Luke's POV
The sounds of voices made me whip my head up from where it was positioned on Izzy's hospital bed, but they weren't just any voices. I heard Izzy's voice. I looked up to see her smiling weakly down at me, and I didn't hesitate to jump up and pull her into my arms. Nothing seemed wrong, and she seemed like she had recovered pretty well from two seizures in one day.
"How're you feeling?" I asked, rubbing the back of her head as I kissed her forehead.
"I'm just tired." She croaked, her voice still shaky from how much she went through yesterday. I didn't even know how much she remembered, but the less the better.
"How much do you remember?" I pulled away and took her cheeks in my hands. She still had the oxygen tube under her nose, but her finally awake and relaxed was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
"Picking out a rug at Walmart." She looked so unsure about it, like she was questioning if even that was a real memory.
"We didn't tell her anything, we wanted to let you do that." Sophie said, motioning to her and the other three people in the room who I hadn't even thought about yet. Brett was sitting over by Ashton and Mike, and Sophie must have slept on the other side of Izzy's bed.
"I've been asking for a half hour." She tried to chuckle, but her throat was so raspy that she started coughing. Sophie reached over and grabbed the foam cup of water, holding it out for her to drink from the straw.
"We went back to the car and you drank the water bottle in the front seat. Someone spiked it with cyanide and you had a seizure, well, two seizures, but you're fine now you got through the night that's all that matters." I pulled her face back into my hands and watched as she processed everything. She looked around the room at all of us, probably trying to figure out how to respond to something like that.
"Who would poison me?" She asked, bringing her eyes back to mine as she gave me a hurt expression. The hardest part wasn't even brought up yet, and I was honestly scared of how she'd feel knowing it was meant for me.
"It was supposed to be for me." I told her, watching her turn from hurt to confused. "I'm so sorry baby, this is on me." I guided her head to lay on my shoulder as I rubbed her back.
"I thought you said those guys weren't going to come after you?" She asked timidly, but she still melted into me which let me relax a bit.
"I should have told Luke the second I knew they killed one of our other guys. That's my fault, you weren't looking out for it when you should have been." Brett said, approaching the bed and taking my previous seat. He put his hand on her knee, giving me a guilty look and then bringing his stare back to her.
"It's no one's fault just, please stop blaming yourselves." I heard her voice crack, so I held onto her tighter.
"I'm just happy you're awake again." I shushed her, and I looked around the room as I realized what I had just said.
"What do you mean again?" Izzy pulled away to look at me, and I saw Sophie put her head in her hands out of the corner of my eye.
"You woke up early this morning, but you had another seizure and they had to sedate you." I knew the cover was blown, but if I could somehow put the cat back in the bag I would like to. I did tell her mom she could talk to her at some point, so she would find out they were here eventually. I just didn't want it to be right after she woke up again.
"Wait, sedate me? Why would they sedate me for that?" She asked, and I was beginning to resent the fact that she was a pre-med. She looked around at all of us, waiting for some kind of explanation.
"It was my fault." Sophie sighed, making my head shoot in her direction. Izzy just watched her, waiting to see what had happened.
"She called your parents." I nearly whispered, not knowing how she was going to react.
"My parents are here?" She asked emotionlessly, her eyes drifting to the floor.
"When you saw them, you pulled your IV out and went off. That's why you had the second seizure." I watched her process yet another blow to the gut, but she seemed to take it like a champ until she quickly wiped a tear away.
"Okay." She whispered, lying back in her bed to look at the ceiling.
"Let's give them the room guys." Sophie said, motioning for everyone else to follow her into the hall. I took my seat back from Brett and leaned forward, head in hands and heart broken.
"I tried to tell Sophie not to call them, but she didn't know any better. She thought she was helping." I sighed. Izzy just kept staring at the ceiling, though.
"Are they still here?" She finally spoke up after a minute or two of silence.
