14. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
Keir
The nurses were checking Lake’s vitals as I sat with her and held her hand. She was in active labor, but she was still unconscious. I was scared to death.
I glanced up at the nurse, who offered a wan smile. “She’s doing okay, Mr. Dearly. She’s just had a shock with what happened, and her mind is keeping her safe until it’s time for her to process what’s going on.”
I nodded. “Her parents are on their way because I’m not authorized to give consent for her medical care. We were going to execute a medical power of attorney this week before we went to her obstetrician appointment. The baby isn’t due until the seventeenth, so we thought we had time. Lake has recently returned to town for the birth.”
The woman stared at me as if I was some crazed stalker—though, to her credit, I was sure I looked a hot mess. My left hand and arm were bandaged with gauze, as was the left side of my face and neck. My hair was scorched, or so the nurse in the ER told me as she was trying to clean me up to treat the wounds.
I had second-degree burns that had been hastily treated in the emergency room so I could get to Lake. I hadn’t wanted her to be alone for even a moment. I wished to hell I knew where Dash was.
“A medical power of attorney? Aren’t the two of you a couple? You were brought in together, and the paramedics told the ER docs you were a couple.”
Our status wasn’t any of this woman’s business, but then again, they probably didn’t know anything about Lake since she was unconscious when we arrived in the ambulance. “Oh, uh, Lake’s our surrogate. She’s carrying our baby. My husband should be here any minute now.”
The woman rushed out of the room as I stared at the fetal heart monitor that provided proof our baby girl was still alive and well. I wanted Lake to be okay, too, because she was important to us all. I had no idea how that fire started, and I wanted to ask Lake about the event to see if there had been a way to avoid it.
Where the hell is Jo? Isn’t she supposed to be watching out for Lake?
A male orderly with a menacing expression entered the room, his large arms crossed over his barrel chest. “Sir, I’m afraid you’ll need to vacate the room until the patient’s next of kin arrives. We have no way to verify you’re not just some pervert with a pregnant-woman fixation.”
I wanted to laugh at him, but he seemed damn serious. “She’s carrying my baby. I’m not going anywhere.” I stood from the chair and returned his scowl.
The hospital where we’d been brought wasn’t the hospital where Lake had registered for the delivery, so they had no information regarding the special circumstances surrounding Lake’s pregnancy and our place in it.
“You motherfuckers better let me see my husband and my baby mama right now, or I’ll tear this place apart.”
I knew that shouting, and I’d have been proud of him if we weren’t on the maternity floor where babies were being born. I hurried out of the room and found Dash standing inside the security doors with his own menacing look. The orderly was headed for him, but I got there first.
“Dashiell, keep your voice down. Women are having babies in here, and hopefully, one of them is ours. Lake’s mother and father are on the way. We’ll just go to the waiting room until they arrive and give these people space to do their work—”
An alarm started blaring, and nurses began running down the hall from all directions. “Code blue! Code blue! Five-two-three!”
“That’s Lake’s room!”
I started running down the hallway, only to bump into the stupid damn orderly who stuck his arms out and caught me around the chest before I could get there. “What’s wrong? What’s happening with Lake Gryner?”
“Dude, you’re not going back there, even if you are the baby daddy. I can’t tell you more than that.” He refused to get out of my way, and when he picked me up and carried me back to the doors, shoving me through them, Dash caught his arm and bent it at an ugly angle.
“Keep your fucking hands off my husband. That’s our baby. What…the fuck…is going on?”
I’d never seen Dash so angry, and I’d seen him plenty mad before. Thankfully, the elevator dinged, and Mr. and Mrs. Gryner exited. Jamie ran out of the waiting room to hug her grandmother as I approached Lake’s father.
“I’m glad you’re here. They won’t tell me anything about Lake or the baby.”
Jack Gryner stared at me and turned to the orderly. “We were contacted by an Officer Jophiel that our daughter was brought here. These men are the fathers of the baby my daughter is carrying. What the hell is going on?” Debra stood with her arms around Jamie as we all listened to the orderly.
“I’ll get a nurse.” The orderly took off down the hall, and Dash growled, heading after him.
I grabbed the back of his leather jacket before he got too far away. “Let it go. Where were you?”
Dash turned to me and stared at the bandages, lifting his hand to touch the ones on my face, neck, and arm before he pulled back. “Baby, what happened?”
“It was crazy. One minute, I was downstairs talking on the phone to Jonas and checking inventory. Jamie came to the top of the stairs leading to the mortuary. She was panicked but couldn’t tell me what was wrong.”
“Yeah, I went by after… I’ll tell you about it later.” He pushed my hair off my forehead and leaned forward to place a kiss there.
