A Hospital in Annie's Universe | Wednesday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

It had been a pretty long night, once Annie and Diego had left for the hospital. And, ultimately, it had been a fairly uncomplicated labor in and of itself -- which, like, Annie was grateful for, but also people could stop saying that like it had been easy, thanks! -- and at the end of it all, mother and babies were all healthy and currently just sort of drowsy. (And, in Annie's case, sore in a way where she knew it was going to eventually be a lot worse, probably.)

Diego, on the other hand -- ha ha -- had an injury. That was, apparently, what supportive husbands got when their super-strong wives were busy pushing and not minding their strength, and Diego's brand-new hand fracture would apparently be healing in 4-6 weeks.

Which meant Annie was left to send out a text (along with a picture of two wrinkly little infants in little caps), once she was awake and lucid enough to think to do so.

Margaret (Maggie) and Benicio (Ben) Hargreeves, born early this morning (11/1/23). Everyone's okay, me included, just very tired. Diego's hand is also broken.

That seemed like enough for now, and Annie set aside her phone in favor of instead looking over towards the two bassinets in the room with them, and -- like, she hurt, but she'd also been on bedrest for forever, so she was tired of sitting around, and wanted to get over there to look at and hold her babies some more.

It just might, like, take a minute to get over there. She might not be pregnant anymore, sure, but Annie was not going to be moving fast again any time soon. (Which was fine. Babies, it turned out, had a pretty slow default speed.)

[feel free to say you got that text, and post is open for calls, texts, and broken-handed husbands!]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

Oh, like Summer wasn't going to be RIGHT on that text:

!!!!!

Congratulations! Finally!!! Ohmygod!

You knew it was big when she typed out a whole omg!

standard practice and condition apply: if you need ANYTHING....

❤❤❤

Also RIP Diego's hand lol

[knife_bender]

Diego's left hand was jinxed or something. If those fingers weren't chopped off, they were broken. He couldn't win.

When it came to hands, anyway. Right now he felt like the luckiest man in the world seeing his adorable children and his superhero (in so many ways!) wife all in the same room together, content and healthy.

Totally worth being able to hold one baby at a time for the next month or so.

"The siblings have officially been informed." Not that they were likely to text back. But still. He tried.

[defenderofdesmoines]

we really should have foreseen the hand thing.

Like, if nothing else, how many times had Annie worried about hurting him in intimate situations? She'd probably worried about hurting him while making the twins! And yet, no foresight here.

and thank you!!!! they're amazing. I know everyone says that but actually my kids are awesome.

Her kids didn't do anything yet but that was beside the point. They were already amazing.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"The people we're not related to also know," Annie told him, waving her phone at him with a tired smile. (And also, like, her mom, but she was probably going to be here soon so that wasn't news.) And hey, he could save her getting up, since she really probably wasn't supposed to. "Can you hand me a baby? Dealer's choice."

She really, really wanted to hold both of them, but she could also share. And besides, both babies deserved at least one parent's full attention on them at a time, here on the first day of their lives.

[somethingwithturquoise]

they're your kids. Of course theyre awesome

Like, literally the easiest test to pass ever. Good job on the genetics lottery there, kiddos.

even more important they are not inside of you anymore!

Look, Summer had priorities here.

[knife_bender]

Diego moved to pick up Maggie, already kind of nailing this one-handed baby pick up already. "I think Maggie wants some mother-daughter time."

Once she was handed over, Diego would go to pick up Ben. Time for some manly bonding. Which would consist of Diego looking at the sleeping baby with a goofy, sappy look on his face.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven was still not quite himself but that didn't stop him from sending a text.

Congratulations to the happy family. Marc says so as well.

Annie probably knew Marc well enough to know that was one of Steven's translations.

Hope everyone is resting and recovering as much as they can. Poor Diego included.

[defenderofdesmoines]

yeah let me know if you ever want to hear a scary Halloween story and I'll tell you about that part

It hadn't been that scary. Or so doctors and nurses kept reassuring her, but Annie was a first-time mom who was also not going to do this again, and she thought having a pair of babies had been pretty fucking intense, thanks!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"How's your hand?" Annie asked, a little concerned but you wouldn't know it from the way her face had already melted into a fond, soft look towards her daughter as she took Maggie from Diego.

God, their babies were perfect. Like -- sure, sure, everyone said their babies were the best babies! But theirs might actually be perfect. Look how Maggie had a tiny, tiny hand of her own! It was a whole hand, just so little and so perfect.

