Chapter 12
Secrets
Emmy's P.O.V
I heard a light beep as my eyes fluttered open. It took a minute for my eyes to focus but it didn't take long for me to realize I was in a hospital room. I looked down to my arm to see a couple of IVs in each arm. 'They must be giving me another blood transfusion,' I thought looking at the red liquid behind the clear tube going into my arm.
I looked around the room for a moment to see Jonathan asleep in a chair next to me. Memories of giving birth at home with Jonathan ran through my mind.
"Jonathan?" I said softly putting my hand on top of his. His eyes opened.
"Emmy, you're awake." He yawned, rubbing his eyes a bit before taking my hand again.
"How are you feeling?" he questioned.
"I'm fine. How long have I been out?" I asked him, hoping to find out what happened before I blacked out.
"Only a few hours, according to Dr. Elmer you tore during childbirth causing you to lose a lot of blood. This is the third bag of blood they've had you on, trying to replenish your body's blood supply."
"Where's Alex? Is he alright?
"He's fine. The nurses wanted to keep him in the nursery until you woke up. The doctor looked him over and said he was very healthy baby." Jonathan told me giving me a small tired smile.
"Are you ok?" I inquired.
"I'm fine, just a little tired after the day's events."
"I bet it's not every day you deliver a baby."
"Hopefully it's the last time."
"You mean you don't want to do it again?" I tried to joke a bit.
"If the baby hadn't been our son and it hadn't been you in labor, I would have just walked on by." Jonathan lamented. I was about to say something when Dr. Elmer came in.
"Ah, Mrs. Crane, it's good to see you awake." Dr. Elmer observed, flipping through a chart. "You gave us quite a scare for a while."
"Sorry. I really wasn't trying to." I stated. Dr. Elmer took my pulse for a minute before turning to Jonathan.
"Do you want to check it?" he offered. Jonathan stood up and checked my pulse.
"It seems fast." Jonathan remarked.
"It is a bit fast. I think you are out of the danger zone but I want to keep you here a few days as a precaution." Dr. Elmer informed us.
"That should be fine." I responded.
"You sure you don't want to deliver any more babies? You did a great job delivering your son." Dr. Elmer teased Jonathan a bit.
"I'm happy in my field of interest." Jonathan answered a bit annoyed.
"I'll have the nurse bring your son in. I'm sure you're both anxious to see him." Dr. Elmer stated while leaving the room.
A few minutes later a nurse rolled in a bassinet type bed with a swaddled baby inside. I smiled as the nurse handed me my sleeping baby boy. He really did look like a miniature version of Jonathan. Jonathan looked tired as he sat on the edge of the bed.
"Why don't you go home and get some sleep? You still have class tomorrow and I know you're exhausted." I suggested.
"I'm ok; I think the couch over there turns into a bed." Jonathan remarked.
"Are you sure? You really don't have to stay here if you don't want to. I'm sure we'll both be fine."
"I'm staying with my family."
…..
Jonathan's P.O.V
A few days passed, Emmy and Alex were able to come home and everything was going as smoothly as it possibly could be with a new baby. It was good to have Alex and also good to have Emmy here to take care of him. My schedule essentially stayed the same with school, work and homework.
I was walking home from work one day when I saw a bunch of police cars with sirens and lights on. They were in the same direction as the apartment but I couldn't really see what was going on until I got closer. There had been a shooting in one of the apartments in the complex we lived in.
I quickly made my way through the crowd of policemen when I saw Emmy holding our week old son.
"Emmy?" I called out to her. She looked at me as I made my way to her.
"Are you two alright?" I asked her a bit nervously.
"We're fine, but that cute little old couple that lived across from us, there was a shooting and they were some of the victims."
…..
Later that night I was in my office doing some more homework when I heard gun fires. I quickly got up and yelled for Emmy. It didn't make sense, this was usually a somewhat safe neighborhood and this was the second shooting in only a day.
