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He parked and headed inside.
She didn’t see him, lost in the pile of files stacked high on her desk. Her cheek rested on one fisted hand. The other tapped a pen against whatever she was reading. She seemed just as tense and edgy as he was.
But then she dropped the pen and leaned back in her chair, covering her stomach with her hands.
“You okay?” he asked.
She almost jumped out of her chair. “You scared me to death.”
“Sorry.” He came into the office, sitting on the corner of her desk. “Wondering if you were done for the day. If not, I could take Cody home.”
She glanced at her computer screen. “Dammit.”
He laughed.
“Is it really six o’clock?” she grumbled, standing and stretching.
“Long day?” he asked, noting the circles under her eyes.
“You could say that.” She looked at him, frowning.
“What’d I do now?” he asked, longing to pull her against him for a nice long hug.
“This.” Her voice was pinched—he’d never heard her sound like that. He took the narrow coil of paper she handed him but stared at her. Something was wrong. Very wrong. “You okay?”
“Look.” She all but snapped the word at him.
So he did. The images in the small squares were black-and-white, too grainy to tell what they were of. “Am I supposed to know what this is?” He stared at the images. Her sigh was so exasperated that he forgot all about the paper he was holding. “What’s wrong, Annabeth? Talk to me.”
“That’s... Those are the babies.” Her voice was tight and high-pitched.
He inspected the paper again. “Where?”
She shook her head, leaning against him to point out a white dot. “There...and there.” Her finger tapped another dot.
He froze. “Two?”
“Yes, two.” There was that strange, squeaky voice again. “Two.”
He dropped the paper on the desk and wrapped both arms around her. He pulled her close, offering her comfort he knew she needed. “Hey now,” he spoke softly. “It’s going to be okay, Annabeth.”
She was rigid in his arms.
“Are you okay?” He kept his tone low, soothing. “What did the doctor say?” Why hadn’t he known she had a doctor’s appointment? He’d have gone with her. He wanted to be a part of this. But, from the way she was acting, now wasn’t the time to have that conversation.
“I’m fine. Too skinny, but fine.” Her words were mumbled.
She felt just right to him. “We can fix that.” His hands kept a steady rhythm, rubbing up and down her back. “Anything else?”
“Besides the fact that there’s two of them?” She wasn’t squeaking anymore, but she was a long way from relaxed.
He pulled back. “Annabeth.”
She looked at him, her hazel eyes sparkling with unshed tears.
He swallowed, fighting the need to run far away from the depths of emotion he saw there. This was Annabeth and she needed him. Right now. He wasn’t going anywhere. “Let’s go get something to eat, get Cody in bed and I’ll give you a foot rub.”
