Warning - there's some cuss words in this one

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Chapter 8
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Now
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"Miguel!" Natalie exclaimed as she saw who it was on the other side of the door.

"Mrs. Vega, we can't let him in without a check."

"Oh, Mark, it's fine. Miguel is a good friend of mine from London. You can…," Natalie trailed off as she imagined John's face if he found out she had flouted his protocol. She knew was this close to a safe house. "That's fine. Miguel can you give him your identification. I can't let anyone in without a guard unless they've been cleared."

"What's going on, Nat?" Miguel's chocolate brown eyes were filled with worry and confusion.

"My fiancé is being protective because of some things that happened months ago."

"Fiance? It sounds like things worked out with the baby's father. I'm glad for you." Miguel shifted his weight awkwardly as they stood in the doorway to the cottage.

"Yeah." Natalie's smile was triumphant as she stroked her swelling burden. For a brief moment her smile slipped, but then just as quickly it returned. She'd been battling Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks now, just last week John had rushed them to the hospital at three in the morning even though she had assured him it wasn't necessary. Now, her back was hurting thanks to being unable to find a comfortable position in bed, or anywhere for that matter.

"Officer Reyes will come inside with you while we run this check," Officer Mark Capote told her.

"Come in. Do you want some ice tea? It's unseasonably warm, even for Memorial Day weekend. Tell me what brings you Llanview."

"I got bored with Europe. I thought I'd tour the States before starting college, finally as my father says."

"It's not going to be as exciting as Europe, I'm afraid. Although we do have a very large ball of twine in Atlantic City." Natalie led him into the kitchen. The guard followed.

"Twine?" Miguel was startled.

"It's a big attraction in AC, if you ever get out of the casinos. Do you want sugar?" Natalie handed him a glass and put the glass pitcher down on the kitchen table.

Miguel tasted his drink. "Please."

Natalie took his glass back and turned to put sugar into it. As soon as her back was turned, Miguel pulled out a gun and shot the cop who didn't even have a chance to respond.

Startled by the shot, Natalie dropped the sugar bowl onto the floor and spun around.

"Oh my God!" she put her hands over her mouth and started at Miguel who was now pointing the gun at Natalie.

"Shut up and clean up the mess."

"Why are you doing this?" Natalie demanded.

"Get down on the floor or I'll kill your baby and let you live," Miguel snarled. His formally attractive features now darkened by hate and distaste.

"There are more cops outside. You won't get out alive." Natalie began to gather up the shards of the porcelain bowl her mother, Vicki, had given her when she bought the cottage. She pushed back the idea that perhaps she or her son might not make it out either.

They'd call John. They'd make sure they were safe. She knew that, but in the meantime she had to do something for herself. For her son. For John. She tucked a long shard into her sleeve.

"Let me look at Scott. Please."

"Who the fuck is Scott?" Miguel demanded.

"The cop you shot. Please, let me take care of him."

"If it will keep you quiet."

Just as Natalie reached Scott and began to put pressure on the gunshot wound on his chest the telephone rang. As Miguel moved to answer it, she noticed Scott's eyes beginning to open. The wound, she quickly discovered, was more towards his shoulder. Miguel had missed his heart.

"I have your woman and your son. I'm going to kill them if you don't send Carlotta Vega here within twenty minutes."

With that Miguel hung up the telephone.

Natalie pressed a dishtowel to Scott's wound and looked around the kitchen. She was too big and lumbering to make a quick get away and her back was beginning to hurt more intensely now as she crouched down.

"Can we get an EMT in here, please?" Natalie carefully kept the helpless rage she was feeling out of her voice.

"No."

Natalie looked behind her at the kitchen window above the sink, then at the window of the back door. "Sloppy," she whispered to herself. She was down on the ground with Scott and Miguel was pacing back and forth, unprotected.

"Why are you doing this? I thought we were friends? What do you want with Carlotta."

"What do you think," Miguel sneered and waved his gun around. "She destroyed my father's life. She betrayed him and he punished everyone around him for it. Now, it's my duty to him to avenge her betrayal."

"I don't understand."

"Of course you don't little heiress. Your mommy and daddy and brothers and sister love you. My father made our lives hell because of what your mother-in-law did to him. This will make him proud of me. I didn't get caught and I'll finish what he started."

"This doesn't have to be what your life is all about." Natalie kept talking as she reached around Scott and unsnapped his holster and slid his gun out.

"Don't psychoanalyze me you whiney bitch!" Miguel smacked the pitcher of idea tea off the table so it landed on the floor near Natalie, wetting her with its contents.

"Ow!" Natalie exclaimed as she felt the sharp sting of glass cutting her and the wetness sliding over it.

"Oh shit." Natalie suddenly realized that it wasn't glass and the wetness sliding down her legs wasn't iced tea. That was her water breaking.

"Did the little heiress get wet. Poor baby."

Tears filled Natalie's eyes as she began to panic. She could feel her first real contraction coming on. Her hands were covered in blood. The sugar bowl shard fell onto Scott as she tried to figure out some way to get them out of there.

"John. John." She whispered brokenly.

"Aaah!" she was unable to hold back her exclamation of pain as her contraction peaked.

"What the fuck is your problem." Miguel kicked her leg and knocked her down.

"I'm in labor!" She slipped as she tried to push herself up and get back to Scott. "I need to get to the hospital.

"Then your cop should be in a real hurry to satisfy my demands shouldn't he?"

"I thought you were my friend," Natalie said as she successfully pushed herself to a sitting position. She saw Scott's hand move and she quickly moved to block it from Miguel's view.

"I need more towels. They're next to the sink."

"Oh, the heiress thinks I'm her servant, does she?" Miguel sneered and sauntered arrogantly around the kitchen table, towards the sink.

snick

Natalie whipped her head around and saw Miguel begin to fall. A shocked expression on his face and blood beginning to sprout from his left temple. Then both doors burst open as cops filled the room. Natalie was pulled back from Scott as his fellow officers pulled him from the room into the living room.

"Are you all right?" John was suddenly kneeling down in front of her, running his hands over her hair and down her body, looking in panic for the source of the blood that was staining her hands and stomach. She opened her mouth to explain when the force of a new contraction knocked the wind from her.

Her cry panicked John even more. "I need help here!" he called out and pushed the table and chair out of his way to lay her down.

"No." Natalie panted and grasped at his shirt. This was too much, too fast. She felt a fresh wetness spreading between her legs. "Stop." She wasn't sure who she was pleading with.

"Natalie, what's wrong. Where are you hurt?"

"Labor. Something's wrong." Natalie forced out as another wave of pain dragged at her.

Before John could bellow for more help he was being pushed aside by EMT's.

He moved to sit at Natalie's head. He put it into his lap as he helplessly watched her thrash. It was then that he saw the blood spreading underneath her.

His heart skipped a beat and then sped up.

End…for now