The next day I had woken up earlier than usual, Spencer still lying asleep next to me. I took this moment to examine the young girl, to really look at her features, to really take in her pale beauty. Lately she's been sleeping more and more, last week she had called into work sick because she was too exhausted to even pick herself up out of bed. I slipped into my shirt that I had found thrown carelessly onto the floor before exiting the room. I quickly made a pot of coffee, pouring me a cup before stepping outside onto the back porch. The sun was just now rising, the bright orange and red lights seeping throughout the sky and through the trees. It seemed more like a painting than an actual scene but either way, it was simply beautiful.
By the time the sun had fully risen, the birds were singing and the frogs were talking. One of the biggest reasons that I love where I live is because of all the nature that lives behind my house in the dozens of trees that border my back yard. I took the last sip of my Luke-warm coffee before heading back inside to get ready for another day at work. There was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that was telling me that it wasn't going to be a nice normal, easy day. It was saying that it was going to be interesting, that something big was going to happen.
Walking out of my bathroom, the light shone on the blonde who lay in my bed, sleeping peacefully. I leaned down and kissed her lightly on her forehead before exiting and heading off to work finally with all of the other people in Los Angeles.
As soon as I pulled up to the office, everyone was running to their cars with all of their gear. I opened up my door and stood, "Tom! What's going on?" I asked the older man who was getting into the passenger side of a black SUV. That's when I spotted Caleb running towards my car, motioning for me to get back inside. I did as I was told as he jumped into my passenger seat.
"We have him surrounded," Caleb informed me as I turned on my siren and started to follow all of the other black and white cars in front of me.
We pulled up outside of an average looking house; white house, picket fence, tire swing on the only tree in the front yard. It was weird for a guy who kills people for a living owns a fairly nice house. It made me wonder when in his life did it all go wrong. We all piled out of the car and watched as everything began to unfold. I spotted Tom out of the corner of my eye making his way over, "Davies, Rey-you had sex." He announced which made a few other guys look over at me.
"What? No I didn't."
Caleb laughed, "Wow Ash, thanks for telling me."
Tom raised his eye brow at me as my cheeks burned, "Okay so what if I did? Aren't we trying to capture this guy or what?" I crossed my arms over my chest and avoided their eyes; there was no way I wanted them to see me blushing over something so simple. Least I was getting some action other than police work unlike them both.
"So he's not alone in the house. We have a sniper in four different locations, all ready to take him down. We have all the streets blocked off for the next five miles in every direction and helicopters circling the house and neighborhood. We're taking all the precautions and even extra ones." Tom informed Caleb and me, "He won't be getting away this time."
I turn to Caleb then and back to the house. I narrow my eyes at the two figures inside of the living room, "Is that Stacey?" I asked, mostly shocked.
Tom looks at me and then back at the house, he already knows the answer. He already knew that it was her. I watched him walk off, shaking his head in disappointment in himself. "Good eye, Buck." Caleb patted my back as my expression fell.
Minutes pass and still nothing has happened except the fact that dozens of people gathered around the fences that we had put up moment ago. Four news channels were here as well as the citizens of the neighborhood, never realizing such a creature lived so close to them. I walked over towards Tom and Caleb who were talking with another guy who I didn't recognize. "We have to do something, we can't just stand here and wait for him to just give up and walk out." I tell them, quickly joining in on their conversation whether or not they wanted me too.
All three men look over at me then, "No shit." Caleb rolls his eyes at me, "but what exactly can we do? We can't exactly just walk up to his front door and knock and expect him to open it and give himself to us that easily."
"Dial Stacey's number," All three guys looked at me like I was crazy, "Damn it, Tom, give me the phone." I took the phone that he was holding out of his hands and dialed the girls' number and waited as it rang one time, two times, three times. But there was no answer.
"Now what, hot shot?"
As I was about to speak, a voice came over the radio, "We've got one hostage deceased, the report on the gunman is still unknown." All of our eyes looked at one another's, "We suspect that there is another hostage inside; there's a camera set up in the front, back, and side windows watching our moves- he is now out of sight. We're hearing more gun shots coming from inside of the house, we're moving in. Over and out."
