I reach the first floor and am met with a squad of five police officers.

Three male and two female.

All white except for one black female.

One of the men is talking to Ansley when she catches sight of me.

She points at me with a casual finger and the man nods and stalks over to meet me and the rest of them follow his lead.

I seize him up as if he is a threat to me and I manage to speak the first words; "So, what are you, the leader of this nutcase"?

"Excuse me?" he asks me.

"Oh, nothing, just that you don't have to act all big and tough with your guns, um, the weapons, not the biceps, and all that. It just kind of ruins the whole point of policing, ya know what I mean? Ya get where I'm coming from"?

He scratches the side of his shiny, bald head, and he says; "uh, not really," clearly confused.

"Well, I've got work to do, and if you're looking for the psycho maniac lady, she's currently unconscious on the floor of room 2-11, thanks for your time, ciao."

One of the white women points at my leg and asks; "What happened to you?"

I scoff; "Oh, you know, crime fighting, mayhem, superhero events. Hey, take a picture, it'll last longer."

The man who leads the group says; "Thank you, it sounds like an interesting day you've been having."

"And if you see a teenage boy walking around the hallways up there, you can tell him to stuff that brass key up his ass! And there's a bullet hole in the wall above the door frame, and the gun that shot the bullet on the floor in the hallway! Also the guy up there is alone with the gun!" I call out to them.

"And that he can go suck some flip phone remote control o'reilly auto parts silver bronze ash amiibo UV light pen sushi ramen harrison ford gamer bitch ass virgin lamp thermometer lean mean string bean charlie sheen!" I gasp; "I NEED AN ASPIRIN!"

All five of them give me strange looks as they walk past me and up the stairs.

I roll my eyes and look away from them, starting to feel emotional.

I make my way over to Ansley who says; "I recorded everything, we're all good to go."

Then she sees the look on my face and says; "What's wrong?"

"Ellias held a gun to my face."

"... SHE DID WHAT!?"

"She shot a bullet into the wall."

"OH NO SHE DID N-" and she tries marching upstairs but I hold her back and say; "She is unconscious. It won't do any good. This has been the worst day ever."

She calms down and says; "Nina. Let me let you in on a little secret. A bad day, does not mean a bad life. It will get better, okay?"

"Okay," I sigh, tears fill my eyes.

"Oh god, what's wrong now?" 

I hesitate before answering. I could play the victim in the situation with Conor. Or I could play the bad guy, like I was.

Victim it is. I sniff before saying; "My relationship with Conor is wearing thin. And I think it's because of me."

She grabs me by the shoulders so fast that I drop the crutches.

She doesn't even notice as she looks fiercely into my eyes.

"No," she states, "the men are NOT always the dominant partner in a relationship, you NEED to take power over this yourself, you got it"?

"Well actually, I"-

"DO NOT let Conor push you around like some fricking rag doll! Understand"?

"Well I, uh"-

"That's the attitude I'm looking for! You got this, girl"!

She smacks me on the shoulder, jerking me forward, and walks off towards the other workers.

What exactly in the mother blown indiana jones google chrome no home flip phone garden gnome student loan autozone just happened?

I have to call someone else over to pick up my crutches for me, and I thank them several times, wiping the tears away, as they tell me how Ansley can be a little dramatic sometimes. Especially when it comes to relationships.

"You have to listen to reason," they tell me. 

"But reason is boring!" I whine. 

Wow. Now I feel kind of bad for whatever men she has been with.

A few minutes later, eleven figures come down the stairwell I went down.

Once I can clearly see their faces, I can see Conor's mom, Kathy's parents, my mom, four officers, baldie, the still alive Conor Carter, and what's-her-face? Oh, right. Farm Girl.

She has been freed from the duct tape and I see no handcuffs on her wrists. 

I hear footsteps behind me and am too late to stop Ansley from barreling past me.

She reaches Farm Girl and I can hear the smack of her hand crack against Farm Girl's face.

