birthright

Part 16

"Most people have no imagination. If they could imagine the suffering of others, they would not make them suffer so."

                                       ~Anna Funder~ 

                                      ~All That I Am~

                                      ~GoodReads~

Maria's P.O.V

It's late when I wake up, the sun has gone down and I have this pain in my right shoulder. Then as I lay there it all comes flooding back to me all at once. I see Kaelynn laying on the ground I go to check on her. Then the sound of a gun echoes through my ears.

"Kaelynn," I say to no one

I get up throwing the covers off me and hurry out, everything that happened up till this point runs through my head over and over as I get closer to the girl's room. I open the door stopping when I see Dylan tucking a blanket around Kae. I look around the room at my girls, counting as I make eye connection. Six, all six in bed sound asleep.

"She's alright" I hear Dylan tell me, I look back where he stands over her, his eyes are on me. "You should be in bed"

"I had to know"

He starts toward me "Lets, let them rest, they have had a trying day"

Putting his hand on my hip he turns me toward the door, I look back over at each of them once more before we exit the room. He leads me quietly to my room. And it's when I am in there that I realize that it wasn't the room I woke up in. Leading me to the bed he helps me to sit down.

"Are you hurting?" he asks

"Not much" it was a lie, it felt as if my whole arm had been hit and I wanted to cry but I wouldn't not in front of Dylan.

"You lie, the doctor gave you some pain meds and some antibiotics to take"

"I don't need them"

He sits beside me on the bed "Maria, your hurt, you need to take them to get better"

"It doesn't...." I start

"Don't lie" he interrupts me "Have you forgot I feel your pain. Now take the medicine"

I roll my eyes but take the pills from his hand, grabbing a glass of water off the nightstand. I down the pills then lay back on the bed. Dylan caresses my face tenderly as he looks down at me with worry.

"I'll be fine," I tell him

"I know you will, you need to know though. The baby didn't make it"

Hot tears stained my eyes, Dylan pulls me up into his arms.

"I'll give you time to heal then we'll try again," he tells me 

This is the first time he has held me after the loss of a child beside Slate. 

"What if I can't"

"The doctor said that he didn't see any reason why we couldn't have more"

"I don't know if I can go through any more losses," I tell him with a sob

"Let's get through this one first then we'll go from there" he soothes me running his fingers through my hair. Laying me back down on the bed he pushes my hair behind my ear "Sleep, for now, baby, tomorrow you can take the girls outside"

"I don't think we'll be going outside for a while"

He smiles "Next week we will be going to the Philippines, no one knows where we are going but they know we're going to be gone for a while. So maybe we can leave all this behind for now"