Blessed by Daniel Caeser
We can't be by ourselves, we
We'll always need each other, and
Yes, I'm a mess but I'm blessed
To be stuck with you
I just want you to know that
If I could I swear I'll go back
Make everything all better
And I'm coming back home to you
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Oscar held Nina's hand tightly, his thumb grazing over her soft skin. It had been four days already and Nina was still asleep. When they'd first seen her hooked up to life support, their hearts broke just a little bit more. They were happy she was alive but the scene was still heart breaking seeing Nina as the effect of all the action done back in Freeridge.
The first night, Victoria insisted on staying with Nina telling Oscar to go home and get some rest. It took awhile for him to finally give him so he did promising to be back in the morning. When he did go home, he didn't get as much sleep as expected.
First it began with him telling who he could that Nina was going to be okay. When he was all alone in his room he got into a fit getting mad and eventually crying. He'd punch another hole into his goddamn wall seeing Nina so helpless and the only thing that kept her alive was that life support machine she was hooked up to.
Not only that but the idea of him becoming a father finally sank in. He had already been stripped away of that title before him and Nina could do anything about it. What hurt him more was the fact that he'd been talking to Nina in the car about getting married and kids. Little did they know they were supposed to be parents. The Prophet$ nearly took away Nina but they had already taken the life of his son or daughter.
Ever since then he's been coming in every morning and every other moment he could just to see her. Him and the other Santos have been spending some time plotting what they should be doing next. Unlike the Prophet$ they won't be dragging in innocents into this whole mess. Other than that, the police had tapped into Nina's phone for the security footage and Marcus' confessional for murdering Tony.
All those who survived the shoot out were arrested on coordinated assault, destruction of property, carrying unauthorized weapons, and all more other things the police had uncovered prior to the incident at the bodega. The officer that had detained Keenan Copeland was on Prophet$ payroll and was detained too for tampering with evidence and the case as a whole. All of that and there was still no sign of Marcus.
"Hey," Oscar looked up to see Victoria by the door way. She enters and sets her stuff down by the other chair. "Since you're here I'm just gonna grab something to eat. Do you want anything?"
Oscar shook his head. "I thought you were going back to work today?" he questioned looking at her pace back and forth the room a little.
"I found a way for me to work from home. I know it's sort of difficult to explain but I just...," Victoria sighs. "I can't leave her but I can't not work or else I won't be getting paid. The bill alone for the surgery was-" she didn't know what to say. Besides Nina still asleep, she'd been trying to budget to figure out how they were going to pay for the hospital bill.
With both their jobs, taking care of the twins, and the destruction done to Berto's bodega, it would still be impossible to land that kind of cash. They would be drowning in debt for years.
"Hey, we'll figure it out," Oscar called out which made her stop pacing for a second. He too would have to figure out how he could contribute to Nina's bill. He could use his cut from the heist but they still had to figure out how to wash the money. But besides his usual cut, it would still be nearly impossible to clear that debt.
Victoria sighs. "I need coffee and food. You sure you don't want anything, mano?"
Oscar shook his head. "I'm good. I'm gonna head out in awhile too," he explained. With a nod Victoria leaves and he goes back to Nina.
He sighs to himself thinking that Nina was supposed to be awake already but every time he came back to her like this she would still be asleep. He'd take naps by the edge of her bed hoping he would wake up to see her awake as well. But with her still hooked up to life support, it only meant that he had to be more patient.
"I'm about to head out now, mamas," he tells to a motionless Nina. "This is the part where you say something cheesy and then you tell me to be safe," he continued listening to the beeping of the heart monitor next to him.
"You have no idea how much I miss the sound of your voice," he found himself saying with a smile. "Whether you're acting goofy and shit to you just singing," he added looking at her face.
"I just miss you, mi vida," he says softly. "I miss the sound of your voice. I miss you telling me to be safe every time I leave you when I should be telling you the same thing. I miss you telling me to always come home to you."
"I always found that funny cos no matter what I'll always come home to you, Nina," he nodded to her as a means of promise. "But right now you gotta wake up soon and you gotta come home to me," he held her hand tighter as he looked at her still.
