tiny & vicious || h.s ✔️

~45~

My eyes flashed between the doctor and her room door. Each time I gazed at the door, my resolve got weaker and I almost ignored what he was saying. I was about to walk through the door when I felt another hand on my shoulder.

"Mate. You have to give her time." Liam's voice was sad but soothing. I closed my eyes in frustration and misery. I needed her. But they're right. She needs time. With that, I turned away and stalked through the hospital wing until I reached my own. The palace was divided into quarters. One quarter was for Aria, Blair and I, the other was the hospital, armoury and then the rest of our family's ensuites and private kitchen. After the attack we made sure to keep the best doctors close so our family could always have immediate care. Once we moved Mila and the children to the palace, we realised they also needed their own wing so we built a new one, ensuring the original palace architecture remained intact throughout the entire castle

When I reached my bedroom, I slammed the door shut and collapsed on the bed. I have had enough of today and I needed it all to leave my conscience.

---

A few hours later...

My eyes fluttered open, the sudden exhaustion hitting me in the face. The moonlight filtered through the freshly cleaned windows and curtains, I groaned when I felt a tiny hand grip my face. A little smile pulled at my lips as I gazed at those sparkling hazel eyes.

"Daddy" She whispered, and I nodded. Through the dark, I could see the humble grin on her face and I couldn't stop thinking about what she must be going through. For now she was safe and she was happy and that was all I needed.

"Why are you smiling, princess?" I touched her small face and she giggled.

"Mummy" She whispered and I almost missed it. I quirked an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes and leaned closer. "She remembers me" She giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. A massive grin spread across my face. "She does?" I questioned. She giggled again and nodded profusely. "She called me her baby like she used to, and she combed my hair and sang me her song." She beamed. "The song" I said, stunned. I didn't think she would remember. "Yes! You know the one that goes 'you are my sunshine, my only sunshine'" She explained with a giggle. I smiled brightly and yawned. "Would you like to go see her again?" I asked her and she immediately nodded and pulled on my hand, motioning for us to go. I laughed and told her to wait outside while I dressed myself.

I pulled a Gucci hoodie over my head before adjusting my black sweatpants and slides. I grabbed the necessities before closing my ensuites door. Blair was waiting outside of my room with a squeal and clapping her hands happily as I gripped it and walked with her. I rolled my eyes, finally happy that she was happy. The past two months were terrible. We were both wrecks. Once we left the hospital in Spain, we took Aria's body and transported her back to the palace with us. She lay in the hospital for a few more weeks before they pronounced her dead. After that, Blair never left my side. I had to force her to eat lasagne and pancakes while suffering myself.

The boys kept offering to take her so I could have some time to piece myself together before I took care of another grieving human, but she didn't want to. She went hysterical and threw tantrums whenever I left her side. She spent weeks in my bed, smelling Aria's pillow and sleeping in her clothes while I pat her to sleep and rolled over to express my own grief once she had fallen asleep. It was fucking terrible. We would eat, sleep, wake up and manage to find the strength to get out of bed. Some days we didn't have any strength. We just stayed in bed and cried. It hurt to talk about her. To say her name. To even look at her toothbrush in the bathroom or her many gowns in the closet. Even her guns. It hurt to touch her favourite dagger or see her favourite gun. But the worst day was the day of the funeral. It was official. My wife was dead and my daughter's mother was dead..

"Daddy, something's wrong" Blair tugged on my hand. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked around. It was quiet. Too quiet. My eyes raked over the brilliant stone architecture and through the stone hallways. There was no one around. We kept walking until we came across the hospital lounge. Louis and Liam were pacing around outside Aria's room. Blair squeezed my hand and I returned the motion to reassure her. As we got closer to the boys I held her hand tighter.

"What's going on" I questioned concerningly. Louis just bit his nails and looked away. Liam sat down with Zayn upon seeing me and Zayn just sighed. His caramel orbs flickered to Blair.

"Aren't you supposed to be eating dinner princess?" He asked her with a subtle smile. She shook her head and smiled. "I'm going to see Mama" She answered. Zayn furrowed his eyebrows and pulled his upper lip between his teeth in frustration. His eyes flickered to me with a worried look before he stood up and held Blair's hand. "Why don't we go get her some better food? This hospital food kind of sucks. Maybe some of those cupcakes she loves from the kitchen." Blair's eyes sparkled and she nodded before taking his hand and walking away. He turned his head to give me another stare before he picked her up and tickled her stomach. Once they were out of sight, I took the time to figure out what the fuck was going on.

"Liam, answers. Now" I demanded. He sighed and stood up and motioned for me to come with him. The doctor met us in the hallway, stress blanketing his features.

"We have a bit of a problem" He said, looking towards her door. "What is it?" I sighed. My senses were alert and I was very concerned. I itched to see her.

"It seems that she is remembering more of her life as the hours pass" He said. I was confused. "Wait, isn't that a good thing." I asked. He shook his head and his eyes flickered to Liam. Liam sighed and turned to me. "It seems that she is remembering every chapter chronologically since you left the hospital but now she's stopped." I still didn't understand. "Ok, so what part is she up to?" I was frustrated and no one was giving me a straight answer. They were just beating around the bush.

"The part where her adoptive father forced her to torture six people." He muttered.