Brallie Metropolis AU | In This Together

Chapter 70 | Fictitious Sequences

"Callie, what happened? Is something wrong with Em or Colleen?" Brandon asked worriedly through his heavy pants in the elevator, the only chance he had to ask questions because Callie sprinted back home from Juilliard. He was running behind her, yelling to call a cab and wondering why she was running too.

"Just stop talking, Brandon!" She shouted in anger while she paced around the small space, even though her legs trembling from her marathon, too weak to run up multiple flights of stairs.

"Callie, what the hell is going on?" He placed his hands on her shoulders, making her stand in front of him and look him in the eye. She didn't answer, she just stood there staring at him, which is what he wanted to happen, sort of. Her eyes were screaming in horror, but the rest of her face creasing in rage. Her breaths were flooding hard out of her nose when the elevator binged and the doors opened.

She rushed out and yanked the apartment door open to see Ruby swaying Colleen, who was crying, in her arms in the middle of the living room. Callie ran over to her and opened her mouth to demand the details of their vague phone call, but nothing was coming out. Her throat was dry from fear.

"Ruby, what's wrong? Can somebody please tell me what is going on!" He yelled in frustration, noticing Ruby's horrified look in her eyes.

"Uh-um, Colleen...woke up and I was changing her and she rolled off the table." Her words were rugged and shallow.

"What? What do you mean? Wh- How?" Brandon stuttered.

"She...just ro-rolled off the table," she slurred. Callie froze, just staring at Colleen like her life depended on it, hearing her heart break as the baby's ear-piercing cry subsided into a giggles. Strange in the eyes of well, everyone. She could tell Brandon was about to ask even more questions. "She wasn't crying at all, until I picked her up from the floor."

"Wait-I don't understand how this happened? Were you watching her?" Callie choked trying to hold back tears. Ruby was frantic, trying to fill the holes in their brains.

"Of course I was. I-" Ruby stopped speaking abruptly after Callie stepped closer to her to take Colleen from her. Callie faintly smelled the scent of alcohol and her heart burst out of her chest.

"Are you drunk?" She was flabbergasted. This had to be a dream.

"No!" She lied, trying to cover up the tracks. "Of course not!"

"Uh- where's Em?" He wondered, completely baffled by the woman's choices.

"Still sleeping." The look of guilt flooded her eyes. "Here, I can take her to the hospital to get checked out," she offered, leaning forward to take Colleen back.

"Are you kidding me? You have some nerve," Brandon sassed, grabbing the baby from Callie and walked passed Ruby, heading for the nursery. "Get the hell out."

Callie wanted to roll on the floor and ball as soon as she heard the door click shut from Ruby's exit. The only thing she wanted to do more than that was to call her mom. She thought that this is a situation where a girl would call her mom for help. She wobbled to the bar stool, grabbed her phone out of her pocket, and began dialing the digits of her mother's phone number...until she was interrupted by Brandon hustling in with two carries in his hand, and a diaper bag flung over his shoulder. They were going to take the girls to the hospital themselves...again.

"C'mon," he mumbled, fiddling with the door handle, struggling to get it open.

"Huh?" She looked up from her phone then stood up, walking to the door and opening it.

As they rode the elevator to the ground floor, Callie's mortified composure faded quickly and anger came over her entire body. She wanted to scream, and cry, and punch someone, and melt down all at the same time. The thing with Callie though, it's hard for her to express her real emotions in an appropriate way. Her jaw clenched as she watched Brandon in the elevator walls mirrored gold reflection.

"Callie?" He spoke softly, not being able to read her like he usually can.

"What?" She snapped back quickly. "I should've been there," she whispered, soft enough for Brandon to hear.

"What?"

"I should have been there!" Her rage overcome her, and their was no stopping her. "My daughter was probably scared out of her mind! And I wasn't there! I wasn't there for her, Brandon! I was with you, instead. Because you dragged be out of our home, claiming it was an emergency, making me live my kids with that neglectful woman, to have sex." They way she said this sounded like a diss. Like she was blaming him, and would blame him. 

"Callie, this isn't my fault. It happened so fast-"

"That's exactly the point, Brandon! I called Ruby, everything was fine, three minutes later, she's falling four feet onto the floor."

"Well, if she was that drunk, I would have known when I spoke to her the first time."

Callie scoffed. "If someone hadn't told me to leave them with her in the first place, this wouldn't be happening."

"I-" Brandon stopped when the doors suddenly opened in the lobby floor. Callie stomped out, then out the building. She walked to the sidewalk with arms crossed, while Brandon lugged behind with the carriers in his hands.

Brandon was several feet behind her when the cross walk sign at the busy intersection flashed with a walking orange person. Callie strolled a few steps before a car came screeching towards her, swerving and driving recklessly.

Upon impact with the vehicle, Callie shot up from her lying down position, instantly coughing and choking on air and saliva. She was immediately confused, unfamiliar with the dark surroundings for a minute before reality collided with fantasy. What was happening?

"Callie?" Brandon asked tiredly. She looked back at his head slightly lifted from the pillow and his eyes half open. Her breathing was still erratic and was struggling to take air into her lungs. He looked over at the clock, which at the abbreviated 'Tues.' in the upper left hand and large numbers reading the time, 4:37 am. "Callie?" He sat up, becoming aware of her more aggressive coughing. He began patting her back, trying to help her catch her breath.

"B?" She slowly calmed down, taking in deeper and longer breaths her lungs so desperately needed.

"It's okay," he whispered, wrapping his arms around him as she sobbed onto his shoulder. "It was a dream. It was just a dream. You're okay..."

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A/N- Hey hey hey! Just so this chapter doesn't come off confusing...this chapter and chapter 69 were entirely a dream. It did not happen in real life (or the life of Brandon and Callie in this story). Sorry it's short, but I have something else in progress I think y'all will like. I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading! There will be some major mile stones coming very soon! XOXO