Hatred of Life and Love- Part 2

...

It had been a good nights sleep for everyone, including Mika, and she seemed to be showing signs of improvement. Alan had been up at the hospital all night, and so had Helen, but neither them felt as they had done the previous day.
In the morning, Helen woke earlier than Alan and went to get some hot drinks for them both. When Helen returned, Mika was propped up, staring into space with her eyes open and not blinking, but physically looking more human than she had been. Many of the tubes had gone, but she still was attached to a heart monitor and a drip. She had some visible injuries, mostly to her face. A sharp graze trailing down the right side, and a couple of stitches towards the top of her forehead, covered by some white medical tape. A bandage also covered her left hand where the cannula was. Alan was slouched over, his eyes gently shut and in a deep sleep. Helen put the drinks down and shook Alan to wake him.
"Alan! Wake up!" She softly yelled.
"Hm? What's going on?" He turned and gently tapped Mika on her left shoulder to wake her from her daze. She hadn't said anything last night after she began to wake, so everybody was hoping she would have made a difference that morning. Helen sat down in the opposite chair.
"Mika? It's me, Alan. Can you hear me? I know this must be overwhelming for you, so just let me know if you understand what I'm saying."
Mika slowly turned her head in Alan's direction and nodded before she spoke her first words in a while.
"Y-yes. H-hi Alan..."
Alan smiled, and sighed in relief at the thought that there was probably no permanent brain damage. Evie remembered Alan, and that's all that mattered to him in that moment.
"How are you feeling? How's the pain?" Alan questioned.
"It hurts a bit, mainly in my stomach," she quietly said. There were stitches from where they had stopped the internal bleeding, which would probably scar. Mika sighed,
"When can I go home?" Alan and Helen looked at each other,
"We don't exactly know yet Mika." She went back to starring into space, and went silent. They needed to know what the doctor would say. After calling for him, Dr Kingston came in pretty quickly, but Mika stayed silent the whole time.
"How is she?"
"Her organs are all functioning well, including her brain. It didn't take such a large part of the force as we first thought. She may have some slight headaches, possibly due to being concussed. The main pain will probably be consistent with the injuries to her ribs, maybe her lungs. Some medication will be prescribed to ease the pain, but I would say she is improving very well. I would like to keep her in for observations tonight. Seeing as she has improved so fast, we will probably be able to discharge her tomorrow morning. She is extremely lucky, especially at the speed she was hit, she must have someone watching over her." Alan nodded his head at the good news.
"Thank you for everything you and your team have done." Dr Kingston nodded in appreciation, and left the room. Helen took Evie's hand,
"What's wrong, Mika?"
"Mum..." she quietly spoke, a saddened tone to her voice. Alan stood up and walked out the room to speak to the doctor again.
"Excuse me, Doctor. Is there anyway she could get some air for a while, she's been in that room for ages, it might do her some good."
"Well, Mr Banks, a couple of nurses are going to take the cannula out her hand now, so I think she could. I'll get one of the nurses to get a wheelchair." Alan nodded and went back into the room. A couple of nurses came in to remove the cannula from Mika's hand. She turned her head away in agony, holding in her scream. They quickly changed the bandage and left with the trolley of equipment, then one quickly came back, parked a wheelchair in the corner of the room, and left again.
"Can you take her outside for a bit, while I make some calls?" Helen nodded at Alan's request.
"I am here, you know," Mika pointed out. Helen stood up and brought the wheelchair over to the bed. Mika carefully made her way out of the hospital bed and sat down in the wheelchair, still holding the small teddy bear like a young child. She helped Mika put on a coat over the hospital gown to keep her warm, then they left the room. Once they were out of sight, Alan got out his phone and dialled home.
"Hey, Tracy? It's dad."
"Oh, hi dad. How's everything going?"
"Very well, actually. They've said Mika can probably come home tomorrow. Helen's just taken her outside for some fresh air. I couldn't be happier."
Tracy sensed a smile on her dads face. She smiled too because she hadn't heard her dads 'happy voice' in a while.
