Chapter Text
***Sean’s POV***
Sean stared at the man before him. How was this possible? He was dead. Sean knew that for certain. Yet he here was, standing in front of him. He must be seeing things. “You’re not real.” Sean told him.
“Real enough that you’re talking to me.” Meisner said.
Sean shook his head. “No. No, you’re dead.”
“Does that really matter?”
Sean slowly lowered his gun and stepped a little closer to him. “What do you want?”
“What do you want?”
“I want you to get the hell out of here.” Sean replied, trying not to freak out.
Meisner scoffed. “I’m not gonna make it that easy for you.”
Sean stepped forward quickly, placing his hand against Mesiner’s chest. His eyes widened as he made contact with it. “Oh, I’m here. You sure you want to do this, so soon after your little tussle with Nick.”
Sean just stared at him. The silence broken when his phone started ringing it. “Go ahead.” Meisner said. “Take it. I’m in no hurry. It could be your wife…or the paramedics.”
His eyes still on Meisner, Sean pulled his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the caller ID. “What?” Sean asked the person on the other end.
“I saw what you did on the news.”
Sean shook his head. “That wasn’t me.” He insisted.
“Do you know how much time and blood it took to get you elected mayor?”
“That was the Grimm.”
“How?”
Sean turned away to avoid Meisner’s judgemental stare. “If you really want to know, it’s an ancient hexenbiest shapeshifting spell called the Verfluchte Zwillingsschwester.” Sean told him angrily.
“You’re a zauberbiest, you should have known this would happen.”
“Oh, really? You have a lot of experience with the Verfluchte Zwillingsschwester?” Sean’s voice was increasing in volume as his anger and frustration came out.
“If Bonaparte was still alive, you wouldn’t be. Your mistake has cost us more than you know.”
“No, my mistake was thinking that you knew what you were doing.” Sean said before hanging up the phone. Letting out a breath, Sean turned to face his other current problem only to find Meisner gone.
Sean spun around, looking at the different areas in the room. There was no sign of him. But he had been there. Sean had spoken to him, touched him. What the hell was going on?
***Lorelei’s POV***
God, what a day. Hell, what a week. Lorelei let out a sigh as she stared blankly at the wall. She had been moved up to the maternity ward after the ER had determined it would be best to admit her. Blood and a urine sample had been taken, and she was still waiting on the results. It was after Adalind and the kids left when Lorelei realised something wasn’t right. The headache wasn’t going away, she started to feel nauseous and had thrown up. She was also experiencing some pain in her upper abdomen. Despite wanting to speak with her husband, Lorelei had made the decision to call for an ambulance. She couldn’t risk the possibility that her preeclampsia was getting worse.
Sean had arrived back before she left for the hospital. She’d had the chance to get some of the things she wanted to say off her chest. She’d also wanted to be the one to tell him that having someone impersonate him had been her idea. He needed to know the impact his choices had on her personally. She’d not had the time to go into detail, and she was sure he knew to some extent, but she needed to say it. Lorelei had been sure Sean would be angry with her for betraying him. However, he seemed to accept it. Which was good, because if not for him she never would have done that. Lorelei loved that man to death, she had no plans on leaving him, but what he had done couldn’t be without consequences. Lorelei wasn’t sure exactly what deal Sean and Nick had struck, but hopefully there wouldn’t be further problems.
Lorelei had been on the ward for about an hour and a half when the on-call OBGYN came in, followed by a nurse wheeling an ultrasound machine. “Lorelei?” She asked. Lorelei nodded. “Hi, my name is Dr Rushton, I’m the OBGYN working tonight. How are you feeling?”
Lorelei shrugged. “I don’t know. A little freaked. But I’m not feeling nauseous anymore, so I guess the anti-nausea medication worked.”
Dr Rushton nodded. “That is good to hear. I got your test results back. It’s as you suspected, results indicate your preeclampsia has reached a severe level, so you made the right call by coming in.”
“Ok.” Lorelei said slowly. She had been hoping she was wrong.
“Results also indicate hemodylsis, your platelet count is low, and liver enzymes are elevated.”
Those seemed familiar, Lorelei could recall reading about them when reading about preeclampsia. “HELLP syndrome?”
Dr Rushton nodded. “Yes. You’re familiar with it?”
