Faith (My Misery Muse)

by B. Betzold

  “What do you want?”

  “For you to stop this ridiculous lawsuit.”

  “Sure, after the results, you can sign away your paternal rights and just disappear.”

  He snorted, “You know I’m not its father, so just drop this nonsense.”

  “We’ll find out soon, won’t we? Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.”

  I tried to walk past him but he reached out and grabbed my arms, hard and I knew I would have bruises. “Let go of me,” I seethed and gripped Quinn’s car seat harder.

  “Not until you tell me why you’re doing this,” he growled and started shaking me. “I don’t know what you want from me but you’re not fucking going to get it.”

  I tried to pull my arms away, but he was holding them too tightly. I was starting to get scared for Quinn’s safety so I let go of her car seat hoping I would be able to get away from him if I had both hands available. Her car seat hit the ground with a thunk and she started screaming, and I joined her screaming as loud as I could, hoping to attract someone’s attention.

  “Shut up!” he screamed in my face letting one arm go and I reached out to do something to get away from him and then everything went dark.

  Drake

  I was eating my Jell-O like a good boy and waiting for Mags to call me. It couldn’t take that long to get a swab from the inside of Quinn’s cheek and I hadn’t heard from her in over two hours. I debated calling her again but decided to wait a little longer, maybe she was caught in traffic or something. I flipped on the TV and the news was on, I wasn’t really paying attention, just couldn’t stand the quiet any longer, but something drew my attention to what the newscaster was saying.

  A man was in a parking lot waiving a gun around holding something, you couldn’t really tell from the vantage point of the camera, you could see his mouth moving but the newscaster was talking so you couldn’t actually hear the guy. Just then the camera moved and it looked like another person was crumpled on the ground by a car, a very familiar car, I couldn’t place the car but I knew it.

  I heard Devi yelling something out in the hall and that’s when it hit me whose car I was seeing, I couldn’t breathe it was like all the oxygen was sucked out of the room. No there had to be a mistake, but then Devi came running into my room and I knew by the look on her face that I wasn’t wrong.

  “What, what, what’s going on?” I finally choked out.

  Devi had tears running down her very pale face. “It’s bad, Drake,” she whispered.

  I couldn’t tear my eyes from the TV for long so I reached my good arm out to her and she ran to me and I wrapped my arm around her and she laid down with me burying her face into my chest sobbing.

  “Shhh,” I said, “shhh Devi, I need you tell me what’s going on.”

  “He…he did something to her, we don’t know what, and he’s he’s holding Quinn and he has a… a—” she broke off in a sob.

  “He has a gun near my daughter?” I growled.

  She nodded her head.

  “Is that Mags on the ground?” I choked out.

  She nodded again. “They can’t get close enough to to find out if…” she broke off again crying.

  “Where are they?”

  “At Quinn’s doctor’s office,” she sobbed out.

  “I have to go to her.”

  She shook her head. “You can’t and even if you did there’s nothing you can do. Seth and X are there already, they’ll call us as soon as they know something,” she mumbled against my chest.

  “I don’t give a fuck that’s my, my…” I trailed off, god damn this, why couldn’t I get it out?

  “I know that’s my fucking family out there too, Drake.”

  I growled but kept my eyes focused on the TV, on my family, hoping that I was just dreaming, that this wasn’t really happening and then I saw her foot move.

  Chapter 36

  Mags

  I struggled to pry my eyes open, it was so loud and I had no idea who was yelling or what they were saying, once I finally got them open I slammed them shut again. Oh my god my head hurt, and the light was so bright. Then I heard a familiar whimper and my eyes opened quickly and I could finally see what was happening around me.

  I couldn’t breathe and I think my heart actually stopped beating. There pacing around the parking lot was my child’s sperm donor, carrying her around and waving a gun around. What the fuck happened, and I am going to kill his stupid ass were the first two thoughts I had. I shook my head get Quinn then kill his stupid ass. I looked around and saw that there were, in fact, police surrounding the parking lot as well. How long was I out, and why hadn’t they shot the stupid fuck yet, couldn’t they see he had my baby?

  I realized I was still lying in the parking lot and pushed myself up so I leaned against my car. I grabbed my head when a shot of blinding pain went through it. I pushed past it and looked around again, Brent was yelling something and Quinn was screaming. The cops were yelling at him, it was a giant cluster fuck, and my tiny baby girl was in the middle of it all. Why didn’t they do anything?

  One of the police officers finally noticed that I was up and started yelling at me to get down. Was he really that dumb to think that I would just lay here and let that fucktard hurt my child?

  “BRENT!” I yelled.

  He whipped his head towards me. “This is all your fault!” he yelled back.

  “Yea, cause I told your dumbass to pull out a gun,” I yelled back.

  I heard someone yell from someone place. “Mags, shut the fuck up!”

  “You ruined my life, whore.”

  I snorted. “No, you did that to yourself.”

  He stomped over towards me. “Make this fucking brat shut up!” he screamed jostling Quinn around who was now screaming louder than I’d ever heard her.

  “Fine, then hand her over,” I growled.

