Chapter 55-57

Chapter 55

**1 year later

“Iselaaa….I’m going to miss youuuu.” Bruno walked over to the kitchen counter hugging her.

“I’ll miss you too, Brunz.” she laughed at him.

“I’ll only be gone for a week.” he told her turning her around to kiss her.

“A week is too long!” she told him.

“I know…” he made a sad face.  “I don’t know what I’ll do when we leave for months…” he told her. “Come with me!” he told her.

“Oh no. No, no, no, no.” She responded.

“Okay, fine. Don’t come with me. I knew you’d say no anyway.” he pouted.

“You knew I’d say no!” she took her coffee cup going over to the table.

“I did know that…” he said walking out of the kitchen toward their bedroom.

She walked back to him running her fingers against his arm.

“I can’t look at that….” she said glancing at a small rose tattoo her had gotten a few months earlier.

“I love it…” he said. “She’s always with me, that way.”

“Aww, that’s sweet. It still makes me sad, B.” she confessed.

“I know, baby. It makes me sad too. But you know you have an extra angel watching over you.” he kissed her again squeezing her hands. “I love you, Selly.”

“I love you too. Let’s get you to the airport…”

**

Isela stretched out in her bed the night he was supposed to come home.  She tried to stay in her spot, remembering that he would be coming home. She was dreaming about floating in the sky above the world when the noise of their front door opening woke her up.

“Bruno?” she asked in a soft half awake voice.  He always answered her. “Bruno?” she sat up waiting for him to walk in the bedroom. What a jerk. If he’s not going to answer I’m going back to sleep. She threw herself on the bed with a harrumph throwing the blanket over her head. A few seconds later she heard a large bang in the living room.

“Bruno! Come on! Don’t be dumb.” she yelled standing up grabbing her glasses that her sitting on the table to go see what he was doing. She flipped on the hallway light so she didn’t trip. As the light went on she heard even more banging and glass breaking. 

“Oh my god!” She screamed watching a man in his late teens wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans stare at her with Bruno’s mint green guitar in his hand. He didn’t say anything. The man held on to the guitar tightly taking something out of his pocket. Oh my god. What is going on? What is going on? Isela thought to herself. “What are you doing? Oh my god….” Isela asked. It’s a gun. It’s a gun. It’s a gun. They both heard the door open. The front light flipped on. He never turns on the light. They heard a suitcase fall down onto the ground. Hurry up, Brunz. Hurry up. I’m scared…really scared…she thought to herself

“Isela…why are you….Holy shit….” Bruno said crunching his shoes against the broken glass that had been broken from the back window the man was going to go out of. They both watched the teen hold the gun with his hand pulling it back. It was the longest 10 seconds of both their lives. As the bang went off she ducked down grabbing Bruno to the floor who was still in compete shock as to what happened. Another went off. She felt it hit her arm. And then the boy was gone – out the window.

Chapter 56

“Bruno!” she yelled. “Bruno!”

“Isela….” he looked down at his stomach to see himself bleeding.

“Oh my goddd….” she cried running to the kitchen to get their phone and towels. “Owwww…oh my godddd….” Isela looked down at her arm dripping leaving a trail of blood from where they were standing to the kitchen. Suck it up. Take care of him first.

“Bru…..” she laid herself on him as she dialed the phone. As she started to regain her words she heard sirens. The alarm. The alarm….it called the police…

“911 what’s your emergency?” she heard the operator answer.

“My….my….”

“Ma’am…what is going on? Do we need to send someone to you?”

“Yesss….someone broke into our house and shot my husband…and…oh my god…” Isela said seeing the blood through the green towel. “He’s bleeding a lot…..in his stomach…Brunoooo….”

“I’ll be okay….” he gasped.

“Ma’am….”

“We need someone…he’s…”

“You need to put pressure on it. And keep talking to him…make sure he stays awake….who am I speaking to?” the dispatcher asked.

“Isela Hernandez…Isela….”

