Last Chapter Recap -Jenifer
"Yes, we are glad to be back too but we need you to look at Jenifer right now," Oakley said urgently.
What did he mean by "look at me?"
Was this it? I knew I shouldn't have trusted them. They brought me to their home just to kill me in my sleep.
I should have kept running back to Mommy and Daddy.
What about Owen?
He seemed so sure about these people.
He pinky promised me.
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Jenifer and Owen were both asleep when we walked in the door.
The girls quickly got to work on Jenifer, ensuring she was alright and helping her as best they could.
I hoped that we wouldn't need to take her to a hospital, we were cutting it close when we took me but taking her would be even worse because her parents will probably have her marked as kidnapped and the whole town will be on high alert for her.
I had Jenifer placed on the couch and Owen taken to Oliver and I's room to give the girls as much space as possible.
I looked over at my sisters and could see the matching pain and worry written on their faces.
"How could anyone do this to such a sweet small girl," June says with tears in her eyes.
"How bad is it? Is she going to be okay?" I asked them both as Oliver returned from putting Owen down.
Janae looked at me for the first time since we got back, "What happened to your face? Oakley, you have a black eye and busted lip!"
This caused June to turn and look at me too. "Oh my gosh, Oakley!"
I rolled my eyes at the two of them.
"I got into a bit of a tussle with their dad but I am fine, focus on Jenifer," I said sternly, I was not the biggest concern right now.
They both nodded and got back to work. They had all the medical supplies they brought from home and I honestly couldn't tell what they were doing.
"You never answered Oakley's question. How bad is it and will she be okay?" Oliver said from behind me.
"Yes, she will probably be okay, nothing looks infected," June glared at me at the word infected. "She will definitely need lots of time to heal and she will most likely have permanent scaring but I think that she will be fine."
Janae took a deep breath, "Unless her ribs are broken."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well if her ribs are broken then she will need to get a brace and we will have to take her to a hospital. I'm going to touch her ribs and see if they are broken, thankfully she is asleep because this will hurt."
"Lovely," Oliver said sarcastically.
Janae started poking at Jenifer's ribs and as soon as she touched the bruised area Jenifer's little face scrunched up in pain.
She wasn't asleep.
Janae touched Jenifer again and her eyes burst open.
She started breathing heavily and looking around in a panic.
"Hey Jenifer, it's okay, remember me? Im Oakley," I said going to sit next to her. "You are in our house, these are mine and Oliver's sisters. This is June and Janae and they are going to help you."
I could see the confusion on her face as she looked back and forth between June and Janae.
"They are identical twins like me and Oliver. The four of us are actually Quadruplets." I told her, trying to help her confusion.
She still wasn't satisfied.
Janae spoke up, "Hi Jenifer, I'm Janae and I am the one who poked you awake." Jenifer scooted back a little at that. "I am sorry that I hurt you but I am trying to see if your ribs are broken. I know that it hurt but I promise that I am just trying to help and I thought that you wouldn't feel it since you were asleep."
But she wasn't asleep. That's why she did feel it. I know better than anyone what fake sleeping looks like and Im upset I didn't catch it earlier.
Jenifer still wasn't calming down and kept looking around in a panic, her breaths getting louder and quicker.
"Jenifer, take deep breaths, sweetheart, it's going to be okay, we want to make sure that you are alright," June said trying to calm her down.
Jenifer for the first time looked down at herself and saw that the girls had wrapped her up and that she wasn't bleeding any more.
"See, they did all that for you. You are safe and we are going to help you get better." I told her trying to be reassuring.
It worked for a second but then her panic came back. She kept looking around like she was missing something.
That's when it hit me.
Owen.
She was looking for Owen. She didn't know where he went.
"Jenifer? Are you looking for Owen?" I asked softly.
She stopped her panic and turned her head towards me sharply and nodded.
"He is sleeping in the next room over," Oliver said.
"That's right, he is on the other side of that wall," I said and pointed. "Would you like to see him? He is sleeping but you can look and see that he is safe."
She nodded her head quickly.
"Okay, let me pick you up and take you," I said and picked her up. I could tell she was a little nervous to let me pick her up but she did.
I gently held her and carried her to my room where Owen was sleeping on my bed.
"See, he is right here. He was super tired so he fell asleep on the way home." I told her, hinting at the fact that I knew she didn't sleep on the way back even though she pretended to.
She kept her eyes on Owen the whole time. From the minute we walked into the very last second before we left. It was like she couldn't believe the fact that he was here.
Although I understand where she is coming from, I would have been the same way with my siblings.
Once we go back into the living room I looked around at the faces of all my siblings and saw how exhausted they all were. It was probably 3 in the morning by now and I knew we all needed rest.
"Okay, Jenifer, Janae needs to finish checking your ribs. It will hurt but I promise that we are just trying to help you, after she does that then we will all go to sleep because it is super late and we are all tired." I said sitting down with Jenifer in my lap, and looking at my siblings.
I could tell Jenifer was frightened at the fact that Janae was going to have to check her ribs again.
I held her close and whispered in her ear. "Don't worry sweetheart, I am going to be right here and hold you the whole time. Janae doesn't want to hurt you and will be super gentle, I promise."
She didn't say anything but she held out her pinky. I knew what she meant.
I held out my pinky and linked hers with mine. "I pinky promise."
She smiled for the first time and it was adorable. She was adorable. I don't understand how anyone would ever hurt such a sweet little girl.
"Okay, Jenifer. I am going to put this ice pack on your ribs for a few minutes to try and maybe numb you up a little bit before I touch you." Janae said and gently places the bag of ice on her.
I could tell that the ice helped soothed her pain by the way that she relaxed into my arms.
