"I don't wanna die, but I don't wanna feel like this"

~Feel Something (Bea Miller)

°~°~°

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Aiden asked Ken. The two sat within the hall just outside the operating room.

After Bernice got shot, the police swooped in and Viola instantly dropped the gun. She was cuffed then brought out and as they brought her out and read her her rights, she wasn’t even listening. She only stared at the floor mumbling to herself, but eventually she reasoned something to herself and her eyes went wide. The protesting started just then and she screamed and begged for them to let her go. Some words followed along the lines of “I won’t see her again! I didn’t shoot Niecy! Believe me! I didn’t!”. Viola kicked and screamed and had to be dragged like a dog out the mansion.

Ken bawled his eyes out whilst Aiden just stood there as if in shock.

At the moment, Aiden stayed that way with his blue and brown eyes wide and heavily misted. He still awaited for Ken’s response, “Ken?”

“She’ll be fine.” He finally told him then took him into a comforting hug.

Aiden held unto him as if he was his mother’s life line and allowed his tears freedom. He cried his eyes out, drenching Ken’s shirt.

Soon Leanna and Landon were present and not too long after that the twins were present with their father. Aiden had called them and told them on some of what happened. Bryan caught sight of Ken and immediately questioned it with a risen eyebrow, “who you?”

“Mamma’s boyfriend.” Aiden answered with a sniff and when his uncle echoed the boyfriend part of his statement he rose from Ken’s lap and pointed to his crotch with a confirming nod, “boyfriend.”

Bryan’s jaw ticked, “if a nuh one ting a di next wid dah gyal deh enuh. Wah kinda work yuh do… bredda?”

“I’m a translator.” Ken answered after eyeing the man for a bit and wiped at his tear stained cheeks, “I started working for her, but when we started dating I didn’t feel comfortable taking her money, so I found another job.”

Nodding, Bryan took a seat, “how much language yuh know suh?”

“Fourteen and counting. Fluent in some more than others but I can read, write and instantly translate all with ease.”

Bryan chuckled at the thought of his sister and her choice in a partner, his head even shook from side to side as he said, “she have a ting fi multilingual people. Mi nuh too like dis, but she naa give a bloodclaat wah mi seh. Just nuh fuck up.”

“I don’t plan to.” Ken told him lowly, but with a confidence that almost had Bryan smile.

That’s when the doctor came out grabbing everyone’s attention, “is anyone here who isn’t of close relation to Miss White?”

“Everyone is of close relation, doc. Mi sister good?”

The doctor nodded at that, but he wore a frown as he took a deep breath, “she is fine. Somehow the bullet didn’t hit any major organs… other than the womb.” He announced sadly, “the baby had the bullet run straight through it’s head exiting the thorax. For those of you don’t know the bullet ran through the left flank exiting the right, which means there was no detrimental injuries to Miss White. This makes me believe it was intended for the child to die and not the mother. Whoever did pulled the trigger was aiming for that or did a bad shot that turned in favour for Miss White.” The doctor stated with a confidence and as he checked his Rolex watch, he tsked at the time, “I have another patient to attend to. The nurse will let you know what she’s awake, which will be in the next thirty to sixty minutes.”

With that the doctor left.

Everyone stayed silent. Leanna was first to break it with a low whistle though, “well…”

“Shet yuh mout’, Leanna.” Bryan sucked his teeth.

“Who yuh a talk to dutty jankro?” Leanna asked, which earned her a ride rebuttal from her cousin and that sparked at argument that Landon sat out as Ken and Aiden ignored.

“You okay, Aide?” Ken asked with a small guilt of feeling relieved that Niecy survived and the baby didn’t.

Aiden only sniffed with an audible sigh of relief himself and nodded, “it worked.”

“What worked?” Ken asked, but he received no answer. Aiden only rested his head back unto Ken’s toned thighs, his mind obviously drifting far from where he stayed as he whispered, “mommy’s safe.”

