What a Catch

Chapter 8: Camisado

Chapter 8: Camisado
The IV and your hospital bed
this was no accident it was a therapeutic chain of events
***A/N: Sorry this is late. My laptop broke but it is going to get fixed soon. Luckily, I have chapters prewritten so I can still upload. Hopefully it will be back before I run out of chapters!! A girl can dream right? Tell me what you think of the story so far below!***
    Brooklyn opened her eyes to bright lights above her. Her head was pounding. She sighed deeply and but a hand over her face, rubbing her eye in the process. That’s when she heard a relieved sigh. “Hey there.” She heard a familiar voice say in a kind tone.
    “Hi.” Brooklyn forced quietly. Her voice was weak. Right now, breathing felt like a chore, but she moved her eyes over to see Lexie sitting right next to her bed. Her face was stained with tears and Brooklyn felt a sharp pang in her chest. How could she do that to her own mother?
    “How are you feeling?” Lexie asked.
    “Tired. Really, really tired.” Brooklyn whispered. “Mom- I’m sorry.”
    “Let’s just get you better.” Lexie gave a small, reassuring smile. Brooklyn could tell it was forced. Her mom was a terrible liar. “I called your dad.”
    “I’m really sorry. I didn’t-” Brooklyn stopped for a second. “I didn’t mean to.”
    “He should be here in a few hours.” Lexie continued, ignoring Brooklyn’s statements. She didn’t even want to think about what happened.
“Why’d you call him? It’s not like he’s ever been here before.”
Lexie was taken aback by the statement. She hadn’t ever seen a side like this to her daughter. “I thought you liked him, and I thought maybe he could start being there. Maybe, right now, you needed someone other than me around.” Lexie stood up. “Scoot over.” Lexie gave a light demand, with which Brooklyn complied. Lexie laid in the bed next to her daughter and ran her fingers through her long brown hair. “What happened?” Lexie asked looking down at Brooklyn’s arms, which were exposed in the hospital gown and revealed every scar. “Was I not good enough? Did you not think you could talk to me?”
Brooklyn looked at Lexie. How could she think this was her fault? Of course it wasn’t. “Mom, what? No.” Brooklyn shook her head and bit her lip, “I just- I didn’t ever want you to find out. I never wanted it to get this bad. I didn’t think it would.” The younger one sighed and watched the IVs in her arm. One dripped with blood to replace what she lost, the other dripped with saline to keep her hydrated. “Mom, I just-I’m really tired. Can we just-watch some TV or something? I don’t have the energy to talk about this?”
Lexie nodded understandingly. She had just lost a lot of blood so fatigue was normal. Lexie grabbed the remote and turned the TV on and laid her head against the pillow while Brooklyn laid her head on Lexie’s chest. Within minutes Brooklyn was asleep again and probably would be for a few hours. Lexie laid there for a while long realizing that Mark would be at the airport and she needed to be there to pick him up. Slipping out from under her daughter, she attached the restraints to her hands and slipped out of the room, telling her nurse to call her if anything changes.
“Hey.” Lexie gave a forced smile as Mark reached her in the airport.
“Hey. How is she?” Mark asked as the two walked out to the car.
“She’s- I don’t even know.” Lexie shook her head. “She’s stable now. It was touch and go for a little while. I really thought I was going to lose her, Mark.” Lexie voice squeaked as she talked, telling Mark she was on the verge of tears without even looking at her.
As if instinctively, he wrapped his arms around her. “She’s going to be okay, Lexie.” He comforted.
“You didn’t see her, Mark.” Lexie shook her head as the images flooded back. “All of that blood. You’d think I would be used to seeing a lot of blood but that, that was different. I mean, she’s my little girl. I still imagine her taking her first steps, or as a four year old, playing in princess dresses and singing silly Disney songs, or as a five year old on the first day of school. I never imagined- I never imagined this. Was it me? Did I do something?”
“Lexie- no. You can’t- you can’t blame yourself. I’m sure you did the best you could. You loved her, and you still love her and that’s what matters.”
“I’m never going to trust her enough to leave her alone again though.” Lexie said as she drove back to the hospital.
There was a beat of silence before Mark spoke. “You didn’t restrain her did you?” Lexie was silent. “Lexie!” Mark let out an exasperated sigh.
“What Mark? What was I supposed to do? She tried to kill herself!”
“She’s going to think you think she’s crazy.”
“Because you’re so attuned to her thoughts now. Because you know her so well.”
“And whose fault is that?”
Lexie looked at him. “You think this is my fault now?”
“The fact that I know absolutely nothing about my daughter? Yeah, I do think that’s your fault. You kept her from me for fifteen years, Lexie! I’m trying to make up for fifteen years because you neglected to tell me you were pregnant. I could have been there, Lex. For both of you.”
That’s when Lexie felt it, a single tear roll down her face. “I’m sorry.” She let out.
“No. I am. Listen, the last thing Brooklyn needs right now is us fighting. She needs support. That’s what we’re here for.” Mark reasoned and Lexie nodded. He was right. This was  not an argument they needed to be having right now.
Walking into the pediatric ICU, Lexie saw Brooklyn’s nurse come out of her room. “Andie, how is she doing?” Lexie asked as she looked into the window to her sleeping daughter.
