Shattered Pieces (Wattys 2024)

Chapter 6 Hospital

                                                                           Sapphires POV

Monday morning Mum and Dad head into town for an appointment. I'm pleased I'm not in the car with them. They have not talked to each other properly since their argument Saturday night.

After school, my siblings and I head to our favorite spot at the beach to spend the afternoon. It is located in the pack territory and only takes 10 minutes to walk there. We love going to the beach, it is so beautiful down here and calming effect on me.

Ava lays the blanket down on the sand, while I can get our picnic ready. Dean starts to make sand castles with Evelyn, and it is so nice seeing them laughing and joking around. The ocean is nice and calm today, some other families are enjoying themself making sandcastles as well.

"Food's ready!" I call out to them and they come over. Their jaws drop with all the yummy food on display: fruits, cheese, crackers, chips, homemade brownies, pizza. I chuckle when I realize I brought too much food, we might not need dinner after this.

Luckily I brought water to wash our hands with; the picnic on the beach is just what we need. We spent the evening laughing, making sandcastles, and enjoying the sun.

"Pass the brownies please," Ava holds her hand out for them while giving me a funny look.

"What is that look for Ava?" She looks at Evelyn, and they both have funny expressions on their faces.

"Don't know how to tell you this, but you scare people, Sis."  Ava tries not to laugh while telling me.

I already know this, unfortunately, I have a bit of a temper on me and lose my rag a lot with some of the pack members, especially when it comes to the ones that I care about being treated like crap, or in danger. The pack members have seen me fight. When I am defending the pack against threats, I go into the zone and become a monster.

"Now some are more scared of you because you are a black wolf!" Evelyn chuckles, when the girls look at each other, they crack up laughing at my expense.

"What did you do?" I look at the girls and instantly know that they did something, with the look  they are giving each other.

"It's not what we did, but more like what you would do if someone pisses us off." I don't have a good feeling about this, my stomach gets all queasy.

"Well, you see, some girls that I don't like were being mean to me and my friends, when she wouldn't stop calling us names" Evelyn pauses and gives me a guilty look.

I look at her, giving her my Mum look. "I threatened to sick you on them, then the mean girls paled, and started running away from us scared."

I am not sure if I should be angry or happy with what I am hearing, but before I can dwell on it anymore. We can hear paws approaching us at a fast pace. I jump up defensively and stand in front of the kids to shield them from danger, ready to attack but relax when I see that it is Liam and Luke who come running out of the forest.

"Finally we found you, we couldn't get hold of you through the mind link!" Luke says.

"Sorry, I must still have it blocked."

"You all need to head to the pack hospital your parents have been in a car crash!" Liam exclaims looking devastated.

I was so shocked I could not move from the spot. The girls start crying hysterically. I tell Ava and Evelyn to run back with Luke once I come out of the shock. Liam collects our picnic stuff and runs with it, while I pick Dean up who is crouching on the sand crying.

"Buddy, I'm going to shift. I want you to get on my back, OK?" He just nods his head at me with tears running down his face.

I shift, and he jumps on my back holding on tightly. I run faster than I thought I ever could. I can feel how stressed and worried Dean is about our parents.

We come to the edge of the forest after what feels like hours of running, but in reality, it has only been two minutes, and we run up to the hospital.

When we get to the hospital entrance, Dean hops off my back, and one of the nurses comes out with a change of clothes for me. I grab them with my mouth and quickly go behind a bush to change. After I get change I grab his hand, leading him into the hospital.

The pack Doctor Mary, greets us and tells us Dad is in a stable condition and will make a full recovery. We are so relieved. Then the doctor's face fell, this can't be good. I can feel my legs starting to shake, my heart rate is in overdrive.

Doc explains that Mum's side of the car was hit and took the whole impact of the crash, she has internal damage to her organs. They are trying to stabilize her as we speak, and she is in surgery at the moment. Their car was hit by a drunk driver, who died instantly upon impact.

We are led to Dad's room where he is recovering. I run up to him and sit in the chair by his hospital bed, pulling Dean onto my lap and comforting him while he holds Dad's hand. Ava and Evelyn are on the other side of his bed already and sitting down in chairs holding his other hand and arm.

Nana walks in and nearly falls over when she sees her son. I quickly jump up, place Dean on my chair, and wrap my arm around Nana's waist. I guide her over to Dad. Ava grabs a chair and places it by the one I was sitting in. I help Nana sit down, Ava kisses her cheek, then goes and sits back down. I pick Dean up and place him on my lap again.

"He will be OK! Nana." I grab her hand and rub the top of it.

She looks at me, "I can't lose him, and he is the only thing I have left of my mate." Nana whispers out. Then she goes quiet and sits there staring at her boy.

Dad gives us all a small smile and tries to tell us he is fine, I find that hard to believe. We wait for hours, while Mum is still in surgery. We just sit there, not sure what to say or do.

"Do you want anything, Dad? hot drink? Food?"

"No thanks." he manages to say to me, looking exhausted, his face is black and blue from the impact of the crash. I hate to see him like this, he looks so vulnerable and sad. I wonder how badly damaged the rest of him is that I can't see? Mum must be in a terrible state. We may have had our differences, but I can't imagine my life without her, I hope she recovers, I love her.

"Mum, you look exhausted, go home and rest. I promise I'm OK!" Dad softly says.

"OK son, only if you promise you are OK." she stands up and kisses his forehead.

"I promise Mum!" Nana comes around and hugs us all before leaving.

Doc Mary walks into the room to inform us that Mum is finally out of surgery after many hours, but the doctors are not sure if she will make it through the night, with how much damage her organs sustained. We are finally allowed to see her after she wakes up. Dad got into a wheelchair, and I wheeled him into the recovery room.

As soon as we enter her room, Dad leaps out of the wheelchair and runs to Mum, grabs her hand, and starts crying. It breaks my heart to see them like this. "I am sorry we were arguing, I love you Cindy, don't leave me." He says while sitting on a chair next to her bed.

Mum manages to open her eyes and looks at all of us. The look she gives Dad is full of love, I hope when I finally find my mate he looks at me like that.

Mum starts to say something, but it is mumbled. It doesn't make any sense. Mum is looking at me strangely, making me feel nervous. And then she said something that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

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Any ideas? What do you think Cindy might say?