Gift of Love

"Mommy!”
With a groan, twenty-five-year-old Ashley Biersack cracked open his eyes to see his older daughter, Rori, bouncing slightly on his bed beside him. He was currently pregnant with his fourth child, twenty weeks to be exact, and was still waiting for his morning sickness to slack off completely, so her bouncing made his iffy stomach begin to act up.

Unable to suppress the nausea, he scrambled out of bed and ran for the master bathroom, his stomach beginning its rejection of the remnants of his dinner. Feeling sorry for upsetting his stomach, his daughter stood beside him, gently rubbing his back and holding his hair out of the way as he’d done for her since her birth almost five years ago. She apologized softly, which got her a shaky thumbs-up in response since he was panting too hard to respond verbally, before he leaned back against the counter. Like a good girl, she ripped off some toilet paper for him to wipe his mouth before flushing the toilet and grabbing him a glass of water.

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” she said, snuggling into his side. “I didn’t mean to make you get sick.”

“It’s okay, Rori,” Ash answered softly, wrapping his arms around her. “I know you didn’t, sugar.”

“You okay, mio deviante?” a voice deeper than his asked. He looked up to see his husband, the love of his life, standing in the doorway.

“Yeah, I’m fine, mio profeta,” he answered, smiling weakly.

“I’m guessing your morning sickness is still acting up?” Andy asked, squatting down beside them.

“A little. I doubt it would’ve acted up at all if Rori hadn’t been bouncing on the bed when she woke me up,” he chuckled.

“Auroralyn, what did I tell you?” he asked sternly, narrowing his eyes a bit.

“Sorry, Daddy,” she whispered, burying her face in her mama’s chest.

“Don’t be too harsh on her, Andy,” he said, trying to keep control of his hormones. “She really wasn’t bouncing that hard; it’s just that my hormones are out of control.”

“I told her not to bounce at all, other than crawling up onto the bed, so this wouldn’t happen,” he told him, sighing heavily. “I didn’t want your stomach being upset unless there was no way to stop it.”

“Andy, mio profeta. Don’t worry about it.” Ash used one hand to pull his face up by his chin. “I’m fine, the baby’s fine. Yeah, it’s uncomfortable as I can’t say with little ears around, but I’ve gotten through it before, and I can get through it again.”

“I guess,” his lover agreed reluctantly.

“Besides, unlike when I was pregnant with this one,” he said, patting their daughter’s back, “we know a few tricks to help tame the dragon, so to speak.”

“True enough. Rori, come back downstairs and help keep your brother and sister entertained while Mommy gets dressed.” Andy rose back to his full height of six-two, which could sometimes be intimidating for small children. “He’ll be down as soon as he gets his clothes on, okay? And I’m sorry for being so harsh to you, my little Princess.”

“It’s okay, Daddy. I know it’s just because you love us,” Rori answered, taking his hand and following him back downstairs.

Once he heard the bedroom door close, Ash managed to get himself up off the bathroom floor, grabbing onto the counter for support. Just like he had during this stage in his first pregnancy, he found moving around to be a bit more difficult than normal, but he was quite capable of managing on his own. He chuckled as he remembered not having to deal with such changes the second time around, even though he was pregnant with twins, since he didn’t show at all.

Another thing that was the same as his pregnancy with little Rori was that his junk seemed to grow along with the rest of his body, much like a woman’s breasts. Even though he was only twenty weeks and just barely showing, he was already refusing to wear skinny jeans like he normally did. In fact, he generally refused to wear jeans at all, and if he did, they were usually maternity jeans, since they had more give to them.

With a sigh, he walked over to the closet he shared with his husband and started rummaging through it for a shirt that still fit decently well. He was starting to grow slight breasts once again, so aside from the growth of his belly, he had to make sure his shirts were loose enough to avoid hurting his chest. Alongside that, they had to be loose enough to avoid giving away the fact that he was wearing a bra, unless he wanted to be embarrassed. It wasn’t that he needed the extra support, considering that his breasts would just barely fill an A-cup, but he wanted to keep his shirts from chafing him as well as hide any accidental leakage from his body beginning to produce breast milk for his unborn baby.

Once his shirt of choice was laying on the foot of the bed, he made his way over to their dresser to pick out a sports bra and the loosest boxers and gym shorts he owned. The latter half of what he had to pick out was usually the hardest because, regardless of what was his favorite and what wasn’t, his lower half grew faster than anything else, so keeping track of what size he wore was sometimes a challenge. He recalled the day he went for his seventeen-week check-up while pregnant with Rori, and how his jeans had nearly murdered his balls, even though he hadn’t been showing much more than he was now.

“Andy!” he called down the staircase. “Think you can come up here and gimme a hand?”

“Feeling a little too off-balance, mio deviante?” the baby of their social circle countered.

“Yeah, a little. I don’t wanna fall, if I can help it,” Ash answered.

“Lemme get the twins in their high chairs with their food, and I’ll be up there,” his husband told him.

