TNT ... Chicago 3:
1 "We ALWAYS spend New Year's Eve together. 2 It's OUR thing -- it's WHAT we do and it's WHO we are."
3 There are times when choosing one's battles is the most important choosing that one can do. 4 Sharlene had chosen, and she had decided that New Year's Eve was to be the date of the skirmish, Angel was to be her opponent and those words were to be her battle cry.
5 Sure, she could understand exactly why her boyfriend wanted to work his shared ride service magic on one of the busiest nights of the year for the safe transport of exceedingly inebriated citizens. 6 It was certain to be good money, and good money is what they needed to move out of their dicey neighborhood and over to the lakeside where the fancy hospitals were based.
7 She knew she wouldn't be in school forever, and the long shifts ahead would be even longer and less tolerable if they had to start and end with hours spent on public transportation. 8 She loved him more for putting her first, and she accepted that there would be sacrifices that would be made in order to reach their goals.
9 But tradition was also important to her. 10 Tradition was the incentive on the horizon that got her through any obstacle. 11 Tradition was how she stayed focused and stayed sane. 12 And the tradition was that they had never been apart when the annual odometer turned over in the four years that they had been together.
13 So it was that she found herself riding shotgun as he delivered drunken reveler after drunken reveler to their destinations in the big city that night. 14 Unbeknownst to Angel, she had slipped a bottle of bubbly and two flutes under the front seat.
15 She was thinking of that very surprise when the fare he took closest to the strike of midnight first got in the car.
16 It was the farthest thing from her mind, though, when that girl started to give birth in the back of their Chevy Cruze. 17 Instead, her training kicked in and she got Angel to pull over by the side of the road, the drunken kid brother that they had claimed from the party to get out of the way and to go puke at the curb, and the girl that was but a little girl herself to successfully give birth to her own little girl.
18 That bubbly was going to have to go toward a different celebration. 19 At least she had spent the holiday together with the one she loved AND a new mother, her drunk brother and a brand spanking new baby girl that she herself had gotten to spank. 20 She had won her battle, in a way she could have never predicted.
21 Now was NOT the time to relive the victory. 22 Now was the time to seek official medical attention.
23 "Hurry -- to the hospital!" she commanded of Angel, after herding everyone back into the automobile. 24 She had a new battle cry.
25 "For baby Gabriella!"
