Chapter 11: Fight

A few days later, the couple were relaxing at home and it was almost midnight. Jim hadn't gone to bed yet though Ruby had. For some reason it was like he could not settle down to sleep. Even the cat had gone upstairs to retire but he was too keyed up.

The criminal got up and looked out the windows like he was expecting someone, but nobody was there. He took a walk around the house with the key in his pocket, feeling very protective of his wife and his property.

Then he saw it. A shadow. Jim sidled closer, hiding in the glare of the street lamp. The figure stalked around the house as if studying the perimeter of the house, then disappeared.

Jim knew something was up then. The recent news headlines had been about nothing but the Hyde Park incident but of course the local police had been stymied in their investigation.

There wasn't any word whether or not Sherlock was in on the investigation but Jim doubted that he was. The detective would have or been close to blowing the case wide open for everyone to know.

Sherlock was back on fluffy teen magazines after his two year absence, much to Jim's disgust and the teenage population's joy. Almost everywhere he went he saw Sherlock's face, usually superimposed with giant pink and red hearts with odd bubblegum pink captions. Ruby had turned her nose up at them, laughingly declaring that Sherlock was still in the dark in many ways.

Trotting back up the front stairs, Jim unlocked the door, went in, then locked up the door behind himself. He changed for bed, mindful that whatever was going to happen would not occur that night at least.

The next day went on as usual. Jim cast a glance at Ruby as she took a sip of her coffee, his gaze going down to her belly. There was still no evidence of her pregnancy at all as her figure hadn't swelled up even a little bit.

"What is it?" Ruby caught him looking as she put her mug in the dishwasher.

"I was just thinking you're how many weeks now?"

"About nine. Why?"

"You're not showing even a little bit. I am a bit disappointed."

"Oh!" Ruby went over to Jim as he stood up, putting his hands on her flat belly. "Someone's got a preggie belly fetish. Did you get all boned up when you saw me all bloated and pregnant with Arthur?"

"Um.." Jim blushed as Ruby laughed. "No comment!"

"Oop, I tapped into someone's fetish and now look how red he is in the face!" Ruby teased him, making him slide his hands up under her shirt. "Anyway, Dr. Blair is taking a few x-rays of my boobs so we can solve my mammary issue."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Come on, love so we can get to work." since the headquarters were only six blocks away they chose to walk on such a lovely day. Ruby didn't feel under attack or threatened as Jim was with her.

It was a merry walk until they reached the street that was adjacent to HQ that the trouble started. A post box blew up, sending shards all over the place. Ruby yelped in surprise as Jim instinctively threw his arms over her, shielding her from the fragments. Next up a magazine rack exploded, sending papers everywhere and a shard of glass directly into Jim's arm.

"Did it get you, Jim?" Ruby brushed back the hair that had gotten into her face as Jim swore, seeing an inch long razor sharp piece of glass wedged into his lower arm near his wrist. "Yeah it did. Come on, let's take it out."

"Not here!" Ruby admonished him. "Upstairs."

"I'm really regretting not taking the car!" he ruefully said with a laugh.

Upstairs Ruby set Jim on a gurney, brought over a stitching instrument package, then filled up a syringe with lidocaine to numb his wound. Jim removed his blazer and rolled up his white shirt as Ruby put on rubber gloves and began injecting him with the lidocaine.

Neither one said a word and Jim even watched as Ruby finished numbing the area, opened up a kit of sterile suture line and began to stitch his injury closed.

"First off it's the muscle layer I have to stitch," her technique was quick and deft. "then I close off with a layer of skin sutures." Jim admired how dexterous she was with the curved needle.

Snipping off the excess, Ruby put the now dirty suture kit into the wall storage unit which the surgical technician would remove to clean it later on. She rubbed a bit of Vaseline on and around Jim's sutures to promote healing, then put an oblong bandage over it. Jim rolled down his sleeve, noting how his injury hadn't really bled at all.

"That's because you had the sense not to take it out-that glass shard." Ruby remarked. "Off to work with you while I get my test done."

The rest of the day was uneventful. Jim saw several potential clients, Ruby and Dr. Blair got to the root of her lactation issue. Dr. Blair had taken a few x-rays of her breasts, making her wear a lead apron around her waist to protect the baby.

