The Rookie

by Julie Miller

  Dr. Washburn seemed to see her for the first time. He blinked once, then stooped to help her. “Rachel?”

  “I’m okay.” He eased her onto the chair. Lucy ran to her side, knelt beside the chair and hugged her.

  “Now, can we call the cops?” Josh asked, using his greater weight and a headlock to pin Kevin’s flailing body to the floor.

  Shocked and disappointed and more worried about the twinge in her back than she cared to admit, Rachel nodded.

  Chapter Ten

  “You hungry, Doc?”

  Eyes closed as she leaned back against the headrest, Rachel shook her head. “You can’t take me to dinner, Josh.”

  “Maybe that wasn’t an invitation. Maybe I was just asking a rhetorical question.”

  She opened one eye a slit and gave him her staunchest teacher’s glare. But she couldn’t help smiling at the teasing in his voice when it was accompanied by that not-so-innocent boyish grin of his. She let her eye drift closed again as the smooth ride of Josh’s truck lulled her toward sleep.

  “A rhetorical question, huh? That’s a mighty big word for you. Were you planning to debate the finer points of hunger?”

  “If it’ll make you smile like that again, then, yeah.”

  “Josh.” But she really was too tired to reprimand him for his gentle flirtations. This afternoon’s run-in at the Washburn mansion had drained her both physically and mentally.

  “Tell you what. I’ll just hit a drive-thru somewhere and get some sandwiches. You can heat yours up later.”

  Though rest was a priority for her right now, his suggestion was a practical one. A big man like him probably needed to eat as often as she—a pregnant woman eating for two—did.

  “Go for it,” she agreed, sinking back into the seat and letting the stress seep from her weary muscles.

  She’d been frightened for Kevin and Lucy. She’d been frightened for herself. She was grateful Josh had been there, not just to physically subdue Kevin until the paramedics and police arrived, but to provide that same shield of protective strength that had helped her get through her encounters with the mysterious Daddy who tormented her.

  It had been a long, long day. She’d spent hours talking to Lucy, reassuring her that Kevin’s rejections were a by-product of his chemical dependency. She’d talked at length with Andrew Washburn, a despairing father and physician who’d known of his son’s addiction but hadn’t been able to help him. She knew the hospital would counsel both him and Kevin about rehabilitation programs and support groups.

  And though she still believed Lucy and Kevin were too young to become parents, she hoped the new life they were creating might be the motivation that could finally help Kevin stay in treatment and heal their ravaged lives.

  The afternoon had been trying for her baby, as well, apparently, because Anne-Marie had been sound asleep inside her for well over an hour. She should eat, for the baby’s sake. But the Livesay women were exhausted.

  She faded out as Josh tuned in a quiet music station on the radio, and trusted him to drive her safely home.

  She came to with a startled gasp as a sharp twinge of pain clamped its fist around her abdomen.

  “Doc?”

  Something warm and comforting covered her left thigh. She blinked her eyes open, recognized Josh’s hand, and quickly tried to orient herself after being shocked into wakefulness.

  “Where are we?”

  “Heading east on Ward Parkway. The turnoff to Volker Boulevard is just ahead.” He took his gaze from the road for an instant to study her expression. “Are you okay? You’re white as a ghost. Did you have another nightmare?”

  He turned back to the road, though his supportive hand lingered on her thigh. “I don’t think so. I wasn’t asleep long enough.”

  “Maybe the baby kicked,” he suggested.

  Maybe. But Anne-Marie’s kicks and punches had been as soft as butterfly kisses compared to— “Ow-w, oh!” Rachel grabbed her stomach as the pain shot through her again.

  Josh’s hand tightened on her leg. “Did you get hurt at Washburn’s? You fell.”

  Rachel shook her head, replaying her tumble off the chair in her mind. That pain had been in the small of her back. A pulled muscle, perhaps. “This is inside.”

