Not a stomach bug.
Labor.
The signs were all too early, not making any sense, completely out of context when she hadn’t been expecting to worry about labor at all. Instead, she’d mistaken everything for something else, explaining it away easily.
She grabbed her own phone and dialed her sister.
“Did you change your mind?” Beth asked as a greeting. “You want me to call Dr. Bell?”
“Don’t freak out,” Alex told her. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“What?”
“There’s a small possibility that I’m stuck in an elevator in Boston. And that my water just broke.”
She was met with a moment of absolute silence from Beth on the other end of the phone and even Grant standing across from her, looking at her as if she were a ticking time bomb. Which she totally was.
“It’s too early,” Beth murmured. “Your water can’t break. It’s too early.”
“Well, now that you told me that, I’ll let my water know so it can just scoop itself up off the elevator floor and go back in,” Alex growled, a painful twinge shooting through her pelvis.
“Your water broke? Broke broke? Are you sure?”
Alex felt a flare of annoyance. “Well, gee, Beth. Now that you mention it, maybe I’m not sure. Maybe I’m not standing in a puddle of amniotic fluid, trapped in an elevator with Grant in a building without power.”
“Oh my God,” Beth whispered. “Logan!”
When another stabbing pain hit her, Alex squeezed her eyes shut and pressed herself farther into the corner, searching in vain for any kind of relief. She felt the phone disappear from her hand and she just kept her eyes closed, breathing deeply and trying to remember what she was supposed to do next.
She was supposed to be in a hospital, with Beth feeding her ice chips and Andy dabbing the dainty sweat on her brow. She was not supposed to be sitting on the floor in a strange place completely unsure of what was happening.
Instead of focusing on that, she imagined herself in the huge tub in the hospital. They’d told her they’d fill it with water and that would help alleviate her discomfort.
Discomfort her ass.
They’d said she could even deliver the baby in the tub, and she was definitely going to imagine that, not the elevator she was in. It seemed to help, visualizing the hospital and how she’d intended on delivering the baby, and the pain subsided.
She opened her eyes to find Grant, squatting down in front of her, his sleeves rolled up, looking as serious as a heart attack.
“How’re you doing?” he asked.
“Peachy.” She tried to be snarky, but it was a weak attempt at best. “You?”
He snorted. “Same. Fire department is on their way. Building has no power, but they said they’ll get you out of here.”
“That would be really nice. Really, really nice. Can you call my niece? Or Julia, so they know what’s going on.”
“They’re on their way,” he assured her, and the absolute surety she heard in his voice comforted her.
“I thought I had a stomach bug,” she told him, trying to adjust herself so that her soaking wet underwear were somewhat comfortable, not that it was at all possible. Instead, she squished herself farther into the wet material. “I didn’t know it was labor. If I did, I wouldn’t have come this far from my doctor.”
“And how long have you had this stomach bug?” Grant asked, consulting his phone when she gave him her answer. “You’ve been in labor for more than eighteen hours,” he pointed out, his eyes flipping up to hers.
“That can’t be good.” She looked around the elevator. “Isn’t there like a trap door in the ceiling or something? Can’t we climb out of it and get the hell out of here.”
“Lexi, you’re nine months pregnant. Somehow, I don’t think you’re climbing out of an elevator hatch. We’re in this thing until the fire department gets us out of it. There’s a fire station a block or two away. They should be here any minute.”
There was another tightening across her belly and she winced. “I don’t want to have a baby in here with you. I don’t want to have a baby in here at all. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“Well, we don’t always get what we want,” Grant growled, his big hand taking hers, letting her squeeze him as her body’s clenching intensified. “We’re going to get you out of this. If you have this baby in here, then that’s what we deal with.”
“No,” Alex argued, gritting her teeth. “Not even a little bit. No. No. No.” Her body heaved, this time not with the need to vomit, but with a primal urge to push. “No,” she said again. “No.”
