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“You’re both assholes,” I grunt, while they both laugh. Then I go through my bag again, making sure there’s nothing I could have missed. “I haven’t gotten my stuff back from deployment yet. The only things in the bag are what I had at the hospital and what I had on me when it all happened.”
Where’s my feather?
I search the bag, pulling everything out, but it’s not there.
“What’s missing?” Ford asks as he inspects the contents after I do, while Rook walks into the living room.
“This?” Ford and I both turn to Rook, who’s holding my feather in one hand as he squats in front of the couch I slept on last night, running the other hand under it.
I cross the room and grab the feather from his hand, smoothing out its soft vane. I kept my good-luck charm in an envelope inside the pocket of my uniform while I was on deployment. It was a nice surprise when I found it with my belongings while I was packing.
Rook stands up with something else in his hand. “Is this your flash drive, Sinclair? It was right next to where that damn feather fell out when you knocked your bag over this morning before your miserable ass drug it to your room.”
I take the small flash drive from his hand, and a memory scratches at the back of my brain. Turning it over in my hand, I close my eyes and try to force the memory. “I don’t think it’s mine, but I had it.” I open my eyes and look at Ford and Rook. “I think it’s Axel’s.” Pieces of that night come back to me. “It fell out of his pocket when all hell broke loose during the op. I picked it up, and the world went black a minute later.”
“Grab your laptop, Coop.” Ford looks at me like I’m crazy for not moving.
“My guess is the Navy has that packed away with the rest of my shit from base that hasn’t made it back yet.” I look between the two of them. “Either of you have yours yet?”
Before either of us has the chance to answer, Ford’s phone rings. “Give me a second. It’s Jessie.” He turns his back to us. “Hey, Jess.” He listens to whatever she says on the other end of the phone. “Okay. Thanks, babe. Love you.” Then he turns back to us. “Emerson’s in labor. She’s at the hospital.”
“She’s not due for three weeks.” Linc was counting down the days until her due date. He didn’t care that everyone said babies never come on time. He checked off the days on his calendar like a kid waiting for summer vacation.
“Yeah well, tell that to the baby. Come on. We’re going to the hospital.” Ford pockets the flash drive. “We’ll figure this shit out after we make sure Emerson and the baby are okay.”
Rook holds out his palm. “Give me the flash drive. I’ll go home and check it out first. Then I’ll meet the two of you at the hospital with the information.”
Ford passes it to him, and we all agree to meet up at the hospital.
But first, I need to change. Once the two of them leave, I get out of my dress whites and throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, then make sure to lock the house up tight and set the alarm when I leave.
Time to meet the newest member of the family.
Emerson is still upstairs,sleeping, when the last of the guests, including her parents, finally leave after the service. Leaving Jack, Theo, and me sitting in the kitchen, looking around at the mess. Jack stands behind me, rubbing my shoulders, and I crack my sore neck. “Dad said he’d send a cleaning crew tomorrow morning to take care of everything.” He squeezes one more time before moving to the side and helping himself to another cup of coffee from the tureen that’s still warm.
“Thank God.” I drop my head down onto my arms that are resting on the counter. “It’s been a really long day already. I just want to go to bed.”
“I second that,” Theo agrees as he stands and drags his hand down his face.
“Umm... guys?” Emerson walks slowly down the stairs, her hair sitting in a messy bun on top of her head, and her sleep shorts and a tank doing a terrible job covering her extremely pregnant body. One hand white-knuckles the railing while the other rubs her back. “I don’t think anybody is going to sleep anytime soon.”
We all look at her, a little surprised to see her awake and joining us. “What’s up, Em? What do you need? I’ll get it,” I offer, just as Jack asks the same thing.
But it’s Theo who quickly darts across the room and grabs her arm, so she can lean on him.
“My water just broke.” She doubles over and screams in pain, and I see the water leaking down her legs.
We all scramble, rushing Emerson into Jack’s car and practically flying to the hospital. At one point, Jack blows through a red light, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t stop for a single stop sign. Em sits next to me in the back seat, sobbing when she isn’t breathing through contractions. “This baby cannot come today. I can’t have to celebrate my baby’s birthday every year on the same day I buried him, CC. I just can’t.”
“It’s okay.” I push the messy hair that’s fallen out of her bun away from her face. “Just breathe, Em. Don’t worry about that now.” I meet Jack’s eyes through the rearview mirror, and we share a moment of concern.
Emerson has slipped into a dark place since she lost Linc. In the days since I’ve been back, she’s barely left her room or spoken to anyone. And each of us have been taking turns trying to get her to eat. We’ve all hoped, with the funeral behind us, we’d be able to help her get to a better place by the time the baby came.
We thought we had a few weeks.
Looks like we thought wrong.
After I time another contraction, I look at Em hesitantly. “Should I call your mom or dad and ask them to come to the hospital? I think your mom said she wasn’t flying out until tomorrow.”
