"What do you mean I can't go in to see her?! I'm her motherfucking son!"

"Look, sir, do you have any proof of that? You're the third person to come running in here claiming you're her son. Now only one of you came in here with the same last name. I'm sorry, but until further notice, I'm not letting anyone else in!"

"She gave birth to me! Is that enough proof!?" I slam my fist down at the front desk at the hospital. I've been arguing with this guy for the last five minutes trying to talk to him into letting me see my mother. "My sister is a Leijon, my brother is a Zahhak, and I'm a Makara! Why won't you just let me in!"

"Gamzee!" We both turn our heads away from each other.

"Equius, thank God!" I roll my eyes back to the man in scrubs. "Tell this, motherfucker that you're my motherfucking brother, so I can go up and see Mom!"

"Gamzee, please," He has his shades off, his eyes are red with his piercing dark blue eyes staring back at me. "Don't be vulgar. Just come back here with us, the doctor is about to explain Meulin's condition."

I give the guy at the desk the dirtiest look I can muster, then storm to my mother's room "Next time I need ID!" He shouts, but I flip him off and keep going.

We walk down hall in awkward silence. The smell of antibacterial disinfectant surrounds my nostrils. There are empty beds in the halls with IV poles scattered everywhere. As we past another hall, a sign looms overhead.

Intensive Care Unit.

"God, Equius," A lump forms inside my throat. "What happened?"

He says nothing.

"Gamzee!" Nepeta comes running out of nowhere at me. "Where have you've been?" Tears rush down her face.

"I try to get here as fast as I could," I lean down and hug her. "What's going on?"

"I think I can explain," glancing up, I see a man dressed in all white scrubs. He has a clipboard in his hand. Checking it over one good time, he turns to the rest of us. "You're mother's in the hospitals intensive care unit."

Wow, thank God. He has cleared up everything for me. Give this guy the award for Doctor of the year! "Why is she here? Is she going to be alright?"

He flicks the pages once again, shake his head. "I actually do not no right off hand. I'm going to have to talk to the main Doctor in. I just got here."

"Alright, you go do that," I charge past him. I'm going to have to transfer my mother out of here ASAP. "Then have him actually tell us right off hand what happened! God is this place just full of idiots!?"

"No need to be rude," he pouts.

"GET OUT!" He scurries down the hallway hearing me raise my voice. I stare down at my mother. She has cords and gadgets sticking throughout her body. Her face is swollen to almost beyond recognition. Blood drips down her face from her eyes, mouth and nose. "God, Mom, what happened to you?" I sit by her side not taking my sight off of her.

"We were waiting at the house," Nepeta begins to talk through sobs. "When she didn't show up, we went down to the shop. The front windows were broken out and we couldn't see her. When I called her, she was doing just fine. She said the cab driver had to stop the car, something about a flat tire. The next thing I know, I'm getting a call to come to the hospital and this is all I see." She begins sobbing again, while Equius tries to console her.

"No one has told you anything yet?" I ask, watching Meulin's heart monitor. It's going at a slow pace. Giving off a beep when it reaches it's peak.

"No one, that creep of a doctor just showed when you got here."

I turn away from my deformed mother to the melancholy looks of my brother and sister. Equius tries to hush her quiet, but out the corner of his eye he keeps turning to me with a blank look.

Another man comes into the room, this one is a white lab coat and tie. At least he looks like a doctor this time. "Hello, I'm Dr. Ampora. I'm the one who put Ms. Leijon in stable condition," As he steps into the room, I can see he has two scars above his right eye. "You all must be her family,"

"Yes, we are," I get up from my seat, sizing him up. "Can you do a better explanation of what's going on here? The last doc didn't do so well a job."

"Well, let's hope,. He swipes his hands over his already greasy, swept back hair. "I am head doctor in charge." He walks over to my mother's beside, looking on with a grave face. "Around 12:45 this morning, we received a call from a taxi driver. He said he stopped to change a tire on his car, when your mother stepped outside the vehicle. A few moments later, a car comes speeding down the street. He said it hit your mother at the speed of around 110 mph. It's incredible she's still alive. We stopped most of her bleeding."

