"Okay, Tofer! Tom is off to work, call if Miss Allie needs anything! Otherwise, Tom will return at one o'clock sharp for Miss Allie's appointment this afternoon. Tofer will have both himself and Miss Allie ready?"

"Of course, I will! Tofer has plans to take our princess to the park for some sunshine, then back home to work on our reading, then lunch, and after that we will get ready for our appointment with Dr. Hank."

I grinned and thanked him before heading out the door. I laughed to myself as I made the quick walk to work, loving how Tofer always felt the need to outline his complete plans for me. We'd been living together with Allie for almost two months now, and Tofer had been a complete life saver.

Miss Allie was getting sicker by the day. She was constantly tired and couldn't eat very much. Every night, she woke up covered in sweat with a raging fever. All of this, I could handle. It was when she got short of breath that I wigged out. Colin had come over more than once in the middle of the night, to check on her for me so that I wouldn't have to drag her out in the cold.

Her type of cancer was rare for children her age, especially for girls. The doctors had said it was possible that it was passed on to her genetically, but there was no way to know about that. Miss Allie's had been a closed adoption, done through the church and its attorneys.

Miss Allie’s adoptive parents had been killed in a car accident when she was four, and they had no other family or a guardian in place for the child. She had become a ward of the state, and entered the foster care program at that time.

My heart broke every time I thought of how she'd spent more of her life in the system than she had in the arms of her adoptive parents. I imagine that somewhere she had at least one biological parent who imagined their child being happily in the arms of loving parents, never knowing what fate had unleashed on the child.

I pushed aside my thoughts and entered Sweet Ballz. For the next several hours, I was able to lose myself in paperwork and push aside my fears for the child that already had a piece of my heart. I hadn't told anyone this, but I'd already spoken to Ian about helping me permanently adopt her.

In most cases, the child needed to be in the foster home for six months before an adoption could be considered. However, given that Miss Allie was an orphan and a special case given her health, Ian felt like an adoption could be fast tracked.

I was so relieved to have his help that I'd forgiven him for being married to his job the whole time we'd dated. I had to, given that the job would be giving me my princess if everything worked out.

At some point, I'd need to talk to Colin about my plans. We'd been actually dating for the past couple months, so he should probably know that I would now come with a plus one. Although, given how much the hot daddy adored our girl, that would likely be a mark in my favor.

As if on cue, my phone rang right as I sat down at my desk. "Hello, hot daddy. Tom is busy today, but not too busy for Colin."

"Hey, ginger boy. I just wanted to see if I can come to Allie's appointment with you today. I figured you might want someone who can translate the doctor talk for you. I also offer a strong shoulder, should you need one to lean on."

I thought about it briefly. "Is Colin certain? Tom doesn't want to take the hot daddy away from work."

"Tom. I wouldn't be calling if I wasn't sure. My schedule is already cleared in hopeful anticipation of you saying yes. Now, can I come along or not?"

"Tom would appreciate Colin's company. Yes, please."

"Perfect. Shall I meet you there or pick you three up? I'm assuming that Tofer will be along too, right?"

Suddenly, the idea of having Colin sweep in, pick us up, and be the strong alpha I needed was too good to resist. "Okay, hot daddy. Pick us all up at one fifteen. Our appointment is at one forty-five, but we should leave early."

"You got it, ginger boy. Now go distract yourself with paperwork. Maybe tonight you'll tell me what's had you so side-tracked lately."

Without pausing to censor myself, I blurted out in a rush: "Tom has been in contact with Ian because Ian is an attorney. Ian is going to help Tom to adopt Miss Allie."

The line went silent for several seconds. My heart raced as I worried about what Colin was about to say. About Ian, about me adopting our princess, all of it—it was a lot to drop on the alpha over the phone with no warning.

Colin’s deep voice came over the line, settling my nerves at once as he spoke. "That's good, Tom. I'm proud of you for going to Ian for help. That couldn't have been a lot of fun for you. Whatever you need, I've got your back on this one. I'm assuming that Allie has no idea?"

