Getting Away With You

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^*Matt’s POV*^
Just as Brand dropped his gun and grabbed Danni’s hand, keeping her from pulling a gun, Chase pulled one of his own and fired a shot right into her heart. I screamed something, but I wasn’t sure what, because I was numb. I quickly shot the man with a gun to my head before I shot the guy next to Danielle, and I shot Chase’s hand, knocking the gun away as bullets hailed around me. Brian managed to get his gun, and shot the two beside Danni’s parents, and I fired rounds at the man beside Jimmy, hitting him in the head and killing him instantly and Brian shot the one next to himself, and I shot the guy over Sonny. After all of the guards were dead, I wanted to turn my attention to Chase, but instead I just grabbed his gun and tossed it to Jimmy, who caught it with his good arm before I kneeled beside Danielle, my heart breaking.

“Oh my god, Danni, please don’t leave me.” I begged, pressing two fingers against her wrist as I check for a pulse. “Please, please god, don’t take her away from me.” I kept checking for a pulse in both of her wrists and her neck, before I felt tears begin burning my eyes. Nothing was there. No faint heartbeat, no heat, no life…Danni was gone. I wanted to put a gun to my head and end my own life, but I had too much anger towards Chase to let him live right now. I spotted Jimmy talking to a nine one one operator on his phone and Sonny was ripping a pant leg off of a guard to use as a tourniquet, and Brian was over by Danni parents, talking to them but not letting them go. I then looked down at Chase, I wanted to make him feel the pain that I felt. I wanted him to lose the person he loved the most, but he never loved hardly anyone except his son, but he was the last person on my mind at the moment.

“I hope you learned your lesson.” Chase snarled, lying on his back in the floor, his hand bleeding out onto his suit as he laughed lightly

“I want to put you through what you’ve put us through.” I spat, and pulled the other gun from my jacket. He’s done more to us than fill us with bullets, but I would never wish the pain of losing your whole family on any human being, no matter how deserving. I fired one shot into his knee cap and he cried out, trying to scramble away, but I stopped him. “That was for Sonny.” I said and took my foot and rolled him back over onto his back. I shot him in the bicep, and almost wanted to smile as he cried out once more, bringing his wounded hand up to try and stop the bleeding. “That was for Jimmy.” He began getting drifty and I kicked him in the side, and he gasped for air. I shot him once in each shoulder and once in the side. “That was for Brian, your own step son.” He was breathing harshly the best he could now.

“Please…Matthew…please.” He pleaded, but as he held his hand out for me, all I could think of was Danielle, and how I couldn’t save her as he shot her. I aimed for his heart, expecting he had one.

“This is for Danni.” I pulled the trigger, and as he gave one last strangled breath, his breathing stopped, his heart stopped, his pleading stopped. He was gone this time, and just to make sure, my anger took hold and brought the gun up and shot him in the head repeatedly. He took my love away from me. I had never cared about anyone as much as I cared for her. And he took her away. I ran out of bullets and tossed the gun, grabbing the one from my boot as I continued on with bullet after bullet, ignoring the blood splatter; wanting to avenge my whole life and everything he’s ever done to me. Though no matter how many times I shot him, the damage was already done, the havoc wrecked, and the lives shattered.

“Matt, Matt!” Jimmy knocked the gun from my hand, forcing me to stop as I felt my eyes water up as he turned me away from the bloody mess on the floor. “He’s dead, Matt. He’s dead.” I could already hear the sirens in the distance.

“Danni’s gone, Jimmy.” I let the tears fall. “He took her away from me.”

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^*Third POV*^
Minutes later the police came, ambulances not far behind. They loaded up Jimmy and Sonny and rushed them to the hospital as Matt simply refused to go anywhere that Danielle was out of his sight even as the police questioned him, wanting to know everything that happened. The paramedics worked on Danielle for half an hour, reviving her with a faint, weak, heartbeat, but her blood pressure was too low to risk moving her or it could bottom out and her body could go into anaphylactic shock. All they could do was keep trying to get hear heartbeat up giving that Matt wouldn’t let them give up on her and neither would her parents. As four PM rolled around, they had her blood pressure up to a point where it would be safe to move her, though it would be a god given miracle if they made it to the hospital before it bottomed out again.

