Author's Note: For whatever reason, I'm very motivated to continue writing this. That's why there's been two really quick updates. I really like where it's going right now and I hope that you do too. :)
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Harry's POV
It was getting bad. It was getting really bad and I didn't want her to know about it. I spent many hours in the hospital getting stitches and even more hours awake at night, worrying about how I'd manage to keep her safe this time. I thought of every possibility. Every tactic that my enemies could use against me. Against her. Against the guys. I spent hours in the gym. I always had a tendency to prepare myself for the worst. So Charlotte didn't think I was forgetting about her, I'd always take her to the gym with me. She'd always count for me while I lifted weights. and once or twice she'd given me the motivation I needed by sitting on my hips while I lifted. "Are you ok?" she asked, while I was nearing the end of a set. I lifted the bar three more times to finish my set before I answered.
"I'm alright." I answered, taking a deep breath before getting up to work on pull ups instead.
"You're worried. If you weren't you wouldn't be working out so much. You think you're not strong enough."
"I just need to be sure, Charlotte."
"Are you safe? Are we safe?" she asked. When she used to ask questions like this, her voice would quiver. Now it was just monotonous. It didn't effect her anymore. That bothered me. She was used to being afraid. She was used to having her life threatened. Or was it that she trusted me enough now to protect her? I'd prefer to think that way. I didn't want to ask though, because that was an emotional conversation that I was not prepared for. I never was.
"I'll make sure of it, angel."
"Maybe I should start working out too." she said, quietly while distracted with something else.
"You want to?" I asked and she nodded. "Lay down." I said, motioning towards the bench. I took off some of the weights on the bar because I knew that she could lift a lot, but not nearly the amount of weight that I lifted everyday. She put her hands around the bar and lifted it before letting it slowly come down to her chest. "Is it light enough? Can you lift it back up?" I asked. She nodded and let a deep breath out before pushing it back up. Hear arms were shaking but it was possible that she just wasn't used to lifting weights like this. She did that a few more times before she started struggling to get it back up. When I could hear it hit Charlotte's chest, I knew that she was done. I took the bar and lifted it off of her, because I knew that she couldn't. "You did amazing. Good girl." I smiled, helping her up.
"Thank you." she giggled. "I wish I could lift more though. I want to be stronger. It'd be better for defending myself. That way I'd be able to beat anyone up who tried to hurt me. I wouldn't have to be so afraid all the time." she said, with a smirk. She probably knew that this would encourage me to let her work out with me more often. She knew that I would support anything that would keep her safe.
"Then you'll just have to work out with me more often." I said, not imagining that she really wanted to. I didn't want her to work out with me every day because I didn't want her to hurt herself while she was lifting. "Let's go home." I said, taking her hand and leading her out of the gym.
I was more scared today than I had been in weeks. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I had a horrible feeling, gnawing at my side that made me worry about Charlotte immensely. I couldn't let anything happen to her. "Do you just want to stay at my place again tonight?" I asked while we were walking down the sidewalk. If she was with me, nothing could hurt her. Because I'd sooner die than let anyone hurt her.
"I can come over later tonight but I have to be at my house this evening because my family and I are going over to see my cousins. We haven't seen them in a few months. I can just come over after that, though." she answered as she texted someone- probably one of her parents.
"Ok. Text me when you get home and when you get to your cousin's and when you get home again, ok?" I said, sort of trailing off after realizing that that sounded very strange and possessive.
"Why?" she asked, giving me a weird look.
"I'm just a little on edge right now. You know that things have been getting really bad on the streets lately, angel. I just like to know that you're safe."
"Oh yeah.." she said in a defeated voice. She hadn't forgotten all the mornings that I was missing when I should have been laying beside her. "Yeah, I'll do that. I love you." she said, standing on her toes to give me a kiss.
Charlotte's POV
Harry waited until I was inside my house before pulling out of my driveway and disappearing down the road. The second he left though, I was uncomfortable. Knowing how bad things had gotten lately made me very anxious in the absence of his company. I was starting to feel physically sick from having to worry every second of the day. My health was declining the longer Harry was gone and the more I had to worry about my own safety. I set my bag down on the table and walked into the kitchen. I was late. We were supposed to have left to my cousin's house almost thirty minutes ago. So it surprised me when my whole family wasn't standing near the front door, waiting for me to walk through it so that we could go. "Charlotte." My dad gasped. He was crying. My body immediately locked up. My dad looked up from having his head in his hands, sitting at the dining room table.
"What happened? Where's Mom? It's mom, isn't it?" I said, already beginning to cry because I knew that that's what it was. He nodded and tried to stand up but had to sit back down.
"She's dead?"
"N-no. She's at the hospital. There was a mass shooting downtown. They- They already said that she- she has no chance." It felt like a fire started in my chest and ripped through my ribs.
"N-no. I can't- No. She's not- She's ok. Sh-she's fine." I dropped to my knees in the middle of the kitchen. I tried to scream at the top of my lungs. No sound came out.
"Charlotte, it's going to be ok." Dad said, coming to kneel down at my side. "It'll be ok." he said, his voice cracking. He didn't even believe it- why should I?
