by Kacee Kupser
We all started dishing out the food, which looked delicious. Conversation was sparse as everyone was enjoying their food. When it came time to get dessert I stood up to help Shannon and Danielle bring the dirty dishes inside, leaving Brenna alone with her dad so that she could tell him about the baby.
When we got into the kitchen Danielle started cleaning off the dishes and loading them into the dishwasher while Shannon leaned against the island staring at me.
“Something on your mind Shannon?”
She sat there just staring at me for so long that I didn’t think she would respond. When I was about to head back to the yard she decided to answer my question. “So many things on my mind Grayson, just trying to work out what I want to know the most.”
I turned back around and leaned against the kitchen counter facing her, my arms crossed over my chest in a relaxed pose. “I’m an open book. Feel free to ask me whatever you want.”
“Well, I know my husband would have already asked you what your intentions are towards our daughter and if he wasn’t satisfied with that answer you wouldn’t still be here, so I’ll leave that question out. You are the father of my newest grandbaby, which I’m totally excited about, don’t get me wrong, but I want to know more about you and your people.”
Danielle had stopped what she was doing and turned to look at the two of us, obviously she was interested in this answer as well. “Well, my mom and dad were married young and quite quickly after meeting. My dad was in the Navy, but he died when I was 16. I joined the Navy myself right out of high school and became a Seal for most of my career. I’ve been out of the service for about eight years and have been a member of my club for 10 years.”
She nodded at my responses, hopefully happy with them. “Okay, that’s a start. Did you have a happy childhood?”
“Yes, ma’am. My parents were very happy in their marriage and the love they shared was a huge part of my growing up. They showed me what true love looked like. My dad wasn’t always there, since he was deployed a lot of my life, but when he was there he always made time for me.”
Danielle turned back to loading the dishwasher, I’m assuming because she was satisfied with my answers.
Shannon walked up to me, causing me to stand up from the counter, and threw her arms around me. “Welcome to the family Grayson. Please treat my baby with care, she’s a lot more sensitive than she lets on.”
I hugged her back, if somewhat awkwardly. I wasn’t a big hugger of anyone other than my mom and now Brenna.
Shannon stepped back from me with a smile on her face, obviously sensing my discomfort. “All right Grayson, I’ll grab some plates and forks for you to take out to the table for dessert.”
She got everything I would need and I took it out back. Once I placed everything down Connor stood up from the stable and faced me. I was prepared for the third degree or even threats to treat his daughter right, but what I wasn’t expecting was him sticking his hand out to me. I grasped his hand and he pulled me into him, giving me a man hug and slapping me on the back. “Welcome to the family Grayson.”
We stepped back from each other and I looked over his shoulder to see Brenna smiling at us. I turned back to him and saw him grinning at me, he obviously knew I wasn’t expecting the gesture. “Thank you sir.”
Chapter 30 – Brenna
Well, dinner went a lot better than I expected. My parents were very excited to hear they were going to be grandparents again and my sister was just gleeful. She couldn’t wait to get back at me, getting my child all riled up and passing them back to me.
They were also happy to meet Beast. They seemed to be taking all of the changes in my life quite well. I’m sure there’d be all sorts of questions in the coming days, but for now I would take what I could get.
Once we were finished with dessert I was exhausted and Beast decided to take us home. My family all walked us out to the car, Beast carrying Inara. She had latched onto him as soon as we all sat down to dessert. I think that she definitely has a bit of a crush on him, it was really cute.
I hugged my family goodbye and Beast handed Inara over to her mother. Once he helped me into the truck he got in and started up the truck. I rolled down my window and waved goodbye to my family. “Bye guys, I’ll talk to you tomorrow!”
Beast backed the truck out and started the drive home. Thankfully it wasn’t far because I was ready to get home and spend some time just the two of us. When I looked out the side view mirror I could see that Griff was following closely behind us. When my mom found out he would waiting out there the whole time we were visiting she had Danielle bring him some food, which was really sweet of her.
Beast pulled to a stop at the red light by my parent’s house and turned to me. “So, that went pretty well, don’t you think Baby Girl?”
“It really did. I knew they’d be excited about the baby, but that doesn’t make it any less nerve wracking.”
I turned to look out the front window and noticed that the light had turned green. “The light’s green.”
Beast ignored me and just continued to look at me for a few seconds before he started pulling through the intersection.
We were halfway through the intersection when suddenly I heard a huge bang and my head whipped towards my window, causing my head to slam into it. That was the last thing I remember before everything went black.
“Baby Girl, wake up. Show me those beautiful eyes.”
