Chapter 6
Cheyenne
O ne step into work and I stopped. The entire emergency room was in a panic. Nurses were rushing around while doctors called for crash carts and other supplies. It was the kind of mayhem I expected when we lived in the city. But there were no ten car pile ups or mass accidents in Ashen Springs.
I reached out and stopped, Patty – a fellow nurse – as she rushed by. “What’s going on?”
The second her eyes met mine, I knew it was bad.
“A mother tried to kill her kids.”
“What?” I had to have misheard her. There was no way a mother would hurt her child.
A tear rolled down Patty’s cheek. “She drove her car into the lake with her kids in the backseat.”
Oh my God.
I was at a loss for words. How? Why? I couldn’t fathom hurting a child, let alone trying to murder one. Mothers were supposed to protect and nurture their children. I woke up this morning excited for the future, and now…
My hand instinctively went to my belly.
This could not be the day that Brett found out about our new addition.
He would have no idea what happened, but I would.
I would see it all, and what if the children didn’t survive?
My husband would have to wait until another day to find out I was pregnant.
I would not let my baby’s announcement be marked by this travesty.
Besides, I had more important things to do.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath and put on my nurse hat. “Go and make sure we have blood if we need it.”
Patty nodded and took off, after which I headed over to the nurses station and dropped my sweater and bag on the counter. Everyone around me was crying and sniffing back sobs. Half of whom was looking around as if they didn’t know what to do.
The ER here was very quiet compared to the one I transferred from. So, my coworkers weren’t use to this kind of thing. To be fair I don’t think anyone was used to something like this. The only one who appeared to have any kind of composure was Dr. Reynolds who was yelling for warming blankets.
I let him handle his thing and turned my attention to my fellow nurses.
“What are you all doing?” Most of us were mothers, I understood their sorrow, but this is what we trained for. “Stop crying and get to work. We are going to save these babies.”
The chaos in the room took on an organized structure. We all concentrated on the incoming emergency. Then came the sirens and everything went quiet. The sky lit up with red and blue while quiet prayers were uttered.
I held my breath as the ambulance pull into the bay.
When the doors slid open and two paramedics rolled in a stretcher, I jumped into action.
“What do we have?”
“Eight year old…”
Jesus Christ, only eight.
“Pulse is strong but his temperature’s low.”
I directed the paramedic off to the right, “room two,” and turned back to the bay as ambulance number two drove in.
This time when the doors slid open, my heart broke.
Sitting on top of the stretcher, preforming CPR on a little boy who couldn’t be any older than six, was Louis Kessler.
“He’s not breathing.” Louis called out while pumping the boy’s chest.
When Brett was offered the transfer here I was hesitant, but it turned out my suspicions were right. Louis didn’t recognize me. We worked in the same place for two years and he didn’t so much as look at me. And why would he? I was beneath him.
The man I saw in Ashen Springs was nothing like the man I met years ago. He was kind and funny. Our time was short, but he made me feel like a goddess. This Louis Kessler walked around with his head held high, as if he was king and everyone else was a mere peasant not worthy of licking his shoes.
He didn’t look so high and mighty right now, though. His damp hair stood on end, while water dripped off his shoes and desperation filled his eyes.
The stretcher rolled past me and that’s when it hit me. These weren’t just any boys. They were his boys.
Suddenly all I could think about was my precious baby. The smell of his hair. How his tiny hand felt wrapped around my finger, and sweet way his eyes shone when he looked up at me. Micha and Mason were his brothers and I’d be damned if I was going to let them die on my watch.
I wrote down some stats then looked down at the bed.
It was touch and go for a while but we brought Mason back.
Now he was sleeping comfortably in the next room.
Micha had to be put to sleep. He refused to stay in bed and kept demanding to see his brother.
Poor child was more worried about Mason than he was himself.
And who could blame him? According to his father, Micha was the one who pulled his brother out of the car.
An eight year old was put in a position where he had to save someone’s life. That’s what his mother did to him.
“Such a brave boy.” I reached out and brushed a lock of dark hair off his forehead.
He looked so much like his father. He even had the same stern knit in his brows when he slept. I couldn’t help but wonder if my son would’ve shared any of their similarities?
Would he be proud of his brother? Did he have any siblings he was growing up with now?
I didn’t know anything about the people who adopted him.
I didn’t even know his name. What was his mother like?
Was she nice or would she try and drown him in the bathtub?
That thought never would’ve went through my mind yesterday.
What was the world coming to when a mother’s intentions had to be questioned?
“Is my brother okay?”
