"Rest is what she needs," Diana declared. "The cops and firefighters want to interview Laura." Her heart began to race. Why would they want to interview her?
Buh bum buh bum buh bum. Diana chuckled. "It's a mood detector, isn't it?" Really? Every emotion Laura felt was going to be tracked by the baby's heart rate? Oh, wow. That was going to be sooooo awesome as Dylan and Mike confronted her. Really. Might as well strip her naked and –
"I promise we won't stay long," Mike said gently, sitting on the edge of the bed, eyes tracking back to Laura's belly over and over.
"Me, too, " Dylan added, shooting Diana a charm-filled look. It worked; the nurse wasn't immune to his smile, and frankly, neither was Laura. A warmth, a hope, began to grow in her. Deep breath. Maybe she and the baby would be safe and fine and the three of them –
Uh. The four of them –
– would be OK.
Whoa, there. Getting ahead of yourself. You still have to face the music. The baby monitor made a series of strange sounds, like skittering bumps.
"What was that?" Mike asked, eyes filled with fear.
Laura's turn to laugh. "She's just moving all over the place."
"She?"
"The baby." Mouth open, his expression shifted, then closed off. What he had been about to ask was clear as he stopped himself, mid-reach, hand pulling back.
"You want to feel?" she offered. Tears filled his eyes suddenly, which made her own pool just as fast, and as Mike's strong palm rested on her sheet-covered belly, it felt like being welcomed home after self-imposed exile. A bit awkward yet familiar, regret tinging everything good but hope a steady presence.
"Oh!" His eyes danced as the baby shifted, the feeling tangible through Laura's stomach. "Was that a kick? It wasn't very strong."
"I just felt her first movement yesterday, so I know that was a movement, but I don't know what she's doing. A kick, a roll, Gangnam Style – who knows?" A tear trickled down Mike's cheek and landed on his t-shirt, staining the light-blue fabric dark. In that moment, she felt a tearing horror of regret, of pain, of shame for keeping this from him. From them.
"I'm so, so sorry," she choked out, voice hoarse and raw from breathing in smoke, but more from her own remorse. "I should have told you a long time ago, but I was just being stupid. I didn't know how to handle it and now I get why you didn't tell me about everything. Once you don't say anything it just...snowballs."
Dylan blinked hard and maintained his distance; unlike Mike, he seemed hardened. Which was weird, because she would have expected the opposite, that Dylan would be easier to reconnect with. "Why did you freeze?"
She didn't expect that question. More tears. "You mean in the fire – Oh! My cats!" Panic filled her again, the baby's heartbeat racing. Damn it! Staring deeply into her eyes, Mike inhaled slowly, her own body instinctively following. The act of being this connected made her heart slow down, his kind eyes extending an olive branch of forgiveness, of love and understanding.
It almost made her feel like this wasn't hopeless.
Almost.
"The baby is telling us something, Laura," Josie said, her voice pinched and worried. "Now really isn't the time. And your cats are fine and peeing all over my apartment right now. I grabbed them from the bushes and threw them in my car and took them home for Dotty to terrorize."
"Dotty'll have them in line in no time," Laura murmured. Yawn. What time was it?
"Laura?" Dylan asked, his voice gentle but firm. "What happened to your grandparents?"
Josie grabbed his bicep and pulled him aside. "Would you shut up about that? It upsets her."
"No, no, it's OK. I can talk about it. A little." The horse hooves picked up their pace but not too much. Man, she had missed these guys. Even now, here in a hospital bed, her home probably destroyed by the fire, her cats becoming subs to Dotty's dom, it felt so...right to have Mike and Dylan here.
"They died."
"In the fire?"
She nodded.
"Is that why you freaked on our first date when I talked about fire procedures in skyscrapers?" Her stomach dropped. He remembered that? She'd been nervous enough, and then he'd casually talked about how to handle fires in enormous buildings like hers. What were the chances he'd pick the one thing that terrified her the most?
And what in the hell kind of world made a fire break out in her apartment while she was pregnant?
Wait. Why had Dylan been the one to rescue her? Her turn to ask some questions.
"Why were you the one who rescued me? You live across town."