Sighing, he sat down on the foot of their bed next to his clothes. Getting into his bra was easy enough to manage on his own, so he took care of that and spread a towel over his lap, just in case his oldest child walked in again. Moments later, there came a knock at the door, followed by his husband’s voice as he called out to assure him that it was just him and none of the kids were with him.

“Thanks, amore mio,” he said, one hand on his shoulder as he started pulling his boxers up.

“It’s not a problem, tesoro,” Andy chuckled. “Lemme finish that so you can keep your balance.”

“This is really the only thing I hate about pregnancy besides the morning sickness, mood-swings, and kicks to the ribs,” the bassist grumbled. “I can’t do nearly as much on my own as I can when I’m not pregnant.”

“But it’s all worth it in the end, isn’t it?” he chuckled, helping him get his gym shorts up.

“More than, but still…” Ash said, sighing as he sat back down. “Well, wearing a bra is a bit annoying, too, but not nearly as much as the rest of what I listed.”

“I’ll take your word for it, mio deviante. Anything else you need help with while I’m up here?”

“Nah. I can get my shirt on by myself.”

“Daddy!” their older daughter yelled, showing what a set of lungs she had.

“Great. I’ll bet ten bucks that Levi threw his food across the room again,” Andy groaned. “I’m coming, Princess!”

Snickering, the pregnant bassist pulled his shirt on over his head as his husband darted downstairs, taking the stairs two at a time to get there faster. If he’d ever thought that they kept each other hopping, or that Rori was a handful, he’d been nuts before the twins’ births in the fall of 2011. That was a date that, for anything other than their birthday, he’d prefer to forget, and with good reason.

As he made his way back to the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair, as well as put on a bit of guy-liner, he couldn’t help but remember what a surprise the twins really were. He’d taken their friend and bandmate, CC, to the hospital to give birth to his and his husband’s first child. His husband, their lead guitarist, Jake Pitts, had been overseas in England with Andy and Jinxx, CC and Ash being the only two to stay home. Due to his advanced pregnancy, the drummer’d deemed it safer to stay home that time, and the bassist hadn’t been feeling so great himself, although he didn’t know why.

The supposed sympathy pains he’d suffered all day while being his friend’s moral support during labor and delivery had turned out to be labor pains of his own. He hadn’t known he’d been pregnant with the twins, much less that there was more than one baby, until he found himself in a delivery room again, and not for moral support. He’d sworn from that day forth that, whether they were actively trying for a baby or not, he was listening to all signs his body gave him so he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

But other than the fact that the twins were such a surprise and he’d jeopardized their health on more than one occasion by taking it too far with the Jack while touring that year, he was glad he remembered that day. His bandmates were able to welcome a perfectly healthy baby boy into the world, and he found out later on that, despite his drinking, his own newborns were perfectly healthy. Now, slightly more than two years later, they still were, and there was nothing he was more thankful for. Well, besides the continued health of their oldest daughter, himself, and his husband, and the fact that their marriage was still intact. It’d been over six years since they began their relationship, and it was stronger than ever.

“Mommy, can you help me get dressed?” Rori asked as he stepped out of the master bedroom.

“Daddy busy with the twins?” he countered.

“Yeah. Levi threw his bacon across the room and got eggs smushed into the carpet again,” she answered, a grim look in her eyes.

“Please tell me Leila didn’t do the same,” Ash groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“No, she didn’t, but Auntie Sammi’s helping him clean it up,” his daughter informed him.

“When did she get here?” he asked curiously, following her to her bedroom.

“She, Uncle Jinxx, and the boys got here right before I called for Daddy,” she answered.

“You made sure to look out the window to make sure it was someone you knew before you answered the door, didn’t you?” the bassist asked, ready to scold her if she hadn’t.

“Yes, Mommy. I know better since it could be anybody, possibly somebody that wants to hurt me, at the door,” the little girl said, nodding.

“That’s a good girl.” He sighed as he sat down on the edge of her bed. “Pick out what you wanna wear, Princess, and I’ll do my best to help you get dressed.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

“You done getting dressed, Ash?” a new voice asked. Looking up, he saw Jinxx standing in the doorway to his daughter’s room, arms crossed over his chest.

“Yeah, but Rori asked for my help,” he answered, nodding.

“You go on downstairs and relax. I’ll help her,” Jinxx offered, standing upright.

“You okay with Uncle Jinxx helping you get dressed, Princess?” Ash asked his daughter.

“As long as he doesn’t look while I’m putting on my underwear,” she answered.

“So put them on before you bring your clothes out of your closet,” he chuckled. “He won’t be able to look, and that problem will be solved.”

“Okay, Mommy. I’ll be out in a minute, Uncle Jinxx,” Rori told them.

“Sounds like she is, Ash,” the multi-instrumentalist chuckled. “Now go on. You’re pregnant and need as much rest as you can get.”

“Quit acting like I’m a helpless invalid,” he snapped playfully.

“I’m not. I just figured you could use the extra help since Sammi and I brought the boys over,” Jinxx told him.

