The next morning, Cami woke up to both Harper and Anna home and sitting at the table drinking coffee. "Guys! When did you get home?"
"An hour ago," Anna replied, reaching up go give her a hug. "Our flight got moved up because they overbooked."
Harper laughed. "We've been running on 3 hours of sleep for like 3 days. I could sleep for a century."
"Me too, but I have physical therapy later," Anna said. "Harp, you don't have to come if you're too tired."
"I'll come," Harper replied. "Cams, do you want to come?"
"Sure, we have to drop Heather off at the hospital to stay with her mom.
"Why, what's up with her mom?" Harper asked.
"I think she'd rather tell you herself when she wakes up," Cami said hesitantly. "She's really upset, but things are starting to look better."
"Oh ok," Harper said.
Heather walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Morning."
"Hey!" Harper said. "Cami said your mom's in the hospital, what's going on?"
"She has cancer," Heather said with a sigh.
"What?" Harper asked.
"Stage 4 osteosarcoma in her legs. She was diagnosed around this time last year and then in August they had to amputate her legs below the knee."
"Heather, I'm so sorry," Anna said.
"It's ok, Anna, thank you," Heather replied. "She's been in the icu since August ever since her surgery to remove her legs, but she might get to go home next weekend if the tumor shrinks. She told me they moved her to a regular hospital room last night, so that's good."
"Do you stay at the hospital overnight usually?" Harper asked.
"Only on weekends, my aunt Cara stays with me at my house during the week and she stays with her boyfriend on weekends while I'm at the hospital with my mom. The funny thing is, she and I have pretty much the same relationship now as we did a year ago. We talk about tv and fangirl over Adam Levine and eat ice cream. And it's great because we just kind of forget how sick she is, but sometimes when she's feeling really bad, we just kind of sit there. I don't want to make her feel worse, so I don't say anything."
Anna gave Heather a sympathetic smile. "You know when I had cancer, my relationships with people were the same way for awhile, but then I realized I had to talk to people when I wasn't feeling well because I couldn't stand being alone. Same with when I went into sepsis, and I think that's why I'm doing so well now, people know my boundaries. You just gotta talk about her it once and then I promise it'll be easier."
"Thanks, Anna," Heather said.
Beca dragged herself into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. "Good morning!" Heather said.
"Good morning is a contradiction of terms," Beca grumbled. "Thank god it's the weekend."
Anna laughed. "Oh Becs, we know you're a night owl. Where's Chloe?"
"She's getting up and taking her meds," Beca said. "Save her some coffee."
"We will," Harper said with a laugh.
"Oh hey, you guys are home!" Beca said with a laugh. "Sorry I didn't notice, I was so exhausted."
Anna laughed. "It's fine, Becs."
Chloe practically skipped to the table. "Yes! My girls are home!" She squealed, giving hugs to Anna and Harper. "You guys did amazing by the way!"
"Aw thanks Chlo, it was fun!" Anna said. "You seem like you're in a good mood."
"Yeah, Nicole's coming over for dinner tonight and I'm gonna take her shopping. Too."
"Ooh can I come?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, can you actually pick her up? I have a meeting today and then we gotta go to the store to get something for dinner."
"Oh of course!" Anna replied excitedly. "Ugh I can't wait until she moves into our house and becomes part of our family."
"Me too Ann," Chloe replied.
********************************
A few hours later, Anna was on her way to pick up Nicole and she decided to text her instead of going to all that effort of getting out of the car.
Hey, I'm here to pick u up!! My car's parked out front.
I'll be out in a minute!!
Nicole grabbed her purse and fixed her hair before attempting to leave the house without her foster mom knowing, but her attempt completely failed. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"My friend's aunt is here to pick me up, they invited me over for dinner," Nicole replied quietly.
"Who in their right mind would want to invite a little snob like you to dinner?"
"Mrs. Miller, they're my best friends," Nicole said sadly.
"We'll have fun you little bag of shit because the minute you get home, you're spending the next month in your room."
Nicole sighed and left to go meet Anna. She tried her best to keep the tears in, but she was so hurt. "Hi Anna," she said with tear rimmed eyes.
"Hey, sweetie," Anna said, giving the girl a hug and holding on extra long. She knew that whatever had just happened before Nicole left had hurt her really bad.
"I can't do it anymore, Anna," she sobbed. "She calls me names, tells me I'm worthless and a bag of shit, I can't handle it anymore."
"Me and Ben are going to foster you," Anna said with a smile. "We were going to wait until thanksgiving but I want to get you out of that place as fast as possible. When we get back to Chloe's you can show me how to register in the system," Anna said.
"Really?" Nicole looked up with wide eyes and a huge smile on her face.
"Nicki, listen, I know we've only known each other for a month or so because I was in the hospital for an entire month, but we get along so well and I want more than anything to be a mom to you. I never got the chance to have kids; I was pregnant with triplets 10 years ago, but I lost them because I was so weak."
"Oh Anna, I'm so sorry," Nicki said.
"What happened to your parents?" Anna asked. "It's ok if you don't want to talk about it."
"My mom died when she was giving birth to me because of complications, and my dad was an alcoholic and a drug addict and they took me away," Nicole said, wiping a stray tear away.
"Oh sweetie, that's awful, I'm so sorry," Anna said.
"It's ok, I just can't stay there anymore, it's too much for me to handle."
"I know, I'm gonna get you out of there as soon as I can," Anna said. "Chloe and Beca are out getting stuff for dinner and then we can watch a movie and just hang out."
"Thanks, Anna," Nicole said. "You guys are always there for me, and it means the world."
"We love you so much," Anna replied.
