You smell like love

Chapter 09

TK wasn't sure what he hated more, the hospital emergency room he had been in so many times or the waiting room with the uncomfortable plastic chairs, which gave him back pain and didn't allow him to have a comfortable posture, with what was starting to be a prominent five-month belly with twins growing inside him.

But the truth was that he hated more to be there waiting for someone to tell him if his fiancé was alive or if the knife that had pierced his liver had taken him away.

Andrea put a hand on his belly and looked into his eyes.

"I've been through this twice. What you feel, they feel."

TK wanted to ask what had happened when she had been in his position, but he didn't want to hear any more drama, not until he knew Carlos was okay or at least out of danger.

"I don't know how to do it. I'm so scared...but I'm trying so hard not to let myself get scared."

Andrea placed her palm on TK's leg and waited. "You don't have to do this alone, mijo." His hand trembled as he laid it on top of his mother-in-law's and squeezed it tightly. "I know it's your mother who should be here taking care of you. But since that's not possible, I'd like you to lean on me...as your mother. I assure you that your fear is mine too."

TK stood up as soon as Gabriel and Owen entered the hospital. It wasn't a great idea, he didn't have the same balance as normal, now that his belly was starting to get a little bigger.

If it hadn't been for Nancy being there to hold him up, he would have ended up hopelessly on the floor. Between her and Tommy they made him sit again and Tommy put a cold drink with a lot of sugar in front of him to replace the sugar he had lost by not eating anything for hours.

Owen ran over to him.

"Are you okay?"

TK nodded and closed his eyes for a moment to let the dizziness pass until the room stopped spinning in front of him.

"What did you guys find out, Dad, who did this to Carlos?"

The first update had been confusing. They had found Carlos lying in an alley behind a grocery store on the outskirts of downtown. Someone had injured him, plunging a knife into his stomach, although it had ultimately been his liver that had been compromised.

Gabriel had gained access to security cameras in the store and on the street. Carlos had gone to a call, the store was being robbed and the owner had managed to alert the police.

"It was a kid," Gabriel had said as he entered the hospital along with his son's gurney. "A kid was stealing food and things got messy, apparently, and Carlos wanted to help the boy."

TK remembered smiling. He couldn't expect anything else from his fiancé, especially when it was a kid who had gotten into trouble, even if the boy later tried to kill him with a knife.

"Apparently the kid thought Carlos would let him go, you know, TK, other cops do it, they know these kids aren't going to jail, they give them a scare and then let them go to avoid the paperwork."

"But Carlos doesn't," TK said with his hand on his belly, wishing that his babies would get that big heart from Carlos.

"Not Carlos, Carlos wanted to help him, he wanted to take him to a shelter. Which the boy didn't like, but Carlos kept trying until..."

"If Carlos wasn't so stubborn." TK sobbed and accepted his father's arm. "Carlos didn't let him go, did he?"

Gabriel shook his head. "From what he said when one of the patrols found him..."

"What's his name? How old is he?"

The question caught Gabriel by surprise. "Mike, sixteen."

"Carlos will want to know his name when he wakes up." TK knew his future husband too well. He wasn't going to mind a knife in the belly when there was a chance to redeem the boy and get him out of the system.