FAMILY
Chapter 6
We come back to Bobby and Annie with this chapter. The time frame is not too long after the events of Happy Family.
Just a word about the events of this chapter. They are based on the true life events that happened to my sister, brother-in-law, and niece a few years ago. I want to thank all three of them for allowing me to use such a traumatic event. And I want to thank my sister and my niece for being so willing to share details with me. Of course the names have been changed, the events have been shaped to fit into my LOCI universe, and I have added a few details of my own creation. But I added very little because the real life story is dramatic enough all by itself. This is a long chapter and I apologize, but I didn't want to leave anything out.
Bobby Goren stood completely still with a look of sorrow on his face. Annie stood behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She laid her cheek against his back and murmured words of comfort. Then Alex Eames' sarcastic voice broke the moment.
"Oh for crying out loud, Goren! It's just a car; it's not one of your kids. Now get in and let's get out of here. I'm freezing."
Annie buried her face in his back and tried to smother her laughter. Bobby sighed and turned away from the tow truck pulling his Mustang convertible out onto the highway. He looked at the two women and frowned.
"It's so nice to have the support of my partner and my wife at a time like this," he said in the same sarcastic tone Alex had used.
Now Annie couldn't contain herself and she burst out into peals of laughter that carried on the cold, crisp, autumn air. He looked at her with a pained expression that only made her laugh harder. He shrugged and moved to open the front passenger door for Annie. But she shook her head and moved to the back door.
"No way am I going to let you sit in the back seat and get cramps in your legs," she said firmly.
She got in the back and scooted over to sit behind Alex so that Bobby could move his seat back all the way. Bobby sighed and looked at Alex standing in the cold with her eight-month pregnant bulk wrapped in a heavy coat. He started to move around to open her door, but she gave him a look that stopped him.
"Don't even think about it. I'm pregnant not an invalid," she said as she opened her own door and sat down heavily in the driver's seat.
Bobby sighed, looked once more down the road where his beloved Mustang had disappeared, and shrugged again. He got into the passenger seat of Alex's car. Annie was still giggling as Alex pulled out onto the highway.
Bobby and Annie had been to visit his mother earlier that day. They left the kids with a babysitter because Frances' behavior had been erratic of late. The visit had gone well, for the most part. Frances went off on a tirade about Bobby not caring about his brother, but Annie was finally able to distract her. They had even played poker and, as usual, Frances and Bobby laughed at Annie's consistent losses.
Since the children weren't with them, they had driven to Carmel Ridge in Bobby's Mustang. They were enjoying the drive back, talking and laughing and holding hands like teenagers. They enjoyed it, that is, until the car broke down half-way home. Bobby had gotten it off the road and looked under the hood, but it was beyond his expertise. Bobby called a tow truck to take the Mustang to Lewis' garage. Then he called Alex and asked her to pick them up and give them a ride home. She arrived just as the tow truck was ready to pull away.
"I like classic cars as well as the next person, and I admit that Mustang is a beauty, but you are entirely too attached to the thing," Alex opined, causing a fresh outburst of giggles from the back seat.
Bobby turned to scowl at Annie before telling Alex, "It might interest you to know that car was the reason I met my wife, although it doesn't seem to have the same sentimental value for her as it does for me."
"I'm s…sorry, Babe," Annie said, trying to stop giggling. "You know I love that car. It holds precious memories for me, too. It's just that…well, Alex is right…you are awfully attached to it."
"Hey, wait," Alex interrupted. "You two met because of a '67 Mustang? How did that happen?"
Bobby gave Annie one more look to see if she was going to start laughing again. "The car belonged to Lewis. I was home on leave from Korea and I was helping him restore it. Lewis got hurt, cut his arm, and I took him to the ER." He paused and smiled at the memory before continuing. "There was this blond nurse who took care of him and….well….that's how we met. After I took Lewis home, I went back to the hospital and asked her if I could buy her lunch."
The giggling fit was over as Annie also smiled at the memory of that day in the ER. Alex glanced in her rear-view mirror and over at her partner.
"You aren't going to climb back there and start making out are you? Because if you do I'll pull this car over and toss you both out," she said.
