Another One Bites the Dust (21 page)

 I called myself ten times a fool when I realized that the light from the phone would be like a homing beacon to the person who was in the room with me.  The baby’s sniffles continued, and my head dropped in despair.  Surely whoever it was would figure out we were hiding behind the door, but I was wrong.

The slight clicking every other step exited the room and walked away from the door.  Letting out a breath I’d been unaware that I was holding, I eased out from behind the door and peeked outside when I was grabbed from behind.  A hand covered my mouth, and I bit down instinctively before the smell and body made me aware of who it was that was holding me.

“Motherfucker.”  A very deep voice said from behind me.

I went limp in Max’s arms.  My legs threatened to give, and Max cursed again as he readjusted his grip.  He snaked his arm around the front of my abdomen, just above my belly, and right below the infant I had strapped to my chest.

The baby felt the motion and gave an experimental wiggle, but quickly found comfort and dropped back off to sleep.  “You scared the piss out of me.”

“You should have stayed behind the door.”  Max countered.

“How did you get in here?”  I asked.

I was confused.  If he was still in here, then who had come into the room, and why did I only hear one person’s set of feet enter?  “Who just left?”

“I don’t know.”  He said nearly silent.  “I want you to stay in here.  I haven’t found Alpha, and I’ve already made one round.  He’s stalking something and staying on the move.”

For once, I didn’t argue with him.  My bravado fled the instant I felt his body against mine.  Moreover, there wasn’t much I could do with an infant strapped to my chest.  I didn’t want to get us killed just because I wanted to stay with him.  He didn’t need to know that I was so terrified that I could barely keep the shakes under control.  That my heart was pounding a mile a minute.  That I was on the verge of puking.  If he didn’t leave, I was sure I would cling to him and never let go.  Somehow, I found the will, and forced myself to tell him that I would stay and not move.

“Okay.”  I said nearly as silent as he did.

He gave me a soft kiss on the lips, and then left the room so silently that I wouldn’t have known that he left if I hadn’t felt a shift in the air as he passed.  I said a silent prayer to myself that he would be all right, and then went to my original position in the corner of the door. 

I slid my back along the wall until my butt met the cool tiles.  My knees were pulled up as far as I could get them, cradling the baby between my knees and chest.  The baby wiggled around at the scrunched up position, and I couldn’t help but smile, so happy that I would have one of my own very soon. 

What started this whole ordeal was that I’d forgotten to go to my yearly exam with my gynecologist.  I’d been stressed with my nursing boards and finding a job.  Since this was the year that I was supposed to have the implant in my arm replaced, I wasn’t protected as I’d thought I had been when I slept with Max in August.  When I finally took the time to notice that my period was late, I was nearly ten weeks pregnant.

Seeing as I was a nurse who worked with babies, I should have known better.  I felt like a complete moron.  Not that I was upset about it.  I knew Max would be an excellent father as soon as I met him.  He interacted so well with all of the kids he came into contact with.  Hell, one time I walked into the room and he was singing a lullaby to  Cora and I swear my ovaries started shooting out eggs for his torpedo to fertilize.

Not really, but the man was a serious turn on when he sang, and for him to sing while holding a baby was a completely different ball game.  I’ve yet to hear him sing to me, but it was definitely something I begged for him to do often.  His response to my bugging was that he wasn’t a singer.  No matter how deep his voice was, it didn’t mean that he could sing.  He’s said he sounded like a “badger having his asshole ripped out” to be specific.  With that vivid image, I’d left him alone for the time being.

The whisper of air clued me in that someone entered the room again.  I closed my eyes and hoped that it was Max instead of the psycho bitch that took out Cheyenne.  When the man took his first step inside I knew that it wasn’t Max because I could hear footsteps.

Max was silent as a wraith when he left the room.  This person had heavy footsteps.  He also ran into the baby’s bed and then cursed up a storm. 

“Nurse!”  Stacy whimpered from the bed.

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and prayed that whoever it was, wasn’t bad.  Maybe it was just the maintenance person here to fix the lights.  On the other hand, maybe he was a cop.  Yes, definitely a cop.  This would be one of the first floors to have police on, right?

