Her Motherhood Wish (Parent Portal 3)

And it could be worse. Much worse. She didn’t say that, but he knew.

“You’re in love with her.” The nurturing tone in Elaina’s words felt odd coming at him.

“I just need to know that they’re okay. You should have heard her, Elaina. I’ve never...” Elbows on his knees, he hung his head, unable to get the sound of Cassie’s wails from reverberating through his brain.

“I know.” Elaina’s tone didn’t change. But he believed she knew exactly what he was talking about. She’d been trapped in the car with Peter as he’d been lying there with protruding bones, still conscious.

“It’s all right to feel helpless, you know,” she told him. “You aren’t superhuman, Wood. No one is okay all the time.”

He didn’t want to hear that.

“This isn’t about me,” he said and stood as he heard the doorknob across from him turn.

“We’re moving her to a room,” a nurse told him. Gave him the number. “She’ll be there in about ten minutes. If there’s anything you need to do, anyone you need to call, now would be a good time. You can meet us at the room.”

Yeah, fine, he wasn’t going anywhere. “Is she okay? And Alan?”

Another woman came out of the room. “I’m Dr. Abbot,” she said, reaching out a hand to Wood. “Are you the father?”

“I am.”

She glanced at Elaina, at her white coat and scrubs. “I’m a resident upstairs, nuclear radiology. I’m his sister,” was all Elaina said.

“Are they going to be okay?” Wood asked again, his muscles about ready to split.

“She’s going to be fine.” Dr. Abbot smiled. “She did twelve hours’ work in less than one and is extremely tired,” the doctor continued. “But the tearing was minimal. And everything else looks great.”

It sure hadn’t looked that way to Wood half an hour before. But he wanted to believe what the doctor was telling him. Planned to be just fine, too, when he walked into Cassie’s room in ten minutes.

In the meantime, his head was swimming, and he had to sit down.

* * *

Cassie saw Wood waiting in the hallway as she was wheeled to her room. Reaching out a hand, she grabbed his as he held it out and, attached to her, he walked the rest of the way with her.

They’d already settled her into a bed before bringing her down, and it was less than a minute before her IV pole was set and she and Wood were alone.

So much had happened, she had no idea where to begin. And was so scared, she could hardly think of anything but Alan.

“They said they’ll probably be taking this out soon.” She motioned toward the needle in her hand. “It’s just sugar water. Precautionary. In case something more was needed.”

He nodded. Stood by her bed, looking at her. Just looking. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he was different. Less...calm.

Almost...vulnerable as he held the rail on the side of her bed so hard his knuckles were white.

“They said Alan was in distress,” she told him.

He nodded. “I called Elaina. She was down here, actually. She’s going to see what she can find out for us.”

Tears brimmed her eyes. She’d never been a weeper. Had cried more since her pregnancy than in the ten years prior to it. From hormones, or new levels of love, she couldn’t be sure.

“He’s going to be fine,” he said, now sounding like the Wood she knew. The voice she remembered from the blur of memories of giving birth in the office that morning. He reached out a hand, smoothing it down her cheek, and beneath her eye. Then brushed her hair back away from her face. Sometime in the middle of everything, her ponytail had come undone.

“They said his oxygen levels were low,” she said, just because she kept hearing the words in her head and needed to give them to him. As though doing so somehow made them less threatening.

“I know. But that’s not uncommon in premature births. They’re just doing extra tests on him because of the earlier anemia.”

Which was more than she’d been told.