Wingman Warriors - Grayson's Surrender Part 27

He palmed the head, a rush of love already firing up his arm. Thank heaven for professional instincts. "Hold on while I turn the shoulders..."

The baby shot forward, already wailing, into Gray's waiting hands and straight into his heart. "It's a boy! We have another little boy, and oh, G.o.d, Lori, he's wrinkled, red, and scrunched but so d.a.m.ned perfect."

The tiny, damp body squirmed in Gray's hands and in some distant part of his mind he knew he should be evaluating. But he simply stared mesmerized until his vision blurred.

"Gray?"

His wife's voice broke through, freed a blink and a tear that Gray shrugged his shoulder to swipe away. "Yeah, hon?"

"I want to see him. Hold him."

Her whiskey warm voice drifted over Gray. Six years of marriage hadn't diluted the potency at all, merely aged and enhanced.

"You bet. Just a minute and we'll have him cleaned up for Mama." Gray made quick work of the umbilical cord and traded places with Lori's OR while the pediatrician checked and wrapped the newborn.

Wisps of hair escaped Lori's braid, caressing her damp brow. Purplish stains of weariness smudged beneath her eyes.

And she'd never been more beautiful.

Their four years in Was.h.i.+ngton had pa.s.sed in a flurry of change, love, the occasional argument and more love. He still enjoyed the h.e.l.l out of making-up s.e.x.

Lori had taken a year off from work to play with Magda and teach her English. After Travis was born, Lori had cut back to half days and consulting, eventually adding John Grayson to their growing family.

The transition to military life hadn't been wrinkle free for Lori, but they'd worked together, talked, compromised and loved. His boots no longer restless, Gray welcomed the return a.s.signment to Charleston Air Force Base to serve as Chief of Flight Medicine.

He'd missed his parents and was glad to have them close again. They spoiled their grandchildren shamelessly-giving Gray and Lori the occasional evening to themselves.

He lifted his son from the warmer, the baby now swaddled, the head of dark hair covered with a tiny cap. Gray pa.s.sed their infant son to Lori as he'd done twice before with their boys and once with their daughter, Magda, who'd come to them older but every ounce as special. "Here's your mama, little guy."

Lori reached, happy tears already streaking her face. Cradling him in her arms, she opened the blanket to count fingers and toes. "Oh, Gray, he's beautiful."

"Yeah, pretty incredible." He stared straight at his wife. "I love you."

How easily the words flowed these days.

"I love you, too."

Lori tugged Gray down by the front of his scrubs for a kiss. Their lips met with a tenderness as powerful as pa.s.sion. The baby squawked between them, and they pulled apart, laughing.

Gray sat on the edge of the bed, tucked Lori into the crook of his arm and admired all eight pounds three ounces of their latest son, a son they'd conceived on a midnight walk nine months ago. "Any thoughts yet on a name? Mom's got that charm on hold at the jewelers."

A mischievous smile played with Lori's full lips, stirring an urge in Gray he wouldn't be able to fulfill for six more weeks.

"How about Ryan? To commemorate our most recent night beneath Orion's belt?"

A smile of his own broke free along with a chuckle. "Ryan. I like it." He stroked a knuckle along his new son's baby-soft cheek. "Ryan Davis it is."

They sat wrapped in each other's arms and the moment, until Gray realized the room had been cleared and the doctor leaned against the wall flipping through a chart. A nurse poked her head in the door, "Colonel Clark, are you ready for the rest of your family?"

Family. What an awesome word. "Sure. Send them in."

The nurse stepped away, and Magda, Maggie as she now preferred, stood in the door with a brother on either side. His parents hovered in the doorway, giving the children time to meet their new brother.

Maggie's hair, longer these days, was gathered in a ponytail trailing over her shoulder like her mother. Barbies a thing of the past, Maggie now focused on basketball and boys.

She plowed forward, dragging her little brothers along. "Wow! Mom, he's so cool! He looks like Travis, don'cha think, Dad?"

"Hey!" Travis furrowed a serious little brow just like his mama's. "I don't got a funny face or a pointy head."

"Pwetty baby!" John Grayson catapulted forward, Gray catching his middle son before he tripped over his shoelaces. This one kept them on their toes, all motion, smiles and a song on his lips before he spoke his first words.

Gray reached to pull Maggie into the circle, the child who'd brought them all together, and waved his parents in. Sometimes be thought life just couldn't get any better. And then, the next day, he found out it most certainly could.

Lori's honey-warm eyes met his as their family gathered around them, and he couldn't believe he'd ever doubted.

She gave a contented-mother's sigh. "You know that bit about never stargazing again?"

Gray gave her his best bad-boy grin. "You didn't mean a word of it."

Lori laughed that great husky laugh that still rolled right into him, dive bombing his senses.

"Not for a minute, flyboy!"

end.