Page 229 of Conquered

“Mr. Vanderbilt,” he says in a soft, calming voice, a broad smile on his face, and I’m instantly put at ease by his calming tone. “Welcome. And you must be Miss Darling, our mother-to-be. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I reply quietly, a fissure of excitement running through me at his words. It’s nice to have someone congratulate me, only the guys and Willow know that I’m pregnant, although we’ll have to announce it at some point. I won’t be able to hide it forever.That’s future Lilly’s problem.

“Welcome to Swallows. I am Dr. Arnold, and this is Lisa. She’ll be your midwife, alongside myself as your OB,” he tells us, the woman next to him giving a smile of her own. “Would you like your guests to sit in today, too?” he asks, looking from me to Ash.

“Yes, please,” I reply as Ash gives a nod of assent.

“Excellent. If you’d like to follow me, let’s have a quick chat about dates etc., then we can get to the scan so you can meet your baby.”

My hand finds Ash’s, gripping tightly as we walk after the doctor and midwife. Nervous butterflies flutter around in my stomach, threatening to bring my breakfast back up. We are taken into a large bright room with huge glass windows that look out into the forest.

“It’s blacked out glass so no one can see inside,” Lisa explains kindly, seeing my slight look of alarm.

“Thank goodness,” I whisper, clearing my suddenly dry throat as we sit down. Lisa disappears briefly, opening what looks like a fridge on the other side of the room, then walks back over carrying a chilled bottle of water with her.

“Here,” she says, handing it to me with another smile.

“Thank you,” I say, tearing up a little at the kindness.Bloody hormones.

“Would anyone else like anything?” she asks the guys, who all shake their heads, or tell her they are fine.

“Right, just some information gathering first,” Dr. Arnold says, looking down at a tablet in his hands. “When was your last period, may I call you Lilly?” he asks, looking up at me.

“Um, sure,” I respond, feeling my cheeks flush at the question. “Well, um, as for my least period, I, uh, am not quite sure. But I only had unprotected sex on Christmas Day…” I trail off, my face burning and palms sweaty. Ash reaches over to grasp my hand, rubbing my knuckles soothingly, and I give him a grateful smile.

“Okay, let’s work with that for now, and the scan will be able to confirm how far along you are,” he replies. He then proceeds to ask me a whole bunch of questions, about myself and my medical history, then my mother’s medical history. “Right, I think that’s it.” He beams at me. “If you could head over to the bed, and just get undressed enough so we can get to your stomach, we can do the scan.”

“Okay,” I murmur, more nerves flooding my system, my mouth once again dry.

Lisa pulls a curtain round to give me some privacy, and I take the top part of my yellow bee cord dungarees down, lifting up my T-shirt, then hopping up onto the bed.

“Are you ready, Lilly?” Lisa calls softly from the other side of the curtain.

“Yes,” I answer, taking a deep breath to calm my thrashing heartbeat.

She opens the curtain, and Dr. Arnold wheels over a big machine with a screen on it, as well as a keypad and a scanner looking thingy.

“You can come over, too,” Lisa tells the guys, clearly not sure who to address.

Ash is immediately at my head, Loki next to him, who takes hold of my hand in his warm one. Mine’s a little cold, so he rubs it gently. Kai manages to squeeze in next to him, giving me a soft smile, as Jax stands behind them. Being the tallest, he can see over their heads.

“You ready?” Dr. Arnold asks, and all I can do is nod. He sits down on a stool, grabbing a bottle and squeezing some warm gel on my stomach. I watch as he picks up the scanner, rubbing it into the gel and pushing it down into my soft stomach.

Then I hear it.

The whooph-whooph of a heartbeat.

My gaze snaps up to the screen, seeing the unmistakable outline of a baby, white on a black screen.

Fuck.

“Loki,” I whisper, gripping his hand tightly as my eyes try to take in every detail, and I am surprised by how much I can see.

“I know, Pretty Girl,” he whispers back, his voice choked and cracking slightly. I briefly glance away from the screen to see his glassy eyes watching the screen enraptured.

My gaze flits to Ash, to see a similar expression of wonderment on his face, softening it until I can finally see who he was meant to be, without all the suffering and trauma he’s been forced to go through. I next find Jax, looking at the screen with amazement on his face, his usually tight jaw slack even as a fire burns in his eyes. Always our protector. I finally come to rest my gaze on Kai, and he almost breaks me. There’s a devastating sadness etched in lines across his face as tears drip down his cheeks. He quickly removes his glasses, swiping under his eyes, and my heart aches for him. Before I can say anything to him, though lord knows what that would be, the doctor speaks.

“All looks good, measurement wise,” Dr Arnold states, my head turning back to him. “I’d say you’re around the sixteen week mark. Shall we switch to 3D mode?” he asks, and I nod.