“I remember reading about it. It can affect your blood and your liver?”
“That is correct. I want to send you down to get some more scans to give us a better idea what we are working with. Before we do that, I wanted to quickly check on the babies.”
Lorelei was relieved that the little ones seemed to be doing well. Whatever was going on in her body wasn’t impacting them. Both girls were still head down and had moved further down into her pelvis. Once confirming the babies were fine, Lorelei went off to get her scans done. Once they were completed, she was returned to the ward. Lorelei tried to sleep but woke up every time the nurses came in to check her vitals. At one point, a nurse told her they were giving her something to prevent seizures. It was close to sunrise when Lorelei decided to give up on sleep. Grabbing her phone, she sent a message to Sean updating him. She’d sent a couple over the course of the night to let him know what was happening.
Her husband made an appearance around 8am. Lorelei was sitting up in bed eating breakfast. The knock at the door had her looking up to find her husband standing there awkwardly. Lorelei smiled at him, a genuine smile. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Sean said, returning her smile although there appeared to be relief behind it. He approached her bed. “How are you feeling?”
Lorelei sighed. “Tired. Mild headache.” She shrugged. “Could be worse though.”
“Has the doctor been in to see you this morning?”
Lorelei shook her head. “Not yet. Soon hopefully.” She looked closely at her husband, noting the bags under his eyes. “Did you sleep?”
Sean nodded. “Yeah, I got some sleep.” He replied.
Lorelei noticed he seemed to be having a hard time looking her in the eye. She sighed. “Sean. Look at me.”
After a moment, his gaze met hers. She could see the fear in his eyes. He was afraid she was going to leave him. Lorelei patted the bed before holding her hand out to him. Sean took her hand, holding it tightly as he sat on the edge of the bed. “When I get out, are you coming home with me?”
Sean nodded. “If you want me to, I will.”
“I want you to. But our home, not Black Claw’s.”
Sean nodded again. “I’ll make arrangements to have our belongings moved back home.”
“You’ll also need to contact Angela. Someone needs to watch Olivia and Diana while I’m in the hospital and you’re working.”
“I’ll call Angela on my way to work.” Sean said, his hand still tightly clutching hers. “And I will avoid working late so I can be there for the girls.”
“Are you going to be alright on dad duty? I don’t think you’ve done any solo parenting, at all.”
Sean rolled his eyes. “I am perfectly capable of taking care of my daughters without a chaperone.”
Lorelei smiled at him teasingly. “Just checking.” She told him. Sean returned the smile before bringing her hand up and pressing it to his lips before allowing it to rest in his lap.
“Hello you two.”
Sean and Lorelei glanced at the door to see Dr Brody standing there. “Hi Dr Brody.” Lorelei greeted her. “Got any news for me.”
Dr Brody nodded. “I do indeed. I’ve just finished meeting with the OBGYN on last night. We were looking over your results. You really are an overachiever aren’t you, Lorelei?”
“Preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome?”
“Yes. Thankfully, we are not seeing any damage to any of your major organs at this time, so you came in at the right time. You are stable; however, we do need to start seriously considering getting those girls out.”
Sean squeezed Lorelei’s hand. “How soon?”
“Because Lorelei is stable, I would like to wait a few more days before delivering.” Dr Brody looked her Lorelei. “I’ll be starting you on corticosteroids to help the girl’s lungs mature a little bit more. We’ll also keep you on the magnesium sulfate to prevent seizures in addition to your blood pressure medication.”
Lorelei nodded. “Do you think I’ll still be able to deliver vaginally?”
“At this stage, I am leaning towards yes.”
Lorelei gave a little fist pump. “Yes.”
Dr Brody laughed as Sean shook his head. “You are the only expectant mother I know happy about the prospect of going through a vaginal delivery.”
Lorelei shrugged. “I just don’t want a c-section if I can help it.”
Dr Brody nodded understandingly. “I get it. I do.”
After Dr Brody left, Lorelei saw her husband had a troubled look on his face. “Sean, you better not be blaming yourself for this.”
“My actions certainly didn’t help.”
Lorelei rolled her eyes. “Probably not, but so help me, if you don’t stop making this about you, Imma smack you.”
