Page 62 of Duke's Baby Deal
Duke wrenched the door open and ran in to find himself face to face with a desk and a young woman sitting behind it. “Bram?” he blurted.
“You go right down that hall, he’s the second door on the right. They’re expecting you,” the woman said.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Duke wondered at her cool demeanor, but then he was at the door, and there was Bram, whitefaced and sweaty, naked in some weird chair, surrounded by nurses.
“Duke!” Bram held out his arms and Duke pushed through the humans to get to his mate. “What happened?”
“Humans happened. They gave me shit at the gate, threatened not to let me out at all. It doesn’t matter, I’m here now, we’re okay. I love you.”
“I love y—” His voice choked off and his face screwed up in a grimace. Bram’s grip tightened painfully on Duke’s hand, pulling on him so hard Bram almost picked himself up off the chair. “Oooooooh.”
“Breathe through it, honey,” an older nurse said. “Short breaths, like we told you.”
Bram nodded and began panting rapidly. His stomach tightened up into a high, hard ball, and a rush of fluid ran out of the opening in his omega line.
“Good, you’re doing so well, Bram, I can see the head of the first one coming.” The nurse issued a short string of commands and everyone else went into a flurry of action. Stambourg came through the door, hands held up in front of him. One of the nurses helped him on with a set of gloves and, Duke assumed, filled him in, since she used a lot of terms and numbers he didn’t understand.
The doctor came over to peer at Bram. “How is everyone? Excited? Everything seems good so far.”
Bram’s contraction had stopped and he looked anxiously up at the doctor. “But there’s still five weeks to go!”
“Well, that would have been ideal, but twins are often early remember, and at this point, they should be mostly past the development stage and just putting on weight. We’ll do an evaluation as soon as they come out and go from there, but we have to get them here first.”
Bram nodded and his belly tightened again and he groaned and leaned into Duke.
When the contraction ended, the doctor nudged Duke. “Just give him two fingers to hold. I’ve seen moms break their husband’s fingers during labor.”
No sooner had Duke followed Stambourg’s suggestion than Bram was in the middle of another one. This one seemed to go on longer, and there was hardly any time after it finished before the next one started. Tears streaked Bram’s face and he hardly seemed aware of anything except his body and the pressure to bring the babies into the world. To Duke, it felt like it was going on forever, and he swore he’d never ask Bram to carry another pup if this was what it took to bring it into the world.
A commotion at the foot of Bram’s chair distracted him from his mate’s suffering. Low voiced commentary led to one nurse moving away to a cabinet on the far wall, coming back with some metal instrument. “What’s that?” Duke demanded.
“They aren’t coming out the way I expected,” the doctor said as he peered at Bram’s line with a small penlight. “The opening seems large enough. I wonder if they’re—” His sentence broke off and suddenly the first pup slid into his hands. He caught her expertly and passed her over to a nurse who held a clean blanket to wrap her in. “Well, there’s one. Shouldn’t be long before the next one. You’re doing great, Bram.”
“Is the baby okay?” Bram begged, leaning over the edge of the chair to see what they were doing. When Duke looked over, they had her on a table with a bright light shining down on her while they poked at her and did things with instruments Duke didn’t recognize.
The doctor smiled. “Your daughter is fine. She’s a little underweight, by human standards. The tall fellow over there is the neo-natal expert. We went to school together and I can guarantee you he’s the best choice for your babies. He’ll make sure everything’s fine.” The thin wail of a newborn shivered into the air and Bram sat back with a relieved expression.
They only had that brief respite before the contractions for the second baby took over. Bram groaned and hung onto Duke for dear life, but it only took a few before their little boy made his entrance.
The nurses carried him over to the neo-natal doctor, and the group there flew into action.
Bram lay back in the chair, oblivious to everything except his babies on the other side of the room. “How are they?” he croaked.
One of the nurses brought him a cup, it smelled like water to Duke. Bram drank it gratefully, but his eyes never strayed from the anthill-like explosion of movement around their babies. “What’s going on?”
“They’re looking your babies over, assessing their alertness, and deciding how they want to go forward,” the doctor told them. “In a few minutes, we’ll have a better idea what’s going on.”
They waited tensely while the nurses started cleaning Bram up and the afterbirth came. Then the doctor carefully lined up the edges of Bram’s omega line and wrapped it thoroughly in gauze and elastic bandage. “We’ll get you a stretcher to take you back up to your room,” he said.
At that moment, the neo-natal doctor came over to them, holding one of the babies bundled up in a soft pink blanket. “I can let you hold them for a few minutes, but they’re both very small and I’m concerned about them being able to maintain their body temperature.” He laid the baby in Bram’s arms. A nurse brought Duke the other baby, wrapped up in a blue blanket. “After you’ve had a chance to say hi, we’re going to take them upstairs and set them both up incubators until I see some more fat on them. The good news is that they’re very close to being able to keep themselves warm on their own. All we need to do is feed them up right for a few weeks, and they’ll be right as rain.” He smiled and stepped back to whisper with Bram’s obstetrician.
Duke gazed down at his son. “Hello, Jedrick,” he whispered. “I’m your Da. Want to see your Ahmi?” Bram had picked the name up from listening to the old stories about omegas. Duke thought it suited him. He leaned over with their little boy, cradling him like he’d break at the slightest move. He was so small, and quiet. “How is she?”
“She’s gorgeous.” Bram smiled up at him and lifted one hand to move the blanket away from Jedrick’s face. “Aw, they do look alike. Look, Isolde. It’s your brother. You’ve never been so far apart, have you?” His smile faltered and he hunched over their baby girl a little. “Please be okay,” Duke heard him whisper.
And then it was time to give the babies back to the doctors, and he and Bram moved into the recovery room and held each other and hoped.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
