Intertwined

Waiting pt. 1

"So you were going to ask me out, huh?" Gaga looks up at Bradley, waiting to see if she caught him off guard being so blunt.

Bradley leaned his head against the wall, gulping at her interrogation.  "I was. I'm sure you had tons of after parties to go to but I was going to just hang out, get to know you. Dance. I don't know."

"Dance? You would have danced with me?" Gaga teased, catching Bradley blushing. 

"If you let me, yes, I would have danced with you." Bradley tickled her sides lightly, sure to not make any noise. "Would that have been ok?" Gaga nodded, happy with the visual of them dancing. "Would it be ok if I kissed you again?" Gaga bit her lip and nodded. Bradley slowly took her lips again, savoring each moment. 

"We have a female in her 30s with a bullet wound to her left abdominal region. There is no exit wound, bullet presumed lodged inside..." A resident called out as a team of nurses and doctors pushed Gaga's gurney into the operating room. 

"Is she going to be ok!?" Natali ran along side the chaos.

"Ma'am please calm down, what's her name?" 

"Stefani, her name is Stefani." Natali hiccuped. 

"Is she allergic to any medication."

Natali tried to see past the nurse, her tears refusing to stop falling as Natali tried to focus. "Medication, no, no allergies. Is my sister going to be ok?!" 

"We are going to do everything we can. We need you to wait outside." The nurse pushed Natali out, while another nurse continued to urge Natali into the waiting area. Natali paced the room, sliding down the wall, holding her wet hair and sobbing into her knees. Natali finally stopped crying when a nurse approached her about a change of clothes. Natali calmed her breath and called her parents who immediately made moves to board the next flight out of New York. Natali couldn't sit still after the call. She asked the front desk every few minutes for an update. "I'm afraid we still don't have word from the doctor. Like we mentioned before, we will absolutely let you know as soon as she is out of surgery."

Natali rubbed her temples and went back to the front desk and cut the nurse off before she spoke. "What about Bradley Cooper? Can I get an update on him?"

"My son, my son- I'm sorry" Gloria's voice shook as stepped out of the elevator. "I was told to come to this floor and ask about my son, he was brought in, no one has told me anything-"

"Right away, ma'am. May I have his name and your ID?" Gloria's hands shook as she wiped at her tears and fumbled with her purse. 

"B-Bradley, Bradley Charles Cooper."

Natali softly approached her. "May I?" Gloria nodded while Natali pulled her wallet from her purse and opened it to reveal her ID which she presented to the front desk. 

"Thank you. He is currently in surgery." Gloria gasped and felt faint. Natali held her hand. "As I told Ms. Germanotta here, Ms. Cooper we will notify you as soon as we have word from the doctor. You are more than welcome to wait right here." 

Gloria held her hand to her mouth as she tried to figure out what to say. Natali led her to the waiting area. "My sister is here too. She's in surgery. They haven't been able to give me an update either." 

"What happened?" Before Natali can answer her, a small group of police officers and  two detectives approached the front desk to which both nurses pointed towards the waiting area. 

"Good evening, are either of you family members of Bradley Cooper or..." The detective looked at his note pad.

"Stefani Germanotta?... or maybe you have their Lady Gaga?" The officer nodded at Natali's alert response. "She's my sister. This is Bradley's mother." Gloria was grateful Natali took over. 

"Did either of them contact you between the hours of 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm?" Gloria shook her head no.

"I was there." 

The officers changed gears and got prepared to take notes. "Do you mind if we ask you a couple of questions?" Natali shook her head no, her eyes welling up tears at the thought of what they went through. She hadn't been able to relive it or recount it to her parents. "Your name?" 

"Natali Germanotta."

"You attended the awards tonight?" She nodded. "With your sister, I presume?" She nodded again. "Can you give us an account of what happened to the best of your knowledge?" 

Gloria eagerly and nervously listened as she had no idea what was going on. "Th-the show started. Everything was going well, I think. We've never been to the Oscars before. Um...Stefani and Bradley had to present an award together. I waited until they finished before I ran to use the restroom. I had been holding it the entire opening. That was the last time I saw them before..." Natali's eyes glazed over. The officers encouraged her to keep going. "The lights went out. I saw men enter the theater in ski-masks. I hid in a small audio control area. I was scared...I-I..." Gloria squeezed her hand. "There was about 7 or 8 of them, all with guns. They threatened everyone. Our phones didn't work. I couldn't get service as much as I tried. They were going around to everyone and transferring funds into their own account."

The detective confirms. "That sounds like everyone's story for the most part. Did they attempt to log into your account?" Natali shook her head.

"They never saw me. I hid the entire time." She said almost sad to have abandoned her sister.

 "Do you recall the moment things went south for them?"

"Yes, I was with Bradley." The detectives looked at each other realizing this was new information. Gloria listened closer. "We smelled smoke. It smelled like a campfire. Then the sprinklers all went off. I thought we were going to burn alive. Then I saw Bradley. He had been hiding with Stefani backstage. He said they triggered the sprinklers and that there wasn't a fire which was a relief. We heard a commotion and saw my sister getting dragged out on to the stage." Natali got choked up. "A man had been giving her a hard time before that, making her remove her dress... fucking pig... we couldn't hear what they were saying but Bradley took off running towards her." 

"Any reason why?"

Natali smiled for the first time since the incident. "They couldn't take their eyes off each other all night. He seemed happy to have met her and I could see it in his eyes that she meant something to him. Even I couldn't move when I saw Stefani so helpless. I froze but he didn't think twice." Natali took a breath. "The rest was a blur...Bradley and the man fought and before the man left he pointed his gun. Bradley moved to save my sister but..." Natali broke down crying.

"That's alright, I think we know the rest." The detective assured Natali she didn't need to continue.

"What happened?" Gloria cried out.

The officer cleared his throat and motioned on his own body. "The bullet pierced Mr. Cooper through the back, exiting his abdomen through the front and struck Stefani. The men fled the scene. We are working and doing our best to find them and bringing justice to an unfortunate attempt at a heist  and all those involved." The office handed Natali his card. "Please, give me a call if you remember anything as it pertains to the investigation." 

Natali and Gloria continued holding each other long after the officers left. "Family of Stefani Germanotta?" Natali and Gloria both jumped up. "I'm Dr. Bian, I assisted in the second part of Ms. Germanotta's surgery. Stefani is stable. We were able to extract the bullet. There was no vital organs damaged. She is in recovery and shouldn't have any long term complications. We will keep her overnight for monitoring in the ICU but she most likely will stay her for recovery due to her high profile.."

Natali was finally able to breathe and released tears of joy at the news. "Can I see her?" 

"The front desk can give you directions. She is still under anestesia. Her doctor and nurse will be checking in on her throughout the night." 

"Thank you, Doctor."