I turned around then, watching about a dozen of guys in full SWAT gear run up towards the house. The window opened then and gun shots were being fired out, making the guys either retract or take cover somehow. I grabbed my gun then and pointed it towards the window where the shots were coming from at the moment. But then there was silence, no one was shooting; everyone was still and waiting for the next move to happen.
"Two officers down, we need a bus." I hear faintly coming from the radio and I hear sirens in the distance in an instant. From the time that it took me to look from the radio back to the house, I see the man that we're trying to capture open his front door and stand on his front porch holding a machine gun. As one shot is fired from one of our guys, he begins to shoot the machine gun and within 15 seconds, it was all over.
I stand up from the spot that I was at, "Is everyone okay?" I hear Caleb ask the people around us.
Looking back at the front porch, the man lies dead, a puddle of blood surrounding his body quickly. We had six or so ambulance's waiting on sight, taking care of people who were injured. I looked around the crowd and I saw Ethan, Hayden's little brother, standing in the front of the crowd. Whenever we connected our eyes, I began to walk towards him. "What're you doing here?" I ask him once I'm close enough as I ignore all of the questions being thrown at me.
"Getting closure for my father," He admitted with sadness not only in his eyes but in his voice as well.
"Ms. Davies, can we interview you for a moment?"
I gave Ethan a small smile before turning around walking towards the scene once again. "What's the final numbers?" I hear Caleb ask Tom who had just been interviewed.
"One hostage dead, three officers seriously injured along with two bystanders seriously injured, and four bystanders with minor injuries," Tom took a deep breath, "it was the fucking machine gun." He shook his head and walked off, leaving just Caleb and I alone.
Caleb turned to me, "Ash! You're bleeding!" He exclaimed, looking at my arm where a bullet had flown past me, barely clipping me.
"I'm barely bleeding, I'll live." But that didn't set with him at all. He grabbed my non-injured arm and pulled me towards a paramedic to take a look at my arm.
An hour had passed before we could start leaving the scene to let everyone else finish it up. Caleb and I climbed into my car, "How many stiches did he give you?" He asked as he started my car up. I watched him put it into drive before answering him.
"9." I replied simply. It's three o'clock in the afternoon and I was completely ready to take the rest of the day off but it wasn't even close enough yet to be able to go home. There was still tons of paperwork to do at the office.
After a couple of hours at the office, it was time to finally go home. I couldn't wait to go home either to finally relax. As I gathered my stuff to leave, Tom walked into the building and pulled Caleb and I aside, "Good job Davies, Reynolds." We smile a 'thanks' to the man, "Now take some time out off, rest, recuperate," He started and looked at Caleb, "Get some." I laughed, agreeing with the older man. "Make sure to treat Hayden good too, she's been through a-"
"What!" I exclaim, "What are you doing with Hayden?" I narrow my eyes at the man.
Caleb's cheeks quickly turn a shade of red, "Nothing?"
"I can't believe you didn't tell me that you're sleeping with her!"
We say our goodbye to Tom as we continue our conversation while we make our way to our cars. "It's not like it's been a long time or whatever, just since that one night we came to your place for dinner," He admitted quietly as he unlocked his car which was parked right next to mine.
I shake my head, "I still can't believe that." I look at him then before getting into my car, "Don't hurt the girl, Cal, she's a good one." I smile at him as I get into my car, knowing that he finally found a girl that is worth keeping around for the long run.
"Tell Colin and Spencer I said hey," He quickly tells me before I close my door. I nod in response, so thankful to be going home.
As I pulled up outside of my house, I notice that only the living room lights are on which is weird. I unlock the door and walk inside, quickly greeted by Toby and Colin. "Hi Ashy!" He hugged my legs before pulled away and running back to his spot in front of the TV.
I remove my shoes and lock the door again before placing my jacket on the coat rack, revealing the red stain on the white sleeve of my shirt. Walking back to my room, I hear the shower running and I smile slightly, knowing Spencer is here. I open the closet doors before removing my shirt, unbuttoning it slower than usual because of the pain in my arm. Turns out that it hurts more than I thought it did. I hear the water shut off as I slip the shirt off and toss it into the trash can before undoing my pants and slipping out of them. I grab some shorts and put them on as I hear the bathroom door open, making me turn around to be faced with a semi-naked blonde.
