Because Mom Wasn't Enough

Another boy without a sharper knife

Jo's POV

I headed towards the west side of the city where home was. I had to make up with Vic. I owed that to him, even if I had been a pain in the ass for him. I was also starving. I walked alone through the cold night. There was no one on the streets and I assumed it was around one in the morning. I was almost on the west side as I thought about the conversation I was about to have with Vic. He would yell at me and I would yell at him. I decided for once I would try to stay calm and be rational, but even as I thought about it, I felt myself getting angry. Nothing ever went well for me, and I knew this would be no exception.

I could see the line that marked the west side. The graffiti stopped and the buildings almost instantly grew to larger more professionally built pieces of architecture. I never really felt unsafe on the east side, just because I was there so often. But for some reason, something felt out of place. I heard something that sounded like footsteps and I spun around. There was nothing there. I took a breath before hearing it again. I snapped my head to face the direction of the sound just in time to see a boy running at me. I gasped as he tackled me and pinned me to the ground. He reached behind himself and pulled out a knife. I panicked and knocked his arm away as he went to stab me. I felt the knife jam into my leg and I cried out in pain. I threw the kid off of me and reached for my gun. I was relieved when I still had it on me and fired a shot at the boy. I cringed at the sound of the gunshot. I've heard too many of those reacently. The boy stopped moving as he bled. He was one of Danny's guys. I knew it. How long is this going to go on?

I held a hand to my leg as I felt the pain hit me. I cringed as the blood dripped from the knife wound. I slowly stood up and tested the strength of my leg. I yelped at the pain that shot up my leg. I glanced around the block I was on, knowing I may be being watched. Danny's guys wouldn't stop until they'd killed me. I limped towards the other side of the city with my gun clutched tightly in my right hand as my left held the bleeding cut on my leg.

Seething with every step, I finally made it to the doorstep of my house. The lights were off, and even this late at night, it was strange for none of the guys to be up. Tony and Jaime were always at our house anyway. One of the cars was not in the driveway. Maybe they had all gone out. I shrugged off the thought and tried the door to find it unlocked. I dragged myself in and towards the bathroom, flicking on the hall light as I passed. I gasped as I fell through the doorway and hit the floor.

"Fuck!" I groaned to myself. I pulled myself up and hopped up on the counter. The thought of hospitals made me sick, but of course Vic would try to drag me to one. That is precisely the reason I decided to stitch this cut up myself. None of the guys had thread, considering they probably couldn't sew, so I took out a roll of floss. Maybe it wasn't the ideal replacement, but I felt too weak to get fishing line. I threaded it through a needle and tied it off. No, I didn't know how to sew either, but how hard can it be? I stabbed the needle into my skin and shoved it through to the other side of the cut. My teeth clamped down on my lip to keep me from screaming. Shit this hurts... I repeated the action a few more times before I gave up and had to stop. I gasped as I tied off the string and threw the needle away.

Vic's POV

We all piled into the car and Mike drove us home. It was almost one in the morning and I just realized how exhausted I was. My eyes would flicker close involuntarily and I was yawning every few minutes. I thought back to when I last slept, but I couldn't remember it. It must have been while we were on tour sometime. It was hard to believe that we were in Texas only a few days ago, and now we were back home with my daughter missing yet again. I had no idea what to tell the fans about why we had to cancel the tour. I felt bad, but had no idea how any of the fans had taken it. I hadn't even looked at my twitter page since we announced it.

"Vic, wake up bro!" Mike called to me. I snapped my head up.

"Huh?" I asked. I hadn't been asleep, but I was close to it.

"I asked what happened between you and Jo. If you don't mind." Collin said.

"Oh." I sighed. "Uh, it's complicated. There's been a lot that's happened, and frankly I don't even know the whole story." I said.

"Oh, I'm sorry I asked." He said. I shook my head.

"No, I'd tell you, I just haven't slept in days. I don't think I'm thinking clearly. What about you? How did you and Jo meet?" I asked.

"Jo asked my boys and I if we could help her find a guy, Danny. We said we would and when we got to the bridge over the bay, he showed up. I didn't really get the whole story, but there was a shoot out between the two. Jo didn't seem like she had the mental stability to get back home so I offered to take her back to the hotel. By the time we got there, you had already left. We took a taxi here this afternoon."

"Thank you for taking care of her. It means a lot. You have to understand, we dind't want to leave her there we just had to get back here and--" I started rambling on. Collin held up a hand to stop me.

"You don't need to explain yourself to me. I was happy to help. Jo is a great girl." I nodded.

"She is. Collin? You said there was a shoot out between Danny and Jo. What happened?" Collin shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't really know why it started, but the guys showed up. His guys had all of my guys restrained. Jo took out a gun and started shooting at them. She...killed all of them..." He whispered the last part. I sighed in relief. "You have to see it this way though: that Danny guy would have killed all of us if she didn't first! She--"

"I know." I said. "It was self-defense, I get it." Mike pulled into the driveway, and paused.

"Uh, guys?" He started. "I thought we turned off all the lights." We looked into the house and there was a light on in what looked to be the hallway. I jumped out of the car and we all ran into the house. I swung the door open and saw a trail leading through the room. It looked to be blood and I followed it through to the bathroom. I turned the corner and looked up to see Jo sitting on the counter.