- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the next chapter.
Enjoy =)
Chapter Two-Hundred-Thirty-One


Meanwhile, when Sean had gone to the back to change out of his Santa suit he found Trevor standing in front of the real mall Santa who they had tied to a chair. He was standing there with a gun visible in his pocket though he refused to point it at him. Sean got out of the Santa suit as he has his clothes on underneath and he looked at Trevor.


“You can untie him now. But he is not to get up and change back into his suit until we’re long gone – and he’s been told the rules, right?”


“Yes. He’s been informed that he is not allowed to identify us to any of the police and if he does, we will kill his wife and then him.” Sean nodded.


“Good,” he replied. Trevor untied the real mall Santa and Sean gave him a dark glare telling him if he so much as moves he’s toast. The old man coward back into his chair.


“Sean we’ve gotta go,” Trevor insisted as he recognized the dangerous look in his lover’s eyes. He grabbed his hand and gently squeezed it causing Sean to snap out of it and he pulled him from the room, the two of them pulling their hoods over their heads.


“If you’re planning on doing your other plan, we need to hurry” Trevor insisted as he pulled him toward the exit to the mall. When they got outside he took him to their car. Sean got in the passenger’s seat, and Trevor in the driver’s and he started the ignition and drove until they were a good distance from AJ’s car yet very close to the exit, and then he parked and they waited. They sat there for an hour in silence, until suddenly Trevor couldn’t handle the anxiety or the silence any longer and looked at Sean. He reached over and gently pulled him near so he sat in the middle next to him.


“Why are you so far away baby?” Sean shrugged his shoulders, wondering the same thing himself and he shifted in the seat before lying back with his head in Trevor’s lap. Trevor smiled down at him some and bent down and brushed his lips lightly over his.


“How are you feeling?”


“Like I just let a big part of me go.”


“It was for the best…you’re just not cut out to be a father, Sean. You said so yourself. Not everybody is meant to be one.”


“Yeah…I’ll get over it don’t worry. It was just harder then I thought is all.”


“I love you,” Trevor reminded and Sean smiled up at him weakly. He reached up and cupped his lover’s chin in his hand and was about to bring his face down to his own for a kiss when suddenly Trevor’s phone beeped. He groaned and muttered ‘great timing’ under his breath as he pulled it from his pocket and flipped it open and he saw it was a text message from Max that said ‘incoming.’ Trevor dropped the phone causing Sean to sit up alert.


“What’s going on?”


“They’re coming out now.”



~*~*~*~*~*~


“I can’t believe, you actually let her get that. Your mom is going to kill you – the both of you,” Kevin commented. He, Elenore, and Q had met up with AJ and Ashley and they’re just headed for door they had come in.


“Well hey, what can I say? She has me wrapped around her finger. She knows I can’t say no to her.” Kevin shook his head.


“You’re in for it.”


“As long as she doesn’t wear tank tops around her, we’ll be good. She got it in a good spot.” Kevin chuckled.


“You can’t keep these things from parents for too long. They always find out when their kids have been bad eventually. It’s their power,” he informed, looking down at Elenore whom he was carrying. She smiled up at him innocently as her head was rested against his shoulder and her thumb was popped in her mouth – for some strange reason. Kevin knows the only time she sucks her thumb is if she’s scared, worried, or tired.


“Are you tired honey?” He asked gently, and he rubbed his hand over her back. Elenore shook her head.


“Then why are you sucking your thumb? What’s the matter?” Elenore again shook her head, not wanting to tell him that she is worried about him being mad at her later when he learns the truth of just exactly who was playing Santa the moment she walked up to him. Kevin frowned slightly and looked to Q questioningly. Q shrugged, being just as confused as he was.


“Maybe she really is tired, but is being stubborn and doesn’t want to admit it,” Q reassured. “It would be exactly like her to do that.”


“Yeah…true,” Kevin replied, accepting Q’s theory. But he still couldn’t shake the feeling that there might be something terribly wrong. When they approached AJ’s car, he opened the door to the back seat and leaned in to place his little angel into her booster seat. While he was doing that, AJ headed around to the driver’s side while Ashley opened up the door to the front passenger’s seat. Q who had been looking around the parking lot as he stood there keeping a close watch on everybody, he suddenly noticed a hooded person poke his head out of a car window with a gun and aim it toward Ashley.


