Fostering Love (The Soul Sisters Series Book 1) (34 page)

“Whoa, Lettie, you said we were just gonna have some fun, shake her up a bit and then move on.  You’re way too invested in this and wielding knives at folk when they’re tied up is not what is classed as fun,” says Billy.

“Pussy!  Just shut the fuck up.  You’re a God damn pussy Billy,” and she leaves me to swing round at him with the knife.  “Just fucking go, before I use you as practice.”  He waits a few seconds, shrugs his shoulders and then turns on his heels and leaves.

“NO. DON’T LEAVE ME.  Take me with you or call for help. Please.”  I’m getting so hysterical that I can’t tell whether I’m sobbing in fear of being left with this crazy demented person or because of the pain my body is enduring.

Billy opens the door and steps out making a tripping sound, but then he goes quiet.  Letitia then goes to the counter beside me and puts her head in her hands for a moment or two.

“Hey Lettie baby,” Billy shouts from outside, “forgot the truck keys can you bring ‘em to me?”

“What? Fuck no, come and get them yourself and then piss off outta my hair,” she shouts back and returns her attentions to me.  The door opens slowly and gently and in sneaks Chris with his fingers up at his lips willing me to keep quiet.  Letitia is facing me so she assumes its Billy and pays him no attention.  I cry harder to keep her attention on me and at the last minute she turns round to be greeted with a punch to the side of her head, knocking the bitch out cold.

“OW, fuck, shit,” I scream.  Tits is lying at my feet unconscious and I don’t care whether she is dead or alive right now.  The pain in my stomach is horrific and I’m gritting my teeth and grunting air through them on deep breaths.

“Dalton,” I hear Jonas shout, “Chris, what the fuck is going on in there?  What’s wrong with Dalton?”

“S’OK, Letitia is out cold, gonna tie her up first, but if you’ve finished toying with that fucker you should get in here, Dolly doesn’t look good.”

“Chris,”
pant pant pant,
“untie me, I hurt really badly and my babies are hurting too, something is up with them.”

Chris has secured that bitch against a fixed pole in the kitchen and she doesn’t look like she is going to wake up or go anywhere soon.  He comes to me and starts untying me as Jonas appears in the door.  I wince through having my hands released and start to breathe deep again.  At this point I don’t know what hurts the most, the pain in my abdomen or the blood rushing back to feet and arms.

“Shit, babe, tell me what hurts? You? The babies?” He has a look on his face that I’ve never seen before and I think it’s a reflection of my own.  Fear.

“Not sure.  Everything.  All of me,”
pant pant pant
“don’t think the babies are happy with this trailer vacation.  How did you find me?”

“Not important now.  Listen stay as calm as you can, but the truck is some way off, I’ll need to carry you to it.”  He takes my hands and runs a thumb over my bleeding wrists.  “Baby, God, I’m so sorry,” he whispers but can’t look at me when he says it.

“OK.  OK.  Enough.  Just get me the fuck out of here,” he helps me stand up and then I feel a tiny bit of relief, the opportunity to stretch my body is bliss.  I feel better in myself just for stretching and letting my bladder go. 

What! Oh fuck.

“Jesus Christ, Chris! Time to move, I think her waters just broke,” Jonas shouts.

“What! No, they didn’t.”  But of course they did, I wouldn’t knowingly wet myself, and a panic of a different kind hits me along with more pain.  The pain stops me in my tracks “Wait,”
pant pant pant,
“need to breathe,”
pant pant pant “
through this,” I say and he literally lets me have a minute or two before he loses his patience.

“OK.  Keep breathing, but we have to move,” he swings me up into his arms and chest and heads out of my temporary prison.  Outside I see Chris has finished securing Billy, but his face is unrecognizable.  It’s a mixture of swollen blood filled cuts and his arm is tied up at a very odd angle.  It looks like it’s barely in his shoulder socket.  I don’t care though, he brought this wrath on himself and I now understand what kept Jonas busy whilst Chris was in the trailer.  “You run ahead and get the truck as close to the scrub as possible,” he says to Chris, “then call the sheriff and tell them where to come and find these fuckers, call the hospital and tell them to expect us and you’d best call Neely and Barbara too.  They’re worried sick.”

