DAY OF RECKONING
CHAPTER 13

Lucas stood in front of the window in the waiting room of the hospital, waiting for Crower to deliver his findings from his examinations on both Dara and the baby. Finally he walked into the room and motioned for Lucas to follow him to a room down the hallway. Lucas glanced at him anxiously, "Well, how are they?"

Matt leaned against the wall as he explained, "The baby is fine, she's perfectly formed and breathing fine. I did put her in an incubator though, just for tonight just as a precaution, being born is stressful enough under normal circumstances. Her delivery, to say the least, was extremely stressful. Dara seems to be fine, she does have a very nasty bruise on her stomach though, she said that the dog more of less kicked her there, which is what I would say started her labor. I've checked her over and she isn't bleeding now, but she did lose a great deal of blood so she will definitely be weak and tired for a while. Other than some rather nasty scratches I didn't see any bite marks on her but I'm going to give her a tetanus shot to be on the safe side. And before you ask me about it yes after she recovers from this one if you two decide to she can have another baby. I would however, remove that rather dangerous obstacle you have in your lives at the moment."

Lucas nodded in agreement and thankfulness as he inquired, "Can I see her now?"

Matt motioned to the door, "Yes, but she probably wont be awake much longer, I gave her something to help with the pain." With that he walked down the hallway leaving Lucas alone.

Lucas opened the door and realized the truth of Crower's statement, he thought that she was asleep as he sat on the edge of the bed because her eyes were closed and her face was relaxed. He noticed how pale she looked in contrast to the dark red of her hair. He was surprised when she opened her eyes and smiled weakly at him.

"Aren't you proud of me? I only delivered three weeks early this time."

Lucas shook his head at her good humor. It never failed to amaze him that no matter how grim things looked she always managed to find the lighter side of it. Placing his hand along her cheek he leaned over and kissed her tenderly. "I'm proud of you regardless of the situation. How are you feeling?"

Dara took his hand in her own as she replied, "Very, very tired and weak and sore."

Lucas nodded, "Crower said that he gave you something for the pain and that it would probably knock you out for a while."

Turning serious Dara inquired, "How is the baby, is she all right?"

Lucas smiled, happy to be able to finally tell her something positive. "She's fine, she is in the incubator just as a precaution, but she is fully formed and breathing all right."

Dara sighed in relief as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Lucas pulled a chair next to the bed and watched his wife sleep, determined not to leave her side.


Lucas woke with a start at the hand on his shoulder; unsure of his surroundings at first he realized that he had fallen asleep in the chair next to his wife's hospital bed. Looking up into his eldest son's face he relaxed as he stretched to work the kinks from his back and legs from sitting too long.

Motioning towards his mother Caleb inquired, "How is she?"

Making certain the Dara was still sleeping, Lucas motioned for him to walk out into the hallway with him. Once the door was closed he apprised his son of the situation, "She's going to be extremely tired and weak for a while yet. She lost a lot of blood and Crower said that she had a lot of scratches so he gave her a tetanus shot to be on the safe side, but he didn't find any bite marks anywhere on her but she does have a nasty bruise on her stomach where the dog more or less kicked her in the stomach, that was what started her labor."

Caleb sighed in relief as he reached in his pocket and handed his father a collection of keys for the new locks. "I called the locksmith after you left, by the way I used a credit card from mom's purse to pay for it. He changed every lock that requires a key and they're all marked."

Lucas nodded as he asked, "That's fine I forgot to leave you some money, did he even change the gate locks?"

Caleb nodded as he explained, "Yes, I even had him put double deadbolts in the house and just in case I had him re-key all the cars but yours."

Lucas smiled at his son's determination, "Good idea, my car isn't a problem anyway, your mom never kept her set of keys to it on her ring anyway so he couldn't have gotten them. Did you take care of the dog?"

