Adira's Mate (25 page)

He let her guide his hand into
place. He had a small frown of concentration on his face as he waited. She knew
when he felt it though, his eyes going wide, and jerking around to meet her
own. “By the stars,” he whispered. He began to smile when another kick was
delivered to his palm.

“
I know. How exciting is this?”
Her hand was over his. She was grinning as the little feet continued to brush
his hand. “I can’t believe it, they are so strong.
Our
perfect little ones.”
She still had a thing or two to say to her son for
hiding her daughter, but she was good with that.

“
It’s amazing,” he said quietly.
Shifting in his seat he wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her in closer
to him as he spread his fingers out. Fin rested his chin on her shoulder, his
forehead against her temple as their children tumbled around and continued to
kick.

“
It makes it so real, doesn’t it?”
she asked and leaned into him, resting against him while their children played.
“Bracken, would you like to feel them?” she offered to their friend.

“
I think I’ll wait on that until
they are out in the world. Besides, this seems to be something you two should
be enjoying. Thank you for the offer though, little sister.” Leaning back in
his chair, he was smiling as he watched the two of them.

She was focused on her belly and
nodded. God, she was so happy. “They are a miracle.
So much
so.
Goodness, I love these babies so much already.” She could feel the
love from Fin as well from the way that he touched her body and stroked his
hands over her belly time and again. She smiled and placed her hand over his.

Chapter Twenty-One

“
If you dare to tell me to breathe
one more time I swear to all that’s holy I will rip your balls off and shove
them down your damn throat!”
Adira
screamed, oddly
not at her husband but at Bracken, who had his back to her and kept telling her
to breathe.
Fintan
was holding her hand and being
supportive, and calm, but he did keep looking at his data pad. “And you look
down at that again and I’m going to toss it!” she shouted at her poor husband,
which only got a chuckle from the doctor.

Both men shot glares at the
doctor.
Fintan
turned his attention back to her, his
hand stroking gently over her hair. “I’m right here,” he said softly. “I’m
staying right here. Nothing could drag me away from your side.” A beep sounded
and his attention snapped back to the data pad.
“About bloody
time.
Bracken, go.”

“
On
it.
Don’t
have these babies while I’m gone. I need to bear witness to when
Fintan
hits the deck,” Bracken said to her. He ran from the
room with a laugh when she threatened to throw a pillow at him.

“
I swear your friend is ready to
get dead.” She knew that babies were wonderful, and they were oh so much fun to
make, but having them? Not so much. “I’m surprised that life hasn’t died out
with how bloody much this hurts!” She screamed again and felt another
contraction running across her abdomen. “I need drugs. Fin, please make her
give me drugs?”

“
I can’t make her do anything.
Technically, she can override even my authority,” he said. “But I will ask very
nicely for the lovely doctor to give my wife some drugs.” His voice rose to a
near squeal as her hand clamped down around his like a vise.

The doctor just smiled. Peeling
the backing off a patch, she moved around and pressed it to
Adira’s
lower back. Almost immediately she began to feel relief. “Is that any better,
Lady Daykin?”

“
Oh yes, thank you. I can actually
think now.”
Adira
smiled and looked to her husband
again. “I’m only two weeks late, one would think that your children would be
anxious to come into the world.
Right?”
They were
still on border patrol, scoping out the planets on the absolute edge of
Craegin
space.

“
You’d think they would be, but
they also know a good thing when they have it. Why come out of a nice warm,
safe environment to the unknown? Even though both their parents would really
like to hold them,” he said. He put the data pad aside finally and eased in
closer to her. Slipping around behind her he settled so she was between his
thighs, his arms around her, and his cheek resting against hers.

She let out a sigh and leaned
into him.
“So much better now.
Thank you. Don’t let
them take you from me? I need you holding me like this. I need you behind me
and rubbing your hands on my belly while I’m giving birth to our kids, please?”

“
They can try, little wife, but
they will not succeed. I’ll toss them out an airlock if they even think about
attempting it.”
Fintan
pressed a kiss to her cheek
and gave her a little squeeze. That’s when she heard a familiar voice, one that
couldn’t possibly be there.

