Cheryl x Liam: Inevitable

Part 23

"Home sweet home."

"Woo!" Sophia burst out as she wandered into the house with Cheryl and Liam the following afternoon. She had been discharged from the hospital right after being checked out by the nurse and the doctor; both of them deciding that she was perfectly to go home. Cheryl's house was perfectly fine again as her broken patio door had been fixed and her security system was one of the best in the nation, so she felt perfectly safe in her house again. In addition to that, the knowledge that those goons were in jail also made her feel extremely safe.

"Do you want some porridge or a sarnie or what would you like? Whatever you want, babe." Cheryl told her, crouching down to fuss over the dogs as Nicola's sister Frankie had brought them back over for her an hour ago before she'd headed off on a trip.

"Porridge please; with bananas and cinnamon." Sophia replied with wide eyes whilst Cheryl screwed her face up. One thing was for sure, her daughter certainly had a strange appetite sometimes.

"Uh okay porridge with bananas and cinnamon coming up," Chery giggled before turning to Liam, "Gonna help me or watch cartoons with Sophia?"

"I'll watch cartoons with the kiddo." Liam happily replied. Cheryl smiled and stroked his arm before heading off into the kitchen, humming to herself as she did so while Liam joined Sophia on the sofa. The little girl came over and climbed into Liam's lap, resting her head against his chest while she cuddled her cuddly dog toy under her arm. The two sat there watching cartoons for a bit; Liam not really paying attention but was just looking after Sophia while she was sat there against him, feeling safe and warm as Liam was obviously a very familiar figure around her and she knew that no matter what, he would never hurt her or her mother.

"Liam." She whispered. Liam looked down, smiling at her.

"Yo?" he asked.

"Thank you for making me smile lots at the hospital," she sat up slightly to look at him more, "I was really scared at the hospital; I don't like them."

"I don't like them either, Soph; I haven't liked them since I was a little kid." He told her.

"Really? Why not?" she asked, her eyes full of wonder. Liam chuckled a bit, smiling at her.

"Well kiddo, when I was really little, I had to go to the hospitals loads and have lots of injections because one of my kidneys didn't work properly," he explained while Sophia looked with wide eyes, "I was in lots of pain all the time; it was horrible."

"Oh my God; that sounds really bad," Sophia pouted as she cuddled into him, "Cuddle because Mammy says cuddles make everything better."

And Liam was forced to chuckle as he cuddled her back and kissed the top of her head...

"It was pretty bad, but I'm okay now – I have two working kidneys just fine now so all good," he told her, "So yeah, I hate hospitals. Why don't you like them?"

"They just don't seem very nice or fun and I don't like them." Sophia replied, giggling slightly. Liam chuckled back as he looked down at her again.

"Well they aren't fun, so hopefully you won't have to go there for a long time – a long, long time." He animatedly told her. Sophia nodded her head, sighing out.

"Yeah, but I still have to go to another doctors because of the bad dreams I have about the bad men." She solemnly replied, it being clear that the last thing she wanted to do was go see yet another doctor after all of this.

Liam simply kissed her forehead, protectively cuddling her into him as they continued sitting there. He couldn't imagine being so young and having such horrible things happen to the point where one was mentally scarred and having to go see a therapist for such things. Sophia especially didn't deserve this, as she was such a beautiful, bright, happy child with a heart of gold that deserved the world – not the horrible things. He was glad that the horrible things were over though, and now it was time to move on – one step at a time.