Sean sighed. “I’m sorry. You married a selfish man.”
“Yeah, and one who makes stupid choices. Seriously, I’m under twenty-five and my brain isn’t fully formed, yet you are the one doing stupid shit all the time. What gives?”
Sean ducked his head although Lorelei could see the corner of his mouth curling up. His gaze dropped to his watch, and he sighed. “I should get to work. You’ll keep me updated?”
Lorelei nodded. “Of course. Don’t forget to call Angela. Hopefully she can resume her duties tomorrow.”
“I’ll call her. You just focus on yourself and the twins.” Sean assured her.
There was a pause and Lorelei saw Sean’s eyes drop to her lips. Internally rolling her eyes, Lorelei grabbed him by the tie and pulled him in for a kiss. His hand slid into her hair, gripping at her hair. Lorelei’s hand moved from his tie to cup the back of his neck. Sean let out a sigh of contentment as he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. “I love you.”
“I love you. Even though you’re an idiot.”
***Sean’s POV***
Once the way to precinct, Sean called Angela who was more than happy to resume her duties. The woman seemed unaware of Sean’s involvement with Black Claw, and he would prefer to keep it that way. Angela was concerned to hear that Lorelei was in hospital but pleased to know the twins would be arriving soon. She informed she would speak with her sisters to start getting things prepared for the twin’s arrival. Arriving in his office, Sean had settled in his chair drinking his coffee as he looked over the headline of today’s paper announcing his abdication. Sean was bitter about the loss of position, but there was no way to take back what Nick had done. He would just have to learn to accept it. Although perhaps it was a blessing in disguise considering the twins would be here soon. It would be easier to take time off work so he could support his wife.
Outside he heard a round of applause. Looking up, he saw Nick and Hank had arrived. They were considered heroes. Everyone believed they helped catch the person responsible for what occurred at the North Precinct. Nick’s idea for palming off the responsibility for the North Precinct massacre and Bonaparte’s death was working. Although this idea also made it appear that Sean was a hero, he wasn’t happy with Nick, Hank, and Wu. Once the crowd had cleared Sean stepped out to address the trio. “You three, my office.” The three of them entered his office seeming a bit apprehensive. “Why don’t you close the door.” Wu did so as Sean faced the three men. Sean sighed. “Well, we’ve all made mistakes.” He saw them exchange looks. “That was one hell of an undercover operation that ‘we’ pulled off.”
Nick smirked at him. “Yeah, you looked pretty good on TV.”
Sean glared at him. “Yeah, well you didn’t.” Sean clapped back.
Nick glanced at Hank and Wu before looking back at Sean. “People really seemed to like it.”
“I know I did.” Hank added.
Wu also decided to comment. “Sometimes, Captain, you have to sacrifice for the good of the –.”
“Shut up.” Sean told him. They were deliberately rubbing this in his face. And they may not like him, but he was still their Captain and deserved to be treated with respect. “Let’s get one thing straight here. I’m in charge of this precinct. Any of you get out of line again, you will be outta here.”
“So…no medals, then?” Nick asked. He was really pushing it.
Sean sneered at him. “Get out.”
Smug expressions still in place, they silently left his office. Sean picked the paper back up, staring at it. “Well, I don’t think that was in the spirit of reconciliation.” A familiar voice said from behind him.
Sean turned around to find Meisner there, wearing a suit. He glared at the man. “You get out too.”
“I would, if I was here.”
“You’re standing here ‘cause you’re dead?”
“Aren’t you worried about the fact that you’re talking to someone who isn’t even here?” Meisner asked him.
Sean glared at him as he picked up his coffee mug. “Oh, let’s see how here you really are.” Sean told him, moving to approach him.
Meisner’s eyes widened and he backed away. “Whoa, now wait a minute, Sean’s, that’s hot coffee.”
Sean flung the hot coffee at the man. His own eyes widening as the coffee went right through the man, splattering against the window.
Meisner looked at the splatter before turning back to Sean. “Talk about hot coffee going right through you.”
Sean sighed, the fight leaving him. The man was definitely not solid. Was he a ghost? “Why are you doing this?”
Meisner shrugged. “Well, my calendar’s pretty open, seeing as how I’m dead.”
“Look, if this is some kind of revenge haunting don’t forget I shot you to put you out of your misery.” Sean reminded him.
