"You ready?" her doctor asked. They nodded.
Dominic had been counting down the minutes until this appointment. He couldn't wait to see if he was right about the twins genders. Rowan began to laugh as the doctor asked him if he wanted a job as a psychic. Baby A was a boy, Baby B a girl. Their son was still bigger than their daughter. He continued to try and hide her from the prying eyes of the ultrasound.
"She will never date," Dominic said happily.
"Who cares about long term!" Rowan cried. "Twenty weeks left! God, I'm going to be the size of Lake Michigan by then!"
"Oh, please," her doctor snorted. "You're still underweight. At this point you're going to topple over if you don't gain some weight other than the babies."
"I eat!" Rowan protested. "`The Food Nazi' over there makes sure of it." Dominic preened.
"I have a checklist," he said. The doctor snickered and ushered them out of her office.
When he and Vince had to leave town for a week he made Letty swear she wouldn't leave Rowan's side. Mia had school and her ride-along obligations, Jesse had a ton of classes and homework, Leon had the shop, and Letty had Rowan.
"Seriously, if you have to sic Ember on her, do it. She can't struggle out from Ember with the weight of the twins. It's kind of funny to watch, actually," he said.
"Don't worry about it," Letty said. "We're going to do the nursery while you're gone. She's got it all planned out and I've already got some friends on tap to do the painting, ceiling, and stuff."
"Would one of those friends be the tattoo artist you've been dating?" he asked. Letty gawked.
"How did you know about that?" she demanded.
"Rowan," he said. He grinned at her annoyance. "Hey, I still watch out for you. You seem to like him." She blushed.
"He's a nice guy. Doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, isn't into racing. He has a six year old kid. He goes to school, too. He's taking business classes so he can run his own shop." Dominic arched an eyebrow.
"A real live adult?" he asked. She blushed again.
"Seemed to work for you," she said. He smiled.
"It did. Hope it works for you too."
When he came home and saw what she'd done in the nursery, he laughed with delight. It was a woodland setting, complete with big trees, grass, rocks, and a little lake. All of the creatures were in pairs, one bigger and brotherly, while the other was smaller and sisterly.
She'd interlocked the initials `D' and `S' several times through out the room.
"You named the boy?" he asked.
"Not yet," she said. "But it'll be a `D' name. I heard you were partial to Scarlett."
"What if I like Rose?" he teased.
"I can replace it!" He laughed and rocked against her.
He was thrilled when he could feel them move. Rowan wasn't as enthusiastic, especially since they started to elbow and jostle one another.
"Hey!" she cried one afternoon. "Don't make me come in there! You, stop that! Leave your sister alone! I'm getting Daddy!"
Dominic talked to them, introduced Ruby to them, and dogged every step Rowan took. It annoyed him that because of his diet, she seemed to only gain weight in her boobs and her stomach. Everyone fell in love with her because she tried to mother them within an inch of their lives.
When she hit seven months, her energy fell straight through the floor. She was good during the day but when it came to early evening, he found her and Ruby asleep more often than not. She stopped being the first one awake and the last one asleep.
"I feel bad about punking out on you," she said when he came home and woke her up. He stopped annoying his developing children and put his chin on her belly. He gave her a questionable look. "We used to have fun!"
"You've got two human beings inside of you," he pointed out, "If they're anything like our current selection, they're sucking the life force right out of you."
"Well, I still feel bad so I got you a present to play with for the last few weeks of this," she said. He perked up, his eyebrows high. "Oh, fuck off, it's not Kimber!"
He laughed and climbed up her as she glared at him. "When do I get it?" he asked.
"Tomorrow, if I don't kill you first," she said grumpily.
He was trying to pry Tigger off the tool wall the next day when the car he had drooled so heavily over pulled up outside the shop. Another behind it, the same make and model but with none of the glam. He forgot about the cat and bounded out to grope the car.
"Hi, Tory!" Rowan called. She walked out and gave the driver of his fantasy car a big hug. Dominic didn't care if the guy wanted to lick her. He was too busy drooling.
"Your wish is my command," Tory said as he handed her some paperwork. "It was a piece of cake. I won it clear and clean. We'll meet up and get the title notarized."
"Thank you so much! I owe you. Any time you want, give me a call!" she said as she kissed his cheek. The guy that had driven up in the twin car climbed into Tory's passenger seat and they zoomed off.
Dominic sighed and looked at the twin. He figured Rowan would be painting it. "What do you owe him?" he asked as an after thought.
"Free paint for life."
"For?" he asked. She smacked the paperwork against his chest.
"So you can stop moping about not having a car to race in."
She laughed when he whooped and scooped her up. "You are so getting laid tonight! Well, maybe not tonight, maybe tomorrow. I have a lot of work to do on this car!"
The new toy excited the crew too. They spent half the night tearing the new car into pieces. Dominic even dreamed about the car. Rowan was intensely amused that he lusted after the car far more than any woman. He was nearly giddy. He tortured her all week long with details about what he wanted to do to it between his custom projects.
She concentrated on getting the house ready for the new humans while her current one learned to climb stairs. Rowan didn't know about that until Ruby did it.
"DominicDominicDominic!" she shrieked.
