Leave What Was Found

40: Healing

They had moved her out of Pediatric Intensive Care and to a normal room on the Pediatric floor. According to Doctor Brooks, that was a good sign and she was right because a few days later Avery was now being discharged. It had been almost a week since the accident. Physically, Avery did feel better. Most of her cuts were healing and her stitches felt fine. She would need a cast on her arm for the next couple of months or so, she had picked out a neon green one. A request that would have been amusing to her under different circumstances.

Julian had been the first person to sign the cast, mostly as a joke. True to his word though, the boy had not left her side except for when he was forced to. All Avery wanted to do was hide from everyone in Julian's arms. Which is pretty much what she did. Every day at four, Julian came to see her and stayed with her until six in the morning. He had offered to ditch school entirely but Uncle Mark would not let him.

As for Uncle Mark, well, while Avery dealt with the wounds on her body, Uncle Mark was dealing with the wounds in his heart. The news of Grace's death was not easy for him to hear. Even though he tried to convince her otherwise. He was not doing much better than she was. He seemed distant, lost even. Avery wanted to tell him something. She wanted to say anything that could cheer him up. She wanted to help him, but Uncle Mark clearly felt that he should have been the one helping her. It was overbearing at times and it freaked her out.

"It's because he loves you, Avery," Julian had explained one day as he laid in the hospital bed with her. "He's putting your needs first and I think it's sweet. Everyone shows their love in different ways."

Julian and Mark were not the only visitors who came to see Avery either. Emmet had ditched school a few times and came to see her as well. He brought her some weed that Doctor Brooks quickly found and confiscated. She then gave her an extremely long rant about how bad drugs were. Avery kept quiet and did not tell her that Avery had been smoking weed since she was sixteen. Still, it was nice of Emmet to come by. He said the right things when Avery needed to hear them. He reminded her how much she had already overcome, how she would survive this too.

Meredith, Will, and Mickey had all come to see her as soon as they heard what had happened. Mickey excitedly asked her if he could sign the cast on her arm. He was proud to show off his newfound ability to write his name. Avery could not say no to the adorable little voice Mickey had.

Will did not visit as much because of his job, but he had lots of flowers delivered and paid a local restaurant to bring her food after he heard Avery's tiny complaint about how awful the hospital food was. Meredith and Mickey stayed with Avery during the day while her friends were at school. She made Avery lots of homemade cookies and even brought things to do when Avery was done with her schoolwork.

Meredith taught Avery how to knit and they talked as they made a blanket together. Mickey loved watching movies with Avery, he crawled into her bed and snuggled up with her as they watched Pixar movies together. It was nice, they didn't have to spend so much time with her but they did anyway. Avery really appreciated it.

In the afternoon, Julian would come and then Meredith and Mickey would leave soon after to give them some privacy. Their friends visited too, but only one or two of them could come at a time because on the first day they had all come to see her, the room got a tad too chaotic and the equipment monitoring Avery had been unplugged by accident sending the nurse into a panic and rushing to her room. After that, they all took turns visiting.

When it was Chelsey's turn to come she brought a lot of hair and makeup products to remove the trace of "hospital" from Avery's appearance. Avery had no idea what that meant but she let Chelsey do her hair and makeup anyway. Chelsey also wanted to bring Avery clothes but grimaced at the color that Avery had chosen for the cast.