A Broken World

Chapter 24

Liam is sleeping, and nurses told me I should go get something to eat. They want to keep him to observe him for a few hours, and if he has any more they will admit him for more testing. It's already been several hours since we've gotten here. I step out into the waiting room and sitting in one of the hard chairs is Daryl. He's got his eyes closed, and a coffee in his hand. I wasn't expecting him to stay for that long.

I walk over to him and gently nudge his shoulder. He opens his eyes and stands quickly.

"Everything okay?" he asks.

"Fine. The nurses told me to go get some food, you hungry?" I look down at the floor unable to meet his eyes.

"Yeah. Hey." He lifts my chin with his pointer, as his thumb gently rubs near the corner of my mouth. I keep my eyes focused to the side because I might just fucking cry if I look.

"I'm sorry," he says.

I shrug my shoulders and step back out of his grip. I start walking away, but hear his footsteps follow behind. We walk to the cafeteria which is finally open. I grab a muffin and some coffee, along with a buttered bagel. Daryl fills his plate with hashed browns, eggs, and pancakes. He offers to pay and I just let him because I'm not in any mood to argue right now. We finish eating quickly, Daryl eats like he hasn't in days. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen him come upstairs for dinner or any food for that matter recently.

"When was the last time you ate? That's quite a meal."

He laughs as he wipes his face with a napkin, then stands to throw the garbage out.

"Been living on Spam and Jerky for the last few days."

"You know I cook dinner like every night and there's plenty of..."

"I know."

He throws the garbage out and starts heading back out for the door. I catch up to him.

"We might be a while you can go..."

"I'll stay," he interrupts.

"Okay," I whisper.

"Daryl," I still can't look at him.

"Yeah?" he says in a low voice.

"Thank you."

It's been twenty four hours since Liam has been here at the hospital. He has a double ear infection, which caused the high fever. It's finally time to go home, but I need my mom here to fill out paper work. She's taking her sweet ass time, and I can tell Liam just wants to go home. Daryl is still here, he said he wanted to stay to drive us back home. I definitely wasn't planning on driving with my mother anyway.

I'm sitting in Liam's room playing tic tac toe. I'm trying to keep him distracted since we didn't have enough money to keep the TV on, apparently that's extra. I hear someone yelling, and I'm pretty sure it's my mother. She sounds drunk, this can't be good.

"I'll be right back," I say kissing Liam on the head.

Liam's smart and he knows something is wrong. He knows our mom is not who she used to be, and it's affecting him. He may not be able to hear her obnoxious voice, but he just knows. I walk out the door and see the nurses talking to my mom. She's stumbling around telling them it's ridiculous that she has to come down here when I'm already here. She's making this situation worse and if CPS really did already show up, this is going to hurt us even more. I walk over to her, she sees me. She walks around one of the nurses and straight to me.

"Mom chill out okay?"

"Where is he?" she asks.

"In the room over there, but all we need from you is a signature. Did Travis drive you?" I ask.

"Hell no he's working."

"Are you high?" I whisper. I look around to make sure no one hears me, but I'm sure they already know.

"Don't start with me," she warns.

"Sign the papers and get the fuck out of here. Do you want to lose him? You are causing a scene and I'm pretty sure they all know you're high," I whisper through gritted teeth. "These nurses will call CPS if they haven't already. Please. Go sign the papers and leave."

"I don't appreciate your tone young lady." She yells loud and it echoes down the hallway.

"I'm more of a mother to that boy than you will ever be," I say.

Her face turns red and her eyes bulge as she lifts her hand and slaps my right across the face. The sound is so loud I think the people down the hall heard it. Nurses stand in shock watching the scene play out. I hold my face and can feel the tears stinging my eyes.

"Just sign the papers so I can take him home," my voice wavers, but I can't cry in front of her.

I rush back into the room where Liam is. He's sitting on the edge of the bed, I'm so glad he didn't hear any of it. He looks at me with tears in his eyes. I realize that he may not have heard it, but he definitely saw it. I wrap my arms around him and we cry together. I'm praying so hard that this isn't the final straw, and that those nurses will just ignore what happened; but I know they won't.

The door opens and I'm about to unleash wrath on my mother, but when I look up it's just Daryl. He's panting like he ran over here. I look up at him, my cheek is throbbing from the hit. He notices and stalks over to Liam and I. He kneels down in front of us and places a hand on my knee.

"Did she hurt him?" he asks.

I shake my head, and he reaches a hand up to touch my cheek. I lean into his touch and a sob escapes my mouth. Quickly he jumps to his feet sits next to me on the bed and wraps me in his arms. Liam gently rubs my back and lays his head against me, while Daryl holds me.

A nurse knocks at the door. She was one that had been with Liam all night. She told me a half an hour ago that her shift was over. She comes in holding an ice pack and hands it to me. I nod thanking her.

"You guys can go now, she signed the papers," she says in a light voice. She tries to smile, but it doesn't reach her eyes. She's sad for me and for Liam.

"Thank you," I half whisper, half sob.

She closes the door and I'm not really sure what to say.

"Let's get you guys home," he says.

All I can do is look up at him and nod. As pissed as I am with him I'm kind of glad he's here.