“NO!!!” Q shouted and he dove toward Ashley as he heard the gunshot go off. He grabbed her and pushed her into the car, but just as he did, he heard her cry out in shrill pain telling him that he wasn't quick enough. Q looked down at her to see that she was bleeding – bad. The hooded person had shot her in the arm. He looked to the car that the hooded person was in and saw it speeding off. But not before he could get the license and memorize it inside his head.


“ASHLEY!” Kevin and AJ cried, immediately panicking.


“NO, NO, NO, NO!!!” AJ wailed.


“GET in the car AJ, NOW! We have to get her to Doctor Johnson!” Q ordered, as he carefully picked Ashley up cradling her, and he got into the passenger’s seat with her. He knows he’s not supposed to move her, but this is an emergency. So long as he doesn’t move her arm, she should be fine. It’s just her arm.


“Shouldn’t we call the ambulance?” Kevin asked, as tears rolled down his cheeks and he got in the car next to Elenore and slammed the door shut.


“We don’t have time!” Q insisted and Kevin tended to a frightened Elenore who kept demanding to know what happened to Ashley. He tried to stay calm as much as he possibly could in order to not frighten her more then she already is, but it was proving to be very hard. Q tore off his shirt immediately as AJ sped out of the mall parking lot as quickly as he could, not even bothering to obey the traffic law. If a police stops them, they would understand. Infact, they could help. As Q pulled his shirt off, he gently placed it to the bullet wound applying pressure to it. Ashley cried and whimpered the whole way there and Q tried his hardest to sooth her. When they arrived at Ramsey in less then ten minutes when normally it would be a 20-minute ride, AJ stopped in front of the hospital entrance.


“Get her inside Q, NOW. I’ll go park the car and we’ll be right in.” AJ ordered. Q nodded and threw open the door and he rushed Ashley inside, immediately yelling out “DOCTOR JOHNSON!!! HELP!!” Doctor Johnson, who was just around the corner standing in a hall discussing matters with another Doctor, came sliding around the corner, slipping on the slick floor as he ran. When he saw Ashley cradled in Q’s arms, her one arm bleeding his eyes widened.


“What happened?” He demanded, as other doctors were already wheeling a stretcher into the lobby.


“Bullet wound to the arm! She needs help!” Doctor Johnson helped Q lay her on the stretcher and they strapped her in.


“We’ll take care of her. It’ll be okay,” Doctor Johnson reassured in his calm doctor’s voice. “Go inform the others at the Orphanage for me.” Q nodded and Doctor Johnson went off after the other doctors who were wheeling a distressed Ashley to an examining room. Q turned around to see a nurse behind him. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.


“Ask the receptionist to take you to a waiting room. I’ll go inform Nick and Brooke,” she told him gently. “You’re in way too much shock. You need to get yourself together.”


“Kay,” Q replied gratefully.


“I’ll ask Marcus to bring you another shirt,” she added.


“Thanks Cindy,” Q replied, knowing the nurse quite well, as she’s been with Ramsey for a pretty long time.


“No problem,” Cindy replied gently and she turned and hurried off toward the Orphanage. Q looked to the receptionist and she got up from her chair and walked around her desk.


“Come with me Q,” she told him and she wrapped an arm around him and guided him down the hall to a waiting room.


“Thanks Trish,” Q replied, once again grateful. “AJ and Kevin should be in here shortly.”


“I’ll show them to the waiting room when I see them.” When they arrived at a waiting room she opened the door and stepped to the side.


“Just go sit down and make yourself comfortable hon. She’s going to be just fine, I promise. I’ll tell Doctor Johnson you are in here so that he can come tell you all what’s going on as soon as he can.” Q went over and sat on the couch and Trisha closed the door before turning and heading back to the lobby. Just as soon as she walked out there, she saw AJ and Kevin rush in, Kevin holding Elenore so she is rested on his hip. Her head is rested against his shoulder and her thumb is popped in her mouth and she looks like she is about to cry at any second.


“I just took Q to a waiting room. You can go sit in there with him if you would like – it’s the third door to the right down that hall,” she informed, indicating toward the hall she just came from.


“What about Ashley? Is my sister okay?” AJ prompted.


“Doctor Johnson and a crew of very excellent doctors just took her back to work on her. She is in very good hands I promise honey.”


