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Ross' POV
"These are for you, by the way," I said, giving Laura the flowers and chocolates.
"Figures," Laura smiled and took the gifts. "Thank you."
"Not a problem. I bought them cause, I thought you were really hurt and then the next thing I know, I see you running towards me," I laughed.
"Can't a girlfriend miss her boyfriend?"
"Sure she can. I just thought you were distracted by Riker," I kidded.
"Shut up!" She gave me a light punch.
"I was kidding! I was kidding!" I put my hands in front of me to defend.
Laura sat back down.
"Serious here though, you ever have feelings for Riker?" I asked.
"Ross..." She answered, giving me a stare.
"I'm not gonna kill you," I tried to add humor.
"No, I never had feelings for him."
"Being with him in Puerto Rico says another story."
"Mmhmm, and being with Maia is a different story too?"
"Okay you know what, let's move on."
"Happy to. Shall we go catch up with the others?" She said with a British accent.
"We shall."
I took her hand as we laughed about our conversation. I held Laura's hand on the way back to the hospital room.
"Where's Kristine by the way?" She asked while we were in the elevator.
"Oh, she's with Miranda for now. But I told her that she's welcome at our house any time she wants."
Laura laughed a bit. "Wait, Vanessa actually agreed to that?"
"Agreed? Yeah, she did. But it took aaaalot of convincing," I laughed too.
The elevator opened up to the 5th floor, and we went out; still not letting go of each other's hands.
"Hellooo people!" Laura said as she walked into the room.
"Well, there are the two love birds," Rydel giggled.
I looked around the room, and I noticed Riker was gone. "Where's Riker?" I asked.
"Oh, the nurse took him in. They wanted to check on his stitches," Mom answered.
"They can't check on him here?" Laura asked. I would've asked the same thing.
"Apparently, it's more serious than that sweetie."
"Oh... I hope he's okay."
"We hope the same."
Laura's POV
About an hour later, they started bringing Riker in again. He was asleep, so I couldn't do anything.
"Will he be okay?" I asked the nurse.
"Yes. He'll wake up in a few minutes or so," she said.
She looked like she was in a hurry.
"Is everything alright?" I worried that there could be something wrong with Riker that she's not telling us.
"Oh, it's fine. There's just a patient that we found on the street and she looked really sick. I don't know if you've heard about it, but she's the girl all over the news and we should be calling the police by now to tell them that we found her."
My eyes widened, and everyone looked at each other.
"What's her name?" Ross asked, standing closer to me.
"She won't tell us for sure. But according to the posters, her name's Melody Maria Skye?"
"It's Melody Marie Skye. And she's my sister's daughter, I need to see her," I started to freak.
"Half sister," Ross corrected.
"Not now Ross."
"Okkayy," he bit his lips.
"Um, I don't think it's allowed," said the nurse.
"But I need to see her!"
"Miss Marano, I'm afraid she's in quarantine. Even if you want to see her, she's in a closed room."
"You're keeping a six year old stuck in a room alone?" Ross questioned.
"It's for her own good until we find out her sickness."
"Listen here lady, we took care of Melody when her mother was kidnapped and if I don't see her now, and I mean right now, it's going to be you stuck in a hospital room."
Did that really just come out of my mouth?
"Wow Laura..." Rocky looked impressed, and so did everyone else.
Mark and Stormie were actually smiling at me.
"Ross, your girlfriend's gone bad," Ellington joked. "Can I have her if you guys break up?"
"What? No!" Ross sounded both serious and jokey.
I laughed. And the nurse was just standing there.
"Well? Can I see her or not?" I turned back to her.
"I'll... Talk to the doctors about it," she said, then left.
"I can't believe you actually said that," said Ross.
"You think I believe it?" I giggled.
Ross smiled, then it disappeared. "Do you think we should call Kristine?"
"I have Miranda's number... But the hospital said they're calling the police. So if they do, Miranda will pick up and then obviously, she'll tell Kristine."
"So we'll wait? The fact that we might have a better chance of seeing Melody than her own mother?"
"What choice do we have?"