He nearly fell out of the car he was working on. He saw her pointing and he yelped when he saw Ruby most of the way up the shop's staircase. He took them two at a time and snatched her up. The baby was very pleased with herself.
"Baby gates," he said emphatically as his heart pounded. He held Ruby out in front of him. "Stop that!" She just gave him that brilliant smile and wriggled.
"Just who do you think you are? Growing teeth and learning to climb! What next? Boys?" Rowan asked her as Dominic held her upside down. She began to giggle hysterically which made Rowan laugh, and once Rowan started, she couldn't stop.
"Never boys," Dominic stated. "Not ever!"
He realized Ruby was growing by leaps and bounds again. When he went into her room the next morning to get her she was already waiting for him, standing up, a brilliant smile on her dark face. He grinned and reached for her.
"You, missy, are getting too big. Stop growing. Stay small and pliable."
After they'd had breakfast and shared some babble, he let her climb the stairs to go get Rowan. He stayed exactly behind her, his hands poised to grasp her, but she just wriggled right up them and clambered in her baby shamble into the bedroom. He boosted her onto the bed and laughed when she climbed onto her mom like she was an amusement park ride. Tigger was asleep on Rowan's belly and stretched out like road kill when Ruby woke her.
"I'm a toy, a bed, and an incubator," Rowan's voice said. "Next time, your sperm are just going to have to be content with one egg."
"Next time?" he asked as he poked, trying to annoy one of his kids into waking up.
"We need a second boy," she said diplomatically as Ruby grabbed two handfuls of kitty. Dominic was grateful the cat was placid and gently removed the cat from harms way.
"We can have four more kids!" he declared. He saw her look. "Okay, you can have four more," he said. Rowan began to giggle.
"We'd have to go back to the basement," she laughed.
He got her upright, on her feet and eating breakfast before he left with Ember on an errand. When he came back an hour later, she was finishing her morning walk with Letty, who was showing her the newest tattoos she'd gotten.
"I want one!" he heard Rowan whine.
"After you explode you can have one," Letty said diplomatically. She turned to see what Dominic had and shrieked. "Oh my god!"
Rowan saw the puppy lumbering around at Dominic's feet and made grabbing motions for it. "I can't bend!" she cried. Letty picked it up and gave it to Rowan after she'd snuggled it for a few seconds.
The mastiff already had paws the size of saucers. The dark brown body was tipped with red feet. "You are so cute!" Rowan cried. She cuddled it as it licked her fingers and her face.
"Boy," Dominic said. "We named him Mars. I figured the house couldn't possibly get any more chaotic than it will be. Ember picked him out."
Rowan spent all day at the shop sitting on the floor, laughing at the zoo. Mars was very interested in Tigger. Ruby stalked after Mars. Ember trailed Ruby. Whenever any of them got too close to the open bay doors, they were punted back into play by the humans.
"Don't make me come in there!" Rowan said as someone began to elbow someone else. "Dominic!"
Dominic bounded over and stretched out on the floor in front of her. He was instantly covered in cats, puppy, baby, and mammoth dog. Rowan burst into laughter.
"I feel so loved," he said as Mars licked his face. "Which is good since Mommy has started denying me again!" He grinned at Rowan's squawk.
"Look, I held out as long as I could, but you get them all riled up! I feel like I'm getting beat up! Maybe if you downgraded it a bit they would stop!"
"I don't do half assed sex," Dominic said with a sniff. Letty's loud laughter rang through the shop a second later. Rowan cracked up laughing again. "Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery!"
He met with Johnny the next morning about their pet project. They owned the land in the desert now and were headlong into the planning stage with the contractors. They were still arguing about what would work and what wouldn't.
"She explode yet?" Tran asked as Dominic yawned. Ruby yawned in response.
"She wishes," Dominic said. "Every time she gets up to pee she kicks me." Johnny laughed.
"Sounds like her."
"She and I made new wills," Dominic said. "Custody goes to Mia but all financial decisions go through you. Kosher?"
Johnny plucked Ruby from Dominic's arms and settled her high on his side. "Of course it is. This one already looks more like me anyway. Plus she has my charming personality!"
Rowan officially had enough of her pregnancy when she couldn't fit behind the steering wheel. Dominic tried not to laugh as she burst into tears. He kissed her temple and ordered her out of the car.
"If I can't put the seatbelt on I'm doing jumping jacks until I go into labor," she warned.
"If you can't wear a seatbelt you're not getting into a car," Dominic said.
"I have to go to my appointment," she said.
"We can walk."
Only when he was satisfied with her wrangling of the seat belt did he climb into the driver's seat. He laughed when the ultrasound showed both babies curled together as close as they could get. Ruby wasn't impressed when Dominic showed her.
He was buried under his dream car when Rowan waddled over to Vince. He didn't even have to ask. She whimpered when his fingers massaged her aching lower back.
"Poor thing," Vince teased. "Six more weeks and you'll be free."
"A lifetime," Rowan muttered.
The last two weeks of her eighth month were torture. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't get comfortable, she couldn't eat, she didn't want to do anything. Dominic dragged her ass out of bed every morning regardless and she secretly entertained fantasies of being a widow. They had a huge baby shower that she only mildly enjoyed. Her doctor's appointments were annoying, and the fact that her cervix was opening early drove Dominic to loom until she threw things at him.
