Sorry for the wait! I hope you like this next chapter, folks. And thanks for all the wonderful reviews!!! They make my day!!!
John paced through the hall nervously. Hope was lying down in her shared room with Hannah because she had a headache after yet another fight at school sent her into the emergency room. Hope had started to give him an ulcer. For the last year, it had been a series of two steps forward, one step back with the girl. It had taken months just to gain her trust enough to be able to check on her at night without her getting upset. She refused to tell them why she was so worried at night, and John didn't push. While he didn't know the details, he knew that she'd been through the ringer as much as Hannah had.
Hannah was much easier to deal with at that age, though.
Hannah, being extremely intellegent, was able to cope with the new surroundings with therapy. She grew and changed, and learned to accept love from those around her without assuming they would hurt her. Hannah placed below average in placement, but had blown the test out of the water with I.Q. She was the smartest child Munch had ever met.
And Hope was a close second
Hope was, however, angry, and very defensive. She was getting in fights at school, at the park, and just about everywhere she went. Today's fight wasn't exactly her fault. The 11-year-old was beaten down by a group of 15 and 16 year old girls who decided that the girl was a good target. Because of Hope's age, the squad declared it an SVU case and Stabler squared, Fin and Casey would have a feild day with it in court. Something about beating a 11-year-old child of a cop wouldn't sit well with Judge Petrovsky.
John was worried that Hope was more emotionally damaged than she let on. A crash tore him from his thoughts.
"PAPA!" Hannah yelled as John made his way down the hall quickly. He flung open the door to see Hannah and Hope on the floor. Hope was covering her eyes and crying.
"Hannah, what happened to your sister?" John knelt by the girls.
"My eyes," Hope screamed. John uncovered her eyes to see they were completely red. All the white was bloody. "I can't see, Papa," she said, shaking.
"Let's get her into the kitchen. Its too bright in here." Hannah lifted the small girl with ease and carried her sister into the kitchen and set her on the counter.
"John?"
"Alex, we need to get her back to the hospital." John placed a cool damp rag over her eyes. "Keep it dark. Alex, go get us a cab and have him wait for us. We'll meet you down stairs in a few minutes." Alex took the keys and left the apartment quickly. It amazed her how calm and collected her husband was. "Hannah, what happened?"
"She said her head was really hurting, like there was a drill going into her eyes. She stood up to turn the light off, and fell over." John nodded as he wrapped Hope's eyes with another layer of dish towels.
"Can you carry her all the way down?" Hannah nodded and lifted her sister up. They locked the door and hurried to the elevator. "Hope? How are your eyes?"
"They burn, but not as bad as when the lights were on." Hope sniffled and help tightly to the rags over her eyes. She helt her sister slide her into the car, and buckle the seat belt over her lap.
"Bellevue and step on it. Its an emergency," John said, closing the door. The cabbie nodded, seeing the blood seeping through the rags over the child's eyes.
Again, the whole group found themselves pacing a waiting room at Bellevue. It felt like they spent more time meeting there than at work, or Sunday dinner. Thankfully, Kathy was a nurse in that particular hospital, and knew most of the pediatric doctors. Even though she worked in NICU, she was able to get in and stay with Hope. When she was brought into surgery, Kathy went to the waiting room to relay news.
"She took a hard hit to the back of her head," Kathy informed them.
"Not news. She was jumped outside our building this afternoon."
"Well, the X-rays they took earlier showed minor bleeding, but passed it off as just the swelling."
"Those idiots missed it?"
"Even if they had seen it, it was so fast that there is nothing they could have done, John. At least she's going to live. If you hadn't gotten her here so fast, she probably would have died during the night."
"I gotta sit down." John dropped back into the chair behind him, next to Alex, Casey and Liv.
"She's in surgery right now," Kathy told the group. "But her doctors are just going in to stop the bleeding. She's going to be blind. There is nothing they can do for her in that department." Hannah stood and left.
"Hannah-"
"Hope's birthday is next week, with mine, and I need to get her a gift. Early would be better this year, Papa. I'll be back in a few hours." Before anyone could stop the 16-year-old, she was off.
"Hannah never ceases to amaze me, John," Elliot said, resting a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Good young lady," John choked out.
"Oh, John, she'll get through this," Alex soothed. "Hell, with an extended family like this, she may not know the difference."
"We were supposed to make the kid's life easier. I wanted to give her a better life, and now she'd blind," John said flattly.
"But she has a sister who loves her, two parents who do everything they can to give her a better life, and this family. I think this family is closer than my Mormon family back home," Casey reminded him. "Liv pulled me back when I was broken. You and Fin pulled Elliot back from Crazy when he was ready to die. We pulled together to help you adopt the girls, and you helped all of us together when Elliot and Olivia weren't speaking."
"I get it; we're family."
"John-"
"I need some air." John left the waiting room and stepped outside.
"I'll be back," Olivia said, taking her cell phone and grabbing Kathy's hand. "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"Dr. Wilson," he muttered into the phone at 9:00 at night. James Wilson was used to the unexpected. Getting calls while he was actually with Greg House eating dinner on the House couch, was one that he wasn't always prepared for.
