...
I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go 'round tonight
It's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
The dive bar Beth entered was nothing like the bar, it wasn't trendy or filled with millennials. It's bartop didn't gleam in the mid-morning sunlight or exude a heady warmth at night. The wood paneling wasn't a polished oak, rather cheap laminate and the wall of bottles didn't have top-shelf anything.
It felt perfect after the last attempt of freeing herself, something unfamiliar and unkempt. Nothing like Rio or the time they'd spent sitting comfortably sipping high-end liquor while eye fucking each other.
Beth sidled up to the black counter, the wood painted a dozen times over to cover the carved initials and curse words. It was the type of hole in the wall that Annie would frequent and be kicked out of.
Rolling her eyes at the thought, she gave the bartender a tight smile as she ordered. "Bourbon, please."
"Four bucks." The tired looking women replied, sloshing the watered down looking liquor into a glass.
"Can I start a tab? I'm gonna be a while."
"No tabs. Four bucks." The woman spoke dryly, her hand sliding the glass just out of reach.
"Jesus, Dolores give 'er a break. Aint nobody dine and dashin' in this shit hole." A man grumbled nearby, his voice rough from smoking.
"It's okay, here." Beth pulled out a twenty and said, "I'll take this many please."
The man knocked his knuckles on the bartop and wagged a finger at Beth, "a woman after my own heart. Line 'em up, Dolores."
Beth sighed as he slid into the seat next to her. "Listen I'm not looking for company."
"That's fine." He threw back a shot of whiskey. "I'm not either."
She huffed out a breath before sipping from her first glass of bourbon. The bottom tier liquor scorched a path down her throat and lit her chest on fire like gasoline but it didn't stop her from throwing the rest back.
"Thatta girl." He chuckled gruffly next to her, his elbows on the bartop and shoulders slumped forward. "Nothing that can't be cured by some good ol' gut rot."
"You talk a lot for a guy not looking for company." Beth commented dryly giving him a irritated side-eye.
The rough smoker laugh shook his shoulders as he tapped his glass on the counter signaling for another round. "And you listen a lot for someone hating it."
"Whatever." Beth sipped the next round, the liquid fire not burning as harshly as the first time.
"Miles." He introduced himself with a lifted shot glass.
"Beth."
"So, Beth. Why this shithole of all the shitholes in this shithole city?"
Beth sipped her drink before answering with the burn of liquor roughing up her voice. "Why do you care?"
"I don't really, just making conversation."
"Well, why don't you keep your conversation to yourself? Nobody's interested."
"Someone's bitter."
"Someone needs to mind their own business and get a life."
Miles laughed roughly until it turned into a painful sounding cough. Beth wrinkled her nose at the sound, shifting in her seat uncomfortably as it continued for a long moment.
"Are you okay?" She finally asked as he caught his breath, his mouth roughly wiped across his flannel sleeve.
"Yeah." He cleared his throat, a short laugh escaping his throat before he explained. "I don't recommend lung cancer. She's a real bitch."
"Oh." Beth cringed at her careless words. "I'm sorry."
"Hey, you didn't put the cigarette in my mouth in grade school. Shit was all me." He offered, lifting his drink to his mouth with a wry smirk. "Don't apologize for making me laugh, I prefer your bitchy attitude than meaningless platitudes."
Beth huffed at the statement. "I'm not a bitch."
"Bitchy's good. Most people turn all weepy when I tell 'em about the big C." Miles shrugged his shoulders. "Rather not waste what little time I have left with bullshit pleasantries."
"Okay." Beth replied feeling a little off balance with the conversation. She didn't know how to respond to someone so blatantly talking about their own demise.
"So." He coaxed after a long silence. "Why this shit hole?"
"It was the first place I saw when I got off the interstate." Beth relented, her hands cupping her glass in front of her.
"And the day drinking...?" He cocked his head a bit to the side. "Don't seem like the usual type to spend their mid morning drinking swill."
"I've had a bad couple days." Beth rolled her eyes at the statement before amending. "Not as bad as you I guess."
"Hey, don't knock my life. I'm livin' the dream." Miles gave her a smile that could pass as genuine if it weren't for the bitter tone of his words. "I can drink all day and night, say whatever comes into my mind and just blame it on the chemo brain."
