Code 11- KPD SWAT Box Set

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Then, suddenly, in a great rush of relief, our baby slid out.

  Michael made a hook with his finger and broke the amniotic sac, and suddenly I could hear my baby, who was very unhappy with being forced from her comfy, warm home. By her daddy no less.

  “Alright, Nikki! Let’s get this baby delivered! Son, move out of the way!” Dr. Mead ordered Nico.

  Once Nico moved, though, he came to a stop. “Well, I sure didn’t expect this! For your first child no less!”

  I laughed.

  What else could I do?

  “I’ve never seen that before,” Hannah said in awe.

  “Me neither,” Lennox agreed.

  “Oh, my God, she’s beautiful!” Georgia cried softly at my side.

  “Can I look yet?” Nico whined.

  “Alright, let’s get this placenta delivered. Daddy, are you going to cut the cord?” Dr. Mead asked jovially.

  I moved my eyes away from our daughter to Michael, who was staring at her in awe.

  “Yeah, I think I will,” he rasped.

  Lennox handed him the hemostats to clamp the cord, and then a pair of scissors once he’d done that.

  Then, with the utmost care, he carried our little girl over to the warmer, where a team of nurses were already set up waiting for her.

  When they’d arrived, I don’t know, but they were there.

  And I was so happy I could scream.

  I delivered the placenta and waited for them to bring the baby to me.

  But I kept waiting and waiting and waiting.

  I could see them all looking back at me in concern, then back at the baby.

  Michael was busy washing up at the sink, so he didn’t see what was going on, but I knew immediately something was wrong.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I asked urgently. “Tell me!”

  The nurses all looked at each other, and one of them, Lucille, broke off, picking up my daughter and carrying her snugly in her arms.

  She brought her over to me, and I reached for her, pulling her into my arms like they’d taken the most precious gift away from me without plans of giving her back. They gave me teasing bits and pieces of her until I was a whimpering, needful mess.

  The moment she was in my arms I felt at peace.

  She was absolutely perfect.

  Dark brown hair like me. Cheeks like Michael. Long fingers and toes like Michael. A heart-shaped chin like me.

  Then she opened her eyes, and I immediately knew something was wrong.

  Because the entire iris of her eye was covered in a milky white, circular film. In both eyes.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I cried, looking up to Michael for help.

  He frowned and walked over, eyes on our baby, and immediately scowled.

  “What it looks like is a cataract,” he said, running his thumb over the baby’s cheek lovingly.

  His eyes met mine and they’d never looked more serious.

  “She’s fine,” he said soothingly.

  “A cataract isn’t fine!” I cried. “It’s not fine at all!”

  My raised voice must’ve made the baby annoyed because she started to cry.

  Michael immediately reached forward and took her out of my arms, and I felt the loss like a punch to the chest.

  Michael brought our baby up to his chest and cradled her, brushing his nose along the top of her head as he breathed her in.

  “Look at me, Nikki,” he ordered.

  I peeled my eyes away from where his hand was holding her under her bottom and looked at him.

  He wasn’t worried.

  Not even a little bit.

  And that was what I needed to finally gain some control.

  “What do we do?” I asked softly.

  He leaned forward and took a seat on the side of my bed, running his hand along the length of my cheek.

  “We let the pediatrician look at her. We talk to my father. My mother. But we do it all together. Because we can do nothing less,” he whispered.

  A tear slipped down my cheek, and I looked down at my hands. Seeing them trembling, I took a deep breath and said, “I love you, Michael. I’m sorry for freaking out.”

  He pulled me to his chest, and my head rested next to the entire length of our baby’s body, and I just knew everything would be alright.

  Why, you ask?

  Because Michael said it would, that’s why.

  ***

  Four hours later

  “So you’re saying she’ll need to undergo surgery for this within the first three months of her life,” I asked the pediatrician I’d painstakingly chosen out of many in the East Texas area.

  He nodded. “Having those taken care of is imperative. If you don’t, it could become malignant. It could stay the same. Or they could mean she’s blind for the rest of her life. And this is an easy fix. It’s relatively painless, but it is something she’ll have to be put to sleep for. Which is always a risk.”

  I closed my eyes as tears started to form.

  “Thank you, Dr. Rush,” Michael said, offering his hand. “We’ll follow up with the doctor in Dallas next Tuesday, like you said. We really appreciate you coming out and seeing her on your day off.”

  I smiled through my tears.

  That was awfully nice of Dr. Rush.

  Most doctors didn’t do things like that.

  Which was why I’d chosen Dr. Rush in the first place.

  Bringing my knees up to my chest, I moved Carolina up until she was resting on my upraised legs, and stared at her.

  She was so beautiful.

  And perfect.

  And it broke my heart that she had to have this done at such a young age.

  But I didn’t have to worry about that now.

  I had five full days with my little beauty, until I had to see the doctor in Dallas with her, and I was going to love her so hard.

  Michael put his arms around me and hugged me to his chest, pressing his lips against my cheek.

