“How the fuck can you be assisting if you’re standin’ here,” I ground out harshly.
She took a step back, her face flushing rosily. “Erm…well…I was waiting for you,” she stuttered, sounding flustered.
“Then you better get movin’.” For some reason I couldn’t explain, a sense of urgency took hold of me. I never gave the other women a thought as I met Anne-Marie’s unprofessional glare.
“What’re we waitin’ for?” I raised the hand not holding my jacket and indicated she should get moving.
She swung around and huffed loud enough for me to hear, but I didn’t give two fucks. The sense of unease I’d had from the moment I’d answered my phone was increasing by the second. I wasn’t sure if it was just the reality of what was about to happen, or something else, but I’d always listened to my gut and it was saying ‘get movin’.’
Anne-Marie led us back down the hall to a double door that required a security swipe to enter. The scent that hit my nose as we walked through was like nothing I’d smelled before, and I started to breathe through my mouth, not wanting to think about what it was.
We came to yet another desk, a woman in navy blue scrubs sitting at the computer. She looked up and I gave her ten out of ten for showing no reaction as her gaze swept over me, before going to Anne-Marie.
“Anne-Marie, I thought you were bringing Lizzie in?” Her tone was sharp and her eyes held a hint of steel.
“I was waiting for her brother. Stop fussing, Barb, I’m here now.”
Something passed between the two women I didn’t understand, but it felt off. I shook it off as Anne-Marie went to the door on her left and opened it. The cry of agony coming from my sister left me in a cold sweat and I was running through the door ready for battle. I stopped cold at the sight before me.
Anne-Marie chuckled and tapped my shaking arm as she passed by me, letting the door close behind her. “It’s perfectly normal for Lizzie to be making these noises.”
I didn’t hear a word she said as I took in Lizzie. Her Stimpy pj top stopped at her bloated waist, revealing her bare ass. The back of the gurney she was on had been raised so she could hang on to it as she knelt. There were several sheets beneath her naked bottom half, covered in blood, and god knew what else, as it ran down her legs while she rocked, mewled, and cried out in distress. She seemed to repeat the pattern of rock, mewl, and cry.
The urge to run the other way was forced away by the need to make it all better, to stop what was hurting her. I felt utterly useless because this was a foe I couldn’t fight. I threw my jacket onto a small two seater sofa in pale blue that was off to the side, taking a steading breath as I walked to Lizzie.
“Lizzie? Lizzie, I’m here baby girl, I got you.” I avoided looking down at her lower body as I stroked her back as she’d taught me to do. Firm but not too firm. Her words ran through my head as she twisted to look at me.
Her eyes were full of tears and had black circles around them. Her skin was sweaty, and her long dark brown hair was stuck to her forehead.
“Oh thank god you’re here. Help me Linc. Make the pain stop. Something’s wrong, I can feel it,” she cried, ripping at my heart with her anguish.
Her body rippled under my hand as I continued to stroke her. I glared at Anne-Marie, who was talking to the other woman wearing a set of pale lilac scrubs, paying Lizzie no attention. “Do something, she says somethin’ ain’t right.”
“Now everything is fine. This is just part of birthing. The mom can get a little upset.”
She got no further when Lizzie cried out, “I wanna pushhhhhh.”
Anne-Marie came over and tutted. “You’ve only been laboring for a couple of hours. This is your first birth and it can take several hours before you’ll feel the need to push.”
Her tone sounded condescending to me, but as I was clueless, I bit my tongue.
But Lizzie was having none of it. “I’m tellin’ you I need to fuckin’ push,” she panted, and took hold of my other hand, holding it in a death grip. “Make them do something,” she pleaded with me after she got her breath back from another contraction.
Her whole body seemed to be alive the way it rippled and contracted. My knees weakened when I looked down between her legs and saw a pool of congealing blood. Back to breathing through my mouth, I glanced back at Anne-Marie, who didn’t seem at all concerned.
Then all hell broke loose as Lizzie screamed so loudly I thought she’d burst my ear drums and the two women ran to the bed. Anne-Marie finally examined Lizzie and when she stood, her face showed real fear.
“What’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer as she hit the emergency buzzer at the back of the bed and people started to appear like ants coming out of the woodwork. They were everywhere. Lizzie held onto my hand, her eyes pleading with me to help.
“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?!” I roared to the room, my fear fully in charge.
The woman who’d been sitting outside at the desk stated, “We have no time to waste, the baby is stuck. The shoulders are wedged in your sister’s pelvis, we need to get the baby out…” she trailed off as a man entered the room and she started to relay information to him, ignoring me completely.
I lowered my head to Lizzie’s, my hair curtaining her face to keep her from seeing the chaos in the room. “I’m here, I’m gonna keep you safe, I swear.” Even as I said it, I could see resignation fill her face with a knowledge I couldn’t even fathom.
“Keep River safe. Promise me no matter what, you’ll keep my baby safe. I’ve signed all the legal guardian paperwork and registered it with the court, so you won’t have any issues.” Her voice faded as her color drained. Her body went rigid and another scream froze my insides. This was followed by the cries of a baby.
“Come on Lizzie, you’ve got a baby to care for, stop this shit,” I rasped through the ball of emotions clogging my throat. Her eyelashes fluttered and her hand went slack in mine.
Chapter One
Five Years Later
Linc
The blonde who’d just sat down in my tattooist chair discussed with her friend where best to place her first tattoo. At the same time, she batted her fake eyelashes at me, like it was a sexy thing to do. She looked like she’d stuck dead spider legs to her eyes and there wasn’t anything sexy about that.
Her friend wandered over to the wall, oohing over the designs I’d done and deemed suitable for photographing and displaying for folks to see what I was capable of. “This one here is stunning. The letters are calligraphy, right?” the blonde’s friend asked.
I didn’t look at the wall because I knew every picture. There was only one with calligraphy writing and it was tattooed over my heart. I blinked and took a steadying breath as the grief I’d never dealt with rose to remind me of what I’d lost when Lizzie died.
“Oh Tiss, you’ll have to get your tattoo displayed—”
“That wall is only for big pieces of artwork,” I stated, probably more harshly than was needed, shutting down any thoughts that Tiss would get her unimaginative butterfly on my wall of art.