Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins
Chapter 298

Slumped on the couch, lan heaves a gigantic sigh. "What is taking so long," he mutters, glaring angrily at the steps as if they've personally offended him.

"You knew it would take a while," Bridgette murmurs, running a hand over lan's soft brown hair and smiling fondly at her nephew. She sighs and wraps her arms around him, giving him a little squeeze, knowing that he's been up all night. She glances at the clock and sees that it's nearly noon now - a long time for a little boy to wait to meet his new sisters. "Something must be wrong," Alvin murmurs from where he sits on the floor next to them, an unfinished puzzle sitting forgotten in front of him. "I've been listening and timing the contractions - the babies should have been born by now." "How can you even know that," Rafe asks from his place leaning against the wall, lowering his brows and frowning at Alvin.

"Because," Alvin says, not turning towards his uncle and speaking in a deadpan monotone. "The book said that once the contractions are two minutes apart, that labor should be completed in approximately two hours. Its' been two hours. And five minutes." Bridgette laughs a little and leans forward to stroke his hair as well. "It's not that precise, baby," she sighs, knowing that he's just anxious to know what's going on up there. Bridgette is surprised, actually, that Evelyn and Victor asked she and Rafe to come and sit downstairs with the boys while the babies were born - Evelyn has been so open with the other parts of the pregnancy that, honestly, she kind of expected her to want the boys to be in the room with her.

But Bridgette suspected that it was Victor, in the end, who put his foot down.

"Can't we go uppppp," Alvin whines, looking up at his auntie, who usually indulges him in everything.

Bridgette looks at him with sad eyes. "Sorry, baby," she says, shaking her head. "You know the rules. No boys upstairs until the girls are born. All right?"

"Fine," Alvin sighs, resigning himself. "But if I can't go up, I need some air," he declares, looking backwards at lan and catching his eye.

"Me too," lan declares, standing up and offering a hand to his brother to help him.

Bridgette watches the pair go with worried eyes, her heart breaking for the sensitive little boys. She knows it is difficult for them to wait, especially as births of any child present at least some risk to the mother. "All right," Bridgette says, watching them head for the front door. "Stay close to the house, in case we need to call you in for the good news!"

"We won't miss it," Alvin replies, his voice still depressed and worried.

"I'm coming with you," Rafe says, pushing himself up from his spot on the wall.

"No," lan says, turning to his uncle and holding up a hand, looking at him with wide and serious eyes. "We need a minute. Alone. To process our emotions."

Rafe blinks at his nephew in surprise and then huffs a little laugh, putting his hands up and backing away. "Okay," he says, shaking his head and smiling. "Damn, but you're more mature as a seven-year-old than I ever was."

"Don't curse, Uncle Rafe," Alvin says with another sigh. "It's not classy."

Rafe does his best to contain his smile as the boys both turn and head out to the front porch, disappearing from view once they close the door.

"Poor things," Rafe says, smiling and coming to sit next to Bridgette, putting an arm around her shoulder. "They're worried for their mom."

"I think it's sweet," Bridgette replies, looking towards the front door after them and running her palm over her own slightly-swelling belly. "Do you think ours will be anything like that?"

"I hope not," Rafe answers, laughing a little and shaking his head. "This family needs a dumb kid, after those two. And who knows what the twin girls will be like. It will be our job to bring some normalcy to this crew."

"Aw, they're not so bad," Bridgette says, laying her head on Rafe's shoulder. "But smart or dumb, we'll love them just the same."

"Yes," Roger agrees, turning to give her a little kiss on her hair. "Just as you love me, even though I'm an idiot."

"Precisely," Bridgette sighs happily, a little smile gracing her lips.

Outside, Alvin and lan mope down the front steps of the porch until they're reasonably sure that Rafe and Bridgette can't see them anymore. Then, they bolt.

"Come on!" lan hisses over his shoulder, heading around to the side of the house. "We have to get up there! Mom needs us!"

"I know!" Alvin agrees, his face determined. "But how do we get into the house?!"

They stop underneath their parents' bedroom window, looking up at the second story which seems very, very far away at this point. Then, as one, their eyes travel to the tree that grows just beside the cottage, some of the branches even scraping against the glass. The boys look at each other and twin smiles grow across both of their faces. Together, they dash for the tree.

"Give me a boost!" Alvin shouts, reaching it first. lan complies, cupping his hands so his brother can step in them and then lifting him high in the air. Alvin scrambles onto the lowest branch and then hangs from it, holding his hands out so that he can pull lan up. Once lan is lifted into the tree, it's quick work for the boys to scramble through the maze of branches, working their way ever closer to their mother's window.

"Glad we had all that practice," lan murmurs as he climbs.

"Yes," Alvin agrees. "At the third trial. I knew it would be good for something."

They soon reach the window ledge, the bough underneath them swaying and creaking dangerously under their weight. But the twins pay it no mind - they did the mental calculations. They're relatively sure that it will hold their weight.

"What do we do now," lan whispers, studying the window curiously. "It's locked."

"Do we...break it?" Alvin asks, biting his lip a little.

"Dad will kill us," lan replies, shaking his head.

"Dad is distracted," points out says, grinning.

lan smiles wickedly as well, but then he snaps his head forward. "Did you hear something?" he asks.

"No," Alvin replies, leaning forward to peer into the room. "Can you see anything?"

The glare on the window is bad at this hour so both boys have to lean in very far to see what's going on. But they squint, looking hard, and are both just barely able to see a side-view of their mother on the bed with her back pressed against the pillows, her knees wide apart with the doctor kneeling between them.

"Mama looks tired," Alvin says, worried.

"Mama is tough," lan counters, confident.

Alvin opens his mouth to say something else, but suddenly they both go very still as they hear a very particular, very new sound. They hear it with their ears, of course, but also resounding inside their minds and their hearts as well. The fresh, piercing sound of a little baby's first cry.