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You take a deep breath that seems to incinerate your lungs and sends a shot of pain through your side.
This wasn't the way things were supposed to be. You should be at home curled up in your bed with Frank pressed against your back. Not this. You couldn't even recall what had happened. Only a dark terrifying blackness where your memory of what had led you here should be.
The cool surface of the ground underneath your cheek was welcoming and soothed the painful ache on your bruised skin and you blink slowly trying to force the thick fog from your mind. It was dark. Not pitch black but dark enough to scare you. It was cold, wet, and very painful.
Loud noises were heard and you knew what they were. you knew they were shouts but for the life of you, you couldn't comprehend what they meant. your mind was so jumbled that all you could make out were distorted deep echoing voices.
You just wanted to go back. Go back to yesterday morning when you were in Franks' arms, his lips pressing against the back of your neck, his body flush against yours.
You just want to go back.
Suddenly gunfire breaks out and your tired eyes snap open.
"Here's our boy," a voice breaks the silence in the room before screams and shattering glass rip through the air and a familiar gravely shout rips through the air.
"Russo!"
A fleeting and distant memory seemed to tug at the corner of your mind.
Russo...
Then it comes back. Billy Russo.
Frank had told you about him one night when a whiskey bottle found its way to his hands. Russo had been his best friend, his brother, only for Frank to discover the most painful betrayal he had ever experienced.
Frank had cried that night as he talked about Billy, talked about Maria, his kids. They had talked about everything and anything until the sun rose the next morning you both were exhausted.
"I knew you'd show, Frankie!" Billy's voice shouted and your body automatically flinched.
Another round of bullets echoed through the room as Franks angry shouts came closer.
Briefly closing your heavy eyes your chest expanded with another painful breath and your head lifted from the ground and you searched the darkened room for your captor but you didn't have to look far when a figure crouched down in front of you and a scarred smiling face leaned over you.
"Hello there, princess," he grinned.
Your head fell back against the concrete and your throat seized in a painful coughing fit. A metallic tang coated your lips and rolled down the side of your face before you tried your best to glare at him.
"Go to hell!" you croaked and inhaled sharply when his hand wrapped around your throat.
"That's not very nice," he sneered before a loud noise grabbed his attention and he snapped his attention upward and over you. He gave a laugh and tilted his head to the side. "Right on time, Frankie."
"You son of a bitch, you let her go," Frank growled.
"Come on Frankie, you know the rules. People don't just give their hostage away for nothing!"
"What do you want, huh? What else you want from me?"
"A lot of things. You betrayed me."
"Guess I learned that from you, huh?" Frank's voice tapers off to almost a whisper.
"Maria and the kids... that wasn't personal."
"It was personal to me," he all but whispers.
"And this is personal to me! How 'bout I shoot her in the head right in front of you. Not like you haven't been through it before I'm curious to see how you'd handle it again!" Russo shouted angrily his gun coming to rest against your face.
You flinch.
"Hey!" Frank shouts and you glare at Russo.
"You stupid piece of shit!" you spit and attempt to tilt your head up to see Frank but your vision swims and you grimace. Billy chuckles.
"You girl is gonna get herself killed, Frank."
"I'll kill you," Frank promises lowly.
"Like you haven't threatened that before," Billy rolls his eyes.
Your head tilts back and you finally catch sight of him. Large and imposing with that familiar skull stretching across his chest with body spattered across his whole body. His almost black eyes stare at you, his jaw clenched and his throat works as he swallows thickly.
"Your gonna be okay," he almost whispers but you hear him and painfully you give him a nod that he quickly returns before his face goes hard and he stares at Russo.
"Russo-"
"No! You don't get to talk! Not after what you did!" He screams and his gun moves in little shaky movements. "Look at what you did to me!!!" he shouts and in his anger, his gun moves away from you and toward Frank.
On instinct, you use your body's momentum and slam your left arm across his wrist sending the gun clattering to the ground. You had to protect Frank.
