Anticipation and Promises

Melodie made a swiping gesture and the dust from the explosion decented instantely after that she let down the bubble. She stood up carefully seeing the rubble separting her and Ali from the teen. She looked at Ali who had ran up and down to check on the boy to make sure he was still fine, which he was.
"Ali can you tell if her heart is still beating from here?" she asked when Ali was besides her again.

Like Elisabeth Mercedes was coughing, she held her sleeve over her nose and mouth to filter the dust. When the teenager told them to come out Mercedes had an idea. She was here to fight vampires and appareantly angels but she was a human, like them.
"Don't shoot," she yelled out between coughs, "I'm human, I swear. I'm being held captive by the vampire who lives in this appartment. Please help me."

Ali might be able to pick up a little bit of the teenagers heart-beat, though it'd probably be muffled. The teenagers hadn't seen a cave collapse coming after all, and thus had one or two heavy rocks landing on top of her, knocking her out. She has a serious risk of being dead before anyone can reach her.


In the mean time, on the other side of the castle, the human girl called Amber found herself hessitating for a moment. Was this woman really a captive of the vampires? She quickly realised though, that she didn't give a crap. Grinning victoriously she replied: "well then, don't worry lady! I'll put you out of your missery soon enough!"

Amber aimed the gun at Mercedes.

Estella came running out of the bathroom, shouting: "mom!"

Elisabeth made a jump for Amber and the guns.

Sir Axel came jumping out from behind, giving Amber's head a quick, sharp pull - in doing so not only breaking her neck but snapping her head clear off.

In her last moment, Amber fired her gun, aimlessly.

Ali nodded at Melodie after a few moments, hearing the faint beating of an unconscious and failing heart. She recognised the rhythm from her time in the assylum. Melodie took a deep breath, clapped her hands and then seperated them slowly with that also slowly spreading the rubble until there was a small passage. Once that was done and stable she ran through it and checked on the girl. Admittedly she was very bad at healing things, but she tried anyway. In the meantime Ali ran back to the boy to keep him in the loop of what had just happened.

Mercedes swore under her breath when the teen told her she would take her out of her misery. She pulled her gun and was about to take aim when the bathroom door opened and Estella running towards her. Then Elisabeth running towards the teen and Mercedes jumped up and went to stand before Estella. When Sir Axel came in and knocked the teens head clear off she was extra glad that she was blocking Estella she hadn't wanted her to see that. But then the gun went off and bullets went flying across the room. Turning around grabbing Estella she let herself fall down onto the floor, but she wasn't fast enough.
A loud scream sounded from Mercedes as a stray bullet found it's way into her upper arm, getting stuck there. She grabbed her arm the second she had fallen onto the floor, letting out another scream, tears starting to run down her face.

After all the digging, Melodie would finally find the girl. She'd been knocked unconcious, which was a great leap of luck, as her entire chest was strapped with more explosives which could be set off with one snap of an attached cord. The girl still had a gun in her hand, of which the arm lay in an unusual angle, as did her left leg. Fortunatly - sortoff - there wasn't much blood involved.

Meanwhile the boy was relieved to find Ali running back at him. He smiled (though only a tiny little bit) at her at first, but then looked confused and scared when no one else came; "what happened?" he asked in a small voice.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Elsewhere in the Palace, not far away, the situation was no less grimm. After snapping the armed girl's head off, Sir Axel sank down to his knees, physically as well as emotionally. He had a range of bullets, to the arm, shoulder and mostly his right wing.

Elisabeth, who was happy enough to be outside of the gunfire's range, quickly jumped up and looked around with wide eyes, uncertain whether to head for her husband or Mercedes.
"Go, help her," Sir Axel groaned at her, gesturing towards Mercedes with the one arm he wasn't using to support his weight.
Elisabeth nodded, and after another second of looking at him with big eyes, she hurried over to Mercedes.

Estella had meanwhile crawled over to her mother, by whos side she sat sobbing: "I'm sorry mom! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-" She quickly moved aside when Elisabeth came over, already feeling guilty enough without being in the way.

"Mercedes!" Elisabeth said, kneeling down besides her and trying to get a good look at her arm. "Is the bullet still in? Otherwise I can heal you."

Simultaneously Chrissy ran to Sir Axel, hugging his upper arm - his good arm that is - and pressing her face into his shoulder; "daddy!" she sniffed, "daddy, are you ok?"

