"NOOOO!" Lina and Annie yelled in unison, then jumped in front of Brian at the sound of the gun. They collided with each other, knocking Annie a few feet away from Brian. Lina fell right on top of him, knocking them both over. Marcy started to laugh, but quickly stopped when she heard sirens.
"Shit!" she cursed looking for a way out. Again she stopped when she felt someone grab her from behind.
"You're not going anywhere," Kevin said in her ear.
She struggled to get away. "Let me go! It won't do you any good now, you're friends are already dead."
Kevin tightened his grip, "Shut up!"
"Go ahead kill me, see if I care. I already did what I wanted."
"Don't you now the fucking meaning of shut up!" Kevin yelled, loosing his temper. He threw her into a wall, where she slumped down and didn't move.
Kevin ran over to Lina and Brian who were now surrounded by blood.
"Damn, I can't tell who's blood it is!" he searched for a bullet wound on Lina.
"Don't move them," Nick said.
"Brian?" Annie called out faintly.
Nick kneeled down next to her, "Are you OK?"
She shook her head, "No, my stomach hurts."
He then noticed her shirt covered in blood, Nick didn't want to worry her anymore, "You'll be fine," he said and held her hand.
"Nick, my stomach hurts...really ba-" she trailed off closing her eyes.
"Annie? Annie, come on wake up," Nick shook her lightly. "Don't do this! Come on, stay awake!"
"Huh?" she opened her eyes slightly.
"Stay awa-" Nick was cut off by the door being broken down.
Paramedics, police officers, and everybody else you could think of poured into the room. Somewhere in-between Nick got pushed away and ended up with Howie and A.J.. Lina, Brian, and Annie were taken to the hospital, where everyone was now waiting.
A police officer walked up to the bunch and cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Excuse me, but is Mr. Carter and Mr. Richardson here?" she asked.
They stood up, "That's us," Kevin answered for the both of them.
"I just want to inform that Ms. Williams was caught and taken back to the hospital."
"Ms. Williams?" Nick asked.
"Oh sorry. Marcy Williams, the woman who tried to-"
"Yeah, we know."
"Well, turns out she had escaped from Cedar Grove mental hospital in Texas."
"TEXAS?!"
"Weird huh? We have no idea how she escaped or got to Orlando for that matter. She's on her way back though. On behalf of Cedar Grove they would like to send their sincerest apologizes in hope something like this won't happen again."
"Better not happen again or I'm suing the freakin pants off of them! If it's a loony bin shouldn't there be more security?" Nick asked frustrated.
"Yes, that's what baffles us, sir. They have maximum security there and she still managed to get past them."
"And you're taking her back there? Gee, that's smart," he said sarcastically.
"She is not in the same conditions as before, now she's in the criminally insane ward, hopefully, she'll be contained there."
"You know, you're really not making any of this better, so could you just leave?" Kevin asked.
"Sure, I'll be back later to get Mr. Littrell, Ms. Millano, and Ms. Jonna's statements." The woman said then disappeared down the hall.
"Great, we had a loon after us! She'd tried to kill Brian! Oh this day just keeps getting better and better," Nick sighed, sitting down.
"It's been hard on all of us," Kevin said patting his back.
Just then a doctor walked up to them. He looked down at his chart.
"Is there any family of Mr. Littrell present?"
"Me, he's my cousin," Kevin said, raising his hand a little, "Is he OK?"
"Actually yes he is. Amazing thing happened. His cross saved him," the doctor said holding up a silver cross with a bullet wedged in the middle.
A.J. grabbed it since he was the closest and examined it, "Damn! That's freaky," he said then handed it to Kevin.
"He's just a little shaken up from the whole thing. And his chest may be sore for about a week or two so we're bandaging him up, just be on the safe side," the doctor continued.
A few tears rolled down Kevin's cheeks, "Thank you God," he whispered holding the chain close to his heart.
"Is there any family of Ms. Jonna or Ms. Millano?"
"I'm they're cousin, " A.J. lied. He had been through this before. The doctors wouldn't let him in to see his best friend one time, so he learned to say that he was family of anyone from the start.
The doctor looked at him suspiciously, then shook his head, "Well, the bullet hit Ms. Jonna between her right shoulder blade so-"
"Wait, " A.J. stopped him, "I thought you said Brian got hit?"
"Oh he did. The bullet went clear through her shoulder and into Brian.
The bullet was a kind used in the army. It's extremely hard to get your hands on those kind, there usually only for official use."
"Oh man, is she OK?"
"Right now she's in surgery. There was some really bad damage done to her shoulder, so she may not regain full use of her arm. We'll have to wait until after she recovers from the surgery. There is a slight chance she may be paralyzed on her right side, but we can't tell anything now."
No one said anything, maybe they were afraid to. If they did nothing would come out.
"Dr. Kolowski please report to OR 2, please report to OR 2," the voice sounded over the loud speaker.
"Oh, that's me. I'll have to get back to you later. You can go in to see Annie, Brian's in there already. It's room 211," he said rushing to the elevators.
"You guys go ahead, I'm going to call Jackie and Harold," Kevin said and walked towards the pay phones.
"Yeah, I'll go call Lina's parents, I'd call Annie's too, but isn't her Mom in NY?" A.J. asked.
"I think so, well, we'll meet you in there," Nick and Howie went down the hall.
They stopped at room 211 and looked in through the little window on the door. Annie was sleeping and Brian was faithfully by her side holding her hand. Brian just seemed to be staring off into space, because when Howie and Nick walked in he didn't notice.
"How is she?" Howie asked bring him out of his thoughts.
"What? Oh yeah she's fine, I guess," Brian replied half heartedly.
"What's wrong?"
"It's just....I can't get over what Marcy did. It's killing me inside, to know Michelle could still be here."
"What did she do?"
"She killed her D. My Michelle, Damn! It's not fair!" he yelled closing his eyes.
"It'll be OK," Howie said. It wasn't much encouragement, but what else could he say.
Brian laughed, "I swear if someone says 'It'll be OK' one more time..."
Nick was staring at Annie from the doorway. All he kept thinking about was how she said her stomach hurt and her shirt soaked in blood. He tried to get rid of the images, but nothing worked.
"I need some air," he announced before exiting the room.
"What's up with Nick?" Brian asked.
"I think he's a little shaken up about almost losing his best friend again."
Brian sighed and heard someone enter the room. He looked over.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Lara. I've been handling Annie's case with Dr. Kolowski.
Who's busy at the moment that's why I'm here," the woman introduced herself and grabbed the chart from the end of the bed.
Annie started to wake up, "Brian?" she asked letting her eyes adjust to the light.
"I'm right here hun," he said taking her hand again.
"Good, she's awake. Um, could you excuse us sir?" she asked Howie.
"Oh, sure," he smiled then left.
"Is she OK?" Brian asked, worried.
"That's what I came to talk to you about," she paused, "Did you know you were pregnant?"
"Yes, " Annie answered, trying to sit up a little.
"OK, well I have some news..."