Bobby and Annie both laughed as he said, "I was considering it, but we'll restrain ourselves."
"Let's try a safer subject. How was your visit with your mother?"
"It was fine," Bobby said. "She still gets upset about Frank, but maybe things will calm down once he's out of rehab. Annie asked Mom and Frank to come for Thanksgiving."
"I thought Frank wasn't speaking to you," Alex said to Annie.
"He's not. He hasn't said he would come. He wants to think about it," Annie said. "How about you, Alex? Do you have plans?"
"My family always gets together for Thanksgiving. This year it will be at my sister's house. So I'll be there, unless I'm in the hospital giving birth, that is."
The three of them continued talking. Annie became quiet and drowsy. Riding in the back seat always had that effect on her; a residual of her childhood and long drives with her aunt and uncle and cousins. She occasionally heard Bobby or Alex laugh.
She was immediately wide awake when several things all happened simultaneously. The car suddenly slowed and swerved. Bobby shouted, "Watch out!" at the same time that Alex exclaimed, "Is that a kid?!" As the car pulled sharply off the road she heard Alex yell, "Oh God! That car hit him!"
The car stopped and Alex threw it into park and cut the engine. She and Bobby were out of the car before Annie could even unbuckle her seat belt; both of them on their cell phones calling 911. As she opened her door and climbed out, Alex was at the open trunk of her car. She said, "I've got road flares," as she pulled something from the trunk. Bobby was running towards a car that was stopped on the road.
Annie ran after Bobby and caught up as he reached the car and leaned down to look under it. As Annie ran up to the car she caught sight of a dark-haired woman sitting with her hands gripping the steering wheel and staring straight ahead. She squatted next to where Bobby was kneeling and looked under the car. She gasped as she saw a young boy, no more than five or six years old, lying under the car. His right leg was under the back left tire. Alex jogged by, flares in her left hand and her right hand holding her large pregnant belly.
"I'll take care of traffic down here," she said as she passed.
Bobby looked up at her and said, "Eames, maybe you better stay in the car."
"Fat chance," she said without breaking stride.
Annie flattened herself on her stomach and scooted under the car. She examined the boy the best she could; she could barely raise her head under the car. His eyes were closed and there was a small amount of blood trickling from his nose and the corner of his mouth. His skin was very pale and moist. She couldn't see blood coming from anywhere but his mouth. He was breathing, but it was shallow. She felt for his pulse; it was there, but faint. Annie heard Bobby's voice speaking to someone; she assumed it was the driver of the car.
"Ma'am," Bobby called, knocking on the driver's door window. The woman behind the wheel still sat with her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were white. She stared straight ahead, not responding to Bobby's voice. He held his badge against the window and tried again. "Ma'am! I need you to put the car in park and open the door." He tried yelling at her and knocking on the window several more times.
Alex had set road flares in front and behind the car as she headed down the road. Traffic was busy and cars were slowing down and pulling over to see what was going on. It was dusk and she hoped the ambulance and troopers arrived soon as it would be dark within the hour. She closed off the far right lane, where the car was still sitting, and began directing traffic into the left lane. As people pulled over and emerged from their cars she instructed them to leave the area as soon as they could safely pull back into traffic. She wanted as few spectators as possible to lessen any interference for the ambulance and troopers.
Alex tried to concentrate on the job at hand and ignore the image in her head: Coming around that curve in the road and seeing the small boy standing on the side of the road, slowing down and swerving as far around him as possible, then watching in the rear view mirror as she pulled over. He was wearing a green hooded sweat shirt that he had pulled up. He was swinging back and forth with his arms in the air. She could see him watching her car go by and, still watching her car, he stepped into the road—right into the path of the next car. She watched in horror as the car, already slowing down, hit the boy with the front passenger-side bumper. He seemed to simply disappear from sight, but Alex saw the telltale "bump, bump" as first the front wheels and then the rear wheels rolled over his tiny body. She knew everything had happened within seconds, but in her mind it all moved in slow motion.
A man emerged from one of the cars pulling over to the side of the road. He jogged over to Eames and noted the badge she had clipped to the pocket of her jacket.
