Amber's View

We were standing at the airport waiting for our flight to be called.
"I have to go to the bathroom." I said looking around for the nearest one.
"You just went 10 minutes ago," Nick said.
"Hey why don't you try having something sit on your bladder for 8 ½ months and see if you don't have to go every ten minutes!" I said crankily.
"Don't get her started Nick – her hormones are stuck on moody today," AJ said pointing to the direction the bathroom was in. "Missy why don't you go with her."
"I think I can pee by myself," I said turning and heading in the way he had pointed. Missy followed me anyway.
"You don't have to follow me Missy," I said as I pushed the bathroom door open.
"Yes I do. AJ told us what happened and none of us are letting you out of our sight for one minute. Besides I really have to go to the bathroom too."
"Fine, but not all of you are going into the delivery room with me – I draw the line there!"
"I've already been through the delivery thing – I don't need to be in that room again for awhile." Missy said laughing.

I finished before Missy and leaned against the wall to wait for her. Over the speakers I heard our flight announced. "Come on Missy, that was us they just called." I never even heard the supply closet door open before it was too late.
"Guess who?" Steve whispered in my ear. "Oh no you don't!" His hand covered my mouth before I had a chance to scream. I felt the barrel of a gun press against my back. "We're gonna walk out of this bathroom as if nothing is wrong. I've decided to spare your precious boyfriend for now but if you try to scream or try to escape I swear will hunt him down and I won't stop until he's dead. Is that clear?" I shook my head yes. I tried to tell myself to stay calm but the tears came anyway.

Steve took his hand away from my mouth and roughly grabbed my wrist. "Good, now let's go." He shoved me forward and I had no choice but to walk. We walked out of the bathroom and started down the corridor towards the exit. My head screamed at me to pull away and run but I knew I wouldn't get very far in my condition. I would just have to look for some other chance to get away. Then I thought of Missy – she was bound to notice I was missing soon.

We were almost to the exit doors when I finally heard Missy scream "OH MY GOD AMBER'S GONE!"
Steve pushed me along faster causing me to stumble and almost fall. I could hear a commotion behind us as we stepped through the doors. "Come on, hurry up bitch!" he said pulling me along even faster.
"Steve, please, I can't go this fast," I said intentionally dragging my feet a little to give security a chance to catch up with us.
"Well you should have though of that before you let that asshole knock you the fuck up!" he said not slowing down a bit.
I could barely breathe as we ran through the parking lot over to a white van. Realization hit me as Steve pushed me against the van and opened the passenger side door. "It was you with Cal that night! You were the one driving the van!"
"That's right baby." I hated hearing the name AJ always called me coming out of Steve's mouth "The plan was for Cal to get Rhonda back and for me to get you. See me and Cal always believed in the same thing – that the woman you love should be yours forever. Cal was just too weak to pull it off. Now that I have you I'm never gonna let you go again." Steve pulled a role of duct tape out of the van and tore a big piece off. I had to do something! "HELP!" I turned and tried to run but I didn't make it very far. Steve grabbed my hair and pulled me back. He pushed me hard against the van.

"I told you not to do that!" Steve hit me across the face with the butt of the gun so hard that I saw stars. "I'm sorry - I don't want to hurt you or our child," Steve said as he turned me around and started to duct tape my hands behind my back "but I'll do whatever it takes to get you away from him." Steve pushed me into the passenger's seat and then locked the door and shut it. He ran around and climbed in to the driver's side and we sped away.

Tears spilled out of my eyes as we merged onto the freeway and there was still no sign of AJ or anyone following.
"Don't cry honey. It's all over now – no more people to stand in the way of us being together. No one standing in the way of our love." "When are you going to get the picture Steve – I don't fucking love you. I never have and I never will. I love AJ! This is his kid and were going to be together!"

I could tell what I had just said only made Steve more mad. He reached out his hand and viciously pulled me over towards him by my hair. "You listen to me slut! You are mine – not fucking AJ's! The bastard that you are carrying will call me dad. I know your love isn't as strong as mine is for you but I know that someday you will love me that much. I know you will." Steve kept on talking about us being together. He described the nursery he had all set up for our baby, he had a mid-wife all ready for the delivery, he had everything planned. "You're gonna be so happy," he said smiling.

