Ellie walked into the warehouse wishing there was some way she could have let Dale know where she was. “What do you want?”
The woman pulled the red wig off, “I want nothing from you.”
“Then why did you bring me here?”
The bodyguard emerged, pushing a table. He stopped in front of her and gave her a smile, “Hello Mrs. Carson.”
“Joe, my sister is getting you the money.”
He chuckled, “Of course she is. Help me Jane.”
“With what?” Ellie demanded, panic rising fast inside her. She watched as they spread a sheet of clear plastic over the steel table and then they laid out a blue sheet over it. She felt her chest tighten, “What are you doing?”
Jane glanced at her, before she opened the bag, “Preparing.”
“For what?”
She pulled out a scalpel, “For your C-section.”
Ellie backed away from the table, her breath getting shorter with each step. “What do you mean my c-section? I’m not having a c-section!”
Jane stalked to her, taunting her with the scalpel. “According to your last ultra sound, the baby hasn’t turned yet. I really want your baby to be born alive so, cutting you open is the only choice we have.”
“Is this a joke?” She whispered, tears trickling down her face.
“Now why would I joke about something like this?”
Joe moved to her, grabbing her arms from the back and pushing her forward. “We have a schedule to keep Jane. We don’t have time for chatter.”
Ellie tried to wiggle out of his hold, “No, please wait! He is not ready yet! He’ll die if you take him out now, please!”
Jane moved to a white tarp and pulled it off, exposing an incubator, “We came prepared.”
Joe lifted her and pinned her on the table. He held her down as Jane strapped the plastic restraints on her wrists and ankles. “Relax, it won’t be long now.”
Ellie struggled to pull off the restraints, as she lay on the cold table. There had to be a way out of here. She couldn’t let them kill her son.
“Stop that, it won’t work,” Jane laughed, as she pulled her gloves on.
“Why are you doing this?”
“It’s all about the money sweetheart.”
“I’ll pay you double, I promise, just let me go!”
They looked at her, intrigued by the offer, “Can you double two million dollars?”
Ellie gasped at the revelation. Someone was paying them so much to steal her baby? “Who is paying you?”
“I guess that means no.” He pulled up her top, “Jane lets get started.”
Ellie cried wiggling around. “No, no, no!”
“Shut her up and hold her down Joe! One wrong slip and we won’t get paid!”
“I’ve got something better,” Joe moved to the table and pulled out a syringe. “It will knock her out and she won’t feel a thing.”
“Don’t give her too much of it. The instructions were to keep her awake and alive, so that she can watch us walk out of here, with her bundle of joy.”
“Please no!”
Joe stabbed her with the needle, “Well, next time be careful with who you piss off.”
Within a few seconds, Ellie began to feel drowsy. She felt numb all over, even her lips, but she wasn’t going to let it stop her from screaming for help.
Jane laughed, as she made the first incision, “You sound like a cat!”
Ellie whimpered when she felt the dull pain of the knife slicing through her. “No please,” she begged one more time, her head dropping on the table, too heavy to hold up anymore.
“Hold her open Joe,”
Ellie cried when she felt the push and pull pressure. They were stealing her baby from her and there was nothing she could do.
“Here he is!” Jane announced, holding the baby up for Ellie to see. He was so tiny and his skin was ashy pink. He didn’t move nor did he seem like he was breathing.
“You killed him!” Ellie cried, turning away from her lifeless child.
Jane took him to another table, “I’m a nurse, and I know what I’m doing.” After a few minutes of prompting, a sharp baby’s cry filled the empty warehouse, bouncing off the walls.
Ellie turned to him. Jane was blocking him, but she could see his little feet move around. She cried out of happiness and immense sadness. Her baby was alive, but she was never going to have the joy of being his mother.
“Hurry up with that brat before she bleeds out!”
“Hold your horses.” Jane swaddled him up and placed him in the incubator. “You are a very pretty baby and very strong too!” She cooed at him before she moved to Ellie. “You and that husband of yours have really good genes, a gorgeous daughter and a stunning son. He is going to be a heart breaker when he’s grown, too bad you won’t see it.”
“Please let me see him,” Ellie begged. “Just let me hold him once.”
“No. Now close her up.” Joe ordered.
