Brida Pact (21 page)

As they reached the medical unit, Wheaton slowed.

Concerned, Poppy asked, “What’s up, babe?”

Wheaton glanced up at the shiny ceiling in the hallway,
confusion on his face.

“Not
up
, up… I meant what’s wrong?” she asked,
smiling.

“Oh, I find I am nervous to see you have a scan today,” he
admitted.

“Why?”

“What if there is something wrong with the baby? I am still
feeling that we have been too lucky in our match.”

“Lucky? What about our situation has been lucky lately?” she
asked.

“We were matched together. It is a perfect match. We enjoy
sexual intercourse. Quite a bit, I might add.” His grin was infectious, and she
couldn’t stop herself from mirroring it.

“And now we have made a baby. We are very lucky,” he
explained.

“And?”

“What if there is a problem? So far we have had nothing but
this ‘easy breezy’ way you always say. I am nervous that this cannot last.” His
worried demeanor immediately shot straight to her heart.

“Wheaton, nothing about you is ‘easy breezy’. Remember when
you ignored me the first few days here and I got all weepy and played Adele?
And also, we can’t forget the mess we have with this whole second-bride
fucktastrophe. Believe me—
not
my definition of ‘easy breezy’.”

“I do not believe I will ever forget Adele and her sad
songs. Still, we are lucky to have each other,” Wheaton countered.

Giving him a side hug, she nudged him the last few steps to
the door.

“Are you ready for this?” she asked before waving her arm
over the door.

“As ready I will ever be,” he replied, looking like he’d be
blowing chunks at any moment.

Tamin and Rodin seemed both excited and surprised to see
Wheaton when he walked in with Poppy. The men came up and gave him an arm shake
accompanied by a manly back pat. After she hugged each of the men, which was
accompanied by a growl from Wheaton, she clapped her hands together and said,
“Let’s get this show on the road.”

The men obviously figured that she meant to get the scan
started, and followed her into the exam room. Familiar with the drill by now,
Poppy kicked off her shoes and hopped onto the regen bed. Blowing a kiss to a
still queasy-looking Wheaton, she lay back and prepared for the doors to close.

Wheaton bent over the bed with an anxious glance, causing
Tamin to smack his arm and mumble, “Calm down, warrior.”

Poppy giggled when she saw Wheaton whip his head around to
glare at Tamin, who pretended to be busy with his tablet.

One minute later, the door slid back open. Sitting up, Poppy
glanced at a very concerned Wheaton.

“What the hell is your problem, Wheaton? You know these beds
are safe. You’re acting like it was going to kill me or something,” she teased,
trying to put him at ease.

“I explained that I am nervous, my little flower,” he
reminded her while helping her out of the bed.

Poppy witnessed Rodin mouth,
“Little flower?”
to his
friend. Both men smirked at Wheaton, their amusement obvious. Wheaton paid no
attention to the other men as he helped her slip on her shoes once more. Waiting
for the results seemed to take forever…or at least it seemed that way with
Wheaton hovering over the readout screen at the end of the bed. Every thirty
seconds he would pace back to Poppy and put his hand on her shoulder or smooth
her hair back. Then he would trek back to the regen bed and stare at it,
waiting for it to do something.

Tamin and Rodin tried to distract him but gave up when they
were unable to get a response. Soon they began chatting with Poppy about the
previous day’s activities. When she explained about the situation she had with
Hannah, they were furious on her behalf.

Once Wheaton overheard the phrases “that idiot Wheaton” in
addition to “not deserving her”, he finally joined in the conversation.

“I
was
an idiot and
do
deserve her. I have
fixed my errors so mind your own business,” he bit out, not at all willing to
humor the men trying to rile him.

“Well, if for some reason Poppy changes her mind, then we
know many a warrior who would snatch her up in a second,” Rodin chipped in.

At those words, Wheaton lunged across the room and held
Rodin up off his feet by his scrubs.

“What warriors are they?” he demanded, angry as hell.

Although Poppy had moved as quickly as she was able to help
her friend, she wasn’t fast enough to make it before Wheaton had Rodin in a
death grip. Trying to get Wheaton to loosen his grip on Rodin, she was pulling
on his fingers when the machine signaled it had completed its cycle. In an
instant, Rodin was released and fell back to the wall behind him, still staring
wide-eyed at Wheaton. With one last glare in Rodin’s direction, Wheaton moved
toward Tamin, who was standing by the bed.

