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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Research Subject - by MMB
Chapter 8: And Now...
Summer was here - the weather was warm, time was moving slower. Our house was a bastion of deliberate and carefully maintained peace and coolness now that was part air conditioning and part attitude. There was an air of anticipation beginning to waft around the corners as the days slid smoothly by. All was ready for our new arrival - at least, we hoped so. The nursery was painted; and between Parker and Rene and Debbie, the baby had enough clothing to last a long time. The car seat was sitting on a counter in the garage, waiting to be fastened securely in place in the back seat of Sydney's car.
I could hardly believe that so many months could have flown past so quickly. And, with any luck, in a little less than four weeks, we would be bringing home our little girl. Sydney's excitement and worry for me as the days of waiting grew shorter was palpable. He hovered and spoiled me horribly, not to mention saw to it that everyone around me did the same. He was more patient with me than I deserved as my temper tended to be shorter because I was feeling encumbered and unattractive - and I loved him all the more for all the little ways he tried to reassure me. At night, his arms were so protective and tender that I fell asleep easily no matter how active the baby was.
I was well aware that he appreciated having Rene in the house with us the past weeks since it meant that he could go to work and know that between Joe the sweeper and my girl, I was well tended. Between the two of them, I wasn't allowed to do much of anything anymore other than waddle like a fat goose from bed to couch to bathroom to kitchen to bed again - and occasionally out onto a lawn chair when the evening breezes were pleasant. My doctor continued to harp on my blood pressure, as it remained more elevated than he would have liked, but as yet he hadn't insisted that I take up residence in the hospital. I told him once that getting stuck in a hospital room WOULD make my blood pressure rise, and then watched him grumble that I was too smart for my own good.
Rene's bruises were finally fading to that sickly yellow that comes just before they vanish completely. It had taken several days of near-constant application of an ice bag before her eye, swollen shut by the blow her father had landed there, began to peek open again. But more than anything, her recovery had been escorted along by the nearly constant attention showered on her by Sydney's son, Nicholas, who had been visiting us on vacation when she arrived. I didn't disapprove at all of what I was seeing happening between those two. After nearly two weeks' time to get to know the young man, I was now convinced that Nicholas was but a younger version of his father, with many of the same traits and tendencies that had made me fall in love with Sydney. I don't think the point was lost on my daughter either.
I was fairly sure that she was sorry to see her constant companion leave when the time came for him to go back home to prepare for the start of classes in mid-August. The two of them took a long walk around the neighborhood the evening before his flight left and came back home with eyes twinkling and the vaguest hint that something had happened between them. After promising me as he kissed my cheek goodbye that he'd be back sometime in September to check out his little sister, Sydney and Rene drove him back into Dover to the airport late in the morning. They got back just about the time the rest of the gang started arriving for our regular Sunday afternoon get-together, and Rene immediately threw herself into activities with Debbie to help keep little Jacob entertained. But there were times there for a while when I would see her grow quiet and thoughtful, and I could guess why.
Miss Parker and Broots had arranged it between them before hand that this particular Sunday's evening fare would be sandwiches and potato salad and chips - with a cake that Debbie had baked that morning for dessert. Because it was such a warm and pleasant day, I had relocated my bower to a chaise lounge in the shade of the back yard and had eventually been joined in the shade by Miss Parker and finally Rene on lawn chairs. As the afternoon progressed, we women found our spot the perfect vantage from which to enjoy the antics of Jacob and Debbie in their swimming suits running through the sprinkler. Sydney and Broots had begun yet another of their chess games at the dining table, but even they emerged after an hour or so to drag another couple of lawn chairs over near us and lend us their perspective while enjoying the balmy day.
The real fun began when Debbie came over and sprinkled some of the water from her hair at her father, accidentally hitting Sydney and Rene. Jacob thought the outcry that erupted from the grown-ups in the lawn chairs was hilarious, and so he brought a handful of water from the sprinkler over and baptized his sister. Broots vanished sometime in the ensuing hilarity and came back out with a loaded squirt gun - which he aimed first at his daughter and then unexpectedly at Sydney, making my husband shout in surprise and shock as a stream of cold water went down the back of his neck. A suddenly mischievous Debbie snuck around Miss Parker's back and wrung a little more of the water from her hair down the back of her neck as well, bringing the tall brunette right up out of her chair with a shriek of surprise that had us all laughing hard. I knew something was up when Parker and Sydney put their heads together and suddenly got up and vanished for a time, leaving the kids back to running through the sprinkler and the rest of us wondering what was going on.
We weren't left wondering for long, however. When Sydney and Parker returned, they came back with a shopping bag filled with enough squirt guns for all of us - myself included. A five-gallon plastic bucket was brought out from the gardening shed, filled with water and placed near me - and declared neutral territory so that anybody filling their squirt gun could be off limits to the others while they “rearmed.” I, on the other hand, was charged with shooting anybody who broke the armistice near the fill bucket. With those few ground rules mutually agreed upon, the war was on.
I didn't think I had ever seen six people have so much fun getting drenched in my life, and my howls of hilarity were accompanied by our peanut bouncing inside me as if to say “me too, Mom, me too!” Rene, Jacob and Debbie seemed perfectly happy taking potshots at each other most of the time and missing three quarters of the time. Miss Parker, however, was sharpshooter accurate with her weapon, aiming at and nailing Broots and my husband more than at anybody else. I almost fell off my lounge chair laughing, however, when the two men finally ganged up on her and chased her around the yard getting her absolutely soaked. Then it was my turn to shriek when, panting from the exertion, Sydney declared that he was too old for such things anymore and came over to me to snuggle - dripping wet and decidedly cold. I defended myself as best I could, but ended up damper than I'd intended in the end while Parker and Rene stood back and chortled at my fate at the hands of my husband.
I was sure, by the time everyone was too tired to run anymore, that our back yard wouldn't need watering again until next Spring. I sent a still-laughing Rene into the house to commandeer our supply of bath towels so that those who hadn't intended to get drenched could at least try to dry off. I sent her back into the house later to fetch my rainbow-colored caftan for Parker eventually, so that the woman could throw her wet clothes in the dryer. When Sydney went upstairs to change, he brought back down a bathrobe and pair of trousers for Broots so that he could do the same, after which Parker hauled Jacob into the downstairs bathroom to change into a second set of clothing she'd brought with her for post-sprinkler time.
We had re-congregated in the back yard on our respective chairs to catch our breaths and wait out the dryer in the warm afternoon sun when the doorbell sounded. Sydney shot me a questioning look and rose to answer the summons. I don't know why he thought I'd know who it was at our door on a Sunday. He knew as well as I did that Jarod would just follow the voices around to the back of the house, and that Nicholas was probably at home in upstate New York, unpacking his suitcase from his vacation. I leaned back into the cushion of the chaise lounge, listening to the light ripple of conversation going on around me.
"Cat?" Sydney had waited until he'd come close to speak to me. He didn't look happy, and the others had grown silent at his expression. "There's a man here who claims to be Lyle's attorney. He wants to talk to you about settling your complaint against Lyle and Willy before the case goes to court."
"Settle?" I narrowed my eyes as I felt myself tighten up suddenly. I really didn't need this right now. "As in pay me money to drop the charges?"
"I assume so." My husband's voice told me clearly what HE thought of the idea.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Miss Parker spat, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Even for Lyle, that's pretty damned presumptuous." Broots' statement was flat and distrustful.
"You can tell him to go fly a kite," I told him, settling back against my cushions.
Sydney shook his head. "I already did. He wants to hear it from you, since you're the one who filed the complaint."
I closed my eyes, and gradually the tightness eased. "Help me up," I said finally, putting my hands out to him. "I'll make him sorry he wouldn't take your word for it."
"You go for it," Miss Parker said approvingly, gathering her little brother close to her protectively. "That son of a..."
"Parker..." Sydney warned paternally, with an eye to the child in her arms as a reason for interrupting.
The grey eyes impacted mine. "You know what I mean. Tell him a few things for me too."
Sydney had my elbow in his palm. "We'll be right back," he told our guests, then led me slowly back into the house and toward the living room.
Had he not been holding my elbow, I wouldn't have felt his hesitation of shock when, instead of just one man in our living room, there were two. "What the hell are YOU doing here?" Sydney demanded of the one who was tethered to an oxygen tank and looked as if on death's door.
"I wanted to make sure," the man intoned in a hoarse stage whisper then drew in more of the oxygenated air into his lungs noisily, "that our concerns were at least communicated properly."
"Who is this?" I asked, turning my face up to my husband's glower.
"This is Mr. William Raines, Chairman of the Centre," Sydney told me in a tight voice, then looked reluctantly back at our guest. "My wife, Catherine."
"Catherine, eh?" the bald man said with a sideways glance at my husband, as if sharing an inside fact. "So nice to meet you at last..." He came at me with a skeletal hand extended. I backed up until Sydney was in front of me like a shield. I could tell the Chairman wasn't pleased with my response.
"What do you want?" I demanded angrily. "Isn't it enough that I have Lyle trying to get into my house one way or the other - now YOU sneak into the house while Sydney is bringing me to speak to a lawyer, which is what I suppose you are..." I turned my disapproval on the slender young man to Mr. Raines' left.
"Yes, ma'am. I just wanted..."
"Let's be reasonable people here," Raines said in a hoarsely oily tone. "Lyle is very important to the day to day operations of the Centre, and Willy is a valued member of our security force. Surely..."
"Surely the both of them had better things to do than to try to snatch me from my own house, then," I interrupted the ghoulish man without another thought. "But NO, they were really quite determined this last time around, and even broke into my house - smashed a glass door in back - to get what they wanted. Why the hell do you think I'd ever consider dropping the charges?"
"We could make it worth your while... Catherine..." he smiled at me with yellow, tobacco-stained teeth.
I pulled myself to my full height and felt that ripple of tightness return just a little more forcefully. I REALLY didn't need to be doing this just now. "There is absolutely nothing that you have to offer me that would be worth the peace of mind I get from knowing Mr. Lyle and Mr. Willy Whatever are cooling their heels behind bars." As the tightness began to ease, my anger surged. "They stole from me something I valued very much, Mr. Raines - my peace of mind at being safe and secure in my own home. I'm not exactly in any condition to be under a lot of stress right now, as you can see." I stepped out from behind Sydney slightly, my hand on top of the bulge of our peanut to emphasis my condition. As I smoothed my hand over my unborn child, the tightness seemed to ease a bit more.
"Mrs. Green... If you'll just listen..." the legal lackey tried again, but I didn't give him a chance.
"No, you listen to me, the both of you," I told them both firmly. "With Mr. Lyle and Mr. Willy in jail, I have my sense of security and peace of mind back, for the most part. I'm not knowingly and deliberately going to hand them over to you simply to make your corporation run more smoothly, Mr. Raines. What the two of them did was a crime against me and a crime against my child, and I've never done anything to either of them." I could feel the tightness beginning to build again, and this time I knew that when it hit, it would be much stronger. I reached for Sydney's arm for support ahead of time. "My husband gave you my answer earlier, and you didn't believe him. You should have - because you're getting the very same answer from me. You're wasting my time and yours. Now, you will leave my house - and leave me and mine ALONE!" I pointed with my free hand at the front door. "Get out! Both of you!"
The young lawyer was quick to scamper for the door, but Mr. Raines' departure was more deliberate. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Catherine," he said in his gasping way. "Perhaps we can speak later, when you're feeling better." He gave my husband a strange look "What IS it about women named Catherine?" he asked as he slowly dragged his oxygen tank behind him to follow the lawyer out the door. I followed them both and slammed the front door shut hard to make my statement final - then doubled over as the tightness finally clamped down painfully. "Oh my God!"
"Cat!" Sydney was beside me in an instant, lifting me in his arms and carrying me to the couch. "What is it?"
"Cramps again," I said between clenched teeth, my eyes shut and my hands desperately smoothing over our peanut to try to ease the hard muscles again. I opened my eyes and looked up at my very worried husband. "I really didn't need those clowns in my house today, you know."
"Take deep breaths," he soothed at me, smoothing my hair back from my face in a gesture that I think was more comforting to him than to me at the moment. "They're gone now. Everything's all right... You're safe... Breathe..."
I did as he said - took a deep breath and then another - and could feel how hard my heart was pounding now that I wasn't focused on the intruders in my home. One of Sydney's hands found mine and interlaced its fingers with mine while the other continued to stroke my hair. My free hand continued to smooth over my tight stomach, and finally the cramping eased so that I could breathe more freely again. I rested a moment and then reached up with my free hand to smooth back his fun-dampened hair. "I'm OK, my love."
