Up in Smoke (14 page)

“I know. Thanks for being here and helping her, Doc. I easily lost at least fifty years off my life tonight.”

The good doctor gave him a smile of understanding. “That’s what I am here for.”

Nathaniel sat down next to his sleeping mate. Both of her hands were bandaged and Dr. Weathers had an oxygen mask on her face, pumping clean oxygen into her lungs to dispel the smoke. She looked so small and fragile in the big bed.

Her eyelids fluttered open as if her body recognized that its mate was near. He sat up straighter and leaned into the side of the bed. “Hey, baby. Don’t try to talk right now. Dr. Weathers has this oxygen mask on you to clear out all of the smoke you inhaled into your lungs.”

She started to raise one of her hands and then quickly looked down, fear and horror instantly coming across her face. “Hey now, none of that. You’re fine. You burnt both of your hands in the fire, but my blood has already helped them heal well past where they should be. You’ll probably have to keep them wrapped for another week or so, but then they should be as good as new.”

Knowing that she would have plenty of questions and that she was unable to speak, he continued, “Parker was the one that set your house on fire, trying to kill you. We caught him. He won’t be bothering you or anyone else ever again.” He watched a shiver travel through her body. He reached up and brushed a stray lock of hair off her face. “Do your hands hurt?” he asked tenderly, wishing there was something more he could do for her.

She shook her head in denial as her eyelids fluttered closed once again. Dr. Weathers had given her a shot when they’d first arrived for her pain, so her reply and the fact she was falling back to sleep hadn’t surprised him.

He settled back into his chair next to the bed, and for the first time in several hours, sighed in relief. Oh, he and his little mate were going to have a nice long chat about her not listening to him and not telling anyone where she was, because he swore, there would not be a repeat of tonight. His poor heart wouldn’t survive it.

*****

She had been at home for a week now. It was an entire week of no work. She couldn’t even feed herself with the bandages on her hands, but thankfully, they were due to come off this afternoon.

And she had spent the week tiptoeing around her mate. Oh, he hadn’t come out and yelled at her, hit her, or anything else, but she sometimes wished he would. Because while on the outside he displayed nothing but tender loving care, she knew, she just knew, he had to be pissed as hell at her on the inside.

He had taken the entire week off from work just to stay home and take care of her. He carried her everywhere she wanted to go. He hand fed her three times a day and gave her loving sponge baths each evening. He’d have her sit with her back toward him while they watched a movie and he’d gently brush her hair. And her guilt ate at her a little more each day. If she had only listened to him, had only at least let someone know where she was, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But she would never call him in the middle of an operation. She knew if she had called Sissy, her friend would have insisted on either coming over to the house with her or she would’ve talked her out of going over there period. She had just needed a bit of time to put her old life to rest in order to move on with her new one. But had she? Because of her bad decisions, she had practically gotten herself killed. Now, there seemed to be this distance between her and Nathaniel that she had never felt before. She was ready to scream.

“Can I bring you something to drink, babe?” Nathaniel asked sweetly as he passed through the living room where she was curled up on the couch.

Enough was enough. She couldn’t take anymore. “Will you just stop being so damn nice to me!” she screamed at him.

The look of shock on his face would’ve been comical in any other situation. “Excuse me? You don’t want me being nice to you? Mind telling me why?” he countered.

She looked up at him in frustration. “Look, I know you’re mad at me. I just wish you’d go ahead and yell, scream, throw things, whatever you are going to do, and get it over with.”

He slowly walked over to her and sat down beside her on the couch. “Do you mind telling me why I’m supposed to be mad at you?” He was speaking as if he were talking to a three year old. His words were drawn out slowly as if she was addled in the brain.

“Don’t play stupid with me and don’t belittle me. I know you’re pissed because I didn’t listen to you the night you left on the mission. I’m sorry. I just… I just…” Tears formed quickly, clogging her throat.

