Maternal Instinct (16 page)

Hugh sought his backup officers in the chaos of officialdom that he discovered was swarming the parking lot.

The one who'd tackled the
perp
, Clay Carr, was making notes on a pad and shaking his head when Captain Fisher asked a question. Fisher was called to another group and Hugh approached Carr.

"What happened to the hostage? Did I hurt her?"

"Skinned her arm and she was claiming her elbow hurt. Another ambulance took her away. She was damn lucky."

Hugh held out a hand. "You read my mind there. Thank you."

He got an easy grin in return. "Pleasure working with you."

The inevitable reports made, he was able to follow Nell to the hospital, where he badgered directions to her bed from the receptionist. Striding down the hall, Hugh passed one in which a mother held a sobbing baby, then several empty beds before he reached a closed curtain at the end of a row. He pulled it aside without her noticing, then stood in the opening.

A mint-green hospital gown had replaced her uniform shirt. She looked vulnerable in it, her collarbone and neck fragile, her arms slender in the faded, utilitarian garment. She cradled the arm that now sported a bulky dressing. Lying back against a crisp white pillow, her eyes closed, she still looked pale. Hugh stood there for a moment, watching her, his gut churning.

He might not have moved if she hadn't stirred and opened her eyes. Her gaze flew to his face.

"Hi." His voice was scratchy.

She gave a small, wry smile. "Hi."

He let the curtain fall closed behind him and went, to her side, feeling large and awkward. Hospitals did that to him. "How are you?"

"Better. They've cleaned me up. Made me swallow a few pills."

"Why don't they have you in a room?"

"I'm not staying." She struggled to sit up, as if to assert her strength.

Hugh pressed her back, his hand on her
unbandaged
shoulder. The bones felt fragile, too. "You were shot."

"Winged," she corrected, relaxing against the pillows.

Making himself lift his hand from her, he scowled. "It must hurt like hell."

"It stings." She saw his face. "Okay! It hurts. That doesn't mean I can't go home and toss and turn in my own bed!"

He loomed, still frowning. "The doctor okay with this?"

"They didn't even suggest I stay."

Hugh abruptly swung away and paced the few steps the cubicle allowed. "You scared me."

She didn't read his rough voice right. Her grin was too jaunty. "More excitement than you expected today, was it?"

"That kind, I can live without." The remembered terror made his voice and expression grim. "You shouldn't have been there today."

"What?"

"You heard me. It's not just yourself you're risking anymore."

She wasn't pale anymore. Temper flared in her cheeks. "Are you telling me I did something wrong? I should have let him drag that poor girl right by me?"

"No, that's not what I'm telling you!" Hugh shouted. "I'm saying you're pregnant and you have no damn business putting our baby at risk!"

A fatal second too late, he heard the rattle of curtain rings. Nell's shocked gaze went past him. God help them, if the captain had heard…

Hugh turned, as if in slow motion, to see a pretty blond teenager in the opening. Huge, dilated blue eyes were fixed on her mother, and she clutched the curtain as if only it was holding her up.

"Pregnant?" she whispered.

"Kim!" Nell scrambled out of bed, a sight in her official blue trousers with a
sacky
hospital gown above and the bulge of fresh white dressing on her shoulder.

The pretty teenager's head lifted in unconscious imitation of her mother's fierceness. "Are you?" she demanded.

"I… Yes." Nell closed her eyes and bit her lip.

When she opened her eyes again, they held a sheen of tears. "I didn't know how to tell you," she said softly.

"After all your lectures!" her daughter cried. Her face contorted. "I'll never listen to anything you say again!"

Nell made an abortive move toward her. "Kim, please…"

"If it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me!" the teenager concluded devastatingly. "Colin's waiting for me." With another rattle of curtain rings and the running slap of her feet in the hall, she was gone.

Nell crumpled onto the bed. With one stride, Hugh reached her, wrapping his arm around her.

The next second, she fought him. "I have to go after her!" she said frantically.

"No, you don't." He held her still, hating the anguish that quivered through her fine-boned body. "She's gone. You'll see her at home later."

"If she's not out—out having wild sex just to get back at me." She sagged again. "Oh, God. What have I done?"

Hugh's other arm closed around her and he pulled her tight against him. She went, unresisting, "Shh," he murmured. "She won't do that. She was just … lashing out. You know that."

"She hurts and she's mad," Nell mumbled into his shoulder. Her good hand clutched his shirt. "She's primed."

"No, she's not," he said firmly. "Sex is going to be the last thing on her mind. This Colin—is he really such a creep?"

She drew a shuddering breath. "I don't know. No. He's—he's nice enough. Just … a boy."

With conviction, Hugh assured her, "If he has a grain of decency, he's not going to screw a girl who says, 'My mom did something that upsets me, and now I want to get pregnant just to pay her back.'"

She fit against him as if she belonged, only his damn belt an intrusion. Hugh began to be conscious of the lemony scent of her hair, of the length of her thighs against his, the swell of her breasts, the whisper of her breath against his neck.

That uncomfortable awareness made his voice gruff. "You didn't tell her because you were ashamed."

