Suddenly, I can no longer see everything in the room. It's all black, and my body feels heavy. I try to move my legs without success, only feeling stiffness in them, and a shocking electrical pain in my ribs. My eyelids are heavy, and it takes a lot of effort to open them, but I'm able to. I squint in the daylight from the open windows, turning my head slowly to the right, seeing the door of my room and a few nurses outside.
I'm awake!
Since it doesn't hurt, I carefully turn my head to the left, seeing Luke looking down at his phone.
"L-Luke?" I squeak, my throat dry and raspy. His head jolts up. His eyes are wide, but full of happiness. I give him a small smile. I'm still extremely tired, but it's good to be back.
Luke's POV;
"Wuke," Rya stutters, practicing saying my name over and over. She follows me around on her chubby little legs, wobbling as she tries to keep up with me as I do my chores. "Rya, stop it," I chuckle. She giggles. "L-Luke!" She squeals, clapping her hands together. I freeze. "Luuuke!" She says again, stretching the syllables. "Mum, did you hear that?! She said my name!" I exclaim excitedly. Mum rushes into the room and Rya smiles up at her, giggling again as she looses her footing and falls on the floor. Mum helps her stand as she says my name again. "Luke!" She squeals again in a high pitched voice. Mum smiles, ruffling my hair. "What a big girl," she coos. I can't stop smiling the rest of the day. Who knew my baby sister learning how to say my name correctly would make me so happy?
"Hey," I say, scooting closer to her.
She's back.
Rya's POV;
"Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" Luke asks as he moves closer to me. I shrug. It hurts my ribs to do so, and I'm really tired. I point to my ribs, touching them and wincing. Luke smiles slightly, gently pulling my hand away. "Well don't touch it if it hurts," he says with a small chuckle. A minute later, a nurse comes and checks me over, and I have to get a thicker wrap around my ribs so it doesn't hurt as much.
I'm so glad to be back, though. I've missed this.
—
"Rya, you have to be aware of how serious your injuries are," Dr. McAndrew says. Mum has returned to my hospital room, and she squeezes my hand. I nod slightly, thankfully feeling no pain. "It is going to be a fairly long recovery. There were many internal injuries that required surgery, which will take the most time to recover from," he says. I nod, trying to sit up, but he stops me. "It's probably best not to move much, your body is still healing," he says. I wince, feeling the pain from my broken ribs and the scar from where they had to stop the internal bleeding. "You should probably get some rest," mum says, stroking my hair. I do feel tired. I nod reluctantly, laying back down and going back to sleep.
I wake up the next morning to sunlight streaming into the room. I squint, bringing my hand up to my face. I immediately feel pain, dropping my hand and wincing. Luke opens his eyes, rubbing them tiredly. He smiles and he sees that I'm awake, but quickly furrows his eyebrows. "Are you okay? What hurts?" He asks. I rub my ribs again, pouting a little. Mum returns a few minutes later with the doctor behind her.
"Well, the pain is to be expected, there's still some healing to do," he says, telling a nurse to give me an IV for the pain.
Luke has since left to go get some food, leaving just mum in my room. She looks down and her phone, smiling a bit. "The other boys are here. Do you mind if I go get them?" I nod eagerly, not really being phased by being left alone. I'm now out of the ICU, so no one knows where my new room is, but I'm excited to be able to see the boys.
I roll over slowly, making sure it doesn't hurt, and stare at the windows. There's a pretty view of a park across the street and the little city beyond. I sigh, missing the feeling of being able to run along the grass with my friends.
"Rya," I hear someone whisper. I furrow my eyebrows, the voice sounding familiar yet not at the same time. I carefully roll onto my right side, and my eyes widen when I see who's standing in my room.
"Dad?"
—
"What are doing here?" I ask, confused. He left us. Why would he come back only because I'm hurt?
"Please, let me explain," he starts, but I furrow my eyebrows.
"Explain what? You left, that's all there is to tell," I mutter. I'm being extremely childish and stubborn about this, but I don't care. Seeing how he said he never wanted a fourth child and then just left with no contact whatsoever after I didn't choose him over mum, I'd say I have every right to be stubborn.
"Rya, please, that's not the whole story," he tries again, but I cut him off. "Right, the whole story is the fact that you didn't even want a fourth child in first place," I snap. The intensity of my voice surprises me, and I can tell by my father's shocked expression he's taken aback by this, too.
I roll over as quickly as possible without hurting myself before mumbling, "Just go away."
There's a long silence, and I begin to wonder if he actually left.
But then, I hear my mother's voice. "Andrew? What are you doing here?"
I debate on whether I should pretend to be asleep, since my back is turned, but I decide not to when I hear him mention my name. I turn around and see Luke is also with her, looking both hurt and angry.
"I just wanted to make sure she was okay, Liz, I —"
"You have no right coming here," mum snaps, making me flinch slightly. Her tone softens slightly after that, but I can tell how upset she is. "You lost that right when walked out on her. Now get out."
Dad sighs. I can feel him looking at me, so I keep my eyes glued to the floor until I hear Luke speak up.
"Do you have any idea how crappy you made her feel?" He says, and dad flicks his eyes down to the floor. "First making her choose between the two of you, and then just walking out without so much as a goodbye? You completely ignored her, it's like you dropped off the face of the planet!" He says lowly. Dad stares at the ground, and I bite my lip.
"Now go. Get out," mum whisper-yells harshly. I roll over again and focus on the pretty sights outside, until I finally hear footsteps walking away.
A/N - Oh snap, Mr. Hemmings is back yo. Lolz jk he's gone again now... Or is he?? SIGH, I'm sorry I'm so odd, oh whale.
I didn't plan on putting that little plot twist in with Rya's dad, I just needed something to make the chapter longer, hehe.
Anywayyyy, don't be a ghost reader please my lovely people. Xoxo - Em😊❤️