A/N: Okay my loves...Thanks a lot for the feedback, and a special thanks and shoutout to Rammy189. Glad to have your support. I hope I hear about all the tears on the keyboards after this chapter. It's a sad one. Here it goes!

xoxo

Lexi felt the car spinning around until it flipped. She heard yelling from the outside of the car, but she couldn't see anything. She heard a husky voice that was stern, yet controlled.

"Ma'am I need you to stay with me! She's awake guys! Let's get this door off." Lexi felt herself trying to move her head, but couldn't.

"There's a little girl back here. We need to get her out now. She isn't moving!" Another male voice erupted. However, this guy's tone wasn't as controlled as the first. Something was wrong. Who was the little girl? Amelia. Mellie. My baby!

"I want my baby, where's my baby?" Lexi mumbled. But nobody reacted to her.

"We're taking you to the hospital soon ma'am but you need to hold tight. We gonna get you and the little girl out of here." The first voice proclaimed. He had to be a firefighter. Lexi felt cramped and what appeared to be an upside down position. She tried moving but the steering wheel and dash had her trapped and pinned.

"Get me the fuck outta here. I want my baby." She yelled. Everything around her was chaotic. Her entire body felt crushed underneath something heavy. Was she crying? Her entire face was wet. The finger she pulled back was covered in a red liquid. It was blood.

Smoke. Lexi smelt smoke that clenched around her throat, choking her lungs. Was she on fire? 'I'm going to die.' She thought. ' What about my baby? What about Joe. I can't die! I just can't.'

"Hey, I need those spreaders over here on this window and at the rear. I need to get this woman and that baby out. Move people! Move! Get me some water on that engine for we explode!"

'Amelia. Where is my baby? Get us the fuck out of here.'

Lexi didn't remember how she got out that car. All she could see was the lights in the back of the ambulance blinding her. Her eyes were glossy and her vision was completely blurred, but she still heard voices.

"Ma'am, what is your name?"

Lexi.

"Miss, can you hear me?"

I just told you my name. Where is my baby?"

"Okay boys, she's unresponsive. Get her intubated and start ventilating. Now!"

Why can't they hear me? Why aren't they listening? Where is my goddamn baby?

"We need to stop the bleeding or this woman won't make it. Let's go boys. Strap up."

Lexi could taste the warm plastic that launched down her throat will her mouth went numb.

The lights faded. The sounds stopped. Movement seized. Was she dead?

Joe burst through the emergency room doors. He was in too much of a hurry to care about anything as he rushed over to the nurse's desk.

"Sir can I help you with something?" The receptionist asked him.

"Um yes, I'm looking for Alexis Santana and Amelia Anaoi. I was told they were brought here to this hospital. They were in an accident." Joe answered. His voice was choppy and full of panic.

"Well are you family?"

"Yes."

"May I ask, what kin?" The nurse questioned. Joe was obviously annoyed by her instantly.

"Amelia, the little girl is my daughter. And the woman she's my…my girlfriend." He proclaimed out of breath.

The nurse nodded her head and stood to her feet.

"Right this way Mr…?"

"Anaoi."

"Right. Right this way Mr. Anaoi." The nurse led the way down the hall towards the ICU. Finally reaching Lexi's room a doctor came out.

"Are you family, husband maybe? I need to ask some questions about the patient." The doctor explained.

"Yes I am. Listen doc, where is my daughter? She was in the crash too." Joe explained.

"Well the little girl is going to be okay. She suffered a green stick fracture to her right fibula. She also suffered a pretty bad blow to the head and was unresponsive when she got here. But she has since been awake. Doctors want to run tests on her now to determine if it is a concussion. We wanted to wait till someone of the family arrives before we do a neurological exam and a CT scan. But I know she's going to make it."

"And Alexis?" The doctor scowled before giving Joe his awaited answer.

