October 30th, 2015

"Where the hell your ass been?!" Tamia asked pulling Egypt inside.

"With Ahmed." She answered fixing her shirt.

"Do you know the damn police raided your place?"

"Why you think I've been with Ahmed? I can't go to jail." She stressed rubbing her arm and Tamia stared at her.

"Getting high huh? Do you even know where your son is?" Tamia asked following her into the living room.

"Mind your business and here. That's the last place you told me."

Laughing disgustedly, Tamia shook her head.

"He got shot a month ago E!! He's been in the fucking hospital for a month and there has been no change in his recovery! He's dying but by the grace of God he's holding on!" She yelled as she fought to keep the tears in.

"Shot?! By who? Why didn't you call me?!" E croaked jumping up and Tamia looked at her like she were crazy.

"How? You ran from here remember? You chased after that no good sorry excuse for a man while your kids needed you! I needed you! Where were you when I lost my husband huh? You were out getting high! It's always been me and Bryson taking care of them kids when YOU should have and now that boy is in that hospital fighting for his life because of you!" She snapped getting in Egypt's face.

"You ruined those kids! You chose the drugs over them and tried to put the blame on Ahmed. It was you Egypt! You did this and I am sick of you crying and playing the victim!"

Crying, Egypt reached out for her but Tamia backed away.

"Get out, you don't want help and I can't do this anymore. After twenty years and you still haven't changed. Mom died wanting better for you and you couldn't even change. Get out E, I'm done." Pointing towards the door, Egypt went to say something but Tamia stopped her.

"Out." She gritted, wiping under her eyes, Egypt walked away slowly and headed towards the door.

Sitting down, Tamia covered her mouth as she broke down.

Twenty plus years she has been babying Egypt only to get slapped in the face each time.

She lost her husband in combat and Egypt was too busy hiding in a hotel room getting too high to care.

Bryson got tired of it and walked away when she should have but that's her sister so she stayed down.

But she couldn't do it anymore.

Not this time.

**

Hospital

"Have you spoken to Kingston?" Dajon asked Renae as they laid in the bed staring up at the ceiling.

They moved him to a much bigger room to make him feel comfortable.

"I can't talk to him." She spoke then sighed.

"I don't want to believe it but she's six and half months... I could barely tell." She added.

"Everyone carries pregnancy different, but I don't think it's his Z, I think that girl lying." He told her.

"You believe him?" She asked.

"I've been around him long enough, I saw the look in his eyes. That man ain't get her pregnant and you should believe him." He answered.

"I want to... but what if it's his? I wanted to be his first everything. Now I got her jealous ass laughing in my face about it because she trapped him." She vented.

"I wish you could leave this place so we could go away."

"That's your problem sis, you run from your problems instead of facing them head on." He said and she sighed.

"I have too many problems to face." She reminded.

"Doesn't matter, you gotta learn to look that mess in the eyes and square the fuck up with it like you be doing these broads out here. Same energy you have for them you gotta do the same with these problems." He told her and she nodded.

"You know he ain't going back to New Orleans without you."

"He left last night." She said and he chuckled.

"How you know?" He asked. "He wasn't at his mom's house."

"So that means he left?" He questioned and she shrugged.

"Yeah."

"Mm.. ok." He mumbled. "What?" She asked looking at him.

"Nothing, have you been cutting?" He asked.

"How's the healing going?" She asked ignoring his question.

"Good." He answered grabbing her left arm and held it up.

"Are those scabs?"

"Trying to keep from cutting is hard ok? No I didn't cut but I scratched my damn self until the urges stopped." She revealed pulling her arm away.

"You need to go back to Church or do therapy." He suggested.

"I went last week with Mama Karen and Aunt Tamia... I just feel like I gotta figure stuff out on my own or something." She told him.

"What you need to do is talk to Kingston. Forgive yourself and stop running from your problems." He said.

"He's gone... I feel bad I put my hands on him."

"When?" He asked.

"The day everything happened." She answered and he laughed softly.

"You seriously gotta stop hitting that man, he ain't a punching bag."

"I know... I was just angry and hurt. I still am but I miss him... this is the longest we've went without speaking or seeing each other." She stressed.

"I'm starting to think I'm not meant to be in love because it hurts."

Sitting up, she got down from the bed and headed towards the bathroom.

Dajon turned on his side and blew out a breath trying to ignore the pain he felt on his right side.

He was afraid to die but he's been fighting to stay.

There was so much he wanted to do.

His school friends showed up two weeks ago and of course Renae and Bryson shut that down with the quickness.

As far as they were concerned, none of them were trustworthy and he respected their opinions.

Hearing a knock at the door, he turned over just as Renae walked out the bathroom.

"I got it." She assured heading around the corner, turning back on his side he stared out the window wishing he would have done things differently.

"Dajon?" The Doctor called walking in with the nurse.

