A/N: Okay guys, here's the next chapter! Sorry this took a little bit, but I worked super hard on this, so I hope you enjoy! There is a tiny bit of medical stuff in this chapter, which I know pretty much nothing about! So forgive me if I am off on some stuff, but I tried to do as much research as possible to make it hopefully accurate! Reviews are greatly appreciated! Enjoy!
I own nothing, nothing.
"ERIC?" Renard questioned, very alarmed at the mysterious return of his brother.
"Ah, I see you haven't forgotten my face, brother." He pressed the cool blade of the knife to Adalind's throat which resulted in her screaming.
Renard cringed at the sound and both he and Nick drew their guns at the exact same time.
"Now I wouldn't do that," Eric pressed. "Or I will cut. Now drop your guns!"
Both of them slowly lowered their guns and set them on the floor.
"Kick them here." Nick and Renard obeyed and kicked their guns over to Eric. Eric laughed and pressed the blade deeper into Adalind's skin. A little bit of blood dripped down her neck. Adalind cried out in pain.
"Oops." Eric laughed sarcastically.
Diana began to kick and scream with all the commotion, and Adalind held her tighter.
"It's too bad you didn't take my offer for you to come back to the family, brother. And it's also too bad that I'm going to have to kill your girlfriend here to get what I desire: her child." Eric taunted.
Adalind began to cough, aggravating her baby and making her cry harder.
'HELP ME', she mouthed to Renard, but there was nothing he could do at the moment that wouldn't get her killed.
"I'm sorry, baby. It's too bad things didn't work out for us," Eric hissed in her ear. "We made a great couple, you know."
Adalind suddenly felt very nauseous. Blood began to drip down her neck in a slow but steady stream, and soaked into her sweater. More tears welled up in her eyes blurring her vision. Adalind shut her eyes tight and tried to tune out his sick and twisted voice, but his words still wrung in her ears. She opened her eyes again and focused on Renard. Adalind trained them on his and refused to look away. Diana continued to kick and scream uncontrollably in her arms.
I am going to die, she thought. And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Just please let my baby be okay. She prayed.
"You're dead to me." Renard snapped, breaking the silence that had overcome the room. "I will kill you, and you will never take my daughter."
Eric grinned evilly. "You know you could never do that, brother, even if you wanted to."
Renard took a deep breath and thought about his brother's words.
With each passing second, Eric moved the knife back and forth in the already deep wound in Adalind's neck, taunting her. She shrieked in pain.
At the sound of her mother's pain, Diana's eyes flashed purple. In her thrashing, she managed to shake the whole apartment. The lights above them burst, sending sparks everywhere. The room suddenly got very dark and eerily silent. Only the muffled cries of the small baby in Adalind's arms could be heard.
Renard took this pitch blackness as his turn to make his move. From memory of his home, he moved across the floor silently, searching for his gun. His eyes squinted as he focused them in the darkness. Knowing the backup generator would soon turn on, Renard made his movements quick and precise.
With a clunk, his foot kicked the gun sending forward a few feet in front of him. Renard knelt down and picked it up.
Eric continued to press the knife into Adalind's skin as the backup generator kicked in, providing a dim light in the apartment. Renard steadied his gun in his hands and aimed it at Eric's chest, to the best of his ability. Struggling to get a good shot with Adalind's fidgeting, he took a chance and pulled the trigger.
The bullet whizzed past Adalind's ear and lodged in Eric's chest. In an instant he fell to the ground. As he fell, he released the iron grip on Adalind's waist. The knife in Eric's snakelike hands also fell to the ground next to him.
Adalind dropped to her knees next to Eric's lifeless body. The impact of the ground sent her into another coughing fit. Adalind gripped her neck in pain, but held her daughter tight in her other hand. She pulled her one hand away from her neck and inspected it. Adalind turned very pale and felt like she was going to faint at the sight of her blood covered hand.
Both Nick and Renard sprinted to Adalind's aid. Renard crouched down across from her, as he took her blood covered hand and helped her sit on her butt. He took the baby from her arms.
"Nick, can you hold her?" Renard held up the baby to Nick, panicked at the sight of the blood streaming down Adalind's neck. Nick nodded curtly, bent down, and took the crying baby from Renard's arms. He stood, and rocked the small girl back and forth in an attempt to calm her down.
Renard grabbed a towel and held it to Adalind's neck. He applied pressure to the wound, as she gripped his arm in pain. Adalind felt woozy and lightheaded from the blood loss and the throbbing of her neck. Tears stung in her eyes and she bit her lip to try to stop them from spilling over.
"Hey, you're going to be okay." Renard cooed in Adalind's ear. "Just focus on my eyes and my voice, and keep your breathing steady." Sean took a deep breath as Adalind followed his directions.
"Just concentrate on my voice. You're going to be okay, everything is going to be okay." Adalind blinked away the last couple tears that managed to escape and her face turned emotionless, stolid.
"Okay." She whispered, her voice raspy and weak.
Renard took another deep breath as he continued to put pressure on the cut.
"Nick, get me the first-aid kit." He called. "It's above the sink."
Nick, finally getting the baby to calm down, rushed into the kitchen. He pulled open a couple of cabinets before he spotted the first-aid kit. Nick hurried into the living room where Renard and Adalind sat, and handed him the kit.
Renard replaced the blood-soaked towel on Adalind's neck with a new, clean one, and was happy to see that the bleeding had finally began to slow down. He applied pressure to it for another minute more, before he cleaned the dried blood and bandaged it. Renard placed a long bandage over it and wrapped gauze around it. Adalind just continued to deep into his eyes.
