1:35 pm. Marlene unlocks the front door to the house and immediately opens the door seeing a loud and ongoing commotion. She sees Lukani and K.C. detaining a drunk and belligerent Marcus down in a chair with duct tape. Ilena was rocking back and forth holding her eye sitting on the couch in the living room with Dina consoling her, and Asa on her phone calling the police. Marlene walks toward Ilena to check her eye.

“What happened?!” Marlene asks.

“Drunk ass motherfucker punched her in the eye and was pinning her down!” K.C. exclaims as they tied up Marcus.

Marlene looks at the black marks on their arms and bruises on their faces.

“What happened to you two?” She asks.

“Don’t worry about us. We heal quickly. Go look at Ilena.” Lukani replies.

As Marlene continued to check Ilena’s eye, Nikita rushes down the stairs angrily and gets in Marcus’ face.

“MOTHERFUCKER!!” She yells. “YOU WANT TO HURT MY SISTERS?! YOU WANT TO PUNCH GIRLS IN THE FACE?! YOU WANT TO GIVE THEM BLACK EYES?!”

Out of anger, Nikita punches Marcus in the face.

“HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, MOTHERFUCKER?! YOU WANT ANOTHER?!” She continues yelling and punches him twice, breaking his nose. “YEAH, IT DOESN’T FEEL GOOD, DOES IT?!”

Lukani and K.C. had to pull Nikita away from punching Marcus again.

“You’re going to get it now! Swear on that!” Nikita curses him.

“He got it, Niki.” Lukani interrupts. “Right now, when the cops come, they don’t need to see a bloody tied up man, nor do you need to get arrested. Chill back upstairs. Rika will come by soon to get the girls.”

Nikita takes the advice and begins to walk upstairs.

“And fuck the clinic, Marcus! I’m not wasting my money on you going there! You’re going to stay in jail; fucking believe that! You are done!” She curses as she goes upstairs to the bathroom.

“Okay, Ilena.” Marlene speaks. “I’m going to go upstairs and get my med kit, Okay?”

Ilena nods.

Before Marlene could go upstairs, she walks up to Marcus while he looks down.

“Marcus. Look at me.”  She demands.

Marcus ignores her response making Marlene hold his jaw. Marcus tries to bite her hand which prompts her to slap him across the face and grab his jaw, forcing him to look up.

“It’s best to not bite the hand that had feeds you, Marcus.” She seethes. “Now you listen. I’ve tried to be fair with you. I really tried. We all did. But I told you days ago your time was running out; this is that time. When the cops get here, you are going with them. You no longer live here. Over there, they can give you some help that we can’t. So, this is goodbye and good luck, Father.”

Marlene lets go of Marcus’ jaw. Marcus gives Marlene a deathly glare which she ignores, and goes upstairs to her room seeing the mess that Marcus made. As she tries to find her first aid kit in one of her drawers, she hears footsteps behind her which makes her still and knew it was not one of her sisters. As the footsteps cease, she finds the first aid kit, instantly picks it up, and quickly turns around with a cocked fist, but sees Abel’s face, making her feel relief.

“Abel…” She says, catching her breath. “You scared me. Please, don’t do that again.”

He chuckles. “My apologies.”

They both hear a crashing noise downstairs, making Marlene run past Abel and him following. As they go downstairs, they see Marcus free from his bounds with Lukani and K.C. trying to hold him down. Marcus headbutts K.C. and pushes Lukani to the floor with his gun falling out of the jacket Lukani was wearing.

“ALL OF YOU FUCKING BITCHES ARE DEAD! ALL OF YOU!” He shouts.

Marcus picks up the gun and focuses his attention to Marlene, aiming the gun at her. Before Marcus could pull the trigger, Abel gets in front of Marlene, getting shot in the shoulder and in the stomach, but able to snatch the gun out of his hand, instantly dismantling it. Angered, Abel grabs Marcus by his neck with one hand, picking him up and strangling him.

“You want to harm Marlene? I will snap your fucking neck like a twig!” He yells angrily, eyes glowing from silver to red.

Abel zones out and squeezes Marcus’ neck tighter, close to snapping it. Marlene runs up to him, grabbing his arm to get his attention.

“Abel! That’s enough! Stop!” She shouts.

