Watching Louise get shot was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do. Watching anyone get shot sucked, but this was worse. It felt frustrating to just have gotten to her and then have her ripped away cruelly. When Louise managed to shoot someone and Katherine shot the other, I wasted no time in grabbing her and rushing out. She'd cried out at first, but then she'd passed out either from blood loss or pain and I'd quickly picked her up and carried her out.
The bodyguard outside was stunned, but didn't move to hurt us. He actually helped us, walking with us to make sure no one attacked us. When asked why he helped us, he informed us that he'd wanted to get away from Robbie for years but couldn't run. He said what happened to Louise would always happen if someone tried to leave Robbie.
Now that Robbie was dead, the guard, whose name was Gavin, could happily be a tattoo artist and own all the cats he wanted. You go, Gavin. Live your life on the wild side.
And we didn't dare call the police for Louise. They had never done her much good, anyway. Instead, we took her to the hospital and they rushed her to the ICU. Other than a few odd looks, they didn't ask questions. They said it had been very far off any major organs or arteries, so she was safe for the most part.
She needed blood transfusions. Selena knew her blood type, though I'd have to ask about that later, and they did it safely. We couldn't see her for a while. It took a lot of convincing for them to let us see her at all; Katherine had disappeared as soon as she wasn't needed, though I knew she'd be in Virginia when we needed her at the trial. They said only family could see her.
"She doesn't have a family," I said, and at the same time Selena informed her that we were her family. She'd awkwardly caved and nodded.
"When the surgery is over, we'll inform you when she wakes up."
Selena and Jay sat close; she was currently sandwiched between us and laying her head on my shoulder while clinging to Jay's arm. "They said she'd be okay," Jay promised.
"This wasn't the first time she was shot," I muttered, still processing this. "They said there was a recent bullet wound in her leg, too. She shouldn't even be able to attempt to walk right now."
"She's strong and stubborn," said Selena, smiling. "The worst combination."
"I don't understand how she could sass Robbie and be completely terrified around cops," Jay remarked, laughing once. I silently agreed, my lips curling into a smile. "I never got that close to her," he said wistfully.
"I think she kept anyone that wasn't Emmett at arm's length," Selena said in amusement, looking up at me. "You were just irresistible, Emmett."
"And I forced her to talk to me," I added, grinning. "I never thought it would come to this." I took a long gulp of water, my mind whirling with thoughts of our first conversations.
"At least you'll remember how you came together so you can tell your kids the stories," she quipped.
I choked on my water. Before I was forced to formulate a reply, Jay said, "Selena, she probably won't want kids for fifty years after she's been through this."
"We're lucky if they don't throw her in jail," I muttered, shaking my head. "Or worse, a psych ward."
"She's been through so much!" Selena cried, shaking her head. "It'd be purely rude to lock her up after all this. She was forced into a lot of stuff."
"They don't care about that," Jay said in annoyance. "But we don't know. I'm sure we have a good chance for the trial."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because unless the jury is heartless, they'll probably feel horrible for this girl. At first glance, she looks kind of helpless and weak," I answered for him, looking up at Jay.
"Do you think Katherine will help us during the trial?" Selena asked, her wide eyes looking at me.
"Yes," I said with conviction. "Once she gets wrapped up in helping or doing something, she'll see it through." Selena seemed to know this to be true; she nodded and looked at the floor without even trying to contradict me. "She is determined to keep Louise out of jail."
"How did you even meet her?" Jay asked in amusement.
I awkwardly recounted the story, sheepishly telling them that I thought she was Louise. Jay shook his head, laughing slightly. "I'm sorry I doubted you, man. I thought you were just holding on to her ghost. I wondered why you hadn't let it go after so many years. Most people would have."
"I did," Selena said. "I don't know how. I wish I hadn't." We were quiet for a few seconds, then Selena asked, "Why didn't she visit me like she did you?"
I sighed, looking at the floor. "I think she cared about you, Selena. She felt horrible for visiting me, like she was just dragging out my grief."
"She was," Jay said, nodding. "You would have moved on long ago if she hadn't visited you. I think it made you feel like she would know if you dated someone else and you didn't want her to."
Suddenly, a nurse appeared in front of us with a warm smile. "She seems to be waking up," she said, her hands clasped together. "She's very groggy, and I don't know how conscious she really is."
When we walked in, her words made sense. Louise's eyes were somewhat open, and she was staring at the wall like it was the most interesting thing ever. I'm sure they still had her on a lot of medicines, including the anesthesia. "Louise?" Selena asked quietly.
