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Dana’s face is the first face Mel sees when she’s able to peel her eyes open; kind, warm eyes staring down at her, tear tracks on her cheeks and a weak smile settling into place.
“There you are,” Dana whispers and Mel feels her fingers brush across her forehead, presumably tidying up her unruly flyaways.
Mel swallows thickly, the action feeling like sandpaper is being dragged down her throat, but she just winces.
“What—where are—”
Dana cuts her off with a shake of her head.
“There was an accident, sweetie,” Dana explains calmly. “You got hit by a drunk driver who blew through his stop sign. Tanner and Millie are okay, there wasn’t much damage done to the back of the car. McKay is sitting with them ‘til Frank and Abby can get here.”
She tries to nod but a pain shoots through her neck and down her spine. She winces and Dana’s eyes flick up to someone across from her, on the other side of Mel. Her lips are moving but Mel can’t hear a thing. It’s all muffled. Like her ears are full of cotton. She reaches a hand out for Dana, the IV taped to the back of her hand giving only a little as her fingers wrap around the hem of Dana’s jacket.
Dana drops her gaze back down, one hand coming up to gently cover Mel's. She tries for another smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“B-babies?” Mel croaks out and she feels the tears springing forward.
Something flickers across Dana’s face, her nose scrunching for less than a second before it settles and she nods.
“You went into labour while you were being brought in, sweetheart.” Dana gives her hand a gentle squeeze. “The stress of it all brought them along a lot faster. Mel, honey, they had to do an emergency c-section cause they weren’t getting a heartbeat from either one.”
She hears the heart monitor spike before she even feels her heart beating faster against the confines of her ribcage. Her babies. Her and Frank's babies. Her own flesh and blood. They can’t—not yet—she hasn’t even—
“Dana,” Mel sobs, “Dana…please…”
“It’s alright.” Dana smiles. “They’re both alright. They’ve got them up in the NICU right now and Santos hasn’t left their side for one minute. She’s taking Godmother duty very seriously if ya ask me.”
It should be a relief. She knows that it should be but she can’t help the overwhelming sense of dread that settles over her body. It’s too early. Even for twins it’s still way too early for them to be born. It’s not time. They’re not ready yet. The nursery still needs—and the bathroom—their bedroom—and Tanner and Millie aren’t even—she doesn’t—
“Mel?”
A calming voice interrupts her thoughts but her vision is so blurry that she can’t see a thing in front of her.
“Mel, baby, you’ve gotta breathe,” the voice whispers next to her ear and they’re running their fingers through her hair. “Breathe for me, baby. Please. Just breathe.”
She takes a gasping breath when his lips brush against her temple, pulling her back to reality and far away from the cliff’s edge. She still can’t see clearly through her tears but when she lifts a hand, she finds the rough collar of the denim jacket he’d thrown on that morning. He’d bought Tanner a matching one after the 7 year old had cried because he just wanted to match with his daddy.
“F-frank,” Mel gasps and she feels his hand come up to cover hers. “Y-you’re here.”
Frank lets out a huff of air—an almost laugh—against her temple. “‘course I am. There is nowhere else I’d wanna be right now, alright?”
Mel nods and her fingers grasp the collar of his jacket, tugging him closer to her even though he’s as close as he can be without being directly on top of her. She breathes in the scent of the new aftershave she’d had to buy when Millie spilled his other one, her eyes closing and a sense of calm washing over her.
“T-they took them, Frank.” Mel sobs. “They took o-our babies away.”
“I know, baby, I know.” Frank chokes out, voice thick with emotion. “But we’ve gotta get you patched up before we can go up and see them, alright?”
Mel shakes her head. “I—I need them, Frank. I need to—I need to see them.”
“Mel, sweetheart, you’ve gotta let them help you first, okay?” He grabs the hand that’s closest to him and gives it a short squeeze for reassurance. “Please…please let them help you and then I promise that we’ll go see our babies, alright? Can you do that? Can you let them help you?”
She lets out a hiccuping sob but nods, her fingers gripping onto his as tightly as she can.
“D-don’t leave,” Mel sobs. “D-don’t—”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Frank cuts her off and presses a firm, assuring kiss to the top of her head. “I’m staying right here with you, alright? I’m not going anywhere.”
Mel grips tightly to Frank’s hand as Dana pushes her wheelchair, Frank keeping pace beside them as they make their way down the pastel hall of the NICU. She takes a deep breath despite the discomfort in her abdomen from the couple of cracked ribs. It was definitely the worst of her injuries aside from the large scar held together by staples across her stomach.
“Almost there,” Frank murmurs and Mel is almost certain it’s more for his benefit than her own.
She gives his hand a squeeze and when he looks down at her, she smiles and sees some of the tension fall away.
“They’re okay, Frank,” she assures him. “They’re doing okay.”
He nods and gives her a small smile. “Yeah, I know. I do. I just—I need—”
“You need to see them for yourself,” Dana interrupts. “It’s a normal feeling. My daughter was a preemie so believe me, I get it.”
The rest of their journey is quiet until they finally reach the room at the end of the hallway, the door slightly ajar. The lights are dimmed to a soft glow and two NICU cribs are positioned in the middle of the floor, one beside the other. Mel can’t help the racing rhythm of her heart as Dana wheels her through the door, Frank’s hand squeezing hers tightly.
They stop just inside the doorway and Frank lets out a huff of laughter as their eyes land on Trinity fast asleep in the chair set up between the two cribs. She’s got one hand in each crib, her wrists resting on the opening of the portholes. Inside the two cribs, their daughters each have one little hand gripping tightly to one of Trinity’s fingers.
