Instant Family (Silver Oak Medical Center Book 4)

by Aiden Bates

  Allen rubbed at his face. He hadn't shaved. He hadn't showered. He hadn't had time to do either. He'd just gotten back from his run, and barely that. "It's probably the best solution from a public health perspective. Pain in the ass for the parents, though."

  Janine smacked herself in the head and waved her hand up to the sky. "You think?" She bit off more words. "Look, I'm sorry. It's obviously not your fault."

  Allen could see his niece and nephew watching out of the corner of their eye. Janine was upset, and she had a right to be. Upset people sometimes forgot their kids could hear them. "Of course it is," he told Janine with a straight face. "I found a sample of the measles virus and released it at camp, just because I had a day off and I wanted to see the kids." He forced himself to grin. "Don't worry about it, big sis. It's not even a thing. I'll see you tonight."

  "You're the best." She gave him a quick hug. "Ugh. You stink."

  "Well, you did call while I was out for my morning run, so you get what you get." He winked at her.

  "Go. Go wash. The kids will be fine while you hose yourself down. Does that new boyfriend of yours let you run around smelling like a gym locker?" She covered her mouth and nose with one hand and pulled out her keys with the other. "I'll see you tonight, kids."

  Janine fled, leaving Allen alone with his niece and nephew. Allen locked up behind her and gave both kids a serious look. "Okay, now. Here's the big question. Do you think you two can stay out of trouble if I throw on a cartoon for you to watch while I de-stink myself?"

  "We can if you make it Paw Patrol." Ethan gave him a sweet little smile that completely belied the mischief in his eyes.

  "Paw Patrol is stupid," Harper whined. "I want to watch Elena."

  Allen shook his head. "We'll do Paw Patrol first, so Harper can keep an eye on Ethan." He mussed Ethan's hair. "We can do Elena later on, after we stop by the hospital to see Alaina and have a little fun at the park. Sound like a plan?"

  Harper, delighted to be in charge, assented. The siblings sat down to watch the show and Allen rushed up to his bedroom to take the world's fastest shower.

  Once he'd washed up and changed, he returned to the living room and collected the kids. Their mother had given them breakfast before they'd left the house, which he decided to count as a small favor. Brantley had helpfully left little single-serving containers of some kind of porridge involving peanuts and shrimp and Lord only knew what else, but somehow Allen doubted the kids were ready to make shellfish part of their breakfast routine. He bundled them into his Volkswagen and drove them downtown, to the hospital.

  "How come we have to go to your job?" Ethan pouted. "I thought we were here because we couldn't come bother Mommy and Daddy at work."

  Allen winced. "Well, it's not bothering Mommy and Daddy," he lied, "but they can't focus on their jobs if they're focusing on you. And if they're not focusing on their jobs, they won't get paid. And that won't be good for any of you, right?"

  "Right." Harper stuck her tongue out at her little brother. "Grow up, Ethan."

  "Grow up, Ethan." The boy made a face at his sister and poked at her across the little bench seat.

  "Hey, kids, don't make me pull this car over. Anyway, we're not going in to see your parents, or even to see Grandma. No, we're going in to see Alaina."

  Harper perked up right away. "Is Alaina going to be our new cousin?"

  "I hope so." Allen smiled at her through the rearview mirror. "A lot has to happen between then and now, but if everything goes our way then she's going to come home and live with me. And she'll be your cousin, and you can help me pick out clothes for her and everything."

  Ethan smiled too, although he didn't want to seem too excited about another girl in the family. Some things were important, after all. "Hey, doesn't your boyfriend work at Silver Oak, too?"

  Allen stiffened. "Yeah. He does. But he's very busy and we shouldn't disturb him at work, okay?"

  Ethan slumped. "But I want to meet him! If you're going to marry him and he's going to be a daddy for baby Alaina, I should get to meet him." He crossed his arms over his chest and thrust his bottom lip out.

  Allen gave thanks that Alaina, assuming she stayed with him, would be an only child. "Ethan, it takes more than a week for people to decide if they should get married or not."

  "That's right, Ethan." Harper stuck her nose up into the air. "When you're mature, you'll understand that. There has to be other stuff too, like flowers and jewelry. You'd know that if you weren't so stupid."

  "Maybe we should have gotten you two out to run around first." Allen didn't expect them to respond to that. He couldn't even be sure they heard him.

  He pulled into the parking garage and herded the squabbling siblings up to the NICU. Luke, fortunately, had a quiet moment and was able to come down to keep an eye on them while Allen took care of Alaina. The kids were far too young to be allowed into the nursery. None of these babies had an immune system to speak of, and they were all considered fragile at this point. Harper and Ethan might be perfectly healthy, but the risk that they might carry some sort of germ on them was too high.

  He washed up and took off his shirt, and then he made his way to the chair by Alaina's incubator. She was crying, but she calmed down once he took her into his arms. He could see Ethan and Harper with Luke through the nursery window, and he was glad they were interested. Right now, though, all of his excitement was for Alaina.

