Gamma Blade - Tim Stevens Page 0,3
anybody coped with being a parent. How you could ever let your kid step out of the house. Was this how things would be for the rest of his life? A constant state of anxiety, of wanting to wrap your family in cotton wool and never let them go?
At the same time, he felt an elation that was as great, if not greater, than the fear. He’d be brushing his teeth in the mornings, catch sight of his face in the mirror, and feel sheepish at the broad, goofy grin he saw. His urge to tell his work colleagues was so powerful that at times he’d had to excuse himself and leave the room. He didn’t know if he’d be able to hold out for another four weeks.
He watched Beth heft her small suitcase, and told himself he was being ridiculous. She was a healthy woman, barely two months into her pregnancy. And she was a doctor. She knew far better than he did what was risky and what wasn’t. He’d been horrified when she’d suggested they fly to Miami rather than drive down, and she’d told him the airlines only got nervous in the third trimester. (Even so, he’d looked that up online afterward.)
But he couldn’t shake it. The alpha male’s instinct to preserve and protect those nearest to him.
*
The hotel was a twenty-minute drive from the airport, but Venn took a wrong turn, unfamiliar with the Miami streets, and so the journey took them closer to an hour. As they cruised along the seafront, Venn felt his spirits lift even higher at the sight of the glittering water, the yachts, the sailboats.
It wasn’t a vacation, quite. Beth was an attending physician at Revere Hospital in Lower Manhattan, and had booked a few days’ leave to attend an American Medical Association conference here in Florida. She’d told Venn a few of her colleagues were going along, and at first Venn assumed he was staying behind. But then she’d said, almost shyly: “Why don’t you come? We can make a weekend of it.”
And Venn thought: yes. Why not?
As a Detective Lieutenant heading up the Division of Special Projects, an NYPD unit whose remit it was to investigate crimes with a political angle, he was largely his own boss, though he did answer to his Captain, David Kang, who adopted a relatively hands-off approach. Venn hadn’t taken any time off so far this year, and he had no problem securing a couple of days.
They hadn’t had a vacation together, Venn and Beth, since they’d gotten together almost three years earlier. Venn felt guilty about that, though he reassured himself that they had a big one coming up in the fall.
Their honeymoon.
The day after Beth told him she was expecting, Venn proposed to her for the second time. He did it right this time, rushing out to a jewelry store on Ninth Avenue near his office with one of Beth’s rings he’d swiped for sizing purposes. He’d cooked dinner – a tuna bake, one of the few dishes he could make a passable stab at without screwing it up – and had gotten down on one knee.
And she’d said yes. Immediately, without hesitation.
They decided on a low-key affair. Venn was a lapsed Catholic and didn’t feel comfortable asking the Church to accommodate him, so they settled on a non-denominational church in Brooklyn. They’d invite a few friends on both their sides. They set the date for August.
Beth’s friends were ecstatic for her. Venn’s work colleagues, who were the closest he got these days to friends, were pretty pleased, too, though they expressed themselves differently.
“And I always thought Beth was smart,” said Harmony.
Lance Lovett, the newest recruit to Venn’s team, stared at him rudely. “You’ve knocked her up, haven’t you?” he leered in his Louisiana drawl.
Only Fil Vidal, Venn’s tech guy and the quiet, polite one of the group, congratulated him effusively.
Captain Kang organized a surprise party at Venn’s office and the squad proceeded to get roaring drunk. All except Venn. He’d had his share of wild nights in the past, but he was going to be a husband now. And, though he didn’t let on, a father.
He had new responsibilities.
And damn, if that didn’t feel good.
*
As a delegate to the AMA conference, Beth had gotten a discounted booking in the very hotel in which the conference was taking place. Venn stepped out of the elevator into the lobby and stared around him. Like most of the walls, the high, domed ceiling was