Another adopted by Hamilton story

Six

"Hi, Ni." Lin says, smiling and sitting on the edge if the couch. He place a bag of some frozen food on my stomach and I become tense, now cold. "Sorry." He says. He studies my stomach. I want to make him stop. I don't want him to see the pain I'm in. "I need to know what happened. I'm not asking. What happened?"

"They wouldn't feed me. So I tried to sneak some after almost a week with nothing. I got beat."

"Niamh, we tried to get you out. We couldn't in time. I was so scared of something like this happening. Look. You're going to stay in the empty room at the end of the hall. We are not sending you back there. You're ours now."

"Really?" I ask, my enthusiasm not showing all that much through my exhaustion. He nods.

"We don't want to move you tonight, though so Pippa's gonna help you if that's all right." I nod and thank him. He says good night and five minutes later Phillipa comes in. She gives me the shirt I wore to here three months ago, that they cleaned and couldn't return. I manage to get it on but she gives me shorts and I know I can't wear them. She gets a glass of water and I put them on when she is busy. I bury my legs.

"I'm done." I tell her. She comes back over and sits on the edge of the couch.

"Are you excited to stay here?" I nod. "What's wrong?"

"Hard day." She looks upset.

"I'm so sorry."

"How was the show?"

"Good. A family member of mine isn't going to make it tomorrow. So." She pulls a ticket out of her pocket and gives it to me. "Not that you won't see and hear it constantly."

"I won't ever get sick of it. Thank you."
-

"Morning!" Says Lin, flickering on the lights.

"Lin!" I hear Renée say from behind him. I shut my eyes tight and turn towards the couch, balled up. "Good morning, Niamh." She says a lot more subtly. I open my eyes again and use all my energy to sit up. My legs are shown.

"How did you get bruised on the inside of your thigh?" She asked, shocked, but like she knows. She looks back at Lin who wont move for a minute. Then he steps up next to her. I try and put them together so it can't be seen but malnutrition has made my thighs too small. Bony legs. She sits doen next to me immediately.

"What happened there?" The pants cover further up on my leg so I figure I can get away with a lie because she can only see the lower half of them.

"He threw something at me." He did. But that hurt my shin. They don't say anything for a while. Like they're waiting for me to crack. For a man who wrote this musical and much more and cant sit still, he's good at this. But so am I. And they don't want to make it clear what they are doing so I get to leave to change quickly. He leads me down the hall to a another room. Theres a little bed in the corner and a vanity with lights. It is clearly a dressing room. But I like it. On the bed is a knitted black and brown blanket and a pillow. Nothing else right now but a lamp.

"There isn't much in it right now but-"

"I like it."