Chapter 9; part two.
Austin's POV:
I can't explain how I feel at this moment. Jeff, my uncle, my father's only brother, is pointing his gun at Officer Clark; Clark whose been there for me this whole time when I hardly know him, one of the nicest cops I've ever met, he's pointing his gun back at my uncle.
I can see Jeff's face, and I know deep down he doesn't like what he's doing. Grief has ruined him; he doesn't want to be this type of guy… Does he?
"Put the gun down Jeff, you are making this a lot worse than it has to be." Officer Clark says calmly.
"It can't get any worse than it is!" Jeff shouts back at him.
"Yes it can." I say, causing Jeff to turn his head to me, but he keeps his gun on Officer Clark.
"Austin, don't." Officer Clark says.
"What are you doing Uncle Jeff? What happened to you?" I ask, "What about my dad? Do you know how much this is killing him? You're his only brother." I say.
I can see tears forming in his eyes, but he fights them back. It's the most normal emotion I've seen on his face tonight, but I know it's not enough to change his mind. He turns away from me and back to officer Clark, "Do it, shoot me." He says.
"Put the gun down." Officer Clark says.
"I don't think so." Jeff says. He then puts his finger on the trigger. My heart almost stops, one of them is going to get shot, and either one is going to affect my life; I can't watch this happen. Officer Clark starts shouting at him to stop, and that's when I push Ally back, so she rests against the wall, and I run in-between them, and that's when Jeff pulls the trigger.
A bullet pierces through my shoulder, causing immediate pain. I fall backwards, landing next to Officer Clark. Right when I think he or the other officers are going to shoot Jeff, I realize he dropped his gun, and he's staring at me in horror. Ally's hand is covering her mouth, and she's frozen. I bring my hand up to my wound to try and stop the stream of blood that continues to pour out.
The officers grab him slowly; their guns still pointed at him and they handcuff him. Officer Clark pulls out a walkie talkie and calls for an ambulance. I lay my head down on the hard dirty floor and groan out in pain. Officer Clark kneels down beside me and puts his hand on my good shoulder, "How are you doing son?" he asks.
"I've been better." I murmur.
"That was really stupid of you." He says firmly.
"You got him didn't you?" I say.
He smirks slightly and shakes his head, "Not the point. The ambulance is on their way."
One of the female cops brings Ally outside. Ally just looked down at me with a blank expression and left. I can't explain how much that killed me. I know it's my uncle, and I know she's mad because I didn't tell her but what was I supposed to do? She can't hate me forever, can she?
Ally's POV:
I sit alone in the back of one of the female's cop cars. She's driving me to the hospital herself. She didn't think I needed an ambulance, but knew I needed to get checked out. She hands me a bottle of water and a package of crackers, but no matter how thirsty and hungry I am, I can't bring myself to eat or drink. I'm completely and utterly shocked at everything that just happened. Austin's uncle is the one who kidnapped me. And he knew about it when I asked him, and he didn't even bother to tell me; why?
At first I thought maybe because he felt bad for his uncle, and maybe thought he could help him, but then he took a bullet for Officer Clark, and now he's hurt, and he's bleeding and I just left. What do I say to my best friend, whose uncle just kept me captive? It's the worst situation ever.
I want to be mad at him, but then again, I don't really have a good reason to. Plus, he risked his life to come find me and he's the one that saved me. It's what I dreamt about, it's what I wanted. I needed Austin, I needed him so bad, and I still need him, but I can't get rid of the sick feeling in my stomach about this whole thing. How can you heal from something like this? How can you go back to how things were before? I'm not sure that you can.
Austin's POV:
I thought the ambulance would never come, but it finally did. One of the officers's covered my wound with a towel and it was already soaked with blood. I think if I would have tried to stand up, I would pass out. They put me on the stretcher and brought me into the vehicle. They work on me a little until we finally get to the hospital.
After a while of pain and different medication, they remove the bullet and stitch me up. They put me in my own private room and my mother enters as soon as I get in there. Her face is full of worry and what looks like no sleep. She sits down next to my bed on a chair and smiles weakly at me, "I'm so happy you are okay." She says. I can't help but realize that my dad is nowhere in sight.
"No big deal, just a scratch." I say with a smile, trying to lighten up the mood, but she doesn't buy it.
"What if it wasn't your shoulder? You could have gotten killed, and I don't know what I would've done." She says and stops, choking on a tear.
"Well it wasn't mom, and there's no reason to dwell on what ifs." I tell her.
"I know… You're right." She says, wiping a tear off of her cheek.
"Where's dad?" I ask.
She grabs my hand and squeezes it, "You know your father… This is all very hard for him to swallow." She says.
"So he's at his thinking spot?" I ask. She nods in reply.
