She closed her eyes and her chest slowly rose and fell. “If you ever loved another.”
“I’ll never love another.” Silly girl.
A thoughtful grimace shot across my girl’s face. She was overthinking.
“People leave, Kieran. Even when you think they aren’t going to. They leave.”
I moved off of her, sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her onto my lap. Adorably, she nestled in between my legs.
“Listen to me. I am ready to spend the rest of my life proving to you how wrong you are. I won’t leave you. Ever. I will love, honor, protect and all that other bullshit for as long as you live.”
An excitement flickered in her beautiful gray eyes. “There will be bad times,” she said.
“There’ll be a lot more good.”
“I might get fat.”
“Then I’ll pull you behind the car.” I winked.
She rolled her eyes and I bit her earlobe.
“Deal-breakers…” I reminded her.
“I can’t think of any outside of loving someone else. Tell me yours.”
After nipping her ear lobe a second time, I softly sucked it into my mouth, riled and ready for round two.
“Probably the same. I never want another man’s hands coming near you.”
“No worries,” she said, but couldn’t possibly comprehend what that thought did to me.
“Doc.” With my tongue I traced down her neck and a shiver rippled through her. “There are some things that therapy just can’t fix.” I sucked her neck hard enough to leave a hickey. “I’d kill someone for touching you.”
“If you mark my neck like some white trash ‘ho, I’m kicking your ass.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
She shrugged. “Fine. I’ll cut you off from sex then.”
BULLSHIT! I cradled her, carried her to the kitchen, put some ice in my mouth, walked back to the bedroom then held the ice against the slightly bruised skin.
Her giggle made me crazy.
“I love you,” she said, so softly, laying her head against my shoulder.
“I love you too, Doc.
“Kieran…”
I reared back to see her face. Her saying my name like she said it required my full attention.
“I’m truly sorry for hitting you. I would never…”
“You know baby…I have something rather large I can stick in your mouth if you are going to keep talking and pissing me off. I have no doubt it would shut you up.”
An exasperated exhale came from her. “I’m serious, Kieran.”
“I’m serious too, Megan. That was nowhere close to a hit and regardless, it was deserved.” I kissed her pouting little lips and stroked my tongue over the soft skin.
“No one deserves to be hit.”
My tongue slyly slid inside her mouth and an echo of a groan came from her throat.
“Anyone who touches my girl deserves to be hit. Mangled, in fact,” I said as my fingers raked through her hair, gripping her head and holding her mouth in place while my mouth made perfect love to it.
Her barely there fingernails skated down my chest and a growl grew deep inside me.
“Therapy hasn’t taught you a thing, Mr. Scott. I am going to have to mark you down as unsuccessful, which means you may get three more months with me.”
In one quick movement, I flipped her over and gazed down at her, unsure if she was prepared for my words. “Doc. With you…I want a sentence of 50 years to life.”
Her eyes instantly flooded and rounded.
“Aww hell. Don’t go getting excited and start planning shit yet…we got some makin’ up to do…”
She giggled as I smashed my mouth to hers.
Epilogue—Four years later—Kieran
“Kieran.”
I slowly came to as I heard my angel’s voice.
“Baby, it’s time.”
My eyes popped wide as the gravity of her words hit me. I jumped from the bed.
“Time? Like time time?”
She smiled rubbing her palm over her swollen stomach.
“Yes. Like time time.”
I raked both hands through my hair. “How do you know? Do you hurt? Are you ok? Did your water break?”
Her patient eyes smiled brighter than her mouth. “I’m tightening, baby. My whole stomach is clenching up but it’s very consistent. Like every three minutes.”
“THREE MINUTES!”
Instantly, I swooped her into my arms and headed to the car.
“Stop!” she laughed. “Calm down. I have to get dressed and I want to brush my teeth. We need our bag. Please…I’m a little scared and I need you to breathe with me.”
Fuck! “Ok. I’m breathing. You’re breathing.” I sat her down and patted her ass. “You go brush. I’ll get the bag,” I said more calmly and swept a kiss over her lips.
Once she was out of sight, I ran to the car—baby seat was completely secure. Bolted back in and casually walked past her to get in the shower like it was any other day and not the day our lives were changing forever.
After my shower, I hopped out and started to towel off when I spotted her resting and bent over against the bed.
“You ok?” I asked wrapping the towel around my waist.
She nodded and released a deep breath. “I think maybe we should go.”
“Ok, baby. Let me throw some clothes on.” Shit! I threw on my jeans and a T-shirt, ran my hands through my wet hair and met her at the door.
