Chapter 241: 2

I would tell Hadley about Death and Lucrezia and what had occured in my nightmare, but not right then. She didn't need the worry, and I wanted to think about something else. "I know," I said. "Me, too. But we should probably try and get some sleep." Hadley dropped her head onto my shoulder with a snort. "Yeah, right. Sleep. Impossible." "Let's just try, okay? We can talk about that later. Right now I kind of just want to be with you." I grabbed the remote and flicked the TV off, then gathered Hadley up in my arms and made for the stairs. She hadn't weighed all that much before she'd gotten pregnant, so carrying her up to the guest room wasn't a strain. We curled up together on the bed, and despite everything, we were both asleep in minutes. And for the first night in what felt like months, I didn't dream. It felt like I had only just closed my eyes when I felt someone gently shaking my arm. "Archer." I ignored the voice and kept my eyes firmly shut. I wanted to keep sleeping. Just sleep. "Archer!" "Huh." "Will you just wake up, please? Archer." I sat up a little too quickly and the room tilted for a moment before settling again. I had to rub the sleep from my eyes to be able to make out the face of the person beside me, gripping my arm tightly. "Hadley? What is it?" I glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. "It's barely five. Can't you try and get more sleep?" Hadley didn't waste any time getting to the point. "I think we need to go to the hospital." "What? Why?" "Oh, well, the fact that I'm almost nine months pregnant has absolutely nothing to do with thinking that we need to go the hospital." It took a few seconds before everything seemed to finally click. "Oh. Oh. Shit!" "And now he gets it!" Hadley said with a sarcastic laugh. "Jesus, will you just calm down? It's not like I'm about to have the baby right this second." I realized then that I already had my pants on and was currently struggling to pull on my shoes, my arm braced against the door for balance. "Oh," I said stupidly. "Sorry." "Don't be sorry, just help me up, will you?" I carefully helped Hadley to her feet, helped her pull on her jacket, and then grabbed the bag she had packed for the baby weeks ago that she'd so tactfully brought with her, just in case. It was difficult wrapping my mind around the fact that it might actually be needed. "Do you need me to carry you?" I asked nervously as we left the guest room. "Because I can - " Hadley burst out laughing. She was laughing so hard she actually had to lean against the wall for support. I wouldn't have been surprised had she just woken up everyone in the entire house. "What?" I demanded, a little offended. "What the hell is so funny?" "You!" Hadley gasped, pointing a finger at me. "Geez, you're freaking out about this worse than I am! You'd think you're the one that's going to give birth, not me!" "Well, excuse me for - " The hallway light flicked on and my aunt Sophia and her husband Marc appeared, stepping out of their bedroom down the hallway. "What's going on, you two?" Marc asked. "Is everything all right?" Just as I opened my mouth to explain, Hadley busted out laughing all over again. "Oh, God, your pants are on backwards, Archer!" "Jesus, Hadley!" I had to give my aunt and uncle credit, because they were able to put two and two together despite the fact that Hadley was still laughing and I was now struggling with my pants. "Hadley, are you okay?" Sophia said, reaching out to place a hand on her arm. "What's wrong?" "Nothing's wrong," Hadley said, sighing heavily, running her jacket sleeve under her eyes. "I just think it's time to go to the hospital." Sophia broke out into a wide smile almost immediately. "Are you sure?" "Pretty sure," Hadley said confidently. I couldn't stop glaring at her. How the hell was she being so calm about this? She was going to be giving birth to our first kid in soon enough time and she was acting like she was about to go for a stroll through the damn park? Sophia started barking out orders left and right, telling Marc to go get the car ready and that he was going to need to stay behind with William, then snapping at me to fix my pants before she helped Hadley down the stairs. Marc grumbled something under his breath in Italian about demanding women and followed them down the stairs while I stepped into the guest room to put my pants on the right way this time. I did a quick sweep of the room to make sure that we had everything we could possibly need - and yet I still suspected we would accidentially leave something behind - and then joined the others outside. Marc had already started the SUV and Sophia had somehow managed to help Hadley up into the front seat. She was telling Hadley that she would follow us to the hospital after she had everything situated here at the house. "You ready for this, Archer?" Marc said as he stood beside me, giving me this almost sympathetic look. I laughed before I could hold it back. "Not a chance in hell." "Yeah, well. You will be." Marc clapped me on the shoulder, gave me a quick hug, and then went about convincing Sophia that she should probably change out of her pajamas before following us to the hospital. I climbed in to the front seat of the SUV and buckled myself in. I meant to turn the emergency break off and pull the car out of park, but I ended up just sitting there, gripping the steering wheel, watching the horizon begin to brighten with the first signs of dawn. "Archer?" "You know, this almost seems sort of anticlimactic in a way," I said to Hadley, glancing over at her. "After everything that's happened to us." Hadley gave a grim sort of smile. "What were you expecting?"