Please excuse ANY grammatical errors.

January 2, 1993

~DeVanté's P.O.V~

"Appreciate it man." I dapped up Yasir. Luckily he was coming from wherever he came from, 'cause some shit was finna go down.

"Yeah, thanks pad'na." Pac dapped him up.

When I came into the room I went straight to her bed and observed her. As he said she was bandaged all up. Her head was bandaged, as well as het foot. She was covered with a blanket, so I couldn't see the other bandage. I sat the bear and card on her nightstand. I would have brought flowers, but she always stated that she didn't want death to be on her hands, and she didn't want any until she knew how to properly care for them. She'd kill a roach in a minute though.

"Well, sit down. She can feel when somebody standin' over her. Y'all gon' wake 'er up." Yasir motioned for us to sit down. Pac was right next to me standing over her. Most likely just taking everything in.

"You said she won't talk? Why not?" I asked Yasir, taking a seat in the cushioned chair.

"Ion know nigga, I ain't in her head. Do you see a crystal ball in my hand?" Yasir asked me with a raised eyebrow. Okay, he right. I just expect him to know since he the closest thing to her, and because he's been here. I could tell from his little pallet on the couch.

"Where was she when all this went down? What was the date?" De asked me.

"She was against a building when she was found. A building near her school. The payphone was hanging down, so she tried to call help. But there was a trail of blood, and that very same trail of blood is what saved her. If nobody spotted that, she probably would have froze to death or bled to death. Her temperature was low, it just hit a 92.4° F when she was found.

If it was any lower and she bled more, she could have been gone. She was in a coma for a few days, four to be exact. She was in ICU. I'm just happy that she's doing fine. I just wish she'd speak, so we could find out who did this and what all happened. I don't want her to relive it but to find who did it she gon' have to." Yasir ranted on, and me and Pac listened to him.

"Damn man..." I leaned forward. My elbows on my knees, my hands on my face, and my head down. This is a lot to take in. I need a blunt and something hard to drink right now. I looked back up and looked at Tia just laying there. She chest slightly rising and falling staggeringly.

"He-her fucking pants was half off her ass." He stuttered, his eyes were tightly shut, and fist balled up tightly.

"They ain't have no cameras near there?" Pac asked shaking his head.

"They said they working on footage and it's been a little while since that shit happened and STILL NOTHING." Yasir said shaking his head. His eyes opened and closed again. Just then an unknown lady walked into the room. "If I find these dudes before the police do, I'm going to prison for murder." He said aloud, even though he probably didn't mean for that to come out loud.

"Boy, stop talkin' like that. You know she wouldn't want that for you. Let the law handle it." The lady said to him.

"What the police gon' do? They most likely ain't gon' do nothin' mama." He frowned at the lady, who I now know as their mother.

I should have known it was their mother, well Tia's. They both got them big ass titties, and big brown eyes, her mothers are slightly larger and lighter than Tia's.  Tia is a shade or half of shade darker than me, and her mother is a darker brown color. They're both beautiful ladies. That's about all the resemblance I can see right now. They must look more like their father's side of the family.

"They can't do much with a statement fron your sister. Give her some time and she will speak, eventually. Well... Hopefully she'll speak on it. Only thing we can do is hope and pray. Don't let me hear you say that killing word again. Ye unda'stand me?" She told him.

He nodded and said, "I hea' ye."

"Good. Who these dudes up in here?" She asked him looking at us.

"These her friends, they came to see her. This is Tupac and De- Yo what's yo real name?" Yasir asked turning towards me.

"D-Donald. The name is Donald." I muttered out.

"Huh? You said Donald?" Yasir looked at me with a 'Nigga, I know you lying' facial expression.

"Yes, that's my name." I smiled tightly.

Yasir's jaw dropped, and Pac threw his head back laughing. "Yo name Donald? You look more like a Goofy." He was referring to the Mickey Mouse characters.

