Josephina
"Good morning, Josephina."
I smile and wave at the nurse who's been assigned to me ever since I came to the hospital. She's just generally a nice woman and there's something about her that just feels like home. I know, it's weird to call a person home or someone who just has home vibes but that's what she gives off. It makes me feel comfortable.
"So what's the verdict?" Clara asks as she walks in behind her and stands by my side holding my hand.
For context, it's been another couple of days of me just being at the hospital. True to their words, I did end up moving to a normal medical ward a day or two after a check up I had with the doctors who patched me up in the emergency wing. I was moved to a medical ward from ICU so that they could observe me for a day or two and see how I do. As of right now, nurse Elmer and a doctor came in and did an examination on me and check up. That's why Clara is here because this check up was an important one and since I'm a forgetful person I asked Clara to come today.
"You are healing quite efficiently. You do still have some healing wounds but they are at a stage where it needs to heal on its own and does not need further medical treatment, however, we have made appointments for you so that we can check up on those wounds and previous injuries to see if they have fully healed. As well as general well-being check ups." The doctor, who I have never seen before, hands over to Clara a small piece of paper with some writing on it.
"That is an appointment card for Josephina. There are phone numbers for both the doctors and offices where they work at as well as the date and times for these upcoming appointments." Nurse Elmer explains and Clara and both nod in unison.
"Besides that, you are still fairly malnourished but that can easily be solved by eating three meals a day and making sure you eat a bit of everything for a balanced diet. You will be experiencing pain, which is normal, so we've prescribed you medication for various things as well as pain medication." He hands over the sheet of paper with the prescribed medication on it to Clara as well and then explains to us how to get to the pharmacy from here.
"With all that out of the way, you're free to go Josephina. I hope to see you completely healed next time we see each other." He smiles and walks out of the room, calling to another nurse to direct him to his next patient for the day.
Nurse Elmer smiles as well and helps me take off all the extra things like the thing monitoring my blood pressure and so on. She says her goodbyes as well and then leaves Clara and I to gather all of my things.
The minute she's out, Clara and I start squealing in excitement. "I'm leaving! I'm actually leaving!" I sing and cheer as I get up and do a small little victory dance. Don't get me wrong, the hospital was not bad at all but there's nothing like being in an environment where you're totally comfortable and free to make your own choices and not being bound by machinery and restrictions.
"I can't wait to start decorating your room!!" Clara exclaims and then goes on a whole tangent about how Felix and her have been cleaning out this spare room for me and that the room is now a blank canvas waiting to be painted by me.
I laugh and tell her that we first need to go to my house and get a few things before we can even think about creating and decorating a new room for me. Clara gasps and thanks me for reminding her about that and tells me that she is quickly going to call her brothers.
"I'm going to get changed while you do that." Clara nods and walks out of the medical ward to make the phone call to her brothers and I walk over to the bathroom for patients in the medical ward.
I don't have any clothes of my own with me. Obviously the clothes that I was wearing were soaked in blood and it was in the way when I got to the hospital so the doctors cut off most of my clothes. Either way I can't wear those clothes now. Clara brought some of her clothes from home when she came in today, which I'm so grateful for. Clara and I aren't the exact same size because, well as the doctor said, I'm quite the bit malnourished so I'm a bit smaller than Clara is. However, clothes that are bigger in size are always the most comfortable.
I use the bathroom, brush my teeth, brush my hair with the hair brush that Clara brought me as well and then get changed into the clothes that she brought me. I braided my hair into two French braids and then lastly put the hoodie that she brought me on. The hoodie was huge on me but it felt so comfortable at the same time because not only was it keeping me warm but it was hiding any and every detail on my body as well.
"Josey, are you done?"
I hear Clara's voice from outside the door and quickly pack my things that I used in the bathroom. "Yeah, sorry I took a bit long."
"Take as long as you need! I was just getting worried for a bit." She smiles and then walks over to my small section in the ward and grabs the things we packed already and gets ready to leave.
"By the way."
I turn and look at her, I was busy making sure that I didn't leave anything behind after I followed her back. Luckily I only forgot to pack in one or two things but otherwise we're all good to go.
"Hmm?"
