A Mate Worse Than Death (12 page)

Phil looked down his nose at him for a moment, and Tony saw the hauteur in his bearing that she had not seen since her very first meeting with him. In the blink of an eye, it was gone, and Phil shook Anthony’s hand. “Phil Akkadian.”

Anthony looked over at Tony, who, taking her cue from Phil when he altered his full name, added,
“He’s assisting in a current investigation, and Dad, I can’t say more than that.”

“I understand,” he told her.

At that point Junior and Amanda came over to hug Tony as well. “Should you and Cal go on and help Berthell?” Amanda asked. She swung Junior’s arm, “This one is impatient to see his new brother or sister!”

Tony grinned, taking in the sight of her parents surrounded by Supernaturals, obvious ones and a not-so-obvious one. “Sure, sure. We’re on it.” She turned to Cal, “Has the doc got any idea how much longer?”

Cal stuck a finger in his shirt collar and tried to pull it out from his neck. “Every time I ask, she growls at me.”

“Another Sphinx?” asked Anthony curiously.

Azeem shuddered, “Oh no. The females of our kind are never doctors.” He tilted his head to one side. “Lawyers, usually. The kind that chase ambulances.”

Melly, who was almost through an undergraduate degree in Supernatural Anthropology, added, “The female Sphinx and the male Sphinx are very different creatures, Dad. You wouldn’t want a female Sphinx anywhere near a newborn.”

“Oh dear. I hope I haven’t offended you,” said Anthony.

“None taken, none taken, “ Azeem assured him.

Cal added, “The doctor is an ogre. Unfortunately, she kinda sides with Berthell about the whole birth thing. Like we shoulda stopped at three. I got two women really mad at me in there.” He turned to Anthony, a bit wild-eyed. “I hope this ends soon!”

Anthony nodded and gestured to Amanda, “I didn’t know my wife knew some of the words she called me when Antonia was born.” He laughed, “The whole process gave me a new view of the demur girl I married!”

“You were in the birthing room with Mom?” Melly asked.

“For all three births, Amelia. Don’t you remember? You were here when Alfred was born.”

“I didn’t realize you went into the birthing room.”

“My word. Where did you think I would go when your mother was in the middle of one of the most important events in our lives?”

Melly shrugged, a little shame-faced when she admitted, “I thought you had gone somewhere quiet to work, and I now have a whole different view of my Dad!”

He smiled at her and then at his wife.

“He coached me,” Amanda said, taking her husband’s hand in her free hand.

Tony nodded, “I remember. You’ve always been a hands-on father.”

Anthony all but blushed, “Well, it seemed only fair to be there and help your mother. And I couldn’t wait to see you,” he looked around at all three children, “any of you!”

The touching moment ended abruptly when a Natty nurse all but slid in the door, she was racing so fast, “Berthell Kelly, birthing suite 475--message for Calvin. Get the hell back in here, now, ya rat bastard!” She grinned and turned around and headed back down the hall, where a faint echo of a bellow signaled the location of the room.

“That’s my girl,” Cal announced and grabbed Tony’s arm, pulling her down the hallway toward that bellow. “Once more into--”

“Do not finish that quote!”

“the breach. What?”

Tony headsmacked herself, “I’ve been hanging out with Phil for too long.” Then she turned, ran back to the door and yelled, “Lieutenant, heads up!” and tossed the tote his way before sliding back down the hall to Cal.

Cal looked down at her as he hustled them both down the hallway, “And I’ll be hearing all of that story just as soon as Baby Kelly gets here.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Three excruciating hours later, Baby Kelly finally decided to quit horsing around and arrived. By that time, both Cal and Tony were wilting from trying to both encourage Berthell, as well as keep her from harming themselves or any of the brave hospital staff, who, while accustomed to working with Supers, were finding this particular delivery more difficult than most. Tony had been awake for over twenty-four hours straight, and at this point she had tunnel vision and a kind of plodding urge to keep moving in order to stay awake. Helping Berthell finish a rough, long labor, however, had generated the adrenaline she had needed to stay awake and dodge a few blows. She hoped it would be e
nough to get her through to bedtime, whenever that happened.

At 7:35 a.m., the final push led to Dr. Hault triumphantly holding up fifty-five pounds of bouncing baby ogre to show Berthell, Cal, and Tony.

“Oh thank goodness,” Tony breathed, as she looked at the little guy.

“Yeah, that was a rough one! But here he is. L
ittle Newman Kelly,” Cal cooed.

“Well, yeah, I’m glad it’s over,” Tony agreed, looking over at Berthell, who was holding out her arms for her baby. “But I meant, thank goodness it’s a boy.”

“Oh, yeah, Junior will be glad to have a brother.”

“Well, yeah,” Tony shook her head as if to clear it. “Man, I am not getting this out. What I mean is, I love that you both want to name this baby Newman. I’m just glad he’s a he, see?”

