How Green Becomes Wood

He scoffed, "I've been in this group longer than you two have been. My life changed enough this year getting nephews and a niece, but I still live alone on my own land, and there ain't nothing that can pull me from it. And I doubt I'll have any new lady anytime soon, I went and got old on myself, and now that Daizi gave birth I'm back to being the widest around the middle of any of us. But that's alright, I don't think I'd like a wife if I had one."
 
"Not everyone gets married," Alec pointed out with a little smile, "but that's alright if you don't want a 'new lady.' It's just a thought. Still, I won't be surprised if you don't have something big coming up. We had a big thing, they had a big thing, and while you're single and not a duo, you probably have a big thing coming up."

"He's right. Things coming in threes and all that," Xander pointed out. "I think you'd better hope it's a positive thing, eh?"
 
He shrugged, "I think their baby having her own arrival expedited was probably the third thing. Dark and Tarot had learning they were pregnant with her as their 'big thing.' Ivy had, 'oh my god I'm born' as her 'big thing.' I'm off the hook. Anyway you two needed someone to take care of you, they wanted kids, I don't need or want anything more."
 
Alec had actually been thinking of the entire Declan issue as being their big thing, but there was no way he was going to correct Cooger about that. "Hmm, I'd thought of the entire pregnancy and its conclusion as one big thing, but if you're right, then, yes! You are off the hook. For which I'm glad, because big things aren't always good things."

Xander nodded. "True. It could have been something really bad, like losing a cat or something. That wouldn't have been a good thing. Or having to move. An ant infestation. No big thing is better."
 
"I think there's a transition between being pregnant and having a baby. Because, you know, Tarot had been pregnant before, but Ivy is her first baby." He turned somewhat sharply to Xander and pointed at him, "Don't joke about losing a cat. Imagine if Enkidu got lost or died. Anyway, I should be getting home. Y'all have school tomorrow, I'll bet you've got some prepping to do for it."
 
Xander had partly tuned out but mumbled something in vague agreement.

"I'm printing out announcement cards," Alec said, sliding off the chair to walk Cooger to the door.
 
"Teachers, classmates whose numbers I don't have, the janitor," Alec explained. "I actually do not have many numbers in my phone, and I won't remember the details on the spot. Like how much she weighs and how long she is. I'm not sure why people ask those questions, but I want to have the answers when they do. Thank you for giving us a ride home. See you later?"
 
"Oh yeah, I have no idea how long she is." Cooger agreed, "Ya know, that's a good idea, I should make those for my regulars. For the ones who care, anyway. Probably don't put a picture on them, though, it's never a good idea to publicize pictures of kids. Alright, see y'all later." He waved, and after giving Enkidu a deserved scratch, walked out of house and went home.
 
Alec waited until Cooger was in his truck and driving away before letting out a slow breath of relief. He went to check on Xander, who still sat in the kitchen moodily staring at the countertop. Deciding his brother was fine, he went to his room to print out the cards he'd already designed. He agreed with Cooger, of course, and in the place where some might have put a picture of the real baby, he'd found a clipart picture of a cute, smiling baby that looked vaguely like a cherub. They were small cards, only the size of larger business cards, but he thought they looked nice. After printing out a bunch, he cut them out, put them in his school bag, and went down to check on Xander. One more day down. Only a few more to go until Ivy came home. He'd lost count.
 
Back at the hospital, now that they knew no more guests were coming to say hello, Dark and Daizi were able to take some much needed time to decompress as much as possible. As surprising as it was, they did, when feeling the tiredness kick in, lay Ivy down in her cot so they could try to get some sleep crushed in against each other in the uncomfortable bed. And as they tried to sleep, they were able to just talk and check in with each other, since, at least for the moment, it felt like they had reached a little island amongst everything. They still didn't sleep much, but they were able to get in a little bit before their daughter woke them again.

And that was how they began the new week. And Ivy's third day. But it didn't really feel much like a new day, since it seemed more or less exactly like it had the first two days, and both Dark and Daizi agreed if it weren't for how excited they were to count brand new days of Ivy's life, they would have absolutely lost track of the date. Ivy continued to have problems with her blood pressure dropping, but was for the most part on track (even though the nurses had to keep reminding her parents that it is normal and expected for babies to lose weight after birth). The only real new development was kept from the twins, because they wouldn't want the details, but it was sufficient to say the doctors were not concerned about if Ivy was being fed enough and Sally received a text confirming they would not need to be purchasing formula. Because although the twins certainly would have punctured their eardrums to avoid learning it, Daizi was so ecstatic and relieved to learn her body wasn't totally awful at supporting a baby she needed to tell someone.

