BOMAW Vol. 10-12 (155 page)

"Derrick, now I want you to listen to me. Under the circumstances, I think you really, need to - get out of this hospital a couple of hours. I'll go with you-..."

"I'm not - leavin' - my wife."

Shawn gulped, "I understand Derrick, I do man. But - you're really tired man, hurtin', growing more and more agitated - if - if you don't get some rest, walk away - for just a bit, to - to rest a bit - maybe - eat something - you could end up, overcome by it all, you know?"

Derrick sat a moment, he sniffed, wiped at his eyes. "All I want - from you Shawn - is to see about my kids, my Meri, if I get arrested - okay?"

Shawn squirmed in his seat, his temples started throbbing, his heart beating faster, because he had a feeling things might start heading that way, "Derrick, come on man, Meri needs you - she needs you to-..."

"She needed - me - to hear her - why didn't I -..."

"Derrick, let's not think about that right now, okay. Let's go for a walk, you and I."

"She's down the hall ... around the corner ... an officer - is - in front of her door." Derrick could see in his minds eye, going there, getting into the room and just - putting her out of her misery - someone so sick, didn't deserve to live - not after doing what she had to his wife.

Shawn didn't need to ask who he was talking about, thinking about. "Derrick, listen to me - it's too late now Derrick, it's - it's too late, you hear me? It's out of your hands now. Nothing you do, now, is going to undo this - the police have her - red handed Derrick, so they know - so you have to leave it now for them to take care of it."

Suddenly their noses were touching as Derrick's bloodshot eyes pierced his and bit out low, growling, blowing, "Would you - leave it? ... Huh? ... That was your - your Sylvia ... would you?" Tears rolled down Derrick's face. Shawn slowly moved back some, "Derrick, you can't - you can't - the time to have done something - was before she-..."

In a blink of an eye, Derrick had Shawn by the throat and up against the wall, knocking his chair over. Carmine had just come in after his mother and sister had convinced him to apologize to Derrick, and stood shocked at what he was seeing. "Holy shit, oya, com'on ese, tha's your brother man!" He rushed to them as they wrestled in the corner of Meri's room. Shawn was trying to keep their tussle quiet, but his brother was choking him. "Derrick - lis-ten - to - me-..."

"You think - I'm gonna - let her get away - with - doing that - to - my - wife!?" He bit out, blinded by his fury, hating himself, hating Shawn at that moment, because if it had been Shawn, just as his wife had said it, he would have removed the threat before it happened. Now, because he didn't do what Shawn would have done, his wife might die. Derrick's extreme exhaustion, along with his shaking hunger, anxiety, fear and overwhelming failure to act, had him sobbing as he slammed Shawn into the wall, "You see - my wife," and again, he slammed him, "My Meri, my Meri..." three times, choking him, with Carmine trying to get between them. "Der - rick! You - you're - chok-king - me..." Shawn was forced to fight back, as he could see that his brother was literally going mad. The racket within the room, could not be mistaken outside. Within moments, the room was filled, Royce entering first as he was nearest the door, with nurses, interns, Bart, Wilfrado, Luis, and Derrick's sons, including Derrick Jr. who had just arrived. They were all in the room, trying to get control of Derrick because he was in such a fit of crazed madness that it seemed almost impossible to get him under control as he tossed Shawn about, slamming him along the wall, knocking things over with him, while Shawn slammed over and over again onto the top of his arms to break his grip from his throat, his face was blood red, the veins standing out along his throat, across his forehead.

Carmine had moved back and out of the room, and out of the way with his heart pounding, agitated, he knew it was enough! She was his sister, and he knew what he had to do - he had nothing to lose, Derrick on the other hand, had everything to lose. He disappeared, un-noticed by the rest of the family. It wasn't long before the police were there, as well the officer who'd been at Margaret's door, giving assistance since she was under hospital arrest and her injuries wouldn't allow her to just get up and leave.

