MC: LaPonte-Karr: Book Three (23 page)

Two weeks

Tess

I love my new job with Ally, Lily and Tara!  All I have to do is help them with homework, take care of some chores and have fun.  It is even better than Millie’s.  We go to Mary’s house on Tuesday and Thursday and stay at Danny and Kate’s on the rest.  Today we are with the boys.  I’m helping Ally hang her clothes and change her sheets.  Patches does the beds during the week so there’s not so much to do for Kate on the weekends.  I love it.

Ben loved our idea for the Little Sisters and Kelly will help us with the girl parts.  Patches was surprised I made a book like his and have pictures in it.  Penny did a great job.  He even asked her to do some pictures for his book.  We have our first meeting on Thursday night same as the boys.  Since the girls always went with the boys anyway Ben thought it would be good to keep it the same.  I don’t care as long as we get to do it.  Penny is excited too.

Max follows me to the laundry room, I take sheets out of the washer put them in the dryer and put Ally’s in to wash.  I feel dizzy so I sit.

Patches

What the fuck?  I run at Max’s barking.  Where the fuck is she?  Jessie yells down stairs.  Fuck she’s on the floor crying those big fuckin sobs.  “What is it Tess.”  I'm going to do like Danny did asking the questions.

“Kate, she’s going to lose the baby.  Help her.”  Fuck!   She’s crying so hard I can barely understand her.

“Jessie, call Danny.  Baby where is she?”

“I don’t know it’s a house.  There’s water.  A blue house, help her hurry!”  Fuck.

Jessie hands me the phone I put it on speaker.  “Danny, Tess is having a dream she says Kate is at a blue house and we have to help her.”   I’m an idiot like he can’t hear her crying.

“Put the phone closer to her.  Tess what day is it?  Can you see her book and tell me the day?”

“Help her, you have to help or she’ll lose the baby.  Her book, her book is on the seat.  HURRY!”  She’s just about screeching to him.  Holy fuck my heart is beating double time.

“Tess, look at the book, what does it say, what day and where is she?”

“Middletown, Tuesday at three please help her he’s coming you have to help.” She’s sobbing again.

“Jessie, are you still there?”

“Yeah I’m here.”  He answers he’s scared as fuck.

“Take Patches phone and call your dad.  I need to stay on this one.  I’m on my way.  Kate's not there yet, please let her not be there.”  Jessie takes my phone from me and runs to the kitchen.  I have Little Ben call Rich.  “Patches it’s not three yet I have ten minutes and I’m not far.  Try to calm her down.”

“I’m sitting on the floor rocking her.  I can’t get through.”  I have to yell over her sobs.  Thank Fuck Darren took the kids up to the loft.  Jessie and Little Ben are talking in the kitchen.  “Did you call her Danny?”

“No answer.”  Fuck!  His voice sounds flat.

Tess keeps repeating please help her.  I try to quiet her.  She’s never been this bad.  I call Max into the room and tell him to sit with Tess.  He climbs and puts his head on her lap.  She calms right the fuck down.  Holy fuck!

“Patches what the fuck is happening?  I’m two streets away.”  Danny sounds nervous.

“Max put his head on her lap.”

“Tess, are you with us?”  He asks.  She doesn’t answer.  “I’m here Kate is on the porch.”  He’s gone.  I hear gunshots.  Fuck.  Kate screams. Tess screams what the fuck is happening?  She's chanting, "no no no no"

I hear a bike and yelling, more gunshots.  I’m about to have a heart attack here and all that’s here are the kids.  I look up and Little Ben sits down beside us holding Tess’s hand.  Kate comes on the phone.  “Patches?”

“Thank fuckin Christ.  I’m here Kate.”

“I’m fine.  Danny said I had to tell you I’m fine.”  She’s crying.  I hear an ambulance.

“You’re not hurt?  Is anyone hurt?”  I ask, I hate to in front of the boys but I have to.

She sobs.  “Danny was shot in the arm but he’s fine.  Ben and Steve are here too, everyone is fine.  She saved me and my baby didn’t she?”  Thank Fuck!

“Yeah, Kate.  She’s calming down now but she’s still blank.”  I feel like I can breathe again.  Holy fuckin shit.

“Thank you isn’t enough but please tell her.”  She’s sobbing now.  Fuck.

“I’ll tell her.”

