Rock the Cradle: An Mpreg Romance (Silver Oak Medical Center Book 6)

by Aiden Bates

  "So what's the plan?" Derek leaned forward. "Are you going to shove him into the car and force him into the MRI or what?"

  "Mama knows what's going on." Alex looked down. "We're going to have dinner on Wednesday, all together, and convince him to go in. It's not going to be easy or fun, but it's what we've got to do."

  Derek made a face. "How's she dealing with all of this, anyway?" He knew Natasha Brennan wasn't his fan, but he could still empathize with someone who'd been cheated on.

  "She's coping as well as can be expected. None of this is exactly a surprise to her, you know? Well, the dementia part is. She knew he was seeing other women. She didn't necessarily know about Joey, but those are the risks when a guy gets involved with a woman."

  "Poor lady." Derek shook his head. "Well, I hope you can convince him. If anyone can do it, it would be you."

  Alex stayed the night, sneaking out in the morning as he always did. Derek tried not to feel bad about it. Carmela sniffed about it, muttering about his hypocrisy in light of his lecture to her, and that was probably enough verbiage on the subject for one day.

  They headed out early to replace Derek's car. The insurance company had decided not to pay out on his policy on the Honda, because he brought the trouble on himself by getting involved with the human trafficking case. Derek would have to consider whether or not to get a lawyer on that, but for now he needed wheels.

  He didn't have a lot of time. He was spending more on Lyft than his budget liked, so he picked a dealership he liked and went with it. He wound up picking, with Carmela's help, a certified pre-owned Subaru Outback. It was in good shape, and it would last him a good long time if he treated it right. It got decent mileage, too.

  The dealer even shaved a little bit off the price in exchange for putting a good word in on the air.

  He got through work without too much trouble, although that unpleasant queasy feeling lasted throughout the evening. By the time he got to his shift for satellite radio, he couldn't stop yawning. All he could think about was getting to sleep. Fortunately, no one had decided to take their anger out on his car. All he had were a few threatening phone calls and the usual round of online death threats.

  He headed home and crawled into bed. He'd have loved to sleep in the next day, but he and Carmela had an appointment at Pasta's downtown. They were going to go and meet with Carmela's parents. Ayla was going to be there, too, so Derek could technically get away with skipping, but he'd promised Carmela.

  Carmela's parents turned out to be slim, medium skinned people of Hispanic origin. Her father, Jose, was tall with craggy features and a warm smile. Her mother, Marta, was petite and cried as soon as she saw Carmela.

  Both of her parents hugged her, and Carmela hugged them back. There was no hesitation from either party as they sobbed into each other's arms. Some of the other patrons stared, but Derek ignored them. Let them stare; this was a good kind of drama. Everyone could use some happiness in their lives.

  When the Melendezes had gotten their hugs out of their system, everyone ordered their lunches and sat down. Carmela and her parents just stared at one another, and for a little while silence reigned. Ayla decided to break the silence by clearing her throat.

  "So, I know I told you that Carmela escaped her abductors, and how she had to stay in the area to help testify against them." Ayla toyed with her fork. Was she thinking about her own reunion with her family? She had to be, but it didn't show on her face. "I don't know if I told you she saved eighteen other girls when she escaped."

  Carmela's parents looked at their daughter with shining eyes, and Carmela squirmed. "It was Derek, really," she muttered.

  Derek shook his head. "I helped," he said. "Sure. I did something, but I wouldn't have known to do anything at all if it weren't for you. You're the real hero here, Carmela. You get to be proud of that." He turned to her parents. "And so do you. You raised her, after all."

  Marta patted Carmela's hand. "Well Carmela was always a strong young lady."

  Carmela's cheeks blazed, but she didn't pretend she wasn't a hero anymore.

  The meal became less tense after that, leaving Derek to focus on trying to choke his meal down. The tomato sauce overwhelmed him today. He usually loved it, which was why he'd ordered it. Instead, the acidity of the tomatoes burned all the way down his throat and made his stomach threaten to burst out of his abdomen. He felt like the guy from Alien.

  The scent of the tomatoes themselves, too, burst into his nose like a bomb. That wasn't the only scent that attacked him. He gagged under Ayla's intensely basil dish, and the meat in Jose's lunch almost made him leave the table. It took all Derek could do to not run.

  The kernel of suspicion took root in Derek's mind, but he couldn't cope with it right now. He had to focus on Carmela and her family.

  After lunch, he and Carmela headed in to work. She shook, just a little bit. She'd been nervous. "It's okay to be overwhelmed," he told her. Now that he was in his own car, which only smelled of detergent, he felt much better. "It went well, but it was still a big emotional moment. It's okay to be a little shaken up."

  "I know." She looked down. "I'm just—knowing it and believing it are two different things."

  Derek laughed. "I hear that."

  While Carmela was working on her homeschooling, Derek took to the Internet to explore his symptoms. He would have to order a test online to be sure—he didn't get enough privacy these days to just go to the store and buy one. But the symptoms, and the timing, didn't allow for many other options.

