The Divine Whisper (25 page)

CHAPTER 11

With everything that had gone on that morning, Gemariah found himself rushing into the doctor’s office to make it there in time.

He looked around the waiting room, but didn’t see her, so he walked up to the desk. It was a long counter and he carefully maneuvered himself between large pregnant bellies to make it up to the front.

“Nicole Summers.
Has she gone back yet?”

“I’m sorry sir, but I can’t give out that information.”
The look of superiority she gave him had his blood pumping.
If only she knew what I protect her from every day
, he thought.

“Listen, I’m running late.
She’s my…” he didn’t know how to phrase the rest of that statement, but he did know that he wanted to be back there. “If you make me miss my baby’s sonogram, I’ll…”

“Gemariah?”

Nicole’s soft voice brought him out of his tirade. She had come into the waiting area from a door near the back, and it shut with a soft click.

She had a slight grin on her face as she shook her head.
“What am I going to do with you?” she asked and gently pulled him away. Her words were a reprimand, but she didn’t look at all upset.

“What?”
When he looked around, he noticed that most of the women were whispering to each other and smiling in his direction. “Why is everyone staring at me?” he asked uneasily.

She giggled before saying, “Because you just sounded like a very protective and loving father.
That is a very enthralling attribute to women in an OB/GYN office.”

“I see.”
He nervously cleared his throat. “I wasn’t trying to cause a scene. That woman wouldn’t tell me…”

“I know,” she said, successfully cutting him off.
“It’s alright.”

“Where were you anyway?”

“Peeing in a cup. They like us to leave a sample before an appointment, to save time.”

“Sounds like fun.”

She smiled. “It was a blast.”

They were both still laughing quietly when Nicole’s name was called.

Getting up, together they walked through the door that led to the lab, exam rooms, and offices.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Rin wanted to know how the sonogram went, so I said that I would meet her for lunch afterward. You’re welcome to join us. I think Malachi will be there, so there’ll be a balance of testosterone for you.”

“That’s good.
I don’t feel like being privy to all your feminine gossip by myself.”

“Yeah.
We might start talking about vaginas, or tampons, or God forbid… feminine itch.” The nurse that was walking in front of them snickered, obviously overhearing their conversation.

“You think you’re
so
cute, don’t you?”

Nicole looked up at him and winked.
“I know I am.”

They walked around the corner, but were stopped at a line of scales.

Nicole groaned. “I hate this part,” she said grudgingly, but stepped on one of the scales anyway.

To him, the number didn’t look bad for someone that was pregnant, but Nicole looked crushed.

“Ten pounds!
I’ve gained ten pounds since my last appointment.

“That’s not so bad.
Aren’t you supposed to gain weight while pregnant?” He still didn’t understand the big deal.

“It’s more then we like to see, but you did lose a lot at the beginning, so this could just be your body playing catch-up,” the nurse spoke as she directed them to another small waiting room.

“That’s what the nurse said to me last month when I gained eight.” Nicole pouted as she revealed that extra bit of information.

Instead of commenting, the nurse shrugged and flashed a small smile while they both sat down.
“Okay, you need to wait here for Shelly to call you in. She’ll be the one doing your sonogram today. After that, she’ll walk you to a room where the doctor will check you out. Good luck!”

She disappeared around the corner, and Gemariah nudged Nicole with his knee.
“I guess I’ll just have to stop cooking for you.”

“Yep.”

“No more fatty foods.”

“Yep.”

“And the chocolate syrup will have to go.”

“Yep.”
She quickly caught what she said, and decided to backtrack. “Wait, um… Maybe I’ll just cut back.”

She looked so beat down over something that was so silly.
Reaching over, he grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers. Leaning down, so his mouth was at her ear, he whispered, “You’re beautiful, no matter what size you are.”

She gasped, and turned to look at him.
“Does that mean you think I’m big?”

“No. What? No. How’d you get that?”
Mental note…
Don’t mention her size! It’s dangerous territory even if he’s trying to be nice
.

“Never mind.”

“Nicole.”
A woman in dark blue scrubs called her name.

They both stood up, and he let her walk in front of him into a dimly lit room.
The room was decorated in a comfortable way, with couches on two different walls, and colorful knickknacks and throw pillows. It was very feminine and he could tell by the way Nicole’s face eased, that the aesthetic was relaxing to her as well.

“How are we doing today?” the woman in the dark scrubs asked.
He was assuming that she was Shelly.

“Fine.”
Nicole sat on the edge of the table that was in the center of the room and used her arms to slide back. The loud noise of paper crinkling as Nicole moved filled the room.

“Well, I was fine until I was told that I had gained ten pounds in four weeks.”
Nicole’s complaining made Gemariah roll his eyes. Thank goodness the room was dark and her attention was focused on Shelly, because he didn’t want to hear what she would have thought of that. Walking up, he grasped her hand and gave a slight squeeze.

Nicole laid back and Shelly rolled up her shirt and her pants slightly down.
“Are you the father?” she looked up at him and asked. It was the first time anyone had asked him that, but his answer still came quickly. He gave her a nod, and said, “Yes.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry.” She smiled back at Nicole, and pulled out a wand.
“The baby probably just has his or her father’s genetics. You might just have a big baby in there,” she said as she absently squirted gel over the round belly and place the wand on it.