  She felt a straining band of tissue in her lower abdomen, like a wide elastic band being twisted tighter and tighter. She unbuttoned her coat and rubbed her hand back and forth across the stretch of her belly, trying to soothe the tension there. She felt the cascading ripple of muscles expanding and contracting beneath her hand the instant before another cramp seized her.

  “Oh God.”

  “What? Talk to me.”

  Rachel doubled over, then pulled up straight, desperately searching for a position to ease her discomfort. She didn’t breathe again until the cramp released her. Her lungs filled and emptied on a cleansing breath.

  “Doc?”

  Her breath caught again, this time in fear. “I think I’m in labor.”

  Josh had both hands on the steering wheel now. “Did your water break? My sister-in-law said that’s what happened to her.”

  “No. Ow!” The ride got bumpier as the truck picked up speed, but she barely noticed. “They’re contractions. Hard ones. Down here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve never done this before!” she snapped at him. Then the pain receded and she could think and speak more rationally. “Josh, I’m not due for another month.”

  “I’m taking you to the hospital.” The truck was really moving now.

  “Yes. I should call my O.B.”

  She reached for her purse and her phone on the floor, but another cramp clutched at her belly, surrounding her baby with its frightening talons. She sat up again, pressing her back into the seat, seeking a reprieve, praying for her baby’s life.

  “Breathe.” Josh’s voice sounded as panicked as her own. “You know, in, out—breathe through the contraction—something like that.”

  When the pain receded, she could think clearly. This couldn’t happen. This shouldn’t be happening. Not now.

  And Josh couldn’t help her deal with this.

  “No.”

  “Look, I’m not an expert on this. But I remember something about breathing from basic training and TV shows.”

  “I mean, no, you can’t take me to the hospital.”

  He reached across and gave her thigh a gentle squeeze. He was trying to help. He was trying to do the right thing. “I don’t know where your doctor is. I’m taking you to the closest ER I can find.”

  “No.” She dug her fingers into his hand, demanding that he look at her. When those blue eyes met hers, she made herself clear. “I mean you can’t take me.”

  “Oh, that is bull—” He released her and lurched around a corner, steadily increasing the speed of the truck as he hit a clear stretch of road. “You’re pregnant. You’re hurt. I’m not worried about what anybody else thinks right now.”

  “But I have to be.”

  “You have to think about that baby right now. Anybody else can go screw themselves.”

  Miraculously, a tall, sprawling, gray and white building appeared around the next corner. Josh spun into a parking lot. They hit the curb and the truck bounced, timing the jolt with the next contraction that seized her.

  “Ow! God!”

  “I’m sorry, Doc.”

  “Where are we?” She panted out tiny breaths now, trying to apply what she’d learned in her birthing class.

  Josh steered the truck up under a concrete canopy, screeched to a stop and killed the engine. “University Hospital.”

  He unhooked his seat belt and leaned over to undo hers. He snagged her bag from the floor, hooked the strap over her arm and plopped it onto her lap. As she fought to find enough breath to tell him to stay put, he jumped out and ran around the front of the truck, yelling something at the sliding glass doors that marked the emergency entrance to the building.

  He slung open the passenge
r side door and reached for her. Rescuer or not, she pushed him away. “No, Josh. You can’t come in with me. Just drop me off. I’ll be okay.”

  “I am not dropping you off. I’m going to make sure you see a doctor.”

  She batted at his hands, refusing to let him grab hold of her. She latched on to the sleeves of his coat, willing him to look at her, begging him to understand, wanting him to know that this was hard for her to say. “You can’t stay with me. Everyone will think you’re the father.”

  Fire sparked in his eyes, but the frigid evening air that turned his breath into cloud puffs matched the ice in his voice. “And that’s such a horrible possibility that you don’t want anybody to believe it?”

  She pounded his chest with one weak fist. “You’re my student!”

  He leaned across her lap and shoved his key into the glove compartment, unlocking and pulling it open and reaching inside in a series of precise, powerful movements.