Tamin snatched the information the regen bed spit out as it
printed, and was scanning it quickly while Wheaton stared him down. Between him
casting angry glances at Rodin for what he had said, and glaring at Tamin as if
he needed to hurry the fuck up with his reading, Poppy just tossed her hands in
the air and sat down again.

“Rodin, I need your eyes on this. Something seems…off,”
Tamin said, keeping an eye on Wheaton, who appeared as if he were ready to
strangle someone again.

“Off? What does ‘off’ mean?” Wheaton asked, his voice
hoarse. “If there is a question about Poppy’s health then you do what must be
done to fix her. No matter what the cost. Understand?”

“Yeah, guys, what does ‘off’ mean?” Poppy’s voice rose to
match Wheaton’s.

The two men mumbled quietly to one another while Wheaton
strode back to Poppy, pulling her into a hard hug. Holding her tight, he
whispered, “Do not worry, Poppy. We will handle whatever has happened and make
sure that you are taken care of.”

As they huddled in their little circle while the men talked,
she could feel Wheaton take deep breaths. Her mind whirling with possibilities,
all bad of course, as to what could be “off”. Moving her arms lower on his body
to hug his waist, she leaned against him and felt him lean into her as well.
With him kissing her ear and hugging her, she felt whatever the problem was,
they would really be all right. The strength that he lent her was powerful
enough to get them through anything as long as they were together.

“Poppy? Wheaton?” Rodin said.

Turning in Wheaton’s hold, Poppy was startled to see the men
smiling. What the hell? What was there to smile about??

Poppy’s nerves shot, she snapped at the men. “Spit it out,
doc. I feel like I’m either ready to cry or puke. Neither one of those options
is pretty.”

“I am sorry to have upset you. I wanted Rodin to confirm
what I believed from the changes on this scan versus your previous scan,” Tamin
explained.

“And?” Wheaton asked anxiously when the doctor paused. He
was just as much on pins and needles as she was. Poppy needed the doctors to
explain what was happening before he started punching people for answers.

“Well, from the readings today, compared to your previous
scan, it seems you are due in eighteen weeks,” Rodin said with a smile.

“Wait. What?”

“Are you sure?”

Both Wheaton and Poppy had spoken at the same time.

“Hold the phone, people. Human pregnancies are normally
forty weeks for full term. There is no
way
I’m due in eighteen weeks,”
Poppy said in disbelief.

“Well…it appears as if you two are compatible for breeding
but Wheaton’s cloning genes have taken over the gestation period,” Tamin
explained, as if that made total sense to a confused Poppy.

“Uh?”

Wheaton turned toward Poppy and took her hand. Gesturing for
her to sit down, he explained, “When warriors are cloned, they are engineered
to have a gestation period of only twenty weeks. This is to speed up the
process. It must have influenced my own genetics when reproducing naturally
with a human.”

“But wouldn’t I be showing more if I were due so soon? Will
the development still be okay considering the timeline is short and the baby is
only half Phaeton?” Poppy’s voice sounded panicked even to her own ears.

Rodin walked closer to the couple, holding the readouts in
his hand. “The findings are showing a healthy fetus for the time frame listed.
Development is showing on par with what we would expect for a cloned incubator
fetus with no signs of distress.” As if embarrassed, he paused a moment before
continuing, “Your…weight may be hindering our ability to see more of an obvious
swelling of the abdomen. Do not worry though, you are completely healthy and we
have no worries. It will not be long though before your pregnancy is apparent
to everyone. We have been lucky so far that you haven’t been showing
considering your desire to keep your condition a secret.”

“Now that I recall clearly, you are not as soft in your
stomach as you were a few weeks ago. I did not notice it until I caressed you
though.” With Wheaton running his hands over her stomach, Poppy had to admit
that she didn’t feel as squishy as she had before.

“My baby, you are really having my baby,” he whispered. “I
still cannot believe it.”

Poppy was having a surreal moment of her own. She had just
gotten used to the idea they’d need to get everything baby ready in forty weeks
and now her timeline had been cut in half. She was going to be a mom sooner
rather than later and it was freaking her out. Flicking her gaze from one man
to another, all she could hear from them was “
whaa whaa whaa whaa
” and
wondered if this was what someone felt right before they passed out. As she
lost consciousness, her last thought was
please don’t let me hit the ground
.

