Chapter 139

Because they had to yell to be able to communicate with whoever was on the outside of the elevator, their communication was at a minimum. Randy knew if he came out and shouted that she was going to deliver in there and soon, Emily would lose it. So he passed along the info and figured a doctor or nurse would be able to deduce that all on their own.

“We're ok, she's been having contractions every two minutes.” he told whoever was out there asking.

“The tech will be here in five minutes!” they hollered back.

“Did you hear that, Em?” Leighanne said. “He'll be here in five minutes!”

Emily nodded. With her contractions lasting about a minute, and spaced out every two minutes she was starting to wear down.

“Why don't you try sitting down?” Leighanne suggested. “Or you could try getting on your hands and knees, that position helped me a lot when I was in labor.”

“Yeah, ok.” Emily said. “But no making fun of me if I look like a cow.” she joked.

Leighanne and Randy chuckled. “Glad to see your sense of humor is still intact.” Randy said, helping her down onto the floor.

While Emily was facing away from him, he silently opened up her suitcase to dig through it and take out whatever would be helpful if he had to deliver her first baby. He found a few baby blankets she'd packed along with a few t-shirts of AJ's. He motioned for Leighanne to remove her shoelace from her shoe to tie off the umbilical chord with. In her cosmetic bag he found a bottle of antibacterial hand gel. He set it aside figuring it was better than nothing since he had no sterile gloves.

Back in the waiting room, AJ was still pacing. Amanda returned with three cups of coffee. She knew AJ was miserable but she couldn't help but feel a little bit excited. Emily was having her babies! She fully trusted Randy to take good care of them even in an elevator. She knew things could go wrong but she figured things could go wrong even in the best of settings.

“I hope Leighanne is keeping herself calm.” Amanda muttered to Brian when AJ was on the other side of the room. “She's not so great under that kind of pressure.”

“I think she'll wind up surprising all of us.” Brian said. “She doesn't have much of a choice right now.”

“Otherwise Randy will have two hysterical women on his hands.” she laughed.

“Poor guy.” Brian said. “You know you shouldn't be jealous, right?”

“Of what? That Randy is delivering his ex's baby while trapped on an elevator?” she smiled. “No, I'm not jealous. I mean, it's certainly not my preference for him to be seeing her...womanhood..but it's not like it's all that glamorous of a sight right now.” she joked.

Brian smiled. “Good. I just wanted to make sure AJ's jealousy wasn't rubbing off on you.”

“No, I get where he's coming from. Randy always seems to be the guy who's there every time AJ's not. I can see where that would be hard for him. I mean I do kind of wish he'd like Randy for my sake but I can understand his feelings.”

“How fucking long does it take to drive to the hospital to fix a damn elevator?” AJ growled when he returned to their side of the room.

“At this point, I'd almost rather be stuck in the elevator with the two hysterical women.” Brian whispered.

Amanda had to stifle a giggle. AJ just glared at them.

“I'm glad you two seem to be having such a good time.” he said.

“I'm sorry, buddy. We're just making light of the situation.” Brian said.

“Mr. McLean?” Kathy poked her head in the waiting room.

They all looked up at her.

“I just wanted to let you know the repair tech is here now and is down taking a look at the elevator now. We should get a time estimate in just a few minutes.”

“Oh thank God!” AJ said, finally sitting down in a chair. “Thank you for letting us know.”

“You're welcome.” She hesitated before speaking again. “You might want to prepare yourself for a whirlwind. They're telling us that her contractions are every two minutes. There probably won't be much time once she's out before the first baby is delivered.”

AJ understood what she was saying, or rather what she wasn't saying. If they didn't get her out soon, she'd have the baby in the elevator.

“Well, you guys are going to have quite a birth story to share!” Amanda said.

AJ actually managed to smile. “Yeah, I suppose we will.”

“I remember when Leighanne had Baylee.” Brian said. “It was such a crazy day! We'd been up all night laboring at home and then when it was finally time to go to the hospital, she suddenly decided she didn't want to go. She was starting to hurt a lot and she got scared and I guess she thought if she just stayed at home, she wouldn't have to deal with any of it. I'll never forget how she sobbed and yelled at me for forcing her to get in the car.”