Caleb's eyes grew wide as he stated, "Yes, and get this the animal control guy recognized it. He said that a man came in this morning just as they were about to gas it and decided to 'adopt' it. Even when they tried to explain to him how vicious the dog was and that the previous owners had brought it in because it had attacked they kids he still insisted on it. And guess what the guy said he looked like; as tall as you a little younger and dressed in a black duster coat and black cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes."

Lucas narrowed his gaze as he stated, more to himself than Caleb, "He had this all planned he was either going to get your mother or the kids, but my guess is that he knew she would put herself in danger to keep the kids safe."

Caleb nodded his agreement, "So what do we do now, can you do anything to stop him?"

Lucas considered a moment before answering, "For right now let it go, he'll appear to gloat sooner or later, he usually does. But lets get your mother and the baby out of here first, and then I'll deal with him. In the meantime I think that you and Trisha need to stick close to mama Lucy and the kids, do you think her parents would agree to her staying at the house?"

Caleb nodded as he offered a timid smile, "Actually they're leaving out of town today and she talked them into letting her stay with us, they'll be gone for about a week. We were on our way home to ask you guys when everything happened."

Lucas nodded his silent agreement for the girl to stay with them. Watching the look on his son's face he asked, "Is there something on your mind son?"

Caleb sighed as he shook his head, "Yeah, I don't get it why don't you just kill him and be done with it? He's come close to killing mom twice, scared the daylights out her twice and almost caused her to miscarry. Why not just get rid of him?"

Lucas shook his head as he stated quietly, "Because it's not the way your mother would want it and there's more here to consider than simply ending this man's life. Believe me if it wasn't for the fact that there could be serious repercussions other than simply committing murder I would have already done it, but the fact is that he cant be just killed and that solve the problem."

Caleb looker at his father in puzzlement until he recalled an incident years before between his father and his sister, Merly Ann's spirit, "You mean that he could transfer his spirit like you did before?"

Lucas nodded in affirmation to his son's answer, "Yes, but even more dangerous is that since he's linked by blood to your brother sisters I think that he'd transfer it to one of them because since they're still children their spirit's more or less haven't taken root so it would be easy for him."

Caleb nodded his understanding as he voiced his resignation, "All right dad, I know you'd do anything to protect us and mom so I'll trust whatever you do."

Lucas pulled his son into an uncharacteristic embrace, and then let him go embarrassed by his show of emotion. Turning he returned to the room to take up his vigil at Dara's bedside once more.


After three days Matt finally pronounced both Dara and the baby healthy enough to leave.

After consulting the new baby's siblings and much debate they finally agreed to name the newest member of their family Maria Simone, after Dara"s grandmother and Lucas' mother.

Lucas at first protested to the idea of naming their daughter after the woman he had considered to be his mother, but Dara had argued that she was a better part of what made him who he was and finally won the argument. But as with their other two daughters they shortened the new baby's name to Ria.

From the moment she entered her home Ria knew nothing but love and affection from not only her parents, but from her brothers and sisters as well as her great grandmother and Trisha.

Lucas marveled at how much she reminded him of Dara, she already showed promise of the dark red hair that her mother and oldest sister possessed, although her eyes were more like his.

As with their other children Dara had decided to breast feed the baby as long as possible, giving her the excuse of keeping the baby in the bedroom with them. Although their house was large and had more than enough rooms for all the children to have their own room, Rinie and Riesa had decided that they still wanted to be together in the same room, where as Alex chose to have his own room, next to his brother's.

Lucas knew that her decision to keep the baby in their room instead of putting her in the nursery was her way of assuring herself that their newest child would be as protected from the threat to their family as possible, so he voiced no objections to the idea, instead he was glad for the opportunity to be able to bond with his child as he had done with his other three. Since he had missed out on the early years of Caleb's existence he had made every effort to be fully involved in every aspect of the children he and Dara had bought into the world. He had made certain that he was present for every check up Dara had as well as being present for the birth of all his children, with the exception of Rinie, who had to be delivered by an emergency c-section. Even then he had been right outside of the operating room waiting for the news of both his wife and child. When the children had all come home from the hospital he had been there to help with every thing from feeding to changing diapers. So the idea of Ria being with them for a while didn't bother him in the least.

