How Green Becomes Wood

"Thank you," Daizi said, taking the glass of water. After taking a few sips, she closed her eyes, nodded, and repeated, "Thank you," and didn't say anything else until she had finished the glass, "I was able to drink a few sips of water, and eat a few spoonfuls of apple sauce, but..." She handed the glass back to Xander, and then Dark handed Ivy back to her.

"Blankets are good, we should bundle her," Dark remarked, and reached for his keys. It was only then that he realized how his hands were shaking.

Cooger saw it, and took the keys off the wall, "You've not slept since Wednesday night, you cannot drive," he looked at Xander, "They don't have a carseat yet, and they've got three seatbelts in the back. Daizi can hold, Ivy--" he hesitated after having said his niece's name for the first time, "and if you two both want to go, then one of you will have to sit in the back with them. It'll be tight, but if we squeeze it'll work, I bet."
 
Xander glanced at Alec, who gave a nod. "We'll wait here," he said. "Just... text us updates, right? We'll be fine, and someone's gotta drive."

Alec smiled gently at tiny Ivy. "I can't wait to see all of you home again. We'll wait here for you."
 
"We'll let you know everything," Daizi promised, and would have hugged him tight, were it not for the sleeping baby in her arms. She squirmed, slightly, but didn't wake. Dark was able to see the desire on his wife's face, so obliging her, he hugged Alec, and then gave a good nod to Xander.

"Try to get some sleep, okay?" He said, draping one blanket around Daizi's shoulders and another over Ivy.
 
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Alec smiled and hugged Dark back before letting him go. He opened the door and held it open for them, watching them go.

Xander stood by Alec, watching silently as they left. He wondered when they would come back, and when they did, would they bring the baby with them?
 
In the car, on the way to the hospital, Daizi lay her head on Dark's shoulder, but now that they were leaving home, going to the hospital with her... Ivy was relatively strong, and relatively healthy, but she was small, and premature. Neither of them could stop thinking about it. At some point Daizi touched her now-empty belly and joked about how, considering how tiny the baby actually was, it seemed like her body had overreacted.

Besides that, nobody really said much.

As promised, Dark texted the twins when they arrived at the hospital, when the pediatricians began to examine Ivy (except he wrote out her full name, Ivy-Qadira, because although he believed it was too big for her, he was still deluding himself into thinking he would always say the full name), and ultimately, he ended up calling the boys directly.

"Hello, I am sorry if I woke you," he said, sounding tired, "do not freak out, everything is okay. Just. Complicated."
 
Xander had fallen asleep on the couch but woke instantly when the phone rang. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up. "Nah, you didn't wake me," he lied. "Whats up? What's complicated?"

Alec looked up groggily from the floor where he'd partially dozed off while reading. He got up and sat on the couch. Xander put the phone on speaker so they could both hear and he wouldn't have to repeat everything.
 
Dark got straight to the point, "She needs to stay here for a little while. She is not in bad shape, she is not in danger, she is not in danger, nothing like that. For her age, she is actually doing well. But," he paused. Even with everything he had just explained, it was still difficult to explain, "she just is not ready to be home." He swallowed, taking another breath, "Her main problem is temperature, she cannot keep her body warm. But that, thankfully, will be resolved when she just gets bigger, and she eats surprisingly well considering she forgets to breathe, so..." He trailed off, and when he recollected himself said, "Cooger is going to go home to his house and bring Enkidu home, Daizi and I are going to have to stay here for right now."
 
Xander ran a hand through his hair, setting it on end even more. He took a minute before he replied. "Alright. We'll be fine. You just do what you gotta do, yeah? Don't worry about us."

Alec tugged on Xander's arm to bring the phone closer. "How long are you going to have to be there?"
 
"I do not know." Dark admitted, "For Ivy, it depends on how long it takes her to become strong enough to come home. A week, at least. It could be as long as a month. For Daizi and myself..." He shrugged, taking a long glance over at Daizi, who was sitting silently, one hand resting on her daughter's chest as she rested in her little incubator, "The NICU here does private rooms instead of just a bay, which we prefer, and parents can stay there instead of having to go home at the end of the night, but we do not know if we can afford it. We have it for tonight, this coming night, into the 14th, but after that, I have no idea. We are going to ask Daizi's father for help. Later this afternoon, after I have had the chance to rest, Cooger is going to pick me up and bring me home. Get the things we did not have time to gather... Change my clothes... Bring you two to visit if you want to come."
 
