A/N: A self-requested/self-indulgent winter fic using the prompts “There’s no such thing as Christmas Magic.” and Snow Angels and a little bit of First Snow.
This was meant to come out for the solstice (and is set on that date), but nothing ever goes as planned.
Word Count: 2120
Rating: T - pregnancy/birth and complications of, hospitals, mild language, references to Bad Samaritan, angst
“Heeey, how're my three favorite people in the entire world?” Derek asked, cradling his phone between his shoulder and ear.
“Derek, you need to come home,” Ryne answered through gritted teeth. Her tone made him go cold, dropping the cleaning rag and straightening, holding the phone in a tight grip.
“Baby girl, are you okay? What's wrong?”
He heard her take a few deep breaths.
“Our children,” a stifled noise of pain, “have decided they will not be, ow fuck, missing Christmas. And I need their father here.”
“What?” He couldn't figure out what she was saying but he felt like it was important and cursed himself for having a block now of all times.
“Derek. I. am. in. labor. Come home. Now.”
“SHIT!”
His mind went from too slow to every alarm bell ringing at once. He scrambled for his coat and keys, calling out to whoever else might be in the kitchen still that he needed to leave. It took him skidding and nearly falling on his ass across the parking lot for him to even realize that it had started to snow.
“You still there?” He said into the phone that he pulled back out of his pocket.
“Yes.” Ryne sounded annoyed and for some reason that made him smile.
“Listen, I'm on my way, I swear. But the weather's real bad. I want you to call Sean or Aunt Patty or an ambulance or somethin. Just in case I gotta meet you at the hospital.”
“No. No you need to be here. Derek, you promised you'd be beside me the whole time. This is part of the whole time.”
The mood swing made his heart leap into his throat.
“I know. Please don't cry. I know I did. But it sounds like our babies have ideas of their own. And whose fault's that gotta be?”
“Yours,” she grumbled. “Yours and your stupid penis's. I hate you.”
He laughed. “I love you too. But I gotta hang up so I can watch the road. And you gotta call a backup plan okay? I promise, I'll be there soon.”
~
Derek was worried, and doing a terrible job of not showing it. He was glared at several times by nurses and other patients alike for pacing, so he sat, leg jiggling rapidly. He was never a nail biter, but he was right now, edges torn ragged. It had been over two hours since he was kicked out of the delivery room, and he didn't know much about childbirth but a father being told "Sir, you need to leave" certainly seemed like a really bad sign. His whole world was in that room and he felt sick; he didn't know what he'd do if...he couldn't even think it.
He hadn't prayed in years, everything that had happened with Sean and Katie and that monster shaking his faith beyond repair. He found himself falling into old habit now, lips moving silently and one hand around the cross he still wore on his neck. He was still begging a God he wasn't sure of when a doctor came out and called his name.
“What's going on?” he demanded before the other man could speak. “Are Ryne and the babies okay?”
“It is not uncommon for twins to come early, but given how early they were, there were some unexpected complications,” the doctor explained.
Derek felt his stomach doing flips, and had to resist grabbing him by his bright white lapels and shaking him until he gave a straight answer.
“Your daughters are alright now, but we've sent them to the NICU as a precaution. You can go see them shortly.”
There was a pause. His ears were ringing too much to even register the word 'daughters' yet. The doctor hadn't mentioned Ryne, and his face looked like he'd eaten the world's sourest lemon. Derek's vision blurred.
“What about my wife?” He asked, voice thick with fear.
“There's no need to panic sir, but as I said, there were complications. She's currently still in surgery, and we'll be able to update you on her condition soon.”
The air was knocked out of his lungs and it was all he could do to stay standing.
“She's gonna be okay though, right doc?”
“Mr. Sandoval, she's still in surgery. I'm not at liberty to make guesses right now.”
A nurse emerged, glanced around, and made a beeline for them. She whispered something into the doctor's ear and left again.
“What? What is it?”
“The twins are clear, though they will remain under observation for a time, and one of them had to be set up with a UV lamp, if you'd like to go see them?”
He nodded numbly, trying to hold the fact that his babies were okay, and that Ryne was tough enough to survive anything, in his mind as he followed the doctor.
“We will also need some information for the birth certificates, including names, if you have them picked out. I'm sure one of the nurses will help you with that.”
~
Snow fell in slow, fat flakes outside the window. Derek cradled one of his daughters in his arms, her sister sleeping nearby. He knew that she would need to go back into the crib soon, but he wanted to make the most of every second holding her. It made him feel calmer, knowing they were okay and not going to disappear in a puff of smoke, at the same time that it frightened him. How could someone be so small, and so utterly dependent on him, of all people?
As if sensing his thoughts, she opened her (slightly yellowed) eyes to squint up at him.
“Hello, Frijolita,” he hummed, smiling and stroking a finger over her face.
She made a soft, pleased coo, her tiny arms and legs pumping once. He chuckled, feeling his heart escape and fly straight to her grasp with just that one little noise. His eyes drifted to the window again and he shifted her, tilting her upward so she could see, even though he knew it didn't mean anything to her yet.
“Do you see that out there, Sorsha?” He asked in a whisper. “That stuff falling from the sky is called snow. Mami loves the snow. Lord only knows why when she's always complainin how cold she is.” He kissed the top of her peach-fuzzed head. “She's going to be so excited to meet her two perfect snow angels.”