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^*Jimmy’s POV*^
I had been taken to the hospital and put through an hour of surgery. Luckily the bullet hadn’t hit any veins or the bone, and it hadn’t even broken into that many pieces, so I wasn’t out of commission for long before I got out. The doctor didn’t want to release me, but I assured him I had a dear friend in the hospital and I wasn’t leaving any time soon in case anything happened. He still refused, so I left AMA. I knew Sonny was here, because I knew that Chase had ordered someone to shoot him in the knee, and I knew I saw blood pouring from Brian’s mouth when I got tossed into that room, but I wasn’t sure why. I was kind of in the dark on a few things. After I got off the third floor, I went down to the ER waiting room, and everyone was a mess. Over in one corner Danni’s father was hugging her mom as her mother cried hard, sobs tearing through her lips, and Brian and Matt were over in the opposite corner. I was glad to see Matt wasn’t covered in as much blood as before, but that was the only plus of the sight. Matt had his head in his hands as he didn’t make any noise, but I could see the tears glistening as they ran through his fingers, even as Brian talked quietly to him. I went over to him.

“Hey, Matt,” He looked up at me, his eyes completely wrecked and his face tear soaked. “Are you alright?” I asked, resting a hand on his back as I sat down next to him.

“N-no.” He sobbed, and buried his face back in his hands. I didn’t exactly like it when he cried, because it scared me, but I was even more afraid of him in his alternative state. If he wasn’t crying right now he’d be punching holes in walls and screaming words of hate at God. I saw a little of that back at the warehouse when he unloaded two clips into Chase’s head. That was terribly hard to explain on the way to the ER to the policeman that had gotten in the ambulance with me. Now I just sat beside Matt, rubbing his back as I tried to comfort him the best I could, seeing as I’m not too used to having to comfort him. I didn’t even want to think of Danielle, because it made my heart want to shatter. She was like a sister to me, and I loved her like one and it made me sick to think that Chase may have gotten rid of one more person I cared about. But she’s going to be okay. She had to be okay. Not for her parents, not for me, not for anyone but Matt. If she doesn’t make it through this, he’ll not make it another second. The very moment that doctor comes in and tells us that she didn’t make it, he’ll be out the door and in the back parking lot with a silenced gun, whispering that he loves her before he pulls that trigger, and leaves this world behind to go and spend eternity with the girl he’s risked his life for. Brian got up and sat down on my other side and I felt Matt push my hand off of him, so I turned to Brian as he sat down.

“He’s been like this for…” I trailed off.

“He’s been like this since we got here.” Brian said quietly. “He’s already been through the whole, ‘I can’t survive without her’ thing.” As he talked I noticed something.

“Missing that tooth?” I asked him and he smiled, showing that his right front tooth was gone, and I cringed.

“Porter pushed me then caught the top of my jaw with his knee and it was fucking terrible.” He said, and I could tell that just even thinking about it hurt him.

“They really did a number on us.” I said with a sigh, shaking my head and he nodded.

“Yea, Sonny’s still in surgery. He got shot by Ruben and the bullet completely shattered his whole kneecap and cut through tendon and went all the way through to the back of his knee. They’re working hard to fix him.” Brian said and I buried my face in my hands then.

“I’m glad we’re out of that now, though.” I said and he nodded.

“We’re free now, Jimmy. Our nightmare’s over.” He smiled and I brought my hands from my face.

“Not yet. We won’t fully be out of this until Danni’s back in Matt’s arms.” I said, looking at him and he nodded, knowing exactly what I meant. I looked back over at Matt, and he was still bent in half, crying. I felt bad for him. He loved Danni, and he showed it, every day that they had been together. And she loved him just as much. They were the perfect couple. It was unimaginable to even think of Matt without her by his side. It was unimaginable to think of her not being here anymore at all. We all loved her.

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Hours passed and nothing much changed in the waiting room, except that Mrs. Taggen had calmed down some, but Matt hadn’t. I noticed that Danni’s parents were very cautious of us. They stole nervous glances at us every once in a while, and I actually wanted to ask what their problem was a time or two, but I didn’t because I knew this was a hard time we were going through. They didn’t seem to like Brian, Matt and I very much though. But if Danielle made it through this, they’d have to get used to us. Eight o’clock soon rolled around, and we still hadn’t heard anything, but I was still trying to help Brian comfort Matt.

“She’s going to be okay, Matt. She’s going to be alright.” I whispered, hoping he’ll take my words to heart.

“I won’t live without her, Jimmy, I won’t.” He insisted, and I knew those words were coming.

“I’m looking for the parents of Danielle Taggen.” I had never seen a human being move as fast as Matt did. He was in that doctor’s face faster than he could get the full sentence out of his mouth.

