| It Only Takes a Moment It's a cold evening in front of Kelly's and Gia approaches to go in when she sees Hannah having what seems like an intimate moment with AJ. She stops and decides to see what's going on, not knowing the problems that her brother and Hannah have been having... "Excuse me! Hannah, do you know where my BROTHER is? And shouldn't you be with him right now?!" Before Hannah could get a comment out, Gia continues... "Ya know, he'd be real interested to know that his girlfriend is two-timing him behind his back!" "Gia, you don't know what you're talking about, and I don't think it's any of your business!", Hannah harps back at her. None of them notice Larkin lurking back around the corner. "Whatever!" Gia snaps, as she turns to go into Kelly's, Larkin jumps out from around the corner and takes shots at Hannah, AJ and Gia. Just as he disappears in the night, Taggert show up because he was to meet Florence here for some chili and finds the two people he cares about most lying on the cold ground. AJ is moaning and trying to get up off the ground, but has been hit in the leg and can't move. Taggert runs over to Gia first to see if she's alright, but she hadn't been hit. She wakes up from being passed out and says, "Marcus, I'm fine, it's Hannah". He whirls around to see Hannah, and she's been hit very badly. He scoops her up into his arms screaming "NOOO!!!" and tells Gia to run inside and call an ambulance, he doesn't want to let go of Hannah to radio Mac and the police. After the ambulance arrives and takes AJ and Hannah to the hospital, Florence arrives and finds the mess. After Gia explains what happens and Taggert questions her, they both insist she go to the hospital just to be checked out. She reluctantly agrees and Florence takes her. It's some time later, and Nikolas walks into Kelly's seeing all the police outside collecting evidence. Tammy's inside and when she sees Nikolas walking in, a sullen look comes over her face and Nikolas panics. "Is it Lucky, Elizabeth, Emily....oh my God, Tammy, please tell me what happened here tonight?!!", Nikolas shouts, on the verge of tears. "I don't know for sure, there were shots, and AJ, Hannah, and Gia...", but that's all she could get out, because when Nikolas heard Gia's name, he turned around and bolted out the door before Tammy could explain that Gia was fine. He jumped into the Jag and sped off toward the hospital. As he was racing to get there as fast as he could, he felt his heart pounding so hard he though it would leap from his chest. All he could think about were all the things he didn't say to her....the time he wasted when he could have just admitted his feelings....flashbacks of all the moments they shared together. Tears started sliding down his cheek, but he fought them back. "Please, God, please let Gia be alright! I'll do anything if you just let her be alright....I promise I'll never let another day go by without telling her just how I feel, how much I love her and can't live without her!" He finally reaches the hospital, jumps out and rushes inside. He finds Gia leaned over in a chair, with her mother sitting beside her. Taggert is across the hall looking through the window to a hospital room where Hannah's lying on life support. He feels all the fear wash away as he sees that she's ok and runs over to her. "Gia, are you alright?!" She looks up through tear-soaked eyes, her makeup running down her face. She stands up, and when she realizes it's really him standing there, she throws her arms around him and they stand in an embrace for a long time. It felt so good to both of them to just be holding each other right now. "It's Hannah...", Gia said. "She's been shot". "Is she ok?", Nikolas adds. "It doesn't look good", Florence replies, and then walks over to be with her son. "Please tell me your alright!" Nikolas whispers into her ear as he pulls her close again. "Yeah, I'm ok....you know me, bullet proof." "That's not even funny!" Nikolas shot back annoyed. He couldn't believe she was making jokes when she could've easily been killed! But she realized he wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Could you just take me home?" Gia asked. "Yes", Nikolas adds. They turn around, Nikolas places his arm around her waist and they walk over to Taggert and Flo to tell them they're leaving. "Take care of my baby, please Nikolas", Florence says to him. "I will, I won't let her out of my sight", Nikolas replies. And they go back to the cottage. The door opens to the cottage and they both walk in quietly. He grabs her hand and leads her over to the couch and they sit down. "Can I get you anything? Some of my juice?" he says half-jokingly. "Very funny rich boy, ya know I almost lost my life tonight, I think I deserve anything that's in that refrigerator!" "True, True..." Nikolas says with that sly smile on his face. Just then, the phone rings. Gia walks over and picks it up. "Hello? Yeah, mom, I made it home just fine. What? Oh my god, is Marcus ok? Oh, my god...", her voice trails off and she begins to cry, and hangs up the phone. Nikolas rushes over and catches her as she begins to sit down on the floor. By now she's sobbing into his chest and he's holding her and she's talking a mile a minute. He can barely make out what she's saying. "She's dead, she's dead and the last thing I said to her was so horrible, what did I do?!" Nikolas could feel her trembling and tried to calm her down. He wanted so badly to kiss her and make all of the horrible things that happened that night disappear. But he knew all she needed right now was for him to be there with her and hold her. He picked her up into his arms and carried her upstairs into her room. He gently laid her down on her bed and crawled there next to her, spooning her from behind. As she laid there crying, he put his arms around her and held her close until finally she fell asleep. When he realized she was fast asleep, he debated whether or not to leave when he decided that since he almost lost her tonight, he would lay there all night, holding her.....he whispers "I love you" into her ear. And then thanks God for letting her be alright. Gia opens her eyes and smiles, but then decides to close them again and go back to sleep in the arms of the man she loves, too. |