“She lives through this all the time.  I’m so sorry she had to live through this.”  She’s crying again.

“Patches the police and ambulance are here.  I’m going to hang up and go to the hospital with Danny.  I’ll call when everything is a little calmer.”  Ben says calming all of us instantly.

“Thanks Ben.  I need to get off the fuckin floor.”  He laughs.  “That sounded so fuckin good; I’ll talk to you in a little while.”  I shut off the phone.

Little Ben takes a deep breath.  “That was close.  Do you think it hurts her heart when she sees things like that?”

“I do, but she is amazing at fixing it herself.  It takes a lot out of her at the time but in a little while she’ll be fine like nothing happened.”  I talk softly; Tess seems to have fallen asleep.   “Down Max.  Good Boy.”  I stand with Tess in my arms.  “LB can you reach in my vest pocket and get him a treat.”  He does telling Max he did good.

Rich comes running around the corner. He sees Tess and looks at me.  “It was bad.  I was going to put her on the bed but I don’t want to leave her alone.  All the kids are here plus Lily and Tara.”  He nods.

“I can sit with her or do the kids.  You look like you need to be with her though, your call.”

I throw him chin.  “Thanks Rich I could use some time to get my fuckin heart beating right.”  He nods and corrals the two boys to tell him what happened.

I take Tess to the spare/my room and lay against the headboard with her in my lap.  Max stays on the side of the bed with his head on the mattress watching.  “You did perfect today Max.  Good job.”  I reach and get him another treat.  I lay my head back and breathe deep.  Fuckin hell.  I wonder if it was so bad because it was Kate.  Maybe the baby.  I’m going to let it go for now.  I picture a room for our baby.  I wonder what we will decide.  Fuck when the fuck did we decide on having a baby?  Holy shit!  I wonder what Rich is making for dinner. That’s a fuck of a lot better.

Rich

Holy fuck!  My fuckin heart is beating a mile a minute.  Sam heard what happened and called to say he was sending dinner over.  Thank Fuck.  I don’t think it would have been very good tonight.  Mary came for Lily and Tara.  Patches looks like fuckin shit.  She scared the shit out of him.

Doc shows up.  “Danny is on his way here.  He refused medical treatment at the scene.”

“Why the fuck is he so fuckin stubborn?  We got this.”  I tell him.  My fuckin father.

“I think it’s Kate, she’s worried about Tess.  She said it could have been really bad.”  He says in his doctor voice.

“Jessie said she told my dad he had to help or she'd lose the baby.”  I tell him, that’s about as bad as it fuckin gets if you ask me.

"I think I'd like to check her out.  Danny said she was hysterical.  That is not a normal Tess emotion."  He says looking concerned.

"She's in Patches room.  He said it was bad.  Jessie and Little Ben were freaked the fuck out."

He nods and heads to Patches room off the living room.  Ben brings an exhausted Kate in.  She's a fuckin wreck.  Makeup running down her face, eyes red, she looks so fuckin tired, there’s dried blood on her shirt. I hug her.  Her whole body sags.  "Is she ok?"  She asks with tears falling. 

"Doc is in with her now.  She was sleeping when I got here."  I'm not going to be the one to upset her more.  "Where's dad?"

"Bob was helping him out of the truck."  Ben says as my dad walks in.  Fuck he's got blood dripping down his fuckin coat.  I turn Kate to Ben.

"Sit him down Bob, I'll get Doc."  I get to the door and look in; Tess is still out of it.  Fuck!  "My dad's here Doc.  He's still dripping."  He gets up and grabs his bag walking out.  I sit by them.  "The boys said it was really bad."

"It was.  She hasn't woken up.  I'm getting a little nervous."  Patches still looks like shit.  Fuck.

"Do you need anything?  A fuckin shot or something?"  I smile.

"Some water would do thanks."  He's not smiling.  I nod and get him water.  His eyes are closed when I come back so I leave it on the nightstand and run the back of my hand over Tess’ cheek.

Doc is working on my dad at the kitchen table.  He's a fuckin mess.  "I need another fuckin coat."  He's pissed.  I crack up.

"You're dripping blood all over the floor and you're pissed about a fuckin coat.  How the fuck did you get shot."  I'm thinking he's in shock.

"I need to think about something else."  He fuckin smiles.  "How is Tess?"