He stands up and leans over her to place a kiss on her forehead. "I love you, mi amor. I'll be back soon."
In that moment he receives a notification from his phone. The more he kept reading, the more enraged he felt going over the messaged he had received from Sad Eyes. His blood started to boil as he gripped his phone, his knuckles were starting to turn white and his nostrils were flaring.
"Oscar? Are you alright?" Victoria had returned with a cup of coffee and a sandwich in her hands. She'd noticed Oscar's expression and instantly knew that something was up.
"Homies got a tip saying that the Prophet$ had someone on the outside that help them planned the whole thing. I gotta deal with this now," he said rushing out of the hospital room.
Time to deal with his crazy ex again.
-
The moment that Oscar left the hospital every time he would visit Nina it's like no one recognized him any more. He would show no remorse to those on the streets except to Nina's family. But the moment he gets back to business in the Santos he goes full out Spooky. The Santos had never seen him on a roll like this before and it had only been four days.
It took a day for him to get back on his feet and as promised they wouldn't be dragging innocents into the mix but things were only starting to get messy. First it was their stash house on Winston then it was getting to Prophet$ connect. Their labs would be next. Los Santos was slowly going to leave them vulnerable and defenseless before picking them out one by one.
The idea of a full out gang war was on the brink of happening, yet again. Spooky only wanted to rage hell on them for what they did to her.
When he was off the streets he would either go back to the hospital to visit Nina and just stay there with her until business happened again. But when he would go home he would often beat himself up after what happened. Thankfully Sad Eyes was there to keep him in check. If it wasn't him it would be Gabriel or Martín.
But now they had bigger things to attend to. Something that was a complete stab to the back but it felt much more worse than that.
"It was a joke! It was supposed to be a prank to just scare her and Tony! I didn't really think they would do all those things!"
"¡Cállate!" Spooky yelled as he loaded his gun. They were in one of the Santos trap houses with Crystal beaten down by the cholas and her tied up to a chair. Oscar sat down in front of her and aimed the gun to her head.
"You don't get to speak if I don't say you get to speak. And when I ask you a question you have answer me. ¿Tu me entiendes?" he snarled to her but Crystal only nodded as a tear rolled down her cheek. "What the fuck did I just say?!"
"Yes! Yes, Spooky! I'm sorry," she cried out.
"Run me through their fucking plan from the beginning. What did you tell them about Tony?" he kept the same expression with his hand steady on the gun keeping it pointed at Crystal's face.
"Marcus told me he saw Tony and Nina by the park not far from the bodega. When he asked who he was I told him that it was Nina's ex," she began trying to remain calm and get other words out.
"I knew that he wanted to claim Nina so I gave him the idea to scare him for the fun of it. They didn't tell me when they would do it but they said they would pretend to jump him maybe even use blanks. They never said anything about killing him!" she cried even more.
"And what about Nina?" he asked in a harder tone. He never thought she'd be this level of stupid meddling in with the Prophet$.
The mention of Nina's name made her cry even more as she shook her head not wanting to answer. With that he knew that there was something she was hiding. "I asked you a fUCKING QUESTION!" his voice boomed in the house causing Crystal to flinch.
She kept whimpering and crying until Oscar place the gun right on her forehead. "Don't make me ask you again," he said through grit teeth as he cocked the gun.
"Okay! I'll talk," she cried. "I knew you guys got back together and I got so angry with you and her. After the truce I gave him the idea to re-claim Nina so they could get ahead of you guys with this whole gang bullshit," she sobbed.
"But I never expected that he was going to use that kind of force. I never expected that Nina would end up hurt this way. Oscar I am so-"
"But you wanted that didn't you?" Oscar interrupted. "You got angry and jealous and told Marcus and his boys to jump Nina thinking he would actually claim her to get back at me?! To get back at her?!" he raised his voice.
"You knew they could kill her the same way they got Tony and yOU STILL FUCKING WENT FOR IT!" he yelled in her face. "You turned your back on the Santos! You betrayed me! Because of you, Nina is fighting for her fucking life to stay alive in that hospital bed! You knew what the fuck you were doing since the beginning!"
