Okay here it is! Next chapter is almost done...Ive been distracted by the Olympics...lol. But I hope you enjoy this! :)

Straight Edge Queen

BEG75

lemmonpie

SexySadie88

MissIndependent101

Thank you all for reviewing! I love them, they make my day. :)

I opened my eyes and the dream was gone. The only Jack I saw was the one bleeding on the stretcher in front of me. All I could do was cry and stare at him as all the buzzers went off. The two men were moving frantically around the back grabbing different bottles and needles and then sticking them into the IV. I wanted to scream and yell and be the frantic girlfriend but I was too shocked.

"Hurry! We don't have much longer!" one of the men yelled. I looked at him wide eyed and then back at Jack.

"What's going on?" I finally spoke. "Is he going to be okay?"

They looked over at me but didn't answer. I stared at them until the tears blurred my vision and I blinked. I felt the big tear drops drip off my lashes and hit my cheeks as I looked down at Jack. I moved to the edge of my seat and grabbed his free hand. I closed my eyes and let out a small sob as I brought his near cold hand to my lips and pressed a kiss to it.

I didn't know we were at the hospital until the back door was ripped open. The men jumped out and pulled Jack out the van and I followed them.

"Ma'am, are you family?" a nurse asked. I blinked a few times and tried to open my mouth but only cried instead.

"She's his wife." the EMT told her. She nodded and I rushed to grab Jack's hand as the bustled through the ER doors.

"Caucasian male, 23 years old, GSW to the right shoulder and looks like four to the legs." the nurse yelled to the others as we rushed through the hallway. I was still holding his hand as they pushed him into a room and started peeling his shirt off and cutting the rest of his pants legs off.

"It's okay, Jackie. They're gonna fix you now." I cried. The nurse from earlier pushed me to the side gently and I watched as she slid a tube down Jack's throat.

"What's that?" I asked from behind her. I kept moving out of the way as people came running in with IV bags and bags of blood for him.

"A breathing tube." she told me quickly.

"He's not breathing!" I screamed and rushed back over to him.

"It's so he can breath better and incase he does stop. Just stand back and let us help him." she smiled. I nodded and moved back and watched as they finished putting the tube in and hooked a bag onto it. They were moving so fast it felt like the world was spinning but then again, it might have just been me. I shook it off and looked over as a man in blue scrubs walked in.

"He stable?" he asked. The nurse nodded and pointed to me.

"Yes, he's ready. That's his wife." she told him. They pulled the bars on the side of the stretcher up and started to roll him out.

"Where's he going?" I asked. The man with the blue scrubs walked over and laid a hand on my back.

"He needs surgery to remove the bullet from his shoulder and to stop the bleeding. We'll also fix his legs up and make sure no bones were cracked or broken." he told me as we walked.

"Is he going to be okay?" I choked. He looked down at me and smiled.

"I'm going to do my best." he told me. "Now, I know you're not married. But I will need to see family soon." he smiled.

"They should be here soon." I whispered. He patted my shoulder and looked down at me again.

"You and anyone else can wait in the OR's waiting room. It's on the third floor. I'll come find you when we're done." he promised. "You wanna see him one more time?" he asked. I nodded and walked over to him. I leaned over his near lifeless body and kissed his forehead.

"You have to be okay, I'm counting on you. Come back to me, Jackie boy." I whispered and kissed his head again. I pulled back and nodded for them to continue their way. I watched them walk into the elevator and let a new flow of tears fall when they closed. That may be the last time I see him. I tried to stop the tears and looked around for a phone. I spotted one at the end of the hallway and walked down. I slipped two quarters in and dialed the number.

"Hello?" the soft voice asked.

"Paisley-" I sobbed.

"Em, what's wrong?" she asked. "Where are you at?"

"The hospital." I cried.

"I'll be there ASAP." she told me and hung up. I placed the phone back on the receiver and leaned against the wall. I covered my face with my hands and slowly slid down the length of the wall, crying.

