He stood stoically, and ran his hand down the front part of his stomach, flattening his tie as he walked around the desk. “Hells bells.”
With that, we both walked to the ultrasound room, and he walked in with a smile.
“Hello, Deon family. How are you doing today?”
After a few nervous ‘okay’s,’ Dr. Mead walked over to the station and started to press buttons before he placed the wand to the woman’s belly.
It didn’t take him long to see the same thing I did.
Baby Deon was dead, expiring in his mother’s womb only three days before his due date.***I was crying as I walked to my car.
The fact that I passed didn’t help in the least. I was devastated for those parents that had only gone in to check positioning on their child that was scheduled for induction in three days’ time, and walked out with an induction in the afternoon to deliver their baby that had perished before they ever got to hold him.
In fact, I was downright sobbing.
My heart was ripped in two, and people were giving me strange looks as I walked through the parking garage, walking around the levels rather than taking the stairs or the elevator.
When I finally made it to the top where students were required to park, I was relieved to see it.
I needed to sit down. It was getting hard to see past my tears, and I was plain exhausted.***Downy
“Fuckin’ A,” I growled as my pager went off.
I was surprised to find a number on it that was unfamiliar to me.
Putting my office phone to my ear, I called the number and waited for someone to answer.
“This is Dr. Mead,” a woman’s saddened voice answered.
“Hi, I was paged from this number,” I said distractedly.
I was looking over some logistic reports, and comparing them to a pile of old reports from ten year ago.
“Yes, I’m sorry.” She cleared her throat, bringing my attention to her. “I have your number listed as an emergency contact for Memphis Conner.”
I froze, hand clenching down hard on the phone in a slight panic. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry. She’s okay. But she had a bad day today, and I think she might need a ride home,” the woman said softly.
Then she proceeded to tell me about what had happened, and why she felt that Memphis would be needing a ride.
“Okay,” I said, standing up and grabbing my keys out of my pocket. “I’ll go get her. Thanks for calling me.”
She made an approving sound and replied with, “That’s what I’m here for.”
With that, she hung up and I started walking outside.
Mellie, the receptionist for the chief, was the first person I saw once I exited the room, so I said, “I’m taking the rest of the day off. I have an emergency.”
She looked startled, but nodded anyway. Usually the chief or Luke would’ve been the only one I would’ve said anything to, but they weren’t anywhere in sight, so I chose the fastest route. Not that I gave her much choice. I was leaving whether she okayed it or not.
The drive to the hospital took less than five minutes, and I pulled into the parking garage and maneuvered up to the top floor of the building where I remembered her saying she was required to park.
I found her there, sitting in her car, staring at her hands.
She had tears streaming down her face, and didn’t even look up when I pulled in next to her.
Getting out, I rounded the back of my cruiser and opened her door.
She looked up at me, heartbroken with tears streaming down her face. Her mascara had run damn near down to her chin, and her eyes were red. But I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life.
Crouching down until my ass met my calves, I asked, “Wanna go for a ride in my cruiser?”
She looked at me, and I mean really looked at me, before saying, “I’d go anywhere with you.”
I leaned in and gave her a kiss, her tears meeting my lips, and replied with, “Good, because I want you to go everywhere with me.”Chapter 20Sometimes the best part of my job is that my chair swivels.
-Downy to Memphis
Memphis
“He’s not going to make it,” I said sullenly.
Not only wasn’t Downy going to make it, but I didn’t see my mom or dad either.
A freak storm had stalled their ride, and of course, my dad would only ride six hours on a bike. He didn’t do cars for that long.
I was dressed head to toe in my gown and graduation cap, looking out at the crowd behind me with what I was sure was a worried look on my face.
Names of graduates were being called, and I was very close to being called up on stage to get my diploma.
My friend Brianne, who was graduating with me today, said, “He’ll make it.”
I pulled up the local news app on my phone, knowing that had to be a rising development going on in the area to keep him away and wasn’t surprised to see ‘breaking news bulletins’ flashing across the top of the screen.
“Wow,” I said, showing the phone to her. “Does that say what I think it says?”
She squinted at the display, and then her eyes widened in shock. “Holy fucking shit.”
Police Officer attacked by own dog, the news bulletin read.
I wasn’t worried.
I knew that whatever had happened, it didn’t have anything to do with Downy.
The attack had taken place over an hour before. If it’d been Downy, I’d have had half the SWAT team escorting me to his bedside.
“It wasn’t a stray, at least,” Brianne said thoughtfully.
I nodded. “That was the last thing we needed. It sucks that he was hurt by a dog, but the good thing is, is that it wasn’t some dog off the street that would set the town out to kill every dog it sees off his leash.”
Brianne nodded.
She was a huge animal activist and had been greatly upset, originally, when the dogs had been stolen from the animal shelter. Especially since she went up there once a week to help out.