"Yeah, and your mom wants to talk to you." I saw her eyes shut, so I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "You don't have to see either of them, just say the word and I'll get them to leave."
"My mom really wants to talk to me?" She asked, opening her eyes for me to see tears falling. It broke my heart even more to know that she really thought they wouldn't even want to talk to her.
"She practically begged me to let her see you." I chuckled, my eyes watering too. I reached my hand out to put on her cheek, turning her face to look at me.
"What about my dad?" She looked so innocent and hopeful, like there was this slim chance that he had changed and she was grasping onto that.
"If you still want to talk to him after your mom comes in I'll get him, but I think one at a time is best for right now. I don't want you to get overwhelmed again." I explained, watching her face drop slightly as she nodded. "Just let me know when you're ready." I kissed her forehead and leaned back in the chair, and she went back to staring at the ceiling for a minute.
We sat in silence for a couple more minutes until Brett was peeking his head through the door. He knocked a couple times and asked if Izzy was okay with another visitor, and when she nodded he came in. Lorenzo followed close behind with a huge vase of flowers, and she smiled at him as he placed it on the table near the bed.
"How're you, sweetheart?" He said, sitting on the other side of the bed and grabbing her hand.
"I'm fine, thanks for stopping by." She told him, brushing off the emotions that were just running through her head.
"I don't want you worrying about any of these hospital bills, okay? And I'm finding these guys and making sure they pay for what they've done to you." I could have sworn I saw tears welling in Lorenzo's eyes, but he caught himself when he saw Izzy nod.
"Okay. Thank you." She said quietly. I needed to know everything Lorenzo knew about these guys, though, so I motioned for him to come with me into the hall when everyone else came back into the room.
"I'll be right back, baby." I kissed Izzy's forehead and got a quiet 'okay', so I walked out with Lorenzo and nodded for Brett to join us.
"I need you to tell me who did this." I looked between the two of them while I waited to see who would be the first to start talking. I knew they knew more than they were telling me, and if they didn't start giving me names I was about to rip heads off.
"You need to let me handle this." Lorenzo said sternly, but that wasn't going to happen.
"They almost killed her trying to get to me, so no. I'm handling this myself." I told him. I saw Brett with his hand to his forehead, probably freaking out that I was talking to Lorenzo like this. I felt like it was warranted, though, and I was sure Lorenzo wouldn't hold it against me.
"They know by now that they fucked up. Odds are they'll come back for you so you need to take Isabel and get away for a while. I have a cabin upstate that you can lay low in for a few weeks, I'm sure Brett can watch the apartment while you're gone." He explained, putting a hand on my shoulder to try and get me to relax.
"I can't run away from this Enzo, they need to know they can't touch us." I said, frustrated and pissed off beyond control.
"And they'll know when I take care of it. So, you're going to take your girl and keep her safe. She needs you more than I do right now, I have enough resources to flatten them to the ground." He took his hand off my shoulder and turned to Brett. "Don't let him convince you otherwise."
"He's not going to, don't worry." Brett said, and I shot him a death glare in return.
"I don't care about their operation, I just want the guy who put the cyanide in Izzy's car." I told them.
"Let us worry about finding him, just focus on Isabel." Lorenzo said, and as he paused he put his hand on the back of my neck. "On my life, you'll get your way with him." He put his hand to his heart, and I knew he meant it.
I nodded and left them in the hall to go back to Izzy. Sophie was lying in bed with her as they laughed about something I hadn't heard, but it was beautiful to hear her laugh again. She seemed like she was perfectly fine now, and her mood was the best I'd seen it since she'd woken up. I knew it was a long shot that her and her mom's conversation would bring about anything good, but maybe that's the closure she needed.
"Luke? Everything okay?" I hadn't even realized I was just staring at her until Izzy spoke up. I broke out of the little world I fell into and walked over to her.