Dara had been relieved to find that once she had regained her strength from the loss of blood she had suffered, her energy seemed to return without any significant set backs from the fatigue syndrome.

Matt had switched her to regular vitamins but had continued the iron pills due to her continued deficiency. At their six week checkup Matt had pronounced her fully recovered from the birth as well as pronouncing Ria to be following in her siblings footsteps as she was already able to hold her head upright, almost totally without additional support.

Dara had decided, after consulting her watch, that since it was almost noon she would surprise her husband and have lunch with him since she and the baby were now finished with their doctor's visit. Parking the car as close to the station as possible she got out and went around to get the stroller base from the rear of the car. Having given away most of the baby paraphernalia from Rinie with the exception of a crib and highchair, she and Lucas had replaced the remaining items they required for their newest addition with more modern items, such as a stroller that converted to a car seat and baby carrier, making it easier for Dara to keep up with not only the new baby but the other three children as well.

Setting the stroller base up as Lucas had shown her, she disconnected the car seat from its base and attempted to realign the carrier into the stroller frame. Not having much success she glanced at her daughter who seemed to be enjoying her mother's frustration at being unable to accomplish the task at hand. Dara couldn't help smiling as she crooned to her child, "We're going to have to have a talk with daddy about his penchant for complicated gadgets, aren't we baby girl?" waving her small fists in response as she gurgled, Ria grinned lopsided at her mother.

Dara shook her head as she stated, "Lets hope you don't give me that kind of response when you begin understanding what I'm saying to you." Finally, reaching her patience end with her attempts to attach the seat and stroller together, Dara took the carrier in one hand and the stroller in the other and headed for the door.

Floyd was about to leave to pick up lunch when he saw her coming up the sidewalk, opening the door for her he smiled as he greeted, "Well hi Dara." Looking down at the small bundle in the carrier he expounded, "How's the newest little Buck doing today?"

Lucas came out of his office to hand Ben the file he had just finished when he spotted his wife trying to balance a diaper bag, carrier and stroller. Rushing over he relieved her of the baby as he glared at Floyd and inquired, "Floyd, ever consider the possibility that she might have needed some help?"

Floyd looked as his boss in puzzlement as he shook his head.

Lucas raised an eyebrow in frustration as he asked sarcastically, "Floyd did your mother have any children that lived?"

Not comprehending his meaning, Floyd simply asked, "Huh?"

Lucas shook his head as he muttered, "Never mind Floyd, just go pick up lunch will you." Despite herself Dara was having considerable trouble keeping a straight face at her husband's comment.

After Floyd left Lucas turned to his wife and asked good naturedly, "So what can I do for such a pretty lady today, especially when she's my wife?"

Dara looked at him in agitation as she stated sarcastically, "Well, for starters you can show me how this damned thing works again. I cant t get the carrier to lock onto the base. Why didn't we just buy a plain stroller?"

Lucas took the carrier in one hand and held the handle to the stroller in the other as he placed the carrier in the base to hear the 'click' indicating that it was locked into position. Looking at his wife with one eyebrow raised in question he asked, "Any other questions darlin?"

Dara looked at him in frustration as she replied sarcastically, "Sure, just make your child's mother look like a total idiot in front of her."

Lucas and Dara both laughed at the same time full of humor. Looking at the wall clock Lucas asked, "I assume you two ladies have had your check ups so how about I buy my girls some lunch?"

Dara smiled as she nodded, "I never thought you'd ask."

With that he nodded to Ben as he stated, "Be back around two or so Ben, page me if you need me." With that he took charge of his daughter's stroller and headed out the door.