DAY FIVE
Rosalie clocked Opie leant against the door frame, watching her struggle to stuff her things into a bag. She rolled her eyes and rolled her head back to what she was doing.
"Hey." Opie rasped and approached her side, "I was just checking on the changing of the guard...What's this? You're making a break for it?"
Rosalie hummed.
"You're not talking to me now? Damn." Opie chuckled, "The silence is kinda eerie."
"Are you serious?" Rosalie scoffed, and turned to sharply face him. Her hand shot to her stomach and she flinched, and composed herself, masking her pain with anger towards him.
"What the hell are you doing?" Opie demanded and snatched the bag out of her hands, "Who said you could leave? You've not recovered. Ro. Stop. I'm not psyched about you ending up dead just because you're pissed at me."
"Don't flatter yourself." Rosalie scorned and struggled to go around him.
"I made a point of saying I wasn't going anywhere, and then I pummelled Tig and dropped off the map?" He asked as he helped her out, and she weakly used his arm as a support, "But that's done. I'm sorry. It's done. I'm back. Why are you headed for the firing line? Huh? Weston walked. We're about to OK Corral it on Main Street. So, you're staying put."
"Weston walked? Outta what? Why? I don't know anything. I can't just sit around and do nothing." Rosalie ranted, and gestured around so emphatically that Opie had to consciously keep his face straight, "I can't make small talk with the Mini Gemmas waltzing in and out of here, with their mini-muffins and their lemonade, and just wait around for scraps of a word."
"You're out of action. Accept it. You're not back together yet." Opie said, "You had a major surgery. You can't pick up your kid without busting your stitches. For the love of God, sit down."
"Grace." Rosalie said as Opie helped her back to her bed, "Her name is Grace."
Opie was crouched before her. He smiled genuinely, and said, "That's good. I like it." He was cut off by his cellphone ringing. He glanced down quickly and noted the caller, and then stuffed the phone back into his pocket.
"What?" Rosalie asked him.
"It's Jax. It's going down." Opie said, simply, "He needs me."
"So?" Rosalie widened her eyes and scoffed, "Go."
"No." Opie said firmly, "You either stay here, and you let me go...or I have to go with you, and catch your guts when they fall out, and we just roll the dice on Jax managing without me."
Rosalie glared at him in response.
"I know you don't like being told what to do, so..." Opie rasped, with a shrug and an ill-disguised smirk, "Your choice."
The phone buzzed and rang again. They both continued to glare at each other, locked in a stalemate.
"Hmm. Sounds important." Opie rasped.
"I will stay." Rosalie uttered to him, quietly, "I promise."
"Okay." Opie rasped and rose into action. He pulled out his phone quickly and glanced through the messages. He told her, "No bullshit slipping out the back window the second I leave, alright?" Opie turned to leave, but after a few steps, found that he couldn't. He pushed the phone back into his pocket and he glanced back at her. He watched her potter over and pull the sheets on her bed back, until she realised he was still there, and turned back to him.
"What?" She asked him.
He exhaled slowly and then he returned to her.
"You're worried." She said; she didn't ask.
He took her completely into his strong hold, and she thought he was going to lean in and kiss her.
"Please. Don't go anywhere." He rasped to her, his forehead rested against hers. He waited for her to nod in agreement, and then he disappeared.
Just as Rosalie had settled back into her prison cell, and started feeding her baby girl, her phone started buzzing: Tara. Rosalie stretched over to the side table and answered the call. She was frantic. She didn't know who else to call. Everyone was headed for the showdown with Zobelle and The Mayans. She was alone with Abel. Gemma had disappeared, she went after the woman who had tricked her into Weston's hands. Half-Sack was with Gemma. She wanted to go back to them. She couldn't leave Abel. Rosalie hollered over Tara's frantic babbling and assured her it was going to be okay, she should come here. It was safe here.
Rosalie jumped a little at the sound of her hospital room door opening abruptly, and she gestured to Tara to be quiet.
"She just settled." Rosalie whispered to her.
Tara placed the baby carrier down beside the cot; Abel was sleeping soundly inside.
"Hey." Rosalie rasped and embraced the shaken Tara as she rose back up, "Are you okay?"
