Blown Apart

27

Chloe POV

I was so pleased when Bronte had said yes to seeing her siblings. Beca had left the room to call my mom to bring the other kids to come and see Bronte. It also meant that my parents could see Cece and Katy. I'm not even sure they know Katy is here. Then Beca goes back to Cece's room to wait with her for a bit. Not wanting her to be alone even though she was probably happy to have alone time. I stayed with Bronte who was clearly not fully in the room.

Bronte was sitting on the bed staring out the window, we had put the TV on and we were watching some bad show that was on. And clearly I was the only one watching. I keep flicking my eyes towards Bronte who hadn't moved in at least ten minutes.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I say reaching to hold her hand, she turns her head to look at me as if she just remembered I was still in the room. She thought for a moment and then shrugged. I hate when she doesn't speak. I need to hear her speak, she needs too. I nearly never heard her voice again, so i will take every chance to hear it now.

"Please use your voice baby girl." I smile and she sighed, like I was asking the world of her.

"I don't know." She whispered quietly.

"If you don't want them to come in the room we don't have to. They have just been asking to see you and we think it would be good to have some company in here." I didn't want her to feel as if she didn't have a choice if she didn't want to see them we didn't have to bring them all in.

"It's okay." Again not loudly and with little emotion. I nod knowing that that was about the most I was going to get out of her right now. Honestly I think it will be good for her to see her siblings. Have a bit of normality. Be surrounded by people who love her.

We sit in silence longer, a lot longer. She just looks at the window for pretty much the whole time we were in there. Eventually Beca messages me saying that everyone is here in Cece's room. She suggests me coming and us having a small chat with the rest of the kids suggesting what to expect.

"Okay your siblings our all in Cece's room. If you don't mind, I can stay if you want, I'm going to go to them and then bring them back? We can play some board games. Just sit and chat. Whatever you guys want to do, okay?" I say not that I think she would notice if I wasn't in the room. She nodded and I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose not that she can see as she is still staring at the window.

"Bronte..."

"Yea it's okay." She corrects herself not with any more passion in her voice. I smile and touch her arm saying I'll be back soon.

I walk down the corridor thinking about the shell of my daughter I left. It must be the meds that she is on. She woke up from a surgery and was then surrounded by doctors. To be honest I would also be a bit overwhelmed if it was me in that position. I get to Cece's room and everyone is talking and chatting away. It kinda of feels nice hearing noise like our house used to be filled with. As I enter I hug my parents glad that they were here. I didn't know what I would do without them.

"Thanks for watching the kids for us, Sorry for not messaging sooner. It's been alot." I sigh not letting go of my mom.

"It's okay we talked to Beca. We will watch them anytime. But clearly it runs in the family's lack of communicans as we didn't know Katie was here either. But I think it would be nice for Bronte to see her too." My mom laughed and I let go and finally pulled back.

"Yeah well we will see how this goes with the others and then get Katie. We didn't want to overwhelm her with everyone being here and her feeling like she had to see everyone. I'm not even sure how this is going to go. She doesn't seem like herself. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed."

"She has been through alot I think a bit of normality will do her good." My dad said and I can only hope that he is right.

Beca came over and grabbed my waist from behind. She kissed my neck and I relaxed into her arms.

"We ready to go?" She says, and suddenly I become unsure. The way Bronte wasn't even all there when I sat in the room. I pull Beca aside away from the room full of people.

"Are we sure about this? Maybe this is too much for Bronte? Too soon?" I question if she will be able to handle a room full of other teenagers.

"She said that she wanted to. She was all for the idea. I think it will be good for her, you thought so too." Beca said, looking concerned. When we were in college there was no way Beca was a person you would consider having children. She was uptight and moody more like a teenager herself. After loads of convincing and going on about it for ages she agreed to have Cody. When I was carrying Beca freaked out the whole time. About everything, about how she would be as a parent. She was worried she couldn't do it. But as soon as he came she was amazing. She did everything to just stare at him sleeping for ages and it was actually her idea to have a second child, which clearly ended up being second and third. So even though by her exterior you wouldn't think she was a family person, but she is.

"I don't know I just sat with her and it was like I wasn't in the room, she was barely in the room. I don't know if overloading her is the right idea."

"I think it will be good for her. She is probably just bored out of her mind. We will bring games and keep all the kids busy. And it will get her mind off, come on it's fine. You are just worrying." Beca pulled away and got the kids ready. A doctor had come in and moved everything to a wheelchair so that Cece could come with us. Moving all the medication so she could be safe. We picked up some board games and made the way down the hall.

We stopped just outside the window before her room and pulled them over to the side. We had to discuss things with the kids first.

"Okay, Bronte isn't really her normally cheery self. There are a lot of wires, tubes coming attached to her. She is awkward obviously but she is scratched and bruised. She is quiet and will seem distant so we wanted you guys to try and cheer her up so that not everything is changed. We don't know how long we will stay. She is probably tired and will need rest. We also don't know how much interaction she can take." I finish and look to Beca to see if there is anything I may have missed.

"We need to be careful about what we say. We don't want her to react to something and stress her out. So we don't mention the leg. She hasn't brought it up other than once. She- well we don't know. And they had to shave her head to do the brain surgery. Don't mention that either." Beca finished. She was right of course we didn't want to trigger anything. She will clearly be sensitive to these things and eventually we will have to talk about it. But not now in a room full of people.

"Does she even know what happened? Didn't they say she was found unconscious?" Cece asked.

"We don't fully know. She hasn't talked about it, or even brought up knowing what had happened. So we aren't sure. Again something we aren't going to say for now. We will bring it up at a later time." All the kids went more quiet and prepared for the worst. I didn't want to scare them but I didn't want them to freak out Bronte.

"So don't mention the accident, her leg or her hair?" Brynlee asked and I smiled weakly at her.

"Yes pretty much." Beca said, smiling. The family would be the first time together in what feels like forever. I take a deep breath knowing that this will be the make or break and I still have hesitations about all this and maybe this was the wrong day. But we are all here now and Beca was very certain this was the right thing to do. Hopefully this would give Bronte a boost in energy that she needed. A glimpse of her life before and that we will all still be here after. I just hope she feels the same way.

We start to walk towards the door. I lead and Beca pushes Cece in the chair as we get to just before the door. There is a pit in my stomach, I'm nervous about going to see my own daughter. Cody puts a hand on my arm as I reach out to knock on the door before pushing it open.