Louise looked over slowly, her eyes raking over the three of us uncomprehendingly. Then, when she decided we weren't all that amazing, she closed her eyes again and was asleep in seconds. I smiled, shaking my head. The doctor walked and looked at us with an odd smile.
"Boy do I have questions for you guys," he said, shaking his head. "First of all, what is this?" He gestured towards Louise, his eyes wide. "I haven't seen anything like this in years."
Selena recounted all we knew, and I realized how truly screwed up this really was. "Well, you're lucky her leg wasn't amputated. It looked like someone had cared for it, but not thoroughly. The most that had been done was the bullet being taken out. Other than that, no one bothered to put ointment on it or anything."
"Is it infected?"
"Yes. She was very dirty, so I can't even think of all the bacteria that could be in that wound. Luckily, you got the one in her left shoulder to us quick enough to do everything safely. It should heal a little faster than the one in her leg."
He told us she'd need a wheelchair. I knew she wouldn't want it, but I'd nail her to that wheelchair if I had to. She was sticking this recovery out if it killed her.
"Now we did file this, and a few agents somehow caught wind of it and called us very quickly, so we are sending her back to Virginia. She's healthy enough to go, now that she's bandaged up. Still, she'll stay in a hospital for a good few days to make sure no real trauma happened."
I was positive a ton of real trauma happened. Maybe not much physically, other than all the cuts and wounds he had stitched and bandaged, but I was sure some things were wrong mentally. Katherine's words about the probable PTSD circled in my mind, and I knew she would be paranoid for years.
As he promised, we all went back to Virginia and were joined in the hospital room almost immediately by two agents. "I can't believe it," Cassidy remarked. Louise had been awake a few times, but kept falling back asleep before we could get a real conversation in. "You kids actually found her."
I wanted to rub it in her face, but Selena put her hand on my arm when she sensed my intentions. "Robbie's dead," Jay said, his arms crossed. "So are a few of his men."
"It was self-defense, I'm sure," Lawson said, waving. His partner, Carter, hadn't been as involved when Cassidy showed up. "No one is going to try and charge her for that one."
"Pete Walsh and Sarah Walsh, however, are going to be very hard to get out of," Cassidy put in, cocking an eyebrow at the still sleeping Louise. "You claim she didn't do it, but something is just fishy about it. The ADA is going to catch onto it and he's going to use it."
"Why are they determined to put her in jail?" Selena asked with a frown.
"They aren't. The ADA is a nice man with a daughter her age, but it's his job. He's going to do it properly."
Lawson added, "But our job is convincing one juror that you're innocent. Don't worry, kids, they'll understand."
"Understand what? That it sucks to be Louise Bren?" I asked, sighing and looking longingly at Louise.
"Yes," Cassidy confirmed, crossing her arms. "Your girlfriend has had a tough life. They'll recognize that. I think the most she'll get at this point is five to ten years, probably with the chance of parole or getting out for good behavior."
A small grumble got our attention and we saw Louise's eyes popping open, raking over us. I'd sat by her the whole time she was out, and she occasionally talked in her sleep. Sometimes, when she was asleep on her own and not from medicine, she'd have nightmares. Sometimes, she'd smile in her sleep. Both made my heart ache.
That smile was rare. She had too much to cry about and not enough to smile about.
Louise's eyes stayed on me. Well, they stayed on my hair. Agent Cassidy greeted her and introduced herself and her partner, and I walked over to grab her hand. I knew they were about to bombard her with questions, but I needed them to. I needed to know about everything, even though I knew I wouldn't like to hear it.
A nice nurse appeared with a motherly smile and looked at Louise. She explained the deal with the crutches and made the wheelchair sound like an offering, though we knew she would need it. When Louise rejected, the nurse informed her she'd need the wheelchair anyway.
"We're here to ask you a few questions," Cassidy began, pulling up a chair. "If you don't mind, that is."
Louise, obviously a little ruffled, said, "Sure."
Selena tried to object, but I waved her protests away. Louise did the same and said, "I'm fine."
The questions Cassidy began asking were ones she already knew the answer to. I think she was just making sure Louise wasn't a pathological liar, but I knew she wasn't. She didn't enjoy lying, she just lied when she felt she needed to.
She didn't lie at all. Well, not to Cassidy's knowledge. She still stuck with the story Katherine fabricated, but that was truth enough for the two agents. "My parents died in a wreck. I was in foster homes. I ran when Pete Walsh killed his daughter and tried to kill me. He chased, I ran. It was a game to him." The last part wasn't a lie; I think it was a game to him. At first, it was a game of hatred. Then, it was a game of torture.
"When you killed him, was it self-defense?"
"It was an accident," she said helplessly. "I couldn't see. I was dizzy and ready to pass out. When I stumbled, he I hit him and knocked him out the window that broke earlier."