A few days after that, the news arrived her family actually would be able to come in time for Ivy's week anniversary, and on Thursday, Cooger picked up the twins from school to bring them to the hospital, where they would finally meet Daizi's family later that day.
 
Alec fussed with his hair, trying to get it to lay perfect. He'd tried to style it as conservatively as possible for the day but his fussing was starting to make it frizzy. "This is so exciting! Aunt Ciara really pulled through, didn't she? And Daizi finally gets to see her family again!"

"Yeah, great, awesome, goodie," Xander grumbled, feeling stuffed into his nicest shirt and pants with his hair slicked back. He grabbed both of Alec's hands and held them to keep him from fidgetting. "Cooger, are we there yet?"
 
Cooger had made absolutely no changes to his regular appearance and seemed just about the same as he always had while he drove them in, "You look fine, don't worry so much. It's the aunties and her dad, I can almost guarantee they'll say hi to you and then spend the rest of the trip fawning over the baby. If there's one thing aunties love, it's babies." He pulled into the parking lot, "and they're not even going to be in the room yet when you get there, so you can relax. It really won't be that bad. Now you two, go up, I'm sure Daizi misses you. I gotta go meet Dark at the airport. I guess only four of the aunts are coming, but lord knows if one of them has to sit in the middle seat or take a cab, it'll be the end of the world. So Amty Zeinab and Khalaty Neha are with Dark, and I get to party with Khalaty Amira and Amty Fadia. I can only imagine they decided since not everybody could come they needed equal representation between her mother's side and her father's side."
 
"The professor would flip if we didn't try to make a good impression," Xander pointed out. "Can't disappoint the professor." He slid out of the truck, closely followed by Alec.

"Drive safe! We look forward to meeting your passengers!" Alec said with a happy wave.

The pair of them walked into the hospital and found their way toward the hospital room, waving at the familiar nurses. Well, Alec waved. Xander just kept going.
 
"Maybe," Cooger agreed, "but I also think he's got so much on his hands these days, he may not even notice. Have fun keeping Daizi sane, she's excited to see her family but also extremely stressed about it." He gave a wave and watched them until they had gone inside before driving off.

Ivy was sleeping in her cot when the twins walked in, and at first it looked like Daizi was sleeping too, because she was curled up in bed with her back to the door, but through the soft and subtle whirrs and beeps of the hospital room, were the sounds of her crying.
 
Xander paused at the doorway, hesitant at first to wake Ivy or Daizi, but then he realized Daizi was crying. He hovered there, indecisive. Should he let her be to cry it out? Should he do something? Call someone? He didn't think he'd appreciate it if someone walked in on him crying.

Alec didn't hesitate. Moving around Xander, he went to the side of the bed and reached out but didn't touch her. "It's Alec. Xander's here, too. Do you want us to leave?"
 
Daizi jumped when Alec came up to her, having not noticed he came or Xander had come in, "O-oh," she sat up, trying very hard, and failing, to stop from crying, and she tried to wipe her face with the back of her hand, "hi, habibi. H-how was school?" She tried to smile, "Dark's picking up my family from the airport." On the very last word, her voice got tight again.
 
Alec sat next to her on the bed and gently put his hand on her arm. He gave her a second to become accustomed to his presence before leaning in and wrapping her in a gently hug. "You don't have to pretend," he said softly. "You don't always have to be strong. If you prefer, we can step out, but you don't have to pretend in front of us."
 
For only a moment she stiffened when Alec hugged her, but then the dam broke and, absolutely crumpling, she cried. But Daizi didn't hug Alec back, instead she wrapped her arms around her middle, which felt so different than it had a week ago, and it took time before she choked out, "her blood pressure dropped again."
 
Xander awkwardly inched around the room, getting a cup of water for Daizi and standing off to the side, waiting for a better moment to give it to her.

"I'm sorry," Alec said quietly. "That's really scary." He rubbed Daizi's arm lightly, trying to gauge if this was about Ivy only or something else and this was just the last straw.
 
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