“And Isela…I need your address…”

Before she could get out the address she heard a yell from the police.

“I need help!” Isela yelled.

“Mrs. Hernandez..we are sending EMS right now. The police are there?”

“Yes, si….si….estan aqui….” Isela answered.

“I’m going to disconnect now, Isela. They are on their way…”

Isela threw the phone down waiting for the police officers to walk in.  They walked slowly anticipating an accidental alarm.

“Please! Hurry!” Isela yelled again.

A young African American police officer glanced into the room seeing Isela laying on top of Bruno.

“Bru…please talk to me…”

“Isela….it…”

“What baby? What?”

“Please make it stop hurting….” he told her.  

The officer took Isela’s hand while his partner bent down next to Bruno.

He continued to press the towel against him grabbing his walkie talkie. “GSW in the Hills. We’re going to need back up…”

“GSW at 450 Orlando Drive….mid twenties male with one in the stomach and…another in the leg. Another one, female, mid twenties with one in the arm…””

“I’m Officer Jenkins…you are?”

“Isela…Isela Hernandez…and that’s Bruno…my husband…please…don’t take me away from him….” Isela looked behind her watching the officer attending to Bruno. As Officer Jenkins led Isela to their dining room the paramedics arrived.

“There’s another in the back…” Officer Jenkins told them.  One paramedic stopped to take care of Isela’s bleeding arm. “Take the rest in the back…”

“Is he going to be okay?” Isela asked.

“Just stay calm, Isela. We’ll go check on him after you tell me what happened.

“But…I just need to make sure he’s okay….” Isela cried feeling some pressure on her arm.

“Ouch…”

“Mrs. Hernandez, the faster you tell us what happened the faster you can go see your husband.” the officer told her in a firm voice.

“I….I was asleep. He was coming home…and I heard a noise. He’s always quiet so I wasn’t sure what was going on. I heard glass break when I turned on the light…” she moved her eyes to the hallway to indicate where she was coming from. “And this guy…he was tall...maybe like 6 feet tall…he was watching me. He told me to just stay where I was…and then Bruno….he walked in asking me what was going on…” Isela started to cry from the pain that the EMT was putting her through.  “Holy shit. That hurts a lot…and then he shot three shots. And he was gone…are you done with that?” Isela asked the EMT.

“Not yet.” they answered. “Don’t look if it freaks you out.”

“No…it doesn’t…but it hurts.”

“We’ll have to take you to the hospital to finish the stitches…” one answered.

“Bruno….I need him…” she stopped talking about the pain she was feeling getting up from her chair.

“Isela…” she heard Bruno call her name.

“We have to get him to the hospital right away..” one of the EMTs said running to get a stretcher.

“Bruno!” she screamed again. “Please be okay…please…” she cried falling onto the ground into a pool of fallen blood holding his hand. He didn’t squeeze it back like he usually did.

**

Isela sat in a screened off room waiting for a nurse. She was shaking while she thought of Bruno who was in surgery to remove the bullets in his stomach. Bruno’s doctor had stopped by her room to tell her he was going into surgery to remove the bullet that was piercing through his stomach. Without it he would suffer from massive amounts of internal bleeding. I need him. She thought to herself.

“Isela Hernandez?” someone asked coming through the screen.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to finish your stitches okay? It might hurt a little…” the nurse told her. “But only for a few seconds…”

“Okay..that’s fine…” Isela cringed watching the numbing agent go into her arm causing her arm to expand.

“Hollyyyy..crap. You weren’t kidding about it hurting.” Isela said quietly.

“I’m sorry.” the nurse said threading small pieces of thread through her arm. 

“Okay..you’re done.” she said flipping through the chart writing something down. “Oh, and congratulations.” she smiled walking out the door.

“What?” Isela asked confused. “Congratulations on what?”

“You’re pregnant.” the nurse smiled.

Chapter 57

“What? Wait!” Isela said loudly. “Can I see that?” she asked to look at her paperwork. The nurse handed her the chart.

