Jettie Woodruff - Plausibility

“I don’t know, Reese,” she spoke honestly. There was so much blood. She couldn’t keep her mind from going back in time, seeing her father’s blood, lying on that cold tiled floor. Seri couldn’t die. She just couldn’t.

Emmanuel was storming through the double doors, dressed in full business attire when the girls emerged.

“What the hell happened?” he asked Quill.

“Excuse me, sir. Are these your daughters?” the officer asked before Quill could explain.

“Yes,” he answered, turning to the uniformed cop.

“We need to get a statement from them. Can you please follow me?”

“I need to go to Sarah. Where is she?” he wanted to know. He didn’t give a flying fuck about his needed paperwork.

“We need to speak to the next of kin,” a nurse interrupted. “Are you her husband?” she asked Manny.

“No, but she lives with me,” he replied.

What the fuck? Seri never told Quill she was living with him. She didn’t even know him. The thought crossed her mind that she was going to kill her, but was quickly washed away with guilt. She may already be dead.

“Do you know of any family that we can call?” she asked.

Manny turned to Quill. They hadn’t talked about her family. Why hadn’t they talked about her family?

“I’m her sister,” Quill lied.

The cop turned his attention to Quill. She wasn’t his sister. They all knew who Sarah Strokes was. Her sister was murdered.

“How is she?” Quill asked, ignoring the officer’s scrutiny.

“Come with me,” the nurse nodded.

All but the officer followed her to a small room with four chairs. He waited in the hall. “Please sit down,” she offered. They all sat, except for Manny. He couldn’t sit. He had to know what was going on. His nerves wouldn’t allow him to sit.

“Sara was shot with a hollow point bullet,” she began to explain. “These bullets are designed to expand upon hitting the body and may fragment. They are designed to stay in the body and not exit. They are the most lethal.”

This wasn’t sounding good. Aquilla wrung her hands as she listened.

“The entirety of the bullet’s kinetic energy is transferred to the body which causes___.”

“We don’t give a shit about the anatomy of a gunshot wound. How is she?” Aquilla demanded to know, wanting her to cut the analysis and tell them if she was dead or alive.

“She’s in surgery. It may appear that she lost a lot of blood, but she really didn’t, not on the outside anyway. The bullet is lodged in her left kidney.”

“She doesn’t need two kidneys,” Quill assured her.

“He hadn’t started on the kidney yet when I left the operating room. She has internal bleeding that they are trying to get under control first.” The nurse stood to leave. “I will keep you updated as the surgery progresses,” she smiled.

The officer took her place and had both girls write out statements in their own words.

“Was this guy someone she has been after?” Quill asked.

“I’m sure you know that I can’t discuss that with you,” he smiled a warm smile. He wasn’t going to tell her anything. She felt the vengeance that Seri described to her when her sister was murdered. She understood full well what the tattoo reading the word meant now. She felt it. It was so strong. If Seri died, she would go after this guy and everyone involved. She would. She promised herself.

Liz showed up a couple hours later. She felt the need to be there. She couldn’t believe that her girls just witnessed a shooting, especially at such a close range and with someone they cared about.

Reese ran to her, threw her arms around her and sobbed. The fear, anxiety and the distress of what she had just gone through came flooding out as soon as she saw her mother. Connor was by her side, not about to let her come alone.

“Are you doing okay?” Liz asked Quill once Reese calmed.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. She wasn’t fine. The one and only person she felt she needed in her life, was on an operating table and she didn’t know what was going on. Nobody had said a word since the nurse had updated them two hours before. She said she would keep them posted. She lied.

That was the longest four hours of Quill’s life. She couldn’t do anything but pace back and forth while she constantly went to the desk to ask for an update, getting the same answer every time. “We’ll let you know as soon as we know,” the same nurse repeated herself over and over.

Seri didn’t look alive at all. She looked as dead as dead could be. Quill glanced at the machines beeping around the room. She hated that sound. It was the worst sound she had ever heard in her life. Her lips were dry and cracked and there was a tube taped to the side of her mouth, running down her throat. Her eyes were closed and looked like they were covered in some sort of thick Vaseline or something.

Manny looked over to her standing on the other side of the bed. She looked scared, and for the first time since she’d come home, Manny’s heart ached for her. She truly was his daughter. Why did it take this moment for him to realize how much he loved her?

“She’s going to be okay, Quill. I promise,” he tried to reassure her.

“Is she?” Quill asked, snapping her head around to the nurse.

“She’s going to be fine. She’s got a long road ahead of her, but from what I hear, she’s a tough one.”

“She is,” Quill admitted the truth.

Quill refused to leave. She was going to be right there when she woke. She didn’t care that the nurse tried to tell her that they weren’t going to let her wake up for at least 24 hours. She was staying right there. She wasn’t leaving without a fight. Manny wasn’t leaving either. He too was determined to be right there when she woke.

Reese left with her mother. She loved Seri, but hated hospitals. She always had, ever since she watched her Grandma Phyllis wither away from stomach cancer, right there in that very hospital. She wouldn’t even walk back to see Seri. She was leaving and would be kept updated via text message.

“Are you hungry?” Manny asked as the two of them were left alone in the deafening, beeping room.

“No,” Aquilla replied. She couldn’t eat.

“How about a bowl of fruit or something?”

“How about just coffee,” she countered.

“Coffee will stunt your growth,” he smiled. “Black?” he asked, standing.

“Yes, please.”

Quill took the opportunity to go to Seri’s side.

“Seri?” she softly spoke. “Can you hear me?” She had no clue weather she could hear her or not. “I’m sorry, Seri,” she apologized, taking her small frail hand with the needle stuck in the top of it. “I’m sorry I let you get shot. I shouldn’t have been walking in front of you. I should have been aware of our surroundings. I’ve always done that. I’ve been trained to do that since I was three. I’m sorry I let my guard down, Seri. Please be okay. I can’t be here without you. Seri? Can you hear me?” she asked again.

“If you come out of this, I promise I will do better and stop being so difficult to everyone, including you,” Quill promised. “I’ll even suck up this whole school thing and do that too. Please, Seri wake up.” Quill’s eyes widened when she felt Seri’s hand tighten around hers. Could she hear her? Shit. She just promised to go to school. Maybe she wasn’t coherent and it was only a reaction to the meds or something.

Aquilla sat quietly, slumped in her chair, listening to the sounds that she would never forget. The white walls felt like they were closing in on her as she thought about the room. How many people had been in that room? How many people had died there? She was sure it was a lot. The convoluted room smelled of antiseptic, clean like ozone or something, something else she would never forget. It was one of those smells that would stick with you through all of life. You would forget all about it until you smelled it again, and would be right quick to remember why.