Jimmy circled around me with his fists up. A sadistic and cocky smile was on his face as he looked me in the eyes. I peered over to my friends who were confined by his guards. The roaring of the crowd was overwhelming in support for myself, and I knew I couldn't let everyone down. Today was the day that Jimmy would die.

I threw the first punch and with Jimmy's slow reflexes, he was unable to dodge it. I threw another jab, it connected but Jimmy retaliated with a swift uppercut. I stumbled back and spit out blood that filled my mouth. Jimmy laughed as I growled. One good punch and he was already glowing with expected victory but I wasn't going to let that happen.

As if I didn't just get the wind knocked out of me, I began dancing around Jimmy. Thankfully, I took a boxing class when I was younger. My footwork was clean and fast unlike Jimmy's. He was stronger but I was quicker and I was going to use that to my advantage. The game plan was to tire him out and then beat him to a pulp when he had no more energy left.

Jimmy threw a jab at me but it didn't connect. With frustration, he threw a few more which I steadily dodged. I threw my leg up and kicked him in the thigh before sending a gut-wrenching punch to his stomach. He kneeled over and grimaced. I was going to take the time to grab him and knee him the face but Jimmy tackled me to the ground.

I fell down with a thud and the crowd around us stepped back. Though my back was against the floor, I threw punches at Jimmy's face. I knew he had only tackled me to gain advantage and catch a breather but I wasn't giving him any breaks. I brought my knee up and kneed him the stomach. I pushed him off of me and got to my feet.

Jimmy tried his best to get back up on his feet but when he was hunched over, I kicked him in the face. He felt back on the ground as blood poured from his nose. He curled up on his side which granted him a kick to the stomach. I had this. His abdomen had to be killing him by now. I had formed a weak spot and all I needed was to take advantage of it.

"You're going to keep kicking me while I'm down or let me get up," he yelled to me as he laid flat on the ground. He slowly picked himself up off the ground. I decided to be fair. I had the upper hand and if I kept kicking Jimmy while he was down, everyone was going to think I was an unjust coward. When Jimmy got to his feet, he stood up straight and put up his fists.

Once again, I was cavorting around him and dodging every punch he threw. He was breathing heavily and every now and then, he'd grab his stomach in pain. A couple more punches and he was sure to be too exhausted to win. I expected Jimmy to try to punch me again, but this time he grabbed me and pulled me towards him. He headbutted me so hard that I got dizzy and lost control of my stance.

It was like he pulled me into a hug of some sort and then I felt something sharp inside my abdomen. I looked in Jimmy's face as he grinned menacingly. I heard people screaming about how something wasn't fair. My shirt felt wet and I was too scared to look down. For some reason, I couldn't do a damn thing but stare at Jimmy as I slowly fell to the ground. When I fell, Jimmy's bloody fists began crashing against my face. I could hear the awful noises of not only the punches but the reaction of the crowd. F-ck, I couldn't lose. This couldn't f-cking happen. Was I really going to go out like this? What about my friends? What about Delaney?

The punches kept coming, blow after blow. The more punches that came the less pain I felt and the less will I had to defend myself. Jimmy's punches got weaker and weaker as he became tired. The last thing I remembered was one last punch to the face and then everything got quiet. Really quiet. My vision became blurry and I blinked rapidly to try to make things clear again. I blinked one last time, but that time, I didn't open my eyes.

-

"Damn, you're such a bad girl." My eyes slowly fluttered opened under a vibrant light. My body was completely still and I felt like I couldn't move a muscle. I tensed up but calmed down once I heard the familiar voice again. "I can't wait until I get out of here. I'm going to f-ck you so good." What the f-ck? "Zoom in, let me get a closer look." I tried to turn my head toward the voice but I couldn't. There was a silence, and then I heard a woman moaning from a speaker. "Yeah, that's right, b-tch."

I tried to open my mouth to speak a word, but all I could do was let out a grunt. I used all of my energy to turn my head to the side to focus on where all the sexual noises were coming from. When I turned my head, I locked eyes with gleeful yet surprised blue ones. "Sh-t, gotta go! My friend just woke up from a coma! Bye, b-tch!" Leo hung up the phone and sat up as fast as she could. There was a bandage on her shoulder, but she managed to sprint over to me.