“Leighanne did that?” Amanda asked, surprised.

“Yeah. I can't really blame her, she was in a lot of pain and wasn't really herself. And I think the realization that it was really happening was getting to be a bit much for her. I felt about as helpless as I do right now. All I could do was let her squeeze the crap out of my hand.”

“Huh. She always made it sound like it was the most perfect delivery ever.” Amanda said.

“Well, in her mind, it probably was. Despite all that, when you're presented with a beautiful baby, everything that happened just leaves your mind.”

“Well, I don't see Emily having a baby in an elevator exactly leaving our minds, but maybe we'll just be able to laugh about it.” AJ said.

“Absolutely you'll laugh about it!” Amanda said, taking a sip of coffee. “Every time you're in a crowded elevator, she can say to you, 'Hey remember that time I had our baby in the hospital elevator?' and everyone will be amazed!”

“I'll tell you one thing, you'd better get her one hell of a bouquet of flowers after all this.” Brian said.

“Shit, forget flowers. Get her diamonds!” Amanda muttered.

“So Mandy, does all this make you want to run right out and have a baby of your own?” Brian asked.

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Can you at least let me get married before you start pressuring me into having a baby?”

“And when would that be?”

She shrugged. “Randy said he wanted to wait a few more months. So in my mind, we'll be engaged by Spring. So I could either plan it really fast and have it in the fall or I could have it at Christmas. Those are the two times I've always wanted to have a wedding.”

“You know Leighanne's already got a notebook full of ideas for your wedding, don't you?”

Amanda laughed. “No, I didn't know that but I'm not surprised. That woman should have been an event planner.”

AJ laughed. “She would be good at that. Emily would probably be her partner. Those two, left unrestrained, can really drive us all crazy trying to throw the perfect party.”

“Ah, but their parties are always perfect, are they not?” Amanda defended.

“Yes, they are.” Brian admitted.

AJ looked up and saw Kathy slowly entering the room, as if she was afraid to tell him what she had to say.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The tech says it's going to take twenty to thirty more minutes.” she blurted out. She looked like she was resisting the urge to duck away from AJ after she delivered the bad news.

Rather than yell, AJ froze. He didn't need a medical degree to know this was bad.

Back in the elevator, they'd been delivered the bad news. Emily had gotten off her hands and knees and was sitting on the floor, leaning back against Leighanne. She started sobbing.

“It's ok, Emily.” she said, smoothing her hair out of her face. “Everything will be ok.”

Randy was growing more and more concerned. Her contractions were pretty much right on top of each other now. He sat down across from her and grabbed her hands.

“Emily, I know this isn't what you want, but I'm not sure you're going to make it out of here before the baby is born. I would feel a whole lot better if you'd just let me check your progress so we can know for sure what's happening.”

Emily looked horrified. “You can't look down there!”

Randy bit back a grin. “I promise, there's nothing sexual about it. Right now I'm being a doctor, not your ex boyfriend. Let's just see what's happening.”

Emily looked up at Leighanne for help and saw she was getting none. “The last time you saw anything down there it almost ended my marriage! Plus, Amanda will kill me! And AJ will kill you!”

Leighanne laughed. “Sweetie no one will blame anyone for this. You need to let him help you.”

Emily reluctantly nodded. Randy handed her one of the baby blankets to cover herself with as she shrugged off her pants. He instructed her to lean back against Leighanne. Emily shut her eyes and tried to ignore what was going on as he tried to see how dilated she was.

Randy's eyes met Leighanne's in a silent communication. She shifted a little to support Emily better.

“Emily, you're fully dilated.” he said, gently. “And I can feel the baby's head. Honey we can't wait any longer.”

Emily's eyes flew open in a state of panic. “But this isn't supposed to be happening!” she wailed. “I'm supposed to be in a clean delivery room with lots and lots of pain meds and an OB, not sitting in a filthy elevator going all natural with a pediatrician!”

Randy knew she was quickly losing control. “Emily, stop and listen to me.” he said, firmly. “Now I know this isn't what you want. But you don't have a choice. The baby is coming whether you want it to or not, ok? So try and calm down and we can do this together. We can do this!” he reassured her, looking her directly in the eyes. “And remember,” he said more gently, “This isn't the first time I've delivered a baby in an elevator!” he said, reminding her of one of her favorite stories from when he was a med student.

