The Firsts: Hard Days Night Part 15

Bev watched her, concerned. Hallucinations?

"How about I get you some breakfast? Something other than a cookie?"

"I don't..." Mal trailed off, her hand pressing a little tighter against her stomach. "I...excuse me."

She turned and threw up over the side of the deck.

Bev kept a hand on her back.

"Mal, sweetie, are you all right?"

After purging, Mal moved back from the railing. "I feel better. I don't know what I've eaten that's upsetting my stomach."

"If I didn't know better, I'd ask if you were pregnant," Bev joked. "I'm going to get you something to calm your stomach."

As Bev walked back into the house, Mal looked out at the vast body of water that surrounded her. If Bev didn't know better...

But did Mal? Those memories that she had been having of the gunshot victim, there was more. The dreams in which they made love, the details, the feelings, the actions, were all as real to Mal as standing here in her childhood home. If she closed her eyes, she was certain that what she thought she remembered, had actually happened.

Once again, she dropped a hand to her belly. So, was it possible? Could she be pregnant? It was crazy, wasn't it? She wasn't on any birth control, there hadn't been a reason, she hadn't had a lover in over a year. So if the dream lover had been real, there was a chance.

She shook her head. What odd ramblings! Just an overactive imagination, like Bev said. Of course it was a dream, and of course she wasn't pregnant.

Bev brought her a gla.s.s with a dissolved alka-seltzer.

"My go-to for stomach trouble. Down it, honey."

Mal followed doctor's orders, then handed Bev the gla.s.s.

"I think I'm going to lie back down for a little while until this subsides."

"Good idea. I guess I'll just stand here and absorb all of this. I'll be back in L.A. in two weeks, so I don't want to miss any moment while I'm still here."

Mal left and Bev sat down on one of the deck chairs they'd uncovered and set the empty gla.s.s and her cup of coffee on a small table.

It really was beyond lovely here. If she wasn't careful, she'd fall in love with this place and have a hard time readjusting to the frantic noise and pace of the city.

"Pure magic, isn't it?"

Bev turned to see Kai standing there wearing a white muscle s.h.i.+rt and aloha-print shorts. He carried a cup of coffee as well, and walked over to the railing, then looked at her as he took a sip.

d.a.m.n. He was ridiculously handsome here in the soft morning light. His body toned, tanned, heavily-muscled, he kind of made her breath catch. She knew he'd been a cop, but had retired several years ago when he came back to Hawaii, to the Big Island, not here in Molokai.

When he lowered the cup and smiled at her, she felt a kick in her gut. Oh, h.e.l.l, he was turning her on. Wouldn't Mal just s.h.i.+t a brick if she knew that Bev had the hots for her father?

"So, tell me how my little girl is doing in L.A."

A good distraction, Bev thought, and began to tell Mal's father what a good cop his daughter had become.

She finally fell back to sleep, and went into a soft cloud, a dream of calmness and gentle light. All the hardness and problems of real life fell away. She floated, as if the air itself could support her body, and the breeze that came buoyed her, moved her easily in the warm air, closer to a verdant piece of land in the distance. She floated in suns.h.i.+ne and heat until she hovered above the land and looked down.

How lovely! Waterfalls, miles of them, spraying rainbow-hued droplets up into the air. Mal's dream-body reached for the pieces of refracted light and felt a warmth in her body she had never felt before. Warmth? No, a presence. Inside of her? A life grew, clinging to her mother with love and hope. Could she hear her? The new life couldn't speak, could it? And yet, she heard...no, felt...the child's voice.

You must seek my father.

Mal woke suddenly, shocked, amazed, frightened, overwhelmed. She shot upright, pus.h.i.+ng against the firm surface, against blankets piled on wood floor. Her hands moved beneath her satin pajama pants to curve around her flat belly, where she now believed...No, she knew! She was with child.

As impossible as all of this was, the gorgeous man had been real and she was pregnant with a little girl.

Standing, she looked around the room that had been her parent's love nest decades earlier when her mother had been carrying her. Now, more than anything, she wished her mother could be here with her while she carried a child.

With moist eyes, she slid back down onto the bundle of cozy blankets, looked upward, and spoke to her mother for the first time since she'd left Hawaii.

"I don't really know who the father is, and or even exactly how this happened, but I know I'm going to have a little girl. She's beautiful and can't wait to be here with me. Mom, I need you. My childhood was perfect, I felt safe and loved every moment. How do I give my daughter that childhood? Please, help me to do right by her." She stopped, then smiled. "How about this? Your little girl is having a little girl."

Rising, she walked out to the deck, where she saw Bev and her father lying side by side on two of the loungers.

Bev laughed at something he must have said as Mal joined them.

"Oh, hi, honey. Are you feeling better?" Bev asked, sitting up.

Did she seem startled? Did she look uneasy? Mal looked at her father. He seemed very relaxed all of the sudden. Then it struck her. They had been enjoying each other's company. Oh, G.o.d, were they attracted to each other?

It seemed likely. Bev was flus.h.i.+ng now and got up.

"I'm going to go and check on what we have for breakfast. You know, besides the cookies."

