Lennox POV
I stood in the corner of the hospital room watching Christian and Miles crowd around Ms. April. I figured I should give them their time, just out of respect. When Miles saw her he literally just collapsed on to the hospital bed and started sobbing. Not due to any physical ailment or anything wrong with her, with relief.
"Aww Sugar, it's okay.. I'm okay, come here.." Ms. April coughed when her eyes landed on me.
For some reason I still found my feet glued to the floor beneath me. My eyes darted back and forth between her emotional sons and the hospital machines she's currently hooked up to. I don't like seeing her like this..
This is why they don't let doctors treat their loved ones... I've been inside of hospitals before, I've seen ICU patients, I've even been to the morgue, hell I've even dissected a body. That was the first year of medical school, there's an entire unit on cadavers. But this, this I don't feel equipped to handle.
"Len, go ahead." Beckham gently placed a hand on the small of my back, nudging me forward.
I tentatively made my way to Ms. April's bedside. I grabbed the folder that was tucked into the slot at the foot of her hospital bed. Her chart, I want to read it and better understand her prognosis.
"What are you doing?" I could hear Beckham's voice behind me.
What I'm doing very much so seems self-explanatory so instead, I ignored him. Focusing my attention on the document in front of me. One word in particular stood out to me more than the rest.
Hemiparesis.
A stroke is a neurological disease. The brain is one of the primary factors in determining whether or not a body is will experience paralysis. There are two major factors to consider; damage to the brain and/or damage to the spinal cord. The former is only pertinent in Ms. April's case. Hemiparesis is just a step below full-blown paralysis, affecting only one-side of the body it is a severe loss in strength and motor function. It can be treated but she will have to undergo intensive physical therapy. Then there's also the chance of a stroke recurring. A pretty significant percentage of stroke victims suffer more than one stroke. Which makes her condition increasingly dangerous as well. It's going to take a lot of management— management of medication, physical therapy, possibly diet and other lifestyle changes. She'll definitely be prescribed anti-coagulants to prevent future blood clots and hopefully future strokes.
"Len?" The sound of my name being called once again broke me from my thoughts. "Is she okay?" I glanced up to see Miles who had now stopped crying, "Is Ma okay, what does the chart say?"
No.
"She will be." I smiled softly and nodded my head.
They're so happy right now, I'm not going to be the one to ruin that. Especially since Ms.April will be okay... Possibly. Honestly at this point and time it's too early to say anything definitive and the hospital will definitely be keeping her admitted the next few days to better understand what her long term side effects will be.
"Where are the kids?" Ms. April inquired, Miles and I exchanged knowing looks as I tried to communicate with my eyes that he needs to shut the hell up.
"They don't know."
This nigga. All he had to do was say nothing.
A look of hurt briefly flashed through her eyes but she quickly recovered, clearing her throat. "It's okay... You did the right thing, it's best that they don't know. They shouldn't see me like this."
But she wants to see them. We both know that, she loves those little munchkins.
"How have you all been holding up? I hope you weren't too worried."
"Lennox freaked." Christian snickered causing me to roll my eyes.
"Miles freaked too, what's your point?"
"Leave Len alone, y'all know better." She gave them a look that said you know what she went through. "I get why it might've been hard for her."
I glanced down at my shoes awkwardly not exactly sure how to respond to her statement. Luckily I didn't have to, the sound of Knox's cries were echoing down the hall and Ayah appeared with him in the doorway a few seconds later.
Poor Stink.
"He's been like this for nearly twenty minutes. Brandt can't get him to calm down." Ayah looked just as red in the face as Knox did. "He thinks the baby doesn't like him anymore."
"He's okay." I reassured, taking the infant from her arms. "Tell Brandt he didn't do anything wrong, Knox still loves him. He's just cranky. He didn't sleep enough last night." I glanced down at the child who had now buried his tear stained face in the crook of my neck.
I tried to tell him to go to sleep, but no. He was insistent of staying awake and finishing the two hour episode of the Bachelorette. A mess. Once I realized Knox was actually watching though show albeit understanding nothing, I did turn the television off in hopes of forcing him back to sleep. It did not work. This is what he gets for trying to act grown.. He definitely won't be allowed to stay up past his bedtime anymore.
He needs to go back to bed, but he's not going to fall asleep in here either. His nosy little butt is already looking all around the room as if he's trying to decipher the conversation taking place. He's going to be way too distracted to actually fall asleep. He gets FOMO. Especially around unfamiliar faces, and while he knows The Williams he doesn't see them on the daily basis the same way he sees Brandt, Beckham, Jayce and myself. They're far more interesting to him than us.
"You should take him." I looked to Beckham, "He's far too interested in everything going on to settle down."
He nodded his head taking Knox from my arms. "Come on buddy, let's get a bottle and put you down for a nap."
"Sooo... What happened to Lennox's parents?" Christian questioned far too nonchalantly upon Beckham's departure.
