3. ~Julian~
3
~Julian~
Jesus fucking Christ.
Having to take a roundabout route to get here in order to protect ourselves from a fucking madman— the fucking madman, as he’d become to us—had cost us precious time in getting down here to the hospital.
I’d barely been able to stand it.
Every additional minute that had ticked on by.
Every moment we weren’t where we were needed.
With them.
With our loves.
It had me sick to my stomach as Milo and I burst down the hospital corridors after getting Levi’s texted directions when we’d been ten minutes out as to where exactly Nico and Caterina were at in this maze of a place. Apparently, Levi’s brother-in-arms, Mason Hall, had been here too, but then he’d had to head back to oversee the cleanup of the two bodies they’d dropped at the crash site.
We made a left turn and came upon a bench just a few feet down where Levi was supposed to be waiting for us.
“Where is he?”
“No fucking clue,” Milo grunted.
But a moment later, we heard a commotion coming from one of the rooms further down the corridor.
We both rushed over there, voices reaching us as we drew closer.
“This isn’t going to help anything, especially not her.”
“I need to fucking see her. Right fucking now, Levi!”
“You already vomited three times on the way here because of the concussion you sustained. And on top of that, you lost your shit when Rina was led away to be treated, and the staff had to sedate you. While you had a fucking head injury, Nico. Do you think you’ll be any help to her if you’re killing yourself in the process of trying to get to her?”
“All that matters is her and our baby!”
“Do you think she’ll see it the same way? Just let the doctors do their jobs. They’re still seeing to her, anyway. They need space to do that.”
“It’s been too long already. You said I’d been out for a couple of hours.”
“Yeah, you have. It actually should’ve knocked you out longer, but clearly not even heavy duty sedatives can keep you down in this state.”
“You’d know a lot about that.”
“You’re right, I would, so I also know the downsides of it. And how it can negatively impact the people I love if I can’t get a hold on that dangerous side of me when it’s called for.”
The door flew open just as we reached it and the both of us had to jerk back as Nico came bolting out, the speed and force he was using in his less-than-stellar state causing him to stagger.
He was only half-dressed, just his pants on, not his shirt or jacket, and he was barefoot too. His thick black hair was wild and mussed, his face and chest a map of bruises and grazes. He had his left arm in a sling. A gauze pad was taped over the left side of his head and as he shifted his weight, I noticed a limp in his right leg.
He jolted when he took us in and it cut into the intensity rolling off him in dangerous waves. He was in that worrying place between rage and pain.
Unfortunately, that surprise of nearly smacking into us only offered a brief reprieve for him.
And then he was trying to push past us, uttering, “We need to get to her now. Right now.”
Milo blocked his path, a formidable wall of solid muscle forcing him to pull up short.
“Move,” Nico ground out.
“Levi’s right, we need to let the doctors do their thing,” I told him, grasping his good arm, hoping the contact would help to soothe all that dangerous intensity, at least somewhat.
He caught me off guard as he grasped my arm back with an awful urgency, his voice unsteady as he uttered, “You didn’t see her. You didn’t see her like that, how badly she was hurt and… she said goodbye to us.”
I jerked back at his awful words. “No. No, she wouldn’t. She… she can’t. She’s not going anywhere. She’s not leaving us.”
A door down the corridor opened, and a doctor stepped out, white coat and all, her blonde ponytail swinging every which way as she searched around, before her gaze landed on Levi.
“Mr. Knight,” she called.
Levi rushed over to her, with the three of us following, Milo supporting Nico’s weight.
Levi gestured at us as we reached her. “These are her significant others. Next of kin listed.”
Next of kin?
We hadn’t done that.
He flashed his eyes at us. He’d done it, taken care of it.
The doctor nodded and stepped up to us.
“She’s stable. She lost a lot of blood, but she was given a transfusion and she’s responding well to treatment. She’s in recovery and being closely monitored.”
“Fuck,” Nico breathed. “She’s really okay?”
“Yes,” the doctor said, smiling kindly. “She’ll make a full recovery.”
I stepped forward. “And the baby? She was pregnant and—”
“We’re aware,” the doctor said, shifting her weight in a way that I didn’t like, a worrying fucking way.
“What? What is it?” Milo asked.
“Miss Leone suffered significant abdominal trauma. It caused a placental abruption. That involves the placenta being separated from the uterine wall prematurely. I’m so sorry, but there was nothing we could do for the baby at that point.”
“Our child… you’re saying… it’s gone?” I croaked, struggling to process her words.
The doctor nodded. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Motherfucker,” I heard Levi curse and saw him turn away and slump down onto the bench heavily.
A scream sounded from the room.
“She’s just been informed, and she’s having trouble processing the news,” the doctor told us.
In the next second, Nico was pushing his way into the room.
Milo and I followed after him to find Cat thrashing in the bed and screaming, two nurses trying to calm her down, warning her that she needed to be careful, that she could complicate her recovery.
My gut twisted at the scene, at the tears pouring down her face, so much pain every fucking where.
And the fact that Nico just stood there staring, shell-shocked so deeply by it all that he couldn’t move.
I couldn’t keep it together, emotion spilling down my cheeks too and taking me in a brutal chokehold.
Milo was there then, pushing the nurses out of the way and wrapping his arms around Cat, effectively restraining her and hugging her at the same time with that superior strength of his. “We’re here. We’re here with you. Take it easy. Don’t hurt yourself. Please, beauty.”
His words impacted her, and she sank into him, burying her face in his chest and sobbing. “She’s gone… our baby is gone… she’s dead.”
I climbed onto the bed and stroked her hair and back. “We’re so sorry, darlin’. So fucking sorry.”
She grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly, needing the comfort, the small comfort that it was in a moment like this.
A roar tore through the room and I looked out to see Nico completely losing it, having pulled from his intense moment of catatonia, now ripping all the medical equipment off a cart, then smashing his fist into the wall over and over, his pained bellow filling the room.
As the nurses called for security backup, Levi burst back in after hanging back to give us space. As he did, Nico staggered, then fell back into the wall, sliding down it onto the ground and burying his face in his hands. “No, no, no, no.”
Christ.
All I could hear were his sobs melding with ours.
So much pain, so much grief.
So much fucking loss lately.
But this was so much worse than anything that had come before.
A piece of us.
Our family.
Our hope.