"Can't this thing go any faster?" Sam asked the limo driver anxiously as she leaned over the back of the front seat. The driver sped up slightly. Sam threw her hands up in the air, huffing in exasperation. AJ reached out and pulled her back into the seat, wrapping his arms around her.
"It's going to be okay, Sam, calm down," he said as he glanced over at Howie staring out of the window.
"Where are the police?" Sam fretted.
"I think I there's a cruiser behind us," AJ told her as the limo slowed to turn into the plant parking lot. As the car made its turn, the headlights illuminated the deadly scene before them.
"No!" Howie cried out as he saw the gunman raise his weapon and fired at the fleeing woman. More fear than Howie had ever known ran through him as the sound of the shot pierced the quiet of the darkness. He thought it was the loudest sound he had ever heard. As the driver brought the car to an abrupt stop, Howie flung open the door. The police cruiser behind them turned on its flashing blue lights and sped past as Howie and the others leapt from the car and ran toward Dani.
As the police cruiser raced towards the struggling men, the sound of a second shot echoed through the night. The two men stood unmoving for a moment before one finally slumped and fell to the ground. The blonde man lay sprawled on the pavement, a gaping hole through his chest. Jeff stood over him, the gun dangling from his fingertips. “Guess you won’t be ordering me around any more,” he muttered as he kicked at the fallen man. Oblivious to the sirens and flashing lights of the cruiser speeding toward him, he raised the gun to his temple. “Don’t worry Dani,” Jeff crooned. “We can be together forever now,” he said as he raised the gun to his temple and, taking one last loving look where Dani lay, he pulled the trigger.
Forever. It seemed to take forever for Howie to reach her. Everything seemed to moving in slow motion. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t end like this. Not like this. His heart leapt into his throat when he got close enough to see her. Blood was everywhere. “Oh please God, no” he whispered as he sank to the ground and gathered her in his arms. Tears formed in his eyes. He brushed her hair gently out of her face.
“Hang on, Dani,” he pleaded. “Hang on. You’re going to be okay. Help is on the way,” he told her as he heard the ambulance sirens in the distance. Weakly she lifted her hand and caressed his cheek. “I love you,” she said softly as her eyes fluttered closed and her hand fell away from him.
******************************
Howie entered the sanctuary of the church through the door that was normally used by bridegrooms on their wedding day. He looked around the church that he had grown up in, remembering how Dani had embraced it as her own. This is the church they would have been married in. He let his mind drift as he visualized how beautiful she would have looked in her wedding dress and he was no longer able to contain the tears that had been threatening to fall all day. Hastily he wiped them away as he stepped up to the altar and gazed down at the love of his life.
Sam reached out and squeezed Howie’s arm comfortingly. As Father Patrick began the service, Sam pondered the events that had led them to this point. She knew she would never be able to forget the sight of her best friend lying on the pavement, her life’s blood seeping onto the ground. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Sam tried to dispel the gruesome image. She didn’t want to remember Dani like that.
AJ slid his arm around Sam, hugging her close to him. Seeing the pain Howie had gone through made him realize what was truly important in life. And he wasn’t ever letting her go.
Howie listened intently to each word the priest uttered. As Father Patrick made the sign of the cross, a lone tear ran down Howie’s cheek. He gazed down lovingly at Dani. She seemed so at peace, unlike himself. He’d been in a haze all day, almost unable to fathom the reality of it all. He reached out and tucked an errant curl behind her ear.
A soft cry brought Howie back from his reverie. Dani smiled up at him as she began to rock the baby in her arms. She muffled a laugh as Howie raised his finger to his lips. “Shhhhhh,” he whispered in an attempt to quiet his daughter. Dani thought Caroline’s cries were the sweetest sounds she had ever heard. It was a miracle that they were both even here. She almost hadn’t survived that terrifying night all those months ago. She had spent almost a month in the hospital recovering. Although the bullet had narrowly missed any vital organs, she had lost a lot of blood. And with the bullet lodged dangerously close to her uterus, her unborn child’s life had been threatened. The moment she was strong enough, however, Howie had insisted Father Patrick marry them. Sam, AJ, and what seemed like Howie’s entire family attended the ceremony held in Dani’s hospital room. It may not have been the wedding they had dreamed of, but it was more than enough for Howie to be married to the woman he loved.
The police had never been able to discover the identity of the mysterious blonde man or exactly what his scheme had been. The only clue they had was the symbol embedded in the CD. The documents that had been delivered to Dani’s hotel room that night so long ago had contained several interpretations of what the symbol meant. But with all the suspects in the case dead, they would never know for sure and the case had been officially closed. The CD’s were recalled and all the copies had been destroyed.
As the priest concluded his homily, he called Howie, Dani, and Caroline’s godparents to the baptismal font. “Alexander and Samantha McLean, will you please say the baby’s name?” the priest asked. Sam and AJ answered together. “And will you ensure that she will be raised in the Catholic faith?” Father Patrick continued. “We will,” AJ answered, placing his arm proudly around Sam. Caroline began to cry as the drops of water were sprinkled on her forehead and the ceremony concluded.
With the ceremony and picture taking over, Dani rocked Caroline quietly in the solitude of the church’s nursing room. “She must have really been hungry,” Sam commented as Caroline nursed greedily. Dani laughed. “She was. I didn’t get to nurse her before the ceremony. When she started to cry in the middle of the ceremony, my milk came down. I was afraid I was going to be soaked to the waist by the time Father Patrick finished.”
“The joys of motherhood,” Sam laughed as she ran her hand over her own rapidly expanding belly.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Dani pointed out as she switched Caroline to the other side. “Have you and AJ agreed on a name yet?”
“Have AJ and I ever agreed on anything?” Sam said, rolling her eyes. She paused for a moment and smiled at the thought that had come into her head. “Wouldn’t it be funny if Caroline and little Johnny No-Name grew up and got married?”
“Hmmm, a younger man,” Dani mused as she gazed down at her daughter. “What do you say Sweet Baby D? Think you might take after your mama and Auntie Sam and fall for a younger guy?” Caroline pulled away from her mother’s breast and smiled up at her.
Sam stood up and leaned over Caroline, chucking her under the chin.
“Think
about it, girlfriend,” she laughed. “These younger men have definitely
got
it going on.”
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