Sorry for any mistakes. I'm just trying to give y'all an update.
~
Everyone sat in the waiting room area of the hospital, nervously waiting for the doctor to come out and deliver the news. Although they wanted everything to be fine, they all knew something bad was going to come out of it anyway. Seeing the doctor come out, they stood as he walked over when they heard him call out for Juan and Javier's family.
"I'm Dr. Cunningham." He started by introducing himself before sitting down in one of the empty chairs that were nearby.
It was almost 12 in the morning, so it was just them in the waiting room area. Everyone else had either gone to see their loved ones in their respective rooms or left.
"Are they going to be okay?" Demi asked, sitting at the edge of her chair.
Without another thought, she slowly inched up a bit more, leaned over to grab the doctors hands, and held them tightly in her hands. He held his composure as his body shook from Demi trembling right next to him.
"Doc, please please please tell me they're gonna be okay." She pleaded, now bringing his hands to her chest and holding it there, indicating that she NEEDED them to be okay.
"There's good and bad news." He said looking over everyone's faces. "We were able to stop the bleeding from Karter and she's okay. She's resting right now."
"Thank God!" Hazel said holding her hand over her chest, but not letting go of the sigh that sat lodged at the back of her throat. "What about Juan and Javier?"
"Javier is still in surgery and will be fine with a few therapy sessions after he gets released, but Juan..." he paused before looking at Demi and continuing. "Unfortunately didn't make it. He was pronounced dead when he got to the hospital and we tried our hardest to resuscitate him."
Everyone in the room was shocked to know that Juan, a loving and caring person who never did anything to anyone, was murdered. To say that everyone was devastated would be an understatement. They all broke down into tears as the doctor said his condolences and looked away to keep his composure.
3 hours earlier
"Why can't we just have a party? Y'all always say ain't no party like a Mexican party right?" Karter laughed.
Karter hasn't really gotten the chance to reach into her Hispanic roots, besides hearing Hispanic songs and celebrating Cinco de Mayo, since she's lived in Atlanta all her life. Although she was kidding at the moment, she really did want to have a party with all of her Mexican family, most of whom she hadn't even met yet.
"Yeah but in this case we're just going out to eat. We can't just invite people to LA this late." Hazel said.
"Well can we just go for ice cream?" Justyce asked as they all walked out of the building.
"Yeah you can't go wrong with that." Ava went along with it.
Ava was ready to eat some food, but ice cream sounded a bit better in this circumstance. She thought ice cream would make Javier feel better about the loss, even though he really didn't care since it was their first loss of the season.
As August walked up front, Javier, Karter, and Juan walked at the back, while Demi, Hazel, Justyce, and Ava walked before them. They were engaged in a deep debate about which ice cream flavor was the best before Juan noticed a car roll up beside them, but in the distance, slowly. Getting Javier's attention without making it obvious to the people in the car, he nodded his head over to them and watched Javier look.
"Who is that?" He asked.
"I don't know."
He figured they were just leaving the area like everyone else, but he realized they were keeping up the same pace as them, if not a little slower since they were walking. Juan tried to remain calm and keep his composure since they were almost to the cars, but he couldn't help but to be worried. People in this world are crazy and it wouldn't be crazy to think someone could kidnap a whole family.
"You don't think it's them right?" Javier asked Juan as his stomach started to turn.
Javier never even knew who the guys were when they were in Texas, so the fact that they followed them there pissed him off, yet worried him. Mainly because he was with his family. If anything were to happen to them, he'd feel like it'd be all his fault since they obviously have a problem with him and him only.
Juan didn't catch onto what he was talking about at first, but when Javier gestured towards his side, he got a bad feeling about everything as well. He didn't understand what the issue was with them, but he knew whatever it was, it wasn't that serious as to follow him to a whole nother state to cause more trouble than they already did. And if he was right about what was going through his head, they had their sights set on killing Javier, and they aren't going to stop until he's dead. Juan isn't about to let that happen though. He'll protect his family from anything even if it means taking his own life.
"Y'ALL GET DOWN!!" Javier screamed making everyone look at him.
Juan looked at him like he was crazy since they were literally a parking zone away from where their cars were parked, but then he looked at the car and saw the window roll down and the barrel to an m4 automatic come out. Like any father and brother, his first instinct was to protect his brother and daughter. While the gunshots rang out, August tried to shield the girls as well as Hazel and Demi as he hid behind another car, and Juan took most of the bullets while trying to cover Javier and Karter. Everyone's screams were heard throughout the parking lot as the car sped off.
August tried his hardest to keep everyone down despite hearing they pulled off, but Demi was too strong. She knocked August off of her and ran over to where Juan and Javier was.
"Juan!!" She yelled falling on side of him. "No no no no Juan please stay with me! Please stay here your daughters need you!"