"None. Tom is planning to tell Miss Allie tonight. It will cheer the child up after the appointment with Dr. Hank."

"Well, Dr. Hank is one of my oldest friends. She's in good hands, ginger boy. I promise."

"Alrighty then. Tom must work, and Colin must go be the hot daddy doctor. Talk soon, hot daddy. And thank you."

"Anytime, Tom."

I ended the call and set my phone to the side. For the rest of the morning I lost myself in invoices, time cards, and all the other fun shit that came with managing the shop.

By the time Milo arrived to take over for me, I had everything done, filed, and otherwise handled. He walked in and took one look at my empty inbox, then leveled me with a knowing smile.

"Worked off the nervous energy, huh?"

I nodded sharply. "Tom is getting help from Ian. Tom plans to adopt Miss Allie. The appointment will be fine, the cancer will lose, the righteous shall vanquish. Yee-haw."

Milo looked at me with his head tilted to the side. "Have you been eating the rum ballz? You do know that they contain actual liqueur, right?"

I shook my head and bent over to hug my knees. "I can't do this, Milo! I can't watch my little girl suffer. Why does she have to go through this shit? Hasn't she been through enough in her life?"

Milo was suddenly right in front of me, knelt down with his arms around my neck. "I don't know the answers, Tom. But I do know that Allie's luck changed the day you found her. You two are meant to be together, anyone can see it. Hell, the girl even looks like you! I mean, I'm sorry, I don't want to bring up old—"

"It's fine, Milo." I waved his worries aside with wiggling fingers. "Of course she makes me think of the lost child. How could she not? Maybe parenting her will help me heal from the loss of the one I couldn't save. I don't know if that even matters. I do know that she isn't a replacement though. She's her own person. And I love her so much, Milo. I never could have known how much I would love this child. I'm so scared of what I'm going to hear today."

I broke down in tears, while Milo hugged me and rubbed my back. With a start, I jerked up and looked at the clock. "I need to go. Her appointment is in less than an hour and I told Tofer I'd be home by now. Colin is—"

"Standing right here, ginger boy. I had a feeling you might need me, so I came by here to pick you up."

I looked over to see Colin standing in the doorway, looking all sexy with the alpha daddy dominance. My eyes began to tear up again. Milo stood and stepped back with a soft smile. "He's all yours, Colin. I think for the first time that I can remember, Tom needs someone besides me to comfort him."

Colin just walked over and casually picked me up. He cuddled me to his chest. After planting a fast kiss on my forehead, Colin carried me right through the kitchen. He told Milo, who scurried ahead to open the door, "He'll call you later. Don't worry, I'm going to the appointment with them and I won't leave him home afterword with no support system."

"Tom has Tofer," I said softly. Not so much to argue, but because I didn't want the hot daddy to feel obligated.

"No," he corrected me softly. "Allie has Tofer. And Allie has Tom. You, my adorable ginger boy, need your own support system. I've let you brush me off and claim that you're fine because I was giving you space. That's changing. You need someone, and I need to be that someone. Deal with it, cutie."

Milo made a gushing noise that had me rolling my eyes as he opened the main door for Colin. Milo reached up and ruffled my hair. "Listen to the alpha, Tom. Quit fighting it and being so damned stubborn. Adopted yet or not, Allie is obviously already the child of your heart. You have a sick kid, accept a support system, doofus. We love you. Now go. Call me tonight, or I'm showing up on your doorstep."

* * *

We sat there in the waiting room of the doctor's office a few hours later, hand in hand. Tofer had taken Miss Allie to play in the activity room while Colin and I had both gone to have our blood tested. Dr. Hank had told us that Allie would need an aggressive form of chemo, but with a bone marrow transplant, she would have a much higher chance at a full recovery.

