Paramedics rushed into Reign, a gurney being hoisted up onto their shoulders and briskly carried to Ramses's side.
A male paramedic came up to Milan slowly and assessed the state of Ramses's body with squinted eyes.
"You seem to have a pretty good hold on that bleed. You think you can stay there?" He asked, gesturing for the men with the gurney to come closer to the scene.
Milan gave him a funny look, "What do you mean? He's fucking bleeding, I can't let go!" She exasperated, looking back over to how Ramses's face was paling. She was terrified.
"Great." Was the man's simple reply.
The paramedic was unfazed by her attitude, he even seemed a bit amused by her. The team of professionals began to carefully place Rameses onto the gurney, and to her surprise, they managed to move him and her onto the gurney.
Next, they were up in the air and Milan saw just how much damage had come over her beloved work place. The stampede left the paramedics to carry them over overturned tables, seemingly billions of crushed glass bottles, and bullet shrapnel.
They sure knew how to party on the Southside.
Milan grouched in her head as the humidity of outside hit her and more glass littered the parking lot the ambulance was waiting in. "Watch your head!" One of the medics called up to her as they smoothly slid the gurney inside the ambulance, Milan's forehead just being missed by the roof of the huge truck.
"How old is he? What's his name? What's his blood type? Does he have any more wounds?" The same health professional rattled off to her, a note board in his hands.
Milan's head was spinning at the speed of the questions and she found herself laughing a little out of the sheer stress of the situation. "I-I don't know all of these answers! I barely know him!" She stressed, keeping her eyes on his bleeding chest. She could barely see her fingernails, they were covered in blood.
"Ma'am please stay calm. We need to alert the hospital that's waiting on him. Take a deep breath. What's his name?" The paramedic tried to bring Milan's mind back to the surface of the situation. She welcomed the deep breath he offered to take with her and willed herself to look over to the short South Asian man in a dark blue scrubs.
"His name is-is Ramses Young. He's twenty five. I don't know his blood type, but can you please make sure he doesn't die?" Milan found herself desperately begging the quickly writing man. He looked up at her with a grim expression then his eyes flitted over Ramses's stone still body before making contact with her's again.
"We're going to do everything we can, ma'am."
Taking another sobering deep breath, Milan pressed down a little harder on Ramses's chest wound. His breathing was growing evermore shallow. Shaking her head, all she could do was hope and pray that their best was enough to save his life.
***
When they got to the hospital, Milan was quickly escorted off the gurney and a nurse hopped up onto the rolling gurney Rameses was on, applying the pressure she was.
She mindlessly followed Ramses's body until a woman stopped her from following the attendants into a ER room. Milan barely noticed, looking every way around the woman trying to keep a glimpse of him.
It wasn't until the nurse took her wrist and overturned her palm did she look down at her mud colored palms. Ramses's blood had dried and caked onto her skin and nails. She was lightly shaking as well.
"Let's get you cleaned up, huh?" The brunette nurse offered as a consolation. Milan just nodded, she couldn't find her voice while her teeth were chattering. She wasn't even cold for God's sake. The nurse smiled at her, "Adrenaline let down. You'll be fine, I promise."
The nurse lead Milan to a washroom where she helped her thoroughly wash her hands, the clear water running over her hands instantly turning a rust colored red which stained the pristine white sink.
"That's better isn't it? It gets pretty cold in the hospital, and I'm sure you'll want to stay with your boyfriend tonight, right? Let me get you some scrubs." The nurse continued to gently lead Milan around the facilities and into a supply closet that had shelves upon shelves of dark plum scrubs.
"H-he's not my boyfriend." Milan corrected weakly as they stood at one mountain of scrubs.
Giving Milan a quick once over before choosing a size and handing it to her, the nurse let out a girlish giggle. "Oh, my mistake."
Milan softly thanked her for the extra clothing and stepped into the pants that were given to her. They were ill fitting on her legs and the elastic waist drooped horribly, but she was grateful for the gesture.
"Whoever he is though, you saved his life tonight. He wouldn't have made it without you." The nurse continued after her apology.
Milan had no words for that, she was almost in shock of everything that had happened. So, she wordlessly followed the woman out of the supply closet and allowed her to place her in the emergency room waiting area.
