Johnny emerged from the water and onto the shore, Blake screaming as she saw a near lifeless Carly in Johnny's arms.
"Carly… I'm so sorry…" Blake cried after she had fallen down to her knees, standing back up and started walking away from the scene slowly.
Johnny set Carly on the sand as Carter called 911, Johnny checking for a pulse before starting CPR.
The seconds felt like an eternity… and then Blake heard it.
Carly coughed violently as air rushed into her lungs and turned to her side, spitting up water as Blake ran back to them and crouched down.
"Why…" Blake simply asked.
"You have… too much left to live for… my sister…" Carly managed to say, Blake brushing Carly's hair back as Johnny put his jacket over Carly.
"You should have let me die…" Blake said, standing up and walking away.
"Blake…" Carly said as she tried to pull herself up but Blake was gone.
"Shouldn't someone stop her?! She tried to kill herself!" Sam says, going after Blake but Carter stopped her.
"I'll… I'll see what I can do…" Carter said, walking away.
Carter looked for Blake, finding her getting into a cab and being driven away.
Blake looked around from the cab, blinking her tears away.
'She saved my life… she didn't want to lose me…' Blake thought, the cab driver stopping when Blake got out abruptly and continued walking around.
Was this what her life had been the whole time? Why didn't she suspect it sooner?
Blake stopped again, sitting down on the sidewalk.
'Carly's my sister… my twin, she saved me… she saved me.' Blake thought before standing up.
She found Mount Zonah and walked in, finding Carly in a trauma room and under warming blankets, her temperature at 92.3°, which was moderately hypothermic.
Carly was currently sleeping when Blake walked in. She kept her stare at her twin sister, before she tried to touch her damp light brown hair… and then she suddenly changed her mind, backing away slowly.
"You saved me… underneath all the damage inflicted on you, you still have your innocence…" Blake says, Carly's right hand shaking but only for a few seconds as Johnny walked back in. "How bad?"
"Hypothermia, dislocated knee, cracked ribs… her lungs didn't have much water in them, they're slowly warming her up." Johnny says, sitting down. "Carter explained it, Blake."
"It's all my fault… I just wanted to be back with my Daddy and… I almost killed her…" Blake said, crying her eyes out before pulling out her combat pistol from her blue skinny jeans. "Maybe, I should end my life here this way… like I did with that bitch."
Blake jumped back as the gun was sent flying far enough… although not as strong as normal, Blake looked and saw it was Carly's right hand.
"Don't you dare… we don't want to lose you…" Carly choked out, her voice a raspy whisper.
"You don't have to care about me anymore…" Blake said, before pulling out her switchblade knife and aiming the blade at her stomach. "I'm already damaged enough…"
"I don't see you that way… I see you as my family. We went way too long without each other, Blake…" Carly says.
Blake looked at the knife… before folding it and handing it to Johnny.
"Jade told me that you were fine without me…" Blake said, before grabbing her gun and walked towards the door. "I don't need you in my life… just like the others."
Blake was about to grab the door handle, until…
"Jade was there when I couldn't be, Blake… she protects you like Johnny protects me. Blake… you make a choice but please don't permanently take yourself from us." Carly says.
Blake walked away and outside… right into Trevor.
"Oh… well look who's here. Come to kill your little niece like you tried to when she was five?! Oh by the way, thanks for fucking off! Why don't you do it again?!" Blake spat in a venomous tone.
"Blakesleigh, I didn't want to leave!" Trevor says, Blake punching him.
"Why don't you fuck off for good?!" Blake hissed, leaving.
Trevor walked into the ER, finding Sam.
"What the hell happened?! You said that someone nearly drowned after stopping a suicide attempt!" Trevor says.
Carter looked up, realising what Brad said was true…
3/7/03, Ludendorff...
"More?!" Carter asked.
"Camari, Sam and Rey, Kyle, Ezra… there was also one abandoned in the desert and that young woman Trevor's been hanging around is pregnant too." Brad says, Carter sitting down.
"Someone needs to castrate him." Carter mutters.
"What does castrate mean?"
Both turned, Carter picking six year old Carly up into his arms.
"Violet, you okay?" Carter asks.
"I couldn't sleep… these pajamas feel too warm on me and my throat hurts." Carly says, Carter pressing his hand to her forehead and feeling how unnaturally warm she felt.
Brad looked in the kitchen as Macey walked in.
"Macey, is there any Children's Tylenol?" Brad asks.
"Yeah, is there something wrong with Carly?" Macey asked.
"She feels warm and she says her throat hurts…" Carter says as he checked the thermometer. "103.5°, that's too high."
Carter picked Carly up into his arms, Macey following him and Brad heading upstairs.
"Ethan…" Brad says as the ten year old looked at him sleepily.
"Uncle Brad, what's wrong?" Ethan asked.
"Carly's just feeling a little sick, buddy." Brad says, Ethan's green eyes widening in fear. "She'll be okay, Daddy and Mommy took her to the hospital."
Ethan climbed onto his uncle, Brad picking him up and hugging him as he cried.
"Shh, it's okay buddy. It's okay." Brad whispered…
Present time…
Carly pried her heavy eyes open, the warming blankets replaced by a regular one as Ethan was by her side and saw the faint red coloring in Carly's face.
"You okay, Violet?" Ethan asked.
"As okay as one can be after what happened… did your dad tell you? About me and Blake?" Carly says.
Ethan nodded. "He did. But Blake will always be my Sissy no matter what. Carly… I didn't know that you and her were actually twins. In the past, Macey told me that Blake was adopted by a family who couldn't take care of her, like… somehow who abandoned her after when she was just born."