I was going to ask Tofer to also get tested, but he'd looked so regretful that I'd felt like it wasn't a good thing to go there.

"How much longer, hot daddy? It's been forever already," I fretted, stopping to take yet another look at granddaddy's watch that I always wore in his memory.

Colin released my hand and pulled me over onto his lap, obviously not caring if his coworkers saw him cuddling an omega in the middle of the hospital. Okay, so it was a private office. Still. It felt good that he didn't mind publicly admitting that he was seeing me.

"They're expediting it, ginger boy. It will go as fast as the machines can compute it. Until then, we just have to try and be patient."

Before I could properly respond to that, the door opened to Dr. Hank's inner office. "Colin? Tom? I think you'd better step into my office for this one. It's delicate."

I hopped up and charged off with Colin right behind me. What the hell did he mean by delicate? I took a seat in front of the doctor's desk and blindly reached out for hot daddy's hand. I wasn't even gonna play like I didn't need his support right now.

Dr. Hank sat down in his chair and rifled through a few papers. Then he pulled off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.

Colin spoke first. "Hank? You're kind of scaring me here, buddy. Can you maybe just tell us what the hell has you so flustered?"

With a brisk nod, Hank leveled a look at Tom. "Mr. Collins, before we proceed, I need to confirm that you are fine with me discussing your own medical records in front of Colin. What I have to talk to you about is likely quite sensitive for you."

I looked up at him blankly. "Tom doesn't mind. Go ahead, Dr. Hank."

"Tom, we tested both of your blood, and you are a direct match for Allison."

I looked up, overjoyed. "Why is that delicate? That's what Dr. Hank was checking for, right? Tom doesn't understand."

The omega doctor looked at me compassionately and shook his head. "Tom? Did you have a baby as a teenager? We ran the results several times, but there's no mistake. Allison is your biological child."

The blood must have drained from my body, because I felt cold and numb all over. "What? No! That's impossible," I rasped frantically, looking back and forth between a stunned Colin and a compassionate Dr. Hank. "My parents said she died at birth! I was going to keep her! I told them that! I wanted my baby, dammit! She was mine! MINE!"

I was screaming now, my arms wrapped around my chest as though to contain my pain as I rocked back and forth blindly. "No! They lied to me? Are you serious? Allie is my dead baby? Mommy and Daddy lied to me?"

Colin's only reaction was to lift me again and pull me onto his lap. He calmly rubbed my back and said, "I'm guessing this is the big secret? Just let it out, baby. I'm here. The important thing is that you can donate for Allie."

"Actually, that's incorrect," Dr. Hank said calmly. "That's the second order of business."

I sat up in Colin's lap, my heart racing as I clenched his arm that was wrapped around my waist to wait for the other shoe to fall.

"Tom, you're pregnant. About ten weeks or so. We can't allow you to donate while you're pregnant. I have some options, though."

Colin sucked in a breath at the same time that my own heart pretty much stopped. "Wait. I can't be pregnant! I'm on the prevacare shot!"

"Yeah, I checked on that, after I read your lab work, since you'd noted that on your intake form. The lot you were given in September was bad. There's a recall on it, to be honest. It appears there was a mix-up. Rather than being a contraceptive, it seems to be a fertility medication. I'll be happy to get your paperwork together if you want your attorney to pursue this for you. But in the meantime, it gives us limited options."

Colin's arm tightened protectively around me, pulling me against his chest. "I'm pretty sure that's the least of our concerns at the moment, Hank. What are our options?"

I felt a happy tingle hearing hot daddy use the word ‘our’ like that. I much preferred ‘our’ to ‘my’. Dr. Hank nodded. "Well then, one option is to ask Allison's alpha father to be tested. In many cases, both parents are a match. Not often, but it happens."

I shook my head frantically from side to side. "No. That's impossible, I can't do that."

"I'm sure it's hard, Tom," Dr. Hank said.

