Part 21 (2/2)

She tried to protest what he was saying to the receptionist, but he held up a hand and cut her off.

”The side door?” he added. ”Right. I see it. We'll be right there.”

He drove to the side of the building and parked, got out and lifted Grace, carrying her toward the building.

”But I'm not dangerously ill,” she protested, flus.h.i.+ng.

”I never said you were.”

”You told her I was unconscious!”

”A tiny white lie,” he said as he reached the building. ”Better close your eyes unless you want to be here until midnight.”

She really wanted to argue, but the side door was opening. She didn't want to spend the night in the waiting room. She closed her eyes.

”Bring her right in here,” the nurse instructed.

Grace felt herself being placed gently on an examination table.

”Doctor will be right here,” the nurse said, exiting the room.

Before Garon could get a word out, Dr. Coltrain walked in, a stethoscope draped around the collar of his white lab jacket. He looked uneasy as he took it off, stuck the earpieces in his ears, and bent to listen to Grace's chest.

”I just fainted, that's all,” Grace whispered.

He frowned, because her heartbeat worried him. He listened, had her cough, listened again and took off the stethoscope. ”What were you doing, just before you fainted?”

”I was just walking...”

Without a word, Garon caught the redheaded doctor's hand and placed it flat on Grace's belly, with a meaningful look.

Taken aback, Coltrain's hand smoothed over the hardness of her slightly swollen belly. He caught his breath.

”Labwork?” Garon suggested solemnly.

Coltrain stared at him with growing comprehension. Grace was the only one who didn't understand what was going on.

Coltrain went into the hall and called his nurse. He spoke to her under his breath.

”Yes, Doctor, right away,” she said and walked back down the hall.

He took a phone call while she came back and drew blood from Grace's arm.

”It isn't an ulcer,” Grace protested when the nurse had gone out of the room, closing the door behind her. ”I don't have stomach problems. Don't you tell Coltrain that I do, either,” she instructed hotly, ”because I know what an upper G.I. series is like, and he's not doing one on me!”

Garon didn't answer. He went to the window in the small room, shoved his hands in his pockets, and looked outside. His world, and Grace's, was about to change forever. He didn't know what to say, or do. Grace was going to be upset.

Coltrain was back in ten minutes, somber and taut-jawed. He closed the door, pulled out his rolling stool and sat down.

”We have some decisions to make,” he told Grace.

Garon moved to join them, his eyes on Grace, who looked completely perplexed.

”Have I got cancer?” she asked, aghast.

Coltrain took one of her hands in his and held it tight. ”You're pregnant, Grace.”

She just stared at him. ”I can't have a child,” she said in a choked tone. ”You said I couldn't!”

He drew in a sharp breath, aware of Garon's stillness beside him. ”I said it wasn't likely, with only one ovary. I didn't say it was impossible.”

Grace's hands went to her belly, feeling its firmness, feeling the thickness of her waist. She was pregnant. There was a tiny life inside her. She felt herself glow, as if she were touched, radiantly touched, by ecstasy.

”You can't have it,” Coltrain said shortly. ”You're barely a month pregnant, in time for a termination. I can send you up to San Antonio...”

”No!”

The word exploded from two pairs of lips at the exact same time.

Grace and Garon looked at each other, surprised, as Coltrain's eyebrows reached for the ceiling.

”Excuse me?” the doctor asked.

”You're not terminating my child,” Grace told Coltrain.

”Grace, it's just too risky,” he said softly. ”Listen to me, Jacobsville is still a small town, with old-fas.h.i.+oned views on unwed mothers. Even if there was no risk, how would you feel about having a child out of wedlock?”

”She won't be,” Garon said curtly. ”I'll get a license first thing Monday. We can be married in the ordinary's office Thursday morning. If a blood test is still required, you've got hers, you can do me while I'm here.”

Grace felt as if she were falling into an abyss. ”You don't want to marry me,” she said, knowing the statement was true even as if choked her pride.

Garon leaned back against the examination table and glanced from Coltrain to Grace. ”This doesn't go outside this room,” he said quietly. ”Even my own brothers don't know.” he sighed heavily. His dark eyes seemed to see into the past as he spoke. ”It was two years after I graduated from the FBI Academy. I'd just been posted by the Bureau to a field office in Atlanta when I met Annalee,” he began. ”She was a civilian employee who had a degree in computer technology. She did background checks for us. She was a strong, independent, intelligent woman. We both knew on the first date that we'd be together forever.” His jaw tautened. Beside him, Grace felt her heart sink. ”We were married two months later. She got used to having me work long hours and sometimes travel out of the country on a.s.signment. But she had her job to occupy her. We drifted along, we grew closer. We were happy. When we knew she was pregnant with our first child, we spent hours walking the malls, picking out furniture and toys...” He stopped until he could compose himself. ”When she was five months pregnant, she started feeling tired all the time. We thought it was a part of the pregnancy, but she was having other symptoms as well. I took her to the gynecologist, who ran blood tests and sent us immediately to an oncologist.”

Coltrain's jaw clenched.

Garon saw it. ”The oncologist diagnosed it as non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.”

”One of the most aggressive cancers,” Coltrain said.

”Yes. And she refused treatment. She wouldn't risk the baby, even to save her own life. But the cancer was advanced and quickly aggressive.” He felt again the grief of that knowledge, the coldness in the pit of his stomach. ”I lost them both,” he added flatly, forcing himself not to yield to grief. ”That was ten years ago. I decided that I'd never take that risk again. I'd live for my job. And I did. I volunteered for the Hostage Rescue Team. For six years, I was on the front lines of any desperate situation where lives were in danger. From there, I went to one of our SWAT units. When I started losing my edge physically, I opted for a transfer to one of the Texas field offices. I was sent to Austin, and then transferred down here, to lead a squad in the violent crime unit. But I've only been going through the motions of living,” he concluded. He looked down at Grace and there was an odd light in his dark eyes. ”I want this baby, Grace. You don't know how much!”

Coltrain felt himself losing ground. He looked at Grace worriedly.

<script>