Page 30 of Omega's Flight

She shrugged. "You never know what you're going to run into. And that thing you're holding is a portable stretcher, in case we have to bring him down to the clinic and he can't walk."

"You think it might be that bad?"

She shrugged again. "Probably not, but better to have it and not need it. I called Bram too. He might as well see this."

The doors slid open and Cas followed her down the hall to the apartment.

C H A P T E R 2 2

T he tile floor in Holland's bathroom was nice and cool against the side of my face. I was considering just claiming the territory as mine, though at the rate my stomach was going, I'd never be able to stand up straight long enough to defend it.

"You think you're up to a bit of water?" Bax asked. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, somewhere down near my legs with his back against the bathtub. "Or an ice cube?"

The thought of water made me want to heave again, but my mouth was stale and disgusting and acidic —an ice cube might be a good thing. Lysoonka, to have ice ready made at any time... "Maybe the ice cube?"

"I'll go get some," he said, and patted my leg. "You okay here on your own for a second?"

I nodded and discovered that the tile next to my head was cooler, so I wiggled until I could get my face against a new patch of floor. His footsteps disappeared in the direction of the kitchen and I let myself fall into that half-unaware doze that seemed to be the only thing that kept my stomach under control. The ache in my belly flared again, then receded, like a pot briefly boiling over.

"Hey." Holland's voice woke me from my stupor. "Adelaide's here, she's going to have a look at you and see if she can help. She's the pack's nurse practitioner. You think you can sit up?"

"I can try." My voice was creaky, even to my own ears, and I felt Holland's hands on my shoulders, helping me pick myself up off the floor. My stomach lurched and I clutched at him with one hand and reached for the toilet with the other.

"It's okay," he whispered soothingly. He got his arms underneath mine and lifted me with gentle strength, setting me on the floor next to the toilet. "Can you examine him in here?" he asked the woman standing in the doorway.

"I've examined people in more awkward situations." She gestured him out of the way and went down on one knee in front of me. "I'm Adelaide. And you are?"

"Raleigh," I croaked.

She set the back of her hand against my forehead and nodded. "Just going to do a quick exam. Bax says you're pregnant?"

I nodded and she made a hmm noise.

Adelaide pulled a few things out of one of her bags, laying them out on the floor beside us before she popped a thermometer in my mouth. While I was trying to remember not to talk with it in my mouth, she pulled out a strip of stiff-looking cloth with tubes coming from it and wrapped it around my arm. "You ever had your blood pressure taken?"

I shook my head.

"This is going to get pretty tight for a minute, but then it'll be done."

She was right. She pumped something small that was attached to the end of the tube and the cloth swelled up, pressing on my arm until the pulse thumped in my wrist and I wanted to rip it off. Then, just when I thought I couldn't take it any more, she did something that made it loose again and pulled it off.

"Well, it's a little high, but not surprising if you've been throwing up for a while. How long has this been going on?"

"Not long. Since the other night." Almost. I almost said the words, but they were so damning, and how did I know for sure?

"And you're six weeks now?"

"About that. My first heat was late, but the second one came on again right after."

"Do you often have irregular seasons?" She flashed a light in my eye, pulled down the lower lid and peered into it, had me open my mouth so she could shine the light into that too.

When she let me close my mouth again, I said, "Usually. Sometimes they start in the middle of October. Sometimes I only have one heat in a season."

She didn't say anything to that, just asked Holland to help me lie down again. Once I was settled, she asked me to undo my jeans and then pushed and prodded at my belly.

"Yep, feels more like eight weeks. You can do your pants up again. That happens sometimes, you get pregnant but it takes a while for the body to catch up to the fact." Her voice was calm and reassuring, but her eyebrows pinched together in a way that made me uneasy. And then I realized that the bruises from our fight would be at their most gruesome and she would have seen them all.

Guess I didn't have to make a decision about whether to tell her or not after all.