Cal looked at her for a minute, then smiled. “Partner, you’re about as tired as I have ever seen you, and that includes any time in the last three investigations,” he added, referencing three cases that had had them working twenty hour days for over a week each time. They had barely come in with answers and arrests in front of the Geas, which had fairly set time periods for reactions to crimes involving Supers. Homicide investigations got about a week, give or take a few hours. If the Geas was invoked by a lack of arrests, it could cause several instances of collateral damage in terms of less guilty accomplices taking the ultimate punishment. No one really wanted to see a minor criminal have its head go missing for relatively peripheral involvement in some nastiness, thus, the pressure to get the job done as quickly as possible.

Tony nodded, “I am pretty wiped. I think I’ll go check in with those wacky Newmans and the little Kellys and then see if I can get a ride home from someone.”

Cal’s attention was on his wife and newborn, but something about that tapped at his conscience. He couldn’t think why exactly, so he just said, “Be safe. Go home and sleep. I’ll get back on the case with you later today, right?”

Tony waved him off, “I’ll work with the Lieutenant. Spend a day with your baby and then come on.”

He frowned at her, but the baby made some adorable ogreish sound, and his face went a little gooey. He turned to look at the scene to his left with such longing that Tony laughed. Then she gingerly stepped into Berthell’s range of motion and gave her a look.

“Hey B, can I give you a hug? Or are you still kinda mad?”

“Oh Tony, isn’t he the cutest thing you ever saw?”

“I’ll take that as a yes for hugs,” she said and followed with a big one. Then Tony looked over at her namesake, who was the size of an adult Portuguese water dog and similar in looks, except that he was covered in wet clumps of gooey orange down and his snout wasn’t as long. His wrinkled face seemed to suggest his looks in about two hundred years, ogres being one of the shorter-lived Supers. “He’s a little cutie pie, all right,” Tony told her glibly, all things being relative, of course. And telling a new ogre Mommy that her little babaloo looked like a
dog wasn’t a good idea anyway. “You done good, B. Get some rest. And kiss all your clan for me.” She hugged her friend again, gave the baby a last look, since Dr. Hault’s staff wouldn’t let her touch him until he’d been cleaned up. Then she headed for the waiting room.

When she walked in, she found most of the group asleep. Her mom, who was sitting on a couch, had Junior leaning on her from one side and Freddie on the other. Her mom’s head had fallen back at an odd angel, and she was drooling from the left side, just a bit. Tony grinned. Norah was asleep cuddled up against her dad, that is she was cuddled as much as someone her size could be against someone his size. He was built a lot like Tony. Amelia and Angel had each found an armchair to drape themselves over. Angel had fallen asleep while still running an old movie on her f-light. It was hanging over her head with the sound muted. And Amelia’s f-light was projecting a textbook, which meant she was in the middle of doing homework when she finally fell asleep.

Tony looked around and saw that while Lt. Azeem had left, Phil was in the left corner. At first she thought he was asleep as well, but when she looked at him, his eyes opened, and he looked back at her without any of the confusion of someone who was waking up and sorting out where he was. He smiled a lop-sided smile at her and nodded toward the two families. She nodded and walked over to him. He stood as she approached.

“You must all be very close,” he said, a bit wistfully, glancing at the intertwined group.

“They just met for the first time yesterday afternoon,” she told him and shrugged. “I guess they were awake most of the night and just crashed finally.”

“The Lieutenant left your tote bag with me to give back to you. He said to bring it to the armory later, after you get a few hours of sleep.” Phil handed it to her. Then he raised a brow and looked around again. “What do you want to do? Should we wake them?”

She sat the tote down at her feet, too weary to hold it. “I suppose so. But Cal won’t be able to leave for a bit, so we need to stay with the kids or else get them home and stay
with them.” Tony was so sleepy that she didn’t even realize that she automatically had included Phil in those plans. But he had noticed.

“You need to sleep,” he told her as he tried not to smile.

“I’m fine,” she told him, but he reached out and grabbed her waist to steady her when she staggered a bit.

“You are falling asleep on your feet,” he looked into her eyes, and for a moment, they both just stood there. He put both hands on her shoulders. “I can get Cal’s children home if you need me to do so.”

“I was going to ask the Lieutenant for an assist,” Tony blinked a little and then turned her head to look around, “but he’s gone home?”

“I told him to go on. The other murder,” Phil
began and then stopped, angry with himself for mentioning it.

“Shit,” Tony drooped a bit, Phil’s hands almost holding her up at this point. “Did he go to the scene? Are they still on site?”

“No, no, the GOOEN squad has been and gone, as he told you in the car,” Phil told her. “He’s going to check with the pathologist, and then he’s going home. I told him I would help you and your family. You need to get some sleep or you’ll be useless for this investigation.”

They were interrupted by Anthony Newman, who had woken and carefully watched the interplay between his eldest and Akkadian. He slid out from Norah’s weight, laying her head down gently on the couch. Then he walked over, putting one finger to his lips to keep Tony and Phil from waking anyone else once they noticed him.

“Antonia, your mother and I will stay with the children. You need to go to bed,” he looked at Phil and added, “to sleep.” Phil kept his face as innocent as a Being like him could do, but his saturnine good looks made innocence an impossible style for him to maintain. And while Phil was much older, Judge Newman made too shrewd an audience to be taken in. “Take a cab home, sweetheart, and call us tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” she asked her dad, gesturing at the group. “I mean, you’ve just met and...”she didn’t add that they hadn’t seemed to want to ge
t to know her partner’s family.

