Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

55. Sarah

I went back to Brendon's room and saw he was still asleep. Or asleep again. I wasn't sure.

"He woke up for about an hour, but just fell back to sleep," Kala told me.

I sat beside him, held his hand and waited for him to wake up.

Kala, Zack and I sat around talking as Bren slept on.

A couple of hours later, Brendon woke up again. His eyes were still glassy and I could see his fever was still pretty high. The nurse had been in to change his antibiotic I.V. He looked over at me and smiled.

"Hey babe," he said. "Did you go see Callie already?"

"Hey B. Yep. Zack and I went up," I said. "She's doing much better. I'll hopefully see the doctor this afternoon and see if they have a plan to release her."

"Ok. Cool," he said. I wasn't sure he quite understood.

"Bren? You okay?" I asked

He looked over at me and frowned.

"I'm great, babe. Right as rain. Why?"

"They gave him a painkiller when they switched out his antibiotic," Zack said. "You didn't notice. He's high as a kite."

"I'm not high, Zachary. I am stoned cold sober. Stoned. Haha! I'm not stoned. I'm the Rolling Stones!" Brendon said.

"Sure Bren," Zack said.

"Sarah?" Brendon said, frowning.

"Yeah, babe?"

"Where's Callie? She hasn't visited," he pouted.

"Callie's upstairs, Brendon. We've talked about this."

He frowned again and then shrugged.

"Know what?" He said, smiling like a moron.

"What's that, love?" I asked.

"I'm tired," he said. And then literally fell asleep.

I felt his forehead and he felt warm, but not as hot as he had before.

I ran my fingers through his hair.

Brendon slept for hours. He was still asleep when Kala and I headed upstairs to see Callie.

We were stopped by Callie's doctor.

"Mrs. Urie. I'm glad I caught you. Can I speak with you for a minute?"

"Sure," I said. Kala and I followed him into a lounge just off the hallway near the nurses station.

"Is everything okay?" I asked as he closed the door.

"Have a seat," he said. I was worried now.

"Doctor, is Callie okay?"

"Callie is fine. She's a delightful little girl, I have to say. We had a wonderful chat this afternoon. She is aware of what she did, she's remorseful that she hurt her dad, and she explained to me, as you did, about what had happened to her in the past and that she was protecting herself. She said that being here in New York, she was disoriented when she woke up.

I asked her if she wanted to hurt you or her father and she started to cry and said no. I asked her if she felt safe with you and your husband and she said yes. I asked her why she had a knife under her pillow and she said it was because of her birth father and foster families, and she needed to protect herself. When I asked why she had the knife if she felt safe with you, she said she didn't know, but she wanted to protect herself.

In short, I see no reason to keep her here. I'm happy to release her, today. Now, even, to your care. But I must implore you to find her a therapist when you all return to L.A.  I would suggest seeing someone while you're here, but I don't think it would be good to start with a therapist and then switch. But, like I said, I'm ready to discharge her into your care."

I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly.

"Hang on. I can take her home today?"

"Right now. Swing by the nurse's station for Callie's clothes, and then you can take her home."

I smiled, thanked the doctor and then ran to the nurses station to get Callie's bag of belongings. Which was literally just her pyjamas from that night.

I ran down the hall to Callie's room, excited to bring her downstairs to see Brendon.

She was curled up on her bed when I got to her room.

"Hi, sweetheart," I smiled at her. "How're you doing?"

She started to cry. I wrapped her in my arms and let her cry. Once she seemed done, I held her away, wiped her tears and smiled at her.

"I have good news," I said to her.

"There is no good news," she said.

"Oh, but there is. Doctor said I can take you home."

"When?" She asked, brightening up.

"Now," I smiled. "Today. Right now. I have your pyjamas from the other night and we can go down to see Dad as soon as you get changed."

"Really?" Callie said, incredulously. "I can leave?"

"You can," I hugged her.

She grabbed the bag from me, ran into her washroom and came out in her own pyjamas. Her smile was the widest I think I'd ever seen it.

"Can I say goodbye to Alex?" She asked.

"Of course," I said. Callie ran down the hall and into a room, then came out smiling still. I wrapped my arm around her and led her out of the unit. I kissed her head and held her close. I'd been so scared we'd lose her.

In the elevator, Kala chatted a little with Callie. Everyone had been working so hard learning sign language, but they weren't as fluent as us, so they'd finger spell what they didn't know the sign for. I was just happy that so many of our friends wanted to be able to communicate with Callie in her language.

As we got closer to Brendon's room, Callie started to slow down. Until she stopped completely.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"What if Dad is mad at me?"

"He's not mad at you, sweetheart. He was asking for you before."

Still a little unsure, Callie walked on, and let me lead her into Brendon's room. He was awake and his eyes brightened when he saw us.

"There's my girl!" He said. He looked so much better already.