The first few months were rough.
If she was honest, the first couple of weeks were the worst. Eddie was still fighting the concussion she received from the cop she had pissed off at the warehouse, so she could barely do anything to defend herself, much less escape to find help. Her mind told her body to move, but her body seemed to think it was more of a suggestion than an order.
It wasn't like she didn't try either, but realistically looking at it, Eddie knew that she would need to be smart about finding a way out of this mess. The men who had brought her here had been driving down what had felt like a gravel road for a decent amount of time, at least twenty minutes, and when she had been dragged out of the trunk of the car, all she had seen were trees and the cabin that was currently serving as her prison. Given that information, trying to escape into unknown woods with a concussion and a malfunctioning body probably wasn't going to be her best option, especially since her current captor almost certainly knew them well and would hunt her down with ease.
Speaking of the man, if she ever got the chance, Eddie would personally put a bullet between his eyes. But not before repaying him with some torture of her own.
Tyler Ivers was one of the most repulsive people she had ever dealt with. And that included Jake Singer. At first glance, he would appear harmless to the casual observer, but Eddie had come to learn differently. He was in maybe his late forties, with graying brown hair, disgusting mud brown eyes, and a significant beer belly. When he first spoke, he appeared a bit mentally slow, but that wasn't the case. He was a bit slow on the uptake, that was for sure, but that in no way inhibited him from understanding what was meant or intended after a little bit. And his mind worked in sick ways, as she had come to learn.
When Murphey and whoever his partner was had dropped her off here, they had unfortunately had the foresight to anticipate Eddie's escape plans, as they had injected her with more sedatives as soon as she was inside the cabin. When she had come to, she had been lying on a dirty mattress in a dark room with no hint of light she could find at first. Eventually, light had started to come from above and Eddie had realized she was in some sort of root cellar.
She had done an inventory of her surroundings, finding that the room was quite spacious. There were wooden shelves towards the middle of the space along the walls, while the mattress she had woken up on was on one end and a small bathroom area consisting of a toilet and sink were on the other. Eddie had felt her way around the perimeter with her hands, guided by the small amount of light coming in from above her head. There wasn't much else down there, besides a few dingy blankets and some boxes that she didn't have the strength to open at the moment.
Tyler had come down through a trap door in the ceiling within an hour of Eddie waking up if she had to guess. She had initially planned to surprise him by jumping him, maybe knocking him unconscious, and then fleeing out of the cabin, but her body moved frustratingly slowly, taking forever to catch up with what she was thinking. As a result, he had seemed to pick up on her intentions and had Eddie pinned up against the wall before she had even realized what was happening.
And that had been the start of her own personal hell. She didn't know what Murphey had told him, but it had obviously been something along the lines to do whatever the man pleased. Once her body had finally snapped into fight mode, throwing punches and struggling to get free, Tyler had slammed her head into the wall, hard, leading to yet another round of unconsciousness. She was certain all these head injuries couldn't be good in the long run, if she survived that long, but that was a problem for later.
When Eddie had come around for the second time, she had been in a massive amount of pain, something that had registered before she even fully regained consciousness. There had been a throbbing between her legs and a slick feeling on the inside of her thighs that she had a sickening feeling was blood, accompanying the pounding in her head. And her back had been on fire. Her captor had been carving her back up like a turkey, the knife somewhere around her left shoulder blade when she had regained consciousness.
She had attempted to throw him off and wrench her back away from the offending object, but she couldn't move. Instead, he only drove the blade deeper into her muscle, eliciting a scream.
Eddie didn't know how long he spent carving up her back like some sort of sick artist, but at some point, through the fog of pain, she realized he was gone, and the knife was no longer in her back. She tried to move, making an attempt to crawl back to the mattress she had initially woken up on, but nearly passed out from the pain at the simple act of trying to raise herself up on her arms. She collapsed back on the floor instead, her cheek resting against the cold concrete while her body radiated fire.
Once again, she wished they would just get it over with and kill her. Eddie had always had a healthy respect for death. She saw it pretty regularly on the job and was unfortunately familiar with the many ways it could come about. As a result, whenever she thought about her own death, rare as she did, Eddie knew the two ways she wanted it to happen. Ideally, it would've been many years from now, when she was old and gray, having spent years with Jamie and their family, and she would die peacefully, perhaps in her sleep, surrounded by loved ones. But, if she did happen to be killed in the line of duty, she had always hoped it would be quick, and relatively painless. A bullet to an artery perhaps, or a fatal knife wound that would lead to her bleeding out in seconds.
Unfortunately, it appeared that she would not be getting any of her ideal scenarios. Instead, it seemed as though she was destined to die a slow, painful death, far away from anyone she knew or loved. She briefly wondered what she might have done in a previous life to deserve this now.
Eddie wasn't sure how long she laid there on the floor of her little prison, but at some point, she managed to psych herself up to slowly drag her body back to the mattress at the end of the room. Yes, it was dirty, but it was still better than the cold concrete. Her entire back lit up with pain like an electrical switchboard and she was dimly aware of the sharp stabbing between her legs, but Eddie grit her teeth together and remained focused, fighting back the waves of pain and nausea that threatened to overwhelm her.
Eventually, she reached the mattress and dragged herself back on top of it. Eddie faintly registered in her mind that her clothes were gone, but it was nothing more than a blip in the darkness before she allowed herself to succumb to the black wave that offered her the sweet relief of nothingness.
