Slipping Through the Cracks
Chapter 9: All Fall Down
See Part 1 for disclaimers
Recap: Five months after the Cris reveal Natalie is pregnant (by John obviously). She and John have been in therapy and she revealed that she considered having an abortion. Their wedding has begun but someone interrupted just as Joey was about to pronounce them husband and wife…
Author's Note: Okay this story has maybe one or two chapters left I'm thinking; please let me know how you're liking it!
The church was in an uproar, and Natalie squeezed her eyes shut as her breath caught in her throat. This isn't happening, someone tell me this isn't happening. She opened her eyes and John grabbed her hand instinctively at the sight of the tears shining there. They turned together to face the source of all the commotion, Evangeline Williamson waving a gun. "Oh my god," Natalie whispered, her thoughts instantly going to her son. She touched her stomach and John made a small gesture for her to get down.
As Natalie knelt on the floor hoping against hope that Evangeline would come to her senses, John began to slowly walk over to his ex. "Evangeline—" "Stop where you are!" she screamed, pointing the gun straight at him. He stopped with his hands in the air, trying his best to ignore Natalie's sobs behind him. Stay strong, I'm not going to let her hurt any of us, especially not you and our son. He swallowed as he concentrated on going into cop mode.
" Evangeline, what are you doing?" Evangeline looked at John as tears filled her eyes. "I just wanted you to love me," she pleaded in a soft tone. "Evangeline—" John said warily as he saw Antonio and Bo stand up and begin walking silently towards her back. She whirled around. "Stop! You are not going to stop me!" She pointed the gun at Natalie, and in that instant the cop was gone. "Evangeline," John said softly. He was more than willing to play dirty if it would stop Natalie from being hurt. She kept the gun pointed tremblingly at Natalie. "What?"
" Evangeline, stop. Let's leave together. I've missed you baby. I was only with Natalie because of the baby but she can handle him on her own." He held his hands out and Evangeline's eyebrows knit together as she tried furiously to make sense of everything. "Do you really mean that?" John nodded. "Just put the gun down and we can go start our new lives together." He caught Natalie's eyes and tried to communicate how much he loved her. Evangeline, of course, believe that the gaze was meant for her and it was the key to unlocking her defenses.
She threw the gun onto the ground and ran into John's arms. As he held her at arm's length and called for someone to arrest her, the gun went off and everyone screamed. In the short moment of silence before the mayhem would begin, a voice rang out in pain as the bullet hit…
TO BE CONTINUED