The Seahorse and the Spice 🪼🎩✔

Epilogue

Salem pressed his stomach and grimaced. I looked over at him and he was gripping the seat with a white knuckled grasp.
"Salem?"
"I don't know why I thought this would be a wonderful idea." He said with a huff. "This was a really stupid idea. Why the hell did I let you let me do this?"
"Because when I said, 'Honey, I don't think you really want to do this' you said, 'Nonsense, I kind of already did so what's the difference?' and then promptly asked Bastion to grant the wish." I said with a cocky smirk to my ignorant husband.
"You should have fought harder! Oh, god!" he yelled, grabbing his stomach. "I think the baby's about to come."
As if on cue, I felt my seat get wet and looked down to see that my water had indeed broken. As for my poor, idiot husband, he had decided when he found out that I was pregnant that he wanted to share the symptoms but take on the labor pains for himself. He also decided to undertake some water weight gain equivalent to my pregnancy and looked like he was about to pop as well. So, lucky for me, the delivery was going to be pretty smooth but not so lucky for Salem. Poor thing will be pissing for a long time to get rid of the water weight...
He cried out and practically bent over backwards in pain as he went to his knees on the floor.
"Dear lord in heaven! How do you women do this?!"
I sighed and stood up, ringing the bell for Uma to come and help both of us out and to call for a midwife and doctor. Bastion came in instead and looked at Salem with a bemused expression.
"I told you not to wish for that."
"You shut up little boy!" he seethed, leaning on the floor on all fours now. "Oh god..."
Bastion frowned. "The matching contractions seem to be coming quite quick even in this situation."
Andrew had taken Bastion as an apprentice so he had some medical knowledge of the issue.
"I'm pretty sure the bugger is ready to get out now!" Salem screamed and then suddenly went silent. "Um... I think you need to push right now and someone get me the largest bucket you can find."
Eadric had walked, looking confused about the yelling and I pointed to him.
"Go find a large bucket and find Uma to get Andrew!" I turned back to Bastion. "Lovey, I'm afraid you're going to have to do this."
"M-me?" he asked, his face going pale.
"Yes. Your father's about to burst over there. Go by his reaction. This will be a very interesting labor."
Bastion gulped but gathered the things he needed for helping me and we went about the process.

A couple hours later, Andrew finally showed up but I had already given birth and my poor husband was in the bed with me, still sore from all the symptoms and pain. Andrew smiled a little.
"Well, I thought it might be true, but I didn't think the facts would hold."
I smiled as I held my twin girls in my arms. Yes, twins; which makes sense as to why Salem was having such a hard time. Poor dear was completely exhausted. Andrew examined the girls and then did a post examination on me and smiled.
"You all look well." He looked at Salem. "Is he alright?"
"Labor and all. It takes a toll out of everyone." I said with a slight smile.
With the lingering memories of what Andrew had tried to do to me when Salem thought he was pregnant, he thought it was best not to reintroduce the issue to his friend. That being said, Andrew didn't know about Salem's wish or anything and mostly kept out of sight for the past nine months.
"Do you have any names yet?"
"I wanna name one!" Xerxes yelled, scaring Andrew.
"We have to wait until your father wakes up to agree on any names."
Xerxes pouted. "I wanna name one."
"Well what name would you like and I'll run it by him."
"I like Olive."
"Olive? That's a nice name."
"Hey, can we throw in some names too?" Bastion asked.
"Yeah, it's not fair."
"Alright, throw in a couple."
"I think Maggie is a nice name." Bastion said.
"I like Cadence."
Salem stirred and turned over.
"Keep it down..." he mumbled.
"I know you're tired but we need to name the girls." I said softly.
"Elicia Olive Barma and Cadence Margaret Barma. We got everyone in there." He huffed and snuggled back under the covers.
I smiled a little as the boys looked at me. "What about you, Mum? What did you want to name one?"
"Elicia and Cadence are just fine... the problem is which one is which and how will we keep them in sync?" I said with a frown.
"You could get Ms. Uma to sew an E for Elicia on her clothes and a C for Cadence." X suggested.
I nodded. "That's a fine suggestion, lovey."
Uma walked in with two bassinettes and walked over to me.
"You need to get some rest as well, milady. Although things went... 'well'..." she said, throwing her eyes to Salem. "You still just birthed two children. Have you named them yet?"
"This one is Elicia and this one is Cadence. You gotta sew an E and a C on their clothes so we know who they are!" X said.
"Then that will be the first thing I do." She said with a smile. She turned to me. "Will you be feeding them yourself or will you require a wet nurse?"
"I think I can do it myself."
"I'll bring them back when you have rested up."
Xerxes ran with her to make sure she got the right baby for the right name and I turned over, snuggling with Salem.
"You are the best husband in the world, you know that? Not any man would have done that for their wife."
"Just don't ever let me do it again." He mumbled.
I chuckled as he turned over to hold me.
"Did you ever think we'd have a family?" I asked.
"Always... but Bastion will always be the firstborn. The boys may not be ours but they are your sons, which make them my sons. The girls are the luckiest twins in the world to have brothers such as them." I smiled as he nuzzled in my hair. "Sleeping is for now..." he said.
We both fell asleep in each other's arms, blissful and content.

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A/N: and that's a wrap! Thanks for all the people who enjoyed this story, especially when i thought no one really cared for it and begged me to put it back up. The soundtrack and official cover will be posted within the next day or so. Thanks again and see you at the next story.