The next few days went much the same way, although Eddie couldn't be certain if they were actually days or just waking periods of consciousness. The second day, she could barely move from the pain in her back and when he had come down that damn ladder, she had begged him to let her be. Of course, that would have been far too simple or kind of a gesture for him. He had assaulted her again, despite her repeated protests and sloppy attempts to defend herself, then carved up her back some more.
The day after that, she had tried a different approach. Eddie had tried to reason with him, make Tyler see her as a person and not some toy (or whatever it was he saw her as), but it was to no avail and the events of the first few days repeated themselves once again, although this time it was sans the head trauma at least. Fortunately, he didn't cut as deep on her back again, although he did comment that she needed to make an effort to clean herself up a bit. If she had been able to, Eddie would've slapped him just for that comment alone.
After about a week, it settled into a pattern. He would come downstairs earlier on in the day, Eddie's protests would fall on deaf ears, and he would repeat the same process he had done those first few days. Apparently, he considered himself some kind of artist and her back was his masterpiece, which was sadly one of the least disturbing parts of the whole ritual. Sometimes he would have knives of different lengths and widths that he used, other times they would be ice cold, like they'd just been taken out of a freezer, or they would be held over a lighter until they were nice and hot, before he started in on his work.
Eddie found that the only way she could keep herself even the slightest bit sane throughout the whole ordeal was by staring blankly ahead and picturing herself outside of her body, somewhere better, where she was safe. Then, it wasn't like it was actually happening to her, she was more of an observer, not the actual victim.
Usually, she would picture herself in a grassy field, full of flowers, with a lake on the horizon. Eddie would always find herself standing on the edge of a cliff, the events that were occurring in the real world flickering like an image just below the edge. She would turn away and walk through the field, although the sounds would still be loud and clear in her ears, even if the image wasn't. While she wandered, there was always someone just ahead of her that she could never seem to reach, no matter how hard she tried. Sometimes, Eddie could swear it was her brother, taunting her from a distance about how she couldn't catch him, just like he had when they were kids. Other times, it was a small child, sometimes a boy, sometimes a girl, with brown hair, that would look up at her with doe eyes and a shy smile before dancing away into the flowers. She suspected that they were the babies she had lost, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never catch them.
It continued on like that for weeks. At some point, he gave her an old button-up shirt to wear, but that seemed to be the extent of his kindness. The abuse would continue, as would her attempts to stop it, and then she would be left to her own devices in her little cell for a while. Eddie had toyed with the idea of escape, but her body was still too weak to really fight back, and she was almost certain that the trap door was locked from the outside. The meager food portions weren't helping rebuild her strength either, although it was better than nothing at all.
It was one of those days, late in the afternoon when she had no company other than her own mind, that Eddie realized something was off. She had been wracking her brain for ideas on how to secure her freedom in a way that didn't end with her in a shallow grave when she had felt a small fluttering in her stomach. It had been occurring on and off for the past few weeks and she hadn't thought much of it, assuming it was nerves or anxiety from the stress she was under. But this was different. It was stronger than just a few butterflies. It almost felt like…kicks.
As soon as the possibility entered her mind, she froze. No. There was no way. She didn't know how long she had been down here, but it had to have been more than a month. Eddie had noticed the temperature steadily dropping and it had been August when she'd been taken, so it would be at least October by now, if not later, after Jamie's birthday. Which meant if she was still…she would have been at least six months gone by now.
Eddie recalled that last ultrasound appointment, just a few days before it had all gone to hell. As the technician had been wiping the gel off of her stomach, her doctor had been telling her what to expect as the weeks went on. One of those things had been for their baby to start kicking, and she had described it as something akin to butterflies in her stomach, although she had said as time wore on and Eddie got further along, they would get stronger and begin to feel more like the kicks she imagined.
She had completely forgotten about that conversation with everything else going on. Eddie had been almost certain she had lost her baby one of those first few days after her attack and capture, so she hadn't even thought to consider the possibility it might still be alive. Even when she was as careful as she possibly could be, she had lost her previous pregnancies, so she had automatically assumed that this one was gone too, and she had just overlooked the actual loss or been unconscious during it.
But, if her baby was still alive, that would change everything. Eddie slowly felt the area where the possible kicks felt like they were coming from. Despite her drastic cut in food intake, her stomach was still firm, if not curving outwards a little bit, another potential sign that gave her a hint of hope. The fluttering stopped for a moment and Eddie chastised herself for thinking that something might actually go right. She held her hand at the spot for a few seconds and just when she was about to pull it away, there was a small, sharp jab at the place it was hovering over. Externally, she couldn't feel it, but it was in the same general location as where her hand was.
A feeling of absolute joy spread through her. Her baby, her and Jamie's baby was still alive. There was still a chance Eddie could meet the child she had been dreaming about for months, that she had thought was long gone just yesterday.
Eddie felt a little bit of the excitement fade as she realized that just because their baby was still alive now didn't mean that something couldn't go wrong or that Jamie would ever get to meet them. Her last miscarriage she had thought she was finally in the clear, but then she had woken up to what felt like shards of glass ripping through her stomach from the inside, less than an hour after Jamie had left for his tour, and that had been the end of that.
She shook her head and refocused, slowly tracing the skin of her stomach where her baby had just kicked. It wasn't doing it anymore, but that was okay. Eddie imagined that it had only done it now as a way to remind her that it was still in there and to keep fighting.
This changed everything. She would have to be careful about her plans now since it raised the stakes much higher. If she was being honest, Eddie had no idea how the baby had even survived with the levels of stress she had been under the past weeks, especially given Tyler's propensity for knives. Which was part of why she needed to play her cards carefully. He certainly wouldn't hesitate to stab her if she tried to escape or attack him, so that was off the table. But if Eddie played the long game, she might have a chance at freedom. A chance to go home.
