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The only thing in the room that was the same were the practical tiles on the floor. Someone had painted the walls and ceiling the bright blue of a summer sky. They’d then painted white clouds floating up above and big tall flowers on long stalks around the room. There was a new hospital bed, too, and a bright blue wooden screen on wheels with the same flowers printed on it. When I stepped forward and looked behind it, the equipment had been hidden back there on rolling trolleys.
I looked at Lexie and Damon. Lexie looked nervous suddenly, but Damon could feel me in our bond, and he had a smile on his face.
“What do you think?” Lexie asked.
I burst into tears. Huge, happy, wet tears. Before I ran to them and pulled both of them into a hug. The rest of my mates and our friends piled in around us.
Lexie’s eyes were huge in her face, and she still looked worried.
“Don’t worry, she’s happy,” Damon said, as he elbowed her.
“Really? Because we can change it if you don’t like anything,” Lexie asked.
“I love it,” I said, my emotions spilling over. My hormones were already making me feel erratic on a good day. “Is this what you’ve both been disappearing to do?”
I knew they’d both been mysteriously absconding over the last week. But I’d been pushing myself to still help around the farm every day, despite my guys’ protests. It had left me too tired to wonder more than vaguely what they were up to.
“Yeah, we saw your face when you were here the last time. We knew you’d never say, but we figured it looked too similar to the lab they kept you in at the Palace, with the white walls and equipment,” Lexie said. “So we changed it.”
They’d done more than that. They’d realized a fear of mine and taken it away without me having to say a word. I loved them both for it. I knew Sirena had also had the labs at the Palace gutted, and those spaces were used for food storage now.
“Thanks, Sis,” I said to Lexie. Now she looked as if she was about to cry.
“And thank you, Damon. You didn’t need to go to so much trouble.”
“It was no trouble,” he growled, glaring at me. “I need to know we have all the equipment we could need if something goes wrong, but I want you to be comfortable when you bring our baby into the world. I want it to feel special for you and you can’t feel that if the room is giving you flashbacks.”
It was typical Damon, taking care of everyone, even when they didn’t know they needed it.
“Sirena helped, too. She found the painting supplies and met us here to get it done,” Lexie said. Always making sure people were acknowledged for their work.
I smiled at her and repeated the words I’d said to Lexie, “Thanks, Sis.” It wasn’t something we’d openly called each other yet. We were still feeling our way through getting to know each other. But it was something we were both working on, and both wanted. She seemed choked up and just nodded her head.
The room wasn’t the only thing that was bothering me lately, though. Damon narrowed his eyes at me, then jerked his head towards my friends.
“We’ve got a few things to set up. Why don’t you go have a catch-up with Sirena at the pub while we get things sorted?”
“What thing—“ Hunter started to say, but he shut up when Damon elbowed him. “Oh yeah, the things.”
Lexie looked at me with concern, as did Ava and Sirena. I shook my head at my mates. But Damon was right in giving me a nudge. I needed some girl time. I knew I had a habit of doing things on my own and not asking for help. But I had a village now.
“Let’s go,” I said with a reassuring smile at them.
The pub didn’t have alcohol anymore, but it was a familiar space and people naturally gathered there when they wanted some company. Or when new people first arrived in town. We’d given them a kinetic energy device, so they’d have power. Whenever people had leftover food that was going to spoil, or they were feeling generous, they dropped it off there. The pub owner distributed it to anyone who needed it. We had a few crates of fruit and vegetables in the truck for him. The guys would bring them in before we left.
We were the only ones in the pub right now. The pub owner had brought us some cold glasses of water with lemon slices in it and put on some background music for us. It was nice. It was the sort of thing I’d missed out on doing in my life. Going to the pub with some friends. Only my drink was a yellowy brown color, instead of clear.
“Um, thank you. But, what’s this?” I asked him. My guys would kill me if I drank something, not knowing what it was.
“Homemade ginger tea,” he said, looking a little nervous. “I heard you were coming into town today and you’d been suffering morning sickness. I put the word out to see if anyone had any ginger. A few people brought some in. I made a bottle for you to take home, too, and bagged up the extra ginger. There’s enough there to last a few months, and you can plant more from it if it helps, although it takes about ten months to mature enough to harvest.”
I was shocked. GG had mentioned ginger would help, but we didn’t grow it at the farm and the guys hadn’t been able to find any when doing supply runs. “That’s so sweet, thank you. Tell the others thank you, too.”
“It’s the least we can do. Your packs have been so good to this town. Even before the Crash, you helped a lot of people around here,” he flicked his eyes to Lexie. “Anything you guys need, just ask.”
Lexie leaned over and took a sip, like my own personal taste tester. “Oh, that’s actually yum.”
“I added some lemon and honey for flavor. It’s my wife’s recipe. She used to swear by it when she was pregnant. I found the recipe in her old cook book and copied it for you. But you can use whatever works for you,” he said.
