The Feeling of Love and Terror

Chapter 11

Gerard's POV

I admit, I'm getting worried about what is happening right now. Scratch that, I'm really worried. Linda is calling us back into the room to give us the verdict, while Frank looks like he's staring into the face of slenderman. We don't even know anything about Claire's condition offically yet.  The examination might have only lasted about 25 minutes, but it was the longest 25 minutes in my life. These past couple days have been so insane, just thinking about it is making my head spin.

"I promise."

Those two words may have been the deadliest words I have ever said to Frank, but it had to be done.

I stood there next to Frank, inches away from the door. Frank kept his eyes straght out in front of us, trying to fight back tears. I pulled him in to a tight hug as he put his head against my chest. I heard him sniffle a few times and I just kept my grip on him. "She's okay. Just like you told her. Ok? She's okay." He looked up at me with his eyes that still continued to water. I  kissed his forehead, grabbed his hand, and we walked into the room in a calm state... which only lasted, maybe around 3 seconds.

Linda's eyes shot right at us when she heard us come in. To Frank, she didn't seemed frightened at all, but by the way she looked at me espescially, I saw a bit of fear in her eyes and at that moment, I knew something wasn't right. I heared Frank gasp as I felt his grip on my hand grow limp. I squeezed it as hard as I could, hoping that Frank wouldn't faint. I looked back at him, and I actually thought he was going to pass out! His eyes were wide and his mouth slighty open, he ran his hand through his hair, and started playing with his lip ring. There were so many emotions going through Frank, I couldn't handle looking at him helplessly. I turned to Linda, who turned to Claire, and I understood excatly what was happening.

Claire now was in light blue soccer shorts and a plain white t-shirt. Her bag was unzipped so she must have gotten new clothes from it. But that is not what they were startled about. Let's go from top to bottom, shall we?

Her forehead was still an open wound. The bandages didn't seem to do much for it. It looked very irritated all around it and there was still dry blood on her forehead and some down the right side of her face. Her lip had a sore on it from biting on it so hard when Frank stitched up her arm. The gash that Frank stitched seemed to be healing okish... I don't know how those are supposed to heal, but it didn't seem right. All up and down that same forearm were scars from previous scratches/cuts.

"Claire is not in a good position right now," Linda started. "Come closer so I can show you two." Hesistantly, we approached the couch where a 14 year old girl, all beat and broken, laid. "Let's just start with the basic examination. Her glands are normal, I checked her ears, those are normal. Her blood pressure is 126/82, which is a bit high, but due to everything that has been going on, she is probably in shock and or panic, so I am not too worried about it. Now..." she paused. She looked up at Frank, who apperently isn't trying to hold back tears because they were just streaming down his cheeks. He tried to wipe his face dry with his hands but that didn't work at all. "I know this is very overwhelming, but you are going to have to stick through this with me, ok?" Frank nodded and I put my arm around him.

"The wound on her forehead is infact, infected. It sounds bad, but if we keep bandages on it and put disinfectant spray on it, it will be fine in no time. The gash here on her left arm is healing pretty well, stitching is fabulous," she looked up and Frank showed a tiny bit of a smile, "the miscellaneous marks on her arm are definatly cuts. Some pretty deep, some not as bad, but these aren't scratches. The other thing that I think you guys didn't notice is that if you looked at her other arm," she lifted Claire's right arm, "there are 3 fairly sized bruises. One on her high forearm, one around the shoulder area, and the other right here on the underside of her arm." Fairly sized? One was the size of a quarter, and the two looked like softballs, they were huge! They were blue, black, and yellow and I can feel the pain just by looking at them.

"On the side of her torso, there is another which takes up most of her left side. If you notice, this one is more of a purple and black then the others. This doesn't necessarly means that it is worse, but just be careful with her, ok?" We nodded our heads, and I added, "We promise."

"One last thing. Her knees are very swollen. Just ice them every night, and make sure that she tries to walk around on them. They are very sore, but in a couple of days, I think she will be able to mostly maneuver around by herself."

Frank sat down on the couch and pulled Claire into a strong embrace. Crying and trying to breathe normally, he manages to speak while being understood. "You're okay. You're going to be okay."

Linda pulled me aside to the corner of the room to discuss about Frank. "He's very attachted to this girl. I'm getting susupitious that he actually knows her but he won't say anything."

"Linda, we both know that Frank is a very honest person. He wouldn't lie about anything like that, would he?"

"I don't know Gee. Probably not. I just don't want him getting too attached because this girl must have a family somewhere. They must be worried sick about her. There is going to be an Amber Alarm happening soon about it, or a news report. I know that he doesn't want to get the police or anyone that has access to her information, but just keep an eye out and your ears open."

"I will. Personally, I'm scared about it. Not only about Frank being hurt, but those bruises and marks didn't just appear. My number one concern still is, and will remain being, that if the police find her here, its our butts. We will be the ones charged. We can tell them the truth about how we tried helping her, but it wouldn't do us any good."

"I know, that is a lot of drama to deal with, and you guys have been through enough these past 24 hours. Just keep her healthy and Frank safe. He really does like you Gerard. He has had a crush on you for as long as I can remember, and it has only gotten stronger by the day... I don't think I was supposed to say that." I start laughing and Linda put my arm around me. "I think you and Claire will be just fine. I am just worried about Frankie."

We look back to the couch and we see Frank and Claire talking, and him trying to confort her, but we all know he is trying to confort himself. All we heard was the last bit of their conversation. "You're going to be alright, I promised you didn't I?" She nodded and he kissed her forehead.

"Yeah," I agreed, "I'm worried about him too."