Measured by Beauty.

Chapter 10 - Stillborn.

Roc called Christa to tell him that he was on his way home, but she didn’t answer. Figuring that she wasn’t anywhere near her phone, he grabbed a plate from Ray’s party, and made his way home to what he called ‘his family’.

But when he got home and seen Neveah standing in the doorway, he knew that something had went wrong.

He stepped inside of the house and Neveah standing near the door. Her footsteps had a trail of blood on them, then Roc started to panic. He didn’t even want to look around the house for Christa. Figuring that she was in trouble, he followed the trail into the kitchen, and seen her laying in her own blood.

“Christa!” Roc shouted as he ran to her, and lifted her up by her waist. Her head dangled, and her body laid limp as Roc cried tears of pain. He didn’t even care who had done it, but he was just worried about getting her some help.

“Moommyyy.” Neveah wailed as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Neveah mommy’s okay. Mommy’s okay!” Roc said trying to compose her as he pulled out his phone, and called the police.

“911 what’s your emergency?”

“My girlfriend has been shot. She’s not moving, and she’s pregnant! I need some help immediately!”

The police arrived almost 2 minutes later, and they took Christa to the hospital. Roc drove there with Neveah, and waited 5 hours to hear her condition. Neveah sat up, but winded up falling asleep on Roc’s lap 2 hours after they arrived. It was her bed time, and she’d been up later than usual.

A doctor walked out and called Roc’s name, and he picked Neveah up and walked past a few other people who were in the waiting room for their family members. Roc didn’t want to call Christa’s family, until he found out her condition.

“She’s alive, but she’s not doing so well.” The doctor said, shaking his head. “She was shot nine times. 5 times in the chest, and 4 times in the stomach.”

“Is my daughter okay?” Roc said in reference to the baby girl that Christa was going to have. “She’s pregnant and she’s due in 3 months. Is my baby okay?”

“We won’t know until tomorrow.” The doctor said. “We have to remove these bullets from her body to see if she’ll make it first, then we have to remove 2 of the bullets that injured the fetus. That’ll determine if either of them make it or not.”

“Please don’t let them leave me.” Roc whispered to himself.

“If she survived 9 bullets, she’ll make it. Trust me.” The doctor smiled.

Afterwards, Roc took Neveah home to Christa’s house. He had to prepare for her first day of Preschool tomorrow. He woke her up and bathed her, and she fell right asleep from exhaustion, crying, and how late it is. He walked into the kitchen with a mop and some soap, and cleaned up all of the blood that led from the kitchen to the front door. He sat in their bed and cried to himself, when Neveah woke up, climbed into the bed, and hugged Roc as she fell asleep.

If it wasn’t for Neveah, he don’t know if he would’ve made it through this situation.

The next day, Neveah was already awake. He didn’t know how to do hair, so he let wet it and let her wear it curly. He put her pink dora jogging suit on, put her in her carseat, then drove to the preschool that they enrolled her in. It was pretty large for a school for little kids. He turned around to Neveah and smiled at her. Even though is heart was shattered, he made himself appear happy so that she wouldn’t be sad.

“Are you ready to make new friends, Veah?” Roc smiled.

“Oaeorfhfsh!” She squealed.

Roc picked her up, and walked into a preschool full of kids running around and playing. He walked to the teachers desk, as she smiled, stood up, and shook his hand because she’d never met Roc when Neveah was enrolled into the school with Christa.