Hide and Spy- Gallagher Girls FanFic

Rachel

Rachel

I didn’t wake up as I had expected. I’d expected to wake up in the dark with Joe leaning over me and peppering my face with kisses, not my sister banging on the hotel door, yelling for me to answer.

“What?” I moaned as I opened the door with a bathrobe on, “And where’s Joe?”

Abby nodded to the bed, “I think you should sit down,”

I stood firm, “Where’s Joe?”

Abby bit her lip and shook her head as she sunk down on the sofa, her hands were trembling as she covered her mouth with them. I felt my heart stutter, No, he’s got to be okay.

“Abby,” My voice faltered this time, “Please?”

My sister looked up to me with pained eyes, “I’m sorry Rachel,”

“Tell me!” I snapped.

Abby sobbed and hid her face in her hands, “He jumped in front of a bullet for me!”

My legs buckled beneath me and I fell to the carpeted floor in a heap, sobbing for Joe.

I wanted him here, to hold me and tell me it would all be fine. But he wasn’t. 

He was in a hospital somewhere … I didn’t let myself think of the alternative.

Abby crawled off the bed and in to my arms, “It was the woman that took Zach, she came back for him and Cammie,”

I gasped again, “Are they …”

Abby shook her head, “She couldn’t get to them if she tried,”

I relaxed a little but was still worried about Joe, what had happened? Was he okay? Was he …

Abby began to answer my unasked questions, “She came and fired a shot, Joe was the only one to see it. We all thought it had missed him,” She sniffed and wiped her eyes, “I was such an idiot! Of course it had hit him, I should have seen past his act!” She reached to her off-the-shoulder jumper sleeve and pulled it up to cover the scar. I leant over and kissed my sisters head, “Abby,” I whispered, my voice breaking, “Where is Joseph Solomon?”

Abby closed her eyes and bit her lip before slowly telling me, “He’s in ICU at the private hospital, stable but critical.”

I breathed a slight sigh of relief, He’s not dead. 

My sister sniffed, “I didn’t expect him to do it,”

I shook my head, how couldn’t she expect it? It was Joe! Of course he’d jump in front of a bullet for her, Joe thought he was invincible. 

I stroked my sisters hair, “It’s okay Abby, it’s not your fault,”

She shook her head in disagreement, “I … I,”

I got up and pulled her up, “Fetch Kim, let me get dressed, and then we’ll go and see him.”

Abby nodded and wiped her eyes.

*

Something inside me twisted when I saw Joe, he was pale and sickly. I bit my lip outside the door to his room as Abby’s words repeated themselves in my head, stable but critical, would he get better?

“Girls,” Edward came over to us and hugged Abby with another man, my old boss.

“Rachel,” James nodded to me, “I’m sorry about this,”