The Broken Benefactor

~15~ (UPDATED 02/14/2020)

(VALERIE)

"Where's Davison?" She screamed frantically. Ethan had no idea what to do. Of the many battles and excursions he was engaged in, the sound of agony from his wife was something humbling and terrifying. He always considered himself to be a pretty tough guy. He was never known for running from a fight, but this was too much. To watch her suffer, was too much for Ethan. He felt so small he just wanted to disappear.

          Valerie had to be rushed to the hospital. Pain ripped her out of her sleep and forced her to start moving around. Nothing they did at home eased the pain. It only seemed to get worse. They checked to see how far apart the contractions were. Ethan decided not to take a chance. When they were six minutes apart and lasted a minute, he flew down the highway to get her to the hospital.

          The sound of her screams while watching her cry made him feel like he was less than a man. His wife's suffering broke his heart. With every scream and every tear, his uselessness became more and more evident. For everything he promised her, he wasn't prepared to handle this.

          Ethan called his brother-in-law as soon as they arrived at the emergency room. The agony Valerie was suffering seemed wrong and out of place. There was a strange emotion hanging in the air. The weight of it was too heavy and smothering. At every turn, he knew his wife was experiencing labor that was tougher than it should be. He stepped out into the hallway briefly to call his brother-in-law again. Even though Davison was against his sister's marriage to a white man, Ethan was determined to get him to the hospital. He believed his brother-in-law's presence would somehow ease his wife.

          "Eeeeeeethan. Oh God. Baby help me please." The scream sent a cold shiver through his body. Something was wrong. He knew it for sure now.

          In his life, he could count the number of times he begged another man to do anything for him on one hand. His pride would never allow him to bow down. When his wife went into labor, he forgot his pride. Ethan begged and pleaded with his brother-in-law to visit his sister. The stubbornness of the other man was enough to make him want to reach through the phone and slap the arrogant prick until he came to his senses. Valerie screamed out for her husband.

          "What's wrong with her?" Davison's voice changed from obstinate to concerned.

          "Dude, your baby sister is about to give birth to our child. She's been crying for you all day. Please try not to be a dick and let her down when she really needs you the most. Man the fuck up!" Ethan yelled over the phone out of frustration. 

          Every time he heard the pain in her voice, he felt small and helpless. After he returned to her side, he began to do something he very seldom cared for. Ethan prayed for his wife and unborn child. Nothing was more important to him than the woman who had become his best friend and the love of his life. The child she carried was his heart and so he prayed non-stop for them both.

          As he held her hand, Valerie grabbed at him with tears in her eyes. She was completely wrung out. Her color was no longer its same vibrant hue. Valerie reflected the brutality of labor in every line on her face. His heart went out to her and her struggle.

          Momentarily, a look of peace descended on her face. She closed her eyes as if she was finally enjoying a time of rest. He stroked her naturally braided hair as he wiped the sweat from her face. It was at that moment that the sound of every monitor started beeping all at once forcing Ethan to stop in his tracks. He looked at the heart monitor and there was nothing but a straight line across the screen. The doctors and the nursing staff rushed into the room. Ethan was quickly escorted out as he caught a glimpse of them doing chest compressions on his wife.

          He figured this was a nightmare. There was no way this could be real. None of this was real. It had to be a dream. No, he knew this must be a nightmare. One minute he was holding her hand and the next he was was watching them fight to bring her dead body back to life. Even though they attempted to explain what was taking place, Ethan checked out the moment he realized his wife closed her eyes and she might never wake up again.

          He was unaware of when he forced his way back into the room. Hands were everywhere prying him off her. Ethan was unaware of the hysterical screams tearing through his body as they moved her bed and he refused to let the bed go. Security was called to stop him from chasing them down the hall. He was unaware that he screamed her name pleading with her not to leave him as they rushed her lifeless body away while they were still providing her with CPR.

         Ethan had no idea what happened next as his body seized up. He hadn't had this experience in such a long time that he could no longer remember his last flashback. As his body froze, it continued with a momentum that propelled him forward and forced him down face first until he landed on the hospital floor. Ethan was out cold.

*****

(ETHAN)

"Everybody move, move, move, ...move!!!" Ethan heard the words leave his lips. Even though his voice was discernible over the gunfire, it didn't come with enough time to avoid the bomb's blast. He was thrown to the ground and soon realized he wasn't able to move. When he was finally free, he realized something was out of place. He walked around and saw nothing. He saw no one. He wasn't in the same flashback he had relived a million times.

          Ethan turned around to the face the direction from which he came and he saw a body lying on a plain white surface. Tears streamed down his face as he took each painstaking step to bring himself closer to the body. He was sure he was only ten or twenty feet away, but it seemed to take a lifetime to reach the spot where the body awaited him.

          When he finally made it, he already knew who it was.

          "God please don't do this to me. Please... please... please. Take me instead. Don't take my wife and my baby. PLEASE GOD... PLEASE!" Ethan crumpled down to the floor. He fell down on his knees next to the body, rolled over on his side, and curled up in a ball. He wrapped his arms around that which was concealed from him and pled for it all to be over. He no longer had any desire to live. Without his wife and child, he decided it was best to die with them than to live without them.

          Ethan closed his eyes and was greeted by darkness. He prayed for death. He figured life wasn't worth living anymore, so he gave in and sunk into the abyss.

*****

(DAVISON)

"What happened to him?" As Davison walked around the corner, he witnessed Ethan's free-falling body hit the floor like and a bag of rocks. When the nurses came running over to assist the man, he attempted to find out what was going on.

          "I'm sorry sir, but I have to verify who you are before I can share anyone's information." She explained to him.

          "This man is married to my sister. She was brought in not too long ago in labor. Her name is Valerie Evans... I mean Raye. Her married name is Valerie Raye. Ethan just called me a little while ago and it sounded like there was something wrong." He explained to the nurse. She walked him over to the nurse's station to verify if he was placed on the list of emergency contacts.

          After she verified his information and got a couple of nurses to assist his brother-in-law, Davison could tell by everyone's body language that something was seriously wrong. No one said a word. They called for a doctor to come and explain to him what was going on.

*****

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