Heroes Never Die (31 page)

“Go back to bed,” he mumbled, still in a slumberous stupor.

“Daddy,” she insisted, shaking his shoulder to wake him.  “The baby is coming.”

“How far apart are your contractions?”

“About five minutes.”

He sat up in bed.  She wasn’t just any patient.  She was his daughter.  “How are you doing?”

“Mostly scared.  The pain isn’t that unbearable yet, but it’s getting there really quick.  Jump in the shower, and I’ll fix you some coffee to go.”

“Forget the coffee.  I’ll grab some at the hospital.  Just give me five minutes.”

***

Two transducers were strapped to Stephanie’s abdomen, one to measure the fetal heart rate,
and the other to measure the frequency and duration of her contractions.  Her contractions were long and very intense, and each time she had one, she squeezed her dad’s hand so hard she thought she was going to crush a bone.

Dr. Isaiah Jones, a friend of the family whose wife, Andrea, worked
with Robert, examined Stephanie once more.  “Your cervix is fully dilated, Stephanie.  I want you to make like Hercules and push with all of your might.”

Stephanie felt as if all of her strength was already gone.  “You can do it,” Robert encouraged her.  “You’re almost there.”

Stephanie squeezed her eyes closed and mustered up all of her strength.  She pushed as hard as she could, crying out with pain, her hair soaked with sweat.  She gripped her dad’s hand until finally, push after push, she heard her baby cry.  She dropped her head back onto the pillow and laughed and cried at the same time, intensely relieved that it was finally over.

“It’s a boy!” Isaiah thundered after the baby made its grand entrance into the world.  He cut the umbilical cord and then carefully handed the infant to the nurse for an examination and cleanup.

Robert, prouder than ever before, kissed his daughter’s cheek to congratulate her.  “You did it, Stephanie,” his blue eyes twinkled.  “You have a son.”  Then he joined the nurse and watched the first few minutes of his grandson’s life.

The baby was dressed and wrapped in a blanket and blue cap.  Robert cradled his grandson in his arms and carried him to Stephanie’s bedside to introduce him to his mother.  She reached for her infant, anxious to finally meet the little person who had lived and kicked inside of her for so many months.  Her face filled with intense awe when she saw him, and she tenderly kissed his face and smelled his hair and counted his fingers and toes just to make sure he was real.

“I can’t believe he’s mine,” she said over and over, unable to take her eyes off of him.

“He’s beautiful,” Robert complimented.  “He’s perfect and healthy and beautiful.  You did a great job, sweetheart.”  She smiled back at him, proud of her greatest and most precious accomplishment.

The medical staff left the room.  For now, their job was over.  Robert and Stephanie continued to admire the baby.

“I wish your mother were here,” Robert said.  “She would be so pleased.  I remember how she couldn’t stop looking at you when you were born, just like you’re doing right now with your own baby.  She was so proud of you.  We both were.”

Stephanie smiled at him, and then she gazed into her baby’s face.  “He looks just like Brian, doesn’t he?”

“That’s just what I was thinking,” he agreed.  “Brian sure can’t deny this little fellow.”  Stephanie’s lip began to quiver.  It was a slip her dad couldn’t take back.  “Stephanie, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean to cause you more pain.”

She felt like she already knew, and she was afraid to confirm her worst fear, but she needed closure once and for all.  “You called Brian, didn’t you, Dad?”

Robert finally nodded his head.  “I thought he needed to be here with you.”

“And what do you think now, Dad?” she questioned, feeling the worst pain a woman can feel.  Brian had rejected her baby.

“I think you’re going to be a wonderful mother, and I think you’re strong enough to put the past behind you and go on with your life.  You have to, Stephanie.  Your baby needs you.”

She gazed at her helpless infant.  There wasn’t a thing in the world she wouldn’t do for him.  “He does need me, doesn’t he?  And I want to be the best parent I can be, just like you, Dad.”

“You’ll do just fine.  And I’m here to help any way I can.”

An attractive nurse with chestnut hair and blue eyes stepped in to take Stephanie’s blood pressure.  “Mrs. Fairchild,” Marsha said.  “I’m going to put your baby back into the bassinette so that I can I take your vitals.  Hello, General.  Congratulations on the birth of your grandson.”