  He thrust her in my direction and I grabbed her and brought her close to my chest cuddling her as close as possible whispering shhh to her in-between kissing her everywhere I could touch. I lowered her down to the ground and hunched over her keeping her as concealed as I could with my own body. I glanced over at Brent who was now pointing the gun in our direction.

  “Brent, why don’t you put that down?” I asked as calmly as I could muster at this point.

  “Why did you have to take everything from me, my job, my life, everything?” he yelled.

  “Brent, I’m sorry, I never meant for anything bad to happen to you.”

  He glared at me. “You took everything,” he said then pointed the gun in my direction. I heard a loud pop; I always thought the sound of a gun would be louder, like fireworks, but this sounded more like a champagne cork popping off. I heard more screaming from the cops and then another pop, but I couldn’t get over the fact that he had shot me. My arm and shoulder felt like a zap of lightning was shooting through it; it was the strangest and worst sensation I can ever remember feeling. Then there were people surrounding us, I made sure that Quinn was still covered with my body, I wouldn’t let anything happen to my little girl. She was still screaming and scared, and I was scared too.

  Drake

  I sat there slack jawed as I watched Mags get shot, then the police shot Brent. Wat the hell just happened? I glanced over at Devi and she looked just as confused as I felt. The TV announcer came on after we saw the police and paramedics rush in, and we couldn’t see what was happening any longer.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  I looked at Devi. “I have no clue, but I think he shot her.”

  She nodded her head. “Uh huh.”

  “Is she…do you think she I mean she couldn’t be?” I gasped out.

  She shook her head. “I… I… I don’t know…” she trailed off still staring at the TV tears streaming down her face.

  “She had Quinn under her Devi.” She just nodded her head. “They have to be okay,” I whispered and Devi reached over and grabbed my good hand.

  We sat there quietly staring at
the TV hoping some kind of new information would be given when Devi’s cell phone started ringing making us both jump. She quickly pulled it out of the pocket of her jeans and answered. I kept watching the TV while trying to catch what she was saying, but it was mostly a lot of uh huh and yeses and I couldn’t gather much information from it.

  She hung up and smiled at me. “They’re fine.”

  “How can they be fine, she was shot, Devi?” I growled.

  “It was just a flesh wound, the bullet grazed her arm and shoulder. They are taking both to the hospital to be checked out, but they don’t think she will need much more than a few stitches.”

  “And Quinn?”

  “She’s fine as well, a little shaken up and they want to check her out as well, but they both seem to be fine.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair and stared at my sister, I knew she wouldn’t lie to me, but still that was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through in my life. “You’re sure?”

  “That was Seth, X is riding with them to the hospital, and he’s following and will call us after the doctor sees them, but yea the EMTs said they would be fine.”

  “Okay, do you know which hospital?”

  “This one, it’s the closest.”

  “Okay,” I sighed. “That’s good, would you mind asking them to get me a wheelchair so I can go down there? I need to see them for myself.”

  “Nope, don’t mind at all,” she said and got up and walked out the door.

  After a few wrong turns we finally made it to the emergency room, where we found X and Seth sitting in the waiting room.

  “Why aren’t you in there with them?” I asked.

  “They won’t let us since we’re not family,” growled X.

  “Well fuck that,” declared Devi and she left to talk to the nurse standing at the desk, she was waving her hands then pointed at me, and I cocked my head to the side—what was she up to?

  “What the hell?” muttered Seth.

  “Who knows?” chuckled X, “but my money's on Devi.”

  “Yea mine too.”

  She looked over at me and smirked; the nurse was nodding her head like she agreed with whatever Devi was telling her. Damn, my sister was good.

  Devi walked back over and grabbed the handles of my wheelchair. “Ready fiancé?”

  I choked “what?” out and she just smiled and wheeled me to the electric doors. Seth and X following close behind.

  We finally found the curtained off area that Mags was in by following the yelling. X was outright laughing by the time we got there and pulled the curtain open.

  “I don’t give a damn, I want to see my daughter!” she yelled at the nurse that was currently trying to calm her down.

  “Ma'am, if you’d just calm down, the doctor is looking at her now, and as soon as they’ve determined that—” She was interrupted by Mags starting to rant again.

  “Where is Quinn?” I asked.

  The nurse looked at me and opened her mouth to no doubt protest when Mags answered for her, “They’ve taken her to another room to check her out, but they won’t let me in there because I’m bleeding.”

  Devi nodded, “On it, what room?”

  “Well, exam room eight, but you can’t…” she trailed off when Devi walked away as soon as she heard the room number.

  “So darling, I hear you went and got yourself shot.” She flipped me off and continued to glare at the nurse.

  X cleared his throat, “Uhm, Mags, what did the nice nurse do to piss you off?”

  She slowly turned her head towards him and I flinched at the look she gave him. “I want my daughter,” she seethed.

  “I get that, and Devi and Seth just went to be with her, now why don't you do what the nurse needs you to do, so you can go to her?”

  “Fuck off, Xavier.”

  “Okay Mags, enough,” I barked then looked at the nurse. “What do you need?”

  She looked from me to Mags then back at me. “I need to inject her with this to numb the area for stitches.”

