“Luc?” Nix’s voice sounds from behind the door, followed by his feet hitting the floor.
“It’s Gideon, Kitten. Can I come in?”
“No!”
Well, fuck.
“Kitten,” Gideon says, and he’s not ashamed to say it sounds more like a plea—whine—than a statement.
“Go away, Gideon. I’m not ready.”
“You’re scaring me.”
He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and he definitely hadn’t consciously felt it, but the words slipped out anyway, as the unease prickles down his spine and tightens his muscles.
The thought is swiftly followed by the sound of his phone ringing downstairs, and then Nix’s, hidden behind the door. Nix quickly silences it, but the phone rings again, followed by a curse, then—suddenly—dead silence.
“I’m sorry. But no. Go away. I—I–oohhhh,fuck. Shit,” he groans, before it’s followed by the sound of water hitting the floor behind the door.
“Kitten, you will have to forgive me another time, but I am coming in.”
“No! I want Luc,” he gasps again before his voice takes on that pleading tone Gideon has never been able to resist. “Please? I just need Luca.”
Luca finally meets his eyes. He looks determined, like he does when he’s in every stadium that has been lucky enough to have Long Road Home grace its stage. He looks confident. “Sugar, you should go. Send Finn up when he gets here.”
“Tell me.” Gideon needs to hear the words.
And as he had thirty-eight weeks ago when he’d announced to the pack they were going on this journey, Luca smiles with the smallest curving of his lips. “We’re having our babies and he’s…” Gideon can’t read what it means before he shakes his head. “Nix needs to do this on his own, okay? For now…just keep the others out.”
Luca turns toward him and runs a warm hand over Gideon’s cheek before opening the door and slipping inside.
Keep the others out?!Holy fucking shit, the babies are coming. Today. Three weeks early.
Making his way to the kitchen, he sees the twine, the scissors, the ice, the kettle boiling, and the bowl steaming on the counter. He figures out that it’s everything that movies would tell you laboring parents need to give birth in an emergency. Luca was giving him clues the entire time. But while Gideon gets everything, even the twine, he has to wonder: what the fuck is the boiling water for?
Baby’s House: Finn
“Room two and three,” Dennie tells him as he takes a moment to log two requests for ultrasounds at the station in his makeshift Andrology clinic. “And then you’re done for the day.” His friend hesitates before asking, “Is everything okay? You’ve been antsy today.”
The nurse had been Finn’s first choice for managing the new Andrology Clinic. Not just because he was experienced and professional, or because he handled his fellow staff with an iron fist wrapped in a silk glove.
No, Finn had begged and pleaded with Dennie because he couldn’t think of anyone else he wanted in his corner as he embarked on this epic new journey in medicine. He was a joy to work with and had some of the best instincts about patients Finn had ever seen. Even when those instincts are sometimes extended to Finn.
“I’m sorry,” Finn sighs, his voice heavy with something he can’t quite name. “I’m okay, just…I don’t know what’s up. I’m just off, you know?” He fidgets with the hem of his (Nix’s) white sweater, neatly paired with his khakis. It isn’t just the anxiety or the fatigue, though both are lingering in the background. Nor is it the persistent, low-grade headache that pain meds haven’t touched in the past twenty-four hours.
Nix had been restless all week, plagued by body aches and insomnia, and they’d all unofficially taken turns keeping him company. Last night, it had been Finn’s turn. He’d stayed up with his uncomfortable mate, watching movies until sunrise, before finally leaving Nix sleeping on the couch to make it to his weekly office hours.
So, it’s not agitation as much as it’s anticipation of something Finncouldn’t put his finger on. Nix isn’t due for another three weeks, and Were babies rarely come early. Leo had already been bragging about having two Leo babies, possibly sharing his August birthday.
Given how small Nix was, Finn feared he was right, much to Nix’s chagrin. Already bigger than was comfortable for his compact frame, and with the official medical restrictions around penetrative sexual activity, he was understandably irritable.
Growing tiny Weres is hard work.
With thoughts of Nix (as they often are) at the front of his mind, he thinks about taking a moment in his office. “Anything urgent in two or three?” He nods toward the closed exam room doors.
“No, Rory Carlisle is here for his twenty-week check, but I’ve done the preliminaries, and he’s on track. And Tommy Donnovan had a positive pregnancy test last week. Wants to be sure. I’ve sent the urine to the lab for a triple-check, but the dipstick says,‘hell yeah.’”
“You’re my favorite,” Finn says, slipping his phone out of his pocket. “I’m going to take five, okay? Be right back.”
