adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 10

a doctor was standing in the doorway,

"it's dylan..."

all three women snapped their heads to look at him.

sandy was scanning the doctors face for any sign of good or bad news, and couldn't decipher anything.

cate was thinking of what to say in every possible outcome, how to comfort sandy and danielle if it was bad, how to help sandy adjust to meeting her son if it was good news.

danielle was tired. there was no other way to explain it. she was exhausted. she had been through an emotional whirlwind the past couple days, not to mention her whole life, and she was tired.

dani wanted to cry at the thought of the facade she would have to put up to mask her emotions if the news was for the worst, not to mention having to process her own grief.

what the doctor continued to say shed no more light on the situation.

"would you all follow me, please."

they all sat up in silence, cate and sandy exchanging confused and worried glances, while dani showed no emotion whatsoever.

sandy was mildly concerned about dani's lack of emotion followed by panic-attack outburst, followed by more stoicism, but she hoped that with a stable home environment and some motherly support, she could get the girl to open up to her.

they followed the doctor out of their private room, through a maze of hallways.

there were no paparazzi, and if pictures were being taken of the trio they didn't notice.

all three of their eyes were zoned in on the doctors back as they followed him with bated breath.

at last he stopped in front of a room.

cate, standing a bit taller than everyone, including the doctor, could just see dylan lying on the hospital bed over the covers on the bedroom windows.

she couldn't tell if he was breathing.

the doctor seemed to sense their anxiousness and impatience at waiting in front of the door.

"you can go in and see him."

they hesitated, all exchanging glances before sandy spoke up.

"is he....?"

"he's fine. we detected a change in his breathing pattern which suggests he is no longer comatose, and he should be awake any moment."

danielle felt a weight lifted off her chest. she practically ran into the room to see her brother.

when she saw him laying there, pale and unresponsive, she couldn't help but start sobbing.

whether it was out of sadness, shock, or relief, she wasn't sure.

she knelt by his bed and just sobbed.

sandy followed her into the room slowly, cate behind her with one arm on her back.

when she saw dani she immediately went to her, stopping to look at dylan for only a moment before kneeling down to envelope dani in a hug.

in the midst of everything going on, sandy sometimes forgot that danielle and dylan weren't even fifteen yet.

when danielle's sobs wracked her whole body and dylan's body seemed to take up barely any space on the bed, she was reminded that these were children.

cate watched the scene unfold, standing a little ways away from them and listening to the rhythmic beep of dylan's heart monitor.

the sound of his breathing was music to her ears.

sandy seemed to calm danielle down enough to stop her crying and get her off the ground, and they both stood next to his bed, sandy still wrapping dani in a hug.

dani sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

as she looked at her brother, she thought about how sandy had welcomed them both into her life without even having met him.

dani broke the silence between her and sandy.

"did you know that he has a scar on his right shoulder from a bad crash in karting."

sandy was surprised danielle said anything.

danielle had shared so much with her earlier, when she first showed up at the house and with what she had to tell the doctor, sandy had assumed she wouldn't be up for talking.

she wanted to learn everything about the kids and for them to learn everything about her, and she supposed there was no better cause for speedy bonding than a life or death experience.

"we were on a karting track in singapore, while stationed with justin."

sandy recognized justin as their original adopted father, and remembered the kids grew up being moved around with the military.

"he went off at the third turn, right into the wall. justin stitched him up himself right on the track because he didn't want anyone to find out he'd left base with us to go karting."

dani smiled at the memory, of how dylan laughed while she cried, even though he was the one that was hurt.

that was the energy that danielle craved, that she needed during all this horrible hospital nonsense, but dylan hadn't been there to help her laugh it off.

she kept looking at dylan, every childhood memory flooding through her head.

"and he has a blond streak in the back of his hair, one time we both decided to dye hot pink streaks in our hair but when the dye washed out after two weeks, it left our hair permanently bleached."

sandy chuckled at that, remembering how something similar happened to her the night before she landed one of her first major gigs in Speed, and how cate had run to the drug store to get hair dye in her natural color to turn it back.

it was a bittersweet memory for sandy, remembering what her initial relationship with cate was like.

when they were sneaking around andrew, before their careers had really taken off, it was simpler and yet vastly more complicated.

sandy pulled dani in close, kissing the top of her head.

looking down at dylan on the hospital bed, cate could really appreciate his similar appearance to sandy.

cate had no idea who their father could be, but whoever he was the kids must have next to none of his genes because they both looked like mini sandy's.

cate had her suspicions on the nature of sandy's relationship with the father, but she knew sandy would tell her when she was ready.

after all, cate held her own secrets about the nature of her relationship with andrew.

cate didn't want to worry sandy so early in their rekindled relationship, and she suspected that sandy felt the same.

suddenly a beeping interrupted their peace.

one of the machines was going off, and when cate turned around to call a nurse, she heard a gasp.

she whipped her head back around to see both danielle and sandy in shock.

sandy made eye contact with cate and slowly looked back to dylan, pointing at dylan's hand, which had clasped danielle's.

cate made her way over next to them, and saw dylan and dani holding hands, dani's hand shaking slightly.

then dylan opened his eyes.

it seemed to be a moment before he actually took in his surroundings.

when his eyes finally focused, he looked directly at cate.

the first words that cate and sandy heard the young boy speak were

"is that fucking cate blanchett!?"

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chapter 10 - 1201 !