“Can anything be salvaged?” All my childhood memories were held within the walls of Dearly & Son. My heart clenched at the idea of losing them.
“Maybe. The fire started in the kitchen according to Lilith, then, there was an explosion in the walk-in. Maybe one triggered the other, but Lilith and I speculate this was Nyx or someone acting on her behalf. Lilith went to talk to Lucifer about this situation. We need to find Nyx, Dearly. I’m tired of this waiting shit.”
A nurse rushed into the room. “Family for Lake Gryner?”
We all stepped forward expectantly. Jonas took Jamie’s hand and led her to the chairs showing her things on his phone to distract her. I hadn’t even thought about how any of this might affect Jamie. Dash and I had been very selfish.
“Lake’s having some blood pressure issues, so Doctor Lim is going to perform a cesarean to deliver the baby. Dads, You can watch, and you can hold the baby for a moment before she’s in NICU. You can’t come into the operating room because Ms. Gryner is still unconscious, but you can watch through the glass. Follow me.”
Dash and I hurried down the hallway into a scrub room. With the bandages on my left side, I couldn’t scrub in, but Dash could, and I could relish in watching him hold our daughter for the first time. It would be a new memory I could hold onto since all the others I’d had at Dearly & Son had gone up in flames.
The staff scurried around, setting up a drape between Lake’s head and her burgeoning belly. The person standing at Lake’s head nodded, and one of the nurses said, “She’s ready, Dr. Lim.”
Dash and I stood at the window and watched Dr. Lim take her place at the side of the operating table. The staff were all at the ready, and I closed my eyes. I’d seen and done a lot of invasive procedures to prepare my guests for their funerals, but seeing someone I loved being cut open wasn’t—something quickly occurred to me.
“Dash, should you be in here? Did you—” I leaned closer. “Did you drink Lilith’s blood?”
“I did, but I’ll be fine. I’m just excited.” He glanced at me with a twinkle in his eye, and I believed him down to my soul.
When the doctor made the cut, Dash growled and put his right hand over his mouth. He swallowed hard. “Our baby,” he murmured...as if reminding himself.
I took his left hand and kissed it. I knew he would make it through without issue.
We watched through the glass as the doctor unwrapped the umbilical cord from around the baby while the neonatal nurses assisted the doctor as she reached into Lake’s abdomen, gently removing our sweet, disgusting-looking daughter. She wasn’t moving, and more importantly, there wasn’t any sound coming from the baby.
I grabbed Dash’s arm. “She’s not screaming.” I couldn’t catch my breath. Had Nyx succeeded in keeping the curse intact?
“ Dammit ! She will.” Dash snapped his fingers and everything around us stopped. He hurried in through the door and bit into his wrist, holding it to drip over the baby’s lips. Two drops fell onto her cupid’s bow mouth.
I was frozen for a moment until that beautiful scream filled the air. Dash snapped his fingers again before rushing back to me, tears rolling down our faces. Our beautiful little girl had been born alive.
The room became active. Dr. Lim held up our daughter for us to see before she put her in the arms of a nurse who carried her over to a table to be weighed, measured, and swaddled. Our gorgeous daughter hadn’t stopped screaming, which was the best song I’d ever heard.
Dash wrapped an arm around my shoulders and slid his nose over my right cheek before he met my ear. “How beautiful is that sound, Dearly?”
“Glorious.”
The screaming that filtered from Dash’s mind to mine wasn’t that of our baby girl. It was the screaming of a demon goddess who had just lost her leverage. Her spell cast on my ancestors had just been broken with the live birth of our beautiful baby girl. The last thing left to do was send Nyx back to her specific corner of Hell.
“Lake woke up. She’s a little groggy, but Dr. Lim says she’ll be fine.”
Dash knelt beside me as I sat near the acrylic crib where our beautiful Grace lay swaddled and snoozing. We were still thinking about a middle name, but we’d been told we could take her home on Friday the thirteenth, which was a little suspect, but I’d take what I could get.
“No lasting effects from Lake’s head injury, right?”
From what we’d pieced together, Lake had hit her head on the open utensil drawer on the right side of the stove as she slipped on amniotic fluid and went down. The doctor called her brain injury a coup, which means her brain ricocheted inside her skull.
She would be in the hospital for a few more days for observation because of the c-section and the head injury, and then she and Jamie were going to stay with her parents until she was ready to go back to Dash’s condo. I was glad she had her family to rely on, though Dash and I would have taken her home with us—if we had a home to go to.
“As far as the neuro could tell. Her brain swelling is decreasing, and Lake said her headache is diminishing. Wanna trade places? I think Lake would like to talk to you. I’ll be here with Gracie.”
