by Jesse Jordan
“I came to see Rick. I’ve been trying to find out more about his condition for months, but I seem to be getting stonewalled at every turn by his assistant. I guess she’s your assistant now,” Harvey says, ignoring the strangeness of the situation as I reach over and pull my robe on, getting out of the pool. “For years, I thought they were fucking.”
“I’m sure a lot of people thought that,” I reply, refusing to get baited. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re here, unescorted. This is my house.”
“Not all of the staff is as stubborn as Freida,” Harvey replies easily. “And this isn’t your house. You’re just a paid for piece of adornment. Kind of like the sofa or the paintings on the walls.”
“Excuse me?” I ask, getting angry. “I’m Rick’s wife!”
“You’re a mail order slut who fucked her way to a sweet life,” Harvey says dismissively. “You must be number one sucky-sucky too, considering the shit that Rick’s gotten up to since he met you. Punching out Drew Washington, dropping that million to avoid Amanda Rhett… he made more waves and more enemies since meeting you than ever before. Which, considering Rick, is quite an accomplishment.”
“Your rudeness isn’t helping your case, whatever it is,” I interrupt him. “Don’t make me call for your removal.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about it at all,” Harvey says. “You see, I know that pretty soon, I’ll be untouchable.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I ask, walking towards the door to the swim room. I have a weird feeling about Harvey, and I don’t trust being alone with him. Harvey though moves in front of me, blocking the door. I stop, trying to keep the stutter of concern out of my voice. “Let me pass.”
“I don’t think so,” Harvey growls. “You see, I had a team of lawyers go over a couple of documents, and you don’t have any power.”
“I have enough to shut you down,” I retort. “I can make sure that you’ll never, ever be able to twist Rick’s ideas into death machines.”
“I’m not worried,” Harvey says. “Rick’s dying, he’s not going to last more than a month or two. And you only have power as long as he’s alive.”
“I have enough to make sure you retire wealthy but impotent,” I growl back. “And don’t try to bullshit me, Harvey. I’ve spent the past three months studying Rick’s designs. Sure, it took a little bit of help, but let’s be honest, I can afford the best explanations Cal Tech, Stanford, MIT and more can give me. And Rick was right, so many of his inventions could be twisted to evil ends. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“No… you won’t,” Harvey says, smirking. “You see, once Rick dies, the real power goes to two people… the twins inside you.”
Before I can do anything, Harvey strikes, his foot catching me in the stomach. Immediate, giant pain flares through me and I drop to my ass, holding my belly. I look up, but Harvey kicks again, a custom made Italian leather shoe catching me under the chin and sending me sprawling backwards. I can taste blood, and in my stomach I feel the babies cry out inside me. Harvey steps forward, and I try my best to curl up. “No….”
“No heirs, no power,” Harvey says before kicking me in the low back. The pain makes me scream, straightening out, and the next thing I feel is Harvey’s heel stomping my stomach again… and then the blackness.
Su Lin
“I need blood over here!”
“What’s the status of the babies?”
“Goddammit Jenkins, get your head out of your ass and scrub up!”
The words fly around my head in a flurry of noise and light, pain pulsing between my ears as I try to make sense of what’s going on. I’m in a hospital, I can tell that much, but everything around me seems to be chaos.
“The babies… what about my babies?” I mutter, looking around. I can’t feel anything below my midchest, and trying to look down I can barely move my neck. “What’s going on?”
“Mrs. Kelley, my name’s Dr. Valentine. The head of OB is coming in, but she’s still an hour out… we need to move now.” I look and see a doctor, already wearing scrubs and a mask, his blue eyes wide with focus. “Don’t worry, I’m a surgeon as well as an OB/GYN.”
“Why?” I ask, panic starting to set in as I remember Harvey kicking me. “The babies!”
“Mrs. Kelley, we need to do an emergency Cesarean section,” Dr. Valentine says. “You were assaulted, and we need to get your babies out now.”
“It’s still early,” I protest, my head ringing. “They’re not due for another month.”