“Oh my god.” Isela said.

“Is that a happy oh my god or an oh shit oh my god?” the nurse asked.

“I think it’s a combination.” Isela said handing her the chart back.

**

“Here, Iselita…” Max handed her a t-shirt and shorts to put on when he entered the waiting room.

“Thank you, Max. I’ll be right back. Come and get me if the doctor comes…” she ran into the nearest bathroom changing her bloody clothes. They were stiff full of blood.

“Gah..that’s gross…” she said holding the shirt away from her. She looked at herself in the mirror as she walked out. She was wearing a Doo-wops and Hooligans shirt and a pair of jeans. She stood sideways looking at her stomach. “Hmm….” she said out loud walking out the door.

“Iselllaaa…” Jaime came running up to her in tears. Isela returned her hug listening to his sister cry. Her sons were behind her with red eyes.  Jaime pulled away from Isela looking her over. “Oh honey….oh my gosh….are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. It just grazed my arm…but I had to get stitches because the glass that was on the floor…” Isela pulled up her wrapped arm to show his older sister.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“He’s in surgery…they said he should be okay.” Isela answered.

“It was in his stomach and the other one… was in his shoulder…” she told Jaime.  “He could have bled to death…”Isela was incredibly held together until she started to talk about his state before he got to the hospital. “It was horrible…there was blood all over the place, Kay-Kay…” she used her sister-in-law’s nickname as she started to cry even more.  “I don’t know what I will do…..”

“Don’t even say that, Selly. Please.” she told her. They sat down not talking for the next 30 minutes. Isela even fell asleep on her brother’s shoulder for a few minutes.

“Iselaaa…wake up.” Max shook her out of her half dreaming state.

“Huh, what?” she asked.

“Dr. Young….” Isela said looking up at young female doctor. “How is he? Can we go see him?!” Isela asked.

“He’ll need some time to get back on his feet, but he’ll be okay.” she answered.

“Can we see him?” Jamie asked.

“Yes…come with me…” The doctor answered leading them upstairs.

“How are you feeling, Mrs. Hernandez?” Dr. Young answered.

“My arm hurts a bit. But I’m okay.” she shrugged as they walked out of the elevator.

“He’s off to the left…” Dr. Young let them in the room.

“Brunito?” Jamie asked.

“Brunz?” Isela leaned over Jamie;s shoulder to see him laying in the bed with his hair matted on the pillow.

“Your hair is a mess, baby.” Isela said running her uninjured hand through his messy hair.

“But my gunshot wound..it makes it all better.” he smiled at her.

“You only have 8 more shots to beat,Fifty..” Jamie told him coming to the other side of his head.

“My two got nothing on him.” Bruno laughed.

“I’d rather you have none…” Isela responded.

“Babbyy…your arm…” he touched the cotton wrapping around her arm.

She shrugged her head looking more concerned about him. “I’ll survive.” she answered him. “But I’m sure you really hurt…” she said touching his face to comfort him.

“It does hurt.” he said looking at her.

“What can I do to make you feel better?” she asked him.

“Just stand right there so I can fall asleep thinking of your pretty face.” he answered.

“Oh my god, Bruno. You are so fucking cheesy.” Jamie told him headed towards the door.

Isela laughed at the reaction.

“I’m glad your okay, Bruno.” Isela said sitting in the cushy chair next to him.

“Why did you get out of bed, Sel?” he asked looking at her.

“I thought it was you..” she told him.

“But I always yell at you when I come in…” he told her.

“I know you do. I thought you were screwing with me.”

“I wouldn’t do that when it’s that late, Isela.” he told her squinting as he moved his hand to touch her.

“I wasn’t going to get up until I heard the second noise…” she told him.

“Oh…” he tried to comprehend her actions. “Don’t do that again…” he told her.

“I won’t. I won’t.” she kissed him on the cheek laying her head on his god shoulder.

“Isela…?” he asked her.

“Yeah?”

“I like your shirt.”