by Natalie Ann
She grabbed my hand and squeezed, and then I was running to catch up to the nurse who had already walked away. I slammed to a stop at the doorway to where Devon was. There was a tube running into his nose, and he was red from crying while someone pushed on his belly. I wanted to smack the person and shove them away, but I knew they were trying to help him.
“Dr. Jones, this is Ms. Daniels. She’s Devon’s guardian.”
He lifted serious brown eyes to me. “Glad you are here.” He looked over my shoulder at someone behind me. “Get the papers for her to sign.”
“Sign?” I squeaked.
“This little guy needs to go into surgery. We were just waiting for someone to sign them.”
“Surgery?” I slumped against the wall beside me.
“Yes, he has intestinal malrotation, and he needs surgery to fix it before his bowel tissue dies.”
“Oh, my God!” I rushed to Devon’s side. “Oh, my God! Is he going to be alright?”
“After surgery, he will be. Ms. Daniels, it’s an easy surgery and a regular occurrence in children. Happens in one out of every five hundred.”
A nurse showed up at my side and handed me a clipboard. “I’ll need a copy of your guardianship papers, too,” she said softly.
“What am I signing?”
“You are permitting him to undergo surgery, which will require him to be put to sleep.” She turned to the next one and began to tell me about the side effects of being put to sleep, and then another page to tell me what could possibly go wrong with the surgery. My head spun, and I must have looked like I was going to pass out because she led me to a chair and told me to have a seat.
Put to sleep, like a dog? No, no! My head cried, not put to sleep like a dog, but put to sleep so they could operate on him. Operate! I thought I was going to barf.
“Ma’am, are you alright?”
“Alright? No! Nothing about this is alright!” I stared at Devon as tears raced down my cheeks.
The doctor lifted the stethoscope from Devon’s chest and looked at me. “I promise you that he is going to make it out of this fine. I’ve done a hundred of these, and once they are done, the recovery will be easy for him. The chances that there will be any problems are slim.”
His words eased my nerves slightly, and I asked where I was supposed to sign. The nurse pointed out the spots and then asked for my papers again.
He turned to the nurse right before she left the room. “As soon as you get back, get him upstairs.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“And make note that he has a slight heart murmur that we need to look into more.”
“A heart murmur?” I repeated.
“Nothing to worry about right now, most kids grow out of them.”
“His mother died from a heart condition. Her doctors wanted her to terminate her pregnancy. She died in childbirth.”
“That’s good information to know. Do you want to give him a kiss before he goes up? I’d let you hold him, but the more he moves, the more pain he will be in.”
I was on my feet, standing at the side of the little cradle. “Baby, I’m here, sweetie. Aunt Davina is here, honey. I love you so much. You’re going to be alright, and when Daddy gets home, you’ll be all smiles again.”
The nurse reappeared as I swiped the tears from my cheeks. “I have to take him up now.”
“What do I do?”
“You can get your friends and head up to the fifth floor. There is a waiting room; just look for the signs when you get off the elevator.”
Without another word, she rushed him from the room, his painful squalls knocking me to my knees as I began to pray again.
I managed to pull myself together and found the waiting room where Lexi and Tonya were. Lexi jumped to her feet, her hand going to her mouth as she saw me.
“He’s going into surgery.”
Tonya began to cry. “Did I do something to hurt him?”
“No, honey,” I went to her and put my arms around her. “The doctor said it happens all the time, but he has something called intestinal malrotation, and they need to do surgery to repair it.”
Lexi was on her phone typing something and then began to read from the website she had just searched it on.
“We can go up and wait in the waiting room on the fifth floor,” I said, and the three of us started down the hall to find it.
“When is Trevor going to be reachable?” I asked as we climbed into the elevator.
“I don’t know. They have been off the grid for three days. Probably a few more,” Lexi said softly.
I stared at the door as it closed, praying that Devon was going to make it, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to deliver that bad news to his father.
Chapter 29 – Trevor
This fucking sucked. There was no other way to describe the shit we had been through. When we arrived, our transportation was nowhere to be found. The military unit that we were supposed to meet up with for some intelligence assistance had no idea why we were there, and Greg came down with a stomach bug on top of it.
Once we had gotten all of that worked out, we were two days in, and we’d accomplished next to nothing. Finally, a plan was put in place and we had enough intelligence to move forward. We met up with a few more Protag operatives who were thankful that we were there to help. They had been asking, although one guy said begging, for the help, but the home office had been leery about getting others involved.
My thought that they had already written the guys off put a really bad taste in my mouth, and I had no problem vocalizing my thoughts. Those first few days there was a lot of downtime, and I spent most of it shooting the shit with the guys and dwelling on what was going on back home.
Tonya had taken it better than expected when I dropped the bomb about going away and having to leave her in a brand-new house where practically everything was still in boxes. Hell, even my room wasn’t organized yet. I’d pulled out my gear for the trip, the sheets for the bed, and that’s about it.
The two things I dwelled over most were Devon and how the hell I was going to get Davina back. I could only hope that between Tonya and Lexi, Devon was doing well. He was a baby; how much trouble could the little guy get into?
