by Aiden Bates
That made him lose the rhythm and he spilled into the condom, collapsing onto the back of his beloved. They lay like that for a moment, panting and sweaty, before Nick pulled out and went to dispose of the condom.
He came back and cleaned his love up, and crawled into bed beside him. "Still up for that no-clothes weekend?" he murmured into Ryan's ear.
"Mmm." Ryan smiled and pressed back against Nick's body. "You bet. I've been looking forward to this ever since last Sunday's no-clothes adventure." He rolled over and looked up at Nick. "You do like that, right?"
Nick grinned. "Of course I do. How could I not? I get to sit there and ogle my beautiful omega to my heart's content. And I like that you trust me enough to feel comfortable with it."
Ryan fell quiet for a moment. "Do you really think of me as your omega?"
Nick bit his tongue. "Yeah. Sorry. I know it's not—"
Ryan put a finger over Nick's lips. "Please don't apologize." He blushed. "I kind of like it."
"Really?" Nick lifted his eyebrows. He'd have done more to express his surprise, but he was still in the throes of post-coital lassitude.
"Really. I mean, I feel a little guilty about that. I still love Dan and I always will. But I like being yours. I haven't felt this good around an alpha since him, you know?" He looked up at Nick again. "I haven't wanted to be anyone's omega since him. I want to be yours."
Nick laughed for joy. Life was looking up.
Chapter Ten
Ryan made it through the first few days of the work week mostly floating on a little cloud. The only way he managed to stay tethered to Earth was by reminding himself, on a regular basis, of all of the reasons that he shouldn't get too excited. So what if they wanted each other? That didn't mean they were going to be compatible in the long term. Their different opinions about the right time to go and talk to Steven O'Neal might just be a difference of opinion about when to approach a suspect, or it could be a structural difference between them that couldn't be overcome.
Or Ryan could be overthinking this. He knew why he was doing it. He'd lost so much in his life that he was afraid to let himself be happy with Nick. Putting a name to his issue didn't make it any less real, or any more solvable. Understanding that he was afraid didn't mean that he somehow was able to turn off that sense of existential dread that somehow went along with every adoring little text he got from Nick, or every joyful memory of their weekend holed up in his condo.
They hadn't even spent the whole weekend in bed. There had been plenty of sex, of course, but they'd spent a lot of time just being together. They'd played games, they'd watched television, and they’d cooked. Ryan had even gotten Nick to help him bake cupcakes, although they'd had to make two batches of frosting.
By Wednesday, he was all but wriggling with anticipation for the next weekend. They already had a plan to head back out to Ashland and spend the weekend there. Maybe they'd leave the house, maybe they wouldn't. Ryan didn't care, as long as he got to spend the time with his alpha. Maybe it was wrong to let someone else into that space in his heart, but Nick had already put himself there. All that Ryan was really doing was accepting what was.
The door to Abused Persons swung open at around four o'clock, while Ryan was just thinking about the shift in his thinking. Nick rushed in, eyes a little wild, and ran over to Ryan's desk. "What's going on?" Ryan asked him. He was already on his feet and grabbing for his coat.
Nick stopped and stared at him for a long moment, but then shook his head like he was clearing an Etch-A-Sketch. "It's Leanne O'Neal. She's at Carney Hospital right now."
Ryan turned his head and cursed. "Will?"
"I don't know. That receptionist, Shauna, called. She found my card in her things." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "We need to head down there and find out what's going on."
"Yeah we do." Ryan pulled his leather jacket on over his suit and followed his alpha out to an unmarked car.
They hit the road with the sirens blaring. The situation justified it. Once they made it onto the Pike, Nick glanced over at Ryan. "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"
"Uh, because I'm not?" Ryan lifted his head and looked out the windshield in confusion. Had he just stepped into a parallel universe? "We've used a condom every time, and I don't have any symptoms. I'm not pregnant."
"Dude. I'm an alpha. We can tell these things, man. Your scent shifted between Sunday and today." Nick didn't move his face at all. "You're absolutely pregnant."
"No way." Ryan's heart slammed against his ribcage. "That's just not possible. We've used every precaution available."
"Even those fail sometimes." Nick's voice was quiet. "You're not happy."
"It's a little bit of a shocker, don't you think?" Ryan glared at him. "I don't have any symptoms, and we weren't trying. We were the opposite of trying. We were un-trying." His hands shook in his lap. "This isn't possible. Your nose is malfunctioning."
Nick frowned. "It's not malfunctioning. Alphas' noses don't malfunction. We're not robots."
"Then you picked up a cold. Or allergies. Or a giant tumor inside your sinuses. I'm not pregnant." Ryan's whole body broke out in a cold sweat. "I just need to shower more often."
Nick reached out, like he wanted to put a hand on Ryan, and then he pulled it back. "You really think this is a bad thing."
"I don't know what I would think, if this were a real pregnancy. Which it most certainly is not." Ryan closed his eyes. He needed to center himself. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't happening. "Look. I'll take a test, and we'll talk about it then. Okay?"
Nick's mouth tightened. "Okay. But when I'm proven right, don't think you're not going to get the biggest I told you so."
