babies seemed to be okay. After being cleaned up, the couple were left alone with the two babies, each of them holding one, unable to keep the smiles off of their faces. ‘I’m so proud of you,’ Steve said as he kissed his wife. ‘Two more babies… we should probably pick names for them.’ Kate let out a small snort of laughter and nodded, cooing over the little boy in her arms. He let out a small yawn as he slept, his hand wrapped around one of her fingers. ‘I like the name that Josh suggested for this little guy,’ she stated, looking up at her husband, who nodded with a smile. ‘I have a suggestion for this little one,’ he said with a smile. The pair of them sat and discussed names for a little while longer before it was decided. Baby one would be called Theo, and baby two would be called Esme. Before long, the couple grew tired and went about placing the babies down for the rest of the night. Steve had texted Ted telling what had happened and their boss had replied swiftly saying that he’d bring the children up in the morning. He had been planning on sleeping in the chair next to Kate’s bed so that she had enough space to relax but she quickly shut down the suggestion, shuffling over so that her husband could join her. The pair were soon sound asleep, holding each other close.
The following morning, Steve woke up to the sounds of Livvi trying (and failing) to whisper to Ted. ‘But grampy Ted, that baby is so tiny!’ He chuckled as he sat up, carefully untangling himself from Kate’s embrace. ‘That’s your little sister, Livvi,’ he whispered, trying not to wake up his wife. The little girl’s eyes widened and she grinned before turning to Josh. ‘I told you the baby was going to be a girl,’ she said matter of factly, having clearly forgotten that there was also a second baby in the room. Her brother rolled his eyes before going over to the other cot in the room. ‘What about this baby, Steve?’ he asked as the man in question clambered out of bed and walked over to the babies. ‘This,’ he said. ‘Is your little brother.’ Josh grinned at this and gently stuck his finger into the cot to see if the baby would grab it. ‘What are their names?’ he asked, but Steve shook his head. ‘I’m not going to tell you until your mum’s awake, mate,’ he said, much to the disdain of both of the older children in the room. Chuckling, he then turned to Hastings, who had a smile on his face. ‘Congratulations, son,’ he said as he wrapped the younger man in a brief hug. Steve nodded, a look of pride across his features as he looked between the babies and his wife.
‘It was a long night, and she had a rough go of it but everyone’s safe, so it all ended up okay in the end,’ he was beaming at his chaotic little family, though he supposed they could hardly be classed as little anymore. The attention of both the men was snapped away when Olivia tripped over the foot of Kate’s bed, jolting the woman awake. ‘And then there were… many people here,’ she commented sarcastically, but opened up her arms for Josh and Livvi to give her a cuddle. Both children complied, saying good morning to their mum. ‘Daddy wouldn’t tell us the babies names!’ Livvi whined, pulling her award winning puppy dog eyes, which made Kate laugh. ‘I suppose you want to know then?’ she asked as she sat up. Steve took the opportunity pick up the smaller of the two babies, handing Esme over to his wife before going to pick up Theo. ‘This,’ she started as Livvi climbed up onto the bed. ‘Is Esme, and you little brother is called Theo.’ Josh’s eyes widened as he recognised the name he had picked, and a smile formed on his face. ‘Esme is quite a tiny baby so we’ve got to take extra special care of her,’ Steve went onto say, capturing the attention of both older children. ‘But if you’re careful, would you like to hold them both? Josh and Livvi both nodded excitedly and before long, Josh was sat next to his mum in bed cradling Esme whilst Livvi sat on Ted’s lap in the chair next to the bed and was shown how to hold Theo.
Kate was still exhausted from a lack of sleep amongst other things, and so Ted made a point of not staying too long with the children. ‘You get some more sleep, lass,’ he commented with a smile as Olivia and Josh got ready to go back home. ‘We’ll see you later this afternoon once you’re let out.’ Before long, he and the kids were gone, leaving Steve and Kate alone once more. ‘You look knackered too, mate,’ she said, making her husband laugh. He slumped down in the chair next to the bed with a giddy yet exhausted smile on his face. ‘I’m not gonna lie to you, I could do with a bit of extra kip,’ he commented as he let out a yawn. The couple both dozed off feeling content and happy. Despite the struggles they had gone through, their family had kept them going and the fact that it was getting larger was only a good thing.