As for Davina, I missed her something fierce. That’s why seven days later, as we finally prepared to go after the group of missing persons, I turned to Alex. “I get it now.”
“What?”
“Why you wanted to stop traveling.”
“Oh, don’t you even fucking start, Thumper,” Jake growled. “You are not quitting. I’ll fire your ass first.”
“Shove it, Screamer,” I barked back. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Alex chuckled as he adjusted his helmet. “Yeah, having a kid and woman at home makes it hard to leave them, especially at our age.”
“We’ve lived through so much.”
“Yes, back then we didn’t have much to live for,” he replied. “I mean, I had Nica, but I knew that she had a mother and a father who would look after her if I didn’t come home. Lex has me, and our baby, and now you have Devon and Davina.”
“Well, I have Devon,” I said.
He thumped me on the shoulder. “You’ll get Davina back. I feel it in my bones.”
Harvey started rapping out next to me. “I feel it in my bones, deep down it feels just right. We’re gonna grind it out, gonna rock the world tonight.”
Everyone started laughing, and then we joked around a bit more as Harvey tossed out a few more rap lyrics that he was pulling from his ass. It helped calm the nerves in the van before we reached our location.
There were some butt pucker moments, a few what-the-fucks, and quite a bit of gunfire before we finally found what we were looking for—three employees of Protag and six civilians. Four of them were injured, none life-threatening, and after getting them out of there, it took three more days to get to safety.
The minute we had them back to safety, Alex was on his phone. I’d call Tonya a bit late
r once I’d gotten a chance to shower and change clothes. Now, if I had Davina waiting at home, I’d be on the phone to her in a heartbeat.
Alex glanced at me as I walked by, his eyes alarmed, and he held his hand up. Something in my gut twisted, and I pulled my phone out and turned it on. As soon as it booted up, several messages began to pop down to my phone.
“Dude, call your nanny, it’s Devon.”
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s okay now, but call her.”
I stepped away, bringing up Tonya’s number, and hit call. It took forever to connect back in the US, and then finally she answered. “Mr. Vaughn, thank god!”
“Tonya, is Devon okay?”
“He is now; he’s going to be okay, but he had to have surgery.”
“What?” The world spun around me, and I threw out an arm to grab on to the first thing I could. Luckily, it was Alex.
“His bowel was twisted, and they had to do surgery on him,” she said quickly. “But he’s okay now; in fact, he’s even home from the hospital already.”
“He was in the hospital?” I croaked out the words.
“Yes, but he’s going to be alright.”
Dear God, here I was over here trying to rescue some guys while my son was lying in a hospital, and I’d had no idea. What kind of father was I?
“Okay, I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
I didn’t hear her last words as I was already hanging up, and I spun on Alex. “I have to get home.”
“I’m already working on it. Come on, showers and food can wait. Let’s drop our gear with Jake and get to the airport. He can bring all this shit back.”
When we told Jake what was going on, he didn’t even have a snide comment, just told us he’d see us on home ground and smacked my back. His way of saying, I hope things are okay.
Getting home was going to be a nightmare, and as we stood at the airport working with a ticket agent, we found out we’d have to take three different flights to get us home the quickest. Whatever the fuck worked. I didn’t care.
After we’d landed from our first flight, we had a two-hour layover, and Alex and I both found food. He called Lexi again, but something held me back from calling Tonya. It was like I was afraid I’d get more bad news, and I didn’t want to learn that shit sitting in an airport on the other side of the ocean.
Our flight was late taking off, and we had to hoof it at top speed to make our connection. Luckily, they opened the door for us just as they were closing. I knew how strict airlines were about doing that, and maybe it was panicked expressions on our faces that helped.
We got into our seats, and the plane took off a few minutes later. Alex drifted off to sleep, and I sat there staring at the pictures that I had taken of Devon on my phone. A twisted bowel? Had I done something to cause that? Did he have it when I was home? Had I left my son when he needed me most and I hadn’t known?
Maybe I wasn’t father material after all. Here I thought I had been doing good. I had been taking care of him, getting to know him, loving him, and making sure he had plenty of people around to watch over him. Yes, this had happened, and the fact that I hadn’t been there when he needed me was like a gunshot to the heart. My chest hurt so badly that I rubbed my sternum.
It was the longest fucking flight of my life, and we arrived in the middle of the night. Another hour in the taxi and I could grab my truck from the office and get home. Everything had to be right. He had to be alright.
I closed my eyes and prayed, something I hadn’t done in a long time. I asked for guidance on what to do. Should I keep him, or give him to people who might be better for him. I loved him enough that I could give him up. I could give him to someone else who might be able to give him the life he deserved.
I hated myself a little bit for asking, but as we drove through the darkened streets and the rain pelted the taxi roof, I wasn’t sure what else to do. I felt as if I had failed as a father. Devon deserved better; maybe Davina would want to take him. If she did, maybe I could still see him, be a part of his life.