The more he kept yelling the more Crystal cried and shook her head in denial. "I didn't mean it," she choked out.
"Tell that to the love of my life who nearly died a few days ago!" Oscar stood up abruptly causing the chair he sat on to fall back. "You knew what they did to Tony. You knew damn well what they were going to do to Nina. No way in hell am I going to let that slide," he continued to point the gun to her head as she cried.
"All I ever wanted was for you to love me the way you loved her," she cried looking Oscar right in the eye. "You were my first everything, Oscar! I gave you my everything! Suddenly I'm replaced by some bitch who had a shot at college?!"
"Don't fucking talk to me about Nina!" he yelled. "You could've her killed, Crystal. So don't talk bullshit to me saying that you love me. You used me all those years. You struck me down and told me I was never good enough. For once, I was happy and you did everything you could to ruin that?"
"Don't talk to me about love and saying you wanted me back when you decided to go to the Prophet$, betraying me and the Santos just so you can have your fucking way!" he yelled once more before lowering his gun and leaning down to her height.
"Thanks to you, the blood of Tony and Nina are on your hands. You finally got what you wanted. Now, you're about to get what you deserve," with that he placed the gun just below her jaw to force her to look up at him.
"Oscar, don't! Please!" she pleaded. "Oscar, you said you loved me all those years ago. You never forget a first love like that, Oscar. Deep down I know you still care for me. Think about what you're doing," she tried reasoning with him as her eyes were full of tears.
"I loved you. But being with Nina made me realize what that word actually means. " he scowled and shook his head. "If you really loved me you wouldn't have done me dirty like that."
"So what? Now you're just gonna decide to kill me? You know you can't do it," Crystal decided to challenge. "Face it Spooky, she's made you soft. She finds out about this, she'll never forgive you. You'd be done for," she said through her tears.
In that moment he had hesitated, but Crystal was right. If he didn't step up to the job it would make him look weak and with what was happening to the Prophet$ weak wouldn't be a good image for him or the Santos. He was Spooky. And he trusted that Nina was going to understand. She promised she would.
"Crystal tell me one more thing," Oscar started once more. "Do you know where they're keeping, Marcus?" he asked avoiding what she said awhile ago. But as Crystal said nothing he gestured to the chola to hit her in the stomach to point she spat out blood.
"I don't know!" she wailed in pain. Oscar nodded once more signaling to the cholas to keep hitting her.
"I asked you a question, Crystal!" he yelled over the beating but when Crystal cried out again.
"I don't know! I swear to you on my life, I don't know!" Crystal coughed. "I'm telling the truth. I don't know," she cried once more.
"I guess that means we're done here. You have no more use to me," Oscar said pointing the gun back at her head causing her to cry out once more.
"Oscar! Please! Don't do this!" she cried. "Oscar, please. I'm sorry," a tear rolled down her cheek the more she pleaded.
Oscar sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry too."
In a beat it was like their lives together had flashed before their eyes. Them being friends and lovers. He did love her a long time ago. Or maybe he thought he did. They both too young to figure out what they wanted and they were foolish enough to think they would find it in each other.
There was a time where he had trusted her with his life and he used to tell her everything. She knew how much the Santos were against the Prophet$, that was no question. So for someone to turn away from him and betray him and the rest of the Santos like that felt like a stab to the back.
Either way they both felt this pain and burden of betrayal. That everything they had growing up, whatever it was, was gone at the sound of gunfire.
"If I'm being honest, we should've green lit her the moment she first came for Lady Spooky," Sad Eyes said recalling that time they jumped on her.
"What she did this time was crossing the line. That was a form of treason right there. That was too much," Oscar shook his head in disappointment.
Suddenly his phone vibrates receiving a text from Victoria. Just like that his mood and expression changes.
"I gotta go."
~
"It's been awhile since I had a slow dance with you and you still seemed to be so bothered," her father commented lightly in the middle of their slow dance. Surprisingly, Nina had been enjoying her time but she still had these moments where she was in her own daze.
