Playing House

She's All Smiles and Giggles

'You should sleep'

Kim laughed at the memory of her mother's final words before she headed home, leaving Kim and Elena in Adam's hospital room.

Sleep? That was a fucking joke. She was still way too keyed up to sleep.

She had run the gamut of emotions in about fifteen hours, she went from slightly pissed at Adam for not answering his phone. She knew sometimes he got so wrapped up in things that nothing else existed in that moment. It was one of the things she loved about him, that he often poured his entire soul into things and those he loved. Though, that same trait sometimes drove her up the wall, especially when it happened when he was working.

Then, she had felt the concern bubble to the surface, he had been gone for hours and she knew Elena would be tired and ready for bed soon.

When Kevin and Al showed up at her door that was when the fear set in, and it was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. Fear wasn't a foreign emotion to her, she'd been scared many times. This was different, still she couldn't quite put it into words that would accurately describe it.

The worst feeling was when they told her Elena had been killed, that her little girl died. That she had died just a few days before her first birthday party, that she would never see her again. It was horrifying and she was devastated, she had been so overcome with emotion she had passed out in Kevin's arms.

As she waited while Adam was in surgery, she felt as if she was stuck in a horrible nightmare and she was begging to wake up. She pushed everyone away as they tried to comfort her, she didn't want their comfort she wanted her baby, her dead baby.

She felt rage, as she screamed outside Adam's room in the ICU. She railed at him, she wished he was dead, she told him she hated him. He was unconscious and fighting for his life and instead of comforting him, she wished for his death.

From what Joy had said, she had been sedated at that point and it was the reason why Elena was passed around to the various family members still at the hospital.

The elation she felt upon waking that morning was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. The soft sounds of her daughter's voice and her giggles permeated her dreams as she slept.

The calls for 'Mama' growing in volume and intensity. It felt like a dream, a glorious dream that she didn't want to wake from, she didn't want to feel the soul destroying sadness she knew she'd feel if she was awake.

When she finally woke, she was dumbfounded and kept asking her family if this was really happening, her daughter's weight upon her chest proved it was real. She held tightly to her daughter and cried.

When Adam woke and he dissolved into heartbroken sobs, it was like a knife to her heart. He was so distraught he wasn't listening to her, he didn't hear her tell him their daughter was okay, that she was safe.

It wasn't until Kevin appeared with her in Adam's room, and she forced Adam to look in the direction of the door.

She felt his emotions shift, and he held Elena as best he could, ignoring the excruciating pain he felt in his gut. He needed to hold his little girl, needed to know she was okay.

They were left alone for the rest of the day, and they didn't speak much. Both of them to overwhelmed to form a coherent thought. It didn't matter though, their silence was welcomed. It had been a day from hell and words weren't necessary. They just needed each other, they needed to hold each other.