:::Evil cackle::: Who liked that cliff-hanger?

Congrats to me for figuring out where I got that bit that Evy said at the end of the last chapter. Been trying to figure it out since I wrote the fucking thing and it came to me when my sister and I were swimming tonight. Alas, but I cannot tell you from whence it came because if you've seen the movie, it would give away my big reveal.

Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, hope you guys don't get bored with the last few chapters.

!!!!!WARNING!!!!!: DO NOT listen to sad music while you're reading this chapter unless you're like me and you go the extra mile when you know you're going to be sad.

Disclaimer: Paramount Pictures, get a freakin' life. You know that you own this, we know that you own it, do we really have to put these stupid things on here?

Enjoy!

Bobby paced up and down the waiting room gritting his teeth in frustration. They'd been here for six hours. What the fuck was taking them so long? How hard could it really be to figure out what was wrong?

"Bobby will you sit the fuck down?" Jerry snapped. "You're making me seasick."

"Then don't fucking look," Bobby snarled. After a minute, he ran his hand over his face, trying to wipe away the frightened fatigue that filled him. "Sorry, brother," he muttered.

"S'okay," Jerry replied. "All the rest of us are worried too." He looked over at Amelia who was sitting in a chair across the room, her head resting on her knees as she stared blankly out the window.

He wished that there was something he could do or say to make his daughter feel better, but he knew it was useless. After what he'd seen when he'd come running into the room at the sound of Amelia's panicked voice, he wasn't sure that he would ever get over it.

Evy had been lying on the floor, pale as death. Blood was seeping out of her ears and a thin line of it ran down the side of her face. The girl's body had been twitching slightly, but Jerry had thought she was dead. Amelia had stopped screaming his name by then and had just been shrieking at the top of her lungs, horror turning her eyes crazy.

A doctor had been getting ready to leave when they'd showed up, but he took one look at Evy and grabbed her from Jerry's arms, shouting for nurses to bring a gurney and IV. The man had paused long enough to tell them where the nearest waiting room was before running after the gurney that carried Evy quickly down the hall and out of sight.

Jerry and Amelia had sat in the waiting room for twenty minutes before Bobby and Angel dashed through the front doors and started demanding answers. Bobby had almost killed the nurse who told him that she wasn't going to tell him a damn thing so long as he kept yelling in her lobby. When he'd calmed down, she told him that there was no news to give and sent him and Angel to wait with Jerry.

"The sun's coming up," Amelia said suddenly. Her voice was quiet, but it seemed horribly loud in the ringing silence that had filled the room. "The sun's coming up and we don't even know if Evy's alive to see it." Her eyes filled with tears and Jerry felt some of his tension ease. As long as Amelia was crying, she would be okay. Small hope that it was, Jerry clung to it.

"She'll be okay, Amelia," Angel said quietly. She has to be okay, he thought desperately.

Bobby watched his niece cry and wished that he could follow her example. "I'll be back in a bit," he told his brothers as he walked out of the waiting room.

The nurse at the front desk frowned as he came closer, no doubt wondering if he was going to start yelling at her again. "Can you tell me where the chapel is?" he asked quietly, startled to hear how tired his own voice was.

The woman's face softened. "Next floor. Take a left when you get out of the elevator." She gave him a sympathetic smile. "I wish I could give you good news."

Bobby nodded. "I wish there was good news to tell," he said quietly.

The chapel was plain with a few hard wooden pews and one stained glass window. Bobby felt instantly at peace as he walked up to the front pew and sat down.

Part of him felt like a liar as he sat there, wishing that God would help. Jack and Jerry had gone to church with Evelyn every Sunday and Angel had gone a lot as well. He had never had time for God. In Bobby's mind, there was nothing God could, or would, do to help him. Obviously God hadn't been watching his life before he'd become a Mercer; there was no reason to think He'd care afterwards.

Oh Jack, Bobby thought. I wish you were here. Bobby felt tears fill his eyes and he let them fall. She can't die like this, Jackie, Bobby continued, feeling suddenly as if his brother was right there next to him in the dim chapel. She can't just die so quietly without any kind of warning. As horrible as your death was, at least it wasn't quiet and unnoticed. Pain gripped his heart as he remembered Jack's final moments. He could feel his brother's body again, feel it quivering as Jack tried to breathe through thick blood, tried to live for the sake of everyone who loved him.

I'm so sorry, Jackie, Bobby said, his eyes looking to the wooden cross in the corner, pleading silently with the darkness to give Evy a miracle. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I'm so sorry that I didn't protect you. And now I can't protect her, I can't save her just like I couldn't save you. Oh God Jack, why can't I help?

Bobby dropped to his knees, resting his elbows on the railing in front of him. His sobs echoed quietly in the room. Jack had screamed for help, even though he was dying, he'd gotten people to look, to know that a life was about to be lost. Evy might not have that chance, she might just pass away with no one but Amelia there to be the last thing she saw. "Please God," Bobby sobbed. "Please Jackie, don't take her away. Please don't take her away."

Bobby started to talk as Jack's presence filled the air around him. He explained about everything he'd ever done, apologized for every time he'd hurt his baby brother. He told Jack about what he would have done if they'd known about Evy. Bobby felt like he was pouring out his heart and every scrap of pain he'd saved up. Somehow it seemed like someone was listening for once. His head told him that he was alone, but his heart told him that his little brother was with him, comforting him as he finally broke down.