Nate wrapped his arms around her, bringing her over to sit in his lap. “While you are correct about the fact I wasn’t happy that you didn’t listen, I’m more so glad that you’re alive.” He brought her face up to his with a finger under her chin. “I rarely yell. And I stopped throwing temper tantrums and throwing things back when I was a child.”

“I’m so sorry, so very sorry I disappointed you,” she wailed as she buried her head into his shoulder, her tears quickly soaking into his shirt. “I just hate this distance I feel between us.”

He tenderly kissed the top of her head. “Shh, baby, it’s all okay. I had planned to talk to you about that night, I just wanted to give your body time to heal first.” He held her tight, letting her cry her tears out. When it looked like she had calmed down some, he asked, “Why did you go over to your old place that night? Why not wait until we could go together?”

She turned her head slightly so she could answer him, but kept her head firmly planted on his shoulder. “I don’t know whether you’re going to understand this or not, but at the time, it felt important. Although, looking back at that night, it doesn’t seem so important now.” She paused and he stayed silent, willing to hear her out.

“I felt like I needed to face some demons from my past in order to move ahead with you. I just wanted a couple of hours in that house by myself, so I could truly lay everything to rest and start afresh.” She looked up at him with her tear filled eyes. “Does that make sense?”

He sighed as he hugged her to him. “Yes, it does. I guess I never really gave you the time that you asked for at the beginning before barreling right over you.”

She picked her head up to kiss him right under his chin. “This wasn’t your fault, Nathaniel. I was and am ready to be your mate. I just needed to say goodbye to my old life, I guess.”

“Thank you for explaining things to me, baby. But next time you feel the urge to have some quiet time, you should just come on and say it out loud. I’ll make damn certain you’re not disturbed, but remain safe, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed while wrapping her arms around his neck the best she could while still being bandaged up. He leaned down and licked her neck, then sniffed deeply. “Oh shit,” he muttered.

“What? What’s wrong?” Susan asked as she attempted to pull away from him, but his grip around her was tight as he continued to nuzzle her neck, licking and nipping here and there.

“Umm, remember the afternoon we mated and I marked you?” he asked quietly against her skin.

A shiver ran down her spine as she recalled that afternoon very well. She wouldn’t mind having a repeat performance of that part of the day at all. She’d just do things much differently afterwards.

“Well, I kind of knew you were ovulating, but I didn’t want to say anything and get your hopes up for nothing.”

She froze. She didn’t even breathe as she stared up at him. Unable to gauge anything from his face, her heart started thundering in her chest as she thought about what he was getting ready to tell her. He didn’t look particularly happy, so she couldn’t imagine it to be good news. Besides, they had never really sat down and talked about having a family. Maybe this was something he didn’t want. She had to remember that he was a lot older than her, even though he didn’t look it.

Finally, she couldn’t take the silence anymore. In a tortured whisper, she inquired, “What are you trying to tell me, Nathaniel?”

“Baby, I’m sorry.” Her heart plummeted to the ground. She should have known that after all of this time, there was no chance in her getting pregnant.

“I knew you were ovulating and took no precautions. Call me a caveman, but I so wanted to see you round with my child.”

“Okay, so it didn’t take,” she spoke low and carefully. “We can always try again. Just the fact you are willing to have a child with me means the world to me.” It wasn’t his fault she wasn’t pregnant. After all this time, she seriously was starting to think
there was something wrong with her.

“Next time my ass. You’re pregnant right now, and damn…you smell so fucking delicious.” He brought his nose down to take another long whiff. He just couldn’t get enough. Her scent had changed to that of fruit drizzled in honey now that she was pregnant.
He wanted to wallow in it.

“What?! What did you just say?” she screeched as she attempted to get him to look her in the eyes, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do since she couldn’t use either of her hands.

“I said you’re pregnant. I can smell the change in you. You smell like fruit drizzled in honey.
I want to eat you up.”

