When A Gangsta Loves You 2

Chapter 4 Shawnee

"Mommy!"

I was so afraid that I'd never hear my baby call out to me ever again, but here he was sitting up in the hospital bed with his doe eyes lit up.

"JJ! Baby!"

I'd never made it across a room so fast. Wrapping my arms around him, I squeezed him so hard, I was surprised he didn't complain.

JJ started crying which made me join him. Mama Lynn and Jarren, who had finally gotten home, joined us on the bed.

The hospital had called me in the middle of me blowing up Rome's phone. Somehow I'd managed to fall asleep and when I'd woken up, it was a little after 9am and Rome was nowhere in sight.

Immediately, I'd started calling him for an update but like he'd been doing this entire time, he hadn't answered, which pissed me the fuck off. Right when I was about to dial him again, a 718 number called me that I didn't have locked in my phone. I'd almost passed out when the person on the other end had told me that my baby was at Queens General.

Me, Mama Lynn and Niecy had all piled into Jarren's car and raced down here, but before I could even get to JJ, I'd had to deal with the police and CPS. They'd wanted to know answers to questions that I had no idea how to answer. Rome never picked up his phone and I'd had to deal with all the bull shit by myself.

"Oh baby! Are you hurt!"

I'd already gotten the run down from a doctor and CPS and knew that he had come in drowsy and very dehydrated but was otherwise in perfect health. They had given him some fluids and he had been in and out of sleep. Still, I needed to do a check up of my own.

JJ nodded his head as I pulled back so I could look into his eyes. They were distant, yet wide with worry, fear...I wasn't sure.

It was hard but I backed away enough for Mama Lynn and Jarren to take turns hugging him. Physically, JJ looked okay but he just wasn't himself. He was quite and kept looking off instead of at the tv that we'd ended up switching on for him.

 Naturally, the hospital wanted to keep him overnight so Jarren had gone home and gotten the PS4 along with some games and dvd's. We'd put his favorite movie on and he couldn't even focus. After a little under an hour of that, he fell into a fitful sleep. I wasn't the only one who noticed. We all had.JJ hadn't slept for long before he'd woken up. Around that time, lunch was being served and he barely ate any of it.

"Daddy!"

JJ pushed his tray away when Rome came into the room. He attempted to get out of the hospital bed so that he could run into Rome's arms but we had to stop him due to him still being hooked up to IV fluids.

Rome came over to the bed and enveloped JJ's tiny body into his. When he pulled back, I noted  the stress in Rome's eyes. They were red and of course tired looking too, which I knew had nothing to do with weed since they weren't low. There was also sadness lurking inside of them, which threw me off some since the nightmare was finally over.

"What's up lil g," Ky said from behind Rome who wasn't letting go of JJ for nothing.

Ky was acting off too. He only hung around for a minute before he quietly grabbed Niecy and walked her out of the room. I knew Mama Lynn was seeing everything that I was and had questions just like I did but she ushered Jarren out of the room so that the three of us could have a private moment.

"I-I'm sorry I'm crying, daddy," JJ said once Rome finally released him.

His cheeks were wet with the silent tears that he'd cried and his little body shook as he struggled to regain control, which had me choking up again.