Teaching Ms. Riggs

by Stephanie Beck

  “Yeah, you two have done a wonderful job teaching him how to be a good dad,” Ben said, feeling a little gooey sentimental. “The best I’d say.”

  Patty handed her a napkin, and the look on her face said she thought the teenager was the sweetest thing too.

  “We, me and Kira, were thinking that maybe we’d better call you and Uncle Mark ‘mom’ and ‘dad.’” Thomas’s words were a little rushed as he stayed busy pouring root beer and not looking at either of them. “You know, so the twins don’t get confused.”

  “Oh, I see.” Ben didn’t have to ask for more napkins, Patty just handed over a wad. “I would be thrilled with whatever you two think is best on that front. I love that I’m your Aunt Ben. I’d love it if you thought to call me mom too.”

  “Okay, I’ll talk to Kira tonight.” Thomas handed over the two floats, heavy on ice cream and root beer, chocolate syrup on one, but didn’t meet her eyes. “I don’t know how you can eat it. I barely care what food tastes like, but that is not good.”

  “I know.” Ben tried very hard not to cry. Thomas had brought the subject up like he had to avoid a scene, she was sure, but it was hard to hold back. “Thanks, Thomas. It’s perfect, just how I like it.”

  “Oh, you’re welcome.” The praise had him blushing all the way to his ears. He was such a modest, funny boy. One day he was going to be an amazing man. “I think the race is starting.”

  “Okay, thanks. I can’t miss it.” She hurried away with Thomas’s earnest, sweet words in her mind.

  They wanted to call her ‘mom’. Sure, they said it was for the twins, but that was an excuse. She wondered how long Thomas had thought of Mark as his dad. Probably as long as Kira had. They called their parents by their first names, so the titles were unclaimed.

  She wanted to claim them so much, and she knew Mark would feel the same.

  When she made it back to the open field, the racers were tied up, lined up, and waiting for the flag to drop at the end of the thirty-foot course. All the adults were male, and Ben could almost bet Mark had started that trend. There was a healthy competitive edge to the men, and it transcended into their kids as well.

  “Hey, Ben. Ben!” Kira yelled. “Look!”

  “I see,” she called back, nodding at the pink strip around their legs. “Go, Mark and Kira!”

  The elementary field was teeming with people. Students, parents, grandparents, and employees from kindergarten through sixth grade had gathered to enjoy a beautiful day. Ben watched the elementary school secretary, who looked like a first grader herself, so small and slim, raise one hand. The racers moved to attention. Then she raised the other hand, gave her hips a little shake to the children’s amusement, and finally jerked them straight down.

  The shot came from the left. The dads stopped the kids. Every adult, it seemed, had a child suddenly behind them as they searched for the cause of the startling gunshot.

  Ben’s blood ran cold when she found the only person moving in the crowd. Another shot rang out. There was really nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape the shots, but so far no one had been hit.

  The kids from the race ran to their mothers after their dads quickly untied them. Cellphones were pulled out all over, and Ben knew whatever came next was sure to be horrible.

  “Bennie!”

  That voice. Ben recognized it from the dozens of phone calls. Even though she hadn’t heard from the stalker in months, it was her voice Ben heard in her nightmares, and now the nightmare was reality.

  “Bennie!” Victoria screamed again, her long, platinum hair bright against the sapphire blue cocktail dress she wore, complete with five-inch stilettos. “Oh, Bennie! Vicki’s here.”

  Ben had nothing to defend herself, and the people around her were in the same boat. They were stuck until the police arrived. Too many children were present to attempt disarming Victoria. She stayed just beyond reach, circling the group until she finally stopped and made eye contact with Ben.

  She’s crazy.

  When the cold blue eyes aligned with hers, Ben knew she was in trouble. There was nothing in them, just a sort of manic dullness that didn’t make sense.

  “God, you got fat!” Victoria laughed hysterically. “I know, I know, pregnant. That’s why Don didn’t want you to get knocked up. He knew you’d never recover and would be a fatass the rest of your life like all these bitches around here. God, women, buy a Stairmaster!”

  “What do you want, Victoria?” Ben swallowed hard, her mouth so dry the words didn’t form easily.