"Patches is worried.  She hasn't woken up.  He said it was bad this time.  He looks like he was hit by a fuckin truck so I don't want to ask too much right now."  I'm thinking I need to be in there with him but he needs some time too.  I fuckin hate that I don't know which is more important.

"It was bad Rich.  Not like at the Diner, she was screaming that I had to help Kate or she'd lose the baby.  I tackled her; she landed on top of me though.  It was fuckin close.  The thing that helped me find her though was Tess was able to see Kate's book on the seat.  She told me right where to go and what time she'd be there."

"Thank fuck.  I think we should see someone about these dreams.  We need to help her through this.  She's going to be a fuckin wreck if this keeps up.  Kate will be right there with her."  I tell him.

"She stopped crying, I thought I was too fuckin late.  I was fuckin scared.  When I asked Patches what was happening he said Max laid his head on her lap.  She calmed right the fuck down but now she's sleeping.  Did she ever sleep after a vision before?"

I love that fuckin dog.  "Not that I know of.  With Ally she was hysterical, but awake then with Jonesy she was asleep then woke.  She stayed awake.  The second time with Alley it started while she was asleep but she was awake and sobbing that we had to come here and help her.  She had never made noise crying before or even after, unless it's a dream. You saw what happened with Jessie, she was fighting Patches while he was trying to move her to the back.  Thank fuck it was Patches, one of the women would never have gotten her back there.  She stayed awake then too."  I think back.  "With Amanda she was awake before and after.  That one she was sobbing but not too bad."

He looks at me.  Doc looks at me; he stopped stitching with the thread hanging from my dad’s arm.  "What?"

"I think we may need some help with the visions.  That's a fuckin lot of stress to go through.  Seeing people she knows hurt, shot, raped.  Fuck, no wonder Kate is more fuckin worried about her, than that she almost got shot."  Doc says.  Bob agrees.  We hear bikes coming up the road.

"Ben took a Ducati.  That's how he got there so fuckin fast.  He's lucky he didn't kill himself."  My dad looks pissed again.

"I'll let them in."  I go through the garage.  I need a fuckin minute.  How the fuck do we help her seeing all the fuckin shit she sees?  I hit the door opener and Steve rolls in.  Tiny picks up Driscoll, he was on Steve's bike.  Once Ben's bike is in and off Steve follows me in.

"Just flesh?"  He asks.

Doc looks at him.  "Would have been a fuck of a lot better if he went to the fuckin clinic.  I put him back together, this one’s going to hurt like a son of a bitch, took the hit in a lot of fuckin muscle."

"Guess it's good he's got muscle."  Steve smiles.  Fuckin VP.

"Rich I'm going to ask Sally to look into the visions.  It sounds like they're worse for the people she loves.  Her going right from hysterical to almost catatonic is a major concern to me.  I'm wondering if she's ever loved people before.  She may need some help getting through the visions when they happen.  Sally said she's seen a couple; she had tears but no noise.  The others she had no reaction other than a bit of a dazed look.  Whatever her reaction she's going to need some help."  Doc finishes bandaging my dad as he says this.  Fuck, I know it but I know very little about dreams or visions.

"I'm going to check on them."  I tell him getting up.  He tells me he'll be right in.  When I get to the door Kate is sitting on the side of the bed stroking Tess' hair.  Patches is in the bathroom splashing water on his face.  Max has his head on the mattress.  I walk over to him and put Tess' hand close to him.  He lays his head on it.  I go back around and sit on the bed and rub her back.  My girl is fuckin out.

Doc comes in, "nothing?"  I shake my head no.

Patches looks better than he did.  "She hasn't moved.  I'm worried Doc.  This has never happened before."  Just as he finishes Max makes a low noise. 

Tess moves.  Fuckin dog is awesome.  She opens her eyes and bursts into tears.  She sits up so fuckin fast and holds onto Kate.  "Thanks to you I'm fine.  Danny is fine.  Doc took care of him.  I was so worried about you."

"You're ok.  But I saw Danny get shot.  There was so much blood.  It was on you but you were alright."  Tess voice hitches but no sobbing.

"It was Danny's blood.  I was fine just like you thought.  He tackled me and flipped over so I was on top of him.  The blood was from his arm.  I was on top of it.  I'm perfect.  The baby is perfect and Danny is going to be just fine."  Kate is talking so soft soothing Tess like a mom would.  She was worried about Tess seeing everything.  I look at Patches he's smiling.