"Officer, I'm with FDNY. Can I go see if I can help?"
Bobby knelt on the ground and looked at Annie. Trying to keep his voice calm he told her, "Babe, you need to get out from under there now. The car is still in gear, the doors are all locked, and the driver isn't responding."
Annie asked, "Is she hurt?"
"No, I don't think so. But she's in shock and there's no telling what she might do. I need you to get out of there…now."
Annie shook her head. "I can't leave him, Bobby. We need to get this tire off his leg and get him out of here."
A man jogged up to Bobby and said, "I'm off duty FDNY. What do we need to do?"
Bobby looked up at the large firefighter. He took another look at Annie's determined face and sighed as he shook his head.
"OK, if we lift the back of the car can you pull him free?"
Annie nodded. Bobby got up and he and the firefighter both grasped the back bumper and lifted. Annie saw the tire lift just enough and she pulled the boy free of the tire and began scooting backwards, pulling him after her.
"Got him," she yelled. The men let the car back down and went back around to where Annie's legs were emerging from under the car. Bobby grasped first her thighs, then her hips, and pulled her the rest of the way out. She had a firm grasp under the boy's shoulders and Bobby pulled until they were both clear.
Bobby helped Annie to her feet as the firefighter leaned over the boy. His jacket was pulled partly up over his arms and the firefighter pulled it off. He picked the boy up and Annie watched as he carried him well off the road. She was struck by how tiny the boy looked in the arms of the big man. His head lolled back as one tiny arm and his legs dangled; she noticed that he only had one shoe on.
Bobby took some deep breaths and tried to slow his racing heart rate. Annie had been so focused on the child that he doubted it had even occurred to her what could have happened if the car had moved while she was under it.
"Are you OK?" he asked. She nodded and then followed the firefighter. Bobby looked down the road to where Alex was directing traffic. He thought briefly about taking over for her and trying again to get her to stay in the car, but he knew she would refuse. He turned back to the car and the woman still sitting frozen in the driver's seat. He needed to get that car off the road.
The firefighter laid the boy on a grassy patch of ground as Annie came up behind him. They knelt on either side. He put his hand out and said, "My name's Tom Spencer, FDNY." She shook his hand and said, "Annie Paine. I'm an ER nurse at St. Anthony's."
They gently rolled the little boy to check for injuries. There was no blood coming from anywhere except the small amount that trickled from his nose and mouth. His left arm and leg were broken, but Annie was more concerned about internal injuries. She realized how helpless she was to help him out here in the middle of nowhere; no equipment, no surgeons. His breathing was shallow and rapid, his pulse weak and also rapid.
She leaned down close to his face and whispered, "Hold on Baby, help is on the way," and whispered a prayer for him.
Bobby stood at the car, looking at the woman. She still stared straight ahead. He knocked on the window again and called, "Ma'am!" Finally she turned her head towards him and stared at him with blank eyes. "Roll the window down," he yelled. She let go of the steering wheel with one hand and shakily reached for the button to roll the automatic window down. Once it was down, Bobby reached across her to the gear shift and put it in "Park".
She looked up at him and said softly, "I saw something in front of me and now I can't see it."
Bobby said gently, "He was under the tire but we got him out."
"It's a child, isn't it?" The words were spoken so softly that Bobby almost didn't hear them. He leaned down, with his hands on either side of the open window.
"Yes Ma'am, it's a little boy," he said gently. "We need to get your car off the road. Why don't you get out and I'll move it for you, OK?"
She stared up at him for a moment. Bobby reached in, unlocked her door and opened it. He held his hand out to help her out but when she still made no move, he reached in and unbuckled her seat belt. He took her hand and gently tugged until she finally sighed and got out of the car. He stood so that he was blocking her view of the boy lying on the ground. He showed her his badge again and then turned her towards Alex's car.
"Please go stand over there by that car, Ma'am. I'm just going to move your car so that it's off the road and not blocking traffic or….rescue vehicles."
Annie and Tom Spencer knelt wordlessly over the little boy. Annie thought again how tiny he looked. His light brown hair stood out against his pale skin. As she watched, his shallow breathing slowed even more and then stopped. Annie glanced up at Tom.
