Page 3 of Reunited with the Soldier

As he keeps kicking me and my baby, I drift into a state where I don’t know what’s going on around me. All I know is that I am in pain. Lots of pain. The pain in my back is worse, the pain in my ribs, arms and everywhere else is excruciatingly painful and I want this to be over.

I’m vaguely aware of someone screaming from my door. But I don’t know what is going on and why they are screaming.

“Get away from her you sick bastard,” I hear someone yell.

Frank moves away from me and I feel someone take me into their arms. They’re soft and smell so nice. I know it’s not my Mom. She is frail and always smells of alcohol and cigarettes.

“Hey, Lauren, it’s Bailey from next door. We heard some screaming and shouting. You had your window open and we could hear it. The ambulance is on the way.”

“Thank you. My baby?” I reach down and touch my stomach, trying to feel if my baby is moving or not.

“Lauren, I’m sorry, but there’s too much blood there for the baby to have survived.”

I cry, sob into her arms. She holds me tight like I wished my Mom did for years, but she didn't. I've been starved of love and have only had Kash’s love and even that was taken away from me.

I hear a lot of people in my room and then I feel someone touch my arm. I flinch. “Lauren, I’m the EMT and I’m here to take you to the hospital.”

“Save my baby, please save my baby.” I can’t even open my eyes because they are swollen shut.

“We will do everything we can to save you and your baby. We will make sure you don’t have to come back here ever again. We will look after you.”

They strap me to the stretcher and when they lift me I move my head towards the smell of Bailey. “Can she come with me?”

I hear my mom shout, “I want to go with her.”

“No. I don’t want you anywhere near me. You’ve never protected me against him.” I scream.

“I didn’t know you were pregnant,” she shouts before she starts sobbing.

“You didn’t need to know she was pregnant,” Bailey says, taking my hand. “I’ll be with you every step of the way, Lauren.” I squeeze it as hard as I can to say thank you.

In the ambulance I’m listening to the noises around me. One of them is the doppler to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Every time I’ve had it checked it’s been really loud. Why isn’t it loud now?

“My baby? Is my baby okay? I can’t hear the heartbeat.” I try to move my arms to touch my stomach, but I can’t. “Why do you have my arms tied to the gurney?'' I sob. “I need to feel my baby.”

Bailey is sitting in front of me and she takes my hand. “Lauren, you are in a lot of pain, you have many broken bones and you need to calm down. They are doing everything they can to keep you and the baby alive. Tell me about the baby. Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“It’s a boy. I love him already. He’s been the only one keeping me here. I can’t lose him, Bailey. I just can’t.” I can’t stop sobbing when she rests her head on my chest and holds me the floodgates open.

We arrive at the hospital and it’s like all hell is let loose. My heart rate spikes, I start fitting and I hear Bailey crying. “You need to do something. We need both of them to live.”

Someone else in the ambulance is on the phone or talking to someone. “We’ve a young mother, lots of broken bones, in active labor, eight centimeters dilated, her waters have broken, she’s lost a lot of blood so we don’t think the pregnancy is viable anymore. She’s seizing and if we don’t get her into an OR soon then we might lose her too.”

I take everything in and hope that if they can’t save both of us that they let both of us die, at least then we will both be together in heaven.

As they pull the gurney out of the ambulance, Bailey squeezes my hand. “Lauren, I am not leaving until you come out of surgery. I will be here and I will look after your baby boy when he’s born.”

“If he’s born,” I mumble just before I slip into blackness.

TWO

KASH

Present Day

“Good Morning,” Kayla says as I wrap my arms around her.

I’m out of the military, it wasn’t something I had planned on doing, but when I was injured during our last tour, I was no longer able to be in the field. Thankfully, I was able to medically retire. Now I’m home and I’m eager to start my new life. Today, I start my new job, working for my best friend and brother-in-law, Maddox.

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