They didn't speak for the rest of the drive. Ryan spent most of it biting his lip. He couldn't bring himself to believe that he was pregnant. It just didn't make sense. It wasn't just that they'd taken precautions against it. He had no symptoms at all, and weren't symptoms supposed to be a big thing when it came to pregnancy? It shouldn't be possible.
He couldn't focus on an absurdity like that right now, though. He had to concentrate on the case. Leanne O'Neal had been hurt, and Ryan couldn't conceive of a situation in which her injuries didn't stem from this investigation. It was too much of a coincidence. They'd have to seek a warrant, of course, but he had no doubt they would get one.
They parked at Carney and only had to flash their badges once to be directed to Leanne's room. The presence of a uniformed Boston cop outside of Leanne's room further solidified Ryan's theory about her injuries, but they didn't need to flash their badges at him. This one knew Nick.
"Hey, big bro!" he greeted, giving Nick a hug. "Fancy meeting you here."
Nick grinned a huge, wide grin. "Danny! This is a surprise! I definitely feel better about having you guarding my witness."
Danny's eyes widened. "Your witness? All I heard was that I was guarding an assault victim. I didn't get any details. She ain't talking, either. She's been a little fuzzy with the meds since surgery, although she's asked that they not give her the good stuff anymore. She was asking for a guy named Tran." He glanced at Ryan. "I guess that's you, then."
Ryan blushed. "I kind of stand out on the force."
Nick grinned. "Glad we made it, then. We'll head in and talk to her. Oh—Ryan, this is my little brother Danny, one of Boston's finest. Danny, this is Ryan. We've been working together on this case, and we've been seeing each other for a couple of weeks now."
Ryan flinched. They hadn't discussed meeting Nick's family, and he understood that this hadn't been planned and was just a seized opportunity but he just had bad experiences with brothers. When Danny smiled and held out a hand, Ryan relaxed just a little bit.
"Oh yeah? That's fantastic. You let me know if he doesn't treat you right, okay? We'll catch up after; your vic is in a world of hurt." Danny winked at Ryan and Ryan smiled back at him.
Nick gave Ryan's hand a little squeeze as they filed into Leanne's hospital room. Leanne he
rself lay in the bed, which had been set in a reclining position. She looked terrible. She had stitches in her face, and several teeth were missing from her mouth. Both of her eyes were ringed with black and swollen. One of her arms had been broken, and she cradled her other arm close to her as though she was trying to protect injured ribs.
Ryan didn't bother to hide the tear that leaked from his eye. "My God, Leanne." He rushed over to her bedside. "What happened?"
Katherine was in the room too. Ryan had been too caught up in what had happened to Leanne to notice her before, which surprised him. He'd seen and dealt with hundreds of abuse victims before. Of course, he'd never felt so responsible for what had happened to them before. "Her asshole ex-husband happened to her," Katherine told him. She glared at him with tear-reddened eyes. "What did you think?"
Leanne nudged her daughter with her casted arm. "Hey, none of that," she rasped, through a swollen mouth. "They're here to help." She squinted at them. "So how did you find out? I know the cops couldn't figure out who I was asking for."
"Shauna," Nick told her. "She found my card with your things."
"She's a good girl, that Shauna. She'll go far." Leanne coughed, and a little fleck of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth. Katherine wiped it away. "I didn't see him coming. I stepped outside to get some sun, and the next thing I knew there was a baseball bat coming at my face." She waved her arm. "I blocked that shot, but more kept coming."
"He was mad because she talked to you." Katherine's mouth twisted. "How did he even know that she talked to you, huh?"
"He didn't." Leanne croaked the words. "He assumed, because he knows what I know. He knows that I'll nail him." She closed her eyes, and for a moment Ryan wondered if she’d passed out from the pain. Then she opened her eyes again. "I knew that he had issues with his temper. I knew. I could see it all over Maureen, you know? Less so on Stevie, but Stevie idolized Will. He was a follower. He loved Maureen, they got along well, but it was Will he looked up to. If Will said jump, Stevie didn't even ask how high. He'd just jump."
Ryan looked up and met Katherine's eyes. She was staring in horror, sometimes at her mother, sometimes at Ryan and Nick. "You're talking about murder."
"Not at first." Leanne closed her eyes again. "At first it was just Will trying to bring her to heel. And back in those days, it wasn't normal but it wasn't shocking either. The mother was kind of not really there, you know? She had a thing for the mother's little helpers. At the time, I looked down on her. Looking back, knowing what I know now, I can't judge her." She gave a bitter little chuckle. "Before I realized that I could get out, I won't pretend that I didn't turn to a little pick me up here and there."
Katherine gasped. "Mom!" She put her hands up to her cheeks.
Leanne turned to her daughter. "I am so glad that you don't have to understand, Kathy."
Ryan cleared his throat. "It's not unusual." He took Leanne's hand. "A lot of people who are trapped, or who believe that they're trapped, will take whatever help they can get, just to make it through another day. Sometimes it's not the healthiest decision, but I'm not sure that it's something any of us can really judge them for."
