Chapter Sixteen
Brody
The room we were in was barely lit. Landry was up on a table, her legs covered in a white sheet that was tucked into the waistband of her scrub pants. Her flat stomach was exposed and some blonde chick around my age was squirting goo on her skin.
“Okay guys, ready to see your baby?”
Landry opened her mouth to correct the tech, to inform her that it might not be our baby. I squeezed her hand, stopping her. “We’re ready.” What did it matter if the girl thought I was the father? Landry feeling the need to correct every person who made an assumption was going to have to stop. I was here. I wasn’t going anywhere. Who cared what a stranger believed?
The tech used a weird-looking nubbed glove, rubbing it around in the clear gooey gel stuff. She pressed down hard, smashing Landry’s stomach. I started to ask her if she knew what the fuck she was doing, but stopped when a strange whooshing sound filled the room.
“That’s your baby’s heartbeat. I was afraid it might be too early to hear, but there you go.” She pulled the adjustable screen closer toward us. “And that,” She pointed to a black looking peanut surrounded by white stuff. “Is your baby.”
Holy fuck. There was a large tadpole inside my girl. “Wow.”
“You’re measuring at six weeks and five days.” The tech punched about a million buttons, and then pictures started to print from the side of her machine. “I’ll enter all these images into your chart and Dr. Woodsen will be in shortly.” The tech went to hand the pictures to Landry, but I shot my hand out and took them instead.
“That’s a baby.” I brought the printouts close to my face, squinting my eyes and trying to imagine that little tummy bug growing into an actual human. “That’s insane.”
Landry sat up, wiping her stomach with a towel and re-tying her scrub pants. “I know, right?” She turned, swinging her legs around to my side of the exam table. “Next time, it’ll look a little more like a baby. It’s early days right now.”
I hopped up next to her, handing her the images. “You should send a picture to your Uncle Luke, he’s been really worried about you.” He texted Talon at least three times a day, checking in, asking if Talon had seen Landry. It seemed that Luke wanted Talon to be baby daddy. Not that I blamed him. I understood his reasoning. Talon was a good guy and he didn’t let random people tattoo his ass. But Landry was my girl, no one else’s.
“My whole family is worried about me. I must get four phone calls a day and about a hundred texts. My parents, Luke, my brother, Halen…even Cash called me yesterday.” She leaned her head against my arm, something she’d been doing more and more lately. Which only showed how utterly exhausted she was all the time.
“Well you and the little tummy bug are lucky to have so many people who love you, right?”
She nodded, covering her mouth to hold in a yawn. “The problem is, with every phone call, I can feel what they’re really thinking.”
“Which is?”
“They want to know who the father is, their disappointment in me. They want me to come home, to take a year off.” Her weight was getting heavier against my side so I wrapped an arm around her and guided her head down to my lap. A week ago this would have been my funny way of telling her I wanted head. Now? I wanted her to rest comfortably. “I lied and told them it was a one-night stand and that I never even got his name. And I lie again every time they ask. And I lie when I tell them I feel great, and that I’m getting plenty of sleep at night. I lie. They know I’m lying, but they let me get away with it because they’re worried about me. It’s a vicious cycle.”
I wanted to open my mouth and ask her to tell one more lie. I wanted to say that she could tell them I was the dad, and that I was here and I was taking good care of her. I was holding her hand and tearing up at the sound of the baby’s heartbeat. But I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready.
Idiot that I was, I still had the same damn fears, the same unanswerable questions. Would Travis want to raise the baby with Landry? Would he try to get her back? Would he tell her he didn’t want me around the kid?
The door opened and a large man with a beard and tattooed arms walked in, a big smile on his face. “Good afternoon, I’m Dr. Woodsen.” Landry picked a tattooed lumberjack to be her baby doctor?
Landry sat up, holding her hand out. “Landry Cole.” She gestured with her head to me. “Brody Frost.”
“It’s nice to meet you both.” The doctor pulled up a rolling stool with a thick black leather top. He moved his stark white lab coat out so he could sit. “Look, before we start your appointment, I’m going to lay my cards on the table and show you how uncool I am, okay?”
We glanced at each other, and then nodded.
“I love the Devil’s Share, and I love Clashing Swell.” He looked directly at me. “I love that you guys are signed with RiffRaff, I think it’s the perfect place for you.” He shifted his eyes to my girl. “And Landry, when I was a kid, I followed you on the net. I would have stalked you on social media, but you didn’t have any.” He held his hands up, shaking his head sadly. “I’m a fan boy. I did a happy dance when I found out you were my patient. If you want a new doctor, I understand.”
I looked down at Landry, raising my eyebrows in question. “The man is going to have his hand inside your body—it’s up to you, baby cakes.”
“I think I’ll take my chances.” Landry shrugged, a smile on her face. “If you’re in love with all the men in my life, I’m sure you’ll take great care of me.”
He nodded. “The best care.” He clapped his hands then rubbed them together. “So let’s get started. How have you been feeling?” He grabbed a tablet off a docking station on the desk behind him, swiping it open. “It says here that you’ve experienced some morning sickness?”
“Yeah, I feel like I’ve been throwing up from the moment the blastula implanted.”
Well that sounded clinical AF.
