King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Trip Ten Continued

A/N: King of Hearts will be ending shortly my friends, sad I know. But that means you get to find out about Alice and Mal soon too :D

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Staring at a gun, the brain has no time to really stop and think. People can spend their lives training to react to things, but when that moment comes, they'll still freeze up. This wasn't the first time West had ever seen a gun. This wasn't even the first time West had ever seen a gu pointed at someone he cared about. And this wasn't the time for West to freeze up. His eyes didn't travel up the barrel of the gun to see the hand that gripped it, the arm that shook with anger nor the face twisted in hatred and rage. West didn't see Joao take careful aim at Maddison's body, teeth gritting as he squeezed the trigger. West didn't take the time to collect all that extra information.

Not thinking at all, simply letting his body act, West grabbed Maddison and tried to drop them to the floor. The loud bark of the gun was mostly swallowed by the loud music and even though people screamed, West almost didn't hear it. At first he was freaking out and the Cubano was not ashamed to admit that. There was blood on his Angel and her eyes were closed. Panic rode him like a bucking stallion, his hands flying over the blood stained dress to see how bad the wound was. It wasn't until Maddison blinked her eyes open and stared at West in mounting horror that the Cubano started to realize that she hadn't been the one that was shot. Her hand reached up and pressed against his shoulder and that was the first time West actually felt the burning pain of the gunshot wound he'd taken to save Maddison. After that realization, awareness of the pain followed.

West sucked for air, wondering why he felt perfectly fine a moment ago but now felt like he couldn't breathe. As if someone were filling his chest with water. Maddison scrambled to sit up and pushed harder against his body and West found it slightly easier to breathe. His eyes darted around, looking for the face that went with the gun. Either Joao was circling around for another shot or he'd taken off. As it was the lights and louder music were combining so that people were almost unaware that this had gone down. It just didn't happen in Canada and everyone wasn't seeing hte evidence right in front of hteir faces.

"Get me up." West wheezed at his lover, knowing that moving around was not gonig to be on his list of favourite things to do while shot, but staying here was just asking to be shot again. Or watch while Maddison was executed. There were things West was willing to do for that woman, and keeping himself moving to protect her was definitely one of them. Thankfully his Angel seemed to read his mind, helping him climb to his feet and putting herself under his arm so she could help him get out of here.

If felt like swimming in shark infested waters with a slit wrist, West wished he could just catch his breath and look around, his instincts screaming at him that the attack wasn't over with yet. Joao had come out tonight for blood, and he wasn't gonig to leave until both Maddison and West were dead, the Cubano knew it. There was something wrong with Joao and the rich Portuguese was just mentally disturbed enoguh to believe that eliminating West and his lover would fix all the problems and give him the life he wanted. Delusional and sad but West didn't care. He cared about nothing besides the fact that Joao was in here, trying to hurt his Angel and there wasn't anything West could do to protect her.

Maddison got him out the side exit and West collapsed to his knees, gaping like a stranded fish as his lungs suddenly refused to cooperate. The strange ringing in his ears was drowning out the sounds of Maddison screaming his name and West just wished for a brief moment that he had been a stronger man so that he could protect her properly.

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Maddison was doing her best to not freak out as West slumped to his knees in the alley. He was too pale, her dress was saturated with his blood and his skin was beggining to feel clammy and cold. She knew this was bad, that any of these were not good signs and all together in her lover they were a catastrophy.

"Get on your feet!" Maddison screamed in West's ear, using her own panic to give her extra strength.

"Scream at him some more, I love seeing him weak." Joao called out from the mouth of the alley. Maddison had a moment to realize that Joao had to have run around the building to get here and his panting proved how out of shape he was, then she stopped caring as she saw the gun still in his hand. "That's right," Joao purred, voice terribly pleased sounding as he must have seen the fear on her face. "I have the gun, and you're the little whore who has to do as I say." Maddison felt a tear squeeze out of the corner of her eye as she stared at the man who'd shot her Cubano. "Come here." Joao demanded, gesturing with the pistol.

So Maddison kissed West on the cheek, suppressing a sob as she felt how weak his heart beat was, then stood up. Walking slowly away from her lover, she knew that Joao didn't intend for either of them to leave this alleyway alive. He had cruel plans in mind and she had only this one chance to try and save West the way he was determined to save everyone else. Limping slightly to give herself an excuse to go slowly, Maddison shuffled closer to Joao, seeing the triumph burn in his eyes.

Tears threatened to blind her and Maddison stopped fighting them, snuffling as her nose started to run. Joao just seemed to love seeing her so emotionally distraught and all his attention was on her as she stumbled the distance between them.

"Stay away from her." West groaned out, seeming to come to a little despite the pain.

Joao smirked, looking passed Maddison to taunt her lover. "Do I need to shoot you again so soon?" he asked, sounding pleased at the prospect.

Seeing a one time chance, Maddison gulped and threw her entire 100 pound body weight into Joao, hands tearing at the gun. She shredded the skin of his hand with her fingernails, screaming in his hear in a loud bellow and when that didn't work, dug one of her thumbs into his eye. This man had killed Abuela. This man had tried to kill West. This man had tried to kill her. This man deserved no mercy. But Maddison wasn't a killer.

Joao screamed in pain and back handed Maddsion away, forgetting the gun he dropped and cluching at his face. Joao stumlbed to the side, unable to see through tears in one eye, the amount of blood and clear fluid from the other saying louder than words that he would never see from the other eye again. Growling in rage and with spittle drooling from his mouth due to the pain, Joao walked back over to Maddsion and kicked her hard in the stomach flipping the petite woman over. He dropped to his knees next to her and started to manually strangle her while she weakly struggled.

Maddison tried to struggle, she really did. But something in her face had cracked when he hit her and it was hard to concentrate passed the fuzziness inside her head trying to swallow her under. When his hands squeezed around her neck, she tried to push him away. Maddison felt her vision gray out and then expected to feel nothing at all. Instead something hot and sticky splattered across her face and suddenly she could choke in air again. Coughing and feeling someone try to check her for injury, Maddison's eyes flew open to realize that West had pulled himself in a crawl up to her. Despite the pain he must have been in, he'd crawled to her and grabbed Joao's gun, blowing the Dog's head off before she was strangled.

"I've got you." West huddled around his Angel, careless that he was bleeding on her and a short step away from death himself. But with the sounds of police sirens creeping closer, he knew he'd hold on, if only so he could continue protecting her.