She wiped the blood off his mouth and nose while Tom opened his shirt and the two of them began CPR; Annie giving him breaths through his small mouth as Tom did chest compressions. Both of them knew that it was unlikely he that he would survive, yet neither of them hesitated to try to save the small, still boy who had little hope.
Bobby got in the woman's car and drove it off the road several yards. He got out and looked around. Eames had traffic moving slowly but smoothly from the direction they had come, but he saw that traffic was backing up on the opposite side of the road as drivers slowed to get a look at the accident. He headed across the road to direct traffic and try keeping a lane open for troopers and an ambulance. He noticed that a small group of people was forming on the opposite side of the highway. There was a small trailer park set back from the road. It was a place for short-term RVs to stay, as well as a small number of permanent small trailers and RVs that people made their homes. The commotion had drawn the attention of the people in the trailer park and they were gathering on the side of the road trying to see what was going on.
As he directed cars to keep moving, he looked back at the driver of the car. She was still next to Eames' car, pacing. She had her cell phone out and she was punching keys over and over. She seemed frustrated as her calls did not seem to be going through. He looked over to where Annie and Tom Spencer were kneeling over the boy and he saw that they had begun administering CPR. The woman looked over at them once, and then looked quickly away and punched keys on her phone with increased agitation.
Finally, thought Alex as the first state trooper arrived. Soon there were several. Two of them came to where she was directing traffic and took over. They told her that an ambulance was about five minutes away. She headed back towards where Annie and the firefighter were giving CPR to the little boy. But she veered away as she noticed the group of people on the opposite side of the highway, obviously having come from the rundown trailer park. She thought that the boy must have come from that same trailer park and they needed to find his parents.
As she crossed the four lanes and approached the group, she could hear people murmuring questions and theories. "Can you see what's going on over there?" "Did someone hit a dog?" "I think a car ran off the road." "No, look at those people bending over there—someone must have gotten hit." "That woman over there on the phone, I think she was driving the car."
"I'm Detective Eames with the NYPD," Alex said.
One small, thin woman with long, stringy hair was craning her neck trying to get a look across the road. "Did that lady hit a dog, Detective," she asked. But before Alex could respond, the woman began looking around the group of people. "Kenny," she called. "Kenny? Hey have any of you seen Kenny?" She caught sight of another woman and said, "Hey Karen! Where's Kenny?"
The woman she addressed turned to look at her with a blank look. She was tall and thin. When she spoke, Alex could see her teeth were very bad. Junkie, she thought to herself.
"I don't know, I sent him back to your place about a hour ago," she said.
The first woman sighed disgustedly. "That boy is always wandering off! I'm gonna start paddling him good if he don't learn to stay where he's supposed to!"
Alex felt slightly sick to her stomach. She made her way over to the first woman and asked her, "Ma'am, how old is your son?"
"He's five, why?
"And what was he wearing today?"
The woman looked at her quizzically. "Wearing? Umm….I don't remem…..wait, uh, he was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, why?"
"Was…was he wearing a sweatshirt?"
"Oh yeah! His green sweatshirt with the hood….how did you know?"
Alex took a deep breath. "A little boy was hit by a car over there. He was wearing jeans and a hooded green sweatshirt. Could that be your son?"
"Kenny?! Kenny got hit by a car?! Oh God! Ken! My baby's been hit!" she wailed and collapsed into the arms of a man standing next to her. Both of them began crying and wailing.
The "junkie lady", as Alex thought of her, put her hands on her hips and said, "Well we'll just see about that!" She strode purposefully across the road in the direction of the little boy.
Alex looked quickly at the parents, but they were clinging to one another and showed no indication of moving across the road themselves to check on their son. She turned and followed the "junkie lady", trying to catch up to her longer strides. The woman stormed across the street and began yelling at Annie and Tom before she got to them.
"What the hell do ya'll think you're doin'? You can hurt someone if you don't know what you're doin', you know that? You can be sued!"
Alex caught up to her and tried to intercept her, but the woman began quickly pacing in a circle around them, her voice getting louder as she ranted.