  The test, which he ordered with next day shipping, arrived on Wednesday. He took the test the next day. Just as he'd suspected, Derek was pregnant.

  He had no idea how to feel about this.

  Something inside of him blanketed him with a soft, happy joy at the news. Babies were a good thing, right? A baby would root him into someone's life. While he knew he and Amadi were brothers in every sense of the word that counted, he knew things would change when Amadi and Rashida took their relationship to the next step. A baby would make the world a warmer place.

  And he could be honest with himself, when there wasn't anyone but the walls of his mind to hear. He didn't mind kids. He could just imagine himself with a little baby to cuddle and hold. He liked the idea of taking a little kid to the park. He could see himself pushing a baby on a swing so easily, it was almost real for him.

  That image crashed to the ground when he remembered who and what he was. The cuddling would be great, sure. Who would cuddle the baby when Derek was at work? Day care didn't exactly accommodate an afternoon drive shift, never mind a late-night shift on top of that. Derek made decent money, but he did that by working three jobs. He couldn't work three jobs as a single parent with no family. It just wasn't feasible.

  Alex took family seriously, but he didn't take Derek seriously. Derek had accepted that a long time ago. He wasn't going to suddenly decide to spend the rest of his life with Derek because they'd had an accident and there was a baby on the way. No, Derek would wind up becoming some weird combination of Natasha and Veronica in the Brennan family saga—the discarded early partner, but the one who'd never been worthy of the Brennan name.

  His child would be Joey. His child would never be allowed to be part of a family. He'd only know Derek, and everyone knew Derek wasn't worth anything when it came to connections or family.

  Derek might love this baby. He might even love Alex, although he tried not to look at those feelings closer than he had to.

  Derek had loved his mother, too. That hadn't led her to remember to feed him or anything. It hadn't led her to love him enough to try to get off the drugs.

  Derek had loved his father. That hadn't stopped him—well, it hadn't stopped him.

  He'd loved his grandparents, but they'd kicked him to the curb and into foster care.

  Who was Derek kidding? This baby wasn't going to have anything like affection for him. A white newborn, born to drug-free parents, wouldn't have any trouble finding adoptive p
arents. Sure, Derek would cry himself to sleep now, and he'd cry himself to sleep for months or years to come. It wasn't about Derek, though. It was about what was best for his child.

  And the best thing for his child was to grow up in a family, with two loving parents who could give him every advantage in life.

  He set his jaw and looked up how to get ready for a healthy pregnancy. He was going to do this right if it killed him.

  ***

  Alex wished Derek was with him.

  He hadn't invited him along. He'd noticed Derek seemed unusually anxious lately, and he didn't think that would be helped by prolonged contact with Alex’s dad. Derek might know a lot about things like foster care and childhood trauma, but he didn't know much about dementia.

  Besides, Derek was working. Derek worked nights, which was one more reason they couldn't have a real relationship. It was a flimsy excuse, one that sounded just as flimsy to Alex as it would to anyone else, but he had to think of something to keep himself from reaching out.

  He sat in his car, in his parents' driveway, and waited for Ayla and Ivy to arrive. Nothing in the world could convince him to go into that house alone right now, not the way things were. Sure, he was pretty sure Dad wasn't in his right mind. And sure, he was prepared to stand up to his father in subtle, small ways. That didn't mean he was ready to take a swing at the old man.

  His sisters pulled up to the driveway, and he steeled himself. "You okay?" Ivy asked him as they prepared to head inside. "You look like you're going to throw up."

  "I am going to throw up." Alex rubbed his belly. "I'm going to puke right into that barrel of mums Mom put out. It's easy to sit back and diagnose Dad when you're not worried he's going to ground you for the next six months, for crying out loud."

  "I think grounding is the least of our worries." Ayla touched her forearm. "Or have we forgotten about Joey already?"

  "I don't think I can ever forget about Joey." Alex shook his head. "I'm trying not to resent his mother, but the kid is a whole different story. When this is over, it would be great to involve him in stuff, you know? He shouldn't have to feel like he's not part of something."

  "He's not, though." Ivy shook her head, sending her long hair cascading down her back. "Ayla and I were twenty by the time he came along. He's too young to do brother things with us, you know?"

  Alex couldn't argue that point. Even Ayla, who was most accepting of Joey, couldn't deny that. Instead, they all lapsed into silence and headed for the door.

  Mama answered it with a reproachful look for all three of them. "He's at the table already," she said in a quiet voice. "Don't expect a warm welcome. He's not happy."

  Alex sucked on his cheeks and headed into the dining room. He was thirty-three years old, and a true professional. He wasn't going to let himself be put off by something so normal as family dinner night.

  He strode into the dining room and took his traditional seat beside his mother. Ivy and Ayla took seats beside him, instead of their usual seats. Dad was all alone on his side of the table. Alex knew a moment of pity for his father. That kind of isolation would put anyone on the defensive.