  “I’m going to go home and change my clothes,” he rumbled softly. “And bring up your bag so we can get little miss priss dressed. Anything you need while I’m out?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not unless you want to grab me a number one from Whataburger.”

  He leaned back and gave me a grin.

  “I think I can handle that,” he teased.

  Kissing me once more, he moved his lips to our little girl and brushed his lips over her hair.

  “The two best things that ever happened to me,” he whispered, then left the room without another word.

  Picking up my phone, I started to take a few hundred pictures of my little beauty when a knock sounded at the door.

  I looked up and smiled.

  Because at the door was Wolfgang, or Wolf as I liked to call him, and baby Nathan.

  Although Baby Nathan wasn’t so much a baby anymore. He was a toddler who was full of mischief and love for all things furry.

  “Wolf,” I said softly, smiling at him once he breached the doorway. “Come in, come in.”

  Wolf smiled. “I’d have waited to come see you, but I have to be at work in a couple of hours, and I didn’t know if I’d get to see you before you got out. How are you doing?”

  He smiled as he looked down at the baby in my lap.

  “He did good,” he rasped, a deep-seated hurt evident in his voice.

  His own child would’ve been six months just a few weeks ago.

  “Would you like to hold her, Wolf?” I asked softly.

  He swallowed and looked into my eyes. “Yeah, if that’s okay.”

  I held out my hands for Nathan, and he handed him to me.

  Nathan immediately wrapped his chubby arms around my neck.

  “Take her,” I said softly.

  Wolf did, reaching forward and scooping Carolina up with nimble, practiced hands.

  “She’s beautiful,” he rumbled, cradling Carolina to his chest.<
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  “She is,” I agreed, turning away from the devastated look that came over Wolf’s face. “How ‘ya doing, Nathan?”

  Nathan offered me a slobbery smile as he played with my hair.

  “Fish,” he babbled.

  “Fish?” I asked him.

  “That’s his new favorite word,” Wolf explained. “That and ‘cup’. Seems he only says what he wants.”

  I smiled.

  I remembered that with Nico’s twins as well.

  “How’s work going for you?” I asked softly.

  Wolf spoke without looking up from Carolina.

  “A lot longer than I realized it’d be,” he muttered. “I find that I miss the hell out of Nathan while I’m there.”

  I smiled.

  That tended to happen when you had children.

  I’d witnessed it with all of the SWAT team, as of late.

  They all wanted to get home to their kids and wives.

  The parties had gone from all-nighters to ‘we need to leave by eight p.m. to get the kids in bed’ kind of parties.

  Although, it was nice to see all these reformed bad-boys turned family men.

  That’s the way it was supposed to be.

  “How do you like the new mayor of Uncertain?” I asked. “Michael said they got a sheriff and mayor in the same day. He said it’s been kind of crazy.”

  Wolf nodded. “It’s been a clusterfuck. It’s going to take some doing to get things settled.”

  I wasn’t surprised.

  “Cup?” Nathan asked, tapping my face.

  I looked to him and smiled. “I don’t have your cup, big guy.”

  Nathan frowned, and my eyes were drawn to the barely noticeable scar on his forehead.

  He’d had plastic surgery done on his head about eight weeks into his hospital stay. Then four more reconstructions after that.

  And they’d done a wonderful job. Such a wonderful job, in fact, that you could only see that something had happened when he frowned or cried.

  Wolf got up, drawing my attention to him.

  He really was a big man.

  Today he was in his leather jacket that I never saw him without.

  He had some extensive damage to the back of his head and neck, which made him grow his hair longer than I’d ever seen on any police officer before.

  He wore the leather jacket to cover up the scarring on his back and neck.

  Another thing I’d heard from Michael.

  I’d never seen it myself, but it broke my heart that he wore it.

  “I gotta go,” he rumbled. “I just wanted to come see y’all and make sure you were okay.”

  So he’d heard.

  “Don’t do anything, Wolf,” I reprimanded him.

  His eyes looked up to mine, and I could see the determination here.

  “We’ll see.” He placed Carolina into my arms and reached for Nathan. “I can’t promise anything, though.”

  I looked into the sweet face of my little girl once he left the room, and came to a decision.

  I’d do everything in my power to help make that man happy. Even if I had to throw one of my sisters at him.

  They were tenacious.

  “You and I will get him there, little girl,” I said, running my finger down the bridge of her nose.

  She stirred, and my heart filled with just a little bit more joy.

  I was so happy I could scream.

  I had the man I loved with all my heart.

  A baby with that man.

  And a life that I loved.

  And in a few months, when Carolina’s surgery was behind her, I would be complete.

  I couldn’t ask for a thing more.

  Epilogue

  Michael

  “You left the toilet seat up again,” Nikki grumbled from her bent over position.

  She was loading the dishwasher, and I winced. I was supposed to do that last night. She’d asked a million times, and I just plain forgot.

  Fuck.

  “And you forgot to take out the trash again,” she continued.

