8:8

Everyone, except Mike, had made it to the hospital. A few hours had passed and no one had heard anything. Annie-Marie sat on a waiting room chair, while everyone else was pacing around, waiting to hear any news on Beverly. Annie-Marie was still in disbelief over what had happened and she felt ashamed and so much guilt. Finally, a doctor came out of Beverly's room and started to approach the group. The adults perked and quickly approached the doctor.

"How is she, doctor?" Mia asked.

"How's my wife?" Ben asked.

"Your wife was poisoned with a high amount of opioids." The doctor begin.

"Opioids…" Mia said, shocked and horrified.

"But is she okay?" Ben asked again.

"Your wife is fine, we were able to get the Narcan in her system, in time." The doctor explained.

"Thank God." Mia said, relieved.

"What about my baby?" Ben asked.

"Your baby is fine, it's a miracle it doesn't have any brain or physical damage." The doctor finished.

"Oh thank God. Can I go see her?" Ben said, relieved.

"Of course, she's starting to wake up." The doctor said.

Everyone was relieved by this news and were either quietly thanking God or eager to go see Beverly. Before anyone went in, they heard rushing footsteps approach them.

"Hey, guys!" a voice shouted.

Everyone looked to see Mike approach them. Annie-Marie was surprised to see her uncle Mike and thought that he was still chasing Greta. She figured that Mike must've caught up with her and arrested her.

"How's Beverly?" Mike asked.

"She's waking up, the doctors were able to save her in time." Betty spoke.

"Good, good…that's good to hear. Hey listen, Greta's dead." Mike said, panting.

"What?! What happened?" Mia asked, shocked.

"I was chasing Greta, with backup following me. It turned into a high speed chase, Greta was going 75 over 40mph. Suddenly, she lost control and hit a light post, she didn't make it." Mike explained.

"My God…" Mia said, horrified and shocked.

"There's more, before I found you guys, I was on the phone with patrol. They went to the pharmacy to inform Mr. Keene about Greta and went inside after they found the door unlocked. They searched the place and found Mr. Keene in bed, dead. The corner thinks that he overdosed on opioids." Mike explained.

"That's what the doctor told us about Beverly, he said that she was poisoned with a large amount." Bill said.

"Did Mr. Keene overdose on accident?" Betty asked.

"No, patrol sent me some photos. It's clear from these pictures that Mr. Keene was poisoned." Mike answered.

He took out his phone, pressed a few buttons, then show the adults the photos. The crime scene was just as Mike described it. The scene was dark with Mr. Keene's body slumped on the bed, looking like he choked on something, and a spilled bowl of what looked like oatmeal was on the floor.

"So Greta poisoned her own father and went to our Thanksgiving dinner to try to poison Beverly and her baby." Betty said, replaying the story out loud.

"My guess, this was a suicide mission." Mike concluded.

"I don't think so. If this was a suicide mission, wouldn't Greta have caused us more trauma by killing herself in front of us, after she was done with Beverly?" Ale disagreed.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean she could commit suicide somewhere else." Mike pointed out.

"Look, regardless, Greta got what she deserved. Beverly's waking up." Ben interrupted.

"Good. Lets go tell her." Mike said.

The adults went into Beverly's room, leaving Annie-Marie and baby David alone. Mia and Georgie approached their kids.

"Annie, do you want to see aunt Beverly?" Mia asked.

"No, not right now, mom." She said.

Mia and Georgie were concerned and they really didn't want to leave their kids alone in the hallway. However, Mia knew that her daughter was upset about what had happened.

"Alright, stay here and don't leave this chair." She said.

"Yes, mom." Annie-Marie said, depressed.

Georgie looked at Mia, silently wondering if this was a good idea. However, even he could see his daughter's pain and knew that she needed some time alone.

"Watch your brother, Annie." Georgie said.

"Yes dad." She said.

Georgie and Mia went into the room and closed the door. Georgie peaked at the blinds to check on his kids, then closed them. Annie-Marie didn't hear all of the conversation that her uncle Mike said, nor did she understand some of it. But she understood this, Greta was dead, Beverly and her baby nearly died, and it was all her fault. Annie-Marie started to cry, while gently holding on to her baby brother, who was sleeping peacefully.

Meanwhile

"I knew it. I FUCKIN KNEW IT. I told you we should've killed Greta when we had the chance!" Ben said, enraged.

"BEN!" Beverly spoke, surprised her husband would say such a thing.

"I'm sorry but look at the facts! The fact is, is that Greta tried to kill you, our baby, and killed her own father. I mean we should've killed Greta before she ever got the chance!" he said, enraged and annoyed.

"Okay, even so, we didn't have any proof that Greta would do something like this." Mike said, reasoning.

"Are you really that surprised, Mike? I mean we should've expected Greta to retaliate, especially after what happened to Sally and Marcia. Do you remember what happened to Georgie? When Marcia's father came and shot him?" Betty pointed out.

"That was different, Betty." Georgie argued.

"No it's not Georgie! The point is that we should've known that Greta was going to do something like this. Was anyone keeping an eye on her?" she asked.

"Hey, I was keeping an eye on Greta, but all she did was work at her dad's pharmacy or go out to get something to eat. It's not like she went out and planned this somewhere else." Ale snapped.

"She's a pharmacist, Ale. Of course she wouldn't have to plan this somewhere else." Eddie pointed out.

"Look the point is, is that we all agreed that we would keep our guard up, especially if we were in Derry. At least now we don't have to worry about any retaliation from this, not anymore." Richie spoke.

"Yeah, at least Annie doesn't have to bring home any more enemies." Ben said, bitter.

"BEN!" Mia shouted, angry.

"Can you not blame my niece, please? She's just a kid, Ben, she doesn't know any better." Bill defended.

"Look…" Ben begin.

He was starting to calm down and clearly trying to choose his next words carefully.

"I'm not blaming Annie for what happened, Mia, Bill, Georgie, but she should've never listened to you about that old tradition in the first place! I mean what was she thinking?!" Ben asked.

"You don't think we know that, Ben?!" Georgie argued.

"She's only six years old, she was thinking what any six-year-old was." Mia pointed out.

"Mia's right, Ben. Either way, regardless if it happened today or later, Greta would've tried to kill us. Even if Annie had invited her or not." Audrey agreed.

Ben was about to say something but was interrupted by a hand grabbing his. Ben looked to see Beverly giving a weak smile.

"Ben, you know she's right." She said, softly.

Ben started to calm down and was just grateful to have Beverly and their child. Beverly was recovering slowly from the poison, but on top of that, she was okay. Everyone was grateful that Beverly and her baby were alright. Beverly tried slowly to get up, with Ben gently helping her.

"How's Annie holding up?" she asked.

"How do you think? She's upset and I think ashamed." Georgie said.

He peaked out of the blinds and could see his daughter and son still sitting in the waiting room. Georgie could tell that Annie had been crying, which broke his heart, to say the least.