Boundaries..... It's not just a word

Chapter - 7

The girls arrive at Lynda's family home but there was no one there. Which was kind of odd since they know that they had told the family that they were on their way. Lynda walked around the house and there was no one anywhere, Lynda was getting worried and Misty could see it in her friend's eyes, something was wrong, very wrong. Lynda picked up her cell phone and called her mom's cell and it was sent straight to voicemail. Lynda then called her dad's phone, straight to voicemail. Misty could see that Lynda was starting to freak out, her friend was about to break down, physically and emotionally. Soon she would be crying because she was so frightened, her parents never turned their phones off, ever. Misty grabbed Lynda and held onto her while she pulled her cell phone out and called Charlie. He answered on the third ring and Misty let out a breath that she hadn't even realized that she had been holding. Misty said "Charlie, umm... where is everyone? Lynda and I are kind of freaking out. We are here at the house and we can't reach anyone!" Charlie exhaled deeply and then Misty knew that something was wrong. Misty lead Lynda to the couch to sit down and put on the speaker phone "Charlie, you're on speaker phone." 

He said "Lynda, now please don't worry, but there has been an accident. Mom and Dad were coming home from the store, they were sideswiped by a drunk driver. Mom's got a broken arm and some bruises and Dad, he was driving, he has a broken leg and stitches in his forehead. We are all at the hospital on Green Ave. They both are in stable condition, Okay? Mist, honey, I need you to drive Lynda over here." Misty replied, "of course we'll be there shortly" Charlie says "don't rush, we don't want anything happening to you two also". Misty replied "yeah, no we don't want that either, I'll be careful, we'll see you soon". Misty entered the hospital address into the GPS and the girls got on the road. The roads were still slightly slick, it must have rained recently, so she drove very carefully. Before the girls got to the hospital they stopped at the store and picked up some flowers for Nancy, magazines for Doug and candy bars for Charlie, his favorite peanut chocolate clusters. They checked out at the register and Misty was kind of holding Lynda up while she paid the cashier. All that was running through Misty's head was the car accident that both her parents were in and how much it devastated her. Her parents were also hit by a drunk driver but that idiot was going over 100 mph and hit the car head on. Her father was killed instantly and her mom was in a coma for a week and then was taken off life support and passed away that night with a little Misty unaware of what was going on with her parents. She knew what Lynda was going through and she was going to be a shoulder to cry and lean on, no matter what, she was going to be there like no one was there for her.

Misty got back behind the wheel and the girls arrived about 10 minutes later at hospital. Misty and Lynda held hands as they almost ran into the hospital and found the information desk. Lynda told the nurse behind the desk that her parents the Chaplin's' were brought here and that the girls needed to see them. The woman smiled and nodded, she said "Oh yes, the Chaplin's, both your parents are in good hands, let me take you back to them." The nurse led them into the room. Lynda and Misty finally were able to breath once they were able to see that Lynda's parents were ok. Lynda made her way to her mom and dad, she gently hugged and kissed them and told them that she loved them and then Lyndia went to Charlie and hugged him too. Misty carefully hugged Nancy and Doug and told them that she was so glad that they were ok and then Misty rushed over to Charlie and gave him a big hug. He hugged her back, basically lifting her off the ground and had her feet just dangled. Misty kissed Charlie's cheek and then handled him the candy. Misty then sat down and let Lynda and the family chat. She felt kind of like an intruder being in the room with them, then at that very moment Misty realized that she wasn't an intruder at all! She had become a part of this family along the way and she joined into the conversations. It turned out that the break in Nancy's arm was just a small fracture and they just made sure it was aligned correctly and put a cast on her arm. Doug's leg however was not so lucky, he had to stay the night in the hospital, they would have to do surgery with a rod and pins to stabilize his leg before they could put it in a cast. But the one thing that Misty noticed the most was that even though Nancy and Doug were in pain, the whole family was laughing, joking and complete.

