The Doctor's Baby Secret (16 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

W
HEN
HE
OPENED
his eyes again it wasn't Corrine sitting in his room. It was Blair King.

Blair stood up as soon as he realised Austin was awake. ‘Lieutenant Commander Mitchell.'

‘Dr King.' His words were sharp. He couldn't help it. Where was Corrine?

‘You'll be pleased to know everything is fine. The swelling has gone down—you almost look normal again. They've confirmed that they've got all the shrapnel out. You've got around forty stitches, but they should heal without any problems. We'll make arrangements for you to work at the base for the next few weeks. After that you should be able to resume the normal training programme.' He gave Austin a broad smile. ‘You're quite the hero, Lieutenant Commander Mitchell. And you're lucky you weren't more seriously injured. You could have ruined your chances of being an astronaut.' He walked around to the other side of the bed. ‘I'd say we need to have a chat about your risk-taking behaviour but I know I'd be wasting my breath. By the way, the little girl's mother is doing fine now too.'

Blair was tiptoeing around what he really should be saying.

Austin had no doubt. He'd been more than lucky. He'd escaped with his life. But in those few milliseconds that the red car had hit them his life had flashed before his eyes.

He'd heard people talk about it before. But he'd never experienced it. Never felt it.

He could have died today and he'd never told Corrine that he loved her. Never told her that he'd made a decision to walk away from all this. If the research job was still available he'd take it. If it wasn't? He'd find something else. Something that meant he'd be near to her.

She was the important factor here and he wasn't afraid to tell her.

‘Where's Corrine?' His stomach growled loudly. He hadn't eaten in hours.

Blair pushed a plate of toast towards him. He hesitated. ‘She...fainted. I made her go home. She needs some rest.'

Austin was out of the bed in an instant. ‘She fainted? What's wrong with her?' This wasn't right. Corrine hadn't been in the accident. She should be fine.

He glanced around the room and tugged at his hospital gown. ‘Where are my clothes? Where are my shoes?' He bent down and looked under the bed, ignoring the little shooting pains in his abdomen. No. Nothing there. And nothing on the chairs except Blair King, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable.

He stalked around to the other side of the bed and yanked open the tiny locker. It was stuffed full with a white plastic bag. He grabbed it and emptied the contents on the bed. The waft of burning fuel nearly knocked him sideways. Great. His clothes were crumpled beyond all recognition, were dirty and they stank. He sighed and turned to face Blair. Sure, he could probably punch the guy and steal his clothes but that still wouldn't get him a ride.

‘Blair, I need clothes and a ride to wherever Corrine's holed up.'

Blair shook his head. ‘What you need to do, Lieutenant Commander Mitchell, is get back into bed and wait for the surgeon to come and speak to you. You haven't been formally discharged yet. This—' he waved his hand towards Austin ‘—won't help anything.'

Austin stepped towards him. ‘Don't make me punch you. Would it help if I told you I quit? I'm not your responsibility any more?'

Blair looked shocked. ‘What are you talking about? You can't quit.'

Austin pointed at his eye. ‘Really?' His sarcasm was in full flow now. He waved his hand and shook his head. ‘Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway. I'd already decided before this. What I need to do now is talk to Corrine. Now, will you help me or not?'

He reached into the pocket of his crumpled trousers and pulled out what he needed.

Blair stepped forward. ‘Are you sure about this, Austin? Maybe this isn't the right time to be making any decisions.'

Austin held his hand in front of Blair's face. ‘Too late. My decision is made. Now, help me get to Corrine or get out of my way.'

Blair hesitated for the briefest second then let out a sigh and gave his shoulders a shrug. ‘Okay, then, let's go.'

* * *

Corrine was curled up in a ball on her sofa, drinking tea and watching reality TV. She was nervous—more than nervous. Almost scared to move. Blair finding her lying on the floor had scared the living daylights out of her. She hadn't wanted to leave Austin's side but ever since she'd been handed that little sonograph picture she'd realised how much she had to lose—they both had to lose.

