"Adopted By" Oneshots!

Something Bad is Happening

(AN: Yes, this story is centered on Valerie, not Josie. BUT! I have Something Bad is Happening stuck in my head, I'm gay for Tracie Thoms, and I couldn't think of any other chapter name. Enjoy the angst!)

Book: Adopted by Be More Chill
Valerie's Age: 10

George's POV

It's only been a few weeks since Valerie came into my life. Though to me, it's felt like a few years, maybe even an entire lifetime if I'm being real. I've been attached to her since Day 1, and I've known that I wanted to protect her since the start. She was still so young, so innocent, yet she's been through so much in just ten years.

And what hurt me the most was Valerie being all happy and telling me how happy she was that it was all over. She was away from Penelope, she was in a home with people that actually loved her, and she was out of the foster system for good if all went well.

But last night...it all went downhill.

Valerie's heart starting acting up and I had to call 911. And three hours later, I got told she was out of surgery, but in a coma, and she might not make it out.

She might not make it out. She might not come home with me.

The realization hit me like a pound of bricks, and suddenly and without warning, I started crying. Val's been through way too much to deserve another blow, it hurt me so much to know that I couldn't run in that room, pick her up, and protect her from the pain she was going through.

I heard nurses talk on the pagers as I sat in the children's hospital waiting room, looking at all the kids running around and playing as their parents filled out forms. I wished more than anything that I could do that with Val right now, or better yet, be playing in the park or at home rather than in a hospital. 

Val loved the park. She loved playing on the swings or going down the slide with me, but with her doctors appointments and the regulations they gave her for physical activity, it was a bit hard. And on the days she was well enough to do that, she loved it.

I tried to think of happy memories with Valerie to snap me out of my sadness, but it was hard. All that came to my brain was the fact that Val was in surgery right now, and there was a huge chance that she wouldn't make it out, she wouldn't be coming home.

Just shy of her eleventh birthday.

I couldn't stop thinking about that. I couldn't stop the tears and the pain and the terrified feeling from coming to me. I felt helpless, like I could do nothing. 

And then I heard the code blue announcement.

No.