We smile at each other, taking one another in, "I heard the news today," She smiles at me as she makes her way over to me, pulling me into a deep kiss. "Congratulations baby," She kisses me again before pulling away, her eyes catching the white shirt lying by the trash can. She quickly turns around to me, "What happened?" Her voice is filled with worry. "Where'd you get hit?"
"Just the arm sweetie, nothing big," I say softly, grabbing a shirt and slipping it over my head.
Spencer takes my arm and examines the wound, "I told you to be more careful!" She narrows her eyes at me as she lets my arm drop back down to my side.
"I tried!" I say with a weak smile, "I think it makes me look like a badass." I smile more confidently at the blonde who still is standing in front of me with just a towel wrapped around her, "And I think you in just that towel makes you look like a sexy, mother fucker." I wink at the girl who just grins back at me as she shakes her head.
"I'm too tired for that tonight," She places a kiss on my cheek before grabbing some clothes out of the top drawer of my dresser before letting her towel drop to the floor.
"Why don't you and Colin just move in with me?" I ask her as I take my place on my bed, watching her get dressed. I notice as she moved, her ribs showed, "Have you been eating?" I ask in a serious tone, making her look back at me.
"Yes I have and I don't know I don't want to impose." She turns away from me and slips into one of my hoodies.
As she puts on some sweats, I speak up again, "Well you both practically live here already and Toby's even here all the time now." She walks over to the bed and crawls into my arms.
"True." She says weakly and I tighten my hold around her small body.
"Please?"
Spencer doesn't reply for a minute which worries me but whenever she looks up at me and smiles, I already know the answer that's going to come out of her mouth, "I guess we're taking our relationship to the next level?"
I nod, "I guess so." I kiss her forehead and feel the heat radiating off of it, "You're hot." I tell her which only makes her laugh, "No Spence I mean you're burning up."
"Really?" She looks at me in disbelief, "Because I'm freezing." She says, pulling the covers over her.
My stomach turns as thoughts enter my mind, adding everything together. "Come on Spence, I'm taking you to the hospital." As I say this, she instantly freaks out.
"No! No, no, no!" She says as her voice shakes a bit, "I'm not going there. Not with you." My heart then drops along with my expression and she must have noticed because she quickly tries to recover with what she said, "Not like that baby, it's just-"
"I don't care, Spencer. I'm taking you there put your shoes on." I say getting out of the bed. I grab the jeans that I threw to the floor by the closet and slip them on. I turn around to see Spencer lying on the bed still with silent tears falling out of her eyes. "Baby, please…" I try as I walk over to the bed again, "I'm worried,"
She shakes her head as she cries harder, "Please don't take me," My heart breaks even more, seeing her like this. I never knew that she was afraid of hospitals, given that her mom works at one.
"Spencer," I say and she throws the covers off of herself. I watch her move across the room, "Do you need help baby?" I ask her softly as she fumbles with her shoe laces. Without a word or fight, she hands me her shoes. I kneel down in front of the girl and put her shoes on her feet for her. Before I completely stand up, I kiss her tears off of her cheeks. "I love you," I say sweetly as I stare into her blue sunken eyes.
"I love you too." She replies back, kissing my forehead.
After gathering everything up along with Colin, we arrived at the hospital. Spencer was admitted immediately because of the relation to Paula. As I held onto a sleeping Colin, I finished filling out some paperwork that was needed for Spencer whenever I heard a familiar voice, "Ashley?" I turn to see an older version of Spencer making her way over to me, "Is Colin okay?" She quickly asks with worriedness in her voice.
"Yeah," I say quietly, "Were here because of Spencer," I tell the woman as I watch her face fall even more. "I don't know what's wrong with her it's just, she was burning up and she's been exhausted for the past few weeks and every day it seems as if her body becomes weaker."
Paula runs her hand softly through Colin's hair before looking back at me, "I haven't seen you guys in a little over a month," she tells me, keeping her voice low. "I'm going to go check up on her would you like to come?" she looks at me and I quickly nod, knowing that I would never turn down that offer.