I held her and the ice for a few minutes and it looked like she was seconds away from falling asleep. I felt bad knowing that we were about to wake her up again in pain.
"Okay, I am going to remove the ice and start. It will hurt but I need you to hold her still. Don't let her move around because then it will hurt more. She might start to freak out and panic but I promise I am going to go as fast and be as gentle as I can." Janae said to me and then took off the ice and started poking at her ribs.
As soon as she started Jenifer's eyes popped open again in pain. She didn't make a sound though. I felt her flinch under me every time she got touched. I kept my hold on her as she squirmed, trying to be gentle but also keep her still.
She didn't start to cry or even make a sound which was surprising because she looked like she was in so much pain and just looking at the bruises on her ribs I could tell it probably hurt like a bitch, especially to 6 year old.
Although the reason why she probably didn't react was because of her parents, I imagine that her father was like mine and didn't like it when noise was made during punishments.
"Okay love, im all done. I am so sorry sweetheart." Janae said and then put the ice back on her ribs.
"Well? Is she okay? Are her ribs broken?" I asked as I started to gently rock her back and forth, trying to get her to calm down and go back to sleep.
"Yes, she will be okay, her ribs are not broken, they are just severely bruised," Janae said as she ran her fingers through Jenifer's hair trying to aid me in getting her to sleep.
I could tell that Jenifer didn't want to fall asleep but she was exhausted.
After a few minutes of rocking her, she fell asleep in my arms. All wrapped up and with ice on her ribs.
I took the ice off and gently lied her down on the pullout couch. The couch turned into a queen-sized bed so I suppose that the twins can just share it.
"Oliver, can you go get Owen and bring him in here." I said to my brother, "And don't you dare wake him up."
Oliver nodded and returned a minute later with a sleeping Owen in his arms. He put him down next to Jenifer and as soon as they were next to each other I could really see the resemblance between the two of them.
Jenifer was just a smaller version of Owen with long hair.
Although I like to think that me and my sisters don't look too much alike, I feel like most people would say we do. They would probably say the same thing about us.
I turned off the lights in the living room where the twins were sleeping and lead my siblings into the kitchen.
As soon as we got into the kitchen June grabbed my arm and practically threw me into a chair. "Now about this black eye and busted lip thing you've got going on."
To be honest I had pretty much forgotten about that. All my focus has been on Jenifer.
June grabbed my head and started inspecting my face.
"June im okay, my lip stopped bleeding and the black eye will go away, there is nothing you can do about that anyways," I said, really wanting to get all of my siblings to bed.
"What happened at the twin's house?" Janae asked curiously.
I debated about telling them the truth or just trying to tell them a watered-down version of what we saw but I ended up telling them the truth because they deserved to know.
"When we got there the house was an absolute mess. The place was in the middle of nowhere and it was in no livable condition. It looked like their house was about to cave in on itself. I easily broke the door down with just one kick. We walked in and the house somehow managed to be worse on the inside. There was trash everywhere and don't even get me started on the smell. We looked around until we found the basement door where Jenifer was kept. The basement was pitch black and the walls were covered with dried blood." I started to regret telling this to my sisters after seeing the look of fear on their faces but I kept going.
"We walked down into the basement and found her tied up to a wall bleeding to death. She was covered in blood and honestly, I thought that she was already dead. I mean she was so small already and then seeing her hung up like that was so terrible. We managed to cut her free and tried to clean her up as best as we could in the kitchen but then their dad walked in and I barely managed to get Oliver and the twins out before he saw me and this happened." I finished, pointing at my injuries.
"Oh my gosh, that is insane. I can't even imagine." June said as Oliver came up behind her and hugged her.
Janae looked puzzled like she was trying to figure something out. "Has she said anything to you guys this whole time?"
I thought about it but "No, she hasn't. She whispered a few times into Owens's ear but she hasn't actually said anything to us."
Janae continued to think. "Do you think that she might have selective mutism?" She said looking at June like she was trying to get a second opinion.
June was also thinking. "Yeah I mean that would make sense. Based on what Oakley said their house just looked like I can't imagine how they were treated there. The twins both probably have some PTSD."
I decided to hop in on the conversation, "Well I mean Owen talks to us. Sure he was a little shy when we met him but I feel like any kid would be shy. Do you think she is just super shy?"
Both of my sisters shook their heads, "No this is different. She is not just shy. And who is to say that she and Owen were treated the same? Her injuries were not even comparable to Owens. She was obviously treated worse than him" Janae said.
She was right, "You said that you saw their dad, about how big was he?" She asked me.
"Well he was a little bit taller than me, Id day maybe 6'2, 6'3ish. And he definitely weighed more than me, probably 100 pounds heavier." I told them.
"And you managed to take him down?" Janae said like she was unsure of me.
"Of course I did, it was easy," I said and rolled my eyes.
June then grabbed my hands and started inspecting them. Sure enough, my knuckles were bruised although I don't know how. I mainly used my sword and then kicked him to the ground.
June bandaged up my knuckles and iced my eye. She kissed my forehead and smiled "When are you going to stop getting yourself into fights Oakley."
I smiled back "When all my little siblings stop getting themselves into trouble."
"Now all three of you need to get to bed, it is much too late for my little babies to be awake," I said picking on the three of them.
They all rolled their eyes at my antics.
"Oakley you should make jokes more often. You are actually kind of funny." Oliver said, "I mean of course not as funny as me but sometimes you make me chuckle."
I smiled, "Yeah except for the fact that I wasn't joking. Go to bed."
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AN: I've said it before and ill say it again but, poor little Jenifer.
This is now the new longest chapter (2,600 words) but I'm not super happy with it. I can't explain it but I feel like it's not that great and like it's missing something.
Anyways, much love, <3