Part Ninety

Three months later …

I was back to being dark, broody, quiet Kage. I made an excuse every time Madison wanted to have sex but other than that I did everything I was supposed to do. I went with her to appointments when I was in town and I had Endri and Luke stay over when the team was traveling.

I couldn’t touch her and not because of the memories of my past. She repulsed me and I hated sharing my life with her. It had gotten so bad that the fans were chanting, ‘Kaged in,’ every time I skated onto the ice. My aggression on the ice was at an all-time high.

Things had deteriorated very quickly between us but she had no idea what I knew. I was too hurt, too angry to talk about it. Nobody knew and I also knew that it wasn’t healthy but I kept quiet and I was now up to two penalties a game.

We had played a home game last night and we would only fly out in two days’ time. Madison was now thirty-eight weeks and her due date was looming closer. I had used the excuse that her rolling around kept me up and interfered with my sleep.

“Kage!” Madison’s voice came from our bedroom.

“Yeah?” I called back from where I was sitting in the living room.

“My water just broke!” she yelled and I was up in an instant.

I was in our room in seconds and scooped her up into my arms. I grabbed her bag that stood by the side table near the front door. I only put her down once we reached the car and I helped her climb inside. When I reversed I dialed Coach’s number and his voice came through loud and clear over the speakers in the car.

“Kage,” Coach said.

“I’m going to miss that flight, Coach. We’re on our way to the hospital now. Madison’s in labor,” I said.

“Gonna miss you, son, congratulations and kiss that wife of yours for me,” he said with a chuckle and the line went dead.

Excitement raced through me, I was going to see my daughter soon. We stopped at the hospital ten minutes later, and I called Endri to let everyone know and I had inadvertently parked over two spots in my haste to get there.

“Hawthorne, she’s Dr Jenkins’ patient,” I said as I put Madison down in the emergency department so she could sit.

“When did your water break?” the nurse asked Madison.

“About half an hour ago,” she said.

The nurse got a gurney and I helped Madison on it. I followed them with her bag down the hallway as they wheeled her into a room and asked me to help her into the hospital gown.

“Dr Jenkins is on his way down to you now,” another nurse popped her head in.

“Thanks,” I said.

Five minutes later Dr Jenkins had arrived and he was busy examining Madison. The one minute she was fine and the next moment she let out an almighty scream so loud I swore the whole hospital heard her.

“This baby’s coming right now,” he yelled through the curtain and nurses appeared as if out of nowhere.

“Nice and easy, Madison, big push with the next contraction,” he said and she screamed again.

Two hours later I was holding my daughter and grinning like the biggest idiot in the world. They had cleaned her up and then a nurse told me that there were nine people asking for me in the waiting room.

“I know I can’t take her out there but can they please come in?” I asked her.

“I counted five Rangers in that waiting room,” she said and I smiled at her again.

“Please?”

“Fine, but only for a few minutes!” she said sternly.

I headed down to the waiting room and grinned as I looked at everyone. “Kage!” my team said almost at the same time.

“The nurse is sneaking you to Madison’s room, behave,” I said and they all instantly shut up.

“Congrats, brother,” Castiel said as he pushed through them to get to me and we all hugged as Endri and Miles wrapped themselves around me.

Madison was holding her when we walked back into the room and she smiled when Luke squealed loudly. I took her from Madison and turned where they all crammed into the room together.

“Meet Kalen Alexis Hawthorne,” I said.

“She’s beautiful.”

Each and every one of them said that to me and she really was. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her and my heart was beating in a steady rhythm of true love. The nurse came by twenty minutes later and chased them all away and Alexander had also seen her with our video call earlier.

“You should get some sleep,” I said as the nurses took Kalen back to the baby room so Madison could rest.

“She’s perfect, isn’t she?” Madison asked.

“She’s absolutely perfect,” I said and left her room.

I spent the night in a chair in front of the baby room not wanting to be that far away from Kalen. I knew she was safe but I still couldn’t leave. I had woken up during the night when she cried and the nurse had let me inside to feed her from a bottle. Madison had specified that she didn’t want to breastfeed.

I took a picture of me and Kalen and sent it to a friend who ran an online newspaper. He had interviewed me a few times and he always published the truth so I gave him the scoop of announcing her birth.

“Hawthorne,” I answered my phone just as I finished my take-away cup of coffee.

“I’m out front, I got everything you asked for,” he said.

“Thanks, I’ll be right down,” I said and ended the call.

I took the elevator down to the ground floor and reception of the hospital and found Hal standing near the entrance.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” he asked me.

“Absolutely.”

“Alright, see you soon and congratulations. Very cute picture I saw online this morning,” he said with a smile.

“Thanks,” I said and headed back to the baby room.