Child of Mercy (27 page)

Right.  Because I could drink caffeine again if I wasn’t pregnant.  “Actually, you’re right.  Coffee sounds so much better.  You know how I like it,” I smiled winsomely.  Parker left without argument, and I held on to Nelo’s arm until I guessed he’d reached the first floor. 

“Is there something troubling you, Mistress?” Nelo fretted, his distress palpable.  I eased my grip on his arm, worried I’d hurt him.

“Yes, there is something troubling me big time,” I confided, keeping my voice low.  “Please tell me you remember the baby.”

“I remember the baby.”

Unfortunately, that could mean he was parroting back what I wanted to hear.  “No… wait.  Don’t say what I told you to say, tell me if you remember me being pregnant at all.”

“Of course, Mistress.”  His brow remained furrowed with concern even as his eyes dropped to my midsection.  “When you did not return last night, I thought she might have come by now but I don’t smell anyone else in the house.  Where is she?”

“You can smell how many people are in the… wait, nevermind.”  I shook my head, focusing on the bigger importance of what he’d just said.  “You definitely remember her then, my baby.  Mine and Adam’s.”

“I have not met her yet, but yes, of course I do.  Why would I not?”

“Thank God,” I breathed, eyes closing for a moment.  Not that I really thought I was nuts, but I felt a world of better at getting that confirmation.  “She’s missing.  And not only that, no one even remembers I was pregnant in the first place.”

Nelo took a moment to digest that, blinking at me owlishly.  “That is most strange, Mistress.  How could they not remember?”

“I have no idea, but Parker, Daphne, the people at the hospital - they thought I was nuts when I started talking about my baby and all her stuff is gone from the nursery.  We have to figure this out, Nelo, you and me.”

“No one has been here in your absence, I would have known it.  Even during the day.”  We sat in silence for a few minutes, munching on Oreos as we tried to figure out what it all meant.  “Why not call Master Adam?” he asked finally. 

“Adam doesn’t care about our problems, Nelo.  For all I know he doesn’t remember a thing about the baby anymore either.” 

“He is not human, he may have an idea how it was done.”

“That’s possible, but I already tried calling him, and nothing.”  Even if he’d been far away at the time it had been hours since I called for him at the hospital and not a peep.  Then again, he might not be all that inclined to come when I called after the way we’d left things between us. 

“Why not try Sam then?”

“You are a genius,” I grinned, dropping a kiss on the top of his head.  “Samael?”  We sat around expectantly, and I called his name again a few times, but the only one who came into the room was Parker, a plastic tray in his hands. 

Forgetting the pretense of taking it easy anymore, I hopped out of bed, armed with an ally this time when I confronted him.  “Parker, Nelo remembers Bunny!  See, I told you I’m not crazy,” I gushed, only to have Parker’s brows draw together into a single line. 

“Not this again… you said you didn’t remember any of that stuff.”

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t have let me come home if I hadn’t pretended, would you?”  Without waiting for an answer I pulled open dresser drawers looking for regular clothes to wear.  None of the maternity clothes were there, of course, but I was glad to get into my jeans again. 

“I think I’d better call the doctor…”

“Don’t you dare,” I shot him a look.  “Don’t you get it?  Nelo remembers me being pregnant, just like I told you.  I’m not nuts.  Someone stole her and erased all of your memories about her.”

“Yeah, because
that
makes sense.”

“Think about it.  Sam’s prophecies talk about me being the mother of a new race without original sin and all that jazz.  Ben kidnapped me to try and help Azazael be reborn through me…”  From the look on his face, he didn’t remember any of that either.  “Nelo remembers it all, don’t you Nelo?”

“I do, Mistress,” he smiled brightly, but Parker wasn’t buying it.

“Nelo would say anything to make you happy,” he muttered in disgust.  “I’m pretty sure I’d remember if you were having my baby.”

“She’s not yours.”

“What?”  He looked as if I’d socked him in the gut.

“She’s Adam’s,” I said as gently as I could, but a scowl still formed on his face.

“I thought we agreed not to mention him.”

“I don’t remember making any such agreement, so I’m thinking it doesn’t count.  Look, you can stick your head in the sand about this all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that my baby is out there somewhere.  A baby you agreed to raise as you own, by the way, and I can think of at least three factions that would like to get their hands on her.”  If it wasn’t Ben and Azazael, maybe Raum had gotten it into his head to come after her as a way to regain his hold over me?  And hadn’t Lucifer said he had his own plans for her?

