“This is the best time to check. Might be uncomfortable, but it gives me an accurate assessment,” he states pragmatically. “Lie back.”
“You don’t have to, sweetheart. Wait until you’re ready.” Calix’s tone is soft, but his face is hard as nails as he glowers at the doctor.
“It’s fine, let’s do this.” It’s rough, but I lie back and scoot down on the bed like the doctor asks. As soon as he reaches for my gown, Grim grabs his hand. The doctor’s mouth opens and he bends his body, trying to get away from the pain Grim must be inflicting on him.
“Do not touch.” Grim’s voice is no longer just his. Oh, shit.
“Grim,” I call through clenched teeth. His eyes, full of flames, dart to mine. “C’mere.” I beckon him over with a wave of my hand. I’m already exhausted, and we just got started.
He drops the doctor’s hand and is up near my head in a blink. His hand goes to my temple, and he brushes my hair away from my face. “He’s got to touch me, Loverboy, he needs to see how the baby is.”
“The machine will do it,” Grim decrees, being very unreasonable.
“That’s not how this is going to work; you knew this,” I remind him. By now, the contraction is over and I can look him dead in the eye. “Let him check me out so we can make sure she’s okay.”
His beautiful gray eyes narrow, but he scowls. “Fine.” He whips his head to the side so he can stare down the doctor.
I give the doctor a nod to go ahead. He’s wearing a fairly nasty scowl on his face as he stretches out his hand, moving all of his fingers. Eventually, he goes for the hem of the gown again, his eyes on Grim instead of my crotch where they should be. Great.
“Are we sure we’re doing this?” Calix looks around, his eyes wide.
“Doing what? Having a baby? It’s a little late for that.” I lean my head back when I feel the doctor’s cold, glove-covered hand touch my inner thigh. I don’t want to do this any more than they want him to do this, but like I said, not much of a choice at this point.
I jump when his fingers touch my labia. This is weird. I curl closer to Grim and bury my face against his shirt, it’s soft and smells like home. A hand lands on my upper arm from the other side of the bed.
“Hurry up,” Gunnar demands from farther away.
“How long have you been having contractions?” the doctor asks, removing his gloves with a snap.
“A while, but only this strong for a little bit, maybe an hour.”
“I’ll call up and get you a room. You’re a little over four centimeters and the head is low. We need to know how far along you are so they know to have the NICU on standby if need be.”
“Thirty-two weeks,” Gunnar tells him before I can.
“But it was an estimate. My periods have never been very regular.” The lie tastes like ash on my tongue.
“Lungs should be fine then. I’ll make sure they’re on standby just in case.” The doctor stands to leave. “Do you need anything for the pain now?” he inquires, before pushing the curtain aside.
“It’s going to get worse, right?”
“Yeah, you’re still in the early stages,” he confirms.
I let my head fall back against the bed again and the sheet crinkles under me. “I’ll wait a little.”
“A note of caution.” He turns around and glances at each of us. “They won’t tolerate this shit up there. You give them grief, they will kick you out, and you willnotbe allowed back in. You want to be with her when the baby’s born? Calm the hell down.” With those parting words, he leaves. I can’t even blame him, we’re kind of a handful.
* * *
The hours tick by slowly,yet so fast. I finally received an epidural about thirty minutes ago, and I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I don’t have anything to prove, and this shit hurts. I feel like my guts are being turned to soup.
Not surprisingly, but very conveniently, all my nurses are female, and there’s no shortage of them, either. I think most of them are coming in to see my guys rather than me, but they always make a point to pretend to check up on me.
The ER doctor’s warning about them not screwing around up here was total crap. Every time I turn around, another one of them is giggling and asking if the guys need anything. They even ordered dinner for them from the cafe downstairs. I didn’t get shit but some fucking ice chips.
Assholes! “What are you grumbling about?” Grim pushes my hair away from my face. He’s much calmer now. I think the epidural helped him too, except the part where he had to leave the room. I thought that might lead to dead bodies, but Calix convinced him to leave so they could help me manage the pain.
“I’m having a baby, my vag is going to be all stretched out, and they’re flirting.” I narrow my eyes. “You better still love me after.”