Gracie! I loved the sound of it and how easily it rolled off Dash’s tongue. I could hear the sheer magnitude of love in his voice, and we’d only met her a few hours earlier. It warmed me through and through. That sweet little girl would be the saving grace for the world, I was sure. Her daddies just had to make sure there was a world left for her to grow up in.
With my wounds, I hadn’t been able to have skin-to-skin contact with Grace, but Dash could. “Shirt off, Papa.” He smirked, making me roll my eyes.
Dash slid up the back of his Henley and pulled it over his head and down his arms. He tossed it on the back of the rocking chair and finger-combed his long hair into a bun secured with an elastic band from his wrist before sitting in the rocker and opening his arms.
I picked up the baby and opened the tightly wrapped blanket before laying her against Dash’s bare chest and covering them both with the blanket. I adjusted Grace’s little pink hat before I kissed her head and then Dash’s lips. “I’ll be back.”
Before opening the door to leave, I glanced over my shoulder to see Dash had closed his eyes and wore the most serene smile as he gently rocked our baby. The sight filled my heart with so much love I thought my chest would explode.
I walked down the hall to Lake’s recovery room. Her parents had been keeping her company after she woke up while Dash helped the nurses care for our daughter. Due to the bandages, I’d only been able to watch.
Nurse Lani had taken her little footprints before she taught Dash how to give Grace a bath. Nurse Angela and I had filled out the application for the birth certificate. The whole process had been awe-inspiring, and once we’d learned how to swaddle our daughter, Dash had gone to check on Lake. Now it was my turn to extend my thanks for everything Lake had done for us.
Stepping to the half-open door, I heard the soft murmur of the television. I saw the room was empty, and I guessed maybe Lake’s parents had taken a break to get something to eat. I stepped inside and glanced around the corner, seeing Lake watching a show. “Knock-knock. Can I come in?” Lake’s big smile put me at ease.
“I’ve been dying to see you. Dash told me you named her Grace. How is she?” Lake grabbed the controller and lifted the head of the bed a bit before adjusting herself. She’d had major surgery on her belly, but she didn’t appear to be in pain.
“She’s sleeping on Dash’s chest. You’ve both had quite a day. How are you, my dear friend?”
Lake giggled a little. “I’m sooo sorry I burned down your home. I didn’t think a grilled ham and cheese sandwich would flame like that, Keir. I mean, when I put the sandwich in the skillet, the butter flamed, scaring the crap out of me. Then my water broke and I hit my head as I fell. I can’t tell you how terrible I feel.”
I reached for her hand, my left hand still covered in gauze. “That building isn’t our focus. Grace, you, and Jamie are all we care about, Lake. If you need anything, you know we expect you to tell us. You’ve given us the most precious gift we could ever get. You are family to us, and you know how much we love our family.”
Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “Thank you. You and Dash are important to us too. Since we’re going to stay with Mom and Dad for a while, why don’t you guys stay at the condo while you figure out where to live? Do you think you’ll rebuild?”
“I’m not sure yet. Thanks for the offer of the condo, but I think we’ll stay in a hotel for a while. Do you want us to pack some clothes and things and bring them to your parents’ place for you and Jamie? You’ve already given us a lot of your time. We won’t run you out of your home.” Carrying our baby for nine months was already asking a lot of Lake. I couldn’t ask her for anything more.
“Oh, it’s been my pleasure, really. Don’t worry. Mom and Dad went to get some things for us. I only plan to stay with them for a week or two. I want to get Jamie back in school when the new year starts. Anyway, that little princess has ten fingers and ten toes, right?” I could see Lake was getting tired, so I decided to leave.
“She is perfection. You did a fantastic job keeping her safe and loved. Thank you, Lake. Look, whether I rebuild Dearly & Son or start at a new place, you’ll always have a job working with me. You’re a true artist at applying makeup and doing hair, and I don’t want to lose you. I’ll keep paying your salary until I figure out what I’m doing. I expect you to contact me if you need anything at all, okay?” I meant the words with my whole heart.
“Can I drop by the nursery to see Grace when they get me up? She and I are very good friends, having spent so much time together. And Jamie, of course. We used to take turns reading to Grace at night. We’ll miss her, but I’m so happy for you and Dash.”
I lifted Lake’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “Of course you can come see Grace. We take her home—wherever that is—on the thirteenth. I’ll let you know where we land so you can come see her anytime you’d like.”
Lake’s eyes were sagging, so I quietly made my way to the door. There was a noise behind me, and when I turned, I saw Jo standing by the bed in her angelic form with a gentle smile on her face as though she were there to protect Lake as she rested.
“Now is the time, Keir. I already have beings in place to take care of Grace and Lake. You’re needed elsewhere.”
I nodded, having no doubt Lake and Grace would be in exceptional hands.