Chapter 7
This whole chapter (with all its separated parts) may contain content that's rated M, especially part IV.
Part I
"Not inside the house!" Miss Peregrine shouts through the living room.
It's a stressful forenoon in the house of Miss Peregrine and the peculiars. After all the children went to school, Miss Peregrine started to clean the whole house and was just beginning to clean all the windows, as she got a call from the school.
Some teachers got sick, so she had to pick up Claire and the twins immediately. Returning with them half an hour later, Miss Peregrine tries to carry on with her tasks as planned. She sends Claire and the twins in their room to play something, while she finishes the windows.
Today is one of the few rainy days here, so she thought it would be perfect for housework and especially for cleaning all the windows, which was long overdue. Picking up the children, had messed up her plan, so Miss Peregrine is even more stressed now, which isn't eased by her little ones running around the house with in-line skates instead of playing quietly in their room.
Miss Peregrine hasn't even finished with the windows as Fiona, Bronwyn and Hugh come home as well and want to eat something. Therefore she interrupts her work a second time and prepares some sandwiches. While her children eat, she finally cleans the last two windows.
Outside, it has already started to rain heavily again and the sky has turned pretty dark.
"Miss Peregrine!" she hears one of the girls calling her. After storing away her cleaning supplies, Alma joins her children in the living room to ask what's wrong.
"The light doesn't work," Fiona explains and tries to switch on the light in the living room to demonstrate the problem.
"Is it just this one, or all the lights?" Miss Peregrine asks thoughtful. "Just this one," Bronwyn answers.
"Alright, I'll take a look at the light bulb later, you don't need the light now, do you?" she asks her children, who shake their heads.
After hurrying around and having no free minute today, Alma is quite exhausted and wants to sit down to eat something as well before attacking the next problem. But it shall not happen, because as soon as she wants to sit down, Claire and the twins come running into the room. Claire arrives first, one of her favourite toys in her hands.
" Miss Peregrine!" she exclaims. "One of the twins played with the car for my dolls and now it's broken again," she whines. Still standing, Miss Peregrine takes the little pink car in her hands and takes a closer look. It doesn't seem to be damaged, just one of the door got stuck and won't open anymore.
It has happened before, so Miss Peregrine knows exactly what to do, but in the dim room she can't see enough to repair it. Annoyed she walks over into the kitchen, switches on the light and does it there.
Handing it back to Claire who says thank you and runs away happy again, she wants to make a second attempt to eat something. Only this time it's Bronwyn who calls her out of her room.
Taking a deep breath, Miss Peregrine walks over into the room of the little ones.
"Careful!" Bronwyn warns, as soon as she opens the door. "And quickly close the door!"
Doing as she was told, Miss Peregrine looks around. Their whole room is one big mess, everywhere are lying toys, their schoolbags have been dumped in a corner next to the door and even their beds are dishevelled.
"What's wrong, Bronwyn?" Miss Peregrine tries to ask in a friendly tone, but really being close to freaking out.
"Ginger has run away," Bronwyn explains. "We wanted to take her out to play but then she ran away and is now hiding under Claire's bed. Can you please help us getting her back, Miss P.?" Bronwyn begs.
"Of course!" Miss Peregrine sighs and kneels down to grab the guinea pig from under the bed. But as soon as she approaches it, it runs away again. This time it runs around in the open, though, and Alma can quickly grab it.
"I think you should leave it in its cage for now, I'm sure it needs some rest after this adventure," Miss Peregrine advises and hands it back to Bronwyn, who does as her ymbryne has said.
Returning to the living room, Alma has to notice, that it has gotten even darker. Annoyed that she can't see anything without the light, she decides to repair it now.
She gets the ladder and some tools out of the garage and wants to start unscrewing the lamp, as Claire and the twins return, shouting. Again they're on their in-line skates, racing towards the entrance of the house.
"How many time have I told you, Claire! Not inside the house!" Alma shouts but can't be heard over the noises of her children, who doesn't seem to notice her on the ladder .
"Claire!" Miss Peregrine shouts to make them stop, but it's too late and the first one of them hits the ladder. The other two children collide as well, starting to scream while the ladder above them begins to sway.
Miss Peregrine still shouts to make them get up and run out of harm's way but everything happens too fast. The last thing she does, is holding on to the lamp and steering the ladder away from her little ones. It works but it doesn't help her as the ladder with her on top of it crashes to the floor in between the dining table and one of the couches.
A loud crash makes all of the other children come out of their room to see the shocking scene in the living room.