"Hey! None of that!" Mia yelped when she caught Rowan exploring ways to go into early labor on the Internet. Mia snatched the notebook away from her and handed it to Dominic, who watched her with narrowed eyes.
"Be good," he ordered. He was grumpy too. Rowan had somehow turned Ember into her own attack dog and the huge animal now slept between him and Rowan. He'd learned not to touch his wife at night.
"Bite me," she said irritably as she rubbed her lower back. "This party better be fun or someone's gonna get hurt."
They were having a birthday party for Dominic that Rowan had planned the hell out of. There were already a zillion balloons everywhere, their hanging cords making the cats go ballistic. Every so often one of them had to go untangle one from a bundle. Ruby was enthralled with them, walking with her head back until she ran into something.
Rowan had rented Go Carts, Slip `n Slides, a few humorous picture cut outs for photo taking, and all blonde waitresses.
"It'll be good," Mia said as Ruby crashed into Rowan's legs.
"No bending!" Dominic called before Rowan could pick her up.
Rowan grumbled as Ruby reversed course and climbed under the car with her dad. Ember followed her as she walked around the shop restlessly. Mars wove in and out of her feet, watching her with doggy devotion. She checked on the party plans until she drove herself crazy with it. She finally came to a halt when she saw him watching her critically.
"What?"
"You okay? You're pale," he said. She'd been digging at her lower back all day.
"Back hurts," she said.
"You should…."
"If you tell me to relax, sit down, or lay down, I will kill you with my bare hands. I'll go get your cakes. That'll give me something to do before everyone starts arriving."
Dominic didn't like that idea and by the time she got to the SUV, Letty had run by her with another set of keys to it.
"Why so grouchy?" Letty demanded as Rowan fought with the seatbelt.
"Because no one needs me!" Rowan blurted out. "I can't have sex with my husband but he has that damn car so I doubt he misses it! Ruby's in this phase where she's in love with him and only wants him to feed her and put her down. Ember has all of her fuzzy babies! You all are dating or are in school! I haven't painted in months and I can't even bend over to pick up my kid!" She burst into tears.
Letty fluttered and flapped her hands until she got her seatbelt off. She ran around the car and flung her arms around Rowan.
"Oh, no crying! No crying! Dominic!"
"My poor baby," he said as he pried his wife out of the car. "I can't even imagine the chaos going on inside of you." He got her onto the comfortable couch with a sleepy Ruby and half a dozen assorted furry creatures. He stayed with them until everyone had fallen asleep.
"Poor thing," Mia laughed when she saw them.
"She's so miserable," Dominic admitted.
Ruby woke Rowan by poking her stomach like Dominic did. Rowan laughed and smoothed her hand over Ruby's dark head. She looked more like Mia every single day. "You are so gorgeous. I can't wait until you start giving your father chest pains."
The party was a smashing success. The blondes were a big hit and so were the various cut outs for people to poke their heads through. The guys liked the Hooters one the best.
"Maybe if you slap her you'll go into labor like you did with Ruby," Letty teased when some dumb young thing took one look at Dominic and fell in love.
"It will never end, will it?" Rowan asked.
Ruby had a ball with all the people, toys, paints, and balloons. She was more interested in feeding her cake to Ember and Mars than eating it herself.
Dominic loved carting his daughter around and showing off her uber cuteness. He got her totally riled up on sugar and laughed at the results. He wore her out until she was almost comatose. He kept one eye on his wife but she seemed to be holding her own.
When the crowd was down to just the racers, and the place was cleaned up, Mia went looking for Rowan.
"You okay?" she asked when she found her in the bathroom.
"Mia?" Rowan asked. Mia heard the quaver in her voice and went into the bathroom. Rowan was trying to wipe what looked like water off her legs.
"Oh my god! Is it time? Did your water break? Are you having contractions?" Mia demanded when she saw Rowan's pale, sweaty face.
"Yes," Rowan said to all of the above. Mia clapped excitedly.
"We need to time your next one!"
"Sixty-five seconds," Rowan gasped as she clutched the sink. Mia's jaw dropped. "Mia, they're coming, now."
Mia yelled at the top of her lungs. She grabbed Rowan's shoulders. "You've been in labor all day? All fucking day? Oh my god!"
She started barking orders the second the others reached her. Jesse called the squad while Dominic carried Rowan to the couch. Letty ran for clean shop towels while Leon started flinging things out of his way to get what Mia wanted. Mia pushed Rowan's dress up and then tried to jam her hands into some of the latex gloves they used in the store to prep food.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Dominic yelled at Rowan. "It was a fucking party! They would have done it whether we were here or not!" Leon came back, his arms full of shit.
"Don't yell at me! Ruby took forever! I thought we'd have time!" Rowan cried. "Mia, what do I do?"
"Oh, boy," Mia said when she got a good look. "You're gonna push, Rowan. Now! Dominic, get behind her! Push her up! Push, push, push!"
Rowan nearly crushed Dominic's fingers when he laced them through hers. He braced his body so she could fall back against him between pushes.
"Could be worse," he murmured as Rowan gasped for breath. "We could be in the basement."
"Maybe next time," Rowan said.