“Either they come out through C-section or at least one of them is going to die,” Dr. Valentine says. “I need your permission.”
“Do it… wait, call Dr. Gordon!” I blurt out, grabbing Valentine’s hand. “The cord blood, they have to preserve the cord blood!”
Valentine nods, and turns to a nurse. “Get Gordon on the phone, tell him we have Su Lin Kelley on the table. Something about cord blood. And preserve both of those cords!”
I lay my head back, letting myself drift away. Maybe I’ve got a concussion, maybe they’ve just doped me up with some really good drugs. But either way, I don’t have the strength to keep my eyes open much longer.
“Hey… hey, wake up Mommy.”
My eyes flutter open, and I blink twice as I see Freida standing next to me. I try to reach for her, but my left arm’s stopped and I have to look over, seeing that I’ve got an IV in my arm. “What the hell happened?”
“You were bleeding internally,” Freida says softly, taking my other hand. “You won’t be sitting up much for the next few days, but they were able to fix you up pretty well. Your hoo-ha’s hideously disfigured and wrinkled, but nothing that’s any different than before.”
She clears her throat, and I can tell that whatever happened, it obviously is worse than she’s letting on. “How bad?”
“They… I had to take down Harvey, already talked to the DA. He took one look at the internal security cameras and said he’s going to charge Harvey with attempted murder. You…,” she clears her throat again, blinking furiously, and I’m touched at how hard Freida’s working to keep herself under control. “They had to put you under for quite a while.”
“The babies?” I ask. “Are Alexander and Roxanna safe?”
Freida’s glimmering eyes clear and she smiles. “Safe, sound, and loud as hell. I think it’s because they’re worried about their Mama, and they hate the fact the nurses keep trying to shove rubber nipples in their mouths.”
“Get them,” I say. “I’m sure they just need a little bit of comfort.”
Freida leaves, and in the few minutes of silence I close my eyes, giving myself a quick self evaluation. My midsection feels like that time in high school when a wushu sparring went ‘street,’ as some of us used to say, and I didn’t realize the girl I was sparring with was also versed in the harder contact styles and could throw knees like a Muay Thai artist. If I roughly triple that amount of pain, I think I’d be close to how I feel right now.
“How in the world am I going to get to the toilet?” I wonder quietly as I open my eyes. The rest of me feels more or less in one piece, I guess Harvey was obsessed with only my womb, although my low back isn’t exactly happy right now either. I know I should feel slightly offended, but more than anything I feel grateful.
I hear the approaching sound of screaming babies, and a squeaky wheel that would probably have me screaming too if I were less than a week old and had to listen to it all the time. The door to my room opens and Freida comes in with a nurse. “Look who we have!”
The screaming, if anything, gets louder, and I open my mouth. “Alexander… Roxanna… shhh, it’s okay. Mommy is here.”
I repeat myself in Mandarin, and like a light being turned off both screams stop. The nurse, who looks like she is ready to gouge out her eardrums, looks down with absolute shock. “They… those two haven’t stopped for the past two hours. How?”
“They know their Mama,” Freida says with a smir
k, reaching into the clear plastic cradle and lifting out a baby. As soon as I see the small, pink wrinkled face, my heart melts and I reach out with my arms. “Su Lin, say hello to Alexander, born at exactly four nineteen PM. Alex, this is your Mommy.”
Alex fidgets as Freida carefully puts him in my arms and lets my bed recline a little bit more. Alex seems to immediately know what to do though as he wiggles and adjusts himself, guided by instinct until I feel his tiny mouth fasten around my right nipple and he starts sucking hungrily. Freida watches in absolute wonder as the nurse brings Roxanna over, and I’m soon holding both my children as they nurse for the first time. “Hello little ones. So Roxanna, when were you born?”
“Four twenty,” the nurse says, giggling. “Sorry… we always have a laugh whenever a baby is born at four twenty.”
“Huh?” I ask, but Freida waves it off, she’ll explain it to me later. I nurse my babies, knowing that they’re the first focus right now, stroking their tiny little heads with my thumbs. As I do, I let them bond with me, knowing they need it. “I’m glad they got my hair.”