The first thing Melodie did when she had found the girl and saw the explosives was snap the cord that connected them together. After that she removed the gun from the girls hand and put her arm and leg back into a natural position. She never had any healing training let alone any real lessons about the human body. The best thing she could think of was putting the same curse upon the girl, temporarely that is, that was also upon her. The curse that healed every single wound she would ever get when the pain started to subside. The only draw back was that the girl would regain consciousness after that as well. So Melodie took off the belt that she had been wearing and used it to tie the girls hands behind her back. Then taking a deep breath she whispered the words that would put the curse on the teen.

In the meantime Ali had kneeled down besides the bubble and smiled faintly at him. She wanted to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but as that wasn't possible she just placed a hand on it instead.
"Don't worry we're both fine," she assured him, "the girl threw a grenade or something alike and part of the hallway colapsed. Probably onto her as well... Melodie is checking up on her, probably trying to see if she can still save her before her heart gives out. What is your name by the way?"

A floor below there was another person in agony. She had tried to get herself to the hospital wing, but then the explosion had happened. A part of the ceiling collapsed there as well making for rough terrain. Blocking her way, the bullet wounds in her chest didn't allow her to make her away across it. Exhausted she slid down the wall and just hoped that someone would find her before she would loose too much blood.

During all of that Mercedes was laying on the floor of her quarters bedroom losing blood quickly. Her breathing was heavy and she was starting to get dizzy, but she refused to loose conciousness. She wanted to comfort Estella and tell her everything would be all right, but she needed to focus on trying to stabilize her breathing. So when Elisabeth asked her if the bullet was still in she only nodded her head.
When Chrissy had ran out of the bathroom Nicolas wasn't far behind. Only he didn't ran towards Sir Axel, he ran towards Estella. Putting his arms around her trying to comfort her where Mercedes wasn't capable.

When Ali came to see the boy with a faint smile, he got worried; didn't faint smiles usually mean something bad had happened? But then she said they were fine, and he smiled. "Ralph," he replied, "but everyone calls me Raffie." He smiled at her for a moment, about to ask Ali what her name was, when he realised something: "the two of you are ok?" he suddenly asked in a paniced voice, "what about Tara? Is she ok? She's the one with blond hair. Was it her back there??"

In the mean time, the girl called Tara woke up by Melodie's spell. Her eyes shot open, and wildly went from left to right, up and down, disoriented and paniced. When she saw Melodie, she immediatly clenshed her hand, expecting the gun to still be there. When she realised she was tied up, plus she found herself completely disarmed, she started screaming. It wasn't like calling out for anyone, or scared or pained, it was just a wild-abanodonned outcry.

Ralph heard her screaming eahcoing through the hallway, and pressed himself up against the bubble; "Tara?!"


Meanwhile, at the bloodbath...

Estella was glad Nicolas put his arms around her, and near-automically grabbed one of Nicolas' hands, queezing it tightly. She was muttering something under her breath, prayers, whilst not losing her mother out of her side.

In the meantime, Elisabeth sat by Mercedes, indecisive for a moment. She could try to heal it, she realised, but then the wound would heal with the bullet still inside her arm. Then again, with all the bloodloss, it was probably still the safer option; it'd be far less risky to have the docters take out a bullet from a healed arm then letting Mercedes bleed out any more!
"I'm going to try it!" Elisabeth said in a stable voice. She gently took Mercedes arm and put her hands on it, one on each side. Then she closed her eyes, focussing as hard as she could to let her gift do it's job. It wouldn't be pleasent, but the wound seemed to heal up reasonably. It wouldn't be all better again, but it would stop most of the bleeding.
"Now we get you to the hospital," she concluded. She turned to her husband: "Axel, can you open a heaven gate?"

To her surprise, Sir Axel shook his head; "I tried," he groaned, sounding very much exhausted and pained, "but it wouldn't work for some reason."
He noticed the worried look on his wife's face though, and managed to ask Mercedes; "didn't you have some extra first-emergency call function around here? Since you became human? So we canget medical help to come here?"