Then because I don't want to watch, I turn away and can hear the three officers who aren't restraining Farm Girl trying to restrain and calm down Ansley.

I can also hear a lot of profanity coming from Ansley's mouth.

Some of which I have never even heard before, which I have a pretty good hunch about, might have been used as names for past boyfriends.

She's going off about... well... this is what I'm hearing; "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?! HOW DARE YOU RAISE A GODDAMN GUN TO HER FACE! YOU PIG! YOU DIRTY PIECE OF SHIT! IF YOU WANTED A SIGN YOU COULD'VE TOLD ME AND I WOULD'VE PUNCHED YOU IN THE FACE! DON'T TOUCH ME" the whole time, the officers are struggling to keep them away from each other, "I HOPE THAT SOMEDAY YOU GET A TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE!" she and Farm Girl are clawing at each other now, and Farm Girl gets pushed to the floor because of her leg, "WHERE'S THE GUN?! WHERE'S THE GUN?! LEMME AT HER! LEMME AT HER! LEMME SHOOT HER! AHHHHHHHHHH! LET ME GOOOOOOOO!" 

Where is the gun?

I also hear my name and Conor's name several times and clearly have good enough hearing to hear this:

"OH SO YOU THINK YOU'RE SO TOUGH THAT YOU JUST GO AND RIP OFF YOUR GIRLFRIEND!!?? SMOOTH MOVE DUDE!!!! REAL SMOOTH!!!! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF I WERE TO COME OVER THERE AND SHOVE THAT KEY UP YOUR ASS AND MAKE SURE YOU NEVER DO ANY OF THAT SHIT AGAIN!!?? HUH!?!? YOU MOTHERFU-"!!!!

"Stop resisting!" the female officer yells.

"Give me a knife! Let me hit her!"

"The technical term is 'stab', ma'am."

"I DON'T CARE! LEMME AT HER!"

"Alright, alright, alright, alright, I think that's enough Ms. Walker. Please keep your hands and words to yourself or we will have to cuff you and escort you from the premises with force," Baldie says.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT, NO RIGHT!!!! TO TALK TO ME THAT WAY!!!!" Ansley screams.

"Yeah, well just doin' my job, ma'am".

"THIS ISN'T FAIR!" she yells.

"Yeah! Well LIFE isn't FAIR!" he yells right back.

"I second that!" Farm Girl yells from her position.

"SHUT UP!!!!" everyone yells at her, and she cowers like a punished dog.

"Yeah!? Well, I third it, and no one's hollering at me to SHUT UP!!" I holler from my location.

"SHUT UP, WITCH!!!!" Farm Girl screams.

Baldie smacks her upside the head, which I'm confused about whether it was legal or not for a policeman to do.

"YOU'RE the WITCH!" I scream at her.

"Excuse me"?

Everyone falls silent as a small old woman with wrinkly, crusty skin approaches our horad of mad people.

"Could you all maybe be so kind and stop yelling, it's making my nerves shot and I must admit that it's frightening me"...

She clutches a small, dark tan handbag. She stands about only three feet tall because her back is bent.

Her hair is all frizzled and a mixture of gray and white, and she is wearing these black rimmed glasses the size of two large cookies.

She is wearing joggers shoes and a neon orange jumpsuit. What a disgusting color.

"Of course, ma'am. We're all very sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused you".

She nods like this solves everything and says; "You should be. Thank you, dearie".

She turns around slowly, and clutches a knobbly cane that she must have leaned against what remains of the front desk and starts to walk away until Farm Girl has other ideas.

"Yeah! That's right! You better limp away! Ya old snot sack HAG! YOU- Mrrmmph Mmmrmm"! One of the woman restraining her had slapped a palm over her mouth.

The old woman calmly turns around and squinted at Farm Girl. She adjusted her glasses and said; "Now why would it be a nice idea to call me that"?

I already love this lady, she's so innocent.

I see Farm Girl bite the lady's hand which she jerks back with a cry of pain.

Farm Girl sucks in a huge breath of air taunting the woman who is restraining her; "You gotta at least be kind enough to let me BREATHE, LADY"!