“I agreed to raise Adam’s baby as my own?” Parker scoffed.  “That doesn’t sound like me at all.”

“We were sort of a package deal.  Why, are you saying you wouldn’t?”  That brought me up short.  I’d been so used to Parker offering his love and support for the past several months, it was hard to get into his frame of mind.  I didn’t know what kind of memories were swimming around in his head about the past six months, but I imagined news of an instant baby would be pretty jarring.  That Parker hadn’t gone to the doctor’s appointments with me, or attended childbirth class.  What did he even know about babies?  He’d never crafted a nursery or asked me to marry him to be a father for my child. 

“Mercy… you’re asking me to accept a lot on faith here.”  He paced uncomfortably at being put on the spot.

“You never proposed to me, did you?”

“Propose
marriage
?  What else happened in bizarro land where you live?” 

It cemented my belief that he never would have asked to marry me if I hadn’t been pregnant, and I felt vindicated in deciding to call the wedding off.  But where did that leave us?  We’d have to redo every conversation for the past half year trying to figure out where we stood with each other.  I sank onto the end of the bed, a little lost for having one of the cornerstones of my life crumble under the pressure.  “It’s all gone, isn’t it?  Everything we shared together.”

“It’s not all gone, Merce.”  Parker sat beside me, picking up my hand and loosely holding it in his own.  “I love you, you know that, don’t you?”  At least that hadn’t changed, and I gave him a weak smile.  “This is a lot for me to swallow all at once.  I mean look at you, you don’t look like you just gave birth.”

“It’s the Grace.”  I shook my head miserably.  “I have to get her back, Parker.  I can’t just accept that she’s gone.”

“Alright, if you say so, we’ll get her back,” he said with determination.  I appreciated the effort, but I could tell he still didn’t really believe me.  “As for marriage… I can’t say I haven’t thought about it before, but I thought you wanted to take things slow.  It was hard enough to talk you into moving in here with me.”  He grinned and I wished I could see his memory of how that conversation went.

“Mistress, I could seek out my brethren.  Perhaps I can find out if anyone knows where Bunny has been taken.”

I’d almost forgotten Nelo was in the room, he’d been so quiet, watching the conversation with big eyes.  It wasn’t quite like the tempestuous arguments I’d gotten into with Adam, but I could tell any conflict made him nervous.  “That’s a fantastic idea, Nelo.  I’d love it if you could try and find something out.  Just be careful.”

“I would gladly brave much more to find her.  We are family, are we not?”

“Yes, Nelo, we’re still a family, and we’ll figure this out.”  I sent him a jolt of Grace so he’d have plenty of energy to pop between shadows on his search. 

“So, we’re married with a kid on the way in this other reality, huh?  I guess I can’t complain too much about that,” Parker remarked once Nelo left.

“No, we didn’t get married.”

“But I did propose?”

“Yep, you did, twice.”

“Why didn’t we get married then?”

“Because when you asked me…” I considered not getting into it, but decided to go with honesty.  “I didn’t love you the same way you loved me.”

Parker took the news in stride, looking down at our joined hands.  “But we are
together,
right?”

“Yes, Parker, we’re definitely together.”  I leaned forward to kiss him, glad to find something else that hadn’t changed.  “In your memory, are we sleeping together?” I asked as the kiss broke, wondering what else might be different between us. 

“What do you think?” he smirked.

Ugh, and I missed it? 

“I’m just kidding, darlin’,” he chuckled at seeing my expression.  “Technically we sleep in the same bed, but you said you wanted to take things slow and I’m… learning patience.”   

“Then you and I never…”

“Not yet, no, but I’m hopeful.” 

“Oh, good.”  I breathed easier.  “I kinda wanted us to have our first time together…
together
.” 

“This has got to be one of the weirdest conversations I’ve ever had.”

“That makes two of us,” I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Call it an uneven three,” Adam smirked from the doorway.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Jesus Christ.”  I dropped Parker’s hand to clutch at my chest where my heart beat a mile a minute. 

“Nope, just me,” Adam grinned.  From the lack of reaction from Parker, I guessed he’d kept himself imperceptible to the human eye.