Her best opportunity for escape likely involved psychological warfare. A physical, straight forward attack was out of the question. She would need to build up his trust, get him to lower his guard, then wait for an opportunity to present itself. And while she would prefer that opportunity come sooner rather than later, she would take what she could get when it came.
First, she needed to give him the impression that she wasn't looking to escape any longer, that she was going to play the role of a meek little pet that Tyler seemed to want her to be. Internally, the idea made Eddie gag, but it wasn't just about her anymore. Her baby was the number one priority, and she would do anything to make sure that she didn't lose this one too. If she had to act weak and broken for that to happen, then so be it.
That led Eddie to her more difficult dilemma; whether or not she should reveal her pregnancy to her captor. Realistically, she could see it going either way. On the one hand, he might snap and kill one or both of them on the spot out of anger. On the other, he might leave her alone for a while and might even be dense enough to think that the baby was his (although Eddie knew it most certainly wasn't). If she had to take the risk on it though, Eddie was leaning slightly more toward the second option. Like she had noticed before, Tyler wasn't necessarily the brightest bulb, so she doubted he knew much about pregnancy, something that would work in her favor if true. And while he was certainly cruel, she didn't think he was enough of a monster to kill a baby. At least, she hoped he wasn't.
Eddie kept the discovery to herself for several days, trying to decide on what the best approach to the situation would be and staying alert for an opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, Tyler was good about keeping the door secure at all times and whenever he carved up her back, it would take hours for her to be able to move again. Fortunately, he seemed to be less concerned about her escape, so at least that was working in her favor. But she would only be able to hide her pregnancy for so long before he would notice, something that eventually tilted her decision.
She told him about a week afterwards, deciding that it would likely be better to get it over with sooner rather than later. Her suspicions that he would leave her alone wound up being correct, as were her ones about him seeming to think that he was the baby's father. Of course, Eddie may have alluded to the possibility, but she never flat out told him, so if Tyler came to that conclusion, it was of his own accord.
He seemed almost repulsed by her now, something that was a blessing in disguise, as it meant that he rarely came down to her prison anymore. That wasn't to say that he stayed away, but he stopped assaulting her altogether and only 'worked on his art' once a week it seemed, instead of daily. He also increased her food portions a bit so that they were almost the same amount a normal person would eat.
Eddie was grateful for the shift in attitude, as it gave her more time to plan and consider her options. She started marking the days off on the wall with an old marker she found in one of the boxes on the shelves and started doing a small bit of preparation for her baby's arrival, just in case she didn't manage to escape by the time it came.
Her stomach started to swell more, no doubt thanks to the increased food allotment, but Eddie was still fairly certain that she was a lot smaller than she was supposed to be at this point. Sometimes, on the days when he left her alone completely and she had wracked her brain for any ideas and still come up empty, she would allow her mind to drift to thoughts of Jamie.
He had always wanted kids, she knew that. And while Eddie had tended to swing back and forth on the idea, she knew that Jamie was firmly in that camp. Which was why, when he had told her after the second miscarriage and his subsequent shooting that if they never had kids, he would be fine with it as long as he had her, she had felt an immense amount of guilt. She still remembered the conversation they had had after he delivered that baby in a movie theater back when they were still partners, about how both of them wanted to feel that unconditional love one day that the mother had felt for her baby as soon as he was born. The fact that Jamie was willing to give that up, just because she might not be able to make that happen, had broken her heart even more. He had told Eddie he couldn't stand to see her in pain and suffering like she had been after she had suffered the two miscarriages, so what was meant to happen would happen and if that meant they weren't meant to have kids, then so be it.
Then, when she had found herself pregnant again this past spring after they stopped trying, she had seen the joy in his eyes. Jamie had been the perfect doting father-to-be, going with her to every appointment when he could, holding her hair back while she puked her guts out at five am (even though he had just gotten off duty at midnight), talking her down from her constant panic attacks over potentially losing this baby too, even agreeing to keep the news to just them once she entered the second trimester, although Eddie could see that it was killing him not to share the excitement with his family. That was what made it even worse, the fact that they were finally going to tell their families a few days after this had happened.
Now, she just wished she was home, with Jamie's comforting arms wrapped around her while they cuddled on the couch, and he made lame baby name suggestions or made her whatever she was craving and hovered like a mother hen. Eddie imagined that given the time frame, he probably thought they were both dead by now, not that she would blame him. A person could only hold on to hope for so long before they had to face reality and accept that something was gone. Eddie would know, she had done the same thing when her brother died years ago. She hoped he was letting people in, allowing them to help him, instead of isolating and bottling it all up inside like she knew he tended to do.
Whenever she started thinking about Jamie, she would trace her fingers over her ballooning stomach where their baby was kicking. It wasn't super active, which had Eddie somewhat worried, but whenever she traced her belly, the kicks would follow her path without fail. While she did this, she would whisper stories about Jamie to their baby, about the time he had delivered that baby, how he'd gotten justice for Joe, even the little things like the forehead kisses he gave her whenever they were on opposite tours and she was half-asleep while he was leaving. Eddie didn't know if the baby could hear her at all, but she liked to imagine that it could, and that some part of it was being comforted by the stories of its father as much as she was.
