“What happened last night?” Fiona asked, stompin’ each of her boots against the floor once. It was just somethin’ she did when she first woke up. When I’d asked her why when I was a kid, she told me it was because she was givin’ the devil a head start.
“Dermot had friends with ’im.” It took all my restraint not to kill him after Devin’s widow had told me where he was hidin’. I spared him for Cash’s benefit, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have plans for him. Plans to crush his head so the memories of my wife would shatter with it.
Maeve set an arm over her eyes, like she was hidin’ from what I’d just said. I nodded toward her, and Fiona stood, understandin’. I needed to be alone with my wife. Fiona left us, and I pulled the chair she’d vacated from the window and set it next to Maeve. I removed her arm from her face, and she blinked at me, slowly openin’ her stunnin’ eyes.
This woman was the storm of my life, and when she looked at me like that, she moved through my soul, breathin’ chaos and peace into it. She was my balance of life and the after.
“You okay?” she whispered, runnin’ her cold, soft hand against the coarseness of my five o’clock shadow.
“Tell me again. You’re havin’ a babe.”
Her smile came slow. “Yourbabe.”
Besides the first time I’d ever seen her, nothin’ else had ever made me feel so alive. She gasped when I stood and picked her up, blankets and all, takin’ her place against the cold steel. She tried to wiggle out of my hold, but my arms were too strong.
“I’m okay, Cian.” She looked up at me, her eyes wide. “Your shoulder!”
“Fuck my shoulder,” I said. “I need you where you are—even closer, if I could.”
She studied my face, wipin’ sweat from my brow, and nodded. She tucked her face into the crook of my neck and sighed.
“I thought there was no way I could sleep on this table. But you know what? After I found out you were okay, I slept like I was on a cloud. I’ve never slept so good before. Dr. Estrada said that’s normal.”
“What did Dr. Estrada say?” Salma walked into the room, Maya behind her.
“Why I slept so good, even on this.” Maeve tapped the metal.
Salma smiled at her. “You also had a stressful night. Some of that could have been relief sleep too.”
Maya went straight to a machine with wheels and started movin’ it toward the bedside. Salma washed her hands, gloved up, then took a seat next to the bed.
“This is your ultrasound machine, O'Callaghan. No one else has ever used it. Now I guess it’ll be just for the O'Callaghanfamily.” Salma looked at me. “We’re going to need Maeve in a different position for this.”
I looked at my wife.
She nodded. Her eyes were so bright. Excited.
I groaned when I stood, makin’ the same noise I did when I spilled myself inside of my wife. I set her down gently on the bed and took the seat again. Maeve clasped my hand when everythin’ started, entwining our fingers, holdin’ on like she was preparin’ for the storm of her life, and I was safe ground.
“All right,” Salma said, lookin’ just as excited as my wife. “Here we go.”
I was more worried about the wand she was stickin’ up my wife’s warm honey pot.
Salma grinned. “The baby is probably too small to see with the other tool. This can get up further to detect the heartbeat, and….” She smiled big and turned the screen to face us. “There it is.” She fiddled with some dials and turned the sound up.
It sounded strong to me, a sound a man could march to. Maeve gasped, and the smile on her face could have blinded the sun. Tears ran down her cheeks. I only realized how tight we were holdin’ on to one another when I kissed her knuckles.
“That sounds like a…a Cian O'Callaghan heartbeat,” Maeve said through tears. She looked at me. “So strong and full oflife.”
Our eyes held until I noticed the way Salma kept flickin’ glances to her sister. She turned the screen back some, and her eyes narrowed while she bit her bottom lip.
“Salma,” I said, my voice on edge.
“What?” Maeve looked between the two of us.
“Well…” Salma said, and a little machine printed out a picture. Maya looked at it, nodded, and handed it to Salma. She handed it to me.
It brought up an old memory that slammed into my gut. The little picture of the fuzzy TV screen Mam had showed me. This time, though, two areas were circled. Maeve and I both studied the picture with pinched faces.
