Into My Heart

LI

SAM

I was chilling on the couch, trying to get on with my university homework, when the door rang and I was forced to get up - ugh. Rolling my eyes - it was the first day I had the apartment all to myself, since Abby was working at the hospital, and Kristie was managing her gang (still not getting over that), and I intended on spending it reflecting on my life and those crazy couple of months. 

But no, I just open the door and stand there, in shock. 

Abby and Christen are standing in front of me, obviously closer than those past months, as well as Shelina, who seems to be avoiding eye contact with me. As I try to ignore her at first, I just try to focus on my sister and the Latina; what on Earth is going on ?  I quickly come to understand that they weren't mad at each other, finally, and that somehow made me very happy: if two people love each other like they do, they deserve happiness. 

After a few awkward seconds, Abby is the first to talk in a rather shy voice:

"Emergency meeting : we need to come up with a plan."

"Alright" I say, nodding my head slowly. Obviously, I love my sister and would do anything for her, so I just add: "Come in."

As the three women make their way in, I close the door behind us, instinctively making sure nobody followed us: I mean, seeing two people getting shot and die in front of me just traumatised me for life.

As Abby is showing Christen around the apartment, Shelina throws me an insistant look, not sure if she actually could talk to me. But she does:

"Hi, Sam, listen, I'm sorry I haven't talked to you since-"

"It's fine" I interrupt her coldly, before nodding my head and adding: "We have things to do now."

She frowns, obviously surprised by my coldness, as I join Abby and Christen who are in the living room, seated on the couch. As soon as I make my way in, I notice Christen's hand on my sister's, until she notices me and removes it quickly. 

I raise my eyebrow, before awkwardly settling:

"You stink sex."

Abby's face seemed to decompose at that very moment, while Christen blushes. Shelina restrains herself from bursting out laughing, before giving me the elbow. Realising how awkward that was, I also blush, before my eyes get wide open. 

As a painful silence takes place, Shelina decides to save the day:

"Congrats, my dear fiancé" she laughingly lets out, before quickly adding: "so now we need to come up with a plan so that we don't all die."

"Agreed" Christen immediately says, not daring to look at Abby a single second. 

"Hold on a second" a voice says behind us.

When we all turn around at the same time, we discover Kristie and Alex, standing at the room's entrance, staring at us in awe. While Alex had blood on her neck and t-shirt, Kristie had several scratches on her face, either red or blue, almost purple sometimes, as her bruises were showing. She, too, had blood on her clothes. 

Almost immediately, Abby and I forget everything about the current conversation and rush toward our sister. 

"Oh my God, are you okay?" I straightforwardly ask, horrified. As Kristie and Alex were trying to talk, I kept on panicking and stammer: "What happened?"

"Calm down" Kristie orders, as Christen was also on her feet now. As she starts getting undressed and puts her clothes on a bag (Christen and Shelina immediately turned around, giving her and Alex some privacy), she continues in a calm voice: "We don't have much time, so listen closely."

Alex nods in agreement, as Abby went and found some new clothes for the both of them. When Alex takes a gun out of her jeans' belt, I immediately freeze, scared - I've never liked guns, especially since so many mass shootings and police brutality against coloured people happen in this country, it is so upsetting. Kristie catches that and, as soon as she is dressed in Abby's clothes, she walks toward me and hug me. This has always been our thing, the 'everything is okay we're together' hug that got us through our parents' divorce, mom's disease and death, and all of our breakups. 

After Alex also is dressed, we all sit down on the couches, Christen and Shelina back into listening as well. Kristie takes a deep breath before being outpaced by a rather agressive Alex, who just noticed Christen's presence:

"What is she doing here ? Can we even trust her?" 

Almost immediately, Abby responds, self-confident:

"Yes, we can."

As Christen gives her a thankful look - and her eyes expressed nothing but deep affection - everybody chill out: it is so obvious that those two were high over heels with each other that nobody could doubt Christen's intentions, not even Alex or Kristie. 

After a few seconds, Kristie finally drops the horrifying news:

"Stacey Press broke her contract with the Dragons: she sent some hitmen after members of our gang and almost got us."

"What ?" Christen immediately asks, truly surprised. 

"Yeah" Alex lets out, and it becomes obvious that she lost some people she loved today, "we obviously were the true targets, though."

My eyes go wide, as my whole world seems to be falling apart: somebody tried to kill my favourite person on the planet.

Realising how sensitive I was right now, Kristie immediately declares:

"But we're okay, don't worry, those are only scratches"

"But-" Abby starts, but obviously Alex did not have time for all that:

"Alright, let's focus: we need to find a new plan all together, otherwise Press Corporation is going to eat us all alive by tomorrow morning" she insists, setting her jaw. 

"Well, I have one, but you're not gonna like it..." Christen humbly says, staring at Kristie and Alex very seriously. 

As Kristie raises her eyebrow, the brunette asks:

"Really? Why would you say that?" 

"Because" Christen declares, "it doesn't involve vengeance, but a more subtle destruction of Press Corporation and, ultimately, my mother."

As Abby stares at her, confused, I step forward, seeing that Alex wasn't thrilled with the 'non-vengeance' thing.

"If we just kill all of them, nothing will change" I say, taking Christen's side. As both Abby and Kristie are quite surprised, Shelina stares at me with a smile on her lips. Ignoring her, I just continue: "Cut one head, ten will grow back, we need a more efficient and long-term plan. So, Christen, what are you thinking about ?"

The dark-haired stares at me when she says:

"We need to find out who The Patriarch is so that we can apply leverage on my family and ultimately dismantle Press Corporation."

"Operation Orange" Kristie thoughtfully lets out, before grabbing her phone, quickly announcing: "I am going to call Krieger, she's gonna like your idea."

"Great, another FBI agent, love 'em" Alex sarcastically says.

Meanwhile, I just shiver: if Operation Orange really is what I think it is, then none of us is safe for now...