"Well Mr. Anaoi, Ms. Santana or shall I say Dr. Santana suffered a great deal of internal bleeding in the brain, which has resulted in a coma. That's why the ventilator is on now. Now we don't really know how serious the coma is so we are unsure if we are going to have to insert a shunt. We have to wait until she wakes up to run some tests. Hopefully, that's soon." The doctor explained.

"Okay is there any surgery needed for that?" Joe questioned trying to stay calm.

"Well we are still trying to discover that now. We are going to have to run more tests to decide that."

Joe peeked through the glass window at Lexi. He didn't even recognize her. Her face was covered in cuts and scars along with dried up blood. Her lips and eyes were highly swollen; her hair matted to her head. He tried his hardest to hold back the breaking droplets that were forming into his eyes.

"Doc, can I see her?" Joe asked nervously.

"Yeah sure. But first I need you to handle some paperwork and some other things first. Mr. Anaoi do you mind if I ask what relation you actually is to the patient? Because if you are her husband then you are the only one who has the permission to give it a go if we have to do surgery?"

"Yeah she's my…my wife." Joe replied. Saying that sounded weird but right now Joe didn't care.

"Okay, so do we have your permission to carry on if need be?" The doctor asked.

"Doctor, do whatever you got to do. Just make sure my girls are taking care of. We will worry about the rest later."

"Okay Mr. Anaoi. We will try to do everything we possibly can."

~!~

Joe was tired and frustrated. He had spent the last 24 hours sitting at Lexi's bedside. They had taken the ventilator off and she was now breathing on her own. However, they still kept her connected to the heart monitor. Joe was able to relax a bit once knowing Mellie only suffered a minor concussion that wasn't too serious. She just needed to stay overnight for some observation and would just need some rest. Plus she was now right next door to her mother. Joe called his family and told them what happened and they arrived within an instance. His plane didn't even take off before police had called him, being that it was his car that Lexi was driving. He rushed out of the airport and straight to the hospital. On the way there, he called Colby and Jon, informing them what happened and they called Hunter. The first flight they could get to, they made it to Florida. The hardest call was Megan. Joe feared how she would react, but she didn't say much. He just knew she was on her way and when she got there, somebody better be answering some questions. His family and friends stayed with Amelia while he sat with Lexi. He refused to let anyone in her room to see her with the exceptions of the doctors and nurses. Joe quickly learned how to tune out the sound of the heart monitor, which was the only noise in the room.

"Mr Anaoi?" The doctor said as he walked in the room.

"Hey doc. I can't believe she is still not awoke." Joe said with a hint of agony in his voice.

"It's going to take some time before she wakes up. Just think of it as her being in a deep sleep. She lost a lot of blood and now her body is trying to recover. It's going to be awhile so we gotta be patient. Her body is resting. Be grateful that we don't have to insert the stunt. Maybe you should head home, get some rest. Maybe go visit your baby girl. But you can't just sit here cramped in this room all day. You're going to start going insane." The doctor said with a slight smile in hopes to lighten the tense mood in the room. The doctor had seen many cases like this, where the spouse or family members had a hard time leaving the bedside of the patient due to guilt.

"I can't leave her doc, I'm staying. I've barely left this room, let alone her side and honestly there isn't anything I rather do. This woman means everything to me. The love of my life and I can't lose her. I just can't. If only she could hear me right now, I want her to know I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." Joe proclaimed. He had never been this emotional in his life. Knowing he could lose Lexi forever was not sitting well with Joe.

"I understand. You're a good man and I'm sure she loves you. Don't give up hope young man. I'm sure she will be fine but you must give this some time." The doctor replied. He then turned on his heels and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Joe moved his chair over to her bedside and leaned down towards her. He held her limp hand that sparked of heat against his large palm.