Meisner’s expression softened slightly. “Oh, and I thank you for that. Really.” His expression changed again. “But don’t forget you betrayed us all. It’s the real reason I’m dead.”
“No, I gave you an opportunity to join me.” Sean shouted at him.
“Don’t think you cleared that with your friend Bonaparte.” Meisner pointed out.
Sean sighed in frustrated. “All right, I don’t have to listen to any of this.” Sean said heading to the door.
“By the way.” Sean paused looking at Meisner, who had a cheeky smile on his face. “Bonaparte says hi.”
Sean glared at him before exiting the office, slamming the door behind him.
Thankfully, he didn’t see Meisner for the rest of the day. Sean left work early that day, heading to the Black Claw mansion to finish packing up his family’s stuff. It mainly consisted of clothing. Everything else was still at home. Black Claw had provided everything. Once he had returned their possessions to the house, he went grocery shopping. Lorelei had called earlier to let him know that he would have both girls with him this evening. Adalind would be dropping them off later this evening. His wife was in good spirits despite being in hospital; however, the most recent blood test detected a drop in iron levels and her platelet count. She was currently receiving a blood transfusion to try and mitigate that.
The sun had set when Adalind dropped the girls off. Sean opened the door and was immediately greeted by Diana. “Daddy.” She said, throwing her arms around him.
“Hey, honey.” Sean said, holding her tightly. As Diana stepped away, Olivia took her place. “I’m so happy to see you both.”
“I missed you and Mama.” Diana told him as Sean stood up, Olivia still in his arms.
“We missed you too.”
Adalind looked at Diana. “I will be ready to pick you up tomorrow, or before, if you change your mind.”
Diana smiled at her. “I’ll be ok. I love you.” She said before giving Adalind a hug.
“I love you too.”
After saving goodbye, Adalind left. Diana turned to look at Sean as he closed the door. “So, what do you feel like doing? Do you, uh, wanna watch a movie or are you hungry?”
Diana thought about it. “I’m hungry. What about you Livy?”
Olivia rubbed her stomach. “Hungry.”
Sean smiled at his girls. “Alright, let’s go make dinner.”
They headed into the kitchen and Sean started to prepare the food with some help from the girls. Olivia was standing on a little footstool at the counter while Diana was preparing to add the pasta to the water. “No, honey, you have to wait until the water boils before you pour that in.” Sean told Diana.
She glanced at him. “It is.”
“Sweetie, the stoves not even…on.” Sean trailed off as he heard the water in the pot start to boil. Diana removed the lid and poured the pasta in. After placing the box down, she turned to look at Sean.
Sean chuckled. “It must be fun being you isn’t it.” He commented as Diana moved to continue working on the garlic bread. Out of the corner of his eye, Sean saw Olivia reach out and grab yet another piece of bell pepper and pop it in her mouth. “Olivia, if you keep eating the bell pepper there won’t be any left for the pasta sauce.” His youngest gave him a cheeky grin and Sean chuckled again.
Once dinner was ready, the three of them sat at the table eating. Sean was regretting the white shirt he was wearing. Although Olivia was reaching the point where she could feed herself, she still required some assistance. However, his toddler wasn’t keen on the help. As a result, she got bolognaise everywhere in her immediate vicinity. She’d definitely be needing a bath. And his shirt would need a soak.
Upstairs, he got them into the bath. Once they were both clean, he allowed them some extra time in the bath. Diana entertained Olivia by enlarging the bubbles and floating them to the roof where they burst. Olivia laughed as if it were the funniest thing she had ever seen. Once they were clean and dressed, the three of them settle on the couch watching a movie.
“Daddy. When is Mama coming home?” Diana asked him as the movie was ending.
Sean sighed, glancing down at Olivia, sprawled on him fast asleep. “I’m not sure. But when she does come home, your baby sisters will be here.”
Diana smiled widely. “I can’t wait.”
Sean smiled back at her. “You like being a big sister?”
Diana nodded as she looked at Olivia. “It’s my job to protect my little brother and sisters.”
“It is. But you don’t need to protect them all the time. That’s the responsibility of us parents.” Sean told her. Diana nodded. “Come on, the movie is over. It’s time for bed.”