"Should you be drinking while on chemo?"
"I said I can blame it on the chemo, not that I'm actually on chemo. People tend to fuck off when I whip out the cancer card."
"That's just... wrong."
"As wrong as my insides being eaten alive by some cells that decided they liked my lungs for patè?"
"No... I guess not."
"So, I do what I want, when I want. Life gets a hell of a lot more interesting when you don't worry about consequences."
The statement had Beth pausing mid sip, her glass poised at her lips.
"What?" Miles asked as she stared at him a moment.
"Just... I know what you mean."
"Oh yeah?" He asked, leaning towards her a bit. "That why your day drinking? Forgetting the consequences?"
"Just forgetting in general."
"Ah. Life's kicking you in the ol' ballsack huh?"
Beth wrinkled her nose at the phrase but gave him a shrug in agreement. "I guess you could say that."
"Well, lay it on me."
"Oh, I don't want to do that.. I mean.. you have..."
Miles raised an eyebrow as she waved her hand in his general direction. "I have...? What sexy brooding eyes and a strong jawline?"
Beth scoffed, "oh please, like anyone can see your jawline under that homeless man beard."
Miles laughed gruffly again, but made sure to keep it from starting a coughing fit again. "Yeah, well we both know hobo chic gets all the ladies."
Beth laughed lightly, shaking her head at the man sitting next to her.
"See, I knew you had it in you."
"What?"
"A sense of humor." He quipped, his lips pulling up crookedly under the scruffy beard.
"So let me get this straight." Miles spoke with a slight slur after the numerous drinks they'd shared. "You wake up everyday to the same day. Live with no repercussions 'n remember everything."
"You left out the part where somebody dies gruesomely."
"I mean, do they?" Miles face was pulled into what would be the equivalent of a shrug, "If the day resets every morning?"
"It doesn't matter, I still have to live through it."
"Yeah but you get a do over. It's not real life or death."
"That doesn't mean I'm not emotionally scarred from it." Beth sighed, pushing her glass away. "I still have to experience it."
Miles rolled his eyes and threw back a shot of what looked like tequila. He coughed a bit from the burn as he retorted, "boo hoo. Feelings schmeelings. You want a tissue for that issue?"
"Says the guy weeping into his beard."
Miles laughed, knocking his knuckles on the table top. "Hey there's no tears in this manly mane."
"If that's what you wanna call it." Beth quipped with a smirk. "More like you glued roadkill to your face and call it a life style choice."
"Hey I'm not the one day drinking with a hobo. At least I got good taste in drinking partners."
"Yeah, your drinking with a crazy person who believes in time loops."
"Could be worse, you could be a religious zealot trying to save my soul from eternal damnation." He offered with a grin.
Beth chuckled, shaking her head a bit as she let the alcohol warm her veins. "I guess that's true."
"Look." He offered a few minutes later of companionable silence. "The way I see it, you've got endless time to do anything you want. Why're you wasting it on some dying drunk in shithole bar? Seems to me you should be enjoying life."
"Easy for you to say."
"Believe me, if I had all the time in the world I wouldn't be sitting here drowning my sorrows with watered down piss water."
"I guess."
"I would at least get some good shit to poison myself with." Miles grinned with a nod. "Then I'd probably go find the one that got away."
"And who would that be?"
"Marie Nolan." He smiled underneath his scruff, his eyes lightening a bit at the thought of her. "She sat in front of me in social economics class. She smelled like coffee and coconuts and used to laugh at my terrible jokes."
"You sure it was the jokes and not the beard?" Beth teased, her eyes sparkling as he scoffed back.
"Yes." Miles growled playfully. "I'm a real funny guy."
"Sure, sure." Beth appeased him with a soft pat on his shoulder. "Of course you're are."
Miles chuckled and continued without prompting. "We went out once, she'd just broken up with her ex and needed a kind ear."
"Sounds familiar." Beth replied dryly. "Did you force her to talk to you too?"
"I'm offend that you think so poorly of me."
"Yeah, well don't blame me for your terrible personality traits."
"As I was saying." Miles huffed out, "we went out once and then she ended back with her turd of a boyfriend. I think they got married and had kids."
"That also sounds familiar." Beth muttered under her breath.