"You know what? Tia called him that before, and I ain't know who she was talking about. Now I know it's you. Hel- heck nahh..." Pac corrected himself, remembering her mother was in the room. "I'm sorry ma'am. My name is Tupac, Tupac Shakur." He said getting up to shake her hand, and she accepted.

I stood up next. "DeGrate, Donald DeGrate." I said shaking her hand. Great, now I'm James Bond...

"Call me Bird." Her mother greeted. "I do remember y'all from the TV and the magazines. I actually spoke to my daughter about y'all."

"Good things, right?" I asked her jokingly, but secretly serious.

"Yeah, I ain't hea' nothin' bad. Y'all do somethin' bad?" She frowned at us.

"Nahh, not me." I said with my hand on my chest.

"I'm the most behaved out of us all." Pac answered. The hell he is!? Now, you know this nigga... I internally laughed. I'm not the beat myself but I'm more stable than he is. This nigga be on ten, 24/7.

"Most of 'a times, the main ones who say that be the worst ones of the bunch. The onion pretending to be a apple. You sure?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"No ma'am, I'm the air conditioner that look like a fan, I'm the cool." Pac said. I ain't ever heard this nigga say nothing THIS corny in all my time of knowing him. This shit is ridiculous.

"A'ight..." She trialed off and sat down near her son. "Why are y'all now just visiting?" She asked us with a skeptical expression.

"Ma'am, we just heard about everything yesterday night." Pac spoke up.

"Yeah, and even then we didn't know what happened." I added on.

"But it was all over the news." She added.

"I don't watch tv much. I don't have much time to do so." I told her.

"Me too, I'm too busy working." Pac butted in.

"Mmkay, it's nice to see that y'all visited. I'm sure she'll appreciate it when she awakes. Thanks for coming." She nodded at us with a smile. Well, another resemblance, kind of. Similar but not the same.

"Yes ma'am. You're welcome. We're glad we're able to support." Pac nodded with a smile. This nigga...

"Yes ma'am." I nodded at her. We all waited around for when Tia would awake.

After a while, her mother left due to hunger. Her husband came and picked her up. Pac and Yasir conversed throughout the waiting process. I feel SO bad for thinking Tia was mad at me when she wasn't. After a while of no communication, I began to develope a "fuck you" attitude towards her. I'd rather for her to be mad at me than to witness what's laying here in front of me- the way she's laying in front of me.

Like Tia always say, "You need to stop assuming. You know what they say about assuming. You make an A-S-S out of U and ME." I know many people said that but I remember it in her voice. She'd spell it out because she never really cursed unless she was angry.

One of the last conversations I had with her, the last time we actually saw each other face to face was about her life/childhood in September. She ain't really get too deep into it, she was very hesitant about it.

"He's my brother, he knows a lot that you don't. Just like Dalvin know more than I do about you. It's nothing you should be worried about."

"We friends and eventually something deeper than that. Is there something going on that I need to know?" I asked her.

She sat back in the one seated couch and crossed her right leg over the left one. "Donald..." She exhaled.

"I'm listening." I nodded, anticipating on what'd she'd say next.

"Well, I have issues- a lot of issues actually that stem from childhood. It puts a halt or complete stop to many of my relationships, whether it's my family relationship, friendships, and even romantic relationships. I want to go into details but I feel like I can't go too deep right now without-" She loudly exhaled, trying to hold back emotions. I could tell. Like I said before, she's good at holding back her emotions.

She then continued, "W-without getting too- ye know?" She trialed off, then spoke again.

"Emotional?" I asked finishing what I thought would be her answer.

"Mm, abandonment..." She said not really answering me. "Many people that were in my life contributed to that. The first one being my dad- well, as I like to say sperm donor." She twiddled with her thumbs amd laughed. That smile never reached her eyes like it usually would.

