How Green Becomes Wood

Dark smiled lightly, "I think that is wonderful. It will help to cover up the horrible beeping, which Daizi will appreciate. Do you need help packing those up, Xander? I will have to come back here fairly often, I have to neaten up my bedroom. If I wait until we are home and are in full charge of a newborn, it will never be clean again, and that will be my undoing."
 
"Nah, I got them," Xander said as he started carefully moving the sandwiches into individual baggies. Then he put the baggies in a regular sack. "Alright, all ready to go." He paused and frowned. "Except for something to drink. I didn't think about that."

"We could take a couple of water bottles?" Alec suggested.
 
"Cooger brought champagne. Waterbottles are smarter. It is almost like we did not have time to plan," He remarked sardonically, unable to be truly annoyed, considering the outcome was a relatively healthy baby daughter, but he really valued planning, "Do you two have a button down shirt you can bring? There is no pressure to hold her, but if you choose to, and decide it is something you like to do, then you need to do skin-to-skin contact to help keep her warm. Otherwise you could only hold her for a little while. So there is no pressure to do anything you are uncomfortable with, but it is always good to be prepared."
 
"I'll go get them!" Alec said and raced off before Xander could say a word.

"I think we've got everything if you're ready to go back," Xander told Dark as he fetched four water bottles. He made sure they were filled with cold water and added a couple of ice cubes.

"I have the shirts!" Alec declared, running back into the kitchen and waving the two folded shirts in the air.
 
"I am ready." Dark answered immediately. He wished the entire family could be home, and he missed his dog, but he wanted to be with his wife and baby. For godsakes, his baby.

When Alec came down, Dark put his shoes back on and brought the suitcases to the car. Then, once the twins were loaded inside, he drove them to his hospital and led them to the hospital room.

"Darling, I am back. Hello, Sally," He greeted them both, quickly setting the suitcases down and crossing the room to kiss Daizi hello and to lift up Ivy, "I brought the boys."

"You came at just the right time, she just finished eating. I told you, Sally, for her age, she eats really well. And then immediately falls asleep," Daizi commented, and then grinned brightly, "Hey, you two! I'm really glad you came to visit, come here, come here!"
 
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Sally smiled and rose. "Well, now that you three are here, I should be on my way. Alec, Xander, lovely to see you!"

"Nice to see you, too, Mrs. Hollis," Alec said respectfully. He moved out of the way so she could leave.

"Daizi, dear, do call if you need anything, and I will try not to overstay my welcome or visit too often," Sally said, squeezing Daizi's shoulder. She nodded to Dark and headed out to go see what calamities had struck at work that she would need to sort out.

Xander inched farther inside, adding his sandwiches and the water bottles to the food Sally had brought. He didn't say anything, feeling awkward and out of place.

Alec, for his part, walked straight over to Daizi. "Can I hug you?"
 
Daizi promised to call, and swore Sally couldn't possibly ever overstay her welcome, and then stood up cautiously, wincing, "Of course you can, habibi," and then hugged him more tightly than she had been able to recently, now that her belly was empty. She definitely felt different, being much, well, squishier than she had before giving birth, "I wanted to hug you last night, or I guess this morning, but my arms were kind of full. I hope you don't mind I sent you away. Oh my dear sweet boy, I'm so glad you came." She squeezed him once, and then said, "You too, Xander, but I can't hug you."
 
"It's okay," Alec assured her, not hugging her as tightly as she hugged him for fear of hurting her. Having a baby was not exactly easy on the body, after all. "I think it was for the best, and we were able to help keep Cooger occupied. We're just really happy to be able to come visit now!"

Xander eyed Dark holding the baby and frowned. "Has she even spent a minute in the warmer?" he asked. It came out a little harsh thanks to his awkwardness, but he didn't mean to criticize Dark and Daizi for constantly holding Ivy. He was genuinely worried that she wasn't spending enough time in the doctor-ordered warming device. Surely, if all they had to do to keep her warm was to hold her a bunch, she could go home, so that must mean it was important, right? Then he remembered Daizi saying something about forgetting to breathe. That was probably another good reason to stay here in the hospital.
 
