One Last Chance

by Hollowed, Beverley

  “See,” Ally said to a sobbing Caitlin. “He is going to be fine.”

  “Can we see him?” Caitlin asked as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Certainly, he is still in recovery but he will be moved to a room soon. But just one or two of you. It is getting late. And visiting hours are almost over.”

  The doctor smiled then headed back through the doors and left them alone. As he did, a man Ally had never seen before, came up to them and nodded at Cole.

  “How is he?” He asked looking directly at Cole. Something about the man unsettled Ally. He wasn’t the normal kind of person Cole would have any dealings with but Cole definitely seemed to know him.

  “He is out of surgery,” Cole replied. “His shoulder is a mess but they say he will make a full recovery.”

  “Thank God for that,” the man replied.

  “How did things go with the police?” Cole asked.

  “I am afraid I wasn’t much help,” the guy shrugged. “I was already in the passenger side when the guy came up to Nate, before I was even out of the car I heard a loud bang and the guy was gone. I never got a clear look at him.”

  “Did Nathan see him?” Cole asked looking at the man oddly.

  “Before he was put into the ambulance, he said he had no idea what he looked like,” the man replied.

  Something was not sitting right with Ally, the other three didn’t seem fazed by this man. But Ally wasn’t buying his story.

  The doctor allowed Caitlin up to see Nathan, along with Cole and Ally. Cole told Sid he could head home with Hannah and that they would make sure Caitlin got home safely.

  When they got to Nathan’s room, he was asleep. He was hooked up to several different machines and IV’s. His shoulder was all bandaged up.

  The minute Caitlin saw him, she started to cry once again but this time they were as much tears of relief as much as anything else.

  She rushed to his side and his eyes blinked open.

  “Hey baby,” he said groggily.

  “Don’t you “hey baby” me,” she snapped at him. “You scared the living daylights out of me. Don’t you ever do this to me again.”

  She burst out crying once again and threw herself down onto Nathan. He wrapped his good arm around her and held her close to him.

  “Hey man,” Cole said as he moved closer to the bed.

  “Hey buddy,” Nathan replied and Ally was sure he and Cole had shared a look between them.

  “Is there anything I can get for you,” Cole asked. “Anything you need, just give me a shout and I will sort it for you.”

  “Thanks Cole,” Nathan smiled and pulled Caitlin to him tighter. “But I have all I need right here.”

  “Sorry folks,” a nurse said from the doorway. “But I am afraid I will have to ask you to call it a night. Nathan needs some rest and you can all come back tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Ally said from where she was standing next to the door. Her voice caught Nathan’s attention.

  “You doing okay Al?” he asked and his eyes were filled with sadness. Ally smiled at him and moved closer to the bed. She rested her hand on his leg and smiled at him once again.

  “I am doing okay,” she answered quietly. “Better now knowing you are okay. You gave us quite a scare.”

  “Didn’t you know Ally,” Nathan laughed. “I am like a cat, I have nine lives.”

  “Well, try not to spend any more of them.” Ally laugh before she turned to Cole and said. “We should get going.”

  “Actually,” Nathan said as Caitlin stood up and dried her eyes once again. “Can I talk to Cole for a moment? I need to talk about some man stuff. You girls don’t mind do you?”

  “We will wait outside,” Ally said as Caitlin kissed Nathan once again.

  “I will be here in the morning,” Caitlin said before she walked to the door with Ally then turned around to say goodbye before she left.

  Ally’s eyes met Cole’s and he knew she wasn’t buying the story that was given and that she also knew he knew more than he was letting on to.

  “I am so sorry,” Nathan said once he and Cole were left alone.

  “I am the one who should be apologising,” Cole replied immediately. “You were there because of me. I should have just gone myself. It’s my wife and my problem…”

  “And you’re my best friend,” Nathan interrupted him. “But Cole you don’t understand. This is bad. This guy is completely insane.”