"Dad, i can't breathe. I can't breathe." I gasped. My entire world- gone. "I can't breathe. I can't breathe." I was so dizzy that I couldn't even see. "I can't see-"
Harry's POV
Charlotte's father was standing by the front door when I pulled back into the driveway for the second time that day. But this time was different. I ripped the keys out of the ignition and ran down the driveway. "I'm so sorry." I said, hugging her dad. Surprisingly, he hugged me back. With how bitter he's always been towards me, I'd never expect something like this. But it wasn't the time to wonder about stupid shit like that. I threw the front door open and ran inside towards the kitchen. He told me that's where Charlotte was. She was curled up in a little ball on the tile floor. Completely unconscious at this point. I knelt down next to her and pulled her into my lap. "Charlotte. Charlotte, wake up." I said, watching her eyes. Finally they were open, but as soon as they were, she started bawling. She grabbed onto my shirt and screamed into my chest. "I'm so sorry." I said, holding onto her tightly.
I drove both of them to the hospital, seeing as that neither of them were fit to drive. Charlotte sobbed in the passenger seat, choking on her tears every now and then. Her dad was essentially silent in the back seat, but it was obvious that he was crying too. They were trying to figure out how they were going to live without the woman that holds them all together. Besides, I couldn't deny the fact that I had to wipe my eyes every now and then as well. Pulling into the parking deck at the hospital was the worst part of the drive. Charlotte was practically screaming and her dad was trying to calm her down but it wasn't helping. All I wanted to do was to help her. I wanted to fix this for her. But there was nothing that I could do now. With a sigh, I got out of the car and held the door open for Charlotte.
"I don't want to go." she cried. "I don't want to go. Make it stop. I don't want to go in. I don't want to go in there. I don't want to see her. I don't want to see her die." she sobbed, clinging to the seat while I tried desperately to lift her out. Her dad got out and walked in while I tried to reason with his daughter.
"We don't have to go in if you don't want to, baby. But you're going to regret it if you don't. Your mom- your mom is dying. She wants to see you. Sh- she wants to see you before she goes." I said. The words physically hurt me, but there was no other way that I was going to get her out of that car.
"Ok." she nodded. Tears, snot and makeup were all running down her face. She was shaking violently and we had had to pull over on the way here a few times so that she could throw up.
"Ok. It's ok. Let's go. It's going to be ok." I said, lifting her from the seat. With one arm just under her shoulders and the other under her knees, I carried her into the hospital while she continued to cry.
"I can walk." she said when we were getting near the reception desk, so I set her back down on her feet. I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth but I couldn't just walk into the ICU with her in my arms. I wasn't family. There were quite a few nurses standing there already and they already knew who Charlotte was- probably because her dad was there talking to them.
"Let's go, sweetheart." they said, taking her from me. A nurse put her arm around Charlotte's shoulders and another held her hand. These were good nurses. They were going to take care of her. It hurt to stay in the waiting room when all I wanted to do was help Charlotte, but I had to remember that I could only help so much anyways. After much haggling, they let me in the ICU waiting room instead of the general waiting room which made me much closer to Charlotte and her family. Piper ended up sitting down by me at some point because her dad and sister didn't want her to be in there. I was uncomfortable. I knew how to comfort Charlotte, but I had no idea what I was supposed to say to Piper.
"What's going to happen now? My mommy's going to die. But what happens after that? What are we going to do?" Piper asked, looking up at me with her childish, big brown eyes. It definitely startled me and I wracked my brain, searching frantically for an answer.
"Well, I mean... I guess that you're just going to keep going. You're just going to keep living. You're going to keep doing what you've been doing... But without your mom."
"I can't do that." she said, trying to look in the window at the ICU but the windows were too translucent to see anything besides shadows through.
"I'm sorry, Piper. I wish that I could fix it for you. And for Charlotte. I do... But I can't. No one can." I bit my lip. I remember sitting in an intensive care unit just like this when Gemma was dying. I already felt horrible but that made tears spring to my eyes. "Dammit." I barked, punching the wall while tears finally ran down my face.
"Sir, we're going to have to ask you to-"
"No, I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I swear." I said to a male nurse with a clipboard. "Everyone dies, Piper. I'm just so damn sorry that you had to find that out at such a young age." I murmured, putting my head in my hands. All of a sudden, I felt a little hand take mine. I looked down at Piper who was holding my hand and offering me a small smile despite the fact that her mom was dying less than two hundred feet away. I wiped my tear filled eyes with the back of my hand several times, trying anything to stop crying, but it wasn't working. I felt myself falling apart. I couldn't imagine how Charlotte must be feeling. I was suffering for her.
"It's ok, Harry. It's going to be ok." Piper said, softly. My chest hurt so bad. All I want to do is protect everyone I love. And I can't. I never can. Something always happens. No matter what I do, it's not enough. It will never be enough. I will never be strong enough or fast enough or smart enough. In this world, I can never be the best, which is what I would need to be to protect them. To protect everyone. We need to get out of here. It's not safe anymore. I'm done with the gang. I'm done with all of this. Charlotte was right. When we were laying in bed and she begged me to practically just run away with her and leave it all behind... she was right. I should have agreed right then. We'd be long gone by now. But her mom would have still died. And then Charlotte wouldn't have been here to say goodbye. This was still the right choice, even though it felt wrong. It was hours before I saw Charlotte again, but she finally walked out of that room. I looked up at her and she just nodded and started crying harder again. Her mother was dead.
"Come here." I said quietly and she did. She sat down on my lap and let me wrap my arms around her.
"I can't do this." she whimpered, clinging on to my shirt. Piper was crying in her dad's lap now. She kept crying for her mommy.
"Yes. You can. You can do anything, Charlotte." I said, firmly.
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Author's Note: Sorry that it was a short chapter! Even thought that sort of helps add to the chaos of the whole scene. There will be another update (hopefully) very soon. I already know exactly what I want to happen, so it should definitely be up within the week if not the next day or two. Thank you all so much for your continued support. It's amazing to have SO many people read what you write.
Always love. -P