Love Within Ashes {Completed}

Chapter 32: Moon after Glory

"What happened?! What the fuck happened?! Where is she?! Fucking tell me she's alright!" Joe ran to Emma and grabbed her arms, shaking her while he yelled.

His eyes were tempestuous, they turned night black and you could see the redness from his neck to the top of his head. Emma tried to hold the tears, but when she saw an inconsolable and distressed Joe, she couldn't fight no more as a tear sled down her glowing cheek. Joe's eyes were widened and waiting for Emma's answer while Billy took a few steps closer to them and placed his hands on his hips.

"She's in surgery. That was the last thing they told me. Someone shot her, Joe." Emma articulated with a cracked and forced strong voice.

Joe closed his eyes and sighed hoarsely upset as he loosed the grip. Joe began breathing more heavily and paced around the hallway. Emma sniffed and wiped the tear away, not wanting to look at Billy, for she knew she was going to end sobbing loudly if she saw him, in that second.

"Fuck! FUCK! SHIT! FUCK!" Joe cursed out loud while he threw kicks in the air and pulled out his hair in a mad frenzied aggressiveness.

Billy turned around, eluding the sight of his disconsolate brother while Emma raised her head up.

"Dawson family?" a nurse interrupted the suffocating atmosphere.

"I'm her boyfriend," Joe said as he glared at the nurse, walking towards her.

"You must follow me," the small woman dressed in white said as she turned around and walked away, Joe walking behind her.

When Joe followed the nurse and walked away from the hallway, Billy scurried to where Emma was standing and snarled to his own question, "Who fuckin' did it?"

Emma looked up at his eyes and glared while she answered, "Do you think I fucking know?"

He sighed and glanced at the elevator's door that opened and then back at her, "You saw what happened?"

"No! When I arrived to the apartment, the police was already there! I came here and they told she's been in surgery for two hours!" Emma explained holding back the tears while she gazed at him.

Billy immediately locked his eyes with hers and fought the impulse of kissing her and making her his again. She sighed frustrated, broke the gaze and walked away from him, heading to the exit. She walked past the front doors and advanced to the parking lot. In the sidewalk, near the bushes and a disability tramp, she hugged herself from the shiver the cold night breeze made her feel, desiring a stupid cig to calm her nerves down. In fact, she needed something stronger, maybe vodka or a Jack will help. She saw a green Mazda passing by her, as she heaved a sigh. Just when the engine's sound faded away, she heard a couple of footsteps walking to where she was standing. When she looked around, Billy appeared standing next to her. She glanced at him and then at the horizon, admiring the cold night's moon. He took his red pack of Marlboro's and placed one between his lips, Emma glanced at him and at the cig and quickly returned to admire the moon. Billy silently snorted and took out his lighter.

"Want some?" he asked with the pack on his hand.

Emma didn't hesitate in grabbing one, and in seconds it was already entangled in her lips. A smirk arched on his lips that were busy with the cig as he lighted her smoke first and then his.

"Thanks," she lowly mumbled as she smoothly exhaled the smoke of nicotine, "I'm thinking it was them B Street."

Billy readjusted his lapel and shoulders and sniffed while he stared at the horizon, "Why?" he uttered in calm and deep tone.

"Why?! Well, because you and the Hall are making them fuckin' pissed! By what, you fuckin' ask? By joining together! So that's why! ... I think they were after me, not Aubrey. It's all my fucking fault!" she cursed wincing and then, she took a long drag.