Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet (3 page)

“
God, is it going to fall
or not?” She squealed the words into his neck, her fingers
tightening on his shirt.

He rubbed his hand up her
back, “It’ll be over in a minute. Then we’ll get out of here. Hell
of a first day, huh, kid?”

At a cry from behind her,
Ally turned half around, feeling the man she was pressed against
tense. The redheaded woman was clutching her husband tightly with
one hand; with the other she held her distended stomach.

The front of her pants was
soaked and Ally knew exactly what it meant.

McLaughlin’s wife was in
labor.

Dan kept his hands steady
around his armful, even when she tried to pull away slightly.
Damned elevator wasn’t done yet, and he just knew it. And he wasn’t
letting go of the doc until he knew it was completely
safe.

That was until he got a
good look at little Ana’s pale face, and a quick look at
McLaughlin’s panicked one. It was then that Dan recalled the
couple’s history.

It wasn’t the first time
the couple had been stuck in an elevator. When they’d worked
together nearly a decade ago, they’d chased an arsonist into a
building. Damn bastard then blew the place, with little Ana and
McLaughlin trapped in an elevator for hours. McLaughlin had lost
his arm, and from what Dan had heard, Ana had had nightmares for
years to come. And she’d ran, ran far from McLaughlin. It was only
last year they’d reconciled whatever it had been between them.
Things had started to turn around for the two.

And then the arsonist
bastard had caught up with Ana again. Trapped her in an elevator
again. McLaughlin had barely gotten her out in time. It had been so
close. Dan himself had helped pull her from the elevator. And now
this. Dan knew what the wet streaks down Ana’s legs meant. He had
fathered three children, after all. And even though he hadn’t seen
them in fifteen years, he remembered the days each of them was born
with absolute clarity. Kelly had taken the longest, Emma had barely
registered at all, broken water one minute, a baby the next. He’d
barely gotten his ex to the hospital in time. Baby Gracie, only six
months when Dan had last seen her or held her, she’d been an
average labor, and a relatively easy delivery. And Dan had been
present for every minute for all three of his girls.

He hurt for them every day.
Hurt every day since his ex-wife had disappeared, taking
ten-year-old Kelly, six-year-old Emma, and baby Gracie.
Disappearing while he’d been flat on his back in ICU with three
bullets in his chest, and two in his leg. His leg twinged once
again, reminding him of the most recent bullets he’d taken. Fifteen
years had passed since he’d seen his girls, but, yes, he remembered
the signs of labor very clearly.

And little Ana was about to
have her baby. With no medical facility nearby, a panicked husband
at her side, and stuck in the damned elevator of the St. Louis FBI
building.

Dan picked up the emergency
phone, hit the button. Ana was not having her baby in this
elevator, fate and karma couldn’t be that big a set of bitches. Dan
kept his eyes on the little redhead’s face, not blind to the utter
fear that she was trying to hide. Ana always tried to be strong, to
pretend she wasn’t afraid of anything. But Dan had seen through
that quick.

She was an extremely
vulnerable young woman, and she was terrified.

Her eyes hadn’t left her
husband for more than a moment, and even then they went straight to
the new little doc. The doc stepped away from Dan and closer to
Ana. “Ana, can I call you Ana? How far apart are the contractions?
And just when did they start?”

The elevator gave another,
more powerful, threatening lurch. The lights powered off. Someone
squealed, then Dan felt the warm weight of woman knock into his
side. The backup lights kicked in, just in time for him to see the
fear on the doc’s face.

She masked it quickly,
after one quick look in Ana’s direction. McLaughlin and Georgia
were lowering Ana to the floor. Soon the doc was down beside her,
her manner soothing, and calm and if Dan wasn’t mistaken
experienced. “Just what kind of a doc are you?”

“
My chosen field was
emergency medicine. It’s been about five years since I practiced in
a hospital setting, but I am licensed.”

“
You ever deliver any
babies?” McLaughlin’s words held just the smallest trace of
fear.