  Alaina was growing, and quickly. She was still tiny, and frighteningly so, but she'd taken on the appearance of a real infant now. She looked up at him with her huge dark eyes and put her hand on the bottle with which he fed her, and Allen realized she was truly processing the stimuli around her. His little girl was growing up. When he stopped by tomorrow, he would bring a toy. She was too young to keep it in her incubator, but she could play with it under supervision.

  His hour with her passed too quickly. He checked out, got dressed again, and gathered the kids. Luke smiled gently. "You and that baby are something else, you know that?"

  Allen ducked his head. "She's a good little kid, you know? She deserves a chance in life."

  Luke put a hand on Ethan's shoulder before he could take off down the hall. "Of course. So I might have told Dr. Powell that you were here, with the kiddos."

  Allen couldn't stop himself from freezing. "You did?" He would forever deny that his voice squeaked. "He's super busy, you know, I'm not sure that was the best idea."

  "He said you should bring us by after you were done." Harper smiled up at Allen with that saccharine smile she got when she'd just proven you wrong, or at least thought she had. "Let's go, Uncle Allen!" She grabbed his hand. "Let's go!"

  Allen had no choice at all. He had to go.

  He herded both children over to the oncology unit. They looked around with wide eyes at everything on their way, and Allen supposed everything probably seemed very exciting to them at their age. They didn't come to the hospital to visit their parents very often, and they didn't go to patient treatment areas when they did. Janine's office wasn't very big, and it was in an outbuilding besides. So was Jim's. All of the high-tech equipment must have seemed like something out of a cartoon to them.

  If they were distracted by the novelty of everything around them, they wouldn't notice the way Allen quieted down. They wouldn't notice the way he kept wiping his hands on his jeans, either.

  They made it to Oncology and announced themselves to the receptionist. She looked at Allen questioningly, but left it at that when she saw the kids. Allen had to give thanks for small favors.

  Brantley came out to greet them in seconds. His smile didn't even look that forced. Maybe he'd been practicing. Maybe he was genuinely happy to see Allen. Maybe he even liked kids. That seemed odd, given what little Allen knew about his erstwhile suitor, but who was he to judge? "Allen, it's good to see you! Why didn't you tell me you were coming down here today?"

  Harper and Ethan looked up at him with identical expressions of wonder. They lived in the city, a
nd they were used to seeing people from different backgrounds, but Brantley was an impressive looking man and he'd have struck lesser children speechless.

  "Well, I was just going to stop in and see Alaina. I didn't know your schedule or anything, but then Janine needed child care at the last second, so here we are." He spread his hands out to indicate his niece and nephew.

  Harper found her voice first. "Are you a prince?"

  Brantley choked back a snicker. "I beg your pardon?"

  "You look like a handsome prince. Are you going to marry my uncle and live happily ever after, like in a fairy tale? Because he's kind of awesome even though he can't cook. He knows all the best games and takes us to play with Sadie and look at turtles in the canal." Harper looked up and thrust her little chin out.

  Allen's cheeks burned. After all the years he'd put in at Silver Oak, he thought he could expect a little help from the hospital, but the ground completely failed to open up and swallow him whole.

  Brantley crouched down and got on the children's level. "Those are all very impressive qualities. I have a secret to tell you, though."

  Ethan leaned forward, caught in Brantley's spell. "What's that?"

  "Your Uncle Allen is a pretty good cook, all things considered. I've been teaching him, in secret, all week. In fact, if you both, and your mom and dad, want to stay for dinner and see the proof of it, we'd be happy to have you." Brantley brushed his dreads back and gave them a conspiratorial grin.

  Allen was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a moment. The next thing he knew, Brantley's hands were on his back, and he was helping Allen to straighten up. "Are you okay, Allen?"

  "Never better," Allen croaked, as vision returned to his eyes. "Is that the best idea, Brantley?"

  "Of course it is," Brantley snorted. "It was one of mine. Seriously, Allen, you've been doing great. And I've been helping. It's going to be fine. We have some of that oxtail stew we made in the slow cooker, and we have some of the rice with peas. We can add some cauliflower and some plantain, I'll take care of that when I get home and show you how." His tone shifted as he spoke. Allen couldn't help but focus in on it.

  "If you're sure," he said weakly. What he meant to say was, "This is a dumb idea and no one should do it ever," but that wasn't what came out.

  "Of course I'm sure. It will all be fine." He crouched back down to meet Harper and Ethan's eyes. "You all want to see how hard your wonderful uncle has been working, right?"

  "You bet!" Harper jumped up and down, a huge smile plastered across her little face.

  Allen's fate was sealed. He texted his sister right there as Brantley took the kids on a quick tour of the department. He wasn't convinced this was the best idea, but if Brantley actually wanted to meet his family, he shouldn't say no. After all, both of their freedom kind of depended on making this whole thing look real.

  After Janine replied that they would be very happy to join them, and to bring wine besides, Allen went to find and collect his niece and nephew. Brantley seemed to be getting along with them just fine. In fact, Harper in particular seemed to be exceptionally attached to him. Was it just because she thought he was some kind of prince, or was she really drawn to something about him?

