Summary: Lies, deception, everything has a price ... what is the price of shame?
Disclaimer: I do not own them
A/N: Any reviews will be welcomed, any flames will be shared with friends for laughs.
Well I hope the last chapter does not disappoint any of you. I also hope you have enjoyed the ride.
Chapter 24
CD helped Walker to the truck while Trivette carried Alex. CD put Walker in the back with him, and Trivette strapped Walker in and took off toward the nearest hospital."How CD, how can Alex be pregnant?" Trivette asked as the were driving down the road.
"I don't know Jimmy, I really don't, but by the looks of it she is ready to pop."
As if Alex had heard them both talking she started to moan. The noise brought Walker awake and he jumped when he realized he was in the truck, and Trivette was driving. "Alex!" he yelled, scrambling to try and get out.
"Walker! calm down she is right here."
Walker tried to shake the cobwebs from his mind, and after a couple of minutes he found he was all right. "Alex," he said leaning over the seat to look at his wife. Alex didn't answer him for she was clutching her stomach and moaning.
"The baby is coming!" she screamed, and Trivette floored the truck even faster. "We aren't far now Alex hang on."
Walker stared down at Alex, to caught up in his own emotions to say anything. After everything they had been through Alex looked to be pregnant. He didn't notice the tears running down his face, he didn't hear CD telling Jimmy that the hospital was two blocks up, his whole mind was filled with his wife, who for the last five months he had thought was dead.
Trivette slung the truck sideways into the emergency room entrance the sirens on it blaring and ran to get help while CD got out and helped Walker get Alex. Walker noticed immediately that she was much heavier, but shook the feeling of hope off, he wouldn't be fooled again. It was then that Trivette came back with a doctor and a gurney.
"Ranger Walker, you have to let go of her so that we can help her." Walker stared bleary eyed up at the doctor, but he didn't release his grip on Alex.
"Cordell, let him help her," CD persuaded, while he pried Walker's fingers from around Alex. It seemed to work and all three of them followed the gurney with Alex on it inside.
Walker was pacing the floor. They had been in the exam room now for over an hour. "Why haven't they come out here and told me anything!"
"They are probably stabilizing her Walker," Trivette said, staring at Walker who hadn't left the door where Alex had disappeared behind. Every so often a nurse would go through the door, but each time Walker looked them up and down as if wondering if they were supposed to be here.
"Cordell, come and have a seat. Alex is not going anywhere."
Walker glared up at him. "How can you say that? She was taken right out of the hospital last time, right under our noses. That won't happen again."
As if on cue the door behind Walker swung open and the doctor walked out. He stared at all three men and motioned them over. "Hello, first off I am Dr. Truman, and can I assume that is your wife inside?" he asked Walker.
Walker nodded that Alex was his wife. "You wife is in the middle of labor Ranger Walker, and I am afraid we can't stop her. She is already dilated four centimeters, but it could be a very long night. She seems to be suffering from malnutrition, and exertion as well," he said accusingly.
"She was taken five months ago doctor."
The doctor gasped. "That is Alexandra Cahill in there?"
"Yes, now can you explain why my wife is pregnant, since she has been gone five months?"
Walker was furious. Here was another doctor telling him that Alex was pregnant. He had believed the last doctor, and had been made a fool of, he wouldn't be again.
"Let me place a call to the hospital your wife was last seen in, and get the results of her tests there."
The doctor rushed off leaving Walker to pace the floors again. He wanted to hope, deep down he wanted to believe that she was pregnant, but he couldn't make himself have that hope. Right now all he hoped was that Alex was all right, his Alex, the one he had been searching for all this time.
"Ranger Walker I have just gotten off the phone with the lab in Dallas. They tell me that your wife was given a blood test back in March, and that she was pregnant then."
"Why didn't they tell me!" Walker screamed.
"Walker, think about it man. All the hype around Alex missing and then the report of her death. I wouldn't come and tell you either that she had been pregnant, you were hurting enough already."
Walker sank to his knees. Alex had been pregnant when she left. He thought back to that night they had made love. There was a baby, his baby. Tears rolling down his face now Walker bolted from the room, and down the hall.
The chapel was were Walker always seemed to find peace, and that is where CD found him. He didn't say anything at first, giving Walker his solitude. Minutes passed both of them sitting there in silence, and it was Walker who spoke first.
"I don't know how to deal with this."