Even then, I couldn't completely erase the almost panicked look on his face. He bent forward and kissed me gently on the lips and then on my forehead. "God, Cat..."
"Hush, Sydney. It's alright." I hadn't thought it possible - my strong and capable husband was clinging to me tightly as if terrified I would leave him. "Just give me a few minutes, that's all..." I closed my eyes again and focused my attention on my heartbeat and breathing, willing them both to slow down and regain a more normal rhythm. But at the same time, I held onto his hand tightly, taking strength from him being beside me.
He kissed my forehead again and then chafed my hand between the both of his while I kept my eyes closed and rested. I was starting to think that I'd managed to get on top of the cramping like I had before when I felt the beginnings of another, even more powerful cramp starting to ripple. When it hit, I clenched my teeth again and squeezed his hand so tightly I thought I could feel the bones grinding against each other.
"PARKER!" I heard him bellow frantically as I suddenly remembered all my birthing class training and began breathing quickly and shallowly through my mouth and rubbing my stomach with my fingertips in small, circular motions.
"Sydney, what's the ma..." I heard her answer him as she came closer and then: "Oh, God! You don't mean to tell me..."
Obviously Rene had trailed in behind her. "Mom?" I heard her call, and then another, cooler hand was on my forehead. "Is it labor?"
"I don't know," I admitted as the tightening across my middle eased gradually. I looked up into Sydney's face and then hers. "That makes two - just like last time."
"One more like that one, Cat, and we're on the road," Sydney told me in no uncertain terms and twisted to look at my daughter. "Rene, go get your mother's suitcase from our bedroom. It's in the bottom of the closet - already packed."
"You've got it," she replied and vanished immediately from my view.
Parker also vanished. "Broots!" I could hear her calling toward the back of the house.
"I don't want to ruin the day," I grumbled as Sydney smoothed my hair back once more.
"Stop that," he told me firmly. "You're not ruining anything."
"But Debbie baked that nice cake for dessert..."
I don't think I've ever seen Sydney look quite so exasperated with me as he did in that moment. "Oh, for heaven's sake, it's not as if we wouldn't have the cake one time or another eventually. When it comes to order of priority, you KNOW that our peanut beats out a cake hands down!"
"Sydney, it's too early." I let my fear and dread out finally, looking up into his face seeking some comfort there.
"I know, sweetheart," he murmured to me, bending close and kissing my cheek. "But not as early as it was the last time. Remember, the doctor said that you could go into labor at any time when you saw him last week..."
I felt the now-familiar tightening starting, but this time there was no hard cramping. "I'm OK, I think..." I told him and then repeated myself to Rene as she clomped into the room bearing the duffelbag with my belongings and a homecoming outfit for our new daughter. "No hard cramp this time, I just got a little tight."
"Let's not celebrate yet," Rene spoke knowingly. "Has anybody bothered to time these cramps to see how far apart they are?"
"There haven't been that many of them, poppet," I said as the tightness eased under a gently soothing hand across my stomach. "Only two really strong enough to worry about."
"Mom..." Her tone told me that she was almost as exasperated as Sydney had been. "Sometimes you hardly even feel the first labor pains. You TELL us when you feel the tightness again."
Sydney moved to sit next to my head, then lifted my head and the pillows I'd been lying against carefully so that he could scoot into place in a sitting position and then arrange the pillows so that I had my head now in his lap. "One way or the other, I think you've just about had all the excitement you need for the day," he told me fondly. He clasped my one hand in his again on top of our peanut who had gone very quiet except for a small bump against my backbone to let me know she was there.
"Well, how are things going in here?" Miss Parker asked in a very worried and take-charge voice, coming close to the back of the couch again with the Broots' close on her heels. "Sydney? Are we on our way to Dover or no?"
"Not yet," I answered her with my eyes closed before my husband could get a word out. "The cramps have stopped again. But Rene's having us time the twinges..."
"Aunt Caffee, you OK?" I heard a small voice ask worriedly, and I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at little Jacob, who had come up next to me.
I smiled at him. "I'm fine, Jakie. I just had a little bit of stomach-ache."
"Is it the baby coming?" he asked, having no qualms about putting his little hand on the side of the bulge in my middle. He was still completely fascinated by the idea that I had a real baby in there and loved it when I'd let him feel the baby kick.
"I don't think so, Jakie, but I'm going to stay really quiet just to make sure." I paused and listened to my body and felt it tighten again just a little. "That's another one," I announced quietly. Sydney looked at his watch.
"C'mon Jakie," Debbie called to the little boy. "How about you and me go see about making some sandwiches for everyone for supper? I think we'll move our picnic into the living room, though."
"OK," he answered brightly and took off to claim the hand Debbie was holding out to him.
The tightness eased again, and I smiled up into my husband's face. "I'm sorry, Dad, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little longer to meet your daughter." I let some of my relief color my voice.
"I sincerely hope so," he answered and smoothed my hair back again while his face showed a little of his own relief. "Not that I'm not anxious to meet her, but I'd like her to come a whole lot closer to her due date."
I could tell from Broots' release of breath and hand clapped to Sydney's shoulder that our technician friend was starting to feel the release of tension too. "Man, Cathy, you had us going there for a minute."
"Yeah, well talk to this little monster here," I said, patting my stomach. "SHE had me going there too." I was tired, as if I'd waddled a whole mile, but starting to genuinely relax at last. "And I'm starting to think that our peanut has a definite aversion to some of the men of the Centre. First Mr. Lyle, and now this fellow..."
"Sydney, you should take this as an indication of how your new daughter's going to behave later on," Broots smirked and moved into the room to claim one of the easy chairs. "She'll tell you to hurry up and get you all hot and bothered - only to make you sit and wait again."
"Personally, I think she's working on seeing if she can give her father completely grey hair before she's born, so that the crises of childhood won't show up so bad," was Miss Parker's offering.
"Be nice, now, you two," I twisted to look at them. "It isn't easy being a first-time father."
"That's for sure," Broots piped up unexpectedly from his chair. "I remember waiting for Debbie to come - I was never so excited or scared in my life." He glanced back up at Miss Parker. "And Debbie was early too, so that didn't help. She was SO tiny..."
"That's another one," I told Sydney softly as the tightness, now only a minor twinge, came again.
He glanced at his watch again. "That's less than two minutes, Cat," he worried at me and glanced down at where Rene had parked herself at the bottom of the couch with my feet now resting in her lap. "That's close, isn't it?"
"Are they as strong as they were, Mom?" Rene asked, patting my feet to get my attention.
"Not at all," I answered. "I could hardly feel this last one - and only because I'm paying such close attention now..."
"It could be false labor - you know, the muscles kinda warming themselves up for the main event ahead of time," she told me after thinking for a bit. "Still, if they continue and continue to be regular, you may want to let the doctor know."
"I don't know if I'll be awake," I sighed. "I'm starting to feel like my eyelids weigh a ton..."
"Sleep, then," my husband rumbled softly at me. "You don't have to stay awake and entertain us. You've already put on a class act - for us as well as for Raines."
"Raines was actually here?" Miss Parker was livid. "Of all the nerve..."
"Dad's right, Mom," Rene chimed in. "C'mon, folks, let's let the pregnant lady get her beauty rest." She scooted out from beneath my feet and headed off in the direction of the kitchen.
"C'mon, Scooby," Parker called to Broots, who then padded out of the room obediently after her.
"Close your eyes now," Sydney rumbled at me again and then bent to brush his lips against my forehead. "I'll be right here."
"You don't have to stay with me while I nap," I told him with a fond smile. "Go, be with the family."
"Uh-unh," he shook his head firmly. "I'm not letting you out of my sight for the rest of the day."
With my head in his lap, his one hand spread warmly over our unborn daughter while the other rested in my hair, I had little trouble relaxing to the point that I could doze. My dreams were of the little dark-haired daughter I hadn't met yet, and she was waving a finger at me and warning me, "Soon."
~~~~~~~~
This time, it was Sydney who finally slipped out from under my head and called the doctor while I was asleep to report my onset of cramping again as well as the estimated time between whatever sensations I'd felt. I heard from Rene after the meal about the expression on his face as the doctor warned him that I very well might be in the very early stages of labor. She chuckled sympathetically as she tried to describe the look of horror and panic that had spread across his features at the idea, and how both Miss Parker and Broots had talked long and hard to get him to calm down again.
I have to admit that my mood improved after a short nap and we'd all had a chance to eat our meal and then sample the cake that Deb had made for us. The young Broots girl beamed as the praise for her culinary talent came at her like a wave, and I could tell that getting a chance to hear the approval all of us had to offer her had been very important. I tried to catch my husband's eye and make sure that he got the point, but he was still obviously fairly distracted by the news the doctor had given him.
As a result of my fatigue and Sydney's sense of distress, the family didn't remain long after the meal in order that I could get myself upstairs and into bed - and so my husband could try to calm down a bit more. Once it was just the three of us again, Sydney voiced his opinion that I stay on the couch from now on, but I wouldn't hear of it. The couch was comfortable, but it wasn't my own bed - and besides, I was always more comfortable with my husband curled at my back with his arms around me. After such a trying day, I wasn't going to do without my marital security blanket.
The next few days were very quiet ones, with Miss Parker insisting that Sydney only work morning hours so that he could spend more of the day with me. He and Rene took turns sitting with me and keeping me from dying of boredom except during those afternoon hours when Deb and her friends made their appearance for more tutoring in Chemistry. With both Rene and me to work with them, however, the study sessions tended to be short ones. Miss Parker stopped by once with take-out dinner in hand and stayed only long enough afterwards to reinforce her directive to my husband to call her when the time came for me to be taken to the hospital - no matter what time of the day or night that might happen. Even Joe found reasons not to head back to the Centre after Sydney showed up at about lunchtime, saying only that he felt more useful making sure that there wasn't a repeat of the last Centre visit to stress me into having the baby any earlier than necessary. I would be having no more unexpected, unwelcome visitors on his watch, he told me in a very determined tone of voice over a game of backgammon.
It was over a week later when the telephone call came from Rochester, and then I was glad that Sydney had taken to coming home during the afternoon. I had answered the ringing and then called Rene over to hand her the cordless handset when a man who identified himself as an office of the Rochester Police Department asked to speak to her. She took the telephone with a confused look on her face and over the next few minutes went from confused to upset to downright frightened.
Finally she hung up the telephone and handed the cordless back to me, her face pale. "My fa..." She swallowed hard. "He was arraigned, made bail and has now skipped town," she reported to me after I made her sit down next to me. "They haven't got the slightest idea where he's gone, but they know that his lawyer had made inquiries about the man who had come to pick me up from the hospital." She was shaking so hard she could hardly talk straight. "Mom, what if he's coming here..."
"He wouldn't," I reassured her with a confidence that I didn't completely feel. "Even if he did, we have Dad and Joe here - he isn't going to be able to jump us by surprise like he did to you."
"Mom, he could really hurt you," she worried at me. "And you don't need any more stress right now."
"Go get Dad," I told her. "He needs to know what's going on too."
When Rene came back, it was with both Sydney and Joe. "Rene told me," Sydney said as he settled onto the coffee table in front of me while Joe stood deferentially off to the side. "For what it's worth, I don't want him to get anywhere near either of you."
"Did you tell the Rochester police that you were afraid that he might come here?" I asked Rene finally, not remembering anything like that from the side of the conversation that I'd heard.
"I didn't think to," she admitted ruefully. "I think I was so shocked that he'd pull such a stunt that it didn't even occur to me."
"They gave me a card with contact addresses and phone numbers while we were there filing the charges," Sydney said. "We can call them back and let them know our suspicions. We can also call the Blue Cove police and let hem know what we suspect and maybe ask the Rochester people to send information here. But to be a little forewarned might be the ticket for us too." He looked at Rene. "Do you know what kind of car your father drives?"
"A white pickup," she answered, then folded her arms around herself. "OK, I admit I'm scared now," she told us, her eyes first resting on me briefly and then finally on Sydney. "I don't know what to do, Dad..."
"It's not just you that he's after, poppet," I reminded her, feeling decidedly unsettled myself. Sydney and I had talked at length lately about Jake and his attitude toward Rene and me since the divorce. What Jake would say if he saw me now, ready to have another man's child, was something I didn't even want to speculate about. It had always been OK for him to find his pleasures where he pleased - but he'd been very possessive and jealous of my attentions, especially after the divorce and the subsequent restraining orders that were my way of keeping him out of my life once and for all. Now that he had actually resorted to violence against Rene twice, I could see that he might be capable of just about anything.