I looked around my surroundings more. I was hooked up to quite a few machines and I wasn't wearing a shirt. There was a bloody bandage wrapped around my stomach which hurt terribly. Actually, everything hurt. I closed my eyes, somewhat wishing I would go back to the coma state I was supposedly in. I wasn't even sure what happened. How did I get here? I fought Jimmy, but did I lose? Did I win? Why am I alive? The only thing I knew for sure was where I was at: the Atrium.

One of the many places where professional doctors and surgeons hired under the Family, helped treat gang victims such as myself and Leo recover. This one was ran by just one talented young guy, Shawn. He took care of me when I first got shot and threw many other minor injuries.

"She's awake! She's awake," Leo screamed as loud as she could towards the door. She quickly turned back towards me and put her hands on my arm. "Are you okay?! How are you feeling, buddy? Are you hot? You've been burning up. You had a really bad fever the other day." The other day? How long was I out?

Delaney, Lin, Rafael and Shawn came running in after Leo's announcement. I had never been so happy to see my friends in my life. They had all survived!?! Delaney survived too! But how, what happened? "I leave for five minutes and you finally f-cking wake up! You had me worried sick," Delaney told me as she grabbed my hand tightly. Her eyes were teary but she had a huge smile on her face. "How are you feeling?"

I squeezed her hand tightly as I tried to find words to speak. For some reason, I had lost track of any vocabulary. I could think, but it wouldn't come out of my lips. I furrowed my eyebrows and groaned. "Hey, it's okay," she told me gently as she kissed her forehead. "It may take some time, okay? We're all here for you."

Shawn, who was checking all my machines, looked from me to my friends. "She had a concussion that led to a weeklong coma. It's going to take a while for her to get normal function of ligaments and vocal capabilities. But, she'll be okay. Her vitals are great, the stab wound to the stomach is healing well. She'll be fine," he encouraged my friends. I was out for a f-cking week!? What the f-ck!? A whole week of my life was gone, just like that!

"F-ck," I finally opened my mouth to say something. Thank God, I wasn't going to be a mute for the rest of my life.

Rafael chuckled as he looked down at me. "You know, I'm not even surprised that's your first word coming out of a seven-day coma."

"What...happened? Jimmy, he...what happened," I asked with confusion. For some reason, everyone looked towards Delaney as if it was her duty to tell the story. Delaney bit her lip and looked down at me as if she was trying to gauge her options. "Is everything okay," I asked slowly.

"It's a long story, Andy. I don't know if you can even handle it in the condition that you're in," she told me honestly.

"I can handle it," I told her as I closed my eyes. The light was a little bit too bright for me at the moment. "Tell me what happened."

"Well, mid-fight, Jimmy pulled out a knife. He stabbed you in the stomach and he got you pretty good. You were bleeding all over the place and he was punching you like crazy. He punched you until you were unconscious and I thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead. In the moment, I was rushed with a lot of emotions. I know you told me not to hold my gun in my pants like you, but I did. Before I knew it, I pulled it out and I put a bullet through Jimmy's skull. His little crew didn't know what to do. They looked at each other for a while. Some ended up leaving and the ones that didn't bowed down and so did everyone else. Supposedly, since I killed Jimmy, I'm the new head honcho."

As f-cked up and crazy everything was and as bad I felt for Delaney for having to kill Jimmy by her own hand, the odds were hilarious. I laughed but quickly stopped when I felt pain arise from my abdomen. She rolled her eyes at me and laughed softly. "I had a feeling you would laugh at that."

"It was so badass," Leo confessed.

"You didn't even witness it, dumbass! As soon as Andy went unconscious, you fainted like a little b-tch," Rafael called out.

Once again, I laughed and regretted it instantly. I couldn't believe Leo actually f-cking fainted because she thought I was dead. How sweet of her. "In my defense, I had lost a lot of blood so that was another major factor in the fainting, it wasn't just because I thought Andy was dead! Plus, I didn't have to see what was going down to understand how badass Delaney was! She had a gun aimed at the back of her skull and was quick enough to kill Jimmy before anyone could retaliate. That's legendary."

"Delaney is a hero, dude. Not only did she save your life, but she saved all of ours," Lin agreed as she patted Delaney's back.

I smiled as I looked at Delaney who was blushing with modesty. "It was no biggie. I'm just glad Andy is awake to set things straight. As soon as she gets better, I'm passing the torch to her because I'm tired of playing 'mom' to a bunch of f-cking gangsters."

"Hey, guys. Can I talk to Delaney alone," I requested after a few minutes of my friends going back and forth about how awesome Delaney's actions were. They really were cool and she deserved some kind of reward for what she did, but I wanted to make sure she was okay. Killing someone was never an easy feat, especially your first kill.

