Chapter Thirty-Six
In which we learn the phrase: The Morozov Magnificent Meat Sword and we will never forget it. No matter how hard we try.
Liria…
"I knew it!" Caroline screams happily. "The Morozov Magnificent Meat Sword has done its job."
"If you love me, you will never say those words in that combination ever again," I wheeze, horrified but also wanting to laugh.
"This is so cool! Are you freaking out? I would be freaking out a little. Have you told your mom?"
"Yes, I called her first thing this morning," I say, walking across the terrace to my favorite perch.
The mom with two kids is back in the private garden next door, along with a couple sitting on one of the benches in a secluded corner where the ivy covers the wall.
Their heads are close together, whispering to each other.
Two months ago, the sight would have made me terribly sad and a little jealous.
Now, though, I let myself think that could be me and Alexsey.
"I'm still a bit in shock," I admit. I hadn't told my mom about the attack last night. The combination of, "Hey Mom, I'm pregnant and also by the way someone tried to shoot me and then blew up my car," didn't seem right.
Caroline, though. She can handle just about anything.
"There's something else." I sit on one of the big rattan chairs with the lovely squishy cushions I'd ordered, one of my few attempts to add something of mine to the loft.
"Yeah?" Caroline asks, "The baby stuff is pretty overwhelming on its own."
"We went to the opera last night-"
"Really? No one wants to go to the opera," she laments. "What did you do wrong?"
"You know I love the opera," I say defensively, "and it was Turandot and- You know what? Never mind."
"I'm sorry!" she says, clearly trying not to laugh. "Tell me. I won't judge your cultural choices again."
"A shooter crawled into a lighting booth across the auditorium from us and nearly shot me in the chest," I say, remembering the high-pitched whine, like a mosquito and a breeze on my back. "I leaned over to talk to Alexsey at that moment. It saved my life."
"For the love of Jake Gyllenhaal and all that is holy, tell me you're kidding me right now!" Caroline's voice rises to a shriek.
"No, it's true," I take a shaky breath. "And then Marc Canton wired my car and it blew up. Thank god Danyl used the remote start."
"Marc fucking Canton?" Now, her voice is low and deadly. "From here? That soon to be dead bastard?"
"Luan, that piece of shit, killed his father," I say listlessly. I'm so tired of the mountain of sins the Krasniqi Fare has committed.
"This feels like something an evil bastard like your father would do, just so they could run off and spend their declining years on a tropical island with a pile of coke and a dozen hookers," she says viciously.
"If you hadn't personally witnessed him turning into a cancerous bag of pus, I'd swear that was the plan. "
"I don't think anyone is willing to let go of life easily, even if they know death is coming," I say. "He wants to hold on to the scraps left to him."
"Then I hope he is suffering."
"Wow, honey. You can be scary when you want to be." I say, a little alarmed but mostly impressed.
"Does Alexsey have a plan?" she asks. "Because I'm so upset right now that I can't even eat my Cheetos and I just bought a huge bag."
"As we speak, it seems to be surrounding me with a wall of bodyguards," I say.
"There's two of them patrolling the front and back of the loft, one on the roof with a sniper rifle and it seems Roan and Danyl have moved in.
I found Danyl brushing his teeth in his pajamas in the downstairs bathroom this morning. "
"Well, they caught Marc, so that's one murderous bastard down," she says.
"You're always trying to find the bright side. I love that about you."
"Thank you honey, I know you do," she says graciously.
We say our goodbyes and I love you's, and I head back inside to find that Hurricane Ella is already on the move.
"There you are!" she says, getting up from the couch where she was talking to Alexsey. He's trying to hide a smile and I soon see why.
"So… I took a couple of minutes today, locating the best OB/GYN's in Manhattan." She fans out a pile of folders. "Sadly, Ava's doctor retired, you would have loved her. Anyway, these are color-coordinated from best to worst, with my three personal recommendations on top."
I glance over at Alexsey and he puts his hands up in the international male signal of, "I have no idea what the hell is happening here and I'm staying out of it."
After maybe ten minutes of discussion, I agree with Ella that Dr. Cari Okumura is the best choice. "Three international awards for innovation in treating high-risk pregnancies," I say. "That's impressive."
"Not that yours will be high-risk," she says firmly.
My husband brings me a pint of ice cream and tea for his mother, then backs away, heading downstairs to, "return some calls."
Chicken.
"I was thinking," Ella says, "that you might be more comfortable coming to the clinic for your prenatal checkups. We know it's highly secured and Dr. Okumura can do your examination there. We have an ultrasound machine, of course," she says, all innocence.
"Ella," I say, "my very dear mother-in-law, the kindest woman I know, are you by chance building, perhaps, a prenatal wing on to the clinic?"
There's a short silence, I can tell she's trying to decide on whether she should lie or give it up. "It's possible," she says grudgingly. "Some of the women in the crime community might be more comfortable coming to the clinic for an examination."
I'm silently laughing over the phrase "crime community," because only my mother-in-law could make a bunch of murderous organized crime families sound adorable.
"I have to admit," I say, my hand unconsciously covering my stomach, "I'm feeling a lot more paranoid these days, more fragile. I hate it."
"That's a completely normal thing," she says confidently. "You're worrying for two now, so to speak, and while strong women are certain they can protect themselves, when it comes to protecting our babies, it's a very different feeling, right?"
"Oh, yes! That's it exactly. Thank you," I say in a rush, relieved that she understands.
"I would like to tell you that the feeling goes away," she says quietly.
