Sarah smiled fondly, nodding in reassurance. “She’s staying with me. Knox’s mother wanted to spend some time with her, so I was able to come visit you today. But she’s fine, don’t worry. She just sleeps and eats, and she doesn’t even cry that much. She’s a little angel.”
I had to swallow around the lump on my throat, thinking about the baby I’d birthed. I didn’t know how to feel, really. I didn’t know if I was capable of being a mother right now. I was already overwhelmed by all the discoveries today, so to become a full-time, actual mom that had to take care of others? While I couldn’t even take care of myself? It fucking terrified me.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I - I don’t know when-”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Sarah interrupted. “You just focus on recovering your memories and getting stronger. Once you’re feeling better, we can talk about her. In the meantime, just know she’s safe and loved all around the clock by her grandmothers.”
I smiled as tears blurred my eyes. Fuck. I felt like the biggest asshole, but I really couldn’t take care of another living being right now. I couldn’t even fucking walk. I didn’t remember if any of my children had allergies, if they had fears or dreams. What if one of them died because I gave them peanut butter and they were deadly allergic to it? My heart squeezed in my chest. It was too much to think about, too little time.
And, as if the gods had heard my fears and decided to test me, the sound of small feet running down the hallway filled the entire room. Then high-pitched voices calling out:
“Mommy! Mommy’s awake!”
My blood froze.The children.
“The girl is Thea, the boy is Rowan,” Knox whispered in a rush next to me just in time to see two small figures appearing in the doorway.
A boy with warm brown eyes flecked with gray and jet black hair that refused to be tamed. He stood there, studying me with an intensity that was unsettling in a child so young, his expression guarded and watchful.
A girl who was Knox’s tiny copy burst past him, all striking gray eyes and dark brown hair and a grin that promised chaos. She launched herself at the bed with zero hesitation.
Knox barely managed to catch her before she could land on me.
“Careful,” he warned. “Mommy’s still recovering.”
“Mommy!” The girl, Thea, wiggled out of his grasp and climbed onto the bed next to me, wrapping her tiny arms around my neck. “I missed you so much! You were sleeping forever! Daddy said you were tired but I knew you’d wake up because you promised to teach me to make cookies and you always keep your promises!”
I sat there, frozen, a child clinging to my neck. The boy, Rowan, was more hesitant. He stood at the edge of the bed, those gray flecked brown eyes studying me with an expression far too serious for a five-year-old.
“Mommy?” he said softly. “Are you okay?”
My throat closed up.
They were strangers to me, these small humans who had apparently grown inside my body. But they were children. Innocent children who had waited a month for their mother to wake up. And I couldn’t... I couldn’t show them my fear. I couldn’t let them see how lost I was. They deserved better than that. They deserved a mother who knew them.
So I lied.
“I’m okay, baby,” I heard myself say, the words coming automatically. “Mommy’s just a little tired. But I’m okay.”
I opened my arms and Rowan climbed onto the bed, nestling against my other side. I wrapped my arms around both of them because that seemed to be what they expected. What they needed. And hell if it wasn’t what I needed as well because the moment I had them with me, my entire body relaxed, as if I was finally able to breathe properly.
“Mommy, Uncle Hunt said a bad word today,” the girl, Thea, announced loudly.
“Traitor!” Hunt gasped.
“He said the F word,” Rowan added solemnly.
“You little snitches!”
“Hunt!” Sarah smacked his arm. “Language around the children!”
“They already heard it! The damage is done.”
Noah was laughing openly now, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “This is the best entertainment I’ve had in weeks.”
“Shut up, Noah,” Hunt grumbled.
“That’s also a bad word,” Thea informed him. “Mommy says we can’t say shut up.”