“It's not?” Leighanne was amazed.

Emily laughed at the absurdity.

“I was doing my ER rotation and a woman came in ready to deliver and we thought we had enough time to get her up to OB but she ended up delivering right there in the elevator.”

“See Em, he has experience with this kind of thing!” Leighanne joked.

“So what do you say?” Randy asked. “Are you ready to do this?”

Emily nodded, feeling unsure.

“Ok. So here's what we're going to do. With your next contraction, Leighanne's going to help you hold back your legs and you're going to push.”

Leighanne looked at him as if asking if he was sure about this.

“I'm sure.” he said.

When Emily felt her next contraction, she nodded to them. She took a deep breath and pushed with all her might.

“That's great, Em! Keep it up!” Randy encouraged. When the contraction was over, he said, “Emily if you keep that up it won't take long. Probably just a few more pushes.”

With the next contraction, the baby dropped and the head was crowning. Emily started to lose it as the pain took hold of her.

“No, I can't! I can't do anymore!” she said, shaking her head from side to side.

“Emily, this is the worst part.” Randy said. “You're almost done, I promise!”

“He's right, Em. I could see the head that time even from here!” Leighanne said. “This is what they call the ring of fire, do you remember that from your class? Just focus all your pain into your push. Let's meet this baby!” Leighanne said.

Randy smiled at Leighanne as Emily settled down. “Ok. Let's do it.” she agreed.

A few more pushes and one large scream from Emily and the baby was born!

“It's a girl!” Randy announced. Emily and Leighanne were immediately in tears until they noticed how quiet it was.

“Why isn't she crying?” Emily asked.

Randy had set the baby down on the pile of shirts and was vigorously rubbing her chest. “Come on baby girl, take a breath for us!” he said softly.

“Oh my God...Leigh!” Emily cried as she grabbed Leighanne's hand.

“Randy what's going on?” Leighanne asked.

He was too focused to give them an answer at the moment. He picked the baby up and began rubbing her back with no result.

Leighanne looked down. “Randy?” she said, quietly. He didn't answer. “Randy!” she snapped.

He looked up and Leighanne gestured down to the floor. She was no doctor but to her, there seemed to be way too much blood on the floor.

Randy swore softly. “Come over here.” he said. “Emily, I want you to lie down.” he said.

“What's happening?” Emily said, her breathing shallow and panicky.

Randy quickly placed Leighanne's hand on Emily's lower abdomen. “Use a lot of pressure and massage. It should help slow the bleeding.” he said, quickly turning back to the baby. He put her back on the pile of shirts and started giving a few breaths mouth-to-mouth.

Emily was starting to feel funny as she noticed their voices became fuzzy sounding and her head was swimming.

Leighanne was doing all she could not to panic as she looked up at Emily's pale face.

Chapter 140

After a few rescue breaths and what felt like an eternity to everyone in that elevator, the baby gasped for air and immediately started screaming her head off.

“Oh thank God!” Randy said, sitting back and taking a moment to compose himself and catch his breath.

“Randy I'm not sure this is working.” Leighanne said. “Aren't we supposed to deliver a placenta or something?”

He shook his head. “Identical twins share the same placenta. It won't come out until the other baby is born. She'll need it in there to survive until then. Come over here and wrap up the baby and hold her close to you to keep her warm.”

Leighanne picked up the baby and the bundle of shirts and held her close. She didn't have time to enjoy her cuteness, she was too scared about Emily, who was still conscious but barely.

“Emily, hang in there!” Randy said. “Your little girl is going to be fine.” he assured her. “But we need you to stay awake, ok?”

Leighanne brought the baby over to show Emily. “Look! She's got AJ's eyes.”

Emily slowly rolled her head over to look at her new baby girl and smiled. “I always hoped they would have those eyes.”

“The bleeding is slowing.” Randy said, relieved. “Looks like everything is going to be ok!”

“What's going on in there?” a voice called.

