by Brenna Lyons
The trip to the ER was nerve wracking, but things ran smoother once they arrived. Keith tried to insist on a second bag of glucose, but Steven nixed him pending her blood tests. A plain saline drip was hooked up instead.
The test results came back on a rush while Steven did his exam. The older doctor looked at the results in surprise then raised an eyebrow at Keith. “How did you know her blood sugar would be so low?” he asked.
Keith shoved his fists in his pockets and blushed deeply. “I know her,” he answered quietly.
“If she has a medical condition the two of you haven’t told me about,” he warned.
“She doesn’t. It’s an exertion thing—sort of. Usually, she’s conscious and she can just load up on the carbs to bring her sugar back up.”
Steven crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at his grandson. “Keith, I do not have the time to drag this out of you.”
“Later. Stabilize her, and she’ll stay stabilized. Trust me.”
He nodded curtly and went back to his examination of Katie. “I don’t suppose you’d care to explain this?” he prodded.
Keith groaned. “She has some old traumas. If I’m right, she took a shock to one of them today.”
“Psychological?” he guessed.
“Yes, but I think there may have been accompanying physical damage. It’s old, nineteen seventy-four or there abouts. CAT scans and MRI were non-existent.”
“No one checked later?”
Keith shrugged. “No one pursued it. Any problems she exhibited were handled symptom by symptom.”
Steven snorted in response. “Shoddy.”
He smiled crookedly. “That won’t be a problem with you as her doctor. Once you have her stabilized, Mitchell is setting up for a CAT.”
“Call him back. No CAT. If he has MRI time free, I’ll approve that.”
“Why? I don’t understand.” Keith managed in shock.
Steven handed him the chart open to the lab results that had come in so far. He scanned them three times before his eyes locked on the one his grandfather intended—hCG level: 120, a very positive result.
Keith moved to the chair in the corner and sat heavily. “Positive. It’s positive.”
“After the conversation at my office, I figured it was a smart move to check it. She hasn’t even missed yet, has she?”
“No, she hasn’t. She—wasn’t even due for another four or five days.”
“I’ve taken the liberty of contacting Jana Bashaw. She’s the best OB I know. We won’t take any chances.”
Keith nodded numbly. “A baby,” he mumbled.
“You act as if this is a surprise,” Steven said pointedly.
“No. We were trying for a baby. I just never considered—”
“That you had more at stake than Katie,” he guessed.
“Yes.” He looked up at Katie miserably. “I can’t lose her.”
“Physically, I can guarantee you won’t. I’ll call Mitchell for you, and we’ll find out about the rest.”
Keith nodded woodenly as his grandfather left the cubicle. He barely registered the nurse hooking up the glucose until she took the chart from his hands to enter the change. When she left as well, he moved his chair to her bedside.
He took her hand and kissed it tenderly. “We’re having a baby, Katie,” he whispered into her palm. “You have to wake up and do this with me. You were always part of the deal. If it’s a tradeoff, I want you, safe and whole. You do whatever you have to do, but you come back to me.”
More blood tests followed. Eventually, Steven pronounced her stabilized, and they went up to neurology to meet Mitchell. They rolled Katie away from him, and Keith stood staring at the closed door miserably. It was torture, he decided—not being able to do anything.
The MRI went smoothly. There was damage—lots of it, old and new, and Mitchell had a hell of a time with it. Without extensive or invasive head injury, the damage he was seeing shouldn’t have been possible.
Keith did his best to play off the fact that Katie had no memory of the injuries that caused the damage, and no mention of ghosts and psychics was made. In the end, Mitchell shrugged it off and decided that it would make a great paper—if he knew what it was he was seeing. The important thing was that all the damage was surmountable.
* * *
Katie tested her ability to reason by trying to remember what happened in a cause and effect manner. She was a little fuzzy, but she had a pretty good idea of what happened. She only had one more thing to do—she hoped.
