Love Hurts: The Love Duet

by Leah Sharelle

  Pushing slowly off the car, I followed him. I refused pain meds because my wound was just a glancing blow from the bullet but that didn’t stop the fucking burning.

  I hoped ‘attempted murder of an officer’ got added to the list of charges the ring leader of the home invasions was facing.

  It turned out that the man and his son and another eighteen year old, the same one that had been let go months ago because we had nothing to hold him on, were behind the crime spree infecting our town.

  Belinda, Kelsey’s mum had also been arrested tonight, she had been caught literally with her hand in the jewellery box in the master bedroom. She was so high on meth, she never even heard the gunshots, or the screaming of her boyfriend when the bullet from my gun hit him in the kneecap.

  Her arrest included not only burglary, theft and drug charges but because she attacked one of the officers by throwing a heavy silver jewellery box at his face, causing a pretty nasty cut over his eye, she got assaulting an officer added to her list.

  Hopefully she will be put away for a long time and leave Kelsey to live her life in peace and safety.

  If we could only find her.

  “Look at this crap excuse for a car. Are there any original panels on the fucking thing,” Jobe muttered with disgust kicking a tyre, then slammed his hand down on the dinted boot, a rusted key in the lock.

  I muttered I didn’t give a shit when a low moan came from inside the car.

  Quickly, we both drew our weapons, mine not taken from me by the investigating officer as yet.

  Looking at Jobe, I used my eyes to convey to him what we were going to do. He nodded his head in approval, then held up three fingers and lowered each one in a silent count.

  When the last finger folded, I reached for the key and turned it quickly, the boot popping open, revealing the biggest shock of the night.

  “Fucking hell, Kelsey!” I rushed to stash my gun back in my waistband, my injury and the pain forgotten as Jobe and I worked to unleash the spider web of ropes tied around her body.

  Small whimpers of distress escaped through the dirty rag that was stuffed into her mouth, tears stained her dirty cheeks, the left one covered in blood.

  “Okay sweetheart, I’ve got you. It’s okay darlin,” I crooned working fast to get her free of the harsh braided fibre.

  Already, I could see deep red welts around her wrists and bare legs. She was only dressed in a pair of light sleep shorts and a tank top that had once been white and now stained with filth and blood.

  Jobe removed the rag from her mouth and once I had her hands and feet free, she launched herself at me.

  “Oh god, Ja—Jason, Mum… Mum s— s— sold me,” she cried, hysterically into my shirt. Her body shook uncontrollably against me, her heaving sobs had the protective monster rising within me.

  “Hey, hey sweet girl it’s over now. Belinda is in custody, so are the three men involved. I shot the arsehole your mother was with, he isn’t dead but I don’t hold out any hope for him once he gets into jail,” I soothed Kelsey, narrowing my eyes at Jobe sending him a silent message that a chat with a few choice inmates might be in order.

  “Jason, look at her cheek,” Jobe told me with an angry snarl.

  Pulling her back from my chest, I gently lifted her face with two fingers under her chin and when I got a look at what Jobe had already seen, rage burned inside me.

  The fucking bastards slashed the left side of her face. A deep jagged cut started from the corner of her eye and went all the way down to her jaw.

  Congealed blood and dirt from the floor of the boot she had literally been crammed into adhered to the wound.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” I cursed, anger boiling in me.

  “Who did this to you Kels?”

  More tears leaked from her dull eyes, I could see shock was starting to set in.

  “Mum,” she whispered, her voice wobbling.

  “Oh sweetheart, no,” I gasped shocked that her mother would do such a heinous thing to her own child, my heart shattered for the young woman in my arms.

  Jobe took off to find a paramedic and a gurney while I stood holding most of Kelsey’s slight weight the best I could with my sore arm.

  Her sobbing tears tore at my heart, each one harder than the other.

  “Come on sweetheart I have you now, it’s going to be okay from now on,” I promised her. My phone started to ring in my pocket and I had to move one arm awkwardly to get to it because Kelsey was not letting go of me.

