adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 12

after dylan's outburst and the moments of sentimentality that followed, the doctor came in to alert sandy that her and the kids were free to go home.

sandy had been assured that dylan wouldn't need a wheelchair, but insisted on having one take him out to the car anyways.

cate left and pulled up her porsche car to the doors, to try and avoid as much paparazzi as they could.

when dylan took his first steps out of bed, it was shaky.

his chest and abdomen hurt from the stitches, and his head felt like it was swimming from all the antibiotics.

regardless, he was able to walk from his bed to the wheelchair.

sandy was terrified of pictures being taken as her and the two kids exited dylan's hospital room.

it was all going smoothly until they arrived on the first floor, and had to go from the elevator to the hospital entrance.

sandy could see already through the glass doors that cates car was surrounded by paparazzi.

"oh god damn" she muttered under her breath.

"hmm?" dani asked, confused at sandy's mumbles.

dani had been in a dream-like state of semi awareness ever since seeing max.

sandy helped her during her panic attack, and seeing dylan certainly boosted her mood, but her anxiety and adrenaline was still running high, and it had been a couple days since she had properly slept.

"it's just the paparazzi," sandy responded, "i want you both to keep your heads down even when we get in the car, don't look up until i tell you to, cover your faces if you can."

both dylan and dani obeyed, and they embarked on the walk to the car.

as sandy, dani, dylan and the nurse pushing his wheelchair neared the car, flashes of light seemed to come from every direction.

men started yelling out to them, questions aimed more towards sandy such as "who are these kids?" "why are you at the hospital?" "what do you have to say about the speculations on your relationship with ms blanchett?" "why is she picking you up?"

most of those questions seemed normal, but the later ones caught dani's attention.

she hadn't thought about the fact that sandy and cate were in a relationship, they just seemed so natural together.

dani supposed that she would've read in a magazine or something if they were publicly together, but then again her access to the outside world had been limited.

they continued to push out of the hospital to the car, some hospital security helping to keep the crowds at bay.

cate got out of the car to open the doors for dani and dylan and her girlfriend.

once they were all settled in the car, cate started the journey back to sandy's LA home.

it was around 8am, the traffic just getting started.

cate hated silence, and although the silence in the car wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, it was silence nonetheless.

she turned on her bluetooth music to a quiet hum, choosing a playlist she knew sandy liked.

sandy smiled softly at her girlfriend as one of her favorite songs, Angel Eyes by ABBA played.

dylan piped up from the back seat, "i love this song!"

"me too" dani exclaimed.

a couple more moments passed before dylan started to sing the chorus of the song quietly.