She opened her eyes and squinted against the bright light in the hospital room. Katie decided to test herself systematically: gross motor, fine motor, speech—“Keith?” Her voice came out as a whisper.
When he didn’t answer, she stifled a sob. Was he gone or was she only imagining her own voice?
Katie swung her hand over her head, searching for the light pull she knew would be there somewhere. When she located it, Katie yanked it to dim the room. She sucked in her breath and gritted back a yelp at the sudden movement beside her.
“Katie?” Keith’s voice rumbled next to her ear.
It amazed her that he could sound sleepy and urgent at the same time. She surveyed his face in the last bit of light filtering from what she would assume was the bathroom. A shadow of stubble covered his cheek and chin.
“Keith? Am I dreaming, or are you really here?” she whispered.
He laughed lightly. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
She touched his face, sobbing and laughing simultaneously. Katie wanted to ask him to hold her, but she couldn’t form the words.
He gathered her into his arms. “It’s over. It’s all right,” he soothed her.
I hope. Katie wanted it to be over. She wrapped her arms around him and drank in the warmth of his chest against her cheek.
“Going to sleep again?” Keith teased, as she yawned into his shoulder.
“Not until I go to the bathroom and get something to drink,” she murmured.
“Grab your IV pole,” he instructed.
Katie complied, and he lifted her and carried her into the bathroom.
Once Katie was settled back in bed, she smiled. “You’re spoiling me,” she accused him sleepily.
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he drawled comically.
“Really? What’s next? Breakfast in bed?”
“That will have to wait for a few hours, but I can probably rustle up some milk or juice and a sandwich of some kind in the meantime.”
“Don’t go out of your way on my account. I’ve lived on Jax and Coke for a few all-nighters,” she joked.
“Not anymore, you’re not. Doctor’s orders— From now on, you eat and sleep healthy. I don’t care if you sleep from three in the morning until eleven as long as it’s eight hours.”
Katie felt her face burn in anger. “Your grandfather, I suppose,” she challenged him.
“He agrees, but the actual decree came from Jana Bashaw.”
She furrowed her brow in confusion. “Who’s that? My neurologist or my nutritionist?”
“Your OB, unless you don’t like her and want to switch. She’s the best that Grandpa knows, so he called her.”
“You mean Gynecologist. An OB is for—”
Keith’s smile widened, and she stared at him in disbelief. She watched in fascination as he cupped his hand below her navel.
“Steven Christopher for a boy,” he reminded her. “Thought of any girl’s names?”
“Sarah Angelique,” she breathed. “Keith, you can’t finish this. Please don’t start.” The memory of his hand rubbing the same spot while they discussed names was nearly overpowering.
“Sarah Angelique. I like it,” he mused. Keith rubbed his hand in one slow circle and removed it. “Okay. I’m going to go get Steven or Sarah a midnight snack, but we’re finishing this discussion when we get home—as soon as you’re up to it.” A rakish smile, that made her body temperature rise and a dull ache build f
or him, lit his face.
“Oh, I’m up for it,” she assured him.
Keith’s smile faltered as he looked at her mouth and wagered how far he could get considering the current situation. It wasn’t like they hadn’t flirted with the danger of discovery a little in the past. But, they wanted completion badly enough right now that heading him off seemed a prudent course.
“Wait a minute, buddy. You’re getting Steven or Sarah a snack? What about me?”
His smile returned. “I’ll figure something out,” he promised. “Relax. I’ll be back soon.”
She raised the bed and sank into the pillows with her hands rested over her abdomen where Keith’s had been. “A baby,” Katie mused. “Hi, Baby. You’ve met your Dad already. I know he’s a little screwy, but he’s a good man. Guess you have to meet me now. I’m a little neurotic, but I promise to try to be a good Mom. Just give me a chance, okay?”
The door opened, and a nurse came in, pushing a cart ahead of her. “Good morning,” she called brightly. “Dr. Randall suggested I get some vitals before you eat. I’ve already called your doctor and your family.”
