Stolen Lullaby

Runaway

Joe became like a ghost in the hospital drifting between their baby in the NICU and by Taylor's bedside in the cardiac ward. When he couldn't be by one of their sides a family member would take his place. He vowed that nothing would happen to either his wife or his daughter without someone being there with them. Every so often his anxiety would cause him to stop a nurse or a doctor and ask when Taylor would wake up and every time the answer was the same.

"She's been through a lot her body needs to rest." And they were right, he hadn't been prepared for the reality of what open heart surgery truly entailed. To get to her heart they had to break the bones in her chest cavity open leaving a deep scar and another set of injuries she had to heal from in addition to the normal recovery from the c-section.

"I'll be right here when you're ready to come back to us..." he'd whisper bringing her hand to his lips to softly kiss. Even when she was sleeping he still marveled at how she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on. He hoped she would hear his voice and respond but for days she remained in a deep unbreakable sleep.

Scott had the unfortunate duty to tell Sophie what was happening. After picking her up from Abi's house he took her from some ice cream and they took a walk around the gardens of Taylor and Joe's house.

"Grandpa... when are mommy and daddy coming home? They've been gone a long time now." It broke Scott's heart to have to tell her what was going on. Joe didn't want Sophie coming to the hospital and seeing her mom while she was unconscious. She had already been through so much in her young life he wanted to keep her innocent for as long as possible. Seeing Taylor sick would only add to hard stuff she'd already been forced to live through.

"Hey honey, let's sit down for a bit Grandpa needs to rest." He sat down on a bench near a small fish pond Taylor had made when they first moved in. Sophie crumbled the rest of her ice cream cone into bits and dusted them into the pond for the fish to eat before climbing on the bench next to Scott.

"Sophie... you know sometimes you don't feel well like when you catch a cold or have a sore tummy?"

"Yeah, and I sometimes need to take medicine to make the bad bugs go away."

"That's right... I need to tell you something"

"What is it Grandpa?"

"Honey, you're mommy is very sick right now and she needs lots of help to get better so she won't be able to come home for a while."

"Does she need medicine? We can bring her some from the cupboard in the bathroom."

"Medicine from home can't help make her all the way better."

"Well maybe I need to go see her, I know how to make her sickies go away." Sophie said this with so much confidence Scott almost believed what she said could be true.

"Baby your mom is going to be sleeping until she gets better..."

"Oh... like Sleeping Beauty?" Sophie frowned trying to make sense of what was going on.

"A little bit like that yes." Scott agreed.

"Do you know when she's going to wake up? I miss her."

"I really wish I knew Sophie, I miss her too. I really hope it won't be long now."

--------------

"Your honor I am asking you on the basis of compassion to delay the Alwyns from having to turn custody of Sophie to the Collins this coming Monday. There has been an extreme change in Mrs. Alwyns health and now is really not the appropriate time to demand they give up custody. Lana was pleading with the Judge James to allow Sophie to stay at home with her grandparents during Taylor and the baby's health crisis.