Congratulations Chapter 6
Jensen hated hospitals. He hated the smells, the noise, the way the nurses and vampires (phlebotomist) wouldn’t let you sleep, but most of all he hated having lost five babies there. Yet he was here again, waiting for news from a fucking doctor about the one who was alive.
While he was waiting, it seemed that everyone was more concerned about him than his daughter, and if one more nurse approached him with a blood pressure cuff, Jensen swore that he was going to delight in seeing how far he could ram it up their ass.
“Jensen, I know you’re worried, but if you don’t calm the fuck down I will tie you to a goddamned bed myself,” Jared growled at him.
“I’m scared Jared,” Jensen cried before he softly voiced his worry, “I can’t lose another baby here, I just can’t.”
“You’re not Jensen, you’re not, but you have to relax so that the two tucked under your heart will be okay. The doctor will take care of Mandie you take care of those two.”
“You guys heard anything yet?” Chris asked as he appeared out of nowhere.
“What are you doing here, Chris?” Jensen questioned his friend, “Why aren’t you home with your babies?”
“Steve is holding down the fort. We felt that one of us needed to be here with you guys, and help out if you needed anything,” he explained. “And besides, I know that Chad is on his way. Even though we are in a hospital and he would get immediate care, I don’t want my pregnant friend going to jail for attempted murder when he tries to lighten the mood with old pregnant man jokes.”
Jensen and Jared both smile at the truth of Chris’ statement and Jensen replied “Well, I’ll just use Jared’s response to everything I do now, hormones.”
“Padalecki.” The nurse called from the double doors.
“Yes,” they answered in simultaneously while rushing forward to meet the nurse.
“Hi, I’m Carmen Evans,” she introduced herself, “and I’m the nurse practitioner on duty and Amanda is my patient tonight. Follow me please.” She turned and walked towards the bays full of sick children.
They thought that she was taking them to their daughter, but instead she led them to a small cubbyhole that she apparently called her office, where another woman was waiting for them.
Once they made room for the two very large men in the very small room, the other woman introduced herself as Alma Turner, social worker.
Social worker, why did they need a social worker present? He knew that the only reason they’d need a social worker would be because they thought that he or Jared had hurt her.
“Wait a minute, you don’t think…” Jensen started but couldn’t completely vocalize the thought.
“No, no!” Carmen denied, “Physically she is doing fine, but we’d like to keep her here overnight to monitor her to make sure she’s not concussed. Her medical problems are not what’s concerning us.”
“What is concerning us is that fact that she thinks that she doesn’t have a home to go to, that you no longer want her.” Alma finished.
Grimacing, Jensen rubbed his had along the back of his neck as he began to explain why their daughter thought that she wouldn’t be wanted.
“Yeah,” Jared agreed, “We were trying to find the best way to tell her about the babies when she accidentally found out this afternoon.”
The social worker nodded her head as though she understood, before she commented, “I understand how devastating that can be for a young child, but we have to follow up and this will be handled discreetly,” she promised as she smiled at Jared.
“Can we see her now?” Jensen asked, rolling his eyes at the older woman flirting with his husband with him sitting right there.
“Yes, but we’ll have to be present,” Carmen advised.
When he walked into the bay, Jensen took in how small Amanda looked in the large hospital bed. She wasn’t asleep, and looked as though her world had ended when she saw the two men enter.
“Hey baby girl,” Jensen softly greeted, trying to keep the emotion from his voice so that he didn’t scare the little girl.
“You not gonna talk to us sweetie?” Jared asked when the girl didn’t respond.
She looked at them with fat tears rolling down her cheeks, and the lips that were so like Jensen’s began to tremble as she sniffed and pointed at them with an accusing finger and declared, “You don’t want me neither.”
Okay this time maybe Jared was right, the hormones were somewhat at fault, but Jensen would dare anyone to look at the tiny little girl lying in the huge hospital bed and not cry. He was not going to even try to hold back the tears. Judging from the sniffles he heard from behind him, Jared wasn’t successful in fighting them either.
Jensen pulled himself together and sat on one side of the bed while Jared took the other. Once he settled on the bed, Jensen attempted to pull the little girl close, but the babies chose that moment to kick for the first time and it terrified her, causing her to leap towards Jared. As Jared wrapped her into his huge arms, he raised an eyebrow questioning what happened. When Jensen mouthed ‘the baby kicked’, Jared smiled so hard that Jensen swore his dimples got deeper.
