Newborn cries
It was the middle of the night when a loud and frantic knocking came at their door. Tina was awake with her wand lit up instantaneously, Newt a second later on his feet with his wand pointed directly at the door.
“Tina!” Came Jacob’s frantic voice, “Newt! You gotta wake up, somethin’s wrong with Queenie.”
Tina cursed loudly, scrambling to heave herself out of the bed and into her robe, glad her own stomach was apparently more compact than her sister’s, but not any more flexible.
“You may need to call a Healer,” Tina instructed her husband, pulling her hair off her face expertly. “I’ll let you know.”
Newt nodded, following Tina and Jacob down to their bedroom, but waiting patiently outside to carry any message necessary. The baby Kowalski was early, over two weeks early in fact. They were only just starting to prepare for the eventuality that Queenie would be giving birth, and hadn’t even cast a thought to Tina’s approaching birth.
Tina emerges a second later, looking more worried than she had when she’d gone in.
“You should call the mediwitch,” she confirms, glancing back at the door where they can head Queenie groaning. “I reckon the baby’s decided he’s had enough now.”
“Of course,” Newt pressed a kiss to Tina’s cheek and darted back up the stairs to change. He paused for a moment outside Aurie’s room and decides to wait until the mediwitch healer had arrived before taking Aurie to his parents.
He arrived in the study to make use of the fire, casting a muttered incendio and wondering where he’d left the floo powder last time he had used the floo. He found it in a pot on his desk next to a snuffling mimbltonia, cast some into the flames and stepped in.
Barely ten minutes later and he was back, leading an efficient looking mediwitch up to his sister-in-law’s room and knocking lightly.
“Hey,” Tina let the mediwitch in instantly, relief evident on her face at the witch’s presence. “She’s in here, they’re every five minutes but she’s not been feelin’ too good.”
The witch nods, enters the room, briskly introduces herself to Queenie. In America, Tina had to deal with Queenie’s birth herself, but here, St Mungo’s didn’t have anyone to report a half-blood pregnancy too, nor much of a care too. And Tina’s own advancing pregnancy made assisting significantly more difficult.
“She wants Jacob in here again,” Tina added to Newt before disappearing back into Queenie’s room. “I reckon you should get Aurie to your mom’s, she don’t need to hear her mom goin’ through childbirth.”
“Righto,” Newt ducked in to give Tina what he hoped was a soothing hug, “I’ll be home as soon as I can be,” he promised.
As promised, he was making tea in the kitchen an hour later, wincing at how Queenie seemed to be in more pain with this birth than she had before. It hit home that he would be the one anxiously waiting for the relief that Jacob had described when Aurie had taken her first breath and let her displeasure known. It was a bittersweet thought. He couldn't help the stray thought flitting across his mind that Theseus had promised he'd be there to stop Newt from accidently releasing the creatures into the Dorsetshire countryside and incurring a severe dressing down from Tina after the birth. It had been laughed and joked about when Helena had not long been born, when Theseus was a good, happy sort of exhausted and not emotionally and physically wrung out. Tina had snorted, made some comment about Newt being right beside her the whole damn time, about how if she couldn't avoid the birth, he sure as hell wasn't going to.
Hours later, Tina appeared in the doorway, looking exhausted but relieved. She was still dressed in the strange jumpsuit pyjamas she favoured, having decided nightgowns were really not for her. She'd tugged a shawl around her shoulders, a scarf pulling the dark hair off her face and a scored furrow between her eyes. She'd been frowning a lot lately.
“It’s a boy,” she sighed happily, tucking her head into Newt’s shoulder and gripping on tightly. “She’s gonna be ok. She’s gonna be ok…”
“Of course she will,” Newt said firmly, his hands gently soothing her back and neck, hoping to convey just how much he was there for her, “Your sister is tough, and I’d like to see anything beat her, let alone pregnancy.”
“Hey, Teen,” Jacob’s voice floated down the stairs, “We need you both up here now. Things aint’ looking good.”
Tina’s face paled, and they made their way back upstairs as soon as possible, Newt's hand at Tina's back so she could move faster. Newt was passed the tiny bundle with a shock of dark hair and he took him downstairs, rocking the new baby Kowalski gently, telling him stories, giving his whole attention to the newborn to prevent worrying too much about his mother.
An hour later, and Newt was startled by a second thin cry breaking through. Twins! Poor Queenie. It certainly explained how tired she’d been and how big she’d gotten recently.
“Another boy,” Tina looked ready to drop or cry or both. “She wants to see this one. How are we gonna cope with four under a year old in this house Newt?”
“The same way we always do,” Newt said firmly, “Together.”
The elder of the twins was transferred to his exhausted mother, and the mediwitch had soon banished Tina from the room, insisting that the older witch needed her rest as much as the new mother.
As rare as twins were in the wizarding community, it was rarer still that they weren’t caught in mediwitch visits during the pregnancy. However, Queenie’s twins had apparently been positioned in such a way that their heartbeats had been masking each other, or that only one infant could be felt at any one time. It was a muggle mistake, but even witches weren’t immune to unexpected twins. Queenie was understandably exhausted and a little shocked.
The next morning, after leaving Queenie and Jacob with their new arrivals, Newt slipped out of bed early, and studied the outside of his house critically, wondering where it would be best to add another few rooms to fit their ever expanding family.
What had been intended as a suitable sized cottage for himself and Tina and any future children of theirs, the addition of the Kowalski’s made the room a little cramped. They needed more room now, especially with the twins.
……………………………………………………
“Hey, Newt?” Queenie’s voice was soft, so as not to wake one or both of her sleeping infants. Newt was tasked with helping her downstairs in preparation for the familial onslaught that would arrive with the return of Aurie. “Are there any more rules about names I need to know?”
