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“About Rainy…” Wit began.
“I’m taking care of her. She’s their mother after all.”
Wit noted Killion’s blank expression and worried for him. “You want to talk about that? I know you must be feelin’ all sorts of ways over finding out who she is and the pregnancy the way you did.”
“She did what she had to, Wit. Simple as that. I understand. It’s not complicated.”
“But it sort of is. You’ve had exactly twelve hours to wrap your mind around Rainy, the babies…”
Killion finally looked at Wit with tears in his eyes. “I was pissed. Really fucking pissed. Not only did she disappear when I thought things were really good but she also hid that I was going to be a dad. You’re right. I’ve had exactly twelve hours to process that not only is the woman I loved back, but she arrived with children I knew nothing about. As much as I want to be angry with her, I can’t because it was because of me that all this happened.”
“Whoa. This wasn’t because of you. How can you say that? This is leftovers from Chalice and that prick Langley. How can you blame yourself, Killion?”
“Because I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t know Jenny was really Rainy. Didn’t know I was going to be a father. Didn’t see that son of a bitch Langley for who he was and caught it far too late, and now my sister is lying in a hospital bed and so is the mother of my children in the room next to her while my babies are fighting to survive, and there’s not a damn thing I can do to fix any of it. How’s that for being the smartest guy in the room?”
Wit dropped his head. “That ain’t how it works, man. You are the smartest, but you ain’t no psychic and certainly can’t tell the future. Nobody could have anticipated this. It ain’t your fault Langley broke and turned out to be a psychopath, and it certainly ain’t your fault Chalice sent Rainy on the run. You know she did that to protect you. Protect all of us. That says somethin’, man. Somethin’ about how she feels about you. In the end, she knew you’d be the hero, and you were. Can you imagine if you didn’t get that hit and figure out what Langley was up to?”
“They’d be dead.”
“We’d all be dead, brother. The smartest guy in the world saved us once again. It ain’t fair to put that kind of pressure on yourself. Remember when you said to let y’all do the heavy lifting for me? I’m tellin’ you to let us do it for you now. It’s your turn, Killion. We’re family, and this is what we do.”
“I’ll think about it.” Killion pulled his phone from his pocket when it started to chime. “Just my timer. Skin-to-skin time with my daughter. She’s in the back with the more critical cases. We can’t have visitors until she moves up here with her brother.”
“I understand. I look forward to meeting my beautiful niece.”
“I can send you a picture of her… from my phone,” Killion said with a hint of something new in his otherwise flat tone. “The doctors are worried about her, but I’m not. The women in our family are feisty.”
“That they are, brother.” Wit patted Killion on his back as he turned to walk inside the NICU.
Killion stopped when he got to the door and turned. “Hey, Wit?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“I think… I think I’m more sad than mad.” Killion looked at the floor like he was gathering his thoughts as he reconciled emotions he hadn’t had a chance to understand. “And maybe… a little scared.”
“All understandable, O’Reilly. All normal feelings, given the day you’ve had.”
Killion nodded his head, then entered the NICU without another word. Wit watched him through the glass as he made his way back to the nurses’ station, where he towered over all of them and smiled when he saw their reaction to him. Killion was a force and a sight, given his size, number of tattoos, and stony, glazed-over stare. When he disappeared with the tiny older nurse, Wit turned his attention back to his nephew and soaked him in another minute or so, realizing the weight of the day and what was to come… for all of them.
“Hang in there, little man,” he whispered. “Fight like you mean it, kid. You’re a Keeper.”
Wit turned and walked down a long hall that led back to the women’s recovery rooms, noting how busy it was with random strangers roaming about with flowers and balloons, looking for their loved one’s new arrival. It should have been a sweet feeling, but instead, it was dread, and he assumed it would be for some time until they felt comfortable knowing it was all over. Chalice was done. The threats were gone. They’d beat their Goliath. But old fears die hard, and this was his family, so the random guy with pink carnations wearing the ridiculous pink sweatshirt that saidcall me daddywas as much a threat as he wasn’t. Wit decided they needed to do something about that.
“Oh, hey,” Hen said, popping out of Rainy’s room as Wit approached. “Everything good with the twins and Killion?”
“Not really, but they’ll get through it.”
“Yeah, I can’t even imagine what he’s going through. He don’t process things like the rest of us,” Hen said. “Any change with the babies?”
“Not really. Doc says our nephew is a fighter, and things look good there. Not so much for our niece. I think that pissed off Killion. He was quick to point out how feisty the women are in that family.”
“He ain’t lyin’.” Hen chuckled. “We ought to know. We each got one and redheads to boot. Baby girls gonna do fine. Between that fiery O’Reilly spirit and our fighter instincts, she’s got this, man.”
“Agreed.” Wit looked down the hall as pink sweatshirt dad emerged from the room down the hall again only to greet an older couple wearing matching sweatshirts that saidcall me nanaandcall me peepaw.
“You see that shit?” Hen snorted. “Ridiculous. I will not be wearing shit like that when my kid gets here.”
“Same,” Wit said. “I don’t like how freely people move about here.”
