Long Way Home

by Vaughn, Ann

  Tessa rushed to Shane as Gib charged Nathaniel’s shredded body, kicking the gun away. She slid to her knees and gathered Shane to her, ripping his shirt open to try to get her hands on his injuries.

  “Shane! Come on, baby, stay with me! Gib! Oh God, Gib, I can’t feel a pulse!”

  Gib rushed to her, yanking his Kevlar over his head and then ripping his shirt off to press to the worst of the wounds.

  “Come on, McCanton, stay with us,” Gib growled. In the distance they heard sirens approaching but they knew time was running out.

  “God, please,” Tessa cried, caressing Shane’s waxy face. “Please don’t take him. Shane, please!” she sobbed.

  “Tess,” Gib said, low, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Tessa...he’s gone.”

  “NO!!!!!” she screamed, her arms tightening on Shane’s shoulders, cradling him to her and rocking him with her sobs. “NO!! Shane!!! Come back! I can’t do this without you! Shane!”

  When the other deputies and the medics came in, Gib had to force her to release Shane’s body so they could take care of him. He accepted a solar blanket from one of the deputies and wrapped her up and lifted her into his arms, carrying her out to his truck. He sat with her in his lap, rocking her as he would a child, his heart breaking for the girl he’d considered his daughter for the last dozen years.

  “We were going to get married today,” she whispered.

  “I know. I’m so sorry,” Gib soothed.

  She looked up when two carts bearing two body bags came out of the cave and her stomach clenched that she didn’t know which was Shane. As she pushed out of Gib’s lap to approach the gurneys, however, a third came out of the cave, with medics huddled around and an IV bag being held high. She took off at a sprint when she saw Shane’s dark head.

  “Shane?”

  “We’ve got a pulse but it’s extremely weak,” a medic told her.

  “Let me ride with him,” she demanded and none dared deny her.

  She climbed up in the ambulance with him and took his hand in hers, then leaned down to speak into his ear.

  “I love you so much. You’re my Dragon Slayer. You hang on and you fight, do you hear me, Shane McCanton? You fight and you come back to me.”

  His hand tightened on hers, and then his grip relaxed and lost its hold on her altogether. She didn’t have to be told that time. She knew he was gone.

  Epilogue

  “Gib!!!! Mama!!!!” Tessa cried, pain like she’d never known ripping through her.

  Lights came on and she heard two sets of footsteps on the stairs.

  “Tessa? Honey?” Mary called, flipping on the light and rushing to her bedside.

  “Oh, whoa,” Gib said, sliding to a halt just inside her bedroom door. “I’ll bring the truck around.”

  “Something’s wrong, Mama,” Tessa groaned.

  “You’re going to be fine. The doctor said the pain would be more intense for you because of your injuries.”

  “I need Shane,” Tessa sobbed.

  Mary rubbed the small of her daughter’s back. “I know, baby.”

  “I can’t do this alone, Mama. Shane should be here,” Tessa cried, clutching her stomach.

  “You can do this, baby, you can do anything.”

  “Truck’s out front. Ready to go?” Gib said, coming to help her out of bed.

  As soon as she stood, a gush of fluid covered her.

  “It’s coming fast,” Mary said, looking anxiously up at her husband.

  “We’ll make it,” Gib assured her.

  “Mama, help me change, I can’t...whoa!”

  “Honey, you don’t have time to change, we’ve got to go.”

  Tessa doubled over again when a strong contraction hit and found herself scooped up in Gib’s arms. In spite of all the doctors had initially said, a month after the shooting, she learned she was pregnant with Shane’s baby and even though there had been a few scary moments around the six month mark, she’d been able to carry almost the full 9 months. It was a bittersweet moment now, rushing to the hospital with her mother and stepfather.

  She’d barely made it to the ER before the need to push was overwhelming. She kept pining for Shane, missing him more in that moment than ever before. He needed to be there. Their son was going to be born at any moment, he needed...

  “Hey, hey, you didn’t think you were going to do this without me, did you?” she heard, and then she saw a flash of blue eyes and Shane was there, just as an intense contraction hit and the doctor told her to push.

  “How...?” she asked even as she began to push.

  “Ivy sent Reese’s friend with a helicopter after me when your mom said that you’d been having contractions before you went to bed. Push, baby, that’s it.”

