Chapter 1476: The Two Heartbeats

Dr. Avery turned the monitor farther towards them, and Phei leaned forward, searching the grey and white shapes for whatever had made her smile. He had only just begun to recognise their baby. Every movement of the transducer changed the image enough to leave him dependent upon the doctor’s explanations, yet she seemed quite content to let him stare while amusement gathered at the corners of her mouth.

Melissa felt his fingers tighten around hers. "Phei."

"I am very focused." He glanced at Dr. Avery, whose smile had grown decidedly unhelpful. "Doctor, if you’re enjoying whatever this is before telling us, I should warn you that I’m currently experiencing several emotions."

Melissa almost laughed, though she was watching the doctor just as closely. Dr. Avery finally looked away from the screen. "Before I say anything, did either of you already know?"

"Know what?" Melissa asked.

The doctor glanced towards Phei. His expression had emptied of everything except suspicion: "No. We definitely don’t know whatever you’re about to tell us."

"All right." Dr. Avery adjusted the image and indicated the little figure they had already spent several minutes admiring. "This is the baby we’ve been looking at. And this..."

Her hand shifted, bringing another part of the image into view. Phei followed her finger and frowned. He wondered whether the machine was showing the same child from a different angle; then the picture steadied enough for him to recognise another little head, a developing body and small limbs that moved while he watched.

Melissa’s grip tightened sharply. Phei barely felt it. Dr. Avery looked between them, allowing her smile to spread at last. "You’re having twins."

He stared at the monitor. Two children were growing inside Melissa!

To think he had spent the whole time, the whole years actually and this morning thinking about her just having one!? Even now, with the second plainly before him, he kept looking back to the first to make certain he had understood.

His chest rose, but the breath went no further.

"Phei." Melissa turned towards him. When he failed to answer, she squeezed his hand again. "Phei. Breathe."

He inhaled sharply and looked straight at Dr. Avery. "Two?!"

"Two."

"You’re sure?"

"Very."

His eyes returned to the screen. "Completely sure?"

"I would be extremely uncomfortable telling you that you’re having twins if I wasn’t."

Phei accepted this with a slow nod, then leaned closer to study the second baby.

Melissa might have laughed at his solemn concentration if the word had not begun stirring terrible memories beneath her own astonishment.

Twins again.

Melissa had carried twins and given birth to them, then raised two children believing both were hers. The Maxtons had murdered one of her daughters and put Danton in her place. Unaware of what they had done, she had loved him as her own, giving him the care meant for the child they had taken from her.

Her brother had finally told her the truth but he had died not long afterwards, leaving her to grieve him while still struggling to comprehend what had happened to her daughter. Every memory of raising Danton now carried something she had never known to mourn: the little girl who should have been there, growing beside her twin sister Delilah, receiving all that love herself.

Her fingers grew cold around Phei’s. He turned before she could draw her gaze away from the monitor, and the tears gathering in her violet eyes told him where she had gone.

"Mels."

She did not seem to hear him.

Phei’s jaw tightened, the Maxtons rising in his thoughts with a hatred that threatened to spoil everything before him. Those bastards—

His hand began to clench but he loosened it carefully around hers and moved closer to the bed.

Melissa needed him beside her, and he refused to give the Maxtons any more of this morning.

"Mels," he repeated, brushing her cheek until she looked at him. "They’re okay."

Her lips trembled. Phei glanced towards Dr. Avery, needing the answer himself. "Both of them?"

"Both are alive," she said gently. "Both have strong cardiac activity and are measuring appropriately for this stage of pregnancy. Right now, I see nothing that concerns me."

Phei looked back at Melissa. "Did you hear that, Mels?"

She nodded, and the first tear slipped down against his thumb. He wiped it away. "Both, my love and remember we’ll always be there to protect them."

"I’m having twins again." Her voice faltered over the last word. She looked towards the screen, trying to smile, and he bent to kiss her forehead.

He stayed close while she drew a trembling breath, his fingers warm around hers.

When she looked up at him again, she was crying openly. "I don’t even know why I’m crying."

"Because there are two tiny people living inside you— and apparently neither of us was informed." he joked and looked at the doctor accusingly.

Her laugh came out unsteadily, but it was enough to make him smile. Dr. Avery waited while Melissa wiped her cheeks, then turned the monitor a little more so she could see without twisting towards it. One of the babies shifted, and Phei’s attention followed at once.

"Can we hear them? Both of them even the first we already did please."

"Of course." Dr. Avery adjusted the machine— the first rapid heartbeat sounded through the room. Phei had heard it already, yet he listened with the same absorbed wonder, his thumb moved slowly over Melissa’s knuckles. Then the doctor moved the transducer and located the second baby’s heartbeat.

The first sound gave way to another quick, steady rhythm.

Melissa covered her mouth. Phei watched her, then the image, listening until he could almost feel that rhythm beneath his ribs...it settled and matched his own.

There was another child to name, another little face he would learn, another baby who would someday reach for him and expect to be picked up.

All the things he had been imagining now involved two.

Phei could already see them crawling somewhere they had no business going while he tried to explain to Melissa why he had allowed it. Teaching children to stay on the ground would be difficult enough when their father could fly and teleport. With two of them helping each other, and an entire household of indulgent aunts to appeal to— he doubted he would win many arguments.

A disbelieving laugh escaped him.

Melissa lowered her hand and turned towards the sound, catching the tear that slipped down his cheek before he noticed it himself.

He touched the wetness, momentarily distracted from the screen.

"Are you crying?" she asked.

"No."

"Phei."

"This is eye condensation."

Dr. Avery laughed, and Melissa reached up to wipe away the next tear. "You’re crying."

He looked at her, considered arguing and gave up with a grin. "Fine. I’m having twins. I’m allowed to do this! Do you have any idea how overwhelming this is? "

Melissa laughed with him, her hand lingering against his face. He caught it and kissed her palm before lowering himself beside the examination bed.

She watched him go down upon one knee, then settle onto both.

"Phei?"

Only the previous night, the Primordial Lotus had anointed him. He was still learning what it meant to carry Genesis, to be Half-Divine, yet he had spent this examination asking Dr. Avery to show him where his children were. Now he knelt beside Melissa, holding her hand between his own, and struggled to say what looking at her did to him.

He kissed her fingers. "Thank you."

"Phei..."

"Thank you." His voice roughened, and she reached down with her free hand to stroke his white hair.

"You don’t have to thank me."

"I do."

"You helped make them."

He nodded with considerable dignity. "I performed an important task, didn’t I? Ah~ at this rate I am afraid in a two years I’ll have ten kids! How envious... how fertile!"

Melissa burst into laughter. Dr. Avery turned towards the machine, unsuccessfully hiding her smile, while Phei kissed his wife’s hand again.

"But you’re the one carrying them," he continued. "You’re feeding them, protecting them and changing for them every day. I get to stand beside you staring at a screen and ask questions."

"You are contributing, my love."

"I know. Magnificently."

She shook her head, still smiling, and drew her fingers through his hair. Dr. Avery lifted the transducer to give them a little room. When Phei glanced towards Melissa’s belly, she handed him something to wipe the gel away, and Melissa helped lower her dress over the slight curve beneath it.

He laid his palm there carefully. He had touched her belly before, but now he knew there were two children beneath his hand, growing close together in a space his palm almost covered. Melissa watched his expression soften and guided his hand a little lower, resting hers over it.