Double Tap (22 page)

I was in the back of a Suburban heading straight to the hospital.

The priest would be meeting us at the chapel in less than twenty minutes. All I had to do was run up and grab Georgia, who’d refused to get married in her room.

Which also meant she’d refused pain meds.

I’d been on the phone when the nurse had said that she was too far along to go down to the chapel. Luckily, I’d lost signal right around the time Georgia had started yelling about ‘heifers’ and ‘stupid bitches.’

When I’d called her back, she’d been apologizing to the nurse saying that the ‘devil made her say it.’

It was actually pretty funny, because, normally,
Georgia was one of the most laid back women I’d ever met. She’d yet to yell at me about how I’d left, even when I’d deserved it.

“Alright, boys,” my mother said. “Here’s your stop.”

She pulled up under the ER entrance awning and waited patiently for the men to pile out of her Suburban.

When it finally cleared out enough, I looked at my mother.

“I love you, mama,” I said softly.

Her eyes closed, and when she opened them again, tears were pouring out of them a mile a minute. “You really hurt my heart,
hijo
.”

I looked down at my hands, resting on my lap. “I know, mama. I didn’t
have a choice, though. If I hadn’t left, one of us could
really
be dead now.”

That’s about when I felt the headrest hit me in the back of the head again, and her eyes started twinkling.

I just shook my head and laughed. The woman deserved a metal for dealing with my shit. She could hit me in the back of the head as many times she wanted if it helped her not cry.

There was literally nothing worse in the world than knowing that I made my own mother cry.

“
Te he echado de mi hijo
,” my mother said as I started to exit the car.

I stopped and turned, looking her in the eyes when I said, “I missed you too, mama.”

She smiled. “Now get in there and make an honest woman of my daughter in law. I’d hate to have to tell the women at church that your child was made and born into sin. I’ll see you in a moment. Just have to park the car first.”

I clenched my teeth and got out of the car before I said something to my mother about what sin really was.

And having a child out of wedlock didn’t even compare to the sins I’d performed in my life. In fact, I saw it as a blessing. A way to repent, and I was going to take full advantage of proving to God and everybody that I wasn’t the bad man that I was made out to be.

Then men were waiting for me inside the entrance as I finally made my way to them, and they walked behind me as we made our way to the chapel.

We got tons of looks.

We were all still decked out in our SWAT gear. The only thing we didn’t have on were the neck guards and the riot shields.

We hadn’t had time to strip. Or, at least, I hadn’t given them the time to do so.

“How do you get to the fucking chapel?” I asked in exasperation four minutes later as we took yet another
wrong turn.

A small woman, about the size of my left thigh and as tall as my shoulder, cleared her throat.

We all looked at her and she visibly shrunk as she received all of our attention.

“The c-chapel’s that w-way,” she stuttered, pointing down the hall.

I nodded and started jogging towards the door, opening it up just as a smothered scream started to escape the closed door.

“Oh, my God! This kid is fucking ripping my uterus apart!” Georgia screamed.

“I’m so going to get fired for this. She shouldn’t have left her room. I had to run down the hallway after her. And by the time I caught up, we were
in the elevator,” a frazzled nurse yelled to the priest.

The priest smiled serenely at the two of them, and then I watched in horror as some clear liquid started to decorate the floor at Georgia’s feet.

“Well,
fuck me. I think my water just broke
,” Georgia exhaled.

I walked up behind her, careful not to slip and fall on the fluid that used to reside inside my soon to be wife’s body, and wrapped my hand around her mouth. “Shhh, you shouldn’t say stuff like that in front of a man of God.”

Georgia’s body slumped in to me and I had to really try hard not to let her drop on her floor when she gave me all of her weight.

“Oomph,” I grunted.

Then she had her legs planted firmly again, and she snapped, “Get on with it,
man. We don’t have all day. That is
, unless you want to go ahead and get our baby baptized after he pops out at your feet.”

My eyes widened, and I heard choked chuckles at my back from the men who’d followed me in here.

“Georgia!” I
reprimanded.