"Do you two hear me?! This is hit and run! That driver better go to jail! And you two best stop what you're doin' and wait for the ambulance! Do you hear me? Hey, bitch! I said stop and I mean right now!"
Annie and Tom had ignored the woman as they continued CPR. But Annie suddenly felt herself lifted up and back as the woman grabbed her by her French braid and jerked her off her feet. She landed on her rear end with her hands under her.
Tom moved into one-rescuer CPR without breaking his rhythm, hoping that the blond nurse could fend for herself. But she didn't have to as her hair was suddenly released. Alex had come up and grabbed the woman by the front of her shirt as she stood over Annie. She roughly shoved her away from Annie and, using her extra pregnancy weight to her advantage, propelled the woman backwards and slammed her body against the car that had hit the boy. She continued to push her backwards until she was lying across the trunk of the car, gaping up at Alex's furious face as she loomed over her.
"You have two choices, Lady. Either you get your ass back across that street and stay there or I'll handcuff you, throw you in the back of a squad car, and haul you off to jail. What's it gonna be?"
As soon as the woman released her hold on her hair, Annie scooted back over to the boy and seamlessly took over respirations, while Tom continued chest compressions. He spared a quick glance up at the very small, very pregnant, very angry detective manhandling the woman, who was a good four inches taller.
Two troopers relieved Bobby directing traffic and he headed back across the street just in time to see a tall woman crossing the road with Alex seeming to be in pursuit. He broke into a run as he saw the woman grab Annie by the hair and pull her away from the boy. But by the time he reached them Alex had pulled the woman off of Annie, shoved her against the car, and was now quick-marching her back across the road with one arm bent behind her back. He approached Annie, wanting to make sure she was alright. But he said nothing as he could see she was completely focused on what she was doing.
He heard Alex ask in a low, angry voice, "Are you related to that boy?"
"N…no," the woman stammered. "I'm his babysitter."
"Well I hope they don't pay you much, because you aren't worth much as a babysitter."
The wail of a siren sounded and soon an ambulance came into view. It approached the spot where the boy was lying. There were people from the cars that had pulled off the road gathering around and Bobby moved them back to give the paramedics room to pull up close. The paramedics came around to the back of the ambulance and pulled out a large case and a gurney.
They pulled the gurney up next to the boy and one of them asked Bobby, "Can you tell us what happened?" Bobby told them as quickly and as briefly as possible the details of the accident, the placement of the boy under the car, and the actions of himself, Annie, and Tom.
One of the paramedics nodded and told Annie and Tom to stop CPR as they checked for breathing and pulse. She had a glimpse of blue eyes as they checked pupil reaction, but it was difficult to tell for sure because his pupils were fixed and dilated. He told them to resume as one quickly attached pads for the automated external defibrillator (AED) and the second one struggled to get an IV started. The AED monitored the boy's heart rhythm.
"Asystole," one of the paramedics stated.
Annie and Tom resumed CPR as the second paramedic administered medication through the IV. After two minutes they were told to stop while the paramedics checked the AED again. There still was no rhythm and they began CPR as the paramedic administered another dose of medications. Again there was no rhythm after two minutes of CPR. They tried once more with the same lack of response.
One of the paramedics shook his head and told them, "This is not going to be a good outcome, guys. We need to get him to the hospital where the doctors can evaluate him and…." He trailed off.
Pronounce him dead, Annie completed the sentence in her head. They lifted him onto the gurney and continued CPR as they wheeled him to the ambulance and lifted it in.
"Are the parents here," asked one. "One of them can ride to the hospital with us."
Alex walked up and said, "The parents are across the street but they refuse to come over here or to ride in the ambulance."
"Alright, then we're outta here!"
Annie and Tom stood outside the ambulance and the paramedics took over. One of them fitted a mask over the boy's mouth and nose and pumped oxygen through an ambu bag, while the second paramedic continued chest compressions. The second paramedic took over both compressions and respirations. The first paramedic got in the driver's seat and pulled out as he radioed the hospital with details of the patient they were bringing in.
Bobby, Annie, Alex, and Tom all stood for moment and watched the ambulance drive away. Bobby moved to put his arm around Annie and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Are you OK?" She nodded silently. "The boy?" he asked. She looked up at him sadly and shook her head "no".
