Chapter Text
Los Angeles, Cali
Hours after arriving at and being admitted to UCLA Medical Center, Kai was doing far better in a physical sense. The same couldn’t exactly be said about her in a mental sense, but that was kinda expected once she was a lil more lucid. After all, she hadn’t even gotten to meet her son after he was born, and she hadn’t seen or gotten word about her daughter since she was taken from her so she could be loaded into the first Medevac chopper.
Naturally, that worried her to no End, and even though she’d seen been reunited with her husband–not to mention her sister-in-law–she couldn’t Calm down enough to catch a nap. Even when Nikos rubbed some of her Lavender essential oil around the rims of her nostrils so she’d constantly catch its scent, she remained wound tighter than a guitar string.
But it wasn’t just the young woman who was so worried since the condition of her newborn babies was currently unknown. Jewel was just as worried from her own maternal instincts kicking in, even though they were her niece and nephew, rather than her own children. Her lil brother was just as worried since they were his children, even though he hadn’t been the one to carry either one of them for obvious reasons. Even Bobby–who’d finally been allowed to visit the pair of women, himself–was worried since they hadn’t heard anything yet. For all any of them knew, the babies hadn’t made it, and nobody wanted to tell them the horrible news.
Kai eventually threatened to rip out her IVs and storm through the halls till she found whatever nursery they’d been taken to upon their arrival at the hospital. And she meant what she’d said, too, ’cuz she was mere seconds away from doing just that when a knock finally sounded on the door to the room she and her sister-in-law’d been put in. Luckily, that served as a good enough distraction to stop her from hurting herself as her husband called out a bid to enter, which prompted their visitor to open the door.
“We’ve some very insistent visitors for Mommy,” an obvious nurse chuckled as she pushed an isolette ahead of her once she opened the door.
The young woman sat up even straighter than she already was in anticipation.
“Oh, they’re absolutely gorgeous,” Jewel breathed, catching a better glimpse of them first since her bed was closer to the door.
“How’re they doing?” Nikos queried anxiously as the isolette was parked between the womens’ beds.
“The lil man’s eight pounds, two ounces, and twenty-one and a-half inches long,” she answered, gently picking up the blue bundle that was in the isolette. “Clean Bill of Health from the pediatrician that examined him, too.”
His mother heaved a sigh of relief as he was settled in her left arm.
“The lil lady’s six pounds, ten ounces, and nineteen inches long,” the nurse continued, gently scooping up the pink bundle that’d been snuggled beside him. “And she’s a clean Bill of Health, too.”
“Then what the fuck took so long to at least give us a verbal update?” Kai demanded as she was reunited with her daughter.
“The pediatrician didn’t wanna tell ya that they were doing fine, then have something happen all of a sudden that made him rescind his word,” she told her, a frown pulling down the corners of her mouth at her tone.
“Ya have to understand that we’ve been through a lot leading up to the Births of these two,” the young man spoke up before she could say anything else. “Namely, the aneurysm that almost killed my wife going on eighteen months ago.”
“She also didn’t get to meet their son before she was airlifted here, ’cuz I was the surrogate that carried him for them,” his sister told her. “I’d be worried outta my mind and prone to snapping at even my spouse, if it were me.”
Now knowing that, the nurse was a lil more understanding to her plight, but she still didn’t like being snapped at. But she didn’t say as much, even though it was written all over her face, as she excused herself from the room. It was high Time the new parents got a chanceta start bonding with their babies, and her job wasn’t to be intrusive to that process.
Both babies were clearly hungry, judging by how they nuzzled their mother’s breasts and whimpered irritably. That prompted Nikos into helping her bare said breasts so she could nurse both of them, not just their daughter this Time. And that proved to be a lil harder than he anticipated since she wouldn’t let go of them, forcing him to pull her hospital gown far enough down her armsta expose the upper half of her torso.
Kai sighed contently as both babies were finally able to latch on, their hungry suckling already relieving the pressure of the milk that’d started to build up. Her sister-in-law looked a bit jealous as she watched, but she was well aware of their plan, now that they’d both given Birth. She’d stick around to pump the milk she was producing till the younger woman was able to produce enough to keep up with her babies’ demand. Once she’d reached that point, she’d stop pumping so her own milk’d dry up, if that didn’t happen earlier than they anticipated. But she wouldn’t actually nurse the babies so they wouldn’t start bonding with her more than their own mother since she didn’t Intend to live with them permanently.