Abel instantly looks at Marlene with his crimson eyes, but then stares in her eyes, calming him down and causing him to drop Marcus on the floor, incapacitating him. In an instant, he feels the pain in his shoulder and in his stomach from getting shot, doubling over. Blood drips from his wounds out his mouth as he coughs. Marlene quickly holds on to Abel and helps put pressure on his stomach wound as he lays on the wall. Abel looks up to a frantic Marlene.

“This actually burns a little…” He groans. “And I’m not healing. What type of bullets are these?!”

“I don’t know.” Marlene responds worriedly. “They didn’t look normal. Oh, God! We need to stop the bleeding.”

“Calm down, Marlene… The bullets didn’t hit anything vital. They just need to be taken out and I’ll be fine.”

There were sirens coming from outside. Nikita goes to the door to open it for the police and ambulance to come in. In the minutes that followed, the police write down statements of each sister, Marcus gets handcuffed while being looked at by EMTs because of his neck and face, and Abel is on a stretcher and is put in the back of an ambulance with Marlene going with him.

.   .   .   .   .

2:40 pm. At Hope Hospital, Marlene waits outside for Abel to get out of surgery. She sees Marlow come out of the surgery room, taking off his surgical mask. Marlene walks up to him.

“Is Abel okay?” Marlene asks anxiously.

“He’s fine.” Marlow replies assuring her. “He was telling us what to do and didn’t want the anesthesia which is shocking beyond belief to me. Along with that, the wounds were slowly healing right before our very eyes. He is not of this world. Where did you meet this guy?”

“Well, we met at Ophelia’s Hall a week ago during the day of my recital.”

Minutes later, Zeina wheels out Abel in a wheelchair the same time Vance arrives in the hospital’s hallway and walks up to the group.

“Abe! You alright?” Vance asks.

“Vance, what are you doing here?” Abel asks back.

“Autumn told me that you’d be admitted here. What happened, man?”

“Marlene’s father shot me. He was about to shoot her, then I moved in front of her.”

As Abel makes eye contact with Marlene, Vance looks in the direction Abel is looking, and sees what Marlene looked like. To him, she seemed beautiful with a good head on her shoulders and humble. He looks back to Abel and gives him a thumbs up; Abel shakes his head at Vance with embarrassment.

“So, Marlow, how long does Abel have to stay here?” Marlene asks.

“For a couple of hours so the wounds can heal.” He answers. “And I’ll make sure to keep this off the record due to his… special blood type.”

“Thanks, Marlow.”

Marlow walks away to talk to Abel while Zeina walks over to Marlene. She observes how Marlene stared at Abel, making her realize something.

“So,” Zeina speaks. “That’s the man Niki was talking about, Marlene?”

Marlene shushes her.

“Yes!” She replies in a loud whisper.

Zeina has a surprised look on her face when she looks at Abel for herself and grins when she looked at his facial features.

.   .   .

4:40 pm. In Abel’s hospital room, after his wounds healed, he was getting his clothes on. He hears a knock at the door.

“You may enter.” Abel calls.

Marlene opens the door seeing a shirtless Abel, making her stop in her tracks and forgetting to breathe as she sees his chiseled physique. Coming back to her senses, she closes the door, holding something in her hand.

“How are you feeling?” Marlene asks.

“Better,” Abel replies. “But I can’t believe what happened. I wasn’t healing fast like I was supposed to.”

He looks to where he was shot, then looks to see she was holding something as he puts on his shirt. “What are you holding in your hand?”

Marlene shows her hand holding a baggie with the bullets that were taken out of Abel.

“The bullets might have something in them that negates your heal factor.” She replies. “I’m taking these to Rika so she can examine what’s in them.”

“Good. Also, I’m certain those bullets would’ve affected you the same way if you were to get shot. That’s how our blood is, I suppose.”

Marlene begins to think about how Abel got his abilities. She knew that he was injected with a serum, but she could not understand the reason why. She became curious and the subject was bothering her in a bad way; she takes a deep breath.

“Abel.” She starts. “I know you were injected with the serum. But why did you? What was the reason that it happened? Because I have a feeling that something… traumatic lead to that.”

“That’s… something I’m uncomfortable of talking about.” He replies. “I apologize, but I am not willing to share that with you.”

“Oh, sorry. I understand…”

Vance comes in the room with papers in his hand.

“Hey, Abe.” He speaks. “These are your discharge papers. The doc needs you to sign them and we can get out of here.”

He gives Abel the papers and a pen to sign, and then looks to Marlene with a smile.