Again, Nepeta starts to cry, but there is no consoling from my brother. "Did he say who hit her?"

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to talk to the police for further information." He looks at Equius and I, tilting his head in the direction of the door. He walks outside, with us not to far behind. "I didn't want to say this in front of the girl in there. The patient may not make it through the night. She received injuries far to serve to live through. It's not likely she'll recover at all."

I look over to my brother' stone, cold face. It relays no emotion I can read. I take a deep sigh "Thank you Dr. Ampora. We appreciate it."

He nods. "I'll be back in half an hour, or so, to check on her vitals." He reaches out, squeezing my shoulder. "I'm sorry kid, you shouldn't have to go through this. You or you're siblings." The overcom comes on overhead, paging the doctor. He excuses himself, and makes his way down the hall.

"I can't believe this," I turn to Equius "Ma, was hit by a hit-n-run, driver?"

He just stares at me with disdain and tries to go back inside. I reach out and grab his shoulder "Let go of me."

"What's eating you? Ever since I got here you've been giving me attitude." He swats my hand away, sneering at me.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. It's not your concern." He tries to walk in again, but I stop him.

"Talk,"

He takes a step back. He motions me to go down the hallway a little. We stop at a corner, and he looks me dead in my face. "We're where you?"

"I told you, I got here as soon as I could." I tell him slant. "Is that what's bothering you? That I couldn't get here sooner?"

He shakes his head. "You we're suppose to walk Mom home, Gamzee."

"Yeah, but I had to go look for-" I pause, picking up what he was trying to say. "Are you saying this is my fault!?"

"We wouldn't be here if you just walked home with her." He pokes at my chest "But, you ran off. Just like you always do."

I feel my lip twitch in annoyance. How dare he blame all of this on me "Like I always do? What do you mean, like I always do?" I swat his finger away from my chest. "I have always been there! I never ran off!"

Equius' shoves me backward "Liar! You always run off when you shouldn't. You ran off to college when Mom started getting ill. You ran off when she wanted you to come work at the café! Tonight you ran off

when you knew to walk her home! What is it Gamzee? Is your family something you don't care about!? Or is it you run when responsibilities arise!?"

"Watch what you motherfucking say!" I slam him into the wall behind him, pressing him down by the shoulders "I have always been here for this family! I never ran away from it!"

He grabs one of my forearms, quite aggressively. "Liar! All you care about is yourself! You do what you want, fearing no consequence! If you don't like something, you leave! Tell me, do you like anyone enough to actually stay!?"

My phone starts to buzz in my pocket, we stare each other down for a few seconds before I answer it "Hello? This is a really bad time right now," I glare at my brother, who returns it right back.

"Oh, sorry," I hear Tavros whisper "It's just L.E. Called again. Said you need to finish the delivery yourself."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can." I turn my back to Equius, but I can hear him tap his foot behind me. "Bye, Tav."

"So, running off again? No surprise really, Gamzee," He scoffs.

"Look, I'll be back"

"Don't bother." He walks away from me down back to Meulin's room. "Whenever you get your priories straight, then come back home, Brother. Until then just leave us all alone."

I sigh, he just doesn't realize what I do for everyone in this family. I make my way out the building and down the street. I make my way uptown until I arrive at an old abandon factory building. "Time to finish up that delivery," I climb in through a broken window and make my way to the main floor. This use to be an active car factory until about 75 years ago. Before that, they made the best cars this town had ever seen. I walk over to the assembly line, were a huge furnace lies. I climb in through the mouth of the machine, and shimmy down for about four feet. Right there under my feet, is a huge trap door with a combo lock on it. It's already unlocked, so swinging it open reveals a adder leading down into a dark

abyss. I make my way down, which feels like hours. When I finally do reach the bottom, it leads into a well lit hallway with another door at the end.

"Open up!" I shout. I want to get this over with already. I have other things to do.

"What's the passwerd! I can't let ya in without it!" I hear giggling on the other side of the door.

"Let me in, or so help me I'll have L.E. Blow your brains out personally!"

The laughter stops "It was nothing like that, but I like the sound of this one instead!"

