You Owe Me (Little Mix Fanfiction)

Chapter 18

If anxiety was an ocean, we would have all drowned. Hours of waiting were only destined to lead to tragedy. Dead silence filled the room after the roar of the storm died down. If anyone was to breathe slightly deeper than usual it would be the loudest noise in the room. There was no way that anything could compare to the wave of nerves that hit as a doctor rushed into the room quite panicked, his face stricken with anxiety.

We all looked up expectantly but were only delivered a hand motion to Zayn, Alicia and myself, directing for us to follow him outside. At that all my hope dropped to the bottom of my heart and my head dropped down as I wheeled myself out, with Alicia on my lap. Once out in the hallway the doctor stopped to faced us. The grim, dark expression on his face only confirmed my thoughts, something had gone wrong.

He opened his mouth to speak, but all that flooded out was mumbles of incoherent words that were formed into morbid-sounding sentences. Not a single word he spoke made any sense. There were stutters of, "I-i-i-." and, "B-b-b-but", but that was all I could make out. I was beyond the point of confusion. 

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Zayn turned away and placed his hand on his forehead, a clear sign that he was upset. I turned to face him, only to find that he had disappeared, most likely into Leigh's room. I turned back to the doctor, who continued,

"I-I-I'm very sorry." He was sorry, but what for? "The surgery was very risky and, and, and..." He trailed off, it was only then that I understood. The surgery was risky, too risky, and she wasn't strong enough. She didn't make it through. 

I felt the weight on my lap shift and then heard a small, angelic voice in my ear,

"What does the doctor mean?" I choked at her tiny, yet significant, words, she was confused. I couldn't tell her that her sister didn't make it through the surgery that was supposed to save her. Her 4-year-old sister, whom she had cared for, for the past 2 years, was no longer with us. She was gone, beyond the realms of this earth. 

"Alicia..." I began, I opened up my mouth to speak again, but all that came out was strangled sobs as small teardrops rolled down my face. They blurred my vision until all that was visible was random blotches of  whites and greys. I couldn't get the words out, so I tried again, "Alicia." Yet again I choked. I tried to force the tears down, but they wouldn't stop. My voice became drowned in tears as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat that was preventing me from speaking to the young girl. "Alicia, I'm sorry..." I let my voice trail off, not wanting to finish announcing the terrible news.

The small girls face collapsed from the smile that was once placed there. Her eyes filled themselves with sorrow and hurt, that was far beyond a seven-year-old's wisdom. The split second of silence that filled the hospital, the moment after she realized what had happened, was deafening. The temporary silence was broken by one sound, the sound I never hoped to hear. It was the sound of a girl losing her sister. The sound of someone losing her best friend. It was the sound of the hope dissipating from the remainder of her life. It was ear-piercing and cold, yet full of emotion. It was the sound that made me break down in tears. The deafening scream of grief. 

The doctor looked at me sympathetically as Alicia pressed her face into my chest. I could feel  her body shaking from the tears, but there was nothing I could do. I soothingly rubbed her back as she cried into my shirt, the heart wrenching sorrow that filled each sob and gasp was unfathomable. This little girl really did love her sister. She had lost all she had left of her biological family, she was left with near complete strangers. All I could hope to do was help her through the pain, I knew I couldn't make it go away but I could help her get through it. 

When I was about to farewell the doctor and go back into the room, a nurse frantically shuffled over to the doctor and whispered something in his ear. I didn't know what she said, but the doctor's eyes widened when she spoke and he walked away briskly, after apologizing several times. I was slightly confused but far too sorrowed to worry about what he was talking about. 

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There was a flurry or nurses and doctors rushing past us as we tried to go against the flow to get back to the room. Alicia was curled up in a tiny ball in my lap, hiccuping every so often from the tears that had run out. For a seven-year-old she was extremely tiny. If I was to have only seen her size I wouldn't have thought that she was any more than four, but her demeanor was extremely different. She carried herself in a way that proved that she was more mature than many adults I had ever met. Her soft brown eyes seemed to care for everyone she ever saw, and her pursed lips made many judgement calls that were far beyond her years. Her worn hands told tales of hardship and caring and her tangled mess of golden hair mentioned stories abandonment. She was a little warrior. 

Alicia

The Warrior.