Here comes chapter 2. Yeah, chapter 2! Woo-hoo!

By the way, I did some editing to chapter 1. I just felt something needed to be added in, so go back and read the new and improved chapter 1 if you like!

Chapter 2: Brandi

Brandi walked into the room to see her mother sitting on the couch, her head in her hands. She walked over to her and saw the phone sitting next to her. She put her arm around her mother and picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked.

"Brandi?" came Stan's voice through the phone.

"Yes," said Brandi.

"It's Stan. Brandi, something terrible's happened." He paused. "Mary's been shot."

Brandi felt like she couldn't breathe. "She's on her way to the hospital now."

"Thank you," Brandi managed. "We're on our way." Oh, God, no, she thought. Not Mary. Please, not Mary. She knew she had to hold together for her mother. After all, someone would have to drive to the hospital, and she sure couldn't do it if she was sobbing. She knelt down in front of her mother to look her in the eye. The distraught mother met her gaze. "Mom," she said, "I know this is hard, but Mary needs us now. We have to get to the hospital, OK?" She was struggling against everything inside her to hold together for her mother.

"OK," her mother whispered back, standing up and heading for the door. "But we need to tell Raph, too."

Brandi helped her mother up so she could get her jacket. Then she headed down the hall to Raph's room. She knocked twice and called out, "Chico?" She heard movement from inside, and then the door opened to reveal a shirtless Raph. He had just gotten out of the shower after a long day of selling cars.

"Brandi?" He immediately looked concerned at the look of fear and desperation on Brandi's face. "What's wrong?"

She barely stifled a sob before saying, "Mary's been shot." With that, she broke down and put her arms around Chico for support. He stood there in shock, holding the sister of his now dying fiancée.

--

They walked into the waiting room and saw Stan and Marshall sitting there. The look on Marshall's face was enough for Brandi. She started crying again. "Oh, oh, no!" she sobbed.

"She's alive," Stan assured them. "She's in surgery."

"What happened?" asked her mother, sounding desperate.

"We're still trying to sort it out," was Stan's reply. "All I know right now is she was shot in the abdomen."

Brandi was torn apart. "Did they get the guy who did this?"

Stan looked at Brandi with almost fatherly concern when he told her, "Not yet. But we will. I promise."

Chico put his hands on both women's shoulders and walked them toward the chairs while Stan continued to talk to Marshall. Brandi barely even heard Chico when he told her to sit down. How was he holding together when the woman he was supposed to marry was somewhere in this hospital, possibly dying?

--

It had been a while since they had been moved to the other waiting room. She had been ignoring everything around her. She had heard the conversation between Chico and the Hispanic woman like she was listening from another room. She had snapped out of her stupor for a moment when the doctor came in to report on her sister's condition, but then she sank back into it. She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice when her mother and Marshall left the room.

How could this have happened? How could Mary be dying? How could her big sister, the one who had always been there for her, suddenly not be there? Her whole world was collapsing around her. Mary had been the only constant throughout her life, the only one who would always help her, could always fix things, no matter what. What would happen if suddenly she wasn't?

Mary walked over to her five-year-old sister and put her arm around her. Brandi was crying. "What's wrong?" Mary asked.

"Th-the m-m-monsters!" she whimpered. "They're – they're under my bed!"

"It's OK," said Mary. "I know how to get rid of them." Mary ran off to her room. When she came back a moment later, she was clutching a little brown teddy bear. "Here," she said, handing him to her sister.

"You – you're giving me Biscuit?" she asked, her tear-filled eyes shining in five-year-old wonder. "But –"

Mary cut her sister off. "He'll stay up all night and watch over you while you sleep. He'll keep the monsters away."

Brandi took the bear and clutched it to her chest. She looked up at her big sister. She didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes was enough. "You're welcome," said Mary, and she headed off to bed.

Where was Biscuit now? Where was Mary's protection? How was Mary supposed to survive when she had already given everything she had to protect everyone else? Brandi was beyond noticing the tears that rolled down her face.

--

Still in a state of numbness, Brandi sat there doing a crossword. At least she could do something to occupy the tiny part of her mind that wasn't crashing and burning over and over again. God, what was going on? This was so messed up. Her sister, her protector, was lying alone and unconscious in a hospital bed while she sat there with her mother and doing a crossword. Chico was sitting there looking almost bored. He barely looked interested in what was going on. Meanwhile, Marshall looked like it was his fiancée lying in there with a bullet in her stomach. Why was her world turning upside-down?

Mary, she thought, please pull through this. Please. Please. You can't leave us here. You can't leave me, Mary. You need to come make this all make sense. We need you. I need you. More than you know.