[ S T A Y  W I T H  M E ]

❛ season one — episode five ❜
❛ boXed in ❜

          EVERYONE WAS PACING BACK AND FORTH waiting for those to return. My leg was shaking when a hand fell onto it stopping from the shake. I look up from my hands and see Andy already smiling at me. I return his smile with a small grin. His hand slides from my thigh into my hand, my eyes wander to his. Lauren interrupted us asking us to help with some clothes for the others. I backed away from Andy, not knowing how close we actually were until now. "Here," Lauren smiles plopping down a bunch of shirts and sweaters into my arms.

"Thanks," I mutter. I hear Lauren and Andy quietly arguing behind me as I was setting the clothes on the plain wooden table when I heard Andy's name called.

"Andy? Lauren? Abella?" a voice that sounded exactly like Reed's calls out, that's when I turned and looked at the limping man. We rush towards him.

"Dad," Andy sighs realizing who it was. Before I knew it instead of speed-walking we were running.

"Dad," Lauren gasps as Andy jumps into his arms.

"Hey. Hey. Hey," Reed sighs hugging all of us. I look over Reed's shoulder and see my mother in tears.

"Mama!" I cry running into her arms "don't let go."

"Never, mija. Never," my mom cries into my arms.

"You okay?" Reed voice echoes between the group. I let go of my mom and stand next to her as her arm lies around my shoulders.

"We were so worried," Lauren says.

"We thought you..." Andy stops not wanting to finish his answer. Reed grips onto his children's shoulders pulling them in for another hug. Caitlin begins crying happy tears as she sees her family reunited. My mother puts her free arm around Caitlin comforting her. We stayed like that for a moment before disbursing and heading down the stairs.

"It's not just the thing with dad. Sentinel Services shot Harry," Lauren sighs reaching the bottom of the stairs. Reed limped down with the help of his wife.

"These people are in bad shape. I mean, they're doing everything they can," Andy starts but is almost immediately cut off by a man's yelling.

"Hey! What the hell?" the long haired man exclaims stomping towards us "what do you think you're doing here?"

"Let's talk about this," Reed says calmly.

"We ain't got nothing to talk about!" the man pushes Reed to the wall.

"What's going on? Stop it!" Caitlin reaches out to help but the man only continues to punch Reed.

"Dad!" Andy exclaims.

"No, dad..." Lauren cries. I hold onto both the Strucker kids as I know as adults they will resolve it themselves.

"You nearly got me killed," the man holds Reed by the neck. However, Reed manages to get out of the grip and starts punching.

"Let go. Let go!" Suddenly the man grows invisible as Reed was about to throw another punch.

"Reed!" Caitlin exclaims as the kids called out to their dad. Andy was about to run to his father when Lauren and I stop him. Reed receives another punch to the stomach and that's when John decided to step in.

He grabs onto the air "That's enough!" John yells as the man becomes visible again. He's stopped by John's palm "What are you doing?"

"How about protecting us?" the man sighs then turns towards the gathered crowd "Just so y'all know, last time I saw this son of a bitch, he was working for Sentinel Services."

The crowd gasps throughout the room. Everyone begins to have their own conversation about Reed. My mother walks forward and faces the crowd "Everyone, just calm down," she announces.

"Calm down?" the man questions "This dude's job was locking up people like us."

"Just listen. My dad prosecuted mutants, okay? He did. When he found out about us, he stood up to Sentinel Services," Lauren fights for her father.

"Yeah, by wearing a tracker into my bar," the man argues.

"Hey, back off my dad," Andy yells at him.

"Andy," Reed stops Andy from causing any other destruction "I was doing what I had to do to get back to my family and friends. I realized I was wrong.."

"'And I'm sorry,' That-that's it, right?" the man scoffs interrupting Reed.

"Hey, just hear him out!" John shouts. A bold scream comes from the other side of the room. Everyone's attention goes to the screaming man. It was Harry, who had gotten shot in our mission.

"Okay, stop. There are injured people here. Why are we attacking each other?" Caitlin accuses.

"You go. You help them. Take Andy, Abella, and Lauren with you. I..." my mother coughs at his words as she gives him a look "we'll work this out."

Caitlin says something but is interrupted by the screeching scream from Harry. "Caitlin, I need you in here now," Clarice calls out. Reed and Caitlin continued to talk. I run off with Andy and try to help Clarice while we can. Footsteps followed behind us. As soon as we approached Harry, his pain becomes stronger.

"What happened?" Caitlin says as she begins tying her hair up. I copy her actions if we were going to help this man live everything should be out of my face.

"He was shot," Clarice answers holding onto his wound "I don't know, it won't stop bleeding."

"Hi. It's Harry, right?" Harry twitches as she continues "Harry, I need you to listen to me. I'm gonna take a look at your wound."

"It hurts..." Harry groans.

"I know. I need you to be strong for me," Caitlin says, pulling away from the gauze that protected his blood from pouring "I need clean gauze. Towels will work, too. And painkillers. Dilaudid, fentanyl, even codeine, anything you can find."

