"Let's go, buddy. Call just came in...a man shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself. The woman's pregnant, and she's hanging on by a thread, or so her neighbors say," Mike Lounsbury told Kyle Jordan as he ran to the ambulance.
Kyle ran after him, grabbing his bag. He jumped into the ambulance as Mike started it up. "C'mon...let's see how fast this baby can go."
Kyle held on tight as Mike gunned the engine. Mike, a blond, blue-eyed, six foot two inch former football player had recently started racing at the local race track. He looked over at his friend of ten years and asked, "Why *do* you race anyway? I mean, you've handled lots of calls from the track and you know what can happen. Why risk your life?"
Mike looked over at his best friend. "Kyle, my man, I don't think you would understand," he said. "It's very complicated. I guess it's just that...I want to live before I die, if ou know what I mean."
Kyle pondered that thought. For some reason it made a lot of sense to him. "You know, dude, I think I know what you mean. Life is for living and if we don't live it, then we're gonna regret it our whole lives." He lapsed into silence for the rest of the ride.
The ambulance stopped in front of a dirty, run down apartment complex. "Which one?" Kyle asked.
Mike looked over at him and said dryly, "The one with all the lights on and the people waving down at us."
"Oh."
They ran up the rusted iron steps to the third floor where an old lady was waving and crying. Her wrinkled cheeks were sopping with tears and she looked as if she had lost somebody dear to her. "Please hurry...save her," she said, her voice cracking with sobs.
Kyle looked at her a look that said that they would try their damnedest to save her. Her violet eyes flooded with hope and a sadness that said it was probably already too late. "She's in there," she said pointing at the direction where Mike had gone, where an old man was also hovering over her.
He ran over to her with his bag of medical supplies and said, "It's all right, everything will be okay," before even looking at her.
She was a beauty. Shimmery blonde hair with sparkling green eyes that had laughed many times in her life on a face angelic. Her stomach was swollen to the size of a basketball which betrayed her age. She smiled weakly at him. The smile tore his heart out. "Hi," she said weakly.
He smiled back at her, the smile that had given him the title of Most Likely to be a Smile-Guy in Toothpaste Commercials back in high school. His brown eyes were like M&M's...melt in your mouth warm, and his brown hair was streaked with sun kisses. His shoulders were broad and well-muscled from swimming almost every day for his whole life. She relaxed when he put his hand on her forehead. He took a look at where the bullet had entered her body. It was right beside her heart, probably filling her lungs with blood. His heart was wrenched out again. She was going to die, and there was nothing he could do to save her. She reached up and took his hand and he fell into a summery sweet pool of hope and love, where she was.
*Hello...Why weren't you there?* Her tone was anguished and happy at the same time. *You were supposed to be there! You're supposed to save me...* her tone took on tears and sadness.
He took her in his arms and held her. *I'm so sorry...I wanted to be there, but you weren't there.* He didn't know where there was, but he got the feeling she didn't either. *I love you,* he told her gently, and he did, even though he had known her for less than five minutes. *I want to save you...*
*I know you do...but I know it's too late.* Tears glistened in her eyes as she told him this. *It was too late the second I married him...* She threw a glance over at the dead man on the other side of the room. *I'm sorry I did it...*
he rocked her gently. Mike shook his shoulder. "Hey, man, what's going on? Let's save this lady." Kyle opened his eyes and looked down on her. "What's your name?" he asked her, although he felt he already knew.
"Leigh," she said softly, coughing up blood. "Save her, please. I know you can't save me, but try to save her..." she trailed off, clutching her baby.
"She's in labor, dude. Man, what an asshole. I'd kill him myself if he was still alive," Mike said.
Tears glistened in Kyle's eyes. He was going to lose something precious if she died, something he would never be able to reclaim. "Let's do it, let's save the kid." They gave Leigh some anesthetics so she wouldn't feel as much pain, and began to do a Caesarean section, cutting through her stomach lining to get to the child. "Just hurry...she's running out of air," Leigh said, in anguish. "Don't let her die...don't..." her voice trailed off.
"Dude, we're losing Leigh! We can't let that happen!" Kyle said.
"Save the kid first, man. That's what she wants." So they did. She gained consciousness for a minute.
"Thank you, Kyle, Mike...thank you for everything you've done." Kyle leaned down over her and gently kissed her lips. "I love you," he whispered, holding the little girl with the violet eyes like the old lady's in his arms. She opened her eyes again. "I love you too. I want you to do something for me."
"Anything."
"Take care of her. Be her daddy. Tell her about her beautiful mommy and how she made a bad mistake...make sure she knows her heritage...make sure she doesn't settle for anyone less than a soulmate."
The term 'soulmate' rang a bell in his mind. Was that what he and Leigh were? Tears started falling freely down his cheeks. "What do you want to call her?"
"Call her...Grace," she said. He gave Grace to her mother. "And never forget I love you and I will always love you." And with that last word, she died. Both Grace and Kyle were crying.
Mike looked at his buddy. {He never cries,} he thought. {And I don't think he even knew the lady...Whoa. Must've been like love at first sight.} He felt sad for his friend. {She must've been, like, his other half or somethin like that.}
The old lady and her husband watched as the man who had kissed their niece cradled the child as if she was the most precious thing in the world. They went over and cried with him. "We'll help you take care of the little one...she wants you to have her," the old lady told him as he looked at her questioningly. "She was our niece."
