Waiting for news felt like hours, everyone sitting in a chair as others paced, Marco hidden in the cafeteria where he went to get something to eat.

"Where is she? Is she okay?"

Looking up, Justin cursed under his breath.

"Now is not the time for your bullshit."

"You were smart for leaving my daughter, now it's your turn."

"You son of a bitch," standing, Justin charged towards him grabbing him by the collar of his shirt as everyone rushed to remove him.

"Justin, stop!"

"James!"

Pulling him away, Bruce held Justin back as he tried to push his way through.

Justin wanted to strangle him, kill him even. There were a lot of people in his life he hated, but none, not even those from the hells of his past, came close to the man before him.

"Might want to work on that anger of yours, boy, before you get yourself hurt."

"Keep it up and who knows maybe you'll be lying in a grave next to all the other men I've killed," he growled, eyes glaring.

"Is that a threat?"

"You should know by now, things like threats aren't exactly my forte. All those men you hear about on the news? All me."

He straightened his back, all emotion erased.

"What?" a sliver of a smirk was found pulling at the corner of his lips as he cocked his head to the side. "Cat got your tongue?" He chuckled, "Not so ballsy now, are you?"

He straightened his jacket, standing tall even though everyone knew he felt threatened. "My daughter's better off without you."

"No – you know what? Fuck you. I was good to her." He laughed, "yeah, I fucked up—a lot. I do some fucked up shit and sometimes I even took it out on her 'cause I got a lot of shit going on in my head but I love your daughter. I protected her as much as I could and if I could go back, trust me, I would. Despite all this, nothing means more to me than her and her happiness. I'd do anything to make sure she never got involved."

Licking his lips, he took a step back, silence filling the room as he ran his fingers through his hair looking away for a split second in John's direction before looking back at James. "You don't have to like or understand me, I don't even like me sometimes, but we got a lot riding on us right now. I don't need you breathing down my neck. Tonight's about Carly and making sure she gets out of this alive."

Taking a step back, he took a deep breath, "but just so we're clear, your daughter has an equal chance of getting shot walking down the street as just being with me. You can't save her from everything. You may think you can, but if I can't then, how can you?"

"Where is she?"

"She called but her battery must have died, she's on her way. She stayed to call Carly's parents,"

"So, there's a madman loose and you thought it was smart to keep my daughter by herself? What if whoever did this to Carly is still out there?"

"You don't know how this works but if they hit us once, they won't go for it again. It would be a replication and that's not something they do."

"How reassuring," he scoffed.

"Look—" Justin began before John interrupted.

"Enough," John snapped, "enough with the constant arguing. My wife is in surgery right now and all anyone can manage to do is fight. Give it a fucking break." He turned to face Kelsey's father, "I get you don't like us, and that's fine, but if I hear you talk down to us one more time I will kick you out. You don't know anything about us or what we have been through so your opinions right now don't fucking matter."

"John,"

"What?" he snapped.

Bruce gestured to the doctor walking towards them.

_________________________________________________________________  

Groaning, Kelsey blinked adjusting to the darkness as she sat underneath a solid light. Attempting to move her arms, she looked down to see that her wrists were bound together behind her.

"Come on," she choked out, her eyes bloodshot from all the crying. "Come on, don't do this to me. Please." Tugging on her wrists despite knowing there wasn't much she could do, she didn't dare quit fighting.

"Damn it," she cursed, sobbing out. Not because she was scared, but because her best friend was on the verge of dying and she had yet to see her.

She had to see her.

"Let me go!" Kelsey screamed at the top of her lungs, her wrists burning from all the pulling. "Please let me go," she begged. "Please. I'll do anything."

"Anything, huh?" A voice interrupted as she looked up trying to see through the dark room though she couldn't spot movement anywhere.

Shooting her head around in search of the voice, Kelsey nodded her head vigorously. "Yes," she breathed out.

"You should know promises like that can get a pretty girl like you in a lot of trouble."

"What do you want?"

He chuckled. "Are you willing to give it to me?"

