Chapter 2: And Awaaay We Go!

I felt myself coming out of a fog. My head was throbbing. My face was wet. My body was shaking. I was crying. Hard.

“Paul!”

A soft hand on my shoulder.

“Taylor? Erin?”

“I’m here Sweetie.” Erin answered softly.

“What happened?”

“Three men broke into the yard at the house.” This time it was Lynn.

“I remember that. The one guy grabbed for Blossom and I jumped at him.”

“The leader hit you over the head with his pistol. You went down like a rock. You were bleeding a lot from the cut on your scalp. You were breathing and had a pulse. One of the guys took Erin upstairs to rape her and she killed him. We will talk about that later.” Lynn finished.

“I got his gun, it had a silencer on it, I shot him in the head to be sure he was dead and opened the gun safe. I got Lynn’s Glock and went downstairs and called 9-1-1. I shot the leader and then went and gave the Glock to Lynn.” Erin said

“Blossom got to you and said that you had been shot. It must have been when Erin shot the leader. He got one off as he fell, and it hit you in the back.” Lynn resumed.

“The number 3 guy grabbed Taylor and had one hand over her mouth and had a gun to her head with the other. When I said that you had been shot, Lynn screamed, the guy looked at you and started to move his gun. That is when Taylor bit his hand really hard. Lynn shot him in the leg, and he shot Taylor in the head, then Lynn shot him in the chest, but she didn’t kill him. The police have him.” Blossom said.

She paused a long time and took a deep breath.

“The cops and EMT’s got there seconds after all of that happened, but they couldn’t do anything for Taylor.” Blossom continued.

“I must have passed out when you told me. The babies just dreamed to me. They said that she died because she loved me.” I said through many sobs and tears.

“When Lynn screamed, the guy turned and was looking crazy. He seemed to be pointing his gun towards you. I think he would have killed you if she had not bit him.” Erin said as she stroked my head.

“Mom and Dad and Bosco and Teri and Marcus will be so happy that you are wake. It is going to be a great burden lifted from all of our lives.”

“The funeral.” I said very softly.

“Yes. We decided that since we didn’t know what was going to happen with you, that it would be best to bury her and so we had a ceremony for the friends and family. The guys from Rush and ZZ Top even came.” Lynn added.

“Doctor?”

“Yes, Mr. O’Dell.”

“When can I get out to see my daughter?”

“I need to do a few tests to see how much you have recovered. You may need to be in a wheelchair for a bit and a body brace, then a walker. If all of the tests go as I hope they will, you should be out of here in a week.”

“Where was she buried?” I looked at my beautiful, bald Lynn.

“Paul, we couldn’t let her go. We buried her in the back yard under that tree she loved so much. We buried her naked.”

I completely came apart when I heard that. My little girl loved to be naked. She loved the sun on her skin and she loved the snow on her when she made naked snow angels.

I screamed and beat on the bed until I suddenly felt calm and sleepy.

Everything went black.

The day after I had been brought out of my coma, they had moved me to a regular bed. They changed the position of the bed several times each hour to move me around and be sure that the incision site was healing well. I was often in the middle of a conversation with either, Lynn, Blossom or Erin when they came to move the bed. The staff was trying to be as inobtrusive as possible.

The next day the doctor came in and had me sit up with my legs over the side of the bed and a physical therapist had me doing some stretching and twisting in a sitting position before he got me up to stand. I was rolled in a wheelchair to a new room, where I was put into a harness and then on a treadmill between two parallel bars. As I walked very slowly, my hips began to move in their normal manner and I could feel the tightness in my back begin to loosen.

“So how am I doing?” I looked at my physical therapist.

“Good. Maybe pushing a bit more than you need to.”

“I need to get out of here and see my daughter.”

The tests came out great and a week later I was rolled, by an orderly, out to the front door of the hospital. He moved the footrests out of the way and I slowly stood on wobbly legs. I was solid but weak. I got home late at night and went to the shower to wash off the hospital stuff. Leaning against the wall, with the water coming down on me, my mind was still a jumble and I was trying to figure out what was next and what I needed to do but nothing was settling into place, until Erin joined me.

“How are you doing?” She asked me as her huge naked breasts pressed against my back.

“I’m ok. Nothing physically hurts. How about you?” I turned to face her.

She looked into my eyes and burst into hysterical tears.

“Our baby!”

She fell to the shower floor with me right behind her.

“My baby! My Taylor.”

She kept repeating those words as she shook her head. It suddenly struck me that Erin had gone through this before with her first baby years ago and that broke my heart even further.

“Sweetie, do you want to take me to see her tonight?”

“No. I couldn’t take it tonight. We’ll do it in the morning with the family. Oh, Paul.”

She broke down again as we held each other under the constant rain of hot water. We ended up just cuddled on the floor as the warm water from the large rain shower head came down on us. This was the second time that I had not been there for Erin at an important time in our lives. The first was during my Houston incident when she had Penelope and Paula and now the loss of our first child. I swore to myself to never do this to her again.

We must have been there for a very long time, when suddenly the water stopped, and a gentle voice stirred me from my empty thoughts.

“Paul? Erin? Are you two ok?”

“I hurt, Lynn.” I looked up.

“You have been in there for almost an hour and a half. Come on out and let’s go to bed.”

“Where are the girls and the babies?” I asked.

“Mom and Dad and Blossom have put them to bed. Margaret is sleeping with Genevieve and Erin Lynn. Everyone is taken care of except you two. Come on.”

I got up and stretched my body. Six weeks in bed had not made me any more in shape. After stretching, I stroked Erin’s head and spoke.

“Sweetie come to bed with me. Please.”

She looked at me with her eyes bright red and took my hand. I tried to pull her to her feet, but I was a little too weak. Lynn reached out her hand and then a smaller hand appeared as Blossom came into the shower. The two wives helped to dry us in silence, except for the occasional sniffle from my blonde wife. When we were dry, Blossom took Erin’s hand and led her to bed. Lynn held me back.

“Paul, she has not grieved for a single moment until now. She has held everything in waiting for you to come home. She needs you, a lot. Don’t worry about Blossom or me tonight. Focus on her, help her heal. We aren’t going anywhere.”

I nodded and kissed Lynn softly on the lips before walking out to our giant double king bed and climbing in next to Erin. As soon as I was next to her she wrapped me in her arms. I had no choice but to lay on my back and let her cling to my chest. In no time at all my chest and shoulder were drenched in the moisture from her eyes and her runny nose. I held her, and we cried ourselves to sleep.

In the morning, I was sore and stiff and sad and glued to Erin. We had not changed positions from the night before. Erin and I were clinging to each other, alone in bed. Lynn and Blossom had gotten up and started their day already. I needed to go to the bathroom but held back hoping that Erin would wake soon.

“Paul?” A sleepy voice.

“Good morning, Sweetie.”

“Paul, I don’t know if I can make it.”

“Erin O’Dell, you don’t have to make it, WE do. You and me and our wives and our children. You are not alone, and you must not feel that you are. There are nineteen members of this family that are here to support you?”

“But my baby.”

“Erin, stop. Taylor was our baby. She was the girls’ sister. She was Bill and Gwen’s granddaughter. She was Lynn and Blossom’s daughter. She was Dara’s sister. You are not the only one suffering a loss. Your daughter Margaret lost her twin. Can you imagine what that must feel like? Nine months growing together inside of you and now they are split. She needs you. She needs her mother.”