She turns her attention back to the sweet old woman and asks her; "What might I ask is your name"?

The old lady adjusts her cookie glasses again and says; "Elspeth. Elspeth McCumming".

Everything is quiet until Farm Girl bursts out laughing; "McCumming!? THAT'S your LAST NAME!!?? OH MY GOD!!!! I'm dying, help me!! I swear that can't be true! MCCUMMINGS!? I'm gonna throw up, someone make me stop laughing"!

I fold my arms across my chest; "Oh no, please do, you are maniac enough already, and it'd be SO MUCH more FUN for one of us to have to clean up your crap".

"Nina!" my mom warns.

I shrug my shoulders at her; "What"?

She looks dramatically at Elspeth and I see why.

She has reached into her small handbag and replaced her cookie glasses with cookie jar lid sized glasses.

It only makes her look more scary but I'm eager to see what happens next.

"It is not very nice to tease people because of their name. It does not make me feel good inside, it makes me sad and feel hurt inside. Please don't be mean and make fun of me for my name".

I can't. She's too good.

Farm Girl barely gets her sentence out because of the officers restraining her and because she's still wheezing from laughing too hard; "Poor old lady can't take a fight without using words? Aww, that's too bad".

I catch Elspeth's frail fingers tightening their grip on her cane and handbag and feel that something strange is going on.

But, you know, strange stuff always happens with old ladies, right? Right? You all are useless.

"Missy, I am going to calmly ask you again, because I fear my blood pressure will rise too high, please lower your voice, and please don't make fun of my name".

"Make me," Fram Girl threatens.

Elspeth sets her cane aside again, and grips her handbag tighter, the white skin around her chapped lips puckers as she closes her mouth; "What did you say your name was, missy"?

"Bite me," Farm Girl retorts.

"Gladly," Elspeth says.

Wait, what?

The old lady launches herself at Farm Girl. Or rather limps, hobbles, and trips across what's left of the tiles and swings her tiny handbag at Farm Girl's face.

The smack of the bag connecting with her face is the most glorious sound I have ever heard.

The old lady turns to me and I see a large crack in the left lens of her cookie jar lid glasses and she says; "You might want to shield your eyes, dearie, this could get the tiniest bit messy".

I ignore her advice and watch as she does some crazy hop in the air, falls down, twists her ankle, gets back up again, and breaks Farm Girl's nose move.

She's taking down the whole room bare knuckled.

She takes another swing at Farm Girl's face then holds up a finger signaling a time out. She digs into her handbag and says; "Time to take my pills".

She hobbles over to a still intact waiting room chair and gets herself comfy and takes her pills dry.

She swings her feet in the air and hums herself a tune.

She glances at the broken clock which must be hours off and says; "Okay, nap time's over".

Nap time? What is... I don't understand. Do old ladies sleep with their eyes open and watch you? I don't...

She hobbles back over, grabs her cane and says; "I'm really still too young for this". Oh my gosh yes, I love this lady even more.

She smacks Farm Girl in the head with her cane once, twice, three times, and by now even the restrainers have backed away from this. The old lady smacks her hands together, like she's trying to wipe dust off of them, or something.

"You should go to Hell!" Farm Girl hisses at Elspeth, before collapsing on the ground, her right hand twitching.

"Oh, honey, where do you think I come from?" and Elspeth straightens her glasses. 

She looks around, sighs, and says; "Thank you for the evening fling, it was fun meeting all of you". She looks down at the now unmoving Farm Girl and says; "Except you, I don't like you".

"Ma'am, it's two in the morning. Why are you here?".

"I was one of the survivors. Didn't you see me, hiding underneath that chair"?

Now Ansley steps forward, and says; "Um, no, we've never seen you before".

"Oh, really? Well, I must go look for Eral, my husband".

By now, all of you know that this woman is so dope, but diagnosed as crazy, so I'll save her the trouble of dying in this broken place.

