The Baby Arrangement

Chapter 75: Tears

Chapter 75: Tears

*Horrific Screaming*

"What's wrong? What is it?" Daryl wakes straight up at the blood circling scream coming from inside the house. Beth beside him also awakens.

"Kensi!" Beth screams and they race from their bed and into Kensi's room. A lo ominous shadow engulfs the corner and Beth quickly picks up Kensi and runs as Daryl confronts the shadow.

"Come out and maybe I won't pummel you with this bat." Daryl threatens and the figure is still engulfed with darkness and suddenly a clicking sound that sounds so foreign to Daryl sounds. A burst of riding spark comes from the corner and just as it lights up the ominous face, Daryl is holding his chest on the floor as the figure steps over him and out into the hallway. Not giving up the fight, Daryl crawls over to Kensi's closet and grabs his concealed gun from a finger-printed locked safe and tries to stand up. Hunkering agains the wall, he leaves into the hallway and sees the gunman at Teddy's door, banging and trying to get in at Beth and their babies. Taking aim Daryl shoots the shadowed guy right through his throat and they falls on the floor, loosing blood and soon gone.

Falling to his own knees, Daryl clutches his bleeding chest and tries to call for Beth.

"Be...Beth!" He gets out through a weak scream. After a few seconds Beth comes out, turns on the hall light. pushing Kensi back in the room, Beth goes to Daryl an lays at his chest.

"I'm here... just stay with me." Kensi opens the door and stands in shock at her father on the floor beside a dead man, who they now identify as Len. "Kensi! Get Mommy's phone."

The young girl responds and rushes into Beth's room, coming back with the portable house phone. She dials 911 and tells them what happened, while applying pressure to Daryl's chest. He grabs her hand as he notices small tears coming from her eyes.

"It's o..kay. Beth..." He weakly says as their hands tremble, hers from being scared and his from losing blood.

"Daryl... don't leave us. Pppp...please. Please." Beth sobs harder and continues pressing down on his chest. Her hands covered in crimson blood, Beth never stops looking at him. "10 more days...just 10 more days and you don't have to go easy on me any more..."

"Be...thh....you'll...you'll be juuuss...just fine. I lo...lovvve yooou." His shaking breath holds out his syllables and Beth feels her whole heart breaking and lungs collapsing in on herself. The ambulance pulls in, along with the cops and they enter the threshold. Beth doesn't even acknowledge anyone but Daryl as she squeezes his hand while and EMT man applies pressure as two more wheel Daryl out to the ambo, while another group bags up Len. Beth, covered in Daryl's blood, picks up Kensi and Teddy and rushes them to the police car, where they transports them to the hospital. The whole way, Beth says so many prayers, she's sure God would smite her from her annoyance. Kensi cries, but she only understands that Daddy is very hurt, not on his death bed-and Teddy is fast asleep in Beth's arms.

When they get to the hospital, Beth has to relive the whole night two every single officer on the case and medical examiners. Sitting in a family waiting room, kids asleep beside her and head still a mess, and officer comes in and sits down. She wishes it was Rick. He'd make her feel better, but it's not.

"Ms. Greene?"

"Beth..." She quietly says, Paine voice and steeped eyes.

"The man in your house was Len Greggs. He escaped from Prison a week ago. He was in because...."

"He tried to rape my daughter, I know."

"Well, before he got out, he was apparently talking to some inmates about coming back for yer little girl..."

"Officer, I just want to know if my fiancé will be alright. For all I care, that rapist is better off dead...my fiancé jut needs to live, God Dammit!" She quiets down when Kensi stirs in her place. Both wait until the small girl is resting again and then continue their discussion. "Is there any word on him yet?"

"No ma'am. The only word coming through is that he had massive internal bleeding to his chest and is being operate on."

"Do you know the chances?" The officer frowns and lowers his head. Letting a stressed sigh out, Beth knows he isn't about to tell her good news.

"10%...."

"Of survival or...." She doesn't have to go on, she knows. She knew. In that hallway of her house, he knew he was leaving them. She knew that their floors would be stained red forever and that her heart wouldn't stop hurting. She knew that the children would ask about him and that she'd break down always wondering, why her? She doesn't need him to explain, because Daryl isn't coming back. He isn't pulling a joke on her, or being dramatic, or an asshole. He never will be any of those things again, because he made it clear in that hallway between her room and their babie's, that he wasn't coming back to her.

"I'm really sorry, Beth...." Getting up, Beth excuses herself and sprints to the small bathroom in the room, where she slams the door and pukes repeatedly. Her lungs are on fire, her chest a blaze in pain, and her heart not even existing. Wiping her mouth off and rinsing the bile out of it, Beth stares at herself in the mirror. Eyes red, cheeks red and puff, lips forever etched into a frown, Beth has seen this exact look before, only on her father, when her mother died.