The Rampage MC #2: Beard and Emily

Chapter 12 (Beard): What I Miss

A few hours later, a new nurse walked into Emily's hospital room, where Emily was napping and I was watching the rise and fall of her chest, thinking about the miracles that she'd given to us today. I'd seen a lot of amazing, unbelievable things in my years, but nothing came close to watching the two tiny babies Emily and I had created coming into this world. How can you comprehend something so incredible? It was nothing I'd ever expected to see, nothing I'd ever imagined being a part of my life experiences.

And now it was, without a doubt, the most humbling, meaningful, critical event in my life. 

"I'll be in here with her for the next five minutes or so," the nurse said softly to me when she realized Emily was sleeping. "I know you have a lot of friends out in the waiting room, so if you want to go see them, now would be a good time."

"They'll have to wait because I'm not leaving her," I responded quietly, hoping to avoid disturbing Emily's well-deserved sleep. 

Then her beautiful eyes opened and met mine. "Go," she urged me. "I'm fine. I'm just going to sleep for a bit and then maybe they'll let me go up and see the babies."

"Don't want to leave you, Emily."

Waving her fingers in a shooing motion, she smiled. "Seriously. Go see them. I can feel you watching me, even with my eyes closed. I'll be fine and you're literally about thirty feet away from my room. You can probably see my door from there."

"I'll be right here with her," the nurse said, smiling as if she had a lot of experience with nervous fathers.

"See? She'll be right here with me," Emily teased me. "Now go."

"I'll just be a minute, show them the pictures and be right back," I assured her. Then I gave the nurse a look. "And I appreciate you staying in the room with Emily until I get back. If the slightest thing changes with her, come get me immediately."

Reading the message in my eyes and hearing the tone in my voice, the nurse agreed and promised -- again -- that she'd be there until I returned.

I hurried out to the waiting room, and found it crowded with almost all of my brothers and some of their old ladies, their smiles huge when they saw me. The room was practically buzzing with their excitement and happiness for me. All of my brothers had figured I would forever be childless...and today, the old man became the father to a boy and a girl. The Rampage MC now had a little prince and princess.

"Daddy Beard!" Genny greeted me first with a laugh and a hug. After she stepped away, my brothers came up and slapped my back, shook my hand, congratulating me on the babies. Unreal as hell becoming a father at my age. But as one brother after another laughed or smiled over the twins, I found it felt more and more real. I was a father. I was a man who had two children.

Since visitors weren't allowed in the NICU, I pulled out my phone with the pictures of the twins I'd taken right after they were delivered, just before they went to the NICU.

"That's Bowdin and that's my girl, Elincia," I said over and over again, and I pointed at them on my phone's screen. Proud as hell, feeling my heart swell each time I showed their pictures or said their names.

Bowdin. A strong, powerful name for my prince.

Elincia. A beautiful, musical name for my princess

My children. My tiny, helpless babies. I announced their birth weights, how they were doing and how I was waiting to go up to the NICU with Emily. I told them about Emily's C-section and how the whole experience had just about put me on my ass in awe. Had it been anyone else, I would have said they were bubbling over. I was simply sharing information. Excitedly.