Highway Don't Care (Freebirds)

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  They also weren’t very skilled. They looked to be around fifteen or so, with just enough balls to think they could handle playing with the big boys. Most likely didn’t even have a learner’s permit yet.

  Ember was speaking quietly with Max, and Blaine was sitting tensely in the passenger seat chewing her thumbnail. Flashing lights appeared in my rear view mirror, and the Impala took off. Two police cruisers passed us with a roar. The air that came off their car when they passed shook the truck, rocking it from side to side. Ember hung up with Max, and Blaine took a deep breath.

  “Okay?” I asked them both.

  “Good.”

  “Okay.”

  Letting my grip loosen on the wheel slightly, I headed into the direction of the store. Ten silent minutes later, we arrived. Crisis averted.

  “You have to park in the expectant mother’s spot so Blaine doesn’t have to hoof it too far.” Ember said.

  Blaine silently agreed from the back seat. Fuck me. Giving up the fight I knew was inevitable, I swung the truck into the spot that had a stork carrying a baby on the sign. Feeling like a dolt, I got out and rounded the car. Ember was sliding down, so I went to the front door and helped Blaine down.

  “Jesus Christ. My vagina bone is fucking killing me. I swear it feels like this kid is sitting in my vagina and pushing my pelvic bone to impossible proportions.” Blaine said to Ember.

  Ember made accommodating noises while I just ignored them. Over the past year, I’ve gotten really good at tuning out their chatter. After listening to them talk about their periods, I concluded that it would be easier to ignore them. That wasn’t something I liked to hear about, and Blaine’s ‘vagina bone’ was completely off limits.

  The store itself was even worse than I thought. It looked like a baby factory puked up its contents and then arranged them in order. Bottles, beds, torturing devices disguised as breast pumps, and clothes were scattered everywhere. There was even a second floor of more crap that I’m sure a baby would never use. We spent an hour on the bottom level of the store. In that, time a bitch of a storm rolled in and shook the building with the intensity of its thunder. Blaine also used the john no less than four times.

  They decided that it was time to tackle the second floor, so we took our cart full of baby crap and made our way onto the elevator. The doors closed with a whoosh. The lights flickered once, and I had a horrifying thought that we shouldn’t have taken the elevator when the lights went out completely and we were stranded in between the floors. Cursing silently, I made my way towards the numbers panel when the emergency lights came on. I pressed the big red emergency button, and a disembodied voice said that they were aware of the problem, and would get us out as soon as possible.

  I hung my head and groaned. “Well doesn’t that just fucking figure?”

  “Blaine?” Ember said shrilly.

  Whirling around I took in the figure of Blaine, hunched down over her big stomach. She was panting slightly, and as white as a sheet.

  Years’ worth of medical training kicked in and I went to Blaine’s stooped figure. My boots slipped slightly in a puddle on the floor and I knew without asking what it was. Blaine’s water broke. In a stranded fucking elevator. With the fucking lights out. Panic came over me, but I shoved it down where it belonged. Panic had no place here right now. Just because I’ve never dealt with anything of this caliber before, didn’t mean I couldn’t handle it now. Blaine probably wouldn’t even be in danger of having her baby before the lights were fixed anyway; first babies always took hours and hours to deliver. We were good.

  Boy was I wrong.

  Ω

  Ah hour and a half later.

  “Goddamn you, Elliott. You are never getting near my lady lumps again. No more hiding the salami. You had better cherish this one baby, because never will you get another one. I really want to chop your dick off right now for doing this to me! Why’d you have to go and see your mother anyway, you should be here with me. How could you do this to me?” Blaine was wailing to Elliott who was on speakerphone. He was also outside the elevator with medical crews standing by.

  A tractor-trailer hydroplaned and took out a whole city block of power poles before it came to a stop. The Swepco crews were working frantically to get the power back on, but it wasn’t going to be fast enough. Ember had Blaine’s head in her lap, wiping sweat off her forehead with one of the baby washcloths from the buggy. I was in prime view of the newest Master barreling its way into the world.