“She’s stable. Her RBC and blood pressure is still low so we started her on another unit of O neg. Her temperature is coming back up though. We don’t see any sign of organ failure. She got lucky, she lost 35 percent of her blood volume. Hopefully we can get her upstairs within the next few days so she can get out of here soon.” Andie had known Brooklyn since she was little, when Lexie brought Brooklyn to the hospital daycare. “I never imagined- I’m sorry, Dr. Grey.”
“Thanks, Andie.” Lexie nodded before walking into the room with Mark following. Just as she walked in, Brooklyn opened her eyes. Brooklyn went to move her hand and realized she couldn’t.
“You tied me up?” Brooklyn asked. “What the hell?”
Lexie looked to Mark. “I had to.”
“I don’t think you did.” Brooklyn replied, her eyes narrow. “I’m not crazy! Why would you think that?”
“Do you realize how close you came to dying? You lost 35 percent of your blood volume! You scared me Brooklyn. You really-” Lexie wiped her eyes. “You really freaking scared me, okay?”
“Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t- I didn’t mean to go that deep. I just- don’t cry. I hate seeing you cry.”
“Lexie-” Mark started. “Go home and get some sleep. I’ll stay here with her. You need to eat and get some rest. Please.”
Lexie nodded unwillingly. She didn’t want to leave her baby girl alone in the hospital but her and Mark had been growing close to each other. They both trusted him. She said goodbye to Brooklyn and left to go home. Dragging herself upstairs, she walked past Brooklyn’s room still coated in blood. Lexie quickly shut the door and walked away. She would have to clean that eventually, probably replace the carpet and her bed. She’d see what Brooklyn wanted to do when she started to get some strength back. Moving into her bedroom she changed into some pajamas and crawled into her bed. She fought sleep but eventually her body succumbed to the exhaustion and she fell asleep.
“How are you feelin’, kiddo?” Mark asked.
“I don’t know. I feel like crap.” Brooklyn sighed. “I really just want to go home. When will I get to do that?”
“Well,” He looked at the monitor. “Your blood pressure is still low so we have to wait for your red blood cell count to come up. Looks like your kidneys are functioning, which is really good. And once we get you physically better, we have to make sure you’re emotionally better too. I think the protocol is about a week in the psych ward after a suicide attempt.’
“Oh.” Brooklyn managed to say. “I really didn’t want to kill myself.”
Mark looked at her. “Then why are we sitting here right now?”
“I needed to feel something.” She shrugged and ran a finger along her arm, the scar tissue felt different than other skin under her fingers. She hated having her arms exposed. She hadn’t ever showed her scars before. She had always kept them hidden under clothing and bracelets. She felt so exposed. “It worked before. I never thought I would get this bad. I want to go back to Seattle.”
“Do you think that’s going to fix everything?”
“No, but those two weeks there were the best I have felt in a while.” She shrugged. “I miss everyone.”
“Everyone misses you too. Maybe I can talk to your mom. Maybe we can work something out where you come back with me for the summer.”
Brooklyn gave a weak smile. “That could be fun.” She nodded before her smile faded. “Do you think Mom thinks I’m crazy?”
Mark shook his head. “No, I think you freaked her out. It’s probably going to take a while before she can leave you alone again though. Just give her a little time. I can tell she’s shaken up.”
“You can read her like a book. You’re almost better at that than I am.” Brooklyn gave a small laugh with a smile that almost exactly mimicked Mark’s.
Later on that night, Lexie came in to see Mark asleep in a chair next to Brooklyn asleep in the hospital bed. Lexie sat her stuff down and watched Brooklyn as she slept. She looked so peaceful. It was something Lexie would do when she was a baby. Some nights she stood there and just watched Brooklyn sleep to make sure she was still breathing.
Mark sat up a few minutes later and looked around to see Lexie. “Hey.” He smiled.
“Did you talk to her?” Lexie asked.
“Yeah. She said she misses Seattle.” Mark pulled her into the hallway so they could talk.
“She tried to kill herself because she misses Seattle?” Lexie arched a brow and looked at him.
“No, I think there’s something more going on with her that I just can’t work out, but Seattle is what made her happy. I think she’s lonely and she feels isolated.”
Lexie bit the side of her lip. “Mark, do you think this is my fault? I mean, I was the one who moved out here. I was the one that kept her from her family for her entire life. Then I introduced them and ripped them away again. Did I do this?”
“Lexie-” Mark sighed. “I don't think it's anyone's fault. There's no one to blame."
"Maybe I should let her go back. I might be able to talk to Owen and get my old job back. It might be the best for both us. I’d have someone to... watch her.” Saying that made it sound like Brooklyn was a small child that had to be looked after. “And I would be back around everyone.”
“I was going to talk to you about that.”
“Great minds think alike.” Lexie turned and watched Brooklyn sleeping again. She knew that Seattle would be the best. It would give both of them a new start. Recovery was going to be hard for Brooklyn and it would probably be best for her to have as much support as possible. It would put Lexie’s mind at ease to know that Brooklyn would always have someone to talk to. She wouldn’t have to feel lonely and isolated like she did before. This could be what they needed. This could be the final push.