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Twenty-Eight
Damian stoodby Aria’s bed, holding her hand as an ultrasound technician named Kay squirted gel onto her stomach and moved the transponder over herskin.
Aria looked up at him and he forced a smile that he hoped was reassuring. It was alie.
He wasterrified.
He couldn’t even think about the house, could barely manage to contemplate the two guards who were elsewhere in the hospital, one of them surprisingly unharmed, the other with severeburns.
There would be time to care for them both later, to make sure they were well compensated, their medical bills and salaries paid for the foreseeablefuture.
Right now, all he could think about was Aria and theirbaby.
“Okay,” Kay said, “let’s see what we’ve gothere.”
The room was quiet as the instrument glided over Aria’s stomach. Damian stroked her hand, time slowing down in the silence. Then there was a faint crackling, and a moment later, a rhythmicwoosh.
“There it is,” Kaysaid.
Tears leaked from Aria’s eyes, dripping down her temples, sliding into herhair.
“Is it okay?” sheasked.
Kay nodded. “Perfectly fine. See? The heart’s beating rightthere.”
She pointed to a flash on the screen and Damian stared in wonder at the image. This was his child, the baby he and Aria had made with theirlove.
It was alive, its beating heart right there in front of his eyes, filling the room like the sweetest music he’d everheard.
“Looks like you’re about four months along,” the techniciansaid.
“That’s a couple weeks further than they told me at my last appointment,” Ariasaid.
Kay smiled. “It’s not quite an exact science,” she said. “Sometimes the date changes a little either way as the baby grows and we get more benchmarks. Would you like apicture?”
“Yes, please,” Damiansaid.
“The doctor will order a three-dimensional image when you’re a little further along,” Kay said. “I’m afraid this one is still a littlerudimentary.”
“It’s fine,” Damiansaid.
It was more than fine. He would take a million rudimentary images of theirbaby.
He bent down to kiss Aria, stroking her cheek with his thumb. “Everything’sokay.”
He didn’t know if he was saying it for her or forhimself.
Kay handed him the printed image of the baby and wiped the gel off Aria’s stomach. “The doctor will be in in aminute.”
“Thank you,” Damiansaid.
She wheeled the ultrasound machine out of the room and the door swung shut behindher.
Damian smoothed Aria’s hair back from her face. “How are youfeeling?”
“I’m okay,” she said. “How areyou?”
“I’m okay when you’re okay,” hesaid.
