Something tickled her nose as she woke up. At first, she thought it was her hair, and then she realized it was coa.r.s.er than hers. She opened one eye and found that she was lying with her head on top of Steven"s chest. It was his chest hair irritating it. She huffed out a breath and attempted to turn over. The immovable object at her back grunted when she elbowed it.
"Sorry. I need to turn over." She waited as Greg moved out of her way.
"You all right, baby?" Greg"s gravelly voice sounded sleepy.
"What"s going on?" Steven"s didn"t sound much better.
"Nothing. Go back to sleep. I just needed to turn over. Greg had to move out of my way."
"She elbowed me in the gut, man. Watch out. She"s got deadly aim."
"Funny." Janet smiled and settled between them once again.
After thirty minutes of staring up at the ceiling and listening to the two of them snore, Janet was ready to scream. She wanted out of the bed, but that would mean that the men would have to get up, too.
She stretched the thirty minutes into another twenty before she was so antsy that Greg woke up and called her on it.
"If you need to get up, baby, just tell us. We"ll get up with you."
"I didn"t want you to have to. You should be able to sleep in if you want to."
"Don"t worry. If I get tired later, I"ll take a nap. In fact, we"ll both take a nap later. How"s that?"
"Since I already know that I"m going to get sleepy later, I"ll take you up on that."
"So are you two getting up or staying in bed and keeping me up?" Steven"s m.u.f.fled voice could be heard from under the pillow.
"Come on, baby. We"ll go get something to eat. Sleepyhead will have to make his own when he does manage to get out of bed."
Greg helped her climb out of the bed then led her to the bathroom. When she finished in the bathroom, he had her clothes ready and helped her step into the sweatpants and pull on the oversized T-shirt.
She followed him downstairs, stopping halfway to rest before reaching the bottom. He arranged her on the couch with a blanket and one of the baby books before he slipped off to the kitchen to make breakfast. She read the introduction of the book and quickly lost interest. Her mind just wasn"t on it. She was too busy going over the dream she"d had the night before. Was it a dream or had her subconscious pulled out her memory?
She was in the cellar putting up the canned tomatoes she"d made. She walked up the stairs and just as she reached the top, something ran between her legs, causing her to lose her balance. It had looked like a small cat. Then she was falling. When she looked up from where she had landed, the thing was sitting on the top step looking down at her. It had a row of razor-sharp teeth and hissed at her. Then she woke up.
The odd thing about it all was that she didn"t remember the thing touching her, and she hadn"t been afraid while she was dreaming. Not even when she fell down the stairs.
"Hey, there. What are you thinking so hard about over there?" Greg walked into the living room.
"Thinking about a dream I had last night. I"m wondering if it was actually a memory and not a dream, though."
"What was it about?"
"When I fell in the cellar."
"Tell me about it."
Janet waited until he sat down next to her to go back over the dream. He nodded.
"I think that was a memory. That sounds too much like what was bound to have happened. The place I covered and nailed shut was in the bas.e.m.e.nt, so it had to have been down there with you."
"But you never found it."
"No, baby. I looked all over this house. I think it got back out, and then I closed it out."
"I hope I never see it again."
"I"m with you on that. Let"s go eat breakfast." He stood up and held out his hand for her to use to pull herself up.
They had just finished eating when Steven shuffled into the kitchen and headed right for the stove. He sniffed at the contents of their leftover meal. She giggled when he frowned. They hadn"t left much for him to eat.
"Sorry, Steven. You should have gotten up with us." Janet couldn"t help but point that out.
He yawned and stretched before scratching his belly and shuffling over to the fridge for more supplies.
"Come on, baby. Let"s leave him to cook and go read your book. You can sit in my lap."
Greg snagged the book off the couch as he walked toward his recliner. He pulled her onto his lap and pushed the chair back so that they were in a semireclined position. Janet opened the book and began reading about what to expect as her body changed to support the baby. Evidently, Greg was reading along with her because he groaned at some of the changes.
