by Sable Hunter
Finally, way out in the back, glistened an empty spot between two behemoth trucks. Saxon growled but nevertheless sought to slide his new red Corvette into the precarious space. He listened carefully for any scratching sounds, knowing it would be easy to fix, and totally worth it to be there for the baby – but shit, he still wouldn’t want to damage his baby!
His anxiousness, and a sprint that seemed to take forever left Saxon winded when he finally made it through the automatic sliding doors of the maternity center. His eyes frantically searched the nurse’s area and waiting room, praying he wasn’t too late.
There, calmly and jokingly, sat Micah, Tyson, and Destry. Talking and chatting with one another. Running right up to them, he panted between every few words. “Hey guys. I’m not too late, am I? Have they had the baby yet?”
“Oh, hell, Saxon,” Micah looked at him with a dead-serious face, “you missed it. Jet is super pissed. They already took the baby home, and we just sat here so we could laugh at you and tell you how much trouble you’re in.”
Saxon’s face went white. “WHAT? For real?”
The three busted out laughing. “Of course not,” Micah continued, “she’s just getting started. Jet’s in the birthing room and Madison’s in there with them, she’ll let us know the minute something happens.”
“Thank God, you sons of bitches.” Saxon exhaled as he plopped down on a chair near them. He could finally relax. Now, there was nothing to do but wait.
Tyson slapped him on the shoulder in jest. “Glad you made it, buddy. Micah can be a bit of a dick, can’t he?”
“A bit of a dick?” Micah asked, gesturing toward his crotch. “I’ll have you know I’m a monster dick.”
“At least you recognize it, that’s the first step to recovery.” Saxon glared at their cocky, sarcastic friend. “So, catch me up. What have you bastards been talking about while I was thrashing around town, breaking speed limits to get here in time?”
Micah nodded his head toward Tyson. “Well, this guy was just telling us how he’s finally parting with his precious RV to buy a house for his live-in girlfriend.”
“She’s just a friend, I said.” Tyson dropped a large amount of emphasis on the last part of his sentence.
“Sure, she is. That’s why you’re buying the house because you two don’t have enough room for all the friend activities you get up to in that cramped Winnebago of yours. I imagine it would bother me too if the RV kept rocking on its wheels all night when my friend stays over.” Finger quotes accompanied the word friend each time Micah used it.
Tyson put his finger in Micah’s face. “Maybe,” pause, “we are a little bit crowded. But we are. Just. Friends. She needs a safe place to stay. Marisol is still after the Jaguar; you know that better than anyone.”
Micah’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced away.
Saxon put his hand on Tyson’s shoulder. “Don’t let him get to you. Love is complicated. Whatever you need to do to feel better is just fine.”
Destry, tired of them harping on about it, changed the subject. “So, where will you move? Need some help finding a good deal on a house? I have connections, you know. In fact, there’s a gorgeous loft on Sixth that’s available, you could be right in the thick of the action.”
Tyson stood up and stretched, walking to the door to look down the hall toward the birthing room. He was the tallest of the Equalizers, although not as muscled-up as Jet or Kyle. “Nah, thanks though, D. I’m looking at a great place out near Liberty Hill.”
Destry pursed his lips and squinted his eyes in silence for a second. Then he threw a hand up in the air. “Liberty Hill? There’s nothing up there but tumbleweeds and limestone. The silence will be deafening!”
“Yea, it’ll be great. No traffic jams. No sirens.” Tyson grinned. “Peace and quiet. You got something against tumbleweeds?”
“There’s nothing to do out there!” Destry stood up, plunging his hands into his suit pants pocket, and began to pace back and forth across the small room. “Sax lives out in Farmville, uh I mean Pflugerville.” He added some phlegm to the pf portion of the word. “Micah lives out in the boonies of Johnson City, surrounded by peach orchards and bunny rabbits, and now you’re moving a half-hour north to the middle of nowhere. What’s wrong with Austin proper?”
Tyson frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Destry, you work downtown. You need to be near Kyle as his secretary or something.”
