𝕋𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕖𝕕

Part 30: Strength

Two days after the news everyone is still shocked. It was crazy that he was there one second and gone the next. Alex and Roni have been taking it the hardest. Alex doesn't want to show it but he's hurting. Roni is a wreck in the inside. She's trying her hardest to pull it together on the outside. Nothing in her life seems to be going right. She just wants to make everything just go away. She knows Alex is feeling the same way. She's the only person he has really talked to. She relates with him the most. He's been the only person she could really talk to. They were the first to find out where Aaron's room was and they were the only ones. He told her where it is. It's really strengthened their relationship. They're more like brother and sister now.

Although Roni knows where Aaron's room is, she hasn't mustered up the strength to go see him. She's scared. She scared to see his face. She doesn't want to see him like that. She wants to see him like he was before everything happened. Alex has gone everyday. He makes sure no one sees him though. Roni always covers for him. She plans on going. She lie awake in her bed while everyone else was taking a nap. She noticed Alex wasn't in Luke,Mariah, or her room. She knows exactly where he is. She takes a deep breath. "Now is the time" she says to her self. She slowly swings her legs over the bed and carefully slides off. She knows Nessa is in the lobby. Nessa wanted to stay in the room with Roni but Nessa respected the fact that Roni needed privacy and time to think so she stayed in the lobby during nap time. That also gave her an excuse to be be with Kian who's going through a lot right now too. Roni silently walked down the hallway with her sling on one arm and the other extended slightly as she runs her hand on the wall. She has the room number engraved in her head. 333. 3 is the number on Aaron's jersey. It's ironic that he ended up in that room. She approaches the room and puts her hand in the door handle. She feels a chill go up her spine. What is she doing? She thinks to herself. She knows she wants to go see him. She feels strange standing outside a door in a quiet hospital with a hospital gown on. She feels tears start to well in her eyes. She doesn't know why. She hasn't cried in days. She been holding it in. Is that where it's coming from? She sinks down to the floor with her back against the door ( that rhymed) and cries. She doesn't know what to do. She just sits there after the tears dry up and she thinks. Thinking has done a lot of damage.

Aaron can't move. He can hear pretty well though. It's like his sleeping on the outside but awake on the inside. He hears the door open everyday. He listens to the voices. He's gotten the basic times the nurses come check on him. They come twice in the morning, twice in the afternoon, and twice at night. He always waits for Alex. It's kind of the highlight of his day. He hears him come in and talk. He talks about all that's happening. He feels Alex's hand on his shoulder. He listens as he can hear Alex sniffling. One day Alex told him that he and Roni were the only people that knew that Aaron was in this room. I made Aaron worry. He wanted to hear Roni's voice, her story and he wanted to know if she's ok. She never comes to visit, and he can't ask why. Does she not love him anymore?

The whole plan is slowly working. Easy research has gotten Lear the answer of who adopted the Burriss kids. He hunts her down and is now working on a way to arrest her. He asks Sherry can he use her security footage for evidence. She agrees without hesitation. As the days have gone by, she's falling mire in love with those kids. She feels so bad that she didn't notice that they were alone all these years. As many times as Aaron has come to visit her, she had no clue. Not one clue at all. She thinks about how she's never been to their house but Kian is always there. That makes total sense to her now. She feels horrible that she hasn't done anything to help the earlier even though she knows it not her fault. She notices how well they were raised by Aaron. She feels extremely bad knowing that Mariah has no one and how emotionally damaged she is. She can't imagine what it feels like. She knows what it feels like to be pregnant at a young age. She knows from experience.