Page 50 of Forever We Embrace: The Later Years
“We’ll be there,” I tell Quentin. He reminds me to bring my medication list, then ends the call without trying to fill the uncertainty with explanations he can’t support yet.
Maceo rises and moves around the desk while I place my pen across the board response. His hand settles against my shoulder before he reaches for the cane and passes it to me. “Your heart is stable. That’s good,” he says, keeping his voice low while I push myself upright.
“That’s the part I understood.” I take the cane from him and wait for the room to settle after standing. “He wants to test Luca before he explains the hormone changes.”
Maceo’s attention sharpens, but he doesn’t name the possibility hanging between us. “I’ll call Grayson. Luther can meet us there if he’s able to leave the security review.”
I nod and reach for the crackers. The smell turns my stomach before I open the package, so Maceo takes them from me and slips them back into my bag without comment.
We find Luca at Ember House with Grayson in the expansion office. They’re standing over a table covered in revised intake schedules and resident-governance notes when we enter. Luca looks up from the page beneath his hand, and something in his expression changes before I say anything.
Maceo closes the door behind us while Grayson moves around the table and rests one hand against my lower back.
“Quentin called,” I tell them. “My cardiac results are stable, but the rest of my bloodwork has changed. He thinks my body may be responding to something inside the pack, and he wants to test Luca before he says more.”
Luca’s hand moves toward his stomach and stops there. The gesture is small enough that he might not notice it, but all three of us do.
Grayson’s fingers tighten against my back before he reaches for Luca with his free hand. Luca lets Grayson pull him close, though his eyes stay on me.
“The nausea?” he asks.
“And a few other things.” I move closer and rest my hand over the one he still has against his stomach. “Quentin said it isn’t an emergency.”
Luca turns his palm beneath mine and links our fingers. His scent has been different for weeks, softer around the edges and heavier in the nest, but too much has been changing around us for any one explanation to stand out.
Maceo contacts Luther while Grayson gathers Luca’s bag and the medication list we’ve kept updated since my collapse.
Less than an hour later, all five of us are crowded into Quentin’s largest examination room.
Luther arrived before us and now stands behind Luca with one arm resting around his middle while Quentin reviews the intake questions. Grayson sits close enough that his knee touches Luca’s, and Maceo has pulled a chair beside mine rather than remaining near the door.
Quentin draws Luca’s blood first. He labels the tubes, checks the information twice, and feeds one into the rapid analyzer while the rest are prepared for the full laboratory panel.
Luca watches the machine instead of the needle mark inside his elbow. His hand remains wrapped around mine, and his thumb moves slowly across the center of my palm while Quentin waits for the first result.
The analyzer chimes several minutes later.
Quentin checks the screen, then checks it again before turning the tablet toward us. Some of the clinical distance leaves his face when he looks at Luca.
“You’re pregnant,” he says. “Approximately eight weeks based on the hormone levels and developmental markers.”
Luca’s breath catches beneath Luther’s hand.
For several seconds, no one moves. Grayson reaches first, covering Luca’s free hand with his own before leaning in to kiss his temple. Luther’s hand spreads over Luca’s chest while he presses his mouth into Luca’s hair, Luca staring at the result on Quentin’s screen.
My own body answers before my mind catches up. The nausea rises beneath my ribs, but the feeling is familiar now that I know what it belongs to.
Luca looks toward me. His eyes are wet, though his mouth begins to curve when I bring our linked hands to my chest.
“You knew,” he whispers.
“I suspected after Quentin called.” I lower my forehead against his. “I wasn’t willing to say it before he tested you.”
Maceo remains beside my chair with one hand braced against the back of it. His gaze stays fixed on Luca and the tablet, stunned but careful, as though any sudden movement might disturb the moment.
Quentin gives us time before he returns to the chart. “Blake’s hormone changes are consistent with the same Delta response we saw during Luca’s earlier pregnancies. His cardiac results remain stable, and I don’t need to alter his medication today.”
I keep Luca’s hand against my chest while Quentin explains that the nausea and tenderness may continue. My body has followed Luca’s pregnancy before. Knowing the cause makes the symptoms easier to separate from the warning signs Quentin still wants me monitoring.
