Love Will Find A Way ( FreenxBecky)

Chapter 6

The rumbling of the floor wakes her up.

She clutches Billy tighter to her chest. She fears it's happening all over again, and it makes her heart race even though they're up high.

"Mama, what's wrong?"

She shushes Billy, and stands up with difficulty. But the ground stops rumbling.

"Cars are here!" A man yells out behind her.

Freen peeks outside the door into the hallway.

"What's going on?" she asks, to anyone who might hear.

"They've sent cars to take people to the hospitals," an old woman tells her, and Freen nods her thanks.

She walks inside the room and puts Billy down, sitting him up against a wall.

"Mama, are we going to the hospital?" he asks, more awake now.

Freen doesn't know.

Billy has a couple of bruises and scratches, and he's scared, but she's been keeping him warm. She doesn't care about herself.

On the one hand, a hospital means phoning home, reaching Becky's mom and Freen's brother and their friends, letting everyone know she and Billy are alright.

It means food for Billy.

Safe drinking water.

Medical care for his scratches.

It was always Becky who made the kids sit down and get cleaned up with peroxide water before putting on band-aids and kissing boo-boos better.

She knows Becky would want her to go.

But she can't bring herself to. She can't just go farther and farther away from the last time she saw Becky.

"Mama?"

"One second, Billy," she pleads.

Maybe she doesn't have to go. She can just ask to see if anyone will lend her a cell phone. She knows the power lines are down on this side of town, but there has to be someone with a satellite phone, right? Whoever sent the cars. Government? Military?

Decided, she grabs the dirty sheet that's covering the broken window.

"Here," she tells Billy, covering his shoulders. "It could be chilly outside."

He scrunches up his face.

"It's kinda wet."

"I'm sorry, baby," she says, brushing his hair away from his forehead. "We're going to go downstairs for a little while, okay? Do you want me to carry you?"

Billy shakes his head.

"Are we gonna go look for mommy? And Gus and Pat?"

Freen doesn't answer that.

"We're gonna go see if they have something to eat, okay?" she tells him. "And something for those cuts."

Billy stops walking. Freen almost trips.

"No alcohol," Billy tells her seriously, and it steals a smile from Freen's face.

Even in the middle of this situation her little boy is still a little boy, afraid of the sting of alcohol on a cut.

"I promise," she tells him, and together they walk down the stairs.

//

The world outside seems different than it did just a day ago.

The water has receded, leaving puddles and debris everywhere, but it's no longer up to her ankles.