"I'm here." He answered then chuckled as he turned over.

"You in pain?"

"A little." He replied allowing the nurse to help him sit up.

"We have your results back if you want to know." The Doctor announced holding up the clipboard.

The nurse sat Dajon's food down and handed him his medication and a bottle of Gatorade.

"Is it good?" Renae asked standing on the other side of the bed.

"I would say so." The doctor answered and Dajon gave him a look.

"These were your x rays after the surgery." He spoke handing Dajon the photo.

"And these are your x rays from two days ago." He added giving Dajon the other photo. "No more inflammation or bleeding." Renae spoke looking the pictures over.

"What that mean?" Dajon asked.

"You're healing, with a little physical therapy we'll have you up and running in no time." He encouraged and Renae grinned widely.

"I do need to do one more scan of your lungs since you said they still feel tight. Maybe I missed something. I would like to have you do a CT Scan later on after you eat if you're ok with that?" He added and Renae answered for him.

Chuckling, Dajon agreed.

"Ok so I'll come back in about an hour."

"Yeah that's cool, thanks Doc." Dajon acknowledged shaking his hand.

"Glory to God kiddo, that's who we should thank." He spoke before heading out and the nurse followed.

Renae jumped up and down clapping and Dajon laughed softly.

"Do you know what this means?!" She beamed jumping on the bed.

"What?" He answered.

"Time to take over the world!"

**

Princess Anne Hospital

"Does that girlfriend of yours know you're here?" Autumn asked Kingston as they sat in the waiting area.

"I thought I said not to talk to me? And stop asking about my girl she not thinking about you." He stressed pulling out his phone and went to his camera roll.

"Such a fucking dick head, can't believe I fell for your ass." She spoke and he laughed to himself as he watched some old videos of Renae.

He missed her like crazy.

"Can you at least act like you wanna be here?"

Ignoring her, King swiped to a picture he took of Renae while she was asleep and smiled.

It was just something about her natural beauty that kept him drawn to her.

Rolling her eyes, Autumn couldn't hide the fact that indeed Renae was a very gorgeous girl and seemed to have her shit together.

The way King looked at Renae, he never looked at her that way.

The way he spoke about her made her jealous.

She wanted to be the one he loved not Renae.

"Autumn Ryder?" The Doctor called, King and Autumn both stood and followed her.

Walking inside the room, King stood back while Autumn got on the bed.

"What are we doing today?" The Doctor asked getting her area together.

"Paternity test." King spoke up and she looked over at Autumn.

"Not sure who the father is?"

"Nah, I know I ain't." He answered and Autumn scoffed.

"Oh..." The Doctor replied then pursed her lips. "Oh... k, let's start with a few follow up questions." She suggested and King sighed.

"Come get me when it's time." He stressed walking out the room.

After 15 minutes, the Doctor called him back inside.

"Are you afraid of needles?"

"All dis ink on me? You should know da answer." He replied sitting in the chair and she laughed.

"It's a force of habit." She stated as she put her gloves on after preparing her kit.

"So are you guys close friends?"

"Yeah." Autumn answered.

"Nah." King dismissed. "I got a girl and she don't respect that." He added and Autumn squinted her eyes.

"Jesus." The lady mumbled.

"No more questions." She whispered to herself as she searched for the vein in his right arm before rubbing the alcohol pad on.

Grabbing the needle, she inserted into his arm.

After collecting, she placed a bandage over the area and put the sample up.

Disposing the gloves and needle, she went ahead and cut the ultrasound machine on.

King cut the lights out and stood back while the doctor got Autumn situation.

He couldn't believe how wicked she turned out to be.

She couldn't say he led her on because he told her how he felt and tried to leave but she wouldn't allow it.

She wanted to force him to love her when he simply didn't and couldn't.

Using the ultrasound for help, the doctor began to guide a thin needle into Autumn's uterus, through her abdomen.

Gathering a small amount of amniotic fluid, the Doctor carefully pulled the needle out.

"How long dis gon take?" King asked once the Doctor put the samples up.

"Two days to a week or two." She answered looking at Autumn.

"Would you like to see what you're having?"

"Yeah." She replied, shaking his head King removed his car keys from his pocket.

"Ok, just let me run these in and I'll be right back." The Doctor replied getting up and King left out the room right behind her.

"Hey?" She called stopping King from heading towards the elevator.

"I can tell you don't have any kind of connection with her and I think she knows that. I think it's fair if I told you that she asked me to tamper with the results." She whispered and King eyes widened.

"Swear to God." He said and she rose her right hand.

"I can try to get these results back no later than a week, but I'll need YOUR address and not hers." She told him.

Nodding, King took the pen from her and wrote it down on the back of the folder.

"Good luck." She said before walking away.

"Son of a bitch."

*

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*

Oh happy day

Truth moment: Dajon was originally supposed to die but I saw how much y'all loved him and I couldn't do y'all like that.