As she walked away, she picked up her cell that was charging on the counter. She felt the need to call the hospital. "Hi, it's Pandora Leo... Parks, Jack and Micheal's mom. I'm just calling to see how they are doing. My password is…" she mumbled quickly once her call was connected. "Good morning, Pandora, it's Claire, and both boys are doing well," she said softly. "Jack's doing great. He's only had two blips so far tonight, and Micheal had five." She felt her heart beating faster than humanly possible. No matter how many times they told her this, she couldn't seem to be calm about them talking about her sons forgetting to breathe. "They're doing great, Pandora." She let out a long breath and nodded, though she couldn't see her. She felt reassured, and a little more relaxed. "Okay, thanks, I'll let you get back to work." Claire told her goodbye and she placed her cell back on the counter to continue charging. Not feeling tired, she decided to look around Benjamin's home. His kit
As the alarm stopped, both the nurses and Benjamin seemed to have a new, calmer sense about them, and she knew the baby was okay for the moment. "You just missed your daddy in action," she whispered to Jack as his eyes opened. She smiled down at him. "Sorry," Benjamin said as he sat back down. She turned to him. "Come here," she called with a tilt of her head. Benjamin pulled his brows together but leaned forward. As soon as he was close enough, she kissed him. "You were amazing," she whispered and he smiled shyly. She could see a hint of a blush on his face, too. She looked down at Jack when he stopped sucking. "Are you all done?" she asked but Jack yawned. "I think he's tired himself out by feeding," she said. "You want to burp him before he goes back down?" Benjamin grinned, his eyes sparkling. Pandora carefully passed Jack to him. "I have good news." She looked up at Claire, who was smiling happily at them. "You can hold Micheal. You can do it now while Jack is still outsi
Another week passed and the boys were both two weeks old. Pandora’s dad and Nina had been staying at Lana and Peter’s home during the week and heading home on the weekends to check on things. All four of them had been great and were getting along swimmingly. She was sure that had added to her dad and Nina wanting to move, but she did know that the boys were the main reason. She desperately wanted them to move closer to her, too. She never realized just how much she missed her dad until she had him around every day lately. During the past week, she found that Maisey's new project was making premature baby clothes, and her lucky boys now had a large number of clothes to try out. She had been enjoying it so much that she had donated a large amount to the NICU to give to the parents of little ones going home. If someone told her this a few months ago, she would've been surprised, but after getting to know the Parks family, she knew it was just the way they were. The entire family enjo
As Benjamin walked out, Jack started to whimper. "Are you hungry again, little man?" Pandora asked, picking him up. As soon as he was near her chest, he started to turn his head and his little mouth was open, searching for her breast. She giggled at his insistent search as she opened her shirt and lowered the bra cup. Once the nipple grazed his lips, he attached with gusto and his suckle was strong. Since Jack started feeding like that, it had felt as if he was almost permanently attached to her. After everything she went through with not being able to hold him, it didn't bother her at all. She had just been enjoying it. She still had to express milk for Micheal, so she made sure that Jack got at least one bottle of breast milk every day. "He's feeding again?" Benjamin asked as he walked in with two plates of food. "Yep, he was acting like he was starving as soon as I picked him up." "Lucky I brought the finger food, huh?" She nodded at him as he placed the plate down, sitting n
"Well, yeah, I've got two of these cutie pies now and there's only one of you," she replied without looking at him. "How was last night?" Lana asked putting the bottle of milk she brought with them in the fridge. "It went well," Pandora told her but she shook her head chuckling gently. "The first night—week—I had Benjamin home, I just about slept in his bed with him. I would have if Peter allowed me to." "Yeah, I seem to have fallen into the trap of needing to check if he's breathing," she confessed. She knew full well she had freaked out a few times because Jack's breathing movements were so slight that she often missed them. "It does get easier, but I still worry about my kids. I even held my finger under Maisey's nose after her accident, just to make sure she was still breathing." Lana kept her words soft, so there was a chuckle to her tone, but Pandora knew full well she did in fact do it. In an odd way, it made her feel better than and not as paranoid as she was feeling befo
"I want every moment I can have with them. Soon they'll be walking, talking, and before you know it, leaving us. I don't want to miss a thing." She nodded. "Okay, I will, but on the nights they bottle feed, feel free to let me sleep," she chuckled, partially joking. "That's fine," he agreed before winking at her. They both leaned in towards each other and kissed. "Do you want something to drink or eat?" Benjamin asked as he hugged her, watching the boys feed. "Yes, please, I'd love to have a glass of warm milk." Benjamin nodded before kissing her head and then got up and walked out of the room. She looked back down to see that Micheal had finished and just seemed to be watching Pandora dazedly. She was looking into his eyes, noticing that they were changing to a clear grey color. "You have your daddy's nice grey eyes," she told Micheal and his mouth seemed to make an 'O' shape as if he was surprised. "Here's your warm milk," Benjamin said as he placed the glass down on the smal
"Okay, I trust you," she told him. He grinned and got out of bed. She watched as he walked to the boys' room and picked up their cups and brought them back in and over to the bed. "Drink up," he said firmly as he starts to drink. She sipped her milk, looking at Benjamin. "So tell more about your family." "They are your family now, too. I'm the oldest as you know. Going into labor and delivering Alexis wasn't any easier on my mom than when she had me. Only with Alexis, she hemorrhaged during delivery." She gasped and Benjamin stopped and kissed her head. "It was hard on my mom and dad. I was young, but I remember running around trying to help as much as I could." Benjamin stopped and grinned at her. "I think that's where my love of babies started. The years went on, and our family did well but didn't feel complete. I was fifteen almost sixteen when I started to volunteer at an outreach center. I was placed into the big brother program and met a lot of different kids. That's how M
"What?" she asked, having lost her train of thought. "What were you looking for?" "Looking for?" she questioned back to him. "Oh, yeah, my purse," she stuttered as her face heated up with embarrassment. "Why?" "I need to give you money to get the groceries," she said, waving the list. Benjamin took the list from her hand and smiled at her. "I have money, love." Her mouth dropped open as he walked away. "Leave it for now," she muttered to herself but knew that Benjamin and she may soon have their first falling out. Strangely, it would mimic a lot of the fights that Derrik and she always had. Only now, it would be about getting Benjamin to agree to let her pay her share, instead of Derrik not paying his. She groaned and rubbed her face, before turning back to the sink to clean and sterilize the breast milk containers. When she was finished, she walked into the living room and peeked into the bassinettes. She liked the boys close to her when she was downstairs, so Benjamin surpri