by Simone Elise
“Love you. Don’t you fucking dare die.” I kissed her cold forehead. “I’ll be back this afternoon. I’m off to see Dad and your man.” I brushed her blonde hair aside. “Counting on you on pulling through soon, Abby, so I have some fucking good news to tell them.”
I slipped my handbag up my arm and left her room quietly. I couldn’t put it off any longer. I had to tell Reaper and let him make the decision. We either let the doctors do the abortion now, or we let the thing grow.
Right about now, I wished Abby and I had more sisterly chats on her thoughts of abortion.
***
I was used to the staring from the other inmates. I knew I was attractive and these men were like dogs in heat. They openly rubbed themselves while staring at you. I had learned quickly that it was best to just stare at the ground. That was, until I found out something interesting.
Their eyes, their unwanted stares would stop as soon as I reached Reaper’s table.
In fact, I wouldn’t score another glance once they saw who I was visiting.
Reaper sure did have a reputation.
“Abby alright? Something happen?” Reaper was down my throat before I even pulled my chair out.
“Abby’s fine. Well, in a coma and still serious, but stable.” I sat on the plastic white chair and stared across at the man that my sister was willing to die for.
His knuckles were still bloody and slowly healing. He had shaved his head, and I noticed more ink on his neck.
“Look, we need to talk.” I looked into his cold eyes. “It’s about Abby.”
“You said she was fine.” His voice tightened with pain. Even with his cold exterior, I could still see the pain he was living with. Not being able to see her was killing him one day at a time.
“You know she… look, this isn’t easy for me. I’m crap at the emotional stuff, get it from my father. Abby was better when it came to feelings. But still, I got to do this.” I took a steady breath in. “You know she loved you. I can’t understand the fuck why, but she did. Does.”
“You got a point to this conversation, Kim?”
“She took those bullets for you.”
“You don’t think I fucking know that? You don’t think I wake up every fucking day wishing I took them.” His fists clenched at his side, and I knew he was one second from having a rage attack. His uncontrollable rage attacks were what had us going through lawyers.
I put my hands up. “Calm down. I didn’t…I wasn’t blaming you. My point is Abby knew what she was doing.”
His cold eyes were scorching mine.
“You see the point is…Abby is kind of…well, not kind of. She is...”
“Spit it out, Kim.”
“Pregnant. Abby is pregnant. And I have all these fucking doctors breathing down my neck if she would want an abortion or if she would want to keep it. Then if she keeps it, we can, well, they can keep her on life support until the baby is born. But that is only if she doesn’t wake up and fuck me, they don’t know if she is going to or not, but my point is, Reaper, there is a baby involved, and I’m not sure what the fuck to do. So here I am. Seeing as you’re the father, your opinion matters. Fuck, I think she would want you to decide especially if things don’t go the way we want them to.”
While I had a mini explosion, he just stared at me. I was beginning to think he hadn’t heard a word I said till he dragged his hands down his cheeks and let out a silent fuck.
I took an easy breath in. “So now you know. I’m scared if we keep it and she wakes up pregnant, she might kill me or you.”
“We never spoke about kids.” His cold eyes glared into the table. “This isn’t fucking ok. She doesn’t get to fucking do this to me. She should be here. She should fucking be making the decisions.”
I chewed my bottom lip for a moment. “Reaper, we have to get real. Abby is in a bad state, and this baby might be all that is left of her.”
His eyes bounced from the table and met mine. “I’m not ready to be a father.”
“I’m not ready to be an aunt. But for Abby, I would be. Could be. Should be. Fuck, she would do it for me. So if you don’t want it, I’ll take it. Abby would do it for me.”
“No. My kid.” He bit out the words. “If I lose Abby, it will be all I have left.”
“So we keep the baby.”
“We keep the baby.” His lips cracked into a sad smirk. “She would have been shitting herself about telling me.”
“Yeah, she would have.”
“Possibly even end up yelling it at me during one of her hormonal attacks.”
“Then she would come crying to me, thinking you didn’t want her.”
“Then I would tell her I loved her and I would do anything for her. Having a child with her would be the fucking best thing ever. I’d properly cop a whack from her old man for this.”
A full smile lit across my face. “Well, he is now next in line. Don’t know how he is going to cope hearing he is going to be a grandpa.”
“Probably have another heart attack, then come back and kill me.”
I laughed. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I laughed, and my laughing caused Reaper to grin a full grin.
I think he’d be an ok father.
Fuck it; it was going to happen now, and I don’t think either of us realized what a serious decision we had just made.
***
I arrived at the hospital a bit after four, with new flowers in hand. These ones were from Lizzard, a member who mainly dealt with fixing the bikes.
I opened Abby’s door.
“You won’t believe who this bunch is from; seriously, he actually had to leave the clubhouse to get them.” Then my words dried up, and I dropped the flowers on the ground along with my handbag and car keys.
No bed.
There was no fucking bed.
The bed with my sister on it was fucking gone.