  She spotted the leather holster with the black steel pistol. “Oh my God.” She tried to wrench away as she saw the leather come out, but another contraction gripped her and the pain held her in place. She nearly wept as fear mixed with pain.

  “Josh, don’t hurt me.”

  “Hurt you?” He slammed the glove compartment shut. “Dammit, Rachel, I’m a cop!”

  He straightened and shoved a badge in her face. A shiny brass badge held in a leather wallet that matched the holster.

  Hearing her name in that deep voice shocked her as much as did seeing the badge and realizing she was safe. She was too stunned to think, too stunned to protest. She could only watch the flexing line of his mouth and let the words he was saying sink in…to be dealt with and understood later.

  “I’m a cop,” he repeated, pocketing the badge and locking the gun in the glove compartment once more. “Officer Josh Taylor. Not Tanner. KCPD. I’m working an undercover case on campus. I’m twenty-eight years old, not twenty-two. And I’m sure as hell not going to dump you off and let you deal with this on your own!”

  With that, he picked her up, wrapping her and her baby in strong, protective arms. He carried her inside and set her down in the wheelchair that an attendant had brought out for her. Then he gripped her hand tightly in his as they rushed inside to save her baby.

  THERE WERE LITTLE WAYS a man could screw up his life that were fixable with an apology or a bit of extra hard work.

  Then there were big ways a man could screw up. Ways that could kill a man inside by destroying his dreams, or the dreams of others who were counting on him.

  He wondered where falling in love with Rachel Livesay fit on the scale of mistakes he’d made.

  He’d been on campus for a month and a half now, silently lusting after Rachel Livesay from the second row of her classroom. Three days ago, he’d appointed himself her personal protector. And now, just as things were beginning to break on the meth case, he’d made an unforgivable rookie mistake.

  Lieutenant Cutler would jump at the opportunity to say I told you so. He’d stick Josh in a blue suit and send him back to his beat as a uniformed officer. Josh had botched his assignment big time by getting involved with a civilian. A pregnant civilian, no less. Let’s put the two most vulnerable people he could find in danger. Oh yeah, Cutler would love that.

  And, Josh had blown his cover. He’d stood at the entrance to one of Kansas City’s largest hospitals and publicly admitted that he was a cop.

  Because Rachel was too damn pigheaded to accept his help.

  And he loved her too much to see her suffer because of it.

  Now she was resting quietly in a curtained-off recovery area near the hospital’s emergency room. Braxton-Hicks, the doctor had called it. Damn fancy name for the fake contractions that women sometimes experience later in their pregnancy. As far as Josh could tell, there hadn’t been anything fake about the pain Rachel had been in.

  He leaned his hip against the counter at the far end of the recovery area and waited out of the way of the female doctor who was giving Rachel a report on her health and on little Anne-Marie, who’d snoozed through the whole ordeal and was now apparently awake and doing her nightly exercise routine.

  Josh couldn’t help but grin. Anne-Marie was going to be just as pigheaded as her mother. He imagined she’d be just as smart and just as beautiful, too. And he figured he loved her just as much as he loved the unborn baby’s mother.

  Rachel lay on a hospital bed, propped up by pillows and covered with a sky-blue thermal blanket. She rested her right hand protectively atop her swollen belly while the amply figured ER nurse with short blondish-brown curls of hair removed an IV from her left hand.

  A healthy flush of color had returned to Rachel’s cheeks, and the bright, shiny intellect of her wide eyes was focused on what the doctor was saying.

  “Severe Braxton-Hicks contractions aren’t all that unusual, especially when you tend toward mildly high blood pressure the way you have during your pregnancy.” The doctor turned to Josh and waved him over. Her smile was more welcoming than Rachel’s guarded expression. “I like to include the father whenever I talk about the mother and baby’s care.”

  At the mention of the word father, Josh felt two pairs of eyes lock on him with shock and surprise. Rachel’s and the nurse’s. But he wasn’t going to be the one to correct the doctor’s assumption. He had a stake in what was going on here. And if pretending to be Anne-Marie’s father was the only way he’d get to stick around and ensure Rachel’s well-being, then he’d go ahead and play the part.