She pulled away from Fin, looked
at the door, and nearly fell out of the bed she was in. “Petr,” she asked with
wide eyes. She was beyond shocked; she was stunned.
“By the
ancestors, how?”
She felt another contraction and stopped
mid sentence
to grab her belly.

Petr stopped dead in his tracks
and wavered on his feet. Right behind him Bracken let out a snort and slapped
him on his back. “Welcome to the party, brother. You might want to get over
there and give her a hug before she goes back into the hating-of-all-men
stage.”

“
You are pushing my buttons,
Bracken,” she muttered and gasped as another pain caught her by surprise. “I
thought that the pain patches would make the pain all go away. Seriously, this
sucks.”

“
The patches help to temper the
birthing pains, they do not fully remove them,” the doctor told her. “You need
to feel some of the pain otherwise we won’t know your progression, or if
something should go wrong. Sorry, Lady Daykin, but you’ll have to suck it up.”

Petr shot the woman a look. “Have
you even met my sister? She’s the biggest wimp around when it comes to pain.”
He finally seemed to be coming out of his shock, though, so that was good. And
he moved to the bed so he could lean in to give her a kiss.

“
I can’t help it,” she muttered
and rubbed the hard knot that was in her side. “By the ancestors, this hurts!”
she screamed as she felt the burning sensations. “It’s almost as if they are
trying to come out at the same time. Fin, talk to your damn children and tell
them one at a time.”

His hand pushed hers aside to rub
at the knot on her side. “Lean into me,” he said softly against her ear. “Focus
on one thing, and slow your breathing. They will come out one at a time. You
know that,
Adira
. But their nice safe environment
isn’t so nice right now as they are being forced out. They are likely as scared
as we are about this whole process. You need to be as calm as possible so they
are. They are picking up on your emotions, remember?” Fin moved his other hand
to rub over her belly in slow, soothing circles.

“
I’m trying to be calm but it’s so
hard.” She was gasping, leaning heavily against
Fintan
as she did so. “I just want them out in the world so that they can start to
terrorize everyone around them as well.” She was grinning as she said that, her
hand stroking her belly lightly. “And Petr is right, I really do not do pain
well at all.”

“
I know that, little wife. But
we’re in this together. Lean on me. I’m not going anywhere,
Adira
.”
He began to rock her slowly. Pressing his lips to her neck he started to hum
softly. With one hand he rubbed the knot in her side away, and with the other
he stroked her belly in a way that seemed to help calm the babies a little.

She began to relax once more, the
pain patch helping somewhat. “Petr, how did you get here? How did you know?”
She was late in her pregnancy. The babies should have been born two weeks
earlier, so it wasn’t that he was looking for her due date.

“
Your husband has been sending me
encoded messages since I was here last. We’ve been shadowing you for the last
couple of weeks so we’d be close when you finally went into labor. Why do you
think you are on border patrol?” Petr asked. “Because it was the only way for
me to get close enough to take a crawler over at a moment’s notice. And with
the limited coverage no one is any the wiser on either of our crews. Especially
mine,
given the fact command has been extra suspicious
of late.”

She began to cry. She couldn’t
help it. Her emotions were all over the place. “I love you,” she said with a
nod, then screamed—and felt the water rushing between her legs. “Oh crap.” She
knew what that meant. Her water broke.
Great.
“Oh boy.”

“
Ah, progress,” the doctor said
cheerfully. “This is very good. General, you should help your wife up. Take a
hot shower to clean her up, and then get her into something more comfortable.
We need to change the bedding while you do that, and then we’ll be ready to
bring your little ones into the world.”

Adira
nodded and looked back at
Fintan
and smiled. “We need to do this. This is good,
right? Our babies will be here soon. Good.” She looked down at her belly and
rubbed it. “That’s right, my little darlings, you will soon be in the world and
everyone will want to hug you and love you. I can’t wait. Your dad is going to
be so protective of you.” So was she, to say the least.

“
Shocking information,” Petr said
sarcastically.

