Chapter Seven
Sadie is looking at me with a smirk on her face with arms crossed over her chest. We just look at each in silence; having Sadie on the loose again isn't something I need right now.
"You help me get out jail and this is how you treat me?" Sadie says to me mockingly.
"I didn't help you get out jail. I think you deserved to rot in there for you did."
"Give up the act, Arizona. We both know that you are the real Puget Sound Butcher, and seeing I don't have a job anymore I'm going to make it my number 1 priority to prove that you are the real killer here." Sadie re-crosses her arms before she takes another step closer to me. "See when you shot and killed Henry and shot your best friend and then stole your box filled with blood back was the moment you gave yourself away to me."
I don't get the chance to answer when Callie's Range Rover pulls into the driveway. Callie gets out of car and opens the door for Sofia who comes running out of the car. She runs along the small path that leads from the driveway to the front door at front of house where Sadie and I are standing. "MOMMY!" Sofia yells as she comes running towards me.
"Sofia, stop!" I yell at her.
Sofia stops in her tracks and just looks at me. "Go inside with Mama," I tell her.
"Sofia," Callie says in a soft voice as she reaches her hand out.
Sofia doesn't say anything and just takes Callie's hand and they both walk inside. Callie gives me a worried look before she and Sofia go inside. I go from looking at Callie and Sofia to looking back at Sadie.
"I can't wait to take all of this way from you." Sadie looks around for a moment. "In a few short weeks you will have no wife, no daughters, no son, no house, no anything."
Sadie is trying to provoke me, which means that she recording our conversation so I have to tread lightly.
"You need to get over your fantasy that I'm a serial killer, because I'm not. I didn't shoot Teddy and her boyfriend. I was working. I don't even like guns nor do I use them." I pause for a moment as I take a step closer towards Sadie. "Now, get your ass off my property and away from my family before I call the police."
"No need to call the police, ma'am. We are already here." A police officer says behind Sadie.
What the fuck is this?
"Did you forget what we said when you left the jailhouse this morning?" the officer says to Sadie. "You are not to be no more than 100 yards from Mrs. Robbins and her family."
Sadie doesn't say anything else to me as she turns around to leave.
"Before Henry was killed he filed a restraining order against Sadie for you. He noticed how she was acting towards you and didn't want anything to happen to you." The officer says to me when he notices my look of confusion.
"Oh, thanks" is all I say before we go our separate ways.
Fuck, first Polly and my slides. Sadie is back on the loose, and to make matters worse it seem like we both have babysitters. Something I don't need right now. I need to figure out how to get rid of Sadie and Polly without our babysitters knowing.
"Mommy!" Sofia yells breaking me from my thoughts.
"Baby girl," I say as I lower down to pick her up. I'm about to pick her but I stop after feet are about an inch off the ground. "Woah," I say as I look down at her. I try to pick her up again but I get the same results. "Did you get bigger since this morning because you are getting heavy?"
"Mommy," Sofia giggles.
"Okay, let's try this one more time." I say as I let out a heavy breath. I lower down and slowly pick her up. "I'm going to have to start going to the gym if you want me to continue to pick you."
"No," Sofia says to me.
"Yeah," I reply back. "Come on let's go check on Aunt Teddy." I say as walk us towards the stairs.
"Mommy, who was that lady?" Sofia asks when are halfway up the stairs.
I stop to give her my full attention. "That was a bad lady, and someone you shouldn't talk to. Like ever."
"What if she says that you got hurt and you need my help?"
"Then go find and tell Mama or your teacher if you are at school. Okay?" I say to her.
Sofia just shakes her head while she looks at me. After she shakes her head we both continue on our journey to Teddy's room. When we get there we find Teddy passed out in bed, so we go back downstairs and play the Wii for a little while before we get bored and start to color in Sofia's massive Disney princess coloring book.
Sofia and I are in the living room sitting on the floor at the coffee table coloring. Sofia is at the bottom of the book at the far end of the coffee table, the end that is closer to the front door, while I'm at the other end at the top of book, the end that is closer to the kitchen door.
