Soon after Zac left, there was a soft double knock on the door. "Come in" Fatima said, already knowing who it was.
"Hey mommmmy" Danni cheerfully sung, prancing into the room. Fatima rolled her eyes at her friend, watching her sit a gift bag on the foot of her bed. "Oh! Here..hurry up and eat these" Danni went into her purse, lifting a small brown McDonald's bag up and out to hand to Fatima. "I think one of them girls could smell them in my bag"
"Yeah, that or what you keep in your wallet" Fatima laughed, rubbing hand sanitizer into her hands before blessing her hot, fresh fries and digging in. "Ooo Danni, these are perfect! Thank you soo much"
"Mhm, spoiled ass" Danni laughed, taking the seat by her bed side "Look what I got cookie" Fatima shook her head as she sipped her water. "Whatever it is, it's staying at your house. Her closet is already overflowing, she's not even gonna be able to fit most of that stuff in a few months" Danni brushed her off, going through the bag of outfits and because she knew her friend, there was an optional head accessory for each one.
Just then, Fatima's phone began to rang. She looked at the screen, remembering Zac hadn't been back to the room when she saw his name.
"Hello?" she answered , slightly unamused. Soon, her mother and father walked in, greeting Danni and loving on Fatima and her belly. "Before you start, I walked to the jeep to call ma. We don't know if Tierra still works here and I rather not take my chances" Fatima smiled, nodding her head like he could see her "Smart man. I could have her touched from this bed"
"Baby chill" Zac chuckled, "Mom and dad are pulling in now. You still doing good? Has there been any change since I left?" she lightly sighed, shaking her head "Nope, it's almost 11:30 so I'm sure somebody will be in the check me again soon" she rolled her eyes thinking about how uncomfortable it was before.
"Yeah, I'm sure" Zac fell silent for a minute before she heard the engine start in the background. "You still need those fries?" he asked already backing out of the parking space. Fatima smiled, pretending to think about her answer before she laughed a little "You don't have to babe..Danni brought me some. Get you some breakfast though, you need to eat"
"I will babe but you know I'm not eating hospital food. It reminds me of a jail"he said seriously making Fatima laugh "Zac please, just because they don't have wings doesn't mean it's jail food"
"Whatever cause what the dad's supposed to eat? Nah, babe. Theres a Waffle House a few miles down. If anyone wants anything text me" he said, pulling to the red light at the end of the intersection. "Okay babe..but stay on the phone with me. I wanna hear your voice"
"Here she go" Danni said shaking her head, not looking up from her phone making Fatima's parents laugh.
Zac chuckled a little to himself, "Oh really?" he asked, switching to his tone"What you want me to say to you?"
"Ew, I don't like that one. You sound like a cheap phone sex operator" Fatima laughed, ruining the moment before it started. Zac smacked his lips, passing through another light as it turned green. Zac briefly looked in his rear view, remembering he was on a different side of town than he was used to. He had a bad feeling rush him out of nowhere. He slowed down a little, his mind set on getting food and making his way back to his girls.
"Damn, I don't remember the waffle house being this far out last time we were up here" Zac said, making Fatima grow concerned. "It's okay to use the gps, you're good with numbers, not directions"
"Yeah, yeah" Zac chuckled but agreed. He mounted his phone to the dashboard before starting a Facetime call. Fatima answered it immediately, smiling from ear to ear. Realizing he hadn't seen any other cars on the road for a while, he decided to take the next street to turn around so he wouldn't be heading over the bridge into the next town.
"What the-YO!?" Zac yelled suddenly, looking down at his feet then back to the road.
"What?! Babe, what is it!?" Fatima frantically yelled, grabbing her belly as she sat up in the bed. "What's going on Zac?" Fatima asked, searching the screen for some kind of sign. Zac was silent, lightly stomping his foot repeatedly. He knew if he told her his brakes were failing while he crossed this bridge, she'd lose it.
"Zachary! Tell me what's going on!!" she yelled, pulling him away from his thoughts. Before Zac was able to regain focus on her, the slight on a black suv speeding towards him from behind made his heart drop. It seemed to be black on black, he couldn't see anything through his rear view or side mirrors as he steered his speeding jeep.
"Zac, you're scaring me" Fatima said drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Her face tightened as a wave of pain shot up from her lower back. "Ahh" she gritted, still holding onto the phone "Zac, baby..." she panted "What's going..uhh" she groaned as another pain lay heavy on her.
"Fatima, listen" Zac said steering with his knees as he reached across to the passenger seat to grab his gun. "Focus on cookie, I'll be there soon" he tried, being sure to as believable as possible.
"What?! Zac..what's going on..uhh shit!" Fatima cursed, throwing her head back on the pillows. She broke out into an uncontrollable sweat as the heart rate machines began to beep. Zac looked at the screen, his heart breaking at the pain on Fatima's face as he braced himself for the impact of the suv. "AYE! What's going on?!" he yelled, tears already falling from his eyes.
Danni grabbed the phone from Fatima's hand as her mother called for the nurse.
"Zac where are you!? Fatima is in pain..I don't know what going on!"
Zac dropped his head, heading her words but quickly looked back as he tried getting further away from the suv on his tail.
"Danni please!" he sobbed "Please tell her and cookie I love them okay?!"
Danni faced twisted up as Fatima cried out in pain behind her. She moved to the side as nurses finally came rushing in. "What?! Zac, what the fuck are you talking about??"
Before Zac had the chance to answer, the sound of two large vehicles colliding made her gasp and grab her chest. She covered her mouth as she watched Zac's body and random items be tossed around the inside of the jeep. The sound of the call ending and screen going black in her hand caught her off guard "Oh my God" she whispered as tears fell from her eyes. She turned around to see Fatima, crying and screaming as her mother and the nurses tried calming her enough to check on her and the baby. "We need everybody who isn't the patients mother or father of the child out of here!" one of the ladies hollered.
"Come on Danni" Mr Barron sniffed. His spirit was weighed down with fear and confusion as he ushered them out of the room.
____________
Preston stepped off the elevator coming face to face with Danni and Fatima's father.
"What's going on?" he immediately asked as Danni came running into his arms "Hey Mr B" he nodded toward him. He was even more concerned seeing the tears in his eyes
"Danni, sweetheart" he hugged her before pulling her back to look at her face "What's going on? How's Fatima? Is the baby okay?" She said nothing, still crying. "Danni, talk to me"
"I don't know what's going on in that room. She was fine, then she started saying Zac was scaring her or something cause they were on facetime. Out of nowhere, she started crying out. The machines started going crazy and I took the phone cause now Zac is yelling" she shook her head "He looked scared babe, like he was in trouble" she began to cry remembering the panic in his voice
"We gotta find him! I think somebody was trying to kill him! They hit him from behind, they ran into him hard!" Danni hollered, tears pouring down her face.
Preston looked on confused and hurt as Danni cried into his chest again. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and called both Zac's phones. He cursed when neither of them rang. He hung up, dialing Cameron next.
"What's up? You at the hospital yet? I texted Zac but he prob-"
"Aye Cam" Preston interrupted "You need to get here bro. Now"