  I’d taken my paramedic classes, and finished my degree. Only once have I seen a baby born, because in the ten years that I have been a medic, never once was one born on the front lines of Afghanistan where I was stationed. The only birth I’d seen was on the video they’d shown in class on the week we covered birthing. My knowledge was true though, and my instincts took over. The baby’s head was now crowning.

  Looking into her pain-filled eyes, I asked, “Okay Blaine, this is how it’s going to go. When I tell you to, I want you to grab your legs and push with all you have. When I tell you to stop, you stop. Understand?”

  She nodded, and I glanced at Ember pleading with my eyes to give me strength. She must have known I was scared, because she nodded and reassured me with a smile.

  Going back to the task at hand, I directed Blaine to push on her next contraction. Twenty minutes of pushing later, baby boy Masters was born kicking and screaming.

  “It’s a boy!” I exclaimed loudly so Blaine, and Elliott could hear on his end of the line.

  A loud whoop sounded from the doors behind me, and followed closely by the loud whoop over the phone line.

  While I was working, the doors were finally able to be propped open a mere four inches. A metal pipe was wedged into the space to hold the doors open. Elliott stuck his arm inside and slapped me on the back, giving me a thankful squeeze. I could hear Sam and Max clearly now giving orders to the fire fighters who were on scene.

  A medical kit was squeezed through the opening in the door, and dropped to the floor at our feet. Ember set Blaine’s head down gently and reached for the kit.

  “I need the nose bulb, two clamps, and the scissors.” I said to her.

  Blaine was smiling sleepily at the baby I’d placed on her chest. Reaching over Ember’s head, I grabbed the baby blanket they’d picked out only hours before, and ripped the tags off, tossing them down beside me.

  Unfolding it, I covered the baby. Ember handed me the bulb, and I sucked the baby’s nose and mouth out quickly. Once done, I went to clamping the cord, and then cutting it. I started an IV and hung the bag off the cart’s handle.

  The placenta was delivered a short time later, and I tossed it unceremoniously into the corner away from us. We were a fucking mess of blood and other things I didn’t care to think about, let alone identify. I was just about to reach for the towels Elliott was handing me from above when I noticed blood starting to pour from Blaine.

  “Take the baby, and place him to Blaine’s breast. Get him to feed. She’s hemorrhaging.” I said to Ember.

  Blaine was quickly losing consciousness though. She put up no fight when Ember took the baby from her. Ember got the baby started feeding while I started massaging Blaine’s uterus. Blood was still pouring out of her at an alarming rate.

  “I need some Pitocin, now!” I boomed to the paramedics that were waiting for instructions. I could hear Elliott calling to Blaine, but tuned it out to focus on what I was doing. A syringe and small vial of Pitocin dropped down to me, and I quickly administered a dose straight into the line of her IV.

  I continued massaging her uterus for the next minute, and slowly the bleeding came to a stop. Thank fuck.

  “It’s stopped. We’re going to need a pint of O negative. She’s lost a lot of blood, but it’s stopped for now.” I said to the medic who was peeking in through the cracks in the door. He nodded his head and disappeared. Ember was still holding the baby to Blaine’s breast, but he wasn’t sucking anymore. He’d finished, and was dozing co
ntentedly, unaware that he nearly lost his mother. Ember was rubbing his cheeks to try to get him to continue, but he was out. I turned and eyed the opening of the door again. We were in between the first and second floor. The bar that was holding the doors open looked solid and I came to a decision.

  “Elliott!” I called.

  Elliott appeared at the opening seconds later. I moved into his line of sight so he couldn’t make out the huge mess of blood that covered the floor.

  “I’m going to need to pass the baby to you. He’ll fit easily through the gap. He’s tiny.” I said to him.

  A smile graced his face, and he looked so eager, yet sad at the same time.

  “Is Blaine okay?” he asked.

  “The bleeding’s stopped. She’s still unconscious though. I think it’ll be best to hand the baby out to you because I need Ember to help me get Blaine situated. She’s going to need some blood.” I said back.

