Chapter Six: Being a brother

Hearing a knock at his hospital room door, Dante hoped it was Lulu. He looked up with a smile and was kind of surprised to see Kristina standing there.

"Hey, Kristina, come in." He smiled.

"Thanks." She said walking in. "I just wanted to see how your doing?"

"Pretty good, for what happened to me."

"You mean our dad shooting you. Yeah, I'd say you look pretty good."

"I didn't know if you knew, or not." He said rubbing his head.

"Michael told me." She half smiled.

"I'm sure he's not to thrilled." Dante smiled at her.

"He's just jealous."

"Why? He had nothing to be jealous about."

She shook her head. "Your dad's real first-born and dad trusts you way more than Michael, or he wouldn't have wanted to give you the business."

Dante laughed. "I doubt he trusts me now."

Kristina smiled. "Your probably right, but I'm about one hundred percent sure he's already forgiven you. No matter the horrible things that happen, he forgives us."

They were both quiet for a minute, taking in the fact that they were brother and sister.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Dante raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah, I should get going. I just wanted to tell you that I'm glad your okay."

"Thanks. That means a lot." He smiled.

"I'm glad your my brother, Dante and if you ever need someone one your side. I'll be here."

"I appreciate that Kristina, and that goes both ways. Whatever you need."

"Ms. Falconire. We need to get your statement regarding the night your son was shot." Mack said.

"I didn't see everything." She answered.

"What did you see?"

"I came into Sonny's house and saw my son shot." She tried to say without crying. "He was bleeding from a bullet hole in the chest."

"Did you see who shot, Dante?"

She shook her head. No.

"Lying will have major consequences, Ms. Falconire."

"I'm not lying!" She yelled. "I didn't see who shot my son!"

Lulu stood in the doorway of Dante's hospital room.

"I couldn't do it, Lulu." He sighed.

She looked at him and then put her hand in his. "It's okay."

"No, it's not. I mean it really doesn't matter because he's going to jail for Claudia's murder, but the shooting was my fault. My ego got in the way."

"You didn't ask him to shoot you, Dante."

"I know, but I went alone, no back up."

"Don't blame yourself." She said. "Whatever you chose to do, I'm behind you one hundred percent."

"That means a lot." He smiled.

What am I gonna do? Lulu thought to herself.

She looked down trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

"Hey, hey." He said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She sniffed. "I'm fine."

"Lulu, come on. You can tell me anything, what's on your mind."

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm...I'm pregnant."

He sat there in shock for a minute, not saying anything while Lulu continued to cry.

Dante pulled her into him, her head resting on his chest.

"This is a good thing, Lulu." He said hugging her.

"How can this be a good thing?" She looked up at him. "There's so much going on right now, I just can't go through this again."

"Again?"

She was quiet for a minute. They hadn't discussed their past very much.

Lulu sat up and looked at him with her tear stained eyes.

"When I was younger." She said crying again. "I got pregnant...and I had an abortion."

Dante let out a sigh.

"I was young and we weren't in love. I'm not proud of it."

He ran his thumb across her cheek. "But we're in love."

She nodded.

"We can do this Lulu, it might not be easy, but we can do this." He said. "I'm not gonna leave you or this baby, I promise."

"I'm really scared." Lulu said leaning into him again.

Dante held her tight. "We'll be fine."

"I love you."

"I love you too."