"Okay," Clarice runs off searching for the items. Andy, Lauren and I walk closer to the table that held the wounded man. My body felt heavy as it saw the blood. My eyes begin to blink quickly. Andy must have noticed because next thing I knew I was swept off my feet and was in his arms.

"You're okay, babe," Andy whispers before setting me on something. He laid gently on my back. It was warm and fuzzy.

"Here's some water," Andy smiles. I gulp down the water before jumping back up but Andy's hand meets my shoulder stopping myself from going any further.

"You need to rest," he states before pushing me down. My body automatically stumped back down to the floor which laid the blanket. He looked back up and saw people starting to stare at them.

"We're drawing a lot of attention," Andy says.

"Just ignore them," Lauren shrugs.

"Did you see the way they were looking at us? I think we should just get dad and Luna and go," Andy says yet his words didn't make sense.

"And go where?" I question weakly getting up from my seat.

"I don't know, someplace where invisible guys don't attack us," Andy scoffs.

"Andy, we need to get them to trust us," Lauren whispers.

"Kids, I need some help over here," Caitlin motions us over to the table.

"Help with him?" Andy spats.

"Yes, Andy, with him. Come on. Let's put that Scout first aid badge to work," Caitlin demands. Harry's panting becomes heavier as seconds pass.

"Come on, just keep your eyes open, okay?" Caitlin advises Harry. We all start getting to work with Harry. Lauren held onto the newly pasted gauze on his side as Andy and I helped with small things like trying to find more I.V. bags.

"Are there more I.V. bags?" Caitlin calls out.

"You mean, those water things, or the yellow pee-looking ones?" Andy asks as we walk to the shelves holding all the medical supplies. I scatter my hands around trying to find the bags. My body lifts itself and soon my toes were pointed towards the floor with my butt popping out.

"Could you be any more gross?" Lauren scoffs.

"You really want to ask me that?" Andy asks. I look back at him to see him staring at my ass. I quickly get out of the position and smack his head. Yet his smirk stood still on his face.

"Um, I think we're out of both," I say walking through the gate.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Andy asks.

"I'm not even sure more saline would help. We need actual blood. Okay, here," Caitlin says handing out sheets of fresh gauze to Lauren.

"Hey, I'm O negative. It's universal donor, right?" Andy proposes.

"Andy," Caitlin sighs.

"What, are you surprised I actually remember something from biology?" Andy adds.

"No," Caitlin says.

"I am," Lauren and I say as we gave him a look.

"I can do it," he states.

Caitlin sighs, which signals that she's giving in "Okay," she runs back into the room filled with supplies.

"Come here, put your sleeve up," Caitlin instructs "Abella, help me over here."

I rush to Caitlin who stood by the table "You remember how I taught you right?" she asks. I simply nod. She hands me the supplies and I take the tap and hand it over to Andy to tear a piece out to act as his band-aid. Caitlin hands me the needle she had gotten done as I helped And prep for the needle. She nods at me to do so. I take the lighter and light the needle.

"Ready?" I look at him.

"Yeah," he sighs. As I get closer to his vain my hands begin to shake.

"Hey," Andy grabs onto my hand and stares at me in the eyes "It's okay, you can do it."

"Okay," I wipe my tears that I didn't even realize fell "just take a deep breath, right?"

He smiles at me before taking his breath. I slowly insert the needle and like Caitlin said 'gravity will do the rest'.

Andy was still attached to the needle as Lauren stood in her place holding onto the gauze that paused the bleeding for a bit. Andy's body begins wobbling "Are you okay?" I ask.

"I'm fine," he smiles raising his arm so the blood could flow through. I swallowed the lump in my throat as the blood flowed. Blood and I do not go together. It brings back terrible memories of papa's death. I close my eyes for a second before someone's walking footsteps into the room echo through.

"Are you okay?" Andy's voice asks. I was about to answer when Harry suddenly begins to gasp for air.

"You need to hold still," Lauren says.

"What's wrong with him? What's he doing?" Andy frantically asks.

"We're running out of time. We're gonna have to remove the bullet, okay?" Caitlin says. She nods over towards someone and that's when my mother came running along. Everyone prepares for the procedure to occur by my mother.

"Can you take the bullet out?" Andy questions.

"Mom, do you even know how to?" I ask.

"Yes, Abella, I know how to but I'm not a surgeon," she says rolling her eyes at me. Typical mother of mine and why I should never question her skills in many fields.

"We can't wait any longer, Luna. We're just gonna have to take the chance," Caitlin says.

"So, do I just stay hooked up to him or...?" Andy trails off his questions.

"If you can," my mother says putting on some medical gloves.

"The bullet's lodged too deep," Caitlin explains to my mother.

"Okay, then we're going to have to make a mid-line incision," my mother states.

"Okay. Lauren, just keep pressure on that entry wound," Caitlin demands softly. My mother hovers the small knife over Harry's chest ready to cut.

"Ready?" my mother voice rings with uncertainty. She slowly lowers the knife down and slits down the mid-line of his chest. Blood flowed out as the knife passes by. I groan at the sight putting my head into Andy's chest for comfort. His free arm attaches to my waist as the procedure continues. The squishing of the blood and the hands attack my ear.