In that moment she brushed off her distress as she looked back at her father. "Lo siento, papa," she offered a small smile but her father only frowned.
"You were enjoying yourself not too long ago. What's wrong mija?" he asked as they slowly swayed to the music. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Nina groaned in response. "No. I still don't know what it is. Something feels missing. I-I j-just... I don't know."
"Mind if I cut in?"
The two of them were met with a pair of youthful brown eyes. "Tony," she muttered under her breath as she looked at him in awe.
"Tony," her father clapped the young man's back. "You think you can ease my daughter's mind?" he smiled at him was received another in return.
"I'll do my best," Tony smiled stepping in closer. Before Arturo could leave, he places a kiss on the. "I love you, mija. I hope you'll be happy when what you're looking for," he muttered as her mother appeared next to him.
She places a hand on her shoulder. "May you find whatever makes you happy, mija," she leans in to place a kiss on her daughter's cheek. "I love you."
"I love you too, ma," Nina replied sincerely as they pulled away. They slowly walk away from her before deciding to slow dance in their own bubble. With that she turns back to Tony.
"Hey," she smiled at him as he gently placed her hands on his shoulders and his hands on her waist.
"Hey," he smiled back at her. "So what are you looking for, suenito?" he asked lightly and again Nina felt disheartened.
"I don't even know," she shrugged. "Something just feels so wrong. Like, I'm supposed to be home but- I just don't know," she explained as Tony furrowed his eyebrows but before he could ay anything else, he notices something around her neck.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked making her look down at her neck.
She hadn't noticed the necklace that she was wearing. A small cross pendant and a ring. Her fingers fiddled with it for a moment as she read the interior of the ring. Mi vida. Mi amor.
"El amor de mi vida," she answered without thinking.
The two of them stopped what they were doing and Tony looked at her in confusion. "I never gave you-" he stopped himself from talking as she continued to look at the necklace. In that moment he had realized what was bothering her all this time.
"Nina," he began placing his hands on her shoulders as she looked at him. "You won't be able to find what you're looking for here because it isn't here. You're heart isn't here," he said to her.
And it had hit her like a bus. She had to leave "This isn't you're home is it?" He asked as she slowly shook her head.
"Home is where the heart is," she replied to him softly.
Tears started welling up in Tony's eyes as he looked at her. This was something he no longer could compete with now. He could only be happy for her. With a sigh he pulls her into an embrace.
"Shit, don't cry. If you cry I'll start crying," Nina said wrapping her arms around her best friend as she started to cry as well. Tony stifles a laugh followed by a sniff.
"You know I'll always love you right?" She sniffed hugging him a little tighter. "I can never unlove you, Tony. I can only love you differently now," she added sobbing a little more.
At that point, small sun beams started to greet the horizon and the sky began to change color. But they stayed put holding each other close. Even tighter as they could.
"I know, Nina. And I'll always love you too," he replied pulling away to place a kiss on her forehead. A tear rolls down his cheek as he places a hand on the back of her head to savor this last moment.
A tear rolls down her cheek too feeling his warm lips on her skin. As the sun continued to rise they knew their moment was over. They pull away and share one final look.
They offer each other a smile despite the mess of their tears. Tony nods, "It's time for you to go home, Nina."
~
He ran as fast as he could to Nina's room and with one swing open from the door he sees her there seated up on the bed talking with the twins. The door creeks open making everyone look at Oscar who stood there by the door. The moment his eyes and Nina's lock, his breath is taken away seeing her alive and awake.
"Oscar," Nina says weakly. Tears suddenly begin to brim his eyes hearing his name come from her lips and a smile tugs on the corners of his mouth.
"Nina," he mutters before going over to her and hugging her. Nina instantly wraps her arms around him as well hugging him just as tight.
"Mi vida, easy I'm a little sore," Nina manages a soft chuckle and Oscar mumbles an apology before letting her loose a little.
"Lo siento, amor," he mumbled into her hair gently caressing the back of her head.