“Is she okay?” He asked it so fast I wasn’t even sure if the doctor had caught it, but thankfully he had as her parents got to the doctor quite fast as well.

“She’s fine.” I could feel a smile on my face as Matt backed off of the doctor some to where he wasn’t right in his face as he smiled.

“So she’s going to be okay, now, right?” Her mother asked.

“No setbacks, or low blood pressure or anything?” He father asked.

“We’ve recovered all of the bullet fragments from her heart, and got it fully restarted and its back in a normal rhythm, and her blood pressure is back to normal. She may take some time to wake up, but for now she’s okay.” He said and Matt chimed in.

“Can we go see her?” He asked, the words flying out of his mouth again.

“If you want, she’s in room two twelve on-” Matt and her parents had already taken off, leaving Brian and I to run after them and catch up at the elevators.

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^*Matt’s POV*^
Danielle’s parents and I walked as normally as possible down the second floor hall. All I needed to know was that Danni was okay, and that she was going to make it through this. I found the room number and slowly opened it, walking in hesitantly as I caught sight of her in the bed, hooked up to heart monitors, oxygen tubes, IVs.

“Oh my god.” Was about all I could mutter at the same time as her mother. I walked over, sitting down in the chair next to her bed. I came so close to losing her. Her falling off of the roof was one incident I’d rather not think about, but this was far worse. This didn’t just nearly kill her, it nearly killed me as well. But she was fine. She had a normal heart rhythm again, and a normal blood pressure and she was going to be okay.

“Matt,” I looked up at Jimmy and Brian as they stood over me. “We’re going to be in the waiting room down the hall, alright?” Brian said and I nodded. He hugged me, rubbing my back as Jimmy had in the waiting room in a desperate attempt to comfort me. “Everything’s going to be okay now.” He said with a smile as he pulled away, but I couldn’t seem to find my voice.

“I told you she’d be okay.” Jimmy said, patting my shoulder and they both turned and walked out. I could tear my eyes away from Danni, even as her parents sat down on the other side of her bed. They had seemed to be avoiding Brian, Jimmy, and I. Though I wasn’t exactly sure why. I didn’t have any more time to ponder before her father spoke up.

“Are you by any chance…Matthew Sanders?” He asked hesitantly, his voice shaky. I nodded. “You’re the guy who kidnapped Danielle.” There it was. The accusation I had been dreading.

“Yes, that’s me, but I didn’t kidnap her, she wanted to come.” My voice was hoarse and thick with tears. “In my defense, I’d never hurt your daughter.” I whispered.

“Why?” He asked, but I was slightly confused.

“Why?” I stretched out the word, wondering what he meant.

“Why didn’t you try and contact us and tell us that you had our daughter?” Her mother asked.

“There was a lot going on at the time and I knew that Danielle would call you guys when she was ready.” I said, but her father seemed to have a temper.

“But she’s our daughter, for crying out loud, we have a right to know where she was. We were worried sick.” He raised his voice slightly. I hated leaving Danielle’s side, but I wasn’t about to have this argument here. I stood up.

“Let’s not do this here.” I said through gritted teeth, and he stood up as well, and so did his wife. I let them out into the hallway first before I followed, closing the door. “Okay, let’s get this straight.” I turned towards them. “I am not about to take any shit from the two people that ran Danni away from her own home when I’ve been living in a mental hell this past week thinking she was going to get hurt or taken away from me.” I said and they both looked taken aback by my words.

“Taken away from you?!” Her mother spat. “You took her away from us!”

“I didn’t do anything to her that she didn’t want. She wanted me to let her come with me, so I let her.” I said, wanting nothing more than to punch someone in the face.

“Oh my god, oh my god, you raped her!” Her father announced and I pinned my hand over his mouth, slamming him back against the wall, ready to rip his face off, but I settled down some due to the nurses that began staring as they walked by.

“No, you fucking idiot! I would never do that to her!” I whispered harshly.

“Then what would you do?” Her mother asked in a disgusted tone, and I turned away from her husband and to her.

“I wish you could watch a movie of all that’s happened this time she’s been away from you two.” I said, letting some laughter seep into my words. “I’ve fought for her. I fought for her life, and mine. You can ask Jimmy and Brian and they could tell you that I’ve done so much for that girl it’s insane.”

“Why did you do it?” Her father asked, and I looked back at him, my mood softening. Why did I do it? Why did I do it?! Why did I keep her safe? Why did I keep her close in fear she would be ripped away? Why did I cry over her for hours in the ER? Why? Why? Isn’t it obvious?!

“Because I love her.”