All I could do was sigh as I pulled up to the Mercer's house. There were numerous bodies in the street, two wrecked cars, frantic and scared people looking out their windows and wounded little brother and hysterical Emilie heading to the ambulance. I walked passed the back and heard the EMT ask Emilie if she was family.

"That's his wife." I told him and looked at Emilie. "Stay there at the hospital." I warned her. She nodded and hopped into the van with them. I turned back to the scene before me and frowned at the spots of blood from where Jack just was and then over to the bodies in the street.

"Photograph them." I called to an investigator and pointed to the bodies. He nodded and I walked towards the brothers.

"Hey, let me talk to them, okay?" I said passing another detective. He gladly nodded and walked off. It seemed like I was the only one who could work with these fools.

"Look, I'm real sorry, man. I really am. But what happened here?" I asked standing in front of what was left of the Mercer family.

"Victor Sweet did this." Bobby said looking up at me.

"How do you figure that?" I asked.

"Because his friend in the bag over there told me." he replied pointing to one of the numerous body bags on their sidewalk. I nodded and looked back.

"Okay, I'll make sure I get a statement from him then." I said sarcastically and glared at him.

"Why did Sweet do us like this, man?" Jerry mumbled looking at the ground.

"And why did it have to be our moms?" Angel asked.

"Because Evelyn was going after him. She knew her son, man. She never thought for a second that you were corrupt." I told them. Jerry looked up at me sadly and shook his head.

"But I never told her about my business." he told me. I sighed and leaned in to them.

"Jerry, were you ever able to keep a secret from her? She knew all about your trouble, man. The moment they shut you down, she went down there, raising hell with the councilman." I told him.

"You gonna bury Sweet, or are we?" Bobby asked, ignoring all I had said.

"Well, I got me-" I paused and looked around "-a dirty uniform I gotta deal with first." I said slowly.

"What?" Bobby asked.

"You see, I found out not too long ago, Evelyn filed a report that got passed on to Victor Sweet." I started.

"By who?" Bobby asked.

"Look, I just got something I-" I started but Bobby cut me off.

"Don't bullshit me, Green. Who are you protecting?" Bobby snapped. "Your boy Fowler?"

"Look, the only person I'm protecting now is someone else that's close to ya'll. I'll take care of Fowler." I snapped back. "And then we get Sweet."

"Green?" Angel called as I started to walk away. "So how we gonna deal with all this?" he asked waving his hand around.

"Self-defense. Wasn't it?" I asked and turned to walk away. I walked back to my car and backed-up. I needed to have a chat with Fowler.

I sat slumped on the ground under the phone the whole time. My knees were drawn up to my chest and my head was using them as a very uncomfortable pillow with my arms covering any other piece of my face. I wanted to feel like I was invisible and this was the way it felt best for me. Although, it really just drew more attention to me. I could feel people stare at me as they walked by and I herd them whisper to each other wondering why I was upset and if they should ask if I needed help. I wanted to stand up and yell at them that I wasn't the one that needed help, it was Jack. He was laying on the operating table having god only knows what done to him. As if people aren't in enough pain, surgeons go in and cut them up and leave worse scars than they had to begin with. Now, I know I was being selfish but this was my way of dealing. Get mad at everyone else for the time being.

I finally got tired of hearing them and decided I would wait in the OR's waiting room on the third floor. I slowly pushed myself up from the floor and stood up. I walked the few feet back to the elevator and reached out to press the button. I froze when I did.

Blood.

Blood was all over my extended hand. It was dried now but it was there and it was a loud reminder of what had just happened. I drew it in and held it in front of me, turning it around looking at the dark maroon stains. I lifted my other hand and saw the same thing. I felt everything start to shake and I slowly started to back up. I moved back until I hit the wall again. I felt a rush of wind next to me and then a hand on my shoulder. I looked up through my blurry eyes and saw the blonde hair with a few streaks of purple and pink.

"Pais?" I whispered, blinking the tears from my eyes.

"My god." she breathed looking at my hands and at my clothes. I looked down and my eyes blurred again. "Let's get you cleaned up. Troy, James find out what happened." she told them while leading me down the hallway to the bathroom.

