They got their sandwiches and gobbled them up like fiends even before the milkshakes could be made.
In fact they had just picked up their milkshakes when Talon felt this flush of panic from Mercury, and then heard Kami, of all dragons, sharp and clear.
Somebody’s water just broke. You better hurry.
He looked at Reno and began to run.
His logical brain explained that this was ridiculous, it was going to take hours: labor, babies, all of that. His braaken brain was saying he needed to get to his hailee right now, no questions, no comments, no profound statements.
He and Reno hit their door about the same time. Kami was doing a stellar job cleaning things up, staying calm. Talon was damned proud.
“Hey, Kami, good job. Is he?—”
“Thank you. I put the laundry in the washer. He’s fine. A little wigged. He called Rowan. Rowan said to walk around, breathe, first babies, slowness. You know, we’ve all been there.”
“I haven’t.” He hugged Kami quickly. “Thank you. Thank you very much. There’s milkshakes for you and the teething wonder.”
“Thanks. Mercury’s rocking her right now. It seems to be helping. Nothing else has.”
“Mm, poor kid.” He didn’t want to think about how that was gonna be his life soon. Of course he did. He wanted to think about it all the time. But right now, he needed to get to Mercury.
Talon headed to the bedroom, Mercury wasn’t there, so then he went to the nursery. Sure enough, Mercury was rocking Kami’s baby in the rocking chair they’d gotten, and singing.
“How are you feeling, love? I brought you a milkshake.”
“Thank you. I’m a little frightened, but not hysterical, yet.” Mercury winked at him. “Give me time.”
“I can do that,” Talon said, sitting down next to Mercury on the ottoman that was near the rocking chair. “Here you go, hailee. How about I trade you a baby for a pineapple milkshake?”
“Oh, I think I can do both. I’m going to have to learn to multitask, right?”
“True enough.” He reached over to hand Mercury his shake. “Physically, how are you doing?”
“It doesn’t hurt yet. I know that it’s going to, but right now it’s okay. Every so often I’ll just feel tight. Rowan said not to worry. That first babies take a while, and that I should stay close to home, relax as much as I can, walk some, take a bath if itfeels good. He said not to panic, everything was fine.” Mercury actually smiled at him. “I’m thinking about walking down to see Donnal actually before I have the baby, make sure he’s okay since I won’t be able to see him for a couple of days. Do you think we could do that?”
“I don’t see why not. If Rowan says you should walk, then we’ll walk. First, let’s have the milkshake.”
“Are you scared?” Mercury asked him.
And Talon smiled. “Nervous, very nervous. I hate the idea of you hurting. I’m excited to see the new baby. I can’t believe we haven’t talked about names yet. What do you want to name the baby?”
“Biram. Biram died so that I could live. I would like to have his name live on. I was thinking Biram Triton.”
“I think that’s amazing.” Talon was more than pleased. I think that’s very smart and I like it very much.” He smiled at Mercury. “You look good holding the baby.”
“I’ll look better holding our baby,” Mercury shot back.
“I know you will. Just the thought makes me kind of warm and gooey inside, hailee. But you still look really good holding this one.” He sipped his milkshake to keep himself from saying anything else, because he was gonna break down and start babbling any minute.
Mercury sucked his milkshake down in a heartbeat. His body must have been working really hard for him to need that much energy that fast.
“Kami, come take your baby. I want to go see Dannol,” Mercury called.
He came bustling in to take Miranda from Mercury. “Are you sure you want to walk that far?”
“Rowan told me to walk, so I’m going to walk. If I get where I can’t make it back, my mate can carry me.” How different Mercury was now from when he’d first arrived. He was somuch more confident and happier. He smiled all the time. Talon couldn’t have been more pleased.
Mercury got up and moving. Once he got his feet shuffling along, he did pretty damn good. Talon went with him, while Reno and Kami stayed behind. He had a feeling they were gonna prepare the bedroom for the birthing, but it didn’t matter. He would wait with Mercury as long as he wanted to be out of the apartment.