"If I had the time and no consequences I would end up on her doorstep and I'd tell her all the cheesy shit I hadn't. Like when she laughed her eyes would turn this bright green, like some damn grassy hill in Ireland. It always made my day."
"That's sweet."
"Oh shut up." He scoffed, grabbing the pint of beer sitting nearby. "I'd be telling her not you."
"It's still sweet."
"Whatever." Miles grunted, his shoulder shifting uncomfortably at her soft words. "Anyways, I would be living my life to the fullest is what I'm saying."
"So what? I just keep living the same day, experience the same pain?"
"No." Miles scoffed, his hand scratching at his beard. "You remember everything right? So skip the shit you don't wanna experience and do what you want. You got the advantage right?"
Beth merely stared back at him as he raised his eyebrows.
"You know what everyone's gonna do before they do it, so use that shit. Go do the things you want to."
"Like what?"
"You tell me."
"I." Beth paused, her mouth slightly parted as she contemplated. "I always wanted to learn a second language."
"See." He asked, his finger wagging at her. "There you go. Learn something new. You got plenty of time. Spend it with all those rugrats you say you did this crazy shit for."
"Yeah, you're right."
"No shit, Sherlock." He smiled at her, giving her elbow a friendly bump with his. "Save the sulking for us dying mortals."
I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go 'round tonight
It's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
Beth sat on the bench at the park, her lips quirking as she watch the little blonde boy spill out of the slide, his laugh just as shrill as the first few dozen times she'd heard it. Time was passing, she knew by the exhaustion she felt, but the date stayed the same.
Beth was changing though, she could feel the weariness in her bones that never seemed to fade but also her resolve was slowly hardening.
After spending the day and night drinking with Miles, she'd woken up determined to use the seemingly abundance of time she had more productively than committing crimes and drinking her liver away.
When the kids woke up she'd rounded them up and instead of Dean shuffling them off to school she announced they'd play hookie together. Dean was confused by her sudden relaxed mindset about the kids education but left her to it. Beth decided she would take them to the park for a day of fun and then pizza and ice cream. She'd realized she hadn't spent as much time with her babies as she would like, her life bogged down with fake money, drugs, the FBI murder investigation and last but certainly not least, Rio.
It all started with her need to provide for them. The grocery store, the secret shoppers. She wanted to say everything was for them but Beth knew she could've made different choices. There's always a choice and hers was just over the line from needed into wanted.
Craved. Ached. Lusted.
With all of that in mind, Beth was going to make a concerted effort to spend what was her last day of many last days with her kids. She needed to go back to what it all was about. Her babies.
"Donde está la biblioteca?" Beth repeated after the audible book playing over the vans speakers, her eyes on the neighborhood in front of her. Gazing at the same people she'd seen repeatedly move about their day like every day before. The women in yellow was two seconds from dropping her coffee mug, the liquid bound for the joggers shoes as he knocked the her over. Beth cringed when the scene unfolded as she recalled but smiled as she watched the man fawn over her. His hands helping the woman from the ground, their eyes connecting as they spoke. She'd begun to enjoy the little interactions that no one but her seemed to notice. Subtle events that never seemed to change.
" Dónde está el baño?"
Beth glanced at her clock and made a mental note of the time as Turner exited the police station with his partner. The first time she'd followed them, she'd lost sight in the morning traffic, but now she knew their exact route and timing.
Turner and his partner slid into their vehicle, the black suv pulling out of the station's parking lot. Beth ducked down in her seat as they drove passed, her hand turning the key in the ignition.
"que hora es?" The accented voice asked over the scratchy speakers.
"Time to get coffee." Beth replied, her foot pressing the gas pedal as she followed the pair through traffic.
" Dónde está la estación de policía?"
QShe knew they would stop at the cafe on third avenue before they headed towards her house. The coffee cups they'd had with them on the last repeated day featured the shops name and trendy logo.
" Sabes dónde está el hospital?"
Beth looked down at her cellphone, the text from Dean coming through asking where she was. Beth hit send, the text she'd already composed for the question in the text box.
"Running errands, be home tonight."