He smiled at his daughter and she could hear his unspoken apology, “We’ll be fine. We’re very lucky to finally have the chance, not only to meet, but to help the Being who serves with you. Now go on.” He reached over and hugged her. Then he put his hand out to Phil, “I don’t know if we’ll be meeting again,” and was startled when he got an emphatic “No!” from Tony on his left and a smooth “Of course” from Phil on his right. He nodded and said, “Ah, yes. Well, we’ll leave that to the Fates, shall we?”

Phil winced. On a good day, the Fates weren’t the women you wanted checking in on your life.

Anthony continued, “Good night to you both. I believe I’ll go ask Cal what he would like. Let sleeping children lie, or get them back to their home? But that’s for me to deal with, not you. Go on,” and he swept the two ahead of him as he left the room.

Phil and Tony reached the hospital entrance, and a long black limo pulled to the curb. The passenger door at the front opened and Dindle hopped out. He was wearing a black uniform.

“I thought we discussed this,” Phil said to the dwarf, pointing to the car as Dindle reached over to open the door to the back seating area.

“Discussed what, then? The uni? I told you, I like the uni. I feel all official-like in it,” Dindle told him as he smacked his boss’s hand away from the door and opened it himself. “Besides, Windle likes to wear his, and he feels that odd if he’s in a uni and I’m in civvies, you see. Solidarity an’ that. Gotta keep the peace with me brother.”

“Has he figured out yet that you’re after his girl?” Tony drawled.

Dindle winked at her, “And there’s that, then, innit? So, here I am, making dear brother happy whenever I can.”

Phil shook his head, “You know I hate being driven about in a limo, but I suppose being your boss comes in second to all of that?”

“Oh well, if t’were sommat important then, you’d come first, no doubt. But blood, yeah? Thicker ‘n water ‘n all. And Windle does put stock in the trappings of being your minions. Now, in with you both,” he made shooing motions at them.

Tony’s brow wrinkled, “Phil, I didn’t realize you were giving me a ride home. I mean, you think you’re giving me a ride. I mean, I’m calling a cab.” Gods, she was tired.

She had her f-light out, but Phil put out his hand and stopped her before she could contact the cab company. “You might as well let me give you a ride to your apartment. Dupont is on my way.”

She paused for a second
but nodded her head. “Sure. Why not?” She knew there probably were some good reasons why she shouldn’t accept a ride from Phil, but at this point she was definitely running low on inclination to drag them out and examine them.

He gestured for her to go in before him, and she slipped onto the seat. The jeans she had on were a bit dusty still from the desert drive, and she’d was very, very tired of the green button down shirt she’d been wearing, especially since it was also streaked with brown dust, despite her having worn that stupid hair cloak during most of the last twenty-four hours. She slumped down in the black leather seats, which were so slick she almost landed on the carpeted floor. Then Phil slid in right next to her, despite the prodigious amount of seating in the limo. Alarms went off in her head, but she told herself he had to be at least as tired as she was. Plus, sliding away from him would take effort, and she was all out of effort at this point.

Dindle slammed the door shut and then disappeared being the privacy glass of the front area, joining his brother, who was driving.

The car pulled smoothly from the curb and Tony and Phil both sighed.

“Do you normally work days this long?” Phil asked casually.

Tony snorted, “There was nothing even remotely normal about this day. From that stupid hair shirt to this stupid bag.” She put out one foot and kicked at the tote. “I still can’t believe that bike is in there.” Then she shut up because the bike suggested the ride, which suggested Phil in black biking tog
s, which suggested Phil’s world-class ass in that leather, and that’s when she realized how very tired she was because she had the sudden urge to grab Phil’s ass and just see what happened. It had been far too long since she’d been with anyone, and the peripheral intel on that trip left her with a feeling that Phil not only knew every position in the Kama Sutra, he’d probably shown them to the author in the first place. Or one of his exes had. Damn. Then his voice interrupted her thoughts, the sound of it soothing her as she relaxed for the first time in what felt like far more than a day.

“I cannot say that I have ever had a day like this myself, and that is rare and precious to me. You have given me many new experiences.”

Tony made the mistake of looking over at Phil when he said that. She looked into his warm brown eyes, eyes the color of a fine Scottish ale, honey-brown, warm and rich like his voice. For a long moment neither of them spoke. Tony felt the warmth coming from Phil’s body. He seemed to run a little hot, unlike most fae who were a bit cold-blooded. The motion of the car and the warmth of Phil’s body, so close but not touching her, made her feel as if she was floating, but there was a little edge of need making her hand move over to Phil; she started to reach up to his face, not sure what she was going to do but unable to resist the urge. Then the car pulled to curb and stopped.

Dindle’s voice suddenly interrupted, “We’re at Detective Newman’s apartment building, sir.”

“Thank you, Dindle,” Phil answered mildly, no hint of the consternation he felt, realizing that Tony had almost done...something and now would not. He sat still looking into her eyes, not moving, until she spoke.