Even though, statistically, she knew lying on the sofa for the next few days wouldn't really lessen her chance of potential miscarriage, she was quite happy to stay here for the next six months if it would give her a healthy baby.

Her door opened. No knock. No noise of a car pulling up. She jumped. Austin's broad frame filled her doorway. He was wearing a blue pair of hospital scrubs.

‘What are you doing?' She couldn't actually believe he was here. His footsteps paused. ‘What about your wounds?' She took a step towards him.

She could see him swallow as he stepped forward, letting the door bang closed behind him.

‘All stitched,' he answered. ‘Swelling's gone down.'

‘What did they say? Will you have any after-effects?'

He frowned. ‘Shouldn't have. I'm sure they told you that.' His voice lowered. ‘What's going on, Corrine?'

Her voice trembled. ‘What do you mean?'

‘They told me you fainted. Are you hurt? Is something wrong?' He moved forward, backing her up towards the sofa, and she sank back down into the cushions. He knelt down next to her, concern written all over his face.

Her stomach twinged again. But this time it was nothing to do with the car accident.

She swallowed. Too bad her tea was finished. Right now she really needed something to drink.

‘Not wrong, exactly,' she said carefully.

‘What does that mean?'

Her heart squeezed against her chest. She really loved this guy. His charm, his demeanour, his heroics and his values. If she'd been planning to pick a father for her baby, Austin Mitchell would have topped the list every single time.

But she hadn't made those plans and neither had he. Right time or not, she had to tell him.

And it felt like the biggest risk on the planet. She had to tell him everything. She had to be honest. She had to tell him that she loved him and she was prepared to wait. To wait for him to come back from space. She had to trust him with her heart.

She held out the black and white scan picture with her trembling hand. ‘This is my news.'

Austin wasn't a doctor but most guys the world over could recognise a scan picture when they saw one.

She held her breath. It only took a few seconds for recognition to set in. His eyes widened, then first a frown, then a broad smile covered his face. He reached forward and touched her abdomen. ‘Are you okay? Is the baby okay? The accident. I braked hard. Did I hurt you? Did I hurt him?'

She felt a partial wave of relief. There were no questions. No resentment. Only concern. But could there be more?

She shook her head and pointed to the picture. ‘They took the scan after the accident and showed me the heartbeat. Everything's okay for now but they didn't make any promises. I'm supposed to rest the next few days.'

He looked up at her. ‘Your news. You said this was your news. Was this what you wanted to tell me the day I got selected?'

She bit her lip and nodded.

‘Why on earth didn't you tell me at the time?'

‘What? Before or after you dumped me?'

He cringed. But she wasn't finished.

‘How could I tell you? You'd just said that thinking about me was putting you off your work—making you lose focus. You implied that thinking about me could make you crash the shuttle you were piloting. I was hardly going to tell you about a baby at that point.'

He was still holding the sonograph picture and his hands had the barest tremble.

‘So why tell me now?'

She took a deep breath. ‘Because I've had some time to think about it. I was always going to tell you. This isn't exactly something that I could hide and I don't want to hide it.'

She was feeling brave now. She was building momentum. It was easier to get everything out.

‘And I guess you're just going to have to learn. To learn how to love someone without crashing a pilot shuttle. And I'm going to have to learn to love someone without killing any patients back here on earth. But this is my first time. And you and I have got a history of first times. So I guess we can do this together.'

She held her breath. Waiting to see what he would say. Praying it would be something good.

He'd closed his eyes for a few seconds as she spoke, but he opened them again and fixed them on her. ‘This is the best news I've ever had,' he whispered.

She gulped. Was the best news just about the baby, or was it the fact she loved him?

‘Which part?'

He held out his hands. ‘All of it.' He stood up. ‘It's over.' She was hit by a wave of confusion. His words were firm and clear with only the tiniest hint of sadness. He turned to face her. ‘That's why I was taking you to dinner last night. I wanted to tell you I'd made up my mind.'