Then he went and killed my hopes by muttering a “Shut up, bitch.”

Of course, I wasn’t that lucky.  I was just thankful that he hadn’t closed the door, and that I was small enough to fit behind it while the door was open.  The baby chose that moment to make the hungry baby grunts that signaled that she was perilously close to waking up and working herself into a full-blown panic if she wasn’t fed right that instant.  I jiggled her slightly, quieting her down quickly, but it didn’t help.  He knew there was a baby in the room.

“Where’s your baby?”  The man asked Stacy.

“T-the n-nurse h-has her.”  Stacy cried.

“Where is she?”  He asked.

“Behind the door.”  Stacy snickered.

I found myself blinded by the flashlight the man held, and then I was pulled out by my ponytail.  I threw myself onto my side and curled protectively around the baby.  Crying out from the pain in my scalp, I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to breathe through the pain.  My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I could feel it all over my entire body.

“So, Payton, did you miss me?”  The man said, and it was then that it finally registered as to why the voice sounded familiar. 

“Rory.  What the heck are you doing here?”  I said calmly, even though I was feeling anything but calm.

I had to keep him talking.  Maybe if I kept him talking, then Max would be able to handle him.  A sharp wrench on my hair made the tears that were threatening to spill before finally took the plunge down my cheeks.  The baby that was strapped to my body started wailing again, and it was all I could do not to match her scream for scream.

“Rory, please calm down.  I have a baby in my arms.  You could really hurt her.  Please.”  I choked out.

 “Calm?  I’m anything but calm.  That boyfriend of yours has ruined my calm.”  He seethed.

My brows pulled together in confusion.  “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t play innocent with me.  You sent him after me.  He threatened me.  Got me fired from my job.  I lost my house, my girlfriend, and now I’m beyond calm.”  He accentuated each point my giving my hair a vicious yank after each item.

I breathed heavily through my mouth, trying desperately not to throw up from the pain.  Alpha’s malicious growl from the hallway beyond startled Rory enough that he let my hair go so quickly that my head pounded onto the tiled floor.  He stood quickly, and I took the opportunity to back away from him.

Rory’s flashlight swung to the open door, but the only thing that could be seen was the door closing quietly.  Almost as if someone had pushed it open, and then immediately let it close.  I squeezed my body as tight underneath the hospital bed as I could get.  There was barely any room, but somehow I made it work.  Alpha was still snarling somewhere in the hallway beyond the room we were in, and I had the sick feeling that maybe Max wasn’t all right if he wasn’t in here yet.

I patted the baby’s bottom without thought.  She was in a full-blown roar, and I didn’t think I’d calm her down unless she got something to eat.  At least I hoped that was the problem and not something that had to do with her fall.  As soon as we got through with this shit-fest, I would definitely be saying something to my boss about her decision to let this girl see her child.  I didn’t care who was in the room with her; there would be consequences here.

“Whose damn dog is that?”  Rory asked.  “Where’d you go, Pay?”

His flashlight swung back and forth across the floor of the room.  Just as his flashlight beam met the edge of my feet, a sickening thud, followed by a moan, and then a heavy body falling to the floor.  The flashlight rolled across the floor until it came to rest against my foot, and I snatched it up quickly before killing the light. 

“It’s okay, Pet.  It’s just me.”  Max said quietly before hunkering down beside me.  His arms came out and framed my face, and I instantly felt better.  My stomach stopped rolling and even the baby quieted down to a weep instead of wailing.

“What’s going on?”  I asked him.

“The lights for the generator are working on every floor except for this one.  The only person that would have the knowledge to cut off only one floors power would be an experienced electrician.  It all makes sense that Rory is here now seeing as he’s worked on the hospital’s power grid before.”

As soon as he mentioned the power, the lights flickered twice before blinking on, blinding in their intensity.  I surveyed the room, and then looked down to the little girl who was startled out of her crying.  I reached over to the cradle, grabbed an infant nursette bottle, and started feeding the hungry baby.  She attacked the nipple as if she was starving, making hungry sucking noises.  Max chuckled at the little pig noises she was making.