Mike and Josie turned their attention to Dylan, who blushed. Blushed! She'd never seen anything so adorable before. He looked like a bashful eighth grader. "I was on call. I woke out of dead sleep and heard your address. Ran for it and called Mike."
"In good traffic it's fifteen minutes to my house from yours, Dylan!" Laura exclaimed.
"I made it in six." Mike made a low whistling sound. Dylan grinned, proud of himself. "And that's why I have that Audi," he crowed. Josie rolled her eyes. Men.
Exhaustion seeped in some more, making Laura's eyelids feel heavy. Too much to talk about, too little energy. "I'm sorry."
"You keep saying that." Dylan held a finger up to his lips. "Shh. No need."
"One of you is the father," Laura whispered. "I had this one day where I missed my pill. Not even twenty-four hours! But it must have been enough."
"Or maybe I have super sperm," Dylan joked. Mike's glare was like a laser. Josie's, too.
Laura smiled weakly. "We need to do a paternity test and then we can – "
"No!" Mike and Dylan shouted in unison. The confused look they gave each other shifted to a strange understanding, their faces animated with shifting expressions even as they stayed silent. It was like watching two mimes have an entire, deep discussion without saying a word.
"No?" Josie said, incredulous. "What do you mean, 'no'? You have to know who the father is, for the birth certificate." Protective and defensive, Josie stepped closer to Laura, as if ready to shield her from whatever the two men had in mind. Laura, though, knew what was going on.
"You really don't want to know, do you?" she asked quietly.
Barely four hours had gone by since Dylan's phone call, and Mike had to absorb his first encounter with Dylan since their fight four months ago, seeing the two loves of his life endangered by fire, and now he had just learned that Laura was pregnant with their baby. Their baby. All three of them. He didn't want to view it as his, or Dylan's. But he had no idea Dylan felt the same way!
Pointing at Dylan, he said, "You, too?"
The smile on his partner's face was so telling, impish and serious all at once in a way only Dylan could pull off. "Me, too. She's ours. Not yours. Not mine."
Would Laura agree? Mike wasn't sure. Seeing her there, on her side, radiant and scared, made him want to bar the door and protect her from whatever the world threw her way. Radiant! Hah! Now he knew why she seemed to be glowing when he saw her yesterday at Jeddy's, through that window.
A happy pregnant woman, full of life.
Full of his child.
His daughter.
Their daughter.
"I hate to break up this lovely Hallmark moment – hey, where do I get a card for this? – but as wonderful as the sentiment is, it's not practical," Josie announced. Like poking a pin in a balloon, Mike felt deflated, burdened and weighed down by something he couldn't name.
"Why not?" Dylan threw back at her. The opposite of deflated, Dylan seemed emboldened. Cocksure.
"What if something happens to Laura? You need to know who the legal father is for custody. For raising her. I've seen too many really screwy situations in hospitals after parents die to know that you do not want Child Services to be the one who takes your daughter away to a foster home while the legal system sorts all this crap out. Plus there are issues of inheritance." She made a face and rubbed her fingers together. Money.
Like a bucket of ice water pitched on them, Josie's words made him feel stone-cold sober. Crackpot idea, right? Some calm, internally-focused part of him thought it might work – not knowing. Once they knew who the dad was it would shift everything, make him and Dylan competitors, not collaborators.
"I like it." Laura's voice was small but strong. "If they both want to be her dad, I'm fine with it."
Josie looked at them all as if they were aliens. "But you have to know!"
How had they gone from just learned about the existence of this tiny being to having a fight about her already?
"Maybe we can both go on the birth certificate?" Dylan asked.
"What – like you each contributed half a sperm? Biology doesn't work that way," Josie wisecracked.
"I know how – "
Buh bum buh bum buh bum. They all turned to look at the monitor. A large wet spot grew around Laura's eye on the pillow, her chin quivering and chest shaking a bit.
"Out!" Josie ordered. "All of us! We can come back and fight another time when Laura's stronger."
Shit. She was right, as much as Mike was loathe to admit it. He looked at the clock; was it really not even 7:30 a.m.? Man. He'd lived five lifetimes in four hours. He walked to the head of the bed and bent down, stretching to give Laura a kiss on the temple.
