Chapter Thirty-One

 

 

 

Jared

 

 

 

 

 

 

I watched as Stephanie hugged both detectives, thanking them profusely. I bounced Chris, trying to calm him down, but I knew he needed to get out of the chaos and into a more sedate environment before he’d even consider it.

Stephanie was saying something when officers yelled off to the side. I watched Angela fall to the ground. As the officers and EMTs began to rush towards her, a bad feeling settled in my gut. I was about to voice my concerns when Angela jumped up with a gun in her hand and pointed it right at Stephanie.

That moment was absolutely the hardest moment of my life. Every cell inside of me screamed to protect the people I loved. That meant I wanted to shove Stephanie to the side, out of the way, and to duck behind a car with Chris.

I couldn’t do both.

I did what I knew I had to do and turned my body so Chris was shielded. When the gunshots went off, I tensed up and waited. Once I heard the police yell that the suspect was detained, I turned back around and looked.

At first I thought that Angela hadn’t been able to get a shot off. She was the only person down and Stephanie looked fine when I ran my eyes across her body. As I was sweeping my gaze back up, I did a double take.

Blood was soaking the bottom of her shirt.

“Stephanie!”

She turned her head to look at me and her expression was extremely confused for a second. Her hand slowly came up to touch where the blood was and she suddenly teetered. I rushed forward as she began to collapse but Kevin beat me to it, laying her gently on the ground while yelling for the paramedics.

“Steph? Sweetheart?” I fell to my knees next to her with Chris still crying in my arms. She turned those pale blue eyes on me and blinked several times. “Stay awake, Steph. Stay with me.”

“She’s losing blood too fast,” Kevin said, his voice frantic as he covered her wound with his hand to try and staunch the bleeding. “Damn it.”

Stephanie held her bloody hand up and looked at it curiously before it fell limply to her side. Her eyes locked on mine again. Paramedics grabbed me by the shoulders to move me but I couldn’t leave her.

She mumbled something but the only thing I could make out was my name. Her eyes slowly started to close and I shook my head.

“No, baby. You have to stay awake. Stay awake, Stephanie!”

“Jared, you need to let them work.” Valerie pulled me away and I watched in horror as they lifted my girlfriend onto a stretcher. They yelled something about an IV, blood loss, and a heartrate as they began to wheel her to an ambulance and I followed automatically. A hand on my arm stopped me.

“Another ambulance is coming to transport you guys to the hospital,” Valerie told me in a gentle voice. “We’re going to the same place they’re taking Steph.”

The realization of what had just happened hit me hard. An hour ago I thought I might lose my son and now I had him back but could possibly lose the love of my life. I’d traded one horror for another.

“Breathe,” Valerie commanded. Her hand rubbed across my back and I sucked in a deep breath. Chris was still crying in my arms and I ripped my eyes away from where the ambulance had been to stare at my son.

“Sorry, buddy,” I whispered hoarsely. “You’re okay. Stephy is going to be okay. We’re all fine.” I pulled him to my chest and pressed my lips to the top of his head while trying to keep my emotions in check.

Another ambulance, the third of the night, showed up and I stepped up inside with Chris still in my arms. Both Val and Kevin told me that they’d meet us at the hospital and all I could do was nod. The doors were closed and we started moving as someone began examining Christopher.

“Besides needing a bath, a new diaper, and some food, he seems okay,” the EMT said as she sat back in the chair across from us. “They’ll be able to get you supplies at the hospital. They might want to admit him but I doubt it.”

I nodded and hugged my son to my chest. His cries had subsided for the most part but the pitiful whimpers were killing me. I knew he had to be starving and his diaper was disgusting, basically useless at that point. But he was okay. That was what mattered.

We arrived at the hospital, a different one than where I’d visited Chris all those months before, and a small team of people met us at the back of the ambulance. A doctor tried to direct me into a curtained-off area but I shook my head.

“My girlfriend was brought here. She was shot. How is she?”

“They just took her up to surgery, Mr. Hart,” the young doctor told me with an apologetic look on his face. I tightened my hold on my son, trying to find some comfort, and let them usher me into the exam room.

