by M Dauphin
"No, no, baby, fucking, no." I reach her and immediately scoop her lifeless body into my arms. Her head slumps and her face touches mine. Her flesh is freezing and pale, but her lips are blue. I can’t speak anymore or I’ll drop us both so I do the only thing I know to, run her toward the waiting ambulance that’s almost a mile in the opposite direct. She ended up walking a mile deeper into the forest. My legs don’t stop until I reach the road, but my tears broke free when I was still in the forest. I haven’t even checked her pulse because I can’t accept that confirmation that will kill me.
They let me sit at her bedside while she sleeps. The last time I tried to check in on Bev, she kicked me out of her room and told me not to move from Charlie's side. I didn't want to, but the two most important women in my life are injured in a hospital and I have to divide my time.
I look up when the door opens and my eyes land on her mother. I haven't seen these people since they made sure I knew how unwelcome I was in their home and in their daughter's life.
"You can go now. We're here," her mother states with authority, setting her bag on the chair and her dad just hangs back by the door, his eyes locked on Charlie. I watch in silence as her mom moves to the opposite side of the bed and takes Charlie's hand. "Time to wake up now, Charlie. We're here, you can wake up now."
"Don't wake her up," I state firmly. "The doctor wants her to sleep until she wakes up on her own. If you can't respect that, I'll have you removed from the hospital."
"Charlie, come on. We've all spent enough time in hospitals. Let's wake up and get you home. I made soup. You love soup. Time to get up." She gives her hand a shake and I grit my teeth then look at her husband.
"Bill, you need to get your wife out of here, man," I say, shaking as I start to lose my cool. I pick up the phone. "Man up and stand up to your wife. You know she shouldn't be waking her up." I look toward the phone, ready to call for assistance to remove her psycho parents.
"Carol, come on, let her sleep," he finally says, walking over to his wife.
"She needs to get up and start getting better, Bill." Her eyes pierce mine. "We need to take our daughter home. She should have never left in the first place."
"Come on now, that's not fair. She was doing fine on her own. This accident wasn't at all due to her disability," her dad says.
I grit my teeth and take a few deep breaths and my calm almost snaps when her mom starts shaking her hand again, fussing with the bed sheets.
"I said stop!" Bill bellows. Taking his wife's arm, he pulls her away from Charlie. "We'll be waiting in the family waiting room, Travis. Please update us with any changes." He walks out the door, his wife on his heels bitching about leaving her daughter alone with someone like me. If it weren't for wanting to stay by Charlie's side I'd go out there and give her a piece of my mind.
I exhale a shaky breath and sit back down, dropping my head as tears form in my eyes. "I don't know what's going to happen when you wake up, Blue," I whisper, gently putting my hand on top of the one her mother disrupted. "But I'm sorry." I drop my forehead to her hand. "For everything. God, please don't hate me like your mother does when you wake up."
She starts to chuckle and her fingertips wiggle in mine before she moves her hand slowly to my cheek.
"What happened?" she manages, taking a deep breath and wincing at the pain. "Oh God…where's Bev?" Her eyes shoot open and she sits up in bed. "What happened to Bev?"
"Bev's going to be fine." I grab her arms, trying to calm her down. "She's fine. Shit, Charlie, you fucking scared us." I kiss her watering eyes. "I'm so fucking sorry." My arms wrap around her and I practically pull her into my lap.
"I was so scared," she whispers. "I honestly thought I'd never make it out of those woods. I got turned around so many times. And it was so cold." She starts to cry and I move quickly, sitting in bed next to her and pull her to my chest. "I was so scared. I just wanted to get her help and I couldn't."
I let her tears soak my shirt as I stroke her hair. "She's okay. And you're going to be okay, Blue. You're safe."
"We were coming to your house," she whispers, twisting her hand in mine. "Bev had finally talked some sense into me and we were coming to see you. She didn't really give me a choice." She quietly chuckles. "You're lucky to have her, Travis."
My throat's tight right now and I don't want to cry in front of her. I pull her closer and move my head to nuzzle into her neck until the one and only person that's had a knack of interrupting us from day one bursts into the room.
