Be My Hero(35)

I lifted my face in surprise just as Reese yelped, "You mean, the baby's alive?"

With a slow nod, the doctor confirmed it. "She's up in NICU, but you'll  have to consult her pediatrician for the infant's update."

Reese slumped down next to me, tears glistening in her eyes. "Oh, God.  Oh, thank God." Then she blurted out a happy laugh. "They both made it.  They both-wait. They both made it? Right? Eva's okay, too?"

The air in my lungs stalled when the doctor hesitated. I gulped and  wanted to vomit all over the floor. No, this couldn't be happening. I'd  just met her. After all this time of waiting for her, I meet her two  times and she dies? No. No way in hell.

"A case of shock affected her kidney," the doctor finally admitted.  "She's showing signs of diffuse cortical necrosis, so we've put her on  dialysis. But her status is holding steady."

Again, no clue what any of that meant. All I really heard was steady, and to me, that said still alive.

Alive was good. It was frigging amazing. Tink was alive.

Reese hugged herself, and her voice shook as she asked, "Can we see her? Either of them?"

"I'm sure you can look at the baby through the window in the maternity  ward, but I'll have to send a nurse out when the mother is stable enough  for visitors."

We all nodded in understanding, and the doctor left. Noel took off not  long after that, having heard all the important stuff. But I wasn't  going anywhere until I got an eyeful of both girls. I needed visual  proof they were okay.

I followed Reese and Mason up to the maternity ward and then to a window, where they opened the blinds to let us see Skylar.

Lying in the incubator, a little red human had a respiratory tube  plugged into her mouth while I.V. lines and monitor patches on her chest  made her look like she was on the brink of death.

I sucked in a hard breath. Next to me, Reese whimpered and covered her  mouth with both hands. "She's so tiny. How could something so tiny  possibly manage to survive?"

I swayed, a little dizzy with worry. Reese was right. She was so small and frail. What if Skylar still didn't make it?

Trying not to panic, I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against the glass.

Mason placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. "Hey, Alec and I made a  deal. He's not going to tell anyone what you did to him . . . not if he  doesn't want us telling the authorities what he did to Eva. So, you  don't have to worry about getting into trouble or anything. Okay?"

Getting into trouble because of that douche had been the very last thing  I'd been worrying about. Going to jail for trying to kill him over what  he'd done to Eva would've been an honor.

I pointed into the window, feeling bitter. "So then, he gets away without even a slap on the hand for doing this?"

"Trust me, man. You messed him up pretty good. I'm almost positive he'll be spitting and pissing blood for quite a while."

It wasn't enough. Not nearly enough, but I said, "Good."

They didn't let us in to see Eva for another hour. Reese and I camped  outside the window and watched Skylar most of that time. The nurses  checked her vitals frequently, and a few times she'd squirm a little,  but mostly, the little princess was pretty quiet.

Tinker Bell was probably pissed as hell because she couldn't see her.

And that's exactly the first thing she asked about when we entered her room.

"Have you seen her?"

I froze in the doorway. She was yellow and swollen, so fucking swollen.  Her eyes, face, and neck were puffed out to ridiculous proportions and  it seemed hard for her to see. All sorts of tubes and machines were  hooked up to her, keeping her going.

Panic clawed at my throat, but I swallowed it down and silently followed  Reese, though I stopped at the end of the bed, unable to move closer.

Reese grasped Eva's hand and grinned. "She's so small, E. Like a  miniature, perfectly-shaped little human with a head full of dark hair .  . . like me."

Tears trickled down Eva's puffy cheeks while she smiled. "Does she?  She's okay then? They keep telling me so, but I can't go see her. I  can't-"

"Shh." Reese leaned down and kissed Eva's forehead. "You'll have the  rest of your life with her. Just lay back and relax so you can heal."         

     



 

Her cousin's words seemed to reach her because she calmed down after  that. Mason hung back with me, watching them with worried eyes. When he  caught my gaze, he gulped down a guilty-looking cringe. "I feel like  such a piece of shit right now," he murmured under his breath. "I told  that idiot where she was. I swear to God, I had no idea he'd do this. I  thought he was going to step up and finally help out."