I sat on a hospital bed with Chris in my lap as he was given a more thorough examination. His screams picked back up again and he clung to my shirt desperately, as if he was afraid that he was going to be taken from me again.

“He looks okay,” the doctor told me as a nurse appeared with a basin of soapy water. “Perhaps slightly dehydrated so I want to get some formula into him. He’s going to need a bath but I know you want to get upstairs.”

I nodded gratefully and took the washcloth from the nurse. I ran it over Chris’s hair, torso, and legs. When I had to pry my shirt out of his grip so I could lay him down, his cries intensified until he was screaming bloody murder.

We got the soiled diaper off and my chest hurt when I saw how red his skin was underneath. We cleaned him off the best we could and the doctor gave me some diaper rash cream to slather over him. Once he had the clean diaper on and a pediatric hospital gown, the only clean clothing they could find for him, I was given a two-ounce bottle of ready-made formula. Chris saw it and cried a bit louder and whimpered even after it was in his mouth and he was sucking it down.

“There are several more two ounce bottles in this bag,” the nurse explained as she put a bag on the bed next to me. “Along with another gown, some more ointment, and some diapers. He’s eating that so fast that he’ll likely spit most of it up. The next bottle should go down a bit easier when he’s not as frantic. I’ll take you upstairs and you can call down here if you need anything more, Mr. Hart.”

I thanked her, took the bag with Chris in one arm, and followed her to the elevator. She pressed the button for the second floor, wished me luck, and stepped back. When the elevator chimed to let me know we had made it to the surgical floor, I moved quickly towards the desk were a woman was sitting.

“Any news on Stephanie Gibson?”

“Are you family, sir?” she asked with a curious look on her face. I bounced on my feet when Chris started to whimper again around the bottle.

“I’m her boyfriend. Is she going to be okay?”

She raised her eyebrows and glanced around me. “Are you sure? Because that’s the line that gentleman used.”

I turned, extremely confused, and my eyes quickly settled on a big man that I recognized from the bar all those weeks before. He saw me at the same time and stood up.

“Shit, I’m sorry.” He moved forward to the desk and shook his head. “My name was listed as her emergency contact and I didn’t think they’d tell me anything if I mentioned we had broken up.” He looked at the woman and shook his head. “I’m her ex-boyfriend. This guy right here is really her boyfriend.”

She looked between us both suspiciously before glancing at her computer and then giving me an apologetic look. “I don’t have any updates. She hasn’t been back there long. A doctor should come out to update you when we know more.”

“Okay.” I swallowed and took a deep breath. “I don’t have my phone but I need to figure out some way to let her family know what’s going on. Do you have a computer I can use?” I knew I could at least send off an email to Marco and go from there.

“I did it,” Troy said quietly from beside me. “Richard and Elaine are on their way. Do you want me to call anyone for you?”

I shook my head and walked over to the chairs he had been sitting in before and took a seat two down from him. “I don’t think so.”

I looked down at Chris and took the empty bottle from him. I tossed a cloth the nurse had given me over my shoulder and put him upright to burp him. He whimpered slightly and I knew that he had a stomachache from eating too fast. Sure enough, he spit up thirty seconds later on a large belch, and I cleaned him up before getting a few more burps out of him.

He was exhausted, though. He drank the second bottle a lot slower and the moment it was gone, he turned his face so it was hidden in the crook of my elbow and passed out. I dropped my head into the palm of my free hand and sighed.

“What the hell happened?”

Looking up at Troy, I shook my head instead of answering. I couldn’t without losing the composure I’d managed to keep ahold of so far. I looked down at my son and cleared my throat.

“Can you text Briana for me?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Yeah, of course.”

I rattled off a message for him to send to her, asking her or Marco to run by my place to get a few things. Troy had just sent it when Elaine and Richard arrived. Elaine’s face was tear-stained and she darted across the room when she saw Troy and I sitting there.

“Is he okay?” she asked through her tears as she hugged me to her, squishing Chris between us. He was so tired that it didn’t even faze him. When she let us go, she reached out and ran her hand through his hair.

“He was dirty and hungry but she didn’t hurt him.” I choked on the last word. She hadn’t hurt him thankfully but she had hurt someone else. Elaine seemed to know where my thoughts went because she reached up and cupped my cheek while giving me a teary smile.

