I Think We're Falling Apart

I woke up on Thursday morning feeling ill. I knew right from that moment that the day was not going to be good. I rolled out of bed, careful; not to wake Adelle as I did so, and walked into Matt's room where the upstairs phone was. I smiled at his sleeping form as I grabbed the handset and stepped into the hallway, dialing Rhiannon's number.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey booface," I croaked, a smile on my face.

"Hi! What's up?"

"I'm sick, yo. I think I'm getting the flu. I dunno if I should even bother coming in today," I said into the phone, leaning against the wall in the hallway.

"Awh, dude, you sound sick. I'll call the clients and let them know they'll have to reschedule, okay?" Rhiannon asked.

"Yeah. You're a peach. Thank you," I sighed.

"HAH! I would hope I'm not a damn peach. Not after that whole fiasco with Brian and peaches..." she laughed, and I joined in.

"You know hat I mean. Anyways, I gotta get Adie up and get her to school and then I think I am going to sleep all day long."

"Alright, you do that and I'll get everything taken care of."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow I hope," I smiled, though Rhiannon couldn't very well see it through the phone.

"Bye," she replied and then hung up.

"Hey who was that?" Matt asked as he stepped out of his room.

"Just Rhiannon. I called to tell her I'm sick so I'm not gonna go in to work today," I explained.

"Ahh, I see... lazy," he smirked and leaned in to kiss me. I turned my head to the side.

"I'm sick, fool. I don't want you to catch it," I replied.

"Pfft, I don't care," Matt smiled and started to kiss my neck.

"What if it's contagious and deadly?" I chuckled. He hadn't shaved in a couple days, so his stubble was tickling my skin.

"And what if I'm immune?" he asked as he kissed my jaw, pushing my back against the wall. I moaned.

"Okay, you win," I breathed out and he moved his head up to kiss my lips. When he pulled away, he smiled.

"Hey, don't come crying to me when you're dying from a rare strain of deadly flu virus. Not my problem," I laughed. "I gotta get Adelle ready for school," I said as Matt was still leaned against me.

He nodded. "I gotta get into the studio anyways. A couple more days of production and mixing left and it's done. It's only... oh, a month late, but it'll do," Matt smiled. He was right. They'd wanted the CD to be done and out by Halloween; it was now almost December.

He kissed me once more and I walked in to wake up Adelle. If only I'd just said 'fuck it' and let her stay home with me...

I was woken up at almost two in the afternoon by the telephone ringing on Matt's bedside table. I squinted against the light coming in through the window and picked my head up, reaching for the phone.

"Hello?" I asked groggily to the person on the other line.

"Vik, it's Rhiannon. Are you watching the news?" she asked, panic in her voice. Just the way she asked was enough to make me a little more awake.

"No. I've been sleeping all day. Why, what's wrong?" I asked, sitting up in bed.

"...I think you should turn it on. Channel 3. I don't wanna be the one to tell you." That was all Rhiannon said before hanging up the phone. I put the handset down and grabbed the remote for the TV from the drawer. I kneeled at the end of the bed as I turned onto the Channel 3 news, only to see Adelle's school on the screen. It was surrounded by people and police cars and the headliner along the bottom read 'Child Hostage Situation'. I instantly felt my stomach drop to my knees.

'This is Breaking News, giving you up-to-date information on what is going on right now. Earlier today at about 12 p.m., a man was sighted entering the front entrance of Little Valley Elementary School. We now have a hostage situation on our hands. The man is armed and dangerous and has now taken up several young children in one room. Police are doing everything they can to get their hands on this guy, but efforts are futile.'

My heart stopped breathing. That could have been my baby. My Adie. She could have been in great danger.

I finally got my wits about me and stood up, finding a pair of shoes and a hoodie to pull on before going down to the school. I moved frantically around, trying to find my keys.

"Hey, what's going on?" Matt asked. He had to have just gotten back from the studio. I whipped around to see him standing in the doorway. "Are you okay?" he asked, suddenly concerned. He strode over and wiped my cheeks. I didn't know I was crying.

"There's some psycho at Adie's school with a gun and he has hostages; I have to get down there," I said, barely able to get the words out of my mouth.

"Come on, I'll take you," Matt said without a moment's hesitation. No questioning face. No look of doubt. He just jumped right into action.

We went back down to his car and he hastily drove to Adelle's school in town. We had to park quite a bit away from the school because of all the people gathered around the building. I got out of the car before Matt have even shut it off and headed in a dead sprint towards the crowd. I tried to push my way through the crowd, but wasn't having much luck as the crowd got denser about halfway through.

Someone tried to push me back. "Whoa lady, chill out," he said, glaring at me.

"Don't tell me to chill out! My daughter is in that building and she could have a gun pointed at her right now. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to," I barked at him. He and the people nearby that heard my little outburst instantly shrunk back, giving me a path through the crowd toward the front. When I got to where the police were, I didn't even have time to ask them anything when a series of gunshots went off. My heart dropped and I tried to race into the building, but a pair of strong arms pulled me back.