“Oh my God, after all this time,” she paused and looked at him in wonder. “I’m going to be a mom? I’m going to have a little baby of my own to hold and love and cherish?”

“We are going to have a little baby to hold, love, and cherish,” he corrected. “And I plan on taking very good care of the two of you. As a matter of fact,” he stopped and stood, causing her to yelp as he took her with him, cradling her in his arms, “I think we need to take this to the bedroom. I need to thoroughly check you over.”

“Nathaniel, we have an appointment this afternoon with Dr. Weathers to check me out.”

He chuckled darkly as he hit the stairs. “He better not check you out the way I’m going to. I plan on doing a thorough examination with my tongue.”

“Oh,” was her only reply before he had her sprawled across the bed.
He peeled her clothes off, one item at a time, worshipping her body as he went.

Epilogue

Nathaniel and Susan walked out of Dr. Weathers’ office full of smiles. He had taken the bandages off Susan’s hands that were now completely healed up. Other than the fact the skin was very light in color and a bit sensitive from being newly generated, she was healed.

He had also checked her and the baby out and pronounced both to be very healthy. He warned Susan that carrying a half vampire baby would not be easy, but that did little to dampen her spirits. She and Nathaniel were expecting a baby and whatever they had to do over the next upcoming months, she knew she could depend on her mate for anything.

Since he refused to even let her near the stairs, they rode the elevator down. They needed to talk to Walter and let him know about Susan’s condition and tell him that she would not be returning to work. As they excited the elevator, they spotted Walter talking to Donte.

Susan looked over to Nathaniel. “I need to pick up a couple of things at my desk. I’ll be right back.”

She walked over to her desk with the intentions of grabbing her favorite pen
she had left there and checking to make sure she hadn’t left anything else. There, sitting on top of the desk, was her little angel decoration. She gasped, sitting down quickly as she stared at the small, paper ornament. How was this possible? Nathaniel had told her everything had been destroyed. She reached out hesitantly to stroke a finger down what was originally a small, blue dress that had been glued onto the angel so many years ago when she had made it. The dress, along with the yellow yarn hair, was now covered in soot, but it was still her little Christmas Angel decoration.

Somehow, despite all odds, her favorite childhood Christmas decoration had made it through the house fire. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Spots started dancing before her eyes and she realized she was holding her breath. A few seconds later, Nathaniel, Donte, and Walter walked over to her desk.

“Baby, are you okay?” Nathaniel asked gently, feeling her distress.

She looked up at him with tears of joy running down her face. Holding up her precious little angel, she choked out, “Somehow it survived the fire, but I don’t know how. I don’t even know who found it.”

“I sent a team after the fire was put out to see if anything could be saved,” Walter spoke up. “They brought this back, amazed that something so fragile had somehow survived the flames and heat.”

Nathaniel took the small decoration out of her outstretched hand gently. “Does this mean a lot to you, baby?”

She smiled up at him, despite her tears.
“I made this when I was five. It’s been on the Christmas tree every year since. Yes, and at this point, it’s probably the only thing I have left from my childhood.”

He reached down with his free hand, wrapping it around her, then he pulled her to stand up against him. “Then I guess it’s a very special little angel, darlin'. Just like you.”

As she was wrapped up in Nathaniel’s arms, she heard her boss behind her. “I hear congratulations are in order! Nathaniel, you need to get your little mommy-to-be home to rest. Susan, if you ever want to come back to work, your job will be waiting for you.”

She turned and gave him a hug. “Thank you, Walter. Thank you for everything. Tell Sissy to come visit me.”

He chuckled as he released her back to Nathaniel’s waiting arms.
“If you think I’m going to be able to keep her away, think again. I’ll probably go broke from her shopping for baby items!”

They turned and walked out of the Ranger’s Headquarters. As Susan looked down at the little miracle that was sitting in her hand, and then thought about the little miracle currently growing inside of her, she knew she had been blessed.