Faith (My Misery Muse) (21 page)

“And Quinn?”

“She’s fine as well, a little shaken up and
they want to check her out as well, but they both seem to be
fine.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and stared
at my sister, I knew she wouldn’t lie to me, but still that was the
scariest thing I’ve ever been through in my life. “You’re
sure?”

“That was Seth, X is riding with them to the
hospital, and he’s following and will call us after the doctor sees
them, but yea the EMTs said they would be fine.”

“Okay, do you know which hospital?”

“This one, it’s the closest.”

“Okay,” I sighed. “That’s good, would you
mind asking them to get me a wheelchair so I can go down there? I
need to see them for myself.”

“Nope, don’t mind at all,” she said and got
up and walked out the door.

After a few wrong turns we finally made it to
the emergency room, where we found X and Seth sitting in the
waiting room.

“Why aren’t you in there with them?” I
asked.

“They won’t let us since we’re not family,”
growled X.

“Well fuck that,” declared Devi and she left
to talk to the nurse standing at the desk, she was waving her hands
then pointed at me, and I cocked my head to the side—what was she
up to?

“What the hell?” muttered Seth.

“Who knows?” chuckled X, “but my money's on
Devi.”

“Yea mine too.”

She looked over at me and smirked; the nurse
was nodding her head like she agreed with whatever Devi was telling
her. Damn, my sister was good.

Devi walked back over and grabbed the handles
of my wheelchair. “Ready fiancé?”

I choked “what?” out and she just smiled and
wheeled me to the electric doors. Seth and X following close
behind.

We finally found the curtained off area that
Mags was in by following the yelling. X was outright laughing by
the time we got there and pulled the curtain open.

“I don’t give a damn, I want to see my
daughter!” she yelled at the nurse that was currently trying to
calm her down.

“Ma'am, if you’d just calm down, the doctor
is looking at her now, and as soon as they’ve determined that—” She
was interrupted by Mags starting to rant again.

“Where is Quinn?” I asked.

The nurse looked at me and opened her mouth
to no doubt protest when Mags answered for her, “They’ve taken her
to another room to check her out, but they won’t let me in there
because I’m bleeding.”

Devi nodded, “On it, what room?”

“Well, exam room eight, but you can’t…” she
trailed off when Devi walked away as soon as she heard the room
number.

“So darling, I hear you went and got yourself
shot.” She flipped me off and continued to glare at the nurse.

X cleared his throat, “Uhm, Mags, what did
the nice nurse do to piss you off?”

She slowly turned her head towards him and I
flinched at the look she gave him. “I want my daughter,” she
seethed.

“
I get that, and Devi and
Seth just went to be with her, now why don't you do what the nurse
needs you to do, so you can go to her?”

“Fuck off, Xavier.”

“Okay Mags, enough,” I barked then looked at
the nurse. “What do you need?”

She looked from me to Mags then back at me.
“I need to inject her with this to numb the area for stitches.”

“Mags, you will sit your ass down and do what
this nice lady needs to do so you will stop bleeding all over the
god damn floor, do you understand me?”

She nodded and sat on the bed.

“All right, I know you want to go to Quinn,
hell I do too, but you will help no one bleeding all over the
place, so sit there and be a good girl and get stitched up.”

“Fine,” she growled.

“So you going to tell me what happened?”

“I walked out of the doctor’s office and
found him standing by my car, told him to go, he grabbed me and
then I guess he hit me in the head.”

I growled and she whipped her head towards me
and then winced; that’s when I really noticed what kind of shape
she was in. She had a small gash on her temple, her shoulder and
arm had a large cut, and I still hadn’t seen my princess.

“Then what happened?”

“I woke up on the ground and he was holding
Quinn and waving a gun around. I got Quinn and he shot me, I guess
the police shot him after that. I don’t know I just wanted to make
sure she was safe.”

“You did good, baby, you’re both safe
now.”

She nodded and wiped a tear from her eye.
God, I wanted to hold her but I couldn’t get out of this damn
wheelchair to get to her.

