by Margaret Kay
With everyone’s well wishes, they departed after another contraction ended. Diana timed it. They were still four minutes apart. The hospital was only fifteen minutes away. They would make it without incident.
“How exciting,” Sister Bernice John said after they left. “I cannot tell you how happy I am to be here for this.”
Elizabeth embraced her. “I’m so glad you are too, for both you and Angel. Please stay as long as you possibly can. I will miss you when you go back.”
“My dearest Elizabeth, I have missed you. These past few weeks spending time with Angel’s family as well as yours have been wonderful. I prayed for you so much after you left Africa. God answered my prayers in the wonderful home you have found here with Alexander and your friends.” Her eyes settled on Olivia. “And spending time with Olivia Bernice has been a blessing. I consider her my grandchild just as surely as Sammy is.”
“She will always know you as Grandma,” Elizabeth said.
“Baby pool time!” Cooper announced. “Ten bucks each predicting gender, weight, and what time she delivers tonight or tomorrow. Person with the closest match takes all, split in case of a tie, just like we did with Sienna and Garcia’s kid.”
Doc took a twenty from his wallet. “I’m putting in for both Elizabeth and me. But I’m going to win this one too!”
“You split it with me last time. I won too,” Elizabeth corrected him.
“But I put the money in, and all the winnings came into our house, so technically I won.”
The laughter was loud.
“In that case, I’d say Elizabeth won. We all know she spent the winnings,” Garcia said.
“True,” Doc conceded, laughing.
They passed the pad of paper around and everyone recorded their predictions. They were split down the middle on if the baby would be a boy or a girl. Everyone bet she’d deliver that evening, Diana guessing the earliest, within two hours. Based on how Angel described feeling, she believed she had been in labor nearly all day. It was her second baby, two weeks before her due date. It would go fast, she was sure. She also predicted it would be a girl.
They enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, ate too much, and indulged in a few beverages each. Diana enjoyed the company of the group. She got to know each of the ladies, finding each of them to be warm and welcoming, but they each had very different personalities. Kaylee and Elizabeth seemed to be complete opposites, but she learned that they were very close friends.
Shepherd’s phone rang. “It’s Jackson.” He pressed accept. “Jackson?”
“Are you still at Coop’s?”
“Yes, everyone is still here.”
“Put me on speaker. She had the baby.”
Shepherd quieted everyone down. “I’m putting him on speaker. Angel’s already had the baby!”
“Can you hear me okay?” Jackson asked.
“Yes!” Everyone yelled.
“Mother and daughter are doing great. She entered the world just an hour after we got to the hospital. Angel was already dilated to nine when we got here. They broke her water and boom! The baby came! Angel only had to push a few times. She weighs seven pounds one ounce and is sixteen inches long. I know you guys had a pool going. You will have to tell us who won.”
“Do you have a name?” Brielle yelled.
“Yes,” Jackson answered. “Johanna Elizabeth.”
“Aw,” Elizabeth said with tears in her eyes. They each felt the other was the sister they’d never had.
“Johanna is a female form of John, to honor you, Sister. Sorry, I couldn’t live with Bernice and Angel wanted her named after you. Had she been a boy, it would have been easy.”
“Congratulations,” Shepherd said. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Damn!” Cooper exclaimed. He handed the money collected for the pool to Diana. “You won, all three categories closest to actual.”
Diana took the cash. “I feel like I kind of cheated. Based on how she described feeling all day I was pretty sure she’d been in labor all day. Being two weeks early, I didn’t think the baby would weigh more than seven pounds, certainly not the ten pounds that someone guessed.”
“That would have been me,” Garcia admitted. “Little T was ten pounds, so I figured that was a normal weight.”
“Little T was a bowling ball and I can only pray I go two weeks early with our next one, so he or she weighs less than he did,” Sienna said.
“Already planning your next one?” Brielle said with an obnoxious laugh. “That’s not what you said after you had him.”
“Not right away, in a few years,” Sienna clarified.
Diana saw Elizabeth wrap an arm around Kaylee. “You’ll have a child. I know you will,” she whispered, but Diana heard her.
Kaylee looked sad. Diana looked away so Kaylee wouldn’t know she’d heard. She said a silent prayer for Kaylee, not knowing the situation, but hoping everything worked out for her as she wanted.
It was dark out when Shepherd and Diana left. “I had a lot of fun today,” she told him.
“Me too. I’m glad we went.”
“You took a few phone calls while we were there. Did you get any updates on who came after us last night?”
“I’m sorry, Diana, no, not yet. The calls I got all indicated that there was no chatter about the attack from any of the intelligence sources.”