"Cat, trust me - if we can manage to protect you from Lyle, we can sure as hell protect you from your ex," Sydney told me, catching my hand and holding it tightly for a moment. "And as for you, young lady, the most important thing for you to remember is that you're not alone anymore," he reminded Rene, reaching out to her and pulling her to sit next to him on the coffee table, her shoulder surrounded by his arm. "You have me, and you have Joe. Until he's found, we just won't let you or your mother go anywhere without an escort." She leaned into him, and I saw his arm tighten around her. "He's never going to hurt you again, ma cheri. I promise."
"A white pickup, eh?" Joe moved away from the group to one of the easy chairs, which he then moved off to the side of our front picture window so that he could sit and keep an eye on the street in front of the house.
"I'm sorry to be such a baby," Rene cringed at the tone in her own voice. I knew that she'd never allowed herself to be a needy child because Jake had made it clear when she was very young that he had no time for “babies,” so it was difficult for her now to admit that she was afraid. I was so glad that, this time, she had Sydney to go to for what she needed - and that he was ready to give reassurance and a sense of security to her without reservation.
Sydney wrapped his other arm around her and held her close, leaning his cheek against the top of her head. "After what you just went through a few weeks ago, I don't think you're being a baby at all," he comforted her. "You have a right to be afraid of him, ma petite. He's proven that he can be a dangerous man. But I have you now. You're safe here..."
"I wish..." she started, then blushed and fell silent again. I held my breath - things had been such that these two hadn't had their talk, but it looked as if that was going to change very soon.
"You wish what?" he asked her in that low and gentle voice that was one of the things I loved most about him.
She blushed even more furiously. "That you were my real father," she said in a very soft voice that I had to strain to hear - one obviously meant for Sydney alone.
Sydney looked up at me, and his expression was priceless. Then he looked down as he tightened his hold on her. "I wish you were too," he told her in a voice equally soft and private. "For what it's worth, Rene, I love you as if you were my own - and have for a while now. If you were younger, I would have adopted you long ago." One of his large hands cradled her head against him while the other stayed wrapped around her torso.
"I... love you too, Daddy," Rene said in a trembling voice, her arms finally slipping around him and holding him back. "I still wish you could adopt me, though - I want to belong here."
Sydney shot me another look, this one a bit surprised as well as knowing. "But you already belong here, sweetheart," he whispered into her ear and then kissed the spot. "You always will."
Rene heaved a huge sigh and relaxed into Sydney - and with that sigh sealed the new relationship solidly into place. My heart leapt to see them together like that, my husband and my daughter, finally accepting each other as family. For a while, I felt as if my whole body ached for Rene in finally finding a father she could love with all her heart, and who loved her as much in return.
Then my happiness turned to concern as the tightness that had settled around my middle didn't seem to want to abate, but tightened just a bit more. I lay back into my pillows and tried to relax again, and finally the tightness eased a bit. Our peanut chose that moment to land either a right jab or a practice place-kick in the general vicinity of my bladder, so there was no doubt that I needed to get up and take care of business. I stayed put, though, as long as I could take it in order to give Sydney and Rene their moment uninterrupted. But, at last, I HAD to move.
"I'm sorry," I said softly as my movement broke their embrace and Rene scooted out of the way. "I have to..."
"Mom..." Rene was staring at me and then turned to Sydney. "I think you'd better call the doctor and then Miss Parker, Dad," she told him. "Her water has broken."
I blushed as I suddenly recognized the sensation on my legs - wetness. That hadn't been a hit to bladder after all. Sydney blanched and grabbed for the telephone handset, then dialed with fingers that were shaking.
Rene helped me to the bathroom, then left me sitting there while she went upstairs to bring me some clean clothing to get into for the trip - as well as some towels so that I wouldn't ruin Parker's car's upholstery. I could hear Sydney's voice in the other room as he spoke on the phone, and the tone was tight, high and nervous. Soon he was hovering outside the bathroom door, wondering what he could do while waiting for our ride. I reminded him that my suitcase had made it back upstairs and into the closet again after the last false start. Heavy footsteps on the stairway told me that he had taken them two at a time in his haste to bring down that necessary item for our trip.
Rene returned from upstairs first with the rainbow caftan in her hands and a mischievous smile on her face. "Oh wonderful," I grumbled at her. Miss Parker would NEVER let me live down my attachment to the garment now. Still, it was clean, it was dry, and it was one of the few things in my wardrobe that actually still fit me. While I changed clothes, I sent her back upstairs for my hairbrush, determined that I could at least make myself somewhat presentable now, knowing I'd not stay that way for long. Now it was Rene's turn to grumble good-naturedly before she headed back up the stairs again, meeting Sydney on his way down.
"For God's sake, you're not going to a concert," he worried at me through the open bathroom door as I waited and then took the brush from Rene and ran it through my hair.
"Maybe not," I told him, "but I don't have to frighten Miss Parker into thinking she's invited a witch into her car."
"Speaking of Miss Parker, she's here," Joe announced calmly, taking the suitcase in hand and waiting for Sydney to get me under control and moving for the door.
"Are you coming?" Sydney asked Rene as he moved past her.
"I can pace and worry here as well as I can in the waiting room of the hospital," she answered him and stretched up to kiss a cheek. "Take good care of her, Dad, and give me a call when I have a little sister."
I was glad that he took the time to pause and give her a hug and a kiss in return before coming back to help me out the front door and down the walk to where Parker had pulled her shiny, black Boxster into the driveway. "We'll be waiting for your call, Dr. Sydney," Joe said after depositing my suitcase in the trunk. "Good luck, Cathy."
"Take good care of Rene for us," I told him, then let Sydney help me lay out a towel on the back seat and slip onto it.
"Oh, come on, Rene, get in the car - at least you can stay with her on the ride in, and then keep me company on the way back," Miss Parker beckoned to my daughter, who shot the woman a tremendously grateful smile and climbed into the front passenger seat. "Joe, hang around here and watch the place - we'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sydney went to the other side of the car and slipped into the back with me so that I could lean on him. "Let's go!" he barked the moment the car door was closed. "I don't want to have to deliver her myself in the back of this car!"
"Yes, sir!" Miss Parker answered briskly, although with no lack of humor, and turned the key in the ignition.
~~~~~~~~
Our daughter made her entrance into the world eighteen hours later. As my ears heard her first tenuous cry steadily grow stronger and more outraged as the nurses cleaned her and diapered her for the first time, it was if I had known that little voice for months now. After hearing her weight and length announced, I looked up into the tired face of my husband, who had been behind my shoulders supporting me at the very end of my labor, with a look of weepy satisfaction and accomplishment. He immediately bent down and gave me a sweet kiss. "Did she ever tell you her name?" he asked me as the nurse brought me a warm blanket.
"Sarah," I told him. "Sarah Elizabeth." It had come to me in a dream only a couple of nights earlier, and I hadn't found the right moment to tell him before now.
"Here, Dad, why don't you carry your little girl down to the nursery while we get your wife all squared away in her room." The head nurse in the delivery room brought Sydney the swaddled bundle and laid that tiny scrap of life in his arms for the first time, and I watched my husband's face melt from an expression of pure terror into a countenance of absolute devotion. If I had ever had any lingering doubts about Sydney's ability to be a father to his child, they were put to rest immediately.
"Hello, Sarah," he whispered to her, entranced, tracing the line of her chin with a finger almost as long as her forearm. "Ma petite cheri." He looked up at me, carefully being shifted to a gurney for my trip to my room. "She's beautiful, Cat!"
I was tired enough that all I could do was smile at him as he returned his attention to his daughter, who - wouldn't you know it - had quieted down the moment she'd been put in her father's arms. Sarah's eyes were open, and she was studying her father's face as intently as he was studying hers. "I'll show you where the nursery is," the nurse told Sydney and with a touch to his elbow got him walking ahead of my gurney out of the delivery room and down the corridor. At the door of the nursery, the neonatal nurse carefully took Sarah from her father with, "We'll have her back to you in just a little while." I could see Sydney's face look just the slightest bit deprived as the gurney wheeled past him.
Very soon I was comfortably ensconced in a hospital bed by a window, and Sydney moved in to sit close to me the moment the nurses quit fussing and left us alone. "What a wonderful gift you've given me," he breathed at me, his dark honey eyes so full of emotion that he had tears standing. "Thank you seems so inadequate."
"I love you," I told him tiredly, my eyes hardly wanting to stay open.
"I love you so much!" I felt him bend over me and kiss me gently. "You rest now," he told me, "while I have some telephone calls to make. Parker and Rene are probably wondering if we've forgotten them, and Broots deserves to hear."
"You need to rest too, my love," I complained, forcing my eyes open again. "You've been up at least as long as I have..."
"I will," he promised me. "But not yet. I'll have Parker or Rene run in to pick me up. Go to sleep now. You've more than earned your rest." He brushed my sweat-dampened hair back gently time after time until I finally dropped off.
I wasn't sure how long I dozed, but it was long enough that when the nurse wheeled the bassinet with Sarah into the room, I was already starting to rouse. "I think somebody's hungry," the nurse told me brightly as she put my daughter in my arms and then adjusted the bed so that I was sitting up better. She helped untie the hospital gown at my neck so I could move it aside and settle Sarah at my breast. The little imp latched on tightly and suckled hard immediately - and then those beautiful eyes opened and peered deeply into mine, and I became lost in the rapport that we suddenly shared.
Sydney slipped quietly back into the room and settled into the chair next to my bed to watch the two of us commune. "How beautiful you are," he commented softly after a very long moment, and I looked up at him and smiled. "Did you rest?"
"Some. Did you talk to Rene?"
"She and Parker and Joe were all at our place - Joe spent the night on the couch so that Rene wasn't alone at all. Then Parker decided not to go to work today but went back to our place and hung around with Rene until there was some word." The idea of Parker actually playing hooky from work made Sydney's lips quirk in amusement. "The two of them are driving in now. I'll go home with them and come back later today with our car when they release you two. And I called both Nicholas and Broots - both of them send their best." He focused his gaze on the nursing baby. "I honestly can't believe that our peanut's really here - that this is MY child, that I actually HAVE a baby girl..."
"Come over here and join us, Dad," I told him with a jerk of the head. "I'm missing having you at my side here, and Sarah could use some more time with her father."
His face glowing with excitement, Sydney shifted to the bed and sat next to his daughter and me. His huge hand very carefully cupped and then stroked the fine silk of Sarah's dark hair tenderly and with wonder. Then that hand came up and cupped my face gently so that he could take my lips with his in one of his deep and loving kisses that never failed to make my heart beat faster. "I'm a lucky man," he told me in his melodious, vibrant baritone, settling my head against his chest and wrapping his other arm about my shoulders. "You made me the luckiest, Cat." I leaned against him and marveled at the moment, sitting here with a wonderful man holding me in his arms and with our beautiful new daughter at my breast. I'd long wondered what a perfect moment in time would be like - I didn't wonder anymore. I had everything in the world I could have ever wanted in that quiet, intensely intimate moment, and I was supremely content.
When Sarah seemed to be done with her first meal, I laid her back against my propped up knees while I let Sydney help me pull my gown back in place, then lifted her gently to my shoulder to burp her. I heard Sydney begin to chuckle. "Hi there," he said cheerfully as the baby's gaze locked with his again over the back of my shoulder, and then he sobered quickly as he offered a finger toward her and felt her miniscule fingers fold around the very end. "Of all the things I've ever wanted in life, to have a wife and family was the most precious - and the one thing I thought I'd never, ever, have was..."
"I never thought I'd have another child, certainly not at my age," I admitted softly, "or that I'd ever have a husband that I loved more than life itself. I had given up ever having that kind of a life." I felt his lips brush my forehead. "Who would ever have guessed that signing up for a psychological research project about surviving the death of a twin would have had such amazing consequences."
I could feel the chuckle well up from deep within him. "It wasn't so much the project, Cat - it was the serendipity that put you at that beach that cold afternoon with me."
"And the storm, don't forget the storm," I began to chuckle too. "We wouldn't have Sarah if it hadn't been for the foul weather and your not wanting me to get lost in the dark in the rain."
"Oh, I think by that time, the storm was only the most convenient excuse I could find at the moment," Sydney kissed the side of my head. "By then, though, I was already falling head over heels in love and would have done just about anything to keep you with me for a while longer. You were the first person since Jacob died who truly understood me - that you were also an incredibly beautiful woman didn't hurt either."
