Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 21

Well , well, well, if it isn’t me crying because I put on a sad song on purpose.

— Athena’s secret thoughts

ATHENA

Ten minutes later I was sitting at Maven’s bedside explaining what happened as she breathed her way through a contraction.

“ So who was the guy at your brother’s place?” she asked in confusion.

I shook my head. “ I have no idea. Maybe some rando, or maybe someone somehow related to Madman .”

“ Fuck .” Maven said. “ That’s not good.”

“ No ,” I agreed. “ I didn’t think it was.”

We stayed silent for a few seconds as the next contraction rolled through.

“ He’s hurt, your Gable .” Maven whispered as she squeezed my hand, not because she was trying to comfort me, but because I’d somehow become her birthing partner since her husband kept slipping out to take phone calls from his father and brothers. “ He doesn’t understand what he’s asking.”

I didn’t believe her words any more than Maven did.

“ Oh , shit.” Maven moaned. “ Go get that asshole before I break your hand.”

“ I’m right here,” Auden said as he hurried back into the room. “ I’m sorry. Apparently , shit went down other than my brother getting stabbed.”

My head whipped around toward him. “ Like what?”

Auden sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “ The man that y’all shot at Athena’s brother’s place wasn’t Darryl Horton , obviously. He’s the one who attacked Athena down the road. You’ve gotten all that, right?”

Both Maven and I nodded, though Maven hadn’t let up on my hand.

“ Well , apparently before the stabbing happened, he said a few choice words about Garrett ,” he said.

“ Garrett ?” Maven hissed out.

Why wasn’t her stupid epidural working?

“ Yes ,” Auden moved toward the other side of Maven’s bed and pushed her hair out of her face. It was such a sweet gesture that it made my heart ache. “ What do y’all know about when Garrett was hurt years ago?”

“ When he was undercover?” Maven asked. “ Not all that much.”

“ Garrett was undercover trying to gain some information on the gangs in Dallas . He’d been undercover for about four months when shit went down that got him stabbed,” he explained. “ Some baby doc—whose now family—from the hospital saved him after another gang member stabbed the ER doc trying to help them. Turns out the ER dude stabbed was the baby doc’s fiancé. She saved Garrett’s life despite him having just played a part in getting her fiancé stabbed.”

“ I imagine he had nothing to do with getting the doctor stabbed,” I replied, trying to think about anything but the way my bones in my hand were likely turning to dust.

“ No ,” Auden agreed. “ He really had nothing to do with it at all. The doc was stabbed in the chest. Took out his left lung and went into his heart. It took him a long time to heal from that, but when he came back, he wanted nothing to do with the gang division, or the undercover work that he and Gable were doing.”

I didn’t blame him.

“ Is that how he got his face scar?” I asked curiously.

“ No , that came after.” He grimaced. “ Kid with a knife trying to get out of going to jail.”

“ So what does this have to do with today?” Maven asked as a nurse came in, a smile on her face.

None of us smiled back at her.

“ I’m just gonna do a real quick check…” She disappeared under the blanket covering Maven’s lower half as soon as she had her gloves in place.

She came back out seconds later with a smile. “ Eight , now. Should be any time now. Can I get you anything?”

Maven shook her head, and the nurse left with a promise to be back in ten minutes.

Auden answered Maven’s earlier question once she was completely gone.

“ Darryl Horton said, as he was fighting Gable , he was going to make sure he got a hit put out on his head just like his twin brother,” Auden murmured. “ When Darryl stabbed him, he said he’d make sure that the amount was higher, though.”

That explained his need for Callena to be there.

He needed her to figure out what was going on with Garrett .

I guess I couldn’t blame him for being angry and scared.

That didn’t stop the hurt, though.

I was lost in my own thoughts when Maven screamed bloody murder.

I jolted out of my stupor and stared as Auden all but launched himself at her.

“ What ?”

“ It burns!” she cried out. “ Oh my God . It burns so bad!”

I had no clue what burned, but if this was how childbirth was going to go, I would never, ever get pregnant.

“ What do you want me to…”

Maven grunted and started to yank her hospital gown over her body.

There were some things that I’d never seen before when it came to Maven , and her entire body was one of them.

I’d certainly never seen her vagina, and that ended today as well.

Because it was front and center when she said, “ Oh my God . Is it burning?”

I couldn’t stop myself from looking.

That’s when I saw that she had a baby’s head nearly out of her vagina.

“ Um ,” I said Auden . “ I’ll just go and get the n…”

She cried out, screamed really loud, and then she was holding on to me so tight there was no way in hell that I would be going anywhere.

Unless it was to the ER for my own doctor’s visit to make sure my hand wasn’t fractured later.

“ Stay !” she growled low in her throat.

“ Yes , ma’am,” I said at the same time that Auden said, “ I’m not going anywhere.”

“ Someone catch it,” she hissed.

Yet she didn’t let go of either one of our hands.

I looked at Auden , and he looked at me, and we went in together as one and caught the baby as she all but launched it out of her vagina at us.