A thousand thoughts flooded her brain. She wasn't sure if she was suffering from pregnancy brain or being-in-love scrambled brain.

‘Made up your mind about
what
exactly?' Her stomach twisted in knots; she hoped her face and voice didn't betray her.

‘About the fact I've found a very good reason to keep my feet firmly on terra firma.'

She blinked. Those electric-blue eyes were fixed on her face. Something twisted inside. ‘And what reason is that?'

His eyes twinkled. ‘It's you, Corrine. It would always be you.'

She felt a little flutter. Darn it. Her heart had just skipped a beat. She so wanted this. She just didn't want to be his default position. So, she had to ask again.

‘But you've aced every test. You're first pick for pilot. It's what you dreamed of.'

He shook his head. ‘It's what I thought I dreamed of. The reality was a bit different. It's certainly what my father dreamed of and I've listened to him talk about it for so long that I thought it was my dream too.'

Her heart squeezed in her chest.

‘I'd already decided. I've found my one. The one that people spend their whole life searching for. And it's you, Corrine.'

She felt her heart swell. She could hear what he was saying but still had questions. ‘But lots of astronauts are in love, have families and still go up into space.'

‘I know they do. But I choose not to. I don't want to spend six months on a space station away from you. I realised that space just isn't my dream any more. I'm not sure that it ever was. If the research position is still available I'll take it. It might not be in Texas but I can fly back from Maryland every few weeks. That's the longest we'd need to be apart. I love you, Corrine. I don't want to be away from you for even two weeks. And I'm hoping you'll feel the same way and we can make this work. I choose you, Corrine.'

She sucked in a breath. It was everything she wanted to hear but she had to be sure.

‘WSSA was your dream from when you were a kid. If you give it up for me...' she laid her hand on her stomach ‘...if you give it up for us, at some point you'll resent us. I don't want that. I don't want that for our son or our daughter. I don't want that for us.'

He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek. ‘I don't want that for us either. It won't happen. But I can't promise you I won't still be a risk taker. You have to know the only thing I would change about yesterday was that you were in the car with me. I wish I'd never done anything that could have harmed our child.' He gave his head a little shake. ‘But no matter what the risks to me I would still have rescued that mom and kid. It's me. It's who I am. I could never, ever walk away from something like that. And I hope that's part of why you love me. Because you know that. You know that I would always be the person to do that and you wouldn't even try to stop me.'

His words struck home. That was exactly how it had been. She'd been scared, she'd been terrified for him, but Austin hadn't hesitated. And maybe she wouldn't love him quite so much if he had. This was the person she'd fallen in love with. And she didn't want to change a single thing about him.

He took a deep breath. ‘If the accident hadn't happened last night I would have taken you for dinner, told you that I loved you and that I was quitting. I'd be lying if I said you weren't a part of this.' He pressed his hand against his heart. ‘I have to go with what's in here. And that's you.' He let out a laugh. ‘And to think I was worried you wouldn't want me if I wasn't an astronaut.'

She frowned. ‘What on earth do you mean?' She met his gaze. ‘Most people on the planet are praying for a cure for cancer more than they're dreaming of a mission to Mars.' She reached over and squeezed his hand. ‘And I'll be proud of you no matter what job you have.
We'll
be proud of you.'

He knelt down in front of her again. ‘There was something else I planned to do last night.'

‘What?'

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box. ‘This.'

She held her breath as he flipped open the box. The single diamond was dazzling. And perfect.

A little tear started to slide down her cheek.

‘Hey, you're not supposed to cry.'

She laughed and wiped it away. ‘I know, I can't help it. Blame the hormones.'

He gave a little nod and pulled the ring out of the box. ‘I had something extra embedded in the back of the ring.' His smile reached from ear to ear. ‘A tiny bit of meteorite that reminds us of where we met.'