Saving Both Lives

Chapter 8

A rough hand grabbed at his wrist and pulled. Danny's finger slipped and hung up the call as Villegas shoved him across the filthy floor, the phone falling out of his reach.

"You think I'm really that stupid, you bastard?!" Villegas shouted.

Danny dove for his legs, knocking him down.

"No!" Baez shrieked, watching helplessly as the men fought against each other. Her partner struggled to wrestle the gun from Ty's hands.

They pulled back and forth, kicking and punching and grunting as their fight went on.

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny spotted his own gun sitting abandoned on the floor near his foot. Reaching out his leg, he tried to kick it upwards to bring it towards him. Villegas suddenly pounced onto his chest and knock the wind out of him and the glock out of view.

The hard steel of the head of his opponent's weapon dug into his sternum. He looked up to see Ty staring at him, face sweaty and his eyes bloodshot as he cocked the gun.

"I will do anything to keep my child with me." He snarled, his finger inches from the trigger. "Even if it means ending another life!"

Suddenly a shot rang out and Villegas stumbled back, freeing Danny.

Another shot, and then he collapsed to the ground, blood pooling from his neck.

Danny looked over and saw Baez, breathing heavily, sitting up against the wall with his gun in her hands.

"Yeah, so will she," he sighed.

He hurried back over to her.  "You okay?" she asked, putting the gun down and wincing as she felt the next contraction starting.

"Oh, you're worrying about me?" Danny said as she groaned at the pain engulfing her body once again.

He retrieved his phone from the floor and called in.

"Five-four detective ten-thirteen.  I need a nine-oh-one h, and nine-oh-one forthwith for a ten-one ex; twenty-four d-three, arriving any minute. We're at 33 Warwick, in Brownsville. Repeat, 33 Warwick!"

He hung up and looked back at Baez, slumped back on the wall, overwhelmed and exhausted from the chaos.

"See? It's gonna be fine, I told you it'd be fine," he said. "Just go ahead and keep pushing."

"No!" she cried. "No, I can't do this anymore!" She shook her head, shutting her eyes tightly.

"Hey, yes you can." Danny consoled her. "Baez, look at me...Maria!"

She opened her eyes.

"You're my partner, and when you've lasted with me this long, you know you can't give up anything," he said firmly. "And there's no way I'm letting you give up being a mom."

Maria took a deep breath, and nodded.

In a moment, another contraction hit and she was bearing down once again.

"There you go," Danny coached her. "That's it, good girl. Push."

It wasn't long before Baez's pain suddenly turned the absolute worst, with white-hot burning piercing the center of her lower region.

She shrieked.

"Okay, okay, it's crowning! I see its head!" Danny said firmly, but with some encouragement. "You're almost there, Baez, just one more time. Come on!"

Gathering up the last of her strength, she gave a long, hard push...and then it was over. A tiny wail erupted in the room.

Maria looked down and started crying as she saw her newborn child squirming in Danny's hands. He was laughing in awe as he held up the infant.

"It's a girl! You got a little baby girl," he marveled. Swaddling her in his jacket, he laid her in the crook of her mother's arm.

"Oh, my little carino," Maria comforted her daughter, whose itty bitty hand grasped on of her fingers as she gently smoothed her delicate pink face.

"You did good, partner," Danny murmured.

Sirens of their long awaited backup finally approached outside as the two detectives sat there, watching over the brand new life that had just begun.