  Mark was too far away to reach her, which was for the best. Kira, along with the other kids from the race, was pushed behind a line of mothers. Ben had to believe her family would be okay, no matter what Victoria did to her.

  “Well, you, of course.” Victoria held the gun in her hand, the narrow, but deadly barrel aimed at Ben’s chest. Only the race course separated them, thirty feet at most. “You couldn’t just get raped and traumatized, could you? No, you had to survive, and then you’ve got the nerve to get married. Oh no, Bennie, that’s not for selfish sluts like you. I wanted Don, but he wanted you. I don’t want this Mark. He’s a farmer, and that is disgusting, but I know you love him.”

  “No,” Ben gasped when Victoria turned the gun on Mark. “Please, please don’t hurt him.”

  The gun swung back as Victoria’s insane giggle erupted once more. “Oh, I do like to hear you beg. I’d already decided to kill you anyway, Bennie. I like the pain to keep growing. With you dead, the farmer and his brats will be destroyed and ya know, I really like that.”

  “No!” Mark shouted, and when Ben looked she saw he was running toward them. Victoria turned her face to him but kept the gun aimed at Ben’s chest. Her crazy gaze met with Ben’s again, and as if in slow motion, she smiled, pulling the trigger without hesitation.

  The shot seemed to reverberate in stereo, all over, but not at the same time. More important than the sound, Ben was slammed to the ground. She’d never been shot, and realized a moment later she hadn’t been.

  Thomas lay over her as Victoria screamed. During the shot, Mark and the surrounding men had tackled her and were scrambling for the gun. The woman was screaming profanities, and from the men’s curses, probably biting and kicking as well. Ben didn’t notice any of that, though, because Thomas wasn’t moving.

  “Thomas, Thomas?” She pressed against his lanky body, the lifelessness she found there overriding any discomfort from the race stake poking her back.

  “He was hit, Ben,” Rachel Spears, Kira’s teacher said calmly. “Tina! SaraJean, call the ambulance! Here we go, let’s turn him and get pressure on the wound.”

  “Okay, okay.” Panic threatened but was pushed aside in the face of helping Thomas, the boy who wanted to call her ‘mom’. “Thomas, you are in so much trouble.”

  Ben kept talking to him as she and Rachel, directed by two of the local nurses who were also mothers, maintained pressure on the wound high on his chest. The blood that had poured at first seemed to ease back to a sluggish pace. Mark held a fighting Kira as she tried to get to Thomas.

  The ambulance finally arrived, Dr. Harper and his partner on board for the ride to the helicopter pad. Covered in blood, Ben shuffled back when Dr. Harper gently put a hand to her shoulder. They assessed Thomas’s condition, gave reassurances, and were gone in minutes.

  “Ben, honey, we have to go.” Mark shook her shoulder gently when she just stared at the blood on the ground, so grotesquely black on the bright, happy, innocent grass.

  The police had arrived while she’d been helping Thomas, and the screaming had stopped she noticed. There was talking but it was the quiet, shocked kind that didn’t allow for actual words to be heard, just the murmurs.

  “Ben, Mom?” Kira cried. “Thomas said you’d be our mom. He’s okay, right? Right, Mom? He’s okay?”

  The little girl’s sobs broke the rest of Ben’s daze, and once again demanded she be the anchor. One of the moms handed her a button-down, flannel shirt probably fr
om the backseat of someone’s car. Ben held her arms so the bloody places were covered and pulled Kira close as Mark led them both to his car.

  “I’m going to kill her!” Victoria screamed.

  Mark jerked around, putting himself between the yelling woman and Ben and Kira.

  Two Kansas City officers fell, and somehow Victoria grabbed a gun. That was as far as she got. Teddy was there. Within striking distance, he reached out and punched her in the face, knocking her out cold with a single strike.

  Ben watched as he wrenched the gun away and threw her into the waiting police car. He put on handcuffs, pulled out zip ties, and locked her feet together before closing the door. The two officers were pale and shamefaced, but quiet, unassuming, sweet Teddy just cuffed both of their shoulders in camaraderie, nodded to the crowd, and got into his car.