"The only thing I'd be happy about is you fucking dying!" I said coldly. Steve shot me a murderous look but continued on as if I had said nothing. I looked around frantically trying to figure out a way to escape. I didn't want to wind up like Rhonda had with Cal all those years ago. I couldn't open the door – my hands were tied, and even if I could we were speeding along the freeway and I was pregnant. I would not do anything to jeopardize the life of this child.

The sound of sirens shocked Steve out of his deranged daydreams. I glanced in the side view mirror to see a cop car behind us and then glanced over at Steve's speedometer to see that he had been speeding. "Shit!" Steve said as he began to pull the van over to the side of the road. He grabbed a pocket knife out with one hand and sliced through the tape on my wrists. "If you know what's good for you and that kid," he said "you'd better play along and act like a good little wife – got it?" I rubbed my wrists and nodded.

The officer walked up to the window of the van. "Were you aware that you were speeding young man?" the officer said.
"Oh I'm so sorry – but my wife here – she's having a baby." Steve said pointing at me. The officer looked at me. With my pale face, tears and protruding belly I must have really looked like I was in labor. He was about to walk away when he noticed the huge bruise on my face where Steve had hit me.

"What happened to her face there?"
"Oh you know how clumsy pregnant women are," Steve said laughing nervously. "She was rushing around so much trying to pack a bag for the hospital that she hit her head on a table."
"Is that right Ms?" the officer asked with a look that said he didn't believe Steve's story.

I knew this was my only chance to escape. I don't know how I did it, but I swung around and hit Steve knocking the wind out of him, unlocked the door to the van and ran. "Help me!," I screamed at the officer "He just kidnapped me!" I kept running towards the police car knowing that if I could get into it I'd be safe.
The officer opened the driver's side door and pulled Steve out. They struggled and Steve pushed the officer down to the ground and ran after me. "Come back here bitch!!!"
"Freeze!" the officer shouted pointing his gun at Steve right as he caught me. Steve held me in front as he pulled his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at my head.
"Don't come any closer or she gets it." Steve yelled back, then he whispered in my ear "Don't worry baby I would never hurt you – I'm just trying to get us out of here so we can start our new life together."
I thought about what Steve had just said and I thought about what I had told AJ the other day. "I won't let him harm this family." With that I pretended to double over in pain. Steve took the gun away from my head and began asking if I was alright. While his concentration was on other things I turned around and knocked the gun out of Steve's hand.
"Freeze!" I heard the officer yell again as Steve punched me and I fell hard on the ground instinctively trying to protect my stomach as well as I could. He then started to reach for the gun. I heard a shot being fired and saw Steve fall.
The officer walked over to Steve and checked him for signs of life – there were none. "You alright?" he said coming over to me and placing an arm around my shoulder. I couldn't help it as I broke down and cried.
The sound of other sirens made us both look up in surprise. There pulling up alongside of us were 8 more cop cars and the van we had driven to the airport. The doors of the van opened and AJ came flying out of it and over to me. He grabbed me in his arms and held me as if he would never let go. The others gathered around us but it didn't matter – AJ was here now and everything was going to be alright.

The officer, I could see his name was Officer Brown now, came over after speaking a few quick words with the other policemen. "Ms. we're gonna take you to the hospital to make sure that fall didn't harm your baby. The police can question you there."
AJ sat back and looked at me suddenly realizing that I was on the ground. "You fell? Was it on your stomach?" he said extremely concerned.
"I tried to cushion it as best as I could with my hands," I said holding up my hands that we're now scraped and slightly bloody."
He noticed my wrists then raw from the tape and the bruise that covered my face. "He did that to you too?!" I nodded pulling my hands back out of his sight. The look on AJ's face was one I had never seen before. He abruptly stood up, walked over to our van and leaned against it.
"I'll go talk to him," Howie said as he walked over to where AJ was. I wanted to know what was going on but at that time the ambulance had come to take me to the hospital.
"He'll be o.k.," Brian said holding my hand as I was placed on a stretcher. "I think he blames himself for this."
"But it's not his fault – I could never blame him. He couldn't have done anymore than he did to protect me."
"We all know that – he just has to figure that out."
"Are you riding with her?" the EMS asked Brian.
"Do you want me to?" Brian asked me as we both looked over to where Howie now stood with his arm around AJ.
"Please." I answered in a quiet voice. I really wanted AJ with me but I knew he had to deal with his own demons just like I had to deal with mine. I was actually pretty shocked with how I had come to terms with what had happened so quickly – I just wished I could let AJ know that it was him who was getting me through this. "Rhonda…"

