FicWad

I stared at the washcloth in shock. Oh, God this couldn’t be happening.
“Laura?” I hadn’t heard him enter the bathroom. He opened the shower door and saw the terror in my eyes. “Honey?”
I simply lifted my hand so he could see. Tears sprung to my eyes.
“Shit.” He muttered before swinging into action. “Laura, are you in pain?”
“No, not at all.” I whispered.
“Okay.” He took a steadying breath. “I’m going to call your doctor. First though I need to know how much you’re bleeding.”
I nodded. He handed me another washcloth. Once again I lowered it between my legs and was relieved that there was just a slight red stain.
“Okay, that’s good.” Gerard said. He extended his hand and helped me step out onto the rug. Quickly he wrapped me in a huge bath towel, and sat me down on the toilet seat. “Sit right here. I’ll be back.”
When he left I felt the tears rolling down my face. Silently I prayed that I wouldn’t lose this baby. On shaky legs I stood and wiped with toilet tissue this time. There was no blood at all. I sat back down and prayed more.
Within minutes Gerard walked back into the bathroom and kneed down in front of me. “Okay, I talked to the doctor. First off he said for you to calm down.” Gerard brushed the wet hair from my eyes. “Are you still bleeding?”
I shook my head, “No, I just checked.”
Gerard smiled, “Okay. He said that it’s not unusual to have a small amount of bleeding especially after sex. As long as it’s not much and it doesn’t continue we have nothing to worry about.”
“Really?” My voice shook.
He laid his head on my lap, “Really, Baby.”
Oh hell I broke into sobs. Gerard stood and lifted me into his arms. He carried me to the bed and gently laid me down. Once he was beside me he took me in his arms and rocked me.
“It’s okay, Honey. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
“I was so scared. I saw the blood and I thought…” I couldn’t make myself continue.
“I know.” He whispered. “It scared the shit out of me too.”
I sniffed, “I just didn’t know. Crap, I don’t know anything about being pregnant.”
He laughed lightly, “Me either.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t panic like I did.”
He raised himself up on one arm so he could look down into my face, “I was fucking terrified but I knew I had to take care of you.”
Oh holy crap I started sobbing harder. He understood and leaned down to kiss my cheek. “I promise you, I will take care of you and our baby. I’ve fucked up a lot of things in my life but I won’t fuck up this.”
“But I was afraid you’d get all upset. I was afraid you’d think it was cause of the sex and say that we couldn’t anymore.” Shit I knew I sounded like a blubbering idiot but I had to tell him how I felt.
Gerard closed his eyes a moment before speaking, “Truthfully that is what I thought at first. I started blaming myself cause I thought I’d hurt you.”
“But that’s not true.” I whispered hoping he understood.
“I know. I realized that was my old pattern of thinking. Blame myself then run away and I knew I couldn’t do that anymore.”
We lay in each other’s arms for several minutes before I spoke. “Can we go home, now?”
“Sure, Sugar. Lets go home and I’ll make you dinner.”
He got off the bed and helped me up. “Gee?”
“Yeah?’
“Thank you.”
He gave me a puzzled look. “For what?”
“For taking care of me and the baby.” I whispered.
“Laura, don’t ever thank me again for that. I love you and our baby. Now lets go home.”

After a wonderful dinner prepared by my husband we settled down on the sofa to watch a movie. Gee chose a light comedy. I knew he was trying to keep me in a happy frame of mind. As I snuggled close to him I sighed contently.
“You good?” He asked.
“Very good.” I answered. “This is nice.”
His arms tightened around me. “Yeah, it is.” He agreed before dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
Half way through the movie there was a knock on the door. I sat up so Gerard could answer the door. I couldn’t see who was there at first but I heard him identify himself as the officer investigating Jenny’s attack.
Gerard stepped back to let him enter. Officer Miles smiled a greeting in my direction. “Hope you don’t mind me stopping by like this but we came across something while reviewing the security tapes from the building.”
“I thought the camera wasn’t working.” I said confused.
Officer Miles walked over, placed a laptop carrying case on the coffee table then took a seat. He nodded, “The camera that would have captured the attack wasn’t working. However we’ve been reviewing the tapes from the cameras from the other floors. It was a timely process, as these cameras don’t document the time. We wanted to see if we could see any suspicious person enter the stairwell around the time of the attack.”
Gerard walked over and sat down beside me. He took my hand in his. “So you found something?” he asked.
Officer Miles shrugged, “Well we did find one unidentified person enter the stairwell from the floor above yours. At least as far as we’ve been able to tell this person isn’t a resident. I spent most of the day taking to the people who live on that floor and they can’t identify her.”
“Her?” I repeated.
The officer nodded. He reached over and opened the bag and took out a laptop. Gerard and I watched as he pulled up a screen.” I pinpointed that this was before the time of the attack. Another resident of that floor told me what time she had used the stairs and it was approximately a half hour before the attack. I saw her using the steps on the tape. This woman used the steps after her and it would have been shortly before Ms Kline was attacked.” He turned the laptop to face Gerard and me. I felt my husband’s hand grip mine tightly. The screen showed a woman with long blond hair. Her face was only visible for a moment but that moment was enough.
“I’ve never seen her before.” I said praying my voice sounded sincere. I squeezed Gerard’s hand to give him strength.
“Me either.” He said calmly.
Officer Miles sighed obviously believing us. “Well it’s just a long shot anyway. She probably has nothing to do with the attack but still unless she exited on your floor before Ms Kline entered the stairwell she could possibly have seen or heard something. I would really like to know who this woman is.”
“Sorry.” I said with a fake smile.
He repacked the laptop then stood. “Well thanks for your time.”
Gerard stood to walk him to the door. Once more he thanked us then left. As the door closed I sprang to my feet and went to Gerard. His face was pale.
“It’s not her.” I whispered putting my arms around him. “You know it can’t be.”
“Oh fuck.” He muttered. “It was her, Laura. That was Merri.”