Take Me Home

thirty- nine

Fuck this hurts.

Being shot isn't the one... don't recommend it at all.

Is it weird to feel like someone is sat my chest after being shot?

I wonder if I was the only one that got hurt yesterday... knowing my previous luck that was entirely the case.

Fuck

Shit

My head is banging.

And the beeping of the machines isn't bloody helping... wait machines?

Well no shit Gaia you got shot, you'd be in the hospital.

My inner self is a bitch.

"-seen fleeing the country- it was intercepted in Edinburgh- he arrived back at the warehouse a few hours ago-" The broken conversation floated through my ears.

"The doctors said she was on the right track for a full recovery, there's no sign of infection and she should be waking up within the next few hours."

Haha bitches I'm already awake.

The silence that followed was nice. Nice enough to fall back to sleep but my mind won't shut off again, clearly I've had enough sleep the last few days.

I wonder if I should do a regular wake up, or make it interesting?

But how?

Hmmm. Something that will shock them but might make them laugh. This will probably back fire but let's just do it.

I slowly open my eyes, letting them adjust to the harsh cool lights in the hospital room. It sparked another rush of pain through my head and the dizzy feeling I felt when I was shot was back. I had to hold back the groan of discomfort.

I yawn loudly, grabbing their attention; "damn where's Damon Salvatore gone? We were having fun."

The look on all their faces was definitely the best way to wake up. But getting a proper look at their faces they were exhausted, the heavy, dark circles underneath their eyes was enough to know they haven't sleep in days, maybe even weeks.

"Jesus guys I don't know who looks more dead. Me or you guys." I laugh hoarsely, my throat was scratchy as hell.

Papa comes to my bedside with a styrofoam cup filled with iced water, I sip it slowly and am instantly grateful for the soothing feeling in my throat. He leans down, moving my hair away from my forehead as he leans down to place a firm kiss on my forehead.

"You almost died and you are cracking jokes?"

I shrug as best I could with my tight muscles. "The atmosphere was far to tense." I avert my eyes away from papa with a soft smile, looking at my brothers who were scattered around the room. Raff and Eliseo were sat on a small sofa sat shoulder to shoulder. Armano was in a wooden chair reading War and Peace. Francesco was sat at the foot of bed, his hand on my ankle, while Amori was holding my hand on the opposite side of papa.

I look at Amori and he was frowning. I squeeze his hand as firm as I could manage. "Why the long face? I'm awake now." He grumbles in response. "Yeah only took you 5 days."

5 days huh?

Best sleep I've had in a while.

"I need to do that more often, best sleep I've had in a while."

"Not anytime soon if I can help it." Papa retorts with a short laugh.

After a round of greeting from everyone, a shit ton of question from my family, from doctors and nurses about my current physical and mental health after my 'traumatic experience'. Papa told me they paid a lot of money for the police to not be notified of what happened here.

They also told me that straight after my surgery in some private hospital in Mexico, they had me transferred to their hospital in New York so I could finally be out of Mexico and on home turf.

Again, so thankful for that.

I've missed home, I've missed my pups and school.

I haven't seen my babies in almost 4 months... fuck I need Creedus and Octi cuddles. Like now.

I tried talking papa into sneaking the dogs into the hospital as they will speed up my recovery, but according to Eliseo it'll be hard to sneak in two overgrown pups.

I call bullshit.

So now I'm stuck lonely as hell talking to my family about random shit that has nothing to do with the last few months. There was this awkwardness in the air, everyone is desperate to talk about it no doubt. We need to talk about it.

I needed to know everything that happened since I was gone. What was going on with my papa.

I just decided to bit the bullet and get it over and done with.

"Papa?"

"Yes mi amore?" He looked up from his deck of cards to look at me with his familiar softness.

"I want the truth." I say bluntly. He looked at me very confused, his eyebrows furrowed, eyes wide. "I need to know what happened? While I was gone, why you were being shady as hell-"

He looks shameful to say the least. "You sure?" I nod. "When I heard about the contract I wanted nothing more but to get you out of it, I knew it wasn't ideal or my best idea. But I was desperate, you didn't deserve that on you. So I had a private meeting with Vito, offered him revenue, product, men. Anything and everything to get you out of the arrangement. I fucked up because they started sending threats to my international businesses, they had tails on the entire family. I messed up. The night of the gala- the dress, the makeup. all of it was under their orders." He sighed, putting the cards down. "I sounds stupid but I felt powerless, my baby girl was forced into something she should have stayed away from. They picked you out and I let myself be apart of it all. I'm so sorry il mio dulce Angelo, I know it means nothing but I truly mean it. I never wanted it to be like this. Ever."

I reach over and take his hand, squeezing it. "I thought to myself that it was all my fault, that once you learnt the truth about the contracts, my past you didn't want me anymore. I had it into my head that because I had history with the Mexicans that you thought I was- uhm dirty?"

"No no. Never. I tried to take matters into my own hands and it backfired. Which explains the photos you received before you birthday about me meeting with Vito, you had every right to go to Raffaele as he spoke sense to me. The next thing we knew was you were being taken across the borders and we didn't see you for months." Papa reaches his hand up and wipes under my eyes. "Ti amo."

"Ti amo. Tutti voi." (I love you. All of you)

"So did you help me?"

"Raven. They are an informant for the underworld, currently the leader of the Vault. They found out everything we needed about the wedding, their businesses. Everything we needed to end them all."

"And did you. End them all?"

Raffaele replies instead. "Every last one of them."

"It's over?"

"It's over tesorini." I sigh in relief.

I never had to see Vito, Valerius, Miguel... I'll never have to set my eyes on them ever. They were gone, they were apart of the past.

And now it was time to live for the future. For me

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2 to go!!

Word Count: 1248 Words

--M <3