Aubrey (Axis Rising)

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Breckinridge's practice was attached to a fairly large establishment, very much like a hospital, called the Birth Place in Santa Monica. It was here they moved Aubrey when she came to a few minutes later. It felt like a hospital, and the last hospital I'd been in just a month or so ago was to watch my mother die.

Too many memories colliding.

I called Ben.

It had been a while since my best friend and I had talked, but I needed him now. I would have called Lance, as he and I were close, but he hadn't experienced Teotihuacan the way Ben and I had, and it was that incident that was encroaching on my brain at this particular moment. That and my mother's death.

Aubrey was ensconced. Angie had made arrangements, and stayed with her. I stepped out of the room after assuring myself of her safety.

"Ben."

"Yeah, Rafe?" He answered immediately.

"Man, some freaky weird shit is going down."

"Like what, man?" His voice was clear and concise. I wasn't bothering him.

"I'm having some kind of dejavu. Like the whole Teotihuacan thing, and I just took down a Mexican thug with a gun at the doctor's office, and the whole hospital thing with my mom, is repeating itself with Aubrey."

"You're not making any sense, Rafe. Where the ***** are you?"

I held my head in my hands as if that could stop the swirling. "We are at the Birthing Place next to Aubrey's offices in Santa Monica, and I think I need you."

"Is Aubrey okay? Is she having the babies?"

"Yes, she's okay, she had a blood sugar thing, like hypoglycemia I think they said, and she's just here for rest and observation. But it's freaking me out, and no, she's not having the babies."

"I'm on my way, why don't you just stay on the phone with me, unless you have to get back in there. I take it you're not directly in the room with her?"

"I'm in the hall, yeah, there's a couch area, I'm going to go sit, not 'cause I'm tired, but just to give this a sense of normalcy. I freaking just put the move on my man, Jack, the homey from the other night at the Princess Party."

"You saw him again?"

"Yeah, dude, he totally followed us, him and two cats outta LA, covered in insignia. They were at the doctor's office."

"And they tried to accost you?"

"Nah, they were pulling their tough guy shit, and thought they'd intimidate me. I met another one, higher up in their hierarchy the other day, I forgot to tell you, and he sent them over to put the kibosh on my investigation into Felicity's necklace list thing. I didn't give them the chance, I just took them out, one by one, and Aidan finished it all up till the police got there."

"You? You put the moves on him?"

"Yeah, I took him down, brother, down."

"Did you hurt him?" Ben knew I could have hurt the guy bad, Ben knew the guy could have maybe hurt me bad too. It might have been a fair fight. I wasn't a street fighter, but I was quick and thorough and well-trained.

"I hurt him, a little. Probably broke his pinky finger. He'll live. Got some internal bruises."

"Shit man, you let him have it."

"I did. I'm not messing with these thugs. They gotta stop. I think we need to go to Mexico and make smoke signals with these dudes or something."

"That's the dumbest dumb ass thing I ever heard. Right now they're in your turf, you don't head down their turf and expect to come out alive."

"I've got to find the original necklace, Ben." I protested. "There are good reasons I need to find it. My daughter's life depends on it."

"I highly doubt anyone is directly going after Felicity, she's a child. She can't remember anything. She was just a baby when it all went down."

"Oh, she remembers all right, you'd be surprised what that baby can remember. Shit, this is all happening too fast."

"I'm on my way, bro, just hang in there, okay?"

*****