My position allows me to hear Callie and Addison's conversation in the kitchen somewhat clearly. They are talking in low voices because they don't want Sofia or me to hear it.
"I'm just scared to put it all out there, Cal." Addison pauses, "I know it would be too soon to ask her out because of everything that has just happened, but even if I wait I still don't think I could ask her out."
"Why, just do it. What's the worst that could happen? She says no."
"And that will crush me."
"Arizona, would know. What if I ask Arizona about how Teddy feels about you? If she says that she likes you too will you ask her out?"
"Maybe,"
"Addison…"
"Mommy?" Sofia interrupts my eavesdropping.
"Baby girl?"
"Can we listen to Christmas music?"
"Anything for you," I say as I get up to go get my phone. I open up iTunes and pull up the playlist named festive; it's the Christmas playlist that Sofia and I made last year. I steam the music to our stereo before I go back to the coffee table and continue to color with her.
We are coloring for another hour before Callie calls us to the dinner table. Callie made Addison, Sofia and I baked chicken with broccoli and rice while making her usual for her.
"Is that Christmas music I hear in the background?" Callie asks.
"Yeah, little miss Sofia wanted to listen to some Christmas music to get ready for the holidays." I say back with a smile.
"Wow forgot that Christmas was around corner." Callie says with slight sarcasm, "you take one step in this house; one would think we don't celebrate Christmas. No tree, no lights, no nothing."
I pause to think about Callie's statement. Decorating the house could mean sex or Halloween candy or both.
"Well seeing how I have the day off tomorrow and Teddy will need to do some physical therapy I think we can decorate the house for you before you come home." I say with a smile.
Callie just smiles back to me "can't wait to see what you do."
The rest of dinner is filled with mindless chitchat. After dinner the four of us watch The Great Mouse Detective. In the middle of the movie Addison passed out on the love seat and Callie didn't want to wake her so she just covered her with a blanket before we took a slumbering Sofia and Roxie upstairs to their bed.
Once we put Sofia and Roxie to bed, Callie and I go to our room. We both get into bed and I don't try anything with her. I'll save if for tomorrow night when I blow her mind at how awesome this house will look.
The next morning my alarm clock consists of the smell of bacon, a bark from Roxie and laugher from Sofia, Addison and Teddy. I look over to the clock to see that it is 6:30 in the morning. Callie, Addison and Mark are working today from 8 to 6 and then everyone will be over for Taco Tuesday.
I sit up in the bed and stretch a little before I get up and go downstairs. When I make it to the bottom of the stairs I'm greeted with the sight of our old Christmas tree that we used in our old apartment and the decorations from the apartment as well.
I'm just standing at the bottom of the stairs when Callie comes out from the bathroom to greet me. "Addison and I thought we would help you by bring up all the Christmas decorations." Callie says with a smile. "I didn't want to you to forget your promise you made to me last night."
"Oh, I remember my promise" I say with a smirk. "When you come home tonight your mind will be blown. Like so blown that you're going to want to have sex with me in every position you can think of."
"Really," Callie crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah," I say with a smile. "You're going to be like; 'oh Arizona this house looks so beautiful. Take me right here right now'." I say in a high pitch voice.
"Mhmm," Callie says as uncrosses her arms and starts to walk towards the kitchen.
"You just wait and see." I say before I slap and grab her ass as she walks past me.
"Hey," she turns around and faces me while pointing her finger right at me. "You stop that, we have company."
"Then give me bacon," I say with a slight shrug.
Callie just rolls her eyes at me as we go into the kitchen. I get my two slices of bacon and then I help Callie set up the table for breakfast. Breakfast is just like any other breakfast, fast and filled with mindless banter.
After breakfast Addison and I do the dishes before she and Callie head off to work. Teddy and Sofia are watching A Pup Named Scooby Doo while I go upstairs to shower. It takes me an hour to get ready before I'm back downstairs sitting in the Lazy boy putting on my shoes.
"Going somewhere?" Teddy asks.
"Yep, the three of us are going to Target, Walmart and Home Depot." I say right as I finish tying my last shoe lace. "Sofia, go get your shoes."
