“Sorry, sorry. This is just really intense, you know?”
Mara screamed incoherently in blind rage. “It’s intense foryou?I’mthe one in labor!” She screamed again, in pain this time. “GODDAMMIT ZANE! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?”
A motorcycle appeared at that moment down the street, approaching at a recklessly fast pace, squealing to a dramatic, skidding stop beside the truck. Zane hopped off, no helmet and windblown, panic on his features.
“Mara?” he called out, not even seeing either of us, as we were on the other side of the truck and he was jogging toward the front door.
“Over here, dipshit,” I shouted. “In the truck.”
He pivoted and ran for the open door of the truck, reaching for Mara. “Baby! You okay?”
‘NO! I’m not fuckingokay!” Mara screamed. “I’m about to have this babyright now, and your stupid brother is too drunk to drive me to the hospital and you weren’t here!”
“I’m here now,” he crooned, his voice calm. “I’m here now. Let’s go, okay? I’ll get you there.” He shot a look at me. “Get in, Bax.”
“Why me?” I asked, my drunk mouth running away from my brain or better sense.
“Because you’re about to be an uncle and you should be there, fucker.” He hopped into the driver’s seat, twisted the ignition, and backed out the second the rest of the doors were closed. “And also because I’m about to be a daddy, and I’m scared out of my fucking mind, and I fucking need you, okay?”
I stared at him as he drove, both hands on the wheel, maneuvering aggressively toward the hospital. “You’rescared? Haven’t you, like, been in a billion firefights?”
“Yep, and that shit is nothing compared to this, Bax.” He twisted the wheel in his fists. “Thanks for being there to help her.”
“I didn’t do much,” I argued. “Just helped her move around.”
“Well, still, good thing you stumbled your stupid drunk ass to my house, or she’d have been alone.”
I grunted and waved a hand in dismissal. “She’s family, bro.”
We made it to the hospital in record time, got Mara checked into the labor and delivery ward and attended to by a physician—who determined that she’d have the baby relatively soon, but didn’t elaborate on what that meant—and then Zane had me call Bast and the others, to spread the word about the impending arrival of the first Baby Badd.
Which, Jesus, that was weird to think about: a baby. In a matter of something like hours, there would be a brand-new human being that hadn’t existed before. Like, how did that make any damn sense? How could two people fucking create a new person? I got a little dizzy thinking about it, and turned to Zane as we sat in the room with Mara, who was connected to a shitload of wires and monitors, chomping on ice chips and glaring at everything that moved.
“Yo, Zane,” I said, and he glanced at me with a grunt. “I been thinkin’, and I think I sort of understand how you’re scared about this.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “How do you figure?”
I tipped my head to one side. “Well, I mean, until now it’s been sort of a mental thing, Mara being pregnant. I mean, we all saw the ultrasound pictures and shit, and her belly has been getting bigger, but now that she’s in labor, it’s like…there’s about to be a totally new fuckin’ person in the world”—I gestured to him and then at Mara—“who you two created. Which is just…it makes me dizzy just thinkin’ about it.”
Zane clapped me on the shoulder. “Exactly. Now multiply that by a million, and add in the reality thatyouare personally responsible for that brand-new person. Like, it’s your responsibility to not only make sure the little person doesn’t like die or whatever, but also grows up to become a halfway decent person.” He let out a rough sigh. “Makes me wish Mom and Dad were around still, so I could let them know how much more I appreciate them.”
I nodded. “Yeah, man. I hear that.” I blinked hard against the weird bucket of emotions I was suddenly feeling. “Funny thing is, it’s getting harder every year to even remember Mom.”
“I know what you mean. I have a handful of memories, but even those are a little fuzzy, these days,” Zane said.
“JESUS FUCK!” Mara howled. “You two have to pick fuckingnowto get all maudlin on me?”
I eyed her warily. “Wow. You’re really in quite a mood, Mara.”
Her eyes widened to unsafe dimensions, and she began physically trying to clamber out of the bed to get at me, screaming in what seemed to be equal parts demented, hormonal rage and vicious agony, requiring Zane to rush to her side and gentle her back to the bed.
“Bax,” he said, glancing at me, “I think you best get a handle on that runaway mouth of yours, bub, or Mara might just actually murder you.”
Mara hurled an ice chip at me, and it hit me on the forehead with such force I actually recoiled in surprise. “You’re a fucking asshole, Baxter Badd! I fucking HATE YOU!” And then, confusingly, she immediately calmed, stuffed an ice chip into her mouth, and pointed at me with an index finger. “The heartbreak story. Spill. Now.”
I thunked my head against the wall behind me, groaning. “Dude. It’s nothing.”
“Dude, humor the pregnant lady,” Mara said. “I’m between contractions and I need a distraction.”
