I Always Wanted To Be A Cop Ch. 02

We were married in late June. Stan was my Best Man and my sister, Beth, was the Matron of Honor. Pete and one of my friends, from the police department, as well as Stan's wife, Cathy, and one of Rebecca's colleagues from school rounded out the wedding party. Rebecca had insisted that John and Mary sit in the place of honor on the bride's side of the church. I thought it might be awkward for them but they both assured me that they were honored by Rebecca's request.

After a short honeymoon we returned home and I went back to work. Two months later Rebecca returned to her teaching job at an elementary school much closer to our home.

Chapter Twelve

Closure to Darlene and Suzy's Murder

Early one Saturday morning in October the bedside phone rang. Rebecca answered it and rolling over to me she gave me the handset. "It's Stan. He wants to talk to you."

Glancing at the clock on my night table I saw it was only 6:30 am. "Hey Stan. What's so important that you had to call at such an ungodly hour?" I asked.

"Thought you might want to know Leroy Washington is dead. He was stabbed to death by another inmate on death row last night. Evidently he said something that pissed off the wrong guy and got a shank shoved into his chest."

This news didn't bring any satisfaction to me but it did bring some sense of final closure.

"Thanks, Stan. I appreciate the heads up."

When I told Rebecca the news she hugged me and all she said was, "I hope he rots in Hell."

One Year Later

It was a little past 3 am when I finally got home from my 3 to 11 shift.

A tanker truck had overturned coming out of Port Everglades at the intersection of State Road 84 and South Federal Highway spilling several hundred gallons of diesel fuel just after nine in the evening. As the junior road patrol sergeant (I had been promoted a few months ago) it fell to me to stay on scene until the Haz Mat Team and Fire Department cleaned it up so we could re-open the intersection.

Being as quiet as I could I locked my weapons in the gun safe in the closet and after undressing I slid into bed.

"What time is it?" A sleepy voice asked me. "I tried to stay awake after you called, but I just couldn't."

"Shhhh . . . . That's ok. It's after three. Go back to sleep, sweetheart. You need your rest." I answered.

Snuggling up to me, with her arm over my chest, she whispered in my ear. "The babies knows when you're not here. They have been restless all night. They have just now settled down when you got into bed."

"It won't be too much longer, honey." I whispered back. "It's just a matter of a few weeks now.

She was soon sound fast asleep and, before I drifted off, I thought back to the day she told me I was going to become a daddy.

It was a Sunday. We had come home from church and after a light lunch we sat together on the patio enjoying the afternoon.

"I'm going to go inside and get a beer. Can I get you a glass of wine, honey? I asked.

"No thank you. But a glass of ice tea would be great." She replied.

"Sure thing. I'll be right back," I said getting up from my seat.

When I returned I placed the glasses on a small table between us and sat back down.

"Rick, I've something to tell you." Smiling sweetly, she got up from her chair and sat in my lap. "I won't be drinking any alcohol for a while. You're going to be a daddy."

"My home pregnancy test strip showed positive this morning. I'm making an appointment tomorrow with the doctor to confirm it."

The following week it was confirmed. We were having a baby. I was over the wall happy. We decided not to tell anyone, just in case, until she started showing.

Three months later, when I got home from work, Rebecca handed me a double scotch on the rocks and told me I needed to sit down.

"I went in for my check-up this morning and the doctor ran some tests. Brace yourself, Rick, we're not having A baby. We are having TWO babies, twins. The doctor was unable to determine the sex yet. We'll have to wait at least another month for that or we could wait and be surprised."

I elected to find out as soon as possible. I wanted to start working on turning one of the bedrooms into a nursery and I needed to know; blue or pink paint for the walls. Then we could start buying appropriate furniture and clothing for the twins.

Six weeks later I found out I would be converting another of the bedrooms. One would be pink and the other blue. It was really fun doing the work. Rebecca helped me a lot until she was too far along in her pregnancy and I refused to allow her to do any more work.

Just as I drifted off to sleep, cuddled up to Rebecca, I thought to myself now comes the hard part . . . the waiting.

Epilogue

Ten days later Rebecca and I were the proud parents of twins, one boy and one girl. We named our son Frederick Carl Geiger, after my father, and our daughter, Christine Mary Geiger. Stan and Cathy McCormick were named Godparents for our son and Beth and Pete were the Godparents for our little girl. My mom and dad were thrilled to now have four grandchildren. Mary Sullivan fell in love with both of our babies and she and John soon became 'adopted' grandparents.

I think often of Darlene and Suzy but somehow I believe that they both have become the twin's guardian angels and gives me comfort.