Fool Me Twice

The door in the side of the room opened and the same fat cop who was on the scene when I rescued Lena stepped out still pulling his pants up.

"She was beating the fuck out of him with a pipe," he said. The door opened behind me and Maggie Stephenson walked into the room to get ready for her speech. Her eyes widened as she looked around the room and saw Sebastian, bleeding on the floor with Lena still standing over him looking guilty.

"Danny," said Lena.

"Sebastian, what is going on here?" asked Maggie.

"Ohh," groaned Sebastian. "I need an ambulance. This crazy bitch followed me into the room and just started swinging that pipe at me. Both of my arms are broken and I have a bump on my head."

Lena kicked him in his ribs savagely then.

"Miss, can you explain yourself?" asked the cop. "Because I um...ducked in here to use the facilities instead of the one outside. I have um...irritable bowel syndrome and it's kind of painful for me to go sometimes. I saw her come in after that guy and like he said, she just started beating the shit out of him. I wanted to try and stop her but I couldn't go out there with my pants around my ankles, and I needed to wipe. Then this guy came in and started talking about getting him to sign some kind of papers. Do you guys all know each other?"

"These two know each other," I said.

"Wait a minute," said the cop. "I know you two." He pointed at Lena and me.

"Yep," I said. "This guy is the one she walked out on me for."

"He conned me and stole all of my money and left town, leaving me holding the bag for a bunch of things he bought. According to the police he's done it to a lot of women, the richer the better," said Lena. Maggie's eyes hardened then and she shook her head.

"Call your station and have them run him through the computer," said Lena. "There should still be warrants out for him in my case alone."

"Is that true Sebastian?" asked Maggie. He looked away from her.

"I was intrigued with your speech Mr. Boone," said Maggie as she removed a ring from her finger and dropped it onto the floor.

"Please, it's Daniel. My friends call me Danny," I said.

"Perhaps we can do business, in the future," she said turning to leave.

"Wait, Maggie," yelled Sebastian.

"Looks like you lost your fiancé and got your ass kicked by a girl all in the same day slick," said the cop. "And if what this lady says is true you're going to jail for a long time."

"Danny, what were you doing here?" asked Lena. "And you called me a whore too. What papers did you want him to sign? Were you following me? I guess I should have expected it. You're never going to trust me again, but that's my fault. What did you want him to sign? She snatched the papers away from me."

"Look dude," said Sebastian. "If you get this crazy bitch to drop the charges against me, I'll sign the papers plus I'll drop the assault charges against her. It'll be a wash."

Lena suddenly started laughing hysterically. "Danny, he isn't signing shit. He doesn't need to. He can't anyway you idiot."

The emergency medics arrived then and took Sebastian to the hospital. Lena was arrested and taken to the police station to be processed. The last thing she said to me was, "I'll see you at the station, don't spend any of our money and don't let him trick you into signing anything. There's a file folder in my top dresser drawer at the house. Can you get it for me?"

I was confused. I have to admit that I was relieved that Lena hadn't been cheating on me this time, but I was still angry. It sounded like she didn't want me to have any rights as far as Ella was concerned. I drove home as quickly as I could and got the folder. I didn't look at the documents because there wasn't time. I did call my lawyer and told him to find out about getting Lena out on bail.

Two hours later they were processing her for release. My lawyer had spoken to the public defender that Sebastian had been assigned and they worked out a deal. Lena was facing assault with a deadly weapon and intent to do great bodily harm charges. She was sure that she could beat them.

The charges against Sebastian were all theft and fraud related crimes, he had more charges pending but they were less serious and the statute of limitations had probably run out on some of them. The lawyers got together and decided to drop everything. I was pissed.

"That bastard got what he deserved," spat Lena. "And you stay away from that Maggie bitch. I didn't like the way she was looking at you."

"Why should I care what you think?" I spat. "You didn't let your lover sign the papers."

She just started laughing again. "Lena, this shit isn't funny," I said. "What would happen to Ella if you died or got really sick?"

"She'd have to stay with her father," said Lena shrugging her shoulders. "That's life." I wondered how she could be so cavalier about it.

"Danny, pull the car over," she said. We were near a park, so I pulled into the parking lot. We got out of the car and walked over and sat down on a park bench.

"Danny, we need to talk," she said.

"I've already heard this one," I said. "I'm not going to like it, right?"

"Danny, I've been talking to my doctor a lot lately. She referred me to a specialist. Have you noticed that I've been a little off lately?" I nodded.

"It's because you were excited to see Sebastian again," I said. "But I guess your relationship turned sour somehow. Maybe you don't love him as much as you think."

"Maybe I don't love that bastard at all," she spat.

"Well that would be different form last time," I said.

"Actually, it's exactly the same as last time," she spat. "I have a condition, Danny. Most women go through it, but the reaction is extreme in my case. When I get pregnant, I go bat shit crazy. I'm simply not responsible for the things I do. That's what happened last time. The imbalance of hormones makes me do retarded shit. I do things that I'd never normally do."

