Protect me!

Going Home

The next morning, I woke up and it took me a while to remember where I was.

"Good morning Aljaz! How are you feeling?" Caitlin asked coming into my room.

"A lot better than I did yesterday, I'm ready to get out of here to be honest. Now I know how Janette felt when she stayed here by herself."

"Why did she have to stay in hospital?" Caitlin asked.

"Okay don't tell her I told you, she'll kill me because she doesn't like being reminded about it but five years ago, she was kidnapped and attacked by my Mum and she still has nightmares about it, I think that's probably what brought on her anxiety. She was such an outgoing girl before that, but now she's scared to do anything in case anything bad happens."

"Oh my god, your Mum is really messed up! Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"No, no it's okay, it's taken a while, but I can finally say that my Mum is passed the point of helping and she needs to stay in prison."

"Morning Bučko!" I heard Janette say as she came through the door.

"Morning Bučka!" I said giving her a hug and putting my finger to my lips to Caitlin, so she didn't say anything.

"Is he ready to go?" Janette asked Caitlin.

"Yeah we just need you to sign his discharge papers just confirming that you are okay to look after him, and we need him back in three days to remove his stitches, I'll get a time sorted out just now."

As I got dressed, I thought about what Gorka said yesterday and thought back to when we all went on holiday after Janette got out of the hospital, she was the happiest I'd ever seen her on that holiday. She's never really been that happy since then. As soon as we got home all the memories of that night came back and she's never managed to get rid of them. I remember sitting with her every night until she fell asleep as every night without fail, she would have a nightmare about that time in her life. I just want to see her happy again.

"Ready to go?" Janette asked breaking me out of my daydream.

"Yeah as ready as I'll ever be. Now I know why you hated it here." I said putting my arm around her.

"Babe, don't go there, remember I don't ever want to think about that again!"

"Sorry I didn't want to bring it up."
"Okay Aljaz, we'll see you back here in three days!" Caitlin said handing Janette everything I would need to look after my stitches.

"Thank you, Caitlin."

We got into the car and I had to stop myself from laughing from how close Janette was to the steering wheel since she's so short.

"Stop laughing at me!" Janette shouted and jokingly slapped my arm.

"Ow! You aren't allowed to hit me, remember you've just picked me up from hospital, you've got to be nice to me!" I said still laughing.

When we got back home, I lay on the sofa while Janette made lunch.

"Janette, I need to ask you something."

"What's up?" she asked sitting next to me.

"When you're finished your Uni course, how would you feel about moving away from here? Just the two of us."

"Oh, Aljaz, I don't know if I could, you know I have all my friends here and my parents still live here, and I don't know how I would feel leaving them behind." Janette said looking away.

"Janette, look at me." I said taking her chin and turning it to face me. "When we went on holiday after you got out the hospital, that was the happiest I've ever seen you. When we came back here, all that happiness disappeared and you went back into your shell, I just want to make you happy again."

"Do we really have to move though? We can just wait until your Mum and Dad have been caught then I'll be back to my happy self."

"Yeah but even when they were in prison, you still weren't happy. It was just a suggestion, but I really think we should think about it.