"You've got a couple of galactoceles." he tapped the x-ray lightboard where Ruby's x-rays were displayed. She could see a few radiopaque stone like formations, noting they were deep enough so that she couldn't feel them when she did her monthly self exams.

"That's it?" a couple of harmless calcium stones were occluding her ducts.

"Yeah. It's slow right now so do you want me to take them out?"

"Yeah!" Dr. Blair removed the offending stones from her ducts, numbing with lidocaine, excising the stones, giving her a single stitch on each of her breasts. She smiled as the thought of her being able to nurse her baby came to the front of her mind.

That night Jim was feeling restless again. Ruby dismissed his behavior as business related as he kept consulting his phone. The both of them were stretched out on the couch watching TV when the sound of broken glass penetrated their ears.

"Jim, what's going on?" Ruby picked up Cassidy as a thick smoke began to spread into the house. Eyes burning, Jim nearly fell over the ottoman as he felt his way over to a window to open it. Amid the smoke he caught sight of a person in black running down the street to vanish at the intersection.

An intense heat came up from the basement as both Jim and Ruby began coughing convulsively. Jim managed to pull out his phone from his pocket and call for help. He grasped Ruby's free hand, pulling her out of her smoke related stupor, leading her to the door and outside.

Letting Cassidy down on the ground, Jim guided Ruby to sit down on the stairs until she got her breath back. Slowly the panicked look dissipated from her face as she coughed the smoke out of her throat.

"All right?" he rubbed her back as he gave a few deep coughs himself.

"Yeah," the sirens approached the house and pulled up in the yard. Jim directed them to the basement. "you suspect something down there?"

"I saw someone checking out the house last night," he admitted.

Ruby's head snapped up, surprising him with a sudden ferocity in her eyes. "You saw that and didn't tell me?"

"I didn't know what he was going to do-"

"But he was going to do something!" Ruby cried, standing up. "Jim, by not telling me, you not only put me in danger, you put our child in danger too!"

"There was no danger last night-"

"Bullcrap! The fact that someone has been casing our house is enough cause to tell me so I can be on my guard! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to upset you. It could have been nothing."

"Well, it wasn't. I can't trust you, Jim." she turned to leave but Jim caught her wrist.

"What are you saying?" the criminal had never seen such a look of betrayal and determination on his wife's face before. It almost made him afraid to look at her.

"You put me and the baby in danger. You betrayed my trust, Jim. I can't trust you not to do it again. I have to leave." normally she would just give Jim a warning, but the fact that another innocent life was involved in the whole mess made her more determined to protect it. If that meant leaving Jim she would do it.

"What?! Where will you go?" his grip became painful so Ruby tried to wriggle out of it. His knuckles were white and she could not break their grip on her. She let out an involuntary grunt of pain and only then did Jim release her.

"My parents left me a little property but I can't say any more than that."

"Why?"

"Jim, the house is intended to be a refuge. My baby and I could have died tonight because of you so you're not entitled to know where it is. I have to remove myself from you because I can't trust you with my life any more. It was too close a call."

"They'll still find you. Don't think because you're not here anymore that they won't still get you." Jim was getting angry. "You're being incredibly dense to think that they might not come after you."

Ruby glared at him. "I have to do what's best for my child because you obviously are not! I thought you wanted to become a father!"

Jim had no reply for that. Ruby disappeared, packed up her things, put the cat in a carrier, then put the items in the backseat of the Accord. Jim stood in the garage, watching her.

"They'll still come after you. You're a fool for leaving my protection."

Ruby gave him an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "I'll always love you, Jim. But after what you just said I love you less. Maybe you'll get a text when your child is born."

Tears came to Jim's eyes but he forced them back. She was right and had every right to leave but he didn't want to admit it yet. Ruby eyed him, gave a little shrug, then got into the Accord.

It wasn't until the car had disappeared from his view that Jim clenched his hands and let out a howl of pain and regret. The love of his life was gone now; he'd have to work twice as hard to woo her back and regain her trust.

Even worse was the prospect before him that if he didn't act soon, he could miss the birth of his child. He had to make amends and get his wife back as soon as he could if he wanted to be part of his child's life.