Page 37 of Forced Proximity
It’d been hours now.
There was no way that they didn’t know about it.
“From the preliminary reports, y’all are the only two.” He paused. “Three. The baby made it. But they don’t know about you yet.”
I nodded. “Can’t wait for that circus.”
He snorted. “Don’t envy you at all.”
No, I’d bet he didn’t.
After I got his arm patched up, I said, “This is going to need stitches. It’s good enough for now, but when you get back to civilization, you’re going to need to get it taken care of.” I shoved everything back into the pack, planning on taking it with us. “What did you do?”
“Barbed wire fence that was hanging from a tree. I thought it was a branch.” He paused. “It wasn’t.”
“Ouch,” I muttered.
The one that’d been feeding the baby came up and said, “He’s done. Much happier now.”
I knew he wanted to hand the baby to me but, “I can’t. I’m sorry. But I’m just…”
The man looked at me with a calm, calculating stare before he said, “You don’t have a choice.”
Then I was holding the kid in my hands, and I wanted to scream.
It was too much.
The plane crash. The tornado. The twelve hours of screams.
I just couldn’t anymore.
I broke.
I plopped down onto the lopsided steps and started to cry.
Luckily, the man was right.
The baby didn’t scream.
He was happy and asleep.
But still.
I just lost it.
Utterly lost it.
Deep, heaving sobs left my body in a rush, and I hunched over, still careful to not squish the baby, and cried.
I don’t know how long I cried for, but by the time the men came back, I was still crying.
“Jesus,” I heard Finnian say. “What the fuck?”
The baby was taken from my arms, and Finnian dropped down on his haunches next to me and said, “Dru, what’s wrong?”
“I just wanted a second!” I wailed. “I just…a break. A second to breathe! And that man wouldn’t let me.”
“Way to go, Doc.”
