Chapter Five

“C’mon Stace, stay with me.” Ricky was holding Stacey in his arms and trying to wake her up by gently smacking either side of her face. “Don’t leave me Stace! I need you!” His eyes started to water as he pulled her closer and started to rock back and forth with her limp body in his arms. He pushed her body away from her just enough to see her face. There were scratches and a bruise already starting to form on her right cheek bone from where she hit the asphalt. Somehow she’d gashed her head open at her hairline a few inches above her right ear.
“God, please…” He started praying and looking up towards the heavens. “I know that I’ve been denying what I need to do, for my son and for the woman I love. But don’t punish her for what I’ve done!” A few more sobs came out as he paused to catch his breath. He bit his bottom lip and tried to hold it in, but without success. “Please don’t take her from me. I need her in my life. Without her around, I would have gone insane when our son was kidnapped. I need her… God, please… I need her.” His sobs quieted as he just held her and rocked her in his arms.
After what seemed like years he heard footsteps and sirens behind him. “Oh my God, Stacey!” Meg ran over and knelt next to Stacey and Ricky. She put a hand on the side of Ricky’s shoulder and tears started to form in her eyes. “What happened?!” More voices and more footsteps.
The next to arrive was Marie and Travis with Irene and Chazz tailing closely behind. “Dear God! What happened?! Did she get hit by a car?” Brandi was kneeling down next to Meg and Marie and Irene joined them and the guys started to form a circle around the two of them.
“Ricky, bro, what happened?” Rudy was the first one to shake Ricky from the trance he seemed to be in. “What?” Was all he could muster from his vocal cords to his mouth. Marie put both hands on Ricky’s shoulders, “Ricky, what happened to Stacey?” Everyone was silent as they waited for the story to begin.
“We were at the park sitting on the swings, talking about being back in high school again.” He started. “Why?” Jose laughed, then realizing it wasn’t the time he cleared his throat and listened. “She was talking about those girls on the playground and how they liked me…” He was staring off into space as if he was reliving everything that had happened.
“Oh! That’s us, that’s us!” Mary shouted. “Shut up Mary! He’s telling what happened!” Kate yelled at her friend. Everyone looked at the two of them and turned back to Ricky.
“She put her head down because she seemed to be getting a head ache. Next thing I know she’s up on her feet running after a lady putting her kid in the car. She was screaming saying it was Michael… I mean Nicholas. She kept saying a mother knows her baby’s cry, but she was stressed from today.” He paused as everyone turned to look at each other. “She took off running after the lady’s beat up red car. And fell to the ground hard when she couldn’t catch her breath.”
Irene’s eyebrows furrowed together. “That doesn’t make sense. Stace can run two miles before getting completely winded, she used to make fun of me for only being able to run half a mile and needing to stop when we’d go to the gym before.”
“Ya,” Brandi agreed. “The only time she couldn’t keep up with anyone was when…” Everyone looked at each other in shock. “Oh HELL no!” Junior was the first to open his mouth. “Don’t tell me that asshole got her pregnant right after she had little Nicko! Who the hell does that?! She just had a baby and you’re going to make her have another one?! That’s wrong, man. Just wrong.”
Marie was staring at Ricky because he wasn’t surprised by the conclusion everyone had come to. “Did she tell you that? That she was pregnant, I mean.” Ricky looked up into her eyes and slightly nodded and looked back down at the limp body in his arms. “She hasn’t taken a test, but she’s convinced she’s three or four months along.”

* * * * * *

Chad was sitting in the rocking chair in Michael’s nursery staring at the blanket that was staring right back at him. Those letters arranged in that god-awful last name that seemed to taunt him, chanting that he was losing Stacey. That what he was doing would eventually become uncovered and that she would never forgive him, leave him and probably kill him. Or worse, marry that son of a bitch and make him live long enough to watch it happen.
Chad started to rock the chair and turned his attention out the window. First he was looking at the stars, bringing back a memory of when Stacey had surprised him with a moonlight dinner for his birthday the year before. His eyes slowly drifted down to the street when his eyes landed on something he wished he’d never have to see again. The chair stopped rocking and he couldn’t believe his eyes. He got up and went to the window. The figure waved. ‘Fuck.’ He thought to himself. ‘No, no, no, no! This is going to screw everything up!’
He started to storm from the room but turned back and ripped the blanket off the wall and started ripping at it and ripping at it until he was satisfied about his work. Dropping the remains to the ground he stomped from the room and hurried downstairs to fix this mistake that shouldn’t even be here. Oh, and to get rid of the woman in the red beat up car.