At that, Estella immediatly jumped up to hurry over to a small device near the nightstand. It looked like a walky-talky, it was usually rested on a loading-point stand, but had been knocked off by all the commotion. After finding the little device, she pressed the emergency button. Before the other side could even reply, she pressed the 'communication button' and starting shouting into the receiver (at which time a little bit of Valdez' genes finally started showing: "emergency! Get over here right now you cowards, and I mean NOW!!"

Ali was just about to answer that she didn't knew if it was Tara because she never saw the girls hair colour when the girl started shouting. Her head snapped up in the direction of the shouting, she also got up to her feet about to sprint to Melodie when she yelled: "Oh shut up, if it hadn't been for me you would be dead by now thanks to your stupid explosion."
Melodie pulled the girl to her feet and with a hand on her upper arm she walked with her over to Ali and Raffie. Once there she dropped the bubble as it was no longer needed.
"Ali can you check on Sir Axel while I reunite this one with the others?" she asked, letting Raffie decided whether he wanted to go along with Ali or with her to the rest of the group.

Nicolas joined his sister in prayer, but not being capable of only looking at their mom though. His eyes went from her to Chrissy and Sir Axel worrying about them as well.
Mercedes let out a groan when Elisabeth grabbed her arm and started healing the wound. It hurted quite a bit and she was glad when the wound was healed enough for now. A worried look came to her face when Sir Axel said that he couldn't open a heavengate, she was definately going to ask Valdez if he knew anything about that. She was just about to tell Elisabeth where the hospital beeper thingy was when Estella was already yelling into it. She couldn't suppress a chuckle at what she was yelling, she so was Valdez' daughter as well.

Tara stopped screaming when Melodie spoke to her, though she still kept moaning and groaning loudly afterwards. After being taken to Ralph, who was being released from his bubble, she gave him a disgusted glare; "traitor!" she hissed at him.
Ralph didn't reply, or even look at her. He just sighed, and gave Ali a begging look, as if to say; 'don't leave me alone?'
At the same time, the girl called Tara seemed to need every inch of self-restraint she possesed not to hurl herself at little Ralph.



A little while later, the medical team arrived at the quarters of Mercedes, Valdez and their children. Some seemed a little bewildered still, by all the commotion around, but when they saw the state Sir Axel and Mercedes were in, they quickly snapped into action. They first hurried to Sir Axel, but he quickly dismissed them, assuring they'd tend to Mercedes first. They seemed hessitant about that until he reminded them that Valdez would absolutely lose his mind if anything happened to her, afterwards they were quite lenient.

Mercedes was carefully put on a brancard, then moved to the hospital. Two emergency nurses took care of the children, first checking if they were ok, then asked Nicolas and Estella if they wanted to join their mom at the hospital. One remaining docter stayed behind to check on Sir Axel.

((and then I got nothing...))

Ali nodded at Melodie's requested and when she saw the look Raffie gave her she picked him up again and ran towards the quarters of Mercedes and Valdez. While Melodie took a slightly different path back down to the square holding Tara by her upper arm as she went.
As Ali ran through the hallway on the second floor she soon came by the rubble from the explosion. She increased her speed slightly and then with a few jumps was on the other side of it. Once there instead of continuing to run she came to an immediated halt and put Raffie down. She ran over to the slumped and by now unconcious figure in quite a pool of blood that sat by the wall, checking for a pulse.
"Robyn?" she said shaking her carefully when she felt a faint pulse, "Robyn wake up!"

Mercedes sat up a little, slowly, shortly after Estella had gotten of the walky talky. Thanking Elisabeth for the healing that she had done. The wound certainly didn't hurt as much as it did before and the fact that the bleeding had been decreased was especially great.
It still did hurt when the doctors arrived and put her on a brancard. She had wanted to argue that Sir Axel needed help before her, seeing as he had taken quite a few more bullets then her. But she didn't know a good argument against his Valdez comment so she just let it happen.
Nicolas immediately agreed to joining Mercedes at the hospital, knowing that Chrissy and Sir Axel where bound to end up there shortly after them anyway. Before leaving he gave Chrissy nonetheless a quick but firm hug.

Ralphi frowned a little insecurely when Ali put him down and moved over to the KO person nearby. He stood by silently, feeling very responsible for whoever this Robyn was being hurt, and didn't even dare being noticable.