Leanne gave him a little squeeze. "I knew you'd get it. Anyway, when he started to lash out at Kathy, I knew I had to get us out of there. And I did." She smirked. "And I brought an insurance policy with me. I have proof."
Nick leaned forward. "Proof?"
"Proof that the no-good son of a bitch killed his baby sister." She reached out for her jug of water. "After the two of them did it, Will brought me the damn bat to get rid of. I think he knew that I wasn't going to get rid of it, because when he went and enlisted he insisted that I move in with his family right away. And I did, because he loved me." She snorted. "But I kept that bat. And I kept it hidden, too. His family watched me like a hawk, but I never showed them where it was. I've still got it, and when I moved out I let him know. I told him that if he ever came after me, I was going to make sure that it wound up in the right hands."
Ryan cleared his throat. He wouldn't be able to look himself in the eye if he asked, or if he didn't. "So. Would you be willing to testify in court, if you had to?"
Kathy turned outraged eyes over to him. "Oh my God, how can you ask that? Can't you see what the bastard's already done to her?"
Leanne held up her casted hand. "I want to, sweetheart. It's obvious that keeping quiet didn't keep me safe. And it's obvious that my insurance policy didn't keep me safe, either. I did the wrong thing, for love. Or so I thought. It's time that I did the right thing, and hope that I can get forgiveness from God."
Nick stood up. "Thank you so much for telling us, Leanne." Ryan looked at his alpha's eyes. He could see that there wasn't a lot of warmth or forgiveness there, but Nick's tone was all sympathy. Ryan knew that there would be a Discussion later.
"They're going to let me out of here tomorrow, barring complications." Leanne took a shallow, wheezing breath. "I want the two of you to come home to Stoughton with me. And I want you to take that thing, just in case he comes back for me."
Ryan leaned forward. "Do you think that you'd be willing to accept going to a safe house for a little while? Or having a protective detail until he's locked up?"
She thought about it. "I'm not sure if they'd let the cops into the school. Then again, I'm not sure that I'm going to be up to going back to school until my ribs are healed." She scowled. "One more thing that bastard stole from me." Her lip curled. "Maybe I'll sue him to make up for the lost money."
"Seems reasonable." Ryan brushed his hand across an unbruised section of her forehead. He handed Katherine another card. "Send me a text tomorrow morning, before they let her leave the hospital. We'll make sure she's protected, if we have to escort her home ourselves."
They left the hospital. It was already dark out by the time they got out, much to Ryan's eternal disgust. "How you doing?" he asked Nick, reaching for his hand on their way back to the car.
Nick just grunted, but he took Ryan's hand as they walked. He didn't speak until they got into the car. "I'm just having trouble seeing how you can possibly be sympathetic to her." He buckled his seat belt. "She knew that a girl was dead. She knew—everyone knew—that a young man was dead, and she knew who killed both of them. She kept her mouth shut, for years. I don't… I don't see how anyone could possibly justify that."
Ryan buckled himself in and shrugged. "I don't know that I can justify it. If I did some digging into her own background, I'm pretty sure I'd see a pattern of abuse in her own family. There was a lot of fear. She should have come forward earlier, and I'm not disputing that, but she's coming forward now."
"To get her ex off her back." Nick's lip curled.
"She's still coming forward." Ryan looked out the window. "It's what we've got to work with, and I'm going to have to hope that it's enough."
***
Nick and Ryan both went back to Ryan's place after work. Nick stopped off and bought an omega pregnancy testing kit on his way over. He didn't need the test. His nose wasn't stuffed up, or warped from some kind of cold, or blocked by a tumor. It worked just fine. Ryan was pregnant, and he was carrying Nick's baby.
It hurt that this wasn't exciting to Ryan. Okay, so maybe it was a little shocking. Some people didn't have any early pregnancy symptoms. It was weird, but it did happen. Still, wouldn't a baby be something to celebrate? From everything that Ryan had told him, he'd planned to start a family with that other guy, so why wouldn't he be happy about starting a family with Nick?
Was it because Nick wasn't the other guy?
Nick paced around the living room while Ryan took the test upstairs. He wanted to take the test alone, he said. It wasn't anything against Nick, he said. He was just agitated, and he didn't want to bite his head off or anything. Nick pretended to understand and paced downstairs, when all that he wanted was to be upstairs celebrating when the results came back positive.
Nick was a family guy. He was the only one of his father's sons who had
n't presented their parents with a grandchild yet. The timing had never been right to pursue a serious relationship. The timing of this particular pregnancy strongly suggested that there had been very little of "serious relationship" and a whole lot of "failed condom" involved with the conception, but that didn't matter. They'd decided to pursue something real before Ryan's scent shifted, so the only difference was that Nick hadn't gotten around to claiming Ryan.
Upstairs, the toilet flushed. The water ran. Footsteps moved from the bathroom back to the master bedroom, and a door closed.
Nick sat down on the couch and chewed on his nails. He couldn't understand, for the life of him, what Ryan's issue could possibly be. They loved each other, so having a baby would be a natural extension of that love. Wouldn't it? Was it possible that Ryan didn't love Nick enough to start a family with him?
He doubled over. The thought was like a stab wound.
