CHAPTER 25
Sirens blared from outside; there were rescue personnel scattered from every department, flooding the scene.
“Dawson? Ellie?” Sam cried, trying to get the two most important people in her life to respond to her, to tell her they were alright. They needed to be…she needed them.
“Christ almighty, that shit hurt like a skanky bitch!” Dawson moaned as he rolled off Ellie and turned to Sam, the source of the blood evident. He had taken a bullet for Ellie; he’d saved her.
“Granny says it’s not okay to say the Lord’s name in vain, and you owe twenty-five cents to the swear jar for all da bad words you said, mister! Huh, mama.”
Sam and Dawson laughed together at the unscathed Ellie, who still had her sharp attention intact. “Can I just buy you an ice cream, extra sprinkles? Or am I in too much trouble, squirt?”
Ellie considered his plea while Sam the nurse went to work, inspecting his gunshot wound, a clean shot, in and out, to his left shoulder. He held his arm tight against his body before he took to Sam’s lips, ensuring her he was okay. It worked; relief coursed through her body, and she began to really relax for the first time in months. She leaned into him, fully engaged in the kiss he was delivering, when Ellie cleared her throat, reminding them they had an audience and gunshot wound amongst them.
Carigan tended to Ellie and gave her a quick once over before working on Dawson. She was perfectly fine, if not just a bit riled; Dawson had shielded her head with his other arm, taking the full impact of the bullet and the floor. He tore many of his stitches from the injuries earlier in the day, hence the large amounts of blood everywhere else. He was kind of a wreck.
Evie rushed to their side, once she found them, hugging each of them. Having known loss before, herself, she was relieved to find them all safe and mostly in one piece. She helped Carigan wrap Dawson’s wounds and prep him for transport.
She gave them an update on Granny Lou, who took a nasty hit to the head, in the kitchen, where she had been making coffee. Granny was less than pleasant about her circumstance and was fussing and fitting all over everyone in true Granny fashion, wanting her gun back.
Rene had indeed already been in the house, waiting. Ellie had been left sleeping in Rene’s car, thanks to a little unneeded Children’s Tylenol, before waking and interrupting Rene’s revenge.
“It’s over. Thank God, it’s all over! I don’t know what I would have done if I lost the two of you!” Dawson said, full of emotion and relief. Both of his girls were back in his arms, right where they belonged.
“You will never lost us, Dawson; we are peoples! Unless we are playing hide and seek, and then you will have to find us, and then we’ll be it. That is my very favorite game ever!” Ellie said, full of excitement, in true Ellie fashion!
Laughter surrounded them as Ellie’s innocence lightened the looming dark mood, despite what was going on around them. Dawson kissed Ellie on the head, loving all of her favorites
, before kissing Sam once again, sparking more disgust from the little girl beside them.
“Grroosss! Dawson, only married peoples have kisses on the lips. You gonna marry my mama, or what?” she delivered, hands on hips, and face puckered in disgust.
“Yes, Elliot Louise Taylor! I am gonna marry your mama!” He replied, sure and confident as he turned his attention to Elliot, looking her in the eyes, but his words were directed at Sam. “So long as you are okay with it. I don’t want to go another day without both of you girls with me! I love your mama, and I love you too, squirt, very much!”
“See! I told ya mama; he’s a fairy too, and he protects all the other fairies, and he’s a Taylor too!! Are we gonna get married, or what?”
Dawson turned to Sam, laughing along with her at Ellie’s inquiry. “Yeah, you wanna get married, or what, Miss Taylor?” He coined.
Sam, desperately wanting to marry this man and to be a family with him, didn’t want to give in too easy. It was apparently two against one at the moment, and she was certain it would be like this more often than not. She hesitated, crossed her arms and turned her head a time or two, as if she was thinking about it, letting them know that she was still in charge, despite being out numbered.
“Ehh, well, I have nothing else going on, and you know I don’t date, so…why not, Mr. Tayler?” she replied, as if she was settling and bored, which earned her another long kiss, which was, of course, thoroughly grossing out the little one.
Carigan and Evie carted Dawson to the ambulance, ready to transport him to the ER. Ellie and Sam piled in behind, not willing to be separated any time soon. On the gurney beside him was Louise Shaw, pitching a fit, refusing to be loaded up in an ambulance herself, slapping the EMT’s hands every time he tried to load her up. Hardheaded Granny was going to be fine; the EMTs charged with her care, not so much. Evie convinced her to go, seeing that Ellie was watching from a few feet away, and she gave in, wanting to set a “good example.”
As fate would have it, the two most unlucky and unlikely in love overcame their fractured hearts together in unimaginable circumstances. Without looking for it, love found them. They had been rescued.
“I love you, Sam.”
“I love you, too…”
“And I love all of us; we Taylers stick together!”
The End