“Annie!” I yell as I run up the stairs.
Harper and Nina are with her as she cries out in pain. Harper quickly moves out of the way as I scoop her up into my arms. I don’t need to stop to talk. She needs the hospital and I’m not wasting a second waiting for an ambulance.
The old ladies follow me out to my truck and as I lay her on the back seat, Holly jumps behind the wheel, instructing Harper to watch her kids.
I barely have the door shut when Holly reverses and the prospect is opening the gates.
“It hurts, Shane,” Annie cries. “It’s too early. Something’s wrong.”
Sweeping her hair away from her face, I soothe, “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll get you to the hospital and the doctors will fix you up.”
“If anything happens to the baby…”
“Nothing’s gonna happen to you or the baby, I swear it.”
The drive to the hospital seems to take forever but Holly gets us there and I carry Annie through the main entrance. The world becomes a blur and when it snaps back into focus, I’ve been left in a corridor to wait for news on the family I didn’t ever want but would now die for. Holly and I have waited in silence for what feels like hours when Leo and JJ stroll around the corner and she goes over to her husband. Leo slings his arm around her, and she cuddles into his side. It’s all so easy between them. Though I should only be thinking about Annie, I can’t help but think that it’s not so easy between me and Annie.
“Any news?” he asks me.
I shake my head. “She’s still in the operating room, no one’s telling me anything.”
“I’m gonna take Holly home, JJ’s gonna stay.”
I nod and thank Holly for her help and then they’re gone. I sit my ass on the unrelenting hard plastic chair and hang my head in my hands.
“If it helps, your woman having the baby under normal circumstances is still scary as fuck,” JJ says.
“This waiting is unnatural.”
“Nah, many men before us have been through this and got through it and you won’t be the last.”
“She’s got cancer, brother, what the fuck is gonna happen after today with that? What’s it gonna look like for my kid coming early?”
All the what ifs are building, and I can’t handle it.
“All you need to worry about for now is the next hour, then when that passes, you focus on the next. You keep doing that until you don’t need to. Shit always works itself out.”
He slaps me on the back and announces, “Let’s go for a smoke. If they come out with news, they’ll come find you.”
“I can’t, I don’t want to be smelling of cigarettes when I meet my son.”
JJ grins. “See, you’re already thinking like a dad. If any Hog fuckers show their faces, I’ll let you know.”
He goes to walk off and then turns back to me. “Having kids were never on the cards for me and my old lady, but when Gunner was born, all the fear of having to take care of him went away. I knew what I’d do for that kid, how far I’d go to protect him. You know the worst of mankind, so you know you’re the best person to protect your son. Don’t be scared, Shane. Make everyone else fear what you’d do for him.”
I mull over his advice and it’s not bad. I like to think I’d have to come to the same conclusion myself, once the worries of Annie’s cancer and making sure my son is healthy were over.
I hear my name being called and I jump up to my feet. Everything has stopped until I hear what I want to hear.
“Yeah, that’s me. How’s Annie? How’s my son?”
She smiles. That has to be a good sign. Unless she’s an evil psychopathic nurse.
“Annie is in recovery. She lost quite a lot of blood but she’s stable. And your son is in the NICU. He’s a little early but he’s strong.”
“Can I see them?”
“I’ll take you to see Annie and then we’ll see about taking you both to meet your son.”
