Broken Bones, Throwing Stones

Cierra

I woke up and it was dark. I heard a repetitive beeping coming from my right. Oh yeah, hospital. Shit. I thought to myself.
I heard a little snore coming from my other side. I looked to my left to find a sleeping Aliyah. I smiled a little, remembering the first time I told her she snores. She denied it to the ends of the world. She did no such thing she would always tell me. Wait, where's Elliana then?
I searched the room trying to locate Ellie and instead found one of the hospital's bassinets in the room, but no Ellie in it. I started to panic. I tried to yell but nothing came out and I only felt pain in my throat. I felt the tears running down my face as the terrified thought ran through my head. Lio took her. I attempted to get up but was too weak to move far. I fumbled around with a few things on the table to my right, searching for the remote to call a nurse.
Once I finally had it in hand, I clicked the call button and there was someone on the other end.
"I'll have someone right there, sweetie," the voice said. It was maybe a man in his late twenties by the sounds of it.
A few moments had passed before I heard footsteps approaching the door and open it swiftly. It was an older lady with black hair. You could tell she was older by some of the gray and white stands poking out of the rest of the black hair.
"Hey, I'm the nurse on call tonight. You called, what's up?" She asked.
I put my arms in a cradling like position to try to ask if she knew where my baby was.
"The baby? She's with the man who brought you in. Her brother I believe they said." Pointing towards Aliyah who was still asleep on the couch.
I pulled my lips into an 'O' form.
"Don't worry sweetie, they were just walking around the halls. It sounded like she was being fussy and I'm sure he didn't want her waking either of you. Was there anything else? How's your pain level 1-10?" She asked. I hadn't really thought of the pain until just now to realize I was hurting a lot.
I held up 8 fingers for her and she nodded.
"I'll up the meds on your drip. Feel better dear." She clicked a few buttons on the rack next to me and checked a few more things before she left. I still felt a lot of pain when she left, but it was dying down slowly. I tried to relax and get comfortable, but it wasn't going so well. I finally gave in, five minutes later, and just let myself drop into the mattress how I was laying.
Ten minutes had passed and still no baby, no Henry. I was trying not to worry, but that was my baby. Of course I'm going to worry. I continuously glanced at the clock, as if a half an hour had passed every 30 seconds, but it didn't. Eventually, I just shut my eyes and attempted to sleep again. I was tired, don't get me wrong, but all the anxiety and worry wouldn't let me sleep.
A few minutes had passed and I heard yet another set of footsteps approaching the door. I tried not to get my hopes up as this was the fifth set to walk by and leave. I kept my eyes shut, still attempting to force myself to sleep.
The door opened and shut quickly and quietly. I heard someone humming low. I opened my eyes to find Henry, Aliyah's brother, carrying a sleeping Elliana. I sat up a bit too quickly and immediately became dizzy, but I wasn't going to lay back down.
"Hey, it's just me and Ell. Sorry to wake you. She wouldn't quit fussing so I thought it would be a good idea to take her for a walk in the halls." He whispered softly, to ease me.
I nodded and smiled to him, falling back down to my bed to ease the dizziness.
"Man, they've really got you drugged, huh? Haha you should see yourself. You look half zombie, half clown. That's alright though. If it keeps the pain at bay." He definitely had a nice voice. It was soothing to hear. I motioned for him to come over to me with the baby. He did and I gave her a kiss on the cheek and forehead, brushing hair out of her face. For being ten months old, she sure had a lot of hair.
"I'm going to put her in the bassinet, okay?"
I nodded to him appreciatively. As he walked to the other side of the room, he continued to talk.
"Aliyah told me about Lio. He was a great friend to me. Quite honestly, I have a hard time believing he would do this just because of his outer character towards me and everyone else he interacts with when I'm nearby. I did, however, see the pictures you sent to Aliyah, being more proof to this. I'm so sorry that I didn't see this, Cici. I truly am," He told me in a hushed voice.
I just stared blankly at the blankets, tears rolling down my cheeks. I knew they were friends. I didn't mean to ruin a friendship, no matter the reason.
"Look at me for a second, please?" He pleaded softly. I brought my eyes to meet his. He was right next to me at this point. "I will never let him do any of this to you, ever again. I know we are not close, but you're my sister's best friend. You're like a sister to her, being family to me as well. Everything will be alright. I promise." He leaned down and hugged me gently, aware of my wires and damaged face.
I couldn't control myself after that. I let myself cry on him. I never did that.  Not with anyone except Aliyah. Hell, not even my parents before the accident had ever seen me cry.
He just stood there, holding me softly while the tears kept raining out. We stayed like that for about a half hour before I finally had cried myself to sleep.
I woke up the next morning to a bright ray of sunshine blaring into the room. I kept my eyes closed and just cuddled into my pillow more, attempting to fall back asleep. After about five minutes, I finally gave up and slowly opened my eyes, blinking until my eyes adjusted to the light.
"Hey! You're up! How are you feeling? It's so beautiful today. Your cousin stopped by, Mariah. She took Elliana to play with Kylie. I know you two are close so I assumed it would be okay. Henry had to work and then he was going to take his girlfriend to see a movie before I had to go into work." She droned on and on and I let her, knowing that's what she does anyways. I nodded in between her sentences to comply to the conversation best I could. Eventually, my mind drifted to my parents.
They were murdered. I was around 15. It was the middle of the afternoon. We lived on a farm. My brother, Alex, and I were playing hide and seek in the barn. We had heard a car pull up, but assumed it was just someone coming to purchase some corn so we continued to play until we smelled smoke. Then, worried, my brother opened the door first to see the house on fire. He ran towards it screaming for our parents. They must have been trapped inside. Next thing I knew, I heard a gunshot. I was still inside the barn, crying and sobbing. I ran to the very back, near the other door going out, and hid. The animals were all being noisy and I could hear the door pushed open.
"Anyone in here? It's the police, I'm here to help." I heard someone call. I almost came out, but heard a gun click. At this point I kept as quiet as I could. Eventually, I heard him grunt, as if deciding it was empty. The next thing I heard terrified me, crackling of fire. I peeked out at the door and seen  it was on fire. I had to find my way out. I ran to the front after confirming with myself he was gone and opened all the gates to let the animals escape. A few had already died from the smoke inhalation, but the rest who could ran as soon as the chance rose. I let out all the horses last and took mine, bareback, and rode out to the next closest home.

