There was the distinct sound of Conner’s panic through the phone, but it was drowned out by the wail of pain echoing out of the bathroom. “I have to go,” Patrick muttered as he went to hang up the phone, but he stopped at the last second when he heard Conner say, “There’s a doctor on the second floor, right below you! Room 216!”
Patrick couldn’t believe their luck. First, he ran back to the bathroom to offer a quick reassurance. “You’re gonna be okay, sir. The ambulance is on its way, and there’s a doctor in thehotel. I’m just gonna run downstairs and get him, and I’ll be right back. Okay?”
The man nodded, but his skin was too pale, hair plastered to his skin either with sweat or from the shower he’d obviously been trying to have.
The elevator would take too long, so Patrick took the stairs, three at a time and nearly breaking his neck in the process. He burst out on the second-floor hallway, but before he could knock on the door of room 216, it opened and a man appeared. He was sleep-rumpled, his t-shirt on inside out as he tugged on the hem, but he didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised that Patrick was there. “Upstairs?” he asked.
“Um… yes?”
“I heard,” he explained, pointing at the ceiling. “There’s no mistaking the sounds of labor.”
This alleged doctor calmly led the way up the stairwell and went straight to the room. He stepped into the bathroom like it was an operating room, washing his hands at the sink. “Hello, sir. My name is Doctor Zappek. What’s yours?”
Shit, why didn’t Patrick think to ask for the man’s name?
“Corey,” the guest panted through dry lips. “Please, my baby…”
“Don’t you worry for a second, Corey. Help is here.”
Thefirstblushofdawn was just kissing the skyline when Dr. Zappek finally stepped back into the hotel lobby through the front door. The ambulance had just pulled away from the curb, taking new-dad Corey and his baby to the hospital. The doctor looked tired but relaxed, considering he just delivered a baby ina hotel bathroom. His t-shirt was smeared with blood and other fluids Patrick refused to identify.
“That was…” Patrick began, approaching the doctor in awe.
“Gross?” Dr. Zappek offered, chuckling.
Patrick laughed too. “I was going to say heroic. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I was all set to panic, but you just delivered that baby like a boss.”
“Well, it is my job. Thank you for your help,” he said, offering his hand to Patrick to shake. “Your quick action got that man and his son the help they needed in time.”
A blush of pride warmed Patrick’s cheeks. “Thanks.” That warmth carried him back to the laundry, where he found Stella finishing off the laundry.
She, too, offered him a proud smile. “Good job last night, Pat. You head on home to your husband. I’ll take care of the rest.”
As much as Patrick enjoyed writing the sex scenes in his romance novels, there was something about a happy ending that filled his heart with love. This was what a love story was all about. Pain and fear and darkness only made the HEA that much sweeter. And Patrick couldn’t wait to tell Alan all about it.
1
Lazlo
Thiswassupposedtobe a holiday. Kinda. Sorta. As close as I ever got to a holiday, anyway. After a dripping tap turned into a kitchen flood, I was having some much-needed updates done to my house, and since they had to shut off the water for a day, I figured I would splurge and spend a night at The Scarlet Hotel. Have a nice meal at the restaurant, take a soak in the whirlpool tub, put my feet up and watch a movie, without having to worry about dishes or replaying the day’s patients in my head.
At no point had I expected to deliver a baby while on that holiday.
I chuckled, packing my few belongings into the overnight bag I’d brought. I’d woken up in the pitch-black in the dead of night to those distinctive moans. I would recognize those anywhere—even in my sleep, apparently. I had immediately rolled over and turned on the light, reaching for my pants. It took me a few minutes to clear the cobwebs from my brain, but there wasnever any question about what I would do. Of course I would get dressed and offer my assistance. A baby needed me!
At least I got the dinner and the bath first.
I would never complain about delivering a baby. It was what I lived for, after all. The reason I went into medicine in the first place. My grandfather had recently retired from his practice, leaving me to take the helm. His son, my father, had also gone into medicine, but he’d taken the research route, studying oncology from the Dufresne Cancer Treatment Center in Washington. What we all had in common was the need we felt to save others. It just so happened that I had a soft spot for babies.
The reason? It was probably because I was a beta. Betas were considered fairly rare in our society. Omegas carried the babies, obviously, and alphas sired them. Betas? We were in this in-between limbo of sorts, not one or the other. No slick, no knot, and no babies. I’d read studies about gammas, even rarer, with their ability to do both. As fascinating as the genetics were, the knowledge didn’t help me build a family of my own.
Because there was nothing I wanted more than a family.
Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I headed out the door and down the hall toward the elevator. It really was a nice hotel. Maybe I would come back and try for a holiday again someday. Maybe next time I would bring someone with me…
It was a short trip down on the elevator from the second floor, but I still found my eyes closing, lids scraping over dry eyes, searching for a few more seconds of blessed sleep. As soon as my eyes closed, the image of Corey being loaded into the ambulance popped into my head.
I thought of the way he’d sobbed his thank-yous to me. “My son is alive because of you,” he said. Whether that was true or not, it was impossible to say, but I would never have risked it either way. Seeing them both healthy and well, that was why Idid this. That young alpha from the hotel staff, Patrick, had been helpful too. He listened well and didn’t fall apart like so many alphas I’d seen in the delivery room. He’d passed me towels and held Corey’s hand, dabbed his forehead with a cool cloth. We would’ve managed without him, but I saw the relief he brought to the new dad. Labor was hard enough without having to do it on your own.