  Finally, I got it out seeing who was calling me, and managed to swipe the screen open with my little finger.

  “Deck this is not a good time mate,” I began as soon as I put the phone to my ear.

  “Get your arse to the hospital now. Zoe fell and has gone into labour.”

  Fourteen words that turned my blood cold.

  Chapter 20

  I sat in the darkened room, just the light from the lit hallway glowed in the room, that and the flashing lights on the monitor hooked up to Zoe.

  The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when Deck called me still had not dissipated, despite sitting here in the room with my dozing wife. Her hand clasped in mine, the other one resting over our daughter.

  Every now and then the baby would move or roll, the life under my palm safe in her mother’s belly.

  Deck met me at the ER entrance when I pulled into the emergency parking area, my lights and sirens going. My brother’s ‘couldn’t give a fuck’ attitude replaced with fear and worry.

  Deck explained that Zoe tripped over a paint can in the nursery, she hadn’t fallen on her stomach but the jolt caused her waters to break. Deck called an ambulance getting her to the hospital, all the while trying to get hold of me. Once Zoe had been checked, the doctor discovered Zoe had excessive amounts of protein in her urine and incredibly high blood pressure, all symptoms of something they called pre-eclampsia. The only way to bring her blood pressure down was delivery.

  Guilt plagued me hearing that Zoe decided to spend the night painting to fill in the time until I got home from work. I should have been there with her, fuck, I should have put the paint cans away, so she didn’t get tempted to finish the baby’s room. Instead, I turned my phone onto silent and hid in a fast food joint’s car park.

  Deck was pissed at me when he told me that Zoe tried to call me multiple times. It wasn’t until I was in the ambulance getting seen to for my wound that I remembered my phone and absently switched the button on the side of the phone back to noise, but I didn’t look at the screen for the missed call notifications, my mind on other things at the time.

  “I can hear you from here Lawman. Take your guilt trip and toss it, this is all my own fault,” Zoe’s voice startled me.

  Leaning forward, I got my face close to hers, seeing the dark circles under her eyes, her beautiful soft skin pale.

  “Hey baby, I thought you were getting some rest,” I whispered.

  “Who can sleep when there is a roller derby going on inside me,” she joked tiredly, her hand lacing with mine over her belly, the baby dancing under our hands.

  “She is going to be a night owl I think,” I mused. “Baby, should we start throwing out some names, get a list going?” I suggested, my eyes glued to our joined hands.

  I sat there in a trance for a few minutes watching Zoe’s nightgown flutter with each movement from inside her stomach, I didn’t realise Zoe didn’t answer me until I heard a soft sob coming from her.

  Alarmed something was wrong, I went to push the button to call for a nurse when Zoe shook her head.

  “No Jason, I don’t need a nurse,” she protested.

  “Then why are you crying baby?” I asked her concerned. Zoe’s labour stalled an hour after she arrived, so the doctors gave her an IV with medicine in it to get things moving. That had been two hours ago, and things were moving along, but the pains were in her back. It had to be uncomfortable for her to be laying on her back.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
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  Looking at her, I was sure my expression was a confused one.

  “For what baby?”

  “For painting, when I shouldn’t have. I got restless, you were busy with paperwork, and I felt bad for texting you to come home. Your hours have been crazy lately, and when you get home, all I do is attack you in bed. I just wanted to finish the room so you wouldn’t have to, and now she is coming and it’s too soon.” Zoe confesses out of the blue.

  Tell her you idiot, tell her you didn’t come home because you are a fuckwit. Don’t let her take the blame for this. The voice in my head accused me. I should tell her, admit to my selfishness and take my punishment like a man. The only thing was I was afraid admitting such a thing could set a chain of trouble off. Zoe forgave me too easily for my jealousy issues over Deck, and since then our relationship grew stronger every day since.

  I was making an effort with Deck and he with me, even Mum and I were in a better place. The last thing I wanted to do was rock the boat and cause more strife so close to the baby’s birth.