Sometimes, she would wonder how her parents were doing with all this. She faintly wondered if her dad was even aware of what had happened, as she hadn't spoken to him since shortly after his release. Eddie knew that they would've notified her mother, she had put her down as her secondary emergency contact after Jamie. Lena could be unpredictable at the best of times, so she really had no clue how her mother would have handled her disappearance. Eddie hoped that she didn't blame Jamie for it at least. What had happened wasn't his fault.
When the weather turned even colder, indicating the arrival of winter, she had to negotiate for warmer supplies. Tyler hadn't given her anything besides the oversized shirt (which was no longer quite so large), a towel, and a few thin blankets since the start of her captivity months ago. Eventually, she got him to agree to give her a pair of thick socks, more blankets that were warmer, and a couple more towels. Eddie was starting to shift into nesting mode, which she knew meant that her baby would be coming sooner rather than later, so she wanted to be prepared. In exchange, she agreed to cook her captor an evening meal. It was a decent enough deal. She got warmer supplies so she didn't freeze to death, plus it would allow her to get a better idea of the layout of things up above. And if he tracked her every move with a gun while she was up there, then it just meant she would need to continue to bide her time.
Eddie finally realized exactly how long it had been when Tyler gave her specific instructions for a Christmas Eve meal. He seemed to be in a somewhat cheerful mood that night and didn't follow her movements as closely with his weapon while she prepared the food. Normally, he would shove her in the direction of the kitchen and order her to make him something good, so the request and accompanying recipe on the counter were her first clue that something was going on. Later, when she was forced back down to her little cellar, he even gave her a large plate of leftovers, which Eddie found a little odd compared to her normal portion size.
She found out why the next day on Christmas. Tyler came downstairs for another 'art session', likely his Christmas gift to himself, before giving Eddie a thick knitted blanket. He didn't offer any sort of explanation and left immediately after. She was left to her own devices for nearly two days, which explained the leftovers from Christmas Eve. He had been planning ahead so he didn't come back to find her dead of starvation in his root cellar.
Eddie let out a groan as she shifted around, trying to get comfortable on her dingy mattress. Her back was constantly in pain from Tyler's work, but at the moment it wasn't a sharp, stabbing pain like she got after one of his little 'art sessions'. It was more of a dull throbbing in her lower back that felt like it was starting to wrap around her torso and was making her whole body feel heavy, something that had been going on for several days now.
She had already tried pacing around and stretching out as best she was able to with her limited space and range of motion, to little effect. Eddie wasn't entirely sure of the date, but she was hoping that her current pain was from Braxton-Hicks contractions, which she had read about, and not the start of her labor. Even with her uncertainty about the current day, she knew that it was too soon for her baby to be coming for at least another couple of weeks.
Eddie sucked in a sharp breath and bit the inside of her cheek as she felt a sudden tightening around her stomach and a sharp stab of pain. It was gone nearly as quickly as it had come, but she felt a flash of worry. This had been occurring for a few hours now and while the first couple of times had been spread out, she could swear that they were getting closer together, which wasn't reassuring.
Of course, it must have been nearing dinnertime, because she heard the sound of footsteps overhead and the trap door being unlocked. Eddie really didn't want to go upstairs and go through the whole ordeal of making her captor dinner, not when she felt like she was going to puke, but she forced herself up the ladder anyway. It was better to keep playing along now and keep gathering useful information for an escape than to make him upset.
Dinner went fairly smoothly for the most part. He was in a decent mood, so when Eddie made sandwiches for the sake of ease, there was little objection. The only hiccup was when another wave of pain hit her suddenly, causing her to let out a small gasp of surprise and clutch at her stomach, which was rock hard now. It only lasted for maybe thirty seconds, but it still caught Tyler's attention. Eddie tried to play it off like it was nothing, but she got the distinct feeling that he didn't believe her.
She was sent back to her little room as soon as he was done and didn't relax until she heard the bolt slide into place over the door. Oddly enough, the sound was comforting right now while she tried to figure out what was going on. Eddie was almost certain that she was having contractions, and they were starting to get closer together. The last one had been only thirty minutes after the previous one, a significant jump in time frame.
She tried to pass the time by pacing around her little jail cell, rubbing her stomach and pausing to breathe through the contractions that were getting ever closer together. Eddie could feel panic starting to creep in at the thought of delivering this baby all by herself, with no one to help if something went wrong. Evidently walking around and telling her baby stories about its father was not convincing it to stay put like she had hoped.
Almost right on cue, nearly two hours after dinner and right when she could feel herself starting to work herself up into a panic attack, Eddie felt something warm and wet start to slowly trickle down the inside of her legs. Another contraction started up immediately, so she braced herself against the wall and breathed through it before checking.
"No, no, no, no, no." Eddie said as she cleaned off as best she could. Her water had definitely broken and the last contraction she had had had been much more intense and painful than the previous ones. They were starting to come even closer together too. She placed a hand on her somewhat swollen stomach. "You aren't supposed to come yet, you still need time to cook."
Her baby obviously disagreed. The contractions continued to come closer together and last for longer as the night wore on, but Eddie didn't have a clue how she was supposed to know when she was ready. She'd heard that her body would know what to do when the time came, but she didn't have a whole lot of trust in herself at the moment. Not to mention she was getting tired.
She kept pacing the room for a couple more hours, stopping to breathe through contractions and keeping a vice like grip on the shelving from the pain. She was nearly in tears from how much it all hurt, but she couldn't afford to lose her composure now. Not after everything she had been through.