“I raised some strong kids, Jared. Stephanie is going to be fine.”

She took the seat between Troy and me and took one of our hands in each of her own. Richard took the spot on my other side and quietly asked if I wanted him to take Chris. When I shook my head, he gave me a nod that said he understood that I needed to hold my son for my sanity.

About twenty minutes went by before the elevator chimed and both Kevin and Valerie stepped out. Kevin had cleaned up a bit but I could still see traces of Stephanie’s blood on his shirt. They both walked over to where we were and asked if we’d heard anything.

When we told them no, they moved to take their seats. Kevin handed me both my phone and Steph’s and I tucked them in my pocket while murmuring my thanks.

“Angela survived all four gunshots somehow,” he told me and I felt my eyes widen in shock. He nodded his head twice. “I had the same reaction. I have no idea how. She took all four to the torso, though, and she’s in surgery, too. If she makes it through, Jared, she’ll have some hefty charges against her. She’ll be going to prison.”

“Good,” I muttered, feeling mixed emotions. I obviously didn’t want to see Angela dead but bitterness flooded my veins when I thought of a scenario where she made it and Steph didn’t. The thought of not having Stephanie was enough to make me feel lightheaded and I had to force myself to think about something else. Anything else.

“The man with her was just some user who was letting her stay at the house he was squatting in. We’ve booked him on charges of possession but it doesn’t seem like he was involved at all. He said that Angela left this morning and came back with a baby but had no idea what to do with him. We found Chris in an old, beat to hell playpen and it sounds like she put him in there and left him all day. The crying didn’t seem to faze her and the guy was so high that he didn’t care either.”

“A helpless baby was crying in the corner and he didn’t care,” I growled, mad that he didn’t help him but glad that Chris hadn’t been physically harmed. “What is wrong with people?”

Those who loved Stephanie continued to arrive. Kate and Austin both showed up at the same time, explaining that they had left all four kids with Rhea. Robin and Keon appeared shortly after, looking frantic.

When Alyssa arrived, her blue eyes were full of tears and she had wrapped her arms around herself. Elaine stood for the fourth time and embraced the young woman just as she began to sob. Stephanie’s mother whispered to her and rocked Alyssa back and forth for a few moments. Once she was calm, Alyssa moved to take a seat next to Keon.

Briana and Marco were the last to arrive. She looked like she was desperately trying to keep a brave face and he just looked ill. They had Chris’s stroller and the spare diaper bag from my place, both of which were a welcome sight.

I didn’t want to put him down but I knew he’d sleep better if I did. I placed my son into the reclined stroller and he immediately rolled to his side. He let out a slight whimper and I dug around in the diaper bag until I found one of the loveys I had asked Bri and Marco to grab from his crib. I placed it against his cheek and Chris’s little hand reached up to hold it there, calming him down instantly.

“He’s okay?” Bri asked, her voice a whisper, and I nodded in confirmation. She reached out and touched his bare foot for a second before covering him with a receiving blanket she had pulled from the diaper bag.

It had been a little more than two hours since I’d come up, three since Stephanie had been shot, when a doctor finally appeared from the back. His forehead was damp with sweat and I could tell he had changed into a fresh scrub shirt. The pants were old, though, and I caught sight of a small blood stain on his thigh.

“Family of Stephanie Gibson?”

Everyone stood and both Elaine and Richard stepped forward, the former dragging me with her as she spoke. “We’re her parents. Is she okay?”

“My name is Dr. Erickson, the general surgeon who worked on your daughter. Stephanie should be heading into post-operative care as we speak,” he replied with a tired smile. “The bullet entered through her stomach and nicked the inferior vena cava. She lost a lot of blood very quickly and had to receive a blood transfusion to replenish her platelets. I was able to remove the bullet and repair the vein. We’re lucky that it only nicked it and that she was so close to the hospital. It could have been a lot worse but she’s a trooper.”

“Oh, thank god.” A rush of air left my lungs and I let my head droop back. Someone’s hand squeezed my shoulder and I heard hysterical laughter sound from someone else. The relief in the room was palpable.