"So when you got pregnant with Ella, it caused you to attack Sebastian and that's why he threw you out last time?" I asked.

"No dumb ass," she snapped. "Sebastian didn't get me pregnant. I was already pregnant when I left you and I hadn't slept with him yet. I didn't know that I was pregnant at the time. I also didn't know about my screwed up condition making me crazy. The dumb assed thing I did last time was falling for his shit and leaving you. It made no sense. I love you. Why would I leave you for anyone else? I guess I was afraid of being pregnant and in my crazy mind Sebastian offered a way out. But like I keep telling you, the second I walked out that door I knew I'd screwed up."

"So... me...?"I asked. "I have a daughter?"

"No dumb ass," she said. "You have two kids. I think this one is a boy."

"But Ella is mine?" I asked still in shock. She nodded.

I screwed up my face angrily. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I pretty much did tell you, Danny," she said. "But honestly ever since you let us move in with you, I've heard the same thing every fucking day." Her voice got deeper and husky as she tried to imitate my voice and speech patterns. "I don't trust that fuckin' Lena. She's a whore. She left me."

"So if that was how you felt about me; why would you believe anything I said?" She asked. "The folder with all of my files in it was right on my dresser. Did you ever look in it?"

"Why would I?" I answered.

She held up one of the documents. "Danny, you've loved this little girl ever since you helped to bring her into the world. She calls you daddy every day and you love it. But you've never even asked what her full name is, you went from calling her 'Lena's baby' to 'the baby' to Ella. Here's her birth certificate."

I was shocked. Not only was I listed as the father. But Ella's name wasn't Ella. Her full name was 'Daniela K. Boone." Lena had named her after me.

The smile that broke out on my face was huge until I realized that Lena wasn't smiling. "So you really thought that I wanted to go back to that asshole?" she asked. I nodded.

"That's why you didn't want to sleep with me last night isn't it?" I nodded again. "You still don't trust me again yet do you?" I shook my head. "Well, you have some decisions to make mister," she said looking up at me.

"Danny, I'm with you and I take all of your shit because I love you..." she stopped and looked at me. "I do love you and from now on I'm telling you any time I fucking feel like it. And you know what? Whether you trust me or not, you love me too. Danny, you could have left me at the hospital before Ella was even born. Or you could have sent me back to the shelter at any time, but you didn't. So you may as well admit it. You love me too. I think that you may still not like what I did, but you can actually understand it now that you've seen how stupid I can be when I'm pregnant."

People in the park were watching this tiny woman sticking her finger in my face and give me what for.

"And you need to start being more responsible. How much money do we have in savings? You were going to try and buy your own daughter from that asshole when she isn't even his. We need that money. Do you intend to give up your home office for the new baby? Because if you don't it means I'm going have to move in with you. That would mean that the two of us would have to share a room. No sending me back to my room when you're pissed at me and maybe we could take some of that money to go on vacation and..." I finally shut her up by kissing her.

"Maybe we could even get married again?" I said. Her smile lit up the park but then she frowned.

"Danny, that will be up to you" she said softly. "I know what I want, but you have to feel that you can trust me and that I'm the one you want to be with forever. But next time you get me pregnant and I go crazy, just chain me down or beat my ass until it passes, because that would be far less painful than losing you again. Let's go home before your daughter drives your sister in law crazy."

"That was two weeks ago and I've been trying to make up my mind ever since," I said. "And I have to admit it; Lena really did fool me twice.That second time I was sure she was going to leave me again. But I'm glad I was wrong. My life is much better with than without her." The old man in front of me looks at me like he can't help me decide.

"So should I buy the ring or not?" I asked.

"Do you love her?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Have you forgiven her?" he asked.

"Yes," I said a bit hesitantly.

"Do you trust her again?" he asked.

"I'm not sure I can ever trust anyone as much as I trusted her," I said. "She could get pregnant again and go nuts."

"Two out of three ain't bad," he said. "I'll wrap this up for you. Will that be cash or credit card?"

The End.

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Author's notes

Now that you've read the story or have skipped to the end to read this part, I have to share something with you. This story is, of course, fiction but it's based on truth and a part of it is true.

The scene with the nurse in the hospital who related the fact that she almost Killed her husband with a skillet while pregnant, is 100% true. It's taken from a talk I had at a hospital recently. She really did have a condition where her glands secreted too much of one hormone of another every time she got pregnant.

The really scary thing is that she has six kids and every time she got pregnant she did something really crazy. And though this story is not a recapping of her experiences during one of her pregnancies she actually did have a brief affair, though she loved her husband unconditionally.

Unlike in my story her husband knew about her problem and forgave her. He's a better man than I am because I wouldn't have.

So for all of you who are shaking their heads and thinking that Stangstar went out there on this one. It really could have and kind of did happen. As usual thanks for reading my story and in the interest of equal time, next week's story will be something for the revenge crowd. SS06