Once he had secured the bandage, he looked up and smiled weakly at Adalind. Not knowing exactly what to say he just took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead.
He then called out to Nick who stood in the kitchen with the sleeping baby, "Nick, the police are going to be here any minute now. We need to get out of here. Do you mind taking care of this mess for now?" Renard gestured to the dead body of his half-brother lying on the floor in front of them. "I'll be back soon."
"Sure." Nick responded, still stunned from the day's crazy events. How did a romantic evening where he was going to propose to his girlfriend turn into this disaster?
"Thank you." Renard responded as he helped Adalind slowly to her feet.
"You okay?" He asked. She shook her 'yes'.
Renard grabbed his trench coat from the chair and wrapped it around Adalind's shoulders. He took the sleeping baby back from Nick, and cradled her in his large arms. Sean put the extra bandages and gauze in his pocket and wrapped his arm around Adalind.
"Go back to my place," Nick called. "I'll tell Juliette you're coming."
Renard smiled. "Thank you so much Nick." The two of them began to move gradually out of his apartment. They ducked down the back stairs as the police began to rush by them. Barely escaping, Renard and Adalind climbed down the last flight of stairs and headed outside.
Sirens were going off everywhere as several police cars rushed into the parking lot of the apartment complex. Officers hurried into the building, guns in hand, talking quickly into radios.
They avoided all of the commotion and found Renard's car parked in the back lot. Renard opened the passenger door for Adalind and helped her inside. She remained silent as she slid the belt across her chest and buckled herself in. Her neck throbbed in pain but she kept a straight face, trying to forget about the day's events, at least for now.
"Are you okay to hold her?" Renard motioned to the sleeping baby he held in his arms. Adalind nodded and Sean handed her the small girl. She held the baby in her lap, bouncing her gently.
Renard ran to the other side of his car and got in on the driver's side. He quickly buckled himself in and put the key in the ignition. After the car was in drive, they left the parking lot and all the chaos.
They drove for several minutes in an eerie and uncomfortable silence. As Renard stopped at the last red light before Nick's house, he turned and looked at Adalind.
"You know, it's okay not to be okay." He spoke quietly. "You've been through so much shit today and you've been so strong." Renard looked at her in admiration.
"I'm fine." Adalind looked down avoiding eye contact, for she was lying. Today was so rough on her, and she didn't know how much longer she could pretend to be okay.
"Alright," Renard sighed. "Just please remember that, and know that I'll always be here for the both of you."
Adalind remained silent as Renard pulled forward when the light turned green. They drove down the last few blocks in quiet. After a long two minutes, they arrived at Nick and Juliette's house.
Renard parked his car around the corner and stepped out into the cool night. He walked to the other side of the car and assisted Adalind out of it. Renard wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she held tight to Diana. They walked up to the house, hidden under the shadow of the night.
As they approached the door, Renard held out his arm and rang the doorbell.
Juliette anxiously awaiting their arrival, ran to the door to greet them.
"Adalind, Sean." Juliette looked at the two of them and smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
After a moment, Renard spoke up, "Thank you so much for doing this Juliette. We really appreciate it." Juliette nodded and led them into her house, still a bit skeptical of both their motives.
"Nick thought the basement would be the best place, to keep you guys out of eyesight." Juliette directed them down the stairs. "I set up an air mattress, and there's some pillows and extra blankets over there in case it gets cold." She pointed to a giant stack of blankets lying next to the mattress.
"Thank you," Renard repeated. "This'll only be for a few days, until I can get something else figured out." Juliette nodded curtly.
"Oh! And there is a crib over there too!" Juliette pointed to the small wooden crib on the opposite side of the room. "I got it when my sister was expecting. Unfortunately, it was a miscarriage, so it's never been used before. Brand new."
"Thank you." Adalind responded weakly and smiled at the crib.
"Well, I'll leave you three alone to get settled in." Juliette said quietly, still thinking about her sad story. She left the basement and disappeared up the stairs.
Adalind walked over to the crib and set her still sound asleep baby down on the blanket.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Tears began to burn in her eyes and she tried to fight them back and keep them away. She bit down on her bottom lip hard until blood began to fill her mouth. But the tears wouldn't go away. Instead, they started pouring down her face in a steady stream.
Adalind turned away from Renard; she didn't want him to see her like this. A heart wrenching sob escaped from her mouth and Sean took notice.
He walked up next to Adalind and wrapped his arm around her. She collapsed in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
He hated seeing her like this, knowing that there is nothing he could do to stop the pain. All he could do was hold her tight, and tell her that it was all going to be okay, even though he didn't know if it would be. But Renard did so anyway; he needed to comfort her, to be there for her, to tell her it was okay to cry, because it was.
"Shhhhhh, it's okay," he whispered in her ear. "I've got you. No one can hurt you or our baby."
Adalind buried her head in Renard's chest, muffling her cries. Her whole body shook uncontrollably, and the tears continued to pour down her face. Renard just held her close, rubbing small circles on her back, trying to sooth her.
"Let's try to get some sleep." He whispered. Adalind nodded, and they laid down on the air mattress, still holding each other tight. She managed to stop her sobs, but her whole body continued to tremble. Renard wrapped his arms around her slender figure and kissed her forehead.
"It's all going to be okay." He whispered. "I love you."
"I love you too." Adalind responded, her voice shaky and weak.
"Goodnight Diana, I love you." Renard whispered to the baby still asleep in her crib. He blew a kiss to his daughter.
Adalind smiled weakly and tried to stop her trembling body. She fell asleep her limbs intermingled in Renard's, his words still repeating in her head, It's okay not to be okay.