Hard Choices
      Chapter 9
 

Michelle was turned sideways in her seat, facing Drew, who was just a few feet away and advancing, a gun clasped in both hands and pointing directly at Michelle’s head. There were only a few other customers in Company; Buzz, short-staffed that night, was working the grill in the kitchen. Both Danny and Jesse had jumped up and were moving towards Drew, who swept the gun in a wide arc and started yelling.

“Sit down! It figures, both of them trying to come to your rescue, just like always. Well, Mrs. Blue,” she sneered the words, “you and I have a score to settle, and nobody’s gonna be able to save you from this one.”

Michelle instinctively and protectively wrapped her arms around her abdomen. Her eyes were wide with fear. “Drew, please, you don’t know what’s going on …”

“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea, Michelle. Your pet thug here got bored with you, got tired of waiting for you to get out of jail, whatever, and he kicked you to the curb, so you decided you’d just take Jesse as a consolation prize, because you can’t be alone, no, not Michelle, you have to have someone to hold your hand at all times, because the world’s just been so unfair to you, right? Everything’s about you, even my father’s murder. No one ever cared about him, what happened to him, it was all about YOU, clearing your precious name! And now you’ve taken the only thing I had left in the world that mattered to me.”

Jesse took a tentative step towards Drew. “Drew, calm down, give me the gun, let me explain …”

Drew started crying at the sound of Jesse’s voice. “No, no, no … I don’t want to hear it. I don’t wanna hear it, ‘cause I know now, I know you never really loved me, it was always her, always Michelle …”

“That’s not true Drew, it’s not – ”

“Yes, it is!” Drew was shouting now. “It is true. And I’m sick of it. Michelle gets everything she wants, she loses one man, there’s another just waiting there to MARRY her, doesn’t matter to her that it’s my man, ‘cause it’s all about her. Well, it ends here. It all ends here.” She leveled the gun at Michelle again.

Michelle closed her eyes. She’d lived this moment before, on the dock with Danny, but it wouldn’t end the same way this time, she was going to die this time, and her baby, oh her baby, oh … she heard the shot and then was forced out of her chair and she was on the floor and something, someone, was on top of her, so heavy, dead weight … she opened her eyes.

“Danny! Oh my God, Danny, Danny! Drew, what have you done?” Michelle sat up, Danny’s motionless body spread across her own. She realized what had happened; he had jumped up to push her out of the way and taken the bullet himself.

Drew had dropped the gun to the ground, her mouth hanging open in shock, and Jesse ran to her and took her in his arms as she sobbed. “Oh, Jesse … Jesse, why? Why? I loved you, I love you, I do, I’m sorry, what did I do? Oh, God …”

Then Theresa was there, wailing as she tried to yank Danny off of Michelle. Michelle felt like she was watching everything that was happening on a movie screen, it was all in slow motion for her, and all she could think was Danny. Danny. Danny. Danny. She pulled her hand from her lap, from under Danny’s chest, and saw that it was covered with blood. Danny’s blood. The sight of the red blood, Danny’s life, smeared across her own hand, brought her back to herself and she practically shoved Theresa across the room. “Stop trying to move him! Call 911! NOW!” Surprisingly, Theresa backed off and dashed to the pay phone.

Michelle stayed on the floor with Danny’s body spread across her, cradling his head in her arms; she leaned down to listen for breathing, felt his neck for a pulse. It was there, barely. He was alive.

Jesse was trying to calm the increasingly hysterical Drew in a corner of the room, Michelle could hear him reassuring her that he loved her, that he wasn’t married to Michelle, that it would all be okay, and Michelle wondered distantly if Theresa was hearing it. It didn’t matter. If Danny didn’t make it, nothing mattered.

She leaned over him again, bent her head to kiss his temple, and then whispered in his ear. “You have to be okay, Danny. I love you. I need you. Our baby needs you. Do you hear me, Daniel Santos? Don’t you dare let go.”