“What do you mean?” Newt asked, laying first one infant, then the other next to each other in the crib.
“I mean Theseus,” She replied bluntly. “Jacob and I were talkin’ and, well, are you gonna be usin’ it as a name? We weren’t sure if there were rules in the British wizarding community. And, we weren’t sure if Hippolyta would mind.”
“Hippolyta will mind,” Newt knew this to be true without having to consult his sister-in-law. “I think it’s too soon. Right so, honour naming in British wizarding families, purebloods especially, are firstborn sons are given their father name as a middle name. So, my son will have Newton as his middle name, or should, I wouldn’t subject that on any child. Unless there is another family member you wish to honour. So, I could use Theseus, but only as a middle name. The father or mothers name is the right of the child. So, we can’t use Theseus for our child’s name, because it belongs to Helena. Helena may choose to name her own son Theseus, or she may not.”
“So, grandfathers and grandchildren?” Queenie checked, “But not uncles and nephews?”
“Pretty much,” Newt confirmed. He paused, “Did you want me to send Jacob back up to talk names before I bring you down to see the family?”
Queenie nodded, her eyes bright. “You mind?”
“Of course not,” Newt smiled and ducked out of the room, intending to have a conversation with Hippolyta about using Theseus as a middle name later that day.
…………………………………………………..
“Twins!” Diana said a little faintly, leaning down to drop Aurie next to Tina. “Merlin! I thought one at a time was exhausting enough, but two?”
Perseus shifted a little uncomfortably, not sure how he could add to the conversation except to grip Jacob’s hand and mutter a gruff congratulations, before adding that he and Diana would have to delay the birth presents because they needed to get a second made now. Jacob’s protestations that presents were not necessary where quickly ignored. Perseus then dropped a gentle kiss to Queenie’s golden curls, whispering how proud he was of her, before he propped himself in the corner to be emotional in peace.
“I am certainly exhausted,” Queenie agreed, shifting one of her sons in her arms and grimacing. “I mean, yeah each one is a lot smaller than Aurie was, but I thought I was getting’ one baby, two’s still a bit of a shock!”
Hippolyta laid Helena down on the floor and sat stiffly on a hardback chair, surveying the room at large.
“Don’t worry Hippolyta,” Queenie said suddenly, letting Diana take the baby in her arms for a grandmotherly cuddle. “We’ll still be taking Helena, we ain’t letting her go to your mother.”
Hippolyta started, likely having forgotten that Queenie could read her thoughts. Tina glanced at Newt, a little worried that something might spark between the two women.
“If you don’t have space,” Hippolyta started, about to protest for politeness sake.
“Hippolyta I just spent over thirty hours in labor, giving birth to twins,” Queenie said shortly, not meeting her friends eye, “If I say we will take Helena, we will be takin’ Helena.”
Hippolyta fell silent, shifting awkwardly. The temperature in the room dropped.
“Brr,” Tina said aloud, tickling Aurie. The little girl was sat with one ear pressed against Tina's stomach, trying to listen to the baby. She was fascinated by how Queenie's belly was now a lot smaller, but there were two new babies, but her Aunty Teenie's belly was still big. Tina couldn't get over how adorable her niece could be “Want to meet your baby brothers?”
“Bruvvers?” Aurie’s little nose wrinkled. “No sisters?”
“No sisters,” Tina confirmed with a laugh, “But you get to be a big big sister to your brothers, and they’re gonna need you good. Okay baby girl?”
Aurie grinned, squirming as Diana bought one baby over, and Jacob the other, Queenie beaming in quiet exhaustion from her position of honour on the couch.
“Wasshis name?” Aurie poked at the small bundle.
“Ah, yes,” Diana looked relieved that someone else had bought it up first. “We can’t keep calling them Master Kowalski one and two! What have you named them both?”
Queenie glanced significantly at Jacob.
“Well,” She started carefully, “We asked Newt whether there were any naming rules we should be aware of now we’re here, and not in the states. I wanted to call one of them Theseus,” she followed up quickly, seeing the look of alarm on Hippolyta’s face, “But Newt explained that name belongs to Helena and I would never dream of doing anythin’ to upset anyone.” Hippolyta looked a little placated.
“So we decided to name em after our Pa’s,” Jacob announced proudly. Tina started, glancing down at the little roly dark haired babies in wonder. Would she have suggested their Pa's name for her own baby? Jacob lifted his son to his cheek, showing him proudly to the room. “So this one here is Ethan, after Queenie’s Pa.”
“And we’re calling his brother Percy,” Queenie beamed, tilting her head towards Perseus still in Diana's arms, “After Pops.”
Perseus’s head snapped to Queenie, his mouth open in a silent, half lost question. Queenie smiled at him, a dazzling smile edged with exhaustion and trust.
“Welcome to the family, Ethan and Percy Kowalski,” Newt said into the emotional room. Perseus was close to tears, Diana was crying and Hippolyta was looking very pointedly anywhere but the babies.
“It’s sure a good one,” Tina agreed, smiling at her sister, and wondering if this was what healing felt like.
"So, until they're old enough to respond when we call," Diana mused, frowning at Percy in her arms, "How do we tell which one is which? Shall we have one always in cream and one always in green? Ooh! Red and Gold!"
There was a beat of silence at Diana's exclamation of excitement. A beat of silence followed by giggles followed by deep bellied laughs. Hippolyta, sat as stiffly as she was by her own daughter. couldn't help but chuckle, a little bit of a spark appearing in her eyes just briefly enough to give them all hope. Maybe this was what healing felt like. It didn't feel perfect, it felt very temporary. But maybe, just maybe in this moment, they healed a little together.