  She pushed as hard as she could and when she felt her son slip free, she collapsed back against the bed, her mind drifting to that moment in the ambulance nine months ago when she thought she’d lost Shane forever...

  ...

  “Shane?” she cried, leaning down to his ear. “Come back to me now. You’ve got to fight. You’ve never failed at anything ever in your life, you can’t fail me now. Come back!”

  The medics shocked his heart twice and then he was back. He took a deep, gasping breath and Tessa thought she’d never heard a more beautiful sound in all her life. His recovery hadn’t been easy. He’d lost a lot of blood and his femur had been shattered by a bullet, but after they got his heart started that second time, he’d never had another sketchy moment.

  He’d been in Austin for the last few days, testifying in the trial of the remaining Elders from the Naturalists. Tessa, being so close to her due date, had been allowed to testify via satellite, but Shane had insisted on being there in person.

  “Here’s our son, Tess,” Shane’s voice broke through to her, placing their crying, dark haired son in her arms for the first time.

  She smiled, all pain forgotten. As soon as she brought him close, the baby stopped crying and looked directly into her face.

  “Hello, Gabriel,” she cooed at him, “I love you so much!”

  Shane kissed her brow and looked down at his wife and son. Gabriel Shane McCanton, the son Tessa thought she would never be able to give him. He knew in that moment, he was the luckiest man on Earth.

  Tessa kissed her son’s tiny fist, then looked up and met Shane’s gaze. All those years ago, when she barely even knew him and was just a baby herself, she’d had a premonition that one day she would be right here, her son in her arms, Shane by her side. She may have taken the long way home, but in that moment, she knew that Home was exactly where she was.

  Six years later…

  Gabriel McCanton did not want to be here. He could think of a million things he’d rather be doing than following his parents into the school. He wanted to stay home and play and even help watch over his baby sister, Jessica. Going to school was messing everything up.

  His mom, carrying Jessica, walked into his classroom but Gabe stopped just outside the door. His dad noticed and squatted down so that they were eye to eye.

  “Gabe? What’s wrong?”

  Gabe shrugged, looking down at his feet.

  “Don’t wanna go in.”

  “Scared?” his dad asked.

  Gabe’s head shot up and he met his dad’s gaze.

  “I’m not scared. I just don’t see what’s so great about going to school.”

  His dad nodded. “Kind of gets in the way of what you really want to do, doesn’t it?” Gabe nodded. “But, then again, if you want to be Sheriff someday, you have to go to school so you can learn the things you need to know that will help you. Understand?”

  Gabe sighed dramatically. “I guess. But, Kindergarten is stupid. I don’t want to color and do all that dumb stuff.”

  “It’s not all about coloring. You’ll learn all kinds of new stuff and all of it will help you on your way to becoming Sheriff one day.”

  “If you say so.”

  His dad stood up and ruffled his
hair. “Trust me, kid. When have I ever steered you wrong?”

  Gabe nodded and reluctantly followed his dad into the room. His mom introduced him to his teacher and showed him where he was supposed to sit…right next to his friend, Lily Reese.

  “Hey, Gabe!” Lily greeted him, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was entirely too happy about being there, Gabe thought.

  “Hey,” he mumbled, settling into his seat.

  “I had the weirdest dream last night,” Lily told him. “I dreamt that we were big…and that we got married!”

  Behind the table, Shane and Tessa exchanged knowing glances when they overheard Lily’s statement to their son. Humor danced through their eyes and each could tell the other was remembering a similar statement from another blonde haired girl to a reluctant McCanton boy. Shane reached for Tessa’s hand and lifted her knuckles to his lips. Life had come full circle. He could only hope that his son would be as fortunate as he had been with his own blonde haired girl.

  The End

  About the Author

  Ann Vaughn is a self-described “Misplaced Texan” now living in Oklahoma. She is married to her high school sweetheart, has two active children and a Border Collie puppy who keeps them all on their toes. Writing has always been an escape for Ann, who began writing “Sweet Valley High”-esque stories for her friends when she was in the seventh grade…and several hundred spiral notebooks later, she is still coming up with ways to entertain some of that same group of friends.

  Stop by Ann’s Facebook page…she would love to hear from you!

  www.facebook.com/annvaughnauthor