  If Rachel let him.

  This was her call. She had every right to tell the doctor that he was an impostor. He’d had no part in the conception of her child. He had no part in her life.

  She could call him her student and jeopardize her own career. She could call him a cop and jeopardize his life.

  She could call him a stranger and jeopardize his heart.

  He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath and waiting for a second invitation to join them, until Rachel moved the hand from her belly and reached out to him.

  Straightening from his perch, he walked over to the bed. He picked up the hand she offered, raised it to his lips for a kiss, and then cradled it lovingly between both his hands.

  “Julia.” The doctor spoke to the nurse. “Why don’t you go ahead and get the paperwork processed. I’m ready to release Professor Livesay as soon as it’s done.”

  Rachel, for some reason, had decided not to correct any misconceptions about the baby’s parentage. And a silent request that Josh exchanged with the nurse warned her to do the same.

  “Yes, Doctor.” The soft-eyed nurse with the knowing smile gathered her things. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Mr…. Tanner.”

  Ah yes. Sisters-in-law could be such fun. He trusted that Mac’s wife, Julia Dalton-Taylor, would keep his identity secret. For now. But he knew there’d be a slew of curious phone calls waiting for him on his answering machine as soon as he got home.

  He’d deal with his family’s questions and concerns later. Right now, his focus was on Rachel. “What do I need to do for her, Doctor?”

  “The treatment is simple.” The doctor smiled up at Josh across the bed. “Her elevated blood pressure was probably induced by stress or not enough sleep. All we need to do is keep her quiet and well-fed. I think she’ll be able to resume her regular activities in the morning.”

  “I’ll put her to bed as soon as I get her home,” Josh said. He just hoped Rachel would let him keep that promise.

  The doctor continued. “And the baby’s fine. Her heart rate is right where it should be. The Braxton-Hicks are a discomfort to the mother, not a threat to the child. They can be frightening if you haven’t experienced them before. But just remember, they are a false alarm.” She broadened her smile to include Rachel. “Your pregnancy is still progressing just the way it should be.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” said Rachel. As soon as the doctor closed the curtain behind her and they were alone, Rache
l pulled her hand free from Josh’s. She rolled over onto her side and curled into a ball, facing away from him. “We don’t have to keep up the charade any longer. But I’m glad you brought me in.”

  She didn’t sound glad.

  Josh shoved his hands into his jeans. Judging by Rachel’s withdrawn reaction, this was one of those screwups on a grand scale. “False alarm or not, I wanted to tell you the truth about who I am. I just couldn’t before. I shouldn’t have now.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not my call to make. The whole idea of working undercover is that no one knows who you really are. No one.” He wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to hear from him. He didn’t know how to make this right. “Once the case is over, I’d be happy to talk to the dean or anyone else and explain what I was doing. I don’t want my job to ruin yours.”

  “Maybe my job isn’t worth all the trouble I’ve gone through.”

  “Don’t say that.” He was the one who’d risked her position at the university by presuming to have a relationship with her. “I’ve seen you in the classroom. I’ve seen you work with kids and adults and make a real difference in their lives—that’s all I’m trying to do, too. Our methods may be different, but our goals are the same. We both want to improve people’s lives.”

  His words were absorbed into silence. Josh looked all around at the white walls of the sterile hospital environment, wishing he could find better words to heal her shattered trust.

  An audible sob shook her shoulders. He swung his gaze around to the soft sound of distress.

  “Josh?”

  He ran around to the other side of the bed, took her hand and knelt beside her, face-to-face. “I’m right here, Doc.”

  Unshed tears brightened her eyes. “I was so scared.”

  He brushed a strand of sable hair off her temple and tucked it gently behind her ear. “I know. Me, too.”

  Her fingers tightened around his. Her eyes searched his for a promise. “I can’t lose my baby. She’s all I have. She’s the only thing I know is mine in this world.”

  “You won’t lose her.”