CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Bobby spent an hour aimlessly wandering around the hospital. Well, it wasn't COMPLETELY aimless because he was looking for Carmen, but never found her. He was pretty sure if she wanted to be found, she would've thrown herself at him already. She did it once already, right…?

On his way back to the waiting room he noticed that Jerry was sitting with Angel, but they were talking to an unfamiliar face.

"Who the hell are you?" he snapped.

The young red-head looked at him confused for a moment, tugging awkwardly at her green coat sleeves, shame written all over her face. "Victoria," she stated.

"So what do you want?"

"Mr. Mercer?" an average-height female doctor with jet black hair and bright green-rimmed glasses interrupted cautiously.

"How's Jack?" Bobby immediately turned his full attention to her, worry written all over his face.

She looked a little unsure of answering since she didn't know who the other three adults were, but since three out of the four of them looked up at the 'Mr. Mercer', she figured they were all family. "He's stable, and he's awake. We got the bullet from his shoulder, but he does have a few bruised bones in areas so he's sore. He can't move much, but you can see him if you'd like," she said politely, reassurance in her voice and a small smile on her face. "Down the hall, second door on your right; 232."

Bobby nodded a 'thanks' and started towards the room, quick-paced.

--

Within a half hour, after checking up on his baby brother, Bobby returned to the waiting room – still unaware of Carmen's whereabouts – Angel went back to the house and Jerry returned to his own home.

"Bobby," Carmen's voice startled him out of his thoughts as she approached in a hurry. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine, but where the fuck have you been?" he said snappily, standing to face her.

"Don't get all defensive, what room's he in?"

Bobby's face immediately softened for an unknown reason. "232, but I wouldn't go--"

The brunette ignored him and started off to find that room number. He didn't bother following because he'd just get in the way of the cat fight about to break loose.

Opening the door to Jack's hospital room, Carmen stopped dead in her tracks. Victoria was sitting on the edge of his bed, holding his hand – in a seemingly more than friendly manner – and staring at her like a deer in headlights.

"Who the fuck are you?" Carmen asked bluntly.

The red-head immediately got up and carefully approached her, hands up in surrender. "Give me a minute to explain," she stated.

"Just answer the question," the older of the two spat angrily.

"Carm," Jack tried, despite his weak voice, "wait a second, I need to talk to you…"

His fiancée held up a hand to silence him. "Who is this bitch and what the fuck does she want?"

"Hey!" Victoria exclaimed to get her attention then instantaneously backed off. "I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize for what? Being a slut?"

("Should've Said No" Taylor Swift inspired this. Lots of thanks to xBrokenDreamerx for all her help!!! She does a lot of work to help me post this story until I finish!)

"Look. Carmen, please, let me explain. When it happened…"

"Let me guess he didn't tell you about me, right? Nice to know you still think of me Jack," Carmen spat. She was still on edge from earlier and this was just the icing on the day's cake. Everything was just happening so fast. None of it even made sense to her any more. She felt as though she was slowly losing everything that mattered to her most and there was no way in hell she was going to let that happen.

"Carmen, I'm sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to do was…get in the way…I hope that maybe someday you can forgive me for my mistake." With that said, Victoria made a slow exit out of Jack's room with one last look at the man she inconveniently fell for.

"Carmen…" Jack began weakly as he motioned for Carmen to sit down. She however refused and stood with her arms crossed over her chest. "Please just let me explain…"

"Explain what!? It looks pretty clear to me," her voice wavered as her gaze shifted to the floor. "I can't even look at you right now," she murmured. She refused to let the tears fall she would not cry for him. Not this time.

"Please, Carm. It was a mistake, I know that. If I could take it all back, I would. It was a moment of weakness."

"You didn't have to say yes, Jack!" she exclaimed suddenly. "You didn't have to give in. You should have said no. I should have been there in the back of your mind…and yet you forgot about me, Jack! Your fucking fiancée and you forgot about me!"

"I didn't forget about you, Carm…"

"Bull Shit, Mercer! Complete and utter BULLSHIT!" The tears finally gave way at that last raise of her voice.

"No wait, baby, please don't cry. You know I love you more than anything, I'd die for you."

Carmen looked at Jack through her tear-filled eyes. How could she be angry with him? How could she judge him when she did the exact same thing, with his brother no less.

"Leave dying out of this," Carmen surrendered as she sat on the hospital bed and kissed Jack softly.

"Are we okay now?" he asked cautiously.

"Just tell me one thing Jackie."

"Anything," Jack said, hopefully.

"Was she worth it?"

"No," he stated flatly before he kissed her again.

--♥

Bobby watched the two of them from the window in the door, red hot anger and the green monster latching on to him like a leech. As far as he was concerned, Jack didn't deserve to be lied to – or was that the jealousy talking? That he wanted Carmen to himself so he believed screwing up the relationship was the perfect way to do it? And he was not about to let it go. His anger boiled to the surface, causing him to throw open the door with more force than necessary.

"You're a fucking hypocrite!" he shouted.

Carmen and his brother both looked at him, dumbstruck.

"What?" she asked, hoping he'd let it go if she played stupid.

"You come in here screaming at him for cheating when you-" he abruptly cut off that sentence and led into another, "You said you were breaking it off because he cheated!"

Jack looked at her, crestfallen and confused. "Carm, what's he talking about?"

"I don't know," she replied; her jaw was set, her eyes were cold, but they were glassy as well.

"Yeah, you don't know. Where's your ring?" Bobby retorted, gesturing to her left hand.

The brunette hesitated as she looked at her naked finger and glanced up at him, still determined to play dumb. "I must've…left it at the house…" she stuttered out.

Bobby nodded, annoyed and pulled the gold band from his pocket, tossing it to Jack. "You know, I let you have her and you fucked it up so she came crawling back to me again, Jack. Me. Keep the stupid fucking ring. She doesn't want it." He looked to Carmen. "What's next? The guilt sex?" he spat before leaving.

A/N: Not a cliffy, exactly, but I like it. I totally just spat that all out without a second though and it turned out quite nicely. I'm probably going to work on the next chapter now. We'll see how life goes. Leave a review, please. Flames are welcome.

XxCrash.And.BurnXx