Joseph

I could hardly breathe. My lungs felt like they had collapsed ever since I got that call from Ruben telling me that the house was under siege. My feet moved under me on auto pilot while my brain ran in a hundred directions. I raced myself down the stairs to get to the car.

I threw the door open and it seemed like the car was moving before I could get it closed again. I weaved in and out of the traffic at a dangerous rate. I didn't bother to check just how fast I was going. It didn't matter. I got to the house 15 minutes faster than it would have normally taken me.

I was under gun fire the moment I opened the door. I ducked my head back behind the door. This was wasting precious time. My rage peaked. I let out a loud growl of frustration. I aimed and shot at the men standing conveniently out in the open in front of the door. Their bodies instantly dropped to the floor. I kicked them out of the way and opened the door. By then the men that had accompanied me to the office had caught up to me. My men and I moved into and effortless formation and mowed down everybody that wasn't a part of our family.

I lead the group down the halls moving quickly as to get to my dear pregnant wife before something happened to her. We got to the hallway that lead down to the basement. That was the first time I had sucked in a big gulp of air in the last thirty minutes. I gasped loudly as Jessica was shot in the chest for the second time while she kneeled over her dead best friends body.

I lifted my gun and shot Stefan once in the back. His body arched as the bullet lodged in his spine. "I hope you go to hell." I said and then pulled the trigger once more.

I dropped the gun in front of me and bolted to the spot on the ground where the one person in this world that I loved lie dying.

"Get an ambulance here!"

I fell to my knees beside her and replaced her hand with mine on her chest trying to keep her precious blood in her body. She was so young. Too young.

"You don't quit on me ok." I whispered loud enough for her and no one else to hear. I placed my hand on the baby bump on her stomach. "You don't quit on us. An ambulance in on the way." I held the overwhelming urge to sob in while my men were standing right in front of me, but seeing her on the verge of death was something that almost broke me to my very core.

"I won't quit." She whispered and a single tear slipped from her eye. "I won't quit." She said a little quieter and then her eyes slipped shut.

"No no. Hey open your eyes. Keep your eyes open baby, open your eyes." I said getting louder with each word. I sucked in a breath of air and picked her up in my arms. I shut out the part of my that wanted to panic and cry, and focused on the part that was smart. The part that made the right decisions. I dashed down the halls to get her to the front door. There was no way that the paramedics would find her in this maze and she needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible if she wanted any chance of living.

Seconds later they arrived, jumping out of the back, a gurney being rolled along behind them. They took her from my arms placing her on the gurney. Patches of gauze were placed over the wound. Almost simultaneously the pure white color was turned red.

I went to follow her into the back of the ambulance only to find a hand pushing on my chest, keeping me out. "Mr. Copland we don't have any room in here for you to come. Now we don't have any time to waste. Follow behind us." He said and shut the door in my face.

"That little.." I cursed him out and rushed into the car Matthias was waiting for me. "Step on it Matthias. You follow right behind them."

We raced all the way to the hospital tailgating the ambulance. When we got there the doors were thrown open and the doctors were already there waiting for Jessica when she was lowered down from the truck. People were shouting and yelling orders at each other. Using words that didn't make any sense to me but I prayed they knew what they were talking about. If they didn't there would be people dead by they end of the night.

I moved to follow them into the operating room but for the second time I was held back. My jaw clenched.

But I put my hands up and stepped back. They needed to be helping my Jessica. If I was preventing them from doing that I would back off. They nodded and hurried into the room.

I slumped down into a chair in the lobby where everyone else seemed to be waiting for their loved ones while they were having some sort of operation. I dropped my head in my hands. How had this happened. I racked my brain trying to thing of any security flaws that we had in the mansion.

Mathias sat beside me and placed his hand on my back.

"How did this happen Matthias? How did they get in? I just don't get it." I whispered and shook my head.

"It was like an army trying to function without its general. They just didn't know how to work together on their own." I lifted my head out of my hands and looked at him sorrowfully.

"So you're saying it's my fault. You're saying that if I had been there that the love of my life and first child wouldn't be in that operating room fighting for their lives." For the first time tears began to fall from my eyes. They could die. The two people that I held most dear might be taken from me.

"No Joseph. No. Of course not. There might not have been anything you could have done differently. From what I understand it all happened so fast. There was no time to organize anything. I honestly don't think that you could have done anything." Matthias tried to tell me but the guilt of this being me fault still ate away at my soul. If they died I don't know that I'd ever be able to forgive myself. I would be a shell of the man I once was.

We sat in silence. For hours with no word. I didn't know if that was good or bad. I held onto the hope that it meant that neither of them were dead. Finally a woman dressed scrubs came and sat down in front of the two of us. I looked up at her. I could only imagine what I looked like. Covered in blood, my hair disheveled, and my eyes blood shot.

"Mr. Copland?" She asked. I nodded once in response. "Your wife in in the operating room still, the cardiovascular surgeons are working at repairing the damage inflicted when the bullet entered the chest. It just missed the heart, but there is significant repair that needs to be made to the lungs. We have some of the best cardiovascular surgeons in the country here and they are going to do the best that they can." She paused I just stared to her.

"Go on." I persisted. "What about the baby."

"That's one of the reasons i needed to come out here. I don't know that we can save both your wife and the baby. Taking him out right now could result in your wife going into cardiac arrest on the table. If we leave him in it is a serious risk to the baby's life." She waited a minute for me to process what she had said. "I need you to make a decision. We will do our very best to save them both but we need to know which course of action to take. Do you want us to take the baby out?"

I stared at her blankly. How was I supposed to make this decision? Between my wife and my child. I already loved them both with all my heart. I glanced at Matthias. He was already looking at me.

"What do I do Matthias. I don't know what to do." He shook his head.

"I can not make this decision for you."

I watched him for some time longer.

"Her." I whispered. I stood up and grabbed her by the shoulders. "You do everything you can to keep them both alive but if you have to make a choice. Save her." I looked her dead in the eyes to make sure she understood. She nodded, her eyes wide. I nodded and let go of her slumping back down into the chair. We were again engulfed in silence. Everyone in the room was watching me.

After a couple more hours Matthias had fallen asleep in his chair. I sat wide eyed. Waiting for them to come out with Jessica. This was taking an awfully long time I thought to myself. Not a moment later a little cart was wheeled down hall doctors rushing behind it holding oxygen masks to its face. I sucked in a breath of air and jumped up from me seat. Was that my son?

I ran after them. Sprinting to catch up. They wheeled him into the nick unit and began doing all different kinds of procedures on the boy I thought might be mine. Matthias appeared my my side a moment later.

"Is he yours?" He asked quietly while we watched through the widow.

"I don't know." I whispered back. "But if he is, he's alive." I turned to Matthias. "That means Jessica is alive too right." He looked skeptical but slowly nodded.

"I suppose so." I raced back down the hall just in time to see the exhausted doctors rolling my beautiful Jessica from the operating room.

"Is she ok? Is she alive?" I demanded as I looked over her body.

"Yes." On of the men said. "Your wife and child are both alive. I don't know how, but they are."