“I want to be with her,” AJ insisted. “What room is she in?”


“You aren’t allowed in the examining room Aje…you’ll have to wait.”


“But she’s my sister – I’m her family!”


“It won’t do you any good to be back there, trust me. You are already panicky enough as it is. You’ll just be in the way of them giving her the care that she needs.”


“But—“


“--Come on Aje, she’s right. Let’s just go to the waiting room. We need to be there for Q,” Kevin interrupted before his little brother could cause more chaos then there already is – and will be once Nick gets the bad news. AJ allowed Kevin to pull him toward the waiting room but with a very helpless expression on his face. When they arrived in the waiting room, Kevin went straight to Q and pulled him into a very tight hug. Q returned it.


“I’m so sorry…it’s all my fault,” Q insisted.


“What? Don’t be ridiculous – if it weren’t for you, she would probably have been in a much worse condition then she already is. It could have been fatal if you hadn’t seen it coming and pushed her into the car.”


“But if I was faster then I was, she wouldn’t have been shot at all.”


“You can’t think like that, Q.”


“Watch me.” Kevin sighed.


“No matter what you say, you’re a hero. I mean it Q. It could have been worse if you weren’t there.” Q shook his head. Just then the door opened. Kevin and Q looked to see everybody else piling into the room.


“But I WANT to see her! I HAVE to see her! I must know that she is okay!” Nick demanded as Brian shoved him into the room. He whirled around and dove for the door, but he and Howie both grabbed him.


“Nick you need to calm down. She was just shot in the arm – it’s not fatal. She’ll be okay I promise,” Brian reassured as calmly as he could in such a situation. He knows he has to be strong for his best friend, who is completely falling apart.


“But I have to see her! I just have to!” He insisted, as tears fell from his eyes.


“You can when Doctor Johnson says it’s okay. But for now you need to just hang in there,” Brian replied and he pushed him toward a chair. “Come on now…sit down.” While Brian worked on calming Nick, Riley looked at Kevin.


“Kevin I think Ellie should go be with the other kids. Jerry is watching them. She doesn’t need to be here in all this panic.”


“Jerry! I wants Jerry!” Elenore insisted. Kevin nodded and started toward the door but Riley stopped him.


“I’ll take her. You stay here and help Brian keep Nick restrained. I have a feeling it’s going to be a four-man job.”


“Kay,” Kevin replied, and gently handed Elenore over and Riley carried her out of the room while Kevin turned and began to help sooth Nick.


“What happened?” Nick demanded. “Who shot her and why weren’t you all protecting her?!” Nick demanded to know.


“We were doing the best we could, Nick!” AJ shot back in a snappy tone. “It’s not like we asked this to happen and just stood around and watched!”


“Then what happened? Where were all of you?”


“We were in the process of coming home. We were getting in the car when Q saw it coming, and shoved Ashley into the car in attempt to get her out of the way, but before he could she was shot in the arm. He did the best to his ability! I know you are upset and scared but there is no need for you to put blame on anyone of us! There was no way it could have been prevented!”


“Who did it?” Nick demanded.


“It was Sean,” Q answered softly.


“I couldn’t really see his face because he had the hood to his jacket pulled down over it, but I could see enough to tell it was him. It fit the drawing.”


“Did you see anything else?” Kevin asked gently.


“The license plate number.”


“That’s good enough to report to Detective Stabler – but I wouldn’t be surprised if they ditched the car,” Kevin replied, as he pulled his phone from his pocket and began to dial Detective Stabler’s number. Nick pulled his legs close to his chest, rested his chin on his knee and he sat there quietly, his whole body tense as he waited for Doctor Johnson to report back to them. He can’t believe he let her go to the mall without him. Go figure, the one time she goes anywhere without him, something bad happens. Never again, that’s for sure. Never again will she ever have to be without him. Or suffer a broken heart because of him. He knows he shouldn’t have taken this out on AJ, Kevin, and Q. He knows they would never wish this upon her and that they love her just as much as he does. He’s just angry with himself because he wasn’t there to protect her. He would have been if he hadn’t hurt her. How could he be so stupid? Brian who sensed his best friend was beating himself up over the situation now, reached over and wrapped an arm around him and rested his head against his shoulder.


“Everything will be okay Nicky,” he whispered softly. “I promise.” He added, and Nick held onto that promise like it were the only thing keeping him sane.