“What about the men who work for you who took that man last night? Did you hear from them?”
Shepherd weighed what to tell her about that. “He’s still alive but hasn’t disclosed anything yet. His medical condition is too fragile for him to be pushed too hard. Maybe tomorrow he’ll be stronger.”
The one thing Shepherd did learn was that Garcia had completely cleared Diana through the investigation he’d engaged in after they’d returned to HQ. He even called Caleb Smith in to assist. Between the two of them, digging into every aspect of her life that they could, they found nothing. He knew that would be the case when Garcia had suggested it, but Garcia had been right. She needed to be ruled out.
X-Ray
Getting back on schedule, Shepherd’s alarm went off at zero five hundred on Tuesday morning. He left Diana in bed and went into his workout room. After a solid hour of lifting, he took a shower. He’d do cardio down in the gym later that morning, in between meetings.
He wrapped the towel around his waist and went back to the bedroom, settling in beside Diana. He took her into his arms and woke her. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” she mumbled. “What time is it?”
“Just past six hundred.”
“I need to get up, get ready, and go to the clinic. I have a full schedule of appointments.”
“I’d feel better if you cancelled them and hunkered down here, just until we have some information on who tried to kill us at the cabin.”
“I have a practice full of patients and I have class tomorrow, Sam. I can’t hide out here. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“I will assign one of my people to protect you.”
“As in what? Someone to shadow my every move?”
“Think of it more like having a bodyguard.”
“My patients will love that. Do you really think I’m in danger?”
Shepherd pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Let’s just say I’m being cautious.”
“Sam,” she began, but he interrupted her.
“Please, Diana. So, I have peace of mind. If anything happened to you, because of your relationship to me, I’d feel terrible.”
“Who?” She asked, surrendering. His voice was firm.
“You name who you would feel most comfortable with.”
“Madison?”
Shepherd smiled. “I knew she’d be who you picked. I already asked her about it when we were at their BBQ yesterday.”
“You did?”
“Yep. Madison it is. She’ll pick you up and drive you.”
“Can she wear one of my clinic shirts and I will say she’s a new intern?”<
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“She will wear whatever you want her to, and you may tell your patients and employees she’s whoever you want to tell them she is. She’ll play along.”
“Okay,” Diana agreed. “I haven’t told my mom about you and me yet.” She closed her eyes.
“Why not?”
“She’s a typical mom, wants more grandkids. Every time I have a date, she has us married and having kids before I even know if it’s going to last.”
Shepherd chuckled. “And do you know yet if we’re going to last?”
She opened her eyes and gave him a hard stare. “The jury is still out.” Then her lips curled into a smile.
He laughed harder. “Seriously though, what are you going to tell her?”
“What can I tell her? She will know that Madison is not an intern.”
“How?”
“She helps arrange the interns. And I have not mentioned one. They don’t just turn up out of the blue one day. It takes coordination with their program.”
“Do you want to tell her everything?” Shepherd asked.
“Not particularly. She’ll worry. But I guess she needs to know something, so she doesn’t go to the cabin until we know it is safe, my brother Luke too.”
“Yes, until we know it is safe, I don’t want anyone from your family going to the cabin,” Shepherd said. “How about I go with you to your clinic to talk with your mom? We’ll have Madison meet us there.”
Diana’s lips curved into a smile. “Oh, ready to declare your intentions to my mother?”
Shepherd laughed. “I’m in love with you, Diana. I will declare that to anyone.”
Diana felt tears sting her eyes. She placed a soft kiss on his lips.
“Diana, there is one more thing,” Shepherd said. “Everyone who works for the agency and their wives and girlfriends have trackers injected in our shoulders. It’s a safety protocol. I want Doc to inject one into your shoulder, as well.” His tone was matter of fact.
“What? Whoa, back up. Trackers injected in your shoulders?”
He motioned to his back. “Michaela developed the technology. These trackers have led us to countless people in trouble being rescued. Mine, led the team right to me when I was shot. Without it, Angel and I would both have been killed.”
She stared at him, wide-eyed and her mouth agape. She shook her head no.
“I’ll set some time up after you are home from work tonight for you to talk with Michaela and Doc about it. Ask questions, investigate it before you make your mind up.”
“I don’t think I’ll change it and let you inject something into me,” Diana insisted.
“Tonight, please talk with them and keep an open mind.”
An hour and a half later, Diana was at her desk in her office at the clinic and Shepherd sat in one of the guest chairs facing it when Diana heard the chime telling her the front door had opened.
“I don’t want you here alone with that door unlocked,” Shepherd said.
Diana came to her feet. “Let’s go see if it is my mom or Madison.”