"How did Robbie show up?"
Louise's eyes flickered to me. She didn't look away when she said, "Robbie came to me. He got me into it before I realized what he was doing. When I wanted to leave, he said I could either die or do what he wanted me to. I didn't want to die, so I did whatever he asked."
"Did you ever kill for him?"
"No," she said automatically. Her eyes were wide, thousands of stories floating behind them. She hated even the thought of killing, but she would do it when it was necessary. Something told me the men she killed in that basement in Maryland were the last ones for her. "He tried, but that was one thing I refused to do. I think I did so much for him, and I was so valuable, he didn't want to kill me."
"Why did he chase so hard? Does he do that for everyone?"
"He chases everyone, but he was even angrier for me. I got him involved with the police. I think he felt betrayed."
Though she stuck to the story very well, a lot of what she said was very true. She had wanted out, and she was practically forced to do most of what she'd done. The biggest lie was that Walsh had killed Sarah, when Louise was really the one who did it. I could practically feel the guilt at the lie rolling off her; Louise would lie about a lot of things, but I think she felt bad about not taking the consequences for her actions.
Selena looked a little pained, but not too much. I think her sister's death was too old and too detached to bother her as much as it had four years ago.
Finally the agents left. The nurse knocked her out again, but she wasn't asleep for more than an hour. As soon as she woke up, Selena hopped into the hospital bed with her injured friend and cried into her shirt. "Why did you never come to see me?" she sobbed, her arms wrapping around Louise.
Louise's face was contorted in pain from her shoulder, but she didn't do anything to make Selena stop. On her face was so much guilt and emotional pain that she didn't have the heart to. I squeezed her hand, giving her a reassuring smile.
"When you guys came to Alabama, I saw that you were happy. Emmett was..." Her eyes met mine. "Less than happy. Since you'd moved past it, I wasn't going to drag you back down. But I couldn't stand being completely cut off from everything." She looked back at Selena. "I don't know why, Selena."
Jay watched it all awkwardly, sitting down where the agents had previously sat. "We were coming down to see you because Emmett said he found you and you were gone when we got here," Selena said tearfully, looking at Louise. "The agents tried to say you ran again, but Katherine figured out that they took you against your will."
Louise's head fell back against the wall behind her and she closed her eyes. "I'm done running."
"Tired already? It's only been seven years," I commented, cocking an eyebrow. "I figured you could go a little longer."
Louise's eyes opened and she fixed me with a half resigned, half bitter look. "I know, Emmett. I know I put you through a lot and that I put myself through all of this and I know that I should have just let Walsh win, but I didn't want to. I didn't want to die yet."
"I didn't say you should let Walsh win!" I said fiercely, anger at the simple statement making my blood boil. I was glad she'd killed Walsh, even if he was Selena's dad. "I just think you should have stayed. You'd be in a lot less trouble if you hadn't run that night."
She stared at her blankets despondently, her face blank. Jay said something about food and left. Selena suddenly grabbed her hand and said, "Louise, I was never mad. I'm not mad about Sarah, even though I used to be, and I was never mad after my dad. I would never have gotten to become friends with you if it hadn't happened. Don't hate yourself."
"I don't," she lied. It was the first time she'd lied and it had been completely transparent. She was usually really talented at lying. "I just wish we'd met in a different way."
"I do, too," I muttered, messing with her hair. Selena absentmindedly braided a strand of her hair, then shifted both of them so she could properly do something with Louise's hair. She began the braids, looking perfectly contented while playing with it. Louise's eyes closed slowly at the feeling.
Chuckling at that, I looked over to see Jay walking back in with vending machine snacks for each of us. "It's a good thing I always kept my coins," he remarked, setting them down. Louise looked uncomfortably at the food, obviously not wanting to eat. How could she not be hungry?
I decided not to interrogate her or force her to eat. She was probably still feeling gross and probably in pain. "Aren't you hungry?" Selena demanded, grabbing the bag of chips.
"Not really. I'm sure they've been feeding me through the I.V." Was that even possible? I was sure she was just making up excuses for her lack of hunger. Surely they wouldn't have fed her through the same I.V. that put medicines in her.
Instead of conversing about the depressing topic of Louise's possible conviction or Robbie's death, we chattered about life in general. Louise had so many questions for Selena. How was life as a hairdresser and makeup artist and other questions like that. Selena had so much to tell her.
If I mentally blocked the image of the hospital room, I could picture this as the future. Chatting about nonsense with Selena, Louise, and Jay and not worrying about anything for a few minutes. Life was definitely looking up for a simple few hours.