Extinguished

~34~ Detention

Taylor's POV

Ellie's been home for the last two months. I hardly ever take off of work, so I have a ton of furlough saved up. I've been able to stay home with them this whole time. It's been the best two months of my life. Watching Ellie as a mom to my daughter has been beautiful. She's so good at it.

Sasha is the best baby. She hardly ever cries, and she's our pride and joy. While we were still in the hospital, the nurse came in to take down her information for the birth certificate. I had already told Ellie that I would like her middle name to be Jane. I wanted her to have a piece of Ellie in her name. Ellie agreed. When it came time to give the information to the nurse, I wasn't gonna press the issue of her last name. I assumed that Ellie would give Sasha her last name.

"Ok, so it's Sasha Jane Freeman?" The nurse asked, making sure she had the correct information.

"No, no, it's Sasha Jane Preston," Ellie said quickly.

Preston! My daughter has my last name. Ellie gave her my last name. That was the best thing anybody has ever done for me.

So here I sit, holding my little girl, feeling sad that this is our last night with her before shift tomorrow. Neither of us have really talked about it. We've just been in our own bubble these last two months, and now we have to go back to reality.

After discussing our options, we've decided on having Keegan's wife, Julia, keep her while we're on shift. We know Keegan and his family, so having her with Julia just seems right to us.

Even though Sasha's gonna be in great hands, I'm still sad tonight. If I'm feeling this way, I can't imagine how Ellie's feeling.

The morning comes quickly, and we're rushing around to get everything ready, get Liam out of bed, and get to the station on time.

"Liam Alexander, if you're not outta bed in exactly two minutes, I'm coming in there. You don't want me in there," Ellie threatens darkly. She's on edge this morning. I let her be as I finish packing the diaper bag.

"Do we have everything?" She asks me, anxiously.

"We're good, Ellie Jane. We just need Liam up and ready and then we can go. We have to leave in 10 minutes," I say, looking at the clock.

"Liam! Get out of bed NOW!" Ellie says again, yelling this time.

"I heard you the first fifty times you said it. You don't have to keep yelling," Liam snaps angrily as he goes to jump in the shower.

"I'm about to smack him," she says, looking at me. Liam has been really grumpy for the last couple of days. Ellie has ignored all of it, hoping he would just quit. I have a feeling she's about to snap, though. Today isn't the day for him to push her.

Liam gets out of the shower quickly, with a towel around his waist, and rushes to his room to get dressed.

He's ready in record time. Ellie is still finishing up a few things when he comes into the kitchen with his book bag over one shoulder.

"Hypocrite much? We're waiting on you!" He says while rolling his eyes.

I put my hand firmly on his shoulder. "Cool it," I warn, quietly. I can tell Ellie's on her last shred of patience.

"I'm telling you right now, you better be good while we're on shift. You've been getting a lot of detentions lately. You get one more, your ass is mine. You hear me? Now let's go," she says as she shoves him gently towards the door.

Liam heads to school, and we head to Keegan's house to drop off Sasha. Saying goodbye to her was hard. I had to fight the lump in my throat. I couldn't even bring myself to look at Ellie—I knew I would lose my composure if I did.

Instead, I gently grab her shoulder and hold her to my side as we walk to my car. We drive to the station in silence, and go in.

When we walk in, everybody's waiting. The cheering that bounced from the rafters was deafening. We were definitely missed these last two months, and it felt nice.

I'm buried in my paperwork all morning. My replacement was lazy in the paperwork department, and now I have two months' worth of work to redo.

"Lieutenant, Liam's on the phone for you. Line 2, Diego says, pointing to my phone. I give him a quizzical look, and he shrugs his shoulders. Why isn't he calling Ellie?

"What's up, buddy?" I ask, trying to not sound nervous.

"Can you come to the school's office today and sign a slip for me, please?"

"Uh, a slip for what? And why do you need me to do it?"

"I can't ask mom. You saw what kind of a mood she was in today. She's going to kill me."

"Did you get another detention?"

"Yeah. It's my sixth one in a month, so now an adult has to sign a slip."

"Why aren't you calling your dad?" I continue. This isn't adding up to me.

"I did. He's mad too. He says he's not gonna bail me out of this and I need to take it up with mom."

I'm shocked. It takes me a minute to rally. "Why did you get detention?" I ask. I want to get all the facts first.

I can hear him sigh on the other end, and then he explains. "I was texting."

"Your girlfriend?" I continue. I'm not appreciating these vague answers.

"No. I was texting Julia," he says, embarrassed.

"Julia? As in Keegan's wife, Julia?" I'm surprised. That was the last name I expected him to say.

"Yeah. I just wanted to make sure Sasha was ok. Why you guys decided that a stranger would be better to watch her than me and dad really pisses me off."

Now it all makes sense. Why he's been so mad—He's mad we're having someone else keep his sister while we're gone. We've hurt his feelings.

I'm quiet for a minute as I try to figure out what to do. "I'll come down and sign, but you need to know something. Just because we're not having you keep Sasha isn't because we don't trust you. It's because we want you to be a kid, and not a parent. I love that you're worried about her." That dang lump in my throat is back.

"You won't tell mom?"

I sigh, loudly. I know this is suicide. Ellie will find out. She finds out everything. However, this is gonna set her over the edge. I'm afraid she won't listen to Liam's side of things before she goes for the kill.

"Only this once. I will not tell your mom, only this once. This better not happen again though. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir. Thank you Taylor."

"Bye bud," I say as I hang up and pinch the bridge of my nose with my fingers. I'm never gonna get away with this. Ellie's gonna find out, and when she does, she's going to kill both Liam, and me.