Ash grinned to let him know he was messing with him before heading downstairs.

With one hand on the small of his back for support, the other on the banister at his side, he slowly made his way down the stairs to head to the living room. Although he tried to be as independent as possible while pregnant, he was glad when someone else stepped in to give him a hand. Yeah, he had a harder time doing things on his own while he was pregnant, but he still tried to do as much as he could without someone else’s help. Call him stubborn, but he enjoyed the feeling of being able to achieve his goals on his own, even if they were as small as making it to the bathroom on his own.

By the time he got to the living room, he was beginning to feel a bit light-headed, as if his blood pressure were either too high or too low. Thankfully, his doctor back in Ohio had taught his husband how to check blood pressure while he was pregnant with Rori, so he could get him to check it once he was sitting down. He just hoped it wasn’t so far out of the normal range that he had to be hospitalized for it.

Shockingly enough, he got his husband’s attention just by walking into the room, and it was immediately apparent that he was concerned about him. Andy jumped up out of the floor, where he’d been entertaining the twins and Logan while Sammi fed baby Miles, so he could help him sit down. He managed to get out that he wasn’t feeling so great, almost as if his blood pressure was too high or too low, before he started seeing stars like he did when he came hard enough.

“Jinxx! Hurry up so you can take the kids outside!” he yelled as he darted into the master bedroom for his medical supplies. He did he best to keep the alarm out of his voice.

“You okay, dude? What’s wrong?” Jinxx asked, walking out of Rori’s room with the little girl on his hip.

“Take the kids to the back yard and don’t come back in till I tell you to,” Andy whispered into his ear. “Something’s wrong with Ash, and I don’t want them to get scared if he passes out or something.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, immediately concerned.

“I think his blood pressure’s either too high or too low,” he answered. “I’m getting my supplies to check. Hopefully if it is, it’s not by much and I won’t have to take him to the hospital.”

“You want Sammi to come out back, too?” the multi-instrumentalist asked.

“I don’t care if she and Miles stay inside,” the baby answered, darting down the stairs with his stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. “So long as you sign to her what’s going on, she’ll understand, and Miles is too young to understand, anyway.”

Nodding, he set the little girl down on the living room floor and started signing to his wife of just over a year, who nodded to him. Andy paid no attention to their exchange, nor to his friend gathering up all the kids except baby Miles and taking them outside to the back yard to play, just as he’d told them to. He was too focused on caring for his pregnant husband, whose breathing was far too quick and shallow for his liking.

As quickly as he could, he lifted his left arm away from his torso to wrap the blood pressure cuff around it, just as he’d watched shitloads of nurses and doctors do over the years. Once it was on tight enough to get a reading, but not so tight that it hurt him, he put the prongs of the stethoscope in his ears and fit the bell under the cuff, right on top of his brachial artery, and began to pump it up. Once he lost the sounds of blood rushing through the artery, he began deflating the cuff, listening intently so he could catch those sounds again and get the reading he needed.

When he got the reading, he was shocked to discover that his blood pressure was only eighty-two over fifty-four, which couldn’t possibly be good. His doctors had always told them that normal was usually one-twenty over eighty, but it could vary slightly from person to person. Ash’s blood pressure, especially when at this stage of pregnancy, was usually closer to one-thirty over seventy, give or take, so this was extremely alarming. As quickly as he’d put it on him, he took the cuff back off his arm.

“Ash, I’m gonna have to take you to the hospital, baby,” he said, too distraught to use even the Italian petname that he’d used for years.

“What is it?” the bassist asked, referring to his blood pressure reading.

“Eighty-two over fifty-four,” Andy answered, setting his supplies on the coffee table. “That’s insanely too low, compared to what it normally is during this stage of a pregnancy. Hell, that’s too low, even when you’re not pregnant.”

“Yikes,” Ash hissed, grimacing. “Where are Jinxx and the kids?”

“I sent ’em out back. In fact, I’m gonna let him know what’s going on. You feel well enough to sign to Sammi for me?” the frontman countered.

“As long as I don’t stand up, yeah,” he answered.

“Good. Sign to her what’s going on for me, and I’ll be right back.” With that, he rose to his feet and darted through the kitchen to the back door.

The bassist did as his husband had asked of him and signed everything to their friend’s deaf-mute wife, who grimaced and agreed that he should go to the hospital once she laid their newborn son down. It wasn’t long before Andy darted upstairs to pack a bag for the two of them, just in case he had to be admitted for an extended period of time, then took said bag to the car.

Not wanting him to pass out and hurt himself or their unborn baby, he lifted his sweetheart into his arms bridal-style and carried him out to their ’68 Shelby Mustang. Once he was settled, he darted around to the driver’s side and got himself settled before calling Jake and CC so they’d know what was going on. Once that was done, he quickly cranked the car and backed out of their driveway, hoping nothing was seriously wrong with the love of his life or their unborn child as he drove through the hellacious LA traffic to UCLA.

Notes