ELENA POV:

I always thought that my first childbirth would be the most painful. But I was wrong. So wrong. In the end, though, it was all worth it. Emilin gave me a scare at first, but after she fell asleep she was akin to an angel. ​​

Both Nathen and Theo had been trying to stay awake to watch over her and me while Gabriel had left to settle the payments and get some food. Not long after though, the two tired children also dozed off.

When Gabriel came back with some warm white porridge, I looked at him, conveying to him, my worry for Emi’s condition. He told me that the doctor would take her to do another check-up in half an hour.

Gabriel sat down on the chair that was placed next to my bedside after moving the boys that had fallen asleep onto the couch. His gaze lingered on me for a bit before moving on to our beautiful little daughter, who was still asleep.

Seeing Gabriel’s hesitation I took the initiative to hand Emilin for him to cradle. His caring eyes remind me time and time again why I fell in love with him, to begin with. He was definitely the most caring man I had ever met, and that was still true to this day. Well caring, to me and our children. Anything outside of this family was no longer my business.

The worry in his eyes as well as the bags beneath them also didn’t escape my observations.

“My concern is that Emi might not be willing to go. She was crying really hard when you were handing her to Doctor Elms.” Gabriel seemed really tired from the overtime he had been doing the past two weeks and now with the early labor, he had to rush to the hospital with me so early in the morning. He hadn’t had any time to rest lately.

The pressure he has been feeling must have been immense, even with the small bursts of adrenaline. After everything calmed down, his eyes couldn’t hold the same excitement anymore due to the high levels of fatigue.

I wish he would just take care of himself sometimes. There was a part of me that wished I could also do more for him.

“We’ll have to see when the time comes,” I said, trying to push my worries to the back of my head.

***

Their worries ended up being unwarranted as Emilin was in deep slumber. The kind that couldn’t be shaken even with 5 alarms in 5-minute intervals on snooze. She wouldn’t be able to create a fuss even if she wanted to, not that she did.

When Doctor Elms strode back into the ward he was already in a much better mental state. After doing all the customary checks, Emilin proved to be healthy, despite the early labor. Even then, it was only around 2 weeks earlier than what was predicted, which couldn’t be said to be too bad. Emilin was tilting a little towards the lighter side of the scale in terms of weight, but nothing that would lead to any form of concern.

Although Emilin seemed to have a rather high brain activity, nothing seemed to be wrong physically and the baby was still too young to have any notable conclusions drawn from the information about just that. It could mean just about anything at her age, again, nothing that would lead to any major concerns.

“From what I can see, your child is healthy, so there won’t be any need for you to worry. You will have to be ready to breastfeed every two hours for the first weeks. Please stay at the hospital for the night, so that we can make sure everything is okay and you will be able to be discharged tomorrow.” Doctor Elms repeated the speech he memorized while thinking of the nap he was about to take after getting off his shift.

“Thank you, Doc,” Gabriel said as Doctor Elms left. “Honey, I’m going to have to go to the office first. Will you be okay with the kids?”

“Gabriel, you should be resting. Can’t you tell them that I need you here to take care of the kids to take the rest of the day off and rest for a bit? It’s already 5 PM.” Elena looked at her poor hubby, who was already sleep-deprived.

“I wish I could just stay here and sleep, and wake up to the cries of the children, but instead, I have to go to the office and try to stay awake to the cries of my subordinates.” Gabriel’s exaggerated sigh would make most think that he was being completely sarcastic, but Elena knew that there were always some newcomers that would break under pressure leading to some mistakes that they wouldn’t be able to fix.

Tears would be shed.

Gabriel was the Chief Operations Officer in one of the branches in Continent A of a rather large real estate company called Gua Real Estates that was now breaking into Continent E. He earned enough to lead a comfortable life with his wife being a stay at home mom. They lived in a large 2 floor flat in a high rise apartment building in the Platinum Co. chain owned by Gua Real Estates.

The rent was already covered, one of the perks that came with his position. It was also much easier for him to move around with his family if necessary to other cities or even countries. His capabilities would allow him to work just about anywhere. He was a polyglot a very proficient one at that.

“Okay, but don’t tire yourself out.” Elena brought Emilin back into her embrace and sent Gabriel off with her eyes, watching him leave until the door was finally closed.

Elena’s eyes followed soon after, leading her into a deep sleep.

A couple of hours after Gabriel had left, Nathen woke up and rubbed his eyes with a dazed look. He glanced at his little brother that was sleeping beside him on the inside of the wide couch, probably to prevent him from falling off. Then he moved his sight to his mother and his new little sister and slowly moved over.

Elena who was promptly woken up from the shuffling occurring from the couch to her bedside looked up to see her eldest son’s hesitant movements.

“What’s wrong Nate?” Elena asked as she had quickly noticed his cute fidgeting. She raised her hand to her mouth to cover her yawn.

“Oh. I didn’t mean to wake you up mom. I just wanted to ask…” Elena listened intently, waiting for little Nathen to finish his sentence.

“I…um…can I also hold Emi?” By the time Nathen had finished his sentence his voice had softened so much that it was barely a whisper. Elena’s loving gaze landed on her little Nathen, to see his face completely flushed red reaching for his little nape.