It was relatively empty for a Friday night, which Milan was grateful for. She could still hear the gunshots that sounded off in the club ringing in her head.
About an hour passed before the same brunette nurse came out from the nurse's station and walked over to Milan who was twiddling her fingers nervously in the hospital chair. She stood up immediately when the nurse walked over, her heart falling into her toes once again as she waited for her to speak.
"So, your not boyfriend is doing fine—"
A sigh of relief immediately ripped through Milan's lips. Her whole body visibly relaxing. The nurse's eyes twinkled with mirth.
"...and he's asking for you."
Milan's eyes widened a bit, but she could tell the nurse was eating up her every move, so she relaxed quickly and nodded her head.
"O-okay, can I see him?" Was her follow up question, and the nurse nodded. "Of course, follow me."
The two boarded an elevator and went up a couple floors before Milan was brought to a room and gestured for to go inside. Peeking her head in, she saw Ramses was the only one in the room. Her shoes squeaked against the hospital floors, causing Ramses to look towards her.
He cracked a smile at her and it made her heart flutter the tiniest bit.
What the hell was that, Milan?!
She kicked herself for it.
She knew falling for him would land her right next to him.
In a damn hospital bed.
No one was safe from a bullet, even if it wasn't meant for you. And close proximity to Pharaoh?
The bullet definitely would be meant for you.
Yet Milan stepped closer to him inside the room.
"Now who put you in those wide ass pants? I hope they don't think you my girl walking up here like that." He teased, coughing slightly between his breaths.
He was propped up in his hospital bed, his arm hanging out of the gown he was in so that his chest was exposed. On that side, the site of his wound was thickly bandaged, but otherwise he looked like himself, just immensely tired.
Milan rolled her eyes as she walked up on his bed and leaned over the railing to get a closer look at his bandaging.
"Sorry to break it to you, but they did. I tried to tell them I'd never date someone as ugly as you." She returned smugly, popping him in his arm with her fingers. Ramses's smile only got bigger. Milan swore she felt a tremble in her knees.
He had the nicest set of teeth she'd ever seen. He still looked good and the man had just survived a traumatic life experience.
Ramses's scoffed at her response and grabbed her arm, pulling her whole torso over the hospital bed railing so much so that Milan's hair curtained around their faces. He licked his lips as his eyes slowly panned over her features.
"Mi, don't cap with me. You know we'd make some pretty ass babies."
The room was silent as Milan tried to process just exactly what was said to her. Whatever it was had ignited a fire in her belly.
"Pharaoh, baby! Oh my God! I came as soon as I heard!" A woman's voice broke the silence of the room as she ran in. The woman pushed Milan to the side as she took Ramses's hand and put it to her heart.
A couple of other men came in the room after her and Milan started to gravitate towards the exit of the room.
His people were here and she didn't want to overstay her welcome. Especially with the lady that just came in fawning over him that way.
"Tatiana, chill. I'm good. Milan made sure of that." Ramses told the woman while she was cooing, effectively silencing her in that moment.
"Who the fuck is Milan?" The woman who she now knew as Tatiana snapped at him.
"Me." Milan answered, leaning against the wall near the doorway. Her arms were crossed as Tatiana whirled her head around to look at her and her gaze was nothing friendly as the two girls took each other in.
Tatiana was a woman the color of a cashew with long ombre black to brown hair. It was bone straight and so was the expression she was eyeing Milan with.
"Hmmph." Tatiana huffed as a greeting before turning her back on Milan once again.
Milan bit back a laugh and decided it was time for her to let herself out.
"Yeah alright, Ramses I'm glad you're okay. I'll see you around." Milan spoke up before pushing herself between the men that had came up with Tatiana and walking out of the room.
"Who that hoe think she is calling you by your real name, P?"
"Girl, if you don't sit yo ass down somewhere and stop stressin' me—"
Smiling to herself at their exchange, Milan walked herself towards the elevators and pressed the down button. A couple moments later, one of the men who was in the room jogged up to her.
"I know you rode in the ambulance with him, you need a ride?" He offered.
Looking him up and down Milan noticed the tent of a pistol in his jeans pocket and immediately made up her mind to decline. She had, had enough of being around men with guns for one night. She knew he didn't plan to use it on her, but in the case something happened between the hospital and her home— she did not want to be in anymore crossfire.
