by J. D. Robb
He took the ring from the chain, passed it to Leonardo. Eve heard him quietly clear his throat. “I’d be so completely honored.”
When he shifted back, Eve met his eyes. “Well done,” she said.
It was perfect, Eve thought. Perfectly Mavis to make her vows and promises—with a couple of pauses for contractions—in the swanky birthing room surrounded by friends and wearing a silly tiara.
With McNab memorializing it all on his police recorder.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room, including her own, when Leonardo’s big hands slipped the borrowed ring on Mavis’s dainty finger.
After the applause, the kisses, the champagne Roarke smuggled in—you could always count on him—the midwife swung through the door.
“Congratulations, best wishes, and I’m pleased to announce a new life has begun. Tandy and Aaron have a son. Eight pounds three ounces of perfection. Mavis, I’m to tell you Tandy’s sending her energy to you now. And Dallas? She’d like to see you for a moment.”
“Me? Why?”
“I’m just the messenger. All right, Mommy, let’s see how you’re doing.”
“You’re coming with me,” Eve said and gripped Roarke’s hand.
“She didn’t ask for me.”
“I’m not going in there alone.” She pulled him with her.
In the other suite, Tandy looked pale, sweaty, and a little glassy-eyed, as did the new father. She held a small bundle wrapped in blue.
“Everything okay in here?”
“Everything’s brilliant. Isn’t he beautiful?” Tandy turned the baby, so snugly wrapped it put Eve in mind of a blue sausage with a round, alien face.
“Beautiful,” she agreed, knowing what was expected. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired, thrilled, madly in love with both my men. But I wanted to introduce you, especially, to Quentin Dallas Applebee.”
“Who?”
“The new addition, Lieutenant.” Roarke gave her a little nudge forward.
“It’s all right, isn’t it?” Tandy asked her. “We wanted him to honor your name. He wouldn’t be with us if it wasn’t for you.”
Surprised, touched, Eve pushed her hands into her pockets and smiled. “That’s nice. Really nice. That’s a lot of name for a little guy.”
“We’re going to teach him to live up to it.” Aaron bent down, kissed mother and child. “And how is Mavis?”
“Slow and steady, the midwife said. It’ll be awhile.”
“I’ll come over when they let me.”
“She’ll be around. You’d better get some rest.”
When she stepped out, Feeney was standing in the hall drinking bad coffee. “Midwife’s checking something on her. I’m not staying in there during that.”
“What sane person would?” Eve’s communicator signaled.
“Don’t think you’re going anywhere,” Roarke said darkly.
“Hey, I signed up, I’m seeing it through. Dallas.”
“Lieutenant.” Whitney’s face filled the screen. “You’re to report immediately to Riker’s, female facility.”
“Commander. I’m currently unable to comply. I’m at the birthing center. Mavis—”
“Now?”
“Yes, sir. Or shortly. Is this a problem with Madeline Bullock?”
“It is. She’s dead. Her son broke her neck.”
When she had the details, was assured Whitney would call in Baxter to handle the investigation, she sat in one of the pretty garden spots with her head in her hands.
“Why do you blame yourself?” There was impatience in Roarke’s voice. “Why must you take this on? She’s the one who convinced a guard to let her son have visitation.”
“Stupid. Stupid. They should never have been allowed to see or speak to each other. Not at this point. I’ll be damned if she convinced a guard. She bribed one, and asses will be thoroughly kicked.”
“Then why are you sitting here, taking on the responsibility?”
She sat back. “She riled him up, is what she did. Pushing him, pushing him to corroborate her story, to save her own skin at the expense of his. ‘I’m your mother. You owe me life.’ I can fucking hear her saying it, and him listening to her, understanding—finally—he’d be sacrificed. That he wasn’t important enough to her to save, to love.”
“And still, knowing that, here you sit.”
“I wanted her to go down, go down the hardest. That’s why I saved her for last in Interview. Let her sweat. That’s why I didn’t hammer at her any harder than I did—let her sweat some more, go back at her again tomorrow. I didn’t offer her a deal, and I was cleared to. I could have closed it up with a decent deal, and enough hammering. But I let her know I was going to see her fry. I let her see it. I wanted her to.”
“And why not? She was responsible for all of this, for murder, for misery. You wanted justice.”
“No, or not only. I wanted to give her pain and fear. He did the killings, and he enjoyed doing them. But she twisted him, right from the beginning. She made him what he was, and used him as her tool, she abused him like—”
Roarke lifted her hand, pressed it to his lips. “As you were.”
“I saw my father when I went at her in the box. I felt him, and I felt what he’d done, wanted to do, with me.”
“She was a monster, as he was. But regardless, Winfield Chase was a grown man. He could have escaped her. He could have gotten help.”
“You don’t believe in help, or escape, when they’re done with you.”
“He wasn’t you, Eve. And you could never, no matter what, have been like Chase. You could never have made his choices.”
“No. I know that. And yeah, he had choices, we all do, but she limited them. She skewed them.”
“And that’s what your father would have done, was trying to do, to you.”
