Watch What Burns (29 page)

“We can do that,” Tyler goaded the situation, turning Natasha’s attention away from Austin for a moment.

“But that’s not how this is going to happen,” Natasha retorted, shaking her head. “I said I could live with that, but it doesn’t mean I want to. I don’t. Whatever happens, it’ll always be her you love.” She then began to level the gun once more. “So, like I said,” Natasha’s began to say, her face morphing, she no longer looked distraught, or wrapped up in an emotional battle within. She looked confident with her final decision. Suddenly, as her mind finalized the cognitive thought, her shaking hand stilled and the gun sat firmly on its target. “If I don’t have him no one can!”

“No!” Austin screamed out, but it was too late. The moment the gun resonated with a bang, the shot fired,
Austin’s legs gave way. There was nothing she could do. She was too far away to save her husband, her words were futile at saving the one man that had protected her and loved her.

As she fell to the floor, she knew part of her life was shattering into millions of pieces and would be forever irreparable.

AUSTIN felt numb. Nothing in her was responding apart from the darkness that was slowly beginning to consume her. She had fallen onto her hands and knees moments earlier, unwilling to look up at her husband’s bleeding body. She couldn’t bear to see it. Why would she want to be maimed with that memory forever more?

“C’mon, man!” she heard her husband’s voice break out. “You had to take a bullet, Mike!”

Slowly, Austin raised her head, she saw commotion happening around her, but it was like everything was in slow motion. She could hear her husband’s voice, but his lips moved out of sync, screaming for help, trying to vain to help the real person that had taken the bullet.

“You’ve taken worse bullets than this,” Tyler scolded Michael as he bled beneath his hands.

“None hurt like this bitch!” Michael groaned back, his pain tolerance dying a horribly embarrassing death before him.

With that, Austin began to crawl. She didn’t care about Natasha as she stood shaking, the gun falling from her hands as she began to fall to the floor in a similar fashion as Austin had. “
Wh-what happened?” she stupidly asked as she got to Michael’s side. “I thought it was you again,” Austin whispered as she looked down at Michael’s bleeding shoulder. She watched the blood pulsate out from the wound; the crimson seeping out between Tyler’s firmly placed fingers.

“That’s it,” Michael ground out between clenched jaws. “I take the bullet and you worry over him.”

“Because if I focused on you, I’d beat you!” Austin scolded him, sobbing on the end of her sentence. “How could you? How could you be so stupid?! After everything, and you do this?”

“I just saved your husband and you’re yelling at me?” Michael asked with a pout, putting his head back with the pain slowly radiating in his shoulder. Out of all of the bullets he had taken, this one hurt the most. “How is that fair, Aussie?”

“It isn’t, but what about Sienna?” Austin asked, unimpressed by Michael’s tactic to saving the day. “How is she going to respond to your fucking heroics?”

“She likes my hero complex,” Michael retorted with a slick smirk on his lips. “She finds it hot.”

Austin scoffed at him. “I’m sure she does.” Looking up, she was more than grateful to see Steve step in, motioning for someone else to come in. She was more relieved when Tom ran in with a medic. Once they were in, it all happen so quickly. She went from being at Michael’s side to being forced away. Tyler telling Tom what it looked like with Michael’s injury.

“Let’s get him out of here and get her in custody,” Tyler commented as he stood up. “You okay with going out while Tom helps Michael and I sort Natasha out?” Tyler asked Austin as he pulled her to her feet, allowing Tom and the medic into the room to tend to Michael.

“Yeah, of course,” Austin replied, looking at Michael fight off the attention to get up. She looked back up to her husband and really allowed her eyes to take in his expression. “Is it finally over?”

“Yeah, it is,” Tyler spoke with a bright smile, finally feeling like everything was going to be alright. He hadn’t wanted to openly admit it, but seeing Natasha a cowering mess on the floor felt like some sort of justice. Knowing she had reached her breaking point and sat broken on the floor made him feel like this was finally over; that they were free of any and all of her control.

However, when his eyes caught movement from behind Austin, he watched as Natasha came to stand again, her face contorted with menacing evil. He watched as the barrel of the gun was now pointed at Austin’s back and he just reacted. He didn’t care for anything else, and as Natasha’s lips curled into the evil grin, he felt his heart stop beating. He watched Natasha cock the gun, and set it quickly, ready to pull the trigger.