The nurse left and we sat around waiting for
the doctor to show up to stitch her arm up. When Devi walked in
carrying Quinn, I held my arm out to her and she tucked Quinn into
my arm and side.

“She okay?” I asked.

“Yea she’s fine, a little freaked out still,
but nothing physically wrong with her.”

I leaned down as best I could with my ribs
starting to bother me and kissed the top of her head. “How’s my
princess?” I murmured to her, she curled into my side more and her
eyes started to flutter.

“How you doing, Mags?” Devi asked.

“Better now that I can see her.”

“Good, cause the cops are out there wanting
your statement.”

She groaned and then nodded. “All right.”

“We will head back to Drake's room so Quinn
can take a nap.”

Mags nodded her head. “Okay,” she said
staring at Quinn.

“She’s fine, baby; I won’t let her leave my
side.”

“Okay, I’ll be up there soon, hopefully.”

“X, will you stay with her?” I asked looking
over at him.

“Sure, maybe I can pick up a naughty
nurse.”

Devi smacked him, grabbed my wheelchair, and
started rolling me towards the curtain. I looked back at Mags and
smiled, though I’m sure it was more of a grimace, my pain meds
weren’t really helping me anymore.

“I love you,” I said.

“Love you too.” Then the curtain closed.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths and I
felt Devi lean down. “We’ll be there soon and get you something for
the pain, big brother.”

“Thanks,” I murmured trying to stay very
still.

Chapter 37

Mags

Once the I had finished giving my statement
to the police, I headed up to Drake's room with X tagging behind,
chuckling to himself about something. I really didn’t want to know
what, I just wanted to get to my baby and look her over myself.
When we walked into his room, we found Drake and Quinn asleep in
his hospital bed, and Devi was hovering around them like a mother
hen.

“Is something wrong?”

She put her finger to her lips and shook her
head no.

“Then why are you hovering?”

“I just wanted to check on them,” she
whispered but I knew there was more to it than that.

“Devi,” I growled.

“Mags, quiet,” she snapped quietly at me.

“Fine, what’s going on?” I asked quieter, not
really in the mood to deal with her crap right now.

“Drake was just in pain, I wanted to see his
face and make sure he was doing better.”

“Oh,” I said looking at him. “He’s okay
though, right?”

“Yea, he’s okay, they both are.”

I nodded and walked over to the bed staring
down at them, Quinn was curled up on his chest her thumb in her
mouth, and they looked so sweet together.

“So how did it go with the police?” whispered
Seth.

I shrugged. “Fine I guess, they just wanted
me to tell them what happened.”

“Hear anything about Brent?”

I scowled at him “Why would I care?”

Seth gave X a look then looked back at me,
“Just asking.”

I was about to ask what was going on when
Quinn started whimpering, and I watched her eyes flutter open. I
gently picked her up and brought her over to the couch to nurse
her, now that I had her back in my arms I would be able to relax
and think.

I sat around nursing Quinn, not really paying
attention to what everyone else was talking about, I just wanted my
time with my daughter. When I finally noticed the quiet, I looked
around and saw it was just Drake and I left in his room.

“Where did everyone else go?” I asked.

“Devi and Seth went home. X is out harassing
the nurses.”

I nodded not really caring where they
actually were. I looked over at Drake and he patted the bed beside
him. I glanced down and noticed that Quinn was sleeping so I stood
carefully and walked towards Drake, and looked trying to figure out
where I was going to sit.

“Lay down with me Mags, I just need to hold
you both,” Drake whispered.

I nodded and sat down beside him and laid
down tucking Quinn between us on the small bed. Drake wrapped his
good arm around both of us, pulling me closer.

“How you holding up?” he murmured.

“Kinda numb right now.”

“Understandable,” he replied looking at me
like I was going to break any minute. “Mags there's something I
need to tell you.”

“What?” I asked, starting to feel exhausted
since the adrenaline had left my system.

“Brent didn’t make it,” he whispered, keeping
his eyes trained on my face.

“What do you mean?” I asked confused.

“Honey, he was shot, and he didn’t
survive.”