"Cici, is everything okay?" I heard, snapping me out of my flashback.
I shook my head vigorously, and gave two thumbs up.
"Okay, will you answer me then? Do you want me to grab anything from the house while you're here? I'll bring it over to my house and you two can  stay as long as you need. I'm guessing diapers, baby clothes, your clothes. I'll grab your personals, hairbrush, makeup etc. I've got toys at the house. I'll have someone with me, also, so we can get your car. Anything I'm missing?" I smiled grateful that my friend knew me so well. I shook my head no in response to her question and she smiled back to me.
She sat back down on the couch and played on her phone.
A few hours had passed filled with doctors and nurses checking on me. Between doctor and nurse, my cousin returned with my daughter and left again after a short, mostly one sided conversation. I had Ellie laying in bed with me for about an hour after that, cuddling and watching cartoons.
Finally, what seemed like ages had passed, when I realized I hadn't checked my phone. Did I even have it? Yes. It was in my pocket before I woke up here.
I stared at Ali, waiting for her to realize I was trying to get her attention. Finally, she looked up from her phone and to me. I immediately picked up the phone and put it to my ear before she could speak, hoping she'd understand what I wanted.
"Your phone? It's in my purse. It fell out of your pocket in front of the entrance to the emergency room. Thankfully, no one picked it up or ran it over. I charged it back up and turned it off for you. Would you like it?"
I replied with a small head nod. She reached into her purse, recovering a small, white, rectangular-shaped item. She stood up and walked to the bed, reaching out to hand it to me. Carefully, I took it and powered it up. I laid it on my stomach until it started giving me notifications from the last few days of Facebook, voicemails, and text messages. As I began listening to the voicemails, my heart stopped, hearing Lionell's eery threats to hurt me and our baby.

A/N ~ How about this chapter? Yay or nay? Any comments are welcome. Would love to know how you feel about it.
- :)