Chapter 10

One hour later, Lena and the kids were walking down the hall to Callie's room to meet Stef.

"Hey guys! Make sure you're quiet when you go in. She just fell asleep and she really needs her rest. Mama and I will be back in a couple of hours. Be good, okay?" Stef hugged her family in the hallways in front of Callie's room.

"We will!" All four kids barreled into their sister's room as they answered their mom in unison.

"Alright, well we better get this show on the road!" Stef put her arm around her wife and walked her swiftly down the hallway and to the car.

Back up in Callie's room, the siblings were gathered in a protective circle around their sister.

Mariana looked at each of her brothers, wishing she could take away the pain she saw on their faces. She walked over to Jude and put her arm around him. "How you doin' buddy?"

Jude leaned into his sister, but looked at Jesus as he answered. "I'm good. It's my turn to be strong for Callie."

Jesus smiled at fist bumped Jude from across the bed. "Stayin' strong!" He said in reply.

Brandon looked down at his watch. It was nearly eleven o'clock and his stomach was starting to growl. "I'm going to go get some snacks from the vending machine. You guys want anything?"

Jesus and Jude both said they would take whatever, but Mariana just looked at her brothers in disgust. "Ew, those 'snacks' are just full of trans fat and sodium. I seriously don't get how you can eat that crap."

"So that's a no, I take it?" Brandon teased his sister. Mariana gave him a look that said "Well duh!" so he smiled and turned to leave, but ran into a nurse. "Oh, I'm so sorry. That was my fault."

"No, apologies necessary. I need to speak to one of your parents. Are they here?" The petite nurse looked from kid to kid.

"Uh no. Our moms had to go up to the police station to give their statements and fill out some paperwork. But they should be back in a few hours. Can we give them a message?" Mariana stepped forward as the spokeswoman of the group.

"They aren't here? Oh, um, who's the oldest out of all of you?" Her face grew concerned.

"I am. I'm 16, why?" Brandon lurched forward.

"16? I'm sorry, but anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult in the ICU. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you all to leave and sit in the waiting room down the hallway."

"No, we can't. We have to stay with our sister!" Jesus popped up and stood in front of Callie defensively.

"I'm sorry kids. But you really have to go." She looked around and saw that none of the siblings were moving. "If there is going to be an issue here I can call security and have them escort you out if you'd like."

"Come on guys, let's just go." Mariana led her brothers out of the door, but turned around quickly. "Where did you say that waiting room is?"

"Go all the way down this hallway, make a right. Go down a little ways and you will find it on your left."

"Thanks. And if our sister wakes up, will you tell her where everyone is? Just so she knows we didn't leave her."

"Sure thing."

The kids made their way to the waiting room but Jude became furious.

"This is bull! She is all alone in there! What if something happens? What if she needs someone and we are all just gone!" He took two big strides across the hallway and shoved wheelchair into the wall.

"Hey! Knock it off Jude! We get that you are upset, okay, but you can't just go slamming things into walls!" Brandon was at his little brother's side in an instant. He grabbed Jude's shoulders trying to calm him down.

"Get off of me! You are the last person I want to talk to about this." Jude snarled. "I'm going to take a little walk. I'll be to the waiting room in a little bit." Jude took off down the hallway without wait for a response from his brothers or sister.

Mariana, Brandon, and Jesus left Jude and made their way to the waiting room. When they sat down Jesus was the first to speak. "The last time I saw Jude get even remotely as mad as he just did was when I kicked him out of our room for..."

"You mean 'Jesus Time'? Yeah, we know. It's disgusting, let's not bring that back up." Mariana teased Jesus. "He just needs some time to cool off. He'll be back to normal when he gets back."

"Speaking of which, do you think one of us should have gone with him? You know, just make sure he's okay?" Brandon asked skeptically.

"No, he's fine. I mean he is thirteen. We really do need to stop treating him like a baby. He can handle himself just fine." Jesus quickly jumped to Jude's defense. In all honesty, he felt really bad for his little brother. Everyone in the family treated him like a fragile little baby.

The three quickly dozed off while they waited for Jude to return. They had been asleep for several hours, but Jude still hadn't come back. Jude had gone back to his sister's room and sat right next to the doorway, just so he could be close to her. But, he too couldn't fight off sleep any longer and fell asleep.

As the Jude slept next to his sister's doorway, a man made his way down the hallway, making a beeline for room 629.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but only relatives are allowed right now. Who are you?" A nurse asked the man.

"I'm family. This girl in here... I'm her father. I just want to visit my daughter." Robert turned around, walked over to the nurses station, and smiled at the young nurse. "Is it alright if I go in?"

"Yes sir. My apologies! And I'm so sorry about what happened to your daughter. I heard this guy is a real monster."

The nurses words infuriated Robert, but he kept his composure. "Yeah, something like that I guess. Robert turned to go in the room and noticed Jude sleeping. He scoffed quietly, but it was enough to awake the sleeping boy.

Jude opened his eyes and saw Robert standing above him. He jumped to his feet. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing here?! SECURITY! Somebody please help me! He can't be here! He's supposed to be in jail!" Jude was screaming at the top of his lungs, but it didn't even phase Robert. Robert walked in and slammed the door in Jude's face. He barricaded the door. Jude pushed, but to no avail. Bystanders watched as he struggled but offered no help. "Is anyone going to help me? Please! That man is a monster!" Everyone turned their backs to him, minding their own business. So he took off down the hallway to the waiting room where he found his siblings sleeping.

"HEY! Wake up! He's here. Robert is here!" Jude was screaming but it did little to wake his siblings. "JESUS!"

"Wha- what's going on? Dude why are you screaming?" Jesus sat up and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

"I'm screaming because Robert is here! He went into Callie's room before I could stop him and he must have locked it or something because I can't get in!" Before Jude was even finished talking Jesus had taken off down the hallway.

"Brandon! Wake up!" Jude should Brandon's shoulders.

"What are you doing?" Brandon sat up which also woke Mariana.

"What's going on? Are moms back yet?" Mariana questioned in a sleepy voice.

"Brandon, call 9-1-1! Mariana, call moms! Robert is here!" Jude took off down the hallway to help Jesus. When he arrived at Callie's door, Jesus was slamming his body into it trying to break it down. Jude started kicking at it but they were making little progress.

On the other side of the door, Robert was standing at the end of Callie's bed. The noise at the door woke her up. She started to scream, but was quickly cut off my Robert's hand over her mouth.

"How's it goin' Cal?" Robert stared down at Callie with a devilish grin on his face. "Shall we pick up where we left off?"