by Addison Jane
Tears welled up, and I looked down to find the most beautiful green eyes staring back up at me. She wasn’t crying, just staring at me with a mixture of surprise and fear. She didn’t look to be injured, not a scratch or bruise on her precious skin. I fiddled with the clip of the belt but it was stuck, it wouldn’t let me press the button down to release the safety harness that she was in. I could tell that it was an older car seat, it looked worn and ragged, and I could even see the way the belt was frayed in places. No way in hell a baby should be riding in this thing. Car seats had expiry dates for a reason.
I continued to press down as hard as I could on the button, but nothing would get it to unclick. There must have been something jammed underneath it. I tugged at the belts, coughing and trying to cover my mouth. I could feel my body temperature heating up and sweat beading on my brow as I struggled with the seatbelt and panic began to set in.
What if I couldn’t get her out?
Did I walk away and leave this precious innocent life in here while I escaped?
Tears pooled as I yanked harder. “Please!” I screamed. “Come undone, please!” The little girl’s bottom lip poked out as she tried to hold back tears. Her tiny whimpers made me cry harder, tears streaming down my face, my lungs crying out for fresh air. “I’m sorry, baby, I don’t know—”
“Damn it, Sky!” Eagle cursed as he leaped into the car and leaned over the front seat, pocket knife in his hand. “Sorry baby girl,” he said tenderly as he tugged on the strap and made enough room to stick the knife through. He sawed back and forth a few times, and then the strap just seemed to disintegrate and come apart.
I didn’t wait for him to do the other, managing to maneuver the baby out the one side as she now kicked and screamed, and coughed on the thick dirty air that almost filled half the car.
“Give her to me, and get the fuck out,” Eagle ordered, holding out his arms. I didn’t think twice, I threw the child at him, and he pushed himself back out the driver’s door while I squeezed back through the gap, not even bothering to find my footing, but instead just pulling myself out using my hands.
Rolling out the door, I scampered on my hands and knees across the grass and to the roadside, where I rolled onto my back and inhaled the fresh air. It was cold and beautiful, but it also made me cough so much that I ended up moving to the side and vomiting up the cheeseburger and fries from lunch.
There was a hand on my back as I expelled the food from my stomach, acid scorching my throat, noting that I’d probably inhaled a shit load more smoke than I realized.
The beautiful sound of sirens filled the hazy air around us, followed by a symphony of heavy pounding boots against the asphalt, gruff men throwing orders around, people collectively crying and sighing in relief and the spray of foam from heavy hoses.
They drenched the car, as they attempted to put out the fire that had begun to rage and take over the motor just as I’d dived out the door. I couldn’t move, my body ached in places I never knew could even feel pain, and my lungs felt like someone had filled them with tar.
Even with vomit a foot from my face in the grass, I couldn’t find the energy to lift my head or turn my body away from the foul smell, just content to lay there and know that everyone was okay and that at the moment I could breathe.
A few minutes later, a soft shushing sound and some gentle pressure against my back were enough to pique my curiosity. I looked over my shoulder to see Eagle sitting on the grass beside me, his hand rubbing up and down my spine as he rocked the baby in his arms back and forth. She was so tiny that she fit right in the crook of his elbow, her tiny little diaper-clad butt sitting in his palm.
An EMT was crouched beside him, carefully checking Eagle’s vitals, then the baby’s. He carefully placed an oxygen mask on the baby’s face, and made sure she was breathing properly before making a beeline for me. “I’m sorry,” I told the young man whose badge read, Toby. “I puked, don’t stand in it.” My voice sounded like I’d smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for the last twenty years. It was scratchy and raw, and it still hurt every time I breathed in.
Toby just grinned. “Don’t you worry, I’ve dealt with much worse. As long as you aren’t puking on me, we’re good.”
“I make no promises,” I told him honestly, knowing that the coughing was still coming in waves and making me dry heave. He laughed but continued his work, asking me questions and checking me out thoroughly.