“Secretary of State. I’m Secretary of State. Of Texas. It’s like the Ambassador to Mexico for the state that has the 10th largest GDP in the world!”
Micah chuckled. “Do you get Kyle’s coffee for him in the morning, Des?”
The two men ignored Micah, as Tyson continued to make his case. “I would just prefer a little space for a change, a few acres of land to call my own.”
Destry chimed in, not willing to let the topic go. “All I know is that if you’re going to settle down in Liberty Hill, you’d better keep an eye out for rattlesnakes.”
“Rattlesnakes?”
“Yep, haven’t you seen that billboard at the intersection up there? It’s advertising for rattlesnake bite vaccines for dogs with a picture of the biggest whopper of a snake you’ve ever seen. How did you miss it? You know they’re having snake problems if they have to put them on a damn billboard.”
Tyson visibly gulped. “Well, I hadn’t thought about snakes. I’ll have to carry a big stick, I guess. All I know is that I want to see the stars at night, and take long walks to stretch my legs.”
“Long walks to stretch after a hot bout of friendship.” Micah, back to his normal agitating state, chortled and turned to Saxon. “I still think it’s about sex with Marisol. How about you?”
Tyson shot Micah a look. “Not everything’s about sex.”
Saxon tugged the hood of his jacket up over his face. He was sitting right under a vent. Why in the hell was he cold all the time? “Everything’s about sex.” He should know, he couldn’t get Alivia off his mind. He could just imagine cuddling with her would keep him warm.
“I think we’ve given him enough of a hard time,” Micah said as he rose to pat Tyson on the shoulder. “Nobody cares if you move to Liberty Hill with your girlfriend, Ty.”
Before checking to see Tyson’s reaction, Micah turned to Saxon. “Speaking of sex, did you ever straighten things out with Alivia?”
Saxon snorted. “Hell, no.”
“Why not?” he asked, coming to sit next to him again. “I thought you said the sex was the best of your life?”
Saxon slapped his friend’s knee. “Don’t talk so loud! We’re in a public place around families and strangers who have no business knowing with whom I’m having sex!”
Micah chuckled. “Sure, bro. But why not?”
“We don’t get along.”
“Don’t get along? What do you mean?” Micah’s voice rose again.
“Shhhh, and no, we don’t get along. I don’t know why. We were great in bed, but that was the end of our compatibility. She’s annoying as hell, sassy, and too smart for her own damn good.”
“I think you have a crush on her.”
“I think you’re full of shit.”
Destry laughed as his cell phone buzzed. “He sure is, excuse me for a moment.” He stepped out into the hall to take the call.
Micah ignored the insult but waved at Destry as he stepped away. “A. G. Hart is smart, Saxon. What’d she do? Out-nerd you?”
Saxon didn’t answer.
“Oh hell! She did out-nerd you! Who’d a-thunk it?”
“I’m done talking with you about this.”
Micah sat back, content that he’d been able to annoy several of his friends in one fell swoop.
About that time, Destry returned. “Hey guys, there’s something important we need to talk about.”
Demeanors changed among the group as they recognized the need for seriousness when business was at hand.
“There’s been a development with that young woman’s mur
der,” Destry told them.
“Mindy Nixon?” Saxon asked.
“No.” Destry shook his head. “Another one. I’m talking about the woman in East Texas that Madison mentioned the other night at the fundraiser.”
“I haven’t heard about it, how tragic,” Tyson murmured. “How was she killed?”
Destry was about to explain when Madison’s voice interrupted the group. “Saxon! Saxon!” He leapt up and went to meet Micah’s wife. “Sami is asking for you. We need you in the birthing room. Now.”
Saxon turned to face the rest of the guys with a panicked look on his face.
They threw their hands up silently with a ‘what are you waiting for?’ expression.
He hurried down the hall and opened the door slowly, crept in gingerly, and approached Sami on the bed, where she was surrounded by two nurses and an aide. Jet was pacing back and forth at the far end of the room, and Sami appeared to be going through a contraction. Unsure of how to behave in a birthing room, he whispered, “Is there something wrong? Besides the obvious?” He grimaced as Sami panted and gasped with pain.
