I stared at Brian as he stood up, "you have something to tell me?"
He nodded, seriousness written all over his face as he looked at the others who all nodded and flocked to the living room, leaving Jimmy and I alone.
"Should I be nervous..?" I looked up at him as he stood us both up, wrapping my hand in his and bringing it up to his lips to kiss it softly.
"Of course not, but it will change a few things.." he shifted uncomfortably and pulled me out to the living room where we sat in the love seat that was facing everyone.
I curled my legs underneath me and looked at everyone slowly, not sure what to expect from them.
Brian and Zacky both had an acoustic guitar in their hand while Johnny had an acoustic bass guitar in his; both Jimmy and Arin held a pair of drums sticks but only Arin had a pad that looked old and beaten. I looked at them, not comprehending anything until Zacky started playing and Matt started to sing. My eyes widened as everyone else began to play along, the music flowing from them with an ease I wish I had.
Once they finished Jimmy looked down at me as I glanced up at him.
"Okay... that was great, you guys could go far with that kind of talent. Who's song was that anyways?" My smile was polite, my tone laced with confusion.
"Mercy..." Jimmy started but looked over to Matt and I followed his gaze.
"Mercy, that's our song. We have gone far. We're still going; we're rock stars Mercy, huge ones." His voice was soft as he informed me of their double life.
"No you guys are cops..." it hadn't dawned on me yet, that they could do both.
"Here." Jimmy handed me his phone and pulled up a video of, believe it or not, them in a music video, performing, and looking very much like the rock star standards.
I blinked and pushed Jimmy's phone back to him, taking it all in. That would explain the tattoo's, the perfection each and every one of them held. It all added up. Except for one thing.
"How did you know about me... about my uncle?" I searched each of their faces, saving Jimmy's for last.
"We knew that the Sheriff was hiding something. We had been following him in shifts for a few days and when he continuously went there at night, we knew something was up. We struck yesterday, knowing that it was our chance." Jimmy murmured softly, twirling a drum stick in his left hand.
I nodded, not really knowing what else to do. "Okay. So you are all rock stars. Got it."
"And we have a tour to finish establishing, but in order for us to finish it, we either bring our team here or we bring you to our homes." Matt sat back, looking at me. "We have to take you to our homes and you will be going on tour with us. You'll be safe, we've got security and we'll always be around you. We can't cancel this close to it," his voice was soft , not leaving room for an argument. The decision was already made and there was nothing I could do about it.
"W-where are we going then?" I tightened my hands into fists, becoming frustrated with myself.
"California, Southern California."
I nodded and stood up, "I need a few..." before anyone could say anything I quickly ran upstairs and into my room.
Sitting on my bed criss-cross I played with my dress, cocking my head to the side and thinking of the song they had played a few minutes before.
"Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost, it's empty and cold without you here, too many people to ache over..." I softly sing the beginning of the song, still able to hear Matt's voice singing, closing my eyes I continue on slightly louder. "I see my vision burn, I feel my memories fade with time, but I'm too young to worry, these streets we travel on will undergo our same long past. "
I didn't hear the door open so when I saw Matt standing at the edge of the bed with a small smile on his face I jumped and stopped my singing.
"Don't stop! That- that was just-" I cut in the middle of his sentence.
"Horrible? Making your ears bleed? I know!" My voice was as sharp as a razor and I knew it as soon as I saw him flinch slightly, immediately feeling bad and apologizing softly. "I'm sorry Matt... I blame the pregnancy..." his smile was understanding as he nodded.
"We'll be leaving soon, if you want to take a shower now is your chance before Brian steals it. He'll be in there for hours," his grin was contagious and I nodded, getting up to stand in front of him.
"What's the name of that song?"
"Seize the Day," his voice was soft as he looked down at me, still smiling softly.
I nodded and smiled up at him, "I like it... a lot." I turned and headed out of the room, spotting Brian as he was walking towards the bathroom from the other side of the hallway.
We both stopped and looked at each other, his smile slowly spreading across his face as he took a closer step towards the open bathroom.
"Brian. Let the girl shower, she deserves it I think." Matt's voice behind me ignited a slow flame in me as he distracted Brian momentarily, just long enough for me to start to sprint towards the bathroom door.
Brian actually growled and raced to the door as soon as he realized what was happening. "ZACK I NEED REINFORCEMENT!!" He bellowed as we reached the bathroom at the same time, trying to push each other out of the way.
Zacky appeared and grinned as he tried to pull me away but Johnny came by and pulled Zacky away, pinning him to the ground and struggling to keep him there all the while I continued to try and push Brian away from the door, beginning to sweat and tire quickly. He saw that and grinned as he put more force into his shoving.
Matt came from behind me just as Brian won the shoving contest and I stumbled away, light headed and tired, making Matt wrap his arms around me to keep me from falling. "You okay Mercy?"
I nodded and tried to pull away but found myself entirely too tired to move. "Fuck it, take the bathroom Brian..." I grumbled and closed my eyes, letting Matt pick me up as Jimmy appeared at the end of the hallway with Arin behind him.