“Sorry, but we need to leave,” Jane said. Before she could even touch Ellie, loud sirens echoed in the warehouse. “What the hell, Joe?”
Joe yanked off of his bloody surgical gear, “Shit! I knew that witch couldn’t be trusted. Let’s go!”
Jane pulled her overalls off, “What about her and the baby? And our money?”
“Leave them and she’s not going to pay us, especially if we are in jail!”
Ellie gave a tired laugh, “You won’t get to jail. Dale is going to kill you the moment you step outside.”
“Who’s Dale?” she asked.
“Her FBI husband.”
“You’ve been standing here for two minutes already, one more minute and you’ll both be dead. No questions asked, just a bullet right through your head.” Ellie slurred out.
“Is she serious?”
“I’m sure, and I’m not sticking around to prove her right!” Joe took off running, Jane hot on his heels.
Ellie struggled to release her hand. It hurt as she tore her skin out of the plastic cuffs, but she didn’t care. Once she was free, she reached above her head and held on to the incubator. She pulled it and it rolled in view of her.
Ellie smiled when she saw him. He had a small oxygen mask a few inches from his face. His eyes were closed, but his little red lips moved like a tiny fish’s. She placed her hand up against it. The incubator felt warm. He was safe in there, but she knew something was bound to go wrong if he didn’t get to a hospital.
She pulled the incubator closer and opened the little door. She stuck her hand inside and stroked his tiny head. He stirred and whined for a moment before he settled again.
“My beautiful little baby boy.” She whispered, too weak to talk aloud. “You are going to be fine. Your daddy is going to save you.”
“Ellie! Oh my God!” Paloma exclaimed, when she saw all the blood dripping from the table and join a huge pool on the floor. “We need the paramedics in here!” She whispered urgently, into her radio.
“Paloma,” Ellie whispered through her dry throat, “Where is Dale?”
“He is…” Four gun shots finished her sentence. She didn’t need to be told for confirmation, “He’s on his way.”
“In case he doesn’t get here in time…”
She grabbed the tarp and wrapped it around Ellie’s open belly. It didn’t stop the bleeding but it slowed it down. “Ellie, you’ll be fine.”
“Tell him I love him very much and that I’m sorry.”
Paloma nodded, unable to hold back the tears, “I’m sure he knows and you can tell him yourself.”
“And tell him to tell Stacey-Ann that her mommy loves her so very, very much. He has to tell them both that every day.”
Paloma yelled into her radio. “Where the hell are the paramedics?!”
“Oh God,” Kevin uttered.
“You have a medical degree, do something!”
Kevin nodded. He pooled the tarp off and grabbed the surgical tape on the table. “This can be controlled. I can fix this.” He said, more to himself than anyone else.
Ellie however knew better. She wasn’t going to survive it, she could feel it. She turned to her son and looked at him one last time. She stroked his tiny ear. It felt as soft as a petal against her touch. She would miss this. Just like she’d miss Stacey-Ann’s first date, graduation and college. She would miss it all and her heart broke over it.
“His name is James Dale Carson. Make sure to tell Dale that.” And then she closed her eyes and sunk into the dark abyss.
“Ellie!” Carson yelled, as he run to them.
“Stop him, don’t let him near here!” Kevin ordered.
Doran grabbed his arm but he got shoved to the ground. Then Richard grabbed hold of him before he took another step. They wrestled him to his knees but it was proving to be a battle they would both lose, until Gwen joined them. She put her knees on his legs and hung on his neck, weighing him down.
“The baby is fine Carson, it’s just Ellie now!” Paloma offered. She wanted to comfort him, but she couldn’t leave Ellie. She looked at her pale face and her hand which rested on her baby’s head, and her heart broke. She didn’t have the words or the thought to describe what she felt.
The paramedics passed the wrestling group to get to Ellie. Kevin spoke quickly to them, each word passing Carson too fast for him to understand. But when one of them took out the defiberator, he didn’t need words to understand that.
“Ellie!” he heaved up and tried to push the trio off him.
Gwen was thrown off when he got to his feet. But before he could shove off the other two, she kicked his knees sending him down hard. She went back to her prior position, with a tighter hold on him this time. “Let them work Carson. They can save her, just wait and don’t get in their way!”
Carson sank to the ground his hands over his head as he cried.
He’d failed, again.
What was he going to tell his children?