by Marla Monroe
“Janet, love. Time to wake up.” He kissed her cheek and smiled when she hummed. He tried again.
“Wake up, Janet. Dinner is ready.”
Her eyes opened just as Greg opened his.
“Everything okay?”
“Dinner is ready. I was waking Janet up. She’s more fun to wake up than you are.”
Greg only grinned and nuzzled Janet’s neck.
“I’m awake now. You said dinner is ready? I’m hungry.”
“That’s great, baby. I’m going to get up. Don’t let me jar you.” Greg rolled out of the bed and stretched.
“You ready to get up now?”
“I better if I’m going to get something to eat. I have a feeling you guys will eat it all if I don’t get my share now.”
Steven winked at her. “You’re right about that.” He held out his arm for her to use to pull herself up.
He watched as she scooted across the bed and slowly stood up. She kept one hand on the bed as she walked around it toward the bathroom.
“Do you need help?” Steven asked.
“I think I’ll be fine. I’ll call out if I need help, though.”
A few minutes later, she walked out and smiled at the men. He and Greg had been waiting outside the door in case she needed them. She didn’t seem to mind, thank goodness. They were both being overly protective of her but couldn’t help themselves. They had almost lost her.
She was able to walk all the way downstairs with only a little support toward the end. She looked tired when she sat down at the table to eat. Steven hoped they weren’t letting her overdo it on her first day home. They were trying so hard not to overwhelm her with demands that they might be letting her wear herself out unnecessarily.
Both he and Greg were pleased when she managed to eat the entire bowl of stew and a slice of bread with it. Steven offered her some more, but she declined saying she was almost too full.
“Maybe I will want something later. Right now, I’m stuffed.”
“You did really well, baby.” Greg pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.
“It’s a little chilly in here. I think I’m going to start a fire in the fireplace.” Steven finished washing the dishes and left them to dry in the drainer.
“I’ll get the wood, Steven. You cooked and cleaned.” Greg grabbed his coat off the rack by the back door and unlocked the door to go out.
“Be careful, Greg.” Janet gave him a small smile.
Steven was glad to see that she was relaxing around the other man. The fact that she slept next to Greg said that she trusted him. That meant that underneath it all, her subconscious still remembered them. Now if her conscious mind would just wake up.
Steven took Janet’s hand and led her back to the living room. He settled next to her on the couch, holding her hand in his.
“I know you don’t remember, but I love you, Janet. I want you to know that I haven’t stopped loving you. I’m just trying to not push you too fast.”
“You’re not, Steven. I know I care about you, but I don’t remember anything more than that. I can’t believe we didn’t love each other, but I can’t remember.” She dropped her head against the back of the couch.
“Easy, love. You’ll hurt your cut. It has to be sore. You just got the stitches taken out.”
“You’re right. It didn’t feel too good to do that. I forgot about the cut on the back of my head for a minute there. I won’t forget that again anytime soon.”
“Let me look and be sure you didn’t hurt anything.”
Greg walked in with an armful of wood.
“Didn’t hurt what?”
“She bumped her head against the back of the couch. I’m going to be sure she didn’t do any harm to the incision.”
“Baby, you’ve got to be careful with your head. It can’t take much more abuse.”
“Funny, Greg.”
“Looks okay back here.” Steven let go of her head and kissed her nose. “Just don’t do that again.”
“I won’t.” Her face turned a cute pink as she blushed.
Steven watched her as she watched Greg build the fire. She obviously appreciated the way he was built, but she seemed to be looking at more than his physique. She seemed to be looking at how he moved as well. He couldn’t help but wonder if she looked at him the same way.
“Scoot over, you two.” Greg had finished building the fire and was waiting for them to give him room to join them.
Steven moved over with Janet scooting next to him. When Greg sat down, she giggled and pulled out from between them enough that she could breathe.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sit on you.” Greg moved closer to the end of the couch to give her more space.
“I can’t believe how tired I am. I already had a couple of naps today. I shouldn’t be this tired.”
“Baby, you’re pregnant and you’ve been sick. You haven’t had time to get over everything, yet. Give yourself some time.”
“You know, while we were in the city, I should have gotten some books on babies and pregnancy. I have the standard handouts they gave us on the shuttle over here, but I think I need more information.” Janet looked from him to Greg.
“Don’t worry. I got some books while you were in the doctor’s office. I put them in the office until you felt like looking at them.” Greg smiled at her.
Steven was glad he had been thinking. All he had been thinking about was her waking up again. It was good that Greg was such a stickler for detail. If it had been left up to him, he would have never thought about baby books.
“Oh, that’s great, Greg. I want to see them tomorrow when I get back up. I think I’m too sleepy right now to concentrate. Maybe I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes.”
Steven pulled her head toward his shoulder and smoothed her hair out of her eyes. Greg picked her legs up and carefully turned her so that she was lying between them. They exchanged a smile when she sighed and promptly fell asleep.