One of the cops had his taser out to fire it at Derrick as they were trying to drag him from the room, he and Shawn were still locked together, although he no longer hand his hands around his neck, he was lost in a frenzied growling cry, flailing and fighting to be free of him; Royce had a feeling that was the first thing they would do, pull out the taser, "Give us a minute here to calm him down, that's not necessary, put it away!" He tried to order them, they didn't know who he was and could care less. Bart, Gert, and Shawn followed him, shouting at the top of their voices, "DON'T YOU DARE HIT MY BOY WITH THAT!!"

"DERRICK - PLEEEASE - STOP IT!!" Gert screamed afraid for her son.

"PUT THE TASER AWAY - FUCKIN' PUT IT AWAY!!" Shawn shouted out, among everyone else all shouting and crying at once, blocking the police from tasering Derrick. The elevator doors opened down the hall, with Crystal pushing Sasha in a wheel chair; Ben was holding Isaac's hand, Mundo was holding Darren, Shanna had Joseph by the hand, Angela walked between Vivian and Sylvia, who were bringing up the rear. Sylvia had suggested Sasha be brought up to visit her mother and maybe she could soothe her father. What they encountered had them all screaming out frightened by the frenzy of Derrick's hysteria. Sasha began screaming out to her father, to see him down on the ground and so many wrestling to get him under control. More police rushed up to the floor because Shawn, Bart, Dj and Marcus wouldn't let them taser Derrick. A doctor, shouting the police back, forced his way into the melee with a needle to reach Derrick and gave him a jab that he hoped, coupled with his exhaustion, would push him over the edge and knock him out. He dare not give him a larger dosage with his adrenaline pumping as it was. But at the same time, his charged adrenaline would make the drug work faster. Some of the officers actually had their guns drawn, making matters worse, with all the women were screaming, afraid of what they might do, pointing them and their tasers at Shawn, Bart and Dj.

Their actions forced the doctors and interns to yell out, "PUT YOUR GUNS AWAY! That's not necessary, any minute now, he'll be under control!" One of the doctors fumed, glaring at the officers.

Shawn lay over his brother, bleeding, breathing hard, bruised and battered, refusing to move from him because he didn't trust the police. Bart, Marcus, Dj, all the males there, were breathing hard, glaring at the police and staying put, while the women stood by softly crying, trying to calm down.

"Everyone please, we need you all to go to the waiting room, let things calm down and get under control here, please." The doctor on duty asked, breathing hard as well; looking from them to Derrick, who was just succumbing to the drug he'd been administered. After another moment, he flopped, out cold. Shawn dragged himself to his feet, hand propped against the wall, wiping the blood that ran from his nose and mouth. Sylvia and Vivian stood by the nurses counter; Vivian worried for Sylvia, holding onto her, while she stood crying and holding onto Angela, all three gazing at Shawn across the way, scared for him. He looked at them, gave a sad, apologetic smile too tired for anything more; as they could see, he was okay, despite it all. Turning away from them, he ordered the boys nearby, breathless, "You all, help me - with your dad, I'm taking him to our hotel."

"You'll have to wait for that, I need to check his vitals before I can let him go, in the state he was in, I have to monitor him a while." The doctor informed him just as two of the interns rolled a hospital bed near to put him on. It took Shawn, Ben, Marcus and Dj to lift Derrick from the floor and onto the bed he was so heavy. They were all blowing by the time they had him safely in place. He was then rolled to the next room, where the doctor stood checking his pulse, his heart rate and other vitals. The family stood around waiting to make sure he was okay. Vivian turned to Sylvia, "Come on, let's go in the waiting room, he's all right, you need to sit down." Sylvia remained silent, following Vivian, she guided Angela to do the same, back into the packed waiting room. Shanna was trying to calm a sobbing Sasha down, scared now for her father. "Is my dad okay? Is he? I wanna see my dad, I wanna go see him." She wept from her wheelchair.

"God, why did I have her brought up here?" Sylvia cried.

"For the same reason we all thought it was a good idea, that maybe she would have brought him out of it." Shanna answered as Sylvia sat next to Sasha, holding her hand to calm her. Angela on the other side, stroking her shoulder. Vivian found herself with Joseph, he was upset. Until Ben realized they needed to get the kids out of there, he turned to Mundo, "Let's take the kids outside, in fact," He turned to Shanna, "Let's get on the road, there's too many of us here - it's shaking things up." He suggested, then glanced at Crystal, she nodded, yes, to him taking the boys; completely trusting him, especially since Mundo was with him. Shanna stood agreeing as well, she looked towards Royce, "You staying, or coming with me?"