"Head! Head! I have a head! Push, damn it!" Mia yelled. Dominic would have laughed at the excitement in her voice if he hadn't been nearly incapacitated with fear. "Push! Oh, look, shoulder! Shoulder, turning, turning baby, oh look! It's your boy! Letty, grab him in the towel! Rub him dry! Let me at his mouth and his nose."
Mia did something with a baster and their son let out an entirely indignant cry. Mia clamped his umbilical cord with a shop tool and cut it a kitchen knife. Rowan closed her eyes as her son's apparent displeasure with the world continued.
"He's so big!" she heard Letty laugh. "God, he's so dark!"
"You okay, baby?" Dominic murmured as everyone ran around batshit crazy. He could hear the squad but it was too far away. He knew his daughter would be here before they would.
"We're gonna have to buy a new couch," she said. He looked at Mia, who was taking a break in the havoc to take Rowan's vitals.
"She okay?" he asked, worried.
"She's okay. She's just exhausted."
"Well, that's too bad for me, because she's coming," Rowan said. That started a new round of chaos. Jesse got to serve as the catcher and had their daughter by the time the EMTs came rushing into the garage.
"Hey," Letty said softly from Rowan's side. Rowan opened heavy eyes and smiled when she saw the bundle wrapped in clean shop towels. "He's so gorgeous, Rowan! Look at him!"
Rowan took him for a second and teared up when she saw his unhappy face. She drew him close to her and rubbed against his soft skin. He looked exactly like Dominic, complete with amazing, dark eyes. She kissed his temple but told someone to take him, she didn't think she could keep hold of him. Jesse popped into place with her daughter and Rowan's heart ached when she saw Ruby's little doppelganger.
Dominic wasn't sure he breathed once until Rowan and his kids got to the hospital. He didn't know which direction to go, so he followed her until she was in the hands of a few nurses, and then he went to find his kids. The nurse in the neo-natal unit banded his wrist and sent him back to his wife.
He was worried about her and hovered until a doctor examined her, said she was okay, and gave her some pain meds. When he got to crawl into the bed with her and curl into her, he decided things would be okay.
"Boy, when you're better, you and I are so going to have a talk about things you're supposed to tell your spouse," he said.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I really thought we'd have time. I was gonna tell you right after everyone had gone and then, well, you know how our life goes. Are they okay? I will never forgive myself if something is wrong."
"They're better than okay. They both got baths, they both got wrangled into those little tiny outfits, and got wrapped up like burritos. They're making sure they're warm enough and then they'll bring them down. He was six pounds, she was five and a half. He's taller, she's darker. She has these amazing little eyebrows and he has my lips. So, I don't know whose eggs you have in you, but they look like me!"
Rowan laughed. "That's okay. I like looking at them and seeing you."
She perked up when they brought the babies in. She fell in love with her son as he yawned and blinked sleepy chocolate colored eyes as he looked at her. She inspected him carefully and agreed. He had Dominic's lips. Then she swapped bundles with her husband. She marveled at her new daughter's tiny, tiny fingers and her thick eyelashes and eyebrows. Her dusky skin was even darker than Ruby's.
"Now that I've seen her, I really want to name her Synnamon with an `S'. How awful is that? That's like guaranteeing she'll be a stripper," Dominic said.
"Spell," Rowan said. He did and she began to laugh. "It fits her. She's darker than Ruby and cute as sin. Synnamon it is. If worst comes to worst, we can call her Sydney."
"What about the little man?" Dominic asked. He lay the baby down next to his sister and smiled when they seemed to click back together like puzzle pieces.
"I really like Dorian," Rowan said.
"I like that too!" he said as he stroked his fingers over his son's small head. "Okay, we can do this again when?"
"Pregnant by their first birthday," she said as she yawned. He snuggled down with her and they put the babies in the crook between their bodies. "God, we have three kids. How the hell did that happen?"
"Well, see, you stole the last Corona." She began to laugh.
"You miss that life?" she asked. He shook his head.
"Not for a second," he said. "This is my life, this is what I want. Everything else was just something I borrowed for awhile."
Neither of them so much as twitched until Dorian decided he was hungry. After the rather hysterical first feeding of them both, Dominic left them with Rowan to go make sure Ruby was okay.
When he got back he found Tran in her room, with Synn dead to the world on his chest.
"I'll take this one," he said as Dominic peeked at Dorian. Rowan had stuffed him under her top so no one could take him. His little head lay in the hollow of her throat, his hands grasping her hair.
"Ug," Dominic said, his chest tight. Sometimes he loved her so much that he didn't know what to do.
"Seriously," Johnny said as he kept Synn cupped in one of his big hands. "I stopped by your place but you were in the shower. I swear that puppy got bigger while I was there."
"I can hear his bones creak," Dominic said. "How's the plans for the track?"
"Coming along," Tran said. They both paused as Synn stretched out and then curled back up, her legs and arms under her chin. "Okay, she is so coming home with me. You guys can always have more."
"Brought to your knees by a female," Dominic mused. Johnny shrugged as he inspected the baby's tiny fingers.
"Seemed to work for you."
Dominic looked over at his wife and son. He still remembered how she'd smelled the night they'd met. He slipped onto the bed and kissed her temple.
"Yeah, it really did, didn't it?" he asked as he stroked his son's head. "Shocking considering she's not my type."