"You're pretty easy on the eyes too, you know," I relaxed more fully against him and his arms slid from my shoulders to wrap around my more normal-sized middle. "And you were the first person I'd been able to really talk to for years. I think that by the time we realized it was late and there was a storm, I was halfway in love with you too. And by morning..."
"By morning I had already decided that I would do everything and anything to win you. Little did I know that I'd already taken care of the problem in one of the few ways you couldn't argue with." Sarah stretched sleepily against my shoulder, and I felt Sydney bend forward and kiss his little girl gently.
"I should have brought a camera," Rene announced from the doorway of my room. "I don't think I've seen either of you look happier."
I carefully slid Sarah down into my arms so that the two newcomers could see her better. "She looks like you, Syd," Miss Parker said in a soft voice, and then chuckled when Sarah yawned again. "And she has your laid-back manner down pat already."
"Amazing what a full tummy can do for a person," I chuckled at her before grasping her hand with my free one. "You take him home and make him rest," I told her, shooting Sydney a firm look. "He's tired and needs to sleep. Heaven knows when he'll next get an uninterrupted rest for the next few weeks."
"I'll take care of him, Mom," Rene bent toward me to deposit a kiss on my cheek and then peered down into the face of her little sister. "God, she's smaller than I thought."
"She was early, remember?" I reminded her softly. "Still, she's not so small - she's almost seven pounds now. If she'd managed to make it two and a half more weeks..."
"She's just right," Sydney pronounced proudly, his huge hand again cupping his daughter's head gently.
"C'mon, Syd," Miss Parker walked up to him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You're starting to droop, if you hadn't noticed. Time to get you home and dump you on the couch for the day."
"Yeah, Dad, let's let Mom and Sarah rest up for a while," Rene added her urging to Parker's. "You look all in."
I looked up into his face and had to agree. Now that the excitement was dying down, he DID look exhausted. "You go on and get yourself a good rest," I told him. "I'll see you when you come back later to pick us up."
He bent and kissed me one more time. "I won't be gone for long," he promised. "Don't go anywhere without me, OK?"
"We'll be right here waiting for you." I waved him on. "Go on, my love. Get some rest."
~~~~~~~~
The whole family - less one - was at the house when Sydney and I got home that evening. Even Joe had stuck around so he could get a glimpse of the new member of the family. For her part, Sarah took in all the new people around her with class, managing to stay awake at least until all the introductions had been accomplished before, with one great yawn, she dropped off in my arms. When I would have carried her upstairs, Broots showed me his gift that he'd dropped by just before we'd arrived - a cradle to sit in the living room so I didn't have to climb stairs all the time to get her to bed or let her rest. I put Sarah in her downstairs bed and then gave our friend a proper hug thank you.
Miss Parker and Rene had taken care of the evening meal plans for a welcome-home dinner ahead of time that included us all, so we were seven adults around our dining table that night. It was an absolute joy for me to actually fit in my spot at the table rather than have to sit back so far I missed my mouth half the time. I found myself watching our two cooks interact, and when I checked to see if Sydney had noticed, I could see that he had indeed. The two women were acting as if they'd known each other all their lives as family - Parker having donned the role of elder sister to Rene's younger sister. The time that they'd spent by themselves together seemed to have drawn them closer - and I couldn't have been happier.
Sarah roused again not long after we'd finished eating, and I was busy changing her and getting ready to feed her again when the doorbell rang. Sydney looked through the little hole in the door and evidently felt confident enough to open it slightly. "Yes? Can I help you?"
"Where is she?" a loud voice boomed that I remembered all too well, unfortunately - and I heard the thud of the door being suddenly forced open and my husband grunt in pain and surprise. "Cathy?" I quickly put Sarah back in her cradle as a wild-eyed Jake came through the archway at me. "So THIS is where you've been hiding!"
Rene came running up and skidded to a halt with a squeak of surprise and horror. "Dad!" she bent to help Sydney regain his feet. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Jake growled at his daughter, and then whirled around when it finally sunk in that she hadn't been talking to HIM. "Who the Hell do you think you're calling “Dad?” I'M your father!" he demanded of her and took a threatening step toward her.
Sydney thrust Rene behind him. "Get out of my house!" he ordered my ex-husband in a gruff and angry voice. "And stay the Hell away from my wife and daughter."
"They're MINE," Jake bellowed belligerently, "and I've come to collect the family you stole from me, you bastard!" He landed a punch on Sydney's chin that rocked my husband back on his heels again and stopped his forward movement to protect anybody.
I don't think I'd ever been so angry in my life. "He didn't steal anything - you lost us long ago, and you just can't admit it to yourself. You just stay the Hell away from me, and stay away from my husband!" I took a step away from my baby and toward Jake, ready to claw the man's eyes out if that was what it was going to take to protect my family.
"Cathy? What's going on in here?" Miss Parker led the cavalry charge from the dining room. She stepped between Jake and me. "Who the Hell is THIS?"
Jake tried to shove her roughly out of the way. "Butt out, lady. This isn't any of your business..."
Then I heard it again - that metallic snicking sound that told me that Joe had arrived, figured out what was going on, and had decided to take definitive action. "OK, Mister. That's about as far as you go." I saw Jake follow the voice and then blanch at the sight of a very lethal-looking gun pointed at him.
Sydney moved carefully around the intruder until he could put his arm around my shoulder. "Are you OK?" I asked in concern.
"A little dazed, but not hurt," he told me with a reassuring squeeze, but I could already tell that he'd wear the mark of Jake's fist for several days to come. That fact made me boil over with anger yet again.
"Call the police, Rene," I told my daughter when I saw that she hadn't moved a muscle. "Rene!"
"She won't do it," Jake sneered triumphantly, although with a nervous glance at a gun barrel that hadn't moved an inch. "She knows better than to call the cops on her father. I'll bet it was this joker that made her call them in Rochester."
Sydney grunted his disgust at the very idea, but the statement was enough to finally bring Rene out of her catatonic state. She walked up to her father very slowly with an increasing look of hatred and anger in her face. "You aren't my father," she told him with a tone that was as icy and rejecting as I'd ever heard from her. "You're just the man that got my mother pregnant." Jake blinked as if he'd just been slapped. "And just so you know, in Rochester Dad only reminded me of what I already knew I needed to do. For what it's worth, I should have done it a long time ago - the first time you violated that restraining order. He won't need to tell me a second time." She then turned on her heel and walked very obviously toward the telephone and dialed 911. "This is Rene Martin, and I'm staying at 125 Washington Avenue - and I'd like to report an intruder."
"You can't have her - not Cathy - she's MINE," Jake mumbled in a manner that told us all very clearly that the man had lost all semblance of sanity. "And if I can't have her, then NOBODY can..."
He pulled his hand from his trousers pocket and aimed the handgun at me. Miss Parker gave out a yell, Rene screamed, and Sydney pushed me out of the way as Jake pulled the trigger even as Joe landed the butt of his gun to the back of his head. Jake collapsed like a sack of potatoes, and I screamed as the bullet slammed into my right shoulder and spun me around as it knocked me down. Over it all I could hear the crying of my tiny daughter at all the loud voices and terrifying noises...
~~~~~~~~
By the time the police in Blue Cove had finished filing all the charges against him, Jake was looking at a very long time locked away - breaking and entering, assault and battery against Sydney and attempted murder against me. But before that, he had regained consciousness and begun to rave wildly and struggle madly against the handcuffs, and the arresting officers on the scene decided that the regional psychiatric facility might be a better venue for his incarceration than the jail. When they half-dragged, half-carried him to the squad car, he was shouting obscenities and calling for either Rene or myself to tell the police to let him go.
Miss Parker, bless her heart, took charge of the scene from the family's perspective. She sent Broots to the linen closet for towels to staunch my bleeding, then had a quick, quiet and very determined talk with a stunned and frantic Sydney, handing him a glass with a more than ample amount of brandy to try to calm him down. Eventually she left Sydney in the care of Broots, Joe and Rene, with instructions for him to tell the police what happened. Then she packed me off to a semi-private corner of the living room with the baby to finish feeding and changing her very quickly in order to calm Sarah's ongoing tantrum, which wasn't helping anybody. Turning down the police offer of an ambulance, she then helped me out to her sports car and drove me back to Dover and an emergency room at a controlled breakneck speed worthy of a racer at the Indianapolis Speedway.
The Blue Cove police must have called the hospital to let them know I was coming, for I was taken immediately in and seen to. My wounds front and back were stitched up and bandaged within a couple of hours, and not long after that I was back on my way home with an ample supply of the minimal pain killers that I could take and still breast feed my baby safely. Miss Parker had the presence of mind to call home while I was being stitched up to give Sydney a report on my condition and reassure him that I was otherwise unharmed. She later told me with a shake of the head that he'd still sounded quite frantic with worry. The police had left while we were gone, and Broots had taken his very shaken daughter home leaving only Joe and Rene to try to calm my husband's fears.
Not that whatever they had tried had worked - Sydney was out the front door and charging down the walk toward the driveway the moment we started pulling in. I was tired and hurting enough that I appreciated his gathering me into his arms the moment I had climbed from the passenger seat, but he clung to me more tightly than I'd expected. "I'm OK, really," I reassured him myself, putting my good arm around his waist and holding him back as I leaned. "My shoulder hurts like hell, but I'll live."
"C'mon, you two, let's get you in the house," Miss Parker put a hand on Sydney's shoulder and propelled him, with me tucked into his embrace, back down the walk. "Where's Joe?"
"Inside, with Rene," Sydney told her absently. He stopped the moment we were inside the front door and stood me away so he could look at me carefully. "You're SURE you're all right?"
Rene came to the top of the stairs carrying a fussy Sarah in her arms, and I could tell that she would have been asking me the same question herself but that he'd asked it first. "Yes," I promised fervently. "I'm really OK, sweetheart. The bullet went straight through and did very little damage. It just hurts like hell every time I try to move the arm." I looked at Sydney and cupped a hand about his chin. "What's the matter with Sarah, Dad?"
"She's just been very fussy since you left," Rene answered for him, carrying my baby down the stairs and laying her carefully into my good arm. "The only one who could get her to calm down was Sydney, and unfortunately his holding her didn't make HIM any calmer..."
I looked up into his eyes, and my heart went out to the torn and agonized man who'd seen his wife shot the very same day she'd given him a child. "She's just so small," he said softly, his hand now willingly traveling to cup his daughter's head, "and I didn't want to hurt her - and I was so worried about you... I didn't know what it was she wanted or needed..."
I looked about at the rest of them as my reservoir of strength and adrenaline began to run dry. "I think I'm going to take Sarah and Sydney upstairs with me for some quiet time," I announced. "It's been a very long day for all of us, and I hope you don't think me a bad hostess, but I really need to spend some time..."
"Go, Mom," Rene urged me with a jerk of the head. "I'll take care of things down here. Dad needs you, and so does Sarah."
"C'mon, Joe," I heard Miss Parker say softly. "I think the excitement is over for the day."
"I sure as hell hope so," our sweeper said vehemently. "I'll see you in the morning, Cathy. Dr. Sydney."
"You call me in the morning," Miss Parker told me firmly. "And keep new Daddy here home with you tomorrow. You may be the one who had the baby, but I think he's the one who has some settling in to do." Her eyes rested upon her old friend with understanding fondness, and she bent toward me. "He still looks pretty rattled, Cathy."
I shot her a knowing look and a nod. "I know. Good night, Parker - and thanks for all your help," I lifted my right hand in its sling and waved at her and then turned and began the walk up the stairs. The heavier fall of tread on the stairs behind me told me I didn't make my ascent alone.
I laid Sarah in the middle of our bed so that she was safe and then let Sydney help me out of my torn and bloodstained caftan and into a more comfortable and convenient nightgown. I really did prize that caftan more than I'd ever imagined I would - its cheery colors had sustained me on many days when my mood had been low, and the gentle teasing about my even having it had drawn me closer to Miss Parker. I folded it carefully and put it aside to wash out and see if repair was possible. I'd be damned if I'd let Jake steal even the smallest bit of happiness from me.
Then, with Sydney and plenty of pillows at my back, I opened my nightgown so that I could give Sarah her late-night meal. Sydney, obviously feeling more in control and secure now that life seemed to be settling down again, shifted so that I was leaning more against him as I sat and peered over my left shoulder at his new daughter as she took her meal. His arms around my waist were tight and possessive and, to me, the most supportive gesture he could make besides being my backrest. I soon found that if I focused my attention on the sensation of my baby at my breast, I could even block out some of the ache in my right shoulder.
It wasn't exactly another perfect moment, but it was damned close to it. And after all we'd just been through, it would do for now.
