The Unborn

Chapter 25

At 12.40pm, Ben walked into the station house. He hung his coat over the back of his swivel chair behind his desk and headed to the coffee machine. He noticed Mike’s jacket propped on the back of his chair. Ben looked around the room, there was no sign of him.

“Hey Spiros,” he called to a dark haired man sitting at a desk across the room. “You seen Mikey?”

The man looked up from his paperwork and said, “Yeah, he walked into the locker room a few minutes ago. I guess he’s still in there.” Spiros returned to his stack of papers.

“Thanks,” replied Ben.

“Ahuh.” Spiros mumbled without looking up.

Still standing in front of the coffee ma-chine, Ben rubbed his chin before spinning on his heel and making his way past the rows of desks and filing cabinets and into the locker room. The door swung shut behind him, he marched past aisle after aisle of tall blue metal lockers before stopping at the end of the fifth row. There was Mike, his head in his hands and a sheet of paper scrunched up between the thick fingers of his left hand.

Ben stood there, unable to move closer to Mike. “Something wrong, Mikey?” His words pierced the silence.

Mike jumped at the sound of his partner’s voice. He stared up at him, a grim expression on his face. He stared at Ben for a few moments before lowering his gaze to the floor.

“Is that Anna’s file?”

His partner nodded, still staring at the floor.

Ben took two steps toward him and then stopped. His feet suddenly unwilling to carry him any further, he leant against the locker to his left.

He had never seen Mike behaving the way he was right now. He was never short of words and had always been able to look Ben in the eye. Even when they had exchanged words or differences of opinion, Mike had never backed down from him or been unable to meet his gaze. Something was definitely wrong. A cold shiver ran through Ben. It stung him from the base of the neck, all the way down to his toes. He knew that whatever Mike had read, wasn’t good. It didn’t take long for the shiver to turn to full-blown fear and dread. Ben managed a few more steps toward Mike. He stopped again and sat on the bench just a few feet away from him. No words were spoken; neither man knew what to say or how to say it. They both remained wrapped in a blanket of silence. In a sudden bid to return to the land of the living, Ben cleared his throat and turned toward Mike.

“So you’re going to be a daddy, hey?”

Mike looked over at him.

“That’s great news… Great news.” Ben continued to ramble on. “I would have liked to have had the chance to be a Father…”

“Ben.”

“I don’t know what sort of a father I would have been though…”

“Ben.”

“But you, I think you’ll make a fantastic Dad. I suppose it’s too early to tell what sex it is yet hey?”

“You need to read this,” Mike whispered.

“Are you hoping for a boy or a girl? Or you don’t really mind?” he looked at Mike.

Mike’s eyes pleaded with Ben to stop.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s not important is it? As long as it’s healthy, right? That would be the main issue.” his ramblings continued on unabated.

“For crying out loud, Ben…”

“Anna and I. We never had kids, couldn’t. But I think I told you that didn’t I?” he looked over to Mike, searching for a hint of something in his eyes to tell him that whatever was in the background check was not that bad.