  “Okay, honey, let’s go see your brother.” Ben readjusted her weight. Kira was nearly too heavy for her to carry, but she didn’t feel it. “We’ve got to go check on him, and after that we’ll get him dinner. I know he’ll be hungry, and I can never remember all the garbage he requires.”

  “It’s not hard, Mom.” Kira laughed through her tears, sniffing and rubbing her nose into the borrowed shirt. “Three double cheeseburgers, two chicken sandwiches, extra lettuce and no mayo. Two large fries, three yogurt parfaits, two cherry pies, and if Dad’s buying, a large chocolate shake.”

  “See, how am I supposed to remember all that?” Ben teased because it was a long ride to KC and they needed to keep their heads.

  The drive Mark made in record time gave her too much time to think. The sky darkened as they drove north, and Ben thought she’d be sick. If she had run when she had the chance, Thomas would be all right.

  * * * *

  An excruciating hour passed before a doctor emerged into the waiting room. Mark didn’t know how he kept it together through the drive and the wait. Patience. His mother had always praised that trait as a gift from God. Mark prayed for just one more gift in the life of his nephew.

  “Mr. Dougstat? I’m Doctor Lindon. You’re Thomas LeDoux’s guardian?” a petite young woman in surgical scrubs asked.

  “Yes, I’m his uncle. His aunt, his sister.” Mark pointed to Ben who was still holding Kira on the waiting room’s sofa. “How is he?”

  “Well, he obviously had good on-site care and in transport.” The doctor rubbed the back of her neck. “The bleeding was nearly stopped when they arrived, but he went into cardiac arrest. We’ve got him back, and Doctor Johnson is finishing up now. The bullet hit a difficult spot, very close to his jugular, on impact, and near the spinal cord on the exit. I repaired the veins, cauterized some, and we gave him a lot of blood, but we think…he’s young and strong, Mr. Dougstat. It might take a little while for him to come out of anesthesia because of the blood loss, but I’m very hopeful he will make a full recovery with time.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Mark fell to his knees in relief. “Thank God, thank God. Thank you, Doctor. Thank God.”

  “When may we see him?” Ben’s question made him look and he realized she’d moved closer. Kira was still on her lap, but she was by his side. Always by his side. She tugged his shirt sleeve and Mark leaned into her, her touch a tender mercy he needed, if only for a moment.

  “As I said, my associate is finishing the surgery. He’ll go to recovery after. It’ll be at least another hour while the nurses get him settled and the doctor sees him. I’ll have a nurse get you immediately after they finish,” Dr. Lindon promised. “I’ll be available for questions when I make rounds in three hours, and if Thomas’s doctors require me I’m on campus.”

  “Okay, thank you.” Ben’s reply was more than Mark could do, and for the millionth time he was grateful for her strength.

  “Did you understand all of that, Kira?” he asked when they were alone in the room

  “He died,” Kira sobbed. “Cardiac arrest means his heart stopped.”

  “He didn’t die, honey. Yes, his heart stopped.” Mark chose his words carefully because lying to Kira was like outsmarting a super computer. “But doctors and surgeons can do amazing things. That’s why there’s CPR and defibulators, squirt. The doctors got his heart beating again. We’ll see him in half an hour, and he’ll wake up.”

  “Probably starving,” Ben added, and he smiled at her, always trusting her to help him find balance. “No mayo on his chicken sandwiches, right?”

  “Right.” Kira’s sobs were heavy and deep and wouldn’t quit despite their reassurances. She’d been holding a lot of her worries inside, and he couldn’t blame her for the breakdown. “I love him so much. He’s my best friend, and I don’t hate him even a little.”

  “I know, honey. He knows it too,” Ben said, and Mark could see her stroking Kira’s head as she did the same through his own hair. “We’ll see him soon, and you can tell him. You too, Mark.”

  “Yeah.” He forced himself to his feet and away from the drugging comfort of her touch. “Here, Ben, hand over the squirt. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  He needed his wife to have a break, but he also needed to hold one of his babies, especially while the other was so hurt.

