A/N: this chapter did not come out as well I hoped.
The police and ambulance came about ten minutes after Don had arrived on the seen.
A medic touched Don on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me Agent Eppes we need to check Ms. Conti's wounds."
Don moved aside and let them attend to Giada. After a few minutes the paramedics told Gia, "Ms. Conti while your injuries are not life threatening we do need to take you to the ER."
Gia nodded. The paramedics loaded her on to the Gurney and put her on the ambulance. Not once did she speak.
"Ms. Conti do you want Agent Eppes to ride with you?"
She looked at Don and back to the medics and nodded her head yes.
Don held her hand on the ride over to the hospital. Not once did she make eye contact with him or answer any of his questions.
They arrived at the hospital. Johnny was talking to one of the nurses when he saw his sister beaten and bleeding being wheeled by. He started to run after her when Don grabbed him and started yell at him, "What the F&# is going on? I go to your sister's house and some thug attacks me and then I find Gia tied up and bleeding and then I get attacked by some other guy. What the hell is going on?"
Johnny said, "Let me go man! It's got nothing to do with you. I need to go to help my sister."
'To hell it has nothing to do with me!"
Don and Gia's brother start to fight when security pulls them apart. One of the other nurses sees the melee ran to get Johnny's girlfriend who was a nurse at the hospital.
"Colleen you have to come quick. Dr. Conti and some guy are trying to beat the crap out of each other."
Colleen looked up, "What? Why?"
"Something to do with Dr. Conti's sister who was just brought in from an attack at her home."
"Son of a bitch." She took off after the other nurse and found both men still yelling at each other.
"Johnny calm down and you too Don. You two are not helping matters." Colleen yelled.
Both men just glared at each other.
At this time the ER attending physician came over, "Is there a problem?"
Colleen spoke first, "No Dr. Brown. Dr. Conti and a family friend are going to let us do our job while the two of them go get some coffee. Isn't that right Dr. Conti and Agent Eppes?"
The attending physician glanced at the two men and said, "Dr. Conti I suggest you do as Colleen says and allow myself and the staff to attend to your sister." Dr Brown stalked away.
Colleen looked at both men and said, "I will go see if I can help your sister. I suggest you do as I ask and I think Johnny you better tell Don what is going on?"
Johnny argued, 'It's not my story to tell."
"The hell it isn't. I think this one time you need to override your sister wishes and do what is best for her. Now go get some coffee both of you and call the rest of your family." She walked away to attend to Gia.
Don and Johnny continued to glare at each other. "Come on." Johnny said, 'If we don't do what she says she'll just come out here and yell at us more." Johnny looked to Don, "How about a beer instead of coffee. We can go to the pub across the street."
Don nodded and followed him out the door to the pub.
They grabbed a table at the back and order two beers.
Johnny sighed and rubbed his temples. Don sat and waited for Gia's brother to tell him whatever the big secret was.
"She is so going to kick my ass for telling you."
"Well I think if you ask her for forgiveness she should cool off in a day or so."
"Yeah well if you think that then you really don't know my sister that well. She never forgets and she rarely forgives." Johnny scratched his head and started talking, "When Gia was a junior at Upenn she met this guy named Greg. They began dating and unfortunately Gia was under a lot of pressure back then. She was studying for 2 degrees and was student teaching for one of her professors. I think it was the only time in her life that Gia was truly vulnerable. It was easy for him to isolate her. That year our younger brother, Pepe was diagnosis with Leukemia. Pepe is ten years younger then both of us. I think my sister didn't want to be a burden on my parents so she emailed less frequently and called home even less. No one knew how bad it was till the incident. "
He took a swig of beer. "Sorry, I'm getting a head of myself. Anyway, she was low on sleep probably not eating much and he wormed his way in. It started out innocent enough. He would make a big deal out of other men checking her out. Trying to defend her honor. She was probably flattered that he made a big deal over her. But then one say he saw her talking to some classmate and later on that evening he accused her of cheating on him and "accidentally" shoved her into a wall. From there it escalated into him punching her where people could not see the bruises and telling her she was dirt. At one point he broke her wrist and then told her if she told anyone he would kill her."
Johnny stopped speaking and took a swig of his beer. He got the waitress's attention and ordered a second beer.
Don swore, "Son of bitch. I just can't believe she'd put up with that."
"Yeah, well we all were. She at times is so strong but when it comes to herself she can be quite vulnerable. Some how Greg knew that and he was able to use that to his advantage."
Don grimaced and said, "You know about two weeks ago before you came over we were out with some friends and some guy was checking her out. When we got to her place I told her about the guy. I teasingly told her, it could make a guy jealous. She gave me this funny look." He sighed, "She told me that she would never to do anything to make me jealous and almost begged me to believed her." He rubbed his chin, "I assured her that I have nothing to be jealous about. I know how she feels about us but now I know why she looked so freaked out. Like I would ever lay a hand on her. Damn that SOB."
"Yeah well I haven't even gotten to the good part Don." He leaned into the chair, "She was supposed to come home between summer and fall break but she didn't want us to see what was happening to her. She told us that she had to move into her new apartment and she would be to busy. My parents were worried so they ask me to go check on her. I was going to school in NY and so I ran down. Thinking at the time that my parents were being over protective but I went down anyway. I forgot to call her to tell her I was coming and I guess it was a good thing. I got down to her place and she opened her door and she was standing there with a cast on her arm and a black eye and I just knew by that look on her face. She tried to tell me that she hurt herself moving who did she think she was talking to school. I was a damn medical student with paramedic training and I knew the signs. He was at her place and he saw us arguing the bastard told me to leave slamming the door in my face.