"Ok, mommy," Sofia slides off the couch and runs to the front door to go get her shoes.
"Why?" Teddy draws out her question.
"Because Callie wants us to decorate the house, get in the festive mood." I say with a smile as Sofia returns with her shoes. I lean back and let Sofia climb in my lap; I help put both of the shoes on her feet. "Do you remember how to tie them?"
Sofia shakes her head yes before she slowly starts to tie her shoes while repeating the rhyme I taught her. "Bunny ears, bunny ears, playing in a tree." Sofia starts. It takes her ten minutes before she is completely done.
"Look at you!" I say as I grab her sides and pick her up so she standing in my lap. "You're getting so big, and you're so smart!" I lay her horizontally across my lap on her back while I tickle her sides.
"Mommy, stop." Sofia says between giggles.
We goof around in the lazy boy for a few more minutes before I turn my attention back to Teddy.
"I think I will stay here. I'm not in the mood for Callie's slave labor. Plus you already have your Christmas stuff right there." Teddy points to our fake small Christmas tree box and one storage box filled with other Christmas items.
"One, I'm throwing that away because it's old and small. Two, you not helping means more Halloween candy for us." I say as Sofia and I smile at each other.
"Three, let me get my jacket." Teddy says as she slowly gets up off the couch.
Three hours later Teddy, Sofia and I make it to our last stop. Home Depot to get a real Christmas tree, that process takes us another hour to find the perfect 10 foot tree to go in our foyer. Once we find the perfect tree I get a card from the sells attendant. "I'll keep your tree here with me, when you are finished with your shopping just bring your car and your receipt and we will put your tree on top of your car." The attendant says to Teddy and me. I grab the tag before Teddy, Sofia and I walk inside the store. When I get a shopping cart Sofia raises her arms telling me that she want to sit inside of the cart.
We are able to find the suppliers to make stocks and homemade ornaments in under an hour. We are about to enter the checkout line when Sofia starts to bounce in her seat. "Mommy!" Sofia points towards the fake Christmas tree section.
"We already have a tree, Sof." I say to her.
"But I want a pink one," Sofia looks up to me with big eyes.
I look at her for no more than 2 seconds before I cave and walk over to the pink tree and place the box into the cart. "Can we make a princess tree, mommy?" Sofia says when she sees matching pink ornaments with princesses on them.
"Of course we can princess." I say before I grab a few boxes for her tree along with some pink and white garland. Once I grab the last of the white garland I see Teddy trying to put a white tree in the cart. When she feels me looking at her she stops what she is doing.
"I want a white peppermint tree." She says to me.
"Fine, but I'm only doing this because you got shot." I say before I help put the tree underneath the cart.
We take our newly purchased items and head back to the house. When we get home, we are all hungry. After a quick raid of the kitchen I see that Callie went grocery shopping with Sofia because everything is fully stocked. I make the three of us Turkey and Ham sandwiches for lunch. We eat our lunch in the living while watch more Scooby Doo, Sofia's favorite cartoon. After lunch Sofia is laying on the couch down for the count, so Teddy and I clean up before we start working on the Christmas lights.
Teddy is putting the white net lights on the bushes that are along the front of the house and along the driveway. When she completes that she takes the white light bulbs from the driveway and walkway lights and replaces them with different festive colors. While Teddy is working on the ground I'm up on the roof putting the large white Christmas lights along the edge of the roof. It takes a little bit longer for me to finish because I had a slow start trying to figure out how the gutter clips work. Its only 2 in the afternoon but thanks to Seattle's shitty weather its very cloudy so when we test the lights we can see them perfectly.
We are standing across the street looking at the house for a few minutes before we smile at each and Teddy gives me a weak high five. We clean up our trash outside before we move to the inside.
Teddy opens the front door for me while I move the 10 foot tree into the living room. I'm holding the trees so it parallel to the ground before I stand it up straight. "Do me a favor and get the tarp and duct from the garage." I say to Teddy. When she doesn't move I just look at her confused. "What?" I question.