I spun on my heel and sprinted to the nurses station. “Room nine. My sister, she isn’t there. Where the fuck is my sister?”
“Miss Harrison, calm down. Your sister took a turn and had to be rushed into surgery.”
“Took a turn? What the fuck does that mean, what happened?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t on the morning shift.”
“Then why don’t you look in her fucking file that you fuckers write so many notes in!”
“Calm down. I’ll do it right now. But Miss Harrison, I need you to lower your voice.”
“Like fuck. My twin sister is fucking missing from her room, and all you can tell me is she took a turn. A turn for what. What the fuck would they be operating on?”
“Her left lung.” She read from the file. “Your sister’s lung deflated, and there were complications, so they chose to take her to an operating suite.”
“When did they take her?”
“Just after eleven.”
My heart sank. That was just after I left. I should have stayed. I should have waited five more fucking minutes.
“The last message we got from the operating room was that she was stable. You are more than welcome to wait in one of the waiting rooms or in her room, Miss Harrison.”
I turned slowly and walked like the dead back to her room. She was making me age by pulling all this shit. I pushed open her bedroom door and scooped up the flowers and my stuff.
I’d wait.
I’d wait all night if that was what it took, till I knew she was stable and back here.
Chapter 9
Kim
Wasn’t till I was sitting across from Reaper for the third time that I actually took notice of the new tattoo on his neck. Kind of made my heart melt and break at the same time seeing my sister’s name tattooed across his skin.
Reaper wasn’t coping being away from Abby. Each visit he was more rattled, more rage filled him, and the madness in his eyes was enough to scare any sane person away.
Lucky for him and his sanity, his trial was tomorrow, and if the judge had a heart, he would let bail be p
osted on these bullshit charges.
“So she’s still stable?” He drummed his fingers on the table. The letters Reaper tattooed across his fingers had my attention.
“She’s going into surgery this afternoon. To have the blood drained from around her brain.” I pulled my eyes away from his fingers and met his eyes. “They have assured me that she will be fine.”
He dragged a hand across his head. “You’ll be there for it?”
“Of course.”
“This is bullshit. I should be there.”
“And tomorrow you will be. Just keep your head down and don’t start another fight between now and then.”
“Fucking frustrating.”
“Abby wouldn’t want you in any more trouble then you are already in. Anyway, Dad told me to tell you to pull your head in.”
“Easy for him to fucking say when his trial is today.”
“It’s a day’s difference, Reaper. Now pull your shit together. If anything happens with Abby, you’ll know, I promise.”
“Right, cause I’m just so easy to fucking contact.”
“The MC has guards in here. You know that. Trust me I’ll get word in.” I picked up my handbag. “Just think, this time tomorrow you will be seeing her for yourself.”
“Yeah, seeing what that fucker did to her.”
“Can’t change the past. Abby’s doing ok. Just got to give her body time to heal.” I was doing my best to keep my shit together. Couldn’t he at least stay positive?
“You’re handling all this shit really well.” His eyes were on fire when they met mine.
“Don’t really have a choice. Now I have to get to Dad’s trial. I’ll see you tomorrow in court.”
Did I like being the reasonable one? Did I enjoy trying to keep the calm when everything was falling apart?
No.
But like most things in life, I didn’t have a fucking choice.
***
“And I’m fucking telling you I want those cars cleaned and rebirthed by the time I get back. Why the fuck they are still in the shed to begin with has me wanting to smash heads. And I fucking mean it. I want them gone tonight.” Dad hung up his phone with the rage of a raging bull and stormed down the hallway.
I had only reminded him that it was after midnight a million times. That we didn’t have the right to be visiting, so the least he could do was keep quiet. But this was Dad.
Might as well be talking to a brick wall; it would at least be about as red as Dad.
“Where is she?” He stormed out of the lift.
“Just follow me.”
For once, he did as he was told.
“Now don’t just go storming in there, I’ve been reading all about vibes and energy, and we need to be giving off positive energy.” I paused at her door before holding it open for him.
I was expecting him to storm in and start demanding Abby to wake up. Instead, he was frozen in the doorway for a moment before he took one large step in.
Then I felt the energy shift.
As if the temperature in the room dropped. I watched Dad swallow sharply before dropping down into the chair beside her bed.
“It’s one thing hearing about it but another… seeing it.” His words were thick with emotion as he placed his large hand over her small one.
“She’s recovering as expected from surgery.”
“She’s still not awake though, is she?” He twisted in his seat to look at me.
“She’s not dead either.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Just got to give her some time and maybe she will come around. Her body has been through a lot. The doctors are positive, and we have to take that into account.”
“Still wasn’t how I was expecting my first grandchild.”
“Come on, admit it. You were never expecting them because you never wanted Abby or me to find a bloke.”
“Wasn’t meant to happen like this.”
“What do you want me to say, Dad? That everything is going to be fine? Because I don’t have a fucking clue. All I know is Abby only has us, and we can’t give up on her or the baby.”