I looked up at Eagle as I lay on my back with Toby taking my blood pressure, administering oxygen and writing a whole lot of shit down on some chart.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” Eagle said, wiping his forehead and leaving a black smudge. His eyes moved to me from the baby in his arms, who he’d refused to let go of yet, even though now he knew she was doing much better and the mother was conscious.
“Do what?” I asked through the oxygen mask, closing my eyes and wishing the sun would go away so I could get some sleep. Now the adrenaline was wearing off, I was suddenly fucking exhausted.
Eagle reached out, his fingers brushed across my face, flicking away the stray hairs that lingered there too long, but that I’d been too lazy to reach up and move myself. “Dive into a fucking burning vehicle without telling me,” he said, his voice quiet and soft.
Did I not tell him that I was going to go and rescue the child that I had no idea was in the car? I guess not. Not that I think he would have noticed, given he was staring at the wreck of that car like it held the answers to the universe.
“You were out of it,” I told him, blinking against the sunlight before I focused in on his face again. “You wouldn’t have heard me.”
“Like fuck I wouldn’t have,” he growled, his body freezing when the baby in his arms stirred a little. When she buried in closer to his side, he hit me with a hard glare. “Everything was fine, you were beside me. I heard you say there was a baby. I was telling myself to go…” he shook his head, seeming frustrated with the way he’d clammed up out there. “It wasn’t until some guy shoved my shoulder and said you were fucking inside that car that I moved.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I murmured, groaning as I pulled myself into a sitting position.
“You’ve breathed in quite a bit of smoke, so your throat will be sore for a few days,” Toby said, interrupting as he packed up his gear. “But your lungs sound okay and the rest of your vitals are good. I would recommend going to hospital to be checked out, and then resting at least for today—”
“Can I skip the hospital and just do the resting part? We’re meant to be traveling to Dallas,” I stated.
Toby shook his head. “With what the two of you have been through, I would definitely recommend getting checked out. But if you don’t want to go to hospital then you need to get some sleep and travel tomorrow. Make sure you’re at least near a hospital, so if your lungs worsen during the night you can get the help you need. The last thing we want to do is see this happen again a few miles down the road because you fall asleep behind the wheel. Or worse, have breathing problems and you are nowhere near medical help.”
“Is that what happened to her?” I asked, my mouth falling open.
Toby gave me a sad smile and nodded. “She’s a new mom, the baby is only a few weeks old. Doesn’t sound like she has much family around. Been doing it all on her own. She fell asleep, almost killed the both of them and you two.”
My heart hurt for that woman. Not because of what had happened, but because she was struggling so much and had no one around to help her.
“Excuse me, sir,” an older woman police officer said as they knelt down beside Eagle. “She’s awake now, and the ambulance driver would like to get her and the baby to the hospital.”
I could see Eagle’s reluctance to give up the sleeping infant in his arms. Finally, he looked over at me. “I just want to see for myself she’s okay,” Eagle said, pushing to his feet, the officer beside him rising too. He looked at her. “That okay?”
She nodded. “
Of course.”
“Don’t go anywhere,” Eagle ordered, narrowing his eyes at me as if I was going to dive into another burning vehicle while he was gone.
I waved him off. “I’m fine, I’ll see if I can get a hold of Leo. He said Hadley would have his phone on her.” We’d now been sitting in that field for what was close to an hour. We’d given our statements to the police, albeit through an oxygen mask in my case. Now that we’d generally calmed and I felt better, the oxygen had been removed and I was having one final health check by the EMT before they left. And with Toby recommending rest, it sounded like we would head to a motel for the night.
Before Eagle walked away, he turned back to me and crouched at my side, his hand cupping my cheek. He pressed his forehead against mine and the both of us closed our eyes. “Don’t do that to me again,” he whispered, his voice so serious and filled with emotion, that I didn’t dare joke about how he’d already said that.
“Okay,” I whispered back, my voice hitching.
Then he brushed his lips against mine and backed away, still cradling that life in his arms.
A life we’d saved.
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 ho
spital. 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.
