This Is Us - Chapter 51: Chapter 51

MATTY POV
"Wow, everyone's really going off about that picture huh?"
I mention as I tossed my iPhone onto the bed since the stupid thing hadn't stopped going off with notifications for the past three days. All because of the literal two seconds we spent kissing our daughter on New Years.
"You would think there weren't other things to worry about in this country other than that three men being together," Thomas grunts as he slips on his boots. Luca walks out of the bathroom in just a pair of boxers and runs a towel over his hair.
"I don't understand this country either to be quite honest with you," He agreed as he walked over to his dresser to find clothes. I slipped on one of Thomas' larger plaid button-ups since my shirts were starting to get a little tight.
"Me neither, I'm and I'm the first generation, my parents were the immigrants." I scoffed. The three of us were getting ready for the two doctors appointments we had ahead of us. One for myself and the quads and the other for Jaydean.
Thomas sits on the edge of our shared bed and looks up after putting on his shoes. He's usually the first to be ready so I wasn't surprised. But I was surprised when he pulled me in between his prosthetic legs and started to do the buttons of the shirt for me.
"Did you see what our PR team sent us? 85 million for a reality tv show?" I asked Thomas as he put the last black button through and his hands slid to my waist, gently kissing the home of our four children which was taking up more space every day.
"Yeah, I don't like it. We're perfectly happy right now, we don't need the money, and I don't want to invite a whole tv crew into our home. Especially not with you guys both having conditions that require you to be as relaxed as possible," He shuts down the conversation before it can even begin and a shirtless Luca comes up behind Thomas, lazily tossing his arms around him and kissing his cheek.
"I dunno, 85 million with four babies on the way sounds like a good deal. I get it, you're the head of our little household and our protector, but we should think about this. I got the email too and it's only five episodes," Luca explains but Thomas remained unmoved.
"There's no thinking about it. I moved us here so we could have privacy and so Jayde could have a normal childhood. This would be going against everything we wanted and strived for," Thomas explained and of course, he was right. He almost always is.
"You also need to start putting your feet up or you're going to end up on hospitalized bed rest," Thomas adds and I roll my eyes.
"Me? Forced laziness? Do you know who I am?" I asked and Luca chuckled as his hands joined Thomas to feel the babies kicking.
"I bet you these two up here are Koa and Roo," I tell them as I can feel the two boys kicking me nonstop. I had decided that my son on the upper right would be Nakoa and my other son on the upper left would be Rumi.
"It's so strange to feel more than one moving around in there," Thomas says in awe and I giggle at their faces.
"They're troublemakers in the making, I can tell. Although they're usually not this active until I'm trying to fall asleep," I mention and Luca coos.
"Aww, maybe they're twins. Is that possible? To have twins in a quad squad?" He asked, his big blue eyes met mine with a curious glance and I gently ruffled his wet hair.
"I guess we'll have to ask Dr. Yang. Now go put a shirt on so we can leave," I directed and he saluted me.
"Yes sir," He chants and hops off the bed with more energy than I've seen before.
"I'll go see if Jaydean is ready," Thomas says as he gets up and leaves. I walked over to the closet and threw on a simple bomber jacket before turning back to my beautiful fiance who seemed to be flooded with this strange spark of light and boundless energy.
"Are you okay?" I asked him with my arms crossed over my chest as he threw on a black shirt and a plain hoodie to cover his mop of wet hair that he was too lazy to blow dry.
"Yeah, I'm fine why?" Luca stopped what he was doing and turned to face my concern.
"I dunno, you're...different," I mention and he chuckles a bit while putting on his sneakers.
"Matthias, that's because I can finally truthfully say, I am happy. I might just be the happiest man alive right now and that's saying something," He admits with a small blushed tint of pink spreading across his cheeks. He was so cute and vulnerable that I couldn't help myself as I cupped his warm freckled cheeks with my hands and kissed him.
"I love you," I whispered softly into his lips and he gripped the back of my head, pulling me back in as he kissed me a little harder.
"I love you too,"
***
"Who is Luca? A picture says a thousand words. The sexiest man alive yet no one knows his true name. Ooo, that's a cute picture of you, I wonder how closely they followed you to get that one,"
I grunted as I stared at the picture of Luca biting his lower lip in that sensual way he usually does when he's turned on by something. I wished the photo was in full and not just zoomed in on his face so I could see exactly what it is he was so enthralled by.
I sat up on the table, waiting for Dr. Yang while scrolling through my notifications, Luca rolled his eyes as he bounced Jayde on his lap and snuggled her close. Thomas leaned back in his seat, nervously tapping his foot while looking like his mind was elsewhere.
"What were you looking at anyway?" I asked him and turned my phone around to show him the picture. He took just one look at it and smirked.
"I know exactly when that picture was taken but as far as what I'm looking at? I'll leave that to your wildest imagination," He purrs, careful to make sure his words go over Jaydean's head and I narrow my eyes.
"I'll give you a clue, it involved you," Is all he says but my memory is shit or he was standing behind me because I don't remember him giving me this look while we were in New York City.
Thomas' foot tapping gets my attention and I put my phone down.
"What's wrong babe?" I asked him but he continued staring straight ahead.
"Thomas!" I called out and he snapped out of it.
"Huh? What's up?" He asked with a smile as if he wasn't a million miles away just now.
"You were spacing out on me. Are you okay?" I asked him and he nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I'm fine just nervous is all. What if something is wrong with the 4 piece we've got growing in there? What are the risks? You haven't really told us much of anything and I have a lot of questions is all," Thomas sighs and Dr. Yang walks in just in time.
"Good morning! It's so nice to have the whole family here for once. I'm guessing the secrets out?" She giggles as she sits in her stool and logs onto the computer.