“Well, black is kinda one of those dominant colors,” Freida says with a smirk. “I can already tell, we’re going to have to be careful with both of them when they get to their teen years… you know how to use a shotgun?”
“Nope. But I think my swords will send the proper message,” I note. Roxy squirms a little more and lets go, and I see her yawn before closing her eyes. “That’s it baby, you just rest right here. I’ve got you.”
The nurse steps forward to take her from me but I look up, backing her off with a light growl. Freida lays a hand on the nurse’s shoulder, giving her a small shake of her head. “I’ll help out. Don’t worry, these are two of the safest babies in the world right here.”
The nurse shrugs, and makes a note on the clipboard attached to the end of the twins’ crib before leaving, closing the door behind her. Once we’re alone, I lean back, letting Alexander drink his fill. “Were they able to save the cords?”
Freida nods, biting her lips in worry. “I’m still worried, Su Lin. But Gordon says they’re going to get the treatments started within twenty four hours. He said that in some ways the early delivery could be a blessing in disguise. The team didn’t think they’d be able to start treatments for another few weeks. But with the extra time, they can get a head start, and that means less deterioration that they have to overcome.”
I nod, laying my head back. “So the odds are better?”
“We’re still playing the Triad lottery here, Su Lin,” Freida says softly. “I’d like to pump you up babe, you know that… but the odds are slightly better.”
I close my eyes again, feeling sleep tug at me unexpectedly. “I know,” I murmur as I feel Alexander let go of my nipple and snuggle against me too. “But we have a chance. Stay with me?”
Freida leans over, giving me a kiss on the forehead. “You know it.”
Rick
The grass is warm, and as I cross the field, I know that I’m dreaming. Not that I really care right this moment.
It’s funny. I know what my condition is, it seems that being in a coma isn’t quite as senseless as I thought it’d be. I knew soon after Dr. Gordon hooked me up to the monitors what was going on. I even heard Freida and Su Lin come by to tearfully beg my forgiveness for what they did.
Not that I think I can blame them. Freida… for years, she’s stood by my side, and there’s no way that I could ever be upset with her. Pissed off? Sure. Before Su Lin entered my life, Freida was the only woman who could ever actually piss me off. But she’s my friend, and I trust her like she really is my sister.
And Su Lin… the woman who came into my life and somehow, without me even meaning to, captured my heart. I didn’t tell her, because I didn’t want to saddle her with a ghost. Yet it seems she saw through it, or maybe just her love was powerful enough that she didn’t care.
I let myself drift in my dream, something I’ve been doing more and more of. When you’re lying in a hospital bed, even one that’s moved back into your own house… there’s really a lot of down time. Su Lin and Freida can’t spend twenty four hours a day with me, and quite frankly, laying on my back with tubes all over me sucks. Also, being in my limited coma reality hurts like a motherfucker.
So I come here, back to the grass field. I formed it early on in this little unplanned vacation at the end of my life (I’m still not convinced that all of the treatments are going to do anything), and I guess it’s the place that I most want to be.
In the distance I can see a house, not one like I have now with a full estate, but a simpler home, almost a cabin. Well, except for the big honking satellite dish sticking out of the roof, but dammit, this is a dream and I’m allowed to mix things up.
Behind the house is a lake, a deep sapphire blue that is almost the perfect opposite of the sky. I know because I’ve spent hours swimming in that lake, which is so cold that sometimes it knocks the proverbial breath right out of me.
But right now what I see standing about halfway through the field is even more breathtaking. Su Lin’s here, wearing a simple outfit of jeans and t-shirt that still makes my heart speed up and the blood rush through my veins. She’s beautiful, and all I want to do is to hold her in my arms and to tell her how she makes me feel.
I start running, crossing the field as she stands and laughs, her lightly tanned skin glowing in the sunlight as she opens her arms. I sweep her off her feet, swinging her around again and again as we kiss, giggles and laughter and the sounds of joy filling the air as we share our hearts and souls with each other.
