Fries Before Guys (SWAT Generation 2.0 2)

Me? Go to the NICU?

What?

“Sure, Mom,” Derek said, latching onto my hand. “You’ll let us know the moment that you hear anything?”

Reese rolled her eyes, then went up onto her tippy toes. Still, Derek had to bend down in order for Reese to place a kiss on his cheek.

“Yes, of course.” She patted his face. “Same goes for you.”

We split after that, Derek and I heading to the elevators that would take us to the NICU.

“I don’t know how to do kids,” he muttered. “At least not until they’re less breakable.”

I snorted. “You know about as much as I know. It’ll be the blind leading the blind.”

He latched onto my hand and didn’t let go until we were forced to outside the NICU.

“Sierra!” Derek said, sounding excited. “Thank God.”

I waved at my old nurse, a smile on my face.

“Hello, you. Nice to see you without that halo.” She tilted her head. “How are you feeling?”

I crinkled up my nose, then looked at Derek who was looking concerned all over again.

Here he was, his sister and brother-in-law just in an accident, and a niece or nephew in the NICU, and he was worried about my sore neck.

“It’s sore,” I admitted. “I got the halo off yesterday. They did say that it would bother me for a few weeks while my muscles adjusted to holding my head up.”

She nodded, then turned to Derek. “You ready to meet the baby?”

Derek looked at me, then at Sierra. “Can we both go in?”

Sierra grinned. “Yep. We just have to get you to wash your hands here, gown up, and then you’re free.”

Moments later, we were in, Derek and I both in a pink gown over our clothes, and we were standing in the middle of what felt like an advanced world.

Sierra ordered us to follow her right up to a clear box in the back.

There was another nurse standing next to the clear incubator and she was taking notes.

“What’s wrong with him?” Derek asked.

“Her,” the nurse standing at the side of the incubator corrected Derek. “And I’ll leave you here, Sierra. Temp is fluctuating. I think we need to get some warm blankets.”

Sierra nodded her head as the woman disappeared, leaving us alone staring at a tiny little baby that looked as if she’d fit into the palms of Derek’s hands.

“Ohh,” I whispered, pressing my hand against the clear plastic. “She’s so cute and small!”

“For thirty-four weeks, she’s actually pretty darn big. She’s right at five pounds,” Sierra said as she gestured for us to get closer. “Her lungs are good. Her APGAR is perfect. Honestly, the only thing we’re worried about right now is her temperature. She’s not maintaining it as well as we feel like she should be.”

I leaned closer and smiled down at the infant who was looking around her enclosure with a look of bewilderment.

Derek was standing back behind me, staring at the incubator as if it was housing a baby lion and not a child.

“Derek,” I said, snapping at him to get his attention. “What are you doing way back there?”

He swallowed hard. “Is she okay?”

That was when I realized that Sierra and I were blocking the way.

I backed more to the side, and his breath hitched at the little girl that was staring directly at him.

“I think she knows your voice,” Sierra said, surprising him. “Come closer, dumbass.”

Derek shot her a glare, causing me to giggle.

He shot the same glare at me.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one to say that to you!” I teased.

He rolled his eyes and scooted until he was wedged between the two of us, looking down into the bin as if he was staring at a living, breathing miracle. Which he was.

“She’s gorgeous,” he said. “I thought she’d be ugly. I’ve heard that all babies are ugly. But she’s pretty cute.”

I grinned.

“You’re right,” I found myself saying. “And all that dark hair. Who do you think she got that from?”

“Not our side of the family, that’s for sure,” Derek rumbled.

Sierra snorted and opened one of the little porthole thingies.

“Touch her.”

He reached inside as if he was sticking his hand into a piranha’s habitat and not a child’s.

“You’re being a big baby,” Sierra snickered.

“She’s so small,” Derek said. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

“You won’t,” Sierra answered. “She’s made of tougher stuff.”

Derek’s finger found the baby’s hand, and the baby wrapped her fist around it as far as she could.

“You know,” I said to Sierra as we looked down into the box where Katy and Logan’s baby was struggling to maintain her body temperature. “I watched a TV show not too long ago that the man did Kangaroo Care. Where they let the baby lay skin to skin?”

Sierra grinned widely.

Then she looked at me.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I’m not wearing a bra under here. And this is a dress, man. There’s no skin to skin to be had.” I turned to survey Derek. “Derek, on the other hand, can.”