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"Good girl." Connie walked into the room and straight over to Braun, who rose automatically.
The poor guy was obviously expecting a doctor, because his haggard face fell when he saw Connie and Anarchy. His eyes looked heavy and bruised, like he'd spent the night fighting. Deep lines carved grooves around his mouth, scored the edges of his eyes. There was a day's worth of thick stubble on his face.
When Connie hugged him, he closed his eyes, and for a moment, Archie saw the muscles in his taut face relax. All too soon, the tension returned, and he stepped back with a sigh. "Thank you for coming, Con. I told Jasper not to disturb everyone, but it appears he didn't listen to me." Dark blue eyes locked onto Archie, and he forced a smile. "Archie. Come on in, sweetheart. We won't eat you."
She found she couldn't move. There was a wall of emotion she couldn't fathom, seeping from the four Dominants commanding the room. For all their power, they held none here. They didn't set the rules, couldn't override the doctors and the nurses. They were powerless, helpless, and the knowledge made her uncomfortable.
She wasn't used to seeing them as human beings.
"I...I, ah...would anyone like some coffee?" she blurted inanely, feeling like an idiot. She lifted the strap of her laptop bag over her head and inched into the room just enough to set it on the nearest chair, then quickly retreated again. "Or a soda? I can run downstairs and get a soda."
Liam rose now and approached her with his hand out. "Relax, Archie. Where's your sadist this morning?"
She stepped away, unwilling to be drawn in. "Master Jasper needed to take a phone call." She grimaced and clapped her hand over her mouth, casting glances down the corridor to make sure no one heard her slip of the tongue. She couldn't help it—when in the presence of Dominants, her body was trained to use the honorific. "Coffee. I'm going for coffee."
"Anarchy—"
She didn't stop when Liam called her name. This was different to the last time Bodie was in the hospital. Then, Braun had been with his sub the whole time, barely leaving her side. He wasn't confined to the waiting room, looking as though his inner demons were gnawing away at him from the inside.
Archie hadn't comprehended how difficult it would be to see him as a shadow of his usual self.
A trio of people stepped out of a room twenty feet away; one in a white jacket, the other two in the pastel colors worn by the nurses. She heard quiet sobbing before the door closed behind them and edged closer to the room as the medical staff walked past her, absorbed in whatever they were discussing. When she looked through the narrow sliver of glass masquerading as a window, her heart plummeted into her feet.
Moving fast, Archie opened the door enough for her to slip inside, then shut it quietly behind her.
If Braun was a wreck, Bodie was destroyed. She was curled up in a ball on the bed, her arms wrapped around her knees and the pillow she hugged. Wires and tubes connected her to machines that beeped and chirped. She hadn't even noticed Archie was in the room with her.
Hurrying forward, Anarchy felt her throat clamp shut. Her vision blurred in sympathy with the emotions pouring off her friend. "Bodie. It's okay, honey, it's okay." When she touched Bodie's arm, her skin was cold despite the warmth in the room. "Jesus, you're freezing. Are you supposed to be this cold?"
"Anarchy?" The hope in Bodie's voice was devastating. She lifted her head, tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen. "Please, you have to get me out of here. Get me out before they come back. They're not going to let me go!"
"Ssssh, honey. Just breathe and try to calm down, okay? Braun's doing everything he can to get you home soon. You just need to be strong for a little while longer while they run the tests." Archie tried to remember what Jasper had told her on the ride to the hospital. "Stress isn't good for you or the baby. Take a long, slow inhale and blow it out gently. That's it. Nice and slow. Focus on your heartbeat; see how this rhythm here is so frantic?" She gestured to one of the monitors beside the bed and tapped a finger on the screen where numbers bounced. "That needs to come down drastically, okay? We need long slow inhales, slow long exhales. In and out. Everything...needs...to...slow...down."
"Is Braun coming?" Bodie asked between shuddering breaths. "They made him leave."
"He's right down the hall, Bodie. The Masters and Mistress Connie are looking after him in the waiting room, keeping him company until he's allowed back in. He hasn't left you." She took Bodie's hand when her friend reached for her, linking their fingers together. "I'm not supposed to be in here either, so when the doctors come back, you need to play along with me, okay?"
Misery washed over Bodie's pretty features, sinking deeper into already haunted blue eyes. "They won't let you stay. They kicked Braun out, for God's sake. I don't want you to get into trouble, Archie."
"I won't." It was more of a hope than a certainty. Connie was going to hit the roof when she discovered Anarchy had disobeyed her orders, and who knew if Jasper would be pissed at her, but she didn't care. No one should have to go through tests and medical crap alone. "Honestly, I don't care if I do. Where's a chair when you need one?"
"Won't Jasper be mad?"
Maybe. Probably. "No, I think he'll understand." Anarchy smiled reassuringly, then spotted a chair in the corner opposite her. She eased her hand free of Bodie's grip and hurried over to it, careful not to kick any of the stands surrounding the bed. "They've got you monitored up to the eyeballs. Do they know if you sneeze?"
For the first time, a wavering laugh escaped Bodie. "I'm sure there's a sensor on me somewhere in case of that eventuality. They're tracking my heart rate, blood pressure, temperature. There must be more blood in their lab than there is left in me." The laugh died off. "Did Braun tell you they don't think I'll ever hold my baby?"
Anarchy hefted the chair and, grunting in a very unladylike fashion, managed to carry it around the bed to the side where there wasn't as much equipment to get tangled up in. She scooted it close, dropped down, and reclaimed her friend's clammy hand. "Jasper did. I think he had a long talk with Braun last night. Do you think you'll hold your baby, Bodie? Honestly?"
Still curled around the pillow, Bodie's lips turned down at the corner. "I want to say yes. I want to hope they're wrong, or something miraculous will happen and everything will turn out okay. But part of me has closed down, shut off, because it doesn't want to get its hopes up, only to have them shatter and slice me to pieces. Braun...he's from a big family. The Irish breed like bunnies, and his sisters are no exception. They don't talk much—I think they're all so damn busy—but he adores his nieces. A baby to him is like finding the pot of gold at the end of the fucking rainbow."
"What about you?"
"It terrifies me, the thought of being a mother. Mine wasn't much of one, as you know." Bodie's breath shuddered out, and the machines registered the quick elevation of her heartbeat. With a couple of steady breaths in sync with Archie's deliberate ones, the beeping calmed again. "But Braun and me, we madesomething together. A tiny person. Well, a blob right now, but a person. Losing it terrifies me more. I want to be a good mother. There's no doubt Braun will be an amazing daddy. I just don't know if we'll ever get the chance to—"
The door opened and a nurse strolled in, smiling brightly at Bodie. The smile fell away as she glared at Anarchy with suspicion. "I'm sorry, no visitation is allowed at the moment. I'm not sure how you got in here, but I'm afraid you'll have to leave."
Anarchy plastered a baffled expression on her face. "Pardon?"