“She just delivered.” Randy shouted back. “I think we're ok now, she had some severe bleeding. We're going to need an incubator and a NICU team right away for the baby.” he told them. “It's just to make sure everything is ok.” Randy said to Leighanne who had a scared look on her face.

A nurse filled Kathy in on the latest development. She decided that from the sounds of things, there had been some complications and she would keep AJ in the waiting room until Emily was out of the elevator and they had a few minutes to assess the situation.

With the bleeding slowed, Emily started to feel a little better. Leighanne laid the baby down on her chest and Emily was enjoying some quality time with her new little one.

“You know you've caused quite a lot of trouble today, Baby A!” she said, kissing the top of her head.

“Do you guys have names picked out?” Leighanne asked.

“We do, but we decided not to name them until we get to see both of them to decide who is who.”

Randy sat down by Emily's head. “She sure is cute.” he said, stroking the baby's soft hair. “Lots of hair! Looks like we'll be able to be out of here before the second one comes. You dropped down to six centimeters.”

“Only six? That just doesn't seem fair!” Emily groaned.

“Well look at it this way, you'll probably have time to get that epidural you've been waiting for.”

Suddenly they heard the elevator turn on and they felt themselves move up until they heard the comforting ding of the doors opening.

Randy quickly stood up. “We'll have to take the baby to the nursery for a little bit, ok Em?” he said, leaning down to pick up the baby.

Emily nodded. “Will you go with her, Leigh?”

“Of course! I won't leave her side until she's back with you, I promise!”

They were quickly surrounded by a large group of medical staff. Emily was carefully lifted onto a bed and the baby was loaded into the incubator and wheeled off to the nursery with Leighanne and Randy close behind while Emily was wheeled off to a delivery room.

Dr. Paul was waiting for her.

“I can not believe you just had your baby in an elevator!” she said. “We're going to clean you up a little and get you into a gown. Dr. Brown said you'd had some heavy bleeding for awhile but he managed to get it to slow down. Right now everything looks fine. You're still at six centimeters, baby's head is down and the heart rate looks great so we're in a good position for a vaginal delivery if you still want.”

“If you promise me an epidural before the contractions get strong again, I'm all in.” Emily said, wincing as she felt them beginning to start back up.

Dr. Paul laughed. “I will get right on that.”

Given the all clear, Kathy went to quickly get AJ. “Mr. McLean your wife is finally out of the elevator! Follow me and I'll take you to her.”

AJ shot out of his chair and followed her. Amanda and Brian weren't really sure what to do so they followed him. They quickly walked through the hallway and into Emily's room, Amanda and Brian hanging back at the door.

“Oh my God, Emily! I'm so sorry!” he said, flying to her side and giving her a hug.

Emily clung to him, feeling incredibly relieved to be with him.

“AJ we have a girl!” Emily said.

“What?” he said, with a totally shocked look on his face.

“We had a little girl!” she said, smiling through tears. “She's with Leighanne and Randy in the nursery right now getting checked out.”

“Oh my God! We had a little girl!! I have a little girl!” he said, loudly. “How are you? Are you ok? God, you must have been so scared in there!”

Emily herself was still in a state of shock over everything that happened with her first delivery that she hadn't really had much of a chance to process it all. She didn't have a whole lot of time to think, the contractions were starting back up quickly and painfully.

AJ jumped right in to the job of birth coach. Emily was sitting up on the edge of the bed and he held both of her hands as he coached her through the breathing just like they'd practiced. He could tell they were getting stronger by the way she was squeezing his hands. He didn't dare complain about it though, compared to everything she'd already been through, he was happy to help her in any way he could, even if it meant his hands might end up in casts by the end of the day.

The labor process was setting in quickly again and Emily was losing control quickly.

“I can't do it again!” she said, sobbing into his shoulder. “It hurts too bad! Please...you have to help me!”

AJ held her and tried to rub her back. “I'm sorry, sweetie. Everything is ok, you can do it! You've come this far!”

Just in the knick of time, the anesthesiologist walked in the room. “I hear our elevator mommy is ready for some relief!” he said.

“Oh my God...do it fast please!” Emily said.

The doctor chuckled as he set up for the epidural and explained to them both quickly the procedure.

