Aquilla knew there were screams and people running, but it all happened so quickly that she couldn’t really comprehend what was going on. Seri hit the ground at precisely the same moment as the guy holding the gun and his leg in agony. He screamed in pain with a look that Quill will never forget. He was hurt, yet pissed. He aimed the gun right at her head, but again she was quicker and kicked it out of his hand, sending it sliding into the street of stopped traffic.
“Reese, call dad,” she demanded, going to Seri’s side.
“Fuck, Quill,” Seri yelled, holding her back. Quill moved her a little, to see where it had gone in. There was so much blood, and although it was to the right side, she was terrified that the bullet had hit an artery.
“You’re going to be okay, Seri,” Quill promised as she removed her t-shirt and applied pressure to her back. She didn’t even care that she was knelt beside her wearing nothing but her bra. It seemed like forever before they heard sirens, and they still seemed to be so far away.
“Quill,” Seri whimpered, letting her head drop.
Quill screamed at her. “Open your eyes, Seri!!! Open your fucking eyes!!!” She hadn’t even realized she had tears that were streaming down her face. Seri couldn’t die. She just couldn’t. She would have nobody without Seri.
“Quill, you’re going to be okay. I promise,” Seri gurgled.
“Don’t you die on me!!! Don’t you fucking die on me!!” she screamed as the paramedics pulled her away.
Someone grabbed her from behind when her shoe went across the bastard’s face that had shot Seri. He was still holding his leg, writhing in pain when his face was sent to the sidewalk by the heel of her foot. Quill dropped to her knees and wailed as someone wrapped a thin blanket around her naked body. She could only watch as the two guys and one woman worked to control the bleeding, get Seri on a stretcher and load her into the ambulance.
The girls were escorted to the hospital by a police officer. They had wanted to take them home, but Quill refused. She was going where Seri was, even if it meant death. She wouldn’t stay without her. She couldn’t.
Quill was covered in Seri’s blood. The hospital staff refused to let her enter through the waiting area, afraid of the chaos her bloody clothes would cause, and escorted her to a bathroom to clean up. She was given a blue scrub top to cover her bra.
Reese went with her, but was still in shock. What just happened? She watched in a daze as the blood ran from Quill’s arms into the basin and down the drain. Quill looked at her through the mirror.
“Can you grab me some paper towels?” Quill asked, trying to sound level and relieve the worry written all over Reese’s face. She bent and splashed the cool water on her face, staring at Seri’s blood being rinsed from her skin. Reese pulled towels from the receptacle and touched her on the arm with them, breaking the worry running through her own mind.
“Is she going to be okay, Quill?” Reese asked, worried. She liked Seri. She was glad that she was seeing her dad. He hadn’t dated in a long time, and the one time that he did get serious with a girl, Reese had hated her, and did everything she could to end it.
“I don’t know, Reese,” she spoke honestly. There was so much blood. She couldn’t keep her mind from going back in time, seeing her father’s blood, lying on that cold tiled floor. Seri couldn’t die. She just couldn’t.
Emmanuel was storming through the double doors, dressed in full business attire when the girls emerged.
“What the hell happened?” he asked Quill.
“Excuse me, sir. Are these your daughters?” the officer asked before Quill could explain.
“Yes,” he answered, turning to the uniformed cop.
“We need to get a statement from them. Can you please follow me?”
“I need to go to Sarah. Where is she?” he wanted to know. He didn’t give a flying fuck about his needed paperwork.
“We need to speak to the next of kin,” a nurse interrupted. “Are you her husband?” she asked Manny.
“No, but she lives with me,” he replied.
What the fuck? Seri never told Quill she was living with him. She didn’t even know him. The thought crossed her mind that she was going to kill her, but was quickly washed away with guilt. She may already be dead.
“Do you know of any family that we can call?” she asked.
Manny turned to Quill. They hadn’t talked about her family. Why hadn’t they talked about her family?
“I’m her sister,” Quill lied.
The cop turned his attention to Quill. She wasn’t his sister. They all knew who Sarah Strokes was. Her sister was murdered.
“How is she?” Quill asked, ignoring the officer’s scrutiny.
“Come with me,” the nurse nodded.
All but the officer followed her to a small room with four chairs. He waited in the hall. “Please sit down,” she offered. They all sat, except for Manny. He couldn’t sit. He had to know what was going on. His nerves wouldn’t allow him to sit.
“Sara was shot with a hollow point bullet,” she began to explain. “These bullets are designed to expand upon hitting the body and may fragment. They are designed to stay in the body and not exit. They are the most lethal.”
This wasn’t sounding good. Aquilla wrung her hands as she listened.
“The entirety of the bullet's kinetic energy is transferred to the body which causes___.”
“We don’t give a shit about the anatomy of a gunshot wound. How is she?” Aquilla demanded to know, wanting her to cut the analysis and tell them if she was dead or alive.
“She’s in surgery. It may appear that she lost a lot of blood, but she really didn’t, not on the outside anyway. The bullet is lodged in her left kidney.”
“She doesn’t need two kidneys,” Quill assured her.