Chapter 8: And Now...
Summer was here - the weather was warm, time was moving slower. Our house was a bastion of deliberate and carefully maintained peace and coolness now that was part air conditioning and part attitude. There was an air of anticipation beginning to waft around the corners as the days slid smoothly by. All was ready for our new arrival - at least, we hoped so. The nursery was painted; and between Parker and Rene and Debbie, the baby had enough clothing to last a long time. The car seat was sitting on a counter in the garage, waiting to be fastened securely in place in the back seat of Sydney's car.
I could hardly believe that so many months could have flown past so quickly. And, with any luck, in a little less than four weeks, we would be bringing home our little girl. Sydney's excitement and worry for me as the days of waiting grew shorter was palpable. He hovered and spoiled me horribly, not to mention saw to it that everyone around me did the same. He was more patient with me than I deserved as my temper tended to be shorter because I was feeling encumbered and unattractive - and I loved him all the more for all the little ways he tried to reassure me. At night, his arms were so protective and tender that I fell asleep easily no matter how active the baby was.
I was well aware that he appreciated having Rene in the house with us the past weeks since it meant that he could go to work and know that between Joe the sweeper and my girl, I was well tended. Between the two of them, I wasn't allowed to do much of anything anymore other than waddle like a fat goose from bed to couch to bathroom to kitchen to bed again - and occasionally out onto a lawn chair when the evening breezes were pleasant. My doctor continued to harp on my blood pressure, as it remained more elevated than he would have liked, but as yet he hadn't insisted that I take up residence in the hospital. I told him once that getting stuck in a hospital room WOULD make my blood pressure rise, and then watched him grumble that I was too smart for my own good.
Rene's bruises were finally fading to that sickly yellow that comes just before they vanish completely. It had taken several days of near-constant application of an ice bag before her eye, swollen shut by the blow her father had landed there, began to peek open again. But more than anything, her recovery had been escorted along by the nearly constant attention showered on her by Sydney's son, Nicholas, who had been visiting us on vacation when she arrived. I didn't disapprove at all of what I was seeing happening between those two. After nearly two weeks' time to get to know the young man, I was now convinced that Nicholas was but a younger version of his father, with many of the same traits and tendencies that had made me fall in love with Sydney. I don't think the point was lost on my daughter either.
I was fairly sure that she was sorry to see her constant companion leave when the time came for him to go back home to prepare for the start of classes in mid-August. The two of them took a long walk around the neighborhood the evening before his flight left and came back home with eyes twinkling and the vaguest hint that something had happened between them. After promising me as he kissed my cheek goodbye that he'd be back sometime in September to check out his little sister, Sydney and Rene drove him back into Dover to the airport late in the morning. They got back just about the time the rest of the gang started arriving for our regular Sunday afternoon get-together, and Rene immediately threw herself into activities with Debbie to help keep little Jacob entertained. But there were times there for a while when I would see her grow quiet and thoughtful, and I could guess why.
Miss Parker and Broots had arranged it between them before hand that this particular Sunday's evening fare would be sandwiches and potato salad and chips - with a cake that Debbie had baked that morning for dessert. Because it was such a warm and pleasant day, I had relocated my bower to a chaise lounge in the shade of the back yard and had eventually been joined in the shade by Miss Parker and finally Rene on lawn chairs. As the afternoon progressed, we women found our spot the perfect vantage from which to enjoy the antics of Jacob and Debbie in their swimming suits running through the sprinkler. Sydney and Broots had begun yet another of their chess games at the dining table, but even they emerged after an hour or so to drag another couple of lawn chairs over near us and lend us their perspective while enjoying the balmy day.
The real fun began when Debbie came over and sprinkled some of the water from her hair at her father, accidentally hitting Sydney and Rene. Jacob thought the outcry that erupted from the grown-ups in the lawn chairs was hilarious, and so he brought a handful of water from the sprinkler over and baptized his sister. Broots vanished sometime in the ensuing hilarity and came back out with a loaded squirt gun - which he aimed first at his daughter and then unexpectedly at Sydney, making my husband shout in surprise and shock as a stream of cold water went down the back of his neck. A suddenly mischievous Debbie snuck around Miss Parker's back and wrung a little more of the water from her hair down the back of her neck as well, bringing the tall brunette right up out of her chair with a shriek of surprise that had us all laughing hard. I knew something was up when Parker and Sydney put their heads together and suddenly got up and vanished for a time, leaving the kids back to running through the sprinkler and the rest of us wondering what was going on.
We weren't left wondering for long, however. When Sydney and Parker returned, they came back with a shopping bag filled with enough squirt guns for all of us - myself included. A five-gallon plastic bucket was brought out from the gardening shed, filled with water and placed near me - and declared neutral territory so that anybody filling their squirt gun could be off limits to the others while they “rearmed.” I, on the other hand, was charged with shooting anybody who broke the armistice near the fill bucket. With those few ground rules mutually agreed upon, the war was on.
I didn't think I had ever seen six people have so much fun getting drenched in my life, and my howls of hilarity were accompanied by our peanut bouncing inside me as if to say “me too, Mom, me too!” Rene, Jacob and Debbie seemed perfectly happy taking potshots at each other most of the time and missing three quarters of the time. Miss Parker, however, was sharpshooter accurate with her weapon, aiming at and nailing Broots and my husband more than at anybody else. I almost fell off my lounge chair laughing, however, when the two men finally ganged up on her and chased her around the yard getting her absolutely soaked. Then it was my turn to shriek when, panting from the exertion, Sydney declared that he was too old for such things anymore and came over to me to snuggle - dripping wet and decidedly cold. I defended myself as best I could, but ended up damper than I'd intended in the end while Parker and Rene stood back and chortled at my fate at the hands of my husband.
I was sure, by the time everyone was too tired to run anymore, that our back yard wouldn't need watering again until next Spring. I sent a still-laughing Rene into the house to commandeer our supply of bath towels so that those who hadn't intended to get drenched could at least try to dry off. I sent her back into the house later to fetch my rainbow-colored caftan for Parker eventually, so that the woman could throw her wet clothes in the dryer. When Sydney went upstairs to change, he brought back down a bathrobe and pair of trousers for Broots so that he could do the same, after which Parker hauled Jacob into the downstairs bathroom to change into a second set of clothing she'd brought with her for post-sprinkler time.
We had re-congregated in the back yard on our respective chairs to catch our breaths and wait out the dryer in the warm afternoon sun when the doorbell sounded. Sydney shot me a questioning look and rose to answer the summons. I don't know why he thought I'd know who it was at our door on a Sunday. He knew as well as I did that Jarod would just follow the voices around to the back of the house, and that Nicholas was probably at home in upstate New York, unpacking his suitcase from his vacation. I leaned back into the cushion of the chaise lounge, listening to the light ripple of conversation going on around me.
"Cat?" Sydney had waited until he'd come close to speak to me. He didn't look happy, and the others had grown silent at his expression. "There's a man here who claims to be Lyle's attorney. He wants to talk to you about settling your complaint against Lyle and Willy before the case goes to court."
"Settle?" I narrowed my eyes as I felt myself tighten up suddenly. I really didn't need this right now. "As in pay me money to drop the charges?"
"I assume so." My husband's voice told me clearly what HE thought of the idea.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Miss Parker spat, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Even for Lyle, that's pretty damned presumptuous." Broots' statement was flat and distrustful.
"You can tell him to go fly a kite," I told him, settling back against my cushions.
Sydney shook his head. "I already did. He wants to hear it from you, since you're the one who filed the complaint."
I closed my eyes, and gradually the tightness eased. "Help me up," I said finally, putting my hands out to him. "I'll make him sorry he wouldn't take your word for it."
"You go for it," Miss Parker said approvingly, gathering her little brother close to her protectively. "That son of a..."
"Parker..." Sydney warned paternally, with an eye to the child in her arms as a reason for interrupting.
The grey eyes impacted mine. "You know what I mean. Tell him a few things for me too."
Sydney had my elbow in his palm. "We'll be right back," he told our guests, then led me slowly back into the house and toward the living room.
Had he not been holding my elbow, I wouldn't have felt his hesitation of shock when, instead of just one man in our living room, there were two. "What the hell are YOU doing here?" Sydney demanded of the one who was tethered to an oxygen tank and looked as if on death's door.
"I wanted to make sure," the man intoned in a hoarse stage whisper then drew in more of the oxygenated air into his lungs noisily, "that our concerns were at least communicated properly."
"Who is this?" I asked, turning my face up to my husband's glower.
"This is Mr. William Raines, Chairman of the Centre," Sydney told me in a tight voice, then looked reluctantly back at our guest. "My wife, Catherine."
"Catherine, eh?" the bald man said with a sideways glance at my husband, as if sharing an inside fact. "So nice to meet you at last..." He came at me with a skeletal hand extended. I backed up until Sydney was in front of me like a shield. I could tell the Chairman wasn't pleased with my response.
"What do you want?" I demanded angrily. "Isn't it enough that I have Lyle trying to get into my house one way or the other - now YOU sneak into the house while Sydney is bringing me to speak to a lawyer, which is what I suppose you are..." I turned my disapproval on the slender young man to Mr. Raines' left.
"Yes, ma'am. I just wanted..."
"Let's be reasonable people here," Raines said in a hoarsely oily tone. "Lyle is very important to the day to day operations of the Centre, and Willy is a valued member of our security force. Surely..."
"Surely the both of them had better things to do than to try to snatch me from my own house, then," I interrupted the ghoulish man without another thought. "But NO, they were really quite determined this last time around, and even broke into my house - smashed a glass door in back - to get what they wanted. Why the hell do you think I'd ever consider dropping the charges?"
"We could make it worth your while... Catherine..." he smiled at me with yellow, tobacco-stained teeth.
I pulled myself to my full height and felt that ripple of tightness return just a little more forcefully. I REALLY didn't need to be doing this just now. "There is absolutely nothing that you have to offer me that would be worth the peace of mind I get from knowing Mr. Lyle and Mr. Willy Whatever are cooling their heels behind bars." As the tightness began to ease, my anger surged. "They stole from me something I valued very much, Mr. Raines - my peace of mind at being safe and secure in my own home. I'm not exactly in any condition to be under a lot of stress right now, as you can see." I stepped out from behind Sydney slightly, my hand on top of the bulge of our peanut to emphasis my condition. As I smoothed my hand over my unborn child, the tightness seemed to ease a bit more.
"Mrs. Green... If you'll just listen..." the legal lackey tried again, but I didn't give him a chance.
"No, you listen to me, the both of you," I told them both firmly. "With Mr. Lyle and Mr. Willy in jail, I have my sense of security and peace of mind back, for the most part. I'm not knowingly and deliberately going to hand them over to you simply to make your corporation run more smoothly, Mr. Raines. What the two of them did was a crime against me and a crime against my child, and I've never done anything to either of them." I could feel the tightness beginning to build again, and this time I knew that when it hit, it would be much stronger. I reached for Sydney's arm for support ahead of time. "My husband gave you my answer earlier, and you didn't believe him. You should have - because you're getting the very same answer from me. You're wasting my time and yours. Now, you will leave my house - and leave me and mine ALONE!" I pointed with my free hand at the front door. "Get out! Both of you!"
The young lawyer was quick to scamper for the door, but Mr. Raines' departure was more deliberate. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Catherine," he said in his gasping way. "Perhaps we can speak later, when you're feeling better." He gave my husband a strange look "What IS it about women named Catherine?" he asked as he slowly dragged his oxygen tank behind him to follow the lawyer out the door. I followed them both and slammed the front door shut hard to make my statement final - then doubled over as the tightness finally clamped down painfully. "Oh my God!"
"Cat!" Sydney was beside me in an instant, lifting me in his arms and carrying me to the couch. "What is it?"
"Cramps again," I said between clenched teeth, my eyes shut and my hands desperately smoothing over our peanut to try to ease the hard muscles again. I opened my eyes and looked up at my very worried husband. "I really didn't need those clowns in my house today, you know."
"Take deep breaths," he soothed at me, smoothing my hair back from my face in a gesture that I think was more comforting to him than to me at the moment. "They're gone now. Everything's all right... You're safe... Breathe..."
I did as he said - took a deep breath and then another - and could feel how hard my heart was pounding now that I wasn't focused on the intruders in my home. One of Sydney's hands found mine and interlaced its fingers with mine while the other continued to stroke my hair. My free hand continued to smooth over my tight stomach, and finally the cramping eased so that I could breathe more freely again. I rested a moment and then reached up with my free hand to smooth back his fun-dampened hair. "I'm OK, my love."
