by Shaw, Vicki
After what feels like hours, which in reality is probably only minutes, Jones’s phone rings. “Yeah, ok I know where that is. I’ll find out where all the cop traffic stops are and let you know so you can go around them. So The Boss, Steve and Jayce are going to go to the house and help you.” Andrew must be giving him other information as Jones has stopped talking. “Yeah, ok I will make sure I check it out in about an hour and ring you back.” As soon as Jones is off the phone Jake is on him. “Well, come on we don’t have all damn night.” Jake must be sick of all the waiting around as well now because I can tell he is getting impatient to get the information I need. “They are going to move her in a few hours. The Boss, Steve and Andrew are coming to help move her because Jayce is already here.” “What the fuck? I thought Andrew was here with her. And who the hell are Jayce and Steve?” I am just about at my limit and ready to smash something or someone. “You better start talking Jones or I am going to ram my fist into your face repeatable.” I try to grab him by the collar of his shirt but again Jake steps between us. “Steve and Jayce are both ex-boyfriends of Roxie’s. Steve from not too long ago as far as I can tell, and Jayce from when she was still at high school.” I step towards him again, but he puts his hands up as if to surrender. “That’s all I know honest,” He said as he took a step back. What in the hell is going on around here? I knew about Steve because I meet him at my office and the first time I came here to help Roxie look for the file. How the hell is he involved in all of this and who the hell is this Jayce. When we were talking to Carly, she never said anything about Roxie having a boyfriend at school. I pull my phone out and ring Carly. “Who the hell is Jayce and why didn’t you tell me about him and Roxie on the plane?” I yell at her as soon as she said hello. “What the fuck are you on Martin? I do not have a clue who the hell Jayce is and as far as I know Roxie doesn’t even know anyone named Jayce. And if you ever talk to me like that again I will rip your balls off.” I can tell I have pissed her off, but I really do not care right now. I need to find the underlying cause of all this before I go mad. I let out a breath. “I’m sorry Carly. We have been talking to someone who is working with the people who have Roxie. Steve is involved and so is someone named Jayce. From the information we have he is an ex- boyfriend of Roxie’s from when she was in high school. Can you think of anyone who it could be?” “Steve, as in Roxie’s ex-fiancé, Steve. You have got to be fucking kidding me. That sack of shit is involved with kidnaping her?” She is yelling now as well “Yes as far as we know he is. Now can you just concentrate and try to remember anyone named Jayce. Did she ever have a boyfriend or was she sneaking off to meet someone.” I’m getting frustrated. Carly has to know something. “The only time we were not together right through school was the summer I went away with my parents. I told you this.” Shit, I do remember. When Carly got home, Roxie was acting out of sorts. That had to be what was wrong with her. What happened between Roxie and Jayce? “I have to go Carly. I will ring you when we have Roxie.” I hang up still lost in thought when Jake elbows me in the arm. “Well, what did Carly say? Does she know who Jayce is?” he asked. “No. She thinks it must have been the summer she went away and Roxie did not go with her.” I said with a shrug of my shoulder.
Time is passing so slowly. While we are waiting, Jake is explaining what everyone is going to do when they go in. Everyone has been told to put on a bulletproof vest as a just in case. He wants to wait until The Boss, Andrew and Steve arrive before making a move. I want to go in now. There is only one guy in there and I think it would be easier and safer to get her out unhurt now rather than waiting until three more people show up. Jake explained that if we go in now, there is little chance we will get everyone involved. They will arrive and run. If they run, they will go underground and Roxie will never be safe. I can understand where he is coming from, but this waiting is killing me. I want to see that she is safe and not hurt.
Jones’s phone rings letting him know that The Boss, Andrew and Steve are only about five minutes away. Jake is getting everyone in position. My heart feels like it is about to beat out of my chest. I do not normally pray, but I am saying one now. I’m asking to please keep Roxie safe and for her not to be hurt. Headlights are seen in the distance and everyone is waiting for the word to move in. It is as if everyone is spring loaded and ready to pounce. The car pulls into the driveway and three figures get out. I cannot make out who they are because it is too dark. Jake puts his hand up showing everyone to be ready to go on his mark. The three figures start to walk up the front steps when Jake lowers his hand signalling to move. There is a blur of activity. Before I even know what is happening, there are shouts to get on the ground and men everywhere. My brain finally catches up to what I am seeing. The three figures are all on the ground with guns pointed at their heads. My legs have a mind of their own and start running. I leap over someone as I run to the already open front door. I am yelling out to Roxie. I hear shouts coming from downstairs. I run down the stairs as fast as I can. When I reach the bottom, I stop dead in my tracks. I was not prepared for the sight that greeted me.
