Rage's Redemption

by Erin Osborne

  The same prospect from earlier comes over to help me out of the chair and I make my way into the room I share with Rage and Kasey when we’re here. Just as I’m getting out of the dress so I can get in bed, my phone rings. I smile when I see the picture of Rage and me from getting our pregnancy photos done.

  “Hey baby,” I answer the phone.

  “Hey firefly. It’s quiet there,” he responds.

  “I’m in our room. The girls are slowly starting to pass out and I’m beyond exhausted.”

  “Why didn’t you go back to the room sooner then?” he asks, the concern lacing his voice.

  “I was having fun. And I wasn’t doing anything more than sitting in a chair. The prospects waited on me hand and foot. They helped me when I needed to get out of the chair and everything.”

  “Yeah, and what’s with the pain you felt a few times that took your breath away and almost dropped you to your knees?” he asks.

  “I told him not to interrupt your night. It’s not a big deal baby. I’m fine, the babies are fine, and we’ll see what the doctor has to say in less than two days.”

  “I still don’t like it firefly,” he says. “I’d rather be there with you in case you need me. What if somethin’ happens and I’m still an hour and a half away.”

  “You’ll do what you need to in order to get here as fast and as safe as you can,” I answer him, laying down in bed and trying to get comfortable.

  “You layin’ down firefly?” he asks, and I can hear him shuffling around.

  “Yeah. Are you?”

  “I am. I’m missin’ havin’ you in my arms firefly.”

  “I’m missing you too. I can’t wait until I get to see you tomorrow.”

  “It won’t get here soon enough. I’ll let you go so you can get to sleep firefly. I love you more than you know.”

  “I love you to the moon and back.”

  Laying down, I rearrange the pillows and blankets until I can get comfortable. Falling into a deep sleep, I let myself go because I know it’s not going to last long. Between being uncomfortable and having to pee, I’ll be up every so often.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Keegan

  WAKING UP THIS MORNING, I’m more than ready to marry the love of my life. However, my most important concern right now is having to relieve my bladder. The bed is low enough that I can do this rolling out of bed maneuver to get out of it.

  As soon as I’m done on the toilet, I jump in the shower. I know that the girls are going to be in here any minute now to help me start getting ready. Since I’m showering alone, I get everything done as quickly as I can. It’s kind of hard to do certain things so Rage will have to help me out later on.

  Yesterday and today I have felt really good. I’m still tired and my back is still killing me. But, I want to do more around the house and I want to make sure everything is truly ready for when the twins get here. Whitney and Melody both told me that I’m nesting. They say that I’m going to be giving birth soon. I can only hope so at this point.

  Once I’m back in the room, I hear pounding on the door. It’s too soft to be Rage or any of the guys so I’m going to guess that the girls are here and anxious to get things moving along. Probably Rage got back and is running his mouth to get things going. I can totally see him going all caveman because he wants to see me. I guess it’s a good thing that one of the brothers are performing the ceremony for us, so we can really start it whenever we want to.

  A big part of me can’t wait to see my man. But, another part of me can’t wait to see what the girls have done as far as decorations. I gave colors I liked and a general idea. The girls took charge and wouldn’t let Rage, or I help out with anything else. It was to the point that I’m surprised I got to pick out what dress I wanted to wear. Thankfully, I love these girls and I’m glad they took charge so it was one less thing I was concentrating on while pregnant.

  “Ready to get beautiful?” Sami asks, leading the way in the room.

  “I am. I’ve already showered and now I’m ready to get dressed and whatever else you guys want to do to me.”

  “Good. Rage is going crazy out there. He wants to lay eyes on you now. I’m pretty sure all the guys, including the kids, are ready to go already. We’re just waiting on you,” Bailey tells me.

  Looking at them, I see that all the girls are ready. The only ones missing are the little girls. I’m trying to peer around everyone to see them in their little dresses. They’re not there though.

  “Alice took them out to get pictures started,” Skylar tells us.

  “Alright, lets get going then. I don’t want to keep Rage waiting. I want to see him just as bad as he wants to see me.”

  The girls all surround me and help me get dressed and my hair done. Once again, Darcy curled my hair. Instead of leaving it down though, she pulled the sides back leaving just a few tendrils down around my face. Melody is the one to do my make-up today and it’s understated. Honestly, it doesn’t even look like I’m wearing any. The only thing giving it away is the light color on my eyelids and the sweep of tinted lip gloss on my lips.

  “You look absolutely stunning!” Maddie gushes. “Let’s get you out for a few pictures so we can get you to your man.”

  Bailey makes a phone call to make sure that Rage isn’t going to see me before we leave the room. I’m guessing that she called Pops since he meets us in the hallway. He’s dressed in a nice-looking pair of jean, a long sleeve dress shirt, and his cut.

  “I know things have been crazy Keegan. And I know that you have Kasey, but I’d be honored if I could walk you down the aisle to Rage,” Pops tells me.

  “I’d be honored,” I tell him, the tears flowing down my face.