That night Nancy was able to come home. The car was a total loss due to the angle that the other car had hit them. The car wasn't such a big deal, that would be taken care of by the insurance company and luckily the other driver had insurance. It wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't had insurance anyway, Misty would have bought them a car and not even tell them that she was the one who replaced it. That was how much she loved this family, she would do anything that she could to help them out and to make their lives easier because they accepted her completely and utterly without conditional love for her. Lynda, Nancy, Charlie and Misty went back to their home and made sure that Nancy was set up with everything that she could need. They made sure she had water and her pain medication and that she had her cell phone close to her in case she needed any help. She could call any of them and they would jump up and run to her room. Mostly Nancy just wanted some soup so she could take her medication and then she wanted to sleep but was finding it difficult with the cast. She couldn't find a position that didn't hurt her or where the cast wasn't laying on her skin, which was causing her so much discomfort. She finally found that if she would lay on her side and have the broken arm straight out and resting on a pillow to keep her arm above her heart actually made it hurt less. The pain killers that she took and the new sleeping position helped her so much and she fell asleep listening to a TV show that she put on for background noise. Charlie went back to the hospital to be there for his dad. He stayed with him and kept him in a good mood. The doctors came in around 7 pm and started to prep Doug for surgery. He was in surgery for a while longer than expected but nothing serious happened. The surgeon wanted to make sure that the rod and the pins were put in exactly right so that in the future Doug wouldn't experience pain and discomfort, especially on high humidity days and at high altitudes, other's who have had these rods placed have complained in great detail. The doctors decided that Doug would need to stay in the hospital for observation for another night to ensure that Doug's leg was beginning to heal properly and that the cast was set correctly on his leg. Charlie only left the hospital after his dad came out of surgery and saw that everything was ok and that Doug was getting all the help and medication that he needed so he let his dad rest for the night.

The following day Charlie went to the hospital and picked up his dad. Doug had a rough night at the hospital, especially after the operation, he was in pain and there were always someone coming in and out of his room to check on him and give him medication that would knock him out and then they would wake him up to see if he was in pain. Doug was so happy and relieved when the doctors said that he was stable enough to leave the hospital. They rolled Doug out to Charlie's car in a wheelchair. Charlie helped the nurse move his father into the car and began to drive home and quickly stopped at the pharmacy for pain medication that the doctors prescribed for him and he also picked up a few things that he knew his parents would both like and a wheelchair for his father so he can could get around when he feels up to it. He made sure to grab ice cream, candy and anything else he could think that they might possibly want, especially Misty. He felt that he had to be extra attentive to her this visit. He knew her parents were killed in a car accident and that his parents were the closest thing she had now. 

Charlie pulled up to the house and got the wheelchair out of the trunk and pulled it around to  the side of the car and helped Doug into it. Charlie pushed the wheelchair into the house and both Lynda and Misty came running out to greet them. Doug was happy to be home and wanted to see his wife. He was tired and wanted to lay down to rest. Charlie wheeled him into his parents' room, Nancy sat up and was so happy to see Doug. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, she told him that she missed him while he was at the hospital and that she was so grateful that he was ok. He kissed her and told her that he was so glad to be home and that she was safe. The two got into bed and Charlie asked if either of them needed anything right now. They both said no and waved their cell phones in the air and said "we'll call when we need help." Charlie left the room and closed the door behind him and could hear the two of them talking back and forth as he walked down the hallway. He was smiling and walked into the living room where the girls were sitting on the couch and were ready to start a movie. He sat down between the two girls and they rested their heads on his chest and began to watch the movie however they all fell asleep very quickly. It was a good feeling for all of them to be under the same roof again and to know that everyone would be ok. Nancy was only expected to wear the case for a few weeks and Doug could take a couple of months for his leg to return to normal, well normal enough for physical therapy anyways. It was going to be a tough recovery for him but he was a strong man and could take the pain and work through it.