Medical Center.
Emergency Room.
Adam scanned the area but didn't notice anything unusual.
After thinking about it, he realized—this was actually normal.
After such a major accident, anyone with common sense would be hyper-aware of their physical condition.
If they felt even the slightest discomfort, they'd immediately tell a doctor, afraid they might have some hidden injury.
Of course, there were always exceptions—like that middle-aged African-American woman who insisted she had been blessed by Lady Luck. She was too busy bragging about her miraculous survival to others to acknowledge her body's warning signs. But people like that were rare.
The entire day continued like this.
Injured people kept getting brought in, one after another.
There was no helping it—this was just the efficiency of emergency responders in America.
The Medical Center was the best teaching hospital in New York.
As long as it didn't tell the emergency dispatchers that it was full, paramedics would prioritize sending critical patients there.
Would a for-profit hospital turn these patients away?
What a joke.
America was a country built on survival of the fittest.
Hospitals were no exception.
Why did the head of surgery, Richard, insist on bringing in Dr. Shephard first, then, despite Shephard's objections, hire Dr. Montgomery as well?
Because even though the two had personal conflicts, one was a top-tier neurosurgeon, and the other was a leading pediatric specialist.
Recruiting them was a business move.
Their reputations would boost the hospital's overall ranking.
And those rankings directly influenced where ambulances took patients.
Some hospitals were drowning in resources, while others were starving for them.
If ambulances ever started prioritizing other hospitals over the Medical Center, the hospital's higher-ups—the director, the head of surgery—would probably lose their minds.
To protect their jobs and avoid getting fired by the board for declining performance, they might even be desperate enough to personally suit up, stand outside the ER in the freezing cold, and anxiously wait for an ambulance to arrive.
Night fell.
"Adam, come with me."
Liz suddenly appeared, grabbed Adam's hand, and pulled him toward the patient rooms.
"What's going on?"
Adam shook off her hand and smiled.
"Just follow me and you'll find out."
Liz was briefly stunned, then rolled her eyes. She stopped pulling him and simply gestured for him to come along, her face full of excitement.
"Your niece and nephew were just born."
"What?!"
Adam froze.
"You heard me. Come or don't, it's up to you."
Liz grinned and walked off.
"Niece and nephew?"
Adam's lips twitched as countless thoughts raced through his mind—but none of them made sense.
What was going on?
---
Room 6.
Liz stood outside the door and, when she saw Adam approaching, she nodded toward the inside before pushing it open.
Inside, two Caucasian women in their thirties were lying in separate hospital beds. They were turned slightly on their sides, gazing at the two bassinets between them with pure happiness.
Inside the bassinets—two newborns.
"Babies, your Uncle Adam Duncan is here!"
Liz burst out laughing and shoved Adam into the room.
The two new mothers immediately looked up, eyes bright with excitement.
"He's so handsome."
"And he's a doctor!"
"Why didn't the sperm bank have guys like him?"
"Someone like him probably got snatched up instantly. If we hadn't hesitated for so long, maybe we could've found someone just as amazing."
"No way. If the sperm bank had someone this outstanding, they would've been all over him—offering huge amounts of money for regular donations."
"You know, at this point, the sperm bank should just act as a matchmaking agency. Let women who want babies pick donors in person and skip all the extra hassle."
"A guy like him could make a fortune just from that alone!"
"..."
As they openly discussed him, Adam instinctively tuned out the nonsense and focused on the key details. He sighed, then pointed at them.
"Let me guess—Joey Tribbiani?"
If someone had been making serious money at a sperm bank, the only real candidates were Joey, Barney, or Leonard.
Leonard was still in school and not bold enough for that.
Barney didn't need the cash.
That left only Joey, who used to rely on Chandler's financial support.
"Yes!"
Liz clapped her hands, laughing. "I knew you'd figure it out!"
"You both picked Joey Tribbiani?"
Adam's expression turned a little strange. "So, are you two...?"
"No."
One of the mothers smiled and shook her head. "We're not a couple—we're lifelong best friends. We've lived together since third grade."
(pa-tre-on: belamy20)
"That's right."
The other mom added, "Men? Who needs them? When we wanted kids, we just bought some swimming little tadpoles."
"..."
Adam's lips twitched.
Well, she wasn't wrong.
"They wanted their kids to be related," Liz explained emotionally. "Now, their babies are real siblings."
"We're not just lifelong best friends anymore—we're family."
The two mothers exchanged a look and reached out, holding hands.
Their connection was so strong that Adam couldn't help but suspect their "just friends" claim was a cover story.
"How did you end up choosing Joey?" Adam asked, genuinely curious.
Joey had been doing well for himself for a few years now.
That kind of gig was something he'd only do when he was struggling financially, and that had been a while ago.
"There was a time gap," one of the moms explained. "Years ago, when we first started considering this, we saw Joey's profile. But aside from his looks and Italian heritage, there wasn't much else appealing about him, so we crossed him off the list."
"Then, last year, we finally made our decision," the other mom added. "When we checked the donor profiles again, we saw that Joey's information had been updated. He had gone from 'actor' to a real actor, even starring in Our Days. Since there weren't any better options, we went with him."
"Heh."
Adam couldn't help but chuckle.
So, Joey had been passed over at first, but once he became famous and updated his profile, he finally got picked.
Damn.
That's the real 'when you're poor, no one cares; when you're rich, suddenly you have long-lost relatives' situation.
Good thing this was just a transaction.
If Joey had actually gotten them pregnant himself, he'd be stuck paying child support—while the kids were raised solely by their moms.
Wait.
This was feeling familiar.
Oh.
It was just like Ross all over again!
"You two were on the train?" Adam asked.
"Yeah," Liz answered. "Brooke almost didn't make it—she was writing her will before surgery. Jenny didn't want to sign it at first, but when she realized that without a will, their parents would get custody of the kids, she immediately made Brooke sign it."
"They don't understand us," Jenny said coldly. "Even if we died, we would never let them raise our children."
Adam didn't touch that heavy topic.
He stepped closer to the bassinets, studying the little boy and girl carefully.
Now that he looked closer, they really did resemble Joey a bit.
Ross was about to have both a son and a daughter.
But who would've thought that Joey—the lifelong bachelor everyone joked about—would be the first to have a boy and a girl?
Adam's thoughts kept drifting.
Just a few sperm samples had created a set of twins.
How many of Joey's donations were out there in New York?
Considering the sheer volume involved...
"Looks like I need to have a serious talk with Joey," Adam muttered to himself.
If he didn't settle down soon, who knew what kind of ethical disasters might pop up in a decade or so...
---