Island Child

Chapter 4

The ride to the hospital was too long if you asked Oliver, who held his daughter close while trying notto think of what people would say. All he wanted to think about was how his daughter was going to have a good life now. She was going to be safe,and go to school, and have a family. A big family, not just him. Everything He and Sara wanted. 

When they finally arrived, Oliver picked his daughterup and held her on his side. When the ambulance doors opened, Oliver was immediately bombarded with paparazzi, asking him question afterquestion. They ranged all the way from how did you survive, to how do you have a daughter, and asking who her mother was. Oliver ran into thehospital with the EMTs leading the way and they were brought to a nice open room, where Oliver laid her on the bed. The EMTs left the roomafter promising Oliver that a doctor would be in soon. 

Twenty minutes later, a middle-aged man came in with a clipboard and an amazed look on hisface. He held out his hand for Oliver, who took it and shook it while he said, "Hello." 

"Hi, I'm Dr. Lamb, it's nice to meet you, Oliver." 

"Nice to meet you too." 

Dr. Lamb walked over to where Oliver's daughter sat on the bed, looking at him in fear. He held out his hand for her and said, "Hi, I'm Dr. Lamb. Doyou know what a doctor is?"

The young girl nodded enthusiastically and said, "Yeah, when I was three, I broke my arm and a doctor fixed it." 

Dr. Lamb looked at Oliver confused, so he quickly said, "I pretended to be her doctor to help her feel better. We had to do a lot of pretending there." 

Dr. Lamb nodded then checked his clipboard, missing the confused look the young girl gave her father and the wink he gave back."Okay, well why don't we get a blood test, and an x-ray to check on that arm, okay?" 

She looked scared when he said the word test, so Oliver walkedover to her and placed his hand on her face."Don't worry. This man is trying to make sure that you are healthy. I won't let anyone hurt you, okay? You're safe now." 

FOUR YEARS AGO . . . 

Oliver laid on the floor of his cage, staring at the ceiling as he contemplated all the different ways he could break out of this hellhole. So far, he hadcome up with nothing, but he won't give up until he and his family are safe. He heard footsteps walk towards his cage, so he quickly jumped up indefense. Luckily, it was just Sara waddling her way over, with a bunch of keys in her hands. 

"Oliver, come with me," she said as she quickly unlocked the door. He followed her to one of the rooms that had a radio transceiver in it. "Call to yourfriends." 

Oliver picked up the transceiver and called out. "Shado, Slade, are you guys there?" 

They waited for a second before hearing Slade say back, "Yes, yes kid, we are. Where are you?" 

"Were on th-"Suddenly, Sara pulled the Transceiver from Oliver's hand while Ivo and another man walked in, holding guns in his face."What?" Oliver asked Sara. 

"You just let us know your friends are alive. Thank you, Oliver," Ivo said as the other man cocked the gun. 

"WAIT," Sara shouted, stopping the man from pulling the trigger. "We still need him to lead us to his friends." 

Ivo thought for a second, then nodded. "Yes, she's right. We still need him." 

The other man looked upset that he wasn't able to kill Oliver, but he listened to his superior and lowered his weapon. 

FOUR YEARS LATER...

After a long physical followed by a full-body x-ray, Oliver and his daughter were sitting on the bed, facing each other while Oliver reminded her of afew things. 

"Now remember, there are a lot of things we cannot mention to anyone else. They are our little secret, okay?" he asked while holding out his pinky. 

She wrapped her tiny pinky around his, then asked, "What can't I talk about?" 

"Well, you can't talk about how we went to Hong Kong, or how we went to Russia, or how we... lost mommy," Oliver said. 

He felt extremely guiltyabout having his four-year-old lie about half of her life, but he knew that it would raise many questions that Oliver was definitely not prepared toanswer. 

She nodded, but then asked, "Can I talk about home?" 

Oliver nodded. He felt an ache in his chest whenever she said that Lian Yu was her home, but it was. 

She was born there, she lived more than half ofher life there, Oliver wasn't going to make her keep everything a secret, she was just too young to understand the reason why lying was essential. 

"хорошо (Okay)." 

Yeah, she's fluent in Russian. Oliver doesn't know how he is going to cover that one up either. She has been speaking it for a year and she knowspractically the same amount of Russian words that she does English since for a small period of time, she was taken care of by a Russian nanny, whodid not speak English. 

Oliver heard a few people speaking outside of his room, and after a moment his throat started to tighten as he realized who one of the voices belongedto. It was his mother. He waited for a few moments before he heard the click of the door. 

When he turned, he saw his mother standing there, and hiseyes started to water. She didn't look that much older, but in the same way, she looked as though she had gained ten to fifteen years while he was away. 

"Oliver," she said with a soft tone, a small crack in her voice. 

"Mom," he said, his voice just as soft.She ran over to him and threw his arms around his neck while she said, "Oh Oliver." 

"Mom."They stayed in that embrace until Oliver felt his daughter pull at the edge of his shirt. 

He leaned down, picked her up, and said, "Mom, this is mydaughter, Meifen. Mei, this is my mom, she is your grandmother." 

Mei looked a little shy, but she held her small hand out for her. Moria was too shocked to speak, but she was able to reach her hand out and shake thehand of her granddaughter she just found out about. She was the spitting image of Sara, but she had Oliver's eyes. Moira had heard about all thescars and broken bones they both had, but seeing the foot-long scar that went down the tiny arm of the four-year-old girl made her shiver. 

Shecouldn't believe the horror they must have gone through in the last five years. Moira knew she couldn't change the hell they had both been through,but she was going to do anything to make sure that now they are back, they will never endure pain like that again. 

"Oh, Oliver she is beautiful," Moira said, not being able to take her eyes off Mei. 

"Yeah, she gets it from her mother," he said sadly. 

"I am so sorry about what happened. It must have been horrifying for both of you." She raked her hands through Mei's hair as she spoke. 

"Yeah, but we've managed. We're just happy to be home, finally," Oliver said, making Moira pull them both into another tight hug, promising to neverlet him leave her sight again. Oliver felt bad as he nodded, knowing that it was a lie.