“She can’t help it. She’s on drugs,” the nurse said.

I turned my head to take in the young woman who was holding on to Georgia’s IV pole and asked, “I thought she said she wanted to do this drug free?”

She shrugged. “A lot of women say that before they’ve actually experienced the pain. They change their mind really quick. She’s on
some narcotics as well as a tranquilizer. She really should be sleeping, not getting married.”

Although the reprimand wasn’t malicious, it was there nonetheless.

Georgia ignored it,
though, and turned around to face me. She looked up into my eyes and said, “Marry me.”

I grinned down at her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Who gives this woman away?” The Father Matthew asked.

I looked up just as the doors to the chapel closed, and smiled as my father and mother, as well as my sisters and Georgia’s brothers made their way down the aisle.

“We do!” Her brothers said at once.

Georgia smiled at her brothers lovingly and turned back to face the priest.

The position, although not the traditional one, worked for us.

The next five minutes was spent receiving God’s blessing and pausing to let Georgia work through her contractions.

The nurse stayed at her side the entire time, and I stayed at her back.

“Do you, Georgia, promise to obey…” Father Matthew started.

“Absolutely,” she said quickly, panting.

“And do you promise to honor…” Father Matthew asked, but was again interrupted by Georgia.

“Yes!” She agreed quickly.

He smiled, unbothered by her outburst.

“Do you, Nicolas, take,” he started.

I nodded. “Yes, I promise to love, honor and cherish her for as long as we both shall live.”

“Well. That won’t be long.” A snarling voice said from the back of the room.

I turned to find the man we’d apprehended, not even an hour ago, at the back of the chapel.

He was wearing a white and green hospital gown, and on his wrist was a pair of cuffs.

He had a small .22 pistol in his hand, and he had it aimed directly at Georgia and I.

The room exploded into motion, and nine SWAT team members all had their weapons out and pointing at Andre Fima.

“You ruined my life. I’ll never get to meet my daughter. And since I don’t get to meet my child, you shouldn’t get to meet yours,” Andre snarled, hands shaking badly as he started to tighten his finger on the trigger.

I gritted my teeth and started to pull the trigger, but it proved unnecessary as the door behind Andre pulled open, causing the man to lose his balance.

A round from his .22 shot into the ceiling as he fell, and Georgia’s brother, Darby, startled face turned pale as he saw the man that’d fallen as he’d entered the chapel.

I never thought I’d be happy to see that little shit head, but I was, in that instant.

He didn’t spare the guy that’d just fallen backwards and slammed his head into the tiled floor a second glance as he stomped up the aisle, uncaring of the guns still trained on the creep that was out cold on the floor.

“I cannot fuckin’ believe you wouldn’t invite me to your wedding. Jesus Christ, I feel like I’m the red headed stepchild or somethin’,” he said as he passed Downy. “No offense.”

Downy nodded his head. “None taken,” he rumbled.

“Code black. Code black.” The loud speaker announced as the staff and police officers that were supposed to be taking care of Andre finally realized he was missing.

Andre groaned on the floor, and then suddenly I had a hundred and some odd pounds (‘cause Lord knows I wasn’t going for an exact estimate, she might very well castrate me!) collapse into my arms.

She clutched her stomach and I lurched forward.

The nurse squeaked and grabbed her around the arms long enough for me to get a better grip.

“And I now pronounce you man and wife, you may kiss your bride,” Father Matthew said shakily.

I was fairly sure he’d never stopped talking during the entire thing, so I was sure he’d said a few prayers over us like what was supposed to happen, but I couldn’t scrounge up the effort to care.

“She needs to get up to the floor, now. She was at a nine when we left. There’s no telling what she’s at now, and we don’t have the babies on the monitor anymore,” the nurse said desperately.

I’d been in the process of scooping up Georgia into my arms, but I froze with one hand at her lower back, and the other hand under her knees.

The nurse looked at me like I was crazy. “Aren’t you the father?”

I nodded, pulling Georgia up into my arms in time for her to pant, “Surprise!”

I looked down at my woman and said, “Baby love, you’ve got some ‘splainin to do.”

