"Excuse me, I just need to..." The nurse inched toward her, politely trying to clear her from the area. Sid was sure that she had probably asked her to move multiple times but her mind was in another world.

"I'm sorry." She scooted over to the side and stood out of the way without taking her eyes off of him. They had just gotten Phil into a room and allowed her up to see him. Stitches held the split skin on his chin together. Bulbous purple flesh sealed his eye shut. A swollen lip kept his mouth from closing naturally. Beneath the white sheets, more stitches closed the wound where the doctors performed surgery to repair his spleen.

In the waiting room, she thought that they would come out any minute and tell her that they'd lost him. She steeled herself for that. Trying for once to get ahead of the loss before it sneak-attacked her. But instead, they let her know that he had a long recovery ahead of him but he would make it back to himself. She let relief settle over her and just as it did she felt her fear take a back seat and her anger ramp up.

The nurse adjusted Phil's IV before leaving and Sid crept back over to his side. With all the painkillers she was pretty sure he wouldn't be awake and coherent for a while but she wanted him to know she was there. She laced her fingers through his and pulled a chair close to the side of his bed. She rested her head on his hand a breathed in the scent of him. Under all the sterile scents she still found his. Even with her eyes closed the injuries to him danced behind her eyelids. It was unreal to think that his own flesh and blood did this to him. The older brother who was supposed to be like a father to him had left him on a sidewalk beaten within an inch of his life. He did this to Phil. The last person on earth who deserved something like this.

She hated Kru on an entirely new level. Fuel had been added to the simmering anger of her father's death and was now an inferno. She had to get rid of him. This one person was so destructive and damaging. It wouldn't change her circumstance, what happened to her and her family could not be undone but him being dead would stop others from being hurt. Killing him would wipe out the ability for him to decimate other lives.

She would find him and tear him away from this earth the same way he'd done to so many. Sid made up her mind. She wiped the tears from her eyes and kissed Phil's hand before she got up. Her foot had barely crossed the threshold into the bright hallway when she heard a groan from inside the room.

She turned around quickly unsure that she heard correctly. When she turned she saw Phil, slowing moving his hand to his throat and groaning. Sid moved to his side in a flash. His eyes were still closed.

"Phil?" She whispered. His one eye that was able to, popped open quickly. In the next moment, tears were rolling down the side of his face soaking the pillow. Sid panicked.

"Are you hurting? I can get a nurse. I'll get a nurse now." Sid went to step away but Phil grabbed onto her hand. She stopped and watched him anxiously. Wanting to do something to take his pain away but not knowing what. Phil struggled to swallow and speak over his swollen lip but his voice came through weak and cracked.

"He...hurt...you." He squeezed her hand with all the strength he could muster. Sid came closer and met his eyes.

"No, he didn't hurt me. I'm okay."

"I thought...he hurt you. I didn't know..." The tears kept coming as he continued to squeeze Sid's hand and pull her closer like he wanted to feel her and make sure she was real. That she was there.

It hadn't occurred to Sid that while she was worried to death about him he was in the same purgatory. Not knowing whether Kru was crazy enough to harm her as well. Tears poured down on Phil from Sid's eyes. Something was overwhelming about her imagining him bloodied, broken, and bruised and held hostage but worrying more about her and whether she was safe. Sid buried her head in the covers. She felt Phil's hand on her chin, lifting her face to his. It pained her to look at him but she met his eyes. She didn't know what to say. What was appropriate? What would fix them in their brokenness right now? She swallowed hard and held his gaze before she spoke.

"I'm going to kill him."

Phil's tense body relaxed into the bed. "He won't let you get close enough to kill him," he whispered before devolving into a coughing fit that left him wincing. Sid got up to get a nurse or someone to help but Phil was still clenched onto her hand, pulling her close to him. She thought back to meeting Kru is his spot behind the bodega and how many people he had surrounding him at all times. How she tried to look for him for months after her father died but never even caught a glimpse of him. Phil was right. There was no way she would be able to just walk up to him and put a bullet in his head.

But he can't keep doing this. Sid wanted to say more. Wanted to express the fury and rage she was experiencing but now was not the time to get into a debate with Phil. He needed to focus on healing and getting back to...wherever. Sid didn't know where he would be able to go but she knew that wherever it was she wanted it to be with her. The realization startled her. Tears sprang back into her eyes again. It was all too many emotions flooding her at once after feeling nothing for so long.

"I want you safe. Please." Phil asked her. She nodded and tried to push thoughts of murder from her mind.

"I will be." She felt his hold on her hand ease slightly but he didn't let her go. "You need to rest."

"I can't." He said writhing a bit.

"You don't need to worry about me. I can handle myself. If you know what I've been through..."

"Nah." Phil groaned. "My ass is numb." Sid almost didn't recognize the chuckle that escaped her lips. She swiped at her tear-filled eyes with the back of her hand and chuckled some more. Her dark thoughts were pushed back for a moment.

"Here, turn on your side." Sid wrapped her arms firmly around his upper body and helped him turn onto the side without stitches in his abdomen. He sighed with relief and Sid could see his eyelids start to flutter as he fought off sleep. Sid remained quiet at his bedside, knowing that he needed his rest but not wanting to leave his side. After she heard his breathing become deeper she settled back into the chair, allowing her eyes to close for the first time in over twenty-four hours. Her brain was just entering that fuzzy space where reality drops away to nothingness when she heard him speak.

"He wouldn't even get his hands dirty."

"Huh?" Sid sat up and leaned closer. His grip tightened on her hand even though his eyes remained closed.

"My brother. He didn't hit me. Not once. Had other people do all the work while he watched." Sid didn't know what to say so she remained silent. It seemed like he needed to say it. Get it out. "He doesn't care. He just lets other people do his dirty work. Everyone. We're all pawns to him. He'll take everything he can from us. All for money and power." His grip remained strong and Sid let him hold onto her. She could only imagine the anger and hurt he must be experiencing right now. Tortured by his own brothers henchman for days. Fighting the urge to take him fully into her arms was hard but she remained solid for him. A quiet understanding shifting between them. They stayed that way until she felt his grip loosening as he fully surrendered to sleep this time.

Sid tried to settle back into the chair and find that sacred space of rest again but it wouldn't come to her. She was disturbed by what Phil told her. It loosened something in her. Kru only cared about power and money. He used other people's lives to make his dream of domination come true. She was certain that her father wasn't the first and from herself, to Phil laying beaten in a hospital bed she knew that he wasn't the last. She thought of Kru like a serpent whose head had to be cut off in order to kill him. But she would never be able to get close enough to do that. But unlike a serpent Kru had something that he valued just as much as his life. If she couldn't get to him physically then she would get to him another way.

She reluctantly unfurled her hand from Phil's and leaned down to plant a kiss on his forehead before slipping out of his room. As soon as she slipped through the sliding glass doors of the hospital she pulled her phone out and dialed. Chante's voice spilled through her a phone a minute later.

"Did you get him? You got Phil?"

"Yeah, but he was close to death. Kru just dumped in the middle of the fucking street like garbage. He's in the hospital now."

"Fuck....fuck!" Chante's voice was shaking.

"He's a monster. Fucking evil. I'm not going to let him get away with this."

"Sid, just—"

"Don't tell me to fucking leave it alone. Everyone has left it alone for years! Who's going to be next? You? One of your kids? AJ? I'm not leaving it alone. I won't. I just need your help. I need you to do one thing for me."

"I can't. If he finds out--"

"He won't. I'll leave you out of this, but I need your help. Please." The pause was so long on the other end of the phone that Sid was afraid she'd lost her. Just before she was about to say something Chante spoke.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to make some calls."