It was hard to walk away and leave Skylar sitting there in the grass and dirt, but I knew I couldn’t leave here, or let this young mother walk away from here, without speaking to her. I knew she was only young. I could tell the second I pulled her out of the car she was still a teen.
Skylar hadn’t been able to get the car seat unclipped because it was so fucking old, it probably had food or something jammed up inside it from the previous owner. The car she was driving was barely roadworthy, the tires bald, and there were patches of rust everywhere. The girl had fallen asleep behind the wheel because she was trying to be a parent all by her goddamn self.
It didn’t sit right with me to just walk away from here and do nothing.
It could have something to do with the baby that had been curled into me for the last fucking hour or so, snuggling against my cut and sleeping soundly as the world around her was crazy with voices and sirens. Her soft features and peaceful demeanor had me all wrapped around her tiny little finger.
The EMT climbed out of the ambulance, and the officer nodded for me to go in. “Five minutes, then we need to get going,” she told me.
I nodded. “No problem.”
Ducking my head, I climbed inside the tiny space and shuffled sideways until I was right up beside the young girl’s head. She turned to look at me, tears already streaking down the side of her face and onto the pillow. Her body was strapped to the gurney so she couldn’t turn much, just enough to look at me.
“Got your girl here,” I told her, turning my body so she could see the baby in my arms. “You want her?”
She nodded and widened her arm from her body on the wall side of the ambulance. I leaned over and placed the sleeping child in the crook of her arm.
“My name’s Eagle,” I told her as I sat back down.
“I’m Megan, and that’s Cleo,” Megan said with a sniffle. “I’m so sorry. I can’t… I can’t believe I was so stupid. I usually don’t drive if I’m tired, but I—”
“Woah there,” I said, cutting her off. “I ain’t mad. I’m just glad we got you out of there.”
She looked down at the sweet girl in her arms. “Thank y-you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Thank you so much.”
“Tell me one thing, Megan?” I asked, my voice severe and sharp. Her body went dead still, and she turned her head my way, meeting my dark gaze. At first, I’d thought maybe I’d offer to help her find her feet, maybe give her some money to purchase a good quality car seat. But as I’d climbed in here, I’d seen the bruising that I knew was at least a few days old, around her arms and on her chest.
“You got a man somewhere laying a hand on you?” I asked, no fucking around or beating around the bush.
There was no horrified gasp or resounding objection that most women would give when faced with such a ridiculous scenario. I’d seen club girls like Skylar asked it over and over again by cops and members of the public thinking they were doing their duty. What they didn’t know was that our girls were probably the safest women in the state.
“Not anymore,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed. “I left this morning. We’ve been driving for hours, only stopping to feed Cleo.”
“Where you heading?”
She swallowed harshly. “I-I don’t know,” she answered shakily, then looked down at Cleo and her face hardened, her arm tightening around her daughter. “Anywhere but back there.”
I sighed. She was so fucking young, and she had nowhere to go. Plus, she had this beautiful little girl who was so new and so untainted. Megan was trying her best to keep her that way.
I fished my wallet out of my back pocket and pulled out a couple fifties. At first, her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No, I can’t, really,” she protested. I ignored her and tucked them securely into the front pocket of her jeans.
“Your car is by definition… completely fucked,” I told her, ignoring her objections. “You get out of the hospital, you take a bus to Athens, Alabama. You go to the Sunshine Cottage Inn and tell them your name, I’ll let them know who you are and to expect you.”
“Really, I-I…” she stammered, tears streaking her cheeks.
“Listen,” I said softly, and she took a deep breath. “I’m offering an option. Me and Sky, we’ve gotta go away for a few days. You do this, I’ll make sure someone looks after you and watches out for you until we get back. Then we can talk.”
She sobbed quietly, and I knew she was going to accept my offer.
“At least you’ll have a few days of rest, a few days to just relax and enjoy your daughter. Then after we talk, if you still wanna go and run off into the sunset, you can just go.”
I’d call the owner of the private and secluded women’s home and pay for the room until we got back. I wasn’t about to let some teenage girl and her newborn be chased across the country by who knows what kind of piece of shit scum. The Inn wasn’t known by many. They kept what they did on the down low and had great staff and nurses on hand to help women find their feet. The only reason I knew about the place was because they had approached the club before, when they felt like there was a threat and needed on-site guards to keep their occupants’ safe. Normally they would ask the police, but unfortunately a lot of women in these situations, at some point, had tried to approach the police for help and nothing had been done.
I looked down at Cleo who was sleeping peacefully in her arms.
She was a child raising a child.
On her own.
With someone hurting her.
I wasn’t raised to turn my back on that shit.
“Okay,” she finally whispered, and I silently thanked the high heavens above that I wasn’t going to have to send a brother down here to sit outside the hospital and escort her back to Athens.