"Let me go! I need to go in there! I need to save my baby!" I said, bawling. I tried to pull the person's arms off me but they wouldn't budge. I looked down and noticed they belonged to Matt.

"Vikki, calm down. Everything is gonna be okay," he tried to say, but I cut him off.

"My baby, I need to get to her," I shouted through my sobs. I was fully crying at that point and I kept trying to pull out of Matt's arms.

Then my anguish and panic took over me and I just slumped into Matt's arms and cried. I crumpled to the ground and just laid there. Matt pulled me up and drew me close. I laid my face in his chest and sobbed, my tears soaking into his shirt.

An ambulance pulled up once people made room and a handful of paramedics grabbed a stretcher and ran inside after it was confirmed on the police radio that the psycho killer was under police control and it was safe.

I watched through tired, blurry eyes as another stretcher was taken in, followed by another. The confirmed number of wounded hostages was three. When the first stretcher came back out, I looked and saw it was a blond-haired boy. I felt the tiniest ounce of relief.

The second stretcher came out of the building a few minutes later and I felt more relief wash over me. It was a red-haired girl who looked to be about eight or nine.

But as soon as I saw the mess of dark hair on the third stretcher, I knew the relief was all in vain. I rushed to the stretcher and sobbed.

"Ma'am..." one of the medics said, trying to get me to step away as they tried to pull the stretcher into one of the ambulances.

"Please... she's my baby. Can I come?" I asked. The medics nodded and I crawled into the ambulance.

"Vikki," I heard someone call for me. I turned and saw Matt standing outside the ambulance. "I'll follow you guys and meet you at the hospital, okay?" he shouted over the noise. I nodded as the doors to the back of the vehicle were closed.

The entire drive to the hospital I did nothing but cry and hold Adie's hand as I looked at her lifeless body. I watched as blood seeped through the sheet she was under and some of it was on the hand I was holding. The ride seemed to last forever and true to his word, Matt was in the Emergency Bay waiting room when I got there after filling out some paperwork.

He instantly engulfed me in a hug and I kept crying. My only baby could have been dying and she was only five. If only I'd let her sleep.

I sniffled as I pulled away from Matt after many long minutes. Other people in the waiting room were giving me odd glances.

"I should probably call Brian," I said quietly, wiping away my tears. I didn't really want to talk to him, but he needed to know what had happened.

"Here," Matt said, pulling out his cell phone. I took it from him and dialed Brian's number. He didn't answer, and I didn't bother leaving a message and hung up. I called again, and two more times after that, but Brian still wouldn't answer.

Finally on the fifth call, Brian answered. "What the fuck do you want, Matt? I don't wanna fucking talk to you," he fumed into the phone. I sniffled again and took a deep breath, trying not to break down.

"Brian, it's Vik..." I mumbled.

"Yeah? Well, I don't wanna talk to you either. Bye."

"Wait! Please, it's about Adie," I pleaded, and I didn't hear the line go dead so I knew Brian was still there.

"What about Adie?" he asked, his voice shaky.

"She... God Brian, she's in the hospital. She got shot and she's in surgery and they don't know if she's going to live or die and I need you here," I cried.

"What!? What happened?"

"Some psycho showed up at her school with a gun and took her hostage. Please, Brian, will you come?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a couple minutes," he replied and then hung up.

I sat with Matt in the waiting room and it was only ten minutes before Brian came in.

I wiped my eyes and stood up, and much to my surprise he took me into his arms and held me as I cried. I knew Matt must have felt awkward seeing what was happening, but that was the least of my worries at the moment.

"It'll be alright. She'll be okay," Brian whispered into my hair as he rocked me in his arms.

After a few minutes, we both sat down with me sitting between Matt and Brian to keep them from fighting. It seemed like a lifetime before a doctor in scrubs came out to the waiting room. He was adorned with smears of blood.

"Mrs. Haner?" he called, looking at me. I nervously stood up, letting go of both Matt's and Brian's hands which were being held tightly in mine, and walked over to the doctor.

"I...well," he started to say, and I looked in his eyes. He sighed and shook his head 'no'. My hand covered my mouth as more tears poured from my eyes. I tried to breathe deeply because I felt nauseous. "I'm sorry," the doctor whispered. "There was just too much blood loss before she got here. There was nothing we could do."

I collapsed to my knees and dropped my head as I sobbed. "Come on, let's get you in a chair," the doctor said and he helped me up, taking me over to the chair I was just sitting in.

I looked at Brian and Matt, both had tears in their eyes. And I just sat there and cried. I cried until my tears were gone and asked no one in particular why it was my little girl that had to die. It was the worst day of my life, up until that point at least. And as if this wasn't enough to break me, there was only more yet to come.