Chapter Six

While the ambulance pulls up Rico leans over and whispers into Sonny's ear, "Don't you die on me! Don't you do it, Sonny Crockett!"

The paramedics rush over to Rico and Sonny. "You have to step back," says one of the paramedics to Rico.

After Rico moves the paramedics start to work on Sonny. Rico stands behind the chaos in the alley and falls to his knees.

"Please God, don't let him die," says Rico.

As he stands up he hears a paramedic say to another one, "We can't remove the knife here."

They place Sonny on his side onto a gurney to keep the knife from going deeper into his body. Rico tells the paramedics that he is going to follow them to the hospital in Sonny's car. As the paramedics place Sonny into the ambulance, Rico walks back to Sonny's car and calls Castillo.

"Hello?" Castillo asks.

"Castillo," says Rico.

"Rico is that you? What's wrong?" asks Castillo.

"Sonny's hurt. We're on our way to the hospital. The man we were supposed to meet double-crossed us. He stabbed Sonny in the back. We're headed to the same hospital that Trudy's at. Do me a favor, call Sonny's boat and tell Gina and Zito to get to the hospital, please?" asks Rico.

"Ok, I'll do it. We'll see you in a little bit. Bye," says Castillo.

"Bye," says Rico and he hangs up the phone. Rico puts the car into drive and follows after the ambulance.

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The phone starts to ring on the Saint Vida's Dance. Gina, asleep in Sonny's bed, hears the phone ring and rolls over.

"Stay there, I'll get it," says Zito.

"Okay."

Zito picks up the phone and says "Hello?"

"Zito, it's Castillo. Is Gina there with you?" asks Castillo.

"Yeah, she's still here. She's been asleep. Why? What's up?" asks Zito.

"I just got a call from Tubbs. Their meeting went bad. Sonny's been hurt. Their contact stabbed him. He's on his way to the same hospital as Trudy. Tubbs is following and expecting us to be there in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll tell Gina. We'll be there as soon as possible. Bye," says Zito.

Zito turns around to hear Gina's voice from the kitchen area. "Tell me what?" she asks.

"I have something to tell you and you might want to sit down for it," he says with a solemn look on his face.

"What? What's wrong?" she asks as she just stands there.

"Sonny and Rico went to their meeting, but you already know that. Well, it didn't go as planned. Somebody got hurt," says Zito as he looks at Gina.

"Who got hurt?" she asks.

"Sonny."

As Zito goes to sit on the bed, he notices the look on Gina's face. She has the look of someone who just felt a person walk across their grave. He stares into her eyes and senses the shock and disbelief. All of a sudden Gina blinks and looks at Zito as if she knew he was reading her mind. But at that point it wasn't hard to read what she was thinking. She looks at Zito again and sees that he has his eyes closed. She doesn't know if it is because he is trying to hide tears or if he is just trying to stay calm. Zito opens his eyes and sees Gina staring at him, and he can't read her anymore. He has to stay calm. If not for himself, then for her. He sees Gina double over as if she is in pain. When he rushes over to see what's wrong she starts to cry. As he kneels down beside her, she turns to him and wraps her arms around him.

"First Trudy, and now Sonny," was all she could manage to say while crying into his shoulder.

"You heard what the doctor said. Trudy's going to be just fine. We just have to worry about Sonny," he says while holding Gina to keep her from shaking.

"When does Castillo want us there?" she asks backing away from Zito.

"As soon as possible. He said that Rico is following the ambulance. He's going to be there any minute," he answers as they both stand up.

"Where's he going?"

"To the same hospital as Trudy. And we should leave if we're going to get there when he does."

"Well, then what the hell are we waiting for?" she says as she rushed out of the cabin and toward Zito's car.

He silently says to himself "That's our girl!"

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As Gina and Zito race towards the hospital, the ambulance pulls up with Rico right behind. As the doctors and nurses run to the ambulance with a stretcher and medical equipment, Rico frantically searches the parking lot for anyone that resembles his friends. He spots Castillo getting out of his car. He rushes over to Castillo.

"Lieutenant!" he yells, trying to let Castillo know that he was already there.

"Rico, how is he?" Castillo asks in reply.

"I heard the doctor say that they were taking him straight into surgery. They haven't told me anything else. I guess we'll have to wait until the doctor comes out of surgery."

"I guess we will. I hope that he's going to be all right," says Castillo as they enter the hospital.

A nurse sees them and recognizes that they are the detectives from earlier and shows them to a private room.

"You haven't seen the other two detectives that were here last time have you? The tall, thin man and the brunette?" Rico asks.

"No, but I'll show them to the room as soon as they get here. And I'll inform the other detective that you're here," she answers as she starts to leave the room.

"Thank you," Rico says with a look of dread on his face.

She turns around and says "Not necessary. And I'm sure he's going to be fine. I'll go and see if your friends are here."

She turns and leaves the room. Little did she know that the term "friends" would be loosely used. By the end of the night they were all going to feel like family.