Sorsha cooed again, squirming until he moved her around to a spot she seemed to like. He found himself humming 'Winter Wonderland' and rocking her gently to the tune until yet another nurse stopped by, telling him she had been out from under the lamps for as long as allowed.
~
He was back in the waiting room, always the fucking waiting room, dozing fitfully when he was startled awake by a light tap on his shoulder. Night had fallen outside and there were very few people left in the room.
“Derek,” the nurse who was waking him, one he had gotten to know quite well over these hours, smiled at him, “I'm about to go on a break, but I thought you'd like to know that Ryne is out of surgery now. She should be waking up soon and then you'll be able to see her.”
It felt like the words lifted a massive weight from him and he almost could have kissed her for them.
“Can you tell me anything else?”
She pressed her lips together in a thin line, “I should let the doctor fill you in on the details...but she's really strong, and should have no problem recovering now that she’s out of the worst of it.”
“Thank you,” he sighed in relief.
“Of course. I always like delivering the good news.” She patted him on the arm. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I know Alma is awake, and they’re in sync enough already Sorsha probably will be soon, if you want to go be with them until the doctor lets you see your wife?”
“Yeah, I can’t sleep anyway. Thanks again.”
“Happy Holidays, you and your new family, Derek.”
~
“Hey, Mama,” Derek said, entering the hospital room, practically shaking from holding himself back, the urge to rush to Ryne’s side, to hold her and never let go, nearly overwhelming him. “How are you feeling?”
“I hate you, and we’re never having sex again, and I feel like crap,” she pouted.
“Okay. If that’s what you want.”
Despite her threat, she gave in happily when he reached her and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. He sat down in the high-backed rocking chair pulled close to the bed and took her hand.
“How are they?” she worried her lip between her teeth.
“Sleeping soundly. They’ve got a special crib so that Alma can sleep next to her, and Sorsha’s under a heat lamp thing like a little rotisserie chicken. It’s pretty adorable actually.”
“Did you just compare one of our daughters to a grocery store ready-meal?”
“What? No. I would never!” he bluffed, both of them laughing until the movement made Ryne grimace.
His thumb traced over the dye spots on her hand and arm, showing where they'd tried to mark a vein. A quiet settled over the room.
“You finally got me back huh?” He asked softly.
“What?” She frowned, sounding sleepy and confused.
“For, you know….Erendreich.”
“I–”
“You scared the shit out of me baby,” he pressed a kiss to her hand, holding it tight in his own. “They wouldn't tell me nothin and you were in surgery for so long…”
He wasn't sure when she'd gotten blurry, didn't even notice until she was sighing his name in that way of hers and pulling her hand from his to wipe the tears from his face.
“I don't think I coulda done it without you.”
“Done what?”
“Survived. Then or now.”
“Oh, my love. You would have. Back then, you had something to prove,” she smiled. “God we both did. And now…those girls are going to make you forget I even exist, you'll be so busy being an incredible father. You would have been okay.”
“Let's not test that, ever.”
“Deal. Now can you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Go find a nurse and see how much longer I have to wait to meet the tiny people I just expelled from my body?”
He laughed, shaking his head at her. “And you got mad at me for calling her a baby chicken.”
“Nothing I just said is untrue,” she blinked at him. “And it was the fact that she was a baby chicken dinner, you asshole.”
The response made him laugh harder, and then even more at her pout until he couldn't breathe.
“Derek, please? You've had hours with them already. I want to meet our daughters.”
The distress in her tone made him pause.
“Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be...I'll go see.” He kissed her, cradling her face in his hands as he did. “I love you, ya know, right? Alway will. More than anything.”
“I do. I love you too.”
~
Derek had managed to squeeze himself into the hospital bed beside Ryne and her head rested on his shoulder. Each of them cradled one of the babies, their tiny bodies swaddled completely in matched purple blankets. Sorsha slept soundly, already looking more the color one would expect a baby to be, and Alma stared up at her parents with bright, round eyes, one set of tiny fingers escaping the swaddle to clutch meaninglessly at the blobs that swam around her.
“How are you so perfect?” Derek asked in an awed whisper. “Our perfect babies.”
“It must be the early Christmas magic in the air.”
“No such thing as Christmas Magic, Mamita, this was all you. Cus you're amazing.”
“Not all me. I can tell you had a hand. They've both definitely got your nose.”
“I'm sorry girls,” he laughed. “You don't deserve that.”
She turned her head to kiss her husband's cheek adoringly. “I happen to like your nose. And on them it's a tiny version and cute.”
Derek looked down at Alma. He squinted at her little face, trying to see what she saw. Then he shook his head, not saying but definitely thinking that his wife was crazy. She was way too adorable to look anything like him.
“This might be the best present ever,” he said almost offhandedly after a moment. “I don’t know how you’re gonna ever beat it.”
Ryne's face crinkled with held back laughter, cheeks reddening. “Well you know what they say about the most special gifts being made with love.”
A handful of the doodles I’ve done of Moomin x Snufkin’s children I made up for the fun of it. I still don’t really have any name for them, but it was just something I felt like doing. (FOR THE FLUFF)
I actually still have some more in my pile of stuff to color, but that will be for another cluttered post.