  He watched, enthralled, as Brantley relaxed and laughed with the kids. Who would have thought Brantley would be such a family guy? If Allen wasn't careful, he would get attached.

  He intervened when he saw the receptionist coming. She presumably needed to tell Brantley about an appointment. He collected the deeply disappointed children and promised they would get to see Brantley later on that evening, and brought them back to East Syracuse. They took Sadie over to the canal to walk and play, and then they headed back to the house to get ready for the sudden dinner party.

  "Why are you so twitchy, Uncle Allen?" Harper looked at him and tilted her head to the side. "We've all been to your house before."

  "I know, sweetheart. It's a little different." He scanned the common areas for the slightest trace of clutter or dirt. There wasn't any, except for the occasional trace of dog hair from Sadie.

  "Why?" She climbed up onto one of the stools on the breakfast bar. Ethan climbed up beside her.

  "Well, Dr. Brantley's living here now. That makes it different." Allen chewed on the inside of his cheek. Was it worth it to pile the kids into the car to go and get flowers, or no? He wasn't a big "flowers" kind of guy, but it might make the place look a little less stark

  "You lived with someone else before. Did you feel this nervous then?" Harper blinked her big brown eyes at him.

  Allen stopped. He tried not to think about his spectacular failure with Ben, and he definitely wasn't thrilled that his sister had chosen to bring it up with Harper. Harper had been eighteen months old when Allen and Ben had split. She couldn't remember Ben.

  "Things were a bit different then. My relationship with Dr. Brantley is different with the relationship I had with that person. That's a good thing, but I'm still a little bit nervous." He forced a smile. He wasn't going to lie to Harper, at least not more than he had to. "I'm not ashamed, but I'm worried. He hasn't met your mom and dad, and of course I want him to get along with them. Your mom is super important to me, and that's only gotten stronger as I've gotten older." He ruffled both kids' hair. "For starters, she's your mom. I want to get to see you, right?"

  "Right!" Ethan shouted and raised his cup of juice, oblivious to any other tension. Allen wished he had his nephew's confidence.

  ***

  Brantley wouldn't have thought he'd enjoy dinner with Allen's sister, her husband, and the children. He'd never spent much time around kids, and he had no reason to think he'd have anything at all in common with the Zarellis. They were a white, middle class couple from upstate New York. How was a kid from Mandeville supposed to have anything to say to them?

  He found a way. Janine turned out to be older than Allen by about six years, and she behaved with an almost maternal attitude toward her little brother. She kept a sharp eye on everything about the house, from the way things had changed to the way they had not, and nothing escaped her attention. She smiled through it all, though, with her wide mouth, and offered to wash the dishes afterward.

  Brantley never held a grudge against people who washed the dishes.

  Brantley had a little more trouble figuring the husband out. Where Janine was sharply dressed and well put together, Jim's dress could best be described as slovenly and his hygiene kindly described as questionable. He cared for his children, but it didn't take much observation to figure out that he was not the one in charge when they interacted. While they obeyed Janine, and Allen, and even Brantley, they ran roughshod over Jim.

  Well, it wasn't for Brantley to judge. What did he know about childrearing, anyway?

  The children were adventurous eaters. It was obvious they'd never had anything with "oxtail" in the name, but that didn't stop them from having seconds. Allen relaxed as everyone seemed to enjoy the dishes, and got into a spirited discussion with his brother-in-law about different fencing styles that went completely over Brantley's head.

  After dinner, they retired for drinks out on the back patio while Janine washed the dishes. Topics stayed general, thanks to the presence of small children, and Brantley figured this wasn't so bad after all. He played with the kids, and he spoke with the adults if he had to. When the evening drew to a close, he helped herd the kids out to the Zarellis' mini-van with a sense of regret.

  "Hey," Allen said, with a little sad smile on his face. "I don't know if you've found another solution, but Luke's son is in a day camp over at the University. It's super convenient to the hospital. You can look into it and see if maybe they have any spots open."

  "Thanks, I will." Janine kissed her brother on the cheek. "We'll talk later, okay?" She turned to Brantley. "It was certainly nice meeting you, Brantley. I hope we'll get a chance to talk soon." She got into the car, in the driver's seat, and they pulled away.

  Brantley frowned over her parting comment, not en
tirely sure what she meant by it, but he didn't put too much into it. Tonight had been too good a night to fuss over weird goings-on. "So," he said, as he and Allen headed back inside. "That was nice."

  Allen closed and locked the door behind them. "Yeah. I kind of feel like we should have recorded it for ICE. You know, ‘Here's proof that this isn't faked, we had a nice family dinner!’ But I'm not sure if that would help us or hurt us."

  Brantley deflated a little. He'd forgotten. In the midst of all the excitement with the kids and the dinner, and worrying about Allen's mental state when having to show his cooking to everyone else, he'd forgotten that this wasn't real. "My guess is that it would backfire on us in the worst possible way." He sat down on the couch and forced a little smile onto his face. "You know, I don't exactly have a lot of experience here, but I'm fairly certain that authentic couples don't record video of their family interactions."