  Then Alex remembered poor Joey's bone, sticking up out of his skin. He remembered Joey's tear-streaked face. He set his jaw and folded his hands in front of himself. "Dad," he said.

  "You've got big shiny brass ones showing up here." Dad's lip curled as he spoke, but there was something deeper. Now that Alex was listening for it, he could hear a slight slur to his father's speech. Was he just hearing what he expected to hear, or there more going on there?

  "I guess you could say that." Alex glanced up at the ceiling. "They're at least big enough that I don't need to prove myself by breaking little kids' arms."

  "Sasha!" Mama smacked a spoon onto the table. "We will not talk about this at the table."

  Alex gave his father a grim little smile across the table, but inside he trembled. He'd hoped his mother would be on board, and would see the symptoms everyone else saw. If she wasn't willing to accept reality, they were all in trouble.

  Ayla leaned in. "He's not usually that crass."

  "No. It's part of the whole thing." He waved a hand, unwilling to mention the dreaded diagnosis at the table.

  Mama dished out the food and they ate in silence. If Derek were here, he'd find a way to fill the silence with something pleasant. He'd talk about music, or about Carmela. He'd have something good to say. That was just Derek. Even after everything that had happened in his life, he still found something positive to say.

  Alex couldn't wait until he got to see him again.

  After dinner, Alex helped his mother clear the table. She didn't speak while they worked, and Alex despaired of their mission.

  Once the dishes were complete, the family reconvened in the formal living room. "So," Dad began. "Alex and Ayla think they can get away with sticking their nose in my private business, is that it? You think you can stop me from seeing my son, just because you don't think he should have been born?" He sneered at Ivy. "Wow, Ivy, I never thought you'd be the good one."

  Ivy flipped Dad off.

  "Ivy, there's no need for that," Mama chided in a gentle tone.

  "The fact of the matter is, Dad, Veronica came to me. She didn't know where else to go." Alex didn't waste more time than he had to on explanations. Dad's understanding was limited right now. "She had to go somewhere because the bone was sticking right up out of his arm. It was sticking up out of his arm because you broke it."

  Mama gasped. "Your father wouldn't do that."

  "He did do it." Ayla pressed her lips together. "It's hard to hear. I understand that. But that is what happened. We may not like the fact that Dad decided to go and start up a new family, but at the end of the day Joey is a little kid like any other. And Alex and I have an obligation to Joey, like we would to any other kid. That obligation is to keep him safe from harm."

  "Keeping him safe from harm means keeping him away from the guy who snapped his arm like a twig. I'm just saying." Ivy added a vicious grin for added, if unhelpful, effect.

  "He's my kid. That's my family. It's none of your concern." Dad crossed his arms over his chest. "The fact remains that you still haven't proposed to any of those omegas I chose for you, Alex. Why is that again?"

  Alex rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and counted to five. "Now, we all know you were never an abusive father. You could be tough, but never abusive. We were always safe at home." He glanced at his sisters for confirmation. "This is new behavior for you, and Veronica confirmed that you haven't been abusive toward Joey before now."

  "It's not abuse, it's discipline. The little brat wasn't doing what he was told." Dad pouted, actually pouted.

  Ayla snorted. "Not helping your cause here, Dad. What, exactly, had he been told that was so important you had to break his arm to make him do it?"

  "None of your business. When you have kids of your own you'll understand."

  Ayla flinched.

  Alex stepped in to cover for his sister. "The point is, Dad, this isn't your normal. You've been behaving oddly for a little while now, and it's left us all a little concerned."

  Dad pursed his lips, like he'd been sucking on a rotten lemon. "Oh, you think I'm acting weirdly? Well maybe I'm just sick of letting you people get away with all kinds of crazy. You ever think about that, huh?"

  "Sure." Alex smiled thinly, the kind of smile he gave when humoring patients who weren't in possession of all of their faculties. "Look, you can go on thinking that if you want, but that's not going to let you see Joey again. The fact is, Dad I think you've got a problem."

  "You and your sisters are my only problem." Dad threw a cushion across the room. "You're spoiled, and you're useless. All of you." He pointed at Alex. "Especially you. I should have sent you away when your uncle said I should have."

  Alex’s jaw twitched when he ground it. He had a whole new respect for the gerontology department. "You have a medical problem. Now, charges have already been filed against you.
You already know that, you've been arrested and appeared in court."

  "Yeah, no thanks to you. Roni brought my boy to you because she thought you were someone she could trust." Dad pouted again.

  "Dad, we're all mandated reporters. All three of us." Ivy gestured between herself and her siblings. "We all have an obligation. The fact that you're the one who did it doesn't matter. And it's beside the point here. You hurt your son." She took a breath and made a face before continuing. "And you hurt our brother."

  "Now, I have a few doctors who are willing to meet with you and check you out, just as a personal favor to me. If they find what I'm pretty sure they will, you'll probably be able to avoid jail time." Alex’s palms sweated. If they found what Alex expected them to find, jail would be kind of moot for his dad. "We can force you to go to the doctor, but that won't go as well with your defense."