"I feel as if I get so close to people so quick- so attached, they'll end up hurting me or leaving me... So, I'd push them away unintentionally. Well, I'd convince myself that it was unintentional. Please forgive me if I EVER push you away, or you feel like I am. I'm just trying to protect me. It's the only way I know how. Right now, I don't really know how to express everything to you. I don't know think that I can, but in due time."

She deeply exhaled then exhaled. "I just want you to know that you mean so much to me. Idunno, I'm not very good at expressing things like this..." She motioned between the both of us. Okay, I'm confused as fuck... "I'm sorry about the confusion, as I can see it all over your face."

"Hey, how has the tour been going for you all? Are you enjoying it?" She beamed, and my eyebrows furrowed. Her whole demeanor just changed so quickly. Her expressions, body language, and tone. That's leaving me even more confused.

She'd often shift character, like she never talked about what she talked about. She can be like, "I'm dying tomorrow. How was your day?" That shit is just... different. What she explained to me was as if she wanted to say more, but like she ain't know how to express whatever she buried. That was the most emotion I EVER got from her and the most she ever dug into her life with me. It was a lot but at the same time it wasn't. You know what I'm sayin'? I still had that feeling when she told me that. The way she put everything had me confused at the time, but I think I'm getting the hint.

Why the hell am I speaking about her in past tense, like she dead or something!? That girl here and still thriving. She gon' get through this little setback. I continued to watch her sleep. Then her chest began rising and falling at a fast pace. I caught it before the monitor did. The monitor started beeping loudly.

"Aye, her heart monitor is speeding up!" I yelled and began to shake her slightly. He brother slammed on the button next to the bed. Her eyes fluttered open. I haven't seen those big ass brown eyes in months now. I missed them, but her eyes held fear.
         
"Move back, y'all scarin' her!" I yelled out to them as we all stood over her in observation.

"This my sister you bag back." Yasir said looking at me like I was crazy. "Lower yo goddamn voice." One thing these siblings have in common is putting people in their place. Although, I knew my place and I wasn't stepping over anything.

~Tia's P.O.V~ 

I walked out of class and outside into the morning air. It's pouring down with snow and slightly dark. It's only nine in the morning. I take my classes in the morning since there aren't as many people taking morning classes as afternoon classes. My car was parked across the street in the other lot. Many of the staff were parked in the closest parking lot. I had stayed a little longer to speak with my professor about some assignments, so many of the people who were done with their classes had already left campus. There are still some other cars near mines.

I don't have my bodyguards, because I want to give them some time off. I'm pretty sure I'd be fine anyways, there usually aren't many people out this time around. I crossed the street and headed towards my car. It was a pretty long walk from the school. The moment I stepped into the fenced off parking lot, I felt a presence, I just can't see anybody due to the snowfall and slight darkness of the day. I walked faster wanting to avoid any confrontation or danger, since that was what I was sensing.

I felt a presence behind be but before I could react I was grabbed from behind. My instinct was to step on the foot of this person, with the heel of my boot. The person groaned, I could tell it was a man. Another grabbed me from the front and I headbutted him. The hat I had on is what caused the headbutt not to be as harmful as I intended. I felt hands in my pocket and my purse/backpack was snatched.

"HELP!" I screamed out as loud as I could before I felt a hand over my mouth.

I bit the palm of the first guys hand, and screamed some more. Then I felt something hard hit my head, and I fell to the ground from impact. Though I was on the ground, I still fought back. I started to feel dizziness, but I fought it off. I kept flaring my arms and legs, hitting anywhere I could. I got a good look at one of the two men as looked down at me on the ground. The first guy stomped me in my ribs, and I coughed upon impact. I tasted iron and felt blood filling my mouth. Then I felt a tug on my jeans.

"Man, what you doin'!? Let's go!" The one I never saw face yelled out to the other one.

"Nahh, man." He looked around then back down at me.