"Of course you wake up the minute I leave the room," Frankie grumbles, rushing over to the bed. "How are you?" She looks at Charlie then glances at me. "How is she? Oh…Jesus, Perv, are you crying?"
I quickly wipe my face and get off the bed, moving across the room before Charlie feels the tears that I'm not even sure why they're falling. Because I think she's taking me back, because she's alive, because she went through this, because I've never had a more miserable week in my life.
"You should go collect yourself, Travis," she mumbles, staring at Charlie. "Give us a few minutes, please."
"Chuck." I clear my throat and grab her hand, kissing it. "I'll be right back. I'm going to see Bev to tell her you're awake. She's a mess, blaming herself for this."
"God, I'm so happy she's okay. And she can't blame herself." Charlie smiles. "Accidents happen. I don't blame her, so she shouldn't either." She gives my hand a squeeze and before she pulls away, I reach in my pocket and slide her ring back onto her finger. As I start to walk toward the door her voice stops me. "Hey, Travis?" I turn and before I can reply she says, "I love you, you know."
"Yeah?" I smirk. "I think I know."
I hear Frankie snicker before I walk out the door, quickening my steps before she bitches me out for that cocky response. This is the last thing I want to do, but I go to the waiting room and open the door. Kevin stands and I smirk.
"Hey, man." We clap hands and then I look at her parents. "She's awake," I turn to walk out until her mom calls my name.
"Can we go see her?" She's standing from her chair and wringing her hands in front of her; her dad's still planted in his seat, his eyes flicking between the two of us.
"You're her mom." I shrug. "I'll never try and take her away from you."
She nods silently and walks over to me, wrapping her arms around me. "Thank you so much," she whispers, pulling back and wiping away tears. "Thank you for being the man our daughter needs."
I glance toward her dad who's standing now and I nod before walking out of the room, almost stunned silent by that turn of events.
I wander into Bev's room where Violet's braiding her gray hair and chuckle. "Bev, she's dying your hair green."
"Oh, let her. I’ll look cool." Bev waves her hand and smiles. "How's Charlie's state?"
"She's awake," I say and the lines around her eyes crinkle as she smiles. "And engaged." I grin.
3 years later
Travis
"Charlie!" I call out before her favorite show comes on. "It's going to start!" I never understood why she insists on sitting through these episodes. She says one of the main lead's voice sounds like mine and she finds it sexy. I couldn't break her heart and tell her he's got nothing on me.
She skids into the room with short shorts and thick wool socks on, making me roll my eyes. It's July and she loves those things, especially these past few months.
"Did I miss anything?" she shrieks, almost plowing into the couch. Stopping just short, she almost tips over and I reach out but don't grab her. "Sorry, I was finishing up in the room and on the phone with Violet. She's excited to visit next weekend." She plops onto the couch right next to me, shifting to get comfortable.
"Yeah?" I chuckle with a shake of my head. "Did you move the music thing to the other side, then back again? Then back again. And back again—" Her hand slaps over my mouth while I ask the valid question because she spent twenty minutes doing that yesterday. "Hey, Blue." I pull her hand down then tug her against me, slidi
ng my hand over her stomach and press my lips to her jaw. "We're having a baby in two days and we still don't have a name. Can you please just agree to Cherry?"
She swats my hand away and shifts, probably still attempting to get comfortable. "I'm not giving our daughter a stripper name. You want all the boys trying to get in her pants when she's nine?"
"Boys!" I blurt and sit up straight. "There will be no fucking boys! Ever. Why would you even say that?" I scoff defensively.
"You were one, you know how they think. Dirty little buggers." She grins.
"I have guns." I smirk.
"We're kind of screwed, Trav." She goes quiet, her hand tracing circles on her stomach. I know she's not just talking about the boys now and I wrap my arms around her. "How do I do this? How am I not going to fail at this?"