"That's not it. I'd face anyone for Allie." I gulped and held my head high as I finally spoke my truth for the first time in a decade. Nobody had believed me then, and I could only hope that Colin wouldn't hate me now.

"I was raped, at a party. Someone put drugs in my soda. I wasn't even drinking, I swear! I woke up the next day, and I was alone and nake—" I couldn't go on. Sobs wracked my body as Colin turned me and held me to his chest.

"Shh. We believe you, Tom. It's okay. It wasn't your fault." Colin spoke calmly, the truth of his words evident in his voice. I cried harder when I realized that finally, finally someone other than Milo knew my secret and believed me.

Once I calmed down, Colin quietly asked, "What is our other option, Hank? You mentioned choices."

"Cord blood. Although Tom's new baby would only be a half sibling, if the blood type is a match to Tom, it will be a match to Allison as well. There are more complicated tests to be run, as you know, but basically? That's our best option. Honestly, cord blood is the better option anyway. It has a higher survival rate in this type of cancer. I feel confident that Tom's child could save Allison's life simply by being born."

"Our child," Colin corrected. At Hank's quizzical expression, Colin repeated himself. "The baby is mine, Hank. This is our child, mine and Tom's."

Hank's eyebrows shot up, but he smiled pleasantly to cover his shock. "Well, then. The two of you have a lot to discuss."

I shook my head, positive that Colin would agree. "I don't think we have to discuss it at all, why wouldn't we want to give Allie the cord blood?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely," Colin breathed out, with a hint of wonder in his voice.

Dr. Hank tapped his finger on his desk and nodded. "Wonderful. Then here's what we need to do. You have about six and a half months to go. I want to give Allison a long course of chemo over the next six months. We will do a scheduled C-section to coincide with her final treatment. Giving it to her then will optimize her recovery, ultimately beating the cancer into remission. This is, of course, all dependent on the fetal tests. We can do this as early as ten weeks, so it can be done today if you'd like."

Colin asked, "What test are you wanting to run, Hank?"

The doctor replied, "CVS." He explained for my benefit. "This means Chorionic Villus Sampling. The Chorionic villi line the walls of your uterus, and come from the same cells as the fertilized egg, which mean they have the same genetic makeup. This is less invasive for the fetus, and not too horrible for you. We will use an ultrasound machine to guide the testing tube into place and take a sample."

"And it won't hurt my baby?" I asked to clarify.

Colin answered for him. "It's our best bet. I'd prefer it to amniocentesis, to be honest. And if we waited for that, you'd have to wait until the middle of the second trimester. This is way less invasive to our child, but a bit more of an ordeal for you."

"That's not even a concern," I stated firmly. "I want to do what is best for our child."

Colin won my heart completely when he agreed, "We need to do what's best for both of our children."

Dr. Hank stood then, and said kindly, "I'm going to go order the test. You guys take a few minutes and have some privacy. This was a lot to take in. I'm sorry I had to be the one to put it all out there."

"No," I said. "Thank you! To know that my baby is alive is everything to me! I hate that she was taken from me like that, and that she's endured all she has as a result. But I am just beyond thankful that I've found her again. And to find out that I'm going to get a second chance with a child that can save my lost baby? That's just everything to me, Dr. Hank."

The kind doctor smiled warmly and thanked me, then let himself out of the room. I turned and faced Colin, straddling his lap in the chair so that my legs were awkwardly bent over the arms. His hands came up to hold my hips while mine went around his neck. We stared at each other for a long time before I finally spoke.

"Thank you for believing me. Nobody but Milo ever did back then. I finally quit talking about it."

"Of course, I believe you. Aside from the fact that I've been doing emergency room medicine for the past five years, where I learned early not to blame the victim, I know that you aren't a liar."

I nodded, secure in his words. "And you don't mind about the baby?"

"Mind? I'm stunned. I'm beyond blown away. But surprisingly enough? No, I don't mind a bit. I'm actually a little excited... or even a lot maybe." He grinned and leaned forward to kiss me.