I went home that night shocked. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't believe my own sister would put up with that. I had to do something but I couldn't tell my parents not with Pepe so sick. I got back to my place and called Gia's best friend Anna and told her what was going on. Anna and I decided to meet the next day and go back down to Philly to get Gia help."
"We got to her place early she wasn't there but her roommate was. She let us in and we waited for her to come back so we could confront her. Gia came home and saw us waiting there for her. She took one look at us and took off. I went after her down the stairs to try to get her to at least talk to us. I had just caught up to her when we heard a scream for help. We both ran up stairs to find Greg strangling Anna. I ran at him and tried to pull him off of her when he stabbed me with a knife. I still have the scar here on my chest." Johnny lifted up his shirt to reveal a 4-inch scar on the left side of his torso.
"It was then that I yelled to my sister to go get help when her face just glazed over with pure rage. It was like something out of a Tarantino movie. She ran right at him and just starting beating him. She just went berserk. She even grabbed a chair and hit him with that. It was like she was possessed by a demon. She just kept beating him and beating him all the while screaming don't you ever touch my family. It was so surreal. At some point I was able to get enough strength to pull her off of him. The police came and took us all to the hospital. They rushed Greg into surgery to work on the damage she had done to him. To get to the point no charges were pressed but I think partially because my father intervened. We overheard the doctors tell the police that Greg was injuries were numerous. He has a broken arm, collarbone and cracked ribs. He also had a fractured cheek and suffered severe lacerations to the head. She really did a number on him."
"Greg eventually healed enough that the DA pressed charges of attempted murder of Anna and me. . He was giving 15 years with parole. Gia spent the rest of the semester at home with our parents. She came back to school for the spring semester whole but changed."
We both finished college and medical school. Gia stayed in Philly to work on her doctorate and I finished medical school. We haven't talked much about the whole thing but my sister saved my life. The knife was only centimeters away from doing real damage."
Don looked at Johnny and was amazed by the story.
"I hope this doesn't change your feeling about my sister."
"Naw man. Nothing could make me change my mind about how I feel. I just wish she knew that. That was the past and she did nothing wrong."
"Well, I thought she knew that. But, over the last few years Greg's mother started sending letters to Gia. She would write that anything her son did to Gia was deserved. She hated my sister saying it was her fault that her son was in prison. About 3 months before she moved here the mother died and we heard from prison officials that Greg blamed Gia for his mother's death. So I guess when he was paroled he made a beeline out here to exact revenge" He blew out some air and then finished his beer.
They both sat in silence. Finally Don spoke, "I don't know why she would want to hide this from me."
"She doesn't like to be viewed as weak."
"Weak? Why would I or anyone else think that?"
Johnny put his hands up, "I love my sister but I don't pretend to understand her. I don't know maybe she thought that you would think she was damaged. Who the hell knows! Come on we better get back before they send a rescue party out for us."
The two men headed back to the hospital. Johnny went to check on Gia while the police wanted to talk to Don about what he knew had happened.
The officer took out his note book and started asking, "Agent Eppes do you know the man that attacked you?"
"No. I don't"
"Can you please go over again what happened at Ms. Conti's residence?"
"I went to her house and I notice her front door was ajar. I thought that was odd. As I started to walk in I heard Ms Conti yell and then I saw the perp aiming a gun at me. I was able to disarm him and knock him out. I then ran to where I thought heard Ms. Conti yell. I found her on the floor and another perp hitting her. I immediately launched at him and tried to subdue him. Unfortunately when he heard the sirens he was able to get loose and take off."
"That all Agent Eppes?"
Don nodded.
"Ok well we are going to post a 24 hour guard on Ms. Conti till we can find the suspect. Turns out the perp that you subdued is Dante Waters. He was an apparently a cellmate with the guy who got away. They both came out here to murder their ex-girlfriends. Fortunately for Ms. Conti they went to Mr. Waters' ex's house first."
Colleen walked over, "Excuse me officer. Don she's asking for you?"
He nodded and asked, "Officer do you need me for anything else?"
"No I think we have all we need at this time."
Don followed Colleen to the room that Gia was in. She had a hospital gown on. Her face was bruised and she had a cut over her left eye. There were some bruises on her wrists where she had been bound.
Don walked to the side of the hospital bed. She looked up and him standing there. Tears welled up in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry I drag you into this. You should go home now."
Don put his hand to forehead. He replied, "This is ridiculous. Gia I am here for you. For once in your life. Let some one be strong for you."
"I don't understand you. Why would you want to stay with me after the way I treated you? Don you deserve better."
"Do I really need to tell you why? You for one know how I feel cause I see my feelings reflected back in your own eyes. Gia I love you damn it."
"I love you too Don." She looked down at her hands. "I just want to be able to love you with out anything holding me back Don. I just don't think I can do that."
"G. No one can do that. No one. We all have something that makes us hold back a little part of ourselves. I think it's just human nature but that is why we at least try."
She looked into his eyes and couldn't believe the depth of emotion he had in them. "You'd take me back?"
"In heart beat."
Excuse me Ms. Conti but the doctor says that you are to be released as soon as I go over the care of your wounds."
Both Don and Gia looked up at the nurse standing in the doorway.
"Oh ok. I am glad to hear that."
The nurse went over the discharge instructions and gave her some pain medication. The nurse helped Gia change her shirt into one that her brother had given to her. When she was done she left the room.
"Come on I'll take you home. Actually well go to my place till the police have finished processing your place."
"Ok, Oh my gawd! The dogs. I totally forgot about the dogs."
"Shhh. It's ok. Your neighbor came and took them. They're fine."
She nodded in relief, "So you really love me?"
"Do you love me?"
"Yes, more then I can bare sometimes Don. More then I can bare."
He kissed her on the forehead and said, "Same here Gia."
