Learning to Love

Chapter 16

When I woke up the next morning, I blinked my eyes open and saw Josh sitting in the chair next to my bed. "Good morning, Cali." Josh smiled at me; I gave him a soft half smile. "Are you ready to get out of this popsicle stand baby?" What was a popsicle stand and why would I want to get out of it? I turned my head sideways at him, He laughed at me "To leave the hospital baby." Oh... I nodded at that, yeah, I was ready to leave, not sure where I was going but I was tired of being here all the time.

I looked around and noticed that Abbie wasn't in the room, I looked back at Josh and raised my hands up while shrugging my shoulders and looking around, "oh are you looking for Abbie?" I nodded my head, "she went to see if she can get you discharged already, she's eager to take you home so that we can start to learn all about each other. I know you had a rough start, but we are hoping you will learn to love us baby, we are going to be one big happy family." I didn't really know what to say to that, so I just reached for teddy and gave him a really big hug. I wasn't allowed to be happy, although a family and happiness seemed like distant dreams for me, could I ever really be happy?

Abbie came back into the room, and right after her was Angie, I clapped and bounced on the bed, giving her a great big smile. I suddenly stopped bouncing remembering I had just woken up and needed the bathroom, I also felt that the pull-up I was wearing was wet. I squirmed uncomfortably and pointed towards the bathroom door, Abbie smiled at me, "alright, let's get you in the bathroom Cali, can I carry you again?" I nodded yes, I just really had to go, Abbie quickly reached over and scooped me up settling me on her hip with a great big smile on her face, Angie stepped forward and grabbed the I.V. pole, "Let's get you to the potty and then when we come back, I think we can take this I.V. out of you Cali." I nodded to that and pointed towards the bathroom making a small whining noise, "Alright baby let's get you to the bathroom."

Once I had made it back to my bed, with a clean pull-up on, I cannot confirm or deny that I may have thrown a small fit when they wanted to change me into a diaper, but after they realized, I wasn't going to budge they produced a pull-up for me which I happily stepped into, I grabbed teddy and then looked down at my hand where the I.V was Angie gave a soft laugh "Anxious are we? Alright Cali, I'm unhooking it now sweet girl." I nodded and gave a half smile to her, "You'll feel a small pinch when I take the needle out alright?" I nodded and squeezed teddy really tight with my free hand. I felt the needle come out and gasped, that didn't hurt as much as I thought it was going to. "There all done, and I found a really pretty band-aid with rainbows on it, just for you Cali." I looked at my hand and noticed something sticky to my hand where the needle used to be, the sticky thing was cute and I smiled looking at it, guess it was called a band-aid.

Abbie looked at me and smiled, "Can I do your hair quickly Cali? I promise I won't pull on it too much, I just want to pull it up and get it out of your face." I nodded, she had done my hair a few times while I was stuck in this bed, and she hadn't ever pulled it to the point where it hurt.

Angie cleared her throat "Alright so here's the prescriptions you will need to get filled for her, I need you to sign this paperwork and then she can go home, will one of you be carrying her or should I go grab a wheelchair?" Josh and Abbie looked at each other, "No we will be fine without the wheelchair, one of us will carry her out." Josh reached out for the paperwork "I'll sign the paperwork; do we need to know anything else before we head out?" Josh was signing the paperwork pretty fast and handed it back right after he had finished his question. "No, but if you have any questions before you fly home, call this number here and the doctor on call can forward it to me" Angie turned towards me "I'll miss you, you take care of yourself alright?" I nodded my head shyly at her, yeah, I'll probably run the first chance I get, they've been nice while I've been here but who knows what will happen once, we leave and are on our own. Angie gave me a little hug then gathered up the stack of paperwork and headed out the door.

Abbie clapped her hands, "Okay Cali let's get you changed into your pretty dress I got for you alright?" I nodded, I was super happy to change into the pretty dress and out of the hospital dress I was in.
"Allright arms up Baby." I looked at her then at Josh, "Oh, Josh? Would you mind turning around while I slide her dress on, please?" Josh nodded "Haha alright ladies I'll turn around, let me know when I can continue packing so we can get out of here." Abbie slides the hospital gown off me, then quickly stuck my arms in the sleeves of the pretty dress, and pulled it over my head, I cried out when everything went black momentarily, it was almost like I forgot what it was like to pull a shirt over my head, I mentally face-palmed myself. Abbie cooed at me "it's alright baby, you're all dressed now, see?" As she was sliding on some socks and brand-new shoes, they were so pretty, they sparkled, I stared at them in shock and smiled. "Alright Josh, we are all done, you can turn around now and keep packing."

Josh turned around "Oh my gosh Baby you are so adorable, I could eat you up!" I looked up at him terrified, I didn't want him to eat me! Abbie laughed "He won't eat you baby; I won't let him." I grabbed teddy again from beside me and looked down at him, I was feeling a little embarrassed. "I'm going to pick you up to carry you to the car okay Cali?" I just gave a short nod, before she reached into the bed and picked me up, I tensed up at first but then relaxed when she set me on her hip. "Alright Josh got everything, let's get out of here!" Abbie started heading for the door not even waiting for Josh. "Last one to the car has to drive and can't sit by the baby!" I heard Josh laugh "Abbie slow down, you can't Jostle her too much, and I'll let you win so you can sit in the back with her."

Abbie slowed down and waited for Josh to catch up with us, I stuck teddy right in between Abbie and I, this way there was a small buffer between us, and I knew I wouldn't lose him if he was right in front of me. Abbie smiled down at me, "Thats a great spot for teddy, we can keep an eye on him, so he doesn't get lost." Abbie leaned into my ear "We don't want to lose teddy in this big scary world, he might get scared without you, right Cali?" I nodded seriously to her; teddy needed me to keep the bad people away from him.

We all got into a big box thing were the doors closed and I could see my reflection in them, I looked so different from the last time I had seen myself, I had pigtails in my hair, a really pretty dress on, shoes, and I was being carried like a baby, in fact if I didn't really know that I was older, I probably would have thought I was no older than five. Josh reached over and pushed the 1 button that was next to the doors, I felt a movement and clutched onto Abbie a little tighter. Abbie smiled at me "It's okay it's just the elevator moving floors for us, so we can head to where the car is parked." I relaxed a little when I heard a ding and the doors opened and I recognized the area where I escaped from before.

Abbie and Josh walked towards the doors that I had run out before, but they turned the opposite way that I had gone when I had run. I saw a lot of moving cars, I couldn't remember ever riding in one, although I'm sure that when I was brought here both times, I must have been in one. Abbie approached a white four door car, and when there was a beep noise, she opened the back door, there was a weird looking seat on the side of the car that we were on, then the other side didn't have anything, just the regular seat. "Alright into the car seat you go Cali." Abbie slowly lowered me into the I guess what she called a car seat, then did up lots of things over me, I immediately tensed up, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this, before I could make any sort of noise teddy was placed on my lap and the door was closed.  

Surprise!!!! I was able to update today guys! Hope you enjoyed reading it!

 don't forget to drink lots of water everyone!