Trying to open her eyes, she heard loud voices above her.
Blinking, her eyes hurting at the bright lighting, she saw that she was lying
in the regen bed with the men arguing whether or not to scan her again to see
what was wrong. Not one of them had realized she had come to again and were
starting to yell at each other.

“Guys? Guys.
Guys!
” she yelled to get their
attention.

“Poppy, you worried us. How are you feeling?” Rodin asked,
sweeping a handheld scanner up and down her body.

“I’m fine. I think I just got overwhelmed there for a
minute,” Poppy said weakly. Sitting up, she put her hand on her head to clear
the cobwebs a bit. “Can I have a glass of water?”

Rodin rushed water to her so fast, she was amazed he didn’t
go skidding across the floor.

Wheaton was hovering over her as if she would pass out again
any moment, and Poppy was feeling claustrophobic.

“Back up, guys, I need some room to breathe,” she said,
pushing Wheaton back a step or two. The hurt on his face made her heart twinge,
but she really needed to not have three uber-tall warriors hovering over her
right now.

Wheaton felt as if his heart had stopped when he saw Poppy
droop in the chair. Realizing she was no longer conscious, he panicked. The
first thought that ran through his head was to get her to the regen bed.
Noticing both doctors seemed frozen, he lifted her out of the chair and laid
her gently down in the unit. Tamin was hitting buttons on the machine when
Poppy moved her head and fluttered her eyes as if trying to wake up. When she
didn’t immediately wake, he had demanded the doctors do their job. It was not
until Poppy started giving orders that Wheaton felt relief. His little flower
acted like a senior warrior sometimes in her temperament.

“Rodin. Tamin. We have a ship to baby-proof and plans to
make regarding houses on the home planet,” Poppy murmured once her head
cleared. Plan mode was always her go-to for dealing with stress and this would
not be an exception.

“As you would say, we have a lot of shit to do and not much
time to do it in. Correct, Poppy?” Rodin asked with a relieved smile.

“Exactly, my friend. Exactly,” she replied with a matching
grin.

The men took that as their cue to help her up and start
going over the plans they’d made earlier with Wheaton regarding how to get
quarters prepared for when the baby arrived. Knowing that they were on an even
tighter timeline seemed to give them a new energy for how things needed to be
done. They all agreed that Poppy should be able to tell people about the pregnancy
sooner rather than later considering the accelerated growth. The scan had come
back showing a very healthy, if not speedy, baby.

Wheaton grilled the doctors about what she should be eating,
doing, and reiterated she needed to have an escort at all times. Although he
wasn’t too fond of how close Behyr had grown to Poppy, Poppy figured Wheaton
understood his fellow warrior was still the most logical choice considering
Behyr already knew about the baby and he had become friends with Poppy.

After Tamin and Rodin had explained, repeatedly, that
everything was fine and Poppy was safe with them, he agreed to head to his
morning meeting.

“I wish I did not have to leave you yet,” he whispered,
hugging her for the umpteenth time as he prepared to leave.

“Me too, babe. Don’t forget to come back for lunch and to
bring Hannah with you. I want to introduce her to some eligible warriors and
get her sights locked on someone other than you.”

“That sounds like a good idea. She has been spending too
much time with Demascus during breaks. I have a feeling he has been feeding her
lies and false hope. Her meeting other warriors will benefit all of us,” he
agreed.

After a couple more kisses, where she could see Tamin and
Rodin making fun of Wheaton by making smoochie faces, she finally kicked his
butt out. Turning to the men who had become her close friends, she shook her
finger at them. “Knock it off, will ya? He is going to kill you both if you
keep teasing him.”

Both men laughed at her statement but agreed with her. They
each took turns giving her hugs and she was surprised when Tamin whispered, “I
was not kidding when I said that another warrior would take his place if he was
stupid enough to let you go.”

“Really, Tam, who are you referring to?” she asked with a
teasing smile.

She wasn’t prepared for the completely serious expression
that came over his face when he replied, “I know at least three.” Then he
turned and walked back to the supply room.

Rodin nodded in agreement. Well, that was interesting.