“She’s really okay, right?” Steven asked.
“Yeah, she’s going to be fine. She just needs rest and some TLC. We’re going to give her plenty of both.”
Steven watched her sleep for the next thirty minutes while he and Greg discussed the logistics of keeping her happy and safe at the same time. Then Greg stood up and took Janet upstairs while he locked everything up for the night. Climbing into bed next to her after so many nights watching her lying unconscious at the doctor’s was like coming home. He didn’t ever want to go through that again.
Chapter Eighteen
Something tickled her nose as she woke up. At first, she thought it was her hair, and then she realized it was coarser than hers. She opened one eye and found that she was lying with her head on top of Steven’s chest. It was his chest hair irritating it. She huffed out a breath and attempted to turn over. The immovable object at her back grunted when she elbowed it.
“Sorry. I need to turn over.” She waited as Greg moved out of her way.
“You all right, baby?” Greg’s gravelly voice sounded sleepy.
“What’s going on?” Steven’s didn’t sound much better.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep. I just needed to turn over. Greg had to move out of my way.”
“She elbowed me in the gut, man. Watch out. She’s got deadly aim.”
“Funny.” Janet smiled and settled between them once again.
After thirty minutes of staring up at the ceiling and listening to the two of them snore, Janet was ready to scream. She wanted out of the bed, but that would mean that the men would have to get up, too.
She stretched the thirty minutes into another twenty before she was so antsy that Greg woke up and called her on it.
“If you need to get up, baby, just tell us. We’ll get up with you.”
“I didn’t want you to have to. You should be able to sleep in if you want to.”
“Don’t worry. If I get tired later, I’ll take a nap. In fact, we’ll both take a nap later. How’s that?”
“So are you two getting up or staying in bed and keeping me up?” Steven’s muffled voice could be heard from under the pillow.
“Come on, baby. We’ll go get something to eat. Sleepyhead will have to make his own when he does manage to get out of bed.”
Greg helped her climb out of the bed then led her to the bathroom. When she finished in the bathroom, he had her clothes ready and helped her step into the sweatpants and pull on the oversized T-shirt.
She followed him downstairs, stopping halfway to rest before reaching the bottom. He arranged her on the couch with a blanket and one of the baby books before he slipped off to the kitchen to make breakfast. She read the introduction of the book and quickly lost interest. Her mind just wasn’t on it. She was too busy going over the dream she’d had the night before. Was it a dream or had her subconscious pulled out her memory?
She was in the cellar putting up the canned tomatoes she’d made. She walked up the stairs and just as she reached the top, something ran between her legs, causing her to lose her balance. It had looked like a small cat. Then she was falling. When she looked up from where she had landed, the thing was sitting on the top step looking down at her. It had a row of razor-sharp teeth and hissed at her. Then she woke up.
The odd thing about it all was that she didn’t remember the thing touching her, and she hadn’t been afraid while she was dreaming. Not even when she fell down the stairs.
“Hey, there. What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Greg walked into the living room.
“Thinking about a dream I had last night. I’m wondering if it was actually a memory and not a dream, though.”
“What was it about?”
“When I fell in the cellar.”
“Tell me about it.”
Janet waited until he sat down next to her to go back over the dream. He nodded.
“I think that was a memory. That sounds too much like what was bound to have happened. The place I covered and nailed shut was in the basement, so it had to have been down there with you.”
“But you never found it.”
“No, baby. I looked all over this house. I think it got back out, and then I closed it out.”
“I hope I never see it again.”
“I’m with you on that. Let’s go eat breakfast.” He stood up and held out his hand for her to use to pull herself up.
They had just finished eating when Steven shuffled into the kitchen and headed right for the stove. He sniffed at the contents of their leftover meal. She giggled when he frowned. They hadn’t left much for him to eat.
“Sorry, Steven. You should have gotten up with us.” Janet couldn’t help but point that out.
He yawned and stretched before scratching his belly and shuffling over to the fridge for more supplies.
“Come on, baby. Let’s leave him to cook and go read your book. You can sit in my lap.”
Greg snagged the book off the couch as he walked toward his recliner. He pulled her onto his lap and pushed the chair back so that they were in a semireclined position. Janet opened the book and began reading about what to expect as her body changed to support the baby. Evidently, Greg was reading along with her because he groaned at some of the changes.
“I like the part about bigger boobs, but I’m not so wild about some of the others.”
“You think you’re not wild about them. Imagine having to actually deal with them. I’m going to make you aware of every one of them when they happen.”
“At least you’re not having anymore morning sickness.”
“I am very happy about that!”
“What does it say about sex in that book?”
“Hold your horses. I can tell where your mind is.” She pulled the book toward her chest so he couldn’t see and turned to the index. “It looks like you have a few chapters to go before I get to that part.”
“Can’t you skip on over there now?” Greg tried to look over her arm at the book.