"No, thank you so much though. Sweet of you to ask." She told him, the soft ping of the elevator arriving making her take her eyes off him.
"No problem, lil mama. Fine thang like you gotta get home safely." The man added, biting his lip just a tad too long for comfort as Milan stepped into the elevator. She just smiled and waved a small goodbye before the doors closed on her.
Thank God.
She sighed as soon as his hungry eyes were off her.
When she reached the ground floor once again, she called her brother Devon. Staring out into the pitch black of night as she tapped her foot impatiently as the phone rang and rang until finally he picked up, blaring music in the background of the call.
"Hey Dev, you think you can pick me up from the hospital?" She asked him loudly enough for him to hear over the music. One of the nurses glared at her, Milan flipped her off.
"Yo clumsy ass ended up in the ER huh? Which one, Lani? I'm making a drop right now so hold tight." Her brother responded, the loud music explained. He never rode around without his speakers verging on exploding.
"I'll send you my location. Hurry up, it's cold as hell in here." She stressed. Devon found that funny and laughed obnoxiously into the speaker. "A'ight, a'ight. Quit cryin'!"
Milan just hung up on him after that, immediately texting him her location afterwards and going to sit down in a chair where she watched cars pull in and out of the parking lot until she recognized her brother's dark gray Dodge Challenger.
When she got into the car her back immediately fell a way's back in the seat making Devon snicker. Milan cursed quietly as she had to pull her seat's back into an upright position and not one that almost allowed her to lay fully horizontal.
"My bad, Lani. You know I be having business to—"
"I don't wanna hear about the nastiness you be doing in this car, D. You need to go get your ass tested." She cut him off, reaching over and turning down his blaring music. Devon just laughed again as he pulled out of the parking lot and made his way onto the main street.
"I hear you. What the hell you do to land in the hospital? You don't look hurt." Devon changed the conversation and Milan bit her lip at the question. Her brother was not gonna like the fact that she was around his gang's biggest rival. Especially their leader.
"Someone got shot in the club tonight, I had to go see if they were good." She vaguely expressed and Devon nodded. "Someone you knew obviously. Was it Daya's fine ass? Tell my baby I'll be by to see her soon." He rakishly joked.
Milan rolled her eyes and looked out of her passenger side window.
"No, Daya's fine. It was someone else."
"Hm," Devon breathed, Milan saw him glance over at her out of her peripheral vision. "I heard Pharaoh was in your shit tonight. I also heard he got his ass popped too. I don't know if he went down though. Do you?"
Now wishing she hadn't turned his music down in the first place, Milan turned further from her brother in her seat.
"Lani, don't lie to me. You know I don't have no problem with Pharaoh, but you can't be around him. Not while I am who I am." Her brother continued to talk, his tone losing its characteristic humor. Milan hated when he tried to be serious.
She hated when he tried to tell her what to do, period.
He was not our dad.
"Who are you, Devon?" Milan deadpanned.
Devon hit the brakes off the car so hard that Milan flew forward in her seat, her seatbelt smacking her back down just as hard. Her face whipped towards her brother who was already looking at her, his expression a fraction short of murderous.
"I'm the most feared man on the fucking west side. Don't you act brand new. I said what I said. You stay yo ass away from Pharaoh." Devon lowly seethed. Milan held his gaze for as long as she could before she had to look away. Angry tears began to pool in her eyes.
Her brother began to drive again, they were now just a few minutes away from their apartment.
"You should've left his ass to die, Milan." He added, the silence in the car thickening from Milan's brooding mood.
Parking the car, Devon looked at Milan who had her fists balled up in her lap like she was going to punch him straight in the face. That's all she wanted to do right now actually.
"Should he have left you too?"
Devon's face didn't move, but she knew the question made him sick to his stomach.
She left her brother in the car to sit in his stupid thoughts, slamming the car door before pulling her keys out of her fanny pack and walking inside the building and to their place. Going right into her room and pulling off all of her clothes.
Milan dove underneath her covers and closed her eyes, trying to will herself to sleep as fast as she could to forget this whole night, but then her phone buzzed.
Looking at the screen, she saw an unknown number had texted her:
I hope you got in safe. I also hope you know you gon' be "seeing me around" real soon.
And with that,
Milan proceeded to scream bloody murder into her black satin pillow.