“They’re here,” Mel breathes out and the pressure on her chest lessens just at the sight of them.
Frank bends down to kiss the top of her head and she can feel him smiling into her hair.
“They’re here,” he repeats and kisses her head again. “They’re really here.”
Dana pushes her further into the room and stops in front of the crib labeled, “BABY KING-LANGDON A”, before she gives Mel’s shoulders a squeeze and excuses herself to give them some time alone.
Frank steps around Mel and crouches down in front of Trinity. He reaches out and places a hand on her knee, giving it a squeeze.
“Trin,” Frank says just loud enough that it has Trinity blinking awake from her probably unintended nap.
“You’re here!” Trinity smiles widely at him and then her eyes dart over to Mel behind him and Mel watches as her whole face starts to crumble. “Oh my god. You’re okay.”
She removes her hands from the portholes, careful not to disturb the newborns too much, and then surges forward to give Frank a hug. She throws her arms around his neck and his wrap around her waist, pulling her forward and squeezing. Mel’s heart swells at the love she has for all four people in the room and when Trinity moves out of Frank’s arms and over to Mel, she welcomes her with open arms.
“Don’t you ever scare us like that again,” Trinity cries against Mel’s shoulder.
Mel laughs. “I don’t plan on it. Thank you for being here for them.”
Trinity sniffles as she pulls away, wiping at her cheeks with her fingers.
“Where else would I be?” she shrugs. “They’re my little buddies, right? I’ve always got their backs.”
The next few hours proceed exactly as Mel expects them to.
Trinity remains by the twins’ sides, occupying the surely uncomfortable chair between their cribs while Frank takes up space on the small loveseat in the corner of the room. Mel chooses to remain in her wheelchair because she just knows she’ll be in too much pain if she tries to transfer over to sit next to Frank.
Coworkers and friends filter in and out of the room, expressing their love for the newest members of the PTMC family and telling Mel how happy they are that they’re all okay. She thanks each and every one of them while Frank does his best to move everyone along so Mel can try and get some rest. Dana had managed to convince Peds to move a bed into the room so mother and babies could stay together.
“They really are just perfect, aren’t they?” Dana coos, her hand inside the porthole of Baby A’s crib and softly stroking her cheek with the back of a finger.
“We like to think so, yeah,” Frank says quietly so he doesn’t disturb the sleeping child in his arms. Millie had knocked out almost as soon as she’d jumped into her fathers arms, barely even registering that her little sisters had finally arrived.
Tanner was curled up in the bed next to Mel, fast asleep with dried tears on his cheeks. He’d sobbed the whole way up to the NICU after Abby had tried to take him and Millie home with her so the others could get some rest. He didn’t want to leave until he could see Mel and the babies and once he’d set eyes on them, moving him was nearly impossible.
“I’ll come back and get them in a couple hours,” Abby tells them as she shrugs on her jacket and hooks her bag over her shoulder.
Mel smiles up at Abby from where she’s got her cheek resting against the top of Tanner's head, his dark curls tickling her nose. He’s the spitting image of his mother whereas Millie is so perfectly a combination of her two parents. Mel secretly hopes that their little girls look just like Frank but of course she knows he wants the opposite.
“Thank you for letting them stay,” Mel says, voice barely above a whisper. “After what happened today I don’t—I just want to see them for a little longer.”
Abby smiles and nods, her eyes red and cheeks blotchy from when she’d been crying alongside Tanner. “I’m really, really happy you’re all okay.”
She waves goodbye as she takes her leave and as the door clicks shut behind her, Trinity stands from her seat and stretches her arms out over her head.
“I’m gonna run home and get changed outta these scrubs. You want me to swing by your place and grab you some things?”
Mel nods. “Yes, please. That’d be wonderful. And I’ve already called Becca’s center, they’re going to let her stay there for the next few days so would you mind grabbing a change of clothes for her from the closet? You can Facetime her and she’ll tell you exactly what she wants.”
“Of course.” Trinity slips her feet back into the shoes she’d kicked off earlier. “And I can pick her up tomorrow and bring her by for a visit if you want. I’m sure she’s dying to meet her nieces.”
“That’d be…perfect, Trinity,” Mel sighs. “Thank you, so much. We really appreciate all of this. Everything you’ve done today has been…thank you.”
Trinity smiles. “You don’t have to thank me, Mel. Just name one of them after me and we’ll be even.” She yelps when Frank kicks at her leg with his foot and jumps out of the line of fire.
“For the last time, we are not naming one of them after you,” Frank teases, laughing when Trinity rolls her eyes at him. “Besides, we’ve already decided on their names.”
Both Dana and Trinity’s eyes snap towards him.
“You have?” Dana asks.
“What are they?” Trinity asks at the same time.
Frank tilts his head towards Mel with a smirk and Mel responds with one of her own, turning her gaze on Trinity and Dana.
“Baby A, is Sophia Frances for Frank’s sister.” Frank smiles sadly at her but nods gratefully. “And Baby B, is Amelia Marie for my mom.”
Dana awes while Trinity groans, “dammit. Those are really good names.”
“We should be heading out,” Dana says to Trinity, nodding her head towards the door. “You’ve got some things to grab and I’ve got my own kiddos to get home to.”
“Right!” Trinity rushes to the bed to give Mel a quick side hug and throws finger guns at Frank while turning to follow Dana out. “I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t have too much fun without me!”
When the door clicks shut, silence finally descends, save for the steady breathing of four sleeping children. Their children. And it’s absolutely perfect.