A noise above them, metal against metal, startled her and she panicked, worried the elevator was going to let go, plunging them to their doom. Instead, the elevator doors slid open. Unfortunately, they were mostly between floors and all she could see were the feet of the people outside the doors, about a foot from the ceiling.
“Fire department.” A grizzled older man stuck his face in the opening. “How’s everyone doing?”
“Two of us are about to become three if someone doesn’t get us out of here,” Alex told him.
“And how far along are you, ma’am?”
“She’s thirty-six weeks,” Jenna’s voice filled the elevator and Alex felt a wave of relief. Finally, one of her people.
“That’s my niece,” she told the fireman.
“I’ve got my guys working on getting down to you and the power company working on getting this building back online ASAP. We’re going to get you out of there as soon as we can. Can you tell me how you’re feeling?”
“Like I’m ready to push,” she told him honestly, her eyes meeting Grant’s apologetically. “I’m trying not to. I don’t want to. This isn’t part of Beth’s birth plan.”
“Who’s Beth?” the fireman asked.
Grant just shook his head. “Spencer told me that nothing with any Walkers ever goes as planned. Today, the baby’s throwing her first monkey wrench.”
She looked at him, shocked that he was being so cool. “When this is all said and done, you can totally go back to hating my guts, but, if you could just stay this chill while we’re in here, I’d really appreciate it. Your whole calm and cool vibe is really helping me stay calm. Otherwise, I think I’d be freaking ouuuuuuuuuuuu…ow, ow, ow, ow.”
She squeezed his hand again, crushing it between her fingers. Her mind begged her to squeeze her legs closed but instead, they opened wider and she swore she felt her panties move.
“The baby’s coming,” she panted, her eyes wide. “I can feel it.”
“Sir,” the fireman said. “You might have to deliver this baby.”
Finally, Grant looked a little nervous. “I can’t—” His eyes shifted to the apex of her thighs and instead of balking, he visibly steeled himself. “Yeah, okay. What do I have to do?”
They walked him through some of the steps, helping her wiggle out of her underwear in the process.
When his eyes went wide, she knew she’d been right.
“She’s right there, isn’t she?”
Grant nodded, his eyes shifting to the fireman. “I can see the head.”
“Please don’t tell Dylan you’ve seen my lady parts,” Alex said, a serious tone to her plea. “He’d hate that.”
“I’m sure he’d rather I see your lady parts than have you die in a goddamn elevator, Lexi. Let’s just get through this and then we’ll get our stories straight.”
There was a commotion on the floor above them and Alex saw feet moving and shuffling, and then Jenna’s worried face.
“I can fit through here,” her niece told her.
“Miss, you can’t do that. Not until we know for sure that the elevator is stable.”
“It’s stable. She needs me,” Jenna argued.
Alex noticed Grant watching Jenna with a fierce expression on his face, not that Jenna noticed. Hell, Alex barely noticed there was so much going on. And Jenna was right, Alex did need her. She wa
nted Jenna on that elevator more than she wanted her next breath. She’d take anyone in there with her, Andy, Beth, Dylan, Spencer. Any of them would do. She just wanted someone that was going to take care of the baby when it came out.
And oh, Lord, was it coming out. Alex felt the now familiar fire streak across her stomach and the urge to push. This time she leaned into it, hoping to relieve the pressure building in her body.
“Oh my God,” Grant whispered, staring like she was birthing an alien. “Push, Lexi. Push.”
“Miss!”
Suddenly, Jenna was at her side, and Alex didn’t care how she got there or if the elevator plummeted them to their doom.
“Push, Alex,” Jenna encouraged. “You can do it.”
She screamed, as if she was ripping in two or pushing a watermelon out of a hole the size of a lime.
Everything happened quickly after that—a few more pushes and everyone shouting words of encouragement and then there was a blessed relief—the wailing of a tiny, tiny voice. She looked up to see Jenna beaming down at her, tears swimming in her eyes.