“On it,” and he runs into the bush whilst Jonas does a light jog with me as best as he can to keep me comfortable.  He’s not struggling with my weight or out of breath but he’s trying his best to not jiggle me around too much.

“STOP!” I scream.  “Pain.  Shit.  Fucking Pain.  Put me down need to bend,” and he gently lowers me to the ground and helps me bend at an odd angle as I breathe through what are clearly contractions.  It’s obvious now, and I should feel stupid for not realizing, but I give myself a pass.  My mind was occupied on other dramas.

“Baby we need to keep moving, are you good to go again?” And as soon as I agree he swings me up a lot less gently this time and starts moving through the bushes.  We stop again about three more times and each time he gets us back on the move quicker on the way to the truck,  as we get closer I hear the engine of a truck and see headlights lighting up the way.  We round the last bush and Chris is waiting with the door open.

“Phone calls made.  Sheriff’s on route although he wasn’t pleased when I mentioned Billy may also need a trip to the ER, but still, he understood when I mentioned you’d had been outside ‘chatting’ to Billy.”

“Not now Chris, for fuck’s sake, help me get her in the back.”  Both of them swing me in the truck and Jonas climbs in with me.  I sit forward and perch on the edge of the seat and grip the head rest in front of me.  Jonas climbs in beside me and starts to rub my back in an effort to offer me some comfort.  Chris rallies down some tracks towards the main highway and the bumping of the truck is helping divert my focus and forcing me to regulate my breathing.

“Careful man,” Jonas shouts at him.

“Sorry dude.”

“No.  Keep going, I’m fine,” I intervene.

“Settled then, Dolly’s speed is far more exciting, let’s go with that,” and before I know it we hit the highway where I hear the engine roar and feel it pick up speed.  Within twenty minutes we’re screeching to a halt outside the ER doors and a couple of medical looking people are waiting with a wheel chair.  Jonas peels me out of my crazy position in the back of the truck, lifts me and places me in the chair where I am wheeled at speed past Barbara and Neely.

“Oh my God, Dolly dear, you doing ok?  Jonas why are her wrists bleeding and swollen and why do your knuckles look like that?”

“Not now Barbara, later, can’t you see what’s going on here?  Stop asking stupid shit...”

“Arrrggghhhh,” I yell and start grunting like an animal.

“Hi, I’m Doctor Booth and unless you’re in this party as either a partner, husband, father or designated Lamaze coach you need to head for the waiting room,” he says as we hit a delivery suite.  It’s loaded with incubators, kit and equipment I can’t even begin to understand what it could be used for.

Jonas lifts me out of the chair and places me on the bed.

“Hello Dalton, apparently you’ve had an exciting day, well I think your evening is going to be adventurous too.  I’m going to take a look downstairs and see what’s going on, whilst Tina our shift nurse checks yours and the babies vitals.  We’ll also get someone to come and look at your other injuries if that’s OK?”

“Yes yes yes yes.  Pain. Drugs. Anything. NOW!” I demand and Jonas panics as he grabs for my hand. “YOU DID THIS. YOU.  You fucker I’m never letting you touch me again,” I shout at him.

“Shit baby, ease up on the grip. Doc give her the drugs now.  Drugs are the way forward for all of us. Trust me,” he says “In fact if you knock her out now you’d be saving us both from permanent ear damage.”

“Not funny!”

“Come on baby, let the doc do his thing.  One step at a time,” he says in a placating voice that just earns him a growl.

“I hate it when you try and reason with me,” and then the doctor parts my legs and puts them in stirrups whilst the nurse fusses over the top of half of me.  In typical bad timing style Neely wanders through the door in time to get a great shot of my doo-da open for the world to see.

“Wow.  Dolly hun, you OK?  I understand you probably don’t need to hear this now but when we get you out of here we need to discuss you’re grooming regime, you need a wax girl.”

“NEELY! Fucking hell, stop looking at my cooch and get up this end,” I shout.