“Austin!” Tyler shouted, leaping into action to take his wife out of the firing line. He pulled her down to the ground, safe and secure in his arms, but he didn’t know if he had been fast enough. He pulled her close, looking down the length of her spine for any blood. He finally breathed freely when he saw no gunshot wounds inflicted, and he held onto her for dear life.

Pushing him away, Austin sat in shock, looking down at herself. “I’m fine,” Austin told him, running her hands over her body in disbelief. Apart from the pain from her old wounds, she was perfectly alive. “I’m okay. It wasn’t me that was hit.”

As she finished telling him how okay she was, Tyler suddenly heard Natasha’s screams of agony pierce his hearing. Everything seemed to catch up then, he was aware of everything around him, he was able to see what had actually transcended. He caught sight of Natasha squirming on the floor, holding her injured arm and Tyler turned to see the shooter.

Steve stood with the gun out, still aimed at the spot where Natasha had stood. Tyler had been totally oblivious to his presence, hadn’t seen him quickly step outside to get police backup. He lowered the weapon, replaced it into the holster on his belt, and rushed in to disarm Natasha completely. He pushed his hand against her wound, not caring about hurting her more, and called for backup to come in with more medics. He then turned to look at Tyler, nodding his head to verify that it was all truly over.

“It’s over,” Tyler whispered to his wife. He put his hands to her face, bringing her to him so he could kiss her for added verification. “It’s all over, Sunny.” He then released her, stood up and pulled her up with him. “I think we need to go and see our baby girl.”

Looking to Michael, she saw him being led out of the building with Tom’s aid, and she looked to see Natasha fully immobilized. She looked to Tyler and released her first genuine smile in days and exhaled.

“Take me to our daughter,” she told him, her mind begging her to find the energy to run outside and take Grace in her arms and never let her go. “Then take us home.”

“Gladly,” Tyler retorted by pulling her to his side and walking out with her safe against him. For the first time in a few days he knew life suddenly felt easier. He was going to be able to sleep right, and function properly. His family was back, safe, and a few bullets later, their nightmare was officially over.

Walking out into the brightness of the street, he found himself squinting and adjusting to the sun shining down on them. He looked up at the clear blue skies and the heat of the day. The day was turning out to be faultless.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Grace’s shrill voice rang out and she broke away from her grandparents grasps and ran towards her parents.

Austin looked to Tyler who smiled and she looked back to their little girl, apparently unshaken by the
events that had her stolen from them. The pair rushed forward before collapsing onto bent knees to catch her in their open arms. For a moment they sat there, holding onto one another, relinquishing the feeling of being united.

“I missed you!” Grace squealed happily as she nuzzled in closer. “Has Clara missed me?”

Laughing through her tears, Austin was the first to withdraw from the pair, Tyler following behind her lead. “She’s been really missing you baby. We’ll have to get you home to see her.”

“Okay good!” Grace chirped, happy at the thought of her doll missing her. She then looked to her mother, her face contorting in confusion. “Mommy, you have a boo-boo,” she commented, reaching out to Austin’s cut face.
“Lots of them too! Is that what you did saving me?”

Nodding, Austin tried to reign in her emotions again. “Yeah, Gracie, but shall I let you in on a secret?”

Grace’s face immediately lit up. “What?”

“I’d get any boo-boo for you, baby,” Austin told her daughter honestly, meaning every word of the sentence.

“Any?!” Grace exclaimed disbelievingly.

“Anything for you,” Austin told her daughter, feeling Tyler’s hand run up her back to pause on her shoulder supportively. “And I had Clara looking after me while daddy searched for you,” she told her daughter with a gentle tone.

“Oh good!” she chimed in the same merry tone. “Can we go home so I can have Clara?”

“Sorry, Gracie-moo, but you need to come with me to the hospital,” Tom broke the news to them. “You can come in with mommy and daddy, but we need to get you looked at.”

Grace didn’t take much persuasion, but as they approached the cars again, Tyler quickly noticed how much of a fight Michael was putting up in order to not go to the hospital. Austin shot her best friend a stern look, but with Grace pulling her towards the car, she hadn’t the time to stand around to reap hell on Michael for his own stupidity.