"I still finding stunning how you can manhandle a 10 foot tree with no problem," Teddy says to me before she goes to get the tarp and duct tape.
About 5 minutes later she returns and I make her tape the tarp down under the tree. "What are you going to do?" Teddy questions.
I just smile at her before I slam the tree on the ground a few times forcing the branches to fall. "Are you crazy you're going to wake Sofia?" Teddy says in a whispered yelled.
"No I won't. If it's not thunder she will wake up on her own in another 20 minutes." I say in my normal voice.
Teddy doesn't say anything to me and looks over towards the couch. She sees Roxie sitting by the couch looking at us, while Sofia hasn't moved an inch. "Jesus, she can sleep through anything." Teddy says before turns her attention back to me.
I just give her a smile, once Teddy removes the tarp we spend the remainder of Sofia's nap setting up all three of the Christmas trees that we got. Teddy's tree is in the formal dining room on the left side next to the balcony door and the opening the leads from the formal dining room to the kitchen. Sofia's tree is in the living room right next to the doorway leading kitchen.
We finish putting up Sofia's tree right when she wakes up. She sits up and rubs her eyes before she looks over to see Teddy and me standing next to her tree. Her eyes get big and she lets out a gasp. "Can we decorate it now, mommy?"
"Yes we can, princess."
"Its baby girl, mommy." Sofia corrects.
"Sorry, baby girl" I say with a smile before I grab the bag with her decorations. It takes us 2 hours to fully decorate both hers and Teddy's tree. Sofia's pink tree has white Christmas lights with white garland and her pink Disney princess ornaments. Teddy's tree has white Christmas lights on it as well, but her garland is red and instead of having ornaments she we put candy canes on it.
"What about the big tree mommy?" Sofia says as she points to our main Christmas tree in the foyer.
"We are going to wait until mama, daddy, Aunt Julia and Aunt Addison get home so we can call decorate it together."
"Oh, do we have to wait for them to decorate our stockings too?"
"Yep,"
"Well what do we do now?"
"We are going to put this garland on the main staircase and on the staircase going to the basement and then we are going to start dinner." I say to Sofia as Teddy and I pull out the two big rolls of garland with white Christmas lights in them.
20 minutes later Teddy, Sofia and I are in the kitchen making walking tacos. Teddy is sitting at the kitchen bar while I hold Sofia on my right side as we stir the taco meat together.
"Try it now, mommy." Sofia takes the wooden spoon and feeds me a small piece of taco meat.
"Mmm, so good." I say to Sofia, "I can see it now, Chef Sofia." I say with a smile.
I take the spoon from her hand so she can some, "it's good, mommy" Sofia bounces in the arms.
I turn off the stove and get ready to put Sofia down when she starts to speak again. Only she's not talking to me.
"Why are you crying, mama?"
Instead of putting Sofia down I just turn us around to the kitchen doorway to see Callie standing there crying. "Hey you," I say in a soft whisper as Sofia and I walk up to her. "What's wrong?" I ask.
Callie just wipes her eyes before she shakes her head. "Nothing, I was just enjoying watching you two cook dinner." Callie starts to sob again.
I slowly turn my attention towards Addison who is standing right behind Callie. She just shrugs and mouths the word 'hormones.'
"Woah, it's being to look a lot like Christmas." Mark says as he enters through the front door.
"Daddy," Sofia yells.
I set her down, and I watch as she makes a beeline right for Mark, however, when Lexie steps through the front door her path changes.
"Aunt Lexie," Sofia yells before she jumps into her arms.
With Sofia in Lexie's arms, Callie, Addison, Lexie and Mark look around the house at the work that Teddy and I did. They look around for 30 minutes before the seven of us go outside.
Everyone is standing across the street while I'm still standing inside the house by the front door. By mistake, Teddy and I found out that the last light switch furthest away from the front door is for the outside socket, which we used to control the Christmas lights. I flick the switch and the lights come on. I quickly make my way over to everyone so I can take a second look at Teddy's handy work and mine.