“Oh,” I responded numbly not really
understanding what he was telling me. I stared up at the white
tiled ceiling letting what he said sink in. After a few minutes,
the tears began and Drake took Quinn resting her in the crook of
his bad arm and pulled me closer. He held me while I cried
whispering nonsense to me.

I was finally able to draw in a deep breath
and wiped my eyes, Drake continued to watch me warily.

“So that’s what that other pop was?” I
finally said.

He nodded not taking his eyes off me.
“Yea.”

“Okay, I’m not sure how I am supposed to feel
about that, or what to say.”

“Honey, no one expects you to.”

“Okay, I think I need to go home now, back to
Devi’s, and uhm, get some sleep. I will come back tomorrow.”

“Okay baby,” he replied kissing me on my head
and handing me back a still sleeping Quinn.

I was sitting on the couch back at Devi’s
house snuggling with Quinn when Seth plopped down beside me,
holding Cait who was fighting sleep.

“Scary, huh?” he asked.

“What?”

“Being a parent.”

I looked towards him and he was looking down
at Cait as if she hung the moon, making me smile. “Yea it’s scary,
but it’s also the best feeling in the world.”

He agreed, “Yea it is, I don’t know what I
would do if something was to ever to happen to either of them.”

I looked down at Quinn sleeping in my arms.
“Yea, I know the feeling.”

“She’ll be fine, just a few bruises that’ll
heal quickly, but we won’t ever be the same.”

“No, I don’t think we will.”

“You’ll have to put her down sometime.”

“I know, but not yet.”

“Yea, I can’t keep myself from touching mine
either.”

I smiled. “Seth, you’re a great dad.”

He smiled down at a now sleeping Cait. “I
try. You’re not too bad of a mom.”

“Thanks.”

“And Drake will be a great dad.”

“He already is.”

He smiled over at me sadly and took a deep
breath, “If you need anything, Mags, just ask.”

I nodded knowing what he was talking about.
“I don’t know what to do or how to feel.”

“That’s sounds about right.”

“Uhm, do you know what happened?”

He visibly swallowed and nodded his head.

“Will you tell me?”

“You sure.”

“Yea, I think I need to know.”

“Well, after he shot you, a police officer
shot him with a shot gun in the leg. Apparently, they hit the
femoral artery and he bled out quickly.”

“I think I am going to be sick,” I mumbled
and Seth quickly took Quinn from me so I could run to the
bathroom.

A few minutes later, Devi walked into the
bathroom while I was still crouched beside the toilet, not sure if
I was okay to get up yet or not.

“Yea, it’s a pretty fucked situation, isn’t
it?”

“Yep.”

“Let’s get you off this floor and cleaned up,
huh?”

I let her help me up, and went to the sink
and ran cold water washing out my mouth then splashing my face. I
looked at myself in the mirror, I looked like hell my eyes were
bloodshot and I was pale. I shook myself and looked back at my best
friend, she looked worried. I didn’t want to cause her more stress
than she was already under, so I attempted a smile but by the look
on her face I don’t think I succeeded.

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not, and no one expects you to
be.”

“It’s just got to take some time for it all
to sink in.”

She hugged me. “I’m so glad you and Quinn are
okay.”

I hugged her back hard. “Me too.”

She sighed. “Now, we just have to get Drake
home.”

“That would be nice.”

“Yea, I bet you could use him right about
now.”

“Yea I could.”

“So when are you going to put him out of his
misery and marry him?”

“What?” I laughed out.

“You heard me, I know my brother, and I know
he’s already asked you at least once, so when are you going to say
yes?”

I shook my head. “I’m not marrying him.”

“Why not?”

“Because he doesn’t really want to marry
me.”

She looked at me like I was crazy, and maybe
I was, hell if I knew anymore.

“Sure he does, or he wouldn’t have
asked.”

“Devi, he said we should get married so he
could adopt Quinn.”

“Sounds like something the jackass would
say.”

“So you see he doesn’t want to marry me.”

“Yea he does. He’s just trying to give you
reasons to justify it, because we both know you won’t say yes until
you’ve got reasons why it makes sense.”

I shook my head. “No, I want someone to ask
me to marry them, to spend the rest of my life with them because
they love me.”