She ushered me in and locked the door. She pushed me to the sink and turned the water on. I held my hands out as she squirted soap in my hands. I looked over at her as she started washing my hands for me. I felt her nails dig into my skin, scraping the blood off, but it didn't hurt. I looked down and watched the red swirl in with the water and slowly go down the drain.

"Don't watch it." she whispered. I looked back over at her and smiled. It wasn't a happy smile, it was more of a I'm so hurt and angry, I've gone mad kind of smile.

"He almost died." I told her. "He still could die. He was shot like, oh, six times." I rambled nodding my head. She looked at me shocked and stopped washing my hands as the beginning of my break down began.

"He ran out after some kid that knocked on the door and got shot. I watched it." I told her. "I watched him hold the gun and shoot Jack." I whispered and looked away.

"I saw him fall…" I let a few tears fall and looked back at her. Her eyes were brimmed with tears and she was chewing her thumb nail. "I heard him screaming, in pain and in agony." I sobbed, as Paisley drew me into her arms.

"He was screaming for help and Bobby left him. We all left him. We ran and hid while he was out there in the middle of the firing." I sobbed and she slowly guided me to the floor and set me in her lap.

"Shhh…Calm down." she whispered, holding my head to her neck.

"I left him, I didn't mean to. They held me back, they wouldn't let me." I sobbed.

"You would have gotten hurt, they didn't want that. Jack wouldn't want that." she said, trying to soothe me. I lifted my head and looked at her sadly.

"I was going to open the door." I whispered and she gave me an odd look. "The knock at the door, I stood up to get it but he answered it." I remembered.

I was supposed to answer that door. I should have been the one where Jack is. I put him there, I was the reason he was there…

"No, don't you dare!" she snapped. "Don't you dare play that what if bull shit, Emilie. You know damn well that if you would have answered that door, you would be dead. Jack's fighting for you, so suck it up. Give him something to fight for, don't play that. It's selfish and you know it." she yelled. I pulled back from her a little and looked around.

"I can't loose him, Pais. He's all I have." I whispered. She held my face and made me look at her.

"You won't. He loves you, he will no leave you. But he needs you right now, so be there for him. Stop blaming yourself, stop thinking about everything else. Think about him." she told me.

A loud knock came at the door and Troy's voice drifted through.

"He's out of surgery. We can see him now." he yelled.

It killed me to see the look in her eyes. She was dying inside. That feeling only escalated when she realized she was covered in his blood. Her hands were stained, her shirt and pants were soaked, she had him all over her but not in the way she needed. She needed his arms around her but instead he was laying in the hospital bed, fighting for his life.

"Is he okay?" Emilie asked, looking at Jack's frail looking body in the bed. He had tubes coming from his arms, mouth and nose.

"We're not sure. He's under sedation now, for pain, of course. We managed to stop the internal bleeding and the wound on his shoulder looks clean. Luckily, only one bullet hit bone in his leg. It's broke but it will heal. It's up to him now." the doctor told us.

"Thank you." I whispered to him. He nodded and paused for going out.

"Would you like a pair of scrubs, miss?" he asked Emilie. She looked up a little and shook her head.

"No." she whispered, tracing a lonesome finger down his arm and starting intently at him. She sat on the very edge of the bed and brushed a piece of his hair out of his face.

"He'll be okay." I said after a few minutes of silence. She nodded her head lightly and looked over at me.

"Can you stay here?" she asked me. I sent her a confused look and nodded.

"Yeah, why?" I asked. She took a deep breath before placing a small kiss on his fore head and standing up.

"I need to leave for a while." she whispered and grabbed her jacket. I stood up and walked over to her.

"Where are you going? Jack needs you." I told her. She gave me a sad look and looked over at him again.

"If he needed me, he'd be awake right now." she said, her voice cracking. I wanted to stop her but the look in her eyes told me not to, so I watched her leave. I looked over at Jack and walked over to the side of his bed.

"You really have a way of hurting her when you don't mean to, huh?" I mumbled and fixed his hospital gown.

