The Last Snow: A Mother's Love

Her Silence Speaks Volumes

2 Weeks Later

Craig's POV -

2 weeks had gone by since Taylor left and Bella found out about her mother and Bianca.

14 days, 336 hours, 20,160 minutes and not a single word from Bella. Not even a simple "Hi.".

It was absolute hell, but at least she hadn't fully lost herself. She was still eating 3 meals a day, keeping hydrated, and she even spent just about every second of the day around one of us. No talking, but she'd just either sit on our laps or by our feet - either way, she'd always keep physical contact.

We figured it was because she must have feared that if she let go of us, she might lose us as well.

Right now I was sitting on the couch enjoying a cup of coffee while Bella was laying down with her head on my lap. Her fingers gently tracing the tattoos up and down my arm, over and over again.

The sunlight shining in from the window was reflecting off of the silver heart on her collar. A few days after we broke the news to her we figured she wouldn't want the collar on anymore and Chris took it off, well...he had attempted to.

To say the very least it didn't go very well, and we didn't dare try and remove it again. Hell, we figured it was a good thing if she was still ok with wearing it, and we didn't want to mess with a good thing.

"Oh Bella." I sighed, reaching down and gently running my fingers through her hair.

"Nod if you're ok." I whispered.

She nodded her head very slightly.

"You know how much we love you still, right?" I asked her.

She nodded more affirmatively.

"Good." I said, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

As soon as I stopped talking she went back to tracing the lines of my tattoos. I'm sure she could do that without looking for myself, Chris, Ricky, Danny, James, Ryan, TJ, Kuza, of course, Tyler, and maybe a few others.

Hey, if that's what kept her calm, then that's what kept her calm.

"Good Morning!" Kuza cheered walking in with Tyler.

"Morning." I replied.

"Hmm, still staying quiet on us, sweetheart?" Kuza asked, kneeling down in front of her.

"She hasn't said anything, just has been nodding." I told them.

"Damn it." Tyler grumbled quietly.

"Some of us are having a movie marathon in the lounge, so I'll let you guys go meet up with Chris and I'll take her." Kuza said.