We quiet for a few minutes before Mark decides to say something. "We should go inside, because Arizona is planting the idea that me and every guy on this planet can pull something this great off."
"It's not easy being the best," I say with a small grin before we go inside.
Once we get inside, we all sit down and enjoy Taco Tuesday. All seven of us clean the dining room and kitchen before we decorate the tree and make our stockings. Our main Christmas tree in the foyer has multicolored lights with silver garland and an assortment of ornaments. Since we don't have a fireplace we place our stocking on the staircase. Sofia is first at the bottom of the stair followed by Roxie's stocking. After Roxie comes Callie, Me, Mark, Lexie, Teddy and then Addison.
By the time we get done with our first round of Christmas festivities it is too late for us to relax and enjoy a movie, so Mark, Lexie and Addison all go home for evening. Teddy is the next to go upstairs to sleep and not too soon after Sofia and Roxie go to sleep as well.
After I'm finished changing I see Callie standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror getting ready for bed. I just smile at her before I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her.
"So, mind blown?" I say to Callie while looking at her through the mirror.
Callie just smiles at me. "Yes you did blow my mind."
Callie turns around to face me. She leans forward so her lips are inches from mine. "Let me guess, you want a reward for being awesome." She whispers. I feel her hands on my stomach before she grabs my shirt and pulls me closer to her.
"That would be nice" I whisper back, I stare at her lips wanting them to come closer to me.
"How about I give you kiss," she leans in closer.
"We could start with a kiss and then move on to the other things." I reply.
Callie just small quiet chuckle she bits her lower lips, one of the many things that drive me crazy. Callie takes my right hand and turns it so my palm is facing upwards before she drops a Hersey kiss in my hand and walks away from me laughing.
I want to say something and try to get into her pants but today's activities are starting to take their toll on me. So I just follow Callie to bed before I pass out.
The morning is a fast blur of breakfast, T.V. and play time. Both Callie and I have a half day. I'm working in the morning while Callie is working in afternoon. Once rounds are completed I find myself sitting at the main nurses' station with Nurse Lauren just staring off into space.
It's around 10:30 when Katie a trauma nurse comes looking for Lauren. Katie and Lauren have been best friends for years now and they always have the same schedule, from days off to when they take a break at work.
"You know if this killer rapist didn't leave semen in victims I would go out on a limb and say that Sadie Harris is not only the Puget Sound Butcher but the sick serial rapist that we have been seeing lately." Katie says to Lauren as they walk towards the elevator. "I mean the rapes stops when Sadie goes to jail and then start back up again when she gets out. I mean clearly the F.B.I. is going to make the connection."
"Soon I hope," Lauren says right before they get into the elevator. The elevator door closes so I don't get to hear the rest of their conversation. I get up and walk into my office and look at the patients from yesterday and this morning.
I scroll through the list until I see that yesterday evening at midnight Sarah Felosak came into the E.R. raped and injured, and 2 hours later in surgery she died. Looks like I wasn't the only killer around here keeping a low profile. With everything that is going on in my life, Eric just slipped my mind. If he hadn't killed anybody, I'm sure he would have stayed off my radar.
I just lean back in my chair staring at my computer screen when I feel my phone vibrate. I grab my phone and look at for a few seconds; I received a text message from a number I have never seen before. I unlock my phone and I'm greeted with a text that says 'Lucy, you have some explaining to do.'
Sadie wants to play games with me. Lucky for her I love playing games, and I always win. Instead of replying back, I just close my phone before I go back to work. I only have one surgery this morning and that is fixing Jo's inner ear tube. Jo incorrectly put an inner ear tube in a seven year old girl which resulted in her ear getting infected. After my surgery it's time for me to go home. When I get home I find that Callie made me lunch and left it in the oven, its two grilled hot dogs and a cheeseburger patty and there is potato salad in fridge.