Dimly, Eddie wondered where Jamie was right now and what he was doing. Was he even aware that he was going to become a father within the next day or so? Or was he just going about his business like always, arresting some perp, infiltrating some criminal ring? If she had to guess, it was likely the latter. After all, Jamie and everyone else back home almost certainly thought she was dead. But that didn't mean she couldn't wish he was here to help her through it all and see the birth of their child. Everything just felt wrong.
It continued on through the night and early the next morning. Eddie was getting exhausted. Since her water had broken, the contractions had become much more intense and painful, to the point that this morning she couldn't keep up her pacing and had taken to biting down on one of the spare towels to keep her scream of pain from escaping. She had attempted to get some sleep overnight, but the contractions were so intense and frequent that there had been no success on that front.
She heard the faint sound of the deadbolt over the trap door being slid open as she panted her way through another contraction. Of course he would decide he wanted to carve her up again now, of all times.
But her jailer didn't approach. He stood at the bottom of the ladder and studied where Eddie was sitting half propped up by the wall on her mattress, her hair and shirt soaked in sweat. She didn't have it in her to tell him to leave at the moment, but if he wanted to stay for the birth, he was sorely mistaken. Eddie had lost nearly all of her free will and ability to make her own choices in the hell that had been the past months, but she would be damned if this creep got to be there to see her child be born instead of Jamie or even her mom. She didn't have a lot of power over things anymore, but that was something she still had some control over, and she was going to exercise that if she had to.
After about a minute, he seemed to decide something and climbed back up the ladder, shutting and locking the door behind him. Eddie didn't have a clue what that had been about, maybe he had wanted more art practice or maybe he'd wanted to make sure he didn't have to make his own damn food tonight, but whatever it was, it certainly would not be happening today.
She didn't know how long it had been, at least thirty minutes, when she heard the sound of the deadbolt sliding back again and the door was pulled open. Apparently, he hadn't really understood what was happening earlier (not surprising), but if she saw that man come back down those stairs, Eddie was going to lose the tiny bit of a grip she had left on her control.
She heard him speak. "Fix her."
Fix her? What the hell did that mean? And who was he talking to? Eddie hadn't seen another human besides Tyler in months. There had never been anyone else upstairs she was pretty sure, and she didn't understand why he would risk exposing her over this. He certainly wasn't going to do anything for her benefit unless it also helped him, she knew that much.
What sounded like an older, feminine voice responded. "Her? Tyler, dear, I haven't practiced medicine in quite a while. You know I retired years ago. If you found another hurt animal in the around here, you've got to take it to the vet, honey."
"Here's a lantern. Fix her." Came the gruff response.
Eddie heard the sound of a sigh from whoever it was that he had brought back. "All right, if you insist. I'll do the best I can. But I'm telling you, I'm not trained to care for animals."
A foot appeared at the top of the ladder as Eddie pressed herself into a corner, trying her best to make herself invisible. She bit her lip to keep from letting out a cry of pain, drawing blood as she did so.
The figure of an older woman appeared as she descended the ladder. She hadn't spotted Eddie or really looked at her surroundings yet, as she seemed a little unsteady and was focused on getting down the ladder with a camping lantern in one hand and a duffel bag in another.
As soon as the woman's feet hit the floor, Tyler spoke from above. "Don't come back up until you've fixed it." The door flipped shut and Eddie heard the deadbolt slide into place.
She heard the newcomer drop her bag to the floor and set down the lantern as she got back on the ladder to bang on the locked door. "Tyler? Tyler, honey, what are you doing? You can't just lock me in here!"
Fortunately, the contraction Eddie had been fighting through finally passed and she took the brief two minute reprieve to speak. "He's not going to let you out until you do whatever it is that he wants."
She heard the sound of the woman jumping and then scrambling for the lantern she had been given. Eddie couldn't blame her; she obviously hadn't been expecting anything down here to be human.
The light flipped on and was quickly swept in Eddie's direction. She squinted at the sudden brightness and braced herself as she started to feel another contraction build. Faintly, she wondered how bad she looked to this newcomer. She imagined it was probably something like those girls she had helped save from the sex trafficking ring that was targeting immigrants years ago, if only gaunter and more soaked in sweat like she'd dove into a pool. She couldn't be sure though; she hadn't seen her own reflection in months.
There was a gasp and the light approached. Eddie concentrated on breathing her way through her next contraction, allowing a small groan to escape as she bit her lip again from the pain. If the new woman wanted answers, she would get them between contractions, but that was it.
The lantern was set down to the side. It was surprisingly strong, allowing Eddie to see the other woman's face, even as she tried to press herself into the wall away from her.
She looked matronly, almost like she was someone's grandmother, with graying hair and kindly wrinkles around her eyes. She was also small, maybe a little taller than Eddie if she had to guess and had a concerned look in her eyes as though she was assessing what was wrong with the picture in front of her. Which was pretty much everything if she was looking at it as the outsider she was.
The woman reached out her hand to touch her and Eddie recoiled away from her on reflex. While she most likely didn't mean any harm, she couldn't be certain of that and right now, there was too much going on for Eddie to bother trying to tell her mind differently.
She seemed to notice the reaction and catalogued it away, spreading her hands out in a peaceful gesture. "Honey, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?"
Eddie said nothing, still pressing herself into the wall. She screwed her eyes shut and clenched her fists together as yet another contraction ripped through her body, a few tears escaping as it did so. She was getting so tired, yet nothing seemed to be happening. And she knew that if she was in labor for too long after her water broke it might hurt her baby.
