Page 28 of Queen
That night, his most pressing task was making sure Ella didn't do anything. She always had overworked herself, and her new role as Empress was no exception. Axel was starting to think his most important job was going to be saying no to all the shit she got herself into thanks to a combination of awkwardness in her good nature.
By the time Ella came through the door, Axel had hoped to have dinner ready. Unfortunately, the restaurant hadn't delivered it yet, so he wasn't able to stealthily transfer the contents to actual plates. Oh, well.
"Hey," he said, taking her into his arms as soon as she came into the living room. He kissed her hard, ignoring her muffled gasp of surprise. She soon returned it, slipping her hands into his hair as she parted her lips, letting his tongue ravage her mouth. When he finally pulled back, he drank in the dazed, breathless stare he enjoyed putting on her face so much.
"Hey," she murmured. "What was that for?"
"Haven't seen you in--" he paused to check his watch, “--three and a half hours."
Ella shook her head, smiling as she let him help her out of her coat. "I missed you, too. Apparently, so did the baby, because she's been kicking up a storm all day."
Axel frowned, immediately shifting into what Ella mockingly referred to as his fire alarm mode. "Are you sure that's okay? Maybe we should take you to the doctor."
She gave him a look as she sat down on the couch. “I'm fine. The due date’s coming up. I'm sure it's normal."
"I don't know. I haven't gotten to that section of the books yet," Axel said, looking over at the collection of pregnancy books on the coffee table. He had cleaned out the entire bookstore section, but as ridiculous as it seemed, there was no definitive user's guide for bringing a new baby home, just a bunch of opinions from people with alphabet soup behind their names.
Ella snickered. "Well, let me know when you do."
The doorbell rang just then, and Axel sprang to his feet. "That would be dinner."
He went to the door and paid the delivery driver before bringing in the sampler of just about every item from Ella's favorite restaurant. She turned on food as quickly as she became obsessed with it, so it was never safe to guess.
"I take it cooking didn't go well?" she teased.
"More like I ordered too late to pretend like I cooked."
She just laughed, helping him set the food out on the little space left on the coffee table.
"Why are you not shocked?” he asked.
"Axel, I've known you almost my entire life. You can’t even boil water for ramen, let alone make a soufflé. It's the thought that counts," she said, leaning in to kiss his cheek.
He felt his face warm, a curious sensation only she was capable of inflicting on him. He was about to ask her how her day had gone when he noticed the slight shift in her expression even before her hand went to her stomach.
"What's wrong?" he demanded.
"Just a twinge," she answered, running a hand over her belly.
"A twinge?" he asked, unable to keep the panic out of his voice. "What kind of twinge?"
"I don't know, just a twinge," Ella said, sitting forward as he put a throw pillow behind her back. The next instant, she gave a startled cry, and he saw an unmistakable look of panic on her face. "Okay, that one was more than a twinge."
"That's it, we’re going to hospital," he insisted. He was already dialing the number to threaten whoever picked up into making sure there was a room ready and a doctor waiting. "Just sit tight, I'm gonna get the overnight bag."
"We have an overnight bag?" Ella asked doubtfully.
He didn't wait to answer, running up the stairs to grab it instead. In a shockingly short amount of time, he had everything loaded into the SUV. Granted, he almost forgot to put Ella in it in his haste, but he got them to the hospital.
Axel wasn't sure if they were getting world class treatment because Ella was literally the Empress, or because he had sufficiently intimidated the staff, but he was going to go with the latter. When she was checked in and taken back to her room, she seemed perfectly fine. While she was arguing with the doctor that it was just them both overreacting, Axel went out in the hall to text Sterling. He texted his brother next to make sure their mother stayed as far away from the hospital as possible until he knew what was going on. Even if Ella wasn't going into premature labor, five minutes alone with Emily Hill would induce it.
It didn't take long for Sterling to show up, and while Axel was out in the hall getting Ella a refill of ice water, he saw the other tom barreling down the hallway like he was fleeing the gates of hell. He barely came to a stop when he saw Axel, looking disheveled for the first time since Axel had met him.
"Where is she?" he demanded. "How's the baby? Are they okay?"
"She's in there," Axel said, nodding to the room. "The doctor says she's fine, but he thinks she's going into early labor, and they’re trying to figure out if they need to—"
Before he could finish getting the words out, Sterling was already in the room. Axel snorted, returning a moment later to find the other tom at her bedside, stroking her hair in a decidedly less-than-professional manner.
