Double Tap (Code 11-KPD SWAT 2)

When I’d called her back, she’d been apologizing to the nurse saying that the ‘devil made her say it.’

It was actually pretty funny, because, normally, Georgia was one of the most laid back women I’d ever met. She’d yet to yell at me about how I’d left, even when I’d deserved it.

“Alright, boys,” my mother said. “Here’s your stop.”

She pulled up under the ER entrance awning and waited patiently for the men to pile out of her Suburban.

When it finally cleared out enough, I looked at my mother.

“I love you, mama,” I said softly.

Her eyes closed, and when she opened them again, tears were pouring out of them a mile a minute. “You really hurt my heart, hijo.”

I looked down at my hands, resting on my lap. “I know, mama. I didn’t have a choice, though. If I hadn’t left, one of us could really be dead now.”

That’s about when I felt the headrest hit me in the back of the head again, and her eyes started twinkling.

I just shook my head and laughed. The woman deserved a metal for dealing with my shit. She could hit me in the back of the head as many times she wanted if it helped her not cry.

There was literally nothing worse in the world than knowing that I made my own mother cry.

“Te he echado de mi hijo,” my mother said as I started to exit the car.

I stopped and turned, looking her in the eyes when I said, “I missed you too, mama.”

She smiled. “Now get in there and make an honest woman of my daughter in law. I’d hate to have to tell the women at church that your child was made and born into sin. I’ll see you in a moment. Just have to park the car first.”

I clenched my teeth and got out of the car before I said something to my mother about what sin really was.

And having a child out of wedlock didn’t even compare to the sins I’d performed in my life. In fact, I saw it as a blessing. A way to repent, and I was going to take full advantage of proving to God and everybody that I wasn’t the bad man that I was made out to be.

Then men were waiting for me inside the entrance as I finally made my way to them, and they walked behind me as we made our way to the chapel.

We got tons of looks.

We were all still decked out in our SWAT gear. The only thing we didn’t have on were the neck guards and the riot shields.

We hadn’t had time to strip. Or, at least, I hadn’t given them the time to do so.

“How do you get to the fucking chapel?” I asked in exasperation four minutes later as we took yet another wrong turn.

A small woman, about the size of my left thigh and as tall as my shoulder, cleared her throat.

We all looked at her and she visibly shrunk as she received all of our attention.

“The c-chapel’s that w-way,” she stuttered, pointing down the hall.

I nodded and started jogging towards the door, opening it up just as a smothered scream started to escape the closed door.

“Oh, my God! This kid is fucking ripping my uterus apart!” Georgia screamed.

“I’m so going to get fired for this. She shouldn’t have left her room. I had to run down the hallway after her. And by the time I caught up, we were in the elevator,” a frazzled nurse yelled to the priest.

The priest smiled serenely at the two of them, and then I watched in horror as some clear liquid started to decorate the floor at Georgia’s feet.

“Well, fuck me. I think my water just broke,” Georgia exhaled.

I walked up behind her, careful not to slip and fall on the fluid that used to reside inside my soon to be wife’s body, and wrapped my hand around her mouth. “Shhh, you shouldn’t say stuff like that in front of a man of God.”

Georgia’s body slumped in to me and I had to really try hard not to let her drop on her floor when she gave me all of her weight.

“Oomph,” I grunted.

Then she had her legs planted firmly again, and she snapped, “Get on with it, man. We don’t have all day. That is, unless you want to go ahead and get our baby baptized after he pops out at your feet.”

My eyes widened, and I heard choked chuckles at my back from the men who’d followed me in here.

“Georgia!” I reprimanded.

“She can’t help it. She’s on drugs,” the nurse said.

I turned my head to take in the young woman who was holding on to Georgia’s IV pole and asked, “I thought she said she wanted to do this drug free?”

She shrugged. “A lot of women say that before they’ve actually experienced the pain. They change their mind really quick. She’s on some narcotics as well as a tranquilizer. She really should be sleeping, not getting married.”

Although the reprimand wasn’t malicious, it was there nonetheless.

Georgia ignored it, though, and turned around to face me. She looked up into my eyes and said, “Marry me.”

I grinned down at her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Who gives this woman away?” The Father Matthew asked.

I looked up just as the doors to the chapel closed, and smiled as my father and mother, as well as my sisters and Georgia’s brothers made their way down the aisle.

“We do!” Her brothers said at once.

Georgia smiled at her brothers lovingly and turned back to face the priest.

The position, although not the traditional one, worked for us.

The next five minutes was spent receiving God’s blessing and pausing to let Georgia work through her contractions.

The nurse stayed at her side the entire time, and I stayed at her back.

“Do you, Georgia, promise to obey…” Father Matthew started.

“Absolutely,” she said quickly, panting.

“And do you promise to honor…” Father Matthew asked, but was again interrupted by Georgia.

“Yes!” She agreed quickly.

He smiled, unbothered by her outburst.

“Do you, Nicolas, take,” he started.