Meanwhile, back at the square, Melodie would find the teens and Valdez still there, each in their own bubble as she left them. There had been a small shift in the attitude of the cult teens though; where they were taunting, violent and loudly rude previously, they had now been reduced to a bunch of quiet, scared and mentally raped group of outcasts. One had past out, two were sobbing, the rest was just sitting around rather lifelessly - all but one that is.
Valdez was, currently, having what looked like a staring contest with the one girl left standing, the one who wouldn't break despite his gift going to mind-fuck extremes. Neither one of them noticed Melodie coming.

Back at the Palace, Mercedes, Estella and Nicolas were on their way to the hopsital wing - Estella looking especially misserable. Mercedes was being tended to by two docters, having infuses put in and having sedation prepared. One of the nurses walked behind them, along with Nicolas and Estella, just to make sure they weren't alone.

Sir Axel was still back at Mercedes' and Valdez' quarters, being helped to his feet and on his way to the hospital by Elisabeth and the left-over nurse. He wouldn't be there for a while, though, considering the phase...

As a minute past without any response from Robyn Ali got more worried. She didn't really knew Robyn, but she did know she was Sir Axel's (adopted) daughter. And Sir Axel had saved her from Valdez back when she had only recently been turned into a vampire. So she felt like she owed him in some way. She looked at Raffie for a moment and then back at Robyn a torn look on her face.
"Raffie, I'm going to run over to the hospital wing to get help. Could you please stay here with Robyn in case she regains consciousness?" she asked, well practically begged, really hoping he would say yes, "And you don't have to worry I've never seen Robyn harm anyone without being provoked into it. And as she doesn't know you she'll won't harm you either, not that she's in any condition do to anything..."

As Melodie entered the square she raised a brow at the sight of Valdez having a staring contest with a teenaged girl. She knew of Valdez' gift and judging from the rest of the teens inside the bubble he had been keeping himself busy. She dropped the bubble around the teens and pushed the latest captive by the rest before snapping it back in place. After that she dropped the bubble that had been holding Valdez.
"If any of them are still alive and outside of this bubble, besides the boy that Ali had found that is, you may do to him or her whatever you want," she told him as she very much doubted there where still any, breathing, human teens with bad intentions outside of the bubble.

Mercedes just let it all happen, a few groans escaping her every now and then, especially when she got hooked up to infuses. She mainly just focussed on calming down and after that remaining calm.

When Ali asked him to stay with Robyn, Ralphi just stared at her with big, wide eyes. Finally he nodded, wordlessly. He turned to Robyn, though still keeping his distance, and looked at her doubtfully.

Meanwhile, at the square... As soon as his bubble was dropped, Valdez quit his staring and he rushed over to Melodie, very much violating her personal space; "Mercedes?! The kids?!" he demanded urgently, somewhere in between worried and outraged, barely capable of keeping himself from grabbing her by the collar.

Some medical stuff happening to Mercedes, after she's been sedated. Sir Axel just arriving at the medical wing, being supported on both sides.

Ali gave Raffie a thankful smile and then sprinted at top speed towards the hospital. Gasping for breath she arrived and was about to yell out that Robyn was seriously injured and needed medical help right NOW when she saw an injured Sir Axel just a few meters in front of her. The words died in her throat, but her mind still betrayed her.
While Ali was away Robyn showed no sign of living other then a decreasing pulse and shallow breathing.

Melodie didn't even blink when Valdez was suddenly in front of her. She wouldn't have stayed so calm if he hadn't kept his hands to himself though.
"We split up so I don't know," she answered him, "Ali and I took care of the female walking bomb there. Sir Axel went up to check on his and your family and Lady Victoria did the same for her family."

Seriously boiling with anger and frustration, Valdez was at a loss for words; "you..! Lowly, vacuous, misserable wretch!" was all he managed to get out through gritted teeth (it might seem like a lot already, but in comparsion to all he had racing through his mind, this was the short version, believe me) before he stormed off, to the Palace to find his wife and children.

Back at the hospital; Sir Axel was just about to have a lie-down in his hospital bed when Ali came running in, thinking disturbing thoughts. At that stage he straightened up immediatly again, looking Ali in the eye; "Robyn?"
Elisabeth was very aware of something being wrong, litterary pushed her husband back down again, then hurried over to Alil; "take me there!" she said in an urgent, worried voice.

