December 16th

-Pony-

After I hang up with Kate I go back to the waiting room, at this point there's really no reason for everyone to hang around, when we have absolutely no idea when and if anything is going to happen tonight. Grudgingly they all agree to go home after making me promise numerous times that I will call as soon I know something, anything. I have no doubt that Soda, Sophie and Luke would have all set in that waiting room all night with no qualms about it, none at all. Once we've said our goodbyes I go back to Ryann's room, I'm surprised to see she's actually awake. She's been in and out since we got there, "I called Kate and sent everyone else home." I tell her pulling the chair closer to the side of the bed,

"Did someone call mom?" Ry asks. I nod,

"Sophie called and your parents and Mickey are all on their way from Boston, they are going straight to Sophie's apartment." I reply, "Don't worry about anything everything is taken care of." Ryann yawns, "Why don't you try and get some more sleep? I'll be right here." She reaches out taking my hand threading her fingers through mine, I give her hand a gentle squeeze. Within a few minutes she's fallen back asleep. For the next few hours she's in and out while nurses pop in periodically to check on her, right around 6am I know something is up when the nurse takes her temperature and immediately leaves without uttering a word. Sure enough Dr. Browning comes in a few minutes later,

"So here's the deal." She starts, both Ry and I really like her. One she's a Harvard alumni, is really good friends with Sean who recommended her, and two she's very straight forward and to the point. Which both Ry and I appreciate, the first time she met us at Ry's appointment she said she won't sugar coat anything and if we don't want that then she's not the doctor for us. "Her fever isn't going away or even down enough for my liking." She pauses to study the chart in her hand, I glance at Ry who is now wide awake and listening intently, "And I hate to keep pumping you full of medication that is obviously not working. At this point I think the only option we have is to go ahead and do the c-section." She looks at both Ry and I assume looking for some sort of reaction. "My fear is if we wait it's going to put to much stress on all of you, and we don't want it to turn into an emergency. Are you both ok with this?" She asks leaning against Ry's bed,

"If that's what you think is the best, than absolutely." Ryann responds immediately.

"I agree." I add. Dr. Browning nods,
"I'll start the process of getting it set up, figure forty five minutes or so. Someone will be in with your scrubs." She says motioning towards me, "I'm sure you need to call you family, let them know if everything goes right we should have babies in about two hours."

"Thank you." Ryann says.

"Not a problem I'll see you both soon." She says as she leaves, as soon as the door is shut Ryann looks at me,

"Are you ok with this?"

"The last thing I want is for something to happen to any of you, so if this is going to prevent it then yeah I am definitely ok with it." I tell her. "Let me start calling people they'll kill me if they miss it." By the time I've called everyone that needs to be called, the nurse is back.

"You put these on over your clothes and someone will be out to get you as soon as we are ready." She says before they wheel Ry down the hall.

-Soda-

I had left the house almost as soon as Pony had called, but by the time I get back to the hospital the waiting room is full of Ry's family. The next hour crawls by no one really says anything except for an occasional comment, "Luke stop pacing you are driving me crazy." Sophie snaps at Luke who has been pacing for the last thirty minutes straight.

"How long is this supposed to take?" He asks glancing at his watch.

"The doctor said about two hours." Maddie tells him gently, she's sitting in the seat next to me and I can tell she's nervous she's been twisting a ring she's wearing around her finger since she got here. "So it should be soon." All of us turn when the doors leading to the maternity ward swing open and Pony walks out.

"Is she ok?" Sophie asks almost knocking her chair over she gets up so fast.

"Everyone is happy and healthy." he reports. Maddie who has been clenching my arm since the door opened lets out a sigh of relief, as does Mickey who is standing to my left. "It's a boy and a girl."

"I told you." Luke says. We all had our own idea of what Ry was going to have, Sophie and I both thought it was two girls while Maddie, Declan and Mickey were all leaning towards two boys.