Madison, standing at his side, patted him on the arm. “Everything is fine and right on schedule. We just need you in here to watch Jet.” She pointed to the giant wearing a hole in the floor by the windows. “I need to go outside to call Hannah. She and Kyle are late. Sami is trying to hold out until everyone arrives, but it’s getting close.”
Saxon frowned at Sami. He was completely out of his comfort zone. “All right. We certainly don’t want to impede progress.” He glanced over at Jet and approached him slowly. “Hey, are you all right?”
“What do you think?” He pointed at Sami. “She’s in pain, and I can’t do a fucking thing about it.” He rubbed his eyes. “And it was me who put her in this position. If something goes wrong, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Why don’t you go talk to her? Hold her hand?” Saxon didn’t know how in the world he’d earned this liaison position between the champion MMA fighter and his petite, feisty wife. “I think she’s doing great. She’s just worried about you.”
“Worried about me?”
The nurses were talking Sami through a contraction, but as it subsided, he and Jet stepped up to her with hesitant smiles. Jet gave her a light kiss. He looked as if he expected her to shatter at any moment. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“Sorry? Don’t be sorry! This is the second happiest day of my life!”
“Second?” Jet asked softly. “What’s the first?”
“The day I married you, of course.” She leaned into Jet’s hand when he cupped her face. “Hey, Sax,” Sami whispered, happy to see him too, but tired from the labor. “Are you doing okay?”
“Sure, I am.” He wanted to say, ‘better than you’, but thought maybe he was wrong. This couple was obviously in love and thrilled to be bringing their child into the world. He found himself to be a bit jealous. Thoughts of Alivia bombarded his brain. He wondered if she wanted children. “What can I do for you, sweetie?”
She nodded toward Jet. “Take care of him for me. He’s a mess.”
Saxon looked at Jet. She was right. The big man was pale, sweating, and jittery.
“What? I’m not a mess!” he exclaimed. “I’m fine.”
“He’s nervous, Sax. He worries so, and it’s not doing him any good. Take him to the waiting room for me.”
“Sure. Come on, Jet, let’s go get a cup of coffee,” he spoke in a comforting tone as he moved to stand by Jet at the end of the bed.
“Hell, no.” Jet shook his head. “I can’t leave. She needs me! What if something happens? What if something goes wrong? I have to be right here next to her!”
“Everything is going to be fine, big guy. The doctors and nurses have delivered babies before. Why don’t we go find a cup of coffee and check on the boys in the waiting room?”
“No.” Jet balked. “She needs me here, whether she realizes it or not.”
“What are you going to do for her that the nurses can’t do?”
“Lots of things! For example, I can hold her hand if the pain gets too rough.”
“Go check on the guys, Jet. I’ll have the nurse come after you just before the baby comes. I won’t let you miss the big moment,” Sami promised him with a wan smile.
“All right. If you promise to have someone come get me.” Jet hesitated a bit, but when his wife nodded, he began to follow Saxon to the door.
They would’ve made it, but Sami began to have another contraction. A much bigger and stronger contraction. Her heavy breathing and muffled screams prompted the nurse to bring the doctor in. This development prompted Jet to shoot to Sami’s side, as the doctor sat down on a stool between her sheet clad legs, where her feet rested in a pair of stirrups. Saxon thought the whole set-up was specifically designed to give a man nightmares.
“Well,” the doctor spoke slowly as he conducted his examination, “it appears as though dilation is right on schedule. Nothing to worry about there, but I’m afraid…”
When Jet heard the word ‘afraid’, he froze, mouth agape.
“I don’t think our little fella is in the right position.” The doctor continued in a soothing tone, despite his less than soothing message.
Jet gasped, and Saxon put a hand on his back.
“What does that mean, Doc? Is she okay? Is my baby okay? Is there anything I can do? What’s going on? Why isn’t the baby in position? Is everyone going to make it out of here alive?” Jet’s questions rattled out of him a mile a minute, not giving anyone, the doctor, or the nurse, a chance to answer.
