Luke's POV
By the time Sophie got here the doctor had given up trying to explain anything to me in my state. I asked him if the three of them could come in, and he reluctantly said yes since she was still asleep. Once they were back here, Sophie ran to the other side of the bed and grabbed Izzy's hand, and I'm sure the guys filled her in as best they could while they were in the waiting room. I got more of a grip having them with me, so the doctor tried one last time to talk to all of us.
"She had a seizure on the way here, so we won't know the extent of the damage until she wakes up. The anorexia already made her heart extremely weak, so we're keeping an eye out to make sure it doesn't fail. If we can get through the night without any complications, we can talk about when she'll wake up." He explained, and thankfully Sophie was strong enough to ask the hard questions.
"She's going to wake up, though, right?" She asked, a few tears falling down her face. I couldn't stand to even think that way, but it needed to be addressed.
"Just focus on getting through the night. We'll cross that bridge when it comes, but yeah. There's a chance she might not wake up any time soon." He said hesitantly, not wanting that news to sting. It did sting, though, and I could feel the tears in my eyes. We all nodded our heads to the best of our abilities, so he continued. "Is there any family you can call?"
"No." I said sternly, not even wanting to think about her parents. The last thing she needed to see was them when she woke up.
"Luke, we should call her parents." Sophie said, and I had a feeling she didn't understand how complicated that situation was.
"We're not calling them." I said, putting my foot down. I had the final say in this, and I didn't care if that was selfish of me. I was doing what I thought was best for Izzy.
Sophie just frowned, but she let up. The doctor left and we were left sitting there again, helpless to what was in front of us. Hours went by, and Ashton left to call Calum and fill him in. I told him to sugar coat it a bit, just so he wasn't on the other side of the country freaking out on his own. Sophie left for a while, too, probably to get some air. They tried to get me to eat, but I wasn't hungry even though I hadn't eaten all day.
I managed to fall asleep around midnight, even if the top half of my body was leaning on the bed Izzy's lifeless body was laying on. The three of them had fallen asleep a little before that, but I couldn't stand to be alone in my own head watching her, so I forced myself to sleep. That was until Sophie was calling to me. I shot my head up, looking instantly at Izzy to see if she had woken up. When I realized it wasn't that, I brought my eyes to the two people she had standing next her.
Ashton and Mike were both wide awake now, looking between all of us like it was a pressure cooker bomb waiting to go off. When I recognized the woman from the picture I saw on Izzy's phone, I jumped out of my seat and went over to them.
"No. You don't get to come back now." I stood in there way, not wanting them anywhere near Izzy. You can't kick your own child out at 16 and expect to come back around after 5 years.
"Luke." Sophie scolded me, but I just ignored her. Izzy's mom had tears in her eyes as she watched her laying in that bed, but it didn't even faze me. I just went right up to her dad, shooting daggers through him as I recalled what he'd done to her.
"You've got balls coming around after what you did to her." I sneered, my jaw tense and fists clenched. He just glared right back at me.
"That's my daughter! You don't get to-"
"You loved her so much you had to beat her up to show it?!" I cut him off, not wanting to hear any kind of excuse he had to offer. Her mom started sobbing, and she ran past me to go sit next to Izzy.
"Watch your fucking mouth!" He shouted back, making me get right in his face and ready up to drop him.
"David!" Her mom yelled, and he backed off slightly.
"I will throw you out of this room, don't fucking push me." I told him. He didn't understand how fast he'd hit the floor.
"Luke." Sophie called out to me, but I ignored her again. She wasn't about to put me on a leash. "Luke!" She sounded more urgent that time, so I glanced over to see her leaning over the bed.
"Mom?" Izzy's broken voice sounded, and I turned to see her mom hugging her as she sat there confused beyond belief. She looked at me, and I bolted to the other side of the bed as she pulled away from her mom.
"Hey baby." I said, pulling her into me as I sat on the edge. She melted into me as I held her, and I let a few tears of relief fall. "You're okay."
"What are they doing here?" She asked quietly, pulling away slightly so she could give me an uncomfortable look.
"I called them, Izz. We didn't know if you were going to wake up." Sophie cried, now replacing Izzy's mom on the other side of the bed. She grabbed her hand almost apologetically, I guess now realizing that it was a horrible idea to bring her parents here.
"I'm so sorry, Isabel, this is our fault." Her mom started crying again, using her dad as support.
"Yeah and you can leave." She snapped, catching all of us by surprise.
"Can we at least talk, please?" David asked, but if Izzy wanted them gone then I was going to get them out of here.
"She told you to go." I said, getting up and taking a couple steps closer to them. Even Ash and Mike rose from their seats to stand behind me.
"You don't have a say in this! This is our kid!" He shouted, shoving his finger into my chest. I pushed him back, but when he went to lunge at me Izzy lost it.