Dominic had been counting down the minutes until this appointment. He couldn't wait to see if he was right about the twins genders. Rowan began to laugh as the doctor asked him if he wanted a job as a psychic. Baby A was a boy, Baby B a girl. Their son was still bigger than their daughter. He continued to try and hide her from the prying eyes of the ultrasound.
"She will never date," Dominic said happily.
"Who cares about long term!" Rowan cried. "Twenty weeks left! God, I'm going to be the size of Lake Michigan by then!"
"Oh, please," her doctor snorted. "You're still underweight. At this point you're going to topple over if you don't gain some weight other than the babies."
"I eat!" Rowan protested. "`The Food Nazi' over there makes sure of it." Dominic preened.
"I have a checklist," he said. The doctor snickered and ushered them out of her office.
When he and Vince had to leave town for a week he made Letty swear she wouldn't leave Rowan's side. Mia had school and her ride-along obligations, Jesse had a ton of classes and homework, Leon had the shop, and Letty had Rowan.
"Seriously, if you have to sic Ember on her, do it. She can't struggle out from Ember with the weight of the twins. It's kind of funny to watch, actually," he said.
"Don't worry about it," Letty said. "We're going to do the nursery while you're gone. She's got it all planned out and I've already got some friends on tap to do the painting, ceiling, and stuff."
"Would one of those friends be the tattoo artist you've been dating?" he asked. Letty gawked.
"How did you know about that?" she demanded.
"Rowan," he said. He grinned at her annoyance. "Hey, I still watch out for you. You seem to like him." She blushed.
"He's a nice guy. Doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, isn't into racing. He has a six year old kid. He goes to school, too. He's taking business classes so he can run his own shop." Dominic arched an eyebrow.
"A real live adult?" he asked. She blushed again.
"Seemed to work for you," she said. He smiled.
"It did. Hope it works for you too."
When he came home and saw what she'd done in the nursery, he laughed with delight. It was a woodland setting, complete with big trees, grass, rocks, and a little lake. All of the creatures were in pairs, one bigger and brotherly, while the other was smaller and sisterly.
She'd interlocked the initials `D' and `S' several times through out the room.
"You named the boy?" he asked.
"Not yet," she said. "But it'll be a `D' name. I heard you were partial to Scarlett."
"What if I like Rose?" he teased.
"I can replace it!" He laughed and rocked against her.
He was thrilled when he could feel them move. Rowan wasn't as enthusiastic, especially since they started to elbow and jostle one another.
"Hey!" she cried one afternoon. "Don't make me come in there! You, stop that! Leave your sister alone! I'm getting Daddy!"
Dominic talked to them, introduced Ruby to them, and dogged every step Rowan took. It annoyed him that because of his diet, she seemed to only gain weight in her boobs and her stomach. Everyone fell in love with her because she tried to mother them within an inch of their lives.
When she hit seven months, her energy fell straight through the floor. She was good during the day but when it came to early evening, he found her and Ruby asleep more often than not. She stopped being the first one awake and the last one asleep.
"I feel bad about punking out on you," she said when he came home and woke her up. He stopped annoying his developing children and put his chin on her belly. He gave her a questionable look. "We used to have fun!"
"You've got two human beings inside of you," he pointed out, "If they're anything like our current selection, they're sucking the life force right out of you."
"Well, I still feel bad so I got you a present to play with for the last few weeks of this," she said. He perked up, his eyebrows high. "Oh, fuck off, it's not Kimber!"
He laughed and climbed up her as she glared at him. "When do I get it?" he asked.
"Tomorrow, if I don't kill you first," she said grumpily.
He was trying to pry Tigger off the tool wall the next day when the car he had drooled so heavily over pulled up outside the shop. Another behind it, the same make and model but with none of the glam. He forgot about the cat and bounded out to grope the car.
"Hi, Tory!" Rowan called. She walked out and gave the driver of his fantasy car a big hug. Dominic didn't care if the guy wanted to lick her. He was too busy drooling.
"Your wish is my command," Tory said as he handed her some paperwork. "It was a piece of cake. I won it clear and clean. We'll meet up and get the title notarized."
"Thank you so much! I owe you. Any time you want, give me a call!" she said as she kissed his cheek. The guy that had driven up in the twin car climbed into Tory's passenger seat and they zoomed off.
Dominic sighed and looked at the twin. He figured Rowan would be painting it. "What do you owe him?" he asked as an after thought.
"Free paint for life."
"For?" he asked. She smacked the paperwork against his chest.
"So you can stop moping about not having a car to race in."
She laughed when he whooped and scooped her up. "You are so getting laid tonight! Well, maybe not tonight, maybe tomorrow. I have a lot of work to do on this car!"
The new toy excited the crew too. They spent half the night tearing the new car into pieces. Dominic even dreamed about the car. Rowan was intensely amused that he lusted after the car far more than any woman. He was nearly giddy. He tortured her all week long with details about what he wanted to do to it between his custom projects.
She concentrated on getting the house ready for the new humans while her current one learned to climb stairs. Rowan didn't know about that until Ruby did it.
"DominicDominicDominic!" she shrieked.
