9. Now Comes the Power #3
“Wait.” I tensed. “You shouldn’t hug me.”
“I wiped it all off. . .just in case.” She pulled back. "I was so scared. They wouldn't tell me what happened. They just brought you in and said you were resting."
"I'm okay, Deja."
"Mm." She narrowed her eyes. "You don't look okay."
Before I could answer, the door at the far end of the basement opened. A nurse came in carrying a stack of folded towels and a small basin. She walked toward us with her head bowed and her steps quick.
I looked up at her.
The basement vanished.
A makeshift delivery room hit me.
White light too bright.
Kiko on her back on a table with her knees up and a sheet over her stomach.
She was screaming.
Two women held her hands.
The nurse stood between her legs with her own hands inside Kiko, working, pulling.
Blood ran down her wrists.
The first tiny baby came out blue and screaming. The nurse handed him to another nurse and went back in for the second one.
More blood and fluids spilled.
The second little baby came out coughing and wet. The nurse cleaned them off and bundled them.
I came back, blinking my eyes. “Oh fuck.”
The nurse was still walking toward us. She had no idea what I'd just seen.
I sat up straighter. "Kiko had the twins?!"
The nurse froze in the middle of the basement. The towels in her arms slipped half an inch.
She looked at the doctor.
The doctor looked at her.
The basement hushed.
Deja gave me the oddest expression.
I stared at the nurse. “Did Kiko have the twins or not?”
The nurse nodded. "Yes, Tora. She had the twins."
Oh shit!!!
I leaned forward. "Do you know who the father is?"
The nurse looked at the doctor again.
The doctor lowered his head and gave one slow nod.
The nurse swallowed. "Yes, Tora. The DNA test was completed."
My nerves flared. “Who is the father?”
"The Dragon's brother, Hiro."
Those words landed deep in my chest.
Thank God. . .Kenji isn't the father. . .but. . .they’re Hiro’s twins. Damn it.
The hot tight band that had been wrapped around my chest for weeks finally let go. My shoulders dropped. Air filled my lungs all the way to the bottom for the first time in I didn't know how long.
All this fucking time.
I'd held this fear in private for so long. Now it slid off my shoulders, and I sat in my own skin again.
Hiro's. Not Kenji's.
"Girl." Deja's voice grew strange.
I looked at her. “What?”
Deja grinned. "When did you learn Japanese?"
I blinked. "Huh?"
"You were speaking Japanese to them." Deja gestured at the nurse and the doctor. “I don't speak it, but I know what it sounds like from spending time on this island. You were speaking it.”
“Huh? No.” I looked at Yoichi. “Was I speaking Japanese?”
Shock covered his face also. "Very well too."
I turned back to the doctor and nurse.
Oh.
I cleared my throat.
"Well. . .I've been practicing." I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and glanced at Yoichi without holding his eyes. "I guess I have a. . .gift for learning languages fast."
Yoichi pursed his lips.
Deja narrowed her eyes at me. "Bitch, since when?"
"Since recently."
"Recently like when?"
"Recently like recently, Deja."
She put her hand on her hip but let it go.
She knows something's off. She's tabling it.
The doctor stepped back and looked at the nurse.
The two of them exchanged some sentences in Japanese that I now understood entirely.
The nurse asked if they should report Kiko’s birthing the twins to the Dragon’s Roar.
The doctor said no, not now, the Dragon was in his own war and his Tiger was alive.
They were saving the twins’ complications for after the battle.
“What complications?” I turned to the nurse. "Where's Kiko?"
The nurse gestured behind her, toward a long hallway running off the end of the basement.
"She is in the room down the hallway with her cousins.
Once the DNA test results were given to her, she did not want to hold the twins anymore or feed them.
We have two other nurses caring for them right now.
Which is making us even more. . .short-staffed for the injured. . ."
The nurse let out a long breath. "We hope Kiko will change her mind—"
"Oh, don't worry." I swung my legs over the side of the cot. The blanket fell away. My bare feet found the cold concrete floor. "Perhaps I can change her mind."
The doctor took a step toward me. "Tora, you should rest."
I stood up. “I feel good.”
The basement spun once and steadied. I touched the soul pin at my robe to ground myself.
Yoichi rushed to my side, but didn’t grab me. Perhaps, he didn’t want me to learn any more of his secrets. And honestly. . .I didn’t want to learn any more either.
I straightened. “I want to go visit Kiko.”
“Me too.” Deja stood. “And you have to catch me up on who Kiko is.”
“Oh, girl. She’s the whole reason why the war is on this island.”
“Oh, word?” Deja frowned. “Then, fuck that bitch.”
“Exactly.”
The doctor got in front of me. “Tora, we think you should rest—”
"There’s a war on the island. There will be no rest for anyone."
Especially that bitch.