  He holds out his arm for me and I put my hand in the crutch of his arm. We walk out to the photographer telling us how she wants us to stand and pose. The final picture she takes before the wedding is Kasey standing in front of me, facing me with her little hands on each side of my belly. She’s kind of leaning in like she’s going to give the babies a kiss. It’s going to be one of the cutest pictures and I can’t wait to see the proofs. This one is definitely going on the wall.

  “Alright, Rage is having a fit,” Bailey tells us.

  “I’m ready. I need to see my man,” I tell them.

  Alice leads the kids to the back door so that we can all line up and head outside. The prospects are guarding the door so that no one can see in before I step a foot outside. Everyone is really making sure that Rage has to wait to see me. I can’t wait to see him and I’m about ready to just push past everyone so that I can see my man. It’s been too long, and we were only apart since yesterday afternoon.

  Finally, it’s my turn to walk down the aisle and I gasp as soon as I step foot outside. Everything is done in reds and crèmes. I didn’t want traditional white. There’s flowers along the aisle where the bikes aren’t parked and crème colored ribbon cascading down the backs of chairs. The runner we’re walking up is crème colored outlined in red with red double hearts. My heart is melting at the attention to detail these girls have put into our wedding.

  Rage is standing at the front looking as handsome as I’ve ever seen him. He’s wearing a dark red long-sleeved dress shirt with his cut over it and a dark pair of new jeans. I want nothing more than to run to him right now. But, being as pregnant as I am, that wouldn’t work out to well. I’d probably look like a whale trying to get to her food. Or I’d trip and fall all over myself. So, I let Pops lead me to him at his pace. He speeds up a little bit and I see the smirk gracing his face.

  I’m finally standing next to my man in front of Slim. I knew that one of the guys were doing the ceremony, I just didn’t know it was going to be him. Honestly, I’m glad that it’s him. I grew to look up to him when I stayed in Benton Falls. I’m honored that he’s performing the ceremony and Pops wanted to walk me down the aisle.

  “Who gives this woman to this man?” he asks.

  “I do along with the rest of the Wild King
s and Phantom Bastards members,” Pops responds before placing a kiss on my cheek and putting my hand in Rage’s.

  The rest of the ceremony seems to go by in a blur as I stare in Rage’s eyes. Finally, we’re to the part where we exchange vows. The only thing that we have control over was the vows we chose to write for one another. I know I’ve spent a lot of time on mine so that I could make sure that everything I wanted to say to Rage and Kasey was included.

  “Keegan, my world has been ripped apart more times than I can count. Now, when it’s turnin’ upside down, I look at you and instantly I feel calm. You have given me so much from the love you show our little girl to the love you show me and the twins that you’re carryin’ now. I’ll never be able to tell you how much I love you, but I will show you every day for the rest of our lives. You will be cherished and loved from now until forever.”

  “Rage, I have spent my entire life running and hiding from a monster, one that you helped slay. My life became complete with one look from you and one word from our beautiful little sweet pea. The twins that we’re waiting on now are going to do nothing but add to our joy and love. I’ll never be able to show you the love I feel for both of you, but I’ll try my hardest every single day for the rest of our lives and beyond.”

  After exchanging rings, Slim pronounces us husband and wife and tells us to kiss. As Rage lays a scorching kiss on me, I can hear the revving of the bike’s engines and know that today is perfect. We’re surrounded by our family and there’s nothing that can ruin today. Kasey wrapping her arms around both of our legs is the only thing that stops us from putting on a show right here for everyone. Looking down, I see tears running down her little face and Rage bends down to pick her up.

  “What’s the matter sweet pea?” he asks.

  “Nothing. My heart is happy, and these are happy tears,” she tells us.

  I can feel the tears gathering and I look up to see tears in my man’s eyes too. This little girl can slay us with just a few words and we don’t care who sees it. The ones that are surrounding us heard what she said, and I hear a few sniffles from them.

  “Let’s get inside,” Rage says. “I need a few minutes with my girls.”

  “No, you needs a few minutes with mama. I want to see Zoey,” Kasey tells us.

  We both start laughing at the fact that Kasey now wants nothing to do with us, but wants to be with her little friends. Bailey reminds us that we still have to get pictures done before we head inside for a second. Rage leads me to our room and take a few seconds just to hold me and check me over. I knew it was just a matter of time before he gave me a complete once over after hearing that I’ve been having pains in my back.

  “How are you feelin’ today, wife?” he asks me.

  “I’m good. Today is perfect and I want to enjoy it for a little bit with our family,” I tell him. I know if we stay in this room for much longer, we won’t be coming back out the rest of the night.

  “Alright. Let’s get these pictures done so we can go to this reception for a little while. Alice and Pops are takin’ Kasey for the night and I’m ready to have you all to myself.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  Rage

  Finally, Keegan is my wife and my old lady. She’s got my rag on after the ceremony for our pictures and my rings on her finger. The only thing that would make today better is if the next two members of our family were here with us. But, it’s not going to be long now.

  It seems like we were posed for pictures forever. But, it’s over with now and I lead my wife over to our table. After sitting her down, I get the three of us some food so that my babies are all fed. Kasey joins us to eat before running off again to play with the rest of the kids. We’re not alone though. Someone is always coming over to congratulate us or ask Keegan how she’s feeling. One of the prospects is even hovering to make sure that I don’t have to leave her side for any length of time.