"Emmy?" I called out again as I ran out of my office, I saw her and Alex huddled on the floor in the nursery across the hall from my office. I ran over to them and sat on the floor with them. After a few minutes the gun fire ended.
"We're moving." I announced to Emmy as this place seemed to be becoming a hot spot for fun fires.
"But I love this place." Emmy said as I took Alex from her.
"I know, but its not safe anymore. Tomorrow, we're going apartment shopping in a better part of the city."
Emmy's P.O.V
A couple of days passed since the shootings. We still hadn't found a new place to live yet, but we were on the lookout.
I made my way through the docks to the fisherman's market, hoping to get some fresh shrimp to add to the vegetables and rice I was hoping to cook for dinner that night.
Jonathan was in class and Karl had agreed to take Alex so I could go shopping alone. Plus I didn't want to bring my 2 week old out to the docks. It was cool and breezy out here and I didn't want him to catch a cold.
I had picked up the shrimp and was on my way back home when I ran into a couple; I thought I had left behind in Iowa.
"Emily?" the woman asked as she recognized me.
"Mrs. Black….its good to see you again." I lied to the woman. I had hoped I'd never see her or her husband again. I didn't want to remember.
"Emily." Mr. Black acknowledged. I could hear the loathing this man had for me from the tone in his voice. I didn't blame him, I felt like I deserved the hate.
"We better get going Margaret; we don't want to be late." Mr. Black spat to his wife. Mrs. Black gave me a sympathetic smile as she walked away with her husband.
Memories of what had happened flooded back hitting me like a bullet. I walked back to my apartment deep in thought. I mindlessly opened the front door to reveal my brother who was making funny faces talking in a high pitched voice to my son. I smiled a bit at the site before I walked into the kitchen to make.
Karl followed me into the kitchen.
"How was shopping?" he asked me.
"Fine." I whispered hoping to just move on. I had a new life now…I didn't want this to affect the life I had here.
"Hey, are you ok?" my brother inquired noticing my mood.
"Yeah…I'm fine…I'm just in a bit of shock." I answered.
"What happened?"
"I…I ran into the Black's today." I admitted.
"The Blacks? You mean Anna's parents?" he exclaimed. I nodded.
"I knew the past would eventually catch up to me….I had just hoped it wouldn't be this soon. I don't know what I can say to them to make things better."
"Do they still blame you for what happened?"
"Of course they do, Karl. Their daughter is dead." I breathed in a bit sharply.
"What happened was not your fault. The man responsible was convicted and is sitting in a prison cell." He justified.
"I know it wasn't my fault…..but I still feel guilty." I admitted to him, before putting the shrimp in the fridge.
A few hours later, I was in the kitchen making dinner when Jonathan came home. Alex was asleep and Karl was in the kitchen keeping me company, more like trying to keep an eye on me.
"Hi." I said to Jonathan as he gave me a quick kiss before he disappeared into his office. Dinner was mostly quiet, I wasn't really in the mood to talk I just wanted the day to be over with.
Karl went home after to dinner to study. I was washing dishes when Jonathan came in with his empty plate. One of his hands went to my waist as his other hand put the plate in the sink.
"Are you alright, Emmy? You seem off tonight?" Jonathan inquired.
"I'm fine." I answered trying to give him a small smile. He went to say something when Alex started to cry.
"I better go take care of him." I told Jonathan, relieved to be getting out of that conversation. I didn't want to tell him.
After Alex was fed, changed and happily asleep again, I sat down on the couch and attempted to read one of the textbooks Jonathan had lent me. I could feel a silent tear glide down my check when I heard Jonathan come into the room. I quickly wiped the tear away hoping Jonathan wouldn't notice as I tried to put on a smile.
"Are you crying?" he quietly asked sitting next to me.
"I'm fine. I just ran into someone down at the docks that I…." I started.
"You went to the docks? Emmy I don't want you going down there, it's dangerous." Jonathan interrupted me.