"What'd your mommy page…thingy say the other day? Routines, keeping things in the same spots, all things you already do, Blue. And between me, you, Bev, Frankie, and your mom, Cherry's going to be spoiled. You're going to be an amazing mom." I kiss her neck before leaning over her and grabbing our 3D ultra sound picture then take her hand so we can trace it together.
"Can we name her after Bev?" she suggests, her fingers tracing the baby's face. "Or Frankie? Tiny Frank? Frank the tank?" She laughs. "We're definitely not naming her after my mom." Her head shakes and her fingers continue exploring the 3D mold of our baby's face.
"Bee, because she's going to be the death of me." I smile.
She barks out a laugh, her belly bouncing, then sighs. "I mean, it's kind of adorable." She shrugs. "I like Beatrice. And we can call her Bee!" A bright smile fills her face and I cringe, reeling back too much because she feels it and hits my chest. "Travis!" she huffs.
"Beatrice is…cute. It's…fiiiine." It's a freaking name finally and that's enough for me.
She hasn't yet said she's liked one name and we've read a nine hundred page book of baby names. I'll settle if we can get a name. And Bee's a cute name for my little girl.
She squeals and tries shifting to kiss me but needs a little help. I chuckle grabbing her hips and help her straddle me but she pauses and her lips pop open then go into an O shape.
She presses her lips to mine. "Oh God…" she mumbles and my brows furrow.
"Chuck…" I glance down. "Did you just pee on me?"
"What?" she yells, backing off. "No, you dimwit! My water just fucking broke!"
"Fix it!" I scream grabbing her hips and stand her on her feet. "She needs to cook for two more days!" I reach my hands toward her crotch, trying to help catch some of the fluid that's rolling down her legs.
She swats my hands away, rolling with laughter. "You can't stop it now, Travis! It's happening!" She stops and her eyes go wide. "Oh… Oh shit, it's happening," she whispers. "We're doing this! We're having a baby!" A panicked look crosses her face.
I grab her head and kiss her before I start to laugh. "We're having a baby! Grab your shit!" I turn for the door then pause. "No wait! Don't grab your shit. I'll grab it, you don't move!" I run around her and try to wrestle the luggage out from under the bed that's been packed for three weeks.
She walks into the bedroom laughing. "Wait! Chill. We're not going anywhere yet. I want to shower, and change. I'm not even having bad contractions yet. It's fine, we have time."
"Shower!" I shout. "Woman!" I yank down her shorts and grab a pair of my sweatpants to force on her, but don't get far when she feels they're not hers.
"Stop, I'm going to get cleaned up." The pants are shoved back at me. "Tons of people are about to have their hands and face all over and by my hoo-ha. I'm cleaning myself."
"Charlie," I say calmly, about to lose my cool. "Please put on a pair of sweats and let's go. I know this is happening to you, but I'm freaking the fuck out and I just need to be on the way to the hospital before our little Bee squeezes her way out in our bedroom. Pants. Shoes. Car. Now." I walk around her with the bag but pause and grab her face, kissing her. "And I love you, ya know?"
"Yeah?" She grins, walking towards the bathroom. "I think I know."
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Thelma and Louise. Boris and Natasha. Frost and Dauphin. When these two teamed up, they never knew how amazing it would be working together to create wonderful masterpieces of joy, tears, humor, and heartbreak. Dauphin's favorite part about Frost? The fact that she puts up with her. Period. ALSO, the fact that she makes her writing better every damn time. She's friggin' brilliant. Frosts favorite thing about Dauphin? Frost loves the fact that when they get together to create it becomes a tornado of brilliance that Frost couldn't be more grateful to be caught up in with Dauphin. Dauphin's artistic abilities and mad skillz make Frost so proud to be associated with her (it makes her look good too). Also if Dauphin didn't adult for the both of them, not much would get done.
Each a mom and a wife, Frost actually holds down a job while containing the crazy while Dauphin sits at home with the tinies and eats bon-bon's all day (if you ask her husband) ;)
Creating babies together has been the best adventure either of them has ever been on. You should most definitely check them out at www.facebook.com/malpalwrites and check out their books. They would flove you for3ver.