"We're gonna leave you two alone for a moment," Victoria said telling the twins to get off Nina's bed. Oscar had barely noticed the rest of Nina's friends that were also in the room. But as promised they left the two of them alone and with the click of the door, Oscar starts talking again.
"I thought, I lost you. I really thought I was gonna lose you, Nina," Oscar cried into her hair. "You have no idea how scared I was when we got to the bodega."
Nina closes her eyes feeling tears pool in them as well. Recalling what she could, she too had also thought that would've been the last time she saw Oscar and the rest of her family. "I got so scared too," she admits in a whisper before carefully pulling away.
"But I did promise you I'd marry you right?" she offers him a smile as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I made you a promise we were gonna spend the rest of our lives together, amor," she says softly carefully wiping away his tears.
Oscar stifles a chuckle before gently cupping her face to give her a kiss. Nina holds on to his hand as she instantly kisses him back. They were both in their own mess of emotions holding each other like this. Oscar's anxiety had dialed down so much kissing her and holding her. She was real and she was alive.
They pull away and they rest their forehead's against each other. Oscar continues caressing her face, simply feeling her touch again. "I missed you so much. I just got you back a few weeks ago and this happens," he mumbles to her.
"What matters is that I'm here now and I'm going to be okay. We're going to be okay, Oscar," she said softly caressing his wrist. "Oh! I may have something that belongs to you," she says before carefully reaching out to the other bedside table. She shows him his chain, dangling the cross in front of his face.
He smiles at her softly before reaching out for the necklace and instantly placing it around his neck. "Thank you for keeping it safe," he sniffed. Nina smiles softly at him as she pats the other side of the bed as a gesture for him to transfer and take a seat on the chair by the bed.
"How are you feeling?" he asked as he sat down, taking her hand in his in an instant. He wanted to hold her in an embrace but considering her situation, this would have to do for now.
"Tired. It's like I haven't been asleep for four days," she admits with a sigh. "Victoria already filled me in on what I missed with the whole Prophet$ getting arrested and with Marcus still nowhere to be found. But it's been assured that the moment he will be found by the police, he's going straight to prison."
"Fucker deserves it after what he did," she added in a whisper. "How are you holding up?" she asked looking into his eyes as Oscar shook his head.
"Don't worry about it, mamas," the nickname he used made her blush. "I'd rather just focus on you right now. Usually I don't get to witness the homies waking up from moments like this. Dr. Snow kept saying how lucky we were to have you alive," he said slowly as a little anxiety starting to creep in again.
"She told me the same thing when she explained to me what happened," Nina replied. "The tiredness is being normal says that a support system is good. So until then I got you, the twins, V, and my friends leave tomorrow."
"There's that and Leah kept showing me a video of a baby acting like a chef, saying that if we had kids it be this little guy," she added with a laugh but hearing Nina suddenly talk about kids made something else sink in. She notices his sudden change of expression and squeezes his hand. "Baby, is something wrong?"
Oscar blinked a little finding a way to say it. "Nina, what else Dr. Snow tell you?"
"Dr. Snow explained that I had lost a lot of blood before I came. She'd also explained where they found the bullets, my fractured hand and ribs, theres that and my strained muscles," she continued gesturing to all of her injuries. As she takes a moment to breath, she remembers something else.
"Although she did say that there was something else she wanted to talk to me about when my fiancé got here," she brushed off with a chuckle but her eyes were full of concern. "Oscar, what was she trying to tell me?" she asked looking into her eyes.
He turns away a little. "I think we better wait for Dr. Snow-"
"Oscar, please just tell me," she pleaded using her hand to gently make him look at her. There was a certain look in his eyes that Nina noticed. He was scared and anxious with what he was about to tell her. But regardless she wanted to know. She needed to know.
-
I just noticed how we are yet to enter part 3 of this book (yes the book is divided into parts). This is in accordance to the number of seasons the show features so ye... this part of the story still takes place in the season two timeline...
ig u could say.. there is definitely more to come 😉
and if u think that what happened to Nina was sort of out of the blue. let me tell you now that it isn't soooo tune in for that ✌️
Tell me what you guys think :)))
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