A/N: there is some swearing in this chapter but I am not going to mark it M. Honestly, between me and you, we've been through worse than that in this story...

And now...here we go.

When Tiffany finally came out of surgery three and a half hours later, everyone piled into the large private room Mr. Lee had reserved for the girl. There was another round of tears as they saw Tiffany wheeled out, unconscious, pale, bloodless, but by the grace of God or Death, however way you want to look at it…alive.

Taeyeon had since then gathered back her senses and was once again the calm and collected leader the girls had come to know and depend on. Jessica was a little less reasonable. In fact, she was not quite lucid. The brunette seemed to have constricted her entire universe around Tiffany. To her, nothing else seemed to exist outside of her Stephanie, nothing else could take her from the reveries that was this nightmare. She had eyes for no one else, ears for nothing else, and a taste for only the bitter tears running down her face.

“Why isn’t she waking up?” Jessica whispered for the fourth time within the hour. She had the very real fear of Tiffany slipping into a coma, just like Lexi-belle had done.

No one had the heart to answer that question.

They too were afraid of history repeating itself, for the third time it would seem, though not all of them were aware of the recurring tragedy.

“Please wake up Steph…please wake up…” Jessica choked out, leaning forwards in her chair and laying her face down next to Tiffany, nuzzling into the crook of the younger girl’s neck.

The other members immediately glanced at their president and his wife to gage their reaction to Jessica’s rather intimate actions. To Taeyeon’s relief, they didn’t seem to care. No whether this was due to them being unaware of the implications of that they simply didn’t have a problem with gay relationships, she had no way of knowing. But all that seemed rather trivial compared to everything else at this point. Taeyeon had the feeling that both the president and his wife would exclaim (rather inappropriately considering the Catholic take on homouality…) ‘hail Mary full of grace’ and jump for freaking joy if they were told that they would have to trade Tiffany’s heterouality for her life. uality just seemed such a trifling matter…at least when life and death were in question.

“Stephanie…wake up…I love you baby…and I’m waiting…” Jessica whispered.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dominic got worse.

At first it was more alcohol. More and more and more until he would pass out in random areas around the house before dinner time rolled along. He no longer took the girls to school. Stephanie would walk Lexi-belle to kindergarten then walk another fifteen minutes to her own school. After school, the routine would be the same.

Stephanie made sure to never left Lexi alone at the house with Dominic ever again.

Lexi herself had developed a fear for her older brother and would never let him hold her or kiss her. And it seemed that his baby sister’s fear of him only seemed to push Dominic deeper into his pit of self-loathing. Stephanie was twelve, but she knew her brother was not ok and needed more help than she could give him.

It took a lot of internal struggle, but she eventually called the foster people, whose mobile numbers she had memorized. She asked them to find her a shrink to help her brother, something she herself had hated and was sure Dom would hate just as much. But it needed to be done. The foster people were surprised to hear her talk, but glad to help all the same.

But when it came to break the news to Dominic, Stephanie knew he would not take it well. She just hoped that in the midst of all his anger and violence, he could see through the haze and see reason.

She knew Dom through and through. His self-loathing had made him bitter, clouded his judgment, and in turn, it made his hate seep into everything else in his life. Including his sisters. It got bad enough that both Lexi and Stephanie had learned to never make eye contact with him. He seemed to see that as a challenge to his person and would often fly off into a rage, banging doors, swearing, beating himself and yelling at his sisters. It progressed from there. It seemed simply berating himself and his family and acting like an overgrown temperamental child was not enough to release Dom’s demons. And he knew it. It was his one act of rationality.

He went looking for illegal fight rings.

Dom knew if he stayed at home when he had his fits of rage, he would end up hurting his sisters. He had retained enough sense and care to not let that happen. Because underneath all his violent hate…he still loved his sisters more than anything.

But his hate for his own worthlessness was stronger, and it bled like a drop of black dye in a cup of water into everything else. Eventually the dye settles and you can’t even see it after it has dispersed…but it’s there. Diffused and infiltrating into every water particle. Always there.

The first time Dom left for the fight rings at night, Stephanie had freaked out a little. Dom didn’t come home all night. And when he stumbled back in at seven in the morning, he looked like crap. Stephanie had taken a sick day at school and had patched up Dom as best she could. He had cuts and bruises everywhere and his face looked like someone had taken a paintball gun to it at pointblank range.

He was conscious the entire time Stephanie was bandaging him, staring at his sister with forlorn intensity.

“I feel better,” he said sadly.

Stephanie didn’t look up. Nor did she speak.

She was a little angry at his actions, angry at him for seemingly letting everything go, abandoning her and babygirl. At the same time, she was still a little hesitant to look into his eyes, where they always showed nothing but pain and anger.