Aware of the nurse and social worker watching them, Jensen reached over and carded his fingers through her hair as he asked, “What makes you think that just because I’m having a baby, you’re not wanted?”
“Mommy and daddy only wanted the new baby, and not me,” she cried.
“That’s not true,” Jensen softly disagreed as he looked to Jared to help him explain hatred and prejudice in a way that a six year old could understand.
“They do love you,” Jared explained. “It’s just that since we are your real daddies, we wanted the chance to take care of you, and besides, you get the important job of being big sister to your two brothers.”
“You’re really my daddies?” she asked suspiciously. “Then why can’t I call you daddy?”
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jensen told her, “You can call us daddy if you want, we’d love that.”
“But I can’t call you both daddy,” she told them in a confused voice. “Carrie has a daddy and a Papa, can I have that too?”
“You can,” Jensen told her, “You decide who’s who.”
The little girl tore herself from Jared’s arms and launched herself into Jensen’s, declaring, “You’ll be daddy, and Jared’s Papa!”
That declaration reduced the adults in the small examination bay to blubbering messes. Jensen would have found it fascinating that the professionals were crying as well, if he wasn’t a mess himself.
“Daddy?” Amanda asked sleepily as she looked up at Jensen, whose body shuddered at the pleasure of his daughter calling him daddy. “Did you say I get two brothers? ‘Cause that’s more than Carrie!”
“Jensen, Jared, I’m going to check to see if her room is ready, while you two make arrangements for the home visits from Miss Turner.”
The nurse came back and told them that there wouldn’t be another bed ready for at least an hour. The social worker said that the visits would be unannounced, but she didn’t foresee a problem. She had to follow through because she had been called down for a consult. Jensen was tired physically and emotionally, and once the nurse and the social worker were gone, he and Amanda began a battle to see who could yawn the hardest. Perhaps once they got her to a room, they could get him a cot to sleep on. He wanted to stay, both to make sure that she was doing as well as the nurse practitioner said she was, and so that she knew that he cared and was not abandoning her there.
It was less than an hour when she was taken to the children’s floor, and as soon as they had her settled, Chris called from the ER waiting room to see how she was doing. Jensen had completely forgotten that Chris was there and now Chad had joined him. They gave them the room number so that they could have a quick visit before visiting hours were over.
The two men joined them and had a thirty-minute visit before the nurses came to chase them out. Just as Jensen was going to ask the nurse for a cot, Jared threw him a loop by saying to Chris, “Hey Chris do you mind driving Jensen home? I’m going to stay here with Mandie so I’ll be here to take her home in the morning.”
“No, we’re going to stay here with Mandie,” Jensen corrected.
“Son, you’re not superman, you need rest and you won’t get it here,” Chris said, surprising him.
“Jared, I just wanna…” Jensen started, but one look at Jared told him that the younger man wasn’t going to give in.
Jared walked over to Jensen and explained, “You need rest or I’ll spend the night worrying about both of you, Jen. Besides, it’s just for one night.”
“Why don’t you come home with me, and Jared can get you on the way home in the morning.” Chris suggested.
“Mandie…” Jensen tried to argue, but he knew the men were right; it’s just that he didn’t want to leave her in the hospital, even though he knew that Jared was going to be there.
Jensen found that he didn’t have the energy to argue, so he kissed his sleepy daughter and husband goodnight, and with one last glance, he left with Chris and Chad.
As they walked to the car, Chad looked at Jensen, who was moping because he had to leave his family, and said, “Stop being a whiny bitch and rein those old hormones in.”
“What the fuck do you know about my hormones?” Jensen snapped.
“I know that Jared bitches at you all of the time about them, so if Jared can, so can I.”
“You know,” Jensen started, “because of those hormones, I’m horny as hell right now, you gonna take care of that for Jared since you think you can do what he does?”
Chris was trying not to laugh, but gave up fighting it, stopped, and held his stomach as he laughed so hard that tears were rolling down his cheeks.
“I don’t think that Jared wants you to be that good of a friend,” Chris choked out.
“Why is it that all of my friends like cock?” Chad mumbled to himself. “I need to find some friends that I can discuss the finer points of pussy with, because y’all suck.”
