Page 66 of Cold Case Discovery

“I can’t go in. I wanted to. I just...”

They didn’t let her go, but they did stop trying to pull her.

“Chloe, you’ve had a day,” Anna said, as gently as Chloe had ever heard her say anything. “But neither you nor Jack are going to rest until you see each other. Trust me. I know.” Because her husband had been shot last year, and she’d been hurt too. So maybe she was right, but...

“My mother killed your parents, Anna.”

“Yeah. Hell of a thing.”

Like it was that simple. “My brother made it worse. Everything...it all connects tome.”

“Self-centered much?” Carlyle said under her breath, making Anna snort out a laugh.

“I just want to curl up and die.” Which was not something she would have ever admitted to out loud if she wasn’t having aday, she supposed. And she didn’t really want to die. She just wanted...

“Wow, that’s super melodramatic,” Carlyle said, and she was gently tugging her forward.

“I’m impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you,” Anna added, also applying pressure to move her forward.

“You guys...”

“Chloe, we know you. All of us. I get it, better than most, how having a parent with that kind of evil in them can mess you up, but you’re too well loved to let what other people have chosen ruin your life.”

Too well loved.Ouch.

“AndJack loves you. He needs to see you. And since you love him, you’re going to get over yourself and go see him.” Anna gave her yet another tug.

Chloe didn’t know how to argue with that, so she was somehow being pulled down hospital corridors and to a hospital-room door. Anna shoved it open. “Go on, now.” Then Anna and Carlyle stood shoulder to shoulder like they were blocking any potential exit.

So Chloehadto step in. Had to look.

Jack was in a hospital bed. Hooked up to all sorts of awful things. But his eyes were open, and he was talking to Mary.

Chloe must have made a noise, because Mary turned, and Jack looked over at her. She would have kept looking at Jack, but Mary was holding something. She was... “Mary... You... You had the baby.”

In the middle of all thisawful, a baby had been born.

Mary smiled at her and took a few steps closer, holding the baby so Chloe could see his face. “Meet Jackson Dean Daniels.”

Chloe looked at the little newborn. She’d never been around babies much. The little bundle seemed like an alien lifeform to her. And still...

“He’s perfect.” She couldn’t help but smile down at the baby, especially when he blinked open his deep blue eyes and seemed to be squinting at her in suspicion. “Perfect.”Jackson. After Jack, no doubt.

It made her want to cry all over again.

“I think so,” Mary agreed. Then she looked at the doorway. Chloe looked over her shoulder to see Walker standing there.

“Good to see you both in one piece,” he offered, presumably to Chloe and Jack. But he didn’t tear his gaze away from Mary or the bundle in her arms. “Time’s up, honey. You need to rest.”

Mary nodded, but as she passed Chloe, she leaned close. “Stay with him until someone else comes, okay? I don’t want him alone.”

Chloe wanted to argue. She wanted to run away. But that was just childish and probably her exhaustion talking. She nodded at Mary, then hesitantly moved closer to Jack in the bed.

He looked too big for it. Too vital. He’d been shot twice. Gone through surgery. And still he seemed just like himself. When she felt like a bag of broken, rusty, disparate parts.

“Hi,” she offered.

“Hi,” he returned. And said nothing else. Just kept that steady gaze on hers.

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