Fragile // 5sos [under MAJOR reconstruction!]

Eight.

Settled in her new room, Dru sat up in her bed with her jelly in one hand and the tv remote in the other. Again, she sat with her eyes glued to the kid's tv show that always seemed to be playing on repeat. But she didn't mind it; she liked the simplicity of it. Her doctor, Mr. Oakley, came inside her room for her routinely check up. Melinda accompanied him as always and he started the check up. The police who stood outside her door was no longer there anymore, after the psychologist gave the okay that she wasn't a danger to herself and others.

"Does your side hurt?" He asked, and proceeded to lightly push his two fingers against the bruising on her ribs. Her pain receptors responded immediately, and she automatically jerked away from him. "I'll take that as a yes." He mumbled, taking note of his on his clipboard. He continued like this until he reached the cast on her hand, seeing that it has been on for almost a month and they both needed to be taken off. He took his cast saw off the tray of tools he brought with him and started to cut a line down her cast. Dru's eyes widened with fright at the sound and quickly pulled her hand away, where he abruptly turned it off and looked at Melinda.

"It's okay, darling. He's done this a thousand times and hasn't hurt anyone." She reassured, and walked over to her other side to offer physical comfort. Because Melinda was the first person to offer the physical and emotional comfort to Dru, she had automatically developed an unbreakable bond with her, and seemed to lose all confidence if Melinda was not around. The psychologist saw this coming and warned the staff of this, but Melinda did not listen; a widow with four children couldn't bear to see this lonely girl neglected any further. As a consequence, Dru had grown unhealthily attached to the woman and couldn't bear being without her.

The sawing noise continued, and Dru squeezed her eyes shut. The brand new appearance of her hand took her back; it was scarred but it looked pretty normal other than that. It felt unbelievably stiff though, since she was unable to move for so long. Next was the leg, which took a lot long than the other one, since it was six times as long. She wriggled her toes with ease, but her whole leg started tingling to the point where it was agonising to move. She hated pins and needles.

"My leg feels like static." She whimpered, gripping onto her thigh, as if it would help.

"It's called pins and needles. You need to move it to make it go away." Oakley said. She threw him a frown and looked at Melinda for approval. She smiled and agreed, then she slowly and carefully moved her leg up and down and rolled her ankle around. Moving worked, as the feeling quickly went away. Oakley wrote her progress down and held the clipboard under his arm. Dru had undergone a quick operation only a couple weeks ago to get rid of the chest tube because she was able to breathe by herself. In the next couple of weeks, she was going to go through another surgery on her arm to remove the rods and pins inside.

"Now Dru, it's very important that you don't put too much pressure on your hand since it is still healing, okay?" He ordered, but she showed no sign of listening. Her attention was on her exposed leg, the feeling of itchiness overcoming her. In a heartbeat she sat up and started to crazily scratch her legs up and down, using all her might to rid of the horrible feeling. She scratched until the redness turned into broken skin and blood, and it was then that Melinda stopped her from scratching any further.

"Dru, you're going to hurt yourself! Be careful." She scolded, and Dru sank into her bed. She was suddenly scared because Melinda had told her off; she thought that nice people didn't yell. She avoided eye contact with her for the rest of session.

"Dru, starting from tomorrow, we are going to start your physio therapy, and your parents are going to meet you as well. Are you ready for that?" He abruptly asked, and her light blue eyes looked up at him in worry. She didn't know what to think; for all she knew, these people aren't even her parents; they were only acting like it so they could take her away again.

"How are you sure that they are my parents?" She asked quietly, and it was the first time she spoke of herself on such a personal level.

"We took a DNA test Dru, remember when we asked you if we could take your blood last week? That was to double check, and it was a definite match." Melinda said softly, but Dru was mad at her, so she didn't respond back. The first time she finally opened up about her worries, and she just had to be mad at Melinda and close up. "Anyways, we won't bother you with it anymore. You think about it. How about we eat out for a change?" 

Dru looked up at her. She frowned and shook her head, visibly annoyed with her as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back, asserting her position. Melinda looked down and inaudibly sighed, leaving the room with Dr. Oakley.

Dru was left with her jelly, and the previous discussion was left at the back of her mind and she continued to watch her tv show. Another knock on the door sounded only ten minutes after Melinda left, but Dru did not respond. The door opened up anyway, and the group of persistent four boys entered. Melinda had given her a panic button in case she was alone and scared; an example being this exact situation. Her hand secretly grabbed the button she always had close to her, and thumb hovered over the big blue button.

"Hey, Dru. Melinda told us that you would be in here. We wanted to check up on you, again." Luke said sheepishly, and the four piled inside the room. Ashton was about the close the door, but Calum stopped him, knowing that she would feel a bit more comfortable with it opened. He was only slightly correct.

"We wanted to introduce ourselves." Calum continued, putting a bouquet of flowers in the empty vase next to her bed. She moved away from him, watching his every move. The boys sat down on the one chair next to her bed, and she stared at them in slight curiosity. One by one, they introduced themselves, but Dru was certain that she wasn't going to remember any of it. Ashton took note of the button she held in her fist, but didn't raise any questions. That was the way that she felt safe, and he wasn't going to violate that because of his curiosity.

"How old are you?" Michael asked, watching the cartoons running around on the TV. She looked at him, wondering if he too loved this show as much she loved it.

"Do you like this show?" She asked nervously, her eyes glancing up at the TV. He looked down at her in slight surprise, and shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess. My little cousins love it." He explained, and looked down at her hands. She was glad that she related to someone.

"It's my favourite." She said, smiling up at the TV. The boys shared some looks, wondering exactly how old she was. Until they remembered, that this was probably the first time she's seen a TV show, and that they shouldn't judge on her childish choice. It was the safest show for her damaged mind.

"It is a good show." He agreed, and she looked hopefully at him. Her thumb relaxed and no longer hovered over the button. All the other boys agreed as well, which raised her confidence to a whole new level.

"I'm 18. How old are you?" Ashton asked, looking at the show as well. They all decided indirectly that they would try to be casual and act like they all shared the interest of this show. She felt better knowing this fact.

"Well, Melinda told me that I am 16." She explained, putting her finished jelly cup on her bedside table. Her eyes caught the vibrant and beautiful roses and daises and magnolia in the vase, and her breath hitched in her throat. They were so beautiful; she'd always stared at them through the thin crack in her sister's window across at the neighbour's garden. They were her escape; she'd always imagined herself running through fields of roses and daises and those little yellow flowers that reminded her of summer. Of course, she wasn't aware that roses did have thorns.

The boys raised their eyebrows; in all honesty, she looked 12 or 14. She must have been seriously malnourished to be able to look 12 when she was actually 16.

"Calum and I are 16 too." Luke said, and she looked at him with a sense of familiarity. She was unconsciously creating ties with these people; she barely knew them, but at the same time it felt as if she did. They related to her in many ways, she thought, even though they hardly did. These were the first teens she met, so obviously there was some sort of unspoken connection between them, even if it was one sided.