Bobby looked back over to where the driver of the car was still pacing next to Alex's car. She was talking on the phone, gesturing with her free hand. She ended that call and once again began punching keys. Bobby quickly kissed the top of Annie's head and squeezed her shoulders, then walked towards the woman.
"Ma'am?" he said, approaching her. She looked up at him. He noted that she had dark hair and eyes. She looked to be Indian and he had noticed an accent earlier. She continued to stare at him wordlessly, the cell phone open in her hand. "Ma'am," he tried again. "Are you alright? Did you call someone to come and get you? I don't think you should drive right now."
"I…I called my husband…" she said.
"And he's coming to get you?"
"No…no, I told him to go to the hospital."
"The hospital?" Bobby asked.
"I told him to go to the hospital to check on the boy's condition," she explained. "I…I'm trying to call my son to come and get me, but I can't seem to remember his number."
Bobby sighed and ran a hand across his face. "You should call your husband back and tell him to come here."
"But I want him to go see how the boy is," she said.
"The boy….the boy is gone," Bobby told her as gently as he could.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "B…but….they were…..I saw them…doing…CPR."
"They did CPR," he agreed. "But….he's gone."
The color drained from her face and she stood very still; Bobby thought she almost looked as though she had stopped breathing. He reached one arm around her shoulders very gently. At his touch, her face crumpled and tears began to flow. He pulled her against his chest and let her tears wet his shirt as great, wracking sobs shook her body. She clutched the front of his shirt with both hands.
Annie watched Bobby talking to the woman and started to follow him. But when she saw Bobby put his arm around her and realized she was crying, she stopped and turned back to where Alex and Tom were still standing.
"Thanks for pulling that woman off of me," she told Alex.
Alex shrugged and turned to look across the street. The woman had started back across the road, but she took one look at Alex and turned back. However, she was moving around writing down license plate numbers. She was still talking loudly and gratingly, but Alex couldn't hear the words. She saw the parents talking to a state trooper, who was taking notes.
Another trooper walked over to Alex, Annie, and Tom and said that he needed to get their statements. Alex said that she would talk with him first and turned to follow him. The adrenaline that had been coursing through her since coming around that curve and seeing the small boy standing next to the road drained from her and she suddenly felt nauseous. She stopped and gasped as her hands went to her tightening abdominal muscles. The contraction wasn't particularly strong or painful but it took her by surprise. Annie and Tom were by her side instantly.
"Alex! Are you having a contraction?" Annie asked as she put and arm around her shoulders.
Alex took a deep breath as the contraction faded. "I…I'm OK. Really," she said as Annie looked at her with concern. "It's just one of those Braxton-Hicks contractions. I've been having them occasionally for the last few days." Annie looked unconvinced. "Seriously, Annie, I'm OK. The doctor says it's normal."
"Well, I want you to go sit down," Annie said firmly. She looked around and spotted one of the squad cars a few yards away. "You are going to sit in the back of that car and you are not going to argue with me." Keeping her arm around the smaller woman's shoulders, she gently propelled her towards the car. "Officer," she told the trooper, "Detective Eames needs to sit down and she's going to sit in the back of your car. You can talk to her in a few minutes." He nodded and moved to open the back door for them.
Alex complied and climbed into the back of the car. Annie turned to Tom and said, "Would you mind staying with her for a few minutes? I'll give my statement first while she rests."
"Sure," Tom told her. "Go ahead; I'll stay here." He went around to the other side of the car, opened the door, and got in next to Alex. He was as tall as Bobby and a bit more muscular and Annie resisted the sudden urge to giggle at the sight of the large man folding himself into the cramped back seat.
She turned to walk a few feet away with the trooper. She froze as she suddenly caught sight of a small tennis shoe lying in the road. The image of the very small, pale boy engulfed in the arms of the large firefighter rose up in her mind. She remembered seeing one foot with a tennis shoe that matched the one lying in the road, and the other small foot covered by only a sock. Tears welled up but she fought them back, took a deep breath, and turned to look at the trooper as he asked her to relate what she knew.