“When we’re not being blown,” Chris agreed and Jensen nodded his head enthusiastically in agreement.
“Fuck my life!” Chad groaned as he reached his car. Before opening the door, he beat his head on the roof as though attempting to get rid of the visual.
Chris’s car was five parking spaces up from Chad’s and as soon as Chris started driving Jensen was asleep. Twenty-five minutes later he was gently being shook awake.
“I ain’t carrying your heavy ass, so get out,” Chris told him.
A groggy Jensen made his way inside the Carlson-Kane (really, that’s how Chris and Steve referred to their home) residence and almost landed flat on his face after tripping over a…doll. As Chris steadied him, Jensen took a good look around the room and was shocked by what he saw. In all of the years that he’d visited the two men, he’d become used to seeing various musical instruments lying about, but now it looked as though a toy store had exploded in the house. Jensen looked at Chris and smiled.
“What?” Chris defended, “You just wait until those two come along and let’s see what you think then.”
“I’m not criticizing, Chris,” Jensen explained to his friend, “It’s just that maybe I’m a little jealous that you and Steve have achieved this in such a short time.”
“You guys will get there, just give it time.”
Jensen nodded in agreement, because after today it seemed as though they were on their way. He wasn’t naive enough to think that it would happen overnight, but the fact that Amanda wanted to call them Daddy and Papa gave him hope.
He was too tired for a shower. Once he was in the guest room, Jensen was soon asleep again and didn’t wake until the next morning, when Jared kissed him as though he was waking a sleeping princess in a fairytale.
“Good morning, Daddy,” Jared greeted a still sleepy Jensen.
“Hey yourself, Papa,” Jared returned the greeting with a smile that was meant for Jensen only.
“None of that,” Steve admonished the men, “There is a little girl standing here and we don’t want to traumatize her”
“Hi Daddy,” came a shy greeting from beside Steve.
“Hey, baby girl,” Jensen sadly greeted her as he took in the bruises she’d gotten from the fall. She seemed a little nervous and shy until Jensen sat up with his back against the headboard and held his arms out to her. She ran to him and gave him a hug.
“What was that?” She asked in awe as she felt the movement from Jensen’s stomach.
“That was your brothers saying good morning to you.” Jensen explained as he took her hand and gently placed it on his stomach so she could feel where the babies were kicking.
“Well that’s not fair that they say hello to you before they say hello to their Papa,” Jared mock-complained as he joined his family on the bed and placed his hand over where the baby last kicked.
“If the Padaleckis are through feeling Jensen up, the Carlson-Kane’s are about to have breakfast, if you guys are interested,” Steve told then from the doorway.
Breakfast with Steve and Chris gave Jensen a glimpse into what they had to look forward to. If his boys were anything like their Papa, they were going to be super protective of Mandie, but he even looked forward to that as well.
At almost seven months pregnant with twins, Jensen Ackles-Padalecki was miserable. His husband spouted all of the right platitudes about how he would carry the babies or take some of the misery if he could, but Jensen was not so sure about that. He had some not-so-fond memories of nursing Jared back from a grievous paper cut, so he had firsthand knowledge of how big of a baby Jared could be when he was sick.
His expanding stomach was currently making it hard to drive, and with Jared in the middle of filming his latest action thriller, he was not on hand, so Jensen had to either depend on friends or hire a driver. Normally that wouldn’t bother him, but dealing with an active six year old and house-hunting on his own meant he had to wait for the driver whenever he wanted to go somewhere. Now that his friends had kids of their own, Jensen didn’t feel that he should interrupt their family time, so the driver won out.
Amanda and Carrie had a sleepover the night before attending a mutual friend’s birthday party, and Jensen was responsible for getting them there. Jensen didn’t think that the girl, Jennifer, was even a good friend. Everyone in their class had been invited, and Amanda and Carrie didn’t want to be the only ones who didn’t attend. Being the awesome daddy that he was, Jensen squashed his original idea of trying to talk them out of going so he could sleep, and made sure that they were there.
When the car pulled up to Jennifer’s house, the girls jumped out and ran to the front door, eager to join their classmates, leaving Jensen to struggle out of the car. When he finally managed to waddle inside, Jensen fell in love with the house. It was everything he and Jared wanted, except that it wasn’t for sale. As he was helped outside on the patio, he pictured the ghosts of Harley, Sadie, Oscar and Icky all frolicking on the acreage that these people called a back yard. There was a swimming pool, and Jared could probably enjoy his run without leaving the property. It was a little more Hollywood than he wanted, but it was a beautiful Hollywood.