  “Mags, you will sit your ass down and do what this nice lady needs to do so you will stop bleeding all over the god damn floor, do you understand me?”

  She nodded and sat on the bed.

  “All right, I know you want to go to Quinn, hell I do too, but you will help no one bleeding all over the place, so sit there and be a good girl and get stitched up.”

  “Fine,” she growled.

  “So you going to tell me what happened?”

  “I walked out of the doctor’s office and found him standing by my car, told him to go, he grabbed me and then I guess he hit me in the head.”

  I growled and she whipped her head towards me and then winced; that’s when I really noticed what kind of shape she was in. She had a small gash on her temple, her shoulder and arm had a large cut, and I still hadn’t seen my princess.

  “Then what happened?”

  “I woke up on the ground and he was holding Quinn and waving a gun around. I got Quinn and he shot me, I guess the police shot him after that. I don’t know I just wanted to make sure she was safe.”

  “You did good, baby, you’re both safe now.”

  She nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. God, I wanted to hold her but I couldn’t get out of this damn wheelchair to get to her.

  The nurse left and we sat around waiting for the doctor to show up to stitch her arm up. When Devi walked in carrying Quinn, I held my arm out to her and she tucked Quinn into my arm and side.

  “She okay?” I asked.

  “Yea she’s fine, a little freaked out still, but nothing physically wrong with her.”

  I leaned down as best I could with my ribs starting to bother me and kissed the top of her head. “How’s my princess?” I murmured to her, she curled into my side more and her eyes started to flutter.

  “How you doing, Mags?” Devi asked.

  “Better now that I can see her.”

  “Good, cause the cops are out there wanting your statement.”

  She groaned and then nodded. “All right.”

  “We will head back to Drake's room so Quinn can take a nap.”

  Mags nodded her head. “Okay,” she said staring at Quinn.

  “She’s fine, baby; I won’t let her leave my side.”

  “Okay, I’ll be up there soon, hopefully.”

  “X, will you stay with her?” I asked looking over at him.

  “Sure, maybe I can pick up a naughty nurse.”

  Devi smacked him, grabbed my wheelchair, and started rolling me towards the curtain. I looked back at Mags and smiled, though I’m sure it was more of a grimace, my pain meds weren’t really helping me anymore.

  “I love you,” I said.

  “Love you too.” Then the curtain closed.

  I closed my eyes and took deep breaths and I felt Devi lean down. “We’ll be there soon and get you something for the pain, big brother.”

  “Thanks,” I murmured trying to stay very still.

  Chapter 37

  Mags

  Once the I had finished giving my statement to the police, I headed up to Drake's room with X tagging behind, chuckling to himself about something. I really didn’t want to know what, I just wanted to get to my baby and look her over myself. When we walked into his room, we found Drake and Quinn asleep in his hospital bed, and Devi was hovering around them like a mother hen.

  “Is something wrong?”

  She put her finger to her lips and shook her head no.

  “Then why are you hovering?”

  “I just wanted to check on them,” she whispered but I knew there was more to it than that.

  “Devi,” I growled.

  “Mags, quiet,” she snapped quietly at me.

  “Fine, what’s going on?” I asked quieter, not really in the mood to deal with her crap right now.

  “Drake was just in pain, I wanted to see his face and make sure he was doing better.”

  “Oh,” I said looking at him. “He’s okay though,
right?”

  “Yea, he’s okay, they both are.”

  I nodded and walked over to the bed staring down at them, Quinn was curled up on his chest her thumb in her mouth, and they looked so sweet together.

  “So how did it go with the police?” whispered Seth.

  I shrugged. “Fine I guess, they just wanted me to tell them what happened.”

  “Hear anything about Brent?”

  I scowled at him “Why would I care?”

  Seth gave X a look then looked back at me, “Just asking.”

  I was about to ask what was going on when Quinn started whimpering, and I watched her eyes flutter open. I gently picked her up and brought her over to the couch to nurse her, now that I had her back in my arms I would be able to relax and think.

  I sat around nursing Quinn, not really paying attention to what everyone else was talking about, I just wanted my time with my daughter. When I finally noticed the quiet, I looked around and saw it was just Drake and I left in his room.

  “Where did everyone else go?” I asked.

  “Devi and Seth went home. X is out harassing the nurses.”

  I nodded not really caring where they actually were. I looked over at Drake and he patted the bed beside him. I glanced down and noticed that Quinn was sleeping so I stood carefully and walked towards Drake, and looked trying to figure out where I was going to sit.

  “Lay down with me Mags, I just need to hold you both,” Drake whispered.

  I nodded and sat down beside him and laid down tucking Quinn between us on the small bed. Drake wrapped his good arm around both of us, pulling me closer.

  “How you holding up?” he murmured.

  “Kinda numb right now.”

  “Understandable,” he replied looking at me like I was going to break any minute. “Mags there's something I need to tell you.”

  “What?” I asked, starting to feel exhausted since the adrenaline had left my system.

  “Brent didn’t make it,” he whispered, keeping his eyes trained on my face.

  “What do you mean?” I asked confused.