The Connor's (Watty's 2018)

CON-necting the dots

FINAL SOTD: FIX YOU BY COLDPLAY (YOU MUST PLAY THIS SONG AS YOU READ THE BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER...AFTER THAT IT DOESN'T REALLY FIT AHA)

~

My vision was hazy.

My throat was dry.

My body ached.

I slumped against the body holding me and felt my head lull backwards.

As my eyes begin to shut, I see it.

Right there, above the high beams.

A broad figure stands, my saving grace.

~

Three days later

They say that after you lose someone, it's normal to cry.

That, it's even normal to, sometimes, not even shed a tear.

But, the day the hospital declared Elijah Reed dead, I found myself smiling. It was a feeling I could never, in a million years, describe but there I was, Andrea Margaret Bates, and I was smiling at the death of someones child.

"It's okay" I faintly heard a soft voice in my ear and I quickly looked up into Nate's gentle eyes, "you're safe now"

Despite my odd emotions, I looked down at my hands and realized that I was shaking. I clenched my jaw as the smell of antiseptic filled my nose and I sat back in the hospital bed.

"Apparently Stephen aimed the gun straight at his heart"

My eyebrows shot up as I attempted to use my hands to push my body into an upright position before shrieking in pain, "Crap"

Nate quickly jumped to my side as I cradled my recently stitched up arm that was still sporting black and blue bruises, "you have to be more careful"

"I remember" I whispered staring straight into Nate's eyes, "When the gun shot went off, I saw someone up above the highbeams"

Nate nodded and looked away, "Mr. Reed..he, um"

My heart broke as Nate's voice broke and he continued, "He told us the entire layout of the warehouse before we got in and instructed that, whenever the opportunity present itself, that Stephen get up there...He knew Elijah's plan the entire time"

"Why won't you look at me?" I grunted as Nate's big blue eyes wavered, "What is it?"

Nate's warm hand clasped around mine, "Andy, when Stephen pulled the trigger on the motion gun, Elijah pulled his own trigger"

My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to remember the night and, in an instant, my breathing seized, "Wait...no, that's not possible~"

"He hit Mark" Nate whispered, a single tear falling down his cheek, "He hasn't woken up the past three days"

"Where is he?!" I breathed, hastily wiping the tears I hadn't shed over Elijah, off of my face and looking anywhere but at Nate, "Where is Mark!"

Nate turned towards the door before offering me his hand, "Andy...they said he has a 30% chance of waking up"

" Are you sure you want to go?"

Instead of replying, I took his hand, allowing him to gently pull me off the hospital bed and clasping his hand in mine.

Despite my willingness to see Mark, I struggled to fight for breath and swallow correctly as a deep seated pain made itself present in my throat, "you bruised your hyoid bone when Elijah threw you to the ground...the doctor said the throat pain shouldn't last much longer"