“This is it,” she said with unwarranted questions in her eyes. “Are you scared?” she asked.
Shitless! “No, Doc. You. Me. Our little critter. Our adventure is just beginning.”
A painful grimace shot across her face replacing the smile that was just there.
“Let’s go!” I said losing all patience.
Once in the triage room at the hospital, my jaw ticked back and forth as they placed her in the stirrups to do a check of her dilatation level. Even after four years of being together, three of them as husband and wife, the mere thought of another man touching her—even if it was for medical purposes—drove me completely mad.
She reached for my hand and I offered her a strong smile right before I kissed my knuckles. A female doctor breezed through the curtain snapping her latex glove. I released a thankful breath.
“Hi, Mrs. Scott. I’m going to do a quick examination to see if we should keep you or send you home. Ok?”
She nodded, eyeballing the doc standing between her legs. When the doctor touched her, my girl’s eyes closed and her eyes tightened. I brushed a kiss over her forehead as she squeezed my hand.
The snap of the doctor’s glove as she removed them, shot me upright.
“Good news. You’re at a four.”
Doc’s eyes flickered up to mine. That was a good thing, right?
“Does it matter that we are still two weeks early,” she asked.
Anxiety had found my girl.
The doctor patted her thigh and said, “usually no concerns at thirty-eight weeks. Let’s admit her.” The doctor spoke to the nurse who grabbed a clipboard.
Within an hour, Doc was looking adorable in a speckled gown but I noticed her expression was not one of comfort. My baby was hurting and this made everything inside of me hurt.
I leaned in and kissed the shell of her ear. “In all my life, you are the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. And no matter if it’s a boy or girl, we will be the best gift to this baby and he or she will be the best gift to us. I love you, Doc.”
She closed her eyes, nodding with a slight smile but blew out slow breaths.
“I hurt, Kieran.”
“I know baby. I know. Breathe through it if you can. And we will do drugs if we need to. There is no shame in that.”
She shook her head and a nurse came in the door.
“Megan. We are going to give you some oxygen, honey. You’re just a little low.”
The nurse grabbed a tube from behind the bed and slid the tw
o tubes into Doc’s nose.
“What do you mean low?” I asked.
“Nothing to worry about,” she said and took a seat next to the bed watching a monitor.
Megan’s worried eyes found mine and I winked.
“Soon baby. Soon I will be holding him or her.”
“No. I will be,” she teased between breaths and I brushed a kiss over her damp forehead again.
The nurse pushed a button on the machine and a strip of paper rolled out. She tore it off and left the room. I liked it better when it was just me and Doc.
She slowly rolled over onto her side and I started rubbing her lower back when a team of nurses came in. The doctor hot on their tails. Shit!
“Megan. I’m going to check you again,” the doctor said as two nurses helped roll her to her back and put her feet in the stirrups.
“What’s wrong? I can tell, something is wrong?”
The doctor snapped her gloves into place and Doc grimaced as she slid her hand inside of her.
“Maybe a 6,” she said to a nurse and took off her gloves.
“Ahhhh!” Megan shouted and I shot back to her side as she squeezed the shit out of my hand.
“Megan. Listen to me, I know your body is telling you to push but you’re not ready. We keep losing the baby’s heartbeat sweetheart. I need you to relax and take some deep breaths.”
I quickly raked my fingers through her hair, forcing her to meet my stare.
“It’s ok, we can do this,” I said softly, inhaling myself as slow as possible and then releasing. “Do it with me.” I repeated the deep breath and started to get dizzy.
My bride nodded with vigor and drew in the deepest, longest breath she could.
“There you go…” I comforted her as she closed her eyes.
But as quick as they closed they shot back open and a painful groan came from her throat as her entire body went stiff. Her gaze focused past me as her face began to redden as if she couldn’t breathe.
“Megan!” I shouted, my heart pounding in my ears.
“Mr. Scott. We need you to step out of the room, please.” A nurse touched my arm.
I flinched away from her touch. “Megan!” I shouted, again grabbing her face, forcing her to look at me but her eyes rolled back and all I saw were the whites. My hands opened, releasing her and her neck limply fell to the side.
“Mindy, call OR and prep them. Tell them we are coming down.”
“Mr. Scott! I need you out of this room! NOW!”
I shook my head. “NO! I can’t go. Please. I’ll stand back.” After lacing my fingers behind my head, I backed away from the bed…away from Doc. Noises came from me that I couldn’t control.
Those nurses literally started tearing things away from the wall and putting them beneath the bed as the gurney started moving.