Dark was only mildly indignant, "Of course she has. But this is 'kangaroo care', it is good. The doctor advised it."

"You certainly would have liked me less had you seen me when it really started to get difficult. I yelled horrible things and bit Dark," Daizi admitted, not afraid to make light of her behavior. Dark began to comment he had a bruise from it, but before he started he realized that was a comment for a decade or two from now, "and by the way, while Dark was off getting you two, she spent most of her time in her little heated bed. And the nurses came in and checked her blood pressure, again, and said it's still low, but not lower than it was, so right now they said she doesn't need a transfusion." She spoke lightly, as if it wasn't a big deal, but once the words were out, a shadow crossed over her face and she did her best to convince herself it was a totally fine and normal and not at all scary thing.
 
"That's good," Xander mumbled. He shifted to look at the little warming bed for something to do. He wasn't eager to leave, he just didn't know what to do.

"That's really good news," Alec said encouragingly. "Every day, no, every hour she gets a little stronger and a little closer to coming home and seeing her home and her new room. Right?" He smiled between Daizi and Dark.
 
"Right." Dark agreed, running his thumb down the back of her hair before setting her down in her incubator. It wasn't to prove a point, although he did clearly not enjoy it, "You can sit down, Xander. Most things in the room are not breakable."

Daizi carefully sat back down, still as awkwardly as she had been sitting while heavily pregnant just in a somewhat different way, because the cause had changed. Her blindness prevented her from noticing the overwhelmingly lovesick look that came over Dark as he watched her, knowing she didn't need help. Then he looked at Ivy before looking at his wife again. He technically helped making the little girl who was still sleeping off her arrival, only waking to eat, but really it was Daizi who made her, and if it was impressive before...

"I know she's a stranger," Daizi said, "it's okay if you don't feel attached to her at all, and it's not like she can tell you about herself. But she's a very listener, and if you wash your hands you can touch her. She smells unbelievably good."
 
"No thanks, I'm good," Xander told Dark in response to the offer to sit. He preferred standing. Sitting would mean he'd just fidget in a different way. Standing, it wasn't quite as obvious when he moved here and there or rearranged random objects.

"She's quite cute," Alec said. He glanced at Dark then leaned close to Daizi. "Remember how Dark was when you first wore your red dress?" he whispered, doing his best to make sure Dark couldn't hear him. "He's like that only several times worse when he looks at you now, you and Ivy."
 
Daizi raised her head, a faint blush creeping over her face, "Really?" With everything, she and Dark hadn't really had much time to talk to each other, they were far too focused on the baby and telling their family and completely reorienting their lives. They hadn't been silent to each other, and of course had to make plans together (Dark, also, made a regular point of making sure Daizi was okay, or as best she could be), but it did feel a bit like they were in the same storm but fixing different parts of the ship.

Dark walked closer to Xander, dropping his shoulders to speak more quietly to create privacy in a full room, "It might help if you looked at her. She is only a baby, like any other one you have ever seen." It wasn't true, of course, Ivy was so much more special than any other baby, but he would lie if it would help Xander to relax.
 
"Really," Alec told Daizi softly. "He is completely head over heels smitten by you, and Ivy already has him wrapped around her little finger. It's kind of cute."

Xander eyed Dark. "Right," he said dryly. "Your brand-new premie baby, your miracle child, your heart's desire, is just a regular, run-of-the-mill baby. I'll remember to tell her that in a couple of years. And I have looked at her."
 