"She's so beautiful, Jack," Bobby told him. "She's so alive even though she has such a heavy past. She's the best of us all. You would be so proud of her." Tears fell anew as Evy's face swam in his mind. Like rolls of film, memories of her ran through his head. Her playing hockey, laughing with Amelia when she missed the puck completely and landed on her ass on the ice; reading by the fireplace, the flames lighting her hair and making it seem like she had a halo; the pleading look in her eyes when she woke him up in the middle of the night holding a razor out and showing him that all her cuts were healed; dancing on the roof at midnight, saying that she was dancing with Jack. She was so alive, so real. "How could she be sick?" Bobby asked miserably. "How could we not know?"

He felt like someone had put their warm hands on his and someone seemed to whisper in the shadows. It's okay, Bobby. It'll all be okay.

His phone rang, startlingly loud in the silence, shattering the connection he'd just felt. "Yeah?" he said as he answered it.

"The doctor's here, get back to the waiting room," Angel said shortly.

- - - -

"No," Bobby said again. He wondered blankly how many times he'd said that in the last fifteen minutes.

The doctor nodded sadly. "I'm so sorry," he said sincerely. "But there's no mistake."

Amelia was sobbing into her hands, shaking so bad that she was in danger of falling out of her chair. Angel looked like he wanted to run to his Mommy and have her hug away the nightmares. Jerry hadn't even been able to move.

"AIDS?" Jerry managed to say. "Real AIDS? Not just HIV?"

The doctor shook his head. "AIDS. So far along that we'll be powerless to even slow it down."

"How?" Angel asked, his voice cracking. "People can have HIV for nine or ten years before it becomes AIDS. Dr. Alexander, she hasn't been having sex for ten years."

Dr. Alexander sighed sadly. "Many things can speed up HIV," he explained. "Repeated exposure to the virus, illnesses that go untreated. Even getting beat up so that your body weakens can speed it up."

"There were no signs!" Jerry cried. "No sores, no sickness! My God, she was in this hospital a few months ago and no one said a damn thing!"

"There were sores," Dr. Alexander told them. "Some on her legs, others on her back and ribs. Even one on the back of her neck. She went through a great deal of trouble if you didn't see them."

Bobby dropped into a chair and buried his face in his hands. She hadn't told them, hadn't said a fucking word. How long had she known she was sick? How long had she been lying to them?

"How long does she have?" Amelia asked quietly, her voice breathless from her sobs.

The doctor shrugged. "It's difficult to say," he answered carefully. "Anywhere from weeks to months. I don't think she'll survive another year."

Amelia started to cry again and she hurried out of the waiting room. Jerry didn't even notice her leave. He was too lost in his own mind, his own guilt. How long had they been telling Evy that she needed to slow down? She'd been weak and tired for the last few months and she'd been coming down with colds all through the summer. How couldn't we know something was really wrong? he thought, guilt squeezing his heart.

"What are we supposed to do?" Bobby said, his voice muffled through his hands. Angel and Jerry knew that he wasn't asking the doctor about treatment, they knew that he wasn't even talking to the people around him. Whether he was asking God or Jack or Evelyn was a mystery, but his voice was so heart-broken and unguarded that Jerry wondered if Bobby even knew where he was anymore.

"We can keep her comfortable," Dr. Alexander said softly. "But there's not much else to be done. If we had caught it even a few months ago . . . but we're helpless against it now."

Bobby let out a racking sob, his shoulders shaking so hard that he felt his bones might shatter. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't be happening. After everything she'd gone through, all the torture and beatings, it shouldn't be her own body, her own blood, that brought her down.

"I wish I could give you more hope," Dr. Alexander whispered. The brothers looked up at the pain in his voice. "I lost my son to AIDS last year," the man said quietly. "I've never felt so powerless. It was so hard not to let him see how much I was hurting." He looked up, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "Don't let her know how hopeless the situation is. She's a smart girl, she knows. But it'll just be harder for her to keep it together if she knows that you don't have any hope."

"Should we have any hope?" Angel demanded bitterly. "What the fuck kind of hope are we supposed to have when our niece is in there dying and there's not a damn thing we can do about it? How can we have hope when she'll never live again? How can we smile when she'll never run, never play hockey, never get married-" His voice broke and tears poured over his dark cheeks.

Dr. Alexander watched him sympathetically. "If nothing else," he said gently. "Just think about the fact that she'll finally be with Jack when she dies."

The doctor left the brothers in the waiting room, all of them crying. They could fix Evy's other problems. They'd killed the man who raped her and let others do the same. They'd held her when she woke up with nightmares, comforting her until she fell back asleep. They'd helped her build up her strength for hockey. They'd helped her with everything, but now they were powerless, staring hopelessly at a disease that would never go away.

Why is this happening? they all demanded of God. Why are you letting this happen?

As usual, God didn't answer. They had never felt so alone.

For those of you who were hoping for a happy ending, you picked the wrong story. I'm rubbish at happy endings anyway.

Thanks go to the Internet for telling me more than I ever wanted to know about HIV/AIDS. Apologies go to the people who have lost family to this unstoppable disease.

Next chapter should be up soon. I hope you all have Kleenex available; the sadness will be lapped on even more.

Oh, and the line I was talking about was, "Why do my ears hurt?" and it's from the movie Gia about a supermodel who dies of AIDS. Great movie, one of Angelina Jolie's best. You should watch it.