by: MacSas
“Don’t talk. I’m going to call for help”
Shawna opened her eyes as Luke left to make the call on the CB.
Before she knew it she was in his arms and he was talking softly to her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Sssh”
Shawna licked her lips. She felt so weak, so tired. She couldn’t close her eyes though. Not until she made sure Luke understood.
“I should have told you about Kieran. You were right. You should have been her daddy…” She coughed.
“Shawna, don’t talk, save your energy” Luke looked around for signs of help coming. Where were they?
“She was so beautiful,” Shawna continued. “Black hair and bright blues eyes, so like you. Just like her beautiful daddy…” Shawna drifted off for a moment.
“Shawna!” Luke called her name loud enough to rouse her again. “Stay awake, honey. Helps coming”
Shawna struggled to remove something from the pocket of her jeans.
“I was going to give this to you after I told you about her” She slipped the small photograph into his hand. He looked at the small child with the cherub face and wide smile. So like himself, just like Shawna had said. Her hair was a riot of black curls, her eyes the same piercing blue he saw in the mirror every morning. The studio shot showed her sitting on a haystack wearing overalls and a blue checked shirt. Fitting, he thought with a smile, as he slipped the photo into the chest pocket of his own blue checked shirt.
The pain at not having known his daughter hurt more than he could put into words. But at least he knew she had had a good life, short as it may have been. He wouldn’t have picked anyone else to be the mother of his child, and, he now realised that’s possibly why he never married. No one had come close to Shawna.
“She’s with you now” Shawna said, referring to the photo now tucked near Luke’s heart.
“You should go and see her, talk to her”
“Where is she?” he asked, wondering if he could really handle visiting his daughter’s grave. He still hadn’t come to terms with her existence, let alone her death.
“A place called Forest Lawns” Shawna whispered. “It’s so beautiful and peaceful. I wanted her to have a nice place, somewhere she could enjoy the view.”
Luke was silent for a moment.
“I’ll go see her Shawna”
She smiled up at him. “Promise?”
“Have I ever broken a promise to you?”
Shawna laughed awkwardly. “ Considering you never promised to marry me, no”
Luke smiled at the old joke. It seemed to take on new meaning now though.
He looked down at the woman in his arms, his heart full of things he knew he would never have time to say to her. Things he should have said a lifetime ago, but that had taken a lifetime for him to realise. If only he could have that time back again.
“I should have married you Shawna. I should have made you stay. I should have been the man you needed”
“You were” she cut him off, reaching up to touch his face with a trembling hand. “You were then and you are now. Don’t look back Luke. Look forward”
In the distance, Luke could hear the sounds of the sirens.
“William” Shawna said.
Luke looked back down at her.
“He won’t be worrying you again,” he said simply.
“He’s dead?”
Luke didn’t answer.
“You shot him” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement that didn’t need Luke to agree or disagree. She already knew it to be true.
“Poor Billy”
“What?” Luke asked in amazement.
“He spent his entire life trying to get his mothers attention, trying to be like Kane. Now he is just like Kane”
Luke bit back the instant retort. Now wasn’t the time to tell what he thought about the brothers Hardy.
Shawna suddenly reared up in pain. A groan came from her as she clenched her fists. Her brow furrowed in agony. Luke held his breath and waited for her to relax again. As the pain passed, she cuddled back into his arms and sighed.
She looked up at Luke. The edge of her vision was fading, making Luke look like he was in the middle of a blackened frame.
“I think I’m going, Luke”
Luke laughed softly. “No your not. It’s just a little scratch”
She thought about that. It didn’t really hurt that much. Maybe he was right, after, she’d never been shot before. He would know more than she on the subject.
Still, that didn’t explain why his voice was now sounding far away.
She looked up at him, desperate to commit his features to memory, sure that tomorrow he would feel different about her.
“I loved you then, I love you now, I’ll always love you. Only you”
“And I love you too” he smiled.
Were those tears in his eyes? Her mind was becoming fuzzy. She thought she could smell blood. But that couldn’t be so. It was just a scratch.
Just as her eyes were closing again, she remembered there was something important she wanted to ask him.
“What does the K stand for?”
Luke frowned. “What?”
Shawna coughed. Unaware that blood now trickled from the side of her mouth, she said, “Lukas. K. Duke. What’s the K stand for? You never would tell me”
Luke laughed.
“It’s a big family secret” he joked.
“Really?”
“Yeah, it was a name I hated, but now I’m not so sure”
Shawna frowned. “Now you’re not making sense”
He leaned in real close and whispered in her ear. “Kieran”
She looked at him in shock.
Nodding slowly, he confirmed, “It’s my middle name”
“I never knew” she said, awestruck that she had chosen his middle name for their baby. “Gosh”
“I couldn’t have picked a better name myself,” Luke told her, kissing her forehead. “I’ll now consider my middle name to be an honour, not a blight”
“Thank you” Shawna whispered huskily.
She was still smiling when she closed her eyes for the last time.
Luke took a deep breath before letting out a yell that would have made Shawna’s heart break, if she could’ve heard it.
He held her close, tight, rocking her slowly while shaking his head in denial.
Finally, he lay her down on the ground. He stroked her face, tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear, just the way she liked to wear it. She never could keep that piece in place, he thought with a watery smile. He then ran his hand over her body, trying to convince himself that she hadn’t really left him.
The massive spread of blood across her chest reminded his heart that his head wasn’t going to be fooled. She had left him. For good this time.
He slowly kissed her forehead, then her lips. Then he stretched out beside her on the ground and held her as he finally gave way to his tears.
And that was how the paramedics found them, just a little while later.
* * * *
Forest Lawns Cemetery – Houston
He stood at the grave of his beloved daughter.
“Hello Kieran” he whispered. “Daddy’s here”
He placed a small perfect rose on the child’s grave.
Crouched next to the grave, he ran his hand over the smooth marble headstone that held a photo of his child at her happiest.
She would have been a beautiful woman now.
Would she be dating? What career would she have chosen?
Questions left unanswered. Dreams left untouched.
As he ran his hand along the marble he closed his eyes.
Before him he imagined his daughter, running to greet him with a wide smile on her face. Her arms outstretched to hug him. In the distance stood Shawna, smiling as she watched Kieran.
He refused to shed tears. He’d shed many over both his daughter and her mother.
He hoped Shawna had peace now.
“I have some bad news for you, honey”
He opened his eyes and looked at his daughter’s photo.
“Mama won’t be coming to see you anymore”
Thanks to the stupidity of William.
“But I will always be here for you, Kieran”
He kissed the top of the cold headstone, before rising to his feet.
“Daddy loves you, darling”
And then, Kane turned and walked away.
THE END