Bobby stood silently with his arm around the woman. Her sobs began to slow until she was crying quietly. Finally she took a deep, shuddering breath and pulled back, wiping her face. He took a large handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her wordlessly. She took it with a grateful look and wiped her eyes and her face. She looked up at him, her face red and tear-streaked.
"I'm a doctor," she said. Bobby didn't respond, but waited for her to continue. "I'm a doctor and every day I handle life and death situations. I should have helped that boy, but I couldn't even get out of my car. I just sat there praying, 'Please, please let that be a dog. Please don't let it be a child under my car.' I thought as long as I didn't get out of the car, it didn't happen. I should have helped him," she repeated.
"There was nothing you could have done," he said softly. "Your reaction was normal. Those life and death situations that you handle in the hospital are not happening to you personally. You can detach your emotions enough to be objective, to see what needs to be done and to do it. But when it is happening to you, it's harder to keep those emotions under control, harder to be objective." Her eyes filled with tears and Bobby put his hands on her upper arms. He leaned down to look at her face. "You are not to blame for that boy's death," he told her firmly. "You had no way of knowing he would be there on the road or that he would walk into the path of your car. And there was nothing you could have done to save him."
She looked at him for a moment as the tears fell again, silently this time. She closed her eyes and nodded. "Thank you," she whispered.
"Now you need to call your husband back and tell him to come here and take you home," he said. She nodded again and he let go of her arms as she turned away and dialed her husband's number again.
A trooper came over to get the woman's statement. Bobby asked him to give her a few minutes to talk to her husband first and offered to give his statement in the meantime. After giving telling the trooper what he had seen, he walked with him over to the doctor's car. They both looked it over and Bobby was surprised to see that there was no damage to it at all.
After calling her husband, the doctor was calmer, although she could not bring herself to come near the car or look at it. She told Bobby that her husband and son were on their way and her son would drive the car home for her. Bobby left her with the trooper, giving her statement.
Tom Spencer looked out at the growing dusk and then over at the detective sitting next to him. She had laid her head back and closed her eyes. Her hands were gently massaging her pregnant belly.
"It'll be dark soon," observed Tom.
"Mmm-hmmm," Alex answered.
"Uh, are you feeling better?" he asked.
Alex raised her head and looked at him. "Yeah, there haven't been any more contractions. I told Annie I was fine. Look, you don't have to stay here and babysit me. I'm fine."
Tom grinned at her, "Hey, I'm a firefighter. I'm not abandoning my post. That little blond nurse looks kind of tough." Alex chuckled and shook her head. Tom reached his right hand towards her and said, "We didn't really have time for proper introductions. My name's Tom Spencer, FDNY."
Alex shook his hand and said, "Alex Eames, NYPD Major Case Squad."
"Eames? I know an Eames over at Engine 42."
"That would be my brother," she replied.
"Really? Small world isn't it? He's a good man."
"Yes, he is," Alex said, proud of her brother.
"Uh, when are you due?" he asked.
Alex let out a loud sigh. "Three more weeks."
"Is the, uh, father excited?"
Alex leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. She just didn't have the energy to explain that she was a surrogate for her sister and brother-in-law. So she said quietly, "The father is very excited….and so is the mother."
Tom didn't know what to make of that comment, so he said nothing. A trooper came over to the car and asked Alex if she was ready to give her statement. She nodded wearily and climbed out of the car, with a bit of assistance from the trooper. Another trooper asked Tom to give his statement and he followed him a few feet away.
As Alex was giving her statement, Annie wandered over to where the small shoe still lay on the asphalt. She noticed that the green sweatshirt that Tom had pulled off the boy was lying near where they had pulled him from underneath the car. The police had finished taking pictures of the scene, so she picked up the shoe and then the sweatshirt. She took them to one of the troopers and asked that he make sure the parents got them back.
Finally the statements had been made and the four of them gathered near Alex's car. The doctor's husband arrived and took her home, followed by their son driving her car. She thanked Bobby for his help before leaving. Tom and Bobby introduced themselves. Then Tom shook hands with all of them and said he should be getting home. As he shook Alex's hand he paused for a moment with her small hand between his two much larger ones.
"Take care of yourself, Detective," he said. She just nodded at him.