"Yeah, yeah it's fine." I smiled, taking my chair back next to her. I took her hand in mine and figured now would be as good a time as ever to see if she was ready to talk to her mom. "Are you ready for me to get your mom?" I asked quietly, and Sophie was the only other person who heard it.
"Wait, you're letting her mom in?" She asked. I looked between the two of them and saw Izzy contemplating and Sophie just confused.
"You can get her." Izzy said quietly, giving me a reassuring look to let me know she was okay with it.
"Are you sure that's a good idea Izz?" Sophie asked her. I didn't blame her for being concerned, but the last thing Izzy needed right now was to second guess anything.
"I'll be fine... Can you stay with us, though?" She said, turning back to me and grabbing my hand.
"Of course, baby." I told her, pulling her into a hug while Sophie looked at me with caution. "I'll go get her."
I pulled away and headed into the hall toward the waiting room, and when I walked through those doors and didn't see her parents my heart dropped. I searched the whole room, looking around every corner and even right outside on the side walk. They were nowhere, so I went up to reception to see if they had seen where they went.
"Excuse me? Hey, have you seen the couple that were sitting right over there?" I asked the woman, pointing to the seats where I saw them early this morning.
"They were here for a few hours when I got in at 9, but they left a couple hours ago." She said, returning back to her computer as I backed away from the desk.
This was supposed to be their one chance at making things right, and they just bailed on her. I took a seat in the waiting room and let out a deep breath, not knowing how to handle this. Izzy was surprised to hear that her mom wanted to talk to her, and now they were proving exactly why. How can you just leave your own child like this, for a second time? I pulled out my phone and texted Sophie to see if she could figure out how to tell Izzy.
Me:
They're gone idk what to do
Sophie:
How could they just leave?? Are you sure???
Me:
The woman at the front desk saw them leave a couple hours ago
Sophie:
She's going to be a wreck how are we supposed to tell her that her parents dropped her yet again
Me:
Idk. I shouldn't have even told her they were here until I talked to them again
Sophie:
You couldn't have foreseen them ditching, just came back we'll tell her together
Me:
Okay
I started my walk back to Izzy's room, my mind racing the whole way there. I couldn't believe that her hopes were up this high just to be shattered again. Her mom was so desperate to see her, so what happened? Did they realize they were in over their head? That getting Izzy's trust back was too much work? No excuses were valid enough to explain why they left her in the hospital like this.
Sophie was in the hall waiting for me when I turned the corner. I gave her a guilty look as I made my way over, and she did the same. I fell back against the wall outside Izzy's room, and I ran my hands through my hair as I prepared to break her heart. Sophie was pacing in a circle in front of me, but she was just stressing me out even more so I grabbed her arm to get her to stop.
"You should've seen the look on her face when I told her that her mom wanted to see her." I said quietly.
"Who leaves their kid in the hospital like that?! They knew they were going to see her, I just don't get it!" She whisper-shouted in frustration.
"Just get everyone out of there, come back in once they're outside." I told her, turning into the room to see Izzy talking happily with Lorenzo.
When she saw me, her gaze went past me, and I knew she was looking for her mom. When she didn't see her, her face dropped. Sophie had everyone leave, and Izzy just watched as we cleared the room. Once the door was closed and Sophie was back in, we gave each other a quick glance.
"Izz-" Sophie tried to start, but Izzy cut her off.
"They left, didn't they." She didn't even phrase it as a question, like she knew the answer already. I gave her a guilty look and went to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah." I whispered, taking her hand in mine.
"Did the doctors say when I can leave?" She changed the subject, and I watched as she completely brushed off that conversation.
"If tonight goes well, then tomorrow." I told her, making her pull her hand out of my grip.
"Izz, are you okay?" Sophie took her seat on the other side of the bed as she looked at Izzy with concern.
"I'm fine. I just wanna go home." She half smiled, not even convincing herself. The only thing that made this worse was the fact that we weren't going home.
"About that..."
A/N
Corona + new job = ANXIETY