I could hear Beast talking to me, but I just couldn’t get my eyes to open. I could feel myself being pulled under again and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t open my eyes.
The next time I started coming to I could hear a beeping noise beside my head and could feel someone holding my hand. I tried to open my eyes, but was still finding it difficult so I tried to see if I could squeeze the hand that was holding my own.
When I tried to squeeze the hand holding mine I found that I didn’t have a lot of strength, but my fingers did flinch. The slight movement got the attention of whoever was holding my hand because they gave me a squeeze.
“Baby Girl. Wake up for me Bren. I’m right here, but I need to see your beautiful eyes. Please baby.”
I tried really hard to open my eyes, but I just couldn’t get them to open. I groaned in frustration and kept trying, but nothing was happening.
“It’s okay Bren. Calm down. I’m going to get a doctor in here.” The sound of Beast’s voice calmed me right down. I knew he would help me in any way he could. He let go of my hand and I could hear him moving over to the door.
What felt like a lifetime later someone entered the room and came up to my bed side. I could sense them beside my bed, but they didn’t say anything to me right away.
“Brenna, my name is Dr. Chan. I’ve been looking after you since you came into the hospital last night.”
Last night?! How long had I been in the hospital?
“I know you are probably struggling to open your eyes, but we gave you some pretty strong pain killers and it will take a while to wear off. I have turned down your IV so that you aren’t getting so much medication into your system. Just be patient and you will wake up more fully very soon.”
“Thank you Dr. Chan” I heard Beast thank the doctor from the foot of the bed. I assume he left the room after speaking with me.
I felt the bed depress beside me, indicating that Beast had sat down. He picked up my hand again and gave me a kiss on the back of it. I could feel a tear leak out the side of my eye and start to roll down my cheek.
Beast leaned forward and put his head beside mine. “It’s okay Baby Girl. You’re going to be all right. You gave me quite a scare. You just rest up and wake up when your body is ready.”
I stopped struggling with myself and let myself be pulled back under the weight that was trying to pull me down. I had never been in the hospital before, I was lucky enough to have lived a healthy life, but if this was anything to go by it’s not something I would want to experience ever again. It gave me a whole new
outlook on my patients.
Falling back to sleep I started dreaming. I don’t usually have vivid dreams, but this dream felt so real. I was in the kitchen and Beast was in the living room playing with a baby on the floor. I looked down at myself and I had a flat stomach, so I’m guessing it was our baby. When I walked into the living room I could see the baby was crawling around on his dad, trying to attack him. He was letting little growls out of his mouth as he pushed at his daddy. Beast played along and made out that the baby was strong enough to take him down.
I started to laugh in what I thought was the dream, but the sound of Beast talking to me made me realize I was laughing out loud.
“What’s so funny Baby Girl? Are you waking up for me?”
I tried to open my eyes and found that I was actually able to this time, although with a great effort.
When I opened my eyes I saw Beast leaning over me with a huge grin on his face. “Hi beautiful. I’ve missed seeing those eyes.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
“Let me grab you some water.” Looking over Beast’s shoulder I saw an older woman getting up from a chair in the corner.
When she left the room I turned to look back at Beast with the question in my eyes.
“That’s my mom. I called her after we got to the hospital and I knew you would be okay. I wanted her to be here for me and my woman.”
Marie came back into the room with a glass of water with a straw sticking out. She walked up to the side of the bed opposite Beast holding the water out to me.
Beast pushed the button to raise the bed and make it easier for me to drink. Once I was up far enough he took the cup from his mom and held the straw up to my lips. I wrapped my lips around the straw and took a sip of water.
“Not too fast baby, you don’t want to upset your stomach.”
Once I had taken a few small sips Beast took the cup and put it on the table beside me and sat back down.
“What happened?” My voice was scratchy, but with a little use it would hopefully be fine.
“I’m going to go out to the waiting room and give you two a few minutes.” Marie walked out of the room leaving us alone.
“What do you remember baby?”
I thought about it, but I didn’t really remember much. “I remember having dinner at my parent’s house, getting in the truck to head home and after that I don’t remember anything.”
Beast picked up my hand and squeezed it between both of his. “After we left your parent’s house we were at a stop light talking and when we started to drive through the intersection someone ran the red light and slammed into my side of the truck. You hit your head on your window and passed out and you’ve just fully woken up.”
“What happened to the driver who hit us?” I asked.
“They took off after they hit us. Backed right up and drove off. After making sure I had everything handled Griff tried to follow them, but he lost them. The police are working on it, but so are the boys back at the club.”
Okay, a hit and run. Well, at least I seemed to be okay. The only part of me that hurt was my head, but that makes sense with my head hitting the window. I reached my free hand down to my stomach… oh my God, the baby!