“What’s wrong?”

Parker drew my attention, but I was at a loss for what to say.  I knew he didn’t want to hear Adam’s name, but it felt wrong to talk around the fact that Adam had made himself comfortable in Parker’s favorite chair by the window.  “I, um… it’s…”

“Did you know there’s a fat Armenian couple squatting in your apartment?” Adam continued as if Parker hadn’t spoken. 

“I live here now.”

“Yeah, you do.”  Parker’s head tilted to one side to study me carefully.  “Or didn’t you in that other reality?”

“I have to say I kinda like your old place better.  This one is bigger, but it has too much… I dunno, Parker in it,” Adam grimaced. 

“No, I did, I do.”  I turned back to Parker, starting to get a headache. 

“Why didn’t you move into the house I left for you?”

“Because I didn’t want your stupid guilt money, or your car, or anything else,” I spat at Adam, completely losing the ability to carry on both conversations simultaneously. 

“Who are you talking to?”

“Uh oh, the jig is up, sweetcheeks.  I think he’s on to us.”

Instead of playing that game, I answered Parker honestly.  I had nothing to hide, not anymore.  “Adam.”

“Adam is here,” Parker replied blankly. 

“In the flesh.”  Adam flashed his eyes at me playfully, still remaining hidden from sight. 

“Could you please not do that right now?  I’m having a hard enough time getting him to believe I’m not making up too many other things at the moment.”

“Okay, okay, chill.”  Adam must have made himself visible, because Parker immediately bristled. 

“What’s he doing here?”

“Hey, she called me, pal.  Didn’t you?”  Adam gave me that lazy smile, the one that used to melt my toes.  At that moment it made me want to smack him upside the head for deliberately trying to rile Parker up. 

“Okay, she called, you came, now you can be on your way.”  Parker’s eyes narrowed and I got to see a new side of him.  Pure male jealousy.  If he ever felt it about Adam’s presence before, he kept it tightly controlled. 

“I think that’s for the lady to decide.”

“Last time I checked this was my house,
pal
.”  Parker rose to his feet, and I caught hold of his hand, sending calming Grace to soothe his nerves.  

“Can I have a few minutes to talk to him, please?”  Parker eased, but didn’t relax his stance.  “Please, Parker?”

He stared at Adam a few seconds longer before nodding.  “I’m gonna go down and get a drink.  You want one too?”

The last thing I wanted was a drink, but I agreed readily enough.  “That would be nice, thanks.”

“I’ll take a scotch if you’re going that way anyway,” Adam smiled cheerfully, but we both ignored him.  Instead I accompanied Parker to the door, radiating soothing Grace the entire way. 

“It’ll be fine, I promise.” 

Parker nodded, but I could see the hurt behind his eyes.  The fact that I’d called Adam at all was a sore spot between us and I guess I couldn’t blame him.  The fact was, I needed them both, I just hoped they could put aside their enmity long enough to help me get Bunny back. 

“You got your body back.  Well, mostly.”  I turned around to see Adam staring at me with open hunger, but he quickly shuttered it behind his trademark grin.  “Where is the little rug rat anyway?”

I ignored the barb, a rush of relief sweeping through me when he brought up the baby.  If he remembered Bunny, the chances were he could help me figure out who took her.  “You heard me calling you from the hospital?” 

“I sure didn’t come to watch the happy couple.  How was the wedding, by the way?  Did you wear white?”

“Then you remember our baby.  You remember why you left me.”

“Is that a trick question?”  It was Adam’s turn to look confused.  “Of course I do.  You don’t think I’d have left otherwise, do you?”

I didn’t want to fight about the stupidity of that statement at the moment, I just wanted his help.  “Yeah, well… you, me, and Nelo are the only ones that do.  Everyone else has developed amnesia as far as the baby is concerned.”

“Really?”  His face changed, but I wasn’t sure with what.  He almost looked pleased to hear it. 

“Not only that, she’s gone.  I went into the hospital and it was… bad.”  I swallowed at the agonizing memory.  “When I woke up, she was gone and they called me insane for claiming to have ever been pregnant.”

“No sign of the child at all.”

“No, nothing.  Even her crib and things are all gone.  What do you think could make everyone forget like this?”