As the babies were nursing their fill, the new parents finally decided to Reveal the names they’d picked for them. The young woman’d wanted to Honor the Hawaiian part of their heritage–not to mention give them unique names–since their surname’d take care of the Swiss-German part. For that reason, they’d finally decided on Anuhea for their new daughter, Keanu for their new son. And their names’d been no accident on her part, nor Inspired by pop culture–although, the name Keanu was fairly well-known due to the actor, Keanu Reeves.
No, she’d been Inspired by what their Zodiac sign turned out to be, and therefore the Element that ruled it. The name Anuhea actually meant Mist of coolness, while the name Keanu actually meant Cool Breeze over the Mountains. If one thought about Water Dragons–which were said to live in cool, moist places–and how Pisces was the Winter Water sign, they were names that fit. On top of that, they kinda represented the babies’ paternal heritage by harkening back to his upbringing in Alaska by mentioning what could be interpreted as cooler temperatures. But that was where she’d decided on a bit of a sudden Change to their original plan for baby names.
“I’m not budgin’ on Honorin’ Bobby somehow since he was an integral part of makin’ sure these two were born safely,” Kai said. “Especially this lil princess since he really played a role in her Birth.”
“But how’re we gonna do that?” the young man queried.
“Use his name for Keanu’s middle name,” she answered, much to the surprise of said bassist.
“You’d actually name him Keanu Robert?” Bobby asked, stunned almost speechless.
“Why the Helheimr not?” the young woman countered. “’Cuz I damn sure ain’t namin’ him Keanu Harry, and besides, Robert kinda harkens back to his Alaskan heritage, too.”
“How so?” Nikos’ brow furrowed in confusion since he’d no idea what her train of Thought was.
“It’s a German name that means brilliant fame,” Kai answered. “Not exactly Swiss, butcha speak German fluently, and that’s close enough for me.”
“Not to mention that Germany’s one of Switzerland’s neighbors,” he said, his eyes widening as it clicked.
“Bingo, rakkaus,” the young woman chuckled.
“So, what about Anuhea?” Jewel queried. “What’re ya gonna do for her middle name?”
“I’m kinda thinkin’ Roberta–but not to name her after Bobby, per sé,” she answered.
Both siblings and the bassist in question cocked a brow curiously.
“It’d be partially in Honor of Bobby since that’s the feminine version of Robert,” Kai explained. “But it’d also be in Honor of my pappaw–whose name was also Robert.”
“You’re shitting me,” her husband breathed.
“His name was Robert Howard Crosswhite,” the young woman said. “To be quite honest, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he coulda been Bobby’s dad.”
“I wouldn’t know since you’ve never shown me a picture of him before,” Nikos chuckled.
“’Bout the only difference’s in the tips of their noses–Bobby’s tips up more’n my pappaw’s did,” she told them. “Otherwise, the resemblance’s scary-uncanny.”
Laughing as he took their son so he could burp him, the young man admitted that he was having a hard Time picturing it. But he was pretty sure she’d pictures of the man in question somewhere on their homestead, so she could show him what she meant once they were back home. That wouldn’t be till after she, Jewel, and the babies were discharged, which’d prolly be a couple Days longer than average for a delivery so they could be observed for a while due to the circumstances of said deliveries.
In the meantime, he admitted that naming their son after the bassist wasn’t necessarily the worst idea he’d ever heard. Kai definitely had a point in saying that he’d played a bit role in their safe entranceta the World, especially in their daughter’s case. Course, since she was Intent on using Roberta as said daughter’s middle name, maybe they should name her after their friend and their son after her beloved pappaw.
That was something they could decide on officially later on, though, considering how exhausted the women were. What mattered more was that they’d officially decided on namesta put on the babies’ Birth certificates, and they were both happy with those names. Even better was that they more or less evenly represented both sides of their heritage, which was something Nikos–as well as the rest of his family–was particularly big on. He could live with their revision, that fact considered, since it was a fairly well-thought-out and definitely meaningful revision on his wife’s part.
Shortly after getting a crash-course in changing a diaper properly, Anuhea and Keanu were taken back to the newborn nursery for more observation. It gave the women more of a chanceta rest and recuperate after their deliveries, which no one could really argue with. Not only that, but it gave the men a chanceta head back to homestead to prepare for their homecoming.
Life couldn’t get much better for the young couple, and they were grateful for every Day they got since they were in this together.