"Okay, there it is," my mother gasps. I take a quick peek and see my mother holding a bullet with the small tweezers.

"Got it," she sighs. I finally push my body off of Andy before Caitlin takes away the bloody bullet.

"Badass," Andy smiles.

"Okay," Caitlin sighs but then nothing went well after those few moments. Harry started breathing heavier than before. His blood begins to pour out of his mid-line, which made everyone in the room panic.

"Mom, do something!" I yell.

"Mom?" Lauren gasps "Mom, what's happening?"

"He's hemorrhaging," Caitlin panics "An artery must have—" 

"It's not stopping! It's..." Lauren interrupts her mother.

"I can't stop the blood!" my mother exclaims as she kept doing every possible thing. Though everyone was in a panic, my mind somehow wanders to Lauren's powers.

"Lauren, y-your powers!" I blurt out waving my hands around. Lauren sends me a confused look.

"Lauren, you can stop the artery from bleeding while my mom can stitch him up," I explain "Trust me."

"Okay. Where's the artery?" Lauren asks.

My mom expands the cut showing Lauren the artery "There. The bleeding's coming from that artery right there."

"Okay, stand back," Lauren orders everyone "I'm gonna try to get pressure on it."

Lauren made a small bubble appear and guided it into the body "I think... I think I got it. Can you sew him up?"

My mother quickly stitches him up "Just hurry!" Lauren exclaims.

"Okay. Hold it," my mother says confidently. She was on her last strand "Let me tighten it. Okay, there."

Lauren lets go and there Harry laid all stitched up yet covered in blood. Harry's breathing becomes lighter and on par with a regular heart. "Is he going to be okay?" Lauren asks.

"I think so," my mother and Caitlin look at each other with hopeful faces.

"We did it," Caitlin sighs.

"So cool," Andy blurts. Everyone shared sweet smiles around the table. I noticed a girl slowly starting to walk out of the medical room. I gave her a sweet smile.

"Dad's not going to believe this," Andy adds with that cute smile of his. We allowed Harry and the other refugees to rest. Lauren, Caitlin, and my mother went on to create our first dinner altogether since it all went down. Next thing I knew I was walking by the staircase when a body jumped in front of me. My first instinct was to punch them in the face.

"Ouch," a familiar voice groans.

"Andy! Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry," I utter helping him up. I noticed his bleeding lip before taking him into the piano room. I sat him on the stool before running back to get some supplies.

"Okay, I got all the supplies," I say out of breath before closing the door behind me.

"It's fine, Abella. I can feel it healing," he chuckles. I quickly place the patch of the clean cloth before he could speak any further "Son of a b—"

"Don't move!" I interrupt him. I continue to pat on the bleeding lip. I didn't notice how close we truly were until Andy's hand reached my hand and weighed it down with his hand onto his lap. We both sat there in silence before both of us began leaning in. Everything was going perfectly until Andy's arm laid on the keys which sent a loud thud through the room. It scared us both so much our heads bumped into each other. That's how close we were, just centimeters away from our first kiss.

"Sorry," we both apologized in unison before I got back to cleaning Andy up.

After a bit, Andy was clean as new. Lauren walked into the room "Dinner's ready," she huffs walking away. Andy and I walk away from our position on our way back to our beds where they set up for our dinner.

The Strucker kids and I sat down waiting for Reed to join us. I was playing around with my water as my head laid on Andy's shoulder. Suddenly someone walks in, Caitlin looks up and gasps causing everyone else in the room to turn to her viewing. There stood Reed with a happy face to see everyone all healthy and safe most importantly. "Do you want some dinner?" Caitlin asks.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do," Reed says walking towards his wife. He snags a kiss from her.

"Ugh," everyone groans from the sweet moment.

"Madam," Reed pulls out the chair next to my mother for his wife.

"All this looks great," Reed says.

"Yeah. If you told me three weeks ago I would be this happy to eat a rib-shaped barbecue pork patty, I would have said you were insane," Caitlin laughs which made everyone laugh alongside her.

"You know what? It's not bad," Reed spoke.

"Mm. It's terrible," my mother chuckles putting down her patty.

"This is the best terrible meal I have ever had," Caitlin grins.

"So, what now?" Andy asks suddenly "A-are we going to Mexico or whatever? I mean, I thought that was the plan. Was to leave the country. I heard Cancun's pretty cool."

"Well, I don't think we have to worry about any of it just yet. It's still not safe to travel," Caitlin explains.

"It's not just that. I've been talking to some of the people here, and they have questions about the Sentinel Services and what they're doing, and... I can help them with that," Reed notes.

"So, we're just... here," Lauren states.

"Right now, yeah. But you guys, your mother, Abella, and Luna... you saved lives today," Reed smiles which made the rest of the table smile "They could use us here. The most important thing is we are all together. Right?"

Everyone chuckles before going back to their disgusting meal like the happy family we once were. Now we stood as a strong family, with nothing standing in our way.

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[ A U T H O R ' S  N O T E ]
Another moment ruined by me! But don't you worry more moments will come. If you guys have any recommended books you would like me to do please comment them or pm me and I might definitely consider it! Please don't forget to vote.