New Life

4|Raised in a Barn

Janet goes down to make sure all the doors are locked and get the computer from the kitchen where they left it. When she's done she goes up to her bathroom to take a shower until Jermaine calls. She pulls on one of his t-shirts and a pair of shorts before climbing into bed with her book. By the time Jermaine called she'd dozed off, waking up at nearly three in the morning she realizes she'd fallen asleep and missed his call. She reached over and turned off the bedside lamp and went back to sleep since she had a long day ahead of her with Breaunna, her friends, and her friends' parents.

**

"Mommy! Mommy! Where are you?!" Breaunna screamed.

Janet springs out of bed and hurries over to Breaunna's room. "Breaunna honey, it's just a bad dream." Says sitting on the bed.

"Mommy!" Breaunna hugs Janet as tears flow down her cheeks.

"I'm here baby." Janet soothes her. "Calm down, shhhh, its okay..." Breaunna sniffles as she calms a bit. "That must have been a terrible dream, your shaking."

"Mommy, it was the worst ever. You disappeared and I could find you and you wouldn't come back and they were gonna take me away! And I told them you wouldn't like if they took me and I called you but you weren't there..."

"Breaunna, I'm never going to just disappear and even when I do leave I call you every day. I promise I'm always going to be here even when you don't need me and especially when you do. Now, let's see if we can get you back to sleep." Wiping the last of her tears away.

"Will you stay with me? My bed is big enough... please?" She begged.

"I'll stay here as long as you need me tonight, just tonight."

"Just tonight." Breaunna nods.

"Okay, now scoot over a little and I'll rub your back until you fall asleep."

"I love you, mom." Cuddling into Janet.

"I love you more honey." Kissing her forehead.

Janet found it strange that Breaunna had a nightmare since she'd never had one before. She guessed it was normal since she remembered having bad dreams occasionally when she was little... She sang Breaunna a song and rubbed her back until she heard her breathing steady and was sure Breaunna was asleep. When Janet tried to get out of the bed Breaunna's grip tightened.

"Please don't leave me..." She mumbled half awake.

Since she'd promised she would stay if Breaunna needed her she settled into the bed for the remainder of the night.

**

It was 8:42 when Janet finally woke up. Breaunna was still sleeping, she went to take a shower so she could make breakfast when Breaunna woke up. When she got out of the shower she put on sweats and a white tank top.

She checked her phone just before she was about to go wake Breaunna. Jermaine had called and left a message with a temporary number for her and Breaunna to call him when they wanted to. After saving the number she thought about calling him but decided to text him after she'd gotten Breaunna out of bed.

"Bumble Bee... Wake up honey it's almost 9:30."

Yawning. "Good morning mommy..."

"Good morning honey you've got to get up and take a bath and have breakfast so we're not late to the barn." Making sure she actually gets up.

"Okay, I'll go pick something to wear..."

"I'll get your water ready. What do you wanna eat?"

"Ummm..." She pauses a beat. "Can I just have Pop Tarts?"