Pain erupts in your side and you cry out and press your hand to your side as Frank gives a shout and you can hear his footfalls as he runs straight at Billy.
It's loud again. Grunts and groans. Fists hitting flesh. and loud screams of rage. Slowly you open your eyes and try to find Frank in the room as heavy panting escapes your bleeding lips. your eyes dart around quickly and your heart thuds furiously in the confines of your chest as you see the scene just yards away. Frank on top of Russo, his fist coming down over and over again on his face.
Tears pricked behind your eyes as you forced your body to move, your hand reaches out to Frank and a long groan escapes you as the pain your side flares.
"Frank..." you cough.
The noises stop for just a moment before a single shot rips through the silence and then he's there.
"Hey, hey, hey... your gonna be okay."
"Frank," you cry and you hear him on the phone now
"Curt, man, get in here, now!" he snaps and there's a pause before you quickly hear him rattle of an address and that there's been a woman hurt to someone else.
You claw at his arm and try to press yourself closer to him. You just want him. He is safe.
"Shh, it's okay. You're gonna be okay," he whispers as his forearms rest on each side of your head as he leans from the side to hover over you. He threads one hand through your hair and his face rests next to yours, his forehead against the ground next to you. "Shhh," he hushes you.
"I..." you cry and wince. "I wanna go home, Frank... I wanna go home," you say almost desperately as your fingers weakly grip him. Afraid that if you close your eyes you'll never see him again. That you'll wake back up without him.
You just want to go back to that morning. Go back to his arms.
You want to go home.
"You will. We will." he nods and another body is beside you now and you feel burning hot pain erupt over your side. Frank pulls back but he still leans protectively over you.
"He stabbed her man," Curtis says quickly before pressing his hands firmly on your side.
Faintly you can hear sirens but you ignore them and turn your face to Frank.
"Please, I wanna go home," you repeat your eyes wide and you gasp as the pressure Curtis places on your side.
Frank's face morphs into pain and his head falls to your chest.
"We're goin' home. Shhh," his voice rumbles against your chest and his hand grips yours. "Shhh, we're goin' home..."
"Fra....nk..." you slur as the room dims.
You hear your name falling from his lips in repetition but you fall into darkness and feel nothing.
--
You wake quickly. It's not like in the movies where it's slow and dreamlike. It's loud and bright even in the silent room when you suddenly snap your eyes open. Your side throbs with a dull ache and your face is slightly uncomfortable.
Your room is average. A light gray paint job the standard clock and two windows. You see your doctors name and your name followed by 'Castiglione' written on a small white board under the hanging television and a small stuffed pit bull on the window seal.
You don't move. You're afraid to. Afraid the pain from before will come back if you do. But you don't have to because Frank is there like always ready to do anything for you.
"Hey," Frank whispers as he leans over you and brushes your hair aside with his bandaged fingers. "You scared the shit outta me."
He looks tired and pained. The purple splotches that litter his face make your hand involuntarily reach up and hover an inch or so over the discolored skin.
"I'm fine," he shakes his head. "I'm more worried about you, girl,"
"I'm alive," you whisper and his fingers lace with yours.
"Yeah," he sighs and presses his lips lightly against your bruised cheekbone a moment before he pulls back. "I almost lost you..." the admission is so quiet and his eyes almost glitter black.
You run your fingers through his hair, careful not to pull on the iv out. "I'm here. You're here."
"I can't lose you," he's a little louder this time and his dark eyes are locked onto yours.
"You won't."
He leans down and rests his head next to yours but neither of you looks away.
It's quiet a long moment as you both just stare at each other only interrupted by small little touches as if to make sure you were both there and you weren't dreaming.
You don't ask questions about Billy and you don't ask what happened before you woke up. All you want is to go back to that king sized bed with cheap dollar store sheets and wrap yourself in his arms.
You tilt your head to the right just enough for your lips to graze the bridge of his nose before you pull back and give him a watery smile.
"I wanna go home."