"What's going on?" Jimmy demanded as he stalked up the hallway and reaching for me as Matt turned. I could see that he didn't like that Matt was holding me so closely or tightly as he held out his arms and looking at Matt at the same time.
Matt passed me over quickly, making sure Jimmy had me before he moved away.
Jimmy walked to my room swiftly, laying me down after kicking the door shut. "What's wrong?"
I sighed and looked up at him, "I just got tired. We were all playing, Brian and I were fighting over the bathroom. I want a shower before we head out... I want to get the feeling of HIM off of me and I know that Brian will be in there forever."
He snorts and nods, "fair enough. I've got a shower connected to my room, you can use that one."
I placed my hand on his briefly before he helped me up and we slowly walked through the door that connects our rooms, "here.." he handed me a towel and started the shower up for me. "Call for me if you need me." He smiled slightly and kissed my forehead before leaving the bathroom and closing the door behind him.
I quickly took my dress off and let my underwear and bra follow, stepping into the hot water and yelping. Holy fuck its hot!
"Ow-ow, ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" I cringed away from the too hot water and glared at the handle, I was too far away from it and I didn't want to risk getting blisters.
I wrapped my arms around my stomach, noticing the slight bump and looking down at it, momentarily distracted. If I could already tell that I was gaining weight then I was farther along than I thought...must be at least fifteen weeks pregnant now.
I didn't realize that I was leaning towards the streaming water and yelped again as it clashed with my skin just as a searing pain tore through my body. I groaned, doubling over and gasping for a breath as more pain lanced through my body.
"J-Jimmy!" I gasped out, tears springing to my eyes as the pain intensified and blood began to dribble from me.
As the blood began to thicken and quicken horror spread through me in a blink of an eye.
"JIMMY!!" I sobbed and screeched, trying to climb way out of the shower but finding that if I moved the more the pain intensified. "JIMMY!!" I screamed out again, crying harder and and clutching at my stomach. "No.. please don't!" I begged the baby that I knew would NEVER hear me, would never know love.
The door crashed open and instead of seeing Jimmy I see Matt, pale and out of breath. "Mercy, what's wrong? What is it?!" His voice was rough with fear and out of breath, his eyes wide as he assessed my broken and bloody form.
"Help me!! The- the baby- I-I-" I groaned again, sobbing as blood continued to leak from me.
Matt quickly picked me up, risking the hot water that was streaming from the shower head, turning off the water and quickly running through Jimmy's room after wrapping a towel around me.
"Guys! Arin, Brian! Get the truck!!" Matt yelled as he trampled down the stairs;
Brian poked his head around the corner and flinched as I screamed from the pain, "what's-" Matt interrupted him, "call Jimmy, tell him to meet us at the hospital! We need to get her out of here!"
I sobbed loudly into Matt's neck, "make it stop- please-" his arms tightened around me and he quickly got into the truck next to Brian.
Arin glanced at me before pulling away from the house quickly and driving down the road, easily pushing the truck to eighty miles-per-hour. Matt's arms held me close and I shivered, still sobbing into his neck, begging him to make it stop.
Matt was out of the truck before it came to a full stop, yelling for nurses as he pushed the doors open with his foot. "I need help!"
Nurses flocked him immediately with a gurney and he laid me down. "Matt- don't leave me!" I was frantic with fear as they started to pull the gurney away, sobbing and clutching his hands.
"Miss, let go now!" A male doctor came up and started to pry my hands from Matt's, motioning to a nurse and stepping back as she stepped up and stabbed a syringe into my arm.
I was lost in the blackness as soon as she pulled away, seeing Matt's angry face as he looked down at me mumbling something I couldn't understand.
I heard Matt's voice before I could open my eyes; it was low and gravelly, close to the bed I was in. I forced my eyes open and looked at the white ceiling, blinking as it burned my sleepy eyes.
"M-Matt?" I looked over at him, afraid to hear the finality of what happened.
He sat forward, his eyes sad as he ran his thumb over my cheek lightly. "I'm sorry Mercy..." my eyes widened and immediately filled with tears. "Oh no.. hey no don't cry.. please don't cry." His voice broke as a few tears escaped my eyes.
I turned over, not wanting him to see my moment of weakness. "It's for the best anyways... I wouldn't be a good mother..." my voice was soft, full of pain and wavering. "...Better off without me..." I closed my eyes and sobbed silently, my body shaking hard.
"Don't say that... you would have been an amazing mother, Mercy. You wouldn't be going through it alone either... I would have helped you if you would let me and I'm fairly sure Jimmy would have as well." I rolled over to face him, "it's going to be okay Mercy, it hurts I know, but I know that you can deal with this. You are strong, SO strong, Mercy."
Reaching for him I sobbed even harder, not caring that I was a mess in front of someone as beautiful as him, I just wanted to be held. He quickly climbed in next to me and cradled the back of my head as I pressed my face into his chest crying harder. He held me until my sobs quieted and the tears eventually stopped falling; as he sang quietly I began to doze, getting lost in the smoothness of his voice.
"Where's Jimmy?" I mumbled into his chest, half awake.