He nearly fell out of the car he was working on. He saw her pointing and he yelped when he saw Ruby most of the way up the shop's staircase. He took them two at a time and snatched her up. The baby was very pleased with herself.
"Baby gates," he said emphatically as his heart pounded. He held Ruby out in front of him. "Stop that!" She just gave him that brilliant smile and wriggled.
"Just who do you think you are? Growing teeth and learning to climb! What next? Boys?" Rowan asked her as Dominic held her upside down. She began to giggle hysterically which made Rowan laugh, and once Rowan started, she couldn't stop.
"Never boys," Dominic stated. "Not ever!"
He realized Ruby was growing by leaps and bounds again. When he went into her room the next morning to get her she was already waiting for him, standing up, a brilliant smile on her dark face. He grinned and reached for her.
"You, missy, are getting too big. Stop growing. Stay small and pliable."
After they'd had breakfast and shared some babble, he let her climb the stairs to go get Rowan. He stayed exactly behind her, his hands poised to grasp her, but she just wriggled right up them and clambered in her baby shamble into the bedroom. He boosted her onto the bed and laughed when she climbed onto her mom like she was an amusement park ride. Tigger was asleep on Rowan's belly and stretched out like road kill when Ruby woke her.
"I'm a toy, a bed, and an incubator," Rowan's voice said. "Next time, your sperm are just going to have to be content with one egg."
"Next time?" he asked as he poked, trying to annoy one of his kids into waking up.
"We need a second boy," she said diplomatically as Ruby grabbed two handfuls of kitty. Dominic was grateful the cat was placid and gently removed the cat from harms way.
"We can have four more kids!" he declared. He saw her look. "Okay, you can have four more," he said. Rowan began to giggle.
"We'd have to go back to the basement," she laughed.
He got her upright, on her feet and eating breakfast before he left with Ember on an errand. When he came back an hour later, she was finishing her morning walk with Letty, who was showing her the newest tattoos she'd gotten.
"I want one!" he heard Rowan whine.
"After you explode you can have one," Letty said diplomatically. She turned to see what Dominic had and shrieked. "Oh my god!"
Rowan saw the puppy lumbering around at Dominic's feet and made grabbing motions for it. "I can't bend!" she cried. Letty picked it up and gave it to Rowan after she'd snuggled it for a few seconds.
The mastiff already had paws the size of saucers. The dark brown body was tipped with red feet. "You are so cute!" Rowan cried. She cuddled it as it licked her fingers and her face.
"Boy," Dominic said. "We named him Mars. I figured the house couldn't possibly get any more chaotic than it will be. Ember picked him out."
Rowan spent all day at the shop sitting on the floor, laughing at the zoo. Mars was very interested in Tigger. Ruby stalked after Mars. Ember trailed Ruby. Whenever any of them got too close to the open bay doors, they were punted back into play by the humans.
"Don't make me come in there!" Rowan said as someone began to elbow someone else. "Dominic!"
Dominic bounded over and stretched out on the floor in front of her. He was instantly covered in cats, puppy, baby, and mammoth dog. Rowan burst into laughter.
"I feel so loved," he said as Mars licked his face. "Which is good since Mommy has started denying me again!" He grinned at Rowan's squawk.
"Look, I held out as long as I could, but you get them all riled up! I feel like I'm getting beat up! Maybe if you downgraded it a bit they would stop!"
"I don't do half assed sex," Dominic said with a sniff. Letty's loud laughter rang through the shop a second later. Rowan cracked up laughing again. "Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery!"
He met with Johnny the next morning about their pet project. They owned the land in the desert now and were headlong into the planning stage with the contractors. They were still arguing about what would work and what wouldn't.
"She explode yet?" Tran asked as Dominic yawned. Ruby yawned in response.
"She wishes," Dominic said. "Every time she gets up to pee she kicks me." Johnny laughed.
"Sounds like her."
"She and I made new wills," Dominic said. "Custody goes to Mia but all financial decisions go through you. Kosher?"
Johnny plucked Ruby from Dominic's arms and settled her high on his side. "Of course it is. This one already looks more like me anyway. Plus she has my charming personality!"
Rowan officially had enough of her pregnancy when she couldn't fit behind the steering wheel. Dominic tried not to laugh as she burst into tears. He kissed her temple and ordered her out of the car.
"If I can't put the seatbelt on I'm doing jumping jacks until I go into labor," she warned.
"If you can't wear a seatbelt you're not getting into a car," Dominic said.
"I have to go to my appointment," she said.
"We can walk."
Only when he was satisfied with her wrangling of the seat belt did he climb into the driver's seat. He laughed when the ultrasound showed both babies curled together as close as they could get. Ruby wasn't impressed when Dominic showed her.
He was buried under his dream car when Rowan waddled over to Vince. He didn't even have to ask. She whimpered when his fingers massaged her aching lower back.
"Poor thing," Vince teased. "Six more weeks and you'll be free."
"A lifetime," Rowan muttered.
The last two weeks of her eighth month were torture. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't get comfortable, she couldn't eat, she didn't want to do anything. Dominic dragged her ass out of bed every morning regardless and she secretly entertained fantasies of being a widow. They had a huge baby shower that she only mildly enjoyed. Her doctor's appointments were annoying, and the fact that her cervix was opening early drove Dominic to loom until she threw things at him.