Every time something happens that's bad or my father doesn't like, or doesn't want to deal with I should say; he goes to this spot where he can be alone and think. He brought me there once when I was a kid. It's a beautiful spot along the river, about a half hour from our house. I figured that's where he was, but I was hoping he could face his problems for once, seeing how I was hurt.
"Have you heard anything about Ally?" I ask her.
"She's in one of the rooms down the hall. They are checking up on her now." She says.
"She hates me." I tell her.
"You know that she doesn't Austin."
"Are you kidding? You should have seen the look on her face before she left." I say.
"You have to give her time; I'm sure it's very hard for her to deal with right now. She'll come along." She says.
"I don't know about that. She's never looked at me like that; ever. I knew she'd be upset that I didn't tell her it was Jeff, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell her right there, I guess I was just afraid of what she'd think." I say.
"You didn't do anything wrong honey, you practically saved her, I know she's grateful. Don't worry about it, okay? Just focus on the positives, like she's back with us and safe." She says.
I nod in response as there is a knock on the door. I know it's not Ally, not this soon, but I couldn't help but hope. My red headed best friend Dez walks in then, with two huge 'get well soon' balloons in each hand. I can't help but laugh at their abnormal size and at the one in his right hand that has hot pink and light pink flowers.
"Hey man." I say to him.
"Hey buddy, how are you doing?" He asks, tying the balloons at the end of my bed.
"I'll leave you two alone for a bit, I'll be back soon." My mother says, patting me on the head like a puppy.
After she leaves Dez sits down at the end of my bed, "I'm doing okay." I tell him.
"How does it feel to get shot?" he asks curiously.
"Honestly… Not too good." I say.
"You took a bullet for a cop! Are you going to get an award?" He asks.
"Yeah, if they have an award for the world's dumbest boy." I say, "Officer Clark isn't thrilled about it so I don't think I'll be asked onto the force or anything."
"That's dumb!" He says.
"I don't care… I only care about Ally." I say.
"Yeah, how is she? Trish is in there with her, completely hogging her and wouldn't let me in." he says.
"She isn't good. She isn't taking the information that my uncle kidnapped her too well…" I say.
"What?" he asks, wide eyed.
I tilt my head to the side, "You didn't know?" I ask.
"Like I said, they wouldn't let me in." he says.
"Oh… Well I'll tell you the story if you have time." I tell him.
"I have all the time in the world for my best friend." He says.
Ally's POV:
I sit up against the wall on my hospital bed as Trish sits at the end. The nurse just left after checking me over. I'm just dehydrated and extra skinny apparently, but I'm perfectly fine. Unlike Austin, who got you know, shot.
"So, how does it feel to be blonde?" Trish asks, trying to avoid all of the serious subjects.
"I don't know! I refuse to look in the mirror. Will you be able to fix it?" I ask.
"Of course I can! Nothing a little hair dye can't fix." She says, "Even though you really don't look that bad…"
"Don't lie to me like that." I say, and then we both burst out laughing. But we slowly fade into awkward silence. It feels wrong to be happy after everything that's happened, but boy does it feel good to be back.
"Are you okay though Ally? Like really okay?" She asks.
I nod, "As okay as I can be."
"What's going to happen between you and Austin now?" She asks.
I just shake my head, trying to choke back the tears that are forming, but it's too hard. A few of them slip down on cheek and I wipe them away quickly, "What is it?" She asks.
"I don't know how to feel. It's so weird that it was his own uncle that did this to me, and I feel like I want to be mad at him even though it's nowhere near his fault. It's understandable that he didn't want to tell me who it was right then. But it's like how can I ever go to his house again or be around his dad? That's going to be so weird… And I…" I start but stop.
"What is it Ally?" Trish asks.
"All I could think about the whole time I was gone was Austin. How much I missed him and how much I needed him and I really was thinking that I was in love with him." I blurt out.
"Do you still feel that way about him now?" She asks.
I shrug, "I don't know how I feel about anything anymore." I say.
Austin's POV:
"Wow, I'm sorry man." Dez says.
I shrug, "Not your fault."
"What do you think is going to happen between you and Ally now?" he asks.
"I don't know… I need to think of a way to make things right because I realized while she was gone that, I'm really in love with her." I say.
"Whoa… That's big." Dez says.
"Huge." I tell him, "But so true. Knowing I could lose her was the worst time of my life. It made me realize that I can't live without her, that I don't want to live without her. I can't lose her." I say.
"Wow man, you got it bad." He says.
"How can I win her over?" I ask.
"I'll talk with Trish." He says.
"I don't know, will she tell Ally?" I ask.
"Not if I tell her you don't want her to." He says.
"Sounds like a plan." I say.