Time Out (24 page)

“It’s crazy how something so small could cause so much damage,” Hawkins muttered, and I realized how difficult this was for him. Gwyneth wasn’t just his best friend’s sister, she was also his ex-fiancé, and knowing Hawkins he probably blamed himself for what happened to her. “So why do you have this locket?”

“She passed it to me before she made the decision to take the bomb and run,” I explained to him how it had really happened. “She died saving god knows how many lives. She’s a hero. I just wish I had her same courage…”

“Don’t say that,” Hawkins snapped lightly. “All I kept thinking when I heard the explosion, all I kept praying for was…please, God don’t take her. You don’t know how helpless I felt…”

“I’m sorry that I scared you, but once I realized what was happening I had to stop it. I couldn’t lose you either. It’s just the last thing I remember was being thrown through the air. I haven’t had the time to completely wrap my head around it yet.”

“No,
I’m
sorry,” his blue eyes suddenly softened. “I know this is a lot to process at one time.”

“It’s just that I keep thinking maybe Gwyneth did what she did to make everything right again,” I remembered the look in her eye as if it was seconds ago. “She had said that she felt lost from helping the terrorist, to killing Kumar, to watching Ted get blown up, but
this
Gwyneth,” I stressed. “This Gwyneth was the same girl who talked a grieving brother down from retaliating on a bunch of doctors at the clinic.
This
Gwyneth was the girl that I had only heard about in her stories and honestly, that’s how I’d want my brother to remember me. I don’t think you should tell Warren the truth.” I finally got to the point I was slowly building up to because for the first time I wanted Gwyneth to appear to be the person she may not have always been.

“Well, we haven’t talked much since the incident because he’s inconsolable right now, but,” he nodded. “It’s best that he never know what really happened with
her, that
is if Vance doesn’t blow the case wide open.”

“Yeah, well I have my own bone to pick with him,” I was just about to continue to explain when my mom walked in causing Hawkins to quickly tuck the locket inside his jean pocket and close the closet door.

“Thank god,” my mom breathed a sigh of relief as she came to a stop halfway into the room. For someone who wasn’t usually emotional, I watched the tears well up in her eyes. “You’re up.” Once she wiped away a few tears that had escaped down her cheeks, she came over to kiss me on my forehead and take my hand in hers to squeeze it.

“Are you mad?” I asked.

“Not right now,” she brushed back my hair and smiled. “Will get to the reckless and scared part later,” she nodded assuredly and I started to laugh, but flinched from the jarring pain in my side causing both my mom and Hawkins to rush closer. There was a long pause before my mom spoke again.

“For now, let’s just focus on the fact that you helped save thousands of lives last night, from what I understand from Hawkins,” she smiled over at him and I could tell how much it meant to her that he had thought to include her in my recovery. “Being brave and a bit of a dreamer is a trait you share with your father.”

I groaned, and she shook her head, stopping me. “No, Joie, when I met your father I loved that he was a dreamer, it was what attracted me to him. But often in relationships, the things you love the most about a person can be the hardest to understand. And I know if he were standing here today, he’d be extremely proud of you.”

I felt my heart swell with love because I knew he’d be proud, but mostly because I knew my mom was healing too.

“Good, I see that you’re up,’ a blonde female doctor dressed in light pink scrubs with teddy bears on them approached us. She introduced herself as Dr. Penelope Cross.  ‘You know they’re calling you a hero around the office,” she smiled down at me as she began to check my stats by placing a stethoscope over my lungs to listen to me breathe and then moved it down around my abdomen.  

“Yeah well, I’m not the
real
hero,” I remembered Gwyneth sprinting away from me.

“You raced toward a bomb when most people would have been running away from it. If that’s not a hero,” she looked down at me as she pulled the stethoscope out of her ears and placed it around her neck. “Then I don’t know what is.”   

I just gave her a half smile, because honestly I didn’t think about it when I did it. I think a person just acts when things like that happen.

“Well, we got your blood work back and your cat scans,” she nodded. “And everything looks good. No internal bleeding or head trauma. The most damage you sustained was to the skin along your back, but the cuts and scrapes should heal over time. I’m going to prescribe an antibiotic ointment for you to apply on the wounds twice a day for the next two weeks or until they heal.”

Once the doctor seemed done updating us, my mom gushed, “That’s wonderful news.”

“Yes it is,” she took a tentative glance in my mom’s direction before turning back around to face Hawkins and me. “You know my daughter is such a fan. I’m embarrassed to admit that I get daily updates on your relationship status,” she half laughed. “She thinks the two of you should get married and have
lots
of children.”

“Someday, hopefully,” Hawkins quickly replied, causing me to smile over at him in surprise.

“Right—well,” the smile quickly faded from her face as she glanced over at my mom again, who was busy texting someone on her cell one key at a time. I wondered why the doctor seemed so fascinated with her, when she politely informed her, “I’m so sorry, but cell phones aren’t allowed in this wing.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” my mom apologized as she went to put the cell phone back in her purse. “Everyone just uses the lounge down the hallway instead,” she quickly added. “I can show you where it’s at if you like?”

“No, I’m sure I can find it on my own,” my mom insisted as she got up to leave. “I really need to tell all your aunts and uncles that you’re going to be alright,” she explained with a guilty look on her face, but I just nodded and said, “It’s okay, mom.”

I didn’t need the heart monitor to know my heart rate was picking up because the doctor was starting to scare me. What did she not want to say in front of my mother?