"Deal with what Cordell?"
"Alex, the baby, all the things I have said. I called her a liar, I hated myself for wanting the baby so much, and now that it is real, I don't know how to tell her I am sorry."
CD wrapped his arms around Walker and guided him over to the door. "You and Alex have been through a lot over the years Cordell and I don't think that she ever doubted your love for her. This baby is a miracle I tell you. It survived even when that bastard was trying to kill her, it survived through them slicing her open, everything. Go to Alex and tell her only one thing."
"What is that CD?" Walker said tears again streaming down his face. "Tell her that you love her." Walker nodded and left the chapel. As he was making his way back to where Alex was Trivette was running down the hall.
"Walker, the baby is coming, hurry!" Walker took off in a run, heading down the opposite hallway that Trivette pointed him to. As he rounded the corner her saw a gurney going in behind the double doors, and went to follow it. "Stop! You can't go in there!" the nurse screamed at him.
Walker turned around and glared at her. "My wife just went in there, and I am going in after her."
"Well, then come with me and we will get you ready." Walker went with the nurse and she showed him how to scrub up. Walker had never known there was a certain way you had to wash your hands. Once that was done the nurse handed him things to put over his clothes, and then escorted him into another room, just outside the operating room. Walker peered through the glass and could see Alex laying on the table, tubes and machinery all around her. His heart lurched in his chest. He remembered the same scene a few months ago, and without waiting to be asked in, he pushed the doors open.
The nurses ran to usher him out but the doctor stopped them. "He can stay. Ranger Walker come over here."
"Walker stepped around the sheet that had been draped over Alex, and saw the doctor holding a scalpel. "Your baby is about to make its entrance into this world."
Walker told the doctor to wait one more minute and went back around the sheet to where Alex was staring in horror. "Don't worry Alex, I am here."
"Walker, the baby," she cried. "Everything is going to be all right Alex, and Alex I love you." Walker leaned over and placed a kiss on her lips. Alex nodded, and then the nurse placed the oxygen mask back over her face.
"Ranger Walker there is a lot of scar tissues here. Do you know what happened? It could be quite difficult to get past it to get to the baby." Walker did know what happened. He remembered what Sakara had done to Alex, done to them both. "It is a long story," he merely said.
"No time for that. This baby is ready." With the scalpel the doctor cut past the scar tissues and the sight of Alex's blood dripping onto the table made Walker feel faint. He swayed on his feet a bit. "Are you all right Ranger Walker? Do you need to sit down?" Walker waved the nurse off who was trying to drag him away.
He watched in fascination as the doctor finished cutting through the skin, and there he could see a tiny little arm, his baby's arm. Walker gasped at the beautiful site, and watched as the doctor pulled until the head was firmly out. After a quick suction of the baby's nose and mouth the doctor pulled a bit more. Both arms were now out of Alex. Walker was holding his breath now, fear and happiness both making him a bit dizzy.
He was so happy, happier he thought than he had ever been. With one final tug the baby came out and the doctor laid it down on Alex's stomach. Walker began to worry the baby was so quiet, so still, but after one quick whack on the bottom it began to cry. Walker let out his breath that he had been holding, and felt the tears start to roll down his face. This is when the doctor rolled the baby over, and Walker saw the beautiful little girl laying there.
"Would you like to cut the cord?" Walker with shaking hands did so, and then the baby was cleaned off a bit and handed to him. He stared down at the baby. Here was all his hopes and dreams, all of their hopes and dreams laying in his arms. Taking a couple of steps Walker leaned down next to Alex and kissed her on the lips again. "Would you like to see our daughter?" Alex's tears mixed with Walker's as they stared down at the little miracle in his hands. It was then that the nurses came over.
"We have to check the baby over." Walker didn't want to let go of her. He wanted to take her home and stare at her for hours, but reluctantly he handed her to the nurse. The nurse smiled back at him. "She won't be gone for long, I promise."
Walker watched as the baby was weighed and then taken into the adjoining room. The doctor was busy now with mending Alex, so he sat down beside her, and took her hand in his. "You have made me the happiest man on earth."
Alex choked on the lump in her throat. "I prayed every night that I would somehow get free. Walker there are so many things I want to tell you. So many things that happened."
Walker wiped away the tears on her face. "None of that matters now. You are home, safe and sound. We can talk about the other stuff later. I love you Alex."