* * * * * *

Beep. Beep. Beep. The heart monitor from the hospital was steady. Stacey lay unconscious in the bed with a tube in her nose and her head freshly bandaged. Ricky couldn’t take his eyes off of her. ‘This is all his fault.’ He thought to himself. ‘If that bastard hadn’t gotten her pregnant on purpose she wouldn’t be here right now.’ He shook his head as he placed his forehead in his hands and put his elbows on his knees.
He didn’t need to look up to know that someone had just entered the doorway. He just couldn’t tell who it was. “Things keep going wrong.” He said to see who replied.
“You’re telling me.” He froze as he realized who was standing in the doorway. ‘No, he wouldn’t have the nerve to show up after what happened today.’ He looked up and saw to his amazement that Chad, indeed, was standing in the doorway; leaning on the frame acting like he was high ruler of everyone that ever entered his presence. “What the hell are you doing here, you piece of shit?” Chad started to enter the room as Ricky got to his feet and stood his ground. “I asked you a question, man, don’t you speak English?” Ricky kept silent as Chad continued to try and harass him.
Chad walked up and got so close to him that their noses almost touched. “Don’t test me, prick. I won’t hesitate to hit you.” Ricky smirked and replied with a chuckle, “Dude, you need a tic tac.” Just as Chad started to move his arm like he was going to punch Ricky with a right hook, a voice interrupted them. “Everything ok in here?” Chad turned on his heel to see his own flesh and blood standing before him.
“Chazz!” He smiled and walked toward him shaking his hand and giving his brother a hug. “What are you doing here, brother?” He laughed taking a step back and looking at his brother. “Damn what happened to you, you look nasty.” Chad was commenting on all the grease on his brothers shirt. And noticed the grease under his brothers fingernails and grime on his hands. “You look like one of them.” He nodded his head to Ricky, turned and winked at him.
“Now what, exactly, is that supposed to mean, Chad?” Chazz folded his arms across his chest and walked into the room. He shook Ricky’s hand ending it with a fist pound. “You alright, man?” He asked patting his hand on Ricky’s shoulder.
Ricky stared across the room at Chad, “Ya, I’m cool.” Chad nodded his head as if he approved of his answer. “Hey, man, give me a minute with my brother real fast?” Ricky nodded but never took his eyes off Chad. As he walked out of the room he purposefully rammed into Chad’s shoulder and shut the door behind him.
“That asshole’s days are numbered, I swear.” He mumbled under his breath. Turning to his brother he smiled and sauntered over to him. “What’s up, bro? I thought you were in Cali working on the investigation?” Chad’s smile disappeared when Chazz simply sat down next to Stacey and started talking to her.
“Hey girl, it’s Chazz.” He reached for her hand and placed it in both of his, caressing her wrist every now and again. “I’ve been working like crazy trying to find Nicko for you-” “His name, is Michael.” Chad interrupted. Chazz shook his head but continued talking to her. “You know I love that little guy. He’s so smart and so damn cute… He looks like his daddy.” “Michael doesn’t look anything like that dead beat!” Chazz had had enough, he stood up and got right in Chad’s face.
“You think you’re so slick don’t you? You think that just because you’re Chief of the mission that you can say and do whatever the hell you want. Well I’ve got news for you, brother, your luck has just run out.” Chazz backed off and sat back in the chair at Stacey’s bedside.
Chad laughed and rolled his head on his shoulders. “What, my dear brother, are you talking about?” Chazz kept his eyes steady on Stacey’s face and didn’t turn to face his evil twin, literally, standing right behind him. “Everyone knew you had something to do with the disappearance of Nicholas. Even Stacey.” Chad’s smile disappeared as he became uneasy. “Only difference is that Stacey actually believed you didn’t because you have this ‘fake’ investigation going on.” He paused as he moved a stray hair out of Stacey’s face and behind her ear.
“You thought you had it all worked out. You just made one little mistake and now Jethro is headed to the head council to prove your guilt. All we needed was one, minor, clue. We knew if we could come up with just a single piece of evidence against you that the head council would demote you and put you on probation if not have you exiled from the corporation. But just as Pops and I were losing hope on finding a loophole or anything tying you to Nicko’s disappearance something popped up on our GPS screen.” Chazz finally turned to look Chad in the eyes. “And you’ll never guess what we saw.”

