Sasha has always tried to play it safe, to keep her life as simple and risk-free as possible. Things change, however, when she garners the interest of a handsome, charming, younger man from a completely different world than hers. As she starts to qu...
But it was impossible to get anything out of her; her face was as white as a ghost, her entire body shook violently, and she kept crying and crying. Joe looked up to see her phone on the hood of the SUV; Pam was still on the line. He picked it up. "Pam? Pam, it's Joe...calm down, slow down, what happened...okay, which hospital are you at..." He managed to guide Sasha into the passenger seat and buckle her up before rushing back to his side. "Okay, we're in the car right now, we'll be there in ten minutes..."
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She was in a nightmare; it was the only way she could explain why she was feeling like this, why none of it felt real. But the heaviness of her heart, accompanied by the sickeningly white, overly sterile odor of her surroundings only confirmed that it was not a figment of her warped imagination. Sasha's world currently consisted of nothing but the tears that didn't seem to run out, the raw, aching silences in between her gloomy thoughts and her sobs of anguish. She was all cried out; she had wept until her stomach was in knots and it was hard to breathe, but she had managed to finally calm down somehow, which left her with a numb void inside her chest where her heart used to be. Even with Joe's leather jacket over her, even with his big warm hand wrapped protectively around hers, they were not enough to keep away the cold that had gripped her entire being.
When she and Joe arrived at the hospital, T.K. was already undergoing surgery. Pam had been contacted by a friend of hers that worked in the accident and emergency wing of the hospital, whose nephew was T.K.'s basketball teammate and instantly recognized him when he was wheeled into the building. Sasha didn't know how long they had been sitting in the waiting area for, but it felt like years. On a brighter point, they were not alone. Jon Good was sitting in one of the chairs a few feet away. He appeared to be reading a magazine, but seeing as he hadn't turned a page in some time, it was clear his mind was also on T.K. Pam was on Sasha's other side, staring at her hands which trembled slightly, Elgin's arm was wrapped around her shoulders. Trinity and Jonny had shown up, with the female Superstar drawing Sasha and Pam into a hug each and whispering words of comfort in their ears. Colby who was out of town, kept calling and texting Joe for news about T.K. as well as doing his part to be there for his friend. The big man looked just as troubled as his girlfriend, and he kept watching her with concern. She seemed to be in a trance-like state; her eyes were bloodshot and unfocused staring at nothing in particular.
"When Ty and Mia were little, I would watch them sleep at night," she whispered, her tone flat and dull as she spoke. "That time we had just the one bedroom to sleep in that the three of us shared...Every night I would pray to the Lord, ask Him to please protect my babies, and watch them for me...because I couldn't do it on my own. I can't feed them or give them what they need. In the really bad times, before I got the job at the Grill, there were nights I'd go to bed hungry 'cause I knew they didn't get enough to eat all day...I feel so terrible. Like, how did I end up like this? How did I let this happen? I got one job, one job, to keep my babies out of harm's way and I can't even do that right." She shook her head, more tears falling down her cheeks.