Fintan
shook his head slightly and gave
her a light squeeze. “I’ll get up and then help you off the bed. We’ll go to
the bathing room so we can clean you up, and hopefully they’ll actually want to
join us at this celebration.”

She was leaning heavily on
Fintan
, moving along with him now that he had her up and on
her feet. “Right, wait.” She
paused
mid step so that
she could breathe through the small pain that rippled through her. “Not bad,
but that’s okay.”

“
Good,” he said. Rubbing her back,
he kept moving her along toward their bathing room. Inside he walked her
straight into the shower and eased her down onto the built-in bench. “I’ll be
back in a moment. I need to get you something to wear, and I need a change of
clothing as well. Will you be all right for a few moments?”

“
I will. Just turn on the shower
so that I can sit in the heated water?” she asked hopefully. “Because I know
you will be back soon.
Right?
Now, go. Hurry, please?”

“
Stay still,” he told her. Moving
to the controls, he got it turned on and redirected the spray toward her. He
stepped out,
then
left the room. Fin didn’t take too
long, was back with an armful of clothes, and shut the door quickly. After
stripping down he stepped back into the shower with her. “We need to get this
off you,” he said of the loose outfit she was wearing.

“
Right, I didn’t want to move. My
balance is shaky at best right now.” She had put her hands on the seat at her
sides and hadn’t moved since he left her. “I need your help though,” she said
and turned to look at him. “Please?”

“
Of course,” he told her. Coming
in close, he put his hands under her arms. “When I lift ease it up so it clears
your bottom. Then I’ll sit you back down and pull it off over your head.” At
her nod he gently lifted her off the seat enough to give her the clearance she
needed to push the sopping wet material out from under her. He settled her back
down,
then
went to work peeling the loose gown off her
body.

She did just as he instructed and
closed her eyes. “The hot water feels so good. Can we just stay in here while
we have our children?” She knew that wasn’t feasible, they would have to refuel
water on one of the orbiting moons that had it in abundance and she wouldn’t
think to put the crew out like that, but she was tempted.
So
tempted.

“
Pretty sure your brother would
have something to say about his niece and nephew coming into the world in our
shower. Besides the fact the doctor wouldn’t let that happen. She may seem
nice, and cheerful, but she has a mean streak in her.” He gathered the soap and
crouched before her to start by washing her feet and legs.

“
All doctors have to have a mean
streak in them or else we would be in a great deal of trouble. Everyone needs
to be able to be mean sometimes, right?” She took another deep breath and felt
the pain once more.
“Another one.
Give me a moment,
please?” she asked and began to pant.

“
Focus on me,
Adira
.
Keep talking to me too so I know what’s going on. Unlike the babies, I don’t
get to have a peek into what you’re feeling. You need to tell me things,” he
said. He was watching her with concern, his gaze locked with hers.

“
I’m trying but sometimes it hurts
to talk while the pains are rolling through.” She gasped once again. “It’s
burning, from spine to belly button.
Lots.”

“
Then we’d better hurry up,” he
told her. Once the pain passed he gave the rest of her a wash, only standing
her up to get the parts he hadn’t been able to while she’d been sitting, and to
rinse her off.

Shutting the water, off he
collected a towel to wrap her in. Another went onto the stool out in front of the
vanity. Once he dried himself off he helped her out to sit on the stool and
quickly dried her off. “I brought one of my shirts for you to wear since I know
how much you like them. It’ll be a little snug around the middle, but once
we’re back on the bed we can undo the buttons around your belly and still keep
you covered with the sheet.”

“
Thank you.” She smiled and leaned
in to hug him. “You are so good to me. I just want you to hold me for now,
okay?” She nodded. “So hug me. Don’t let go?”

He did as she asked, wrapping his
arms around her and rubbing her back as she had the contraction. “Remember to
breathe,
Adira
. You have to keep breathing or you’ll
turn blue. While I still think that you are hot, I don’t think you’ll look
nearly as good in that color.”

“
I’m trying.” She was breathing in
and out, leaning on him to keep her moving in the way that she needed to,
breathing as she should. “Okay, it’s passed. Let’s get me dressed and back into
bed where hopefully the doctor will give me more for pain. Please.”