"He wen't to talk to the security team for the tour, he wanted me to stay here with you in case anything happened. " His hand smoothed my hair away from my face as I sleepily looked at him, vision blurry.
"Thank you for being here..." I mumbled, my voice trailing off as I fell asleep quickly.
Jimmy still wasn't here when I woke up again, but instead of seeing Matt in the room I saw an older man, obviously my doctor but I couldn't help but watch him in fear as he smiled at me and then looked down at the clipboard and folder that he held open in his hands.
"Miss Rayne, its nice to see that you're awake! I just wanted to go over a few things with you and then do some tests before I determined if you are ready to be let out and to go on tour with the boys." His enthusiasm was hard to understand, it was like he was trying to push it towards me, make me happy but I didn't want to be happy. I was allowed to be pissed and upset at the world and everything for my baby being taken from me. "Miss Rayne, I'm sorry to tell you that you lost the baby and because of that you may not be able to ever have kids. We can't run tests on you since you are so young but I would suggest that you give your body time to atone for the loss of, I guess you could say loss of itself. Can you tell me how far along you were?"
I turned my head from him, hating him automatically; "no, I don't know... I wasn't exactly planning a pregnancy."
He laughed, "not everyone does plan it, but having unprotected sex and not being on birth control doesn't help. If you didn't want kids, then why do it?"
I paled as his words struck me like a knife, I wanted him out of this room.
"There are risks when you have unprotected sex Miss Rayne, you should know this. Condoms, birth control, they work ninety-five percent of the time."
"Get out!" I hissed, hating him more and more.
He took a step towards me and grabbed a syringe and an alcohol swab. "I've been paid a lot of money Miss Rayne by your guardian to make sure that if you get lost, he can always find you. He's also paid me to make sure that you will never be able to have kids as you are a severe drug addict."
My eyes widened and I struggled into a sitting position. "No!! Get out! Help!! Matt! Someone!!"
I screamed, trying to get out of the bed and into the hallway but failing as the weakness in my body was too consuming.
Matt came in, glaring at the doctor. "I think you should leave." His voice was flat and cold, deadly. Chills ran up my body and I glared at the doctor as he sputtered indignantly. "I want her discharged right now, no questions asked. No hesitation. No fight. Is that understood?"
The doctor nodded frantically and threw the needle and alcohol swab into the bio-hazard trash can and ran out of the room, shouting for a nurse to start the discharge paperwork.
Matt came and sat in his chair, smiling at me. "Sorry about that... I had to step out and see how things were going with organizing the last bit of the tour. Did he do anything, say anything?"
"Just that he was being paid by my uncle to make sure I'd never get pregnant again since I was a severe drug addict." My tone was harsh, cold and somewhat frightening to myself. "He didn't get a chance to give me the chip and whatever else." I looked at him with wide eyes, "thank you for coming to my rescue again Matt... you're far too good to me."
His smile was dazzling as he kissed my forehead, looking into my eyes. "I'll always come to your rescue Mercy."
A nurse came in and handed me the discharge papers and smiled at me, "you are a free woman Miss Rayne, I'm terribly sorry about your loss and if it's okay, I would like to pray for you." Her words shocked me, all I could do was nod and thank her weakly before she smiled one last time and walked out, not even glancing at the gorgeous man in the room.
"Ready to go, Mercy?" I nodded and let him help me into a wheelchair, taking a whiff of his manly and Matt scent.
I saw the doctor as Matt rolled me out, on the phone and looking chastised. I waved, knowing exactly who he was talking to and grinned as I saw his adam's apple bob as he gulped nervously, sweating profusely and flinching, holding his phone away from his ear.
Reporters were in the main lobby as we came out, as soon as they saw Matt, they flocked around us demanding answers; were we together; who was the mystery girl and why was she in the hospital; Brian popped up with about five security guards and they hauled the reporters back as Brian smiled kindly at me.
"Hey there Mercy, how ya feeling?"
"Like shit; can we get out of here please?"
He nodded and signaled to the security guards and we all continued forward, the guards keeping all the reporters at bay. When we got to the truck Matt lifted me up easily and set me in the passenger seat.
"I can sit in the back, really. Let Brian sit up here."
Matt and Brian both shook their heads as they both got in, "no Mercy, you're the lady, you get the front seat no matter what."
Brian's voice was soft and polite, I could hear a smile in it.
"Where are we going now?" I asked, looking over at Matt as he took a different route than what I had assumed.
We're going to our studio, everyone is there and I want you to meet the rest of the security teams that will be watching over us."
"Us? Us who?"
"Well all of us really; I need a few, Jimmy needs a few, Matt needs a few, Zacky, Arin, Johnny. It's mandatory for you to have at least five though. That's what everyone thought would be best, plus one of us will always be with you so our guards will add up to eight."
"I don't need that many. I can take care of myself."
Matt gave me a hard look and I dropped the subject, "let's not talk about this Mercy, for right now. Are you hungry, thirsty, tired?"
"Tired is all."
"Then sleep more," Brian plugged in his phone and a smooth song game on, a beautiful piano part and Matt's voice to accompany it. Immediately I began to sleep once again.