  He nodded, and held out his hand. I clasped it with mine, and then turned to take the baby gently from Ember’s arms. She was smiling, and gave a huge smile when she saw how my large hands engulfed his tiny little body.

  “What’s his name, Elliott?” I asked while turning back to him.

  Elliott’s eyes trained on his son. Bright with unshed tears.

  “Justin Douglas Masters.” Elliott whispered.

  My throat clogged up a little bit, and my eyes started to sting. Must have been from sweat dripping into my eyes or something.

  “Welcome to the world, Justin Douglas.” I said to him.

  Carefully maneuvering towards the doors, I held the tiny infant up to the crack in the door, and handed him off to his father’s capable hands with no problem. I could see Max, Cheyenne, and Sam crowd around the bundled infant, and head off towards the waiting paramedics. Another paramedic arrived with a bag of blood and handed it off to me. Turning back around to my other patient, I now saw that she was making her way back to consciousness. Starting another IV in her opposite arm, I hooked the blood bag up, and started transfusing.

  “Where’s the baby?” Blaine asked groggily.

  I leaned down and cradled Blaine’s face in the palm of my hand. “His over the moon daddy has him. He’s off spouting his mouth about how he made a boy to Sam and Cheyenne.”

  “Sounds exactly like him.” She laughed weakly.

  I was in the process of cleaning Blaine up the best I could on one end, while Ember kept her company on the other when the lights turned on. The elevator lights blinded us as they came back on. The floor beneath us jolted, and then hummed as the elevator made its way up to the second floor, only an hour and a half too late.

  Elliott met us at the door with his new son bundled in his arms. I picked up Blaine, while Ember grabbed the IV and blood bag. I placed Blaine on a stretcher gently, and backed off as the paramedics made sure I didn’t fuck anything up.

  Ember curled into my side, and I dropped my head so it was buried in the crook of her neck.

  I let out a breath that I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Blaine, Elliott and little Justin were carted off downstairs to the ambulance. The storm was still booming overhead, but it was the first time I’d heard it in nearly an hour.

  Grabbing Ember’s hand, I made my way down the stairs and didn’t look back. This was one experience I didn’t wish to have again. It really shook me to see someone I cared about nearly die. Never again would be too soon.

  Little did I know that I would be experiencing it twice more in the oncoming months.

  Moreover, it wouldn’t just strike someone I cared about; it would strike someone that was my reason for breathing.

  Chapter 6

  I do like killing the messenger. Know why? Because it sends a message.

  -T-shirt

  Ember

  “Gabe.” I said.

  “What?” He said distractedly.

  “Gabe.”

  “What?”

  “Gabriel.”

  “Huh?” He said.

  His eyes were still glued to the TV. I glared daggers at his back, and there he was still ignoring me. I’m surprised he could even hear me. He had these big chunky earphones on, and I could hear the gunshots ringing out even with them planted firmly over his ears. Max and he were playing this stupid game called Modern Warfare Three. They’d been playing it for over three hours now. I was beyond bored, and I was really getting annoyed that he was ignoring me. I was used to being ignored by Max, but not from Gabe. All I had to do was say something and bam, there he was. He’d been practically up my ass this past week since Blaine delivered her son.

  He seemed different. He was a lot more alert. Almost like, he’s hyper aware of our surroundings, even at Free. I wasn’t even allowed to go take a tinkle without him knowing where I was going and how long I planned to be gone. I mean, I’ve never timed my bathroom breaks before, but as of my last one, I was down to one minute and eighteen seconds. That was with washing my hands, too.

  We weren’t at the stage in our relationship where I could do all those bodily functions in front of him, let alone even speak openly about them. Therefore, instead of answering him, I would roll my eyes and leave without saying anything. Yes, I’d let out a discreet burp here and there, but nothing like the nice long belches that sounded like they came from a four hundred pound man like I was used to doing.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Max said. “I shot that fucker in the head with a shotgun. His face would be gone, he wouldn’t be able to get up and shoot me.”

  “Good thing you don’t have those slow reflexes in real life.” Gabe chuckled. “We wouldn’t be here today otherwise.”

