Animal I Have Become
Chapter 14

Gabi throws the rest of the get-well cards and stuff into her black bag. She had been in the hospital for two weeks until she finally was released and told she could go home. During her stay there, she continues to get mass amounts of cards and letters from her and Marshall's fans, some saying that they were happy she pushed Marshall out of the line of fire, some saying that she shouldn't have risked her own life for him, and then there was the occasional ones telling her she should have let him 'get blown to smithereens, he causes way to much controversy and is a evil politic republican and women hater, homophobic, SOB that deserves to die in a hail of gunfire, and Proof should have died a long painful death,' and 'you just had to survive, didn't you? No one wants you around, you should have jumped straight in front of the bullet and let it kill you by piercing your stupid flesh and blasting a hole through your stupid, cold, black heart,'

She had a feeling some of those were from either Josh or Justin who is off in prison waiting for his trial.

Marshall and his daughter Hailie went back to her place to get her a change of clothes, everything had to be Marshall approved, which meant he would let his daughters wear it, so she had a pair of black jeans, converse, and her old Evanescence t-shirt.

She was just happy to get out of the hospital, she still was pist that Kendall sent her those tiger lilies and showed up to try to explain what happened. It must be the guilt of getting caught with that girl. It still made Gabi feel sick to her stomach to think about it and Kendall still apparently had feelings for her, that he still loved her. and again, Gabi knew that when a guy loves a girl and claims that she is the most beautiful girl in the world and to him she is beautiful and perfect in everyway, if any of that was true she never would have caught him with that girl in such a compromising position.

But, couples have been able to work past that stuff. Cheating and being unfaithful. You hear about that all the time and the couples get past that. it was one mistake, the one person regrets it more then anything in the world.

But was that just some stupid soap opera thing? Couples that were so good together got through this stuff. Like Jason and Sam, Patrick and Robin, Nikolas and Emily, Brody and Jessica, John and Natalie, Nathan and Haley, Rex and Gigi, Luke and Laura. But then again, other great couples didn't get through that like Spinelli and Maxie, Lucas and Brooke, Sonny and Carly, Johnny and Lulu. Johnny and Lulu went through hell together after Lulu killed Logan in self defense and Johnny took the rap for it, which ended up resulting in him getting arrested and them going on the run together. It took just one time for him to break Lulu's heart.

But on the other hand, Jason cheated on Sam with Elizabeth multiple times and it broke her heart, but the two found there way back to each other, they went through Hell together with her getting shot by his rival mobsters and them getting in constant shootouts.

Who knew? There could be a reasonable explanation for what happened. Oh great, now she was starting to sound like Kristina every time she was hit by Kiefer, finding a way to justify his actions, knowing that he was really a good person deep down, he just didn't have a good home life.

Gabi then grabs the last card off one of the many tables in the room. When she turns around, she sees a man standing in the doorway wearing camouflage like all those soldiers wear when they are in battle. She hasn't seen anyone in that kind of getup since she found out Dante died.

Gabi is interrupted by noticing Griffin walking over to them followed by a guy who is wearing camouflage and looks like he is in the military. He has tan skin and dark brown hair and looks just like Dante did when he was deployed.

Kendall notices she is looking at them and he looks too.

"there she is Sergeant," Griffin tells him.

"thank you," the man says. he then looks straight at Gabi.

"Are you Gabriella Grace McCoy?" he asks her.

Gabi looks back at him nervous too afraid to answer that question.

Military officers never came in person unless they had to notify a family member of someone in the military if their family member was missing or dead.

"yeah, I am," Gabi replies nervous. Her heart is racing in her chest.

At the moment, she totally would take the pregnancy and everything that came with it, she just wanted Dante to be ok. That's all that mattered to her right now. The safety of her big brother. She would marry Justin right now and take every beating from him if it meant Dante would be safe right now and alive.

"Ms. McCoy, I am Sergeant Tanner with the United States Marines," he says to her. "and I am here to inform you on new information regarding your brother, Dante Ryan McCoy,"

ok, new information, that didn't mean he was dead. Exactly. For all she knew they could have arrested him for being a terrorist. Not that Dante was a terrorist. That is the last thing he do, but maybe it was better then being dead. Maybe he was mistaken for a terrorist. Yeah, that sounded stupid, but Gabi couldn't help but hope that he was ok overseas.

"Ms. McCoy, I am sorry to inform you that yesterday, Dante's helicopter was shot down by an unknown plane," Sergeant Tanner tells her. "there were no survivors,"

Gabi's memory is then interrupted when the guy clears his throat to get her attention.

"can I help you?" Gabi asks him.

"are you Miss Gabriella Grace McCoy?" the man asks her.

"what's it to you?" Gabi asks as she crosses her arms.

"my name is Lieutenant George Simpson," the man tells her. "I am with the United States Marines, now, are you Gabriella Grace McCoy?"

"maybe, what is this about?" Gabi asks him annoyed.

"your brother, Dante Ryan McCoy," Lieutenant Simpson says to her.

"Dante has been dead over a year now," Gabi responds. "what is this about?"

"when your brother's helicopter went down, he was put down as a K.I.A," Lieutenant Simpson tells her.

"and that is….?" Gabi says annoyed.

"Killed in action," Lieutenant Simpson tells her.

"Yeah, his arms were blown out of there sockets in the explosion which were recovered and the fingerprints were confirmed his," Gabi replies still annoyed.

"well, Miss McCoy, that is why I am here," Lieutenant Simpson tells her. "the United States Marines had made a mistake,"

Gabi looks at him confused. What in the world did he mean by mistake. The Marines didn't just make mistakes. They were hard-core. They were the marines for crying out loud.

"what do you mean by mistake?" Gabi asks him nervous.

"we got an anonymous phone call requesting that we re-run the prints, so we did," Lieutenant Simpson tells her. "we did, and they weren't a match,"

Gabi just looks at him shocked.

"what are you trying to say?" she asks him nervous.

"we think your brother might still be alive,"