"I like the part about bigger b.o.o.bs, but I"m not so wild about some of the others."
"You think you"re not wild about them. Imagine having to actually deal with them. I"m going to make you aware of every one of them when they happen."
"At least you"re not having anymore morning sickness."
"I am very happy about that!"
"What does it say about s.e.x in that book?"
"Hold your horses. I can tell where your mind is." She pulled the book toward her chest so he couldn"t see and turned to the index. "It looks like you have a few chapters to go before I get to that part."
"Can"t you skip on over there now?" Greg tried to look over her arm at the book.
"Nope. I"m going to go in order. It"s like that for a reason, I"m sure. Now pay attention."
She began to read the less desirable parts to him, skipping over the good parts on purpose.
"Ugh, don"t read anymore of it to me. I"ll wait "til you get to the part on s.e.x, and you can read that out loud to me then."
"What are you two doing in here? I can hear Greg groaning all the way in the kitchen." Steven walked into the room.
"Just reading over the baby book with him."
"Don"t let her read it to you. It"s got some disgusting parts in it."
Steven chuckled. "I can imagine. I think I"ll wait for the CliffsNotes version."
"The two of you are going to have to read these books all the way through with me. I insist. If I have to live through it, you can at least read through it."
She watched the two men exchange looks then shiver. She realized in that moment that she was very happy with them. Surely if she wasn"t happy with them it wouldn"t have felt so right. Maybe things hadn"t been as bad before her accident as she had feared. Why, then, couldn"t she remember?
"Don"t push it, love. I can tell you"re trying to remember. Just let it go. If you"re supposed to remember, you will. Just give it time. You"ve been home less than twenty-four hours." Steven patted her on the shoulder then walked over to his chair to sit down.
"I"m going to give you to Steven while I go check in with the others on the radio and see what"s going on." Greg stood up and carefully transferred her over to Steven"s lap.
She felt like a baby being pa.s.sed around from parent to parent. She blew out a breath. She"d definitely been reading too much about babies. She was beginning to use them to make an a.n.a.logy. She rolled her eyes and closed the book.
"What, you"re not going to read the disgusting parts to me? I feel left out." Steven ducked when she started to smack him on the head.
"I think I dreamed last night about what happened to me." She told him about her dream.
"Sounds like that"s what happened. I agree. Your subconscious mind is trying to get through. Like I"ve said, don"t push it, and let it happen naturally. You"ll remember when you least expect it."
"It"s just so frustrating to have this hole inside of my head where my feelings about the two of you should be. I can remember so much about everything except about you two. It"s like I"ve lived here alone all this time."
"Let"s change the subject or you"ll get all worked up about it. What about names for the baby?"
"Good Lord! Don"t you think it"s a little early to be picking out baby names?" Janet burst out laughing.
"I happen to think we"re going to have a difficult time agreeing on names. There are three of us."
"You"re probably right. How about I make a list of names and then the two of you can choose your top two from the list. Then we"ll vote on them."
"I don"t know. What if a name I like isn"t on your list?"
They argued over how to choose baby names until Greg returned and announced that everything was okay with the others.
"They"ve managed to finish up the outside walls, so we"ll be working on the inside from now on. Hopefully, we will be able to finish most of the house before bad weather stops us from going." Greg walked over to Steven"s chair and dropped a kiss on her nose.
"We"re arguing on how to choose baby names. Want to add your two cents in?" Steven asked.
"Doesn"t matter what he thinks, we"re doing it my way." She grinned when Greg narrowed his eyes at her.
They discussed methodology and logistics for the next hour without arriving at any conclusion on how to pick the baby names out. Through it all, Janet thought about how comfortable she felt with them. The more she thought about it, the more she believed that Steven was right and if she never remembered, it would be fine. She was coming to the conclusion that everything was fine between them, anyway.