“Oh Jesus, is the baby okay?”
Beast kissed my hand, causing me to think the worst, but when he looked up at me he had a smile on his face. “Yeah, Baby Girl. The baby is fine. You bled a little bit, but the doctors did an internal ultrasound and said that everything looks good. They just want to keep an eye on you with weekly checkups for the next little while.”
I was about to ask some more questions, but there was a knock on the door and in walked my whole family, interrupting us. I would save my other questions for later.
Chapter 31 – Beast
I swear to God, today was the worst day of my life. I lived through a war and multiple deployments, but this had to be the most scared I had ever been.
When I saw Brenna lying there slumped down in her seat, bleeding from the head, the first thought I had was that I couldn’t lose her. I didn’t even think about the baby until after the ambulance got there. It was in that moment that I realized I was in love with Brenna and I didn’t want to live my life without her.
Thankfully she and the baby are okay. Once we got to the hospital, and they had her back in an exam room, I called Joker so that he could let Everly know what was going on and she could call Bren’s family. I hadn’t been waiting long when Brenna’s family rushed in, followed by Everly, Joker and some of my brothers.
Connor and Shannon came up to me, Shannon throwing her arms around me giving me a hug. “Are you okay? How’s Brenna? What do we know?”
I squeezed her back and pushed her back so I could look at them both when I told them what happened. “I’m okay. They took Brenna back and are checking her over, but they haven’t given me any updates. When we left your house we were t-boned by someone running the red light. They left before the authorities could show up so we don’t know who it was.”
With a nod Connor walked over to the nurse’s station to see if he could get an update. He came back to us shaking his head. “They don’t have any information for us. She’s still being assessed.”
Danielle walked up to us with Inara in her arms. When they reached my side, Inara put her arms up, silently requesting that I pick her up.
I took her from Danielle and she wrapped her arms around my neck and lay her head on my shoulder. “Hey beautiful. You okay?”
She nodded and squeezed my neck a bit harder. I looked over her head at Danielle who was looking at her daughter with worry on her face. “You okay D?”
She looked at me in shock, probably because I called her D. I had heard Bren call her that earlier in the night.
“Yeah, I’m going to be okay Grayson, thank you. I’m just worried about my sister and my baby. She loves her aunty so much and is worried about her.”
I lifted Inara higher on my shoulder and walked over to the seating area, sitting down beside Everly. I had a feeling we were going to be here for a while and figured if I had a seat her family probably would as well.
Everly leaned over and rested her head on my shoulder, right beside Inara’s face. “Hi Squishy.”
Inara lifted her head off my shoulder and smiled at Everly. “Hi Aunty Ev.”
Everly started petting Inara from the top of her head all the way down her back. It seemed to sooth her because soon she was fast asleep on my shoulder.
Ev took her hand away and lifted her head off my shoulder, turning to look at me. “How you doing Beast?”
I looked over her head at Joker who was staring at his fiancé. Feeling my eyes on him he gave me a nod before going back to just staring at his woman.
“Honestly? I feel like my heart is going to explode it’s pounding so fast. The adrenaline should have worn off by now, but my anxiety about how Bren and the baby are doing is causing my heart to pound.”
Everly grabbed my hand between hers and gave it a squeeze. Normally Joker would have ripped my head off, but given the situation I’m sure he was holding himself back. “She’s going to be okay Beast, you’ll see. She’s one of the strongest women I know and a little car accident isn’t going to keep her down for long.”
The automatic doors that lead into the Emergency Room opened and in came Griff. He was there when the accident happened and went after the truck that hit us. I lifted Inara off my shoulder and gave her to her mom before walking over to Griff to see what information he had for me.
Griff stopped abruptly in front of me, looking at me and the men who surrounded me, Joker, Techy and Irish. “What’cha got for me prospect?”
“I’m sorry Pres, but I’ve got nothing. I tried following the truck for a couple of miles, but it had too big of a lead on me.”
“It’s okay Griff. You stopped to make sure we were okay, which is what you should have done.”
“Did you notice anything about the truck or the driver?” asked
Techy. He would be investigating this from the club’s end. The police would have to be involved since we called an ambulance, but I was determined that we would be the ones to deal with this.
“Yeah, the truck was a black Dodge Ram, probably a 2014 or 15, with no license plate. There were two people in the truck, the driver and someone in the passenger seat. They were both male, but I didn’t get a close enough look to get a description of them.” Griff was also a former Seal and was very perceptive, picking up details that civilians would normally miss.
I turned to Techy, who was already clicking away at his tablet. “You got this?”