Chapter 10

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Thankfully we were able to solve the problem of the babies' names, now we just had to see about their food.

Milk should suffice, and it's all they can have at this point. But the problem was how we were gonna store it.

We sat and thought about it for some time till Melanie suggested that we bring over one of the fridges from the kitchen.

And that took nearly two whole hours. We had to call five other people to finally be able to bring it upstairs.

When it was brought up, we switched it on and headed back out to get the milk bottles.

By noon we had finished and the fridge was filled with nothing but milk and fruits. I bet they had gone to every house and brought everything nutritious for babies.

In the end, I noticed that we had a lot of cribs set up, a lot more than twenty-four.

Marcus, Felix, and William headed back out, and in their absence, Melanie, I, and Aliana who had joined us had written out every baby's name onto their cribs and also made separate ID's for them.

Marcus, Felix, and William returned with a lot more wailing babies. Thankfully this time they had brought their attached name tags with them.

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As I finally settled down the last baby into his crib, I sat down with a sigh of relief next to the cribs.

Melanie came in the next minute carrying a small basket. She put it down on one of the chairs and opened it up.

The sweet smell of cupcakes could be smelt from across the room. She walked over to where I was sitting with a plate of cupcakes and a glass of water.

I chugged down the water as she sat down next to me. Putting the glass down, I picked up one of the chocolate cupcakes, took off its cup a little, and bit into it.

Melanie picked up a vanilla one and started eating it.

We sat and are in silence for some time when Marcus came back carrying some bags.

"What are those?" I asked eyeing the bags he was holding as a million things went across my mind.

"Medical supplies. Where should I put them?" he asked staring at me expectantly.

"Uhh, just put them in any room upstairs, I'll sort them later." I said picking up another cupcake and biting its top off.

"Okay." He said and went off.

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I sat at the table in the nursery. Setting down the albums I'd brought over from Melanie's, I opened up the most recent looking one.

Flipping through it, I came to a stop at the page displaying our family photo. The photo was situated in a park in Florida when we were visiting mum's parents Last year in August.

I closed the book shut, my heart aching and tears seeping out from my eyes.

Just then one of the babies started crying. Getting up, I strode over to the crib and gently picked her up.

Rocking her gently, I wiped the tears out of my eyes as I looked into her big clear eyes with a smile.

I checked her name on the crib. Emma.

"Is little Emma hungry?" I said to her as I rocked her lightly.

She responded with a loud wail. And a bad sort of smell.

"I think we have a diaper problem.." I said as I covered my nose.

Taking the wailing baby outside to not disturb the other sleeping ones I walked around looking to see if someone beside me was still there. No one...

I took her over to the bathroom and cleaned her up.

"Bear with me, Emma, I'm doing my best." I mumbled as I stuffed some tissues into her underwear and put it on her.

She fussed for a minute or two and then fell asleep again. I went back to the nursery and gently put her back into her crib.

I took my hoodie which I had left on a chair, pulled it over my head, and walked out. Hopefully, none of them would wake up while I was gone.

As I got out of the house, the sun was starting to dim. I hurriedly got onto the bike and rode out.

Exiting the neighborhood, I rode to one of the closest grocery stores I could find.

Getting off the bike, I ran in and strode over to the baby aisle. Taking hold of some diaper bags, I dragged them over to the cashier's table and started stuffing them into a bag.

I took another bag and went back to the baby aisle. Stuffing more of the diapers into the bag I closed it up and dragged it out. Passing by the cashier's table, I took hold of the other bag and dragged them both out to the bike.

I loaded them onto the bike and rode back to the neighborhood. Stopping in front of the Willow house, picked up the bags and stepped back inside.

I walked back up to the nursery and placed the bags next to the table.

And just on cue, another one of the babies started crying.

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As I tended to every baby, who had all seemingly decided it was time to wake up and fuss, a little boy walked into the room.

"What's with all the noise?" he grumbled as he rubbed his eye. He looked similar to Marcus, with the same hair color and Grey eyes.

"Could you go get Marcus or Melanie?" I said looking at him with pleading eyes.

He just nodded in response and ran off.

I picked up one of the crying babies and checked her diaper. Clear... That would mean that it's feeding time..

I walked over to the fridge and took out some bananas. I took out a few bowls and forks from the cupboard that was next to the fridge.

Peeling the bananas, I added the fruit into the bowls and started mashing them.

Just as I started mashing the next one, Melanie and Marcus walked in.

I handed the mashed banana bowl to Melanie to go and feed some of them as I handed Marcus some bananas to mash.

I mashed the ones that I had and handed them to Melanie, taking the empty bowl from her.

Marcus finished mashing and went to feed them. I finished mashing another time and handed it to Marcus as he handed me his empty bowl.

We kept on like that for about half an hour till they had all been fed and were giggling happily.

"Phew."