I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go 'round tonight
It's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
She was beginning to perfect the timing of events in her circumferential life, her steps always just ahead of Turner and Rio. It took a few tries but eventually she was able to outmaneuver them with a borrowed car and an early start. She figured out that if she stopped by Mrs. Nedimyers house at 6am she would be out getting her mail. With a small lie about car trouble and an emergency room visit for poor clumsy Jane, Beth walked away with keys to a SUV that Mrs Nedimyers' son bought her for grocery trips.
The kids were always enthusiastic to skip school, their eyes wide peering out the windows as though the world were different when they were at school. Beth smiled in the rearview at the girls as they whispered and laughed, Jane holding her dubby.
"Mommy."
"Yes, baby?" She smiled at Jane as she squirmed in her seat.
"How much longer?"
"Soon, bear. We can use the bathrooms when we get there." The little girl was right on time for her customary potty break.
Jane signed and stuck the corner of her blanket in her mouth as she peered out the window.
"Jane. No eating the dubby." Beth gave her an exaggerated frowny face until she giggled and stopped sucking on the blanket.
It was moments like that between her kids that were taking all of the dark clouds she was consumed with and lining them with silver. If the rest of her life was enjoying the extra time she spent with kids until the sun rose again, she could do it.
It wouldn't be the worst limbo imaginable.
Jane and Emma were perched on the railing over the big cat exhibit, their wide eyes on the large black shape winding back and forth along the window. Beth stood behind them, her own gaze pinned to the sleek moving cat. It reminded her of Rio. The swagger of long limbs, sharp cheekbones and eyes to match. She could feel the intelligence and curiosity in its gaze, a look that had the hair rising on the nape of her neck like he did.
"Mommy."
"Yes, dear." Beth blinked hard before glancing down at Jane.
"Can we get ice cream?"
"And pizza!" Kenny chimed in as he and Danny joined them at the enclosure. They'd just finished looking at the gorilla exhibit, both boys flushed from the sun.
"We always do, silly." Beth quipped, booping Jane on the nose while taking Danny's hand. "Let's stop at the bathrooms and gift shop first though. Emma needs her penguin keychain."
Beth watched her kids play in the arcade area of the pizza restaurant, their joyful smiles bringing her own lips up. She giggled as Jane danced in circles as the game spit out three tickets for her stack.
She'd learned more about her children's individual personalities in the last several weeks of repeated days than she had their whole lives. Each were growing into wonderful humans and she thanked her lucky stars they were all her babies.
"So, I hear Turner found your boy." Rio's voice jolted her out of her reverie, his dark shape sliding into her peripheral vision. She wasn't sure where she misstepped until she looked down at her phone, cursing her stupidity for forgetting to turn off her find a friend app that morning.
Beth glared at him as he sat in the booth across from her, "He's not my boy. He's a disgusting rapist."
Rio's eyes narrowed at her comment, his jaw rocking as he asked, "Whatchu mean?"
Shaking her head, she looked away from him and muttered, "It doesn't matter. You've already decided what you want me to do and I'm not doing it."
"You think you know it all, ma."
She sighed tiredly, her eyes going to her kids but her gaze unfocused. "You have no idea what I know."
"I know you're gonna drop all those babies off and m'gonna pick you up later, Elizabeth."
"Yeah, I know." Beth sighed, her blue eyes flicking to his shape sliding out of the booth and into the crowd. "You always do."
I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go 'round tonight
It's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
After spending the last several dozen days with her children, Beth needed a day off. She'd woken as usual and when the brood were sent off to school she headed out. Sticking to the backroads, she wove her way out of the suburbs and into the city.
After a quick stop at the bank to pick up a couple bags of cash at gunpoint, she headed to a parking garage to stash her minivan. Beth then walked two blocks to the luxury car dealership. She picked out the shiniest Mercedes with the most amenities, the clerk tripping over himself as she laid out enough stacks of cash to pay in full.
The seats were buttery soft leather and every surface was lacquered walnut, polished to a impressive sheen.
"Let's go for a drive, baby." She stroked the wheel and armrest affectionately before she finally pulled out of the parking lot.
As the roads went from city to suburbs and into forest, Beth headed towards the border. She woke up with an urge for a road trip and some alone time. Every moment with her kids was cherished but everyone needed a break once in awhile.
She synced her phone and chose an upbeat playlist, her fingers tapping and lips murmuring along to the words as she headed for Ontario.
