by Ash, Nikki
The music shifts to a slow song and I decide to go for it. It will be my choice to ask her to dance. She looks over at me and gives me a small smile. She is absolutely beautiful and I can’t even take my eyes off her.
“I’m cutting in,” I let Alex know. He nods and walks away. Attempting to dance with Hayley I notice she isn’t putting her arms around me. I don’t blame her. Every time she attempted to touch me, whether on purpose or on accident I made it clear her touch wasn’t welcome. I need to change that.
Taking her delicate hands in mine, I bring them up and wrap them around my neck and then wrap mine around her perfect waist. We dance to some song about getting married but the only thing on my mind is how for once in my life the touch of a woman feels good. Her small body fits perfectly in mine. We don’t talk at all but it’s not awkward. Looking into her eyes is like finding water in a desert. I suddenly feel replenished.
My cell vibrates in my pocket and while I want to ignore it, the fear that it might be Marco makes me grab it out of my pocket to look. Sure enough, it is.
Marco: I need you to come to my house.
Knowing I just left there from dropping him off and giving him some money, I know it must be important. I look at Hayley and wish I could ignore the text and continue to dance with her, but also know Marco can be in trouble. I try to relay to her I am sorry. Before I can walk away though I need something more.
I give her a kiss on her cheek. It’s warm and a bit flushed and it makes me want to kiss her in other places. “It’s Marco. I have to go. Thank you for this dance.” Before she can respond I walk out needing to get to Marco.
Arriving there I see a couple cars along the road in front of his house I don’t recognize. This shit can’t be good. I jump out of my car and can immediately hear screaming from inside. Without knocking I go right in and take in the sight in front of me. Marco’s mom is on the floor naked, on all fours being fucked from behind by one guy, while another guy is holding Marco back from trying to stop it from happening. I can also hear the baby crying in another room. I assess the situation and don’t see any guns drawn. They probably didn’t think it would be needed since Marco and his mom would be helpless against them.
I take one look at Marco’s pleading eyes, the tears silently falling, and I lose it. I grab the guy fucking his mom by the neck pulling him out of her and push him up against the wall. I start punching him in the face repeatedly, hoping to knock him out. In my peripheral vision, I see the other guy drop Marco from the wall and come toward me. Leaving the guy bleeding against the wall, I turn toward him to find out I was wrong about the gun. He grabs the gun from the front of his pants and shoots me in the shoulder.
The pain is unbearable but I can’t go down without a fight. I should have called the police. I should have called someone but I didn’t. So now I am here and I need to try to at least save Marco and his sister before I bleed out. I walk up to the guy with the gun and knock it out of his hand before he can shoot me again. We start rolling around on the floor grappling. Both of us are getting punches in and I just pray I can hold on long enough to beat the shit out of this guy to the point he will black out so I can call the cops.
Unfortunately, before that happens the door swings open and two more guys I don’t recognize walk in.
“Go shut that fucking baby up!” the guy booms and Estella runs to the room to calm the baby down. They grab me by my arms and I know I don’t stand a chance. There’s too many of them. They begin punching me in my ribs over and over again. When my legs give out on me they throw me to the ground and begin kicking me, and then I hear a gunshot and everything goes black.
Nine
Hayley
There is no way I have been asleep more than a few minutes when my phone goes off. I attempt to ignore it, keeping my eyes closed so I don’t get dizzy. I didn’t get ridiculously drunk last night but I definitely drank enough to have a hangover in the morning. I ended up taking a cab home after the ball dropped, leaving my vehicle at Kayla’s house. I will have to ask someone to take me to get my car in the morning. I was hoping Caleb would return but he never did. I hope everything is ok with Marco.
My phone rings again. Whoever is calling must really need to get ahold of me. Looking at my cell phone, I see it’s four in the morning and Kayla is the person who keeps calling me. Jeez! I was actually asleep for almost three hours.
“Hey! Everything ok?” For Kayla to be calling me on her wedding night something has to be wrong.
“No, it’s not. Caleb is in the hospital. We don’t know the details but it’s not good, Hayley.”
This wakes me up. I grab some clothes on the dresser that I didn’t get around to putting away yet and quickly get dressed. Looking around for my keys I remember I have no car. Shit!
“Hey, can you swing by and get me? My car is at your house!”
She tells Bentley to pick me up. Luckily my house is on the way to the hospital so they don’t have to go out of their way. We hang up and I go outside to wait for them so they don’t have to stop for too long.
We get to the hospital and Bentley goes to the nurse to get answers on Caleb. We don’t know anything about his family but Caleb having no emergency contact listed other than Bentley is a good indication they aren’t in the picture. The nurse tells us to have a seat and she will come out to update us as soon as she can.
A few minutes later she begins explaining Caleb’s condition as Cooper and Liz come running through the door out of breath along with Kaden and Ashley.
“Is he ok?” “What happened?” Liz and Cooper both ask at the same time.
“The nurse is about to tell us right now,” Bentley says turning back to the nurse indicating for her to continue.