I could be fucking pissed off, I could be fuming and furious that she’d almost run us off the road, that she’d broken the wing mirror off my bike and that her stupid expired car seat, had almost got Skylar killed. But I wasn’t, and I knew Skylar wasn’t either.
Maybe if she was drunk or high or just fucking irresponsible. But she was a kid, trying to do what she thought was right, and trying to protect herself and her baby.
I said my goodbyes and climbed out of the ambulance. Everyone was clearing out now, the tow truck was loading the wreck with the help of a handful of firemen, and two officers were standing beside a police car going through some notes.
Skylar had moved too. She was now standing beside my bike on the opposite side of the road where I’d left it, her cell phone pressed to her ear. I headed straight for her, ready to get out of this crazy fucking mess and find a hotel somewhere in the middle of town to sleep for the night.
“We’re fine,” Skylar rasped, wrapping her free arm around her body as if she didn’t quite believe those words herself. “Yeah, they’re taking her and the baby to the hospital. Sounds like she has some bumps and bruises and a concussion but that she’ll be okay too.”
When she spotted my shadow on the ground, she quickly spun around. “He’s right here, hold on,” she said before holding the phone out for me to take. “Leo apparently needs to hear your voice to know you’re okay,” she joked with a smile.
I rolled my eyes and pressed the phone to my ear. “What?”
“You froze,” Leo said accusingly, instantly making my gut drop. I turned away from Skylar, and she took a few steps back, giving me some much-needed space.
“Don’t start with me,” I hissed at him.
“I need to know where your head is at right now,” he said sternly. I could hear voices in the background. It sounded like they’d all stopped when Leo had gotten the call, so no doubt Optimus had already been alerted to the situation as well. Between this situation and the phone call from my brother, I can imagine they were probably expecting a basket case.
“My head is fine,” I told him, looking down at my hands and forcefully trying to stop the shaking. It wasn’t because I was scared, or because I’d just been through something stressful. It was because my body remembered fear better than any other fucking person I knew, and once it snuck back in, it could be debilitating.
The smell of the smoke had done it.
One whiff and I was right back there, upside-down inside the vehicle that killed my team, shoving away the bodies of the men and women I loved and would have protected with my life had I been given the chance, all because my brain was telling me I couldn’t breathe.
My lung had been punctured by a broken rib, I had pieces of unknown objects scattered through my body, and so many fucking fragments of metal in my elbow and shoulder that I was almost sure I could pass as an android.
The brunt of the blast had hit the rear and the right side of the Humvee.
Leo and I were on the left side. Front and middle.
They called us the lucky ones.
Yet, I didn’t think that living with those images ingrained in my brain for the rest of my life, watching the people who I considered family slowly bleeding out and taking their last breaths, particularly lucky.
“Eagle, come on man, don’t make me be an asshole and get Skylar back on the phone,” Leo pleaded. I knew he’d do it too, to protect me from myself. I also knew if he had to, he’d ride all the fucking way back here to make sure I didn’t lose my shit.
I growled deep in my throat. “I’m still shaking. I can still smell the smoke. My heart has stopped racing, and we’ve already been told by the medical staff not to drive until the morning in case Skylar needs further medical treatment. She inhaled quite a bit of smoke, so it’s better she takes a break before she crashes from the adrenaline rush. We’re both exhausted.”
“Well done turning that all around like you’re just doing it to watch out for her,” Leo said tiredly.
I sighed. “Honestly man, I’m okay. Yes, I froze for a second, but since then I haven’t had any flashbacks.”
Leo didn’t even bother to cover the phone as he spoke to Optimus about what kind of ‘condition’ I was in. It was almost amusing. I felt okay, exhausted, but okay. I didn’t dare tell those assholes that it was Skylar keeping me grounded. The need to protect her and make sure she’s okay was winning out over any other emotions right now, and if that was what it took to get through this and into tomorrow without losing my shit, then that was what I’d fucking do.
“All right,” Leo said finally. “We still need you guys here tomorrow. So leave as soon as you know Skylar is doing okay in the morning. And fucking call me if shit changes, okay?”
As much as I wanted to tell him to shove his caring bullshit right up his fucking asshole, he and I both knew how quickly my moods could change. Especially after I’d had an episode or whatever my counselor wanted to call them—a moment where the past took over the reality of the present.
“Yeah asshole, I’ll call you when we leave in the morning.”
Leo sighed, and I could see him in my head, scrubbing his face with his hand. “Just… be safe, okay, brother?”
Way to make me feel like shit for being a snappy fuckhead. “Yeah, I hear you.”
“Good,” he said, finally sounding satisfied. “When you get down here, we’ll find you a new side mirror. Can’t have you with nowhere to do your lipstick.” If he were here, I would have punched him so hard in the gut, he would have been shitting blood.
Lucky for him, he wasn’t.
But I never forget a cheap shot.
“See you tomorrow, fucker.”
Of all the emotions, fear and I were the most well acquainted.