“Well, I guess I should come visit you here more often,” Su Lin says with a chuckle as I set her down. I give her another kiss on the lips, and she pulls me closer, our tongues caressing each other and her fingers running through my hair. “Mmm… for sure I have to visit more.”
“How are you… oh yeah, I’m in a dream,” I muse, wrapping my arms around her narrow waist. “There’s no way that you’re this small. Last time I saw you….”
“I got bigger,” Su Lin says with a laugh. “But I’ve been busting my ass the past three months, my love. You’ll be very happy with what you find.”
“What do you mean, three months?” I ask. “I haven’t been in a coma for three months, you’d still be pregnant!”
Su Lin chuckles, reaching up and stroking my cheek. “Time is funny here, Rick. You know that. What seems like a day for you in here is more like a week out in the real world. You’ve been under for almost nine months yourself. I kinda find that ironic, don’t you?”
Nine months? But if I’ve been in this state for nine months… “What about the babies?”
“You’ll just have to wake up and see, won’t you?” Su Lin teases me. “That’s why I’m here, Rick. It’s time to wake up, honey.”
“Wake up?” I ask, suddenly for the first time in my life truly afraid. “But I don’t want to wake up. Waking up is pain… and dying. I want to stay here with you.”
“And I with you,” Su Lin says. “But I want to be with you in the real world. You trust me, don’t you?”
“I do,” I whisper, taking her hands. “I trust you with my very life.”
“Then come back to me. Wake up, Rick… wake up….”
“… Rick, open your eyes honey.”
I blink, my dream field dissolving into the cruder, artificial light of fluorescent lamps. I’m dazzled at first, but I know that I’m in a hospital room. I feel a familiar hand in mine, and look over to see Su Lin, dressed almost exactly as I envisioned her. She’s more gorgeous than ever, and I feel tears come to my eyes as I give her fingers a squeeze. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she whispers. There’s a flurry of motion on the other side of me, but right now I’m only able to focus on one thing. “How was your nap?”
“Good,” I whisper, my throat feeling a little dry. Without even a second thought, I know what I need to say next, the words that I should have said months ago. “I love you.�
��
Su Lin blinks, then smiles softly. “I knew there was a reason I insisted on you getting treatment. I love you too.”
I continue to look in Su Lin’s eyes as the nurses and doctors finish checking on me before I lay back. I notice Gordon is there, looking a few pounds lighter but happier still. “Guess I worried it off you Doc?”
“Something like that. And your wife got me a Versa-Climber for my birthday, told me that if I didn’t beat her in a ten minute challenge by the time you woke up, she was going to make sure… what was it you said, Su Lin?”
“I threatened to make sure your genetic line ended with you,” Su Lin said, snipping her fingers like scissors. “I asked all about how to do vasectomies with a sword.”
Gordon grins, and I lean back, relieved they’re getting along. “Anyway, I think she spotted me a few meters, so I’m safe for now. Now Rick, I don’t want to rain on your parade, but it’s going to be a long way back. You halfway wasted to a skeleton before your coma, and then spent nine months in bed.”
“So no Mr. Olympia for a while? What about the babies?” I ask. “I want to see my children.”
Su Lin glances at Gordon, who nods. She grins and gets up, patting my shoulder and giving my cheek a kiss. “They’re hanging out with Freida. I’ll go get them.”
Su Lin leaves, Gordon turning to me as soon as the door’s closed. “Rick… I know this might be her place to tell you, but your wife… she was so brave. Even after what happened.”
“What happened?” I ask. Gordon starts, and is only able to cover the basics before the door opens again, this time with Su Lin carrying a squirming little child in her arms, Freida behind her with another. “Su Lin….”
Su Lin looks at my face before giving Gordon another raised eyebrow. “I was going to tell him. Prepare thyself for pain,” she says half crossly before shrugging. “Rick, I’m fine. Harvey’s out on bail of course, but even his team of lawyers is telling him to plead out, according to the DA. And of course I’m going after him on the civil side too… his lawyers have already said they want to settle.”