  I sighed.

  The woman was a freakin’ mess.

  I didn’t complain about her inability to put things away.

  Like the pitcher of tea. I hated drinking hot tea. And I didn’t like the way ice watered it down.

  Yet did she make more of an effort to put it away?

  No.

  So I drank my tea with ice now because it was inevitable that she’d forget to put it away.

  And don’t even get me started on her makeup, hair products, curling irons, and God knows what else.

  The first thing on our remodeling agenda, if it ever came to it, was a duel sink for him and her, because I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d wished I didn’t have to put away shit on the counter to shave my face or brush my teeth.

  I didn’t tell her any of that, though.

  We’d learned, over the last four years, how to pick our battles.

  “I can’t fix the plumbing because you bought a male end, and I need a female end,” I said.

  “What do you mean? What’s the difference?” Nikki asked, turning to study me.

  I was a fucking mess.

  I’d been under the house, fixing the plumbing that’d decided to fucking combust last night.

  And she’d been bothering the fuck out of me for the entire morning to fix it so she could have running water for the party we were throwing for Madden.

  Madden hadn’t had an easy life.

  He’d had a lot of struggles, but in those struggles, he’d come out on top.

  After Madden’s children had been released from the hospital, the three of them had gone to a foster home with Dean and Joslin, of all people.

  After the whole asking for sperm from his brother debacle, Joslin finally gave up on ever having a baby with Dean. She actually gave up a lot of things, in fact.

  Mainly other men’s dicks.

  And with that new attitude on life, Joslin turned into a half decent person.

  Joslin and Dean had helped raise not only Madden’s two children, Sophia and Tawny, but also Madden himself.

  They’d given Madden the opportunity to just be a kid while helping him raise his children.

  And as of this afternoon, he was officially a high school graduate.

  “Michael, are you even listening to me?” Nikki yelled.

  My brow rose. “Yes, I’m listening to you. But you’re not saying anything that I haven’t already explained to you. Five times, in fact.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Well then, maybe you should enlighten me… one more time.”

  I grinned at her.

  “You need an anatomy lesson?” I clarified.

  She narrowed her eyes at me.

  “No. I need you to explain to me how plumbing parts have male and female ends.”

  I charged forward and pinned her to the counter, my sweaty body plastering up against hers.

  Nikki had put on a little bit of weight over the last four years, but not one bit of that weight did I not love.

  In fact, I was fucking ecstatic to have a little more of her to hold onto while I fucked her.

  Something I was about to prove during the anatomy lesson I was about to give her.

  “A female end,” I said, pressing my hands against her. “Is wider. It allows the male end to fit inside of it.”

  I punctuated this comment by pressing my erection into her hip.

  She gasped and her eyes widened.

  “You… you didn’t say that when I left,” she stuttered.

  I leaned past her and turned the water on, picking up the bottle of soap and washing my hands behind her back.

  She licked her lips, and I knew she knew what I was about to do.

  “The kids are about to wake up,” she hesitated when I slapped the faucet down to stop the flow of water once I was finished.


  I grinned.

  Then my hands went to her sides, and I ran my hands up and under her shirt, pushing it up and over her head in one fluid movement.

  Her hair fell from the haphazard bun she’d placed on top of her head, with a pencil of all things, and tumbled down her back and over her shoulders.

  Just the way I liked it.

  I didn’t bother removing the bra.

  That’d take too long.

  I knew the kids were about to wake up.

  They only gave us a solid two hours at most, and it was already going on an hour and forty-five minutes.

  The next thing to go were her pants, panties going with them for expediency.

  “Michael,” she said breathlessly when I turned her around and pressed her over the sink.

  She grabbed onto the faucet for dear life, looking back over her shoulder as I unzipped my pants.

  “Yeah, baby?” I asked, pulling my dick from its confines and running the hardened length up her pussy lips.

  She gasped and pressed back against me, helping me coat my cock in her juices as she involuntarily jerked her hips.

  “See, to fix this plumbing,” I said, pressing my lubed cock up against her entrance and pushing in. “I need a three and five eights male end. You got me a female end. To get full satisfaction on both ends, one won’t do without the other.”

  I could tell she wanted to laugh, but she was too busy moaning as my cock filled her to the brim.

  My eyes crossed when she clenched down on me.

  “Less talking, more fucking. We’re running out of time,” she panted.

  I agreed.

  Picking up the pace, I grabbed hold of both hips and started to move in and out of her.

  Faster and faster, I thrust.

  Each one harder than the previous.

  We worked well together.

  She knew what I liked, and I knew just the right angle that would set her off like a bottle rocket.

  Moving my hand between the countertop and her hips, I found the bud of her clit and started to circle it as I ramped up my speed.

  “Michael,” she moaned. “Yes!”

  I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes as I felt her pussy begin to convulse around the length of my cock, meaning the end of me holding back.

  She did that to me, though.

  Undid me.

  Tore me down to rock bottom and built me back up again.