"Yeah. Okay." He took another long pause, "We are not abandoning you both. Or replacing you. She just needs a little extra help right now. And I think it would break her if she had to go home alone at the end of the night." He hoped that wasn't confusing, but he was betting on Daizi being too distracted to notice he had shifted who he was referring to if he didn't use names. After one last pause, his tone became a bit more teasing, and he commented, "I hope this did not ruin your Fall break."
 
Xander and Alec both stared at the phone, bewildered.

"I feel like you're joking, but I don't even know how to respond to that," Alec said slowly, mystified.

"It's absolutely ruined," Xander said in a flat tone. "It's horrible, how dare you, and so on."

Alec managed a wane smile. "We know she needs extra attention. The hospital stay was a tiny clue. And if one of us was in the hospital, we'd expect all focus to go to them. Don't worry. We're not quite that insecure... anymore."
 
"Good. Because we are not going to forget you while we are here. I am still going to come home, and you both can visit as much as you want." He paused again, trying not to feel overwhelmed by everything, "I have to call Daizi's family. It is noon over there. Wish me luck, her father will probably blame me. When it is a decent hour you can tell people. But Daizi wants to tell Sally before you tell Peter because she wants Sally to hear the news from her."
 
"Spend as much time there as you need, but not too much," Alec told him. "You still need to shower and things like that. Otherwise, do try not to worry about us, and don't worry about what your father-in-law says. It is most assuredly not your fault."

"Well, it kind of is, but we don't need to talk about that," Xander mumbled very quietly, hoping the phone wouldn't catch his words.

Alec made a face at him.
 
"Daizi finally got to shower," Dark murmured, hearing but choosing not to acknowledge Xander's words, "trying to get her to leave Ivy alone was like pulling teeth, but afterwards she said it was the greatest shower of her life, even though she said the little hotel-esque soaps made her skin feel dry. But she could not wait until I was able to get her soaps." For the first time in the phone call, it was possible to hear him smile, "She did incredible. I do not have words."
 
"I'm so glad," Alec said, and then smothered a yawn. He wasn't really sure what to say to that.

"Dude, get some sleep," Xander said over the phone. "As much sleep as you can now. We'll see you tomorrow. Okay? And tell her..." He hesitated.

"Tell them both we can't wait to see them," Alec finished for Xander.
 
Dark took another look at Daizi, "I will try. After I call her family... I will tell her. Them. We love you."

In the distance, just barely able to be heard, Daizi said, "I love you. Ivy, habibti, say 'I love you'... Well, she blinked a little bit."

Finally, hesitantly, Dark hung up the phone, and went back to sit with Daizi, and somehow managed to convince her to actually lie down and sleep. Then he began the arduous process of calling her relatives.
 
Xander stretched and tried to work the kink out of his neck. "We should get to bed, too. Come on. It's just... they're on vacation. A working vacation. Just like that weekend."

"Yeah," Alec said quietly. "I'm trying to think of it that way, but... I worry."

"I know," Xander said, nudging him gently, "but sitting here worrying about things that might happen isn't going to help them. Seeing us fretting and worrying isn't going to help them. So we're going to put on a brave face and do our best to not let them think about us being worried, because that will just worry them, and that helps no one. Right?"

Alec nodded firmly. "Right. You're right. We can handle this. We're not kids anymore."

Thus bolstered, they headed up to bed and did their best to sleep until morning when it was time for breakfast. Making breakfast for just the two of them was strange, but they did their best to pretend like nothing was wrong. It was all they could do to help right now, so they were determined to do it well.
 
Eventually, Daizi was just too tired to stay awake, and so fell into as heavy a sleep as she could, but for only about two or so hours, when a nurse came in to check Ivy and accidentally woke her mother. But it worked out adequately, since the baby needed to eat anyway, so for the second time, Daizi nursed her daughter, and cried all over again. Then, since newborns essentially slept for their first day alive, both went right back to sleep.

Dark found it harder to sleep, feeling what he believed to be some instinctual urge to keep watch, but he did succeed in the occasional guilt-filled doze. When the sun had risen enough to count as the morning, he procured breakfast for himself and his wife, and while he waited for it to arrive, he texted the twins and Cooger a picture of Ivy before scooping her up.

It might not have been a totally reasonable hour, although it wasn't absurdly early, considering how during the absurdly early hours, they were coming here, but it was still before 10a.m. ... But Daizi couldn't wait any longer, so she called Sally, praying she'd answer, "Hey... So, I know we were supposed to go to Brunch tomorrow, and I know this is last minute, but I have to cancel."
 
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