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‘Leo?’ Thanos was right behind him. ‘What’s up?’
‘The baby’s coming.’
Thanos’s smile was huge but Leonidas shook his head. ‘It’s too early. There’s still a month to go.’
Panic wrapped around him. ‘Stay here. I’ll let you know.’
‘Screw that.’ Thanos’s voice was firm. ‘No way.’
Leonidas didn’t want company, but he knew better than to argue with Thanos. Besides, he didn’t have the energy and he didn’t much care. He just needed to get to Hannah, to know everything was okay.
It was peak hour and the hospital was across London. ‘Helicopter,’ he muttered, shouldering out of the office with an impatience that was overtaking his soul.
Thanos didn’t say a thing, simply nodded and took out his phone, giving orders for the helicopter to be readied. On the roof, they climbed into the sleek black chopper and it fired to life.
‘Which hospital?’ their pilot asked.
Leonidas repeated the name and the pilot lifted off. Thanos turned to Leonidas, his own features taut. ‘Try not to worry, Leo. You’ll be there soon.’
It didn’t feel like soon enough to Leonidas. Despite the fact the helicopter cut through the sky like butter, he couldn’t believe he’d ever let her leave him, leave the island. He couldn’t believe she’d gone into labour on her own—that he hadn’t been there to help her.
Finally, the chopper touched down on a neighbouring roof to the hospital. The engine wasn’t even cut before Leonidas was jumping down, keeping bent low as he ran across the roof.
Thanos caught up to him as the elevator doors opened and neither spoke as the lift careened to the floor. Thanos ran the rest of the way, his heart pounding with every step he took.
‘Hannah May,’ he said as he arrived, the reception desk mercifully quiet.
‘What ward?’
‘I don’t know.’ Leonidas raked a hand through his hair.
‘Obstetrics.’ Thanos, right behind him, spoke more calmly.
‘Let me see.’ The nurse moved slowly, pressing her finger to a clipboard, a frown on her face. ‘I don’t see her.’
‘She was brought in earlier. She must be here,’ Leonidas demanded.
‘Could you check again?’ Thanos suggested, putting a hand on Leonidas’s chest and pushing him a little away from the counter. His eyes held a warning—a suggestion: I’ll handle this.
Leonidas paced from one side of the reception to the other, cursing in his head, adrenalin coursing through his veins.
‘This way,’ Thanos interrupted him, nodding towards the lifts. They went as fast as they could but everything in this old building was slow. When they reached the obstetrics ward and found the corridor they needed to walk down was closed because of mopping, Leonidas almost shouted the hospital down.
‘Calm down,’ Thanos insisted.
Yeah, right. When they arrived at the desk for the obstetrics ward, Thanos joined the back of a long queue to find out where Hannah was but Leonidas moved through the doors, and he stood stock-still. Because he heard her. He heard her cries and his heart jerked out of his chest.
A scream, pain; he was running down the corridor towards her voice, so close, his hand reaching for the door.
‘You can’t go in there, sir.’ A man was running behind him, an older man, frail. Despite his se
curity guard uniform, Leonidas didn’t think he’d have much chance of stopping a terrified six-and-a-half-foot man in the prime of physical fitness.
‘Try and stop me.’
‘Sir, stop.’ A woman now—a nurse. ‘This corridor is off limits to visitors.’
‘I’m not a damned visitor. My...’ Christós, what could he call her? Not his wife. Not his fiancée. She was nothing to him now, just as she’d wanted. His chest rolled. ‘My daughter is being born in here.’ He hiked his thumb towards the door.