  “We know this already,” Cole said.

  “No Cole,” Nathan said, sitting up in the bed a little. “He thinks Ally is carrying his baby. He said no one will keep him from his child. And if he can’t have Ally and the baby, no one can.”

  “Christ,” Cole said sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Nathan, what am I going to do?”

  “You need to go to police,” Nathan insisted.

  “How can I,” Cole snapped back. “I sent you and Jimmy around there tonight to kill him. You got shot because of me. This is a fucking mess.”

  “Then we need to get this fucker,” Nathan replied in a whispered voice. “And we need to do it fast because he is dangerous. And he is determined to have Ally. If she turns him down. He will kill her.”

  “I hear you,” Cole replied.

  “Cole you need to call Jimmy,” Nathan whispered even lower. “You need to do this soon.”

  “I’m sorry,” the nurse said from the doorway. “I am afraid I will have to insist on you leaving.”

  “I will be back tomorrow,” Cole said as he stood up and headed for the door. “Call me if there is anything you need at all, any time.”

  “I will,” Nathan smiled. “And be careful. Keep Ally safe.”

  Cole nodded before he headed out the door. He found the two girls standing down at the bottom of the corridor waiting on him.

  They made their way out of the hospital in silence to where Nick was waiting with the car at the front door.

  Ally asked Caitlin if she wanted to come home to their house but she insisted she wanted to go back to her own house that she wanted to be alone.

  When they reached her house, Nick walked her to the door and insured she got into her house safely. While he did that, Cole and Ally sat in silence in the back of the Rover, each lost in their own thoughts.

  When Nick returned to the car, he headed straight to Cole and Ally’s house.

  “You want some tea?” Cole asked Ally as they walked through the front door.

  “No,” Ally replied curtly before she headed straight for the stairs. When she reached the bedroom, she headed straight into the wardrobe and removed her jewellery as she kicked off her two shoes.

  She then removed her dress and underwear before she slipped into her fluffy pink PJs. As she emerged from the wardrobe, she was a little surprised to find Cole sitting on the bed. He watched her as she walked to her side of the bed and pulled back the bedclothes.

  Ally sat on the edge of the bed and picked up some hand cream from the nightstand. She squirted a small bit on her hands and began to rub it in.

  The whole time Cole watched her closely, trying to decide what was the best way to handle the situation.

  “So you want to tell me why you are angry with me?” He asked finally. “I mean, clearly you are upset. I just want to know why?”

  “Oh, I am not sure,” Ally replied in her famous sarcastic tone. “I may be upset because my best friend cried her eyes out because her dumbass boyfriend somehow nearly managed to get himself killed. Or maybe I am upset because you and Nathan and that guy, whatever his name is, are clearly up to something. But I would say it’s a safe bet to assume I am upset because you think I am too stupid not to know you enough to know you are hiding something from me. Something big and you don’t trust me enough to tell me.”

  “I do trust you,” Cole exclaimed getting up from the bed and pacing up and down the bedroom floor.

  “Then what is it?” Ally cried in frustration getting up from the bed. “What is so bad you can’t tell me?”

/>   “It’s Jason,” Cole blurted out, unable to hold it back any longer. “Jason shot Nathan.”

  Chapter 25

  “He did what?” Ally asked as she could feel her legs buckle from beneath her. She landed on the bed as her mind raced with a million thoughts.

  “Nathan wasn’t car jacked,” Cole said as he stood frozen to the spot, unsure of what he should say or do next. But he knew he needed to be honest with Ally. Her life might depend on it.

  “I don’t understand,” Ally said looking up at Cole and the expression on his face told her she wasn’t going to like what he had to tell her. “How? Why would he even do something like that?”

  “Ally,” Cole said sitting down next to her on the bed. “You are the most important thing in the world to me. You and the children. I would die for you all. It is killing me to see you so upset and stressed out because of that lowlife. I had to try and do something, I had to try fix it.”

