When Charlotte opened her eyes she was confused, hurting and terrified. Quickly though, she felt relief seeing Angel, Coco and EZ a few feet from her bed huddled together in quiet conversation. Her little face lit up as EZ caught a glimpse of her open eyes and alerted the others.
"Hey," he said cheerfully. "You're okay," he added soothingly.
"Where's my mom? What happened?"
Angel was the one to field this question, not only was he there but he received strict instructions from Katie to tell Charlotte the truth, sparing the gory details. The girl was wise beyond her years after living the life she has so there was no use lying. She'd know or she'd figure it out and there would be hell to pay.
"Mom's upstairs," Angel told her, "You got hit in the parking lot. Remember?"
Charlotte thought about it for a minute and eventually nodded. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have run.
"Princesa," he sighed, "It's not your fault. You had to have surgery so became when you try to move, okay?"
She nodded. "Why's Mommy upstairs?"
"Happy got hurt," he explained. "She was sitting with you for a while but went up to visit him too." Angel looked at the others, "Go let her know," he told them.
EZ and Coco left and Angel turned back to Charlie.
"I'm glad you're awake," he gave her hand a squeeze.
"She's mad at me," Charlotte said sadly.
"No she's not," Angel said quickly and adamantly. "Your Mom was here, she's just trying to go back and forth between you and Happy."
Charlotte shook her head and rolled her eyes at him, "Not Mommy, I think Adelita is mad at me."
Angel's face twisted as she said it. "Adelita?"
"I recognized the people in the car," she said sadly. "I thought we were friends." Seeing his reaction she feared his angry expression was for her. "I'm sorry."
"No," he said angrily. "You don't apologize, querida," Angel told her, kissing her forehead. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I didn't know."
"Charlotte!" Katie sang as she dashed into the room. "Baby, oh my god, look at you."
"Mom," Charlie huffed as Katie kissed her all over her face. "Stop."
"Where are the guys?" Angel asked Katie quietly.
"EZ left but Coco is in the hall on the phone," Katie told him. "What's wrong?" She stroked his cheek. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Nah, I'm good," he said, pressing his lips to her cheek. "I got some shit to look into, I'll be back though. I'm asking Coco to stay with you girls."
"Thank you," Katie said, wrapping him up in a hug. "You're the best, Angel. Truly."
He winked at her and Charlotte before slipping and rubbing out to catch EZ before he left. "E!"
EZ look over his sunglasses as he clipped his helmet. "What's up?"
"Where you going?"
"I gotta meet with Emily," he explained. "She wants to fill me in on Happy and Jax, I think the guilt's weighing on her."
"Let me know," he sighed. "Charlotte said it was Los Olvidados in the car that hit her."
"What?" EZ was even more surprised than Angel.
"Yeah, so I gotta reach out to Adelita and soon."
"We'll go when I'm done with Em," EZ said. "Settle this Galindo SAMCRO shit and get back to copper."
Angel nodded, "Yeah, I liked when the biggest fucking mystery was Chucky."
—
*Shortie!*
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