"Jimmy, its Olivia Stabler."
"Olivia? Is Allie okay?" Allison House furrowed her brow, but Greg ushered her and the kids into the next room.
"Spawn of Wilson. Don't ask, and Don't tell."
"Allie is fine. Going to be ten in March."
"Wow."
"Listen, my friend's 11-year-old daughter is hurt, and I need Dr. House. Can you give me his number?"
"Better." James handed the phone off. "Greg, its for you."
Kathy had relayed all of Hope's chart to Greg, along with every detail she knew. House scoffed and said that he was a diagnostician, and that job was done. The doctors had made all the right choices, and there wasn't anything he could do. Deal with it, and buy a dog. Kathy hung the phone up and glared at Liv.
"He's an ass," Kathy said.
"But is he right?"
"Yeah. Nothing he could do. If she'd gone to him instead of Bellevue, he might have been able to stop this before it happened, but the damage was done, and 'deal with it and buy a dog' were his exact words. Who is Jimmy?" Liv blushed. "Jimmy...as in Allie's...?" Olivia nodded.
"Jewish oncologist."
"Nice."
"He's gay, and walked out on at least one kid."
"Men."
"Scum?"
"Scum." Kathy laughed with Liv. "Olivia?"
"Hmm?"
"I can't tell you how sorry I am about what happened. I should have had more control."
"Yeah." Kathy cast her eyes away. "Its in the past, Kathy. Okay? Elliot and I have been back together almost a years now. Everything's forgiven."
"Let's head on back to the waiting room."
"Hope?"
"Hi Hannah," the young girl said softly.
"Brought you an early birthday present. Its going to give Papa a corenary," Hannah told her little syster, who's eyes were still wrapped.
"How stupid does this look?"
"Gives you an interesting hair do, but you don't look stupid, kid. Want your present?"
"I guess." Hope put her hands out, and reeled back when she felt something large and furry jump up. "Did you sneak Rookie in her!?"
"Nope. This isn't Rookie. This is Mollie. She's a pure-blood Golden Retriever, trained to lead, and she's all yours." Hope frowned a little as she ran her hands over the dog's head. "What's wrong?"
"Does this mean I'm blind for good?" Hannah froze. "Hannah, Papa and Ma won't tell me anything. What's going on? Am I blind?"
"Yeah," Hannah said gently.
"Well..." Hope said. "This...uh...this pretty much sucks."
"Well, you got out of school for a while, and you got the dog you've been bugging Papa about all summer..." Hope shrugged. "We're still here for you-"
"Hannah Grace Munch, I know they aren't going to dump me in the street because I bleed from my eyes."
"I see you've mastered Papa's sarcasm and dead-pan wit."
"It rubs off."
"And sticks to all around."
"Look, blind isn't so bad." Hope took a deep breath. "I can still listen to music."
"I can sell my bike and get one built for two, we can ride around together and you'll hardly know the difference."
"Cool." Hope tried to smile lightly, but her sister saw through it.
"Hope," Hannah muttered, hugging the girl. "You'll be okay."
"How?"
"I don't know."
"How can they still want me like this? I was already getting in trouble when I could see it coming, but now I can't and how can they want me?" Hannah hugged Hope closer.
"They love you, and they will all be here for you. I promise.And if they aren't, I'll kick 'em in the forehead personally."
John listened at the door as the girls talked. Hannah got a dog. John hadn't agreed to a dog, but he wasn't about to do anything to hurt either girl right now. A dog was perhaps the best thing in the world for Hope right now, and Hannah was first to see it. He realized the best thing he'd done for both girls was to adopt Hope. John knew that if anyone could pull Hope through this, it was Hannah.
Alex tucked herself into her husband's arms and sighed deeply. Her blue eyes looked troubled.
"Are they going to be okay, John?" John sighed.
"As long as they're together, they'll be okay." Alexandra nodded andsqueezed her husband affectionately. "Hannah gother a damn dog. Bigger than Rookie." Alex groaned. "If she hadn't, I think I probably would have."
"Service dog?"
"Probably took all the money she'd saved up from working for you and Casey."
"We'll cover it."
"Only if she lets you."
"John," Alex said, looking up at her husband. "I..."
"I know, Alex," John said, pulling her back into a hug. "I'm scared for them, too." Alex nodded. John seemed to know what she couldn't say, and exactly what she needed him to say to make things better. He kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. "Hannah isn't going to let her get too depressed, and we won't let Hannah take care of her sister alone. We'll help Hope, and Hannah, and they'll hold us up."
"You have such faith in Hannah."
"She's never disappointed me, and never could."
"Does she know that?"
"God I hope so."
Sorry its so short. Been busy, and not getting enough sleep to write, but not so little sleep that it helps me write. Oy. Anyway, there are two more, possibly three more chapters to come and I'll be done. They kind of write themselves, but it takes me time to type them out.