He cursed himself, because she instantly stiffened. Instead of holding a yielding woman, he was trying to confine a bundle of taut, charged wires.

"Yes." Her eyes burned as she pulled back. "Yes, I'm ashamed. Shouldn't I be?"

Keeping his expression wooden, Hugh asked, "Do you dislike me so much?"

Crinkles formed in her brow. "No! What's that have to do with anything?"

"I'm asking you," he said grimly. "Are you ashamed because you had sex with a man you despise?"

Nell backed away until she bumped the hospital bed. "No! I don't… It's my own behavior…"

"Because you had impetuous sex—which was damn good by the way—and you're not married."

"Yes!" she cried, her eyes brimming with distress.

"I swore…" She had to stop, try again. "How could I do something so stupid again? It was
hard
the first time. Kim's right. I've been lecturing her about unplanned pregnancy and how the impulse of the moment doesn't justify the price. Of all people, how could I forget?" Her voice broke.

He'd been listening for footsteps in the hall this time. He didn't want an official audience for anything they had to say to each other. Twice he'd seen white nurse's shoes squeak past. Right now, only the murmur of voices several cubicles away let him know they weren't utterly alone.

"Marry me," he said.

He couldn't have
said that. Caught in her own anguish, Nell heard the two simple words as if they were tinny announcements from the hospital PA system. "Dr. Forrester to the emergency room."

"What did you say?" she asked stupidly.

Unflinching, he met her eyes. "I said, we should get married."

Steeling herself against a peculiar little swell of … longing, Nell lifted her chin. "This isn't the 1950s."

"Maybe I was born in the wrong time, then." This man, this stranger, who had made passionate love to her once only, because he was drunk, held her eyes steadily. "You're pregnant with my baby. I don't want him—or her—growing up with his mother resentful and struggling because his dad isn't present."

"That's not enough reason to…" she began.

He continued inexorably. "It's the right thing to do. Why can't we make a marriage work? We work well together, despite our differences. I like you. Obviously, I want you. We're going to be parents together. Isn't that a decent basis for marriage?"

He liked her. He … wanted her?

"You're not even attracted to me." What an idiotic thing to seize on, given that she'd just been shot and her daughter was out ruining her life and that out of decency Hugh McLean was proposing a marriage of convenience. Was she asking him to lie? Of course he thought she was the most beautiful woman alive! Why else had he been ardently courting her for years now?

His mouth twisted. "Yeah, I am."

"B-but…" she stuttered, "you've never … except when you were drunk…"

Red tinged his cheeks. "We didn't get along. You weren't my type."

The bitter triumph hurt. "That's what I said! You don't…"

"I didn't want to admit I did." He moved his shoulders uneasily. "I've … noticed you for a long time. Imagined your legs wrapped around me. I even dreamed about you a few times. But you're sharp-tongued, you didn't like me and you're another cop. I couldn't date you a few times, have a good time, say an easy goodbye."

He'd dreamed about her? She couldn't help gaping.

His brows drew together. "Get back in bed before you fall down."

Either the pain pills or delayed shock were getting to her. He was right; she was swaying on her feet, a sense of unreality making her head swim.

"Yes. Okay." She was awkwardly climbing back onto the bed, trying to scoot sideways so that the hospital gown didn't fall open, when Hugh suddenly swore.

"Prepare yourself."

"What?" She heard the footsteps at the same time, a familiar relentless stride.

"
Granstrom
." Captain Fisher parted the curtains. His gaze flicked to Hugh and he nodded. "McLean."

"Sir," they both said in unison.

His eyes almost looked kind as he took in the dressing and her pallor. "How are you?"

"Fine," she lied. She hadn't been less fine since she was sixteen years old and realized she was pregnant. "The bullet just … scraped me."

He gave a crisp nod. "You'll receive a commendation. You both did a fine job today."

In astonishment, she murmured, "Thank you, sir."

"Take the time you need." His tone held a certain irony. "You can get over that stomach bug at the same time."

A horrible fear that he
knew
overcame her. "I…" She swallowed. "Sir."

"McLean. You'll be filing reports."

Her partner nodded, as if automatically.

"I believe they're ready to discharge Officer
Granstrom
. Why don't you take her home." It wasn't a question.

Hugh nodded again. Nell didn't protest. What was she going to do, call a taxi?

The doctor and nurse entered the cubicle. "Gentlemen, if you'd wait outside," the doctor asked.

He explained how to clean her wound and change dressings, then gave her prescriptions for pain medication and antibiotics he said would be safe for a pregnant woman, with samples enough to last her for the first couple of days. After he departed with a professional smile, the nurse helped Nell peel off the hospital gown and slip on her uniform shirt. By the time they were done, her shoulder throbbed and she didn't object when the nurse produced a wheelchair.

Captain Fisher was gone, but Hugh waited in the hall. He took over from the nurse and pushed the chair as if it were his right.

Local journalists were waiting outside the hospital, but Hugh fended them off with the promise that Captain Fisher would make a statement. Flashes went off, and Nell wondered wildly how bad she'd look on the front page of
The Sentinel.

As if it mattered, given the tenor of her life right now.