"I think in a misguided attempt at doing what was right… my parents gave up one of their own. But they should've said something before it resulted in this…" Carly says, her hair tousled from being in the water and it air drying.
"I don't remember much, but… before Blake was introduced to me. I heard Amanda crying that she wanted to keep both you and Blake. She was delivering both of you and Blake, and… I felt sad for once." Ethan said, looking down at his clasped hands.
"That Amanda… is gone. Destroyed by years of chaos… cheating, old grudges…" Carly says, Ethan seeing a faint scar on Carly's lower back after looking closer when Carly turned onto her side.
"Carly, you and Blake are the same… you both suffered from different mothers… I miss her as much as you do… we gotta find her… or else she'll get hurt again." Ethan said.
Carly tried to sit up, Ethan helping her… before both heard shouting.
"You do not run into traffic, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Michael yelled as he carried a screaming Blake into the ER.
"No, let me go you fuck head!" Blake screamed. "Get this fat gorilla off me! He's gonna eat me whole!"
Several swats were heard, Blake screaming before they stopped and she was set on the ground, rubbing her right hip.
"I hate you! I fucking hate you!" Blake cried.
"Did he just really fucking spank her?!" Carly asked in disbelief, Ethan's arm around her back as he helped her into a wheelchair.
"I hope you die!" Blake cried, wiping her tears. "By drinking and smoking too much!"
"Blake, snap out of it!" Carly said after limping to her and bracing her small hands on Blake's shoulders before looking at Michael. "Dad, that spanking was uncalled for and you know it!"
"It was… sorry, Blake." Michael says, feeling horribly guilty.
"Let me go!" Blake screamed, shrugging Carly's hands of her. "I don't need you and fat ass!"
"You do need us! We're your family, Blake… we both got ripped apart and royally screwed, we can't abandon each other!" Carly says, Blake taking deep breaths.
"I can't… I can't take this anymore…" Blake cried, holding her head. "It's tearing me apart!" She screamed. "Last night, I been having nightmares and they came true!"
Carly pulled Blake into her arms, the two holding each other as they sat down. Blake let herself relax, her head on Carly's right shoulder as Carly stroked her hair.
"Family…" Blake whispered.
"Forever… no family can be completely torn apart, Blake." Carly whispered as they looked at each other after letting go, Blake resting her hand on Carly's right shoulder and seeing bullet scars.
"I'm sorry…." Blake whispered.
"Siblings for life, Blakesleigh…" Carly whispered. "Family… we're not gonna turn out like Fredo and Michael Corleone."
Blake smiled at the familiar reference from The Godfather II.
"Together as a family… as twin sisters." Blake said.
Carly was settled into a room for observation and was soon asleep, Blake noticing the tattoo… the one of the hearts entwined and the smaller one cracked but designed to be stitched together and the larger one undamaged.
Blake tilted her head to the side.
'She and Johnny are close… more than a simple friendship but not romantic…' Blake thought as Carter walked in and she let him sit down next to her.
"I'm alright to let you know… if you heard Michael or 'Dad' giving me an ass whooping… that was me screaming…" Blake said, looking down at her clasped hands.
"That was out of line for him, I'm sorry Ladybug." Carter says, Blake feeling a bit better at hearing her old nickname.
"Thanks, I really needed that… But… there's so many things going in my mind for me to ask you and maybe Michael." Blake said, looking at Carter's emerald green eyes.
Carter opened his mouth to ask, both seeing Carly's right hand trembling.
"That never used to happen with her… she's got small scars on her collarbone…" Blake says.
"That was a few months ago… she was shot outside the school." Carter says, Blake's eyes widening in shock.
"Who tried to hurt her?" Blake asked.
"We didn't see his face at first…" Carter says, starting to explain.
3/7/13…
"Son of a bitch…" Ethan says, tearing out of the passenger side of the car and running full speed at a silver haired man.
"Ethan!" Carter shouts, catching up to them.
"This is the fucker who shot Carly!" Ethan yells, continuing to punch Ivory until Carter pulled Ethan off of him.
"Let him go! We have to save your cousin, get her out of town!" Carter said.
"Save that little skank?! She's beyond-" Ivory says, screaming when Carter kicked him in the face.
The two jumped back as small bullets pierced Ivory's right shoulder, seeing Carly with her SNS Pistol and in stolen hospital scrubs, her right arm in a sling.
"Tiny, you could have killed us!" Ethan said.
"Sorry guys… I also might've given a nurse a bad concussion… but Ivory-" Carly says, the pistol at Ivory's head until Carter put his hand on her left arm.
"Don't do it…" Carter said. "You done it once, are you willing to do it again?"
"He's gonna keep coming back…" Carly says, lowering the gun… before directing it at Ivory's right knee, Ivory screaming in pain as Ethan ripped the gun away from Carly and took it away.
"You crazy bitch!" Ivory yelled.
"Well I also torched your car and your warehouse so yeah, I am a little crazy!" Carly says, Ethan and Carter putting Carly in the car.
As Carter drove them away, Ethan reached to his side and rested his hand on Carly's left shoulder.
"You'll be fine, Violet…" Ethan said. "You're safe with us…"
"Were our lives always this crazy? I shouldn't even be using a gun at all but… I guess it's just second nature to me." Carly says, her hand lightly squeezing Ethan's.
"We are strangely different, but we are a family that can used guns… just like our fathers." Ethan said.
"Yeah…" Carly says, resting her head on Ethan's shoulder as he put his right arm around her.
Carter smiled at his son and niece in the backseat as he kept his eyes on the road.