Even then, I couldn't completely erase the almost panicked look on his face. He bent forward and kissed me gently on the lips and then on my forehead. "God, Cat..."
"Hush, Sydney. It's alright." I hadn't thought it possible - my strong and capable husband was clinging to me tightly as if terrified I would leave him. "Just give me a few minutes, that's all..." I closed my eyes again and focused my attention on my heartbeat and breathing, willing them both to slow down and regain a more normal rhythm. But at the same time, I held onto his hand tightly, taking strength from him being beside me.
He kissed my forehead again and then chafed my hand between the both of his while I kept my eyes closed and rested. I was starting to think that I'd managed to get on top of the cramping like I had before when I felt the beginnings of another, even more powerful cramp starting to ripple. When it hit, I clenched my teeth again and squeezed his hand so tightly I thought I could feel the bones grinding against each other.
"PARKER!" I heard him bellow frantically as I suddenly remembered all my birthing class training and began breathing quickly and shallowly through my mouth and rubbing my stomach with my fingertips in small, circular motions.
"Sydney, what's the ma..." I heard her answer him as she came closer and then: "Oh, God! You don't mean to tell me..."
Obviously Rene had trailed in behind her. "Mom?" I heard her call, and then another, cooler hand was on my forehead. "Is it labor?"
"I don't know," I admitted as the tightening across my middle eased gradually. I looked up into Sydney's face and then hers. "That makes two - just like last time."
"One more like that one, Cat, and we're on the road," Sydney told me in no uncertain terms and twisted to look at my daughter. "Rene, go get your mother's suitcase from our bedroom. It's in the bottom of the closet - already packed."
"You've got it," she replied and vanished immediately from my view.
Parker also vanished. "Broots!" I could hear her calling toward the back of the house.
"I don't want to ruin the day," I grumbled as Sydney smoothed my hair back once more.
"Stop that," he told me firmly. "You're not ruining anything."
"But Debbie baked that nice cake for dessert..."
I don't think I've ever seen Sydney look quite so exasperated with me as he did in that moment. "Oh, for heaven's sake, it's not as if we wouldn't have the cake one time or another eventually. When it comes to order of priority, you KNOW that our peanut beats out a cake hands down!"
"Sydney, it's too early." I let my fear and dread out finally, looking up into his face seeking some comfort there.
"I know, sweetheart," he murmured to me, bending close and kissing my cheek. "But not as early as it was the last time. Remember, the doctor said that you could go into labor at any time when you saw him last week..."
I felt the now-familiar tightening starting, but this time there was no hard cramping. "I'm OK, I think..." I told him and then repeated myself to Rene as she clomped into the room bearing the duffelbag with my belongings and a homecoming outfit for our new daughter. "No hard cramp this time, I just got a little tight."
"Let's not celebrate yet," Rene spoke knowingly. "Has anybody bothered to time these cramps to see how far apart they are?"
"There haven't been that many of them, poppet," I said as the tightness eased under a gently soothing hand across my stomach. "Only two really strong enough to worry about."
"Mom..." Her tone told me that she was almost as exasperated as Sydney had been. "Sometimes you hardly even feel the first labor pains. You TELL us when you feel the tightness again."
Sydney moved to sit next to my head, then lifted my head and the pillows I'd been lying against carefully so that he could scoot into place in a sitting position and then arrange the pillows so that I had my head now in his lap. "One way or the other, I think you've just about had all the excitement you need for the day," he told me fondly. He clasped my one hand in his again on top of our peanut who had gone very quiet except for a small bump against my backbone to let me know she was there.
"Well, how are things going in here?" Miss Parker asked in a very worried and take-charge voice, coming close to the back of the couch again with the Broots' close on her heels. "Sydney? Are we on our way to Dover or no?"
"Not yet," I answered her with my eyes closed before my husband could get a word out. "The cramps have stopped again. But Rene's having us time the twinges..."
"Aunt Caffee, you OK?" I heard a small voice ask worriedly, and I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at little Jacob, who had come up next to me.
I smiled at him. "I'm fine, Jakie. I just had a little bit of stomach-ache."
"Is it the baby coming?" he asked, having no qualms about putting his little hand on the side of the bulge in my middle. He was still completely fascinated by the idea that I had a real baby in there and loved it when I'd let him feel the baby kick.
"I don't think so, Jakie, but I'm going to stay really quiet just to make sure." I paused and listened to my body and felt it tighten again just a little. "That's another one," I announced quietly. Sydney looked at his watch.
"C'mon Jakie," Debbie called to the little boy. "How about you and me go see about making some sandwiches for everyone for supper? I think we'll move our picnic into the living room, though."
"OK," he answered brightly and took off to claim the hand Debbie was holding out to him.
The tightness eased again, and I smiled up into my husband's face. "I'm sorry, Dad, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little longer to meet your daughter." I let some of my relief color my voice.
"I sincerely hope so," he answered and smoothed my hair back again while his face showed a little of his own relief. "Not that I'm not anxious to meet her, but I'd like her to come a whole lot closer to her due date."
I could tell from Broots' release of breath and hand clapped to Sydney's shoulder that our technician friend was starting to feel the release of tension too. "Man, Cathy, you had us going there for a minute."
"Yeah, well talk to this little monster here," I said, patting my stomach. "SHE had me going there too." I was tired, as if I'd waddled a whole mile, but starting to genuinely relax at last. "And I'm starting to think that our peanut has a definite aversion to some of the men of the Centre. First Mr. Lyle, and now this fellow..."
"Sydney, you should take this as an indication of how your new daughter's going to behave later on," Broots smirked and moved into the room to claim one of the easy chairs. "She'll tell you to hurry up and get you all hot and bothered - only to make you sit and wait again."
"Personally, I think she's working on seeing if she can give her father completely grey hair before she's born, so that the crises of childhood won't show up so bad," was Miss Parker's offering.
"Be nice, now, you two," I twisted to look at them. "It isn't easy being a first-time father."
"That's for sure," Broots piped up unexpectedly from his chair. "I remember waiting for Debbie to come - I was never so excited or scared in my life." He glanced back up at Miss Parker. "And Debbie was early too, so that didn't help. She was SO tiny..."
"That's another one," I told Sydney softly as the tightness, now only a minor twinge, came again.
He glanced at his watch again. "That's less than two minutes, Cat," he worried at me and glanced down at where Rene had parked herself at the bottom of the couch with my feet now resting in her lap. "That's close, isn't it?"
"Are they as strong as they were, Mom?" Rene asked, patting my feet to get my attention.
"Not at all," I answered. "I could hardly feel this last one - and only because I'm paying such close attention now..."
"It could be false labor - you know, the muscles kinda warming themselves up for the main event ahead of time," she told me after thinking for a bit. "Still, if they continue and continue to be regular, you may want to let the doctor know."
"I don't know if I'll be awake," I sighed. "I'm starting to feel like my eyelids weigh a ton..."
"Sleep, then," my husband rumbled softly at me. "You don't have to stay awake and entertain us. You've already put on a class act - for us as well as for Raines."
"Raines was actually here?" Miss Parker was livid. "Of all the nerve..."
"Dad's right, Mom," Rene chimed in. "C'mon, folks, let's let the pregnant lady get her beauty rest." She scooted out from beneath my feet and headed off in the direction of the kitchen.
"C'mon, Scooby," Parker called to Broots, who then padded out of the room obediently after her.
"Close your eyes now," Sydney rumbled at me again and then bent to brush his lips against my forehead. "I'll be right here."
"You don't have to stay with me while I nap," I told him with a fond smile. "Go, be with the family."
"Uh-unh," he shook his head firmly. "I'm not letting you out of my sight for the rest of the day."
With my head in his lap, his one hand spread warmly over our unborn daughter while the other rested in my hair, I had little trouble relaxing to the point that I could doze. My dreams were of the little dark-haired daughter I hadn't met yet, and she was waving a finger at me and warning me, "Soon."
~~~~~~~~
This time, it was Sydney who finally slipped out from under my head and called the doctor while I was asleep to report my onset of cramping again as well as the estimated time between whatever sensations I'd felt. I heard from Rene after the meal about the expression on his face as the doctor warned him that I very well might be in the very early stages of labor. She chuckled sympathetically as she tried to describe the look of horror and panic that had spread across his features at the idea, and how both Miss Parker and Broots had talked long and hard to get him to calm down again.
I have to admit that my mood improved after a short nap and we'd all had a chance to eat our meal and then sample the cake that Deb had made for us. The young Broots girl beamed as the praise for her culinary talent came at her like a wave, and I could tell that getting a chance to hear the approval all of us had to offer her had been very important. I tried to catch my husband's eye and make sure that he got the point, but he was still obviously fairly distracted by the news the doctor had given him.
As a result of my fatigue and Sydney's sense of distress, the family didn't remain long after the meal in order that I could get myself upstairs and into bed - and so my husband could try to calm down a bit more. Once it was just the three of us again, Sydney voiced his opinion that I stay on the couch from now on, but I wouldn't hear of it. The couch was comfortable, but it wasn't my own bed - and besides, I was always more comfortable with my husband curled at my back with his arms around me. After such a trying day, I wasn't going to do without my marital security blanket.
The next few days were very quiet ones, with Miss Parker insisting that Sydney only work morning hours so that he could spend more of the day with me. He and Rene took turns sitting with me and keeping me from dying of boredom except during those afternoon hours when Deb and her friends made their appearance for more tutoring in Chemistry. With both Rene and me to work with them, however, the study sessions tended to be short ones. Miss Parker stopped by once with take-out dinner in hand and stayed only long enough afterwards to reinforce her directive to my husband to call her when the time came for me to be taken to the hospital - no matter what time of the day or night that might happen. Even Joe found reasons not to head back to the Centre after Sydney showed up at about lunchtime, saying only that he felt more useful making sure that there wasn't a repeat of the last Centre visit to stress me into having the baby any earlier than necessary. I would be having no more unexpected, unwelcome visitors on his watch, he told me in a very determined tone of voice over a game of backgammon.
It was over a week later when the telephone call came from Rochester, and then I was glad that Sydney had taken to coming home during the afternoon. I had answered the ringing and then called Rene over to hand her the cordless handset when a man who identified himself as an office of the Rochester Police Department asked to speak to her. She took the telephone with a confused look on her face and over the next few minutes went from confused to upset to downright frightened.
Finally she hung up the telephone and handed the cordless back to me, her face pale. "My fa..." She swallowed hard. "He was arraigned, made bail and has now skipped town," she reported to me after I made her sit down next to me. "They haven't got the slightest idea where he's gone, but they know that his lawyer had made inquiries about the man who had come to pick me up from the hospital." She was shaking so hard she could hardly talk straight. "Mom, what if he's coming here..."
"He wouldn't," I reassured her with a confidence that I didn't completely feel. "Even if he did, we have Dad and Joe here - he isn't going to be able to jump us by surprise like he did to you."
"Mom, he could really hurt you," she worried at me. "And you don't need any more stress right now."
"Go get Dad," I told her. "He needs to know what's going on too."
When Rene came back, it was with both Sydney and Joe. "Rene told me," Sydney said as he settled onto the coffee table in front of me while Joe stood deferentially off to the side. "For what it's worth, I don't want him to get anywhere near either of you."
"Did you tell the Rochester police that you were afraid that he might come here?" I asked Rene finally, not remembering anything like that from the side of the conversation that I'd heard.
"I didn't think to," she admitted ruefully. "I think I was so shocked that he'd pull such a stunt that it didn't even occur to me."
"They gave me a card with contact addresses and phone numbers while we were there filing the charges," Sydney said. "We can call them back and let them know our suspicions. We can also call the Blue Cove police and let hem know what we suspect and maybe ask the Rochester people to send information here. But to be a little forewarned might be the ticket for us too." He looked at Rene. "Do you know what kind of car your father drives?"
"A white pickup," she answered, then folded her arms around herself. "OK, I admit I'm scared now," she told us, her eyes first resting on me briefly and then finally on Sydney. "I don't know what to do, Dad..."
"It's not just you that he's after, poppet," I reminded her, feeling decidedly unsettled myself. Sydney and I had talked at length lately about Jake and his attitude toward Rene and me since the divorce. What Jake would say if he saw me now, ready to have another man's child, was something I didn't even want to speculate about. It had always been OK for him to find his pleasures where he pleased - but he'd been very possessive and jealous of my attentions, especially after the divorce and the subsequent restraining orders that were my way of keeping him out of my life once and for all. Now that he had actually resorted to violence against Rene twice, I could see that he might be capable of just about anything.