“Alright Emily, I want you to sit up straight and then lean into your husband, like you're curling around your belly. First you'll feel cold stuff, that's just me cleaning off your back. Ok here's a little sting, that's the local going in to numb you up.”

AJ held her tightly as he heard her start breathing through another contraction.

“Ok, hold real still now, I'm going to put the needle in.”

Emily was in so much pain from her contraction that she didn't feel a thing as he placed the catheter in her spine. She could feel the cold sensation of the medicine flowing in.

“Ok, go ahead and lie down for me. It takes about fifteen minutes for the full effect to set in but you should start feeling some relief right away.”

“You are my hero.” Emily mumbled. “I think I might leave my husband for you.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” the doctor laughed.

AJ was very impressed when twenty minutes later, Emily was happy and perky again. “Now this is the way I was meant to have a baby...no pain!” she said.

“How bad was it?” he asked.

“It...was....awful! I hope I never have to do it again! Although....our little girl is pretty cute! She has your eyes and a total head of brown hair!”

“I can't wait to see her. How long will she be in the nursery do you think?”

“I'm not sure. There were a few complications when she was born, I think. I'm a little fuzzy on the details.”

“What do you mean complications?”

Emily was quiet as she herself was still processing everything that had happened, it had all been so fast. “I'm not totally sure, I was pretty out of it. They said I was bleeding too much for awhile. She wasn't crying and I remember Randy rubbing her chest trying to get her to cry and then the next thing I know he's giving her mouth to mouth and that's when my head started swimming.”

“She wasn't breathing? Is she ok?”

“She's ok. Randy said it's just a precaution that she's in the nursery. He saved her life, AJ. He saved mine...if he hadn't been in there, we both might not have made it.”

AJ was silent as he processed this. He'd had no idea things had been so complicated. “But...you're sure that everything is ok now?”

Emily nodded. “Dr. Paul said she'd go check on her for me. I'm sorry I don't know more, everything happened so fast and then I got off the elevator and I haven't really had time to process any of it except for seeing our little girl.”

AJ didn't even know what to say. He squeezed her hand and thanked God that they were both ok.

“Although, I may never take an elevator again.” she added.

He managed to laugh.

After hearing that Emily had delivered a baby girl, Brian and Amanda decided to go down to the nursery to see if they could catch a glimpse of her. They found Leighanne in the hallway.

“Oh my God, Leigh! What happened?” Brian said, taking in her blood soaked clothes.

“There were some complications.” she said, feeling very shaky as the shock of the event began to wear off. “Emily delivered the baby but she wasn't breathing. While Randy was trying to resuscitate her, Emily started to bleed out. I had to massage her uterus to help it slow down while he was saving the baby.

“Oh my Lord!” Amanda said, her hand covering her mouth. “Is everything ok now?”

“Randy's in with the baby now.” Leighanne gestured through the window. “He swears she seems fine and he said Emily was going to be fine when we got off the elevator. I just...in those few moments, I really didn't know whether things were going to turn out ok. I have never, in my entire life, felt so completely helpless.”

Brian was silent as he took in how close they'd come to this day turning into a tragedy.

“Anyway,” Leighanne sniffed, “They gave me some scrubs to change into so I'm going to go get cleaned up. I'll be right back. I promised Emily I'd stay with the baby so fill in for me and stand by the window until I get back.”

Leighanne came back a few minutes later cleaned up and in scrubs with her hair pulled back. She joined them at the window. “What'd I miss?”

“Looks like they did some kind of blood test by pricking her heel.” Brian said. “She didn't like that.”

“Well, all I can say is thank God she's crying.” Leighanne said.

Randy looked up at them and smiled. He picked up the baby and held her up so they could see.

“She looks just like AJ!” Brian exclaimed.

“Only with more hair!” Amanda joked, smiling at Emily's beautiful baby.

Randy came out to join them a few minutes later, sporting a pair of dark blue scrubs. “Anyone know if the other twin is here yet?”

“Not yet. I just sent AJ a text telling him we were all here watching his beautiful little girl. He said he'd come out and get us once the other baby was here.” Brian said.

“How's Emily?” he asked, worried.

“He said she's fine, much happier with her epidural.”