Since the first day I had seen them together, I knew they were good for each other. They both had been through so much, granted neither experienced what the other had. But they endured childhood's that no one should go through. Emilie had everyone taken away from her, leaving her to believe that she couldn't get close to anyone. It was a miracle she let Jack get in but Jack had always been the charmer. He had gone through some horrific foster homes. He took the beatings they gave him and stayed quiet. When Evelyn got him he was so far away from everyone, they thought he'd be a lost cause. But Evelyn fixed him. She brought him out of his shell and made him the man he was today. That's why she left Jack to deal with Emilie. She knew Jack could fix her like she had fixed him. Whether they would come out friends, siblings or partners, Evelyn know Jack could help Emilie.

"You're not done yet, Jack. She still needs you. Don't prove her right." I whispered to him. I had this awful feeling that even if Jack did wake up, Emilie would sink deeper into her despair. Today was a day that would change her for the worst.

I watched Green walk away from us. I was almost speechless. I had so many emotions and things running through my head I didn't know what to do, what to say or where to go. This only shocked me more. I had never been stalled like this. I had never had so much happen that I over loaded. It wasn't me. It wasn't Bobby Mercer.

Bobby Mercer always knew what to do. He knew what to say, when to say it, how to say it and who to say it to. He never back downed and he never let anything or anyone get him or stand in his way. He was the fighter of her Mercer's. The Michigan Mauler. The man no on messed with. He made the last name famous and well known. He gave it the effect it had on people. He made sure he was the one calling the shots. It's what he was known for.

Yet, somehow, he managed to let the control slip into someone else's hands. He was so blinded with revenge and anger he didn't see the bigger picture. He practically, invited them into his house to kill him and his family. He started all this with the intention of avenging those the death of his mother. But instead he led them straight to his family. His little brother.

Jack.

He put them in this situation. He let it escalate. He let it get out of control. He opened the window for his brother to get shot and possibly die. And if he did die, he was the one that killed the rest of Emilie. He did the complete opposite of what his mother taught him to do. Instead of protecting them, he killed them.

I killed them.

"Bobby?" Angel asked softly. I opened my eyes and looked at him through my hands.

"What?" I whispered.

"When do you wanna leave?" he asked me. I stared at him for a second before looking back at the scene in front of me.

It looked like the picture perfect day in Detroit. There was a newly formed blood stain in the snow, which probably had already set in the concrete below. Not to mention the other new blood stains in the streets. A wrecked car and of course our house. It looked like a chunk of Swiss cheese, honestly. It had holes everywhere and anywhere you could think. On any other day, and any other house, I wouldn't be surprised but it's not any other day, it's today. And it's not anybody else's house, it's mine. So right now it all looked surreal.

"Has Emilie called?" I asked and looked back at him.

"No, we tried her cell but no one answered." he said shaking his head. I felt another person next to me and looked over at Jerry.

"We need to go." he whispered, his voice cracking. "I need- we need to know if he's-" he stopped. I looked away and took a deep breath.

"Let's go." I whispered.

I didn't want to. I was afraid that when we got there we'd be greeted with the worst news of our lives. The news that would leave us to bury our little brother just days after burying out mother. I only hoped that things really couldn't get worse, but I had a feeling they would.

I drove from the Mercer's house and set out to find Fowler. Someone said he was going on break to a near by bar and that bar just happened to be on my places to find Victor Sweet. This was not just a bunch of coincidences.

"Hey. What's happening, partner?" I yelled as I walked through the bar. I saw Fowler in the back at a pool table.

"What's cooking, boss?" he called out, taking a shot and not even bothering to look up at me. I walked over and pulled my gloves off.

"Isn't this one of Victor Sweet's spots?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Yeah, I heard that. So what?" he asked, still not looking at me. I nodded and looked around.

"So why ain't you tell me that you had talked to Evelyn Mercer a week before she got killed? I mean, don't you think that that's relevant to a murder investigation?" I asked, trying not to sound like I was attacking him when all I wanted to do was beat the living hell out of him.

"I didn't tell you because it wasn't relevant at all." he said and finally stood up to look at me.

"Really?" I asked as he blew the extra chalk of his stick.