"Well that is good to hear," Daizi murmured, stretching out her legs. It was odd, but she didn't know how to hold herself anymore, the way her body felt and moved changed so rapidly, she didn't know how to feel comfortable. It was also strange to be only a single person again. After so many months, now when she wasn't holding Ivy it felt like something was missing, and it'd take her time to adjust, "in truth, I think I feel more strongly about him now than I did before, too. He was really sweet to me."

Dark frowned, backing up. He knew there was a wealth of emotions charging through everyone there (even, he guessed, Ivy, who he could only imagine was very confused as to where she was now), so he didn't want to take anything seriously, but there was something about the words Xander chose that ached, "To me she is more than just a normal baby, but I really only mean..." He trailed off, not really knowing what to say, and struggling to think up any question the teen would be willing to answer.
 
Alec smiled broadly and squeezed her shoulder gently. He left Daizi briefly to wash his hands and use sanitizer, then he returned. "If it is alright, I'd like to touch her? I'm not ready to hold her, but could I maybe touch her hand? I washed mine?" He held them out as if to display them even though A) Daizi couldn't see, and B) they didn't actually look any different.

Xander snorted softly. "Dude, relax," he told Dark quietly. "I was teasing you. And more than that, I don't hate her or anything, I'm just not as tied up in in a pretzel about her, either. She's just... a miniature you and Daizi, and that's cool. I'm just glad nothing bad happened to either of them."
 
"Of course you can touch her," Daizi smiled, very glad that Alec wanted to, "her skin is really soft, and she smells nice." She forced herself to stand, although she really didn't feel like moving ever again, "She's got a little soft spot on her head, you can't touch there, and you can't mess with her little umbilical cord stub either. Our midwife let Dark cut the cord, you know, which felt special. But it was weird to know she wasn't connected to me anymore. She's also got her little blood pressure monitor on her foot, so be careful of that."

She reached down and stroked Ivy's cheek. The baby was in a rare awake moment, and was looking towards the sound of Daizi's voice, since she knew that voice, her mother's, above any other, but she didn't smile, being much too young to have that skill.

Dark looked over his shoulder towards the incubator, Alec, and Daizi, then half-joked "I have sort of been through a lot recently so you need to cut me some slack." Looking back at Xander, he said, "I am glad to know you do not hate her. I was not worried you felt that way, but I was worried."
 
Alec touched Daizi's arm gently. "Daizi," he said softly, "you should sit down. You don't look too well, and I'm scared you'll fall over. I only have enough worry in me for one person right now, so even if you are just fine, please sit? For me? I can see all of the things to not touch, and I promise I'll be super careful."

"Just... worry about those two. We're fine," Xander assured Dark. "Seriously. You've got enough to worry about without lumping us in with it. Just look at the mini and don't worry."
 
Daizi didn't try to argue with Alec at all, although she did regret not being able to stand beside him to really experience his first time meeting Ivy the way she knew her. But she didn't really feel like standing then, and if it saved Alec worry, she gladly went and reclined in the bed.

"Worry is not a finite resource." Dark replied. He noticed, suddenly, how he couldn't remember an instant where Xander had used Ivy's name... but he hadn't known her name very long, and none of the terms he had used instead seemed out of character, so he figured he was either forgetting a time or in his tiredness reading too deep into something. Really, Dark just wondered how often he and Xander would go through the, 'you do not have to worry about me' 'no? I am going to' throughout their lives before one of them just finally gave up.

Still, listening to Xander, he did turn and look at his baby. It was still her first day alive, nobody a allowed to judge him... not that anybody was.
 
Alec waited until Daizi was laid down. Then he turned his attention to the tiny child laying on the warm bed. "Hello, Ivy," he said, keeping his voice low and gentle. "I'm Alec. I'm your big brother. I hope we get along. It'll be awhile before we get to that, and that's okay." He reached down and gently stroked her arm, feeling the baby-soft skin.

Xander gave a slight nod as Dark turned toward the baby. Finally, the guy was relaxing. At least for now. He'd likely get wound up later, but that was expected for a new parent.
 
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