Or I could get Davina to come back to me, and we could raise him together. In a perfect world, that would be the case, but as buckets rained from the sky, and the lightning flared over our heads, I doubted that would ever happen.
I was exhausted when we reached the office, and Alex told me to let him know how things were when I got home. He hugged me tightly, and I drew on his calmness as I got in my truck and started the drive home.
Home. A place where families lived, where memories were made, and love was shared. I wanted a home so damn bad. I had thought that I was going to have just that, but now I wasn’t so sure.
I pulled up to the house, parked in the driveway, and drew a long slow breath, afraid of what I would find inside the house. I let myself in with the key I had only used a couple of times and stood there in the dark, listening for a moment.
I didn’t even bother to go into the kitchen where the light was on. Instead, I took the stairs two at a time and made a beeline to his room. His door was cracked about two inches, and I pushed it open a bit farther It caught on something on the floor, and I glanced down. In the middle of the floor, someone was sleeping.
Wow, Tonya was really taking her job seriously. I should be thankful for that. I stepped around her as carefully as I could and went to the edge of Devon’s new crib.
He looked so tiny lying in the big crib. His arms were out to the sides, his face turned toward me, and tears filled my eyes. I started to reach for him but stopped. I was filthy; I hadn’t showered in four days, and I was kind of surprised that they had even let Alex and me on the plane with how badly we smelled.
I brushed my finger over his hand, and it twitched. “I’ll be right back, little man.”
I went to the bedroom and opened the door, flipping on the light switch, and stopped dead in my tracks.
Holy shit! Tonya really had gone over and beyond her duties. Most of the boxes had been unpacked, and things were set up around my room almost exactly as they had been in my apartment. Damn, how had she known?
I yanked my shirt over my head, offending my own sense of smell as I tossed it aside and then walked around the bed, where I tripped over a duffle bag. I looked down and saw ladies’ panties and leggings at my feet.
Oh, that’s right, she had been sleeping in here. Wait? I thought her furniture would have been delivered by now. Had Tonya been sleeping up here so she could be close to Devon? Or were her clothes in my room for a different reason? Nope, that sure as fuck wasn’t going to happen.
In my dresser, I found my underwear, although they were in the wrong drawer. I pulled out lounge pants and then headed into my bathroom. I stared at the women’s stuff on my vanity, picking up a bottle and reading the label, “Anti-Frizz.”
My gaze jerked to the door. Holy shit! Was that Davina lying on the floor of his room? Tonya didn’t have frizzy hair. I sniffed the bottle, and the scent went straight to my dick. It was Davina’s scent.
I smiled to myself as I went to turn on the shower. Davina was here, and she was with my son. My unexpected arrival was going to be rather exciting when she woke up.
Chapter 30 – Davina
“I talked to Trevor,” Tonya said as I rocked Devon to sleep in his room. He had been home for two days, and he was recovering well and almost back to his non-fussy self.
“What did he say?” I asked as my nerves began to jingle through me.
“Actually, he didn’t say much. He said he was on his way, but he sounded upset. He’s probably going to fire me.”
“Tonya, he won’t fire you. You did exactly what you should have done. You have been amazing with him.”
Her face brightened slightly. “Thank you, and you have no idea how much I appreciate your help.”
“You’re welcome. Did Trevor say when he would be home?”
“No, just that he was coming.”
“What did he say when you told him I was here?”
“I didn’t g
et the chance. He said he was on the way and hung up before I could tell him.”
I chuckled. “Well, I guess he will be surprised when he arrives.” I put Devon in his crib, and we quietly left the room after turning on the monitor.
“I think he is really going to be surprised when he sees that the house is almost entirely unpacked.”
“Yeah, I bet he won’t expect that.”
“Think he will be mad you went through his bedroom?”
I shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t care.”
She chuckled as we went into the kitchen where she was making dinner. It turned out she was a pretty good cook, much better than me, and excellent company. She was taking classes online for business and wanted to open her own childcare center one day. She’d been a nanny since she was eighteen and loved taking care of children.
We had hit it off very well, and while we took turns seeing to Devon’s needs, we unpacked the house. Trevor was going to be beside himself when he finally arrived, and the last thing he needed to worry about was where pots and pans should go, or what cabinet was best for glasses. No, we put our womanly instinct to work for that and did it the way we thought it should be.
As for his room, well, he might get upset about that, but I didn’t care. I could imagine how much he hated himself for being away when Devon needed him, and I wanted him to come home to comfort, not more work. I wanted him to be able to snuggle up with his son and enjoy this time with him, not have to worry about putting his things away.
While I had been using his bathroom and kept my clothes in his room, I’d slept the last two nights on Devon’s floor. Maybe I should have used Trevor’s bed, but it just felt wrong doing that without his permission. As it was, I wasn’t sure he would be happy that I was here, but since I still had guardianship over Devon, and he had just had surgery, I wasn’t leaving until I knew Trevor was home.
Imagine my surprise when later that night, a sound woke me from my sleep, and I sat up, my gaze going right to the crib, where it was empty. I was on my knees in a second and shooting to my feet.
