Terrible Things

"Caroline, Alex..." The doctor murmured as he ran the gel over my stomach, scanning. "I don't know how to tell you this, I don't know how we missed it." That was it. My baby was dead. It was gone. My whole vision of a life with Alex just shattered before me. It was the only answer I could think of. My baby had gone. I hadn't even noticed! I squeezed Alex's hand as I shut my eyes to prevent the tears. "Mr. Gaskarth, it seems we missed something in our previous scans."
"What? What the fuck is it?" Alex seemed just as lost and grief stricken as I was, assuming the worst.
"You're not having a baby, Caroline." Confirmation. My life was over. "You're... you're having twins." Wait... what? I looked into Alex's eyes, the tears glimmering there instantly disappearing. "I don't know how we've missed this." The doctor rushed from the room to collect the previous scans and tests.
"Twins?" Alex squeezed my hand, staring at the frozen picture on the monitor. "Oh my god, Carr." I ran my fingers through the cold gel on my stomach. Two?
"The tests only ever turned up one heartbeat. But now there's two." The doctor backed into the room, his arms full of papers. "Mr. Gaskarth, Miss Fuentes, I think what we have here is superfetation." The doctor spun around on his swivel chair to face the couch on which Alex and I had moved to during the wait. "Medically speaking, the fetuses are not twins. What we think has happened is that you've conceived twice in a short period of time and both eggs have latched on. So you have two babies on the way. We will need to check up on you regularly because only twelve cases of this have been reported and we are unsure of what to expect." I stared at the doctor.
"Is this dangerous?" Alex begged the doctor, searching for answers.
"Possibly. One of the fetuses may become too strong for the other and one will die, as happens with twins, but for Caroline, no. Everything should be fine."
"The babies aren't safe?" Alex's voice raised an octave as I sat in silence, dazed.
"If Caroline goes into labour early, you risk losing one or both babies, because their so far apart in gestation. Two weeks is a lot in a pregnancy. But we will try our hardest to make this easy, keep them all safe, Mr. Gaskarth. I promise you."

Alex threw a cushion across the room before slamming down on the couch.
"I have to cancel tour, Alex. You need to be here." Matt tried to calm him down.
"I fucking know I need to be here!" Alex ran his hands through his hair, frustrated. "But that's it. No money from me, we don't have anything coming in from Carrie since she got pregnant. We have a family to support. I have to go on tour Matt!" Jack and Rian had their hand on either of my shoulder, all of us silently observing from the kitchen.
"What if she goes into labour during a show? We'll reschedule tour, Lex. The fans will understand. This is important. We can still write the new album, keep money flowing in form recording. We will help, Alex." My flustered fiance slumped down on the couch defeated. There was nothing he could do. Matt said no, and that meant no. All of us were backing Matt;s decision. Recording instead of a tour. It kept him close to home, I could have him back if I needed him.
"Fine. Do it, cancel." I sighed in relief as the words fell out of Alex's unwilling mouth. It was all I needed to reassure me. Confirmation that he would be here, by my side, in five minutes if I needed him.
"It's for the best, Lex." Jack piped up, offering the pacing rock star a glass of whiskey. "If something happens you're going to want to be here. Emily and Ley appeared at the stairs with Ashley (Purdy) and Emily's friend Jared. "I bet even the girls would agree."
"To what?" Ley said as she jumped onto the railing.
"Alex staying home until the babies are born." Emily looked at us as Ley fell off her slide.
"Babies?" They looked between each other and around the room. "Plural?" I nodded and explained as they all grabbed drinks and food from the kitchen. "Holy shit." Ley's voice was low and concerned now, as I knew she was being her logical self and running through all possible scenarios in her head of what might happen. In the space if an hour I had gone from three kids to four.
"Did you find out what they were?" Ashley mumbled between bites of his sandwich.
"A boy and a girl. But we can't be sure just yet." I rubbed my stomach proudly. I was going to give Alex a son, and the girls both a little brother and a sister.

"Devon."
"You cannot call a child Devon, Alexander. That's ridiculous."
"Why?" Alex frowned at me, showing off his best puppy dog eyes.
"It doesn't sit well with me. Plus, it's a girls name." He scowled at me insulting his name idea and then flopped backwards on the bed, lying next to me and continuing his name list.
"Is not! I know plenty of guys name Devon. What about Cooper?"
"Cooper? No." I shook my head. He crossed his arms over his chest and sulked.
"You don't like any of the names I put forward for my son."
"I liked Reagan." I pointed out. He had mentioned it earlier.
"I said it as a girls name. How about something traditional, like Daniel." That triggered ideas.
"How about Tom?" His eyes lit up at my suggestion.
"Tom?"
"Yes. Thomas." He kissed my face, making me squeal with giggles.
"My brother. I love you. For a girl I like Talia." He said as he rubbed my bump.
"No, I knew a Talia at school and she was horrible." He frowned and continued to think. He siged and turned to lean his cheek on mine.
"Well, do you have any ideas then Fuentes? Cause mine apparently aren't good enough."
"Albany, Bella, Palmer and Kellen." I listed. I had prepared for this moment.
"We can't have Kellen. We know a Kellin." He snorted, pointing to the cover of a Kerrang! on my bedside table. "I like Albany."
"Albany Calia Taylor Gaskarth. Thomas ..." He raised his eyebrows at my insertion of the middle name we had decided on earlier.
"Peter."
"Thomas Peter Gaskarth." I said to myself, letting the name roll off my tongue.
"Alex, Carrie, Ashley Emily, Thomas and Albany Gaskarth." We smiled at each other. The greatest family.
"Sounds great."
"Sounds perfect."

Notes

I apologise for this chapter.. its late.