Randy gave Leighanne a hug. “You did great.” he said.

“I didn't do much, you were the real hero in there!”

“Well, you held it together for Emily and that made a huge difference.” he said.

“I am so glad you were in there.” Leighanne admitted. “I don't want to think about what would have happened if you hadn't been.”

“Either do I.” he admitted. “Truthfully, I don't want to think about any of it right now. I've seen a lot of things in my career but that was probably the scariest situation I've been in as a doctor. Now I know why they say never treat a family member. It wasn't just that it was a baby in distress, it was that it was Emily's baby.” he admitted, a little choked up.

Amanda wrapped her arms around him. The old Amanda would have felt threatened at the fact that he'd been so worried about Emily's baby. The new Amanda loved him even more for it. He was the man who'd saved not only her friend but her friend's baby and he was her hero.

Chapter 141

Emily's nurse, Olivia, came in to check how things were going.

“Emily you're having some pretty strong contractions right on top of each other. Are you feeling anything like pressure?”

“Not really but I can't feel much of anything.”

“Ok let's check things out.” Olivia said.

AJ tried not to cringe at the cervical exam. He'd known birth was all kinds of yuck but he didn't like seeing what was going on with his wife's body down there at the moment.

“You're at nine!” Olivia announced. “I'm going to call Dr. Paul, I think you'll be at ten within fifteen minutes max.”

“Oh my God, Em! It's almost time!” AJ said, getting emotional and excited.

“I'm so ready to be done with all of this.” Emily said. “Can you text Brian again just to ask him how our little girl is doing?” Emily asked, feeling worried about her daughter and anxious that they were separated so soon after she came into this world.

“Sure, babe.”

“I guess if you want you could go down and see her for a few minutes.” Emily offered.

AJ shook his head. “I am not leaving your side until the other baby is here! I don't want to chance missing it!”

Emily laughed. “Ok.”

“Oh hey it's AJ!” Brian said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “He said Emily's at nine centimeters and they expect to start pushing within fifteen minutes!” he said, feeling kind of giddy. “And Emily wants to know how the baby is doing.”

“You know, I almost feel like a grandmother.” Leighanne laughed. “It's just...we got them through so much in their relationship I almost feel like a parent to them in a way.”

“Randy how is the baby? What should I say?” Brian asked, shuddering at the thought of being a grandfather.

“She's great. Totally healthy. She was asleep when I came out here.”

Brian nodded as he sent back the message.

“Brian says the baby is great, and she's sleeping.”

Emily smiled. “Our daughter is asleep!”

“You're having fun just saying 'our daughter' aren't you?” he laughed.

“Well it is kind of fun!”

AJ grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. “I can't believe it. We have a daughter. Actually we have two identical daughters!”

He heard Emily suck in a breath.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

“Call the nurse for me, I think Baby B is getting ready to make her appearance!”

AJ pushed the nurse button and Olivia came flying in.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“I just started feeling some pressure. I think it might be time!”

Olivia took a quick peek and agreed with Emily. “Yep, it's baby time!!” She got on the phone and called Dr. Paul who was apparently waiting in the doctor's lounge. Then she turned on the baby warmer and opened up the delivery tray and began setting up the bed.

Dr. Paul came fluttering in and quickly put on her gown and gloves.

“Are you ready, guys?” she asked, smiling.

“More than ready!” Emily laughed.

“I bet you're liking this a whole lot more in a bed with an epidural, aren't you?” she teased.

“No, actually, I think I liked the elevator better. Much more cozy.”

Dr. Paul laughed. “Let's meet your baby, Emily! I think you know what to do here. Olivia will tell you when you have a contraction and then we can start pushing!”

AJ stood at one side and nurse Olivia stood at the other, helping her hold her legs back. It only took three pushes and then she was born!

AJ was ecstatic. Before when he'd seen parts of a birth on tv, he thought it was gross. But watching Emily deliver his daughter was beautiful. He would never forget the image of her coming into the world and the way she started screaming her cute little baby cry as soon as they suctioned out her mouth.

“Oh my God, I love you so much! She's so beautiful!” he said, tears running down both their faces as he gave her a kiss.