Dad getting out was meant to take the pressure off me. But instead he was just applying more pressure, and it wasn’t helping me. Didn’t he get it that I was just as worried about Abby as he was? That I had just as many questions as he did?
The room went silent, and I felt bad for snapping at him. I knew he was under pressure too, from the club, from the family, and from himself.
Still, I felt selfish.
“Reaper gets out tomorrow, maybe that will help.” I broke the silence.
“Just because he is out doesn’t mean she is magically going to wake up.”
“Be romantic if she did.”
And when it came down to it, all we had was hope maybe Reaper being here would be the difference needed for Abby to wake up.
Abby
They say in the darkest times, you can always find the light. That hope always came through. That the truth will kill any lie and that love will always be strong enough to pull you from the deepest of depths.
“Reaper, I didn’t come all this way with fucking sandwiches for you to not eat them.” Kim’s voice was demanding.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Would you fucking stop being a child and eat something that hasn’t come out of the vending machine? I came all this way, stopped what I was fucking doing, and made you sandwiches. So now the least you can motherfucking do is eat them.”
“Fine.”
My hand went cold, then a smaller hand wrapped around mine.
“You know it wouldn’t kill you to go have a shower at the clubhouse. It’s been two weeks, and I know for a fact the nurses just aren’t saying anything about you using Abby’s shower because they are scared of you.”
“Good.”
“Can you string more than a few words together for me here?”
“I’m eating.”
“Of course you are. You know when Abby wakes up, she is going to be demanding why you have taken to not shaving.”
“Bring me a razor.”
“No. Come home. Change your clothes, shower, and then come back up. Abby isn’t going anywhere.”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“It’s been two weeks, Reaper. You came from the prison to here. I think you are even scaring the doctors off now.”
“I’m not leaving Abby, so stop going on about it.”
“Dad wants you to come home.”
Kade grunted.
“All I am saying is you need a break. Just a small one. Then I’ll get off your case.”
“No.”
Kim sighed. “Fine. I give up, live here then.”
“Was planning on it.”
“You know she’s breathing on her own now. She’s making improvements. Won’t be long till she is awake and demanding for herself that you need a break.”
“When she wakes up and tells me that I need a break, then I’ll listen.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Will.”
“Won’t.”
“Doesn’t matter anyway cause she isn’t awake, is she?” Kade’s hand took mine. “You can go now.”
“Don’t think so. I have all afternoon and was planning on spending it with my sister telling her about her annoying boyfriend that won’t listen to a word I say.”
Kim seemed to be more relaxed around Kade. They must have actually gotten to know each other while I was… wait a minute, where am I?
My eyes fluttered open, and the bright light engulfed my sight. At first, I was just taking comfort in hearing their voices, but now I wanted answers.
Like where the hell am I?
Why does it hurt to breathe?
“Her stomach is getting bigger. She is going to hate that.” Kim’s words confused me.
“Yeah well, she is going to be more confused when we tell her why.”
“Maybe she already knew before it all happened.”
The ceiling was so b
right. I went to lift my arm, but it was too heavy. God, it felt like I’ve been hit by a truck.
“Doubt that; she would have said something.”
“Because there was so much time between the shooting and the coma.” Kim's hand left mine, and I was able to move my fingers.
“Did you see that?” Kade said.
“What?”
“Her fingers just moved.”
“No, they didn’t. I moved my hand.”
My eyes were open now, but my throat was so dry I couldn’t speak.
“Abby?”
It felt like a lifetime since I had laid eyes on those eyes of comfort, but when they were staring down at me, I felt safe instantly.
“Her eyes are open.”
“I’ll call the nurse.”
“Abby, can you hear me?” Kade’s grip on my hand was tighter, as if I was about to disappear from him.
I blinked my eyes and slowly moved my head, but every movement felt so stiff.
“Just don’t move, ok, we’ll get the doctors. Just stay awake, ok? Babe, just keep them eyes open.”
I wanted to smile but couldn’t. If only he knew that I had no plans on closing my eyes while I could stare right up at him.
He was my reason.
Reaper
She was awake. God, how long had I watched her, waiting for her to wake up? The doctors were checking her out. They explained the pregnancy to her. She nodded her head weakly, and I still wasn’t sure if she was with it or not.
I just kept holding her hand.
It was over an hour till she was propped up in bed and drinking water. I knew she was getting better when her hand started to clamp on mine. I loosened my grip on her. I must have been crushing her hand. I didn’t even realize I was holding her hand that tight, I just couldn’t believe she was awake.
Abby pushed herself up on the bed, and immediately I grabbed her side and helped her up.
“You’re here.” Her voice was raspy, but it was heaven to my ears. I had lain awake in prison wondering if I would ever hear her voice again.
“Wouldn’t be anywhere else, babe.” I kissed her forehead.
Her eyes went from me to Kim.
“I just told Dad. He is on his way up.” Kim was grinning at Abby’s other side. “You have been keeping us waiting.”