"Mrs. McCummings-" I hear someone snort behind me and ignore it, "Eral isn't here, it'd be best if you go home now and die in your empty bed".

"Well, if you say so, dearie. Ah, yes, now I remember, Eral died eighty years ago. Sometimes your brain gets a little kerfuffled, you know"?

"Um, on a similar scale, yes, but you should really go back to your house now, ma'am, thank you so much for your help".

"Yes, it seems so. And you're very welcome, missy".

I see Ansley creep up behind us, I hear her say; "Do you need a ride home Miss McCummings? Maybe an Uber or one of these odd police people could ride you home in one of their squad cars"?

"Oh, I'm going to have to turn you down on the offer, sweetie," she says, "You see, I travel alone ever since Eral died eighty years ago, so I am happy with riding my black hawk motorcycle home, if I can find where I live, I- I just don't quite remember".

"Alright, it's settled, one of you police folk is driving this sweet, but very dangerous old lady to a nursing home, and you are going to burn that motorcycle, understand? Just make sure this old lady gets somewhere where she will be confined from the outside world".

"I am not old!" Elspeth pipes up.

"You married your husband when you were two, you took kung fu classes for thirty-two years, you ride a one-thousand year old motorcycle, your glasses are too big, which confirms that you are indeed exactly one-hundred-thirteen years, two months, and sixteen days old, so that's final!" Ansley screams.

Elspeth looks extremely taken aback by this and squeaks out; "Young lady, it is not very lady-like to assume the age of an old woman. I am in fact one-hundred-seventy-two years, one month, and seventeen days old. Thank you very much, and you can take that to the bank".

"What bank?" Ansley asks.

"The one over on Chicago, dearie, it's only about eighteen miles away from here, a fairly good walking distance... Or maybe that was the one on Sixteenth Street which would be about four hours by foot, and two hours by automobile, and..." and she just goes on and on and on and on and I'm slowly finding out that I don't like this old lady very much anymore.

I glare at Conor when I catch him looking at me and Elspeth sees my glare, and says; "Ah, look at 'em. So young and willing to get themselves killed."

I take my gaze away from Conor. 

Eventually Elspeth was literally carried to the squad car that Farm Girl (knocked out from a nasty concussion) wasn't in because she refused to walk herself the six freaking (or in her words; "Gosh dang, rootin' tootin'!") steps it would have taken because they used the newly installed fancy elevator ramp thing.

After everyone has calmed down, the only people left in the waiting room are me, Conor, his mom, my mom, and Kathys' parents.

I decide it's time for an apology.

I will deal with Conor and his shit later. 

I clear my throat to get their attention.

"Hey, guys. I just wanted to say that I am really, really sorry for the outburst in my old room and how I acted around all of you. I'm sorry I snapped at all of you, I just had a lot on my plate. I know I must have hurt all of your feelings and maybe even embarrassed all of you, especially since you-know-who was there. It was wrong of me to treat you all like that. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you guys, please, make sure you don't hesitate to let me know. From now on, I am going to manage my stress better so I don't snap at you all, and I want you to call me out if I do snap at you again. I feel terrible for everything that has been happening, and I'm running out of professional words to use, so, I guess, um, in best regards, Nina".

That was the stupidest thing I could have done. Ending like I was writing a letter.

I look down at my cast and feel overwhelmed with shame.

I expect them to all point at me and say; "Shame on you! Shame on you"!

Instead, they all come forward and embrace me.

One giant hug of every emotion ever created.

"We all love you Nini, you know that right?" my mom asks me.

"I do now," I say and start to feel tears forming in my eyes.

"Aww, Nina," I hear Kathy's mom say, and they all just hug me harder. Too hard; "Ack! Guys!? Can't. Breathe"!

They all let me go and apologize.

"No, no more apologizing," I say.

"Actually, there is one more apology to be made".

Conor?

"Nina? Come upstairs with me"?

I hesitate. Then sighing, I nod and maneuver my crutches so I can get past everyone without tripping myself or anyone around me.