“
Thirty-four births,
thirty-eight babies. Human babies.” She smiled softly at Ana,
before looking at McLaughlin. “And thanks to my son, I’ve delivered
around that many stray animals as well. But we need to get you
comfortable, and in a reclining position. In the meantime,
Marianna, Dan, can you please see what you can do about getting us
out of this elevator?”

As if someone above had
heard her question, the phone in Dan’s hand suddenly sprang to
life.

“
Agent McLaughlin, you may
want to spread your suit coat out under your wife.” Ally did her
best to keep her nerves from showing as she helped Ana get into a
more comfortable position. She shuddered to think of what was on
the elevator floor. It wasn’t any place for a pregnant woman, that
was for sure. God knew the coat was probably a heck of a lot
cleaner than the floor. “I do need to take a look, see if I can get
you an estimate of just when this little one will be joining us.
Marianna, I’ll need whatever you’ve got in that magic bag of
yours.”

Ally vaguely heard Dan
explaining the situation over the phone as she gave a quick prayer
that they’d be out of this elevator and on their way to the nearest
hospital as quickly as possible. Thank God Marianna was with them.
Marianna, a woman whose motto was be prepared, handed Ally a pair
of sterile gloves and several alcohol swabs. The woman carried
gloves, Band-Aids, swabs, and everything else the mother of seven
rowdy boys and the head of an evidence recovery team could possibly
ever need. Ally used the swabs to sterilize her hands quickly.
“Thanks Mari.”

The exam took less than two
minutes, about as long as Dan’s telephone conversation.

McLaughlin looked at Ally
with just the faintest touch of panic in his eyes.
“Well?”

“
I think this little one
will be joining us shortly. Probably within the next two hours at
the most. Ana, you’re fully dilated. Have you been experiencing
these contractions for a while?”

“
Doctor said
Braxton-Hicks.” The redhead was trembling and scared. Ally
remembered her first, how terrified she’d been. And she’d been a
medical student. She’d known what to expect, not to mention the
fact that she’d been at one of the best hospitals in Indianapolis.
“All week.”

“
Well, this is the real
thing now. But don’t worry, once it’s all over and you’re holding
the baby for the first time, absolutely nothing else
matters.”

“
You have children?” The
brunette holding Ana’s other hand asked. Ally couldn’t recall her
name, but she remembered that she was married to one of the unit
chiefs. Apparently there was a lot of that going around the St.
Louis Field office.

“
I have a boy and girl.
Eleven and four.” Ally rose to her feet. “I’m going to speak with
whoever’s on the end of that phone, have them get a few things
ready for us when we get out of here.”

She stepped closer to the
corner where Dan still stood, clutching the elevator phone with one
hand and his cane with the other. He had a perplexed and
apprehensive expression on his handsome face and Ally felt her
breath catch. She moved closer, coming to a stop well within his
personal space.

Something was wrong, and
she didn’t want the scared woman behind her to know it. “What’s
wrong?”

“
That was Lorcan.” He
leaned closer, close enough to whisper directly in her ear. She
ignored the heat of his breath to focus on his words. “Seems
someone’s hacked into the computer system, and is screwing with
several systems in this building.”

Ally’s eyes widened. “But,
what...”

“
Carrie’s trying to back
hack. Her and Tompkins, as well as the rest of the computer kids.
But it’s going to take some time to get it back up.”

“
Well, we have to have them
hurry.” Ally threw a glance at the McLaughlins as they sat speaking
with Marianna and the brunette.

“
Honest answer, Doc?” Dan
pulled her closer than Ally thought possible. “Tell me the truth,
how long until that kid gets here? Your best guess?”

“
Under ninety minutes,
depending on the strength of the contractions. Can they get us out
of here before then?”

“
No. Carrie’s best
estimate, and she’s the best we’ve got, is three hours.”

“
We have half that. If
we’re lucky.” Ally swallowed. “Otherwise, I’ll be delivering that
baby in here.”