"Hey! None of that!" Mia yelped when she caught Rowan exploring ways to go into early labor on the Internet. Mia snatched the notebook away from her and handed it to Dominic, who watched her with narrowed eyes.
"Be good," he ordered. He was grumpy too. Rowan had somehow turned Ember into her own attack dog and the huge animal now slept between him and Rowan. He'd learned not to touch his wife at night.
"Bite me," she said irritably as she rubbed her lower back. "This party better be fun or someone's gonna get hurt."
They were having a birthday party for Dominic that Rowan had planned the hell out of. There were already a zillion balloons everywhere, their hanging cords making the cats go ballistic. Every so often one of them had to go untangle one from a bundle. Ruby was enthralled with them, walking with her head back until she ran into something.
Rowan had rented Go Carts, Slip `n Slides, a few humorous picture cut outs for photo taking, and all blonde waitresses.
"It'll be good," Mia said as Ruby crashed into Rowan's legs.
"No bending!" Dominic called before Rowan could pick her up.
Rowan grumbled as Ruby reversed course and climbed under the car with her dad. Ember followed her as she walked around the shop restlessly. Mars wove in and out of her feet, watching her with doggy devotion. She checked on the party plans until she drove herself crazy with it. She finally came to a halt when she saw him watching her critically.
"What?"
"You okay? You're pale," he said. She'd been digging at her lower back all day.
"Back hurts," she said.
"You should…."
"If you tell me to relax, sit down, or lay down, I will kill you with my bare hands. I'll go get your cakes. That'll give me something to do before everyone starts arriving."
Dominic didn't like that idea and by the time she got to the SUV, Letty had run by her with another set of keys to it.
"Why so grouchy?" Letty demanded as Rowan fought with the seatbelt.
"Because no one needs me!" Rowan blurted out. "I can't have sex with my husband but he has that damn car so I doubt he misses it! Ruby's in this phase where she's in love with him and only wants him to feed her and put her down. Ember has all of her fuzzy babies! You all are dating or are in school! I haven't painted in months and I can't even bend over to pick up my kid!" She burst into tears.
Letty fluttered and flapped her hands until she got her seatbelt off. She ran around the car and flung her arms around Rowan.
"Oh, no crying! No crying! Dominic!"
"My poor baby," he said as he pried his wife out of the car. "I can't even imagine the chaos going on inside of you." He got her onto the comfortable couch with a sleepy Ruby and half a dozen assorted furry creatures. He stayed with them until everyone had fallen asleep.
"Poor thing," Mia laughed when she saw them.
"She's so miserable," Dominic admitted.
Ruby woke Rowan by poking her stomach like Dominic did. Rowan laughed and smoothed her hand over Ruby's dark head. She looked more like Mia every single day. "You are so gorgeous. I can't wait until you start giving your father chest pains."
The party was a smashing success. The blondes were a big hit and so were the various cut outs for people to poke their heads through. The guys liked the Hooters one the best.
"Maybe if you slap her you'll go into labor like you did with Ruby," Letty teased when some dumb young thing took one look at Dominic and fell in love.
"It will never end, will it?" Rowan asked.
Ruby had a ball with all the people, toys, paints, and balloons. She was more interested in feeding her cake to Ember and Mars than eating it herself.
Dominic loved carting his daughter around and showing off her uber cuteness. He got her totally riled up on sugar and laughed at the results. He wore her out until she was almost comatose. He kept one eye on his wife but she seemed to be holding her own.
When the crowd was down to just the racers, and the place was cleaned up, Mia went looking for Rowan.
"You okay?" she asked when she found her in the bathroom.
"Mia?" Rowan asked. Mia heard the quaver in her voice and went into the bathroom. Rowan was trying to wipe what looked like water off her legs.
"Oh my god! Is it time? Did your water break? Are you having contractions?" Mia demanded when she saw Rowan's pale, sweaty face.
"Yes," Rowan said to all of the above. Mia clapped excitedly.
"We need to time your next one!"
"Sixty-five seconds," Rowan gasped as she clutched the sink. Mia's jaw dropped. "Mia, they're coming, now."
Mia yelled at the top of her lungs. She grabbed Rowan's shoulders. "You've been in labor all day? All fucking day? Oh my god!"
She started barking orders the second the others reached her. Jesse called the squad while Dominic carried Rowan to the couch. Letty ran for clean shop towels while Leon started flinging things out of his way to get what Mia wanted. Mia pushed Rowan's dress up and then tried to jam her hands into some of the latex gloves they used in the store to prep food.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Dominic yelled at Rowan. "It was a fucking party! They would have done it whether we were here or not!" Leon came back, his arms full of shit.
"Don't yell at me! Ruby took forever! I thought we'd have time!" Rowan cried. "Mia, what do I do?"
"Oh, boy," Mia said when she got a good look. "You're gonna push, Rowan. Now! Dominic, get behind her! Push her up! Push, push, push!"
Rowan nearly crushed Dominic's fingers when he laced them through hers. He braced his body so she could fall back against him between pushes.
"Could be worse," he murmured as Rowan gasped for breath. "We could be in the basement."
"Maybe next time," Rowan said.