Bev walked away quickly after s.n.a.t.c.hing her coffee cup and the gla.s.s she'd brought for Mal earlier.

Mal faced her father.

"How are you doing this morning, Pop?"

"Better. You know how hard it was for me to come back here. But, yeah, I'm better."

"Have anything to do with Bev's charming company? It's okay, I noticed a spark. She's a kind woman, she'd be good for you."

"Oh, babygirl, that isn't even on my radar."

Mal stepped forward and pushed his legs aside to sit down on the bottom of his lounger. "It should be. You haven't really hooked up with anyone all of these years, have you?"

"I've seen some women."

"I doubt that. But, just know that I'm okay if you and Bev would like to get to know each other. I want you to be happy."

He leaned in and put a hand on her cheek. "I'm happy now. I've missed you. Mal, I know I've been a lousy father."

"No. You took care of me. Like now. You're taking care of me again. I know the Captain sent you here. You two were good friends once, I remember."

"He adored you. He was shocked when you showed up on the force in his division."

"He takes care of me, too. But I'm a big girl, now, with a big gun, I don't need an army to protect me."

"Don't expect us to stop."

"I don't imagine you will. I'm glad you're here, Pop."

"Yeah, well, someone's threatened my babygirl. They won't get near you."

"You know that he threatened you, too. He threatened everyone I love. And now Luka's missing. So you need to be on guard for anyone targeting you. So far, he hasn't been interested in hurting me."

"It's what he wants from you that interests me. Mal, if they can't get to Canzone, legally, I promise you, I'll get to him in my own way."

"No! You don't get to come in at this point and play hero! You'll only get yourself killed anyway. That man has all angles covered. He's protected. Besides, there's something else that I need your help with. Sometime soon. Maybe in about nine months."

Mal watched her father as the realization hit.

"What? Oh, babygirl, your mother would be..."

His eyes watered, and he held out his arms. Mal went into them without hesitation. Her father was home. Pops. Daddy. All the things they'd been to each other when they were a happy family before life threw them the curve ball that destroyed it all.

"It's going to be okay, Mal. I'm going to make sure of it." He paused. "Is the father still in the picture?"

"I...uh, it's complicated. Let's just say I'm not quite sure how that's going to play out."

"It doesn't matter. If it is all right with you, I'd like to be a part of its life, of yours, now. It's past time for me to come home, more than this, more than back here."

"I'd really love that, Pop. I will need your help with her."

"I won't disappoint you."

"Breakfast!" Bev announced from the doorway, and came onto the deck with a big tray.

Kai hurried over to help her lower it to a table.

"How about French toast and bacon?"

"Perfect. Thank you, Bev," Mal said, swiping at her eyes. "I'm starving."

"Your stomach feels better?"

"Much. I think I just needed to rest."

"Okay, then, dig in. I'll go get some more coffee."

"Let me," Kai offered.

"Well, thank you." Bev took a seat opposite Mal as she handed her one of the plates. Her eyes followed Kai as he disappeared into the house.

"He's a good man," Mal said.

"What? Oh, I'm sure he is."

"No, I mean, if you're interested, he would be good for you, and I know you would be good for him."

"Oh, no, no, not at all," Bev protested, but her eyes followed Kai's trail as she watched for him to return.

IN SOUTH AFRICA.

"We've received a message from the mercenary soldier that worked with Koen and Eillia in Switzerland. He's embedded in the lab facility where Claude and Lamont are holed up. They're in England." Chione leaned over the table at second meal to touch Ahmose's hand. "They want you to join them. Do you wish to do so?"

Ahmose stood. "I will. That psychotic murderer has to be stopped. It's the major reason I stayed in L.A. last month to try to track them."

Jacob coughed into his hand. "And the vacation."

Ahmose shot him a look. "That was ancillary. And only after the trail ended. You know why."

"Oh, I know why. The idea of another woman ruling our ruler was probably freaking you out, even if she's just a baby."

"The leader of the children of the moon does not "freak" out. I welcome our daughter as much as our precious son. But after we finish our meal, I will join Koen at his villa. Chione, will you make the arrangements once you're finished?"

"Yes, master."

Ahmose shot her the same look he'd fired off to Jacob moments earlier.

Chione lowered her head and the volume of her voice. "I'm sorry. Ahmose."

"Better. Let's enjoy. It may be a while before we dine together again. After we finish in England, I may return to America."

Starla had been buried in her plate, ravenous since she was eating for two again. She lifted her head.

"Why?" she asked, perhaps more harshly than she intended.

"I have some unfinished business."

"What kind?"

"Star, it is of a personal nature."

"He wants to get laid," Starla said to Jacob, then turned back to Ahmose. "There's a girl, isn't there? You've been particularly good at the brooding since you got back from California. You may as well admit it."

Ahmose was silent, but drew a long breath. "Yes, there is a woman."

"Who is it? What's she like? Is she vampire? How did you meet?" Starla shot out rapid-fire questions between bites.

"My dear Star, I will tell you all about her when I return."

"She has something to do with the new vampire you've sired, doesn't she? I knew something was up."