CHERYL POV:
"Mom, are you ok? Your crying at a eye doctor commercial." I wipe my tears. "JJ, yeah I'm not crying at that." He sits next to me on the couch. "Than why are you crying?" He ask. "Just some personal stuff going on." I play with his hair. "Like what? Is it between you and mommy" He looks sad. "No, definitely not I love her, my bother died a few years ago and it's coming close the time he died." I take a deep breath. "I don't want to talk about it right now." He nods. "Is that who I'm named after? Your brother." I look at him and pull him into a hug. "Yeah he was my twin." His eyes widened. "Wait you're a twin?" He ask in shock. "Yeah why do you think you have one." He smiles. "So your the reason I put up with her?" He smirks. "Really?" I tickle him. "You can thank mommy she convinced me we needed more children." I pick him up, he laughing mess. I bring him out to the pool where Toni and Mary are. "Hi mommy. Are you guys going swimming." Mary ask. "Yeah why else would we be out here?" I tell her. I put down JJ and he jumps in. I slowly get in meeting Toni who's holding Mary. "You ok? Your eyes are red and puffy." I nod. "Yeah just, I'll tell you later." JJ swims over to us. "Mom can we get a dog." I hold JJ who is on the verge of drowning. "What?" Toni ask him confused. "Yeah can we?" Mary ask. "I don't know mom and I will discuss." I tell them.
I walk into JJ's room. "Hey you ready for bed?" I ask quietly. I look over and see him sleeping. I walk over. "Bud you need to get into your Pajamas." He slowly wakes up. "Can you please help?" I smile. "Yeah sit up." He sits up. "Wheres mommy?" He ask as I get him a shirt and shorts. "She's with Rose, she's looking at the college she's going one last time. Arms up." I get his shirt off and put a new one on. "I don't want her to leave." I smile. "I know I don't either. Stand up and put your shorts on you can do that yourself." Get gets off his bed and puts his shorts on. "Do you have to go to college after high school?" He ask. I shake my head. "No, mommy didn't." I tell him. He get back in bed. "Did you?" I tuck him in. "Yeah only because I had to for my job." I kiss the top of his head. He's about to ask something but I stop him. "Enough questions for tonight. You can ask me all the questions you want tomorrow before the party. Ok?" He nods. "Goodnight, I love you." He says. Ok my heart is melting. "I love you more." I say. I get up and turn off the light. I walk back in to Mary's room. "Hey it's time to go to sleep." She puts down her toy. "Mommy usually puts me to bed." I sit down on her bed. "Well she's with Rose remember." She nods. "Can you read me a story?" I smile, I go to her book shelf and get a book. "No from here." I turn around and see she's holding a book. "That's a chapter book." I tell her. "Yeah, mommy reads me a chapter a night." She says with sass. Oh my god she is the smaller version of me. "Ok." I put down the book and grab hers. "Oh corse she's reading you Harry Potter." She laughs. "Don't you guys talk." I smile. "Yeah but about adult stuff." She nods. "Oh that makes sense."
"Goodnight." I kiss the top of her head and turn off the light. I hate lying to my kids. And I hate when Toni and Rose go on Serpent missions, but that's out of my control. I can control what I say to my kids. Something could happen to one of them and it pains me to know that. I get a call from Toni and my heart drops. "Hey is everything ok?" I ask trying not to panic. "No, mom she umm, she's in the hospital I would have called you sooner but my phone died and I couldn't find her phone." I started to walk to the door. "What happened?" I hear her panicking. "I don't know it all happened so fast. I'm sorry." I walk out of my room. "It's ok what do you think happened?" I grab my keys. "I think she was stabbed but I also heard a gunshot but there was a knife with blood on it I don't know what, what happened I'm sorry it was really overwhelming and fast. I'm sorry." I nod. "Ok I'm go to be there in a few I just need to call Veronica ok. She's going to be ok." She takes a deep breath. "Ok, she's going to be ok. Ok. Bye. Please come quickly." She hangs up. I quickly call Veronica. "Hey what's up?" I take a deep breath. "Umm I need you to come over and watch the twins. Toni, is in the hospital. I don't want them to see her like this can you come over?" I ask her. "Yeah I'm on my way. I'll see you in a minute." I hang up. I pace the living room and panic. She needs to be ok. "Mom I can't sleep." I look up at the top of the stairs and see JJ at the top of the stairs. I walk upstairs. "You were already asleep." I pick him up. "What's wrong?" He ask. "Nothing. Just I need you to go to sleep Veronica will be here I need to run out, I'll be back in the morning." I bring him into his room and tuck him in. "Is mommy ok?" I rub his hair. "Yeah, Um her car died and I need to pick them up." I lie to him. I hear a knock on the door. "I'll see you later." I kiss his head. "Bye." I walk out. I open the door. "Thank you for coming I didn't know who else to call plus they love having you over." She hugs me. "It's ok go to the hospital I'll watch them." I nod. "Thank you." I grab my helmet and get on my bike. I ride to the hospital. As I'm running in a see Rose. "Cheryl." I take off my helmet. "Hey." I pull her into a hug. We both start crying. "She's going to be ok. I promise."