* * * * * *

The police officer sighed and wiped his brow. With his head down he spoke, “Now, tell me one more time what happened, but please, for the love of God, speak slowly, clearly and one at a time.” He looked up at the two young girls that seemed to be the next Mary-Kate and Ashley.
The two girls started talking on top of each other again and the officer rubbed his temples. “Hey!” The two stopped talking and looked hurt that he would yell at them. “I said ONE at a time.”
“We were sitting at the park minding our own business.” Mary started.
“Then that’s when the cute mechanic and his girlfriend Stacey came and sat on the swings.” Katie added. The two went back and forth each taking a sentence to tell the officer.
“Stacey put her head down, and said something that made her boyfriend look at us.” They giggled.
“Ya he was cute, Mary.”
“I know, right?”
“Anyway, all of the sudden she jumped off the swing and started looking around like a crazy woman.”
“That’s when she started yelling about a baby.”
“‘That sound, it’s my baby! I know his cry, he’s here somewhere!’”
“Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see this lady with a stroller walking to a beat up red car, I think it was a chevy.”
“No idiot it was a Honda Accord. My brother has one.”
“Whatever, Katie. Anyway, we turn back and the guy is trying to hold back Stacey.”
“But she gets loose and starts running to the lady with the stroller and the baby.”
“That’s when we turn again but the lady had already put the stroller in the car and the baby too. She was just getting in the car when she stopped and looked right at Stacey.”
“Ya she was totally creepy. Had a weird hat with a veil on it that made her look like she didn’t have a face.”
“Totally creepy, Katie.”
“Well, the lady must have done something ‘cause when she pulled out and started driving off Stacey ran after her.”
“She ran and ran until she hit the ground.”
“That’s pretty much all we saw, officer.” The officer stared at the girls for a moment and raised an eyebrow. “What?” Katie and Mary said in unison. The officer chuckled, “Nothing girls, thanks for finally cooperating and giving me all the info you know.” He pulled two cards out of his front pocket and handed them each one. “If you remember anything else just give me a call, okay? Anything at all. It could be something you saw, something you heard, something you smelt, anything alright?”
The girls nodded as the officer started to walk away. “Wait!” Mary said with a start. “I do remember something else. I don’t think Stacey or that guy could hear because they were all the way on the other side of the playground, but the creepy lady said something and when I turned she was touching her ear like she had one of those ear pieces, yanno?”
“Oh ya!” Katie chimed in. “I remember that too, she said ‘Phase two complete Chief DeLonge.’”
The officer stared at the girls in shock. “Did you just say, DeLonge?”
“Yes!” They said, once again in perfect unison.

* * * * * *

Marie, Travis, Irene, Meg, Gerry, Brandi, JJ, Junior, Rudy, David, Skeet and Jose were all sitting in the waiting room at the hospital. All of them were thinking to themselves about what happened and wondering why Stacey just couldn’t catch a break to be happy no matter how much of a good person she was, or how badly she deserved and needed it.
“This is dumb.” Meg was the first to say anything, “How are we supposed to just sit here and wait? This is retarded we’re all practically family. Everything she has is sitting right here in this waiting room and we’re not allowed to see her just because our DNA doesn’t match.” She scoffed. “Stupid.”
“‘Member when we went to the river and Stace downed two whole bottles of Boone’s?” David laughed. “That shit was crazy, right man?” David looked at Rudy and Jose.
“Ya that was pretty crazy, nigga.” Everyone sort of chuckled and went back into silence.
“I remember last year when I went through that state of depression after my grandpa died.” Marie looked at the dull faded carpet. “I was so broken, and Stacey was the only thing that kept me going. If it wasn’t for her I would have starved myself to death and never slept.” Tears started to overflow, “I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to her.” She put her hand on her chest almost as if to keep her heart from aching. “How can so much bad happen to such a good person? I can’t remember the last time that Stace was selfish even about her food or her money.”
Skeet shook his head, “She deserves so much more than that prick Chad can give her.”
“Aw, now that isn’t a nice thing to say, Skate.” Everyone looked up and saw who they believed to be the devil himself. “His name is Skeet, you jerk.” Marie stood up and got in his face. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well why do you think, white trash? I’m here to see my fiancée.” He laughed as everyone jumped out of their chairs to keep Travis from fighting him. “Whoa, whoa. Hostility, you better be careful with that.” He said pointing to Travis; his eyes shifted back to Marie. “I’m going to go see my wife now.” With that said he turned and walked away.
“I’m going to kill him before the week is over.” Rudy said. “You and me both, nigga.” David added.