31. Nash
31
NASH
Orla was so tired. She’d given birth twice, in two different ways, and endured major surgery while she was fucking conscious . But my woman’s eyes still shone with wonder as I placed our son on her chest. “Is he hungry?”
“Still sleeping.” I ran a finger over his velvet-soft brown hair. “He’s had a long day too.”
Orla smiled, fatigue heavy in her face. “We made it.”
“We did.” I brushed her hair back too. “They went to get Locke and baby girl. You think you can stay awake long enough to see them?”
“What do you think?”
I thought lots of things, but most of it was distant noise, no room in my universe for anything but love and awe for the woman who’d made it all possible.
And him. The door opened a little wider. Locke appeared with our daughter in his arms and placed her immediately in mine, the baby I’d only held in the back of an ambulance while Orla had bled out in front of me. That terror—I’d never forget it.
But the healing had already started.
Locke kissed my temple. Then squeezed around me to meet our son. “Dark hair, eh? You got one of each, queenie.”
Orla hummed, beyond words.
Locke stroked the shadowed smudges beneath her eyes, a shudder rocking him, knowing how close we’d come to losing her. Then he took the baby from her chest and I realised all over again how fucking small our son was. Any smaller and he’d have been in the special care unit on the floor above.
Locke’s hands dwarfed him, but he’d held a baby tinier than this, and perhaps for the first time, I truly grasped what he’d lived through to smile like he did as he gazed down. “Your brothers are here. Logan and Rubi too.”
Orla’s eyes blinked open. “Logan’s here?”
Locke nodded, gaze flickering, but she was too exhausted to notice as the midwife popped her head around the door.
“I let the other two brothers back in again. Turns out they take up more space in the corridor. Would you like to see them before we move Orla to the ward? There definitely won’t be room for them all down there.”
I cocked a brow at Orla. “What do you think? Are you ready to deal with that rabble?”
Orla smiled again, tired and beautiful. “It’s time, sweetheart. I need them close.”
The midwife knew our story. She told Locke where to hide, then flitted away to fetch the others.
I thought I’d hear them coming, but somehow even Rubi was quiet, like he’d learned to whisper on the way, though I felt his excitement like a current on the wind.
Bodies crowded into the room. Cam and River went straight to Orla, while Logan hung back, trying to preserve the space, already looking for Locke.
Rubi came to me, tears in his eyes. “Is this her, Nashie? Can I hold her?”
I placed my daughter in his arms, safe in the knowledge he’d have died for her before she was even fucking born.
His bottom lip wobbled.
River laughed. “You all right there, boo?”
“Not even a little bit.” Rubi brought the baby around the bed to where River perched, his hand clasping Orla’s. “Look at these little hands, Riv.”
“I’m looking.”
They put their heads together, studying every inch of the baby they could see while Cam looked on, emotion riding him so hard I wondered when he’d break.
Movement at the door caught Logan’s attention. A broad smile split his face in half and he stepped back even further, making space.
No one noticed.
Even when Locke reappeared in his place with a second bundle in his arms.
He cleared his throat.
Rubi glanced up.
Briefly.
Then again at such speed it was a wonder his head didn’t fly off his broad shoulders. “Oi. Where’d you get that one? You can’t just take them, you know.”
Locke grinned. “I didn’t take anything. They made him .”
He pointed at me and Orls collectively, and Rubi just stared, drawing Cam and River’s attention from the baby Rubi still held.
Cam blinked.
River stared too, then a knowing relief washed over him, as if all the shit he’d seen these past few months finally made sense.
It took Rubi and Cam far longer to get there.
Rubi’s mouth opened and closed.
Cam stepped towards Locke.
Stopped and whirled back to face Orls and me, comprehension slowly dawning. “Fucking twins ? Jesus fuck, are you serious?”
Serious enough for Orla to nearly die bringing them earth-side, but my woman beamed through her exhaustion. “You really thought I put on that much lumber from all the potatoes I was eating?”
“I don’t fucking know.” Cam shook his head to clear it, still half-lost for words. “I—fuck, I don’t know.”
Jaw unhinged, Rubi had nothing. He stared and stared and stared until he rounded on me. “You unholy, sneaky fucker .”
Laughter filled the room.
Rubi still gaped. “We’re all fucked. This is worse than I thought.”
A flicker of fire sparked in Orla’s tired gaze. “Excuse me?”
“Think about it, Khaleesi.” Rubi rose to peer at the tiny face in Locke’s arms, the placid, sleeping face, while the one he held was as wide awake as when she’d been born. “This one is already pulling a McGovern, but chances are, he’s gonna look like Cam, and the world ain’t prepared for that concoction. And as for this little one...” He turned back to the baby still in his arms. “She might look like Nashie, but we all know she’s gonna act like you .”
Orla glowered. “She might act like River . Ever thought of that?”
“I’m thinking about it now.” Rubi shivered. “Can’t you see the hives? I’m skeered, and you all should be too.”
It was hard to tell if he was joking, and his points were valid, but we had the rest of our lives to worry about it.
Locke placed our son in Cam’s arms and moved to Orla’s side, bringing Logan with him. “Queenie, do you know their names?”
Orla glanced at me.
I nodded. Do it .
She beckoned Cam closer, bringing us all into a huddle as she stroked the dainty hand of our baby boy. “ This is Finan Saint. And over there...” She met Rubi’s gaze. “The little girl you’re so scared of already... this is Donavan—Donavan Lark.”
Rubi melted. “Really?”
Orla nodded, and he really did cry then. Cam wasn’t much better off, and I knew we’d been right to believe that naming our son after Saint instead of him would mean so much more.
The room settled down. But Orla looked at me again. We weren’t done.
“There’s something else.”
Every gaze turned to me, even Locke’s, confusion hazing his eyes.
“Rubi said McGovern.” I took a breath. “But I told Alexei a while ago I’d never give any kid we had that name. And I meant it. If it’s all right with you”—I looked straight at Locke—“They’re going to be Halliwells.”
A pause stretched out. Locke didn’t blink. Then his answering embrace became the only reason I was lucky not to be holding a baby. He crushed me in his arms, swamping me in the love and safety I’d never known I needed so badly until I met him.
He swept me off my feet, spinning me in a slow circle. “Are you sure? Cos there’s already a bunch of unruly Halliwells cursing the earth.”
“Speak for yourself,” Logan deadpanned.
Locke laughed but held my gaze. “Are you fuckin’ sure?”
I kissed him. Just once. “I’m fucking sure.”
So much love filled his eyes, filled the whole fucking room, I could barely stand it. But our time together ticked away, and it seemed as if only a minute passed before the midwife came to evict our visitors.
Needing some air, I walked out with Logan, taking note of the wince and limp he’d somehow managed to conceal from Locke, the grimace as he rotated his shoulder, injuries from a fucked-up fire he’d kept from his twin but shared with me.
I hated that he’d been hurt.
Loved that he’d trusted me enough to confide in me and save Locke the worry.
“How’s Galen doing?”
We reached Logan’s car. He leaned against it, still massaging his shoulder. “Better. He’s gone to stay with his parents for a bit. If he can survive that, he’ll be grand.”
“You almost sound Irish.”
Logan smiled, so much like Locke but so... not at the same time. “He’s been my best friend since he joined the station ten years ago. I don’t know what I’d have done if he hadn’t pulled through.”
Knew that feeling a hundred times over. And knew better than to dwell on that. “What about the other thing we’re not going to talk about yet?”
Logan thought hard, like he always did before he opened his mouth, a lesson the rest of us were still learning. Then he pulled me into a life-affirming hug. “So far so good, brother.”