"Cat, trust me - if we can manage to protect you from Lyle, we can sure as hell protect you from your ex," Sydney told me, catching my hand and holding it tightly for a moment. "And as for you, young lady, the most important thing for you to remember is that you're not alone anymore," he reminded Rene, reaching out to her and pulling her to sit next to him on the coffee table, her shoulder surrounded by his arm. "You have me, and you have Joe. Until he's found, we just won't let you or your mother go anywhere without an escort." She leaned into him, and I saw his arm tighten around her. "He's never going to hurt you again, ma cheri. I promise."
"A white pickup, eh?" Joe moved away from the group to one of the easy chairs, which he then moved off to the side of our front picture window so that he could sit and keep an eye on the street in front of the house.
"I'm sorry to be such a baby," Rene cringed at the tone in her own voice. I knew that she'd never allowed herself to be a needy child because Jake had made it clear when she was very young that he had no time for “babies,” so it was difficult for her now to admit that she was afraid. I was so glad that, this time, she had Sydney to go to for what she needed - and that he was ready to give reassurance and a sense of security to her without reservation.
Sydney wrapped his other arm around her and held her close, leaning his cheek against the top of her head. "After what you just went through a few weeks ago, I don't think you're being a baby at all," he comforted her. "You have a right to be afraid of him, ma petite. He's proven that he can be a dangerous man. But I have you now. You're safe here..."
"I wish..." she started, then blushed and fell silent again. I held my breath - things had been such that these two hadn't had their talk, but it looked as if that was going to change very soon.
"You wish what?" he asked her in that low and gentle voice that was one of the things I loved most about him.
She blushed even more furiously. "That you were my real father," she said in a very soft voice that I had to strain to hear - one obviously meant for Sydney alone.
Sydney looked up at me, and his expression was priceless. Then he looked down as he tightened his hold on her. "I wish you were too," he told her in a voice equally soft and private. "For what it's worth, Rene, I love you as if you were my own - and have for a while now. If you were younger, I would have adopted you long ago." One of his large hands cradled her head against him while the other stayed wrapped around her torso.
"I... love you too, Daddy," Rene said in a trembling voice, her arms finally slipping around him and holding him back. "I still wish you could adopt me, though - I want to belong here."
Sydney shot me another look, this one a bit surprised as well as knowing. "But you already belong here, sweetheart," he whispered into her ear and then kissed the spot. "You always will."
Rene heaved a huge sigh and relaxed into Sydney - and with that sigh sealed the new relationship solidly into place. My heart leapt to see them together like that, my husband and my daughter, finally accepting each other as family. For a while, I felt as if my whole body ached for Rene in finally finding a father she could love with all her heart, and who loved her as much in return.
Then my happiness turned to concern as the tightness that had settled around my middle didn't seem to want to abate, but tightened just a bit more. I lay back into my pillows and tried to relax again, and finally the tightness eased a bit. Our peanut chose that moment to land either a right jab or a practice place-kick in the general vicinity of my bladder, so there was no doubt that I needed to get up and take care of business. I stayed put, though, as long as I could take it in order to give Sydney and Rene their moment uninterrupted. But, at last, I HAD to move.
"I'm sorry," I said softly as my movement broke their embrace and Rene scooted out of the way. "I have to..."
"Mom..." Rene was staring at me and then turned to Sydney. "I think you'd better call the doctor and then Miss Parker, Dad," she told him. "Her water has broken."
I blushed as I suddenly recognized the sensation on my legs - wetness. That hadn't been a hit to bladder after all. Sydney blanched and grabbed for the telephone handset, then dialed with fingers that were shaking.
Rene helped me to the bathroom, then left me sitting there while she went upstairs to bring me some clean clothing to get into for the trip - as well as some towels so that I wouldn't ruin Parker's car's upholstery. I could hear Sydney's voice in the other room as he spoke on the phone, and the tone was tight, high and nervous. Soon he was hovering outside the bathroom door, wondering what he could do while waiting for our ride. I reminded him that my suitcase had made it back upstairs and into the closet again after the last false start. Heavy footsteps on the stairway told me that he had taken them two at a time in his haste to bring down that necessary item for our trip.
Rene returned from upstairs first with the rainbow caftan in her hands and a mischievous smile on her face. "Oh wonderful," I grumbled at her. Miss Parker would NEVER let me live down my attachment to the garment now. Still, it was clean, it was dry, and it was one of the few things in my wardrobe that actually still fit me. While I changed clothes, I sent her back upstairs for my hairbrush, determined that I could at least make myself somewhat presentable now, knowing I'd not stay that way for long. Now it was Rene's turn to grumble good-naturedly before she headed back up the stairs again, meeting Sydney on his way down.
"For God's sake, you're not going to a concert," he worried at me through the open bathroom door as I waited and then took the brush from Rene and ran it through my hair.
"Maybe not," I told him, "but I don't have to frighten Miss Parker into thinking she's invited a witch into her car."
"Speaking of Miss Parker, she's here," Joe announced calmly, taking the suitcase in hand and waiting for Sydney to get me under control and moving for the door.
"Are you coming?" Sydney asked Rene as he moved past her.
"I can pace and worry here as well as I can in the waiting room of the hospital," she answered him and stretched up to kiss a cheek. "Take good care of her, Dad, and give me a call when I have a little sister."
I was glad that he took the time to pause and give her a hug and a kiss in return before coming back to help me out the front door and down the walk to where Parker had pulled her shiny, black Boxster into the driveway. "We'll be waiting for your call, Dr. Sydney," Joe said after depositing my suitcase in the trunk. "Good luck, Cathy."
"Take good care of Rene for us," I told him, then let Sydney help me lay out a towel on the back seat and slip onto it.
"Oh, come on, Rene, get in the car - at least you can stay with her on the ride in, and then keep me company on the way back," Miss Parker beckoned to my daughter, who shot the woman a tremendously grateful smile and climbed into the front passenger seat. "Joe, hang around here and watch the place - we'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sydney went to the other side of the car and slipped into the back with me so that I could lean on him. "Let's go!" he barked the moment the car door was closed. "I don't want to have to deliver her myself in the back of this car!"
"Yes, sir!" Miss Parker answered briskly, although with no lack of humor, and turned the key in the ignition.
~~~~~~~~
Our daughter made her entrance into the world eighteen hours later. As my ears heard her first tenuous cry steadily grow stronger and more outraged as the nurses cleaned her and diapered her for the first time, it was if I had known that little voice for months now. After hearing her weight and length announced, I looked up into the tired face of my husband, who had been behind my shoulders supporting me at the very end of my labor, with a look of weepy satisfaction and accomplishment. He immediately bent down and gave me a sweet kiss. "Did she ever tell you her name?" he asked me as the nurse brought me a warm blanket.
"Sarah," I told him. "Sarah Elizabeth." It had come to me in a dream only a couple of nights earlier, and I hadn't found the right moment to tell him before now.
"Here, Dad, why don't you carry your little girl down to the nursery while we get your wife all squared away in her room." The head nurse in the delivery room brought Sydney the swaddled bundle and laid that tiny scrap of life in his arms for the first time, and I watched my husband's face melt from an expression of pure terror into a countenance of absolute devotion. If I had ever had any lingering doubts about Sydney's ability to be a father to his child, they were put to rest immediately.
"Hello, Sarah," he whispered to her, entranced, tracing the line of her chin with a finger almost as long as her forearm. "Ma petite cheri." He looked up at me, carefully being shifted to a gurney for my trip to my room. "She's beautiful, Cat!"
I was tired enough that all I could do was smile at him as he returned his attention to his daughter, who - wouldn't you know it - had quieted down the moment she'd been put in her father's arms. Sarah's eyes were open, and she was studying her father's face as intently as he was studying hers. "I'll show you where the nursery is," the nurse told Sydney and with a touch to his elbow got him walking ahead of my gurney out of the delivery room and down the corridor. At the door of the nursery, the neonatal nurse carefully took Sarah from her father with, "We'll have her back to you in just a little while." I could see Sydney's face look just the slightest bit deprived as the gurney wheeled past him.
Very soon I was comfortably ensconced in a hospital bed by a window, and Sydney moved in to sit close to me the moment the nurses quit fussing and left us alone. "What a wonderful gift you've given me," he breathed at me, his dark honey eyes so full of emotion that he had tears standing. "Thank you seems so inadequate."
"I love you," I told him tiredly, my eyes hardly wanting to stay open.
"I love you so much!" I felt him bend over me and kiss me gently. "You rest now," he told me, "while I have some telephone calls to make. Parker and Rene are probably wondering if we've forgotten them, and Broots deserves to hear."
"You need to rest too, my love," I complained, forcing my eyes open again. "You've been up at least as long as I have..."
"I will," he promised me. "But not yet. I'll have Parker or Rene run in to pick me up. Go to sleep now. You've more than earned your rest." He brushed my sweat-dampened hair back gently time after time until I finally dropped off.
I wasn't sure how long I dozed, but it was long enough that when the nurse wheeled the bassinet with Sarah into the room, I was already starting to rouse. "I think somebody's hungry," the nurse told me brightly as she put my daughter in my arms and then adjusted the bed so that I was sitting up better. She helped untie the hospital gown at my neck so I could move it aside and settle Sarah at my breast. The little imp latched on tightly and suckled hard immediately - and then those beautiful eyes opened and peered deeply into mine, and I became lost in the rapport that we suddenly shared.
Sydney slipped quietly back into the room and settled into the chair next to my bed to watch the two of us commune. "How beautiful you are," he commented softly after a very long moment, and I looked up at him and smiled. "Did you rest?"
"Some. Did you talk to Rene?"
"She and Parker and Joe were all at our place - Joe spent the night on the couch so that Rene wasn't alone at all. Then Parker decided not to go to work today but went back to our place and hung around with Rene until there was some word." The idea of Parker actually playing hooky from work made Sydney's lips quirk in amusement. "The two of them are driving in now. I'll go home with them and come back later today with our car when they release you two. And I called both Nicholas and Broots - both of them send their best." He focused his gaze on the nursing baby. "I honestly can't believe that our peanut's really here - that this is MY child, that I actually HAVE a baby girl..."
"Come over here and join us, Dad," I told him with a jerk of the head. "I'm missing having you at my side here, and Sarah could use some more time with her father."
His face glowing with excitement, Sydney shifted to the bed and sat next to his daughter and me. His huge hand very carefully cupped and then stroked the fine silk of Sarah's dark hair tenderly and with wonder. Then that hand came up and cupped my face gently so that he could take my lips with his in one of his deep and loving kisses that never failed to make my heart beat faster. "I'm a lucky man," he told me in his melodious, vibrant baritone, settling my head against his chest and wrapping his other arm about my shoulders. "You made me the luckiest, Cat." I leaned against him and marveled at the moment, sitting here with a wonderful man holding me in his arms and with our beautiful new daughter at my breast. I'd long wondered what a perfect moment in time would be like - I didn't wonder anymore. I had everything in the world I could have ever wanted in that quiet, intensely intimate moment, and I was supremely content.
When Sarah seemed to be done with her first meal, I laid her back against my propped up knees while I let Sydney help me pull my gown back in place, then lifted her gently to my shoulder to burp her. I heard Sydney begin to chuckle. "Hi there," he said cheerfully as the baby's gaze locked with his again over the back of my shoulder, and then he sobered quickly as he offered a finger toward her and felt her miniscule fingers fold around the very end. "Of all the things I've ever wanted in life, to have a wife and family was the most precious - and the one thing I thought I'd never, ever, have was..."
"I never thought I'd have another child, certainly not at my age," I admitted softly, "or that I'd ever have a husband that I loved more than life itself. I had given up ever having that kind of a life." I felt his lips brush my forehead. "Who would ever have guessed that signing up for a psychological research project about surviving the death of a twin would have had such amazing consequences."
I could feel the chuckle well up from deep within him. "It wasn't so much the project, Cat - it was the serendipity that put you at that beach that cold afternoon with me."
"And the storm, don't forget the storm," I began to chuckle too. "We wouldn't have Sarah if it hadn't been for the foul weather and your not wanting me to get lost in the dark in the rain."
"Oh, I think by that time, the storm was only the most convenient excuse I could find at the moment," Sydney kissed the side of my head. "By then, though, I was already falling head over heels in love and would have done just about anything to keep you with me for a while longer. You were the first person since Jacob died who truly understood me - that you were also an incredibly beautiful woman didn't hurt either."