Katie blanched. “So late? Couldn’t it wait until morning? I don’t want to wake everyone.”
“Open,” she instructed.
Katie dutifully took the thermometer under her tongue, as the nurse took her pulse and took a few seconds to examine her watch. She started noting the results in the chart.
“Any time day or night. Those were the instructions I had. There are quite a few people waiting patiently for you to wake up.” She smiled. “Or not so patiently—”
“Dr. Randall?” she mumbled around the thermometer.
“Just for starters. I’ve had four doctors and a dozen police officers plaguing me. Even a lawyer, if you can imagine that.”
Katie stifled a blast of laughter at the idea of Marcus Randall stalking the nurses waiting for news of his future daughter-in-law and grandchild.
The nurse removed the thermometer and set up the blood pressure cuff. “You’re a popular lady.”
“Popular is not a term I’d typically use. Guarded is more like it,” Katie replied with a bite of cynicism.
“Why is that?”
“I’m a rather difficult person to get along with,” she admitted sadly. Funny how she never really worried about that before. Of course, it was a whole new world when you were trying to build a family.
“You seem friendly enough to me,” she observed. “Okay, Katheryn. You seem to be just fine according to these vitals. Healthy as a horse, in fact.”
“Thanks, but call me Katie. Katheryn is too stuffy.” Funny how she never noticed how much she hated the name Katheryn before either.
The nurse arched an eyebrow. “Your uncle warned me that you prefer Katheryn, and people tend to make a quick enemy if they don’t adhere to that.”
“I used to, but no one except him ever stuck to it. Katie is starting to grow on me.” She smiled crookedly. “Maybe I’m becoming more of a Katie.”
“Sounds like a good change to me.”
“Me, too.”
The door opened again, and Keith breezed in with an armload of food.
“Good God, Keith. I can’t eat all that. I’ll be the size of a house, baby or no baby.”
“Actually, we’re having a picnic. I skipped dinner,” he admitted. “Okay, apple juice or orange?”
“Which is better for me, Doc?” Katie teased.
“Orange. Folic acid for the baby.” He smiled at that.
“Bring it on. OJ every morning.”
“I’ll stock up. Ham and cheese or egg salad?”
“No contest. Egg salad for me.”
“I’ll remember that.” Keith unloaded milk, juice, and the sandwich in front of her then settled back into the easy chair to eat his own.
“Do you need anything else?” the nurse offered, as Katie bit into the sandwich.
She shook her head through the mouthful, and the nurse disappeared. Katie didn’t realize how hungry she was until she started eating. She was ravenous, and the food tasted far better than she was sure it really was. She finished quickly and smiled in contentment as she watched Keith finish the ham and cheese.
“That was wonderful. Thank you.”
“You must have been starving. That barely passed as food. In fact, I think I could have done better at home,” he joked.
“Guilty, but in my own defense, sleep eating is not my strong trait.”
“Well, the baby has eaten. Now, it’s your turn.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Keith pulled a bag of Cheetos out of his sweat-jacket pocket. “It’s not Jax, and all they had were crunchy,” he apologized.
“My favorite,” she assured him. “Feel free to file that away, too. I also love mint chocolate chip and butter pecan ice creams.”
“I bet.” He handed the bag over and pulled out a bag of chips for himself, as she dug in.
When the bag was empty, Katie started sucking the cheese powder off of her fingertips. Keith watched with a hungry gaze that had nothing to do with food. She could see his breathing hitch, as he hauled himself under control, his bag of chips forgotten. Katie smiled wickedly and offered him her cheesy thumb.
“I thought you told me not to start something we couldn’t finish,” he growled.
“I don’t want you to, but if you don’t kiss me soon, I think I’m going to go insane.”
Keith brushed her hand away and took her mouth instead. His kiss was the same slow, gentle kiss he used to convince her not to leave him behind.
