Guardian For Life

Chapter 6

I walked over to the front desk but stopped when I spotted mommy.

"Mommy!", I grinned, "Rhyan!"

The two looked up and mommy smiled when she saw me. Rhyan had his usual facial expression, a blank face.

"How's Orion?", Mommy asked.

"Orion's okay. Brian picked him up after I called.....what was it? Oh, yeah! Outpost Omega One.", I said, "A girl answered and I told her what happened."

"That's my girl.", Mommy said.

"How's Aiden?", I asked as mommy pulled me into her lap.

"He's in surgery. We're just waiting on someone to tell us the news.", Mommy said.

I nodded and laid against mommy. Andy, Diego, and Amelia joined us soon after I arrived. It felt like days before the doctor finally came out. Mommy had gone to the bathroom and my siblings had gone to eat. I didn't want anything so Rhyan and I stayed in the waiting room.

I walked over with Rhyan.

"Which one of you is family?", The doctor asked.

"I'm his sister, he's a family friend.", I explained, "What's the verdict?"

"Well, your brother sustained serious damage to his brain. Amputating his leg alone didn't help anything. I'm afraid that with the damage to his brain and the injury to his heart that......he didn't survive the surgery.", The doctor said.

I threw my arms around Rhyan and started to cry. He knelt down and comforted me the best he could. The doctor left and mommy came back with my siblings.

"What's wrong? Did we miss the doctor?", Mommy asked.

I looked at my siblings, the tears causing my vision to be blurry and told them what the doctor told me. When I finished, Mommy started crying and my remaining siblings hugged one another. Andy didn't hug anyone, he just looked at the floor and cried. I let go of Rhyan and walked over to Andy. I hugged him tightly.

"It's okay, Andy. You didn't try to.", I said through my tears, "I forgive you."

He hugged me back, tightly.

"Come on, kids. Let's go home.", Mommy said and headed out the door.

"It's not the accident that I'm upset about.", Andy said, "It's what I said before the accident."

"What'd you say?", I asked.

"I told him that I wish he was dead. Now, I just wish I still had him.", Andy said as he picked me up.

"It's okay, Andy. Aiden forgives you. He's never held a grudge. You and I both know that.", I said, "He was the forgiving type."

Andy nodded and sat in the back of Rhyan's Hummer. He set me on his lap and held me close. Almost like he was afraid that if he let me go, I'd leave him. It was sad, really.

Rhyan dropped us off at home and headed to the base to take care of Orion. We all walked inside and went to our rooms.