The spa was the top rated spot in the city bordering the river, it's views of the waterfront unrivaled. Beth relaxed back into the plush leather recliner looking at the sun setting on the dark rippled surface, as a woman massaged and moisturized her calves. She wiggled her toes when the warm bubbles in the foot spa tickled the arches of her feet. The mani-pedi was her last stop before she would head for dinner in the luxury hotels five-star restaurant.
"What color are we thinking for your toes?" The salon attendant asked as she dried her feet off.
"Something... classic."
"I've got just the thing."
Her newly painted red toes were highlighted by the peep toe heels she wore. The navy silk wrap dress clung to every curve of her body, the plunge of it showing off the barest of hints of the lacy things beneath. The soft curls in her strawberry blonde hair framed her pale skin and smoky eyes makeup. She looked and felt sexier than ever before as she stood in the elevator on her way downstairs for dinner.
It'd been far too many days since she'd felt such relaxation, which is why she hadn't noticed the two men flanking her as she walked through the lobby of the hotel. It was also why when they each gripped an elbow and steered her into the trunk of a black sedan she didn't put up a fight. Beth was angry at herself for yet again being sniffed out by Rio and his boys. She mostly was pissed though that her entire day of stress relieving body treatments was being wasted as she bumped around the uncomfortable trunk space.
It was a couple hours before the hood was opened, the two kidnappers tugging her out of it without finesse. Beth grumbled in frustration as her new dress was damaged by the rough handling.
"Great, this was brand new." She huffed, smoothing down the fabric that was snagged on the trunk latch.
"Why hasn't he capped this bitch?" Beth stared at him with clenched teeth, the Spanish flowing between the men no longer foreign to her after so many days of audiobooks.
"No bitch's worth gettin' locked up for. Boss' pussy whipped."
The second man laughed gruffly as he leered down at her cleavage. "Don't forget those big titties."
Beth glared at Rio as he paced between Turner and her in the open spaced loft. She had such a different idea in mind for her evening and after enjoying her pampering all day, to end up right where she started, was infuriating.
"You look good, ma." Rio drawled with a slow smirk, his tongue darting out as his eyes roamed over her curves in the silk navy blue dress. "That new?"
"It was new." Her words were snippy, as she swept her hand over the wrinkles.
"Don't worry, I got you somethin' way better." He rasped, tipping that sharp jawline towards the bound FBI agent.
"Why do you have to ruin everything?"
"Who me?" Rio chuckled with a boyish grin, his hand pressed against his chest. "You're always saying I don't help? That's me helping."
"You're not helping, you're trying to blackmail me. Like always."
"I'm trying to teach you to clean up your messes. He's your problem. So, take care of it. Put those big girl panties on."
"Don't say panties!" Beth huffed, crossing her arms under her chest as Rio laughed under his breath, his lazy stride moving towards her.
"Why, it makin' you wet, mami?"
"We've done this all before." She murmured softly, her retreating steps leading her into the kitchen.
"Yeah, we keep goin' in circles." He took a large step forward to corner her against the countertop. His gun was flat on the counter, his hands framing her hips.
"He knows your entire bag of tricks, what you do, who you are." His smile was smug as his tongue swiped over his bottom lip and he drove the threat home. "He even knows what makes your garden grow."
Beth rolled her eyes at his words, the fear of any of his threats long faded.
"Oh. My bad. Yeah, I might've let that last one slip. Now, a guy like that can't let that slide." His chest brushed against hers, his scent filling her senses with nostalgia. She ached to return to the days they'd spent together, the few times he believed her and they'd tried to survive the sunrise. It never worked but she couldn't help but try yet again to push against the boundaries of her circling existence.
Rio rasped lowly in her ear but loud enough for Turner to hear. "How does that saying go? Cockle shells, silver bells, bodies all in a row?"
"Can we just... stop this, Rio?" She asked softly, her blue eyes rising to his dark hooded gaze. "I've lived it too many times and I can't bear it."
"What you not a boss bitch anymore, baby?" He smirked, his head cocking back to peer down his nose at her. "You never learn, Elizabeth. You keep thinkin' cuz I been in you, that m'gonna cut you a break."
"I know you won't." She hissed, her temper flaring up instantly as she pushed at his chest. "You're too big of a selfish prick."