“Show Mr. Scott to the waiting room, please.”
“I love you, Doc,” I whispered and I felt every ounce of happiness and life drain from my body.
By the time I’d gotten to the hall, they were running with my wife and unborn baby down the hall. I rested back against the wall and slid down.
“Mr. Scott. Is there someone we can call for you?”
“I can’t lose her.”
“I understand, sir. Please let me call someone for you.”
Forcing myself to stand, I pulled out my cell and dialed Kat.
Forty minutes later, Kat, Todd, Ruthie and Wink sat with me in the waiting room with still no news of what was happening. I was sick of being touched and patted by them. I was sick of counting the same damn tiles along the ceiling and floor. The muted television even annoyed the hell out of me.
My life could be altered forever—I could have lost the one thing I loved most in my entire life and yet people walked past the waiting room like everything was ok.
“K? You doin’ ok? Anything I can do?” Todd asked.
I turned and slammed him with my eyes.
“What kind of dumbass fucking question is that? Yeah, T. I’m just fucking great! Is there anything you can do?” I shouted, flailing my arms to the side and Kat stood up pushing against my chest. “How about you take the breath I’m taking and give it to her? She couldn’t fucking breathe!”
“Kieran, calm down,” Kat whispered. “Please.”
Tears invaded my eyes and Todd closed his.
“I’m sorry,” he offered hugging me and I literally fell to my knees.
“T. Why can’t it be me?” I cried covering my face. “Take me!”
“K. Don’t do this. She’s gonna be fine. She’s a fighter, you know that.”
I nodded swiping my hand down my face and sat back on my heels. I glanced over at Kat and Ruthie who were both crying now.
I sniffed. “I’m sorry. Just give me a minute,” I said standing.
“Mr. Scott?” A male doctor in scrubs said rounding the corner.
“Yes?”
“Would you like to see your wife and baby?”
Wink clapped his hands. “There you go, buddy.”
“Yes sir, I would.”
When I rounded the corner and entered the doorway, Doc was curled up on her side, looking baby-like herself. The grays I relied on to tell me her emotion were closed. Her breaths heavy. Breaths—meant life. And relief finally washed over me.
She was pale but beautiful.
“Mr. Scott,” the same man in scrubs whispered.
“Dr. Gardner. I performed your wife’s C-section. She will need to take it easy for a few weeks.”
I nodded. “No problem. I’ll take care of her.”
“Taking care of her and your baby will be a challenge.”
Challenge accepted. “I’ve got it.”
This time, he nodded. “Very well. Congratulations.”
We shook hands and I turned back to Doc. As I neared the bed, I saw it…him… her…our baby on the other side of Doc’s bed in a clear bassinet. I stopped dead in my tracks…paralyzed by our creation…intimidated at the size. A part of me had realized over the past four years that I was put on this earth to cherish and protect Doc but that mission just grew to encompass what rested peacefully in the bed next to her.
Slowly, I moved toward the baby. A light blue cap was slid down over…his…head and I wondered if that was indicative of his sex. Then I spotted the little handwritten sign that said baby boy Scott.
My heart expanded in my chest as I went to pick him up. We had already agreed on my father’s name… Oh, he was tiny and nearly fit into one hand.
“Hey, buddy,” I whispered to him as he grunted with the movement. “I’m your daddy.”
My smile was huge at the awe of this perfect creature. He had Doc’s nose and I kissed the tip of it.
“Now listen Samuel. Your momma wanted to hold you first so this is going to be our little secret. And you’ll learn real fast, Momma is always right even though you and I know better, we pretend that she is.”
His eyelids moved but his eyes didn’t open.
“You have several people waiting to meet you little guy.” I brushed a kiss over his forehead. “Your Aunt Kat and Todd and Ruthie and Wink and your cousin, Andrew. He’s super special to your Momma.”
I held tight as his entire body stiffened in a stretch but he still didn’t open his eyes. I wanted to know if he had his mother’s gray ones. I laid him next to my chest.
“I will always take care of you little guy. You have my word. The only thing I ask is that you forever be good to your mom. She’s had a tough run at things and I want her happy. You rock that boat and you will have me to deal with, squirt.”
His little fists shook.
Shit! Not sure that was a good sign. A smallest of whimpers came from Doc. I reached over nuzzling Sam right up next to her chest…his damn dinner for the next few months. Yes, I was jealous. I then crawled in the bed behind her, spooning her and wrapping my arm around our boy. My family…my future.
ns Interrupted
Sessions Interrupted Page 29