Black dots danced in Alex’s vision, her brows drawing down at the sensation. Was that normal?
She opened her mouth to say something but words failed her, her throat parched and choked.
“Alex?” Jenna whispered, confusion spreading.
“Um, there’s a lot of blood,” Grant said hurriedly. “Jenna, take the baby. What do I do? There’s a lot of blood.”
“Alex?” Jenna yelled, but Alex barely heard her.
The spots had merged together, swirling together and creating one massive black vortex that sucked her in deeper and deeper.
“There’s too much blood!”
“She’s bleeding out! We need the medics down there, now!”
Jenna’s eyes went wide and Alex tapped into one last reserve of strength.
“Don’t look, J,” she whispered, catching Jenna’s attention. “Don’t watch.”
The last thing Jenna needed to see was her aunt bleed to death on the floor of an elevator.
16
It had been less than twenty-four hours since Lexi gave birth in an elevator and it seemed like a thousand. Getting from Dubai to Boston in that time had taken nothing short of a miracle to make it happen.
The jet had to get cleared for an unplanned itinerary, which was their main hurdle, and customs had been a nightmare. Dylan hadn’t been able to sit still since he’d gotten the call from Grant explaining, or trying to explain, just what the hell had happened.
Lex had stopped by for lunch and had gotten stuck in the elevator with Grant, the building’s power going out in a heavy summer thunderstorm. Turns out, she’d been in labor and ended up giving birth right there, delivering a baby right into Grant’s waiting arms.
Grant, of all people.
If it wasn’t so terrifying, if Dylan wasn’t shaken to his core at the very real fear that he’d almost lost her and he hadn’t even been in the damn country, it would be laughable.
Everyone he spoke to could assure him, until the cows came home, that Lexi was doing just fine, resting comfortably, but until he laid eyes on her himself, the words meant nothing. All he heard repeating in his mind were the words almost, bled, and out.
Brady and Lincoln had stopped talking to him for the most part, their platitudes of no interest to him. Instead, they silently and steadfastly stood by his side, making sure nothing and no one got in his way.
They finally made it to the hospital and Dylan punched the button in the elevator. When the doors didn’t close, he hit it again and again. Before long, he was one of those crazy people that think hitting the button fifty times makes the elevator go faster.
His friends didn’t say a word as he irrationally continued pressing the button until the doors did what he wanted them to and the elevator was taking him to Lexi.
When he stepped out on her floor, the first thing he saw was Jenna standing guard in the hallway. Grant sat in a chair not far away. The second Jenna saw him, her shoulders slumped and she headed his way. Without worrying why, he opened his arms and let her rush him, holding onto him for support.
Grant stepped forward and Dylan grabbed his arm, holding him tight. “Thank you.”
Grant just shook his head, more emotionally affected than Dylan had ever seen him. When Grant stepped away, he looked tired and disheveled, his hands propped on his hips as he turned away.
“How is she?” Dylan asked, letting Jenna lead him to Alex’s room.
“She doesn’t want to see anyone right now.” The girl looked worried and Dylan couldn’t help but wonder where everyone else was. “She’s really tired.”
He pushed the door open slowly, the darkness of the room making him wonder if she was getting some rest. His footfalls were silent as he tiptoed in.
Her back was to him as she faced the window, her dark hair stark against the white pillow, even in the dim light from the hallway.
He didn’t want to hurt her, but he couldn’t stay away. Instead, he lowered himself gently on the side of the bed, sitting in the bend of her knees. From where he sat, the absence of the baby was evident, the sheet concave as opposed to the last time he’d seen her when she’d been full and round
He put a hand on her hip.
“Babe?” he said quietly, not wanting to wake her up.
“Yeah.” It was no more than a grunt, but hearing her voice was a cooling salve to the burning worry he’d been eating and breathing for the last day.
“How’re you feeling?”
She shrugged her shoulder. “Have you seen the baby?”