“It’s not Madison. She will text me when she arrives.”
Shepherd led the way out of her office and into the waiting room. Peggy Palmer was behind the tall counter, turning the computer on.
“Colonel Shepherd?” She asked. Then she saw Diana come into the room behind him. “Oh, no. You didn’t have a major setback, did you, Colonel?”
Shepherd smiled wide, eager to declare his feelings for her daughter to her. “No, I’m doing quite well, thank you.”
“Hi, Mom,” Diana greeted. She had to admit that she was nervous to tell her mom about her secret relationship. She was even more apprehensive about telling her mom that there was potential danger that she would no doubt worry quite a bit about. “Did you have a nice holiday weekend?” Her mom went to her sister’s house in Michigan.
“Yes, I did. How was your weekend at the cabin?”
“Eventful,” Diana said.
Just then Shepherd’s phone vibrated. It was Madison. She just arrived in the parking lot. He tapped out his reply. Come in. “Madison just arrived. We’ll discuss this once she is inside.”
Diana gazed through her front window. Madison approached the door. Once she was inside, Diana made the introductions. “Mom, this is Madison. Madison, my mom, Peggy Palmer.” She watched the two women shake hands and exchanged greetings. “Madison works for Shepherd Security.”
Madison retrieved her badge and credentials from her pocket. Diana was surprised when Sam did as well. “Madison is with the FBI and I am with Homeland,” Sam declared, surprising Diana. She did a double take on the gold badge with the emblem that said Homeland Security Investigations U.S. Special Agent. “What we will share with you is classified, even our affiliations with the FBI and DHS is classified. I have to ask you not to share this information with anyone. There was a situation over the weekend at your family’s cabin,” he said.
Diana watched her mom carefully. She looked as stunned as Diana herself was when she’d learned that Shepherd Security was not what she thought it was, and as surprised as she was to just learn that Sam was a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security. How did she not know this?
“My cabin?” Peggy said numbly.
Shepherd took hold of Diana’s hand. “Peggy, Diana and I have been seeing each other. I was with her at your lovely cabin this past weekend.”
Diana felt lousy that her mom was hearing this from him, this way. “Our relationship shifted from doctor—patient to a personal relationship that weekend that Sam fell, and I left the date with Mike early to treat him.”
“The weekend you made the pars fracture diagnosis.”
“Yes,” Diana confirmed.
Peggy stared intently at Diana. “And he was at the cabin with you this past weekend?”
Diana smiled. “Yes, he was. We were having a nice weekend away,” she paused, unable to continue the thought.
“When we were attacked Sunday evening,” Shepherd finished her statement when she fell silent. “I’m afraid an old enemy of mine must have tracked me down somehow. I feel terrible that Diana was with me and could have been hurt. But we will not give anyone the opportunity to strike twice. I have assigned Madison to be here with Diana, to protect her when she cannot be with me. Every intelligence agency is investigating to determine who could have been responsible, and we will move on that person as soon as the determination is made,” he vowed.
Diana was wowed and convinced he would indeed get the person responsible by his confident voice. Her gaze shifted to her mom’s face. Her mom looked shocked, worried, and impressed, all at the same time.
“Attacked?” She finally asked, after taking a minute to process what the Colonel had said.
Shepherd released Diana’s hand and stepped up to Peggy, taking both of her trembling hands in his. “Peggy, I will always protect your daughter, with my very life if necessary. I do not know who they were. But they came to your cabin with weapons and meant to do us harm. I protected Diana and called my team in. We have one of them in our custody and will get answers. But I have to ask you to trust me and stay away from your cabin until my people can deem it safe for your family. In the meantime, Madison will protect Diana when she is not with me.”
“I’m staying at Sam’s place, Mom,” Diana piped up. “I actually have been for a few weeks, before this happened. That’s why I wasn’t home that night you stopped by.”
“You’ve been staying at his place?”
Diana laughed nervously, relieved to be sharing this relationship, that was so important to her, with her mom. She had hated keeping this secret. “Since the night he fell. And before that, from the first night I treated him after class, I’ve stayed for dinner.” She smiled wider. “Sam’s an amazing cook and even though I was trying to keep the relationship appropriate, I couldn’t help but want to spend extra, nonclinical time with him.”
Shepherd released Peggy’s hands and stepped back beside Diana.
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nbsp; Peggy looked perplexed. “Diana, why didn’t you just tell me?”
Shepherd could tell that Peggy was hurt that her daughter hadn’t shared their relationship with her before now. He felt bad about that. But he knew this conversation between mother and daughter shouldn’t take place in front of Madison and him. “So, Madison will pretend to be an intern and stick close to Diana at all times,” he said.