  “What did you do?” She asked in a cold, defeated voice, like all emotion and fight had left her body completely.

  “I needed to make sure you were safe,” Cole replied unable to look at Ally anymore. “And the only way I could be sure you were safe, was if Jason was out of the picture, permanently.”

  “Jesus Christ Cole,” Ally said and her stomach suddenly heaved. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom, dropping to her knees in front of the toilet as she threw up again and again, until there was nothing left.

  She could feel Cole’s hand on her back as he scooped up her hair and held it back from her face. She thought her heart was going to burst with sadness. His touch was so familiar but right in that moment he felt like a complete stranger.

  Was the man she loved really capable of doing something so unthinkable?

  “Ally,” he said as she slid away from the toilet and him. She rested her back against the cold tiles around the bath and tried to calm herself down. She buried her face in her hands and tried to make sense of the many thoughts spinning around her head. “Talk to me. Don’t shut me out.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Ally snapped, whipping her head up to look Cole straight in the eye. “That is rich coming from someone who arranged to have a man killed because of me but somehow, didn’t think it was important enough to mention it to me.”

  “Ally, I hadn’t planned on this happening like this,” Cole said moving closer to her once again but she pulled away further.

  “I wanted to kill him with my own bare hands,” Cole said, dropping his eyes down to his hand, unable to look Ally in the eye any more. “I just wanted him gone. But Nathan insisted. He said you needed me here and so did the children and he was right. But I never wanted Nathan to get hurt. That was the last thing I wanted. He is like a brother to me.”

  “Then why do this at all,” Ally asked trying hard to understand. “Why be something you are not.”

  “Because all this is my fault,” Cole replied finally looking Ally in the eye. “I should have never let you down that night. I should have made you go to the police the next day. And I should have never beat him up because now you are afraid to go to the police because you are protecting me. See, this is all my fault.”

  “Cole what happened between him and me is not your fault,” Ally said surprised he would blame himself for what Jason had done. “And what he is doing now isn’t your fault either.”

  “Maybe if I had finished the job,” Cole sighed as he pinched his nose to relieve the sudden headache he had. He knew it was just stress and tension. “I should have killed him that day in his apartment. And I would have too if Nathan hadn’t stopped me. Then you would be okay now. You would have nothing to be stressing about. And Nathan wouldn’t have gotten shot.”

  “But I wouldn’t have had you either,” Ally cried leaning up and taking hold of Cole face in her hands. “Don’t you get it? Cole I love you. Damn it, I need you, we all need you, me, Ben and Little Bean. What would have happened to us if you were rotting away in a prison cell somewhere?”

  “Ally, sometimes I can barely breathe with the fear he will take you from me,” Cole admitted honestly. “I am afraid I will drop my guard and he will get in. And I will lose you.”

  “But we can’t keep living like this,” Ally said sadly. “I know he scared me in the shop last week, but I think you are worrying for nothing. He will get bored and just move on.”

  Cole dropped his eyes once again, unable to look Ally in the face. Ally instantly felt her heart race rapidly in her chest. She knew there was something Cole hadn’t told her yet and if she was honest, she wasn’t sure she could take any more bad news.

  She took a deep steadying breath before she asked the question she was sure she really wanted the answer to.

  “What are you not telling me?” She asked staring at Cole intently. Cole stared at the floor for a few minutes and Ally knew he was struggling with what to tell her and how to word it. So she waited patiently.

  He took a deep cleansing breath before he finally allowed his eyes to meet hers and the look in them nearly broke Ally’s heart. She could feel the tears pool in her eyes and quickly trickle down her face.

  “What I am going to tell you,” Cole began nervously. “I know it’s going to upset you. But I want you to try remain calm for both yours and the baby’s sake. And I want you to remember I will die before I let him hurt you again.”

  “Cole you are scaring me,” Ally sobbed softly and she quickly brushed the tears from her face with the back of her hands. “Please just tell me.”