He waits for me at the top of the stairs and starts towards my old room when I join him at the top of the stairs.

He waits for me at the top of the stairs and starts towards my old room when I join him at the top of the stairs.

"I've got my key," I start to say, but I see he already has the door open and is holding one of multiple spares in his hand, the brass paint glimmering from the open shades.

"Oh. Right," I say.

He stands out of the frame and lets me make my way into the oh, so familiar room first.

I make my way to the familiar bed and rest my crutches against the post.

I make myself comfortable on the layered blankets and wait for him to shut the door.

We both look at the carpet. I expect that thing like in movies to happen where we both say "I'm sorry" at the same time.

But it doesn't.

Is a hospital bombing worth losing him?

I threatened to kill him. What kind of a monster am I?

Farm Girl is right.

I am broken.

I start to cry.

He makes no move to console me, which makes me cry harder.

What the fuck is wrong with me? I'm just not enough. For anyone. Not even myself.

I make the first move; "Conor, I'm sorry for this double apology but I'm doing this out of the good of my heart. I am so sorry for what I said to you in the hallway. I wasn't myself and I wasn't thinking straight. I truly mean it when I say I didn't mean it when I told you I didn't love you anymore".

He crosses his arm over his chest and raises an eyebrow; "That's it"?

I see the tiniest of smiles forming at the corners of his lips but he fights it and says; "Maybe you should have kept that to yourself, I never would have guessed it was you".

"Yeah," and my voice trails off and the smile that was covering my face fades quickly.

His smile fades too and the tension is back between us.

"I just want to go back to the way we were," he says.

I look up at him and blink. Confused at what he's proposing, but at the same time, I know exactly what he's proposing.

"Like we were?"

"Like we were," he confirms.

"Why though?" I ask.

"Why?"

I nod.

"Nina Jenay Montez. You realize you threatened to kill me with a gun, called me insane, basically ended everything with me, and I still love you."

"Why the fuck would you still love me?"

"Too many reasons to say out loud."

"Give me one."

He puffs air out of his mouth; "You changed me."

"Changed you?"

"Yes."

"...Define changed."

He sighs; "Can we start over?"

I think about it for a moment.

"I'd like that," and I grin.

That familiar smile creeps back onto his face.

I don't know how the hell we went from a death threat to being back together again. But for whatever good there is left in this universe, thank you for that.

I try to stand up, but I immediately fall back down without the help of the crutches.

He rushes over saying; "Slow down, slow down, I got you".

He helps me up, one hand on my waist, so I stay balanced, and he hands me my crutches.

"Thank you" I say, smiling.

"You're welcome," his grin equally as large as mine.

"I'm still angry with you," I tell him.

"You're kinda cute when you're angry. Not murderous angry, like you were, but now, you're cute."

"Well then, I'm about to be gorgeous!"

He backs up slightly, his hand still on my waist.

"I'm kidding, Kierce, calm down."

He moves his hand from my waist and takes my right hand in mine.

"Ow!" I exclaim, because my injured hand is still tender to the touch.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?" he asks me, concern crossing over his face.

"I'm fine, but I would suggest holding my left hand if you want to stay connected to me".

I roll my eyes and I turn away from him, so he can't see I'm smiling.

He opens the door, and makes a grand sweep with his hand; "After you, m'lady," he says, pointedly waggling his eyebrows at me.

"You're such a prude," I tell him.

"I think you're the prude, here," he laughs.

"Let's get some ice for your hand," I say. 

I walk past him, into the hallway, and he catches me by the arm to sweep me into his arms and kiss me.

I pull away fast.

Shock crosses his face; "Did I do something wrong?"

"Yes... No. I'm sorry."

"Stop saying sorry to me."

"Right now, I don't know if I want to kiss you, or shove you off a bridge."

"Can I pick?"

"No." and I lean in.

When his lips leave mine, we make our way down the hall and to the stairs.

Right before we round the corner to regroup with the adults, he hugs me.

"I love you," he says.

"I think... I can love you," I say.