***

Bryan, his sons and Aiden were first to see Niecy. Whilst she spoke to her brother and nephew, Aiden curled by his mother’s side as they cuddled in the med bed. They explained to her that Giovanni was well and alive, but as soon as they got called about her incident they knocked him out and tied him up like a pretzel. Their conversation wasn’t the longest, so after a while, they left her with Aiden then in came Leanna and Landon.

Ken was last to make his visit and Bernice’s face lit up instantly. Aiden was fast asleep by then though.

“How do you feel?” was his first question to her.

Not taking much time to think on it, she smoothed her hand along Aiden’s cuddling arm and sighed, “drugged and in pain, but I’m fine. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been bawling my eyes out thinking I might lose you today. I feel like crap.” He admitted as he glanced down at her faintly smiling lips, “you seem fine considering you lost…”

Niecy bit into her bottom lip, “can we not talk about it?”

Ken’s eyebrows popped up at her referring to her lost baby as an it, but he didn’t question her. Instead, he nodded, “what can we talk about then?”

“Kiss me for now. You’ll need to talk to my brother after you get Aide to the hotel because I doubt you’re allowed to stay at the mansion tonight.”

“What?” he asked puzzled.

Bernice didn’t give an answer though. She only hooked her finger into his shirt’s neck and pulled his lips to hers in a deep slow kiss he eventually responded to with just as much fever.

“Niecy.” He breathed out as her teeth sank into his lower lip. The act wanting to tug at his more primal parts. He almost thanked her when she stopped and simply gave him a final suck before whispering, “take Aiden home and listen to Bryan, okay? For me.”

“But I wanted to stay until you got discharged, baby.” He told her, still having his lips hovering mere centimetres away from his, “I wanna stay with you. I can have Aiden go with Leanna.”

Smiling, she lightly kissed him again and sighed, “this is why I love you. But go. You need to talk to Bryan before tomorrow. It’s going to be a storm and I’d like if everything went as smooth as possible. Okay?” She asked pecking his lips again.

Heaving a sigh, Ken nodded and pressed his lips against hers once more, “I love you too. I’ll be back bright and early, okay?”

“Okay.” She sighed dreamily, “do me a favour, don’t question Bryan. Just do as he says… please.”

***

Bryan got to the hotel first and the man patiently waited for Ken. His sons were at the hotel as well, but they huddled themselves in the penthouse’s kitchen making a ruckus.

The moment Ken got Aiden to bed, Bryan instructed the young man to sit in the couch as he paced before him in the general area. He was in deep thought as this went on, but he soon broke the silence with a sudden clap and rub of the hands when he made an abrupt stop.

“Fuss ting fuss. What did you tell the police when they questioned you?”

Ken looked up at him to see if he was being serious, but when he saw the straight line on the man’s lips, he blew a breath as he rolled his eyes, “I told them I was showering and when I got out Niecy yelled telling me her baby was coming.” Receiving a edging gesture from Bryan, he continued, “told them when I got everything and Aiden I came down to see the Viola chick with a gun pointed to her when she was sitting on the steps having contraptions. Long story short, I told them Viola allowed me out to stop them from coming in as Bernice asked me to, but Aiden had the fucking gun before I did that so I… I don’t know what the fuck happened back there.”

“Dat good man.” He sighed with a relief, “this ago reach court.” He announced resting his behind in the single couch across Ken, “Niecy seh she a press charges. You naa guh mention Aiden having the gun when it reach deh suh and them call yuh pon stand.”

“Why?”

Bryan’s jaw ticked, “don’t question mi. When everything done and sort out yuh ask yuh woman question. Just listen to wah mi have fi seh and dweet. Nuh like people question mi. And if them ask bout Giovanni yuh nuh know nothing, suh yuh lowe out that.”

“Wh—” Ken cut himself off with a brief recollection of Bernice asking him to cooperate with her older brother. His eyes rolled as his own jaw ticked and nodded his head, “fine. Let’s get this over with.”