"I know…I really wish I had just listened to you and stayed away. You're always right." I admitted to him looking to the ground.
"What happened?" he inquired.
"Nothing bad. I just saw some people I thought I had left back in Iowa."
"Who?"
"Just someone I never wanted to see again."
"Why?"
"You don't have to be my shrink Jonathan…I'm fine."
"If you were fine you'd be able to concentrate on the text book I gave you." Jonathan observed as he noticed the book in my hands. I thought a moment. I wasn't sure if I was really ready to talk about it yet. It had been almost two years now but I still didn't want to relive those moments of horror.
"Emmy, other you tell me what's going on or I'll go force it out of your brother." Jonathan threatened, annoyed at the silence and my resilience to talk.
"It's been close to two years now; sometimes I wake up hoping it was all just a horrible nightmare but nothing changes. It never will."
"What are you talking about?"
"The reason I came to Gotham."
"I thought you came to Gotham because of your father." Jonathan asked a bit confused.
"He's part of the reason, but I could have handled him on my own."
"Then what?"
"I left because of the ghost." I admitted looking over at him and he analyzed what I was saying.
"Are you seeing things?" he asked me a bit paranoid now. I smiled.
"No, nothing like that, I mean the memory. Back at the University in Iowa I lived in the dorms. I had a roommate named Anna. We were friends, not the best of friends, but we liked each other and would hang out. It was our Spring Break and I was heading home for the week. I invited her to stay the week with my family she declined saying she wanted to spend it with her boyfriend, Robert. So I left and went back to the farm. A few hours after I left, I guess they got into an argument.
"When I got back to the dorms a week later, I found Anna, hanging from the ceiling fan. I called the police and they were there within a matter of minutes. They cut Anna down and took her to the morgue. The bastard had slit her throat and hung her from the ceiling trying to make it look like a suicide. He was convicted of course and he's on death row, waiting in a cell now. I almost didn't finish the semester; I couldn't stay in that dorm room, not after that. I was able to room with another friend until the semester finished up. The whole time I was at that school, from there on out, I felt like a ghost was following me, blaming me for what had happened." I quietly said looking up to Jonathan now.
"Emmy, I fail to see how any of that is your fault. Did she confide in you that she was being abused? Or show any signs?" Jonathan asked me, as he processed the story I had just told him. I shook my head.
"No, she never said anything to me. She always seemed so happy and she loved Robert so much. Everyone thought they were going to get married. If I had stayed a few more hours though, maybe things could have been different; maybe she'd still be alive." I tried to rationalize.
"Or you could have been killed too. Emmy what happened wasn't your fault." Jonathan stressed as he took my hand. I looked at our hands for a moment.
"I ran into Anna's parents at the docks. They blame me for what happened." I told him.
"You know people tend to be irrational when they're stricken with grief. You weren't responsible."
"I know you're right, it's just hard not to feel somewhat responsible." I confined with him. Jonathan gave my hand a bit of a squeeze before leaning in to kiss me. Before our lips could meet we heard a soft cry coming from Alex's room.
"I better get him." I whispered to Jonathan.
"Why don't you let me take care of him tonight? You could use the rest." Jonathan offered. I smiled.
"If I'm ever going to get the hang of this breastfeeding thing, I think I better be the one to feed him." I answered.
"Well, feed him, change his diaper and then let me take care of him" Jonathan offered.
"You have homework."
"Let me worry about that, come on Em…let me do this for you." Jonathan said standing up and following me into Alex's room. I smiled; I don't think anyone had ever called me "Em" before.
"Ok." I agreed, him giving him a small kiss. I really had no idea how I managed to snatch such a wonderful man.
…
Author's Note: Hello everyone. Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Thanks to those who are following/favoring my story. And a special thanks to ZabuzasGirl and rubymaya92 for reviewing. Chapter 13 will be up later tonight. Feel free to leave a review if you have a moment. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. Thanks!-Lin