"It doesn't, not really. You'll find a way to make peace with it, that life is never certain.
For anyone. I had this very same talk with Ava when she was pregnant with Lev.
What you do have is an insanely protective husband and a family that will back you through anything. "
"I know that," I say, tearing up. "You've all proved it to me, even when you didn't think I deserved it. I'm not sure I deserve it, being a Krasniqi. Also, I'm crying now all the time. Is that normal?"
She lets out a peal of laughter. "Wait until you're watching, say, a dog food commercial at eight months or so, and you completely lose it. I'm sure his brothers will be preparing Alexsey for the later stages of pregnancy."
***
We get our first pre-natal checkup with Dr. Okumura within a week.
She's a sharp-featured woman with disgustingly perfect skin, so she could be anywhere from thirty to sixty and I would never know.
She's brisk, but understanding. Otherwise, I doubt that she would be hauling herself to the Morozov private clinic for just one patient.
Alexsey is with me and he holds my hand.
Part of me is still in disbelief that we're just…
sitting here, like a regular couple. Holding hands, waiting for news about their baby.
I want to turn to him and tell him that I love him, but maybe I should wait until we're alone, since discussing the results of my urine and blood tests is hardly romantic.
"Nice numbers," Dr. Okumura says, running through the numbers. I believe you're about ten weeks in, but your hCG levels are very high. Let's take a look with an ultrasound."
I suspect most expectant mothers don't get a huge, comfortable lounger that fits both me and Alexsey, with muted lighting so that the extra-large screen shows extra bright and clear definition.
Pulling up my shirt, I watch as Dr. Okumura spreads goo on my stomach and begins to work the transducer, taking some measurements. She presses another button and the speakers light up and I hear it; that rapid heartbeat.
"The pattern is so fast," I say, immediately tearing up.
"That's the baby, isn't it?" Alexsey watches the monitor with a frown. "Should it be that fast?"
Dr. Okumura smiles, "Completely normal." She moves the transducer lower down on my abdomen and I hear the heartbeat again, sounding like there's a bit of an echo.
"Sorry," she says distractedly, as I wince slightly.
"Ah, there you are," she says with satisfaction, pressing down again, but I ignore the discomfort because what I'm looking at is another baby.
So tiny that they look more like two pulsing stars to me and I sob, slapping my hand over my mouth.
"Do twins run in your family?" Dr. Okumura asks.
"My mom, she…" I squeeze Alexsey's hand. "She miscarried twin boys at five months. It was a really rough time."
"Well, we will make sure that you stay comfortable and healthy throughout your pregnancy," she says. She glances over at Alexsey and tries to contain her smile. "Mr. Morozov, are you all right?"
Alexsey is staring at the screen, his jaw dropped. I've never seen this expression on his face before; he's basking in the awe of seeing these little people.
"They're beautiful," he says reverently, kissing me as we admire the two pulsing, strawberry-sized stars that are our babies. "Thank you, moya lyubov'."
After we've cleaned up and Dr. Okumura has printed off photos, she shakes both our hands, and strides briskly down the hallway. One of Mother's guards will drive her back to her own clinic.
Alexsey is still wearing that stunned, concussed expression, like someone hit him on the back of the head with a baseball bat and a doctor is asking him his name and what year this is.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I ask, pressing my lips together so it doesn't look like I'm laughing at him.
"I know how I felt when you told me that you were pregnant," he says, taking my hands.
"I know how I felt when we heard those fierce, speedy little heartbeats, but the realization now that there are two lives, depending on me to keep them safe, to keep their mother safe is.
…" he shakes his head. "The responsibility is… it's sacred."
Impulsively, I hug him in the middle of the hall as amused medical personnel flow around us, like we're rocks in the stream.
"I think you're doing a pretty good job of it already," I whisper in his ear.
"I love you." I just blurted it out, no finesse.
"Is that okay to say?" It wasn't how I planned it.
I wanted it to be at home, just the two of us, but now that we're here in this brightly lit hallway with an amused audience, and our fistful of ultrasound pictures just seems right.
"I love you, too," he says, lifting me up to kiss me soundly. "I love you, and I love these children."
There's a scatter of applause, it starts with just a single clapping of hands and suddenly the entire hallway is filled with people, Tolya, Roan, and Danyl, who has a huge grin on his big, blocky face.
Ella and Ava are clapping, all the nurses, even a couple of soldiers still recovering from their injuries, leaning on their crutches and clapping, too.
I put my forehead on Alexsey's chest, laughing. "I guess that part where we keep everything secret till about fourteen weeks is out, huh?"
"Sorry, fam," Ava says with a sympathetic grin. "You should know by now that nothing is secret in this family, anyway."
"I know we can trust everyone in this building to not say a word outside of it, correct?" Alexsey says.
Everyone's expressions hastily turn serious and there's nods of agreement.
"Of course," Tolya says.
Roan makes a zipping motion over his lips.
Ava says, "I'm gonna tell Roman the second I’m back in my office."
I can't stop grinning and Alexsey scoops me up in his arms. "I'm going to take you home now, wife. We're going to celebrate."
Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I wave to our amused audience. "When you say 'celebrate', do you mean we're going to have lots of sex?"
"Oh, I'm going to have my face buried in your pussy for at least an hour," he whispers in my ear. "I'm going to keep making you come until you lose consciousness."
"Some people might call that a threat," I murmur, noticing our guards are desperately pretending that they can’t hear us.
"For me?" He smiles salaciously, and it is hot as hell. "It's a challenge."