Glad I wasn't the only one carrying around a shit-bag of guilt, I  clasped his shoulder. "At least you didn't wait around until he was  actually punching her in the stomach before breaking into their talk."

Mason opened his mouth to respond, but Eva suddenly said, "Is that Pick I hear?"

I turned to her. I wanted to get down on my knees and beg her  forgiveness. I wanted to show her how much it hurt to see her like this,  how scared I was for both her and her daughter. But I choked. "Of  course, it's me."

I moved toward her and gently took the swollen, needle-stuck hand as she  held it out to me. Shit, her grip was weak. "You did good, Tink. That  little girl is so damn cute." I leaned down and kissed her cheek.

Turning my way, she brushed the side of her face against mine. "Thank  you. Thank you so much for being there tonight. You saved both me and my  little girl."

A trembling breath shuddered from my lungs. I pressed my forehead to  hers and finally let some of my feelings slip. "I almost got you killed,  is what I did. I listened to you guys talk, and I didn't step in. Not  until it was too fucking late. I am so, so sorry I let him that close to  you."

A hand touched my hair. I closed my eyes.

"Listen to me, Patrick Jason Ryan. You are my hero, and you have nothing to apologize for."

She must've sensed I didn't believe her because she tightened her grip. "You are. You're my hero."

"I'm still sorry," I whispered, unable to combat the guilt.

"I'm not." She shook her head and sent me a trembling smile. If you  hadn't come over tonight, I'd be dead right now. My daughter would be  dead right now. Why can't you understand that?"

I opened my lashes and met her gaze. Maybe this was the reason I'd had  those glimpses. If I hadn't seen her in my head, I wouldn't have been  fascinated with her for the past ten years, ergo I wouldn't have been so  eager to visit Mason's house tonight. And if I hadn't come over, no one  would've been here to stop her ex from killing her. Leaning in, I  kissed our entwined hands, so very grateful she was still alive.

"I'll never let anything bad ever happen to you again. I swear it."

It was a promise I meant from the bottom of my soul.





Chapter 14


EVA


From that day forward, my life changed completely.

As soon as I could walk and the nurses allowed me to leave my hospital  bed, I shuffled like a stoop-shouldered old woman to the NICU to sit  with Skylar. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. But looking  at her scared the crap out of me. She was so little, so breakable and  delicate. How was I supposed to protect her and care for her? I knew  absolutely nothing about any of this.

It didn't seem to matter how many parenting articles I'd read, nothing had prepared me for this. This was real.

A nurse entered while I was sitting in the rocking chair, my arm resting  inside the hand hole of the incubator to softly pet her miniature  fingers.

"Sweetie, you probably need to head back to your room and get some rest  now. You've been here quite a while. We don't want you to have a  setback."

I barely even looked at her as I studied the little cowlick in my baby's hairline. How the hell had Pick gotten that right?

Maybe I'd just imagined the description he'd given me of her. There were  a lot of fuzzy spots in my memories of the night she was born.

"I'm okay." I didn't want to leave her yet. I didn't think it was  possible to love something so much. My chest felt completely full. I  could've sat in that chair and just watched her sleep and breathe for  the rest of my life.

"Does she need a blanket?" I asked when her tiny frame shuddered in her sleep as if she were shivering. "She looks cold."

The nurse's lips pinched with irritation. "She's fine. But you really  need to get back to your own room. They said you just got off dialysis  yesterday. You don't want to overdo it."

I nodded as if agreeing, but answered, "Just a little bit longer."

With a grumble, she spun away and stalked off. When I heard the phrase, "  . . . typical single teen mother. Thinks she knows everything . . . " I  turned and stared after her, watching the extra twenty pounds of weight  on her waistline shift back and forth as she marched off in an angry  huff.

I don't know why I let her comment get to me. Maybe it was leftover  pregnancy hormones swimming through my veins, the start of some baby  blues, or normal insecurity issues of a typical new nineteen-year-old  mom. But tears immediately filled my eyes. I turned back to my child,  small and helpless, fighting for her life, and the floodgate opened even  more.