𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐄, Stefan and Damon

Chapter 10

NOTE: I changed the names of the twins to Helga and Sigrid. This is because the previous names were literally almost the same I'd rather not do that to the girls. Twins are separate people y'all! Also, they're not identical, but fraternal. Biologically Stefan's, if you don't remember.

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Astrid's POV

Every pump of my heart led me towards awakening. Dizziness morphed into the great fear that my children weren't inside of me anymore. My belly, once rounded to near disability, was back to the way it had been when I was turned: flat due to previous starvation.

The only thing I heard was the snap of whatever bar I'd been gripping onto as it broke in half.

"Oh shit she's awake."

I didn't even know who said it, only that I wanted to throw up. That tends to happen when you're overly hungry, vampire or no. Funny how the body does exactly the opposite of what it needs to do constantly.

"She needs more blood," someone said from behind me. I groaned at the noises. My senses were back up and running and wherever I was, it wasn't a nice place to be.

"Striddy, stop breaking things. We will get you more blood."

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Damon's POV

I knew she'd survive.

She was over a thousand years old and had been through more than almost anyone on the planet, save perhaps Klaus, who was waiting patiently outside the door to the makeshift delivery room. He'd screamed about not being let in, I had too, but there was no changing the fact that things hadn't gone smoothly.

I'd thought my own mother, the bitch, was going to die when she gave birth to Stefan. She'd lost so much blood, my horrible father had even cried in his study about twelve hours into it. It was only a few years later that she'd told me she'd nearly died giving birth to me too and that my father blamed me for her second birth going just as poorly.

Fuck both of them.

It had taken two whole hours for the heretics to bring out the girls. They looked so sweet, albeit quite small. Nora theorized that they'd been near the edge of the placenta, too close to the cervix, and hadn't been able to grow as much.

"Twins are small, Stefan," Laurel explained it like a promise as she handed over one of the little girls to her father. "She will grow quickly."

"Is there any sign that she's a vampire?" Stefan probed. "Teeth, biting?"

"Newborns don't have teeth. Though, if she were to die, we don't know if she'd automatically become an original or not," Laurel admitted. "Henrik thinks they could end up like their mother. Original heretics. Not that this would be much of an issue."

I walked over to see the little one. She was just so tiny, even more so up close next to my younger brother. Had Astrid's blue eyes and seemed to have just a hint of dark peach fuzz on her head.

"Where's  baby number two?" I asked, waiting to find the second baby so I could sneak in and hold her. "She was just here..."

"With Nora." Laurel pointed her out, sneakily hiding with the baby behind a plant. "I think she loves the baby more than you do already."

I laughed. "Well, these girls have a massive family to love them, don't they?"

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Astrid's POV

It took me a whole three weeks to recover. I promised I would never do that again. Pregnancy was hard enough, and the girls were adorable and sweet and clearly already loved me to pieces but I can't be risking my life for this. I'm honestly glad I don't remember the birth, but the haze is traumatizing still and my mind has been a mess.

Stefan has been taking on the feedings at night, bless him, and Damon does little trips with the girls outside in their new carrier so they can get some sunlight. They don't seem to be harmed by it, so clearly they aren't vampires.

From what I know, Henrik and Jeremy are planning on tagging along to Damon's trip to the botanical gardens this Wednesday. Seems like it will be fun for the group.

"Astrid, are you paying attention?" Damon asked.

Oh.

"We have to put in the paperwork for the girls' birth certificates and get their social security cards," my mate reminded me of things I had completely forgotten about.

"What's a social security card?" I asked.

Damon looked at me and then looked at the papers in his hands. "I'll handle it. When I'm done, they'll be in the safe with all of our other important documents. Passports, fake birth certificates."

"I have one of those?" I said, bewildered. "Who could have gotten me a fake birth certificate? What did he put as my birthday? I don't know my birthday and neither does he, since Mikael never let him celebrate."

"Finn did it once you reconnected, he remembered the day you were born."

"How could he possibly remember that?" I laughed and put down the clothes that I had been playing with while drifting off into my own head. "Can't we just compel our ways out of those issues?"

"Yeah... but they're our kids, we should do it in case they go to school. It'll be harder to fake that stuff in 10 years." Damon looked down at the papers. "Plus, it's nice to have little things like this. Keep the humans who know on their feet."

"We could just eat the ones who know."

"Sure we could. Then feel the beautiful feeling of vervain on my tongue as it burns the inside of my mouth." My mate laughed and put the papers into the safe, turning the lock to make sure it was secure.

We need to feed the girls vervain, I realized. They were downstairs. I could just put some in their mouths, right? That would be fine.

"Astrid? Are you alright? You seem a bit... upset. Do you not want them to have birth certificates?"

My hands were shaking, I knew that, but I had to get vervain into them. What if someone compelled them to stop breathing? They would be dead in a minute. I had to do something.

"I will give them vervain," I insisted, feeling myself shaking still. "Then they'll be okay."

I wasn't expecting Damon to grab a hold of my hand and tell me, "No."

"What do you mean, no?" I questioned him. "They could compel them! They could die."

"You can't give babies water or they will die. You can't feed babies anything like that or it could give them stomach issues. Astrid, we will keep them safe. I bet we can figure out some sort of anti-compel spell to use on them," Damon tried to reason with me. "The girls are safe."

I didn't believe it, but I also knew that I was powerless to say no to him.

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postpartum is no joke! yeah its not all sunshine and rainbows readers, so sorry for that.