Once I make my lunch I take it along with Callie's homemade lemonade and walk to in the living room. I see Teddy passed out on the couch, and Sofia and Roxie passed out on love seat with Scooby Doo on Zombie Island playing on the T.V. I quietly eat my lunch while watching Scooby Doo. The movie is a DVR recording that we have saved and will continue to save until Christmas when Santa brings Sofia her very own copy of it on DVD. I just finish eating my hot dogs and I take a bite from my potato salad when my phone vibrates again. I know it has to be Sadie playing games with me and I should wait to look at it, but on the off chance that it is someone else I unlock my phone and read the text. It a picture message and it's from another number all together.
My mouth drops open, and I place my plate of food on the coffee and try to zoom in on the picture as much as possible. There sitting on my kitchen counter in my apartment are my trophies. The box is wide open and all the slide are there expect for Jena's slide which is upstairs in my nightstand. For the reminder of the movie I just stare at my phone, when the movie stops Teddy starts to wake up from her nap.
"Hey," she says a little on the groggy side.
"Hey," I say back not really paying attention to her.
"What's wrong," Teddy could always tell when something was wrong with me just by looking at me.
"Everything," I finally look up from my phone and over towards Teddy.
Even though we both know that Sofia can sleep through our conversation, we still move it into kitchen if by some off chance she wakes ups.
Teddy sits at the breakfast bar while I just lean against counter that is adjacent from her. "The doctor is in," Teddy tries to lighten the mood. Sorry to say, it isn't working.
"Well let's start off with Sadie. Now that she is out of jail she back to stalking and provoking me, and to make it worst she has a baby sitter in the form of the Seattle police department. Polly who I am 100 percent sure killed Henry and tried to kill you has my blood slides, which is sitting in my apartment. I don't know if she is setting me up for something or if she is just fucking crazy trying to seek my approval. Last but not least, your favorite paramedic Eric is a serial killer and rapist who I have been stalking for the past few months but never had the opportunity to kill."
We are quiet for a few minutes before Teddy says something to me. "What are you going to do?"
"Originally, I was going to kill Eric and make it look like Sadie did it, and I just plan on murdering Polly. I don't which personally she will get from me, but whichever one she gets she is still going to die."
"So what is stopping you?"
"You and Addison," I pause briefly while Teddy tries to figure out what I mean. "Up until now, Addison wasn't my biggest fan. I know if I leave you and Sofia here it will do nothing but make her hate me again. I know I shouldn't care that much about Addison, but I get the feeling like she is going to be in my life for a very long time."
Teddy opens her mouth to say something but Sofia beats her to it. "Mommy?" Sofia says in low quiet voice.
"Yes, baby girl." I say as I start to walk towards the living room.
"I had an accident," Sofia turns around on the love seat and looks at me with wide puppy dog eyes.
"It's ok, accidents happen. Let's go upstairs and clean you up." Holding Sofia's hand we both go upstairs to her room. I'm about to enter Sofia's room when I hear Addison come through the front door. I hear her say something to Teddy but I don't know what it is.
It takes me 20 minutes to get Sofia cleaned up before we go back downstairs. When we get downstairs I see Teddy sitting on the couch watching The Chew.
"Where's Addison?" I say to Teddy as I look around the living room.
"She's getting me something at the store. It should take her an hour to get back, so if you want to run a quick errand, I would do it now."
We just smile at each other as I quickly get the hint, my life would suck without this women.
"Alright miss Sofia, round two of Wii tennis," Teddy says as she stretches out her arms a little bit. "I won't be so nice this time."
Sofia just giggles as she grabs a Wii controller. The two are heavily in engrossed in the game that they don't hear me say goodbye or leave.
The entire ride to my apartment, I am a nervous wreck. I don't what to expect, and I hate not knowing what is around the corner or being able to control it. I guess you could say that is way I love to kill, because I get to control somebody else's life.
It feels like in a blink of an eye I'm outside of my apartment building. I take my time walking up the stairs. When I get to my apartment door I get out my keys and put them in the key hole. I take a deep breath and turn the lock to open it.
The view that is in front of me takes my breath away. I feel like I have been hit by a bus that came out of nowhere. I step into my apartment and close the door behind me never taking my eyes off the scene in front of me. There sitting on my couch facing the door looking right at me is my wife, Calliope.