“He hadn’t started on the kidney yet when I left the operating room. She has internal bleeding that they are trying to get under control first.” The nurse stood to leave. “I will keep you updated as the surgery progresses,” she smiled.
The officer took her place and had both girls write out statements in their own words.
“Was this guy someone she has been after?” Quill asked.
“I’m sure you know that I can’t discuss that with you,” he smiled a warm smile. He wasn’t going to tell her anything. She felt the vengeance that Seri described to her when her sister was murdered. She understood full well what the tattoo reading the word meant now. She felt it. It was so strong. If Seri died, she would go after this guy and everyone involved. She would. She promised herself.
Liz showed up a couple hours later. She felt the need to be there. She couldn’t believe that her girls just witnessed a shooting, especially at such a close range and with someone they cared about.
Reese ran to her, threw her arms around her and sobbed. The fear, anxiety and the distress of what she had just gone through came flooding out as soon as she saw her mother. Connor was by her side, not about to let her come alone.
“Are you doing okay?” Liz asked Quill once Reese calmed.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. She wasn’t fine. The one and only person she felt she needed in her life, was on an operating table and she didn’t know what was going on. Nobody had said a word since the nurse had updated them two hours before. She said she would keep them posted. She lied.
That was the longest four hours of Quill’s life. She couldn’t do anything but pace back and forth while she constantly went to the desk to ask for an update, getting the same answer every time. “We’ll let you know as soon as we know,” the same nurse repeated herself over and over.
Chapter 19
Seri didn’t look alive at all. She looked as dead as dead could be. Quill glanced at the machines beeping around the room. She hated that sound. It was the worst sound she had ever heard in her life. Her lips were dry and cracked and there was a tube taped to the side of her mouth, running down her throat. Her eyes were closed and looked like they were covered in some sort of thi
ck Vaseline or something.
Manny looked over to her standing on the other side of the bed. She looked scared, and for the first time since she’d come home, Manny’s heart ached for her. She truly was his daughter. Why did it take this moment for him to realize how much he loved her?
“She’s going to be okay, Quill. I promise,” he tried to reassure her.
“Is she?” Quill asked, snapping her head around to the nurse.
“She’s going to be fine. She’s got a long road ahead of her, but from what I hear, she’s a tough one.”
“She is,” Quill admitted the truth.
Quill refused to leave. She was going to be right there when she woke. She didn’t care that the nurse tried to tell her that they weren’t going to let her wake up for at least 24 hours. She was staying right there. She wasn’t leaving without a fight. Manny wasn’t leaving either. He too was determined to be right there when she woke.
Reese left with her mother. She loved Seri, but hated hospitals. She always had, ever since she watched her Grandma Phyllis wither away from stomach cancer, right there in that very hospital. She wouldn’t even walk back to see Seri. She was leaving and would be kept updated via text message.
“Are you hungry?” Manny asked as the two of them were left alone in the deafening, beeping room.
“No,” Aquilla replied. She couldn’t eat.
“How about a bowl of fruit or something?”
“How about just coffee,” she countered.
“Coffee will stunt your growth,” he smiled. “Black?” he asked, standing.
“Yes, please.”
Quill took the opportunity to go to Seri’s side.
“Seri?” she softly spoke. “Can you hear me?” She had no clue weather she could hear her or not. “I’m sorry, Seri,” she apologized, taking her small frail hand with the needle stuck in the top of it. “I’m sorry I let you get shot. I shouldn’t have been walking in front of you. I should have been aware of our surroundings. I’ve always done that. I’ve been trained to do that since I was three. I’m sorry I let my guard down, Seri. Please be okay. I can’t be here without you. Seri? Can you hear me?” she asked again.
“If you come out of this, I promise I will do better and stop being so difficult to everyone, including you,” Quill promised. “I’ll even suck up this whole school thing and do that too. Please, Seri wake up.” Quill’s eyes widened when she felt Seri’s hand tighten around hers. Could she hear her? Shit. She just promised to go to school. Maybe she wasn’t coherent and it was only a reaction to the meds or something.
Aquilla sat quietly, slumped in her chair, listening to the sounds that she would never forget. The white walls felt like they were closing in on her as she thought about the room. How many people had been in that room? How many people had died there? She was sure it was a lot. The convoluted room smelled of antiseptic, clean like ozone or something, something else she would never forget. It was one of those smells that would stick with you through all of life. You would forget all about it until you smelled it again, and would be right quick to remember why.
Quill dozed off to the sounds of the phlegmatic room around three in the morning. She wasn’t sure if she had really fallen asleep or not. She stayed collapsed, feigning sleep as she listened to her father talk to Seri from the side of her bed.
He begged her to be okay as much as Quill had. He told her that he loved her. She should have said that. Why didn’t she tell Seri that she loved her? He reminded her of their plans to go to Aspen Colorado in the spring, plans to move from the apartment building, and plans to go sky diving. She wanted to go sky diving with Seri. Why didn’t she make plans to do that with her?
Quill could tell that her dad did love Seri. He loved her like she loved Julius. She knew, had she opened her eyes, he would be holding her hand. She didn’t. She lay still with her eyes closed and listened to the intimate conversation.