He would like their realtor to see this house so that she would have some goddamn clue as to what they were looking for, because it seemed as though her mission in life was to make Jensen lose his cool. As the babies danced on his bladder, he waddled again, but this time upstairs to the bathroom and was gone so long that his host had to come looking for him. He blamed getting lost on pregnancy brain.
“Yeah, I remember that,” she joked with him.
“I love your house,” Jensen told her when she fell silent as they made their way back downstairs.
“Thank you,” she proudly beamed, “I’ve finally got it the way I wanted and my husband’s job decided to transfer him to England, so we have to sell and that is going to be a nightmare,”
“Not necessarily,” Jensen smiled back, and just like that, they had a new home. Three weeks later, they were moved in.
Because he was so close to his eighth month, Jensen began nesting, and even though they had just moved into the house, he went on a cleaning spree. Eventually deciding that he would not be tempting fate, he began to work on the nursery, beginning with finally ordering the furniture for the room. He and Amanda (with the aid of Jensen’s favorite set designer Damien) decorated and painted the nursery, and since his daughter’s favorite movie, The Legend of the Guardians, featured owls, Jensen had the set designer paint more kid friendly owls and birds sitting in a tree on the wall with a soft yellow background. Just because they were boys that didn’t mean that they had to be traditional and drown them in blue.
Jensen had forbid Jared entrance into the nursery until it was finished, so he and Amanda were excited about showing Jared the nursery that they had worked so hard on. He’d been having backaches all day so he leaned on Jared as he led him to the room. They stopped him at the closed door.
“No peeking Papa,” Amanda told Jared as she covered his eyes from her perch in his arms, while Jensen opened the door.
“It’s gorgeous Jen.” As he glanced around the room Jensen noticed that he took in the fact that there was two of everything, including two very comfortable looking rocking chairs before he demanded, “But please tell me that you didn’t do all of this by yourself, and by yourself I mean lift this heavy ass furniture and get on a ladder to paint this room.”
“No silly,” Amanda told him, “Daddy had to be careful so that my brothers won’t get hurt, so Damien helped.”
Jensen walked over and gave her a kiss, smirking at Jared, “Thanks baby for knowing Daddy isn’t stupid, and by Damien helped she means he did 90% of the work.”
Jared blushed and apologized, “I don’t think you’re stupid Jensen, but sometimes in your haste to get things done right, you don’t always think about the correct process of getting them done.”
“Jared,” Jensen pleaded.
“I know, I know. Look I know we were waiting, but I saw these and I had mom send some things last month. I didn’t want to show them to you until you were ready for the nursery. Wait here.” He lowered Amanda to the floor and went through the door that connected the nursery to their master suite.
Jensen smiled when a sheepish Jared surprised him with baby clothes that included several little Dallas Cowboys onesies and toboggans with a blue star, because he could picture his little bruisers rooting for the Cowboys.
After showing Jared the nursery, the three of them made their way downstairs to prepare dinner, with Amanda tagging closely behind Jensen. Jensen was standing at the sink when Amanda whispered loudly to Jared, “Papa, Daddy wet himself!”
Jensen’s entire body stiffened at his daughter’s announcement, because he had hoped he could have slipped upstairs and changed before calmly advising Jared that it was time. Now Jared was going to panic and Jensen wasn’t so sure he wasn’t going to either.
“Jensen,” Jared asked, “Is it time?”
Taking a deep breath, Jensen nodded his affirmation as the first contraction tore through his body, rendering him speechless for a moment.
“Okay, okay…um,” Jared began. “I…”
Jensen checked to make sure that the stove was turned off, because he didn’t want to have the house burn down while they were at the hospital, then turned to Jared and instructed, “Call Danneel. She is going to take care of Mandie. I have a bag packed for both of us in the hall closet, so go get them, babe.”
When the second contraction hit him, it occurred to Jensen that they probably should time, so he glanced at his watch, but couldn’t focus. Jared would have to be in charge of the time keeping.
