Brook

“Gin. Dad. Please, just listen. Please,” I plead, trying to keep him from going after Sage and beating him into the ground. “He tried to keep away from me—”

“Not fucking hard enough,” Gin growls, turning to face me again. There’s so much hurt and anger in his eyes. “I can’t do this right now. I need to work this out.” He walks out of the room before I can answer.

“Oh god. This is all going to hell.”

* * *

I wake when the nurse comes in to take my vitals and says something about the doctor coming by to check on the status of the baby. I shake my head when she says it, as if I had forgotten what happened earlier. I’m having a baby. Sage’s baby. Crap, Gin is going to kill Sage. I try to get out of bed, but my feet touch the floor and almost give out from under me. “And what do you think you’re doing?” Grace asks, bustling into the room, a bright smile on her face. Gin coming back from the dead has brought her back to life too. She no longer has dark circles under her eyes and her smile isn’t fake.

“I need to get to Sage. Gin is going to kill him.” I try to pull my stupid hospital gown tighter around my backside.

“Might pound on him a little, but Sage is his brother, has been for a long time. He won’t kill him, and even if he wanted to, the club wouldn’t let him,” Jason says, coming into the room behind Grace.

“You need to go to the clubhouse to make sure. Please, Jason. He can’t hurt Sage. Not for this. What’s between us isn’t just some fling,” I explain as Grace forces me back onto the bed and tucks the covers over my lap.

“He’ll calm down. Just give him a little time. It took him forever to be okay with me and him together. Fuzz was Gin’s best friend, and I’m his daughter. He’ll come around. Trust me,” Grace assures me, but still I have my doubts. When someone else comes walking into the room rolling a machine behind them, I push my thoughts to the side.

“Hello. I’m Doctor Madison. I’m the OBGYN. I’m here to give you an ultrasound. See how that baby is doing,” she says, a big red lipstick lined smile on her wrinkle free face. I settle down for her to get everything into place, and Jason and Grace stay when I tell them not to leave. I wish Sage were here to see this, but I’m glad my brother and stepmom are.

Doctor Madison goes about pulling up my gown and squirting some blue goo on my flat stomach. “Now, I’ll warn you, the fetal heartbeat can’t be detected until the six to seven week mark, so don’t panic if you don’t hear anything. We are just checking to make sure there aren’t any complications due to your abduction,” she explains as the screen fills with a static image. She clicks away at the keyboard, then points to a black oval in the middle of the white and black mess. “Right there, that teeny tiny little gray speck, is what you have growing inside you. Kind of hard to believe in just a few months that will be a baby.” She clicks at the keyboard again. “I’ll get a picture to show off. Oh, and look here, it’s small, but that little flicker? That’s the heartbeat.” She shines a smile at me, but I don’t see it. I’m too focused at the little spot on the screen. All too quickly, it vanishes as she takes away the wand, but then she hands me a piece of paper. “Congratulations, Ms. Mathers. You’re going to be a mom.”