Don't Talk To Daddy

Chapter Thirteen

"Ok, Trin! Let's not hit the tree!" Jake said, throwing his hands onto the steering wheel, straightening the car back into the middle of the road. Harmony was sitting in the backseat, clinging to her car seat for dear life as Jake struggled to keep my driving under control. As I stared blankly at the road, Aaron's face still covered everything. No wonder I couldn't drive; I couldn't see the road, and I had lost all sanity. At that moment, I couldn't even figure how we had gotten into the car. I must've just headed to the car and Jake and Harmony must've followed me which was a stupid decision for them to make. I shook my head, still trying to clear away Aaron's image when Jake called out, "Trinity, where the hell are we going?"

I couldn't think, or control myself, or anything I said. I ended up shouting out, "We're off to kill Aaron!" Could I have sounded any more crazy? Was I really thinking about killing Harmony's father? Maybe I should've had Jake steer us towards a mental institution.

***

My eyes slowly opened a crack, but I couldn't see anything. Everything was much too blurry to make out anything but shapes and heavy shadows. I could feel something on my forehead. I struggled to raise my heavy hands up to my head to investigate the strange feeling. The feeling was familiar, yet it still took me several minutes for me to come up with a guess of what they may have been. Were those stitches? No, they couldn't be. How could I end up with-?

I wasn't able to finish my thought. I could hear Jake's muffled voice. I assumed he was outside of wherever I was, but close enough for me to hear him. My vision was slowly becoming clear, and I was starting to realize where I was. I was in the hospital, with stitches in my head. Oh, what did I do?

The door started to open, and I could recognize Jake as he walked through the door, carrying with him a small cast on his arm. Spotting the cast, tears started to well up in my eyes. I did that to him, didn't I? I had caused that, didn't I? When Jake spotted that I was awake, his eyes brightened up, and he hurried over towards me. "Hey, you're up!" Jake exclaimed. "How are you feeling?" He sounded happy, like I hadn't just injured his arm. I didn't answer him, I just sat there, trying to hide my watering eyes, it was no use though; Jake had already noticed. "Trin, are you ok? Do you're stitches hurt?" He said like he would talk to someone much younger than me. He leaned down and kissed me on my forehead, his cast making contact with the side of my arm. I showed no reaction. I just sat there, mortified at what I had done. "Trinity?" Jake questioned, noticing I was still upset.

"I-I-I did that. Your arm, I did it?" I stuttered.

"It's ok, Trin. It's not even broken. It's just fractured," He said, brushing off his injury as though it was nothing.

My heart practically broke at the word 'fractured.' How could I have done something to hurt Jake? How could I? "What did I do?" I thought aloud.

"Trinity, calm down. It's ok. You're far more hurt than me."

I looked at him, confused. "I only have stitches," I said.

Jake then looked confused. He turned his direction towards the nurse that was standing at the other end of the room. "She probably can't feel it. She's on a lot of pain medication," the nurse said, answering Jake's silent question.

"Pain meds?" I questioned. I had had stitches in the past, and had never needed pain medication.

Jake looked at me like I was crazy, "Yes, pain meds. Trin, ---- you broke your ankle."

I looked shocked. I broke my ankle? Well, those must've been strong pain medications because I couldn't feel a thing at the moment, besides my stitches. Even though my ankle was broken, it didn't change the fact that I had fractured Jake's arm. "Jake, what happened?" I asked, staring him in the eyes.

"Trin, the car crashed," Jake answered. I noticed that he didn't point that I had crashed the car. The way he had put it, the car had crashed itself.

"The car..." I mumbled, trying to think back to the car. When realization finally hit me I exclaimed, "Where's Harmony?!"

"She's fine. Perfectly fine. No injuries, no scratches, no bruises, no nothing," Jake said.

I let out a sigh of relief, but I still couldn't help thinking of what could've happened. "Where is she then? I want to see her." I said, wanting to make sure she was alright.

The questioned seemed to make Jake nervous. It took him a while to finally speak, "Aaron came to pick her up." He sounded reluctant to tell me, and I suddenly wished I hadn't asked. I stared at him, almost in disbelief that they released Harmony into his care.

There was a moment of silence."I wish to leave now," I said very sternly, finally feeling my heavy cast as my legs pulled back as I sat up. Jake pulled a chair over from the side of the room and sat down next to the hospital bed. He looked into my eyes, which were filled with hate and worry. Hatred of Aaron, and worried for Harmony's safety. I had expected him to speak, but he didn't. He just sat there, staring at me. We both sat there for a while; a long time. The pain medication was starting to wear off during the time we sat there, and I was finally able to feel the pain in my ankle. I still didn't know what he was trying to do, as my pain worsened. Where was that nurse? Shouldn't she be taking care of me?

"Jake, I want to go see her," I said, finally picking up where I had left off sometime ago. Jake just continued to look at me, until he finally spoke, extremely softly, "We can't. You need to stay here to recover."

"Then as soon as I can leave, we're leaving," I said sternly, through gritted teeth as the pain in my ankle worsened.

"We can't," Jake repeated, confusing me, "Aaron's called custody."

"What?" I asked still confused.

He took a deep breath before answering, "This all happened when your dad was out of the country, and your Mom was with Aaron, instead of being home to take care of Harmony --------" He stopped to think for a moment, "Aaron feels that your mom and dad are not taking responsiblity for Harmony ----- He wants custody of Harmony."

"He can't do that! Harmony belongs to my mom! He can't just take her!" I half-shouted, half-whispered.

"You're mom has granted him custody for now, ------- until everything can be settled in court."

"Wait, what? Is my mom breaking up with my dad? What's going on?" I was still confused, and had many questions circling through my head.

"No. Your parents are still together. Your dad doesn't know about ---- the other night," Jake whispered.

By then I was crying, both from the pain, and what Jake had just explained to me. The nurse came in the door. She looked at me for a moment and then rushed over. "Don't worry, honey. I'll give you more medicine," She talked to me like I was five years old, assuming I was crying from the pain. I didn't like the way she was speaking to me, and I was already irritated to begin with. I didn't mean to, but I scolded her, "Stop talking to me like that." My voice was cold and hard. I still didn't think I had fully recovered from my recent bout of insanity. Everything was just coming at me so fast. Nothing felt right.

The nurse looked insulted, but she quickly apologized, gave me more medication and left the room.

Harmony was gone. I had lost her. It was all my fault. I just had to get into the car. I just had to go through Mom's e-mail. I just had to.