"You're pretty easy on the eyes too, you know," I relaxed more fully against him and his arms slid from my shoulders to wrap around my more normal-sized middle. "And you were the first person I'd been able to really talk to for years. I think that by the time we realized it was late and there was a storm, I was halfway in love with you too. And by morning..."
"By morning I had already decided that I would do everything and anything to win you. Little did I know that I'd already taken care of the problem in one of the few ways you couldn't argue with." Sarah stretched sleepily against my shoulder, and I felt Sydney bend forward and kiss his little girl gently.
"I should have brought a camera," Rene announced from the doorway of my room. "I don't think I've seen either of you look happier."
I carefully slid Sarah down into my arms so that the two newcomers could see her better. "She looks like you, Syd," Miss Parker said in a soft voice, and then chuckled when Sarah yawned again. "And she has your laid-back manner down pat already."
"Amazing what a full tummy can do for a person," I chuckled at her before grasping her hand with my free one. "You take him home and make him rest," I told her, shooting Sydney a firm look. "He's tired and needs to sleep. Heaven knows when he'll next get an uninterrupted rest for the next few weeks."
"I'll take care of him, Mom," Rene bent toward me to deposit a kiss on my cheek and then peered down into the face of her little sister. "God, she's smaller than I thought."
"She was early, remember?" I reminded her softly. "Still, she's not so small - she's almost seven pounds now. If she'd managed to make it two and a half more weeks..."
"She's just right," Sydney pronounced proudly, his huge hand again cupping his daughter's head gently.
"C'mon, Syd," Miss Parker walked up to him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You're starting to droop, if you hadn't noticed. Time to get you home and dump you on the couch for the day."
"Yeah, Dad, let's let Mom and Sarah rest up for a while," Rene added her urging to Parker's. "You look all in."
I looked up into his face and had to agree. Now that the excitement was dying down, he DID look exhausted. "You go on and get yourself a good rest," I told him. "I'll see you when you come back later to pick us up."
He bent and kissed me one more time. "I won't be gone for long," he promised. "Don't go anywhere without me, OK?"
"We'll be right here waiting for you." I waved him on. "Go on, my love. Get some rest."
~~~~~~~~
The whole family - less one - was at the house when Sydney and I got home that evening. Even Joe had stuck around so he could get a glimpse of the new member of the family. For her part, Sarah took in all the new people around her with class, managing to stay awake at least until all the introductions had been accomplished before, with one great yawn, she dropped off in my arms. When I would have carried her upstairs, Broots showed me his gift that he'd dropped by just before we'd arrived - a cradle to sit in the living room so I didn't have to climb stairs all the time to get her to bed or let her rest. I put Sarah in her downstairs bed and then gave our friend a proper hug thank you.
Miss Parker and Rene had taken care of the evening meal plans for a welcome-home dinner ahead of time that included us all, so we were seven adults around our dining table that night. It was an absolute joy for me to actually fit in my spot at the table rather than have to sit back so far I missed my mouth half the time. I found myself watching our two cooks interact, and when I checked to see if Sydney had noticed, I could see that he had indeed. The two women were acting as if they'd known each other all their lives as family - Parker having donned the role of elder sister to Rene's younger sister. The time that they'd spent by themselves together seemed to have drawn them closer - and I couldn't have been happier.
Sarah roused again not long after we'd finished eating, and I was busy changing her and getting ready to feed her again when the doorbell rang. Sydney looked through the little hole in the door and evidently felt confident enough to open it slightly. "Yes? Can I help you?"
"Where is she?" a loud voice boomed that I remembered all too well, unfortunately - and I heard the thud of the door being suddenly forced open and my husband grunt in pain and surprise. "Cathy?" I quickly put Sarah back in her cradle as a wild-eyed Jake came through the archway at me. "So THIS is where you've been hiding!"
Rene came running up and skidded to a halt with a squeak of surprise and horror. "Dad!" she bent to help Sydney regain his feet. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Jake growled at his daughter, and then whirled around when it finally sunk in that she hadn't been talking to HIM. "Who the Hell do you think you're calling “Dad?” I'M your father!" he demanded of her and took a threatening step toward her.
Sydney thrust Rene behind him. "Get out of my house!" he ordered my ex-husband in a gruff and angry voice. "And stay the Hell away from my wife and daughter."
"They're MINE," Jake bellowed belligerently, "and I've come to collect the family you stole from me, you bastard!" He landed a punch on Sydney's chin that rocked my husband back on his heels again and stopped his forward movement to protect anybody.
I don't think I'd ever been so angry in my life. "He didn't steal anything - you lost us long ago, and you just can't admit it to yourself. You just stay the Hell away from me, and stay away from my husband!" I took a step away from my baby and toward Jake, ready to claw the man's eyes out if that was what it was going to take to protect my family.
"Cathy? What's going on in here?" Miss Parker led the cavalry charge from the dining room. She stepped between Jake and me. "Who the Hell is THIS?"
Jake tried to shove her roughly out of the way. "Butt out, lady. This isn't any of your business..."
Then I heard it again - that metallic snicking sound that told me that Joe had arrived, figured out what was going on, and had decided to take definitive action. "OK, Mister. That's about as far as you go." I saw Jake follow the voice and then blanch at the sight of a very lethal-looking gun pointed at him.
Sydney moved carefully around the intruder until he could put his arm around my shoulder. "Are you OK?" I asked in concern.
"A little dazed, but not hurt," he told me with a reassuring squeeze, but I could already tell that he'd wear the mark of Jake's fist for several days to come. That fact made me boil over with anger yet again.
"Call the police, Rene," I told my daughter when I saw that she hadn't moved a muscle. "Rene!"
"She won't do it," Jake sneered triumphantly, although with a nervous glance at a gun barrel that hadn't moved an inch. "She knows better than to call the cops on her father. I'll bet it was this joker that made her call them in Rochester."
Sydney grunted his disgust at the very idea, but the statement was enough to finally bring Rene out of her catatonic state. She walked up to her father very slowly with an increasing look of hatred and anger in her face. "You aren't my father," she told him with a tone that was as icy and rejecting as I'd ever heard from her. "You're just the man that got my mother pregnant." Jake blinked as if he'd just been slapped. "And just so you know, in Rochester Dad only reminded me of what I already knew I needed to do. For what it's worth, I should have done it a long time ago - the first time you violated that restraining order. He won't need to tell me a second time." She then turned on her heel and walked very obviously toward the telephone and dialed 911. "This is Rene Martin, and I'm staying at 125 Washington Avenue - and I'd like to report an intruder."
"You can't have her - not Cathy - she's MINE," Jake mumbled in a manner that told us all very clearly that the man had lost all semblance of sanity. "And if I can't have her, then NOBODY can..."
He pulled his hand from his trousers pocket and aimed the handgun at me. Miss Parker gave out a yell, Rene screamed, and Sydney pushed me out of the way as Jake pulled the trigger even as Joe landed the butt of his gun to the back of his head. Jake collapsed like a sack of potatoes, and I screamed as the bullet slammed into my right shoulder and spun me around as it knocked me down. Over it all I could hear the crying of my tiny daughter at all the loud voices and terrifying noises...
~~~~~~~~
By the time the police in Blue Cove had finished filing all the charges against him, Jake was looking at a very long time locked away - breaking and entering, assault and battery against Sydney and attempted murder against me. But before that, he had regained consciousness and begun to rave wildly and struggle madly against the handcuffs, and the arresting officers on the scene decided that the regional psychiatric facility might be a better venue for his incarceration than the jail. When they half-dragged, half-carried him to the squad car, he was shouting obscenities and calling for either Rene or myself to tell the police to let him go.
Miss Parker, bless her heart, took charge of the scene from the family's perspective. She sent Broots to the linen closet for towels to staunch my bleeding, then had a quick, quiet and very determined talk with a stunned and frantic Sydney, handing him a glass with a more than ample amount of brandy to try to calm him down. Eventually she left Sydney in the care of Broots, Joe and Rene, with instructions for him to tell the police what happened. Then she packed me off to a semi-private corner of the living room with the baby to finish feeding and changing her very quickly in order to calm Sarah's ongoing tantrum, which wasn't helping anybody. Turning down the police offer of an ambulance, she then helped me out to her sports car and drove me back to Dover and an emergency room at a controlled breakneck speed worthy of a racer at the Indianapolis Speedway.
The Blue Cove police must have called the hospital to let them know I was coming, for I was taken immediately in and seen to. My wounds front and back were stitched up and bandaged within a couple of hours, and not long after that I was back on my way home with an ample supply of the minimal pain killers that I could take and still breast feed my baby safely. Miss Parker had the presence of mind to call home while I was being stitched up to give Sydney a report on my condition and reassure him that I was otherwise unharmed. She later told me with a shake of the head that he'd still sounded quite frantic with worry. The police had left while we were gone, and Broots had taken his very shaken daughter home leaving only Joe and Rene to try to calm my husband's fears.
Not that whatever they had tried had worked - Sydney was out the front door and charging down the walk toward the driveway the moment we started pulling in. I was tired and hurting enough that I appreciated his gathering me into his arms the moment I had climbed from the passenger seat, but he clung to me more tightly than I'd expected. "I'm OK, really," I reassured him myself, putting my good arm around his waist and holding him back as I leaned. "My shoulder hurts like hell, but I'll live."
"C'mon, you two, let's get you in the house," Miss Parker put a hand on Sydney's shoulder and propelled him, with me tucked into his embrace, back down the walk. "Where's Joe?"
"Inside, with Rene," Sydney told her absently. He stopped the moment we were inside the front door and stood me away so he could look at me carefully. "You're SURE you're all right?"
Rene came to the top of the stairs carrying a fussy Sarah in her arms, and I could tell that she would have been asking me the same question herself but that he'd asked it first. "Yes," I promised fervently. "I'm really OK, sweetheart. The bullet went straight through and did very little damage. It just hurts like hell every time I try to move the arm." I looked at Sydney and cupped a hand about his chin. "What's the matter with Sarah, Dad?"
"She's just been very fussy since you left," Rene answered for him, carrying my baby down the stairs and laying her carefully into my good arm. "The only one who could get her to calm down was Sydney, and unfortunately his holding her didn't make HIM any calmer..."
I looked up into his eyes, and my heart went out to the torn and agonized man who'd seen his wife shot the very same day she'd given him a child. "She's just so small," he said softly, his hand now willingly traveling to cup his daughter's head, "and I didn't want to hurt her - and I was so worried about you... I didn't know what it was she wanted or needed..."
I looked about at the rest of them as my reservoir of strength and adrenaline began to run dry. "I think I'm going to take Sarah and Sydney upstairs with me for some quiet time," I announced. "It's been a very long day for all of us, and I hope you don't think me a bad hostess, but I really need to spend some time..."
"Go, Mom," Rene urged me with a jerk of the head. "I'll take care of things down here. Dad needs you, and so does Sarah."
"C'mon, Joe," I heard Miss Parker say softly. "I think the excitement is over for the day."
"I sure as hell hope so," our sweeper said vehemently. "I'll see you in the morning, Cathy. Dr. Sydney."
"You call me in the morning," Miss Parker told me firmly. "And keep new Daddy here home with you tomorrow. You may be the one who had the baby, but I think he's the one who has some settling in to do." Her eyes rested upon her old friend with understanding fondness, and she bent toward me. "He still looks pretty rattled, Cathy."
I shot her a knowing look and a nod. "I know. Good night, Parker - and thanks for all your help," I lifted my right hand in its sling and waved at her and then turned and began the walk up the stairs. The heavier fall of tread on the stairs behind me told me I didn't make my ascent alone.
I laid Sarah in the middle of our bed so that she was safe and then let Sydney help me out of my torn and bloodstained caftan and into a more comfortable and convenient nightgown. I really did prize that caftan more than I'd ever imagined I would - its cheery colors had sustained me on many days when my mood had been low, and the gentle teasing about my even having it had drawn me closer to Miss Parker. I folded it carefully and put it aside to wash out and see if repair was possible. I'd be damned if I'd let Jake steal even the smallest bit of happiness from me.
Then, with Sydney and plenty of pillows at my back, I opened my nightgown so that I could give Sarah her late-night meal. Sydney, obviously feeling more in control and secure now that life seemed to be settling down again, shifted so that I was leaning more against him as I sat and peered over my left shoulder at his new daughter as she took her meal. His arms around my waist were tight and possessive and, to me, the most supportive gesture he could make besides being my backrest. I soon found that if I focused my attention on the sensation of my baby at my breast, I could even block out some of the ache in my right shoulder.
It wasn't exactly another perfect moment, but it was damned close to it. And after all we'd just been through, it would do for now.