Once Alex was finished she was moved into a room, and the baby was brought back in. This time the baby was handed to Alex, and Walker watched as she counted each finger and toe, and only then did she let loose the torrent of tears. They sat for hours talking. Alex told Walker everything that had happened. Of how she tried to escape, and how she found out she was really pregnant shortly after being taken.
Walker listened his anger showing at the things Alex had endured, but he explained then to Alex all he had felt, all the heartache at knowing both the baby and her were gone, he even told him about telling her father that she was dead.
"Oh my God! I have to go call your father and tell him you are alive, and I left CD and Trivette in the waiting room. CD probably has strangled at least ten nurse by now."
"Go to them Walker and let them know, but don't be gone too long." Walker leaned over and kissed both of them on the head. "I wouldn't leave my two girls for very long anyway."
Walker rushed out of the room and down the hall, until he got to the waiting room and true to his thoughts, CD was yelling at one of the nurses behind the desk. "CD, Trivette!" he yelled to them.
Both men turned around, "How is she Cordell? How is Alex?" Is she all right?" When Walker didn't say anything CD started to get worried. "Tell me Cordell is Alex all right?"
Walker couldn't hold the news back any longer, as the smile started to spread over his face. "She is fine CD. She and the baby are just fine."
"Well is it a boy or a girl?" Trivette asked.
"It is a girl. The most beautiful little girl in the world. She is perfect."
Both men congratulated Walker. "I have a favor to ask. Could someone call Alex's father and explain to him what is going on?"
Trivette ran off to make the call, while CD stayed with Walker. "In a couple of days you will be home with the baby and Alex. I have so much to do, so many people to invite. Gage, Sydney both of them will string me up if I don't tell them, and there is food to be made as Alex is not going to feel like cooking." The grin on Walker's face left then.
"CD, I will leave all that to you. For now I am going back to Alex and the baby."
Alex spent the next three days in the hospital and Walker stayed with her. He was allowed to use the doctor's lounge to shower, but he refused to leave her side. The morning they were due to leave Trivette brought the truck to Walker. Alex was being pushed in the wheelchair down to the front and Walker was holding the baby. First Walker buckled the baby into the seat and then he helped Alex in. The doctor who had helped them was standing off to the side, and Walker went over and shook his hand. "I wanted to thank you for everything."
"No need Ranger Walker, now get going your wife and daughter are waiting." Walker ran back to the truck and climbed in, and took off towards the ranch. Forty minutes later Alex tapped Walker on the shoulder. "You know you can drive faster than thirty-five."
Walker stared at Alex and then the speedometer and laughed. "I guess the father instinct is kicking in already. CD called and said your father would be at the house waiting."
Alex was overjoyed. Walker had told her how her father had taken the news. As the pulled down the road leading to the ranch, Alex could see many cars parked here and there. Everywhere people were waving to them. Walker kept driving, weaving in and out of the cars and trucks, until at last he pulled up to park. He jumped out of the car and helped Alex out. There were cheers from all around, and soon Alex was whisked up into CD's arms. "It is good to have you home Alex," and Alex noticed that CD was crying, something she had never seen him do.
Walker then went around the truck and pulled the baby from her car seat. He gently nestled the baby to his chest, and kissed her on the head, before shutting the door. At once Walker was surrounded by CD, Trivette and everyone else trying to get a look at the newest Walker, but he gently pushed past them till he found Alex. Grabbing her hand in his and holding on tightly he led her to the steps of the house. Only then did he turn around and announce. "I would like you all to meet Cassandra Walker."
Walker and Alex went inside to drop off the things from the hospital, and Alex headed towards the nursery. This is when Walker's heart lurched in his chest, and he took the steps two at a time to stop her. He remembered tearing the nursery to shreds in his grief, and he didn't want Alex to see it, but when he got to the nursery there was Alex laying the baby down in the crib, and the room was back in order.
"How?" he said silently as he stood in the doorway. CD walked up behind him then. "Consider it my little gift to the family." Walker hugged CD and thanked him. They would soon go down and greet all their guests, everyone who wanted to see both Alex and the baby. CD left the three of them alone for a moment.
"Welcome home Alex." Walker said, coming up behind her to stare at the baby. They were whole again. All the demons of the past melted away as Walker stared at both of them. He was content, he was whole again. His family was home where they needed to be, and he was never letting them go again.
A/N: Well the journey is over, and I hope you all enjoyed it.