The doctor waited until my mom was out of earshot to turn back around to face us again. “I don’t know if you knew or had told your mother yet, but that
someday
…is here now.” She looked from Hawkins back to me. “That’s why I’m really here. I’m a pediatric doctor.”

“What?” we both exclaimed in unison.

“You are eight weeks along in your pregnancy,” she looked down at me. “And the baby is doing just fine. It’s got a strong heartbeat and everything looks good on the sonogram.”

Goose bumps ran down my arms as I looked down at my belly. I was carrying a life inside me? But fear quickly replaced my initial reaction as my eyes snapped over to Hawkins. What if this wasn’t what he wanted?

“It’s…okay? Are you
sure
?” he stammered. “She ran after a bomb and it
exploded
,” he seemed to slowly come undone and in that moment, I understood how much I must have really scared him. Tears welled up in my eyes, as he continued to ask, “So are you sure…our…
our
baby is fine?”

“Yes,” she assured him as she beamed down at us, obviously thrilled with how we were taking the news.

“My mom,” I murmured as it slowly dawned on me that the doctor had spared me that experience, at least for now. “Thank you,” I added.

“Like I said, my daughter gives me updates,” she smiled one last time before she turned to leave us alone.

Hawkins leaned forward in his seat to take my hand in his as he moved in with his other hand and placed it lovingly on my stomach. “Hey there buddy,” he cooed. “How did mommy not know you were in there?”

I went to explain that I had never been regular with my periods, but he shook his head when I realized he wasn’t upset that I didn’t know, he just wanted to talk to the baby.

“Well we know now,” his eyes snapped up to mine filled with admiration and love. “Don’t we, mommy?”

“Yes, we do.”

I felt a little silly talking to my belly, but the more and more I heard Hawkins talk to the baby, I knew without a doubt that he would be a better father than even I could have hoped for. Unfortunately, our little happy bubble was short lived when we got an unexpected visitor. 

“Ah yeah, Mason, I’ll have to call you back,” Vance slapped his cell phone shut instantly announcing his arrival.

The mention of the name Mason brought back memories of the night I was kidnapped and terrorized. I couldn’t believe Vance actually waltz in my hospital room talking to one of the men who had helped abduct me. 

Hawkins instantly stood up, and I could tell he was feeling protective of me, the mother of his child, as he stepped forward ready to pummel the man.

“Hawkins, it’s okay, I got this,” I stopped him with the severity of my tone. “Why don’t you go find my mom for me?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Joie,” Hawkins was so angry I noticed his knuckles were white from clenching his fists so tight.

“I can instantly call for help if I need to,” I held up the remote on my bed to show him.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“I’ll only be down the hallway,” he was speaking to me but he continued to glare at Vance as if begging the man to give him a reason to hit him. “If you need me, just call,” Hawkins knocked his shoulder into the man before leaving the room.  

“O—
kay
?” Vance’s eyebrows knitted together like he didn’t understand what Hawkins deal was about. “Well, how’s your recovery going?” 

“Let’s cut the BS and tell me why you’re really here.”

Maybe it was my, baby or just my hormones, but I couldn’t have been anymore pissed than I already was with Vance, now that I knew he was working with the men that kidnapped and terrorized me. 

He just stared at me, but if he thought I was going to jump first, he had another thing coming. He must have come to the same conclusion because he shifted his weight, huffed and crossed his arms before speaking.

“I know you have the microchip,” he was bluffing, I figured because there wasn’t any reason for him to think that, other than hope.

“I know you work with the men that kidnapped and tortured me.”

“I don’t work with them,” he said flatly.

“And I don’t have the microchip,” I countered in the same tone.

“Do you even know what’s on that chip?

“Yes … I do.”

“Then you know that it holds information that could be a threat to our country.”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to give it to me then?” He asked as though I should have handed it over a long time ago, which I would have if he weren’t working with the same people that could have raped and killed me.

“Not yet.” I waited to see if he would take the bait.

“You know, I could arrest you. Actually, if you don’t give me that microchip, that’s exactly what I am going to do.”

“I never said I had the microchip, and if you arrest me, Hawkins and I will tell every magazine, newspaper, and TV reporter what your men did to me.”

“No one will believe you.”

“Oh
really
?
Why don’t you try telling that to the two witnesses; Maria Rey at the grocery store and the cashier at the gas station. One of them saw me get shoved into the trunk of my car and the other saw me half naked after I escaped. Besides, it’s already been in all of the magazines.
Everyone
knows that I was kidnapped. It’s one of the very few advantages to having the paparazzi follow me around twenty-four seven.”

“Alright, alright, what do you want?” He asked in a manner that I could tell he realized how bad this could be for his team and with it being an election year he had to be extra careful.

“The first thing I want is for the men that kidnapped and tortured me to be fired or dishonorably discharged.”

“
Those men were just doing their jobs
.” He seemed shocked that I would request this first, but I knew he knew the extent of what I had been through and what I could possibly be sharing with the press if he didn’t give me what I wanted.

“You teach your men to lick their captures’ faces? And who knows what he would have done to me if I hadn’t got away; I know what he
wanted
to do.” The color quickly drained from Vance’s face like this wasn’t the first incident he had been made aware of. 

“Fine, is that it?” he barked.

“Not even close, so you better get out your handy little notepad,” I calmly stated, then didn’t blink as he tried to stare me down again. With a roll of his eyes, he pulled a small notepad out of his
suit’s
inside pocket and nodded for me to go ahead.

“I want my mom’s mortgage paid off.”

“How much is that?” he asked, clearly shocked by my demands.

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.”