"Hey um, I hope whatever dreamland you're in, you can hear me.' Joe paused before continuing. 'Look, you really need to wake up okay? Cause I'm tired of sitting here.' Joe tried chuckling to himself before he continued. 'You know this has been the quietest you have ever been since I met you? That's really saying something.' He sighed. It was hard putting in to words what he was feeling. He prayed she could hear him. 'But Lex, I'm sitting here waiting. Waiting for you to open your eyes, to call my name. I'm trying to hold it in but I feel like I'm losing it. I need to hear your voice, see those beautiful eyes of yours then I'll know you're not going to leave me. Baby, I can't do this without you! None of this! I thought that maybe I could live without you and be happy, but I'm lost without you. I can't raise Mellie by myself. You could have died, but you didn't. Just hold on just a bit longer because babe… I'm scared. I'm scared imma lose you and I just can't. You mean the world to me. Just please wake up. Please. Please." Joe begged.

Nothing.

"Goddamnit Lexi, wake the fuck up!" Joe was at the point of yelling. Joe was feeling on the verge of losing his sanity waiting for her. He was more angry than sad. Pissed that he let all of this happen, this was his fault. All Joe could do to control his overflowing vexation was to ruffle this hand through his messy hair, in hopes that he would be able to be tranquil. He felt freaking insane waiting for her to wake up, but she just wouldn't. Joe had so many opportunities to walk away from Lexi. If you asked anyone who didn't know them, you would think they weren't meant to be together. All their bickering could break apart any relationship; but surprisingly it only helped theirs. It seemed to make them closer. Joe loved this woman and he just wasn't ready to give up the fight for her until he believed she was done fighting for him.

"Joe." The soft-spoken voice from the doorway brought Joe out his reverie. He looked up to find a desolated Megan standing in the doorway. It was clear even through the brim of Megan's square-framed eyeglasses, she was crying and obviously angry. He didn't even hear the door open.

"Megan…oh my god you made it." Joe rose from his chair and walked over to Megan.

"So how is she?" Joe could tell Megan was doing her best to hold back tears. Her lips were curled into a tight knot and her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"Honestly, I don't know. They say it's not as bad as we think but she just won't wake up. I'm going crazy here." Joe replied.

"Where's Mellie?"

"She's next door. She's going to be fine. It's Lexi I'm worried about."

"She's a fighter, she'll make it through this. We just got to believe." Megan saw the sadden look in Joe's eyes so surprisingly she pulled him in for a hug. Joe couldn't hold back any longer. He felt the tears stream down his already hot skin while Megan rubbed the back of his head. Megan was much smaller than Joe so she stood on her tiptoes to pull him down to her stance.

"Megan…I can't…I-I j-just can't d-do this." Joe sobbed.

"Come on Joe, don't do this. Don't give up. She's going to be okay." Megan murmured.

"I would love to be able to believe that right now." They stood in silence while they sobbed together. Megan knew Joe couldn't handle a situation like this alone. He was a strong man, but his emotions was all over the place right now. Not only did he have to be strong for himself, but for Amelia. Mellie was too young to understand what was happening.

"Listen, Lexi has been through hell in her life. Nothing and I mean NOTHING can hold her down. She is in there somewhere. She's fighting for you and Amelia. That's all she got." Megan explained. Joe pulled away from her grasp slowly. Joe didn't realize until then that Megan was actually a very beautiful woman and reminded him a lot of Lexi. No wonder they was great friends.

"I know Meg, I know." Joe and Megan didn't notice Colby's tall stature in the doorway.

"Joe, there's a detective that's out here. He wants to talk to you." Jon wasn't too far behind him.

"Come on Joe, let's go." Megan mumbled with a pat to Joe's back while she led the way out the door. She linked arms with Colby who stood close by Lexi's door, while Jon followed Joe over to the detective. The detective rose to his feet when he saw Joe wander over to him.

"Are you Joe Anaoi?" the detective questioned. Joe nodded his head yes.

"Mr. Anaoi, I'm Detective Paterson, I'm investigating your wife and daughter's case.

"What case? They were just in an accident." Joe asked puzzled.

"Well Mr Anaoi, from what it says here, what happened with your family was indeed no accident." The officer retorted as he looked in the file folder in his hand. He looked up to notice the angered mostly confused faces of Joe and Jon.

