Learning to Love

Chapter 11

When I awoke again, I kept my eyes closed hoping to tell if someone was still in the room with me, I heard a noise that sounded like someone was checking something on the computer, and then I heard Abbies voice "Why hasn't she woken up yet? Shes been out for way too many hours" then I heard an unknown male voice "She will wake up soon, her body is just exhausted, and she needs the rest" I heard footsteps walking away and then the door shutting. I heard Josh "Abbie relax, you heard the nurse she will be awake soon" "I can't relax Josh, we've just found her and I need her to be okay, we didn't even know she existed until a week and a half ago, the amount of pain she must have had growing up, and we couldn't be there for her" I heard Abbies voice crack and then I heard sobs, why was Abbie crying? I heard Josh's voice "Abbie I know you're sad, but I need you to calm down, if she wakes up you don't want her to see you crying, do you?" "But Josh she's so tiny and skinny, I don't know how she survived that house, I wish we would have known about her years ago." "SHHH Abbie, we have her now and we will make sure she has the childhood she should have had; we will get her to open up to us and trust us, we will introduce her to Jordan and Gabby, and we will all take care of her, we will make her the happiest child to ever exist, okay Abbie?" I heard sniffles probably from Abbie. "Yeah, you are right, she may have had a rough start to life, but she will love our family."

I went back to sleep after that, I think I needed to process everything that was going on, who were Gabby and Jordan? Where did they want to take me? Would they lock me in the broom closet and beat me if I didn't make their dinner on time? Who were they to me? What was a family?

The next time awoke I opened my eyes and Josh was sitting in the chair, but Abbie wasn't around. Josh gave me a small smile when he noticed I was awake, "good morning baby, I'm glad your awake" I just looked at him, he seemed to realize I wouldn't talk back to him, his smile faltered for just a minute then he started looking around the room, he seemed to have found whatever he was looking for because he suddenly turned back around holding a sheet of paper and a pen in his hand.

He handed the paper and pen to me, and I slowly reached out with shaking hands grabbing ahold of the pen and the paper from him. He stepped back away and went around the bed and sat back on the chair. "I know you don't know really now me or Abbie, but we really love you and want you to come home with us." I brought the paper closer to me and brought my knees up so I could write. Once I was done, I turned the paper in his direction. "Home?" he asked, I nodded my head at him. "You'll be coming to my house, where my wife lives and where Abbie and her husband live as well, we are a very loving family, and we love you so much Cali Rose King."

I turned the paper back to my lap, wrote quickly then turned it back to him. "that's your name Baby, we found a few documents at the house you were staying in with him, I know at school you were going as Rose, would you still like to be called that? Or would you prefer Cali?" I didn't really care but Rose had bad memories so maybe Cali was a new name for a new life? Not that I could really trust these people right away anyways though. "Baby you don't have to decide right now, you seem to be thinking awfully hard there, and I don't want you to hurt yourself" I shook my head and grabbed the paper back from where it fell, then pulled it back to my lap, I wrote quickly then turned it back to Josh. "You would like to be called Cali? That sounds great baby, Abbie should be back soon, we were hoping you would wake up soon, so she went out to find some food." I nodded then turned the paper back and wrote a question down then turned it around to Josh. He read the paper and then smiled really big, "I'll let you know what we are to you when Abbie gets back, we want to have that conversation when both of us are here for you." why would they both want to be here for that? All well wasn't going to think too hard on that for now.

Before I could get too worked up about them both talking to me about who knew what, the door opened and in walked Abbie with two big bags of food and 3 drinks. Abbie smiled when she saw me awake, she walked over to a small table that was in the corner of the room and set the food down. "I'm so glad to see you awake, you slept for a long time." I just looked at her, as she walked over to the bed and bent down and messed with something that was underneath, I just watched her afraid she might hurt me. She brought something from underneath the bed and stuck it right over my lap. I jumped a little when she set it down, "It's alright, I just wanted to get you a table to put your food on baby." Josh went to stand up and I jumped and immediately brought my legs to my chest. "Oh, it's alright baby Josh is just going to get his food, you're okay I promise" I just watched Abbie and Josh head back to the food on the other end of the room. I could see them having a whispered conversation that I couldn't make out while they were digging into the bags. Abbie turned around with a drink and some food in her hand and made her way back over to the bed, she put down something on the table and smiled at me, "I got you some chicken nuggets, apple slices and an apple juice box baby, I wasn't sure what you would want to eat."

I studied the food in front of me and slowly reached out a hand for an apple slice, when I had one in my hand, I looked up to make sure it wasn't a trap and they weren't going to beat me, wouldn't be the first time I had been told I could eat, and it was just a trick. When they both just smiled at me, I brought my hand up to my mouth and hummed, the apple was delicious. "Do you like that baby?" I heard a soft laugh, and then I heard Josh scolding Abbie "Don't tease the baby Abbie" I swallowed the apple in my mouth and then grabbed my paper and pen that was next to teddy on the bed, I patted teddy's head then brought the paper to a corner of the table and wrote something then turned it towards Abbie and Josh. Josh read the paper and laughed then turned to Abbie "I told her I was waiting for you to get back before I talked to her about who we were to her" "aww thanks for waiting Josh" Abbie approached the bed and knelt down next to me, and reached for a hand, I almost pulled back but she hadn't hurt me yet so I was hoping I was safe.

"We are your siblings Cali; we didn't know you existed until we were contacted and told we had a little sister and that she needed a loving home." What in the double hockey sticks were siblings? I got my hand back from Abbie, then I grabbed my paper and wrote quickly turning it around so Abbie could see, since Josh was still standing across the room eating his food. Abbie read my note then turned and looked at Josh "What?" Josh asked. Abbie turned back to me "Siblings, it means we had the same parents as you, I'm your sister and Josh is your brother."   

three Chapters in one day guys! I'm not sure when I'll have another day off to write some more chapters but hopefully this can hold you over until then! :) Also, I'm pretty sure this is the longest chapter I've written so far!