GroundedSouls: Aw, that's a pretty name!
UnangelicHalo: KEEP READING!
PoeticKiss: HOW DID YOU GUESS THE ENDING????????? Lol....just kidding. :)
Suze's POV:
I blinked my eyes open in surprise. The room I was in was a bright, blinding white. It hurt to keep my eyes open, and so I closed them. Or tried to anyways. There was just so much to see! I had expected to be in heaven. I mean, shot in the stomach, you don't really expect to live through that. The last time I closed my eyes, I'd basically said good-bye to Jesse.
But no. No pearly gates for this mediator. Instead, I was sitting- well, lying- in a hospital bed, hooked up to more machines than I could count. I turned my head to stare at them, and found myself face to face with Jesse.
"Susannah!" he cried. "You're awake! Oh thank god!" And then he flung his arms around my neck. I thought Jesse had lost it or something. "Um, Jesse? Sweetie? Kinda taking away my oxygen supply there."
Jesse immediately reliquished his hold on me. "I'm sorry, querida. It's just...You've been in a coma for a week now. I didn't know if you'd ever wake up."I tried to sit up, but found it was just a little bit painful, thanks to the newest stitches in my stomach. Jesse pushed me back. "No, you'll pull the stitches." He said, sitting next to me carefully.
"Jesse what happened? I mean, I know I was shot in the stomach, and I think I told you I love you, and then I closed my eyes, and now I'm here." I was majorally confused. Jesse tried to explain.
"That el tonto, Paul..." Jesse's voice became furious, remembering. "He shot you in the stomach. The doctors say it didn't hit anything major, but you lost a lot of blood. They had to do a transfusion." Jesse smiled. "Querida, do you remember what I said, after you told me you loved me?"
I thought back. I think I remembered...Did he say he loved me back? I smiled, and said, "I think so. I hope you said what I think you said."
"Ah, querida..." Jesse kissed me gently. Ok. Guess he did.
"Did they arrest him?" I asked, Jesse's arm now protectively around my shoulders. Jesse nodded. "And Father Dom expelled him. And Jake, Brad, myself, David, Adam, and CeeCee all took turns beating him into a bloody pulp."
"WHAT?" I said loudly. I was shocked. "Wow." I was majorally shocked. Not at the guys- well, maybe at Brad- but definitly at CeeCee. She's very anti-violence. "Cee?"
"Oh yes." Jesse grinned, the light dancing in his eyes. "CeeCee gave Slater a black eye, and broke his foot."
"Damn." I said, closing my eyes against the whiteness. This room was rivaling CeeCee's albino features. Jesse noticed me close my eyes, and kissed my forehead. "Good night, querida." he whispered.
Jesse's POV:
I waited in Susannah's hospital room, waiting for her to wake up. I knew she would- after all, Father Dom had said nothing could destroy our love, right? And, after all the doctors had done, they said she would be OK....once she woke up.
So I waited.
And waited.
Finally, a week later, my beautiful Susannah opened her eyes. She glanced around sleepily, saw where she was, and tried to look around.
"Susannah! You're awake! Thank God!" I went and sat next to Susannah, giving her a big hug. She told me I was holding her a little too tight, and I let go.
"Jesse, what happened?" Susannah started to babble. I caught the important parts. "...shot in the stomach...told you I love you...closed...eyes...here." I told her Slater had shot her, but she was going to be OK. She seemed shocked that so many of us had beaten up Slater.
I noticed Susannah get sleepy. Kissing her forehead, I said, "Good night, querida." and watched her fall back asleep.
Then I did the unthinkable: I went to visit Slater.
Yes, I know. Why am I going to see the man who had almost killed my querida? Because of our combined attackes, Slater was in ICU for several days. Now he was in a regular room. I had to go visit him, mainly to make sure he understood that if he did not leave my Susannah alone, it would not be the ICU ward for him. It would be the morgue. I know I told Susannah that he had been arrested, and he had- but he had to recover in the hospital first.
He seemed to understand this time. Jake, Brad, and Adam had been by to make sure he understood. By the time I got there, his eyes were clouded in fear. Good. Make him fear us, like Susannah feared him.
Paul's POV:
Damn. Stuck in the hospital again. I was starting to get on a first name basis with the nurses. It was scary.
Oh, don't think that just because I'd gotten my ass kicked by Jake, Brad, David, De Silva, Adam, AND CeeCee (yes, a girl kicked my ass. She only broke my foot, and worsened the black eye Jake had given me.) I was going to turn into some nice guy and leave Suze alone. Oh, no. Far from it.
I lay there, contemplating my revenge when Jake and Brad came in. They both gave me the message that I had better leave Susannah alone, or it would be the morgue, not ICU.
I pretended to be afraid. I feigned fear when Adam showed up too. And when De Silva arrived. Everyone wanted me to leave Suze alone.
But dammit, she would be mine. She would be mine willingly, or I would scare her into being mine. And if that meant attempting to take her life a few times, then that's what it meant. I would never actually kill her. Oh no, kill the woman I love? Never! I would just make her think that I was going to.
I don't like to lose. So I don't. I never make the same mistake twice. Susannah Simon would be mine again. And I would stop spending so much time in the hospital.