Valdez' insults where sticks and stones for Melodie and just watched him leave before looking at the bubble with the teens wondering what they where going to do with them. Deciding to not leave business undone she started with taking the curse off of the female walking bomb. It stang a little that she could take it off of her, but not off of herself. The curse had a too strong hold on her for her to break it herself.

Ali bit her lowerlip when it became clear that Sir Axel had at least partially read her mind. She had so not wanted to upset him in the state he was in. When Elisabeth hurried over to her and asked well demanded her to take her to Robyn she just nodded. She turned around and started ranning again back to Robyn and Raffie.
Robyn's condition had worsened, slipping-into-a-coma-at-best worsened.

Angry beyond belief, Valdez stormed to the Palace. I can neither confirm, nor deny that everyone he met on the way there was speedily but resolutely injured in that process.

Shortly afterwards, Tara was being rid of her conviently placed curse. She cursed and tried to kicked at Melodie as she did, not being able to place the strange shift in feeling that went through her body.

At another side of the City Elisabeth found herself following Ali to find a seriously injuired Robyn. Her eyes big with worry and fear, she kneeled down next to her daughter and carefully put her hands on her, then shook her; "Robyn?"
Before even getting a reply she tried her healing gift, realising she'd already weakened it when she healed Mercedes. It would do a little though, at the least...

At about the same time, Valdez stormed into the hospital ward. By this time Mercedes was already passed out due to the sedation, being prepped for surgery to have the bullet removed from her arm. A nice, and probably wise development was that none of the docters dared to tell Valdez he wasn't allowed into the hospital unless he was dying - his expression hinted them to be smarter than that.
He finally turned to his children, asking in between gasps - from running so fast; "what's happened?"

Melodie let out a sigh as she looked at the teens in the bubble not knowing what to do with them. She wished she could discuss it with someone, but Sir Axel her main choice for that discussion hadn't returned yet making her worried something might have happened. Deciding that the teens could do no harm inside their bubble unless they started killing each other, but then too bad, and no one could hurt them from this side either. So she turned her back on them and went to the palace with magical increased speed.

Once Ali was back by Robyn she went to Raffie instead of Robyn. She would have wanted to go to Robyn, but she also very much didn't wanted to get in the way of Elisabeth. Ali put her hands on Raffie's shoulders while Elisabeth was checking on Robyn. She wasn't sure what she was doing, but she did hear Robyn's pulse increase somewhat and her breathing became more stable. It didn't look like Robyn was going to regain consciousness any time soon though.

Nicolas who was comforting Estella by hugging her looked up when their father crashed into the hospital. He opened his mouth to answer the question of what had happened, but wasn't sure how to answer immediately.
"Uhm... Elisabeth and Chrissy came in to our quarters and then shots where fired and then mom pushed us to your bedroom and put me and Estella and Chrissy into your bathroom. Then we heard an explosion and then mom said that she was human and that who ever it was shouldn't harm her because of that. And then that who ever said she'd put mom out of her misery, then Estella ran out of the bathroom. Then Sir Axel came in and before the girl could shoot he knocked her head clean off which caused the gun to fire anyway... And then mom turned around to Estella and they both fell onto the floor and then mom screamed and grabbed her arm and the entire room started smelling of her blood... Then Elisabeth helped mom and Estella called for the medics and now they are going to remove the bullet from her arm..."
When he was done talking there where tears in his eyes. He had been capable of keeping strong so far, but after having said everything that just happened it became too much. So he let of of Estella and put his arms around Valdez' waist starting to sob softly, "Dad... I'm scared..."

Elisabeth was relieved that Robyn's pulse was increasing a little, but obviously still worried when she didn't wake up. She squeezed her daughter's arm gently, hoping in vain for some kind of response. When Robyn still didn't regain conciousness, she picked her up from the floor.
Turning to Ali she said: "I'm taking her to the hospital." And without waiting for a response she hurried off.

Back at the hospital wing, Valdez suddenly found himself being hugged by Nicolas. For a moment he stood there motionless, torn between his anger and his concern. Finally his expression softened and he put his arm around his son, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly. "It's going to be ok," he said in a soft voice, "it's all over now..."
He then extended his free arm to Estella, who quickly joined into the hug next to Nicolas.