I feel myself losing conscious. I'M NEVER GOING TO BE VICTIM OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AGAIN, IT'S JUST NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN. When the guy had my jeans an inch down from it's original place, I remembered that I carried my gun into the school despite security. I reached into my popped open jacket and grabbed it. The man was on his knees in front of me, just tugging away on my jeans. Luckily they were a tight fit.

"She got a g-" the other one yelled out and I shot him. I shot the one who pulled down my pants in his leg, and he fell to the side groaning.

"Aye man, come on!" The same one yelled. I let off another shot, then another, and two more. I lifted up, in an attempt to get away.

"Bitch!" One yelled out.

My body numbed as another hit came in contact with my head. I groaned loudly, and my head fell back into the snow. My world went spinning more than it was already. I saw the other guys face. They left and I was laying there trying to get enough strength to move.

"GIRL, GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!" My conscious yelled out at me. That hit should have instantly knocked me out in an instant. I dragged myself to the gate and slumped back onto it. That inner voice was all I needed.

"Help..." I weakly let out and felt myself slipping.

I crawled more as my inner voice yelled out to me again. I crawled to the nearest payphone and tried to get up but slipped in the snow. I still had a grip on my gun, scared of what was to happen next. I tried again, and then slumped against the wall.

"Get up!" My inner voice yelled again. I struggled again, but failed. I give up, my eyes kept closing as I forced them to stay open. I noticed all of the blood that I trailed to where I am, my heart sped up at the sight. Then I fell back unconscious.

"Aye, her heart monitor is speeding up!" I heard someone yell out. My body was being shook. I opened my eyes to see three pairs of eyes staring down at me. I loudly gasped in horror. I thought it was happening again.

"Move back, y'all scarin' her!" I recognized the voice as Donald.

"This my sister you bag back." My brother said. "Lower yo goddamn voice." He said and I sighed.

"I'm sorry, nurse. Her heart is stable condition now." I knew that was Tupac.

"Okay, but I still have to check her. Can you all move back, so I can get through?" The nurse asked. They all moved back and let the nurse get to me.

"Are you okay, sweety?" The nurse asked me and I nodded at her. "Okay, just ring again if anything else abnormal happens." She said after checking everything, the left out of the room.

"You hungry? Imma go warm this up again." My brother said to me. "Y'all do anything to my sister- matta fact. Aye, Jax!" He yelled out. "Come up in here 'til I get back." Yasir called out. Jax came in the room and stood in my room by the door. My brother left out.

"How ya doin'?" Donald asked me.

"Stop askin' dumb shit. How you think she feelin'?" Tupac said to De.

Donald side eyed him then looked back at me. "Anything I can do for you? Anything you need?" He asked me. I shook my head no.

"I got you this." He said reaching over to the nightstand. He grabbed a card and a teddy bear.

"Thanks." I whispered.

"You welcome." He said then kissed me at the corner of my mouth. My heart rate spike for a split second. Tupac looked at me with knowing smirk.

I sat up some, and felt on the texture of the bear. It was so smooth, I had a big thing with fabrics or textures of objects. The bear had a shirt with a heart on it. On the heart was a message. It said, "I'm BEARY sorry for what you're going through. Get well soon." Cheesy, but I love it. I opened the card and read it in my head.

Below on the other side it read in his handwriting, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9." I love that verse, it's very deep. It makes you think about all your setback and how you get back up.

I continued to read the card in my head. "I'm right here as I will forever be. This friendship is for better or worse.~Donald Earle DeGrate Jr. OR Deon.” I chuckled lowly. How poetic! I remember when he told me his real name, I told him he looks like a Deon and not a Donald.

"Need some water?" He asked and grabbed it before I had the chance to respond, whether it was verbally or nonverbally. He handed it to me and I drank it without pulling it away from my mouth once.

"Damn, deepthroat ass." Donald said then he and Tupac laughed. I spit some water out due to my laughing, laughing hurts.

"I ain't ever seen a women take water to the head." Pac laughed out, we all did.

