Page 93 of Hollow State

Wynn looked up at him. “You already met me.”

“Technically. You were pale, angry, hooked to fluids, and trying to convince me you didn’t need to be examined. That barely counts.”

She watched the wheels of the IV pole turn over the polished floor. “Darwin talks about you.”

“He talks about you more.”

“He’s been unconscious since they brought him in.”

“Not for the last hour or so.” Liam glanced down at her. "He's been obsessed with the window in his recovery room and keeps telling the nurse and anyone who will listen about how he's going to build you a house with lots of windows.”

"Darwin said all that?" Wynn swallowed hard. It was their dream. Their vision for their future. It wasn't something they shared with others. So, it surprised her that he, even drugged, expressed it to anyone.

Liam slowed the wheelchair near a small alcove outside recovery. “He was very specific about the windows,” Liam said. “Lots of them, apparently. Big ones. Morning light. He used the phrase ‘proper airflow’ twice.”

Wynn's cheeks heated. She wasn't quite sure what to say.

Liam stopped outside a closed door and set the brake on the wheelchair. “Before you go in, I need to tell you something.”

"About windows?" Her stomach flipped. “About Darwin?”

"Everything is fine with Darwin." Liam crouched to her level. "I wanted to talk to you about your blood panels."

"Is there something wrong with me?" Her pulse increased.

"Your blood panels came back normal. Liver. Kidneys. Cardiac enzymes. Inflammatory markers came down. Coags are fine. No sign of organ stress."

“Then why are you using your bad-news doctor voice?”

"I didn't realize I had one of those." He chuckled. “I couldn’t find a medical reason why you reacted to VKR-1 the way you did.”

“I hear a but coming.”

“Kind of," he said. “Darwin once told me about an early safety study involving VKR-1. It never went far. It wasn’t the purpose of the drug, but he noted that hCG hormone changed the way the compound moved through the body.”

"hCG?" Wynn asked. "That's the pregnancy hormone."

“It is,” Liam said. “I ran a blood pregnancy test. Your hCG level is at a trace level. Too low for me to say with certainty, especially this early, but based on timing and the way your body reacted, I suspect you’re pregnant.”

"Holy shit."

"It's not my business, but does Darwin know it's possible?"

"He's a doctor, he understands the risk of playing Russian roulette with birth control." She smacked her forehead. "If this is true, I'm like a week along."

“You should repeat the test in a couple of weeks,” Liam said. “It could be a false positive. But I needed to tell you.”

“Does Darwin know?” she asked.

“This is your medical situation, not his. It's not for me to tell.”

She pressed her hand against her abdomen before she could stop herself. Nothing there. No sign. No proof. Just a possibility so big it made the hallway tilt.

Darwin wanted a house with windows.

And a family.

"Are you okay?" Liam rested his hand on her knee.