Page 104 of Echos and Empires
Emma nodded, her understanding as solid and comforting as her presence. Chris let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, grateful to have her by his side for the battles that lay ahead, both inside and outside the meeting room.
“A walk?”
“A walk to the ocean.” She smiled and started the slow waddle that had taken over her pace, Ranger darting out of a bush to walk by her side.
They walked in silence, still not needing to fill the space between them with words when they could just exist. The ocean stretched infinitely, mocking his sense of scale and importance. Everything seemed so large, so overwhelming. The leadership, the responsibility, the uncertainty. He longed for a time when life was as simple as a whispered promise in the dark. He longed for Emma. But here he was, bound to this new reality that felt like a double-edged sword—full of potential, full of danger.
The magnitude of it all crashed over him in waves, each one stronger and more relentless than the last. He could still feel the pressure of the meeting, the intensity of the expectations that seemed to grow heavier with every passing day. The horizon blurred, a seamless band of sky and sea that offered no refuge, no escape. Chris let out a slow, measured breath, trying to easethe tension that had taken up residence in his chest. He was in so deep, deeper than he’d ever thought possible.
Life used to be simpler. Just him and his men, and their small world of love and survival. They had been equals, partners in every sense, bound together by the sheer force of their connection. He wondered if he was still that man, if any part of the isolated leader he’d been existed after finding Emma. After falling in love with Emma.
A voice broke through his thoughts, gentle but firm. “Chris.” He turned to see Emma standing there, watching him with those striking hazel eyes that saw right through him. Her presence was a balm, soothing the raw edges of his doubt. Yet even as he reached for that comfort, he couldn’t shake the fear that he was letting her down.
“Sorry,” he replied, trying to mask the turmoil within him with a smile. He wasn’t sure he succeeded, but sunk into the sand, offering her a hand to help her sit beside him.
Emma sat beside him, close enough that he could feel her warmth, her solidity. It was exactly what he needed and everything he feared he couldn’t live up to. “You looked a million miles away,” she said softly. “Want to talk about it?”
Chris hesitated, torn between the desire to shield her from his uncertainties and the need to lay them bare. She took his hand, the simple gesture unraveling his defenses with its sincerity. “I’m in over my head,” he admitted finally, the words coming out in a rush. “I don’t know if I can do this. Any of this.”
Emma listened, really listened, and he marveled at how she could be so present, so unwavering, even when his own resolve was crumbling. “We’ve been through a lot, Chris,” she reminded him. “And we’ve done it together. This won’t be any different.”
He shook his head, frustration edging his voice. “It is different. I’m supposed to lead these people, be there for you, and...” His gaze drifted to her swollen belly, the visible sign oftheir love and their future. “I don’t know if I’m cut out for all of it.”
Her smile was tender, unshaken by his doubts. “You’re not alone in this,” she said, squeezing his hand. “We’re a team, remember? You don’t have to be everything. You just have to be you.”
Chris wanted to believe her, wanted to cling to the simplicity of her faith in him. “What if that’s not enough?” he whispered, voicing the fear that had shadowed him for so long.
“It will be,” Emma assured him. “Because it always has been.”
They talked, the words flowing easily now that he had opened up. Chris shared his fears about the twins, the enormity of raising them in a world so uncertain. “What kind of parents will we be? How hard will the six of us push these little babies.” he asked, the question heavy with both anxiety and hope.
“The kind who love their kids fiercely,” Emma answered without hesitation. “The kind that sticks together, no matter what. The kind that make sure they have the skills to survive should the world go to hell again.”
Her confidence buoyed him, lifted him from the depths of his own doubt. He could see it now—the life they could build, the family they could be. The vision was imperfect, full of challenges, but it was theirs. That was all that mattered.
They sat in silence, side by side, watching as the sun dipped toward the horizon and painted the sky with the first hues of twilight. Chris felt the warmth of Emma’s love settle around him like a protective shield, grounding him, pulling him back from the precipice of his fears. And for the first time in days, he let himself breathe without feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. They would find a way through. Together.
Emma’s eyes widened as a gasp escaped her, and Chris knew something was wrong. She gasped again, clutching her belly, herentire body tensing with sudden pain. The panic in her gaze was mirrored in his own as he rushed to her side. She was only thirty weeks. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. The world narrowed to a single terrifying point as she stumbled forward, collapsing into his arms. “Chris,” she managed, her voice a raw edge of fear and disbelief. “Chris, I’m pretty sure it’s time.”
He caught her, his mind a frantic jumble of impossibilities and denials. Not now. Not this soon. His breath came fast and shallow, a rapid fire of urgency that threatened to consume him. “Emma,” he choked out, as if saying her name could somehow anchor them, could somehow slow the breakneck speed of the events unfolding. But it couldn’t. He was powerless against the relentless forward march of time.
He scooped her up, adrenaline propelling him as he ran toward the clinic. The world blurred, reduced to the pounding of his feet and the hammering of his heart. Everything else fell away, unimportant and unnoticed. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t lose them. Not like this. Not when they had so much ahead of them, so much waiting just beyond the horizon.
The ground flew beneath him, each step fueled by the kind of desperate energy that only comes when the stakes are all or nothing. It was as if the very universe had contracted, shrunk down to this single, all-consuming race against time. Chris barely felt the burn of his muscles or the bite of panic in his chest. All he could focus on was the clinic, looming closer but never close enough.
He burst through the doors, the sudden change in temperature barely registering in his panic-fueled state. “Alex!” he screamed, the name ricocheting off the walls like a gunshot. It was both a plea and a demand, a single word that encapsulated all the fear and desperation that threatened to engulf him. He saw Alex’s face appear, shock and understanding dawning in a split second.
Chris didn’t stop. He rushed into an empty room, his breath a ragged symphony of terror, and set Emma down as gently as he could manage. She looked at him, her eyes full of fear and trust, and he felt his heart splintering under the weight of it. “The babies,” he managed to say, his voice breaking on the words. “They’re coming.”
Alex was beside them in an instant, his calm a stark contrast to the chaos that churned inside Chris. He moved with the precision of someone who’d been through crises before, but Chris saw the urgency in his eyes. Saw the understanding that this was not how it was supposed to happen. This was too soon, too uncertain. Yet Alex’s hands were steady, his actions decisive.
“Chris, I need you to focus,” Alex said, his voice cutting through the fog of panic. “Emma needs you to stay calm.” Chris tried, he really did, but the reality of the situation was an unyielding tidal wave, threatening to drag him under. “Emma is going to need everyone to stay calm. And I need to get Doctor Huey.”
His world was reduced to fragments, disjointed pieces of sound and movement and raw, unfiltered fear. Emma’s breaths came fast and shallow. Her pain was palpable, and Chris felt it like a knife in his own gut. He was paralyzed by the enormity of it all, the loss of control, the terrifying unpredictability of life and death and everything in between.
“Chris,” Alex said again, firmer this time. “She’s going to be okay. They’re all going to be okay.” The words were like a lifeline, and Chris clung to them with everything he had, hoping against hope that they were true. But hope was a fragile thing, easily shattered by the harsh reality of the moment.
Alex’s voice faded into the background as he worked beside the doctor, the steady hum of medical equipment filling the space. Chris was barely aware of anything but Emma, her hand gripping his with a strength that belied her condition. She wasfighting, and he had to fight too. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t.