Demi began to cry hysterically when she saw all the bullets he endured as she rolled him over onto her. She could tell by the bullets in other cars that they were aiming for all of them, but he took about 10 bullets, if not, a few more. Although his eyes were opened and he was still breathing shakily, she knew he most likely wouldn't make it with how long the ambulance would take. She laid her head on his chest and sobbed as August rushed over. No amount of pressure would be able to help them and she knew that, but didn't want it to be true.
"Uncle Javi?" They heard Karter say as she lightly pushed Javier off of her. "Are you okay?!"
He yelled out in pain, unable to move since he got hit in the leg and side yet again from covering Karter, but nodded his head yes anyway so that he wouldn't worry her. That worry he didn't want her filled with soon filled her once she thought about her dad.
"Daddy?" She then turned to Juan and saw Demi on top of him crying. "Mama he's okay right?"
At this point Hazel had ran over and August tried to keep her away from him, being that that would be too traumatic for her since she's pregnant.
"Juan nooo!! My fucking brother! They shot my fuckin brothers August!!" She cried out, tryin to get out of August's embrace.
She didn't even know who did it, but she knew whoever it was was going to pay, even if it cost her her own life as well.
August, being the only stable one to do anything, just let her go and pulled out his phone to call the police. While he stayed on the phone with the police, he went over to make sure the girls were okay. He got them in the car and pulled the car closer so that they can stay in the car, but also stay away from all of them. He then got back out of the car and rushed to Karter's side. She was so worried about her father and uncle, that she didn't even realize one of the bullets went through Juan and hit her in the arm.
"Come here." He pulled her into him to calm her down.
Seeing that her father was just lying there as Demi cried on top of him and Hazel went back and forth between her brothers, she had already seen too much and August knew it would traumatize her. He made her keep still and after realizing that the bullet wasn't that far in her arm, he went in and took it out before taking his shirt off and tying her arm up. He then went over to Javier and did the best he could to stop the bleeding before the paramedics got there.
"Can we go see them?"
"You can't see Javier right now because he's still in recovery, but you can see Karter. Javier will be out in a few and if you guys are still here you can go see him."
"Okay thank you doctor." Hazel said once she finally found the words she wanted to say.
"What room is she in?"
"232."
They wasted no time running down the hall to her room. Since the hospitals didn't have the 2 people rule, they all went in.
She wasn't awaken yet, so everyone sat there and watched her, thinking to themselves. Justyce about how she was going to do everything her sister wanted her to, Ava about what song she was going to sing to her to make her feel better, August how he was grateful that the bullet didn't do any serious harm, Hazel how she was thankful her niece was okay, and Demi how she was going to tell her about her dad. She had already lost her mother and now she lost her dad. She didn't want to think of how she had no parents now, since she did take on the role of being her mother, but it was just too hard for her. She loved her dad to pieces and it would break her heart even more if she had to be the one to tell her about Juan.
"Should we pray?" Ava asked as everyone looked at her. "What? Praying makes everything better."
"Yeah come on." They all agreed as they gathered around Karter.
August led the prayer, and afterwards, they all said a silent prayer to themselves before sitting back down. Demi cried silently as she brushed Karter's hair back with her fingers. Karter's eyes soon opened and she smiled when she saw she wouldn't have to wake up alone.
"Hey." She said getting everyone's attention.
Her voice was a little raspy since she didn't have anything to drink, but no one cared about her voice. They were glad she was okay and all hugged her.
"Oww Ava that hurts." She said feeling a pain in the arm she got shot in.
"Sorry."
"It's okay." She signed before looking around. "Is Uncle Javi okay?"
He was the first thing she thought about since he was the first thing she saw when she got up. She had lost her hearing aids somewhere in the middle of everything, and since her throat hurt when she talked she decided to just sign.
"He's okay. He's still in recovery but we d-"
"Wait where's my dad? Is he okay?" She signed as she tried to sit up as best as she could. "He didn't die did he? I saw he wasn't moving but I didn't want to think the worst."
Everyone in the room grew silent, making her worry. Her heart rate began to speed up as her eyes began to water. She already knew the answer by how silent everyone had gotten. No mouths were moving, no hands were signing, no head shakes or signals at all to indicate he was indeed okay. Saying she was heartbroken would be an understatement. Her dad was her rock, the first man that would ever love her, the man who made everything happen, the man who protected her from any and everything, and he wouldn't be there to see her go to public school or even be there for her graduation from middle school. It even broke her heart to see that her little sister didn't even realize what was going on. That was her father as well.
"Karter baby calm down." Demi wiped her tears and tried to calm her down as best as she could before the nurses came rushing in.
They made them clear the room so that they could get her heart rate back to normal. When they were able to go back in the room, they weren't even surprised that she wanted to be alone. She knows they weren't going to leave her, so she isolated herself by turning away as best as she could and pulling the covers over her head. This is really going to be a hard thing for everyone to get over.