  Biting my tongue, I chose to keep the truth to myself. It would serve no purpose; the fall hadn’t hurt Zoe or the baby and the doctor was happy with her progress despite the earlier stall in her labour. The paper feed from the contraction monitor was busy spewing out good data on the baby’s heartbeat, and just like that I talked myself into leaving my admission for another time. Maybe when we are old and our grandchildren ask to hear stories from before they were born.

  “Zoe, it was an accident pure and simple. If I had finished it last night we wouldn’t be here now; the doctor assured us even born at this gestation they see no reason for her not to be healthy. Let’s worry about what we are going to call our girl, has Deck given you any suggestions?” I asked, deviating her mind away from the fall and me from my guilt.

  Zoe squeezed my fingers and let out a giggle. “Yes, he has, I believe Farrah and Zena were two off his wish list,” Zoe said, pulling a face at Deck’s unusual choices.

  “Zena, as in warrior princess?”

  “Yes, and Farrah as in Fawcett. Your brother is not naming this child; I swear Jason I will rip his balls off if he wants to name our daughter after a seventies pin-up girl.”

  “Agreed, if I have to, I will sic Dad onto him. He stopped Mum from naming me a god-awful name, although she did choose Decker, but in Dad’s defence he was in the waiting room trying to sober up.”

  Zoe let out another chuckle. I hoped her focus was now off the accident. “I still can’t believe his real name is Decker. I have known him for ten years and he never said a word—” Zoe finished the last of her sentence with a long drawn out moan.

  “Zoe!” I cried jumping up in alarm. The monitor chose that time to go off with a flurry of noises, the needle on the paper went wild with thick black squiggles.

  “Doctor, get the doctor, and your brother,” Zoe panted, her face taut with pain. “I think the baby’s head is right down there.”

  “What? How?” I asked stupidly. Her contractions had been on track but fairly even on the pain scale, the nurse checked her not fifty minutes ago and she seemed to think it would be another four to five hours before any pushing.

  Kissing her forehead, I leaned over and pressed the button three times, so the nurse at the desk would get the hint then I reached into my pocket and quickly sent a text to Deck.

  No way was I leaving her now, I failed her once already I wasn’t about to repeat that mistake ever again.

  “Zoe, with your next contraction I need to you push really hard down in your bottom until Jason counts to fifteen. I don’t want you to stop pushing until he reaches zero, understand?” Zoe had hold of my hand; her head shook back and forth against the pillow her blonde hair a sweaty soaked mess. Her eyes met mine, and in them, I saw fear and exhaustion.

  After she asked me to get the doctor and Deck, things went from bad to worse.

  Zoe had not been kidding when she said she felt the baby’s head pushing at the entrance of her opening. Once the doctor took a look and muttered that she was indeed completely dilated and the baby was coming, a flurry of nurses and equipment crowded the room.

  “No, I can’t, I’m so tired please, I’m so tired honey,” Zoe begged me, her face was so pale with the effort of the last hour of pushing, I knew she wasn’t going to be able to keep doing this too much longer. The monitor attached to Zoe showed spike after spike in her heart rate and blood pressure, I saw numbers like one hundred and sixty and one hundred and fifty beats per minute, all high numbers all dangerous for Zoe and the baby.

  My panic levels were growing with each beep of the machines, I needed to calm myself and the only way I could achieve that was to focus on Zoe.

  Pushing an arm under Zoe’s neck I helped her into a better position to push.

  “Come on, baby, you can do this,” I encouraged, pressing my lips to hers.

  Please baby, please you have to get the baby out, I can’t lose you. I begged her silently, I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud, sacred that if I did I would jinx the birth.

  Deck was standing on the other side of the bed, his face taut with concern too. His eyes moved to me, the identical blue eyes to mine showed fear, just like mine did.

  I watched in fascination as Deck turned back into the soldier he used to be, the one that took control of a situation to get the job done.

  Mimicking the same position as me, his arm pushed under Zoe next to mine and hunkered his body down close to her.

  “Alright, Zoe Poe, let’s get this show moving. I’ve got shit to do,” he told her, giving her a wink, but the tick in his jaw gave away his real feelings.