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t see Micha’s eyes open.
“Yes,” I smiled down at him. “Mason is going to be just fine.”
As fine as he could be anyway. His mother did try to kill him. How does a child even begin to wrap their mind around that?
Micha pushed himself up and demanded, “I want to see him.”
“He needs his rest.”
The little boy’s face hardened in an expression someone so young should not have. “Well, he can rest with me in the room.”
I saw where this was going, and fortunately for me my daughter was born with a stubborn streak a mile long.
“Okay, but if he wakes up too soon, he might panic and then we’ll have to intubate him again. That’s when we put a tube down his throat…”
“I know what intubate means.” Micha interrupted.
He was like is father in more ways than appearance. I could see why my daughter’s friend Riley had problems with him.
“I thought you said he was going to be just fine?”
“He will,” I said. “If he gets some rest. Besides, you don’t want the doctor to drug you again, do you?”
He crossed his arms and glared up at me. “Does this kind of thing work on your kids?”
“Not really.” I shook my head. “Does demanding things work with your father?”
“No, but that’s not going to stop me from checking on Mase.”
Micha swung his legs over the edge and attempted to get off the bed before I could stop him. Thankfully, I caught him before he crumpled on the floor.
“I know you want to be there for him.” I lifted Micha up and put him back in bed. “But your body’s been through a trauma. It needs time to heal.”
He was only eight. The fact that he was able to pull his brother out of that lake was nothing short of a miracle.
“I can walk.” He insisted.
“No you can’t.”
Not only did his mother try to drown him, but she drugged them.
That was why we had so much trouble bringing Mason back.
He ingested more than his brother and was overdosing on top of drowning.
A six year old overdosed on opiates. And the only reason we knew to look for something was because Patty caught Micha’s slurred speech.
Otherwise I wouldn’t be telling Micha his brother was okay.
“How about this, you get some sleep. I’ll come back in three hours with a wheelchair, and I’ll take you to see your brother?” I suggested when Micha once again attempted to get out of bed.
He stopped and eyed me. “Fine, but I’m going to time you.”
I expected nothing less from Louis Kessler’s son.
Micha laid back down and I let out a breath.
Things in here were settled down. Out in the hall, was a different story.
“I don’t care. Wake that bitch up so I can look in her eyes when I fucking kill her!”
Micha and I both recognized the voice. It was his father.
His eyes shifted over to me as I held up hand. “Stay here, I’ll go find out what’s going on.”
Despite his obvious annoyance at my statement, Micha stayed where he was when I walked out of the room.
Louis and Dr. Creswell were arguing down the hall, and they weren’t being very quiet about it.
“Calm down Louis, you can’t kill her here.”
“The fuck I can’t. The cunt tried to kill my kids.”
Wait, his wife survived? That must’ve been the third ambulance. I was too busy with Mason to see who they brought in, but…
My eyes wandered over to room they stood in front of. I felt sick. Was she in there right now?
Louis jabbed his finger in Dr. Creswell’s chest. “I’ll slit her fucking throat in the middle of town square.”
I wouldn’t consider Louis Kessler a nice or reasonable man by any means, but this version of him was downright terrifying. Not that I could blame him. I’d be angry too. They should’ve left his wife at the bottom of the lake.
“Wake her up, NOW!” Louis demanded so loud that his voice vibrated off the walls.
One word brought it all to a stop.
“Dad?”
Shit.
I looked down to see a little boy standing beside me.
“Micha.” Louis walked down the hall to scoop up his son. After which he shot me a dirty look. “You should be in bed.” Then disappeared into his room, with a slam of the door.
Dr. Creswell shook his head at me and walked off in the other direction.
I felt horrible. I should’ve been distracting Micha instead of watching them. Poor child. As if he didn’t have enough to deal with. And still, I couldn’t stop staring at the room down the hall.
Before I knew what was happening I found my feet carrying me there. With every step I told myself to go back to work, until I was standing in a dark room, staring at a woman lying on the bed. The ventilator hissed as I looked down at her.
It seemed wrong that she was here. Why should she get to live? This woman tried to kill her babies. For the rest of their lives, they would be scared of the one person who should’ve loved them unconditionally. They shouldn’t have to see her face ever again.
My eyes shifted over to an empty syringe laying on the supply cart.
It all happened so fast. I picked up the syringe, sucked in a bubble of air, and injected it in her veins. There was no hesitation, or sadness. No regrets or anxiety when the bubble hit her heart and she seized.
The only thing I remember thinking was that I couldn’t raise my son, but I could protect his brothers.