“Dad do you want to cut the chord?” Dr. Paul asked.

“Yeah, of course!” AJ agreed, wiping his face.

He cut where she showed him and then the laid the baby on Emily's chest and covered her with a blanket.

The rest was kind of a blur for them as they weighed and measured her and did all their routine tests before handing her back to Emily. After about twenty minutes, Dr. Paul and the nurses left them alone with their baby.

“I think she's hungry!” Emily said as she watched the baby root her head around.

“Can you feed her yet?” AJ asked.

“Yeah! Can you sit the bed up a little more for me and hand me that pillow over there?”

AJ watched in complete admiration as Emily held the baby up to her chest and showed her how to latch on and suckle.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“No, not yet.” she said, smiling down at her baby. Baby B nursed for about ten minutes and then conked out, sound asleep. “Why don't you hold her for a bit.” Emily said.

AJ felt a little nervous to pick her up. She was so tiny weighing only five and a half pounds. He'd never held anything so tiny, precious and fragile in his life. As he held her close to him, he kissed her soft head and inhaled that newborn scent. “I can't believe they're here.” he said.

He held his daughter for about ten minutes before Emily asked for her back. He took out their camera and took some more pictures of Mommy and Baby and lots and lots of pictures of the baby's beautiful face. He'd already sent one picture through a text message to pretty much every contact in his phone.

There was a soft knock on the door and Randy walked in, wheeling their first born daughter.

“Someone was missing her mommy!” he said, softly.

“Is she ok?” Emily asked.

“She's perfect.” Randy assured her. “Ready to leave the nursery and stay with you.”

AJ set the camera down and stared at Randy. He was suddenly flooded with emotion as he thought of Emily telling him how she wasn't breathing and had it not been for Randy, his daughter may not have survived in that elevator.

With tears in his eyes, he walked over to Randy and pulled him in a tight hug.

“Thank you.” he said. “Thank you for saving them.”

Randy was more than taken aback. This was not what he expected from AJ.

“You're welcome.” Randy said, clearing his throat as he fought his own emotions from the situation.

Emily smiled as she watched the scene, wondering if this would end their animosity towards each other.

“How's Baby B?” Randy asked, walking over to the bedside.

“She's great.” Emily said. “Already pigged out on some milk. Do you want to hold her?”

“I'd love to!” he said, taking the baby from her arms.

AJ was holding Baby A, introducing himself to her. “I'm your Daddy! Yes I am!” he said in his baby voice. “You do look just like your sister and I have no idea how I'm going to tell you two apart!”

When she started fussing, he handed her over to Emily. “I think she wants her Mommy.”

Randy gave Baby B back to AJ. “Congratulations, you two. Your girls are beautiful.”

“Thanks.” AJ said. “For everything.”

Randy smiled as he left the room.

“So what are we going to name them?” AJ asked. “Do you still like the names we'd picked out?”

“Yes! I do.” Emily said. “I think they're perfect!”

Their first night in the hospital was almost comical. The girls decided around midnight that they didn't want to sleep, they didn't want to eat, their diapers were dry, they just felt like crying. AJ held one and Emily held the other and they just looked up at each other and laughed. After a few hours they managed to get them settled back down and everyone got a good night's rest for the most part. The girls seemed to want to eat at different times so one would wake up and Emily would feed her then they'd go back to sleep and an hour later the other one would wake up.

“We're going to have to get them on the same schedule.” AJ grumbled as he managed to change another wet diaper.

“Hey you're doing really great with the whole diaper thing!” Emily complimented.

He smiled. “I'm certainly getting a lot of practice already.”

They rested throughout the morning. They had been informed that there were a few reporters who had caught wind of the story and were hoping for an interview from them.

“I suppose maybe we should give one?” Emily said.

AJ shook his head. “You don't have to do that! This is private!”

Emily shrugged. “The public will find out soon enough that it was us. So many employees already know here. Maybe we could just do one big one and get it over with.”

“Alright. I'll call Mark and ask him to set something up for us but not until tomorrow.”

Around three o'clock, the babies were awake and happily cooing away when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” Emily called. She smiled as Brian, Leighanne, Amanda and Randy came in.