The nurse came to Jet to pat him with a comforting look on her face, but his gaze never left Sami.
The doctor, ignoring Jet, continued, “I might just have to reach up in there and turn him around.”
He moved the sheet back a little to get a better look and Jet stepped forward, faltering a bit. “Oh God…”
“Jet, no.” Saxon put a hand on Jet’s shoulder, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He moved right behind the doctor where he would have the same view. Jet’s eyes focused for a second, and then went dead. His head tilted backward.
“Jet! Jet!” Saxon yelled, but Jet continued to tilt farther back. “Jet!” Saxon called as he leaped forward to catch him. He made it in time, but Jet was massive, and his dead weight was impossible to stop as he went down like a felled tree. They careened into a medical cart, sending it crashing to the floor.
Outside in the waiting room, they could hear the commotion. “What in the world?” Micah asked, rising to his feet.
“Let me go see.” Madison, back from making her phone call, ran to check on their friends in the birthing room. As she stuck her head in, she found Sami straining to see what was on the floor in front of her. When she turned to see where her friend was pointing, Madison beheld an unbelievable sight. Jet was passed out on the floor, with Saxon partially under him. A white metal cart was turned over beside them, and all types of instruments were lying around them. A nurse was fanning Jet with an out of date People magazine.
She looked up at Madison and smiled. “Could you go out and bring in those strapping young men to give us some help?”
“Sure.” Madison ran out to find her husband and the rest of the gang. “Micah! Tyson! Destry! Help!”
The men hopped up and rushed to her aid. Micah didn’t laugh, but he pressed his lips together when he found Jet spread eagle on the floor, surrounded by medical equipment, and Saxon sitting a few feet away, rubbing his head where he’d smacked it against the sterile tile floor. “What the shit happened?” he asked, amidst Sami’s breathing at the doctor’s encouragement.
“Hell, I don’t know,” Saxon muttered as he staggered to his feet. “Jet got a peek at her lady parts and passed the fuck out.”
Micah got one of Jet’s arms over his neck, Destry got the other arm, and they began to stand him up as Tyson steadied the big man from the back. “You’d think he’d be all right, having surely seen it all before
today, right?” Micah joked as they began moving slowly from the birthing room.
Destry slapped the back of Micah’s head from behind Jet’s lifeless body as they hauled him out. “Have some respect!”
Saxon held the door, and eventually they eased Jet into one of the chairs in the waiting area. Micah giddily hopped off to the concession area and returned with a cup of cold water. “Oh man, I have always wanted to do this. Stand back, guys.” Saxon, Destry, and Tyson took a step back as Micah bit his lip and splashed the whole cup right into Jet’s face.
Jet erupted with a gasp and a roar, then exploded out of the chair. “What the fuck!?” After a few seconds of trying to recollect what happened to him, he figured it out and glared at them before huffing toward the birthing room. The combined efforts of Micah and Saxon slowed him to a stop.
“No, no, pal.” Saxon did his best to calm his friend. “We’re going to have to insist you stay in here a while to catch your breath. You almost took out a couple of the nursing staff with your last collapse fiasco.”
Jet sighed, but relented, rejoining the group. “Just don’t let me miss anything important. I promised Sami I’d be there when the baby came.”
After a few minutes, while Jet decompressed, they heard Hannah and Kyle’s voices. Madison ran out into the hall as Saxon stood. He didn’t step forward with everyone else to greet their friends when he realized Titus Landry was with them.
“Hey, guys!” Hannah chirped, without breathing or breaking her gait. Her arms were full of brightly colored flowers, and a bouquet of cheerful balloons floated above her head. “They’re in this room, right?”
“Oh, hey! You made it!” Madison moved to help her with the load of goodies, and they promptly disappeared into the birthing room.
“Glad you’re here, fellas!” Micah greeted them with a handshake. “Wow, you should’ve seen Jet, Kyle. He passed completely out in the birthing room.”
“What happened, Jet? See something that scared you?” Titus tried to build rapport with the group by joining in on the joke.