“I’m not going to the hospital, for Christ sake, it’s a through and through!” Michael argued as Tom jumped into the ambulance. “Tom, tell them, I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” Tom deadpanned and shook his head. “You need to be checked over, Michael. You get no opinion in this.”

“I’m fine!” he sighed heavily, trying to find a loop hole to getting out of this.
“Nothing that a bandage, some vicodin, and my woman can’t fix.”

“You’re going. You’re going to set a good example for Grace and go, but I’ll tell you now, I’ve seriously had enough of hospitals. You’re the final reason not to go near one for a while, but you’re going!” Tyler ordered Michael. He wasn’t risking his friend’s health, and knew that Grace needed to be checked over. He watched Michael flip his middle finger at him before smirking as the doors closed, then walked over to his car where Austin was strapping their daughter in.

He looked at his hands as he pulled his keys out and cringed. He hoped the redness of them wouldn’t scare Grace, and he hoped her happy exterior wasn’t hiding a darker, emotionally ruined psyche. He couldn’t bear to see his happy little girl ruined by the acts of Natasha. He knew he would do anything to make sure her emotional scars were nonexistent.

“Are you just going to stand there or can we get this show on the road?” Austin cried out to him, waking him from his thoughts. “I have a man that
needs reprimanding and a daughter who wants Clara and her bed.” She loosened her expression, falling into a small smile, “Plus I have a husband who needs a good night’s sleep.”

“Much like said husband’s wife does,” Tyler commented, and began to approach the car. “I can finally look after you,” Tyler said as he got closer to her.
“The pair of you.”

“You always look after us,” Austin admonished his claim quickly.

“Not over the past few days I haven’t,” he spoke apologetically to her. “I can now look after you, Aus, and I will.”

“You always look after me and Gracie,” she closed the door to her daughter’s side of the car, and walked to stand before him. “Now drive us to the hospital so we can get home and you can stop being a stupid man. You’ve looked after me every day of our married lives. You’ve never stopped.” She kissed him, leaving him standing by the driver’s side of the car while she walked away and climbed into the passenger seat.

Looking at his daughter, she shot him a bright smile and he realized that Austin was right - as she always was.

***

“She’s finally sleeping,” Austin commented as she stepped out of Grace’s room. “How’s Mike?”

“He’s fighting the doctors,” he joked and laughed at Michael’s resistance. “Sienna’s going fifty shades of ugly on him right now.” He watched Austin laugh at that comment, she said she would flip out; he just couldn’t wait to tell her how badly Sienna was scolding the man she loved. “How’s Gracie?”

“She’s happy to have Clara back. The doctor said she can go home in a few hours. They just want to monitor her. Apparently it’s nothing major, but she’s had very little to drink in the past few days, so she’s dehydrated. He said the drip will bring her electrolytes or something into balance.” She led him to a row of seats, keeping Grace in their view. “The doctor said that from the examination, there were no injuries apart from a badly bruised arm. He said that it looks like she was dragged. I told her she was.” She sniffed, hating the thought of anyone man-handling her daughter. “Other than that, she’s perfectly fine, Ty.”

Tyler smiled in relief, and watched his wife wilt before his eyes. “What about you?” he asked, reaching up to push her fringe out of her face. “How are you holding up?”

“Me?” she asked, and at that moment, she collapsed into a wave of tears. Everything that had built up was now crashing down and she was left raw and able to feel everything. She felt Tyler take her in his arms like he had before and she let it all go. Every ounce of grief, terror, and regret washed from her body, dispersing from its hardened grip on her veins. Her mind had finally caught up, telling her that everything was over. Now she finally believed it.

“We survived it, Aus,” Tyler whispered to her emotionally. He began kissing into her hair rocking her in order to calm her down. “We have our baby back. I have you and her. I have another chance at life with both of you.” He felt his own emotions bubbling under the surface, but he kept a good grip on keeping them on lockdown. “We got our life back. We’re free.” He knew now was the time to give her the final nail to push into the proverbial coffin. “Natasha is going into a high security psychiatric facility,” he told her. “Steve called me after he had handed her over. The only way she’ll get out of there is to go straight to a maximum security prison. She added murder, three more counts of attempted murder, and abduction of a minor to her list of offences. She’s not getting any pleasantries anymore. She’s going to rot in a cell now.”