  Chapter 21

  Ben passed Kira into Mark’s waiting arms, the little girl latching eagerly onto him. Without her weight, Ben’s muscles expanded again, the discomfort growing exponentially. She didn’t care. Guilt ate at every part of her as she waited. So many different choices could have been made, and she’d made the wrong one at every turn, and Thomas had paid the price.

  The half hour went surprisingly fast as they sat in mostly silence. Mark held tight to Kira, and Ben understood the need. It would be a long time before they were comfortable without the kids in their arms.

  At nearly dinner time the hospital was busy with meal trays being carried to the less critical rooms. The scent of steamed peas and chicken filled the halls over the antiseptic and sick smells. Thomas was past the regular rooms, and in one encased with glass.

  “Just a few minutes,” the nurse said quietly as she led them into Thomas’s room. “The breathing tube will be removed within the hour. He’s coming out of anesthesia slowly, but his stats are good, improving almost every minute. Go ahead and talk with him. If you have questions, I’ll do my best to answer, otherwise Doctor Lindon will be around soon for rounds.”

  There was a small chair beside the bed that looked much too big for the tall, skinny kid occupying it. His dark hair was a mess, sticking up all over, and the grotesque tube from his mouth was so foreign and wrong it hurt Ben to see it.

  He’d stepped in front of a bullet for her.

  “Thomas,” Kira whispered, holding his limp hand to her cheek. “You big dummy. I’m gonna give you chesties and purple nerples for a week when you’re out of here. Don’t you know you’re supposed to save the girl and not get shot? Only losers get shot.”

  The nurse snorted in laughter, but Ben wasn’t surprised. Kira loved her brother, they all knew it, and that affection and adoration was shown most purely in teasing.

  “He did it to impress Melody.” Mark’s words were a little forced, but he touched Thomas’s dark hair reverently. “He’ll be getting his booboos kissed for the next few months. She’ll probably make him cookies twice a week too.”

  “Then he’ll expect us to name the babies after him,” Ben added, kissing his forehead tenderly. “Thomasina and Thomasia, right, big boy?”

  They stood around his bed, each saying small things, loving things. Ben didn’t want to leave his side, but the five minutes ticked by at breakneck speed. Leaving him when he was so hurt went against everything in her, and the way Mark held tight to his hand told her she wasn’t the only one who was having trouble stepping away.

  The nurse checked in again on minute six. “In a half an hour you can visit again, and hopefully we’ll have the tube out.”

  “Thanks.” Mark nodded to the nurse and then bent and kissed Thomas’s sweat damp brow. “No pinching the nice nurses, young man. Y
ou’ve made me proud since the day you were born, and I know you’re going to wake up so I can tell you how much I love you.”

  “I love you, Thomas.” Kira clung to the side of his bed.

  “He knows,” Mark whispered as he carefully pulled her away and carried her out of the room, both of them looking over his shoulders as they went.

  “Thomas.” Ben kept her words quiet, just for him, as she pushed herself to her aching feet. “We’ll be right outside. Take your time if you need it, honey, but wake up for us.”

  * * * *

  Ben and Kira lay side by side on a hospital sofa asleep. It was after midnight, and they’d visited with Thomas three more times before succumbing to exhaustion. They’d gotten their hands squeezed, and that had reassured them both. Mark had encouraged them to sleep. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to until Thomas was okay.

  During his last visit, alone, Thomas had opened his eyes. Fuzzy and confused, his brown eyes looked up at him with the trust of the child he’d once been, expecting him to make it all better. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do about the wires, blood or pain though. He’d spent the time staring into his boy’s eyes and praying.

  Mark was so damn proud. He wanted to throttle Thomas for putting himself in danger, but he’d saved Ben and the babies, and he couldn’t argue that. One crazy woman had nearly destroyed his entire family, but by God’s grace they would heal and continue on.

  He paced to the waiting room’s window. It was a smaller, private room for families to gather for the long term. He pulled out his cellphone and checked the time. The call he needed to make couldn’t be avoided any longer.

  He would be able to get hold of Kimmy. A message earlier might have been appropriate, but he hadn’t bothered. Kimmy rarely checked her messages, and even when she did she didn’t return his calls. He dialed her work number and waited, resting his head against the cool glass of the hospital window overlooking the nearly empty visitors’ parking lot.