The woman's face turned sympathetic, then sad, and then kind as she observed Eddie's reaction. "I'll tell you what, this whole thing is going to be a lot easier if we know each other's names. Mine's Marjorie. I used to be a midwife until I retired a few years ago, which I imagine is why he brought me here to help you. Can you tell me your name?"
The contraction started to fade away into her brief reprieve. Eddie knew realistically this was probably going to be her only hope for help and besides, this woman would be able to help her figure out why things weren't moving along like they were supposed to. If she lost this baby because of this, Tyler might as well just kill her as well.
She swallowed, darting her eyes away from Marjorie's kind face. "Eddie," she whispered, staring at the ground in front of her. "My name's Eddie."
Eddie flicked her eyes back up at the woman, who gave her a sad smile. "That's a very nice name, Eddie." She seemed to debate what questions she wanted to ask first, but Eddie lost focus as another contraction started to build up.
That seemed to make the decision for her, and she switched into medical mode. "Eddie, sweetie, how long have you been having contractions for?"
Once the pain subsided, Eddie responded. "I don't know, a few days? They started to get closer together yesterday afternoon, were within thirty minutes after dinner last night, and then my water broke maybe two hours after that? They've been just getting closer all night." Even she could hear the barely concealed panic in her voice.
Marjorie gave her a kindly smile as she pulled the bag she had come down with closer to her and put on a pair of nitrile gloves, although there did seem to be a bit of worry in her eyes. "Okay, sweetie, then you should be getting close to transition. That's nearly fifteen hours at least. Is it okay if I check your cervix, dear? I need to see how close you are to pushing."
Eddie gave her a brief nod as she felt tears start to pour down her face. This was the most kindness she'd been shown in months and of course it would happen while she was in the most intense pain she'd ever felt in her life.
Marjorie gave her a smile as she slowly approached and helped Eddie navigate into a position where she could check. She kept talking, most likely trying to keep her calm and distracted. "Is this your first one, sweetheart? That might be why it's taking you so long, they're always so pokey."
Eddie clenched her fists and breathed through the pain as another contraction overtook her, waiting for it to pass before responding. "First one I've gotten this far with. There were two miscarriages before this, and this one can't be due for at least a few more weeks." The panic started to edge back into her voice as it broke on the last words.
Marjorie gave her a sad smile, patting her leg as she sat back from her exam. "Well then, we're going to do everything we can for your baby, aren't we? I imagine you don't know what day it is, would it put your mind at ease if you did?"
Eddie gave her a nod, tears pouring down her face. God, she just wanted everything to be over with, but it didn't look like she was going to be getting that mercy today.
"It's January 12th, so hopefully that helps you put your mind a little more at ease. When are you supposed to be due?"
"Early February."
That earned her another nod. "Well then, we shouldn't need to be getting too worried then, should we? Your baby's only running a little bit ahead of schedule, that's all. And you're nearly fully dilated, which is good news, sweetie. It means we're getting close to the time to push."
Something about Marjorie's tone helped calm Eddie down a little bit. Her contractions were starting to come even closer together now and were lasting at least a minute according to Marjorie, who was timing them for her. They also felt more intense than before, and Eddie couldn't hold back her sobs from the pain anymore. To top everything off, her back and lower body were starting to feel an intense, uncomfortable pressure. Apparently, this was a sign that it was getting close to time, but Eddie was just getting so tired.
She took deep breaths like Marjorie instructed her to, fighting back her panic again. After about thirty more minutes, the pressure in her lower body seemed to amp up even more. She told her new companion so, which she seemed to take as a good sign.
Marjorie gave her another gentle smile. "That's good, it means that your body is ready to push, and your baby is entering the birth canal. Let's get into a more comfortable position, okay? I'll be right here to make sure everything's going okay and to guide you."
She guided Eddie into a position on her hands and knees, telling her that it would help with the back pain that had been bothering her all day. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Eddie felt a bit dumb doing what felt like a yoga pose, but it surprisingly helped quite a bit.
She felt another contraction start up again. "There's a lot of pressure, is it time?"
Marjorie's reassuring voice answered. "Yes, it appears so, dear. Now, when the next contraction hits, I want you to bear down with it and push. When it lets up, so can you, because the next one is going to be coming soon after that and you need to get ready, alright?"
Eddie just nodded her head, rocking back and forth as she sank her shoulders and head down so that she was leaning on them. It felt like the right thing to do, and she wasn't being told otherwise, so that was good. The crushing pain washed over her again and she did as instructed until it faded away again.
Things continued like that for what felt like hours, but in reality, couldn't have been more than one or two. Eddie was exhausted. She had been awake for over twenty-four hours at this point and her body just wanted to give up. But she couldn't. Not yet at least. Not until she had her baby in her arms. And that was so close to happening, if she could just keep powering through.
She felt an intense burning and stinging sensation with the next push that elicited another sob of pain. "I can't! I can't do it, I can't!"
Marjorie gave her foot a rub of encouragement. "Yes, you can dear, you can. You're doing so well and you're almost there. I can see your baby's head now, so just a few more pushes and it'll all be over."
Eddie blinked back more tears and gave a slight nod. Almost over, almost over. She was so close, she just needed to keep going.
"Okay, now I know this is going to sound odd, but trust me, okay honey? I need you to push very slowly with this next contraction and take short breaths, blowing them out through your mouth. I don't want you to tear, so just do that and you should be fine, alright?"
Eddie gave another nod as she felt the next contraction starting to build up again. She didn't have it in her to give another verbal response other than to let out cries of pain. She was just so tired, but just a few more pushes and it would all be over.
