Page 124 of Hammer & Gavel

Colin’s head suddenly jerked up, cheek damp from where he’d half fallen asleep against the bar. “Rubies!” He cried, “We never collected the sodding rubies, Davi!”

“Ah merda!” Davi slapped the table, eyeing Colin, before turning to Lucas. “Luca, baby, please could you take dad to the shop? There’s a shipment of rubies we were meant to collect today, but the courier left them under the porch.”

And Oliver could notbelievehow casually Davi talked about having ‘a shipment of rubies,’ as though it were a fucking grocery delivery. Lucas nodded and glanced at Oliver.

“I-I’ll stay here, if that’s okay?” He was doing everything in his power to disguise the flipping sensation in his gut.

Davi cheered and threw an arm around Oliver’s neck. “Yes! Stay here with me. Let me show you Luca’s baby pictures.”

“Pai…” Lucas said, peeling his drunk father off the bar. “Perhaps save the embarrassing photographs for next time?”

The photographs were,in fact, quite embarrassing. “And here’s baby Luca at his first holy communion,” Davi said wistfully, handing Oliver another picture.

Oliver raised an eyebrow as he looked at the photograph. “Why is he naked?” He said, staring at a photograph of Lucas as a toddler, dressed in nothing but a white veil covering his head.

Davi laughed, “Oh! He went through a phase of refusing to wear clothes. You’ll see it’s a recurring theme over the next few albums.”

Oliver took a great deal of pleasure knowing he had a veritable treasure trove of blackmail material to use against Lucas in the future.

Just as they’d reached the 1998 album, Oliver’s phone rang. He was mildly confused when he looked at the screen and saw his GP surgery was calling him.On his work mobile?Making his apologies to Davi, he slipped out the room and ambled back down the garden path towards the bar.

“Hello?” He said, not quite closing the door behind him.

“Mr Reed? Oh thank goodness, it’s Dr Phillips from West Newton Medical Practice. We’ve been trying to reach you for over a week. Your number wasn’t connecting, so we had to go through your next of kin.”

“S-Sorry. Yes, how can I help?”

“Mr Reed, we recently had the paperwork back for your admission to Accident & Emergency.”

Oliver frowned. “Which one?” He said, massaging his temple. “The one where I was assaulted, or when I was off my face on Love Dust?” And hereallywished he hadn’t worded it like that, because it made him sound like a drug addict.

The doctor cleared her throat. “The Love Dust incident, Mr Reed.”

His frown deepened. “Okay?”

“I’ve had a look at your blood results and it looks like… Mr Reed, are you sitting down?”

Oh God. Oh dear fucking God.Telling someone to sit down was never a good sign. It was the first thing Oliver did when he delivered a death message… or told someone their children were being taken away. The doctor was about to tell him he had cancer or something, he knew it. He just fuckingknewhe was going to die young. His head began to spin, and he gripped the edge of the bar to stop himself from toppling over.

“Y-Yes,” he said, voice beginning to shake as he slumped into one of the upturned barrels.

“Good. I’ll just get straight to the point.”

Oliver wasn’t sure if he was quite ready for ‘the point.’

“Your HCG levels are slightly raised. Indicating the early signs of pregnancy.”

It was worse. So much fucking worse than being told he was terminally ill. The doctor’s words from that night six and a half years ago splintered through his brain, pinching and poking at his deepest, darkest memories. It all came flooding back. Everything. Everything that happened, everything he had been through. Everything he endured. His mum called it survival, but he wasn’t so sure. Spreading a hand over his face, he let out a sharp breath. “Right,” he said. Because it was the only word he could muster.

The doctor hesitated, then said, “Have you taken a pregnancy test recently, Mr Reed?”

“No.”

Because of course he fucking hadn’t. Why would he? Lightning didn’t strike the same place twice.

“I see. When was your last estrus cycle?”

His chin began to quiver. “Just over a month ago.”

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