Auden caught the head, and I caught the tush, and we scooped her up and deposited her on her mother’s chest.

The baby started to scream almost instantly, and finally, Maven let me go.

I tried not to let out a whimper as the blood flow returned to my hand.

All I did was hold my hand that was now covered in baby juices out to my side and reach for my phone.

“ Holy shit,” Auden whispered. “ Holy fucking shit, Mave . We have a baby girl.”

Maven burst out crying, and I started to film.

I videoed the two of them as they got to know their new baby.

When I realized that I should probably go get a nurse, I left my phone propped up at the edge of the table to capture the moment despite my not being there and hurried out to find a nurse.

I did stop to wash my hands first, though.

I didn’t find a single one, and when I noted that there were two rooms down the hall with a woman screaming out herself, and about ten nurses shoved into the room, I realized why.

There was a bigger emergency than Maven’s .

I went back into the room and started looking around, finding everything that I would need to get the job done.

This time I pulled gloves on, though.

There was only so much that I loved my friend, and being covered in her fluids wasn’t something I was interested in continuing.

“ Auden ,” I said, catching their attention. “ Get her over here and let’s get her cleaned up. I tried to get a nurse or a doctor, but the entire staff is in two rooms down the hall with other emergencies.”

“ She’s kind of tied up,” he pointed to the cord that was still attached to… the placenta that was laying between Maven’s legs.

Nice .

“ Oh ,” I said as I looked around.

I found everything I needed in the drawer underneath the baby’s area, walking back over to clamp the cord using the little clips that were there.

I clamped, then handed Auden the scissors.

He looked around as if he wasn’t sure he was allowed to do it, and I rolled my eyes. “ Get it done, Dad .”

“ Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Athena ?” he asked.

“ I’m an expert,” I lied.

He cut the cord as Maven started to laugh.

Auden caught his little girl up in his hands and carried her over to the area that they used to clean the babies up.

I started fiddling with buttons, then turned on the lamp above the head.

“ Like those little lights at tractor supply that warm up the chickens,” Auden mused.

I snorted and gave him some wipes, then said, “ Look , it says your baby is seven pounds even.”

“ Tiny ,” Maven murmured from the bed.

I remembered the phone and hurried back to it, but stopped when I realized I had my gloves.

“ Hey , grab that and take some pictures,” I urged Maven .

Maven reached for it, only wincing slightly when she did.

“ Sure , just gave birth, but I’ll be my own photographer,” she teased.

Fifteen minutes later, the baby was diapered and once again resting on her mother’s chest, nursing.

“ I’m so sorry,” a frazzled looking nurse showed up in the room. “ Two babies decided to come at once and both of them got stuck in the pubic…”

She trailed off as she saw me cleaning up Maven’s sheets and Maven and Auden looking at the baby suckling.

“ I think we might’ve been a little less work than the ones down there,” Maven mused tiredly.

The nurse helped me change the linen the rest of the way, then went about checking a few things on the baby.

“ She weighed seven pounds even, her Apgar was ten,” I said as I started spouting everything out that I’d measured.

The nurse looked at me. “ Are you a nurse or a doctor?”

“ No , she’s a little genius that likes to study for fun,” Auden chuckled.

“ What , uh, time was she born?”

That was about the time that the room started flooding with Carters , minus the one that I wanted to see the most.

Garnett was hugging me when I finally asked, “ How is he?”

She scowled. “ Stubborn as hell and going to the station with his brother to get a few things checked out.”

“ He didn’t call me or want to come see me?” I asked vulnerably.

“ I’m sorry, Athena . But he’s just really messed up right now over hearing about Garrett and the bounty on his head,” she whispered, patting my cheek.

I nodded.

“ Is it safe for me to go home?” I wondered.

She looked at Germaine , who nodded. “ Sure is.”

After saying my goodbyes to them, I walked over to Maven and Auden , who were talking quietly.

Worming my way between Auden and Maven , I leaned into her and hugged her neck.

“ I’m going to go home and wash up,” I said. “ I love you, but being covered in your bodily fluids isn’t on the top of my like to do list.”

Maven hugged me back and started to cry into my neck.

“ I love you, Attie .”

I inhaled her scent. “ I love you, too, Maven .”

Auden hugged me, too, and walked me out.

He waited until we were in the hallway before saying, “ Thank you for helping us today.”

I giggled. “ I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

His eyes flicked down the length of the hallway, and a smile overtook his face.

“ Looks like the Semyonovs finally got with the party,” he teased.

I left them to it after that, heading not for the parking lot, but for the main ER .

I was fairly sure my hand was broken.

Like no joke.

It was throbbing, and already purpling.

I was right, too.

After getting it X -rayed an hour later, I did indeed have two breaks in my hand.

They fitted me with a bright fuchsia cast, then sent me on my way with a prescription for pain meds as needed.

I didn’t bother getting them filled.

Since I called an Uber , I didn’t want to add on an extra stop on my way home.

Maybe after I took a nap, I might go out and get it filled.

But until then, I’d deal with the pain.