"Lex, Lix and Ez are on their way. We'll go straight to your house once they pick us up." She explains and starts walking out of the ward.
"They're all coming!?" I whisper yell and quickly follow her. I stop though once I realized that I didn't say goodbye to anyone and turn around to say goodbye to the girl who was next to me during my stay in the ward and then walk over to the desk in the ward and say goodbye to the nurses and staff there as well. They've all been so nice and helpful and I know it's their jobs to help out when needed but that doesn't mean I can't still thank them and be grateful.
I quickly pick up my pace once I'm done saying my goodbyes and catch up to Clara, who is a decent distant away from me. Once I'm walking next to her, she looks over at me with a smile and a raised eyebrow.
"Of course they're all coming. We aren't allowing you to walk into that house alone." She says and then gestures over to the waiting area where she tells me that we're going to sit and wait here until her brothers have arrived.
"What difference does it make if all four of you are there, though?" I ask once we sit down and look curiously over to Clara.
"Alone you can only do so much, Josey. Together we can deal a lot of damage if needed." She answers seriously, honestly the most serious I've seen her be in a while.
"Damage?"
What does she mean deal damage?
"Yes, Josey. Protecting you means dealing damage to the one who is harming you or trying to harm you." She looks over at me and smiles in amusement when she realizes that I'm confused as fuck.
I'm not a person who resorts to violence in every situation but rather I have it as like a last resort kind of plan when it's needed. I don't like witnessing it either but again if it needs to happen then I can't be a baby and try to avoid it. It's just interesting how Clara and her brothers are always talking about something that comes back to violence or like something of a similar nature.
"You'll understand in due time, Josey." She pats my shoulder and then takes out her phone. I don't say anything more on the topic and look over at her phone too when she starts showing me pictures of the room at their place that'll be mine soon.
We sit together, discussing and chatting about what we'll decorate my room with, for about 15 minutes. We were really enjoying ourselves because decorating something can be so much fun. We were chatting about every furniture piece we saw and every different aesthetic that popped up as well.
"Come on you two."
We look up from Clara's phone to see Ezra and Felix standing by the front doors and waiting for us.
"When did you get here?" I ask while standing up and picking up the bag with most of my stuff in it. We walk over to them and Ezra points to a SUV type car waiting for us.
"We just got here. Lex is in the car." Felix tells me and I nod and smile in thanks for them coming to pick me up.
Clara and I hop into the car, Alexander is driving, Ezra in the passenger seat and Felix, Clara and I in the back seat. Luckily I got a window seat in the back because sitting in the middle is a different type of nightmare and poor Clara got stuck with the middle seat.
"Address, Josephina." Alexander says while driving us out of the hospital. Goosebumps rise on my skin from the deep tone of his voice and the way my name sounded as well. I'm sitting behind Ezra so Alexander is in front of me but diagonally if that makes sense and so I leaned forward a bit to talk to him better.
"You know where my house is." I state and lean back again. I look up and see him already looking at me through the rearview mirror and he's has a small smile on his face and his eyes hold amusement.
I look away quickly and try my hardest to stop the blush from creeping up my cheeks. To make the whole situation worse, he's looking fine as hell right now too. He's wearing sweatpants with a compression shirt and let me tell you, those shirts show everything.
Now you're blushing because of what he's wearing! Get your mind out of the gutter, Josephina.
"When can we go shopping for Josey's room?" Clara asks after a few minutes of us driving in silence. Felix makes a noise of agreement and Ezra also looks over at Alexander to see what his answer will be.
"I'm only useful when you need money." He sighs and shakes his head but doesn't answer Clara's question.
"Well then give me your money." She states and sticks a hand out and motions for him to give her his card.
He scoffs and swats her hand away. "Please, don't make jokes that aren't funny."
"How dare-"
The next thing I know, Clara is unbuckling her seatbelt and is launching herself forward and toward the front of the car.
"Woah, Clara!" I exclaim and lurch forward as well so that I can grab onto her arm or even her leg just something so that I can pull her back. She's trying to grab something out of Alexander's hands and I can only assume it's his wallet or the card itself.
"Clara! We are not getting into a car accident after I just got out of hospital." I yell and yank her back into the back of the car. Once she's down I quickly grab her seatbelt and buckle her in myself. "Do not try that again." I tell her and she nods in defeat.