“What about the woman?”  I asked while looking the baby over for any noticeable injuries.

I felt his body go immobile, his breathing freeze, and then a cackling laugh came from behind Max.  Max slowly turned and faced the woman who had laughed like a horror movie reject.

I recognized her immediately, and saw red.  This woman was paid to watch the young mother, and was very close to harming an innocent child with her careless disregard of her job.  I was so upset that it took me a moment to realize that Max had his gun in his hand pointing straight at the aid.

“What’s going on?”  I asked with a deep foreboding.

“Oh, not much.”  The woman said with an evil smile on her face.  It made her look all wrong.  Where earlier I was just uneasy around her, now I felt downright disturbed.

“Put your gun down, darling.  Surprised to see me?”  She asked.

I turned and looked at Max.  His face was set as hard as granite.  He was working his jaw, as if he was afraid if he didn’t clinch it he would say something that would set the woman off.  His eyes flicked down, and then just as quickly flicked back up.

“Tell your dog to back off.”  The woman said before bringing the backpack she had strapped to her back around to give it a good shake in front of her body.  The sound of snuffling, and then a lusty cry reverberated through the quiet room, and I could no longer hold the throw up that had been stewing for the past few hours.  I bent over and puked until all that was left was dry heaves.

What is wrong with this women and hurting innocent babies.  How were we going to get the baby away from her?  What if the baby was hurt?  Whose baby was it?  All these thoughts continued swirling through my mind as Max said the command for Alpha to stand down.  He stopped where he was, but didn’t stop the menacing growling.

“I’m going to leave this floor, and if you don’t have anyone follow me, I’ll leave the baby on the elevator.”  She said as she carefully placed the backpack back over her shoulder.

“O’Hare, keep your word.”  Max said as he lowered his weapon.

O’Hare backed out of the room, and then disappeared into the chaos of the hallway.  Nobody stopped her.  The alarms that signal that a baby was leaving the authorized area flared to life, but were quickly extinguished as she found a way to override the locked elevator and shut them off.  Bile threatened to rise again, but one look at Max’s face helped me persist through the nausea.

He had his phone to his ear, and started speaking authoritatively to whoever was on the other end.  I walked out into the hallway to see the rest of the nursing staff running towards the elevator.

“Why did it unlock?”  Tina cried as she watched the numbers flow down to the basement level.

Max was there with me, gun tucked back into his holster.  “Stay here, I’m going down to the basement as soon as I see that the baby is on the elevator.”

We all watched with bated breath as the elevator returned back to the third floor.  The doors swished open, and every last one of the nurses that were crowded around the elevator let out a loud cheer, and then started to cry.  We all felt responsible for the fact that we lost a baby.  It was our job to make sure that they were safe and protected, and we had all failed.

Tina bent down to scoop the baby up.  Dressed in the hospital attire of onesie and animal blanket, she looked oblivious to the world.  Not even disturbed in the slightest to be lying on the floor.  Thank God.

Max left within the next minute, following the same route down to the basement.  It was only then that I realized that he was by himself going after a psycho woman.  Saying a small prayer, I went back to work.  I checked over the small infant who was still strapped to my chest by the bed sheet.  The doctor pronounced her fit as a fiddle, and then returned to the other babies to do his rounds.

Cheyenne was propped up in a rolling desk chair at the nurses station with a white cold pack pressed to her bandaged forehead.  “This is your entire fault.”  She moaned.

My stomach dropped and I closed my eyes tightly, but then snapped back open when she said, “I told you I needed that stun gun!  Why didn’t you let me get it?”

My mouth hung agape.  “You’re seriously trying to blame this on me because I told you not to buy a stun gun from that homeless guy on the side of the hospital?”

“He wasn’t homeless!  He was a legitimate business man.  He even had business cards.”  She laughed and then groaned clutching her head.

“Cheyenne, those cards weren’t even in his name!”  I guffawed.

She glared at me, but then there was commotion at the elevators drawing everyone’s attention. 

“Back away.”  A deadly calm voice told the rookie cop at the elevator.