God, I hated Eggs. I don't know who decided to let this moron join. The door opens and on the inside is a regular day in Lord English's secret hang out. "Gangs all here today, huh?"

"Yeah! It's a celebration!" Eggs, in his goofy fashion, tells me "L.E. Putting me in charge of the club you cleared out today, yup!"

"Is he here?" I walk inside the clubhouse to see the rest of the gang playing pool. I wave to them, but they don't wave back. They're too busy concentrating on how to cheat each team out of money. "Need to talk to him."

"Yeah, he's here alright," He nods his head vigorously "Yeah, yup, yup! But he said you need to finish that work he gave you."

I sigh, "Fine, where is he? I'll make it quick. Too bad, I wanted to play with the motherfucker too."

"He's in Stich's closet! Yup, I moved out all the clothes by myself. Yup," He nods happily. No, seriously. I'm going to have to tell L.E. To get rid of this idiot before he gets us all killed.

I runover to the back of the room, making sure not to track any dirt on this light green carpet, to the back room, where Eggs says he is. I open it up to see Spades Slick sitting all by himself. "Well, boy, yer back! Ready to finish up yer job!" He laughs.

"No, like I said, motherfucker. I got plans for your wicked bitch ass." I close the door behind me. "You got some vital intel the Felt members need. So you're death ain't coming here just yet."

"Well, I ain't gonna tell ya shit. I gots nothing to say to you." He frowns. "Just loosen up me hands, I'll show ya what for you brat!"

"We'll see how you act," I get up from my seat "When we come up here with you're sweet heart. Ms. Paint I think you call here?"

I think I can see him foam at the mouth" Don't cha lay a finger on my gal! I'll kill ya! I will, I swear I will!"

"I'm waiting," I slam close the door. Hearing him curse behind me. It appears all the boys erupted a fight over pool, balls are thrown everywhere and there's a broken pool stick by the table. I sigh, how is this hang the most feared in the city? "Crowbar!"

He looks up at me from his chair in the library. "What, Makara? I was almost asleep!"

"Where's English?" I ask through clench teeth. My patients is running thin and dry.

"He just left, I said you wanted to talk to him, bit he had to skidaddle. Said leave him a note."

"Fine, fine, you got a pen?"

"What do I look like, Office Depot or something? " He turns is back to me. "Sheesh, let me sleep."

I walk to to him, looking him once over. Then kick his chair over "Did you turn your back to me motherfucker?!" I grab him by the collar, and he stares at me in shock. "Did you forget who I am?"

"N-no! Sorry boss, look. I didn't mean no harm by it!" He scrambles his hand over the floor, then hands me a pencil "Look it here! I did have something after all! Please, boss, just let me go!"

I snatch it out of his hand. "Better," I drop him to the floor, and he runs away somewhere out of sight. I walk over to the main desk where we keep check of all our charges and damages in record. I open the drawer and pull out some paper.

I don't want to sell anymore.
I plan on working in my family's café
since my house burned down.
Until, further notice,
I can not do anymore work.
I don want to risk both our cover's being blown.

I fold up the piece of paper, placing it in Stich's hands for safe keeping. "I'll make sure he gets it, Makara."

"Great, make sure that it does. I'll be back soon to finish off Spades." I leave the clubhouse and make my way back to the surface. It's daylight now, I should probably head to what remains of my house. I start to make my way to the ash of home when my phone rings again.

"Hello? Homeless, mother's dying, and/or missing loved one's hotline. How can I help you?"

I hear ear a stern voice on the other end of the phone "This is no time for games, Gamzee. I need you to come over, right now."

"Sure, Kanaya, I'll be there in a minute." I yawn. Who knew staying up all night would tire you out so fast. "I'm downtown, so it might take a minute."

"This isn't, Kanaya," My eyes widen and I curse under my breath "This is Porrim, and we need to talk."

a/n: Dear Gods, thank you for Thanksgiving Break! I have almost never written this much in like two days. Plus, two chapter's in one day!? I guess this is an apology for not updating in awhile. Sorry, everyone, I've buzzing buzz like a bee.