He suddenly remembered Lori having another fit— He turned in Nick’s arms to stare at her. “Lori! Are you okay?”
She was sitting up in her bed, looking more pissed than sick. “I’m fine. Now.”
“What about you?” Zander asked.
“Did I do something weird?” Nick’s grip around him was tighter than it should’ve been. Scared-tight. Brian pushed back enough to meet Nick’s eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Good question.” Nick gradually let go. “Lori screamed, you took the baby, and Zander bent over her. She was fine again, like, right away. It took me a minute to realize you were staring straight at the baby. Staring. Not hearing anything we said, not responding. Just looking into its eyes.”
“His,” Lori put in. “His eyes. That baby’s a boy, not an it.”
“Whatever. It had Brian fucking hypnotized.”
“I’m fine,” Brian said. “Not even a headache.”
“Now you’re fine. A moment ago, you didn’t even see your brother come barging in like a SWAT team.”
Damon said calmly, “Hardly a SWAT team. No weapon in sight.”
“But I bet you’re carrying.” Nick heaved a sigh. “So what the fuck happened?”
“Good question.” Zander bent over Lori. “From a medical standpoint, it looked most like a seizure, Lori. But definitely atypical. Let me check…” He inflated the blood pressure cuff, listened with his scope as it went down, then repeated the process. “Your pressure’s still fine. That’s the biggest concern off the table. We’ll get some blood and run a stat check on your calcium. I have a glucometer for blood sugar here—”
“It was the baby,” Lori said, pulling her arm away. “I think. It was weird, like I touched him and the world went bright and loud and cold and… and… and weird. Like I couldn’t see, not properly. Strange things were pulling on me.”
“Seizures feel different to different people,” Zander pointed out. “Or low blood sugar.”
“Yeah, no.” Lori twisted to look at Damon. “Can you bring him here? Maybe slowly.”
“Sure.” Damon moved toward the bed, rocking the infant side to side with a sway of his shoulders.
“Why are you here anyway?” Nick asked.
Damon shot him a grin over one shoulder. “You weren’t expecting me?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Lori suddenly freaked the hell out. I could tell. Could’ve been any damned thing, so I came in to find out what new disaster we had.” He took another step toward Lori.
Zander straightened and blocked Damon’s way to the bed. “Don’t hand an infant to someone who just had a seizure.”
“I’ll keep a good hold on him, Doc.” Brian couldn’t see Damon’s face, but heard the sly shift in his tone. “Don’t you trust me?”
“You really want to know?” For a moment, the two men stared at each other, then Zander added, “What’s your plan?”
“The little guy did something with Brian, right? So maybe he did something with Lori too.”
“She wasn’t hypnotized. You’re going to experiment with her health? Ignore all my years of actual training?”
Damon called without turning, “Hey, Bry, you feeling okay now?”
Am I? He inventoried himself. No new aches, not even a bit of throb from his head, vision clear again, and he seemed to be thinking clearly. Although how would I know? He realized everyone was waiting for his answer. “I’m fine, I think.”
“Yeah. You feel fine to me too,” Damon said. “So does Lori, now. So does little guy, except he’s fussy and cranky and needy. Next thing to try is if Lor can nurse him. See what happens.”
Zander didn’t budge. “Let me check Lori out better first.”
“After,” Lori said firmly. “Damon, bring my baby here.”
“Babies don’t cause seizures,” Zander said. “Well, if they made a loud, sharp noise, maybe—”
“Babies don’t hypnotize people either,” Damon noted calmly.
“Yeah, but we know Brian’s not—” Zander cut off short, flicked a glance at Brian, and finished with “—completely neurotypical.”
Nice save, Doc. But it was true enough. His neurons were obviously not typical.
Damon laughed. “The little guy’s a Kerr too. Who knows what he can do?”
For a moment Zander held his position between Damon and Lori. Then he nodded. “But if she has any more neuro signs, you let me do a full workup.”
“If we can’t explain it? Sure.”
Nick’s fingers bit into Brian’s arm as Zander stepped out of the way and Damon eased smoothly to one knee. Damon leaned forward to put the infant cradled on his shoulder into Lori’s reach. “You touch him, this time. Slow, slow. One finger. Don’t look in his eyes yet.”
Brian heard Nick whisper, “Abso-fucking-weird.”
Lori’s hand was steady as she reached out, but she paused with her finger hovering