Upside Down

(9) Dying Baby Rat On Their Nice Tile Floor

Chapter 9

Nutritious : Good :: Candy : Bad

"Sleepover!" Drew shouted in my ear and I flinched.

"Shut up, Drew." I hissed, looking at Kriss on the couch. "She's asleep."

"No, I'm not." I heard Kriss whisper but her eyes were still closed, snuggling into the couch pillow. "I'm awake, I'm awake." Her black hair was tangled in a heap around her head like a giant bush and her face getting the imprint of the pillow fabric on her face.

I unconsciously stroked the hair down with my hand as I spoke to Drew.

"It won't be long, I just need you to keep and eye on Kriss until Dr. Todden finishes telling Dad what she's found out. Okay?" I asked looking for sincerity on Drew's face. Of course I found it went he nodded. Drew was one of the greatest guys I knew. Childish but still a great guy and he never backed out on a friend.

"Emerson, you coming?" My dad called from his office.

"Be right there." I shouted back. Giving one last look at Drew then Kriss, I left to see the results of Kriss's test. What I found was Dr. Todden pacing and Dad calmly sitting in his big leather chair at his home office.

"Good, you're here," My father stated with a muttered finally under his breath. "Now, please, Rachel would you care to tell us what you need to about Kriss."

Dr. Todden quit pacing. She looked nervous and a little shaken. "I-I'm not sure where to start."

"From the beginning, please Rachel." My father suggested.

Dr. Todden sighed then set some papers on my father's desk. They looked like x-rays. The bones looks thin and I thought they looked a bit ...

"Broken." Dr. Todden said out loud. "All of them. Almost every bone in her body had been broken once in her lifetime." She shifted through the pictures showing us different ones. Then she came to the skull. "I found many sealed areas where the bones have to fuse back together. I counted about fourteen. Then if you look at the scans of her brain you'll see the areas where math and logical thinking are made are extraordinarily functional and yet her ideas, the place she forms imagination and such are unstable and not very coordinate. I've never seen something like this. And her body. Dear lord, her body!"

Dr. Todden took a second to regain composure as we soaked in the information.

This is once I've ever seen Dr. Rachel Amber Todden in such a fury. She shuffled more pictures this of Kriss and no x-rays. It was her bare skin, each picture showing a bruise. Each was a different color ranging from yellow, green, blue, purple, or black. "Not only does she have dozens of bruises but she is highly malnourished and way too thin."

"She was abused." I looked at my dad in shocked. My dad hated cats but how he looked at the photos was like Kriss was a lost daughter. But that's how Kriss was. She was the sweetest person you'd ever meet and you had to love her. We-Or, I knew Kriss had been bullied but ... not to this extent.

Then why would someone do all this to her?

My dad's eyes burned like golden amber. No matter how much of an asshole my dad was sometimes I really admired him, he was a great alpha and I knew I could trust him will Kriss too. "How bad is it?"

"Very bad, but recoverable." Dr. Todden answered. I let out a breath that I didn't know I had been holding. Kriss was going to survive. "But there's more."

And that smashed me.

"When I took the x-rays I found this," Dr. Todden pulled a picture out of her pocket she had been keep and tossed it on the desk. It looked like a little a metal tube not an inch long and not a thick as one of the wire hangers I have in my closet. "In her neck. I don't know what it is. Maybe a tracking device, maybe poisonous, maybe even something good for her though I doubt it. I'm not sure but I know I can't get it out."

"Why?" I growled out.

Dr. Todden flinch but began again. "She must have been younger when they implanted it. I don't know how old because she's a mutt and all mutts age differently. But the tissue of her neck has built around it like tree roots but if we take it out it could ... kill her."

"So what do you suggest we do, Doctor?" My father asked and we both waited patiently.

"Well, we don't know what it's for so just keep her fed," Dr. Todden answered. "Like I told Emerson earlier she will probably need five meals a day but keep them small so she's not overwhelmed and eats too much. She needs very nutritious food to help gain strength, milk, meats, proteins, and all that jazz."

"Okay good." I muttered. "We can do that."

This time Dr. Todden looked at me. "And also, no candy. I don't think she's ever had candy and if she had too much it could overload her system and send her body into shock. So no candy." She looked at me and said like I was a child.

"Okay, no sweets." I promised even if I was disappointed. I had wanted to spoil her with sweets.

"No candy."

[Meanwhile]

"Hey, Drew?" Kriss asked the man before her. She found she liked looking at things, especially people. She had memorized every line of Drew's face, his short and jagged blonde hair, his crooked smile and thin lips, blonde stubble of a beard, his large green eyes and strong nose where it bumped in the middle. He was nice, she figured even though she hasn't known him long. He was fun to play with and had one of the funniest smiles Kriss had seen but she hadn't really seen many.

All while she grew up she got nothing but stares of ... hatred and disgust like she was a dying baby rat on their nice tile floor letting blood get into the grooves between the tiles. They acted as if she had no feeling and was just a worthless piece of wood you can use to shape into whatever you want. The only one who cared weren't allowed back and she was left alone again. With the scowls.

Until Emerson came along. She wasn't too sure about him at first but he was nice and gave her that sand-witch that she liked. He treated her better and when he was around she felt happy and content. He didn't mind that she didn't understand or anything. He didn't hurt her and promised he never would. Yeah, Kriss liked Emerson but she didn't like her old home.

"Kriss, you okay?" She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at the big man. She nodded but she could feel tears prickle in her eyes. In one shocking sweep, Drew and grabbed her and hugged him to his chest. "It's okay Kriss. Everything will be alright," He whispered to her as she softly cried. "shh. Hey, I know something that will make you feel better."

She back away a little with her hands still on his shoulders and eyes red. "What?" She asked with a thick voice.

He stood out of his crouch and said one word, "Candy." She tilted her head to the side, not know what that was. He rolled his eyes and held out one hand. "Come on, I know the pantry has tons of it."

~~I wanted to post this early because my classes are starting back up tomorrow!!! *sob sob, cry, cry weeping sounds*