“We’ll have her moved out of recovery and into her own room soon,” Dr. Erickson was saying. “She’s going to be on some heavy pain killers for the night, though, so we don’t expect her to be ready for conversation anytime soon. I’ll have someone come let you know when she’s moved and we’ll allow you to see her in small increments.”

He turned to leave and I was suddenly engulfed in hugs. The Gibson family was certainly affectionate and I think I was embraced more in that few hour span than I had been in the previous three years combined. I wasn’t complaining, though. Being accepted into their fold and having them to lean on was a privilege.

The only people who left were Kevin, Valerie, Austin, and Kate. Keon was also able to get Robin to leave but only after threatening to call her husband. Everyone else stayed and I was glad when no one suggested that I go home and no one tried to get me to give up Chris. It may have been selfish but I needed to stay and I needed my son with me.

Alyssa fell asleep with her head on Keon’s shoulder and he and Marco conversed quietly in the dark room. Troy and Briana had gone off in search of coffee while Elaine and Richard sat quietly in the chairs next to me.

I just stared at my son. He was a gift given to me, not by Angela, but by Stephanie. I didn’t have many parental memories that didn’t include that woman. I honestly had no idea how I had gone the thirty years before without loving her but the past six months had been like a dream.

The more I continued to look at his precious sleeping form, the clearer everything became. Before I could even think through what I was about to say, I turned and looked at Stephanie’s parents.

“I want to marry your daughter.”

Both of them turned their heads quickly. Elaine looked shocked but Richard just smiled, as if he had known that little fact before I had. I shook my head quickly and felt like an idiot.

“I mean, in the future. I want her in my life. I want Chris to call her mommy and I want to have more children who do the same. I love her so much.”

Richard chuckled and reached across his stunned wife’s lap so he could pat my knee. “I’m glad to hear it, son. If that’s you asking for permission, you’ve got it. We’d love nothing more than to have you and that little guy officially apart of our family.”

I smiled and glanced over at my son before meeting Richard’s eyes again. “Thank you.”

Briana and Troy returned with coffee for everyone and I sipped a cup without really tasting it. Drinking coffee in the hospital while we waited to be able to see Steph was kind of poetic. Coffee had brought us together originally and I would be eternally grateful that Java Express had a crazy long drive-thru line most of the time, forcing me to go inside to place my order.

“How long have you and Stephanie been dating?” Troy asked after about ten minutes of silence and I glanced over to look at him.

“Officially? Since March but we met in December. When she found Chris right after the new year, everything got kind of complicated until we both found our footing.”

His eyes widened and he looked between me and my sleeping son. “Wait. That’s the baby she found in the garbage?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.” He just stared at Chris for another second before clearing his throat. “Steph always wanted a whole brood of kids but it never felt right with us. When I first met her, she was my world but then as we grew up and changed, I think we both realized that grown up Troy and Stephanie weren’t as compatible as younger Troy and Stephanie. She stopped smiling as much. We stopped joking with each other. We just… stopped. That night we saw you guys in the bar, I was so jealous. But she was smiling again.”

I didn’t get a chance to respond because a nurse appeared and called out for Stephanie’s family. We all rose from our chairs and the woman’s face blanched.

“Oh, wow. A couple of you can stay with her but I can’t have seven of you in the room at one time.”

We worked out a rotation schedule and no one protested when I said I wanted to stay in the room with her. Since I was staying, I let everyone go in first. When it was finally my turn, I pushed the stroller into the hospital room and froze.

Stephanie was lying in a hospital bed that made my strong girlfriend look so small. It was like seeing Chris in the crib for the first time- just completely jarring.

Her eyes were closed, face was pale, and she had different wires running to her arms and chest. The humming of the machine told me all I needed to know, though.

She was alive.

Elaine was still in the room so I parked Chris at the foot of the bed and moved to the side opposite of Steph’s mom. I picked up my girlfriend’s hand and was surprised at how cold it was. I held it between both of my own, trying to give her some warmth, and leaned in to press a kiss to her chin.

“You’re going to be okay, Vanilla Latte. You’re okay, Chris is okay, everything is going to be perfect.” I brought her fingertips to my lips. “I love you, Steph.”