After lunch, the men decided to work on paperwork and journals while they had some downtime. Every family had to keep detailed journals to record their experiences and the new world around them. Janet hadn"t worked on hers since she first found out she was pregnant. It was time for her to get back to it, but she was dreading it. She hated writing in it.
She didn"t much see the point when no one would ever read them. Besides, it wouldn"t help anyone back on Earth since no one would ever send them back down there. The Earth was disintegrating faster and faster every month. That thought saddened her and she had to take a deep breath to keep from crying about it. d.a.m.n pregnancy hormones.
She finally put her pen down around three that afternoon and announced that she was going to take a nap.
"I"ll walk you upstairs, love." Steven stood up and grabbed her hand. "You don"t need to climb the stairs by yourself. You haven"t recovered all your strength yet."
"I"m beginning to wonder if I ever will."
"Sheesh, Janet. It"s been one day. Give your body time to heal."
"It seems like weeks have gone by."
"Not hardly. I"m still seeing you at the foot of those stairs. My heart thunders just thinking about it."
Janet let him hug and kiss her before he led her upstairs and tucked her in for a nap.
"Do you want me to lie down with you?"
"Only if you want a nap. I"m fine, Steven."
"I"m going back downstairs then. Don"t come down without one of us yet. Please?"
"Okay. I"ll call down if I need one of you."
"Thank you, love. I can"t help but worry right now."
She rolled her eyes but kissed his hand where he had it against her cheek. She understood he was still worried. The truth was she wouldn"t want to try right now to go downstairs alone anyway. She had been very shaky walking up them with him helping her.
Once he had left, she rolled to her side and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
Two weeks pa.s.sed by before she knew it and the doctor had given her a clean bill of health. She still had to take the iron pills along with the prenatal vitamins, but she had gained a pound. The men were happy with her good report. She was happy with it. Now everything could return to normal. Janet winced. Well, as normal as possible since she still hadn"t regained all of her memory.
"I"m so glad to be able to do whatever I want again. I hated always having to get one of you to help me up and down the stairs." Janet looked up at Greg.
She was sitting at the kitchen table while Steven cooked. Greg was standing next to her ma.s.saging he shoulders. She expected Greg to say something about still needing them to help her. She wasn"t disappointed.
"You could still use some help here and there, baby. That"s what we"re here for."
"I"ll ask when I need help, but I don"t have to be babied all the time."
"We like babying you, love." Steven winked at her.
Greg shook his head but didn"t push it. He seemed to be trying so hard not to be too demanding. She appreciated it and hoped it would last. From everything he had told her about their relationship before the accident, he was really putting forth an effort to change.
"Okay, you guys. Dinner is ready." Steven began serving them.
After everything had been cleaned and put away, they settled in the living room in the recliners with Janet sitting in Steven"s lap. She read from one of the pregnancy books, giving them all sorts of insightful information that she hoped they were listening to. One thing she made sure to go over was the chapter on s.e.x. She found that she was beginning to get s.e.xually frustrated since they hadn"t been able to have s.e.x while she was recovering.
Janet knew she was an active s.e.xual person and couldn"t believe that anything had changed other than she was pregnant. She didn"t think it should affect their making love. She wasn"t sure how the men felt about it, but she was all for resuming that part of their lives despite having no real memory of their joining in the past.
Maybe they thought she wouldn"t want to make love since she couldn"t remember them. Janet planned on telling them otherwise tonight if they didn"t act interested. For a second, she worried that maybe they weren"t interested since she was pregnant. Some men tended to get turned off by pregnancy. She wasn"t showing really. She had a hard little belly, but it wasn"t poking out yet.
"What are you frowning about over there?" Greg interrupted her thoughts.
"Hum? Oh, nothing. Just thinking about what all I need to do before the baby comes."
"Love, you"ve got a long time till the baby arrives. We"ll get whatever you want done accomplished." Steven squeezed her arm.