Aftercare

Chapter 42-We're Not Done

NORA RODRIGUEZ

Oh fuck. My head.

I feel a massive pain in my head as i scrunch my nose, and squeeze my eyes tighter from the bright light hitting my eyes. I cover my eyes with one of my hands, as I hear a voice. "Hey, shut the curtains Lucas, it's bothering her" a harsh voice says from beside me.

Miles. Gun. Hugo. Dad. Lucas. Miles's mom.

Everything comes back to me so fast that my head physically hurts. I blink softly a few times before opening my eyes, coming face to face with Miles sitting next to me, holding my hand and resting his head on the edge of the bed.

Haven't we done this before? Dejavú anybody?

"Miles.." I groan as I close my eyes again. Lucas close s the curtains saving me from my eyes getting blind. "Nora, I'm right here baby, I'm right here. Are you okay?" I can feel his breath on my cheek as he leans in a places a hard kiss onto my temple.

Ugh that warmth.

"Miles is-where's dad?" I can barely make out the words from my chapped lips. I feel like I've been swimming for days nonstop and my body is so sore that it can't swim anymore. "He's um, he's gonna be fine Jojo, it's ok" Diego's voice came closer and closer until he sat on the bed next to me, letting me rest my head against his chest.

"What do you mean? Where is he?" I say tears prickling my eyes. I mean I saw him getting shot. He couldn't be fine. And I shouldn't be worried over a man who never have a damn about me in his life but it would break me if anything happened to him.

He was still dad.

"Stop lying to her guys. It'll just fucking hurt her more. He's in surgery Nora. He's been in surgery for hours no. No news from any fucking doctor in this whole hospital" Lucas spits out. "Hey cut the bullshit man, your stressing her out more" Diego says harshly pointing his finger at him.

Lucas laughs sarcastically. That laugh doesn't radiate through the room like the ones he does when he's happy. "Oh so now you decide to care about her. Where were you when she was in that goddamn house, buddy? Oh yeah, that's right. You were fucking drunk weren't you?" Lucas yells and I feel like my ears are going to explode any minute now.

"Hey, enough. I'm sick of both of you honestly. You either just shut up or get the hell out of here, you hear me? " Miles says from beside me in the most calm voice in the world. Calm but threatening. Calm but scary. Lucas glares at Diego one last time before returning to his seat next to the window.

What if he doesn't survive? What if I'm the reason he dies? How would I live with that? That guilt? What would him leaving me again do to me? "Miles I'm so tired." I say in such a low and breaking voice. "I'm so tired" I say again as Diego places a kiss onto my forehead. "Shit, I'm so sorry baby. I'm so fucking sorry. I promise everything is gonna be ok, alright? I'm promise you you'll never suffer another fucking day on this earth. I promise." Mike says laying his head against my chest.

A knock on the door startled me as I sit up a bit. "Hey, its ok, don't move to fast it'll hurt even worse" Lucas says piercing me in my place as he goes to open the door. A sob brakes through me when I see my mom standing in the door way. Her hand goes up to her mouth as tears drop from her eyes and she runs towards me, dropping her bag on the floor.

"Mi amor are you ok? Por favor please tell me your ok mi Vida. Are you hurt?" She says as she wraps her arms around me and I lay my head into the crook of her neck. Smelling her scent after so many days could make me cry alone, but I hold back and hug her tighter instead. "I'm fine mama. Are you ok? Where's Lily, you didn't tell her anything right?" I say as she puts a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"We're ok baby, we're just fine. Everything going to be ok mi amor." She sniffles as she wipes her nose with a piece of tissue. I hear Lucas chuckle softly. "You know that thing, that thing you did back there, that was really cool." He says looking at smiling at me shyly.

My mom chuckles, wiping away her tears with the side of her pinky finger. "She learned that from her dad, didn't you amor?" I nod sadly. It nearly worked. Nearly. I could have made him proud, maybe for the last time in his life. But I couldn't.

A knock on the door takes us all out of the trance we were in. I doctor who looked like in his early fifties came in. "Mrs. Rodriguez, can I talk to you outside for a minute, and I would appreciate it if the boys would join you." He said gesturing his hand at Diego and Lucas. They exchanged a look with each other, nodded and then followed my mom outside leaving me and Miles alone.

He rested his chin on the bed, his puppy eyes looking up to mine. A small grin appeared on his lips. "You know, they got my mom out of there. She's in check up a few rooms away" he says his smile growing wider. I cant resist not smiling back. "That's amazing baby, I'm so happy for you. You should go check on her if you want" I say genuinely, but he shakes his head right away.

"Jace can go. If you think I'm leaving this room for a single minute, your badly wrong" he says making me chuckle. He smiles at me back, as I tilt my head biting my lip. "Do you think he'll be ok?" I ask nervously.

He smiles. "I mean, does it really matter to you? After all of what he's done to-" I cut him off instantly. "What do you mean Miles? Of course it matters. He matters. He's still my dad no matter what and he literally sacrificed his life out there for me. I cant believe you just asked me that" I say in hurt.

His jaw clenches. "Nora I just-" i scoff. "Save it Miles. I don't want to hear this right now. Just leave me alone. I'm tired as hell and I don't want to fight. Please" I say turning my head the other way. I hear him sigh and get up from the hospital bed slowly.

I close my eyes preventing them from watering, when Miles presses a long kiss onto the side of my forehead, and then one on my cheek. I hear the door open as close, as I turn my head back. Maybe I overreacted a bit? But he shouldn't have gone there. He should have known his limits.

I sigh, spotting my phone on the small table next to me. I grunt as u reach out for it, and let out a breath of air when it's finally back in my hands again. Damn. My eyebrows shoot up when I see the amount of notifications, messages, calls and emails that I've received in the last 2 weeks.

People who completely ignored me at college were now acting like my bestfriends, asking if I'm alright, or if I need help. What type of messed up bullshit is this? Even my boss back from my old job had messaged me privately asking me if I needed me a place to stay.

What. The. Fuck.

I only answer Eva's texts, letting her know I'm alright. Miles had told me how bad she was while I was gone. Just as I was sending my last text, the door creeks open. My mom comes in, looking down at the floor, but I could sense that something was wrong.

I then get startled when I hear someone cursing loudly- that somebody's sounding awful a lot like Diego- and my mom closes the door behind her. I sit up carefully, watching her sit on my bed. "What happened? What did the doctor want? Was it about dad?" I ask.

"Baby I- I don't know what to do. He's not in deathly situation right now and the operation was good but- I'm- im so sorry Nora. I know you were trying to connect with him again" she says wrapping her hands around my face.

No. No no no no no no.

I gulp. "Wha-what do you mean? Mamá?" I ask placing my hands on her shoulder. I could feel my heart beating thrice a time and my mind fuzzy. "He's in a come mi amor"