"Can we go see her?" Maddie asks. Pony nods,

"Yeah she's out of recovery. It's room 1810 go straight down the hall take the first right and it's the third room on the left." Pony tells them. Maddie, Declan, Luke and Sophie all head down the hall. Pony sits down stretching, he's been up since yesterday morning at 7am and I don't think he's been asleep yet.

"You've got to be exhausted." I point out sitting down next to him, "I can't believe you're a dad."

"Yeah right it's kinda weird." He yawns, "And I am."

"Did y'all pick names out yet?" Pony nods,

"Charlotte Anne and Michael John." Mom had been Elizabeth Anne, we all figured whoever had a girl first would use the name Elizabeth as obviously Darry and Kate had.

"Mom would have liked that." I tell him quietly. Darry had told us in a rare moment of emotion after Ava had been born how hard it had been to have kids knowing mom and dad would never see them, and I imagine Pony is feeling that way now.

"I'd like to think so." He replies. "I should probably call Kate and let her know. You go see Ryann she was asking if you were here." I give him a hug as we both stand up, before going down the hall to see Ry and my new niece and nephew.

-Kate-

I almost jump out of my skin when phone rings right around 8am our time. Ava looks up at me from her bowl of cereal like I've lost my mind. "Hello?" I practically scream into the receiver.

"Wow. Hi Kate." Pony answers. Two-Bit and Darry both come out of the living room, Darry who had been up most of the night with me waiting decided to take a day off of work, and Two-Bit had stopped over on his way to work to talk to us about Christmas.

"Well?" I ask pointedly.

"Ryann had the twins at 7:50am our time, everyone is good." I let out a sigh of relief that I had been holding since he had called the night before. "Boy and a girl."

"I am so happy for you two. Congratulations." I squeal into the phone.

"Thanks Kate."

"Names? I need to get somethings monogrammed for them before we leave." Pony laughs,

"You sound like Sophie. Charlotte Anne and Michael John."

"Perfect, absolutely perfect. I bet Uncle Mickey is overjoyed with the name Michael?"

"I'm sure he is. It's also mine and Luke's middle names so it made sense to use." We all know why they used John as a middle name so I feel no need to mention it. I knew if they had a girl she'd be Charlotte, Ryann had mentioned it's her, her mom's and her grandma's middle names along with being her great-grandma's first name.

"Both names are perfect. I know you are probably exhausted so give us a call whenever you get home, any idea how long you are in the hospital for?"

"Ry's doctor said probably about four, unless something happens. Both Charlotte and Michael checked out well so right now there aren't any concerns."

"How much did they weigh?" I know from working in labor and delivery a lot of time multiple births result in low birth weight.

"Michael was 5lbs exactly and Charlotte was 4lbs 6oz."

"That's not bad, guess all that bed rest paid off." I reply.

"Yeah. I'll give you a call later this week though. And Ry said for you not to even think about not coming for Christmas she's looking forward to seeing you."

"We are too. Love you."

"Love you too." He replies, as we both hang up.

"I can't believe Pony has kids." Two-Bit says as I replace the phone on the receiver. "That's crazy." Darry nods in agreement. "Steve is coming to New York now too?" Two-Bit asks.

"Yeah Soda invited him a few weeks ago, I think Cherry is coming too." I tell him. Soda invited Steve shortly after Steve and Evie split, Evie had been screwing around with some truck driver from Michigan every time he came through Tulsa. Ryann had extended the invitation to Cherry when she found out that Cherry was going to be spending holidays alone. Her kids are going to spend it with Randy's parents and her parents already had plans to go on some cruise with their other retired friends. I think it's sweet the two of them have stayed in contact, but then again Ry really did go out of her way to help her.

"It should be interesting."Darry adds. Two-Bit and I both nod in agreement. "I'm going to go pick up some stuff from the site and then I'll be back." He tells me giving me a kiss, "Two-Bit you want me to drop you off?"

'Sounds good." I tell them both goodbye then go about doing laundry so I can start packing.