THIRTEEN
Roxie
I can hear talking, but I can only hear one voice. I try to drag myself to the bathroom. Every part of my body is screaming in pain. I cannot see clearly, as I can barely open my eyes from the swelling. It is taking every ounce of energy I have to even move just a little bit. I try to stand but my legs will not hold me up and I collapse back to the floor in a heap. It sounds like Jayce is yelling but I still cannot see him and I can still only hear his voice. He must be on the phone. It sounds like he is miles away. However, I sense he is still in the basement. His voice is muffled and I cannot make out what he is saying. From blows he rained on me I have a ringing in my ears. The darkness is trying to pull me back under, but I am fighting it as hard as I can. I need to stay awake to get out of here and to fight him off again.
After what feels like forever, Jayce is pulling me up by the arms. “You listen to be you bitch. You are lucky I received that phone call and there is a change of plan because mark my words, if I didn't, you would still be in a heap on the floor with me beating you, Hard. It seems your boyfriend and his cop friends are going to be here in the morning so we will have to leave tonight.” He pushes me to sit in the chair that is chained to the floor. To my surprise, he walks around and picks up all of my clothing that he ripped off earlier. “Put these on and make it fast.” He throws them at my face. I am barely able to stay seated in the chair. All I want to do is lie down. The dizziness and pounding in my head is turning my stomach. There is no way I could hold it down any longer. I slide off the chair onto my hands and knees and throw up what little I had in my stomach. The dry heaving is making my head pound even more, but I just cannot stop. Jayce comes storming over. “I told you to put the fucking clothes on.” He punches me in the side of the head and I am in darkness again.
I wish everyone would keep the shouting down. Why the hell is there so much shouting anyway. It is too early for this much noise. I try to yell for them all to shut up, but nothing comes out of my mouth. Then I hear Martin yelling, “Roxie, Roxie.” Finally, there is silence and I am in the darkness again. I am starting to like the darkness. It is so quiet and peaceful. There is no yelling, no pain and no worries. I might just stay here for a while. Just as I have that thought, I am being shaken. “Roxie, oh my god, what have they done to you. Please, wake-up.” I hear Martin saying. It takes a few seconds to remember where I am. Martin can’t be here. He is not meant to be here until tomorrow and I was being moved. Where the hell am I anyway. I try to open my eyes, but I cannot. I try to speak, but it is as if I am locked in my head. I cannot even move any of my body. “Martin you have to move out of the way so the paramedics can look at her and get her to the hospital.” Jake. I can hear Jake. I must be safe now. “Just get me a bloody blanket. No one else is coming in here until she is covered.” Oh, my god. I’m naked and god knows how many people are here. “The paramedics have a blanket now
move out of the way Martin. They need to get her to a hospital and fast.” “Fine but I’m riding in the back with her.” I can feel it as they rolled me onto my side and then back onto my back, but this time there is a hard cold board under me. The pain is unbelievable and the darkness takes me again.
Will someone please turn whatever the hell is beeping off. My head is pounding and the beeping is making it ten times worse. I can hear someone talking next to me, but I don’t know whose voice it is. “She will need x-rays and an ultrasound to check for any broken ribs or internal bleeding. The ultrasound should be done first as she has some virginal bleeding so I want to make sure she isn’t pregnant before the x-rays. Also, do a rape kit just in case. In addition, I want a full blood work up.” “Yes, Doctor.” Everything goes quiet and black again.
“Have they got any of the results back yet?” Carly asks someone. What is Carly doing here? She should be in Brisbane. “They have done the blood tests and the ultrasound and they are back. She is pregnant, but they don’t know if she is going to miscarry with the bleeding she is having. They don’t know how many blows to the stomach she took. We just have to wait and see. They are sure she has some broken ribs, but now they will not do the x-rays because of the pregnancy.” Who are they talking about? It cannot be me. I’m not pregnant. “How do you feel about the baby Martin? Did you and Roxie ever talk about having kids?” Carly asks. “To tell you the truth, I have never really thought too much about having kids. Yeah, one day I would like to be a father but Roxie and I never spoke about it. We couldn’t even get our shit together to have a relationship let alone bring kids into the picture. I don’t even know if she wants kids. She is so focused on travelling and building her career right now.” Martin said, his voice sounding tired. They are talking about me. I cannot be pregnant. I don’t want kids right now. Martin is right. I want to travel and work on my career. There is no way I want to be tied down at this point in my life. “All you can do right now is wait until she wakes up and talk about it. You really should go back to the motel and have something to eat, a shower and get some sleep. You have not left here since she was found. I’ll stay here and if there is any change I’ll give you a call.” Carly sounds worried. “I’m fine. Jake is bringing me changes of clothes and food. I’ll grab a shower in the bathroom over there and I’m sleeping in the pull-out chair the nurse’s brought me after they tried to kick me out the first night.” “Ok, but try and get some more sleep, you look like shit. Matts coming back this afternoon so I will get him to bring me back up tonight. If she wakes up or there is any change, make sure you ring. Is there anything you need?” I hear Carly ask. “Yeah I will and no Jake has everything under control. Thanks, Carly. Roxie is lucky to have a friend like you.”