"I didn't know what to do." Tara cried, "I had to get Abel out of there. I had no idea that she was going to do that."
"You did the right thing. It's not your fight, and it's certainly not his." Rosalie said as she caressed the baby boy's cheek. She asked Tara, "She's not alone, right?"
"Half-Sack is there." Tara said, "He's there...with his bike. I talked to him. He's there."
As if on cue, Half-Sack chapped on the hospital room door and staggered inside, panting away. Rosalie shot a dark look between them. Tara's blood ran cold, and she struggled to huff out, "Wh-where's Gemma?"
"I-I-I don't know." Half-Sack told her, "I've been looking everywhere for you. Feds raided the house. I had to leave."
"Oh, shit." Rosalie scorned, and ran her hands through her hair.
"You better call Jax." Half-Sack implored Tara.
Tara shook as she scrambled inside her bag and dialled Jax's cell. She exchanged a defeated look with Rosalie, who nodded in solidarity.
"Hey. It's me. Um, I didn't want to bother you with this...No. I'm-I'm okay. Abel's with me. We're at the hospital." Tara said, "Jax. Look, it's Gemma. She followed Zobelle's daughter in the-OH!"
Cameron Hayes emerged into the hospital room, with a gun pointed directly at her. Tara screamed and dropped the phone in fright. Rosalie gasped as Cameron pushed Tara back and down into the seat.
"Hang. Up." Cameron seethed at Rosalie and shakily pushed the gun into Tara's temple.
He was incredibly emotional; a man on the edge, not to be tested. Rosalie nodded, and mouthed, 'okay' as she struggled to bend down. She picked up the phone and hung up. She couldn't risk trying to signal anything to Jax. Cameron gestured that Rosalie sit down on the bed, near to Tara.
"Weapon." Cameron muttered to Half-Sack, "Blade."
"What are you doing, Cameron? What do you want?" Rosalie asked the intruder.
"SHUT UP." Cameron seethed at her, "Shut up or I shoot. Gemma killed my Eddy. I figured maybe, I kill an old lady, even the score."
He aimed the gun at Tara. Tara gasped and began to shake and cry. Rosalie flinched, shot up, and stretched out her hand to him. Half-Sack stepped forward, too, but Cameron shoved the gun back into his face. Everyone froze suddenly.
Cameron's expression twisted and he scorned, "Don't get brave, boyo. Sit! FLOOR. SIT."
Half-Sack complied. All of the sharp hisses and tears had stirred baby Abel. All was silent in the room, except for pounding hearts, staggered breath, and the sound of Abel fussing. Cameron stared at the wriggling baby boy.
"Here we are." Cameron eventually said, maniacally, as he plucked up Half-Sack's knife and made his way over to Abel, "Son for a son. Seems about right."
"NO!" Rosalie screamed out and collided with Cameron.
She was elbowed harshly in the torso, and she was slammed back against the wall.
"NO!" Half-Sack roared and saw his moment to go for Cameron.
It all happened so fast. Only a few beats. Half-Sack groaned out in agony. Cameron had stabbed Half-Sack in the gut and drawn the knife up. Tara had screamed out and fallen down to the floor with the man. Rosalie was frozen. She clutched on to her stomach in agony, and the ice cold floor beneath her for support, as she watched the life drain out of Half-Sack's eyes.
"Please, no!" Tara cried as she held on to Half-Sack's slumped body.
Cameron turned the gun on Tara's blubbering tears and her breath hitched in her throat as he approached her.
"NO." Rosalie blurted out, and pushed herself up weakly, attempting to claw herself to them, "It's not even, Cameron! Please! They'll be coming for you. The-the noise! GO! You should go! Go, NOW!"
Cameron flinched at her sudden outburst, convinced by the colour radiating through her clothes that she wasn't a threat to him. He barked at her, "Get back."
Rosalie threw her bloodied hands up a little as the barrel fell back in her direction, and Cameron returned his attention to the tinier of the two bawling babies.
"Forgive me, Lizzie." Cameron told Rosalie as he reached into Grace's cot, and scooped the baby girl up into his arms, "I have to make things right. You understand."
Tara cried out, "OH. Please. No."
A guttural cry came out of Rosalie as she begged the man, "No. It's me. Don't kill her. Don't kill her. Please. Oh, my god! Please! Kill me! KILL ME!"