I met him halfway, our lips slotting together as though made for each other. I pulled away from the kiss, half dazed.

"The test. It's really safe?"

"Do you think I'd put you or our child at risk if it weren't? It's okay, ginger boy. You need to spend more time figuring out how soon you can get ready to move than you do about this test."

I looked at him with a quirked brow and an amused smile. "Oh, really? And why am I moving? I happen to like my little place."

Hot daddy grinned that bossy smile of his and said, "Because I'm moving in and we need more than one bathroom. We’ll also need a nursery for the baby, since I don't see you sending Tofer anywhere. So we'll just get a bigger place."

I jerked forward and began peppering his face with a flurry of kisses. He laughed and asked, "Is this you saying yes?"

Leaning back, I commented dryly, "Well, it's not like I was exactly asked, so I wasn't thinking an agreement was necessary."

"Good point," he laughed. My phone rang then, and I pulled it out of my pocket. Ian! Holding the phone up to show Colin, I hit answer. "Hey, Ian. I need you to change the adoption papers."

"Really? Why, is there a problem?"

"Yes. I need you to get the original adoption thrown out, cancelled, annulled, whatever you call it, get it done."

"Tommy boy, there's no grounds! And the adoptive parents are dead, the records ar—"

"Ian! I don't have time, I'm at the doctor's. Listen to me. I have DNA evidence that I am her biological father. My parents told me she was stillborn. Do what you have to with that, Milo is a witness. He was with me when they came in after my emergency c-section and they told me she'd died. And no, there is no alpha paternity to pursue, so don't bother asking."

"Umm, Tom? I don't know what to say to any of that, or the fact that you're not talking like yourself. But I will pursue this right now as my sole obsession. That's fucked up what was done to you, and I'll do my best to make it right."

"Thanks, Ian. I'll talk to you soon. I have to go have an ultrasound for my new pregnancy now. Bye-eee!"

I bit back a giggle at his shocked gasp as I ended the call. Colin was shaking his head with a smirk as I tossed my phone down onto the chair beside us.

"You're mean, ginger boy. To end that call like that. Now he's going to be spazzing out wondering if it's his, and if not, who the the hell did you get together with after him. Either way, you just fucked up his day."

I shrugged. "It's not his. We haven't had sex in over five months. And he's never managed to lose a condom in my ass, so..." I let my voice trail off playfully.

Colin snorted and pointed at my phone. "You might want to call Milo before Ian does. Unless you want him to hear it from Ian instead of you?"

With a gasp, I snatched my phone back up and dialed Milo. When he answered, I asked, "Are you sitting down?"

"Yeah, I'm in the office getting the deposit ready. Why? Is Allie okay?"

"I'll get into all that later. I have some important information that you need to know."

"Okay?"

"First, dead baby was just stolen baby or lost baby, and lost baby is now found baby. The reason Allie looks like me is because she's the lost, stolen baby. Also, I'm pregnant with Colin's baby and we're about to do some weird invasive test so they can scrape cells from inside me to see if the baby's cord blood can save Allie. Did you follow all that? Milo?"

"Yeah, sorry. I was just looking for my keys. I'm on my way."

"No, I'm fi—"

"Shut up. You're not pushing me out. I'm on my way. We agreed I'd be lost baby's godfather back then, remember? Well, I need to hug my goddaughter."

"Milo, I love you. Wait. She doesn't know yet."

"She doesn't have to know. We all love her already, now there's just another layer of reason why. I'm coming over and hugging the freckles off of that goofy little ginger, that's all there is to it. Now hang up, I need to drive."

"Okay. But Milo? Maybe don't hug too hard? She has breathing problems."

"Hush, papa bear. I'm not a newbie at this whole parenting thing. Now shoo! Go bug your alpha."

I giggled and hung up. This time when I threw my phone down, it stayed there while I kissed the fuck out of my hot alpha daddy.