“Thank you, Marsha.  I couldn’t be more proud.”

Marsha gently took the baby from Stephanie’s arms and placed him in the bassinette.  “He’s a beautiful baby, Mrs. Fairchild.”  Then she fastened the cuff around Stephanie’s arm.  “Everyone is asking about Dr. Fairchild.  It’s too bad he missed the birth of his own son.”

Stephanie felt humiliated.  Now everyone knew her shame.  She clenched her teeth to keep from crying.

“He’ll be along shortly,” Robert replied.  “He had to go out of town.  All of us thought Stephanie had more time.”

“I knew there had to be a good reason,” Marsha said as she inflated the cuff.  Then she removed the cuff from Stephanie’s arm.

“What’s her blood pressure?” Robert asked.

“120/80.  But we’ll keep monitoring it.”

“Is it okay?” she asked her dad.

“It’s a little high,” he answered.  “Not too surprising after all of the excitement.  I’m not concerned.”

“Is there anything I can get for you, Mrs. Fairchild?”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“Then I need to take your baby back to the nursery.  We like to show off all of our newborns.  We’ll bring him back when it’s time to feed him.”

Stephanie’s maternal instincts burst alive.  She wasn’t about to give up her baby.  “I don’t want you to take him.  I want him to stay here with me.”

“You need to rest, Stephanie,” her dad said.  “The staff is going to take good care of him.  You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Your dad is right, Mrs. Fairchild.  We’ll take excellent care of your baby.”  Stephanie watched Marsha roll the bassinet
te out of her room.  She missed her baby already.

“I need to go home and get some rest, too,” he said.  “This hasn’t exactly been one of my more quiet Sunday mornings, but it certainly has been my most memorable.”

“You’ll come back?” she questioned, too excited about her baby to sleep.

“You bet,” he assured her.  He leaned over and kissed her goodbye.  “Try to rest.”

“Dad?” she called after him.  “Thanks for being here with me today.  I know it wasn’t easy for you, but I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Chapter Thirty-Four:

The General knocked on Brian’s door.  The last seven hours spent with his daughter while she labored to bring his grandson into the world w
ere draining, but he was more outraged than tired, and all he wanted was to knock some sense into Brian, but when Robert saw him, he changed his mind.  Brian was unshaven, he was drinking his lunch, and he was so pathetic and miserable looking that he knew he was already doing a good job of punishing himself.

Brian opened the door with a beer in his hand.  “I’ve been expecting you, General,” he said as he stepped aside and allowed him to come in.  Then
he returned to the living room and took a seat.  “Have a seat if you want,” he said as he took a swallow of his beer.

“No thanks,” Robert refused, evaluating Brian’s indifferent behavior.  “I prefer to stand when I talk down to someone.  You called my daughter a whore?”

Brian looked him straight in the eye.  “If you’re going to knock the hell out of me, just do it.  Then show yourself out.”

Robert was an inch away from doing just that, and he had to fight to remain levelheaded.  “You’re not worth it, Brian.  I loved you like a son, and I trusted you with my daughter.  But you not only let me down, you let her down.  And quite frankly, you’re not even close to being good enough for her.”

“Who is? Kyle Robertson? Some damned king?  She’s the one who let me down, and I’ll never forgive her for betraying me.”

“I didn’t come here to patch things up between you two.  Stephanie is done with you.  But I’m sure as hell not going to let you go on thinking she’s a whore.  You wouldn’t listen to her, but you’re damn well going to listen to me.”

Robert watched as Brian angrily took another swallow of his beer.  Then Brian dropped his focus and stared at the floor.  “What started out as Kyle’s plan to take Stephanie from you nearly ended up taking her life.  He tried to wear her down by telling her that you were unfaithful.  And just two days after we were gone, he tried to force himself on her right here in your living room.”  He waited for Brian to react, but he defiantly stared at the floor.