  “Are you ready to dance?” I ask my girl.

  “Yeah. One dance is all I can manage though,” she tells me.

  I’m getting tired and today has taken it’s toll on me. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t really had to do anything, everything takes a toll on me. Rage leads me out to the make-shift dance floor as one of the prospects announces our dance. He wanted to be the one to pick our song, so I wait in anticipation to hear what he’s chosen. Making My Way To You by Cole Swindell comes on and I start chuckling. One night in bed we talked about this song and he told me that if we ever got married this was going to be our song. I should’ve remembered that.

  “What’s funny?” he asks, looking down into my eyes.

  “I was just remembering the conversation we had about this song.”

  “I told you what our song was goin’ to be.”

  I lay my head on his chest and we continue to gently move and sway to the music. Before the song is over, I get another sharp pain in my back without any warning. Rage barely holds me up I drop so fast. This one is definitely worse than anything I felt yesterday.

  “Firefly!” he yells. “What’s the matter?”

  “Pain,” I pant out, looking down and seeing a giant wet spot on the front of my dress.

  Rage follows my line of sight and I can feel him tense up. He knows that these babies are going to making their appearance today. I’m not scared or nervous. Instead I feel a joy like no other. It seems that the rest of our little family has decided that they want to be a part of our special day after all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rage

  I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE IN AS much pain as what I’m watching my wife go through right now. As soon as we realized that her water broke, a few of the guys brought over anything they could find to lay her down on. I’m not sure if that’s what we were supposed to do, but she seemed to be in a little less pain right now then when she was standing up or bending over.

  We’ve been at the hospital for a few hours and Keegan is doing amazing. She’s trying not to take anything for the pain, but I can see the pain is taking it’s toll on her body and she wants some relief. I’m not going to say a single word if she decides that she needs to take something to help her out.

  “Rage, I think we need to rethink this whole medicine thing,” she finally tells me.

  “It’s up to you firefly. If you want to have somethin’ you get it. I stand by any decision you make,” I tell her, wiping her forehead with the wet cloth again.

  “Can you push the button to get a nurse in here please?” she asks as another contraction hit’s her.

  I do as she asks and help her know where she is in her contraction. That seems to help her somehow and I’m going to do anything that I can to help her through this process. We’re going to get through this together, even when she’s yelling at me, telling me she hates me, that she’s going to cut my dick off, everything. At the end of the day, I know that she doesn’t mean any of it and we’re going to be so happy and fall in love when we see our babies.

  “What can I do for you?” a nurse asks, walking in the room and checking the monitors.

  “I need something for the pain please,” Keegan tells her. “I’m not going to last any longer without something.”

  “Let me check you and we’ll see what we can do,” she responds.

  While I don’t really want to watch some female stick her finger in my wife, I know that it’s a part of the process. My concern is making sure that my wife and the twins are okay, and we do what we have to do to protect all three of them. After checking Keegan, the nurse tells us that she’s going to have to talk to the doctor before she will be able to do anything.

  “What’s goin’ on?” I ask immediately, wanting to know why she can’t just give her something now.

  “She’s too close to not being able to give her anything. So, I want to see what Doctor Sanchez wants to do.”

  “Please?” Keegan begs. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m so tired and I’m not going to be able to push these babies out.”

 
; “I’ll make sure that she knows. You’ve been doing so good and we’ll do what is best for everyone involved honey,” the nurse says before leaving the room.

  Honestly, I think I scare her a little bit. But, I don’t really care. Not when it comes to the safety of my family. And this instance is literally a matter of life and death in my eyes. One wrong move could injure my unborn children. I’m not going to have it.

  “It will be okay firefly,” I tell her, trying to make sure that she remains as calm as she can right now.

  Before too long, Doctor Sanchez comes in and checks my wife herself. She agrees with the nurse and tells us that we don’t have many options right now. Her main concern is the safety of the twins. So, she tells Keegan that we may have to think about going the route of a cesarean section. Right after she says that, she checks the papers printing out from the monitor. I’m not sure what she’s looking for, but I’m going to go with whatever she says. Hopefully Keegan is on the same page.

  “What do you think is going to be the best option?” my girl asks.

  “At this point, I think we may want to prep you for the surgery,” she answers honestly. “If you weren’t so tired, I probably wouldn’t be saying that. Rage has talked to me about the lack of sleep you’ve been getting though. The final decision is yours though.”

  Keegan looks at me and I can see that she’s already made her mind up. “I want to have it done. Knowing my own body, I know that I’m not going to last much longer. I don’t want to take any chances with our babies.”

  “I’ll let everyone know,” the doctor tells us before making her way out of the room.

  “Why don’t you go let everyone know what’s going on?” Keegan asks me.

  “I don’t want to leave you. I’ll send Grim a message and he can let everyone know,” I tell her, pulling my phone out.

  Keegan nods her head and closes her eyes. She’s been trying to rest the best she can in between contractions. They’ve been getting closer together though, so it’s not really working anymore. Hell, before I can even finish typing the message out, another one hit’s her.