"I'm with you darlin'." Royce had had enough, they were a family too volatile, he could only take so much of them all together at once. He followed behind Shanna, Ben and Mundo, who was taking Darren, Isaac, and Joseph with them to get their cars. When Marcus realized they were taking off, he was off with them as well, glad that Derrick Jr. was there to take his place.

Derrick Jr. couldn't believe the scene he'd come to, his father going so completely crazy. He'd rushed as much as he could, worried about his mother and his father and obviously for good reason. He waited with with his uncle Shawn and when the doctor nodded that Derrick was okay for now, he still wouldn't let him be taken because he wanted to check him in another hour. To calm things down, everyone was ushered to the waiting room, allowing only three at a time into Meribel's room. This time, Derrick Jr. Sasha and Meribel's mother went in with her. Everyone else was gathered down the hall, warned by the police that if another such disturbance took place, they would not be allowed back.

Bart would not be quiet.

"The hell you say! Not a body here caused that disturbance! My son went out of his head grieving his wife! But you're so damned eager to shoot and taser people, scared somebody's gonna miss that you're the police and in charge, you can't see proper how to speak to folks! We don't need your kind of policing thank you!"

"Sir, did you hear what I said?" The officer asked sternly.

"Last I checked, I could hear."

"Bart, hush! Enough! We heard you loud and clear officer." Gert reprimanded her husband and then tried to soothe the officer, who stood a moment more, glaring at Bart.

Everyone sat quiet, not saying a word, waiting for them to leave.

All the officers huddled together out by the nurses station, asking if everyone there was okay, and of course, working in a hospital, they were accustomed to the occasional emotional outburst and loss of control by family members. The officer assigned to watch over Margaret departed the bunch stating, "Looks like everything is back to normal, heading back to my post."

Another officer smiled replying, "Heaven forbid she's escaped while you were here."

"Not likely, with a leg and arm in a cast." He returned, disappearing down the hall, around the corner to where he should be standing. As he stood, he wondered should he look in on her, by right, he really shouldn't because she could be in a state of undress, but he needed to at least peak, just to make sure she was there. As he was about to do so, a nurse was walking past, "Excuse me, can you please go in here, check to make sure this patient is here and all right? I would do it, but she's a woman, so - for obvious reasons, I dare not." He grinned at her, flirting a bit.

"No problem." The nurse returned smiling. She walked into the room, to see the patients leg and arm still up in the harness by her bed, and walking further in, she noticed something strange about the sheets, the top of them seemed to be stained - soaked in blood. "Oh my God!" She rushed to the bed, to get a closer look at what was going on, to find a pillow over Margaret's head. She removed it to see the patient lying dead, staring with wide eyes, her mouth open as if she'd tried to scream, her throat slit, her body and the sheet, with several stab wounds.

Shaking, she began pressing the patient alarm button, "OFFICER - I NEED YOU IN HERE NO-O-OW!" She screamed out.

While Shawn stood as if guarding his brother, he couldn't miss more of a commotion going on in the hall, the police, the nurses and the doctor who had treated Derrick suddenly rushed down the hall and around the corner. Shawn walked away from his brother to peer out the door, wondering what was going on now. Within a few moments, the police were running back his way, yelling at him, "Get to the waiting room now! Right now!"

Shawn lifted his hands in the air, "What?! What the hell is going on now?!" He asked. One of the officers came at him, grabbed him by his sleeve trying to shove him down the hall away from Derrick, "Get your fuckin' hands off of me! What the fuck are you doing?!"

"MOVE IT TO THAT WAITING ROOM, OR YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL, YOU HEAR ME?!"

Not only could Shawn hear him, but everyone in the waiting room as well. Sylvia was on her feet and moving towards the yelling to make it back towards Meribel's room to see Shawn standing up to an officer, giving him a second chance to do as he ordered.

"SHAWN! Please!" She wailed, not wanting him in any more confrontations, she was still worked up over him wrestling with Derrick and being tossed around.