Robert continued.  “When Stephanie refused to become involved in the assassination plot, Kyle threatened to send one of his contacts to kill you.  She asked for and received a meeting with the President
, but the President threatened to kill both of us.  Then when she was with Hamid, he slammed his fist into her face.  Is that what you call foreplay, Brian?”

“Stephanie doesn’t remember pulling the trigger on Hamid, but she’s so confused that she doesn’t know what to think anymore.  She broke her arm running to the beach, and she also suffered a concussion.  Then she waited for a helicopter to rescue her
, a helicopter that was never supposed to show.  I pulled some strings, Brian.  No missions were flown that night.  She was taken back to Saudi Arabia to stand trial.  And a guard twisted her broken arm to make her talk.”

“Tell me, Brian.  Does that sound like a woman who wanted to betray you?  By all rights and every means my daughter should be dead right now.  But she fought like hell to survive, mostly because of you, and I’ll be damned before you treat her like a whore.”

Robert glared at him, hoping for some sort of response, but Brian’s face was etched in stone.  Robert walked over to the window and stared outside, thinking how similar his own situation had been.  It crushed him when he remembered Susannah, her lovely face marred with pain, and he wanted to spare Brian the same hell that had tortured him for years.

“I’m going to tell you something, Brian, something I’ve never told anyone.  And Stephanie is never to know about this.”  Robert dug through all of the years of pain to uncover the initial wound, but even after all of these years, the wound was still fresh.

“When I was married to Susannah, I was the happiest man in the world.  She was everything to me, and I loved her dearly.  I worked my ass off to move up the chain of command so I could make my wife and daughter proud of me, when all they really wanted was more of me.  Someone took advantage of my negligence, and Susannah had an affair.  I had no idea until I received a phone call at work from a man who claimed he had been seeing my wife.  He told me that he was Stephanie’s real father, and then he swore he would take them both away from me.”

“After I recovered from the shock, I went home, sent Stephanie to her room, and confronted Susannah.  She admitted to having the affair, but she wouldn’t name the man, only that he was a senator.  She said she only stayed in the relationship because he was blackmailing her, and she was afraid.  She made up the story about him being Stephanie’s father, hoping to scare him off.  Then she threatened to expose him and ruin his political career.  That’s when he call
ed me like he promised he would.”

“Like you, Brian, I felt angry and betrayed.  I told her to get out.  She cried and begged me for another chance, but I wouldn’t listen.  Then she pleaded for Stephanie, but I made her leave Stephanie with me.  After she was gone, I came to my senses and decided that I didn’t care what she had done
.  I just wanted her back.  The next thing I knew, two policemen were standing at my door telling me that Susannah had been killed in a fiery car crash.”  Robert’s eyes filled with sorrow.  He could still see the policemen standing at the door.  He could still hear Stephanie crying for her mother.  He could still remember all of the nights he had drank to anesthetize his pain.

“I never had the chance to tell her how much she meant to me.  Her body was badly burned
.  It was a…”  He couldn’t finish his sentence.  He could still see the flowers on her closed casket.  “I never saw her again.  I didn’t even get to tell her goodbye.”  Robert rubbed his burning eyes, and then he took a deep breath and composed himself.

“If I had only swallowed my pride, Susannah would still be with me today.  I not only robbed myself of the happiest years of my life, but I robbed Stephanie of her mother.  I can tell you from personal experience, Brian, that no matter how hard you try, you will never get over losing your first love.  And I will never forgive myself for what I did to her.”

Robert turned away from the window and faced Brian.  He had just poured out his guts to help Brian see reason, but Brian wasn’t showing the first sign of interest.  Stephanie was right about him.  He didn’t care about her or the baby.

“In all
of this time, Brian, you haven’t asked me once about your baby.  Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.  You had a son, a beautiful healthy son.  I’ve given you every opportunity to swallow your pride, but you’re the most bullheaded man I’ve ever known.  I’m still going to give you another chance, though.  You have one hour to sober up, shave, and get your ass to the hospital.  I want you to hold your son in your arms and see what you’re going to miss out on for the rest of your life.  Then give him a kiss goodbye because you are never to see him or my daughter again.  And don’t bother trying to see my daughter while you’re there.  You’ve already hurt her enough.”