They all extended their congratulations and handed Emily a big pile of baby gifts.

“Amanda and I went shopping today. You needed a bunch of pink and purple!” she laughed.

Emily and AJ went through the bags thoroughly enjoying all the little girl cuteness in them. There were cute dresses and socks and onesies and sleepers and even pink blankets and hair bows.

“You guys outdid yourselves!” Emily said. “Who wants to hold a baby?” she offered. “Wash your hands first!”

They all crowded around the sink and Leighanne and Brian claimed them first.

“What are their names?” Leighanne asked. “We've been dying to know!”

Emily smiled. “We've been waiting to tell you! Baby A is Alexis Miranda McLean. Baby B is Madelyn Leigh McLean.”

Leighanne looked up at her. “Those are beautiful names.”

“Well, they should be! Madelyn Leigh is named after you!” Emily laughed.

“Really?”

Emily nodded. “And Alexis Miranda is named after Randy.”

Randy looked surprised.

“We wanted to name her after you and we had a hard time figuring out a good middle name and Emily remembered she knew a girl who's name was Miranda that went by Randy when she was a kid.” AJ explained.

“I...wow! I don't know what to say!” Randy said.

“You saved her. That means a lot to us.” Emily said. “And Leighanne, I couldn't have done it without you either!”

Leighanne got all teary eyed. “So...which one do I have?”

AJ laughed. “You have Alexis. We gave them different colored hats.”

“Brian trade me! I want to hold Madelyn!”

Everyone laughed. “Leighanne you can't play favorites!” Emily said.

Eventually they handed the babies over to Amanda and Randy and Leighanne began unpacking a picnic basket.

“Since you guys missed Thanksgiving, well technically since we all did, we thought we'd bring it here and eat with you guys!”

Emily's stomach growled as she thought of turkey and stuffing and gravy. “You didn't have to do that!”

“Well, we have so much to be thankful for today it seemed appropriate.”

“So who cooked your dinner since you were trapped in an elevator with Emily all day?” AJ asked.

Leighanne laughed. “My mom and Brian's mom. It was kind of nice coming home to the food all cooked last night!”

Their visitors didn't stay too long. The babies eventually got hungry and they took their cue when Emily told them it was time to nurse. Once they had the girls fed, changed and sleeping in their bassinets, AJ climbed into bed next to Emily.

“I'm so proud of you.” he said.

“For what?”

“For everything! I mean obviously for the whole elevator thing but also just for giving birth to my babies in general. Seeing it, seeing you now having to feed them and hold them all while your body is recovering, I know it must be a lot to take in yet you seem so happy.”

“All that stuff is easy because I love them so much.” she smiled, looking over at her two sleeping beauties.

“Me too. Thank you so much for giving them to me.” he said, kissing her cheek.

“If I had to guess, I would say Alexis is going to be a bad-ass like her daddy.”

AJ laughed. “She has been the troublemaker ever since they started kicking, hasn't she?”

“Yes, and then she just had to go and be born in the elevator!”

“Well maybe Madelyn is rational and sensible like her mother and will keep her sister in line.”

“I can't believe we might get to go home tomorrow.” Emily said.

“Yeah, I know. It's one thing to be taking care of them here where help is just outside but to take them home and be totally on our own? That's a little scary.”

“I'm with you on that.” Emily admitted. “Me and you against the girls! Although we do have a lot of people willing to help. Leighanne and Amanda I'm sure will be dying to help out so they can visit the baby. And you know your mom is going to want to have a nice visit.”

“Yeah, I thought maybe we'd get settled for a week and then see how we feel about her coming? I told her we'd let her know when we were ready but I promised it wouldn't be too long.”

Emily nodded. “A week should be good.” she said, yawning.

AJ gave her another kiss. “You should get some rest, love.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

AJ tucked his wife in and sat down in the chair. He couldn't seem to keep his eyes off his daughters long enough to want to take a nap so he sat there, quietly watching them, and thinking about all the things he couldn't wait to do with them as they grew up. He knew first hand what it was like to grow up with a crappy, absent father and he was going to make damn sure that he was a vital and present part of their lives. Seeing them look so small and vulnerable made him realize that nothing would ever matter to him as much as his family did.