Suze's POV:
I woke up again several hours later. Mom was sitting next to my bed, crying. She always cries when I end up in the hospital. "Susie!" Mom gasped when I woke up.
"Hey mom." I said, forcing a smile.
"Susie, I'm about to never let you leave the house again." Mom said, laughing slightly and crying at the same time.
"But this one wasn't my fault!" I cried weakly.
"I know." Mom said, brushing the hair out of my eyes. "The world is a dangerous place, I suppose."
"Only when you won't go out with Paul Slater." I replied. Mom laughed.
"So, when do I leave this time?" I asked, trying to sit up. I sit up, wincing slightly, but the stitches were Ok. You'd think by now I'd be able to move without hurting them, as many as I've had.
"Tomorrow." Mom said. I looked at the clock on the wall, and saw that it was ten at night. "And, unfortunately, Andy and I won't be able to stay home. Jesse's going to stay with you while you recover at home the rest of the week."
I nodded. Home alone with Jesse for a week, I'm not going to argue. "Speak of the devil!" Mom exclaimed, looking up at the door way. Jesse came striding in, this look of worry on his face. Mom noticed. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing." Jesse said. But you could so tell it was something, he just didn't want to worry us. I smiled at him. "Jesse, what's up?"
"Nothing, Susannah." He said, grinning at me. Mom excused herself to go get coffee, and give us some time to be alone.
"Father Dominic has already arranged to send home our schoolwork during this week." Jesse said, after he kissed me deeply. "He feels terrible about this."
"Yeah, well, he should." I retorted. I know I sounded horrible, but seriously! The man should have expelled Paul the second he'd been arrested!
"Querida..." Jesse said in a warning tone.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." I said. "It's not Father Dom's fault Paul shot me."
"That's right." Jesse said. "Besides, think of the upside to this."
"There's an upside to being shot?"
"Yes." Jesse said, laying down next to me. "Now, you get to spend all day in bed with the man you love." On the word love, he leaned down and kissed me again. My stomach twitched, and it hurt for a minute.
"Um, Jesse..."I trailed off as I winced slightly. Jesse noticed. "Sorry." he said.
"It's ok. We just can't be real physical." I said. Jesse nodded. He looked like it hurt him to see me in pain.
He layed there with me, until I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was sitting in one of the chairs next to my bed. Mom was in the other one, and Andy walked in right as I was waking up. "Hey." he said smiling.
"Hey." I replied.
Andy looked at mom and Jesse. "You know, those two have not left those chairs since eleven last night." he said.
I felt very loved. "Do you guys...like, approve of Jesse?" I asked. Not that it mattered. Jesse and I were going to be together until we kicked the bucket, whether or not they approve of him.
"Well, I can't speak for your mother..." Andy said. "But I do. He's very protective of you, it seems."
I grinned. I felt closer to Andy than I've ever felt. Just then, mom stirred from her spot. She saw that I was awake and smiled at me.
"Morning." I said.
"Morning, sweetie." Mom said. "You ready to go home?"
"Damn straight!" I said a little bit loudly. Jesse jerked his head up and blinked around. I smiled and shook my head.
"Ms. Simon, you're free to go." The nurse said to me. I was seated in a wheelchair in the entrance to my room, with Jesse behind me getting ready to push me outside. Mom and Andy were signing random forms, and gathering flowers and stuff from my friends. Finally, Jesse was wheeling me outside to mom's car and helping me into the backseat.
Getting up the steps proved slightly more difficult. Each step hurt, even with Jesse on one side and Mom on the other, and Andy behind to make sure I didn't fall. I was exhausted when I finally got into my big comfortable bed. "Now, you are forbidden to move, except to go to the bathroom." Mom said, trying to be all stern and tough. The effect was ruined, though, because she had tears in her eyes again.
"Not even if I wanted to." I was dead serious too. I didn't want to move for anything. If anyone attacked, then they were just going to have to take me because this girl was not moving.
I fell asleep a few hours later, to Jesse's soft voice. I was tired. I guess being in a coma will do that to you.
Paul's POV, Two Months Later:
"Alright, Paul." My nurse, Rachel, said. "You are free to go. Just try not to come back anytime soon, OK?"
I nodded. I knew I'd probably be back, if Suze's protectors had anything to say about it. Unfortunately, I wasn't going home. Nope, after taking two months to recover in the hospital, they were taking me back to the holding cell I'd escaped from.
With no bail. Meaning I was stuck there.
Oh well. When you're a shifter, a powerful one like me, mere holding cells can't keep you from the woman you love. Oh no. How many times had I managed to get out of there?
So I settled into the cell. I had round-the-clock guards posted at the entrance. It was hell. Except when I slept. Because when I slept, I saw Suze.
In my sleep, I would shift to her room. Sit on her window seat, the one De Silva used to inhabit, and watch her sleep. Sometimes, she would wake and see me. She's let out a small scream, and then I'd disappear. I knew she was afraid. Maybe not of me, but of what I could do. Of what I would try to do.
Her fear would be the end of her. And of De Silva. I didn't know exactly why he was alive, but I didn't care. It just made it a little bit harder to get rid of him. A simple exorcism wouldn't work. But I could easily kill him.
Later. Right now, Susannah Simon was top priority.