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Iris could have sworn her head had just touched the pillow. There was no way he was hungry again. No. No way. But then Dawn started screaming also and Barry jumped awake by her side.
“No! no, no no no no!” she complained, “it’s your turn, I can’t do this, can’t do this anymore!”
“What?” Barry asked, his brows furrowing in confusion like he couldn’t understand the words out of her lips.
Having a baby was difficult, having twins was impossible, and she was done with it! She wanted one night of sleep, she wanted to not be source of food for one night.
“They are crying, and it’s your turn,” she explained to him and Barry’s eyes focused on that.
“I can’t feed them,” he said like her suggestion had actually been serious.
“Well, they are your kids” she informed him, but he was already up and out through their bedroom door before she had time to form another sentence.
Barry came back holding a screaming baby in each arm.
Every time they screamed, Iris tried to remind herself that meant they had good lungs, and tried to focus on the good. Sometimes she wished their lungs weren’t that good, but then that passed pretty quickly.
Barry handed Don to her, after she had fluffed a pillow to support her back, and his little hands came to her boobs immediately, nuzzling into her skin, searching, and Iris told him;
“If you weren’t so cute you would be in big trouble, mister.”
His little sobs died down as he was suddenly otherwise occupied and Barry swayed Dawn, who was still crying, singing softly something out of tune, around the room.
He looked beat. Barry that was. She had actually never seen him look so tired in her life. Not even during those weeks after his mom died and he couldn’t sleep by himself and twisted around the bed the whole night when he had Iris by his side. Not even when Zoom was at loose, not ever.
When Dawn calmed down a little, Barry sat by Iris’s side, still making soothing sounds, moving the finger his daughter had a grip on slowly back and forth, trying to keep her distracted.
The twins had just started grabbing their fingers and it was such a satisfying feeling, to have them grabbing her somewhere not by the nipples.
When Don was back in a deep slumber, they switched babies and with Dawn occupied in feeding and Don sleeping away in Barry’s arms, there was some quiet again.
“Sometimes I think I won’t ever hear silence again in my life,” Barry told her, echoing her thoughts.
“I’m pretty sure hell is a bunch of babies screaming,” Iris pointed out.
“I’m with you there,” he agreed, but there was a sweet smile on his lips as he look down at Don.
Then his fingers brushed the knuckles of her free-of-babies hand and he brought her hand to his lips, kissing it softly and offered;
“Sorry I can’t feed.”
“I blame mother nature,” Iris told him, “she can be a bitch.”
“Sure can,” he nodded.
“Don’t let me fall asleep,” Iris asked, her eyes heavy, closing against her will.
“I won’t,” Barry promised her, and maybe it was the lack of sleep, but she believed him.