"Get out! Don't fucking touch him!" She screamed. She started pulling tubes out and took off her oxygen tube, and Sophie couldn't get her to stop.
"Izzy!" I shouted, trying to get her to sit back down.
"No! You can show up now, but you couldn't even wish me a happy birthday? For five fucking years?!" She screamed, shoving her dad toward the door.
"Isabel." Her dad went to take her hands, but she jolted them out of his reach.
"Fuck you! You don't get to play parent now! You weren't there when I needed you, and now I don't!" She started crying, and I went to hold her in my arms but she pushed me off too. "Get out! Leave!" Her screaming was only making her mom cry even harder, but they deserved every bit of this.
"Go!" I shouted, pointing at the door. I just wanted Izzy to calm down and get back in her bed. "Get a nurse, Sophie." I told her, and she pressed the button on the remote without hesitation.
"I don't need a nurse! I need you to get out of my sight!" She kept getting more and more riled up, and all I could think about was the doctor saying her heart was weak.
"Izzy, please lay back down." I pulled her face into my hands, begging her to stop this. She just shrugged out of my grasp and started pacing back and forth.
"Isabel, please just let us explain." Her mom reached out to her again, but that only made it worse. She was hysterical, breaking down right in front of us.
I didn't know if it was just her having a moment, or a full-blown panic attack. I just grabbed her and pulled her into my chest, not letting her escape as she cried into me. I felt her starting to relax, but that quickly went away when she started jolting around again. Her body went limp and I had to hold her up as she seized again.
The nurse ran in right on time, helping me get her down to the floor so she could hold her head. Within seconds there were two more nurses in here taking my place. Ashton had to pull me away so they could help her, and they shot her up with whatever they did in the ambulance so she would stop shaking. Whatever they did to her had her sedated, and once she stopped shaking I helped them lift her back onto the bed so they could reattach all the tubes.
"You need to go before he snaps, I promise you don't want to be on the other end of that." Mike told her parents quietly, but I heard it. I walked back up to her dad and stared blankly at him.
"You don't want me to be the one to take you out of here." I said through gritted teeth. They stood down, and he led her mom out of the room without another word.
I waited for the nurses to finish fixing everything, and Sophie couldn't stop crying in her chair. I knew she felt horrible for bringing them here, but I tried to tell her not to. I decided to lay into her later, though, since everyone was on edge now. Once the bed was clear and Izzy was back to being knocked out, I went back to my seat next to her. Now we had to play this waiting game all over again, and that was the last thing I wanted.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Sophie said, calming herself down a little so she could actually talk.
"I told you not to." I said plainly, keeping my eyes on Izzy as she laid there lifeless, yet again.
She shut up, though. I guess she didn't want to argue any further, which I was thankful for. Ashton and Mike returned to their seats as we fell into another deafening silence. None of us knew what to say after that. Izzy just had a second seizure and the doctor didn't even know 'what damage' was caused by the first one. For all we knew something could go wrong because of it, but none of us dared to speak that into existence.
It was past 3 in the morning, and at that point I could barely keep my eyes open. I think I was the first to fall back asleep, and as I started drifting off I could hear Sophie whispering to the guys. I didn't make anything of it until I heard Mike mention Brett for a reason I didn't catch. I woke right up and knew I needed to call him, regardless of how early in the morning it was. They all watched me dart out of the room, but they didn't ask any questions. I pulled my phone out in the hall and called him so they couldn't hear the conversation. I tried four times, and the last time he finally answered and was not happy.
"What?" He asked instantly.
"Izzy's in the hospital." I said, getting right to the point so maybe he would drop the sour attitude.
"What the hell happened? Is she okay?" He sounded like he was fumbling with the phone, and I couldn't tell if he was just moving in his bed or getting up.
"They put cyanide in my water bottle in her car and she drank it while I was on the phone with you. I don't know what to do she had two seizures and the doctor doesn't know if her heart's going to fail. Sophie called her parents and she got so riled up that she had the second seizure and now she's knocked out again and-"
"I'm coming to the hospital right now, just hold tight until I get there. If she woke up once she'll wake up again." He said quickly, and I heard his car starting in the background.
"Okay. I'll see you soon." I told him, but before I could hang up he made one last comment.
"I'm calling Lorenzo. If this wasn't a war already, it will be now." He was pissed, and I was, too. These guys nearly killed Izzy, and Lorenzo wasn't going to let that go.
"I know. It's gonna get bad." I rubbed my face with my hand, thinking about how nasty things were about to get.
"We'll deal with all that later, just focus on Izz right now." He told me, letting me hang up after I agreed.
I poked my head into the room and saw the three of them still talking. They didn't see me, so I just went right out to the waiting room so I could meet Brett when he got here. The second I got out there, I saw Izzy's parents sitting on the other side. They still hadn't left, but I wasn't about to let them back in after what happened last time. They didn't see me, so I kept my distance and went around the corner to wait.
