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“I think you’re telling me that you’re trying to save my wife’s life.” Then with a choked sob he asked, “And the baby? Will you be able to save the baby too?”
“The baby?” Doctor Gideon volleyed a look from Riker to Prosper and then back again. His blue eyes blazed with uncharacteristic anger. Then Doctor Gideon spat out at Prosper. “You mean to tell me that no one has told Riker anything about the baby?”
Gia had woken up that morning feeling restless.
Fat and restless with a whole lot on her mind.
Along with everything else that weighed heavily on her psyche, she was afraid that the whole house raid and everything that followed had set her on a path towards insanity. Gia was worried that she had begun to see things and might be rocking on the edge of paranoia.
Lovely. Along with the thirty pound weight gain, the swollen feet and non-existent ankles, let’s add lunacy to the mix.
Gia felt like she was being followed. Watched and followed. Because the baby was resting hard against her bladder, Gia knew every bathroom stop east of the Mississippi or, so it seemed. One day, on her way back into town from a relaxing afternoon of pre-natal massage, Gia had stopped at a woodsy rest area to use the facilities. When she pulled into the lot, she noticed two men sitting at a picnic table at the far end of the property. The wild gesticulating of arms and intermittent shouting would have caught anyone’s attention and they definitely caught Gia’s. To her surprise, she recognized one of the men as the ATF officer who had come to her house. His flaming red hair was a dead giveaway.
The other guy meant nothing to her. He looked like a grubby, overweight throwback to the hippie age. When she closed the car door, they both turned and stared. Caught by surprise Gia stared back openly, but they quickly turned back around.
The agent and the guy he was meeting with definitely had not wanted to be seen.
Whatever.
Her business with the ATF was thankfully in the past and that is where she wanted to keep it.
Gia’s bladder was just about to burst, and she ran into the restroom. When she came back out, a family of six were setting out a picnic at the table, the men were gone, and the incident was forgotten. Forgotten, that is until Gia suddenly thought she started seeing the guy everywhere. Not the ATF agent but the other guy.Everywhere.So much so, that one time she caught up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. When the guy turned around, while he bore a strong resemblance to the guy at the picnic table, it wasn’t him at all. Just plain weird. So weird that Gia did a google search on paranoia during pregnancy. Yup and holy shit. There was a ton of women complaining about how the raging hormonal changes in their body had generated fits of irrational thoughts. These thoughts ranged from fear of giving birth to a chicken to fear of being mugged while pumping out breast milk on a park bench.
The advice to overcoming this tendency was to use conscious thought, prudent action and mind over matter. Gia moved herself to more rational thought and to her surprise it seemed to help.
One problem down.
One to go.
Gia had gained thirty pounds in her pregnancy and she was not done yet. Gia worried that Riker would think she looked like a big giant Mabel the Cow. As a child, Gia had read a series of books about Mabel. Mabel the Cow used to sneak out of the barn at night when all the other farm animals were asleep. She would lumber out to the old oak tree where she would meet her pal, Olive the Owl. Together they would take off into the woodland and have the most wonderful nighttime adventures.
Well it could be worse,Gia told herself.At least Elsie had big brown eyes, thick long lashes and a hat made out of straw.
The thought of herself as Mabel the Cow made Gia giggle. She was still giggling when the motorcycle blew past the stop sign and shot out in front of her. Gia had a quick flash of a malicious grin before the driver in the Dodge Ram swerved to avoid the bike and rammed into Big Blue with the force of a freight train. As the vintage car spun from the impact, the world twisted around Gia as if she were caught inside some macabre spinning top.
The sound of crunching metal and squealing tires created a deafening roar until the force of Gia’s screams silenced it. A dozen needles danced their way across her forehead as windshields shattered and glittering bits of blood danced around her like crazed fireflies. The force of the accident threw Gia across the bench seat to the opposite side of the car. At the last moment, she managed to twist her body, doing her best to shield her belly from the devastating impact.
For what seemed like a very, very, long time, Gia felt the pain of unrelieved agony. It was as if her bones were cracking, spreading and breaking. Gia felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out in great, raging spasms of deep, deep visceral pain.
In the outer edges of her consciousness, Gia thought she heard the sound of an ambulance’s siren.
But she couldn’t stay awake long enough to be sure. Gia closed her eyes and then came the great nothing.
“Ican’t believe you let him ride all this way without knowing.” Doctor Gideon looked down his nose at his long- time friend.
Prosper looked uncomfortable but didn’t say a word.
Riker felt as though he was about to get hit by a doomsday tank that wouldn’t stop. Once it ran over him once, he knew it would just roll back and keep on coming, running him over and over again. It would destroy him, bit by bit, until he was reduced to nothing but some grey matter and a bleeding heart. He couldn’t let that happen. Not when Gia needed him like she did. Riker stood up from the chair, straightened his spine and looked at a fixed point on the wall. His mouth went dry and his knees threatened to buckle but he stood firm.
“I want my kid buried next to my pop. Make the arrangements for me to bring the infant home, Doc. No reason why Gia should have to deal with putting her baby to the ground …” Riker‘s voice choked off.
Doctor looked at Prosper accusingly, but before he could say anything Prosper clapped Riker hard on the shoulder. “Nobody’s burying anybody. Your kid’s as stubborn and hard headed as his old man. Seems he was determined to make it into this world after all. You got yourself a son, Riker. A beautiful little boy.”
Stunned, Riker fell back down into his chair. “How is it possible that the baby survived? I thought that the air bags…”
“Gia was driving that big Caddy.” Prosper explained. “That beautiful classic monstrosity is as big as a goddamn boat, and twice as solid. No air bags and no seat belt, and this is probably the one time in a million that that was not a bad thing. Gia was hit full broadside, but she was thrown to other side of the car and that’s what saved both her and the baby.”
“Aside from the head injury, she has quite a few lacerations from the shattered glass. Gia has also sustained a broken radius from where she must have braced herself.” Doctor Gideon added.