“He comes back, in my head, in my dreams. So I saw him in her. I saw him when I looked in her eyes, and I wanted her to pay. I wanted her to suffer and to pay and to know why. Now she has paid. I don’t know if she understood why.”
“Did you want her dead?”
“No. No, because then it’s over, and that’s not payment enough.” She drew a breath, shaky, then another, stronger. “Whitney said it happened fast. They’re talking, and Chase just reached over, snapped her neck. He didn’t even try to resist afterward, just let them haul him away. They’ve got him on suicide watch.”
“Look at me, listen to me.” His tone was brisk and firm. He wouldn’t have it, wouldn’t have her carrying this load. “Can’t you see whatever you wanted, however you played this, it would have ended the same? She wouldn’t have been satisfied with a deal. She would still have tried to use him, he would still have killed her.”
“Maybe. Maybe.”
“Eve, you saw that child moments ago, that tiny new life that carries part of your name. There’s a beginning for you, and you helped bring it to be. It’s pure. We can’t be, you and I, and he won’t stay that way. But by doing what you did, by being what you are, you gave him his family.”
“So close it up where it belongs.” She closed her eyes, nodded. “You’re right, I know you’re right. I will.”
“Dallas? Sorry.” Peabody stiffled a yawn. “Mavis is asking for you. Oh, and she’s up to seven. Some of us are heading down to get a bite to eat. We’re taking Leonardo, because the midwife said we’ve got time.”
“But—”
“She said she’d really just like a little quiet time, with you.”
“Okay, okay. Wipe that relieved look off your face, ace,” she warned Roarke. “You’re still going to be there for liftoff.”
“God pity me.” But he rose, put his arms around her, brushed his lips over her brow. “Think of what’s been saved,” he murmured. “Think of the look on Tandy’s face when she held her son. There’s no place for the dark here.”
“Right again.” She held onto him one more moment. “Thanks.”
Eve thought Mavis was starting to show
a little wear when she went back in. “Something happened.” Mavis pushed a little straighter in bed. “Tandy? The baby?”
“No, no, they’re fine. Something on the job.” Close it up, she reminded herself, and remember what’s begun. “It’s not important.”
“You don’t have to leave?”
“Mavis, I’m not going anywhere till you get this job done. How’re you doing? And are you sick of having people ask you that?”
“I’m pretty okay, and no. It’s kind of frosty, being the focus, you know? It’s not like when I’m performing. This is so real, like primal even, and I’m the only one who can do it. Can you just sit here, be with me?”
“At your beck.”
Because Mavis patted the bed, Eve sat on the side of it. “I wanted…Oh, here it comes again. Getting stronger. Shit, damn, fuck.”
“You gotta breathe. Where’s the focus thing?”
“You are, right now. I’m sick of looking at fucking sunshine.”
Mavis puffed, staring so hard into Eve’s eyes, Eve wondered she didn’t lance right through to her brain. Then she remembered one of the options from the class, and laid hands on Mavis’s belly, rubbing light circles on what now felt like a mound of concrete.
“Easing back, isn’t it? Yeah, it is,” Eve said with a glance toward the monitor. “Coming down, leveling off, good work. Blow it out.”
When she had, Mavis managed a grin. “You were paying attention in class.”
“I’ll remind you I’m a cop. We hear and see all. You know, they have drugs for this.”
“Yeah, and I’m thinking about it. It’s just I’ve never done anything like this before. I think I’m going to go a while longer first. Right now, I wanted the just-you-and-me time. Look.”
She held up her left hand, and Summerset’s ring glinted.
“Yeah, I’m happy for you.”
“Couple of old married ladies now. Who’d’ve thought it? Pretty soon, I’m going to be a mother. I want more than anything to be a good one.”
“Mavis, it’s in the bag.”
“There are so many ways to screw up. I used to be such a screw-up. But I came around, right?”
“Yeah, you did.”
“I wanted to say something to you, before everything changes again. Because I know this is going to change everything. A good change. An abso mag change, but still. Dallas, you’re the best person I know.”
“Are you sure you haven’t had drugs already?”
Mavis gave a watery laugh. “I mean it. Leonardo, he’s the sweetest, but you’re the best. You do what’s right, you do what matters, whatever it takes. You’re the first of my family, and you really started me on the road. I wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be doing this except for you.”
“I think Leonardo had more to do with it.”
Mavis grinned, rubbed her belly. “Yeah, he had the fun part. I love you. We love you.” She took Eve’s hand, laid it on her belly. “I wanted to tell you.”
“Mavis, if I didn’t love you, I’d be a thousand miles from this room.”
“I know.” Now she hooted out a wicked laugh. “It’s kind of a kick to know. But you do what’s right. You do what matters, so you are so completely stuck. Oh, shit, damn, fuck, here comes another one.”
Two hours later, with a little something to take the leading edge off, Mavis was pronounced “ready to push.”
“All right, team.” Randa lifted the tent between Mavis’s legs. “Positions.”
“Why is this my position?” Eve demanded when she was maneuvered to the bottom of the bed.