A deep sadness at the thought of how she used him while she was controlling him overwhelmed her.
He obviously felt the change in her. “What’s wrong?” Keith asked, breathing the words against her lips.
“I’m sorry, Keith. I promise I’ll never control you again, and this time I really mean it. And what we did while I was controlling you— I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. You gave me something, and I want it again, Katie. You wouldn’t deny me something I want, would you?” She could feel his smile, as he brushed his lips over her cheek.
“What? What did I give you?”
“You gave yourself to me in a way I never imagined was possible. You were totally mine. I could feel your mind. I knew exactly what you wanted, and I could feel your pleasure when I did it. I want you like that again. I want to feel your orgasm next time. You didn’t come for me because you were self-conscious about what you were doing. You won’t be next time, will you?”
“But, it was just my will,” she protested quietly.
“No, it wasn’t your will. It was your desire. You remember everything when you’re separated, remember?”
Katie nodded, as his breath tickled her throat.
“What you did was incredibly erotic. I gave myself to you, Katie. I knew what you intended to do when you begged me to trust you. You said it was the only way to keep me safe, and I offered it freely.
“I don’t want to be your slave constantly, but I want you like that again, a creature of desire touching my mind and rewarding me with your pleasure. You even gave me pleasure to ease the way. I felt that.
“When I felt your desire for my love despite the fact that you were controlling me—” He shuddered, and she felt the spike of his arousal. “I couldn’t stop. I wanted you, and I knew you wanted me. I want that again. I want you to take all of me again. Will you?”
“When I’m recovered, you’ll have an experience like no other,” she promised. “I’ll see to it.” Katie wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his face back up to hers.
“Good.” He took her mouth again.
That time, she had no reservations about returning his attentions. Katie was so lost in his arms that she didn’t hear the door open, and she startled when Steven’s laugh echoed off the walls.
“It’s easy to see how you accomplished convincing her to marry you,” he joked. “Laura will be so pleased.”
Keith turne
d to wrap an arm around her shoulders and smiled as he eased back onto the pillow with her. “You had any doubts after that blood test?” he teased his grandfather in return.
“Speaking of which—” Steven picked up the Cheetos bag and scowled at the cheese on her thumb.
Katie sighed. “I also had orange juice, milk, and an egg salad sandwich on wheat. Let’s see, that’s all the food groups plus folic acid, vitamins A, B, C and D and calcium. I haven’t even considered Coke or Jolt, and I’m seriously considering switching to rootbeer. I’m taking good care of your probable namesake, Doctor. Relax the storm trooper act, okay?”
Steven looked at her in shock. “My what?”
Keith laughed. “I hadn’t told him that part, yet,” he explained.
She blushed. “Oops. Sorry about that.”
“My what?” Steven repeated.
“Your possible namesake, Grandpa. We decided on Steven Christopher Randall as a boy’s name almost a week ago.” He shrugged. “Told you we were planning this baby.”
“Thank you,” he managed in heartfelt gratitude. “How do you feel?”
Katie smiled weakly. “Fine. I’m a little tired and shaky. Eating helped that. Well, it did at first anyway.”
“I’ll have them check your blood sugar again. It’s too early for us to have to worry about increasing appetite, so maybe you should explain this fluctuating sugar problem. As your doctor, this is the type of thing I should know.”
She bit her lip and looked to Keith. “What do you think?”
“As your doctor, you have confidentiality with him. As your future in-law, it won’t make a damn bit of difference to him, but it will make him feel better to know. Now, my question is do you feel up to this or should we beg off?”
“You want me to demonstrate?” Katie asked in surprise.
“There won’t be any question that way. Just blurting it out might land us both in rubber rooms, but if you’re too tired—”
“A small demonstration won’t hurt. Can you get me more juice, just as a buffer?”
“How about chocolate milk? The extra sugar couldn’t hurt.”
Katie smiled. “Is great grandpa going to have a cow?”