"I'll go see what I can do," she said reading my mind.

Rhonda's View

After Amber was put into the ambulance, I walked over to Howie and AJ at the van. "How ya doin' AJ?"
"How am I doing? How the fuck do you think I'm doing?" AJ shot back. Howie held his hand up and gave me the "not now" look.
"AJ – I know this is rough but Amber needs you by her side at the hospital. One of the cops said that he would take us there."
"I'm not ready to leave yet," AJ responded.
"AJ don't take your anger out on her – she's only trying to help," Howie said to AJ. AJ looked at Howie and began to walk down the highway.
"Let me go talk to him," I said.

I caught up to AJ and grabbed his arm to turn him around. "Just go away!" he shouted.
"There is nothing you could have done AJ. There is nothing that any of us could have done. All we can do now is go to the hospital, cross our fingers and hope to God that Amber and the baby will be alright."
"It's your fault you know!"
"My fault? How the hell is it ...look AJ, we're not doing Amber any good screaming at each other on the side of the fucking highway. If she knew we were doing this, she would kill the both of us. Besides, its over now and there is nothing that either of us could have done to stop Steve. If he didn't show up at the airport, he would have showed up somewhere else. He's a sick fucker just like Cal was."

AJ stood there for a minute and let it all sink in. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Do you ever blame Howie for not being able to protect you from Cal that night?" AJ looked up at me with tears streaming down his face.
"Never. I never once blamed Howie – how could I blame him? Howie could have been by my side for 24-hours and for that one brief second that Howie was away, Cal showed up. Steve was as sick as Cal. He waited until that one second when you looked away. You are not to blame you got it! Steve is the only one responsible for his actions and he's dead now."

"But I should have gone with her!"
"But she didn't want you to!! AJ – take it from someone whose been there, having someone watch over you doesn't make you feel safe!! There was one point in my life I had undercover agents outside of my apartment 24/7 but Cal still found me. There is nothing more you could have done, unless you would have locked her in the basement or something and then you would be as creepy as Steve and Cal and no one would like you." I winked at AJ to make sure he knew I was kidding about the basement.

"If anything happens to Amber or my baby so help me god ...I just...I don't know what I would do without either of them."
"Don't even think about that. Amber's going to be okay and so is the baby. Come with me, I'll prove it to you." I held my hand out and led AJ over to the police cars.

Amber's View

The doctors walked out of the examining room and into the hallway. "You can see her now," I heard one of them say.
I stood up and started to get dressed. It had been a long night – the cops had taken my statement and Officer Brown's about what had happened that day and the doctors had run dozens of tests to make sure the fall hadn't hurt the baby.
AJ walked through the doors the doctors had just went out. He looked horrible – his hair was a mess and he looked as if he'd been crying. "How's the baby?" he asked just kind of standing there with his hands in his pockets.
"The baby is just fine – we're both going to be just fine."
A look of relief crossed his face and he came over and hugged me tightly. He buried his face in my hair and I could feel the tears fall on my head. "I thought I was going to lose both of you," he said softly.
"You're not going to lose us, we're right here. There is nothing that can harm our family now. It's over."
AJ looked at me in astonishment "How can you be so calm? Weren't you scared?"
A tear rolled down my face as I looked into his eyes so full of love for me. "When Steve took me I was petrified, but there was something I was afraid of more than Steve that made me act the way I did - I was afraid I would never see you again."
AJ pulled me back into his arms "I am never going to let you go!"
"I'm never going to let you," I said as I kissed him and held on as tight as I could.