  “When Nathan was at Jason’s,” Cole continued with his story. “Jason told him that…”

  Cole stopped to take another deep breath, this was proving a lot harder to say out loud to Ally than he thought it was going to be.

  “Jason told him that he knew the baby was his, “Cole said quickly then stopped and took another deep breath. “He said he would not be kept away from his child. That if he could not have you and the baby. No one could.”

  “OH GOD!” She cried out as once again she was on her knees in front of the toilet and she violently threw up once more.

  “It’s okay,” Cole soothed her as he softly rubbed her back. “I promise Ally, he will get nowhere near you or Little Bean. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I promise.

  Ally turned and buried her face into Cole’s chest and sobbed harder. Cole wrapped her tighter in his arms and held her closer to him.

  They remained on the floor for some time, until Ally cried herself into complete exhaustion and she fell asleep with her head resting on Coles lap.

  Cole eased her head from his legs and down onto the floor so he could get up onto his feet. Once he did, he bent down, scooped Ally up from the floor, carried her out into the bedroom and sat her down easily in to her spot on their bed.

  He quickly stripped and slid into the bed next to Ally pulling her closer to him. She instinctively snuggled into his chest and settled back into a deep sleep.

  Cole lay there for the longest time as thoughts ran through his head. He thought back to the day he went to Jason’s apartment. He could see him lying there on the floor as Cole kicked and punched him again and again, he just lay there and took it.

  That worried Cole. Thinking back now, Jason would have let Cole beat him to death. This meant to Cole, he had no real concern about his own life. And that someone who behaved in such a way, appeared to have nothing to live for and so was not afraid to die. That made him so much more dangerous. It made him fearless and so much more of a threat.

  Cole finally drifted off to sleep around three am but it was a restless one filled with bad dreams.

  Again he was searching for Ally and he could hear her calling out for him again and again. Then he was back in front of the big black door once more, banging and banging on it hard but unable to get through it.

  Suddenly he heard a loud bang and he shot up in the bed.

  When he reached out for Ally, his heart raced even faster when he found her side of the bed
empty. He was out of the bed in one swift movement.

  First, he headed into the bathroom but she was not in there and the fear in the pit of his stomach quickly grew as he headed back out through the bedroom. He walked along the landing, where he headed straight to Ben’s room.

  When he opened the bedroom door, a mixture of both relief and heart break washed over him. He found Ally asleep against Ben’s crib with her hand in through the bars holding his tiny little hand. It was a beautiful yet sad thing to see, as Cole knew she was scared for Ben now as much as herself. That her over-riding need as a mother to protect her baby was very evident.

  Cole walked in to the room quietly and scooped Ally up off the floor but she jumped the moment he touched her.

  “It’s just me.” He whispered as he pulled her closer to him. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

  He carried her back to the bed and climbed in beside her, holding her close to him.

  “Cole,” she whispered as they lay there in the darkness of their room. “Promise me something.”

  “Anything for you, my gorgeous girl,” he replied as he kissed her on the forehead.

  “If something should happen to me…” she began but Cole interrupted straight away.

  “Don’t talk like that,” Cole said in an almost angry tone. “Nothing is going to happen to you Ally. You can’t think that way.”

  “I know, but please, I need to say this,” she cried, leaning up in the bed and staring down at Cole. “Just listen to me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he replied. “Go ahead.”

  “If anything should happen to me,” she repeated. “Promise me you will make sure Ben knows how much I love him. That from the day we brought him home he was my baby.”

  “Ally…” Cole began to protest.

  “Promise me,” Ally demanded quickly.

  “I promise,” Cole said with a defeated sigh. “I promise Ben will always know how much his mom loved him and just how hard you fought for him. He will know how great you are and how there will never be someone else in this world that could mean as much to me and him as you do.”

  “Thank you,” she replied in barely a whisper.