"Yeah, I talked to the old lady for all of about five minutes. She came in with her usual medley. Kids tagging up her block, that kind of shit." he told me calmly, while taking a shot a the number three ball.

"You know, I figured it was something like that. But you still should have said something to me, man." I smiled at him. He nodded and chalked his stick up again.

"Sorry." he mumbled and looked over at me.

"Did she file a police report?" I asked. He shook his head and lined up another shot.

"No. I sent it over to the Parks Department. They clean that shit up." he told me and leaned down to take the shot.

"Five minutes, huh?" I pressed.

"Yeah. Couldn't have been much more than that." he nodded and hit the eight-ball in. "You wanna take a shot? You're gonna need some practice." he asked holding the stick out. I was starting to get the feeling he knew what I was getting at but I wasn't sure. This guy had on a strong poker face.

"I'd love to." I said and took to the pool stick from him. "It's been a long time since I played a game like this one." I laughed and chalked up the end.

"Is that so?" he asked, sipping his drink.

"Yeah." I told him and went to line it up. I looked down the end of it a few times and leaned up to look at him. "Partner, I think your stick is crooked." I told him.

"I think it's all right." he told me casually. I sighed and flipped it over, shaking my head.

"And the weight is off." I told him.

"Worked pretty good for me." he commented.

"You sure?" I asked, looking over at him.

"Yeah." he nodded. I nodded and swung the stick over the tops of his legs. He screamed and fell to the ground as I grabbed his gun and pressed it to his neck.

"You is a dirty cop!" I seethed. "Give me your badge." I ordered him. "See, I hate dirty cops." I told him, after snatching his badge, and went to walk out the back door.

"Green, wait. Green, wait! There is something I forgot." he yelled and followed me out the back door.

"What? What the fuck you wanna say to me?" I yelled and turned to look at him. Before I could react he fired.

I hated to leave Jack in the hospital. I hated to think of what Paisley was thinking of me right now. She probably thought that I was a horrible person and girlfriend for leaving but I had to.

For the first time since all of this went down, I feel what Bobby felt. I felt and I saw what Bobby had been seeing since he got the call that Evelyn had been shot. I saw red and I saw revenge, the need to go find the bastard that attacked our family. And I felt the numbness that comes with it all. I now knew why Bobby wanted to do this, why he wanted to go after Sweet in the beginning. It's the same reason I have for going to find Green and talk to him about Fowler.

I was on my way to the station when I passed Green's patrol car and behind it was Fowler's. I quickly pulled over and looked over at the bar.

"God help me." I mumbled, pulling my jacket tight around my body and jogging across the street to the bar. I pulled the heavy bar door open and looked around. I couldn't see Green or Fowler anywhere so I walked to the bar.

"What can I get ya miss?" the bartender asked and then looked at me funny.

"Were there two men in here? One white, one black?" I asked. He nodded and pointed to the back.

"They just walked out back. They ain't to happy either." he smirked. I thanked him and walked through the bar to the back. I took my time pushing the door open incase they were still fighting. I creaked it open and peeked between the gap when I did I saw Green turning around and yelling at Fowler.

"What? What the fuck you wanna say to me?" Green yelled.

"I forgot they installed those surveillance cameras in the station." Fowler told him. I pushed the door open a little more and gasped out loud when Fowler pulled out a gun and fired it at Green. I saw him fall and grip his shoulder. I quickly covered my mouth but he heard me. His head spun around and my eyes widened. I could see my car at the end of the alley and jumped from the door.

"Motherfucker!" he yelled and ran after me. I ran as fast as I could toward the end of the alley but he caught up and grabbed my wrist before I got to the street. He yanked me back and I yelped when I felt my shoulder dislocate. He wrapped an arm around my waist and drug me back to his car. I struggled with him as he opened the trunk of his car.

"Stop, bitch!" he grumbled and tried to shove me in the trunk. I moved in his grip and bit down on his hand. He snatched his hand away and threw me to the ground. I tried to get up and run but the butt of his gun came down over my eyebrow and I was on the ground again. I saw spots of black as he finally shoved me in his trunk, where I passed out.