He listened as Jared talked to Danni and realized how scared he was at this moment. When the backaches had started earlier, it had worried him, because it reminded him of all of the miscarriages he’d experienced, and it wasn’t until his water broke that he felt a little relieved. He wouldn’t completely relax until his babies were sleeping upstairs in the nursery.
Jared and Amanda came back into the kitchen bearing the overnight bags and some clean pants for Jensen.
“Mandie, why don’t you go into the family room and watch television while I help Daddy change his pants.” Jared instructed the little girl.
“ ‘Kay, Papa,” she said in a small voice as she stared at Jensen
“Daddy’s going to be alright,” Jensen tried to reassure her, “Your brothers are just anxious to meet you.”
Once they were sure the little girl was settled in front of the television, Jensen and Jared made their way to the bathroom just off from the den, and Jensen sat on the toilet and let Jared remove his soiled shoes and socks, before helping him out of his pants and underwear. The minute he was in dry clothes, Jensen felt a little better until the next contraction hit.
“I’m so scared and happy at the same time, Jare,” Jensen confessed to his husband after the pain from the contraction was gone. “We’ve never made it this far before and I think it will kill me if something goes wrong.”
“It…’m scared too Jen I want to be strong and tell you everything will be okay, but I’m scared too. Over the years we’ve watched this happen for our friends, but this part has never been us, and we’ve come too far for it to go wrong now, but the fact of the matter is I…we know it can go very wrong and I’m so fucking scared.”
There were no words that would erase the fear that both men were experiencing, so after a brief hug, they headed back to the family room to Amanda and the three of them waited for Danneel to arrive.
When the next contraction hit him, Jensen held onto Jared’s hand to hide the pain from Amanda. Remembered that they needed to time the contractions, he lifted Jared’s arm and said, “It’s 6:35, you time them from now on.”
“Bossy,” Jared teased as he viewed his watch.
Fifteen minutes and a contraction later, Danneel arrived and they left for the hospital. Fourteen hours later, Brady and Liam Padalecki were born healthy except for a slight case of jaundice, and this time, the tears their parents shed were tears of happiness.
Jensen woke up to see a little head poking through the door of his hospital room.
“I wanna see my brothers,” Amanda told him in the loud whisper that she’d patented.
She pushed the door open and was followed in by Danneel, Chad, Kenzie, his nephew Logan, and Jensen and Jared’s parents. Once inside the room, she ran to climb up onto the bed but two large hands stopped her.
“Daddy is sore, so you can’t jump on him,” Jared explained as he picked her up and walked to the bassinet where the babies were sleeping, “But your brothers are waiting to meet their big sister.”
The adults in the small room smiled as the little girl gazed at the little babies with wonder.
“So Jensen,” Chad started as he nodded towards the bassinet, “You trying to make sure they’re ready for the people magazine cover, so you put them in the tanning bed?”
“They’re bruisers, Uncle Jen,” Logan teased at the small babies.
“Don’t pay him any attention Jensen. Jared was my smallest baby, but look at him now.” Jared’s mom pointed out.
“Chris said they’ll see you sometime next week because there is a cold in the Carlson-Kane household.” Danneel advised him.
At Danneel’s announcement, everyone started talking and cooing over the babies. Jensen looked over to where Jared was attempting to show their daughter that he knew the difference between the two of them already, and gave them a tired smile. It might have taken him twenty-five years to get here, but in two days, he was going home to three kids and a husband who loved him dearly. If this was the result, he wouldn’t change one thing.
After everyone had gone, and Jared lay sprawled uncomfortably in the fold-out chair, Jensen got out of bed to retrieve the diary he’d started the day he found out about the pregnancy.
Welcome to the world Brady and Liam,
Your Papa and I have waited twenty years for you and you were so worth the wait. I have counted and recounted twenty fingers and twenty toes to make sure that they’re all there, but even if you were claw-fingered Cyclops, you’d be the most beautiful babies the world had ever seen.
Your big sister Amanda is just as eager for you to come home as your Papa and I. She is waiting to impart all of the knowledge she has learned in her six years, so I want you boys to promise me that when you’re older, you won’t terrorize her. Right now I’m watching you sleep, and I know that this is probably the only peace you’re going to give me for the next eighteen or so years, but I look forward to it. Happy Birthday boys,
Love Dad
p.s. Brady, no matter what your uncle Chad tells you, your sister chose your name.
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