They all watched the big firefighter jog back down the road to his car. It was getting dark now. Annie and Bobby both looked at Alex with concern. She looked dead on her feet. Bobby wanted to tell her he would drive back to the city, but he thought she would refuse and possibly get angry. Alex did not care for any signs of weakness in herself. However Annie knew she was much more likely to get away with bossing the small detective, so she held her hand out. Alex looked at her quizzically.
"Your keys, hand them over," Annie said. "Bobby is going to drive and you are going to rest."
Alex opened her mouth to argue, but then thought better of it. I'm exhausted, she thought. Maybe just this once it will be nice to let someone else fight the traffic. She silently reached into her pocket and pulled the keys out. She handed them to Annie who handed them to Bobby. They all got in the car, with Annie in the back seat again, but this time behind Alex on the passenger side.
They rode back in silence, each lost in their own thoughts about the events that had just transpired. At Annie's insistence, and over Alex's protests, Bobby dropped Annie at their house to get the SUV and then he drove Alex home. Annie ran in to tell the babysitter and the kids that they would be home soon and she drove to Alex's house. Before leaving she gave Alex a hug and told her to call if she needed anything.
Home at last, Bobby paid the babysitter and walked her home. They didn't talk about the events of the day as they moved through their evening, preparing dinner, getting the kids' baths over, bedtime prayers and stories. Finally the children were asleep. Annie desperately wanted to take a long hot shower and try to wash away the grime of crawling under the car and kneeling in the grass doing CPR.
Alex warmed up some leftover pasta she had in the refrigerator, but she wasn't very hungry. She took a shower and tried to read, but she couldn't concentrate. The images kept running through her head. Seeing the boy in the road with his green sweatshirt pulled up as he stood there swinging back and forth, watching him the rearview mirror as he stepped into the road, seeing him disappear from sight, and the "bump, bump" of the car. Finally she settled in bed and turned the TV on. She flipped through the channels and came across "Casablanca" just beginning. She sighed and pulled her pillows around her to support her back and her stomach. She settled in to watch Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart. She didn't even make it half-way through the movie before falling into a deep sleep.
Bobby settled on the love seat in the bedroom with a book while Annie got in the shower. After a few minutes he gave up trying to read. The adrenaline had drained and left him exhausted. He couldn't stop the images that were running through his head. The sight of the boy in the road, getting out of the car and not seeing him anywhere, then finding him under the car. The memory of Annie under the car and realizing that it was still in gear still made him feel like a vise was squeezing his heart. The grief of the doctor as she realized she had hit the boy and that he died. Seeing a very pregnant Alex pull a crazy woman off of his wife. He sighed, got up, and crossed the room to the bathroom.
Annie quickly shampooed her hair and lathered her body. She rinsed off and then just stood under the hot spray, letting it pound her back. She closed her eyes and tried unsuccessfully to shut out the images. Seeing the little boy lying under that car with his leg under the tire, how pale his skin was, and how surprised she was at how little blood there was. As she remembered doing CPR on the small boy, knowing that it was hopeless, the tears she had refused to shed all evening welled up and ran down her cheeks. She let her tears flow, mixing with the hot water pouring over her. Silent at first, the sobs began somewhere deep inside her. She turned and leaned back against the wall of the shower and covered her face. Now her sobs were no longer silent; she gasped with the force of them, her body shaking.
She heard the glass door slide open and then close. She didn't look up but she could feel him in front of her. Bobby stood there for a moment watching her. He reached out and gently pulled her to him. She went into his arms gratefully, wrapping her arms around his waist, rubbing her cheek against the hair on his chest. He held her tightly against him and laid his cheek on top of her head, against her wet hair. She continued to cry and shake. Neither of them spoke; they simply stood holding one another as the water poured over them.
End chapter 6
Another BIG thank you to Spookycc. She really earned her beta money this time. What? Oh yeah, she doesn't get paid to beta! Well, she earned my undying thanks anyway! Maybe not as valuable at the bank, but it's all I have to offer. She asked a simple medical question that I couldn't answer and it sent me off on days of research that proved I needed to tweak it just a bit. Thank you again Spook!