“Dalton,” says the doctor from his awkward seating position, “the good news is you don’t really need a wax at all.”  My mouth falls open at his inappropriateness, “The bad news is the hair that your friend spotted here is baby hair, which means we’re too far into the game for pain medication.  You’re going to need to do this the old fashioned way as nature intended.  So, on the next pain you feel you’re going to push like you’re trying to have a poop.  But most important, is that you listen to me and you push when I say so and stop when I tell you to. OK?”

“Wait. What? They’re not coming yet, I haven’t been in labor long enough.  It’s supposed to be days or hours and I know it’s been neither of those!” I shout.

“I think maybe you have been, but you’ve had other things on your mind and been trooping through it.  Stick with me on this and in a little while we’ll meet your babies.”  He finishes as a pain grabs hold of me.

“AARRGGGHH,” I yell as I breathe and grunt and push like he told me to.  Neely is offering me useless words of support and Jonas is mute, like someone has cut his tongue out.  He’s staring at me like I’ve got the answer to all first world problems.  I finish pushing when the doctor tells me.

“Great work Dalton, take a breather for a minute and get ready for the next one, you’re doing really well.  Just keep doing the same ok?”

“Yes,” I pant at him, “Jonas stop looking at me like that, either help me or bugger off,” and that snaps him out of it.

“Sorry baby. I just... I can’t..., I... wow... Shit, the peanuts are coming.  God I can’t believe it,” he whispers at me and another pain hits so I repeat my breathing, grunting, pushing thing whilst squeezing the shit out of any hand that is brave enough to hold mine.

“OK.  Stop.  Baby’s head is out.  Well done, you’re doing perfectly” says the doctor smiling at me. “Another big push and you’ll be a momma,” and that makes me cry.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God,” but I get quickly distracted as pain hits and I push like there is no tomorrow.

“Brilliant Dalton, push.  Here he or she comes,” and after what feels like hours I drop my head back to the pillow and gasp for air as a scream fills the room.  Neely is beside herself with emotion and Jonas is gazing in awe at the messy screwed up bundle of skin I’ve just pushed out of my body. 

“As you can hear baby A has a good set of lungs, the right number of toes and fingers and is a girl.”  The doctor cuts the cord and the nurse takes her in a towel to cover her up.

I can’t believe I did that and as I start to ask if she’s OK, I feel another contraction and begin the whole process again.  Neely heads off to make sure A is OK whilst Jonas stays with me holding my hand and kissing it. 

He still hasn’t said anything, he looks dumbfounded. 

After a few minutes a head appears first, followed by a set of shoulders on another push and baby B joins the world.

“Well Mom and Dad, you have another daughter.  Congratulations,” says the doctor.

“Why can’t I hear her?  Jonas why is B not crying?” I ask in despair.

“OK don’t panic the nurse is looking at her now,” he says, and it’s the first thing he’s said in ages.  I lift my head and see the nurse and second doctor using a sucker thing up her nose, whilst the other rubs her chest vigorously with a towel.  Time stops and only the medical team are talking, all eyes are on our second daughter and the only thing I can do is pray to all the Gods in our world that B is given the chance of life all babies deserve.

All of a sudden a loud wail fills the room and everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief whilst I break down into tears.  It’s not long before Jonas leans over to cuddle me and then falls to his knees beside the bed and I realize he is crying too.  Through his tears I hear him mumbling “Thank you” and “Thank you God” and “I love you Dalton” which only makes me cry more.

The doctor, who is still at the end of the bed by my feet then tells me that we have to carry on with the process and finish off.  I’m all OK and once this is done, they cover me and bring our babies to us.  For the first time Jonas and I are as nervous as each other, neither of us have ever done this before.  The girls both look the same and as I’d already decided to bottle feed, a nurse helps us get the babies into position so we can each feed one of our daughters.

I look to Jonas who is totally wrapped up in his task, the look of love and wonderment and devotion is beguiling, but it’s nothing compared to the look of love and appreciation I feel when our eyes meet.  His eyes convey everything he wants to tell me. 

He’s besotted. 

He loves me completely and he’s truly thankful for the family we’ve just become.