The next time I wake there is bright sunshine streaming into my room. I turn my head to my left and see Martin sitting next to the bed holding my hand. I groan as a sharp pain shoots through my skull. Martin is instantly awake. “Oh, Roxie. Thank god, you are finally awake. I have been so worried about you. Hold on, I’ll buzz for the nurse.” Martin looks like he has not slept in weeks and has a short beard from not shaving. I try to move to sit up a bit, but the sharp pain shoots through my skull again. I bring both my hands up, place them on the side of my head, and squeeze to try to stop the pain. “GGGRRR it hurts.” I moan. Martin is at my side in a nanosecond. “What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?” he has so much worry in his voice. “My head. It is killing me.” My voice is weak and comes out all croaky. Just then a nurse walks in the door. “Ah, you are finally awake. I will page your doctor so he can check you out. Have you got any pain?” she asks in a motherly fashion. “Yes, my head is killing me. At the moment, that is the only pain I can feel because it is so bad.” I complain. The nurse pats me on my hand that is resting on top of the covers next to me. “The doctor will not be long.” The nurse walks out of the room and I am left alone with Martin again. I am trying to sort out everything that has happened in my head. I can remember Jayce kidnapping me, my time in the basement and trying to find the file. I remember Steve, The Boss, Andrew, and Jayce beating me. Then I can only remember bits and pieces. I do not know what is real and what I dreamt. I’m about to launch into all my questions I want to ask Martin when the doctor walks in. “Good afternoon Roxie. I’m Doctor Holland. I will just examine you and then I will tell you what has been going on. Have you got any pain?” The doctor asks as he looks into my eyes with a small light. “Yes, my head is killing me. Apart from that I can’t really feel anything else at the moment.” I say weakly. I am starting to get sleepy again but need the pain in my head to stop first. “It is understandable for you to have head pain. The beating you took to the head caused swelling in your brain. We were worried there for a while that we would have to operate to relieve the pressure, but thankfully it went down with the medication we gave you. We think you have some fractured ribs, but we are not one hundred percent sure as we did not want to do any x-rays with you being pregnant.” He was about to keep talking when I held up my hand to stop him. “Wait a minute. That was not a dream when I heard you talking to Carly?” I look at Martin with questioning in my eyes. “You heard me talking to Carly?” the look of confusion is written all over his face. “Yes, I did. I heard you tell her you didn’t know if you wanted to be a father. I heard everything you said.” I am getting worked up and it is making my head pound even more. I bring my hands up again to the side of my head to try to stop the throbbing pain. “I take it you did not know you were expecting then, Roxie.” The doctor asked in a gentle understanding voice. “No, I did not,” I say with a little bit too much anger in my voice. “Ok, well, we can talk about this in a little while and go over your options. First I want to get on top of the pain you have in your head. Unfortunately, there is not a lot I can give you for pain because of the pregnancy. I will get the nurse to bring you something to help. I want you to rest and not get worked up. Your body has been through tremendous strain. We were worried about the baby because you were bleeding, but all of that has settled down. A little later after you have had some sleep, I will get the pre-natal team to come and do another ultrasound just to make sure everything is still ok.” The doctor gives me a rub on the shoulder, turns and walks out the room. Not even two minutes later the nurse comes in with two pills and a bottle of water. I take the pills and thank her. Just as Martin is about to say something a nurse walks in pulling a machine behind her. “Good afternoon. I am here to have a look at your baby and make sure everything is ok. Do you know how far along you are?” I just shake my head to indicate no. “That’s ok. Depending on how far along you are, we should be able to give you an indication of your due date. I will warn you if you are only very early, we might not be able to see anything but a black blub and the heartbeat if you are six weeks or under. Now if I can just get you to lie flat on your back and pull your grown over your tummy. This will be a little cold.” I jump when she puts the jelly stuff on my stomach. I really do not want to see the baby yet. I want to make up my mind what I want to do before I become attached. When the screen comes to life, I cannot help but look. The nurse points out the heartbeat, the little blub’s arms and legs, head and body. She tells us that I am about ten weeks. I can’t look at Martin because I do not want to see what emotion is on his face. There is no way I am going to let it influence my decision. When the nurse is finished and gone, I roll away from Martin, close my eyes and let the silent tears run down my cheeks. I do not want to talk to anyone just yet, I just want to be alone. There is so much running through my mind I did not think I would be able to fall asleep, but the exhaustion finally pulls me under.