Dylan stood and rounded the bed, taking the chair in front of her and finally getting a look at her face. Her eyes were red and swollen, her skin translucently pale and his heart just ached for her, for whatever it was she was feeling.
“How are you?” he asked again.
Those blue eyes met his with a sadness, a vulnerability he’d never seen in her before. She seemed to consider her words before saying them, weighing them carefully. She had to know that he was there for her and her only. A new baby was great and exciting, but he was there for Lexi.
He felt a sudden fury that he was the only one there with her when she was clearly struggling.
“I feel…empty.”
Silent tears leaked out of her eyes, falling down the bridge of her nose and soaking the pillow.
Dylan stood and shrugged out of his coat and vest, and toed off his shoes. Careful of any wires hooked up and any pain she might be feeling in her precious body, he climbed into bed with her. Facing her, he got in and held his arms open, just waiting.
It took longer than he wanted, his hope that she’d climb right into his willing and open arms dashed as she hesitated. Finally though, she scooted forward, resting her forehead against his chest and breathing him in.
“I missed you,” he told her. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
He wasn’t ashamed to be regretful about not being there. He wanted her to see how sorry he was.
“Grant delivered the baby,” she murmured, her breath hot against his chest.
“I heard.”
“He saved my life.”
He’d heard that too.
They sat like that for a long time. Long enough that she fell into a deep sleep and he dozed with her safely in his arms. Alive and not bleeding profusely, she was right where he could see her and touch her, remind himself that she was still there.
When he opened his eyes long hours later, there was a nurse at Lexi’s bedside, checking in on her. She smiled down at him.
“You’ve both been out a few hours. She can use the rest. Sleep is the best thing for healing for something like this.”
Dylan nodded, unsure of what to say.
“He’s probably jet-lagged,” Grant’s voice came from the chair Dylan had been sitting in previously. He looked over his shoulder to see his business partner slumped in the chair, looking just as frayed as he had earlier. Je
nna slept in a chair right next to him. “Dubai’s a long-ass flight.”
“Tell him about the time you got up close and personal with my lady parts.” Lexi sounded tired but there was the tinge of a smile in her voice.
Dylan knew that in order to help deliver a baby, Grant would need to see Lexi naked below the waist. He knew it in his mind, but he knew it without hearing about it specifically or imagining it.
Grant shook his head, the small smile on his face at Lexi’s words almost sentimental.
Apparently, they’d overcome the hurdle of their first awkward encounters without any mediation from Dylan.
“I told you, we aren’t going to talk about that ever again. You keep bringing it up and I’m going to think you have a thing for me.”
“I do have a thing for you,” Lexi said, adjusting enough to prop herself up on Dylan’s chest when he laid on his back. “You did save my life and deliver my sister’s baby.”
“It’s going to be a long time before I feel safe getting in an elevator with you,” Grant joked.
At Lexi’s laugh, Jenna stirred and smiled seeing her aunt awake. “Hey.”
“Hey, squirt.”
“How are you?”
“Tired. How’s everyone doing?”
“Everyone’s standing at the glass in the NICU, guarding the baby with their lives. Even Grandpa, but he’s been waiting to see you.”
Lexi shook her head. “I don’t know if I’m really up for seeing anyone, J. I’m not feeling so hot.”
“We know that. That’s why we want to see you,” Jenna reasoned. “My mom is kind of freaking out.”
“About what? The baby?”
Jenna rolled her eyes and in that moment, Dylan loved the kid for her brutal honesty. The only kind that was going to penetrate the walls Lexi had built.
“Because her twin sister almost died and you told her you didn’t want to see her. She told my dad that she needed to put her hands on you, she needed to touch you to know you’re still here with her, because she doesn’t know who she is without you here, and she’s got herself thinking you aren’t here anymore.”
“That’s a little dramatic.”
“Grant and I walked out of an elevator, covered from head to toe in your blood,” the girl said flatly. “I don’t think calling it dramatic is out of the question.”
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