It was only a ten-minute drive from his house, so by the time I got out there Brett was already texting me to let me know he was parking. I knew I looked like a tear-stained crackhead, so the second he saw me he rushed over and pulled me into a hug.
"She's gonna be fine." He said, patting my back. I pulled away from him and nodded, leading us back to her room so he could see her.
When we walked back in, everyone turning to see Brett walking in behind me. He went right up to her bed and sat in my chair, just watching her with guilt in his eyes. We did this to her, and even if Brett wasn't the idiot who took her car to the meeting, he was the one who sent me there.
"What exactly did the doctor say?" He asked, turning to us to wait for an answer. I saw his eyes dart behind me, and I whipped around to see a doctor coming in.
"I just wanted to check in, if that's alright with everyone." She said, making her way over to Izzy as Sophie moved her chair back.
"How long is she going to be out like this?" Sophie asked, again, having the strength to ask questions that I couldn't.
"It could be another couple of hours. We gave her a sedative, too, so that's most likely why it's taking so long. She probably won't remember the short time she was awake, which I'm assuming is possibly a good thing." She explained, and I was thankful that she wouldn't remember her parents being here.
I just needed to make sure they weren't here when she woke up again. Once the doctor left, I told everyone I'd be back and made my way to the lobby again. I didn't know how I was going to convince them to leave, but I would rather them go willingly than me forcing them out. They saw me as I was walking over, but I took the seat one away from her dad before they could get up. I leaned back in the chair with my legs outstretched, and I racked my brain to figure out how to start.
"You being here made her have a second seizure." I said blankly, not bringing my stare away from the empty chairs across from us.
"We just want to make this right. We failed her so many times, and it's too little too late but we're still going to try." Her mom said, the crying starting all over again.
"We don't need your permission to see our own daughter." Her dad said rudely, and I had to clench my fists so I wouldn't react.
"I decide who sees her. You gave up that right when you kicked her out at 16." I said calmly. I didn't want this to escalate any more than it had before.
"You think you're some hot shot who makes all the calls? You're a punk, and she deserves more than this." Her dad laid into me, and I shook my head.
"She told me what you did to her. And you have the nerve to call me a punk." I chuckled. I couldn't believe the gall of this guy.
"Whatever family matters she's told you about are exactly that, family matters. So, you're not standing in our way." He said, as if that was it. I just got up and stood in front of them.
"This is me standing in your way." I said, making my point that I wasn't about to let them rile her up again. Her dad stood up right in front of me, but I had a few inches on him. He could intimidate a 16-year-old, 5'2" girl, but he wasn't intimidating me.
"Sophie told us how protective you are of her." Her mom said, ignoring the fact that her husband and I were having a stand-off.
"Yeah, she was right." I didn't break eye contact with her dad, but I did to take a step to the side and sit next to her mom. Maybe that conversation would get me somewhere, instead of getting the same hostility from her dad.
"You have more of a right to be here than we do, so I understand why you don't want us to talk to her. But I have so many things that I have to say, so when she's up and calmed down if I could try to have that conversation that would mean everything to me." She said, facing me while I thought. Izzy always said her mom never treated her like shit, but she did stand by and let her dad do what he wanted.
"When I know she's fine, I'm good with you going to see her. He's not allowed within 50 feet of her room, though." I said, not even having to motion to her dad for her mom to know what I meant.
"You've got balls, kid." Her dad tried to get up again, but her mom put her hand on his arm.
"That's fine." She said, eyeing him until he sat down. It seemed like she maybe grew a pair herself since Izzy's been gone, since she wouldn't sit back and let him act up anymore.
"The second she gets overwhelmed you're leaving." I made sure she got it, even with how emotionless I sounded. She was a wreck, but I didn't care what they needed, I only cared about what was best for Izzy. I stood up to walk away as she raced after me, grabbing my arm to stop me.
"Thank you for taking care of her. I'm so sorry we had to meet like this." She cried, pulling me into a hug as I stood there motionless. The second she pulled away I shot her a quick glance and walked away.
She shouldn't be thanking me for taking care of her. I'm the reason she's in the hospital in the first place, and if I had been smarter she wouldn't have been in the crosshairs. All I could think about as I went back to Izzy's room were all the things I could have done differently. From not taking her car all those months ago, to not offering her that water bottle, or even letting Brett know that they had eyes on me on our way back from Ikea. Maybe I would have known sooner that Chris was killed this way, and maybe I would have paid more attention.
All I really knew was that she didn't deserve this. Both of our lives have been shitty, but at least I've done unspeakable things. Izzy's been a victim since I've known her, and for years before that. The worst part was that I caused so much of it, and she still loved me after everything. I didn't deserve her and I shouldn't be dragging her down like this, but I loved her too much to push her away again. It'd break her just like it did last time, and I think it'd break me too.