“Mr. Michaels is currently in the ICU but stable. We are prepping him for surgery. He was brought in a couple hours ago but we needed to stabilize him and assess his injuries. He experienced two gunshot wounds, one to the shoulder and one to the chest. Luckily the one to the chest didn’t hit any major arteries.”
I gasp loudly hearing he has been shot. Immediately my mind goes to those guys going after Marco.
“He was beaten pretty badly. We think he has several broken ribs and his leg appears to be broken. We will know more once he is finished being prepped and taken into surgery. Please stay out here and once we know more we will let you know.”
“Thank you,” Bentley says. I can’t help but wonder how this happened. He left clearly worried about Marco. It had to have had something to do with those drug dealer guys from the other day.
While waiting to hear something I decide to seek answers. I can’t get this horrible feeling out of my head. If this has something to do with Marco, is he ok? Just as I make the decision to find a police officer I see Marco come in and with him is a police officer holding his baby sister. Marco isn’t crying, though. He looks numb. His baby sister is crying loudly and he is attempting to soothe her.
“Marco, what happened?”
“My mom is dead and they beat up and shot Caleb.”
Oh God! I knew it! I knew this had something to do with Marco. Trying to remain calm, I put my hands out to take his sister from the police officer.
“Are you a friend of the family?” the officer asks.
“I am a friend of Marco’s. I am a doctor at the gym he works out at and the gentleman who was at his house, Caleb, is a friend of ours,” I say pointing to everyone around me.
The officer hands me Chloe. “We need to get them both checked out to make sure they are ok.”
Marco and I sit down and I rock her trying to calm her. Marco rubs her back trying to soothe her as well. The nurse comes over and hands me a bottle of formula. After thanking her I feed the precious baby. With her belly full, I burp her, and within minutes she passes right out in my arms.
A few minutes later the nurse calls Marco and Chloe back and I go with the officer to have them checked out. Once the doctor confirms they are both healthy and not injured in any way, the pol
ice officer takes Marco’s statement.
In a nutshell, the men came to Marco’s house to get money from his mom; when she said no, one guy forced himself on her while the other guy held Marco back. Caleb tried to save them and was beaten to a pulp and shot. Marco’s mom went to the room to quiet Chloe down because her crying was making the men mad but she never came back out of her room. When the police got there and Marco went in to let her know the cops were there, he found her dead. She overdosed on drugs in her bedroom.
It is absolutely heartbreaking to listen to his recount of what happened, to hear what he witnessed. Once he is done we go back out to the waiting room and I sit next to Kayla.
“Have you heard anything on Caleb yet?”
“No, not yet. Are the kids ok?”
“Yeah, the doctor said neither of them were physically hurt.” I don’t have to say anything for her to know what I mean. Marco is going to need to see a therapist. He is going to need a loving and supportive home and somebody to talk to. Luckily his sister is too young to remember anything.
“I’m assuming this is Marco’s sister?”
“Yeah, she’s a sweet thing, isn’t she?”
I see the officer standing in the corner and want to ask him some questions. “Would you mind holding her for a few minutes. I want to speak to the police officer.”
“Absolutely.”
I carefully hand her Chloe and then look over and see Marco is sleeping. I can’t even imagine the nightmares this kid will have. Walking over to the officer I reintroduce myself.
“Excuse me, I was wondering if you have contacted the Department of Children and Families?”
“Yes, ma’am. Somebody is on their way.”
“Did you catch the guys who did this to Caleb?”
“We have them in custody. Because the neighbor called so quickly after hearing the first gunshot we were able to catch them leaving the scene. We are compiling evidence now but we should have enough to put them away for a long time.”
“Good! I hope they rot in prison. Thank you, officer.”
I head back to Marco and putting my arm around him I hold him close. He may have had a shitty mom but losing her can’t be easy, and to be the one who found her, my heart is breaking for him.
Within an hour a sweet woman from DCF arrives. Marco moves closer to me when she says she needs to place them in an emergency foster home for the night.
“Can he please stay with me?” I beg. The kid has been through enough. “I am actually an approved foster parent.”
“What about Chloe?” Marco begins crying. I completely forgot about Chloe. My only thoughts were taking care of Marco. It doesn’t surprise me that even after everything Marco has been through his number one concern is the welfare of his sister.
“Umm… I can take her as well. I just don’t have a crib or diapers or anything for a baby.” I begin to panic mentally making a list of everything I would need.
“We can take her,” Kayla speaks up. “We actually have an application in to foster since it’s the first step to adopt. We recently submitted it and it might even already be approved. Because of the holidays I haven’t checked.”
“Ok, I will need a copy of both your drivers’ licenses and social security cards. I will call my supervisor and check on your fostering statuses.”
“Thank you,” I say continuing to hold Marco close letting him know I am not leaving his side.
I look over at Bentley and Kayla cooing over Chloe and can’t help but wonder if maybe this was God’s way of intervening on these children’s behalf, taking a tragedy and giving them their own little miracle.
While waiting to hear back from the DCF worker a doctor comes out letting us know Caleb is out of surgery. Looking at the time, I see it’s just after seven in the morning. Marco is asleep with his head on my shoulder and Chloe is still asleep in Kayla’s arms.
