She Restrained A Renegade

Twelve

12-Zoe

"Justin, it's our five year wedding anniversary, not our fiftieth. We don't need to do anything extravagant. Besides, I'm eight months pregnant and miserable." I complained, with a hand on my lower back. I'd been having contractions for a couple hours, but I didn't want to alarm my nervous husband. This was our second child, so he should have been better this go around, but has still become a nervous wreck as soon as the Braxton Hicks contractions started a couple weeks ago.

Jonah, our two year tootled over, wanting me to pick him up. That had been the hardest part these last couple weeks. The doctor recommended I not lift anything over twenty pounds. Our chubby two year old was over thirty. Justin devotedly came over and lifted him into his arms instead. Against Justin, Jonah looked so tiny. I watched my two boys, my love for them still growing with every day. Justin had been the best father. He'd never complained about a poopy diaper or a spit-up incident. One time, Jonah spit up an entire feeding onto Justin's shirt right before he was scheduled to take the stage to perform a full length concert. He had just smiled and went to change his shirt. Other guys might have freaked out, but not Justin.

My husband smiled at me, "Five years is special too. It might not be our fiftieth, but we'll get there one day. Let me plan something special for next weekend."

I sighed, I was going to have to tell him that we probably wouldn't be able to go anywhere, for our anniversary, because this baby was coming early, but I wanted to wait until it was time to leave for the hospital. Blaze, his wife, Sally, and their three year old son Luke were coming over for dinner, so they'd get a big surprise as well. I thought about telling Justin so we could cancel dinner, but again, I didn't want him to panic just yet. Blaze had shocked everyone when, four years ago, the week of our wedding, a woman showed up claiming to be pregnant with Blaze's baby. He'd adamantly stated that he couldn't be the father, but there had been clear doubt in his eyes. Sally proved to be telling the truth, because a paternity test proved it.

Instead of turning Sally and their unborn child away, Blaze had taken over. He'd set Sally up in a nice apartment, across the street from the hospital, until Luke was born. Then he'd somehow talked Sally into marrying him. Blaze hadn't wanted to be away from his son and he didn't want to take Luke away from Sally, so in his mind, marriage was the solution. We all thought he was crazy. Here he was, with a baby he hadn't planned on, resulting from what was supposed to be a one-night stand. Sally, seeing how devoted Blaze instantly became to his son, agreed. I wasn't sure when it happened, but they fell in love and Blaze was happier than I'd ever seen him. Thank God that worked out, for all their sakes.

As for the rest of the band. Axel had been bitten by the love bug a year ago and had just proposed to his now fiancé, Nora. Gil and Kid were still glaringly single. When the band went on tour, they'd had to invest in more tour buses, with everyone's growing families. Gil and Kid were banned to their own bus, because they still wanted to party all night and bring home random women. We all knew that one day, they too would meet women who would tame them, but it hadn't happened yet.

Harry was still the group's manager. He could be an asshole at times, but he knew the business in and out. He'd been a slave driver these last few years, pushing album after album. The Renegades had just finished their tour for their third album and Harry was already pushing for a fourth. The band's popularity was bigger than ever and Harry wanted to keep the momentum rolling. I understood it, but I didn't have to like it sometimes. Justin's popularity hadn't dwindled with the ladies, by becoming a husband and father. He still got just as many propositions as Gil and Kid. I knew he'd never take any of those women up on their offers, however. Justin had been nothing but the most loving, devoted husband in the whole world.

My sister and her husband, Rick, had reconnected when he finally got to come home. It took quite some time, because he was struggling with some PTSD and he'd lost one of his legs during a bombing. He'd been depressed and angry when he first came home, but counseling and my bossy sister finally brought him around. They were happier now, than I'd ever seen them and Rick had come to terms with his missing limb. He'd been fitted with a prosthetic and got around great. We got them tickets for Justin's shows whenever they wanted to come visit and we tried to make it to Seneca during holidays. Justin had insisted on buying the Kenner place and we'd renovated it, so we had a place to stay when we visited Seneca.

Owen Marian had been in prison for five years now. After word got out that he'd come to the school and boldly beat me up, in front of witnesses, more woman came forward. He'd apparently left a string of bad relationships behind him. Two women came forward with photos and hospital documents proving that he'd beat them too and two more women came forward pressing charges for rape. With everything piling up against him, Owen had plead guilty and the trial had been a fairly quick one. I'd been sickened to learn how many women he'd hurt. I prayed that I was the fifth and last, but I wondered if there had been others too scared or embarrassed to come forward. Thank God he was locked up and couldn't hurt anyone else.

As for my career. Following my husband around on tour, didn't exactly allow me many options. I still really enjoyed math, so I'd set up a tutoring service. I had a website and everything. I started out by tutoring some of my former students back home, via Skype. I'd started out charging a very low fee for my time, because as Blaze pointed out, it's not like he wasn't bringing in enough money. Then when Jonah was born, I'd taken a step back. I'd hired a few people around the Seneca, Kansas area to take over the tutoring, both online and in person, depending. I now had twenty tutors for hire all over the United States. It wasn't the same as teaching in a classroom, but I was glad that I was still able to help students learn, even if I was doing so from the backseat.

Our doorbell rang as another contraction hit me. I gripped the counter and doubled over a little, as Justin went to answer the door. A moment later Sally gasped, "Oh my, why didn't you call to tell us you're in labor?"

"Shh, Justin doesn't know yet." I told her when the pain lessoned.

"Seriously? Are you going to wait until the baby hits the floor? You're the one about to push a baby out of a very small area of your body, yet you're worried about your husband. Men are such babies." Sally grumbled.

"Yet, you love us anyway." Blaze said, coming in and wrapping his arms around his wife.

"Yes, we do." She agreed, without argument, but gave me a pointed look.

"Um, Blaze...Sally...do you think you could spend the night and watch Jonah?" I asked and Justin frowned at me, confused.

Blaze nodded, "Sure. What's up? Got a hot date you want to take Justin on?"

I chuckled, "Something like that. We need to go to the hospital."

Chaos ensued. Justin, and Blaze surprisingly, both started panicking. It was Sally who rallied everyone, as she shoved my overnight bag into Blaze's arms and told him to carry it to the car so that Justin could help me to the car. Justin jumped, "Right, the car! Let's get you loaded up. Isn't it too early? Will the baby be ok?"

I sighed, "Babe, calm down. The baby will be just fine. I'm not early enough for there to be problems. He or she just might not weigh as much as they would if they had waited a couple more weeks."

********************

Almost seven hours later, Joshua Wallace was born weighing a little over six pounds. He was healthy and his parents instantly fell in love with him. Justin declared that they weren't having any more kids because he couldn't bear watching his wife go through that again and again, but Zoe knew they'd have more. She watched her husband conversing with their newborn son and couldn't imagine stopping there. She loved watching the bonding happening before her eyes. If anyone had told her that she'd end up married to a famous rock star and would have a growing family with him, she probably would have told them they were crazy. Look at them now though. She'd successfully restrained a renegade.