"Good, good, you're doing great, Eddie. I can see the head; we're coming along nicely. Just keep doing as I say, and we should be smooth sailing here shortly." Marjorie's calm voice kept her focused on the task at hand.
Eddie let out a groan as another contraction ripped through her body, this one the most intense and painful yet. Although maybe it just felt like that because she was so exhausted, she couldn't be sure.
The burning sensation stopped. "Good, good job sweetheart, the head is out. Just one more push and your baby will be here!"
God, she was so close to being done, with this pain finally being over. Eddie took an unsteady breath, thinking of how she hadn't even allowed herself to hope for this day to come even five months ago. How Jamie's eyes had been lit up with so much excitement that last week when she'd agreed to finally tell their families. She hoped their baby got Jamie's eyes.
Eddie kept that image in her mind as the next contraction took over, imagining that Jamie was here with her, encouraging her on, anxiously awaiting to meet their child. One last push and then all the pressure disappeared.
She dropped forward, rolling onto her back and barely noticing the stinging sensation from some of the fresher cuts there. It was over. Her baby was here, she had done it. Then it registered in her mind.
There was no crying. Her baby wasn't crying, why wasn't it crying? Eddie felt panic flash through her at the speed of light. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. She couldn't have lost this baby too, not when she had just been feeling its kicks last week, not when she'd finally found something to keep her going.
Marjorie was bent over the baby, clearing out its mouth and rubbing its chest harshly. Eddie bit back a sob. This was exactly what she'd feared would happen. "Why isn't it crying? It should be crying, right?" Panic was leeching into her voice.
Marjorie kept rubbing at the infant's chest until finally there was a soft mewling sound. She looked up, a victorious smile on her face. "Someone just didn't feel like making their presence known, that's all. You have a little girl, Eddie."
She gently placed the tiny baby in Eddie's outstretched arms, wiping some of the blood off with one of the nearby towels, before stepping back and giving them a little bit of space.
Eddie studied the little girl that was curled up in her arms and instantly fell in love. Now she finally knew what that mother had felt when Jamie had delivered that baby in the movie theater all those years ago. She would do anything for the little girl in her arms, anything to make sure that no one ever hurt her, that she would always be safe. The baby was so tiny; it was hard to believe that she was real and not a little doll. That she was all hers. That she was here, and alive.
The infant had curled herself into Eddie's chest as soon as she was placed in her arms, and it felt perfect. She was studying Eddie with her big, blue-gray eyes, her little head tilted to the side as they stared at each other. There was a small smattering of light hair on her head, which had Eddie concerned about how she would keep her warm with the bitter cold weather currently going on above.
Something about those big eyes studying her reminded Eddie of Jamie and she smiled. "Oh, you're going to be a Daddy's girl, aren't you? When he meets you, you're going to have him wrapped around your little finger without even trying." She stroked her daughter's soft little cheek, which was still mildly discolored from her birth. But that didn't matter. As far as Eddie was concerned, the little girl was the most perfect thing she had ever seen.
Eddie carefully counted all ten of the little fingers and toes several times, just to reassure herself that they were all there. Her daughter didn't seem to mind, just snuggled in more closely. She studied her with wonder as the baby's eyes started to wander to her surroundings.
She was tiny, but so incredibly strong at the same time. Eddie could feel the strength in her grip as the baby grasped at the edge of her shirt, which was partially covering her. Even though she had just been born, her little girl was definitely a Reagan. If the sweet little eyes and pouty lips weren't a big enough sign, the fact that the little girl hadn't cried at first was all Eddie needed now that she knew she was okay. It was such a Jamie thing to do, to wait to figure out what was going on before doing anything, a trait their daughter had apparently inherited.
The next few hours passed in a haze of contentment. Marjorie made sure that Eddie was comfortable and cleaned both her and the baby up as best as she could with as little interruption as possible. Eddie was only vaguely aware of what was going on around her, instead just focusing on the baby in her arms that had fallen asleep snuggled into her chest. She had dreamed of this moment for so long, she wanted to soak it up for as long as possible.
Eventually, Marjorie seemed to have everything settled as best as she could, because Eddie could feel the other woman's eyes settle onto her as she gently traced the outline of her baby's face. She forced herself to glance up and saw her watching them with a sad look in her eyes, despite the faint smile on her face.
Eddie glanced back down, not looking at Marjorie as she spoke. "I know you have questions. Go ahead. Ask."
There was a pause before the other woman spoke. "How long have you been here, dear?"
Eddie's brain wasn't about to try to do the math that was required for that answer, even though she had just done it a day earlier. "Since the end of August. That's when they took me. They brought me here, to him," she spat out the word, "maybe a few days after the fact? I can't be sure though, there was a decent amount of head injuries going on at the time."
"So, you aren't here of your own will?"
Eddie briefly glanced up, giving her a look that said all she needed to know, before looking back to her daughter. "Absolutely not. And before you ask, she isn't his. She's got a father waiting for her back home in the city who's going to absolutely adore her when he gets to meet her."
She heard Marjorie take a sharp breath. She didn't know what kind of answer the other woman had been expecting, but she supposed that up until today she had probably considered Tyler Ivers to be a harmless man, most likely a neighbor. An image Eddie was pretty sure she no longer held.
Marjorie reached out and gave Eddie's knee a little squeeze before withdrawing her hand. She seemed to struggle to find her next words before she glanced down at the sleeping baby. "Do you have any idea what you're going to name her?"