“Nope. I’m going to go in order. It’s like that for a reason, I’m sure. Now pay attention.”
She began to read the less desirable parts to him, skipping over the good parts on purpose.
“Ugh, don’t read anymore of it to me. I’ll wait ’til you get to the part on sex, and you can read that out loud to me then.”
“What are you two doing in here? I can hear Greg groaning all the way in the kitchen.” Steven walked into the room.
“Just reading over the baby book with him.”
“Don’t let her read it to you. It’s got some disgusting parts in it.”
Steven chuckled. “I can imagine. I think I’ll wait for the CliffsNotes version.”
“The two of you are going to have to read these books all the way through with me. I insist. If I have to live through it, you can at least read through it.”
She watched the two men exchange looks then shiver. She realized in that moment that she was very happy with them. Surely if she wasn’t happy with them it wouldn’t have felt so right. Maybe things hadn’t been as bad before her accident as she had feared. Why, then, couldn’t she remember?
“Don’t push it, love. I can tell you’re trying to remember. Just let it go. If you’re supposed to remember, you will. Just give it time. You’ve been home less than twenty-four hours.” Steven patted her on the shoulder then walked over to his chair to sit down.
“I’m going to give you to Steven while I go check in with the others on the radio and see what’s going on.” Greg stood up and carefully transferred her over to Steven’s lap.
She felt like a baby being passed around from parent to parent. She blew out a breath. She’d definitely been reading too much about babies. She was beginning to use them to make an analogy. She rolled her eyes and closed the book.
“What, you’re not going to read the disgusting parts to me? I feel left out.” Steven ducked when she started to smack him on the head.
“I think I dreamed last night about what happened to me.” She told him about her dream.
“Sounds like that’s what happened. I agree. Your subconscious mind is trying to get through. Like I’ve said, don’t push it, and let it happen naturally. You’ll remember when you least expect it.”
“It’s just so frustrating to have this hole inside of my head where my feelings about the two of you should be. I can remember so much about everything except about you two. It’s like I’ve lived here alone all this time.”
“Let’s change the subject or you’ll get all worked up about it. What about names for the baby?”
“Good Lord! Don’t you think it’s a little early to be picking out baby names?” Janet burst out laughing.
“I happen to think we’re going to have a difficult time agreeing on names. There are three of us.”
“You’re probably right. How about I make a list of names and then the two of you can choose your top two from the list. Then we’ll vote on them.”
“I don’t know. What if a name I like isn’t on your list?”
They argued over how to choose baby names until Greg returned and announced that everything was okay with the others.
“They’ve managed to finish up the outside walls, so we’ll be working on the inside from now on. Hopefully, we will be able to finish most of the house before bad weather stops us from going.” Greg walked over to Steven’s chair and dropped a kiss on her nose.
“We’re arguing on how to choose baby names. Want to add your two cents in?” Steven asked.
“Doesn’t matter what he thinks, we’re doing it my way.” She grinned when Greg narrowed his eyes at her.
They discussed methodology and logistics for the next hour without arriving at any conclusion on how to pick the baby names out. Through it all, Janet thought about how comfortable she felt with them. The more she thought about it, the more she believed that Steven was right and if she never remembered, it would b
e fine. She was coming to the conclusion that everything was fine between them, anyway.
After lunch, the men decided to work on paperwork and journals while they had some downtime. Every family had to keep detailed journals to record their experiences and the new world around them. Janet hadn’t worked on hers since she first found out she was pregnant. It was time for her to get back to it, but she was dreading it. She hated writing in it.
She didn’t much see the point when no one would ever read them. Besides, it wouldn’t help anyone back on Earth since no one would ever send them back down there. The Earth was disintegrating faster and faster every month. That thought saddened her and she had to take a deep breath to keep from crying about it. Damn pregnancy hormones.
She finally put her pen down around three that afternoon and announced that she was going to take a nap.
“I’ll walk you upstairs, love.” Steven stood up and grabbed her hand. “You don’t need to climb the stairs by yourself. You haven’t recovered all your strength yet.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if I ever will.”
“Sheesh, Janet. It’s been one day. Give your body time to heal.”
“It seems like weeks have gone by.”
“Not hardly. I’m still seeing you at the foot of those stairs. My heart thunders just thinking about it.”
Janet let him hug and kiss her before he led her upstairs and tucked her in for a nap.
“Do you want me to lie down with you?”
“Only if you want a nap. I’m fine, Steven.”
“I’m going back downstairs then. Don’t come down without one of us yet. Please?”
“Okay. I’ll call down if I need one of you.”
“Thank you, love. I can’t help but worry right now.”
She rolled her eyes but kissed his hand where he had it against her cheek. She understood he was still worried. The truth was she wouldn’t want to try right now to go downstairs alone anyway. She had been very shaky walking up them with him helping her.
Once he had left, she rolled to her side and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
* * * *