I sighed, "Fine."
A few minutes later, the nurse that I had a little fight with came back.
"They said yes. You can go see Melody," she said. "She's in room 625, on the 6th floor."
"Thank you," I properly said. "May I ask if you called the police about her already?"
"That is up to the hospital. I, frankly speaking, do not know if they called yet."
"Okay. Thank you, again."
The nurse nodded once, then went out.
"Rydel, can you come with us?" I asked Delly.
"Gladly," Del smiled and walked towards us.
"We'll be back after a while," Ross said to the others before closing the door on our way out.
"I'm so nervous to see her," I clenched my teeth on the way to the elevator.
"Why?"
"Because, what if it's not really Melody? What if it's some other little girl that looks like her? All my excitement may be for nothing."
"Well... There's a chance, actually. They did say that the girl didn't tell them her name yet, they just know it according to posters. So, maybe if she sees you, she'll say something?" Rydel figured.
"Yeah, maybe."
By the time we finished talking, we reached to the quarantine rooms.
"Name please?" Another nurse stopped us from going farther.
"Ross and Rydel Lynch, and Laura Marano," I said.
"Oh, you're the ones here to see Melody Maria Skye?"
"Oh my gosh, it's Marie!" I yelled a bit, and everyone ended up looking at me.
"Sorry, she's just... Excited to see Melody. We'll be going now," Rydel pulled my away. "Room 625, right?"
"That's right."
"Thank youuu."
Rydel kept holding on to me and I can feel Ross keeping his laugh behind us.
We stopped exactly in front of the door labeled 625.
"Ready?" Ross asked me and put his hands on my shoulders.
"I guess..."
Then, I slowly opened the door and all I could see was a couch, a table, 2 chairs, another coffee table with the 2 chairs, and a TV. Behind all that, there was a part of the room separated by glass. And inside that glass; a desk, and a bed. A bed with a patient laying down in it.
I looked at Ross before walking towards the glass room. He gave me a look saying, "Go."
I walked towards the bed, seeing a little blonde girl with the bluest eyes. She is Melody, she is Kristine's daughter.
Her eyes were open. I could only see one though, while the other was buried into the pillow. She was hugging the blanket tightly, and then a small tear fell.
That 'sorry' feeling came to me.
Lightly, I knocked on the glass. "Melody? Melody it's Mommy Laura."
She slowly looked up at me, and her eyes lightened. She sat up, and a smile crossed her face.
"Mommy!" I heard her from the glass.
Her hands were on it, and I put my hands in front of hers, as if wanting to hold her through the isolation.
"Sweetie, are you okay?" I asked.
"I wanna go home Mommy," Melody cried.
"Melody... We found your real mommy."
"You found her?" She looked shocked. "Can I see her?"
It's hard to hear her from the almost air tight glass.
"Sorry Mel, she's with someone else right now."
"She's..............you?" Again, I couldn't hear her.
"Melody honey, I can't hear you well. The glass is too thick."
"I want to go home," she frowned.
"Don't worry, we'll get you out of there-"
Before I could say anything more, a doctor barged in. Rude.
"Sorry everyone, we're going to have to ask you to leave," he said.
"We're not leaving until you tell us why," Rydel defended,
"There's something really wrong with the patient, it's very rare and it could be contagious. So I'm afraid you all have to go."
I started to worry. "What kind of contagious thing are you talking about?" I asked.
"Ma'am, please. We just need you to leave." He was making his way to Melody, but I blocked him.
"No! Not until you tell me what's wrong with my niece."
"She's your niece?"
"Yes, is there a problem?"
"Your last name isn't Skye, it's Marano."
"Excuse me? Even a 7 year old would know that relatives could have different last names due to marriage. My last name could be Skye, it's could be Marano, it could be Lynch. But that doesn't change the fact that Melody is still my niece. And since you don't know that, I doubt that you're a trained doctor. Either you tell me what's wrong with Melody, or you don't get to touch her at all."
The doctor sighed and rolled his eyes since he was in a hurry. "Melody has Brain Cancer, okay? There I said it. Hope you're happy."