The room slowly dispersed and when the door closed, I sighed deeply. "How are you feeling," she asked me. I had never answered her when she asked me the same question earlier.

"Hot. My stomach is really sore. It almost feels like it's on fire. My brain hurts every time I talk. It's hard to focus, but I'm alive. I'm alive thanks to you."

"We got to get you up and walking. I'll let you rest today but tomorrow I'm getting you out of this bed."

I smiled slowly. "You're such a mom right now. Speaking of mom, do my parents know?"

"They do. They came to visit but it was just too much to bear for them. I told them that I'd keep them updated. I have to let them know you're awake. Do you have enough pain medicine? If you're uncomfortable just let me know. Your wound is almost healed, give it a few days and you should be as good as new."

"I'm fine. Am I ugly? I feel like Jimmy reconstructed my face with his fists."

Delaney giggled. "You're always ugly."

"Ha-ha, very funny."

"The first couple of days, your face was really swollen. You almost didn't look like yourself but you're basially back to normal now. Just a few scratches, here and there, you're lucky because you were unconscious for so long, a lot of your injuries healed. You're going to have some long-lasting effects though. Shawn was telling me about some concussion victims and how they go through sh-t every day for the rest of their lives from headaches to forgetting things, but I'll be here for you and so will your friends."

"Please, you're going to leave me for Drake as soon as I forget your birthday next year." Delaney rolled her eyes at me and lightly pressed down on my stomach. I whimpered and she laughed.

"Keep f-cking with me and I'm going to reopen your f-cking wound."

"No, but seriously, Delaney, thank you for what you did. I know it wasn't easy for you to pull that trigger, maybe it was in the moment but I know after...shooting someone can do some f-cked up sh-t to you. When I first shot someone, I vomited and didn't touch a gun for a week. I'm so sorry that you had to do something graphic and disturbing like that, darlin'."

Delaney brought my hand up to her lips and kissed it. "I did what I had to do. I don't regret anything. It was a horrific sight, seeing the bullet go through his head and blood and brains all over the place but I don't regret it. He was a horrible f-cking person. He deserved it." Delaney seemed like she genuinely didn't feel any remorse for what she did, but I knew it still had an effect on her. It had to.

"Just know that I'm here now. I'm awake and if you want to talk about it then you can."

There was a brief knock on the door before Shawn came sauntering in with that friendly smile on his face. He was a such a nice guy. I trusted him with my life even though he didn't formally go to medical school. He was in his mid-twenties but I swear he knew more than any professional doctor that worked in a hospital. "Just wanted to check up on you and give you some ground rules now that you're awake." I raised up an eyebrow at Shawn. Rules?

"Next two days, you're doing bedrest. We're going to slowly work on moving those muscles in bed. We're going to get you accustomed to walking around and no matter how stupid you think it is, we're going to make you practice reading to get your brain back on track. I'm sure Delaney can help with all of that. After those two days, you should go on some walks, get used to walking again. Once everything is fine and dandy, and somewhat working how they used to, you can return to work two weeks later."

"What the f-ck? That's like three weeks. I doubt Delaney wants to be head honcho for three weeks. I need to be back at work by tomorrow."

Shawn laughed at me as if I told him a joke. "No way that's possible. I know you love the Family and you love to work, but I suggest you let Delaney hand over the head honcho positions to either Rafael, Leo or Lin until you get better and then you can take the positon. For now, you need to focus on the road to recovery."

"He's right, Andy. I can help you get back on your feet and maybe you should let me just give the position to one of your friends. Then they'll give it to you when you're ready."

I could argue against the doctor's orders all day, but I couldn't argue against Delaney's. They were somewhat right anyways. How was I going to be head honcho when I could barely move or speak properly? I had to choose between my friends who got the position until I was ready and honestly, the decision wasn't hard. Lin wasn't going to take it because it'd take too much of her time. She was a newlywed and wanted to be with her wife most of the time. Leo was way too hotheaded and not rational enough to hold a leadership position. But Rafael, he was just right. He was levelheaded and didn't have any commitments other than the Family.

"Fine. You have to formally announce that Rafael is the new head honcho until I get better at the main clubhouse. Word will spread and everything will fall into place."

-

How do you feel about Delaney having to kill Jimmy?

Do you think Andy can get better enough to take the position of head honcho?