Eddie paused. She had been mulling over names in her mind for the past few hours. She'd never gotten far enough with her previous two pregnancies for her and Jamie to get to that point, so she had no idea what he would have been thinking, something she wished she did. But she figured that the name also had to fit the person who was going to have it, so she had been trying several out in her head while she studied her little girl.
She gently ran her finger down the baby's soft cheek. "Yeah. I wish her daddy would be able to have some say in it, but that's not going to be happening. So, we'll do the next best thing. Clare has some Irish ties, and her dad comes from a family of Irish Catholics, so I think that's a good way to keep her tied to who she is. And Iris, for a middle name. Because she's my rainbow after the storm."
Eddie gave a soft smile to the baby. Clare Iris Reagan. It had a nice ring to it without being too out there. It was a strong name too, for a strong little girl. Perfect.
There was the sound of tearing paper and she looked up to find Marjorie holding out a folded up piece of notebook paper to her. "Here. It's everything that you might need to know for her down the road or that she might need to have with her if she escapes. Name, birthday, about how much I think she weighed, everything that I would normally document."
Eddie gave her a faint smile as she took the paper and tucked it between her bed and the wall.
A thought crossed her mind. There was no way she would be getting out of here anytime soon. She was far too weak to even attempt to escape currently and Clare wouldn't fare well in the weather outside. But there was a good chance that Marjorie would get out of here, hell, Tyler might even let her go home and just tell her to pretend that nothing had happened.
Eddie looked up to where Marjorie had moved away and was checking to see if the towels she had washed in the sink were dry yet. It was worth a shot. "Marjorie. We both know there's no way he'll let me out of here. And I certainly wouldn't be able to go anywhere if I tried. But you can. Would you be willing to try to get me some sort of help? Let someone know that we're down here? Please? I know that you think you know Tyler, that you probably consider him a friend, but please?"
Marjorie gave her yet another kind smile and Eddie couldn't help but be reminded of her grandma, not for the first time. "Of course, sweetie. Like you said, that little one has a daddy out there who needs to meet her yet."
She walked back over and settled on the floor nearby. "But I think that it might help me a lot more if you told me a little bit about your life before, Eddie. It's one thing to tell the police that there's someone in trouble in the woods. It's another thing to give them a name and details. The latter is what will typically kick the ones around here into action."
Eddie chewed her lip. Despite everything, she still wasn't entirely certain she could trust Marjorie, but she would have to give her something. "I was a cop in the city before. When they attacked and kidnapped me, I was almost done with a tour and my partner and I were responding to what would've been our last call of the night." She let out a brief snort at the thought. "Little did I know it was going to be my last call ever."
Marjorie's eyes sharpened in surprise. "I see. Well, let me tell you then, you're a long way from home, dear. The nearest town is at least twenty miles away and you're closer to Montreal than Manhattan."
Of course she was. Eddie gave a brief nod of her head. "Makes sense. I had no idea how long I was in that car before we got here."
The other woman gave her a sad smile and nodded at Clare. "What about her father? You said he's still in the city too?"
Eddie glanced back down at her sleeping baby. "Yeah, at least, he should be. He's a cop too, a sergeant actually, in the NYPD. At least, he was before. I don't know if he'd still be there after everything that went down."
Marjorie gave her another sad smile. She was about to ask another question when they both heard footsteps above. Tyler was home.
Eddie scooted herself back into the corner she had initially been hiding in, making sure to curl herself around her baby and hide her from view as best she could. She'd be damned if she let that bastard touch Clare, let alone hurt her.
Marjorie, meanwhile, stood up and gave her a brief nod before grabbing her bag and going to stand at the foot of the ladder. Eddie heard the sound of that damn deadbolt sliding open before the trap door opened and a square of light fell below.
Marjorie started climbing the ladder before Eddie's captor could start down. As she reached the top and her feet disappeared to the world above, Eddie heard her start talking. "Now Tyler, we need to discuss some things…"
The door slammed shut, jolting the baby in Eddie's arms awake. She quickly hushed her and cradled her close, afraid he might come down anyway and try to take her baby away. Over her dead body would that be happening.
But he didn't, and the deadbolt slid back into place. So, for now they would be granted some peace. Eddie hoped that Marjorie would be true to her word and alert somebody to their presence.
No help came.
After about a week, where her captor surprisingly left her alone save for dropping some meals down to her, Eddie started to give up hope again. Either she had been played for a fool or something had happened to prevent Marjorie from getting her help. If she had to guess, Eddie was willing to bet it was the latter.
At least she had Clare. Her sweet, beautiful, perfect little girl. Eddie made sure that she did everything she could to ensure that she was safe and protected. From swaddling her in nearly every piece of fabric she could find on the freezing winter nights to making a little makeshift crib out of a box that she emptied out from one of the shelves. If there was one thing keeping her going, it was her daughter.
Her theory that Clare would take after her father turned out to be right. Despite the circumstances, she was a happy baby. She very rarely cried for the sake of it and instead preferred to watch and observe her surroundings if Eddie wasn't playing with her. She was happiest in her mother's arms though, so Eddie was more than happy to oblige and hold Clare whenever she could.
Every once in a while, as the months continued to drag on and her captor decided that it was time for him to resume his normal activities with her, Eddie would wonder about Jamie. Where he was, how he was doing, if he ever thought about them. It kept her motivated to keep fighting back as best she could, to keep searching for a way to escape that she would be able to use when warmer weather came. Eddie didn't particularly care how she would come out of it at this point, but she would do everything she could to make sure that Clare got to meet her father. Even if she wasn't there to see it.
I'm really proud of these two chapters, so I hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you think!