Rio's hand flew to her neck, his fingers gripping the narrow curve firmly. "Watch your tone, Elizabeth."
"No." She peered up at him with a set jaw. "You're gonna listen to me."
"Ma..."
"No." She snapped harshly. "I've been living this day over and over and over and I'm tired of doing this with you."
"Whatchu talkin' about?"
"I'm stuck reliving this day. I wake every morning to September 18th and I can't tell you how many times I've explained all of this to you."
"My boys pick you up from a bar, baby?" Rio drawled sarcastically, his eyes tracing her flushed face.
"I'm tired of the blood." Beth's teeth ground at the surge of pain she felt at the thought of all the past repeated evenings. "We all end up covered in it."
Rio's eyes darkened at the comment, his hand cupping her throat firmly but not painfully. "You try to kill the king in these dreams, darlin?"
"I don't try, I did." She yanked her body away from him, slapping away his reaching hands. "M'not doing it again."
"You actually believe this shit?"
"Believe it? I live it. I don't know how many times it's been. Enough times for me to learn Spanish. I can speak it almost as well as I can understand it. By the way, your boys think you're whipped by my tight pussy and big tits."
She smirked at the anger that flickered across his face before his eyes focused on the fact that she was speaking fluent Spanish.
"It's been long enough that I read every book on my bookcase, even the obscure sailing books Dean's father gave us for Christmas five years ago. Ask me anything about clippers from the 15th century."
"Elizabeth."
"Long enough to know everything there is to know about every taxonomic rank of every genus and species at the downtown zoo. I take my kids there every week. The Panthera onca exhibit is my favorite. Its called a panther in other countries but it's a jaguar in the Americas. It reminds me of you."
Tears blurred her eyes, "Sometimes I go there by myself and I watch it stalk the enclosure, back and forth and I feel at home. We're both locked in cages. Every day is just another yesterday and I'm tired."
Rio stared at her with something close to concern before it slid away to that cold indifference she hated most. He could cut her off from everything he was thinking with a blink of his eyes. It was one of his most frustrating qualities.
"You deep in the bourbon , Ma?"
"Stop being a asshole." Beth snapped, her words choked off as he backed her into the kitchen island.
"What I say about that tone, Elizabeth."
"You believed me once." She murmured as he stared down at her. "You took me to your spot and we waited for the sun to come up. You wanted to help. I thought it'd be different because you believed me but I fell asleep and voila same shit, same day."
Rio's brow furrowed, his head cocking slightly, "My spot?"
"Yeah." Beth shrugged with a frustrated sigh, "the bridge. Out passed the old train depot. Your thinking spot."
He was stepping away from her so suddenly she felt off balance, her knees buckling until she braced her back against the countertop.
Rio wiped a contemplative hand over his mouth and jaw, his dark eyes scanning her every nuance for a solid minute. "nobody knows about that place."
Beth opened her mouth to reply, but movement out of the corner of her eye caught both of their attentions. Turner had gotten loose, the occurrence of which that only happened once before, had slipped her mind.
The pair struggled, Turner knocking Rio off balance with a heavy shoulder. Beth gasped as they fought, the gun going off once into the ceiling as hands grappled for control.
"Rio." She cried out as the barrel was nearly pointed at his face.
Turner yanked the weapon in his direction, trying to gain control, but Rio thwarted his attempts with a left punch to his ribs. Beth stepped towards them hoping to figure out what to do when the gun went off twice in rapid succession.
The air seemed to be sucked out of the room in an instant. Beth's lips parted with a sharp gasp before her body seemed to crumble in on itself. Her knees buckled and she folded unceremoniously to the hard wood floors.
She blinked away the dark spots in her vision as she stared up at the lofts vaulted ceilings.
There was the sound of a struggle and a grunt of pain before Rio's voice was snarling out death threats and blackmail incentive. She couldn't make out much, the pain splintering across her chest and ribs was too encompassing.
Rio's face appeared above her, his dark eyes angrier than she'd ever seen them. His large hand was suddenly pressing down on the wound, the pain ricochetting off her ribs and stomach. Beth moaned in pain, her hands weakling pushing at his wrist.
"Stay wit me, mami." He cupped her neck as she coughed up blood. "I got you."
"M'sorry." Her bloodied lips trembled as her fingers curled into his shirt. "I-I..t-tried to.. stop... I can't st..." red spattered across Rio's shirt and jaw.
