Teach Me - Brollins

17.

"She will be coming home with us" Annette stated as she glared at Colby "Home where she can be properly taken care of by her family"

"She has a family here" Colby said through his teeth, Rebecca looked at him and could see he was trying his best to remain calm and not snap on her parents.. so much for a good first impression

"She deserves to have a family of her own" Ken said "One that was not pre-started for her"

"DAD!" Rebecca yelled "You have no right to say that at all" she shook her head

"Its true! You came over here and had a great job, you were stable, you had friends and a social life and then he comes along and ruins everything"

"He didn't ruin anything!" She yelled "I'm in love with him"

"You are not in love with him" Annette shook her head "You are trying to fix him, just like you have always done, you fix people that don't deserve to be fixed"

"What does that mean?" Rebecca asked

"It means he let his first wife die to protect his child and he was willing to let you do the same thing" she said

With that statement Colby shook his head and walked out of the room.

"Colby!" She yelled as he walked through the door "Great!" She looked to her parents "Thanks! You've ruined it.. are you happy now?" She questioned

"We weren't trying to offend him" Ken shook his head

"Well what the hell else were you trying to do?" His daughter snapped "Cause you could have fooled me!"

"We were just stating facts" Annette said quickly "He knew his first wife was sick when he got her pregnant and he did nothing to protect her"

"He did EVERYTHING to protect her!" The tears were now falling from her eyes "He went along with what Heather wanted! He tried to talk her out of it but she insisted!"

"What about you huh? What's your excuse?" Ken asked

"You think Colby told me to go back in that school?" She scoffed "I was already in there before he got there! I would have went back in for any of my students"

"Even if you weren't sleeping with their father?" Her mother questioned

"Yes!" She threw her arms in the air "and ya know, thank god that I went back in that school otherwise you two would have been over here for a little girl's funeral"

"We were almost over here for yours!" Ken was angry now "As your parents it is our job to protect you from anything that would hurt you! It is our job to protect you even if it is from yourself!"

"And as Cali's parent that is my job" she said sternly

"You will thank us for this eventually.. maybe not for awhile but you will" Annette nodded

Three hours after the initial blow up Rebecca was just finished eating as little as she could when she saw a familiar figure appear in the door way. Holding a bouquet of roses and sunflowers in his hand.

"Colby.." She said in a whisper as he moved into the room and sat the flowers down on the table and held her arms out for him and he went without hesitation "I'm so sorry"

"Don't you apologize for them" he shook his head "You had nothing to do with that shit show.. that was all me, it's my fault I called them"

"Now you know why I never talked about them much.." She nodded "You know why I left"

"You never truly told me why you left.. just that it was better for you to be over here"

"I don't know if you picked up on this dear.. but they're a bit controlling"

"Just a bit?" He asked and she held her fingers a millimeter apart "Where are they now?"

"Who the hell knows" she shrugged "I kicked them out and told the nurses not to let them back in.. as far as I'm concerned they're at the airport"

"I'm sorry for leaving earlier.. I just had to get out of this room before I got arrested"

"I understand" she nodded "They had no right" she shook her head "and what they said was the furthest thing from the truth and you know that"

"I have to ask" he said and she looked him in the eyes "Are you going home?"

"I'm already home" she grabbed his hand "My home is with you and Cali" she kissed his hand

"Rebecca.." The nurse knocked on the door gently as she walked in with a small smile "We've got that updated identification bracelet for you"

"Updated bracelet?" Colby questioned as Rebecca held her arm out for the nurse to replace the plastic bracelet

"It has her new room number on it since we are getting ready to move her soon" the nurse informed with a nod "I'll be back in a few minutes to start moving you down to the orthopedic floor" she nodded

"I needed a new one for the new room number and the other one was getting irritating" she messed with the bracelet on her wrist "Plus you spelt my last name wrong sir"

"I did not" he shook his head, actually he might have, the panic he was in that day anything could have happened "Q-U-I-N" he spelled it out and grabbed her wrist to look at it and his eyes met hers "Rebecca"

"I told you that you spelt it wrong.." She said "You were way off"

He looked down at the bracelet again

REBECCA LOPEZ