My brother entered the room and sat my food down. "You laughing now? Okay, we off to a good start today." Yasir chuckled. "What's funny, though?" He asked and sat down. I looked at Donald with raised eyebrows, and grabbed another bottle of water. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Thanks," I mumbled to Donald.

"I wanna laugh too, you ain't laughed since you been here. What was the joke?" He asked us. Pac was in the corner cracking up with his fist in front of his mouth.

"It's an inside joke." Donald replied nonchalantly.

"Damn, y'all got inside jokes already? How long y'all knew each other?" Yasir asked him.

"It'll be a year in the middle of this month." Donald spoke up.

"How long you known her?" He said to Tupac.

"Since the movie. Why?"

"Just wanted to know. Why y'all just callin' if y'all been cool for that long?" Yasir asked them.

"I been callin' for a while now. Kept callin'. We called her cell and house phone. I ain't know what was goin' on, I thought she was mad or some' for a while." Donald said looking at me.

"Her mobile was stolen, and ain't nobody really been in her house for more than five minutes. Except me on yesterday. That was because 'a y'all. It's cool though, due to the situation." Yasir said to them.

I opened up the plastic tray that my brother sat down and began to eat. I am starving like Marvin right now. I haven't eaten anything much since I've been here. I haven't had the appetite to do so. Honestly, I still couldn't stomach it, but I had to eat something. I didn't want them to have something else to worry about me for.

"Had to find out somethin'. I ain't like being left unknown." De said to Yasir. Tupac is UNUSUALLY quiet today. He's the loudest out of everybody, but who am I to say? I've been quiet, even for me. The reason is because everytime I talk my insides hurt. I feel a lot of pressure on my ribs, breathing even hurts. Donald and my brother continued to talk, while Pac just sat there and staring at me.

"Sekyiwa is here too, and wanted to see you, but I ain't know how bad you was, so I told her to wait." Tupac said looking at me, slouched over in his seat. I nodded at him understandably.

"Why you not talking that much? You're quiet, even for yourself." Pac said to me.

"It hurts to talk." I slowly let out, pacing myself.

"It hurts to talk? You mean I- me and mama been tryna get you to talk all this time and now you finally do when these dudes cone in 'ere? I'll be damned. Why didn't you tell nobody that you was hurting?" He asked pressing the call button.

"She struggled to say that, she hurtin' man. Cut her some slack." Tupac frowned up at my brother.

"My bad," my brother said looking at me and I nodded.

The nurse came in. "Is everything okay?" She asked my brother.

"Ye- NO, she said she ain't talking because it hurts to speak." My brother explained to her.

"Is there pressure in you chest or anywhere else?" She asked me and I nodded.

"Can you please show me where?" She asked and I ran my hand across the places where pressure occurred.

She touched the left side of my ribs. "Here is normal due to the way you were hit, but here is not. We're going to have to do some more body scans. Maybe we missed something the first time or something developed, but we'll find out soon. I have to call the doctor. He's not in today, so it may be a while. If not today, it'll be tomorrow." The nurse told us and left the room.

Everytime I feel like I'm moving forward there's always something to push me back. I shouldn't have left alone that day. I can't change the past though. I have to work through it. Hopefully it's no more bad news...

"Oh yeah, JoJo, Dalvin, and K-Ci couldn't make it here, but they're sending you their love and blessings. They'll get here as soon as they can." Dobald told me. "Hey, you'll get through this." He smiled.

"Thank you all, and I will..." I struggled to speak. I nodded at him and smiled.

"A'ight, now don't talk, just listen. You are in pain right now." Donald said to me in reference to 'Stay' from the JoDeCi album. I chuckled and shook my head at him. He smiled deeply.

Authors Note: How're you feeling about this chapter? Due to school, this may not be updated until later this week or next week. Confused about anything? Feel free to ask.

Word Count: 4,285

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