A (male) nurse nearby overheard and came over to them with an uneasy smile; "don't worry he said," very noticably more to the children than to Valdez, "your mother's going to be fine."
"She'd better be," Valdez replied in a harsh, demanding tone.
"Well- uh," the man replied nervously, "the operation is quite standard, so that shouldn't be any problem. She has lost a bit of blood though, but uh- well, not the first time that's happened is it?" His expression, and awkward chuckle gave away he immediatly realised that had been a stupid thing to say.
Valdez glared at him, his expression a mixture of irritation and disbelief; "I'm really hoping that pathetic feutus of a joke was worth losing several of your vital organs for," he said in a cold voice, "otherwise I do suggest you get out of my sight right now!

As an anxious male nurse sped off, Mercedes just had the bullet removed from her arm. She would now be stiched up, and within half an hour or so, she should wake up.
A good thing too, because now Elisabeth would come bursting in with an unconcious Robyn in her arms. Fortunatly Chrissy was still with Sir Axel, both seated in another room, where another pair of docters were abotu to put their surgical skills to the test with the angel's injuries.

As Elisabeth hurried off with Robyn in her arms Ali remained behind Raffie, uncertain about what to do now. Let alone what to do with Raffie, he was so young, but he carried such a big secret with him now. She was almost certain that the only reason that he was here was group pressure. Then a thought came to her mind and she could kick herself for not having considered it earlier.
"You don't need medical attention do you?" she asked looking a little worried, she didn't smell any (human)blood, but that didn't say anything, "If not I think you can stay with me until Melodie has decided what to do with you and the others... Okay?"

Nicolas just kept on being clinged to Valdez' middle while the three of them waited for Mercedes' surgery to be over and for her to wake up again.

In the meantime Robyn's condition wasn't far from being as worse as it was when Elisabeth had found her. She was going to need surgery as well fast or things could go very wrong soon.

Ralphi looked at Ali with disbelief in his eyes; "uhr, no..." he replied in a soft, surprised voice. She'd been very nice to him, he realised, but he honestly hadn't expected her to care about his health. Feeling guilt bubbling up inside of him, as he watched Elisabeth run in front of them with her hurt daughter in her arms, he added in a mumble; "I don't think any injuiry of mine would demand priority anyway..."
When Ali started about the rest of his grup and Melodie, he looked at her worried; "what's going to happen to us...? To... me?" he asked in a small voice.

Meanwhile, Robyn was being put on a brancard in the hospital by some nurses. She'd have to wait a little while longer for docters to come see her, as they were still busy.

Fortunatly the docters working on Mercedes were done fairly quickly; five minutes later or so, they hurried out of operation room 1, to hurry over to Robyn in operation room too - Elisabeth right on their heels.
Meanwhile, an OR nurse showed up where Valdez and the kids were waiting. She took of her surgical mask and smiled confirmingly at them; "everything went fine. Mercedes is going to be good as new- given at least two weeks of rest. She's still out cold but you can go in now, and she'll be awake in about half an hour."

At that same moment, Sir Axel was in another room, having bullets picked out of him. They'd already removed enough to supply two rabid cowboys with enough bullets to last a medium-sized Wild Western gunfight, and more and more were showing up. In the end there was a total of 23 bullets laid out on the surgical plate, 5 from his body, the rest from his wing. There was no certainty about when he would wake up, as they'd drugged him up to such a high-heaven (no pun intended) that they were still fearful of an overdose - they weren't very sure what the standard dosis for an angel should be.

Ali was relieved when Raffie said that he didn't need any medical aid. She stroked his hair when he said that any injury he might have would not be a piority now anyway. Once again she wondered how he could have ended up with such a suïcidal group of satanic teenagers. She let out a sigh when he asked what was going to happen to the rest of the group and to him. Picking up again she jumped over the rubble before putting him back down and walking at human speed towards her house.
"I don't know," she answered honestly, "I don't know what Melodie is going to be doing. Though I am pretty certain that she'll wait until Sir Axel has come to and will discuss with him. But I'll make sure no one is going to harm you."

As the doctors started operating on Robyn they would find three bulletsholes all located dangerously close to her heart. Only one of the bullets had been a through and through though.

In the meantime Mercedes was fast asleep from the sedative she had been given for the operation. By the time she woke up an hour had past rather then half an hour. The sedative had been a little too strong for a human. When her eyes had adjusted enough and she saw Valdez and their kids all around her bed she smiled.
"Hey..."

