Adopted by Lin Manuel Miranda

Holding

I feel it all over again. My face is raw with tears. I can't breathe. We just ran over my ex-father, Joffrey Jimson Jorbyn. Lin resignedly plops his head on the steering wheel. A loud honk rings through the street, almost drowning out the sirens. I guess Begonia called the ambulance. Or maybe the camera crew is behind us. Jonathan pushes Lin out of the seat and slams his foot on the gas, but the boats on the corpse and we don't move. It was worth a shot. 

Hours later, we're still in the police station. Lin is trying to explain our predicament. "See, I just died, but was brought back to life by this prepossessing young female."

The officer nods his head. "Yeah, that happened to my good buddy awhile ago. I understand." He tips his cap. "Have a good night, folks. Try not to run over anyone else's father." He chuckles. We all chortle. 

Groffinkle smiles the officer out the door. That smile should be for me.  I hiss and claw the air, rabidly. He doesn't see. 

I glaze the inside of Lin's ear with the tip of my tongue. "I know what we have to do," I whisper. 

At the same hospital I was at this morning, the doctor greets us at the door. "What a pleasant surprise! Come on in, guys!" He says, ostentatiously.

I check in every hospital room, even in the maternity ward, until I find Joffrey's. I scare one woman into labor. 

I finally see him, stretched out on a woolen cot. As I place my foot through the doorway, something cold and rubbery hits me square in the head. It is a stethoscope. I look up to see who the perpetrator is. 

"Well my, my, my, if it isn't little miss Jorbyn. Did you bring Johnny Baby?" He laughs. 

"Zachary," I scowl. 

"Get out of here, you ruffian," he spits. 

I prepare to fight or flight. I choose flight. I sprint back down to the lobby where everyone was waiting.I block out all my friend's voices. I look at the ceiling. An idea sprouts in my mind. 

"What's on your mind, Midgey-Pidge?" The doctor probes.

I tell them my plan. Everyone nods solemnly, and the doctor gives a thumbs up.   

Moments later we're all on the roof. Except me. I'm on Begonia's shoulders. 

"You ready, dah-ling?" 

"Yes," I say, without a hint of reluctance.

With that, she tosses me into the air vent. Toss, like tossed salad. I feel my scalp prickle. I am falling, falling, and then I am not. I'm not on a cabbage infested runway. I'm in an air vent, with a mission.

I crawl around for what feels like years. Nay, decades. Finally, my nose detects a peculiar scent. I sniff around like a dismembered armadillo. It's him. I'd know his smell anywhere. I bang my fist on the tile, only wanting to gently lift it. I am too eager. The tile falls, and so do I.  Joffrey's body jerks unnaturally when I land on his abdomen. 

"Sourcheeks!" I menace. He can't hear me over the loud, shrieking beep from his heart monitor. I've hear that beep before. Everything moves in slow motion. The doctors, the wires, Lin, pulling me off of my predecessor. Zachary's face, so angry in mine. Cardiac arrest, I hear. Whoopsie daisy. Two casualties at my accord.