Dan fought the urge to
curse. Little Ana didn’t need to hear him panicking, on top of all
the rest. He picked up the elevator phone and hit the button,
waiting until Lorcan answered. “Lorcan, you’ll need to think of
something. Ana’s definitely in labor and the doc says hour and a
half tops.”

He listened to the man’s
colorful swearing on the other end of the line with a sense of
admiration. Dan had thought he’d heard every curse there was.
Lorcan managed to make up a few that Dan hadn't heard in his
thirty-year career.

Dan hung up the phone after
Lorcan promised to do everything he could to urge the computer
techs on and to get the maintenance department rolling. Both men
knew there had to be a way out of the elevator.

Ana cried out behind him
and the doc dropped back down to the woman’s side. “Be calm,
steady, did you take Lamaze?”

“
We tried. But with this
job, it just didn’t happen,” Ana said once the pain had subsided.
“So why are you here? If you’re a doctor? Why don’t you work in a
hospital?”

“
Ironically, the FBI has
better hours. I’m usually off the clock by four, and home with my
kids by five,” The doc said. Dan had to admire that type of
sacrifice. Med school wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cheap. For her to
just give up practicing, that was something of a surprising
decision.

“
Tell me about your kids.
I’ll admit other than Mattie, Georgia’s son, I don’t know much
about them.” There was a ring of panic in Ana's voice that had Dan
remembering his own first-time parent days. Holding his oldest when
she’d been but of few minutes old, how fragile she’d felt as she’d
blinked up at him with eyes that stole his very soul.

He missed his girls. Every
damned day something reminded him of those kids.

“
Ryan’s eleven going on
forty.” The doc said, as she continued to examine Ana. She was a
highly competent woman; Dan had to admire someone who could calmly
sit on an elevator floor with a pregnant woman, ready to deliver a
baby with just some cotton swabs, nail scissors, and alcohol
pads.

Even as calm-natured as he
knew he was, Dan knew he’d be panicking if it had just been him and
the McLaughlins in the damned elevator.

“
He’s into science and
baseball and tormenting his sister. And not necessarily in that
order. He’s also learning the guitar,” The doc continued. “I think
he’s talented, but I’m his mother―I’m supposed to think that.
Aislin, she’s a little doll. Very much the girly girl, although I’m
starting to see a bit of tomboyish behavior peeking through. Thank
God. I’ve never been the girly girl. She’s only four and already
knows her own mind. I don’t know where she gets her stubbornness. I
can only imagine the battles I’ll have when she gets
older.”

She never mentioned the
children’s father, and Dan found that intriguing. What kind of
idiot let a woman like the doc get away? Pretty, bright, loving,
sweet--Dan had learned all that about her in only an hour’s time.
How could a man let her go?

She spent the next hour
telling stories of her children’s exploits, alternating with
Georgia and her friend as they spoke of their own children. Dan,
himself contributed a story or two of Kelly and Emma.

He saw Georgia’s
sympathetic glance. He rarely spoke of his children, had never told
an anecdote in the entire time he’d known the little psychologist.
He doubted she even knew the names of his three
daughters.

After about an hour or so,
Ana’s contractions became much more concentrated, and the doc
helped her get prepared. Dan knew what that meant, and he grabbed
the elevator phone to both demand and give an update.

That baby was on its
way.

It wasn’t a quarter of an
hour later that the infant’s first squall sounded. The doc wrapped
the new little girl in Dan’s button down shirt he’d donated, and
handed her quickly to her colleague. Glendower held the infant
tight to her body, sharing body heat as the doc efficiently cut the
umbilical cord, and tended to Ana.

It was then that Dan saw
the blood staining McLaughlin’s coat.

The doc looked at him and
he saw the knowledge in her eyes, and knew his fear had to be
visible for her to see as well. “Dan, call them, tell them to
hurry. She’s bleeding badly, and I don’t know if I can stop
it.”