"How's everything at home? And how's Isla?"
Tracy went silent for a few seconds.
"I have to tell you something. Yesterday, David dropped Isla here after her swimming lesson, but the weird thing is that David didn't, or wouldn't come to the door. I was watching through the window and Isla came out the car herself and came inside. I would say this is usually normal, but after the what's happened, I'm worried. But there's something else I noticed, a large bruise on Isla's shoulder."
Alan's heart dropped.
"Right. What did Isla say about it?" Alan asked.
"She said she fell on the stairs. Nobody can fall on stairs and get such a bruise, so it wasn't convincing. At all. Anyone can tell she's covering up for David because he's asked her to."
Alan felt anger, rage and hate towards David. It made his blood boil. In a worried voice. Alan replied, "Okay. I'm going to ask Helen to stay with Mika today until you can come stay with her. I need to get this sorted."
"Okay dad. I'll call Helen and tell her when I can come to the hospital." He put the phone down, but a thought came to mind, and he quickly rushed out to find Helen and Mika.
...
Outside in the bright, colourful gardens, Mika was breathing in the wonderful smells of nature and admiring what she had been deprived of over the last week or so. Few words were exchanged between her and Helen while she was being pushed in the wheelchair.  Both Helen and Mika were in their own worlds in their minds. Helen put the brakes on the wheelchair and sat down on one of the benches. Many thoughts were going through Helens mind, most to do with Mika's mental health condition.
"I've missed it out here," Mika told her.
"What's going to happen when I leave here?"
Helen  explained to Mika about with all the physical pain she had she would have to go for physiotherapy and  rehabilitation exercises. She also told her that afterwards, she would seek professional help for Mika, but until then, it was best to keep Mika home from school.
As they were gazing at tulips and thorny roses, Helen reflected on the whole 'Mika adventure', something she thought she would never come across. They sat there for a few minutes, the mild breeze whirling round, before Mika broke the silence.
"What was mum like?" Helen knew this was a question that she should've asked Alan, after all, he knew Annie better then anyone.
"She was a great friend, never put herself first. She always thought about you and Isla, she thought the world of you."
"Why did she keep me such a secret?"
"Probably to protect you."
"What about you?" Helen took a deep breath,
"Mika...No one can ever replace your mum, I could never replace your mum. I've never had a daughter, but since you've come into all our lives, I've treated you as if you were my own. If I'm going to be totally honest with you, I was so scared what might happen, all this time you've been laying up there, the amount of times your heart stopped beating, I didn't know what to do, I just couldn't bear the thought of losing you."
Mika carefully got out her wheelchair, she still didn't have the balance because of her ankle, but she carefully made her way out of the wheelchair and sat down on the bench with Helen.
"Mum isn't here to be with me now, and you just came, stayed with me all day and all night while I had no idea what was going on, people in this world arent often so kind, you've taken the role of a mother to me, and you didn't even have to, I don't know how I can get through all this without you."
"You won't have to, I'm not going to disappear anywhere, I'll be here." She put her arm round Mika, holding her close, as if she were shielding away any harm that would come.
Alan came running round the corner a few minutes later, relieved that he had found them both.
"What's wrong?" Helen asked him. They stood a few metres away from Mika, so she couldn't hear what they were saying.
"We need to get Mika back upstairs, it's not safe for her out here."
"Why?"
"The person that did this, it's going to be one of the first places they'll think to look, try and finish the job. I've been on the phone to Tracy she told me about something, I'm going to wait until the forensics report gets back to me. I'm going to head back, get this investigation fully up and running. Can you stay here with her, until Tracy gets here with Isla?"
"Course I will, let me know if you find out anything though, I want to nail whoever did this as much you do." Alan nodded, and walked over to Mika .
"I've got to go somewhere, Helen's going to stay with you until Tracy and Isla come."
"Where are you going?" Mika spoke in a pleading manner.
"I've just got to go somewhere, I promise I'll be back as soon as." He walked towards his car while Helen helped Mika back into the wheelchair, and began to take her back into the hospital.
...