“Just so you know, my name’s Vance. Vance Braxson.” He introduces. “I’m a friend of Abel’s.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Vance.” She replies. “I’m Marlene Rosa.”

As Abel was signing the papers, Marlene sees Eve come in the hospital room quietly. Marlene signals her politely to leave, but Eve did not pay her any attention and stares at Abel. As Abel finished signing the papers, he sees Eve standing at the front door, so did Vance.

“Hello, little one.” Abel greets in a calm tone. “Why are you in here?”

Eve did not respond and continues to stare at him. Marlene knew what Eve was doing and decides to speak.

“Her name is Eve Incano.” She states. “She has a twin brother that’s a patient here that I’m a nurse for.”

“I see.” Abel responds and looks to Eve. “Is there anything you need from Marlene, little one?”

Eve shakes her head.

“Then why are you in here?” He asks.

“To speak to you.” Eve answers.

Abel raises a brow, unable to understand why the girl wanted to talk to him because he does not know this child. Vance felt confused about the situation and Marlene knew she was about to hear what Eve had picked up about Abel.

“Speak to me?” Abel asks. “What is it that you could speak to me about?”

“About all the things that you have done in your life.” Eve answers.

Abel looks at Eve inquisitively. “What are you talking about?”

“About your blood, about your job, and what you’ve done.”

Abel became bothered that the girl said this and chose not to respond. Eve decides to continue.

“Your blood is what it has become because of the serum. Your father figure injected you with it to save your life from certain death when you were a teen. You were stabbed through your chest because of a freak accident. And since you are your father figure’s favorite, he’s helped with the business you own and manage in order to keep people like Mr. Vance working.”

Vance felt shocked that Eve was pulling up Abel’s past, the past that he did not want to bring up. Marlene begins to feel uneasy as she heard this. Abel felt anger flow into him as Eve continued.

“And also, to keep Ms. Autumn working and have Ms. Erika as a partner—although you stopped being partners hours ago. How much she loves you, the many times she was in your bed, and the times you felt sick every time you two were together.”

“Please. That’s enough…” Abel speaks sternly.

Marlene looks at Abel with disbelief, hearing that Abel was having sex with Erika in the time they started dating, she did not care about what happened with them before she met Abel. She was surprised to see Abel was in anguish as Eve told his story. Abel was distraught inside, wishing for Eve to stop, but he did not want to make a scene.

“Also, with Erika, you made a serum to heal people.” Eve continues. “You saved a lot of lives. But, what about the lives you didn’t save? Out of 50, it was 25 people that didn’t make it?”

“I said that’s enough!” Abel demands angrily.

“Just breathe, man.” Vance instructs Abel.

Marlene could not process of what she heard. She knew everything Eve said was true because of Abel’s reaction. Eve looks to Marlene.

“That’s what you needed to know.” She says to her.

“… You shouldn’t have but thank you. Go back with your brother. Right now.” Marlene instructs.

“I’m sorry, Nurse Rosa--”

“Go back with your brother, please!” She demands.

With a sad face, Eve leaves out the room. Abel looks at Marlene, hiding her face with her hand as she quietly weeps.

“Marlene…” He says quietly. “I—”

“I don’t want to hear it. Not right now.” She interrupts. “I… need to think on some things. I’ve got to go.”

“Miss,” Vance speaks. “I can take you home if you want—”

“No need. I’m calling my sister to get me.”

Marlene takes out her phone to call one of her sisters. As it rings, she looks at Abel.

“If you want to talk to me about what Eve said, I’ll call you.” She speaks sternly.

Marlene leaves out of Abel’s room. After she did, Abel slams his fist on a table out of anger, denting and breaking one of the legs which did not faze Vance. Vance puts his hand on Abel’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, Abe.” He consoles. “Just give her time, okay? Now, let’s… give some of these papers to the doc and I can take you home. Also, I need to tell you this.”

“What?” Abel asks sharply.

“Autumn had a premonition about the grant, but said they are now unclear if they’ll give it to you ever since what happened to the subjects this morning.”

Hearing this, Abel growls, but takes a deep breath to calm down and gets up from his seat. “Let’s go.”

Abel walks out the room with Vance following him. In the hallway, Abel finds Marlow and gives him the papers he needed and leaves out the hospital to get to Vance’s pickup in the parking lot. Abel gets in the passenger seat while Vance gets in the driver seat and drives out of the parking lot and onto the road heading to Abel’s house.