She pressed her lips together, silence filling the room.

"That's what I thought."

"Why am I here?"

"So many fucking questions," he stepped out to the light, dragging a chair to the middle where she was sat making sure to sit across from her. "Do you ever know how to shut up?"

Gasping softly, taken back by the face in front of her, Kelsey blinked twice, in fear she was seeing things. "Why would you do this to me?"

"You? No, I did this to your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"But he is. As much as you tried moving onto me, you were never really over him, were you?" He didn't even give her a chance to answer before speaking up once more, "you still aren't."

"This is an ego thing? You did all this because I'm in love with someone else?"

"No, I did this because your boyfriend is a piece of shit who killed my brother and deserves to pay for what he did."

"What are you talking about?"

"He was the only person I had. He took me in when I had no one. He gave me a home and he gave me a place in a world where I thought I had nothing."

"Tanner—"

"He was the only person I had and he took him away from me. He left me with nothing."

"That's not true, Tanner. You have me."

Laughter pooled past his lips. "You? You stuck around because you thought you had to in hopes I'd help you make you forget about him and maybe for a second I did, but you don't love me. You don't care about me. No one does, but Luke did."

Her face fell, "Luke?"

He turned to look at her, "Lukas Delgado."

Silence filled the room as things began to piece together, "Luke is your brother?"

"Was," he corrected bitterly, "he was my brother."

"How is that even possible?" dumbfounded, she furrowed her brows together. "You guys don't even have the same—"

"—Last name?" he finished for her, "we're not blood, but he might as well have been."

"You had all this time, why now?"

He looked at her.

"After everything we've been through, no matter what, you were still one of my best friends. You know a lot about me, and you decided tonight was the best time for revenge?"

Shrugging, he straightened up. "It was perfect timing. Everyone's in shambles and your boyfriend won't know what to do first."

Shocked, Kelsey leaned back in her chair unable to register what was going on. It didn't feel real – this couldn't be real.

"This can't be happening. Your brother was a horrible person."

His eyes darkened and before she could even take back what she said, Tanner had her by the throat. Angling her face to look up at him, he looked at her with disgust as he stood to his full length, "don't ever say that again, you stupid bitch."

Kelsey knew she should let it be, but she couldn't allow it. Not when Luke had done so many things to her, having ruined her life on more than one occasion. "He was a coward, a disgusting pig. He thought he had something to prove and all he did was make all our lives miserable."

Slapping her across the face, he pushed his hair back with his forearm as her face fell to the right of her, a scream piercing the air.

"You don't know my brother. You know absolutely nothing about him," he spits angrily and you can see the disgust in his eyes.

"I know your brother better than you think I do," Kelsey vouched and she wasn't about to back down anytime soon.

"Fuck you."

"He put us all through hell for his own entertainment. Is that the kind of person you want to be?"

"He was protecting himself and what belonged to him."

"Is that what you call this—protection?" she shook her head, dumbfounded. "This is harassment. This is abuse. Look at what you're doing to me. Answer me, do you really want to be this person?"

"Maybe I do." He stood tall like he was proving something. "I'll do anything for him."

"You want to do something for Luke? Be a better person. Do better. Be better than him. Don't you want to be proud of yourself – don't you want to make something of yourself?" swallowing hard, she shook her head. "I know you're a good person, Tanner. Please don't do this."

He looked at her long and hard as if he was contemplating it. "I'm sorry you had to be put in the middle of this."

"I don't have to be. Tanner, please," she begged, her face wet from all the tears. "Carly needs me."

"She'll be fine." Taking out his phone, he began to dial a number, "your boyfriend on the other hand," he sucked his teeth, "—not so much."

Her eyes widened as she looked down at the phone in his hand, "Tanner, no. What are you doing?"

He only looked over at her and smiled.

_________________________________________________________________  

Immediately quieting down, John immediately began walking closer to meet the doctor halfway.

"I'm Dr. Hendricks."

"How is she? Is she going to be okay?"

"The bullet hit a massive artery. Carly hemorrhaged both before and after surgery and she's lost massive amounts of blood."