Cameron stewed in it for another moment, and eventually turned his gun on to the baby to cut her mother's cries off. He opened the door, and he staggered his way out of the room. Rosalie broke down as she struggled to get up off the floor; she couldn't. She screamed out at the empty doorway over and over, 'Kill me! KILL ME!'. Tara scarpered across the floor to her, over Half-Sack, and she begged her to stay still as she snatched up a blanket and pressed it against her bleeding abdomen. A distant gun shot rang out down the hallway. The entire hospital ignited into a panic. Rosalie was an inconsolable mess; convinced that her life was ending; that gunshot may as well have landed in her chest; it was over.
Chibs burst through the hospital doors and the men thundered their way inside the maternity unit; past the bloodstain smeared down the wall. They were greeted with a sea of people, and yellow tape all across the hall.
"SIR! This is a crime scene! You can't be in here!" The Hospital Security Guard insisted.
"Get to fuck!" Chibs screamed back at the man and shoved his way past him. He called out for his daughter, "ROSIE?!" He groaned out and cringed at the sight of the butchered man on the floor, "Oh. Oh! Shit!"
Opie fell down beside Half-Sack's lifeless body. The morgue assistant put two and two together and informed the similarly dressed men that there was nothing that could have been done. He was gone. It would have been painful. But it was fast. Jackson went weak as he surveyed the bloody room; there was another pool of blood on this side, away from Sack; endless horrifying scenarios raced through his mind.
"Where-where are they?!" Jackson huffed out and ran his hands through his hair as he asked the man, "This room-the woman in this room, and the baby? Dr Knowles?" The man shrugged and apologised, he didn't know. Jackson barrelled his way outside and slammed one of the security guards hard against the wall, screaming in his face, "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? WHERE ARE THEY?!"
Opie launched himself outside after Jax, and pulled his enraged brother away from making a terrible mistake in the heat of the moment.
"Where the hell were you?!" Jax screamed out at them from behind Opie's constriction.
"This ain't on us! DAVEY GOT SHOT!" The security guard bellowed back.
"The cops are coming! Back the hell off, man!" Another yelled, "It's the labour ward, there's always screaming here!"
"There always fucking murders up here?!" Jackson hollered back at him.
"JAX?! JAX!" Tara screamed out and hurried towards them, toting Abel on her hip.
"Walk away." Opie barked in the security guard's face, "NOW."
"TARA!" Jax barked and stormed down the hallway to collide with her. His face crumpled as he took his baby boy into his arms, and he cried out, "Jesus Christ! Are you okay?"
"Where is Rosie?!" Opie asked her.
"She is in surgery. She burst her stitches trying to fight him off. He-he took her." Tara babbled out, "He-he took Grace."
"WHAT?!" Chibs roared out as he emerged in the doorway.
Jackson was frozen; his heart started thumping away from him. He glanced over at Chibs with a lost expression, as he tried to process what she'd just said, and then looked back at the distraught woman.
"What do you mean?" Opie finally huffed out for them.
"Who?!" Jax barked at her.
"That Irishman I patched up." Tara sobbed.
"Cameron." Opie rasped.
"FUCK!" Chibs groaned out, painfully, and punched the wall.
Baby Abel started wailing at the commotion again; Chibs winced and struggled to compose himself; he looked apologetically at Jax, who shook it off. Tara took the baby from his father's weakened arms, and struggled all over again to settle his cries.
"Why?" Jax huffed out to Tara.
"He-He wanted to take a-a son for a son after Gemma killed Eddy, or an old lady." Tara sobbed, "She dove in front of Abel, got hurt. Kip too. He was gonna kill me. She stopped him. But then...oh, god, oh god. I'm so sorry! Chibs, I'm so sorry!"
Deputy Hale stormed his way into the hospital and made a bee-line for them, ordering his officers to close off the entire wing, and lock the hospital down. Chibs took one long, steadying, intake of breath and swallowed his agony.
"Call Clay. Now." Chibs demanded of Jax. He turned to Tara and shakily demanded, "You stay here. Tell 'em everything. Look after my daughter."
Opie slapped a supportive hand onto Chibs' shoulder and followed him out.