"Christian!" Ms. April snapped staring at him as if he had two heads.
"What? You never told us..."
That's because she doesn't know. When I met Ms. April it was right after my parents had passed. I wasn't ready to talk about it and she didn't press me for details. She was far more concerned with the fact that I was a young woman in need, practically a child myself and had just been thrust into the role of single parent.
"They were murdered."
"Awe shit." Christian smacked his lips together obviously regretting asking the question to begin with, the reaction still earned him a slap on the back of the head from Miles. It wasn't purposefully insensitive but still not the proper response to that statement.
"It was a drunk driver. Their car flipped on i-5 and they crashed into one of those concrete barriers.. That was it. The coroner told me they died instantly, didn't feel anything." I dug my fingernails into the palm of my hand to prevent myself from becoming emotional. I'm not going to cry, at least not right now. Not in front of people. "I was away at school when it happened. Caught a red eye back to Seattle and I remember the second I got off the plane, their accident was on the news. Jayce was too young to understand what had happened. I think she realized at the funeral. I still haven't told her how they died. She doesn't even know what drunk driver is, I'd like to keep it that way."
"I'm so-" I shook my head cutting Christian off.
"Don't... Don't do that. I've been told I'm sorry enough to last a lifetime. I'm fine. You wanted to know and now you know." I shrugged my shoulders.
More importantly, apologies won't bring them back. Condolences won't bring me comfort. It's better to skip all the awkward exchanges and just move on.
"Anyways... We should be talking about where we're ordering takeout from. We all know Ms. April wouldn't touch hospital food with a ten foot pole." I laughed softly changing the subject.
As Miles and Christian began to discuss potential restaurant options I finally exhaled a breath that I hadn't realized I was holding in. I released my palm that I had squeezed shut, only to find it bleeding. I didn't know I was pressing into my skin that hard, I honestly didn't feel anything. I inconspicuously wiped my hand on the side of my sweats to get the blood off of it, good thing I wore all-black today. Harder to see stains.
Eventually everyone settled on Mazatlan because Ms. April wanted some chicken tortilla soup. While I'm usually looking for any excuse to feed my mole addiction, I could go for some nachos.
Lina was gracious enough to pick up the food and arrived at the hospital a short time later with baby Milani in tow. Who sadly won't be a baby much longer, I nearly lost it watching my little niece walk into the room on her own two feet. She was just stumbling all over the place, now she can full-on run. Not very fast but run nonetheless.
"There's my favorite niece!" Beckham cooed and Milani's traitorous self ran straight for him. He picked up the one year old and tossed her into the air causing her to laugh so hard she spit out her pacifier.
She's my favorite niece. I hate it here, nothing is scared nothing. Beckham could've picked anyone of Lina and Miles' fiftyleven kids as his favorite, but of course he picked my favorite. At least I still have Micah, he would never betray me.
Since Knox had finally settled back down to sleep, I opted to help Lina to set up a makeshift picnic on the floor of Ms. April's hospital room since there weren't enough chairs to accommodate all of us. Instead we used some extra blankets and pillows to create a little palette on the floor so everyone could sit and eat the food.
Miles walked back into the room, as he had previously been in the hallway talking to Ms. April's doctors. I didn't feel the need to be present because they weren't going to say anything that I had not already read in her chart.
"Aye Beckham, lemme talk to you really quick." My head had never whipped around so fast. Miles nodded his head towards the hallway like he didn't want to talk in here.
What the fuck does he have to talk about with Beckham. I furrowed my eyebrows together staring at Miles quizzically.
"Nah, why do you need to leave to talk to him?" I don't like this. I don't like this one bit. Especially since the only people in this room are family members. What would he have to say to him that can't be said in front of us.
"Len it's fine, relax Princess."
"You know what he wants to talk to you about?!" I cocked my neck to the side now turning my attention towards Beckham.
"I'm paying for Ms. April's hospital bills." Beck admitted now setting Milani back down on the floor. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it or a he if, but I guess it's out there now."
"Beckham sweetie... You didn't have to do that." Ms. April smiled softly but still shook her head at him.
"Why wouldn't I do that? You're Lennox's family and that makes you my family. It wasn't a big deal, honestly. If it makes you feel better you can pay me back." Beckham offered.
That last part better be a joke, everyone laughed. Beckham is actually cheap as hell that's why he's a billionaire. If he lets them pay him back, I'm liable to punch him in the throat.
"Bubs... That's so sweet." I couldn't help but smile at him. He's a little rough around the edges but really is just a big softie at the end of the day. "Thank you."
Beckham smiled back at me leaning down to kiss my forehead, "Feel free to thank me later." He whispered into my ear before standing back up.
And he's back. Typical Beckham.
Me watching y'all read this book and not leave comments after harassing me for consistent updates.
And to think I was already working on the next chapter, tuh. Let me go finish the rest of my assignments🙃🙄
Can't believe I was neglecting my school work for y'all. Smh.
~Lee