Meeting Me Halfway (HSMTMTS Fanfiction)

Chapter 61.

Ricky
"Ricky, wake up." A voice causes me to blink my eyes open. My back was killing me, most likely from the way I slept in the chair.
I manage to open my eyes, even with the bright hospital lights shining without care, to see Gina standing in front of me.
"Why are you still here? You should be at home or EJ's place."
I sit up and rub my eyes.
"I've Uh. Been waiting...f-for Nini." I stand up, "is she out yet?"
"Yeah, but it's not anything good. She's um.." she pauses, "she's in a coma."
"I-..a coma!?" I question, "how the h-"
"When she fell, she suffered brain damage. I-..genuinely don't know how but.." she holds out her hand, "let's check on her."
I breathe out a sigh and take her hand.
Did she fall that hard? She couldn't have. It was just a cafeteria floor, it wasn't like concrete. God, what have I done.
"I'm sorry. We all are." She says as we continue down the hall. "We didn't know EJ would do..any of that."
"Just..forget about it. It's no ones but the Woodson family's fault."
"Right." We stop at her room. "You can go ahead first. I'll be behind you."
I reluctantly put my hand on the knob of the door and turn it. The view of Nini laying hopelessly on the bed hits me like a ton of rocks. The amount of thoughts crossing my mind right now are just..ugh.
  I walk in and grab a chair, pulling it beside her bed. I sigh as Gina stands besides me.
"I-..she'll wake up...right?" I genuinely question.
"She will Rick. You know her and she'll wake up and..maybe..smile."
God why did she say it like that. I'd..kill to see Nini smile at me right now.
"I um." I stand up. "I actually need to do something. I'll visit her later but I-..I'll just be back."
"What? What are you doing?"
"I'm...asking questions. That's it."

I close my truck door and make way into the police station. I already made my call and I know what to do.
I open the door walk in, the loud bangs of the bottom of my converse hitting the shiny floor. I clutch my phone as I reach the front desk.
"I'm here to visit an inmate." I state sternly. "The 10:45 for Lachlan Woodson. Trust me you know him."
"Name?"
"Richard Bowen."
She looks at me with a little disgust in her eyes before waving me to follow her. I hide my scoff as I do so.
She leads me to a whole different section of the station. I maintain a straight face as she sits me down in one of the booths.
"He'll be out soon."
I lead out an annoyed grunt in response. I grab the red phone and reluctantly hold it up against my ear, waiting for the figure to come out.

EJ
"It's my fault," I say, "don't act like it isn't."
"I'm not acting. There's a reason why I didn't actually audition for any of the plays." Big Red says, crossing his arms.
"I-..whatever. I just think Ricky hates me and I don't even know what to do."
"Ricky will be fine. Nini will be fine and you didn't know he would have an extra gun. It's called a mistake."
"Mistakes don't shoot people, I-..what kind of fucking mistakes do you make?"
"Well I mean..okay just forget about it. Know that it isn't your fault, got it? Nini will be fine. She'll be great and she'll be able to go back to UCLA just like before."
"Your telling me I handled that well?"
"No..not one bit."
"The fuck?"

Ricky
"So, what was your plan?" I ask right away as Lachlan sits down. "What was your fucking plan?"
"Here for questions?" He smirks, "already? Is something that wrong with Nini?"
"Don't say her name. Answer my question."
"Hope you know that I don't got to answer any of your shit."
My fists tightens around the phone but I quickly lower my temper.
"Clarity. That's all I'm asking for. What was your plan?" He leans back from my words.
"If you want to know.." he answers with a smirk. "There wasn't one. I had everything I needed to frame you. I knew that Nini didn't even go to anyone back then but when she walked in all new and nice, I felt this..guilt. You must admit, she's an attractive woman."
  My knuckles turn white from my grip.
"I recognized her right away and I was..blown away from her new attitude. She clearly didn't remember me and right away mate. Right away I basically fell for her."
"You fell for her?" I ask. "What do you mean you fell for her?"
"I fell for her in one night. We just..vibed and the only thing holding her back from me was you. If I wanted to, I could've gotten her in my grasp way earlier."
"Oh please." I say scoffing, "What makes you think she wants to date her fucking rapist?"
"She didn't know that did she?" He scoots up closer to clear glass barrier. "She didn't know a thing and neither did you. Look..I get it. I played you and you probably feel I don't know, betrayed or whatever but honestly, none of this would've happened if you didn't keep yourself so close to me."
"So That was your plan? Try to get Nini to date you?"
"I mean..yeah." He laughs with his words. "I'm probably crazy or whatever but yeah. That was the plan."
"Your disgusting." I state. "You went through all of that, just for her to end up in a coma. You put her in a coma are you fucking proud of that of some shit?! Your a psychopath!"
"Psychopath? I'm fine with crazy but I wouldn't call myself a psychopath. Wouldn't you do anything for love?"
"I wouldn't bloody kill someone!"
"I don't think I killed anyone. You said she's in a coma didn't you?"
"Your crazy."
I put the phone up and kick out my chair before pushing past the guard. I couldn't even last 5 minutes talking to him face to face.

Flashback*
My eyes blink open from an alarming noise. I rub my eyes as I turn to my side, trying to process what the noise was. Eventually, I sit up to hear it once more.
A sort of whine comes from the bed, causing me to stretch my neck to see what it is. I don't know what I was expecting since there was only one thing on the bed.
I force myself to stand up. I brush myself off and look at the bed to see Nini shuffling.
I try not to think much of it, but another whine comes from her. She tried to make out words but I couldn't understand a thing. It was like a whole different language.
I reluctantly crawl onto the bed and tap on her. She was drenched in sweat and moving like crazy, it was nothing I'd ever seen before.
"Nini?" I question quietly as I continue to tap her. "Nini wake up."
Instead of waking up, she moves and moans louder as if I had just punched her. She continues to move and shuffle around.
"G-Get..th-e..fuck away." I hear her make out in her words.
  "Nini, hey?" I grip my hand on her shoulder and start to shake gently, but it once again did nothing. I raise my voice. "Nini. Wake up."
She begins to shake, moving her hands with her as if she was trying to push someone away. If it was me, she wasn't close at all.
I was hardly awake myself, so having Nini do this forced thoughts in my head.
  "Hey Ni-"
  She finally wakes up in the most abrupt way possible, gasping for air as if she had just drowned. She sits up looking around the room.
"Ricky?! Ricky hello?" She questions right away.
"Hey what's up. What's wrong?" She grips my arm, not realizing I was there.
"I- um." She continues to breathe heavy as she slowly lays back down. I shuffle behind her, letting her lay head rest on my chest. "Shit I-..don't know."
"Your okay. What's wrong seriously?" I ask softly.
"I don't k-know." She begins to slowly sob as the side of her face fully rests comfortably on me. "Holy shit I don't know.."
I didn't know what I could do that wouldn't be uncomfortable for either of us, but I had to do something to comfort her.
I put one hand on the back of her head and wrap my arm around her waist with the other. She was ridiculously sweaty and I genuinely needed to know why.
"I'm sorry." She whispers against my chest.
"I-..don't be."

I have no excuses for not posting. I'm so sorry! I needed a quick break and now I'm up and ready. I hope you guys are enjoying quarantine and once again, I'm very sorry for not posting.
Enjoy your Day or Night!
V&C
-CR❤️