Quill didn’t see how anyone could sleep in that place. Someone was constantly coming in the room. It’s a good thing Seri was out cold. She would have probably kicked someone in the teeth. The doctor was even there at five in the morning. Didn’t anyone sleep around that place?
Aquilla and Manny stood at precisely the same moment when he entered, both eager to get a real apprise. He checked her vitals and flipped through the charts that the nurses had been updating throughout the night.
“She seems to be holding her own,” he explained, scribbling notes on the clipboard. “There was a lot of damage due to the way the bullet expanded. She was in good hands. I think we have her all patched up and just need to let her heal now.”
“She’s going to be okay?” Quill asked in desperation.
“She’ll be fine,” he smiled. “We’re going to remove the tube from her throat in a couple of hours. She’ll wake up then.”
“Why does she have that? Can’t she breathe?” Quill inquisitively asked.
“She can, however, during surgery, muscles are totally relaxed, and this includes respiratory muscles as well, so oxygen has to be supplied to the body until the effects of the relaxants wear off. We haven’t let them wear off yet. She’s been pretty sedated since she came in. She can breathe just fine, I promise,” he added.
“Do you want some breakfast?” Manny asked, placing his arm around her shoulders. She let him for the first time since she had come there. She didn’t feel the need to step away from the affection.
“I am hungry,” she decided.
“Let’s walk down to the cafeteria and eat some of this lovely hospital food,” he offered with a smile and a tease.
Quill noticed the kiss to Seri’s head before he left her.
<><><>
Seri gagged. Her head felt like it was going to explode and there was something being ripped from her throat. She was going to be sick. What was happening? Why did everything seem so distant and far away?
“Sarah? Sarah? Sarah?” she heard her name being called. Why were they calling her? What did they want? Her eyes were so heavy; she couldn’t seem to get them to open long enough to find out.
“Seri?” she heard again. This voice was familiar. She knew this voice. Say it again…
“Seri? Can you hear me?” Quill called.
Seri opened her eyes. It was a familiar voice. “Quill,” she said, hoarsely, trying to smile. That didn’t work either. Why were her muscles betraying her? Damn, her throat hurt.
“You scared the fuck out of me,” Quill accused.
“Watch your mouth,” Seri smiled as much as she could. “I didn’t die,” Seri exclaimed, like it had just dawned on her.
“I would have killed you if you died,” Quill assured her.
“Hunter? Did he get away?” Seri alarmingly asked when she remembered the guy that had shot her.
“No, he didn’t get away. Quill here made sure of that,” Manny said from the other side of the bed.
She turned to him with eyes that Quill was sure were full of love.
“Hi, baby,” he said, kissing her lips.
She smiled. She was so in love with this man. How? Why?
“What did you do, Quill?” Seri asked, turning back to her.
Quill modestly shrugged her shoulders. “From what I hear, I broke his leg in a couple different places, and somehow my shoe sent him to surgery for a broken face. I swear I don’t know how it got there.”
“Quill, don’t you ever do that again!” Seri demanded, trying to sit up. It didn’t work. Her muscles weren’t ready to do that just yet. “Don’t you ever go after someone with a gun again. Do you understand me?”
“Yeah, Seri, like I was going to let him take you away at gunpoint, really?”
“You could have been killed, Quill. Just because you fight like nobody I’ve ever met in my life, doesn’t mean you’re invincible to a bullet. Promise me, Quill.”
“I can’t promise that unless you promise to stop chasing bad guys. I don’t want you to do that anymore, Seri. You may not have had anything to lose befor
e, but you do now. You have people that love you and need you. You promise me that you will stop doing what you’re doing and I will promise you not to step in front of a bullet for you.”
“I agree with Quill. You need a new occupation. Maybe painting little mushroom ceramics or something,” Manny established.
Seri smiled. They loved her. She had two some ones that cared about her. It felt….unfamiliar and comforting.
Quill left them shortly after, giving them the alone time she knew they needed. She walked down the hall and peeked through a set of locked double doors. She noticed the police officer sitting in a chair right outside one of the doors. She knew who was in there. She pushed on the locked door. Thank God it was locked. She was sure she could easily spend the rest of her life in prison had she been able to get to that son of a bitch.
<><><>
Seri spent nine days in the hospital. She was so happy to be getting out of there. She hadn’t been that still in her life. She couldn’t take it for one more day, not if she wanted to keep her sanity intact anyway. Quill stayed the entire time. She did leave with her father to shower and sleep, but spent every day right there with her while Manny worked. Neither of them thought it possible to become closer than they already were. They did.
Quill also became closer with Reese, via text message. Quill too was bored sitting in that hospital room and spent countless hours learning the internet on her phone, texting back and forth with Reese, and even her mother.
Seri was still extremely sore and struggled to sit in the wheelchair to finally be wheeled to freedom. Quill carried her bag while Manny fetched the car.
“I think I should just stay here in New York, Seri,” Quill decided as they waited in front of the hospital for her dad.
“You’re going to school in two days. Your mother will be here this afternoon to get you,” Seri reminded her.