After hours of waiting a nurse finally walks over to us. "What happened? Is she ok?" Rose hammers him with question. "Stop. Let him talk." I stop her. "Sorry." She steps back. "She will be ok, she was shot we got the bullet out. She's asleep you can go see her whenever." I sigh in relief. Rose starts to walk to her room. "Wait, let me see her." I rub her back. She nods. "Ok." She sits down in a chair. I walk to her room. I see her sleeping me and it breaks my heart. She hears me and wakes up. "Cheryl I'm sorry." I sit down. "What happened? That's all I want to know." She takes a deep breath. "We were scoping out the ghoulies hang out and I moved wrong and Penny heard me, some how she is still alive, but the ghoulies started attacking up and one of them pulled a gun out on my and shot me. I was protecting Rose it was her or me and I'm not going let anything bad happen to her." I take her hand. "I'm just happy your ok." She smiles. "Wait were are the twins?" I squeeze her hand. "Their with Veronica. How are we explaining this to them? Oh and we are supposed to be having a party tomorrow." I sigh and sit on her bed. "I don't know I told JJ your car died and I had to pick you up." Start crying again. "Hey I'm going to be out in a few days. Just say-." I shake my head. "I'm not lying to them again." I tell her. She kisses my hand. "Ok but I don't want them to worry about it though." I nod. "I don't know what to tell them." She cups my face. "Maybe tell them what happened but not to detail." She tells me. "Mom." Rose comes in. "Knock." She walks out and knocks. "Can I come in?" Rose ask. "Yeah." She walks in and sits down. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to put you through this I should have-." Toni stops her. "I'm fine. That's what matters." Rose takes off her jacket. "Ok." She takes a deep breath. She gets up. "I'm going to go home I just wanted to make sure you were ok. This place gives me anxiety." I hand her my keys to my bike and my helmet. "Bye." She walks out. "She forgot her jacket."
I walk into the house after a long night at the hospital. "Mom." Marry comes running to me. "Hey." I pick her up. "Oh my god your getting big." I feel like I'm about to pass out. "Where's mommy?" She ask. "She's umm, I don't know how to say this umm. Mommy's in the hospital." Her eyes widened. "She's fine, She'll be home tomorrow it's just she will be in bed for a few days and it will only really be me taking care you of you and JJ for a little but she will be home soon. Ok." She nods. "Why is she there?" What the hell do I say now? "I don't want to talk about it right now." I just want to sleep. "Ok." I put her down. "Hey, I'm sorry all of this is last minute. It's just I didn't think I would be there all night with her." I whisper to Veronica as she walks in. "It's ok. Is she ok?" She ask. "Yeah for the most part besides the fact that she got shot but she'll be out tomorrow. Can you keep this kids busy today I just want to go to sleep?" She nods. "Yeah. If you need me for anything I'm free. But she was shot?" I nod. I feel like I'm going to cry again. "Yeah and than something went wrong after she was out of surgery and I ended up with her all night." She hugs me. "Thank you for watching them." She smiles. "Anytime." Both Mary and JJ run in. "Hey do you guys want to give your mom some time alone and we can go to Pops or something." They both smile. I kiss them both on the top of their heads and go upstairs to sleep.
TONI POV:
"Rose!" I yell as I push her over I feel a sharp pain in my side and a loud bang. I roll over and see the ghoulies running away. I pull out my switchblade and stab a guys leg to get him off Rose. She punches him one last time and he runs away. Rose looks over at me. "Mom." She runs to me. She pulls out her phone. I stop her. "Just drive me to the hospital. We need to go now." She nods and picks me up and brings me to the car. "Stay with me." She starts driving. "Call Cheryl when we get there. Please." She nods. "If something happens, there is a box in my closet and it has information on your parents take it and all your questions will be answered and I'm sorry we didn't show you sooner but we were going to wait and you came home late on graduation and it just never happened." We pull in to the hospital and everything is a blur until I wake up.