Once we get to the room that Spencer was occupying, I sat down in the vacant chair next to the bed. The machines were loud compared to the quietness of the hospital itself. I watched as her chest rose and fell as the oxygen mask would fog and un-fog due to her breathing. Within minutes, another doctor arrived in the room, "Were going to run some tests here shortly, she fainted due to low blood sugar." He explained to Paula as I continued to sit there.
"What's going on, Paula?"
The doctor looked at Paula, "When she arrived, she had a fever of 104… it's getting worse Dr. Carlin." He says quietly to the older blonde which frightens me. I have absolutely no idea what's going on and that scares me. "She had a dramatic weight drop noted last week whenever she checked in with her personal doctor."
"Ashley," Paula looks down at me then; I know that she can tell how scared I am for Spencer by the look on her face whenever it turns to comfort, "Will you give us a moment?" She asks politely and I don't move.
"No. She's my girlfriend; I deserve to know what's going on with her." I watch as Paula shakes her head with sadness in her eyes. "Tell me now, Paula." I say with a shaky voice.
"It's not my place to tell you Ashley, its Spencer's. Arthur and I both have asked her to tell you but she refuses."
I swallow hard then, "That explains why she freaked out on me whenever I told her I was bringing her to the hospital," I trail off, finding sudden interest in the squares on the cold tiled floor.
Paula places her hand on my shoulder, "When she wakes up, sweetie, I'll talk to her again. But for now, I need a moment alone with Dr. Thomas," She's talking quietly, kneeling down in front of me know.
As I sit in the vacant chair that's outside of the room, I can't help but think of the worst things. I pull my phone out and dial Kyla's number quickly; whenever she answers, you can tell that I woke her up, "Ashley?"
"Kyla, Spencer's in the hospital," I tell her as tears fall down my face, "I don't know what to do, she's not okay though,"
"Ash it's going to be okay," She says trying to calm me down but it just gets worse, "I'll be there soon, Ash, don't worry." She tells me with comfort in her voice. As she hangs up, Colin stirs in his sleep and wakes up as Paula walks out of the room.
"Mama where are we?" He asks me and an expression crosses over Paula's face as she hears the little boy speak.
My heart melts then at the word, my eyes shot back and forth between the two blondes, "Were at the hospital sweetie," I tell him and he looks at me with confusion.
"Is everything okay?" He asks as he sits back on my lap, staring back at me like Paula is from the doorway.
"Of course sweetie, Spencer just needed to see Grandma." His eyes brighten up whenever he hears that his Grandma is around. "She's behind you if you'd like to see her," He quickly turns around and jumps off my lap, hugs her legs like he did with me earlier. She's still looking at me though and I can't read her expression which worries me kind of.
Once he was done hugging her legs, he walked down the hallway with Dr. Thomas to get a sucker from the nurses at the front desk. "Ashley," Paula says as she takes the vacant seat next to me, "I've never heard him call anyone else 'mama' other than Spencer, and he barely calls her that after all these years," She admits with a shaky voice, being thrown back into memories of her son.
"He just started calling me that according to Spencer; he'd never really said it to me but once before." I explain to her, "I can ask for him to stop if you'd like," I offer quietly.
But she shakes her head, "No, no, no. Nonsense. I know he loves you very much and it's really good to see how great you are with him," She smiles at me; it's a cross between a sweet smile and a sad one. I'm not quite sure on how to take it really, "He needs someone like you in his life." She pats my knee before she gets up out of her seat, "You can go back in with Spencer if you'd like-she's waking up." She tells me before leaning down and placing a motherly kiss on my forehead and walking away.
I sit there though and just stare at the open door, scared to go see the blonde girl who lies inside. After another moment, I manage to work up the strength to move my legs and take my previous seat next to her. She lies there awake, we don't exchange any words and we just continue to sit there. As I open my mouth to speak after so much time, she beats me to it, "I'm sorry,"
"What? For what?"
Spencer still doesn't look over at me, "I'm dying, Ashley." And within the moment, my life completely changes.
Sorry about the delay but I gave you a long chapter this time because of my lack of absence. I'm now getting into the core of the story whereas the beginning was just building up to this point. Review and let me know your thoughts