“Mavis, I want you to take a long deep breath on the next contraction, hold it for the count of ten, and push. Dallas, give her resistance. Leonardo, on the resistance, pull. Roarke, on breathing.”
“It’s coming!”
“Get your breath, and go. Push! One, two…”
“Mag! You’re amazing,” Leonardo declared when the contraction passed. “You’re a miracle. Breathe slow now, sugarcake. You don’t want to hyperventilate.”
“I love you,” Mavis said with her eyes closed and her face slack. “But if you tell me how to breathe one more time, I’ll yank your tongue out of your mouth and strangle you with it. Here it comes again.”
During the next hour, Leonardo bathed Mavis’s face with cool cloths, gave her ice chips, hunched in shame when she snapped at his over-cheery encouragement.
For herself, Eve did her job and looked anywhere but at what was going on below.
“I think we should switch.” She narrowed her eyes at Roarke as Mavis sucked in for the next round.
“There’s no power in heaven or hell that could make me go down there.”
“That’s the way, Mavis,” Randa encouraged. “See, the head.”
Instinctively Roarke glanced at the mirror angled for Mavis. “Oh, God! My eyes.”
Pulling on the bright red strap Leonardo held, pushing strongly with her foot against Eve, Mavis let out a nearly inhuman growl, then plopped back and panted.
“A couple more,” the midwife told her. “Just a couple more.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You can do it, starshine!”
Mavis bared her teeth at Leonardo. “You want to switch places? Shit, shit, shit.” She reared up, grabbed the strap, and dug her free hand, nails first, into Roarke’s.
“Head’s out. What a great face!”
With one eye shut, Eve looked down, and saw the wet, slack face that was vaguely human poked out of Mavis’s crotch. “Is that even possible? Can that be right?”
“One more, Mavis, and you’ve got yourself a baby.”
“I’m so tired.”
Eve blew the hair out of her eyes, waited until Mavis’s glazed ones met hers. “One more time, for-the-money shot.”
“Okay, okay, here it comes.”
It slid out, slippery, wriggling as Mavis pushed with a vengeance. Its cry was raw and irritated, in counterpoint to Mavis’s weeping laugh. “My baby! Our baby! What is it? I can’t see that part. Does it have a dingle or not?”
Eve cocked her head as the midwife held up the now-wailing baby. “Dingle-free. It’s a girl. Got some serious lungs on her.”
Leonardo wept as he cut the cord, wept as the baby was laid on Mavis’s belly. “Look at my beautiful girls. Look at my girls.” He spoke it like a prayer. “Do you see them?”
“It all right, Daddy.” Mavis crooned, stroking his hair with one hand, the baby’s back with the other. “Hello, my baby. Hello, true love. I’m going to do everything I can so the world doesn’t suck for you.”
“We’ll need her for just a minute,” Randa told Mavis. “Just to clean her up, to weigh her. Dolly’s going to take her and bring her right back to you. She’s a real beauty, Mom.”
“Mom.” Mavis pressed her lips to the baby’s head before Dolly lifted her. “I’m a mom. Thank you.” She reached for Roarke’s hand, then smiled down at Eve. “Thank you.”
“She is beautiful.” Roarke leaned over to kiss Mavis’s cheek. “Like a perfectly beautiful doll.”
“She’ll suit her name.” Leonardo wiped tears from his eyes.
“We went all over the place on names, remember, Dallas?”
“I think Radish was the last you ran by me.”
“Apricot.” Mavis rolled her eyes, and simply glowed. “But we decided to go with something softer, if it was a girl. Something sweet. She’s Bella. Bella Eve. We’ll call her Belle.”
The beautiful Belle was wrapped in a pink blanket, her pretty bald head covered in a pink hat, and placed in her father’s big arms. “Now,” he whispered, “I have everything. I have the world.”
Hours later, Eve stood in the quiet of her own bedroom, and pulled off her boots. “Hell of a day.”
“Hell of several.”
“We did okay, didn’t we? Coach Roarke.”
“Some shaky moments, but I think, yes, we did just fine. And thank all the gods it’s done.”
“It kind of look
ed like that vid—the pod people vid, before they’re fully formed.”
Tunneling his fingers through his hair, Roarke frowned at her. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”
“Yeah, that. It—I mean she—kind of looked like that when she came out, then she didn’t. She looked mostly real. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I’m glad Mavis cornered us into doing this. It meant a lot, to see this through with her.”
“It did.” He crossed to her, put his arms around her. “And you’ve two lives, two new beginnings, carrying your name. That’s quite a tribute, Lieutenant.”
“Hope I never have to arrest them.”
He laughed, swept her up. “I want you in bed.”
“I want to be there, too. Be glad if you came along.” She pressed her lips to the side of his neck. “I’ve got to clean up the mess tomorrow, on the job. Tie up the last of it. Might take two days, but no more than. Anyway, the new mother will sulk if we don’t come in and ga-ga over Belle. But then, it’s just you and me, pal. Dancing naked under the tropical sun.”
“Hallelujah.”
When she was wrapped around him, she let it all go, the questions, the answers, life and death. They’d all wait for her until the morning.
• • •
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