Waiting On Life

Chapter 5

"Joey, what?" Ellie asked confused as Joe sat down with her on his lap. "Joe, you might want to put this on you," Dani said as she picked Ellie up and bounced her up and down on her hip while Joe put the smock on.

"Come on El, let's sit on Joey's lap," Dani said as she put Ellie on Joe's lap and then picked up the scissors. She then went about cutting Ellie's hair, to which Ellie started crying during and didn't like it at all. Once she was done, Ellie's hair was up to her shoulders and looked really cute.

After dinner Kevin, Joe and Nick decided to tell Ellie about the band. They had decided before, they were going to tell her about the band, then sing her a song and then they were going to watch the concert with her.

"Ellie, Joey, Kevy and Nicky are going to tell you something so you have to listen," Joe told the little girl who was sitting on his lap while pointing to his ears so she would get the concept of listening.

"Joey," Ellie giggled as she tried to but failed miserably to poke him in the stomach. After she tried two more times, Joe took her hands, and said, "no playing right now, we are going to listen," Joe said as he pointed to his ears again hoping that she would get the concept of it.

She didn't though, she kept on trying to poke him and giggle. It didn't hurt Joe though. It was the concept that he was trying so hard to get across to her that it was time to listen and not play.

It was when Joe went and sat Ellie on the couch next to him that Ellie started sobbing. Joe thought it was because she didn't want to stop playing and listen, so he started yelling at her which made Ellie cower into the couch. She was afraid that Joe was going to hit her like they did at the orphanage.

Unfortunately, Joe didn't realize this as he continued yelling at her to get her act together and realize that it was time to listen and not play. This was the scene that Kevin and Nick walked in on, seeing Joe yell at Ellie and her cowered back into the couch scared to death.

"Joe," Nick said as he walked up to him and pulled him back. Joe had obviously scared Ellie and Joe hadn't realized it yet.

"What the hell man," Joe said, which made Ellie get even more scared. Kevin was just standing there watching the whole thing unfold when it finally set in that he should take little Ellie out of the room.

Kevin scooped up little Ellie in his arms and took her out of the room to find Mom and Dad. As soon as they were out of the room, Ellie started sobbing into Kevin's shoulder.

"Scary," was all she kept on repeating through her sobs. "Oh El," Kevin said as he rubbed her back and bounced her up and down to try to get her calmed down.

"Hey Kev," Dani said as she found him and saw little Ellie crying into Kevin. "What's wrong with her?"

"Oh, Joe was yelling, and he scared her," Kevin said as he felt Ellie go limp and her breathing got deeper.

"Well, I guess we are not telling her about the band tonight then," Kevin said as Ellie slept on his shoulder.

"We should talk to Paul and Denise about a set bedtime for her," Dani said as she looked at a sleepy Ellie. "I know when I was about her age, I used to always fall asleep at dinner. My parents had to move the plate so quickly so my head wouldn't be in my food. I would sleep until morning, so I got like twelve hours or more of sleep every night when I was younger."

"I didn't know that about you, come on let's go put her in bed," Kevin said as he started walking towards the stairs so he could put her to bed.

Kevin first changed her diaper which she woke up too and then he rocked her back to sleep and when she was asleep, he put her in bed. "Come on, let's go downstairs," Kevin said once he had put Ellie in bed and she was asleep. Kevin left the door open a jar when they left, so that way they could hear Ellie if she needed something.

"We should get a baby monitor for her room too, because yesterday she fell out of bed. I don't want that to happen every morning."

Meanwhile, Joe and Nick were downstairs. "Joe didn't you see that you scared her to death," Nick yelled at Joe. He was in pure shock and started tearing up.

"Oh, crap did I really just do that?" was all Joe could think about. "I have to go fix this," Joe said as he got up and went to find Ellie.

"Kev, where is Ellie?" Joe said, he swore that Kevin took her out of the room but then again, he didn't really remember, he was still mad and yelling.

"She's in bed, she cried herself to sleep Joe," Kevin said. He could not believe what his brother had done, he made her so scared, and he had not even realized what he did until it was too late.

"I have to go fix this right now," Joe said as he went up the stairs two at a time to Ellie's bedroom. When he got there, he saw Ellie sound asleep. She was a little too close to the edge of the bed for Joe's liking. When she fell out of the bed, Joe couldn't get there fast enough to catch her. Joe rushed over to her and picked her up. She was crying so hard; Joe was afraid that she would pass out.

"Hey Ellie, shhh, it's going to be okay," Joe soothed her as he walked around her bedroom. When she started screaming and gasping for air Joe realized that this wasn't going to work. So, he walked downstairs with her, hoping that someone would be able to help him with her.

"Joseph what did you do?" Kevin said as he took Ellie away from him. He was afraid that he had yelled at her and made her even more scared, but when he saw her head that was bleeding, he freaked out a little bit.

"When I went into her room, she was sleeping really close to the edge of the bed and fell off the bed before I could even get there. I tried to get her to calm down but when she started screaming and gasping for air, I didn't know what to do."

"Joe go get Mom I'm going to get her in the car," Kevin said as Joe ran off to go find his mom. Joe was worried because right before he handed Ellie over to his big brother, he saw that her head was bleeding.

"Mom," Joe yelled when he saw her walking down the hall with a basket of laundry. Denise turned around and saw the panicked look on her second oldest sons face.

"What is it?" Denise said as she abandoned her laundry and went to Joe who broke down into tears when Denise walked toward him.

"It's Ellie, she fell out of bed and her head is bleeding," Joe sobbed.