"Getting beat so easily?" Alexander chuckles from the front and Clara in response to his teasing, leans forward and smacks his head from the back. He groans and then finally answers her question from before, we'll apparently go shopping in a few days.
Clara makes a sound of satisfaction and nods. Felix and Ezra during this whole ordeal were just silent and watching in amusement. While, I had to solve the problem before all of us got hurt.
For the rest of the drive, we're silent and I start getting slightly sleepy because of how long it's taking us to get there. The hospital is obviously in town so it is a bit of a drive but not as long as the time of walking to town would be. I also overheard Alexander telling the siblings that he's not going to be driving as fast for some reason. I didn't catch the last bit because my eyes started closing against my want to keep them open.
"Josey."
A light tapping on my shoulder wakes me up from my very short nap. It is a blessing that I can sleep anywhere and everywhere. I mean the origin of it might not be as good but it works out in other situations.
"Hmm?"
Clara giggles and gently taps me again because I didn't open my eyes the first time. I smile slightly and open my eyes the second time she taps me. The first thing I see when my eyes are open, is everyone staring at me.
"Uhm? What's happening?" I ask and they all shake their heads and smile at me. I look at them feeling slightly weirded out.
"We're here." Ezra points outside of the window and I snap my head in the direction of his fingers and true to his words we were outside of my house.
My breathing starts getting heavier and I bite my lip while looking around. I will myself to calm down though when I notice that everything in the house is off and there is no car in the driveway nor is anything open in the house like the windows or front door, which seems to have been replaced or gate that leads to the back yard.
"She's not home." I whisper out loud and in the corner of my eye I see the siblings look over to me and then look at each other. Without looking at them and telling them I'm going in, I open the door and start walking towards the house.
"Woah." Felix grabs my arm and spins around me so that I'm now facing away from the house and pushes me forward. Instead of me catching myself, someone else does and holds me steady. I look up and find Alexander holding me steady and the man looks very serious.
"You cannot go in there unprepared." He tells me and then lets me go. I didn't focus on what he just said because this man was holding me a second ago. Like uhm...!?
"She's not home. I won't die." I tell them and turn around to find Clara standing in front of me with a gun in her hand. I throw my hands up and start backing up but instead get stopped because I walked into something.
"It wouldn't hurt to have a plan. Don't argue." A deep voice comes from above me and I look up and see that I backwards walked into Alexander again. I quickly move forwards and nod my head. It wouldn't hurt for them to come inside and I have to admit that it would be nice having someone look out for me. I look around and see all four of them with guns in their hands.
"Where in the mother of nature are you keeping guns?" I exclaim and try to rack my brain for ideas on where they got the guns and why the fuck they have it. I didn't see anything in the car so there has to be a hidden compartment or something because how didn't I see it?
"Not now, Josey." Clara chuckles and then points to the house reminding me that we're here for that. I nod and let the topic go and as I'm about to start walking to the house, I realize that they surrounded me and I'm now in the middle of the circle that they created.
"Plan. Ezra is outside and around the car, Clara and Felix will be downstairs one in the kitchen and the other in the living room and I'll be going upstairs with her. Signal if anything seems suspicious." Alexander continues telling them what the plan is and while he's doing that, I'm busy thinking of the things that I want to take with because if I have a list and can check everything off one by one then we'll be out of the house faster.
"The longer we stay outside the longer it's going to take for us to leave." I state because Ezra and Clara started attacking each other for some unknown reason and while it is amusing to watch, I really want to get this over and done with because this building holds so many memories that I don't wish to relive.
"Point taken. Onwards and forwards." Felix exclaims and I laugh along with Clara at his sudden excitement. We follow Felix to the front door and I stop them because Ezra was ready to body slam into the door.
"The door should be open. She would always leave her keys at home and use it as leverage sort of." I mumble to myself and don't pay attention to the looks that I'm getting from the siblings. With a gentle push, the door opens and I sigh with relief because she really isn't home.
The minute we're inside I decide to move quickly and the others agree, Ezra getting into position outside and Clara and Felix getting into position on the downstairs level.
"Right. Let's hurry this up."
-----