“We feel everything went good. He does have three broken ribs, which caused internal bleeding. We were able to stop the bleeding without any further complications. Unfortunately, broken ribs can’t be fixed, they will have to heal over time but he’s wrapped up. The gunshot wounds to his shoulder and chest were clean, so we just had to stitch him up. His leg was broken in two places so he is in a cast. He suffered a head injury as well but other than having a concussion there is no swelling in the brain, which is a good sign. He is in recovery now and we will continue to monitor him. Once they get him settled you can go back two at a time. Do you have any questions?”
“Will he get back full use of his shoulder and leg?” I know in hindsight it’s not important but Caleb’s world revolves around fighting. I know he is going to want to know.
“The specialist will be in to speak with Caleb once he wakes up. He will be able to answer that question better.”
“Ok, thank you.”
Just as the doctor is leaving the DCF worker returns, softly smiling.
“Ok, good news. You both are active on the fostering list so I was able to approve both of you to take them home. We will have to do home visits in the next few days so I will be in touch.”
Marco wakes up and looks around to find Chloe then turns to the worker. “Does that mean Chloe and I can stay together?”
“How would you feel if you stayed with me and Chloe stayed with Bentley and Kayla? You know how they have Faith, right? So they have all the baby stuff already for Chloe.”
“Can I still see her?”
“Of course, you can, sweetie!” Kayla chimes in. “You can see her whenever you want to. Let’s just take this one day at a time until we figure out what is going to happen.”
“Would you rather go with Kayla and stay with Chloe?” I ask him.
“No, I know they are good with Faith. I would rather go with you. Can we stay and wait for Caleb?”
“Absolutely,” I tell him. His body visibly relaxes.
“Thank you,” I tell the worker. She lets me know she will be in touch and leaves.
“Family of Caleb Michaels,” a nurse announces.
“I want to go see Caleb, please!” Marco begs the nurse. He is so worried about Caleb.
“I am sure we can make that happen,” I tell him.
“I’m sorry but only family right now,” the nurse says sympathetically.
“She’s his fiancée,” Bentley says before I can even think of a lie to get us inside.
The nurse doesn’t look convinced but doesn’t argue.
“Is he your son?” she asks pointing to Marco. Without hesitation, I tell her yes.
“Ok, he can come with you guys since he’s a minor and in your care.”
“Thank you.”
“C’mon.” Bentley puts his arms around me walking us toward the nurse. “I’ll go with you, future Mrs. Michaels.”
Ten
Caleb
Holy shit! My head feels like it’s about to explode. I hear a faint beeping sound and try to remember where I am and why I feel so hung over. The overwhelming smell of antiseptics hits my nose causing me to almost choke. Then the memories all come crashing back.
Marco… His mom being raped... Getting the shit beat out of me… Getting shot… Everything going black… FUCK!
“Well, good morning Mr. Michaels. Welcome back. Your fiancée and son were just here. They stepped out to get a drink of water but should be back any second. How are you doing?”
Fiancée? Son? What. The. Fuck.
I rack my brain trying to think if I could have possibly missed getting engaged. I sure as fuck know I don’t have a son. I look around and see Bentley sitting in a chair silently laughing. Then when Hayley and Marco walk in Bentley smiles wide and laughs out loud.
“Well, how are you?”
“Umm… I think I am ok…” I wiggle my fingers and they work ok. Then I start touching various parts of my body to see if I am in fact ok. When I move my arm too far over I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and chest. It’s kind of hard to breathe now that I am thinking about it.
“Oh fuck!” I scream louder than I realize when I attempt to move my hand to my shoulder.
“Be careful. You were shot Mr. Michaels. The doctor will be in momentarily to explain your injuries and what he did during surgery.” The first thing that comes to mind is fighting. If I am in this much pain there is no way I will be fighting anytime soon.
After checking my vitals, the nurse leaves the room.
“Fiancée and son?”
Bentley cracks up laughing, again. “Don’t look so scared, bro. I had to say Hayley was your fiancée to get them in here so Marco could see you. The kid was worried.”
Am I crazy that for a second I almost thought it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing to be engaged to Hayley? Yeah, I must have been hit in the head. It’s the only way to explain these absurd feelings.
The doctor comes in and explains to me I suffered a concussion, have three broken ribs, a broken leg they put a cast on and will have to remain on for about six weeks before getting it checked. My shoulder is in a sling so it can heal from the gunshot wound, and I was shot in the chest. Jesus, it’s a fucking miracle I am alive.
“Do you have any questions?”
“Will I get full rotation of my shoulder back? Will my leg be healed one hundred percent? I’m a fighter.”
“It’s definitely going to take some time. If you were working a desk job I would say you will be fine, but as an athlete you will most likely need to attend physical therapy for your shoulder and leg. Unfortunately, only time will tell.”
“Ok, thank you.”
After the doctor leaves, I let out a slew of curse words. Fighting is my fucking life. Without it, who am I?
“I’m sorry,” Marco says. I remember him and Hayley have been in the room the whole time.