She grinned painfully up at me, looping her arms around my neck and said, “I was going to tell you.”

I glowered down at her. “Honey,” I hesitated at the door, but Chief Rhodes opened it for me and allowed me to slip out sideways before I started heading to the elevator. “I’ve been at your side every night for going on two months now. There was time.”

She shrugged. “I was holding a grudge.”

Her brothers and my sisters, parents, as well as the nurse, got into the elevator car with us as the nurse pressed the number two button on the instrument panel.

“I see,” I murmured, keeping my eyes straight ahead. “We’ll talk about this later.”

She snorted. “Whatever.”

“Them’s fightin’ words,” one of the brothers murmured from somewhere towards the front.

My sisters laughed, and I wanted to smack them. Alas, my hands were filled with precious cargo,
and I settled for stomping on the nearest one’s foot.

Which happened to be Nikki.

“You knew, didn’t you?” I glared.

She glared back. “What would it matter if I did? You’ve been dead for nine months. What’d you want me to do? Tell your grave? Wasn’t it enough that I sent you prayers in heaven?”

I was a smart man. Or at least I’d thought I was. Then I went and said something stupid like that, and just like that all my anger evaporated. “I love you, Nikki Whicki.”

Her glare dimmed, and her eyes started to fill with tears. “It’s a miracle. I won’t complain. Just don’t ever die on me again. I don’t think my heart can handle that again.”

I heard sniffles from down below me, and I looked down to see Georgia silently crying. “What is it,
mi amor
?”

She sniffled as she said, “I want to have your babies.”

And she did, only a few moments later.

“Put me down,
put me down
!” She screeched.

I hurriedly put her down on the first thing I saw once we exited the elevator, which happened to be a gurney with no sheet.

“Not on that. You don’t know what’s been on that!” The nurse yelled, stripping the first thing she saw, which happened to be Ace’s suit jacket.

Ace, surprised, didn’t fight as the nurse laid the jacket down, silk insides up. Then she grabbed the second nearest thing, which happened to be the Kevlar vest that was dangling from one shoulder where Georgia had shown how much a contraction had hurt only moments before.

I didn’t have much of a choice about laying her down, because Georgia started to do some acrobats and she landed on the gurney on her hands and knees.

“Whoa, I don’t think that’s the way…” Nikki cried, but Georgia was beyond listening.

“If you don’t want to see the goods, I suggest you go the fuck away!” Georgia screamed frenziedly as she started bearing down.

Her brothers and my father turned their backs, forming a shield of muscle and bone to block the spectacle of their sister bringing forth lives of my children.

My sisters stood with their backs to them, as did my mom, as they watched with avid attention.

I, of course, was on the end. I got to see fucking everything!

“You’re taking pictures, right? I want documents of this!” Georgia yelled.

So what do my sister’s do? They pull their fuckin’ phones out.

“Please, for all that’s holy, don’t get that huge cooch in the shot,” Nikki yelled since she was closer to the head.

Georgia snapped her tiny fist out and punched Nikki in the boob. “It’s not huge!”

I snorted, and her crazy eyes turned to me.

I shut my mouth.

I was stupid at times…not suicidal.

But
motherfucker
, her vagina was…massive.

It’d looked like a gaping maw of a black hole…but then I started to realize it wasn’t a ‘black hole’ but a black head full of hair. Covered in stuff that I wished to not think about, but it was a head nonetheless.

“Oh, my God! I need an epidural!” Georgia shrieked.

I winced at the sheer volume she’d reached, but my eyes stayed glued to the miracle that was happening in front of me.

I hadn’t thought that I’d be here to witness the birth of our child. I’d resigned myself to missing it. Now that I was here, though, experiencing it, I was humbled.

A doctor exiting the cafeteria must’ve heard the commotion as she came over. She quickly shouldered her way in between my sister’s and the line of brothers to Georgia’s back, snapping on gloves as she went.

She got there just in time to catch my first child. A boy.

I had a fucking boy!

“It’s a boy!” I whooped as the very pissed off infant started squalling.