“She didn’t say anything to me after the doctor left. As soon as the nurse gave her some pain meds and the ultrasound was finished she rolled over and went to sleep. She wouldn’t even look at me.” I can here Martin talking to someone. “Carly I am really worried about her. After being kidnapped, beaten and maybe even raped, then finding out she is pregnant and seeing the baby for the f
irst time, I don’t know how she is going to handle it. Physically, I know she will heal in time, but I don’t know how she is going to cope mentally. I don’t even know what she thinks about the baby.” The worry is evident in Martin’s voice. He really is worried about me. I just do not know how I feel about anything right now. I don’t want to see or talk to anyone so I pretend I’m still asleep in the hope that Carly will leave. I know I sound like a bitch and that I should be grateful I have people who care about me so much but right now I just need to get my own head together. “Martin, Roxie is one of the strongest people I know. Give her some time to get her head together and process everything. She will come around. You’ll see.” “I hope you are right Carly. I love her and I want to be here to give her anything she and the baby needs. I want to be here to support her any way she needs. I can feel her pushing me away. I need her like I need oxygen. She is now my life and I can’t live without her.” Martin’s voice cracks with what sound like tears. “Martin I know Roxie loves you and if she doesn’t already she will come to love this baby. Even when she was with Steve, she was not truly happy. When she is with you, I can see just how happy she is. After her mother’s murder, she shut everyone out including me. I had to plant myself in her room until she would go out with me. You need to give her time but also let her know you are not going anywhere. It is going to be a hard fight but if you really love her as much as you say you do I know in time you will get through to her.” “Thanks, Carly.” I hear feet moving around. “We should get going Carly. I have to fly back out tomorrow but will be back in a couple of days.” I didn’t know Matt was here with Carly. I make a note to talk to her about what is happening with her and Matt after all this craziness is finished. The door shuts and I feel Martin sit on the side of my bed. I roll over and look at his face. He still hasn’t had a shave and there are dark circles under his eyes. I take a deep breath and get straight into what I need to tell him. “Martin, Thank you so much for staying here with me. It really means a lot to know you have not left my side, but I think it is time for you to leave. I need to get my head around everything and need to rest and by the looks of you, you do to.” I can see so much flash behind his eyes. Hurt, anger, sadness and confusion. “I am not leaving you, Roxie. As soon as the doctors say you are well enough to fly, I am going to take you home. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure you and the baby are safe and you get better.” I do not have the energy to fight with him right now, but he has to realise that I am not going back to his place. When I get out of here, I am going to go to Carly’s until I work out what I want to do about the baby and where I am going to live. “Martin right now all I want to do is be pain-free and sleep. I do not want to talk about what is going to happen in a few days or a week. However, I will tell you one thing I am not going back to your place. None of this changes what I said to you while I was away. I need time to process everything and I will be able to do that better if you’re not here.” I am defeated. They may not have killed me, but something inside is not right anymore. “So you don’t even want to talk about the baby? I’m assuming it is mine.” The hurt flashed across his face again. “Are you seriously asking me that? Yes, of course, it is yours.” I am starting to get angry and the constant headache I have has picked up in severity. “Martin please leave. We can talk about this later.” I reach over and press the call button for the nurse. When she enters, I ask for some more pain meds. She leaves the room, but Martin is still sitting on my bed. “Martin please I want you to leave. I will contact you when I work out what I want to do.” I finish saying as the nurse walks back in. She gives Martin a stern look when he does not go to leave. “I told you I am not leaving. Not until we can at least talk about this.” The hurt in his eyes has been replaced with anger. The more fired up he is getting, the angrier I am. “JUST LEAVE,” I yell pointing my finger towards the door. The minute I move my hand my ribs scream out in pain and I curl up in a ball trying to stop the pain. “I think you should leave sir. You are upsetting her and that is the last thing she needs right now.” The nurse said sternly. Martin goes to speak again, but he nurse cuts him off before he can get a sound out. “If you do not leave I will have you removed.” That is what it took to have him finally walk towards the door. Before he exits, he turns to me. “This conversation is not finished Roxie. I will give you your time and space but, believe me, we will be talking about OUR baby and OUR future.” With that, he turns on his heel and walks out the door.