"Shit." Rio cursed, pressing on the pooling blood on her chest and shoulder. "Don't talk. Just hold on, ma."
Beth struggled to breath with the pressure on her chest, her breathes coming in short pants. Rio shifted slightly, causing a surge of panic in her body.
"don't go."
"I ain't goin' nowhere."
"I didn't want..." Beths words were wet and slurred without focus. "quit."
"What?"
"Dean." She coughed again, her lips speckled with blood. Black spots were fading the edges of her vision, the lack of oxygen and bloodloss slowing her heart beat.
Rio was staring at her as she choked and gasped, a look of revelation in his eyes at her words.
"My babies or you." She sobbed, before it turned to rough wet coughs. She'd died before in her repeats but never slowly and with painful clarity. Everything felt too real after so many days of monotony.
"Shh, Shh, it's okay, darlin'. It's okay." Rio's voice cracked uncharacteristically while pressing down on her chest, blood seeping between his fingers.
Beth couldn't speak her lips numb and throat full of tears and blood. She peered up at him with watery eyes, her mascara bleeding down her paling cheeks. Their eyes met and she finally saw behind the mask, a flash of something raw and real.
"You ain't just work, Elizabeth." He rasped lowly, his dark gaze intense.
Her heart stuttered at his words, as her rough breathing became a choked gasp. Rio angled her body trying to keep her airway clear but soon darkness took over and she lost consciousness.
I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go 'round tonight
It's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
Beth's eyes fluttered at the familiar song, her lids peeling open to look for her phone on the end table. Her vision was blurry though, the heavy feeling of exhaustion making her head thick and eyes scratchy. The images of the evening before flickered behind her lids as she tried to wake up. She remembered the pain that had bloomed across her chest and stomach, she could still feel it. The taste of copper was still on her tongue from coughing up blood, the flood of emotions still clogging her throat. She blinked away the heaviness in her lids until her vision finally cleared and she realized the end table didn't contain her phone and the sound had ceased to exist. It was then that she let her gaze trail over the room to find the unfamiliar settings.
The walls were no longer the taupe wallpaper that she painstakingly hung after buying it on sale from the designer home decor store downtown. The tall dresser that was more form than function wasn't in its spot and the cream tapestry drapes were not framing the patio doors. The white walls and glass panel windows were that of a hospital, the machines next to her blinking numbers and dripping fluids into tubes connected to her body.
Her heart kicked up as she tried to press herself upright in bed, the sound of it beeping loudly on the heart monitor next to her. A groan was torn from her throat as sharp, brilliant pain shot through her sternum and shoulder with the movement.
"Easy, ma." A hoarse voice spoke from her right, shocking her more than the fact that she was waking up in a different location for the first time is so many days she lost track.
Rio sat in a stiff backed chair near the edge of the hospital bed, his head cocked slightly as he looked her over with hooded eyes. He seemed tired, his eyes shadowed and jaw scruffy. It wasn't a common look for him. The moment stretched silently, her gaze darting over his tense jaw and dark eyes while he stared back.
She'd never thought she would get passed that horrible night. Beth thought she was doomed to live in the worst moment of her life, in a twisted limbo with no way out for all time. She'd lived and died on that day for so long she wouldn't be surprised if it'd been years of her life.
Beth wasn't sure what was different that evening to cause such a change. Maybe the right combination of things occured to reset fates path. Maybe she'd grown enough as a human to escape limbo. Maybe Rio and her had finally broken through some kind of personal barrier and they could both move forward.
Beth had a feeling that she would never know but she found herself not wanting to question it.
The only time she'd ever felt such overwhelming relief, while being in incredible pain, was after giving birth to four beautiful babies. Even that seemed to pale in comparison to what she felt in that moment staring at Rio at the start of a brand new day. It was though she, herself had just been reborn.
"Hey." She rasped weakly, her eyes glassy as she swallowed back a sob. "You're here."
"Yeah, mama." Rio replied, his voice a gravelly rasp in the quiet hospital room. He leaned forward in his chair, his scent filling her nose as his pinkie finger brushed hair from her temple and followed the curve of her cheek.
He looked her over with warm eyes before he affirmed softly. "I'm here."