"Yup, one fainted and the other almost had a heart attack," I told her and she laughed, making the motion for me to lift my shirt and I do just that. She makes sure to turn on the screen this time so my family could see the little babies growing inside me. The cool gell presses against my stomach and I couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief when I heard their little heart beats again.
"Look Jayde, those are your baby siblings," Luca points and she watches the screen in awe.
"Those are inside mommy?" She asks sounding more fearful than anything else.
"Yup, all four of them are growing as you did when you were a little chicken nugget," Thomas mentions and she pouts.
"Well, we were wondering where each one is," I asked her and she moved the doppler.
"Of course, let's take a look shall we?" She moves it to the upper right section of my stomach and marks it.
"This is baby boy A," She points and I watched above me as Nakoa waved his little hand.
"That's your brother Nakoa, look he's waving at you," Thomas tells Jaydean and she wakes back.
"He's looking very strong and healthy for seventeen weeks, no abnormalities and he has all his fingers and toes," Dr. Yang mentions, taking multiple measurements before moving on to Rumi.
"This is baby boy B," She says and Rumi was kicking away while sucking his thumb.
"That's the handful Rumi," I mention and Dr. Yang chuckles.
"He's definitely an active little one huh? He almost reminds me of a certain someone," She replies, looking back at Jaydean with a knowing smile. Jaydean was so occupied by the baby's scan that she didn't notice the quick jab.
"Tell me about it," I sighed before she moved down and across to the lower right.
"And this is baby girl C," She turns the doppler to my other daughter who looked like she was trying to take a nap below her rowdy brothers.
"That's Novalee, your little sister," Luca points to Jayde and she squeals.
"I can't wait to have a baby sister! We can make fun of all the boys together! And play together and go shopping together," She sighs in a dreamy way and I roll my eyes.
"You can do that with your brothers too," I point out but she grunts and puts her hands on her hips.
"It's not the same mommy, I play with all the boys at school and they're so rough like you guys," She huffs and I rubbed my temple from the stress of my eldest child.
"And this is baby...oh," Dr. Yang paused and I watched my smallest little one fill the screen. He was moving a lot less than the others but kicked his little feet nonetheless with a flourish as if to let me know he was okay.
"What's wrong?" I asked Dr. Yang and she shifted her glasses up.
"Well, I remember telling you this one was a boy but it looks like I was wrong. It's actually a little girl? Or...It could be..."
"Intersex," I said the word for her and she nodded solemnly.
"The baby's going to be like me," I said out loud, not to her but just in general. The air suddenly felt a little heavier and on the machine, you could hear my heart beating faster.
I identified as male but I was medically born with no gender. Reason being I had a dick, a vagina, and a uterus which confused all the doctors except Dr. Yang.
I was born on both sides of the line, just like my Appa except he was nearly murdered in cold blood for his abnormality by his village in South Korea when he ran away to the island where he met my father.
And now my baby will face the same path as I did.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice the two hands covering mine and I looked over to find Thomas and Luca were by my side, holding my hand tightly.
"It's okay if the baby is like you. You know we'll love the little one no matter what," Thomas says and kisses my forehead.
"If anything they'll be born into the perfect family for them, where they'll fit right in," Luca adds, raising our combined hands to his lips.
"Usually when I tell a family about an intersex baby they panic and want to abort," Dr. Yang states as she takes the doppler off me and gives me a paper towel to wipe the jelly from my stomach.
"Why would I ever want to do that? Baby Mika might be intersex but that doesn't mean they can't live a normal life like their brothers and sisters," I said and she nodded.
"You and I know that, but many families hear the word abnormal and give up," She says and sis back down on her stool.
"But I'm glad you brought your support system this time because we need to talk about the babies. So our goal is to get you to thirty-four weeks. As soon as you hit that, the babies will be well enough to breathe on their own with only a minimal NICU stay. However getting you to thirty-four weeks is going to be our biggest challenge. You have to remain healthy with the least amount of stress on the babies as possible," She says.
"Usually with cases like this, the odds of making it to delivery are 60% but Mr. Jackson, I'm not going to lie to you. In your case, with your condition, your history and the amount of work you put on your body. The odds are just 20% and that's being generous," She says and my heart drops to the pit of my stomach.
***
The car ride is nearly silent as I drove us to Jaydean's appointment. Twenty percent keeps replaying over and over again in my mind as I turned into the children's pediatric center where our daughter was treated for all her yearly checkups and sicknesses.
"Don't think about it so much kitten, you'll stress yourself out and it's not good for them," Thomas reminds me from the back seat while Luca faced me with a worried expression on his face.
"If you need to breathe you can wait in the car while Thomas and I bring in Jaydean," Luca offers but I shake my head.
"No, even if it's nothing, I want to know what's wrong with her," I told them and Thomas helped Jayde unbuckle as we got out of the car and walked into the second doctor's office for the day.
As soon as we sat down with the doctor we had a feeling it wasn't good. We had been here two days prior when he took some of her blood for testing and called us saying he needed to meet with us immediately.
I tried not to think about it but now I was on edge.
Dr. Sanchez walked into the room and greeted us with a warm smile, checking over the charts and sitting in front of us.
"Hey Jaydean, the nurses at the front desk have some new stickers they want you to look at, why don't you go check them out," He suggests and my throat runs dry. Thomas and Luca instantly surround me with their arms as I sat in between them and planted myself for whatever news may come.
"Well Mr. Jacksons', I wish I could tell you good news but unfortunately we found some abnormalities in Jaydean's bloodwork-"
"Is she going to be okay?" I asked him, interrupting his sentence and Thomas gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze.
"I'm sorry to inform you of this but it looks like your daughter has stage two acute lymphoblastic Leukemia. I'm going to refer you to an oncologist for further discussions about her cancer treatment..."