  “Fuck off, Ponch.” Max shot back.

  “I do not look like that guy off of Chips!” Gabe said while shooting an assailant who tried to sneak up behind him and winning the match.

  “You totally do. You’re the perfect match. You could be his twin.” Max said while tossing his controller onto the couch in a sign of defeat.

  “Just because I have dark luscious hair and beautiful, darkly tanned mocha skin doesn’t make me look like him.” He volleyed back. “Don’t be jealous.”

  To tell you the truth, he kind of reminded me of Uncle Jesse from Full House, but bulked up with muscle, and a few tattoos and scars to boot. He had that beautiful smile with perfect white teeth. He also had a great head of hair, pitch black and straight. Even his skin color was nearly the same.

  “Jesus, get over yourself. Want to go again?” Max asked.

  Gabe took his controller back from its perch on the coffee table. “Sure.”

  Men.

  If that were me, I would’ve been pulling hair by now. Still he’d yet to acknowledge that I was standing there waiting to ask him a question. I know he heard me, but he was doing his level best to ignore the fact that I wanted to go do something, and he didn’t want to. Well screw that. Just because I couldn’t leave the compound didn’t mean that I couldn’t find something to do. He should know better by now. Just a couple of days ago I got myself stuck on the lift in the garage for over an hour.

  Cheyenne and I had a bright idea. We were bored, and the girls were napping in their car seats in the back of Sam’s truck. We’d moved the truck into the garage, but couldn’t go far since they were still sleeping. I’d been playing with the nifty little levers that they used to hoist the cars up into the air when Cheyenne dared me to get up and ride it to the top. Never one to turn down a challenge, I’d gotten all the way to the top before we realized we had no clue how to get the thing back on the ground. Cheyenne had spent the next forty-five minutes looking for a way to get me down. You’d think it being a garage that they would have a ladder of some sort, but no, not in this garage there wasn’t. So there I sat when Max and James walked through the door.

  It could have been anyone else, and it would’ve been fine. Nevertheless, when those two got together, I always ended up hurt, crying, or worse. It took them fifteen minutes of laughing and making fun of me before they fi
nally made a move toward letting me down. Regrettably, before they got me down, Gabe and Sam walked in. They took in the scene in three seconds, and immediately joined in on the teasing Ember parade. I was getting pissed. I’d been up there for nearly an hour, I had to piss, and I was yearning for a Snickers.

  I’d told them I was going to jump down if they didn’t get me down. Cheyenne immediately started to come let me down when James grabbed her from behind and wouldn’t let her come. She knew I wasn’t bluffing. Gabe was still having a laughing fit. They were all less than a foot away, so I pretty much said, “Screw it” and jumped towards Max and Gabe. I knew one of them would catch me. One of them did, and it was Gabe.

  One second he was doubled over, the next, I was in his arms. Air had rushed out of me in a whoosh when my body slammed into his. I made sure to smack Max with my elbow accidentally too.

  “Don’t ever do that again.” Gabe said angrily. “What would have happened to you if I hadn’t caught you?”

  “Owww. I tink you broke my nose.” Max whined nasally.

  I ignored him as he lectured me not to do anything stupid anymore, but I couldn’t help it. I had an innate ability to get into trouble. I was also plagued with being curious. That’s why I’ve had seven broken bones and twenty-seven stitches in total in my lifetime. I should know better, but never once did I stop to think that this was a stupid idea until I was already in the throes of doing said stupid idea.

  Walking out of Gabe’s door, I headed into the direction of Cheyenne’s house. Sam was outside washing his truck. He was shirtless in jeans, a ball cap, and boots. His stomach rippled, and his arm flexed as he pulled a Mr. Miyagi with his “wax on, wax off” motions. I would’ve drooled a little if he wasn’t my best friend’s man. Didn’t mean I couldn’t look though. I knew he’d clocked me as soon as I walked out of the door, but he didn’t say anything until I got right next to him.

  “She’s in the garage. Something about putting a new sticker on a truck and needing a razor blade.” He answered my question without me even asking it.