PULSE

PART VII - THE SANDS

Tre found himself pacing back and forth, his heart racing. It had been hours of the same action.

"Please, can you please sit and wait" Elles mother says only to be silenced by just a look. If he never saw her again he wouldn't ... his thoughts are interrupted by the issue at hand. He'd finally given himself to a woman, risen to the occasion for the first time of his own free will. The first woman since his mother has left, his grandmother died and he was on his own.

It hadn't been long at all but its hard to remember life before Elle walked her pretty ass into his building with her entitled snooty attitude. Before he saw her dancing in his club like the life of the party, before he felt something when he saw her crying, or tucked her into bed when she was too drunk and her feet were too sore to do it all on her own. How he'd often left her with a deadpan only to smile when his back was turned at her spirit.

She'd found a way to burrow her way into the deepest parts of his heart. It couldn't be ignored. Even when he sat contemplating how much their relationship was worth with all the drama she found herself bringing into his life — when he finally found a way to escape the chaos.

She was a survivor.

They both were.

"Tre baby, you need to sit down, eat something - you haven't moved from here in twelve hours" his aunt whispers with her hand in the small of his back.

"Is he okay?" Tre whispers looking at the baby swaddled in his aunts arms. The infants eyes look at his, bright and blue and aware.

"He's fine Tre but you won't if you don't take a break, if anything happens we'll call you" she says forcing him to swallow. "She's not going to die"

"You don't know that" Tre grits looking in the direction of the operating room before he sighs heading to the kitchen and trying to eat something despite not having an appetite. Rico sits silently - they'd already fought and there's nothing more to say about it.

"I got him" Rico says taking the baby who hasn't done much besides eat and sleep. He puts his fingers in his mouth sucking on them. "If I don't take good care of you my sisters gonna kick my ass ... behind. Lets keep that slip between the two of us okay LJ?" Rico talks to the baby getting Tre's attention as he drinks some water, picking at the food infant of him.

"LJ?" Tre asks just above a mumble.

"Little Jesse" Rico says with a smile looking at the kid. "Even from beyond the grave that honorary nigga's pushing her out of her comfort zone." Rico comments. "Ain't no way Elle's gonna let anyone else raise you kid. You're set for life" Rico. Says like his sister is not attached to an EKG right now undergoing surgery after suffering a heart attack and going unconscious and getting a stray bullet.

Luca had shut the car door behind her as she went in to see Jesse's son. Nico was first to see his daughter go limp and keel over as Luca's driver tried to leave the lot. Then the shooting started - controlled on Nico's end and not so much on Luca's when it died down the child was fine but Elle wasn't. She had one in her side.

Tre's eyes shut as he stops the flow of those awful memories.

"She's waking up, doc says we can see her now, one at a time for now." Tre says and he doesn't thing twice before heading over.

"Sit down, you've never been a mother and you don't get to see her first" Nico says without energy himself. Three guys walk in with the familiar looking politician.

"I've killed already today and I will again if you don't leave right now" Nico snaps.

"Where is he, where is Luca?" Elle's stepdad asks. "He broke our agreement he was supposed to leave her alone and keep his wife in check"

"Look bruh, leave now. I'm sick of it" Tre barks with eyes that scream homicide. He doesn't say anything else heading into Elles room. She's beautiful, even still after all this. It takes everything in him to keep it together as life returns to her eyes. Her hand reaches for his.

"I love you" is his first words to her.

"I know" she rasps.

"Is the baby okay" she asks.

"Yeah, everyones taking turns with him. But you need to be okay."

"Doc said something about a heart attack and a shoot out" she recalls and Tre's lips are on hers as he rises his forehead on hers.

"I'm not giving up" she whispers given his hand a light squeeze.

"It shouldn't have been you" he swallows feeling responsible for not protecting her. He would never be able to live with the guilt of letting her go to the meet up if she didn't regain consciousness.

"Hows the kid?"

"Getting the best of the best" he swallows more worried about her.

"I'll be myself again soon, I love you" she says before slipping back to sleep from the pain medications.