Chapter 10
STAN
The first time I regularly started spending time in a hospital, it took a lot to get used to.
I was still in nursing school at the time and was only there for observations.
The sensory overload was intense, between all the noises of the machines and the people suffering, heightened thanks to my fox, and the scents, it was everything I could do to make it through those first few tours.
Over time, it got easier. I learned how to tune out the sounds, got desensitized to most of the chemicals and smells that filled the air, and recognized when I needed to get outside for fresh air before things got bad. It was still a lot to take in but was manageable most of the time.
But for the past few days, it had been rough, like those first times all over again rough. It wasn’t so much the noises, but the smells. They were all magnified, both good and bad. Even the coffee pot at the nursing station was doing a number on me.
And beyond that, I felt lightheaded numerous times and had to race to the bathroom twice.
Because of my job, I couldn’t let anybody know that I’d been sick, because humans jumped to the conclusion that it had to be tied to something contagious.
A lot of the time it was, but this wasn’t a stomach bug.
If anything, it was the result of exhaustion thanks to some pretty intense shifts lately.
The first time I got sick today, it was the direct result of the cleaning crew opening a new bottle of disinfectant and my body saying no.
The second time was when somebody came in an ambulance who should have gone straight to the morgue.
That was all I wanted to say on that. At least for that one, I wasn’t the only one who struggled.
Not that I wanted anybody to, but it made me feel a little better about my ability to handle my job for the rest of the shift knowing I wasn’t being set off by “nothing.”
As much as I knew I wasn’t sick, something was still off about my body, and I wasn’t here for it.
If Ax was still gone with his team, I’d have assumed it was mate sickness.
That didn’t happen often with fully mated pairs.
It was far more common when a shifter had a half-bond, one marking their mate and the other rejecting them.
But regardless of how rare it would be, Ax was here, with me, so it couldn’t be that.
There was an all-call for my team at the trauma bay.
I begged the goddess to keep me from getting sick while I took care of whatever lay beyond those doors.
And she did. I made it through the patient’s intake, a little dizzy when they had to use a disinfectant on some of the wounds, but aside from that I was fine, and I managed to do my job and do it well.
The patient had already stepped down from trauma and would probably be home in the next day or so.
“Hey, you don’t look so good. You okay?” Dr. Kylie, a physician I’d never worked with before but who had been called down for this particular case, asked.
“I’m always like this,” I lied. He wouldn’t know. I’d seen him once at a hospital Christmas party. That was it.
“Okay. Are you sure? You look a little green.” He wasn’t letting up. A do-gooder was the last thing I needed.
“I’m good.”
He looked me up and down. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were pregnant.”
“I’m what?” I could not have heard him right. “Pregnant? What made you say that?”
He stepped in close, closer than I normally would have wanted anyone but my mate to, but then he whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t know.”
And that was when I realized he, too, was a shifter, an elephant shifter at that. How had I missed that with my sensory overload? They were known for their strong scenting abilities. He’d be able to scent a pregnancy days before my fox or my mate’s wolf ever could.
“You can tell? You’re not just guessing, right?”
“My nose doesn’t lie.” He tapped it as if that made his words somehow more true. “I apologize again. I didn’t mean to ruin the surprise.”
“Yeah, ‘surprise’ is a word for it. I didn’t know, and Ax doesn’t know.” He’d probably have figured it out in the next day or so, and if he didn’t, my fox would’ve soon enough.
Before we could finish the conversation, we were called to another trauma bay.
My shift went fast, one emergency after another.
I hated that so many people needed us, but it was good for keeping my mind off my newly discovered condition.
Sitting at the nurses’ station and thinking about it when my mate still didn’t know wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
This was something we had to work through together.
We weren’t exactly the typical couple, career wise.
On my way back to the house, I stopped at the pharmacy and grabbed a pregnancy test. I could have gotten one at work, but I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing.
The few other shifters would know soon enough, but the humans didn’t need to.
I’d seen other doctors and nurses who were pregnant and got treated differently, and not in a good way.
It wasn’t that they were given extra breaks for tea, it was more that they weren’t trusted to do their job.
It was something HR had said they were working on, according to water cooler gossip, but I still wasn’t ready to jump into that fray.
I dropped my bag on the kitchen table and headed straight into the shower, promising Ax I’d be out in a few minutes.
I was gross from the day’s work, the scent of chemicals still clinging to me, and I needed them gone.
Especially for this conversation with my mate, he didn’t need to be bombarded with them either.
I turned off the shower and reached for my towel, instead grabbing onto the box. I popped my head out to see Axel there, his face smiling. “This fell out of your bag when I went to hang it on the hook. Is there something I should know, mate?”
“Yeah, there’s an elephant shifter at work, and you know how their noses are pretty spectacular…”
“Yeah...”
“He thinks I’m pregnant. And I don’t think he’s wrong. My senses have been keeping me on edge the past couple of days, and I’ve been sick to my stomach twice today.”
“Well, there’s one way to find out.” He eyed the box.
I grabbed it from his hand. “Get out. I’ll be a few minutes.” I pointed to the door. “I need to dry off first. I’m getting cold.”
“Hurry up. I want to know. I mean, I trust his beast’s nose, but...”
“Same.”
I didn’t even have the pregnancy test on the counter long enough to set the three minutes when it was already starting to show positive. I ran out and threw my arms around my mate. “We’re gonna be dads.”
“We’re going to be dads?” He hugged me tightly.
“This is good news, right?”
“This is the best news.” He kissed the side of my head. “But also, this isn’t what we were planning, either of us. We need to figure out what happens next… logistically speaking. I want to be the best father for our sweet baby, and if that means I need to alter my career plans…”
“You are taking a thousand steps ahead. Let’s take this one day at a time.
Lots of professional players have families.
We can make this work without you giving up your dream.
” I loved that he was willing to consider such a move, but I wouldn’t let that happen.
He’d worked too hard to get where he was.
“Don’t you know that you are my dream?” He kissed me breathlessly.
“Take me to bed, mate.” I ran my teeth along his mating mark. We could and would figure everything out later. “I need your knot.”
He scooped me up. “If that’s what my sexy mate needs, how can I deny him?” He sealed his lips to mine and crossed the short distance to our bed where we spent the next few hours wrapped in each other’s arms.