“I would have hurt you if I stayed. I needed an outlet. And now I feel better.”

Continued silence from Stephanie.

“The pain makes it better Stephanie…” he said again, somehow trying to convince both his sister and himself that this was not as insane as it sounded.

“You need help Dom.”

“Wh-what?”

“Professional help. Help I can’t give you.”

“No I don’t!”

“Please. Can’t you see what you’re doing to us? To yourself?”

“The pain makes it better!”

“LISTEN TO YOURSELF! THAT’S BULL AND YOU KNOW IT!”

“I don’t need help.”

“Yes you do! You almost strangled me, you duct ta–”

“No-no-no! Stop! I wasn’t coherent! I was confused! You even said so yourself! You said it was going to be ok! YOU PROMISED ME IT WAS GOING TO BE OK!”

“And it will be. Please…I just need for you to try and work out whatever this is…”

“Whatever this is? WHATEVER THIS IS?! I’LL TELL YOU WHAT THIS IS! OUR PARENTS ARE ING DEAD! THEY DIED! JAXON IS BEING A LITTLE AND REFUSING TO WAKE UP! LEXI IS SCARED LESS OF ME! AND YOU HATE ME! YOU ALL HATE ME!”

“We don’t hate you. I don’t hate you. I love you Dom. And I know you love me. Please. I know you love me enough to come to your senses and get help.”

“…”

“Please…allow them to help you.”

“Them? You already called ‘them’ without first asking me?!”

“Please Dominic…”

“NO! I DON’T NEED THEIR HELP! AND YOU WILL OFF IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU!”

 Stephanie stared at him.

“Are you…are you threatening me Dom? Are you saying you’ll hurt me if I don’t back off? Listen to yourself. Please…you need help.”

“Shut up Stephanie. Just shut up.”

And then Stephanie didn’t see Dominic for three whole days. She never figured out where he went or what he did, but it was out of her hands. And she could only pray he wasn’t lying dead on the streets and that he would come home.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Taeyeon cornered Jaesung the moment he walked in, not even caring that his girlfriend was here.

“Don’t screw with me Dr. Kim. Tell it to me straight. Why isn’t she up yet?”

“…It’s true she’s taking longer to come out of sedation. But it’s not unh–”

“Bull! Is she in a coma or not?! Is it that hard for you to tell me the truth?!”

“Yes.”

Taeyeon took a few steps back and clutched at the wall behind her. She could hear Jessica crying against Tiffany. The brunette must have heard.

They all must have heard.

History was repeating itself.

And it had never once had a happy ending.

Was the third time the charm?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dominic disappeared for days on end. Then he would come home bruised, battered, bloody…richer…and in a brighter mood.

It was like a drug. Fighting seemed to take the edge off for him and the effects would last for about a week, sometimes even two, before he had to ‘recharge’ again. It was messed up. But somehow it worked.

He stopped drinking and during the weeks he was at home, Stephanie saw clear glimpses of the Dom she knew as a child. And it was apparent these glimpses were getting longer and more than temporary. Some days, it was like nothing had ever happened at all, like their parents hadn’t died, like Jaxon was not fighting for his life, like everything was ok.

Stephanie knew this wasn’t the long-term way to fix things, but she let herself revel in the stability and peace that had once again entered their lives and she allowed herself to relax, just for a little bit.

Perhaps she shouldn’t have.

Because even a watched pot will boil at some point in time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Sooyeon-ah…we will come back tomorrow morning. You need to sleep. Come on.”

“…”

“Jessica, you can’t go on like this. You haven’t eaten at all today. Go home, eat, get some sleep and come back tomorrow. You can’t do anything for her here.”

“…”

“As your president I am telling you to go home!”

“…”

“Jessica Jung!”

“You are crazy if you think I am leaving.”

“Jess…she needs you to not run your body to the ground, sh–”

“Nayeong unnie. I. Am. Not. Leaving.”

“Then would you make us all stay here with you?”

“I don’t care who stays or who goes. I don’t give one damn about what the rest of you do. I’m not leaving.”

“Sooyeon! You can’t speak to them like that!”

“I don’t care. I just want Stephanie back.”

“…You love her, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Jessica did not hesitate in the declaration of her love for Tiffany. She wanted everyone to know. The girls. Nayeong. Jaesung. Officer Choi. And even…the president and his wife.

But most of all, she wanted Tiffany to know of her love.

Taeyeon’s heart stopped.

Jessica had admitted to her relationship with Tiffany. The fate of their career was now in the hands of the president. There was a strict no dating clause in their contract, that and the fact that the two girls were engaged in a homoual relationship which was pretty much socially condemned didn’t help their cause.

“You make her hap