There was a moment of silence and an image popped up on the screen that he didn’t understand.
He looked over when the woman hadn’t said anything, and saw that her eyebrows were lowered.

“Or two big babies…”
Glancing over to the chart at her side, she flipped a page then looked back at the screen. “No one told me that this was a sonogram for twins.”

“It’s not,” Nicole whispered.

“But, it is.”

For the third time in two months, it felt as if the floor had opened up and swallowed him whole.
It couldn’t be happening. Not again.

******

Gemariah’s mind was still reeling when he walked into the restaurant close to two hours later. They had spent a lot of time going through charts, and trying to figure out how something that big had been missed. They finally came to the conclusions that because she had gotten over her sickness before she went to the doctor, there was no need for an earlier ultrasound. Then they figured that one of the babies was hiding behind the other when they were listening for heartbeats. His little girl, to be exact.

The look on their faces must have still shown their shock, because their lunch companions both stood.
Trinity obviously thought the worst.

“What is it?
Is it the baby?” she cried.

“No.
No. It’s nothing like that.” Nicole rushed forward to reassure Trinity.

Why do you look as if someone just kicked your puppy?

He was in no mood to answer Malachi, and just shook his head.

“Okay.
Don’t keep us waiting. Is it a boy or a girl?” Trinity asked in anticipation when they all sat down.

Nicole looked up at Gemariah at the same time that he looked down at her.
With their eyes, they spoke what they hadn’t with their words. ‘It’s now or never.’

Nicole looked back at them and said, “Both.”

The silence was deafening.

Does she know about—

Malachi’s words drowned out the girl’s burst of excitement, and Gemariah cut him off with a shake of his head.

It’s going to be okay.

You don’t know that.

Gemariah projected back angrily.

It could be different this time.

Oh come on.
You know that the chance of her surviving the birth is non-existent. Humans can’t take the strain. Not one of you would know that better than me. Oh, and not to mention that there has not been one twin nephilim birth on record where both babies survived. Even now, the sonogram showed a big healthy boy up front, while my tiny girl was pressed to the back edge.

There’s a difference this time.
You have me, and I will use my full abilities to make sure both your children make it, and that includes your little girl.

Gemariah looked down at the table and ignored the infliction in Malachi’s voice when he said “your”.

And Nicole?
What about her?

The look on Malachi’s face became grave.

Change her.

You know as well as I do… if I try to change her and she’s not my soul mate, she’ll die.

She’s going to die if you don’t, so I don’t see the problem.

Gemariah’s felt his chest start to constrict. If he changed her, that would be it, she would be with him for the rest of his life. There was a difference between the humans and him. The rest of his life wasn’t sixty to seventy years. It could very well be for thousands of years.
Could he be a one woman man for that long
, he wondered to himself?

It was all too much.
Everything that had happened brought too many questions up along with too many bad memories. There was one thing he did know, he wasn’t going to figure out anything surrounded by his current company, so he decided to leave.

When he stood up, everyone looked over at him, Nicole and Trinity with their confused expressions, and Malachi with his disapproving one.
“I need to get some things done, so I’m going to head out now.”

A tiny hand slipped inside of his, and he looked down at Nicole.
She bit her lip, a nervous gesture of hers, and flashed him a tiny smile. “Everything alright?” she asked.

“Everything’s fine,” he said and took a closer look at her.
God, she was beautiful… and caring, and loving. An all-around good person… so what in the hell did she want with him. He placed a hand on each side of her head and leaned down to give her a kiss. It was a small kiss, and when he pulled away, he pressed his lips against her forehead and inhaled her particular scent. She always seemed to smell like cinnamon sugar covered apples, a favorite of his. She could have done so much better than the future she was getting because of him.

The contracting feeling came again, threatening to suffocate him.
He had to get out of there. Without another glance at the table, he walked out of the restaurant, the entire time ignoring the feel of Malachi’s stare between his shoulder blades.

******

Change her…

The thought went through his head once again, and he tried to drown it out with another shot of whiskey.

When that particular thought was suppressed for a moment, another one came forward.
It was the look on the sonogram of both babies; one big and healthy, the other one not so much. He reached over and tipped back another shot glass full of brown poison into his mouth.

As a nephilim, his alcohol tolerance was very high.
Needless to say, he was paying the bartender’s way through medical school that night.

He had tried going home, but everywhere he looked, he thought of her.
He couldn’t even go into his kitchen without seeing her sprawled across the kitchen counter. So, he went there.

It was a filthy dilapidated bar, but it was perfect for the mood he was in.
The smell of sweat and smoke mostly masked other things that he didn’t want to put too much thought into. His feet stuck to the floor, his arms stuck to the bar, but it was the company that was the perfect sort. Everybody kept to themselves, and that was just the way he liked it.

“Hey there.”

Or so he thought. With a scowl, he turned his head in the direction of the female voice. If the look he shot her made her uncomfortable, she did a good job of hiding it. Instead of acknowledging her, he raised an eyebrow in question.

Undeterred, she sat down next to him, and crossed her legs in the process.
The movement made him look down. What was it with tall bar stools and short skirts? It made bare legs look as if they went on forever, and left nothing to the imagination where those two legs met.