"Could you repair the damage?"

"I was able to take the bullet out and repair the tear in her heart but Carly remains in critical condition. The baby went into distress however during the surgery but we were able to save both her and the baby."

"Baby?"

Surprised, he turned towards him more before glancing down at the chart in his hand. "Yes, she's thirteen weeks pregnant."

"She's what?"

"We have it in her charts. She's come for weekly updates, you weren't aware?"

"No."

Pressing his lips together, he nodded. "If she has any family, I suggest you contact them."

"I'm her family," he whispered, taken back by the news as everyone stood in silence.

"I'm sorry. We did everything we could, now all we have to do is wait."

Feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket, Justin palmed at it in hopes to shut it up, unable to take his eyes away from the doctor before he reluctantly pried himself away taking the phone call as he turned. "Hello?"

"Bieber,"

His face fell, remaining quiet.

"Not so mouthy now, are you?"

"Who is this?"

"Kelsey's getting a bit tired and I think it's only fair you're the one to come pick her up."

"What the fuck did you do to her?"

"I guess you'll just have to wait and see,"

"Put her on the phone."

"So fucking cliché," he mumbled sarcastically before there was silence.

Turning around, he looked back at the guys, John the only one to catch his eye.

He looked at him confused before a silent understanding was met between the two, darkness overshadowing them.

Reaching for his keys, Justin began rushing towards the exit of the hospital room floor without so much as another word being said.

There was a commotion at the other end before a bit of shuffling, words being exchanged when it got silent again.

"Justin,"

"Kelsey," he breathed out. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine. Don't listen to him, okay? Please just make sure Carly is –"

Cutting her off, Tanner tisked on the phone, sounding aggravated. "Your girl doesn't like to listen herself, does she?"

"Put her back on the fucking phone," pressing vigorously against the button on the elevator for the first floor, he slammed his palm against the surface.

"Come here first and then you can have your reunion,"

"I swear to God if you touched her—"

"Save the threats for when you actually get here. Which should be soon if you want to join the party, it's getting pretty boring without you."

His jaw tightened, "I will fucking kill you."

"Meet me at Riverton and maybe you might have the chance," he laughed, "I'll give you twenty minutes just to be nice before it really gets interesting."

Hearing the phone line go dead, Justin quickly rushed out once the doors slid open. Walking to the parking lot, he pulled his gun out from behind the waistband of his jeans, checking for bullets, he slammed it back into place before opening the door and sliding into his seat.

Turning the car on, he wasted no time reversing and pulling out onto the road.

Shaking his head, speeding down the road, swerving in and out of lanes, he made sure to keep an eye out for cops not wanting to get into it now that he was on a tight time frame.

He felt his palms sweat, not knowing what he was going to walk in on.

The last thing he ever wanted now that they weren't together was for her to get hurt.

She wasn't supposed to get hurt.

Dialing a number, Justin pressed the phone to his ear, waiting for the other to pick up.

"Justin Bieber?"

"Track me in about two hours. If it's not where I'm at, come through."

"Hold on."

Ending the call, Justin parked the car once he arrived.

Looking out his window, he stepped out, closing the door behind him. The location seemed familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger as to why.

Walking slowly up towards the building, Justin looked around a bit more before pushing open the door, stepping in to see nothing but pitch black.

He waited.

"Throw your phone and drop your gun,"

Taking another step forward, Justin stopped once he heard them talk again.

"Throw your fucking phone and drop your gun or I will fucking shoot her."

Swallowing hard, he debated before doing as they said, not wanting to risk them hurting her. Pulling the gun from his jeans, he flung it before taking his phone showcasing it in the air doing the same, hearing it scatter across the room.

"Good boy."

"Fuck you,"

He laughed before silence enveloped the air once more.

"Justin," she sounded strained.

Snapping his head over towards the sound of Kelsey's voice, seeing the shadow of her body beneath a dim light, he began rushing over to her before he felt a large subject hit against the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

"Justin!"