“Usually the nausea associated with pregnancy doesn’t start until around week six. It’s possible yours could have started earlier, or maybe you had a virus and the timing was coincidental?” He typed a few things in her chart then stopped. “Do you feel like the morning sickness has gotten worse?”
“I feel like it’s gotten a little worse over the last week or so.”
I turned to the side, staring down at the top of her dark brown head. “Are you kidding me, Cole?” I put my hand over the top of the doctor’s tablet. “She throws up nonstop. Morning, noon and night. Sometimes she even wakes up in the middle of the night to puke. She can’t hold anything down.”
Dr. Woodsen sat Landry’s chart to the side and crossed his arms over his chest, which happened to be incredibly large. He looked like a biker, not a man that delivered tiny babies. “That true?”
She nodded.
“We’re in this together, okay? And I need you to be honest with me about how you’re feeling and what symptoms you’re experiencing. I know that doctors make the worst patients, but you’re going to have to work with me here. The health and safety of you and the baby depend on it.” She nodded again. “I don’t know what your weight was pre-pregnancy, but you’re underweight now regardless.”
She nodded again.
“There are a few different anti-nausea medications we can try. It’ll be a little trial and error at first, finding what works for you.”
At some point since Dr. McBearded walked in, I’d put my arm back around Landry and she was resting her head on my shoulder again. I kissed the top of her head. “And they’re all safe for her to take? Safe for the baby?”
“They are. And at this point in the game, with how little nutrients Landry and then in turn the baby are getting, the meds are pretty imperative.”
“We have to try the medications that won’t knock me out first. I work twelve- and fourteen-hour days, if not longer. I’m in my fifth year here, I can’t drop out now.” Landry sounded strong and tough, but her head was still resting on me. “I have to get my time in the OR. I have to finish my rotations.”
“I’m not going to sugarcoat things for you—I shouldn’t have to. You know the risks here, even if you don’t want to admit them to yourself or the baby’s father. If you keep going like this, you’ll end up hooked to an IV. And then you’ll for sure have to take a year off from the program.” He put his hand on her leg, and I wanted to swat it off. “I don’t like being the bad guy, but I will if you force my hand.” McBearded was tough.
“I really want to tell you to fuck off right now.” Landry laid her head down in my lap again. “But I’m too tired. If you write me a prescription and let me take a twenty-minute nap in this exam room, I’ll get you something signed from Clashing Swell.”
He chuckled as he got to his feet. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Dr. Cole.”
“Landry, please call me Landry.” She fell asleep almost instantly, her breathing evening out and her body settling in my lap. I brushed the hair back from her face and rubbed soothing circles on her back.
I’d been attracted to Landry from the first moment I saw her. I’d wanted to fuck her from the first time she’d winked at me. I’d wanted to know her since she’d let me throw her over my shoulder and then held her own in that supply closet. But watching her sleep in my arms, utterly exhausted, all I wanted to do was take care of her.
“Here you go, man. These are her prescriptions, she needs to take them both with food.” Dr. McBearded handed me two different small squares of Q-code. “One is for prenatal vitamins and the other is the anti-nausea pills.”
“Is she going to be okay?” I whispered, as afraid to wake up Landry as I was of his answer.
“Like I said, I won’t sugarcoat anything.” He sat down on the black stool; the chair looked so tiny in comparison to his massive frame. “She’s too thin, and I’m sure she’s dehydrated. She works long hours on her feet in high-stress situations. None of those things are good for the baby. But. Surgeons have babies all the time. As long as the meds work, and she starts gaining some weight back, she should be fine.”
“And if she doesn’t. If the pills don’t work and she gets worse?”
“Then we’re looking at bed rest and a really pissed off fifth-year resident.” He got to his feet and held his hand out. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, for both of our sakes.”
I put my hand in his, shaking it for a brief moment. “Next appointment, we’ll bring you in some fan gear.”
“I want to see her a week from today. I want to monitor her weight closely. I need to do some routine blood work, but we can wait until next visit. To be honest, man, I’m afraid she’ll pass out on us if we try to draw labs today.” He sent me another weak smile and then left the room.
I pulled my vibrating cell out of my pocket as soon as the door closed.
Talon: How was her appointment? Luke’s asking. I assured him I was going with her today.
Brody: Luke needs to hop off your dick.
Talon: He’s worried about his niece.
He was worried about Landry but he was trying to hook her and Talon up. Luke wanted Talon with her at all times. The overprotective uncle was passing the setup off as concern, but what he was attempting was obvious. He didn’t want Landry to raise the baby on her own, and in Luke’s eyes, Talon was the perfect stand-in.
Brody: The appointment went okay, they are going to try some different meds to see if they can get her to stop puking all the time. We got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat, which was so insane. And awesome. And weird. We have some pictures, I’m sure Landry will send them to her family.
Talon: Why don’t you bring her to practice tonight? It’ll do Luke some good to see her getting out of the house and having some fun.
Brody: I’ll see if she’s up to it.
Talon was right; it would probably make her family ecstatic. Luke would shit himself to see Landry hanging out with T. But I wasn’t going to force her to do any more than she had to.
Rest was more important than her uncle’s matchmaking agenda.