In the meantime Melodie had checked with a nurse that had a moment to spare on the condition of everyone that had been brought in. After that she asked if Lady Victoria had been in the hospital, when the answer was negative she left again. She hessitated for a moment and then decided to check her quarters and if she wouldn't be there she would check the quarters of Daniel and Wendy.

Ralphi smiled a little, releaved to hear that Ali wasn't going to let anyone hurt him. He still felt rather anxious though, he had to admit, as he couldn't really believe Melodie or Sir Axel would be so lenient in any way.

In the mean time, Valdez and the children were waiting anxiously for Mercedes to wake up. It took quite a bit longer than the docters had said, and Estella wasn't starting to get (visably) worried. Valdez had told her to be patient once or twice, but it didn't seem to help - also Valdez had no intention of talking his own flesh and blood out of getting hyped up over (probably) nothing, considering that was a bridge too far in terms of hypocrity. When Mercedes did finally wake up, Estella jumped up and immediatly hurried over and smiled at her mother; "mom!"
Valdez came over too, in a calmer kind of fashion, grinning down at her as he said; "I can't leave you alone for five minutes, can I?"

By the time Ali had reached her house and tried to put Raffie more at ease. The doctors would discover that despite their best efforts Robyn had lost too much blood. She would not wake up after the sedativse would wear off, she had slipped into a coma.

In the meantime Mercedes was feeling less and less light headed. She gave Estella a hug with her noninjured arm and a kiss on top of her head.
"Hey sweetheart," she said, extending her arm for Nicolas giving him a hug as well when he reached her. At Valdez' comment she raised a brow.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have run off," she retorted, "and stayed with us. Family before sadistic fun understood?"
After that minature lecture she held out her arm for him as well, wanting to give him a kiss.

As said before, Robyn was found to be in a coma. This came as quite a shock, as at first the operation appeared to have be a succes. One docter had already hurried outside the O.R. to tell Elisabeth the good news, after which he returned to find a lot of grim-looking, awkward faces. Now came the task of correcting the bad news with some fairly shitty news...
And so, after a lot of squabling about who should be the oppointed skip-goat to go share the bad news, the same docter as before showed his face in the waiting room once more, a pedantic look on his face. He really hated that Sir Axel was still in surgery, because if he'd have been here at least he wouldn't have to search for the right words - one thought would've sufficed.
So finally the docter told Elisabeth about the unfortunate turn of events. She tried her best to fight back some tears when she heard it, keeping in mind Chrissy sitting in the waiting room, not even aware that Robyn was hurt at this stage. Finally, a couple of minutes later, she went over to tell Chrissy.
Sitting in two abridged waiting room chairs, Elisabeth and Chrissy hugged each other in comfort ((I'm sure there's more personal stuff to say about what they were saying/thinking, but for the life of my, I can't get that out in words XD)).

In the meantime, in a nearby hospital room, things were going by a lot more cheerful. Estella happily hugged her mother, beyond happiness and relief that she was ok.
Valdez followed the family hug (though only after grinning tauntingly at Mercedes' minature lecture, as if to emphazise what everyone probab;y already knew he was thinking). "I'm so glad you're alright," he then said in a soft voice, giving her a gentle kiss.
"How are you feeling mom?" Estella asked. Then, after a tensed silence she added in a small voice, looking down; "I'm really sorry."

It wasn't long after the news over Robyn's coma had been passed on that she and Sir Axel where both out of the operation rooms. They had been wheeled into the same room to recover further. Or in Robyn's case recover and hopefully wake up from her coma.

Mercedes was glad that by the looks of it she was the only one that had been hurt from her family. She was worried about Sir Axel though, the teen girl had harmed him far more then she had hurt her. Estella interupted her from her thoughts though, when she asked how she was feeling and apologized again. She pulled Estella a little closer to her and gave her another kiss on the head.
"I'm fine, a little dazed from the sedatives, but otherwise fine," she assured her youngest daughter, "And stop apologizing, it's not your fault."
After that she wondered if either Nicolas or Valdez might know anything about the condition Sir Axel was in. Concluding that she wouldn't know for sure without asking she opened her mouth again: "Do you know how Sir Axel is doing?"

In the meantime Melodie had reached Lady Victoria's quarters and was about to open the door, hoping to find her there and not more injured people.