Claimed by the Biker Giant (Maxine and Tank) novel Chapter 168

Fixer POV

Prez paced the floor. I am positive he wore a groove in the floor; his pace was from the door to the window, and back again. He was unapproachable; His face said, “Don’t come near me, or be prepared to be barked at. In the beginning, I left him to pace on his own, and when I thought his pace had slowed, I came beside him and paced with him. Step by step, not speaking, just there for him, if he needed me. Even if it was to vent, I would take it; he couldn’t do or say anything that I hadn’t seen before.

But he just paced, not even acknowledging me beside him; that was okay, I didn’t mind, I felt better knowing I was within reach if he needed me.

The door swung open, and Prez stopped and turned to face a young nurse who had come through.

“Are you Prez?” She asked timidly, obviously intimidated by Prez’s frustrated, worried face.

“That’s me.” He replied much softer than I had expected, given how worked up he was.

“Come, your wife’s calling for you.” She turned and left the room, not waiting to see if he followed. He looked at me, mouthed ‘thank you, and I nodded before he left the room. Guess he did notice me pacing with him.

The clock on the wall sounded loud to my ears. In this room alone, I had sent the security team outside before I started pacing with Prez and told them to start taking breaks, as it could be a long afternoon and evening. I needed a distraction; this waiting room had a coffee machine, but it didn’t look that good. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, so I made myself a cup of weak sludge; there was no other word for the goop that came out of that pot. How a hospital could have something like this for people waiting was a joke; maybe it was their way of stopping loiterers from filling the room. In the end, I threw most of the cup in the bin; couldn’t stomach it.

I went to the window and watched outside. There was a large tree not that far from the window. I found a nest that must have babies in it, as the parents are rushing back and forth. I keep watching, hoping to see the little ones. The parent birds have been in the way, but watching gives me something to do and keeps my mind from thinking or worrying, taking my mind off where we are.

I jumped when Tank touched me. I hadn’t realised I had completely shut out everything around me, and fixated on the birds. I turned and held onto Tank, like he was my lifeline. I explained where Prez was and as much as I could about this whole situation.

He fed me a lot of burgers, and I devoured one, like hadn’t eaten in a week. He took the rest of the food to the door and handed the remaining burgers to the security team nearby.

Tank looked conflicted, like he had said the wrong thing, or felt like he had, because I ended up in tears, on hislap, and all I could do was cry, and he waited for me to tell him why I had tears trickling down my cheeks, he seemed to pick up that it wasnt just the situation we were in now. I took a deep breath and started telling one of my many tales from my youth.

“At the time, I was sixteen, still angry with the world that everyone I loved was dying. On the streets, you don’t get medical aid, we tried to help each other, there was a group of pregnant girls, all rape victims, their parents had disowned them, for some reason or other, and a couple that just ran away, too ashamed to admit what had happened, the old police Sargeant, didn’t care for street folk, he never sent help when was asked for, and often came and moved us on, when he found where we were camped, life was not easy, and he made it worse, was glad when they got ride of him. Anyway, one of the few kids who knew where lived came to my house, climbed to my window, and pulled me out of bed in the early hours of the morning. Two girls were in labour, and they didn’t know who to call, so they came for me. When I arrived, one girl had already given birth, with the help of other younger girls. I arrived too late; she was rocking a dead baby, crying her heart out. Another girl was still in the midst of labour, and I helped her, the best I could. It took all night, but we managed a live birth. I wrapped it up and gave it to the girl; she couldn’t have been older than sixteen, maybe younger. The girl whose baby died screamed and shouted, blaming me for not being there to help her. She was angry and in tears, and for a while, I didn’t go back to see the pregnant ones. It was too hard. I couldn’t be there for all of them, and half the time I had no idea what I was doing, just following something I watched on YouTube, and read in books.” I stopped crying, for now. I think I needed to get that out, release another nightmare, that I hope won’t visit me again. The nightmare was always the same, me failing to help, and they die.

“Sticks is in safe hands, you got her here in time.” Tanks said in a whisper, in my ear, as if he could read my mind.

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