"Head! Head! I have a head! Push, damn it!" Mia yelled. Dominic would have laughed at the excitement in her voice if he hadn't been nearly incapacitated with fear. "Push! Oh, look, shoulder! Shoulder, turning, turning baby, oh look! It's your boy! Letty, grab him in the towel! Rub him dry! Let me at his mouth and his nose."
Mia did something with a baster and their son let out an entirely indignant cry. Mia clamped his umbilical cord with a shop tool and cut it a kitchen knife. Rowan closed her eyes as her son's apparent displeasure with the world continued.
"He's so big!" she heard Letty laugh. "God, he's so dark!"
"You okay, baby?" Dominic murmured as everyone ran around batshit crazy. He could hear the squad but it was too far away. He knew his daughter would be here before they would.
"We're gonna have to buy a new couch," she said. He looked at Mia, who was taking a break in the havoc to take Rowan's vitals.
"She okay?" he asked, worried.
"She's okay. She's just exhausted."
"Well, that's too bad for me, because she's coming," Rowan said. That started a new round of chaos. Jesse got to serve as the catcher and had their daughter by the time the EMTs came rushing into the garage.
"Hey," Letty said softly from Rowan's side. Rowan opened heavy eyes and smiled when she saw the bundle wrapped in clean shop towels. "He's so gorgeous, Rowan! Look at him!"
Rowan took him for a second and teared up when she saw his unhappy face. She drew him close to her and rubbed against his soft skin. He looked exactly like Dominic, complete with amazing, dark eyes. She kissed his temple but told someone to take him, she didn't think she could keep hold of him. Jesse popped into place with her daughter and Rowan's heart ached when she saw Ruby's little doppelganger.
Dominic wasn't sure he breathed once until Rowan and his kids got to the hospital. He didn't know which direction to go, so he followed her until she was in the hands of a few nurses, and then he went to find his kids. The nurse in the neo-natal unit banded his wrist and sent him back to his wife.
He was worried about her and hovered until a doctor examined her, said she was okay, and gave her some pain meds. When he got to crawl into the bed with her and curl into her, he decided things would be okay.
"Boy, when you're better, you and I are so going to have a talk about things you're supposed to tell your spouse," he said.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I really thought we'd have time. I was gonna tell you right after everyone had gone and then, well, you know how our life goes. Are they okay? I will never forgive myself if something is wrong."
"They're better than okay. They both got baths, they both got wrangled into those little tiny outfits, and got wrapped up like burritos. They're making sure they're warm enough and then they'll bring them down. He was six pounds, she was five and a half. He's taller, she's darker. She has these amazing little eyebrows and he has my lips. So, I don't know whose eggs you have in you, but they look like me!"
Rowan laughed. "That's okay. I like looking at them and seeing you."
She perked up when they brought the babies in. She fell in love with her son as he yawned and blinked sleepy chocolate colored eyes as he looked at her. She inspected him carefully and agreed. He had Dominic's lips. Then she swapped bundles with her husband. She marveled at her new daughter's tiny, tiny fingers and her thick eyelashes and eyebrows. Her dusky skin was even darker than Ruby's.
"Now that I've seen her, I really want to name her Synnamon with an `S'. How awful is that? That's like guaranteeing she'll be a stripper," Dominic said.
"Spell," Rowan said. He did and she began to laugh. "It fits her. She's darker than Ruby and cute as sin. Synnamon it is. If worst comes to worst, we can call her Sydney."
"What about the little man?" Dominic asked. He lay the baby down next to his sister and smiled when they seemed to click back together like puzzle pieces.
"I really like Dorian," Rowan said.
"I like that too!" he said as he stroked his fingers over his son's small head. "Okay, we can do this again when?"
"Pregnant by their first birthday," she said as she yawned. He snuggled down with her and they put the babies in the crook between their bodies. "God, we have three kids. How the hell did that happen?"
"Well, see, you stole the last Corona." She began to laugh.
"You miss that life?" she asked. He shook his head.
"Not for a second," he said. "This is my life, this is what I want. Everything else was just something I borrowed for awhile."
Neither of them so much as twitched until Dorian decided he was hungry. After the rather hysterical first feeding of them both, Dominic left them with Rowan to go make sure Ruby was okay.
When he got back he found Tran in her room, with Synn dead to the world on his chest.
"I'll take this one," he said as Dominic peeked at Dorian. Rowan had stuffed him under her top so no one could take him. His little head lay in the hollow of her throat, his hands grasping her hair.
"Ug," Dominic said, his chest tight. Sometimes he loved her so much that he didn't know what to do.
"Seriously," Johnny said as he kept Synn cupped in one of his big hands. "I stopped by your place but you were in the shower. I swear that puppy got bigger while I was there."
"I can hear his bones creak," Dominic said. "How's the plans for the track?"
"Coming along," Tran said. They both paused as Synn stretched out and then curled back up, her legs and arms under her chin. "Okay, she is so coming home with me. You guys can always have more."
"Brought to your knees by a female," Dominic mused. Johnny shrugged as he inspected the baby's tiny fingers.
"Seemed to work for you."
Dominic looked over at his wife and son. He still remembered how she'd smelled the night they'd met. He slipped onto the bed and kissed her temple.
"Yeah, it really did, didn't it?" he asked as he stroked his son's head. "Shocking considering she's not my type."