[knife_bender]

"It's totally fine," Diego assured her, face going soft as he gingerly picked up Ben out of his bassinet. "You know worse things have happened to this hand."

[somethingwithturquoise]

P A S S

Good reminder to check my birth control script tho

And then, after a bit of a moment:

seriously tho did everything mostly go well? How r U feeling?

[defenderofdesmoines]

thank you! we're all resting, and between nurses and my mom we've got plenty of people to look after the kids while we both recoup a little.

Annie privately felt that while Diego's hand was, indeed, a pressing matter, she probably had a touch more recuperation to attend to personally.

and thank you to Marc! I know babies aren't really his deal.

[grenadesandohana]

It was ass early in Hawai'i, but Steve was up and texting.

Good names! Congratulations! How did Diego's hand break? (D and I are back in Oahu, want us to bring back coco puffs?)

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Usually I'm not the thing happening to it," Annie pointed out, idly touching Maggie's sleeping face with a soft forefinger. "But okay. I guess a broken hand isn't that bad when you get kids in exchange, right?"

Annie had a few injuries, too, but she had at least anticipated them thanks to the many, many, many twin birth horror stories she had psyched herself out with weeks ago.

[knife_bender]

"Totally worth it," Diego said, rocking Ben gently. "I would have let you break both hands."

Though that would make Annie's life a living hell having to handle both kids at once by herself for a month. It was bad enough that Diego had not practiced changing diapers with one hand so that was going to be a learning experience at first.

[defenderofdesmoines]

fuck yes I want coco puffs, please and thank you.

A beat later: Diego's hand was a casualty of my holding it while, you know, babying.

Was it really her fault if she wasn't paying attention to her hand strength at that particular moment?

[grenadesandohana]

So you experienced the same level of pain. Feels fair--and you can tell him I said so. How long are you staying in the hospital?

[defenderofdesmoines]

everything went totally fine, as far as these things go. people also keep saying it wasn't even that long but I am here to tell you it was PLENTY LONG.

Just because she could have been in labor for three days or whatever did not mean that hadn't been the most exciting six or so hours of her life.

and I'm probably not going to be too mobile for the next few weeks but it's not so bad.

Because she was still at the hospital. Wait until she was home and dealing with the effects of a major medical procedure, with two infants and a one-handed husband.

[defenderofdesmoines]

But, honestly, if anyone could pull that off, it was probably Diego.

Though Annie was also going to probably reach a point where they both really missed that whole, like, agility thing.

"And we got a great story out of it," Annie replied, the words coming out in a coo because she was telling Maggie, and Maggie was sleeping, shh, everyone, her adorable baby needed her rest. "I think she has your nose."

Obviously. Look at that distinctive little face, right there.

[defenderofdesmoines]

I think we get to go home tomorrow afternoon, unless they find something complicated to fuss at me about. but so far, so good!

Annie was pretty sure their insurance would cover all the way to Saturday, but she was also already starting to get a little antsy about the hospital -- she didn't exactly love being here, and, even if everything had gone fine until now, there was also always the lingering threat that someone might take a little too much notice of the blonde Supe who'd given birth last night.

[somethingwithturquoise]

like, understandable. and anyone who expects otherwise can fuck off. tell them you'll do to their hands what you did to diego's but on purpose

how long DID it take anyway? ooooh and not that it matters and i definitely don't want to start up like a thing about it or anything but which one was first?

Summer kind of assumed Maggie since that was how the initial text ordered them, but that didn't necessarily mean anything, either!

[knife_bender]

"You think?" Like his kids were adorable, cutest babies ever. However they did both kind of look like little old men to him at the moment.

Cute little old men.

"I can't believe we made two perfect babies. They should be on the cover of Time or something. First ever perfect babies were born today."

[pocketpretzels]

congratukatons to yuo both. and the babies as elle for a succdessful debut.

[defenderofdesmoines]

dude I don't even need to get hands on with people who piss me off. we're so lucky I didn't break stuff here.

That would have really put a nail in the 'who is this mysterious, super-abled lady named Rebecca?' coffin, yeesh.

but it took almost 6 hours. Maggie was first by a couple minutes, and I fully expect that to be a Thing their whole lives, tbh.

Like, you might as well start up like a thing about it, Summer, because Maggie would gladly take up the I'm the Older One banner once she could talk.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer nodded with unexpected approval, not that Annie could see that or anything, buuuut....

big sisters do be like that

Great, now it totally was going to be a thing that Summer was going to actively be encouraging.