Up in Smoke (Hotshots 4)

“Message. Oh crap.” Shane smacked his head.

“What?” Brandt shifted Jewel so he could turn toward Shane.

“Oh, nothing. Just that I’ve had a voicemail all day that I haven’t checked. I meant to check after the demo, but then the baby was so fussy when we got home that I forgot. It’s probably a telemarketer or something like that, but I’d better make sure it’s nothing to do with Shelby.”

“Yeah,” Brandt agreed as Shane stood and paced a few feet away while pressing his phone to his ear.

Shane pursed his mouth and his eyes narrowed, then flashed like he was about to smile before clouding again. Finally, he wiggled his jaw as he typed something out on his phone. Brandt hated both how hard to read Shane was and how that made his brain gallop away with a whole list of dreadful possibilities.

“What is it?” he demanded as soon as Shane sat back down. “Shelby okay?”

“No, it was nothing about Shelby. I sent her a message though like you said.” Shane dropped his gaze to Jewel, gently clucking her under the chin.

“But the other? Your voicemail?”

Shane gave a cryptic shrug. “It’s fine. Something I’ll deal with later.”

Damn it. Brandt had zero right to inquire further, and this sudden urge to help Shane with whatever had arisen was unfamiliar and unsettling. He wanted to tell Shane that they could deal together. Wanted to at least pat his leg, tell him he didn’t have to stew over this alone. But before he could find the words, a nurse came to the waiting room door.

“Jewel Wilder?”

Huh. It might have been the first time he heard the baby’s name said like that, a glimmer of a future where she’d be a person with a name and a mind of her own. But also carrying a piece of Brandt wherever she went. He had to swallow hard.

“That’s us.” He stood with Jewel and motioned for Shane to follow. Like or not, he was a part of this thing. And maybe Brandt needed him there. Fuck. That might be the scariest part of an already terrifying day.

* * *

Shane felt about as useful as mittens in July as he trailed behind Brandt and the nurse. He could have stayed in the waiting area, but something in Brandt’s eyes had given him pause. A vulnerability maybe from a man who made a career out of cheating death. Shane would have followed that look anywhere, wanted to give Brandt what he needed. Hell, he wanted to be what Brandt needed, improbable though it was.

So if Brandt needed him to hold the diaper bag and help unwrap the baby from her blanket and sleeper so the nurse could get her vital signs, then Shane was going to be there with the assist. And if helping meant that he didn’t have time to think about his phone message from earlier, well then so much the better.

“She’s certainly got a mind of her own.” The nurse laughed as Jewel didn’t hesitate to let them know how much she hated the poking and prodding. Afterward, they took turns holding her until the doctor herself came into the room for the exam, which brought a fresh round of yodeling.

“Yup. There it is. Ear infection.” The doctor took her scope away so Brandt could soothe the indignant baby.

“That’s treatable, right?” Brandt bounced her from side to side as Shane laid out a fresh sleeper on the exam table.

“Oh, yes. Very treatable. And pretty common, especially in bottle-fed babies. Genetics may play a role too. Did you have a lot of them?” The doctor clicked around on her computer.

Brandt shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I remember a couple.”

Shane’s chest ached as he helped Brandt wrestle her back into her sleeper. Brandt had deserved so much better than to be little and in pain and in unstable circumstances.

“I had her outside a couple of hours today. Could the wind have caused it?” Shane asked. Brandt had tried to take that responsibility earlier, but Shane couldn’t shake the guilt that he should have done something different. Brandt trusted him with the baby and that meant something, and he felt like he’d let them both down.

“Oh, I doubt that. She probably already had the bug.” The doctor had sympathetic eyes as she looked up from the computer. “Being in the wind maybe didn’t help, but it didn’t cause the infection. Don’t beat yourself up, either of you.”

“What can we do to make her feel better?” Brandt held Jewel so she peeked over his shoulder.

“We’ll get you set up with some antibiotics and fever reducers. Other than the meds, keep doing what you’re doing.” The doctor gestured at the three of them. “Lots of cuddles. She might wake up extra times tonight, but these infections tend to pass fast.”

“Good.” Brandt’s relief was almost palpable, and Shane shared his sigh as they finished up at the clinic and headed to the pharmacy. The prescription wasn’t quite ready, so they ended up wandering the aisle with the baby in her car seat, snoozing after the doctor ordeal.