'According to witnesses, many say that your wife was an obvious target. This was no accident. The driver seems to be driven directly to the car your wife was in, which from my understanding was your vehicle. Correct?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, so apparently the driver in the other vehicle didn't slow down nor did he or she stop. Now this case is a no doubt liability being that your wife was at a red light. Meaning this wasn't her fault. Here's the police report that one of the officer's filed out at the scene." Joe took the handed piece of document from the detective. Joe skimmed over the document while Jon eyed it from over his shoulder.

"So does this mean that someone wanted to hurt my family?"

"From the looks of things, yes. That's where I step in. We caught surveillance of the vehicle fleeing the scene and we also got a license plate number. So, is there by any chance you and your wife might have any enemies that might want to harm her or you?" The detective queried. Joe swallowed the forming lump in his throat. This could be anyone especially with the profession he had.

"Honestly, officer I can't think of any off the top of my head." Joe answered. The officer raised a piqued brow at Joe before speaking.

"Well I suggest you look over all those documents here and if you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to call me. Just call down to the station and ask for me and they'll connect you straight to my private extension." The officer handed Joe a business car.

"Okay I mostly well. If you say this is no accident then I want to know the son of a bitch who did this." Joe snarled.

"Calm down son. Let the law handle this, you just worry about protecting that little family you got there. Listen to me carefully; don't in no way take matters into your own hands. This is a very serious matter." Detective Paterson explained. Joe nodded his head negative.

"No disrespect officer, but I'm not sure if I can keep that promise." Joe scowled.

"Sir, I'm not asking, I'm telling you this. Someone is obviously out to get your family. This situation can be a lot more dangerous than you think. Don't get , I'll be back in a couple of days. Hopefully your wife we be able to talk with me. I give her and your daughter my blessings. But until then Mr. Anaoi, you keep your nose clean." Joe angrily stormed off. He was done talking to this officer. For him to tell him that he couldn't do anything about what happened to his family pissed him off. Jon caught up to him.

"Hey, hey Joe hold up." Jon jogged to catch him.

"I don't wanna here it Ambrose!" Joe warned.

"Listen man you need to relax and keep a level head about this. I know how much your family means to you but I could tell the detective does care about you and your family's safety. Just don't go and do anything stupid man. You could lose everything. Do you really want that? I should know man, hear it from me. Don't do it. Think about Lexi and Mellie. You could lose everything if you do something stupid and I know what you're thinking too." Joe knew Jon was right. Hardly ever Jon spoke on someone else's personal situations. He was the type of person, who usually kept his opinions to himself when involving others, but when he did speak up; you sure as hell better listen.

"You right man." Joe gave his friend dap and then opened the folder to look over the papers the detective brought him. Just in stride, Meg and Colby walked over.

"So Joe, what did the guy say?" Megan inquired curiously.

"Bullshit." Joe said flatly while he scanned the papers in the folders. The photos taken from the street camera showed the car crashing into Lexi. To Joe the car did look familiar. He quickly tuned out Jon who was trying to explain to Colby and Megan what the detective had just told him moments ago. There was a copy of the marked license plate among the documents. 707Jes.

707Jes? The license plate now looked familiar. He tried remembering where he saw this license plate; it had obvious Florida plate tags.

Then it hit Joe. He knew exactly where he had seen them. His heart instantly dropped to the pit of his belly. Not again. He thought to himself.

His friends noticed his obvious discomfort.

"Joe, are you okay?" Megan asked.

"Yeah uso, you look like you have seen a ghost." Colby snickered.

"I think I know who did this." Joe said. His friends stared with engrossed glares.

"Oh really, who?" Jon questioned.

"All I know is that I know who car that was. Now who was behind the wheel is another story…"

"Then dude, who's fucking car was it?" Jon snarled impatiently. Joe flung the papers in the air and proceeded to walk away but turned around to face his standing friends then he spoke.

"That was Jessica's father's car…"