  He was worried. And if Deck got to that stage I knew it was bad.

  I didn’t know if it was his military training, more of an understanding of the medical jargon the doctor was using, or if he had a deeper sense of dangerous situations.

  Whatever it was, it was scaring the shit out of me.

  “Okay Zoe, here comes a contraction. Hold your breath and push until Jason reaches zero,” the doctor repeated, looking pointedly at me, then Deck.

  Nodding sharply, I held Zoe slightly upright with Deck’s help.

  “Fifteen,” I started to count, as Zoe gulped in a deep breath and dropped her chin to her chest and heaved out a growl and pushed for all she was worth.

  “That’s it, Zoe, keep going you’re doing great,” Deck encouraged her, holding her the same as I was.

  “Three, two, one, zero,” I finished and Zoe slumped against our arms, panting fiercely, her face bright red with the exertion.

  “That’s good, Zoe, really good. Now again,” the doctor ordered.

  Again, and again, we went through the process of counting and pushing. Five more times but the baby kept retreating into the birth canal.

  “What the hell is going on?” I shouted, not able to hold my temper any longer. Zoe could hardly hold her head up without help from Deck or I. Her colour was off, and her breathing was shallow.

  “We have to cut her; the baby doesn’t have enough room to get her head through,” the doctor explained. “We are giving her a local injection to numb the area, once we do that we can wait for the next contraction where I will perform an episiotomy, and the baby should slip right on out.”

  There was definitely something wrong, the doctor’s words made sense but the tone behind them suggested something far riskier.

  “And this will work? Because she can’t take much more doc,” I told him firmly.

  “It will work, it isn’t the nicest way to give birth, but we are out of options here people. The next step is a C-section, but her heart rate and blood pressure are so high I don’t want to do surgery unless there is no other way.”

  Stealing a look at Deck, I saw behind him in a chair close to the privacy curtain in front of the door, was Darth. The big man slipped into the room a few hours ago and hadn’t muttered a word since he sat down.

  Zoe had a real soft spot for the quiet man, being her be
st friend’s boyfriend… or whatever he was to Vegas, she hadn’t minded him being in the room.

  “Jason?” Zoe’s soft voice sounded even raspier than normal.

  “Yeah Nymph?”

  “Thank you for waiting for me,” she whispered, her eyes tearing up.

  “Oh baby, there was nothing else I could have done but wait for you. Don’t you know you are my one, the reason I was put on this earth?”

  I leaned down and kissed her dry lips, they trembled beneath mine but didn’t kiss me back; she was that exhausted.

  “I love you Lawman, never ever forget that.”

  “Now Zoe!” the doctor shouted, drowning out my plea to her that I would never stop loving her.

  “Push Zoe,” Deck roared, holding her up higher making me jump into action and doing the same thing.

  “Push baby, push.”

  Zoe pushed, she pushed and pushed, her pain filled screams echoed in the room tearing me apart, killing me inside.

  “That’s it Zoe, that’s it, she is coming, here she comes,” one of the nurses assisting the doctor shouted excitedly. Then we heard the sweetest, most beautiful squeal anyone could ever hear pierce the air.

  “Holy shit, she is here,” Deck called out in awe, he had let go of Zoe and moved down further near her leg to see his daughter as she made her way into the world.

  His face turned to us, a huge smile splitting his face.

  “She has black hair like us mate,” he said happily. I saw tears in his eyes, the birth of his daughter affecting him in ways I never thought possible.

  “Of course she does,” Zoe sighed, her response barely audible, her eyes fluttering closed.

  My smile faded and I fixed my gaze on Zoe’s pale face.

  “Zoe, baby. Zoe open your eyes for me beautiful,” I demanded loudly.

  “Damn it, she is losing blood,” the doctor shouted. “Dad come and get the baby.”

  Deck rushed to take hold of the baby girl, from what I could see she was incredibly tiny, but her squalling sounded healthy, alleviating my fears that she was okay, but her mother was not.