The three little children are still lying on the ground, crying because of the shock, looking at their ymbryne who lies one metre away from them, half buried under the ladder, writhing with pain.
Quickly, Fiona and Hugh run towards her and manage to free her from the ladder. Careful, they help her sitting up. Miss Peregrine assures them that she's fine, but they don't believe a word she says, as they see the pain in her face. Groaning in pain and with a lot of help from both her children, Miss Peregrine manages to lie down on the nearest couch.
Meanwhile, Bronwyn has approached and calmed down the three younger ones. They stopped crying and together with Bronwyn they put off their in-line skates and watch Fiona, Hugh and Miss Peregrine with fear.
Holding back the tears, Miss Peregrine assures them that she will be fine. Apparently, she has just landed quite painfully on her left foot, which seems to be sprained and bruised. She tells Fiona that she just needs to rest a bit before it will get better.
Gently, Alma calls Claire and the twins over to talk to them. She knows that they must feel quite scared and even guilty. As she sees their teary eyes, she pats their heads and tells them that she's not angry with them.
A little bit relieved, they go back into their room with Bronwyn. Miss Peregrine has told them that she just wants to lie down a bit and that they can all leave.
Hesitating, Hugh follows the little ones. He's not sure if it's right to leave Miss Peregrine, but Fiona is still there and he thinks that someone should be with his younger siblings.
Miss Peregrine has already closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to become less intense, and therefore doesn't see that Fiona is still there. She observes her ymbryne closely and sees that she must be in more pain than she admits. Fiona can't see her foot but she's sure that it's getting really swollen. Knowing that Miss Peregrine always does it when one of them gets hurt, she walks into the kitchen to get a cooling pack.
As gently as she can, she takes off Miss Peregrine's shoe, before it gets even more difficult. As soon as she touches her, Miss Peregrine cries out in pain and opens her eyes. "I'm sorry Miss P. but it has to be done," Fiona explains and places the cooling pack on her ymbryne's swollen ankle. It takes some time until Miss Peregrine stops whimpering and calms down again, but Fiona is as worried as before and seeing Miss Peregrine's foot hasn't eased her worries. It seems to be a lot worse than she first thought and than Miss Peregrine wants them all to believe but as she's now the oldest one around, it's her responsibility to do the right thing. Therefore she decides to call Jake or Enoch and let them know what has happened.
Quietly Fiona walks over to the phone and disappears into her room dialling Jake's number. Luckily he answers immediately and gives his phone to Emma. Nervously, Fiona explains what happened and Emma promises to come home instantly. In the meantime, Fiona shouldn't leave Miss Peregrine out of her sight.
After only 15 Minutes, Emma, Jake, Enoch and Olive come storming into the house. Olive immediately walks into the room of the little ones to distract them. Emma and Enoch hurry towards Miss Peregrine, shocked to see her in such a bad state. She looks incredibly pale, her face covered in cold sweat.
Hearing them, she opens her eyes and looks surprised to see them. She still refuses any help and insists that she's fine but at the same time she seems a bit dazed and not really herself.
Jake decides that two of them are enough here and takes Fiona with him to see if Olive needs some help. In the bedroom he sees that Claire is crying, lying in Olive's arms and also the twins and Bronwyn are scared. Jake sits down and talks to them, trying to take away their worries.
In the living room, Emma sits next to Miss Peregrine on the couch, trying to talk to her, convincing her that she should see a doctor if it's still this bad, while Enoch carefully lifts the cooling pack to inspect her injury.
Shocked Enoch looks at Emma. "She needs a doctor! Now," he exclaims, immediately answered by Miss Peregrine's rejections. Worried Emma also takes a look at Miss Peregrine's leg, which is incredibly swollen and already turning blue, before nodding at Enoch. Emma even thinks, that Miss P's ankle looks slightly dislocated, which is alarming.
Slowly, she gets up and goes over to the phone. Luckily, Miss Peregrine has already closed her eyes again, so she can't see what Emma's doing, otherwise she would have started a huge discussion again.
Taking the phone with her into the kitchen, Emma calls Ethan to ask what they should do. Accurately, she describes, what has happened and how she thinks Miss Peregrine is feeling. As she tells him about the leg, he wants to know something specific, so Emma hands the phone to Enoch.
Ethan explains to Enoch, how he can feel for the pulse in Alma's foot, but as Enoch says that he's not sure if there is none or if he has done it wrong, Ethan wants to talk to Emma again.
He tells her that this is an emergency and that she must call the ambulance immediately. Furthermore he explains what she has to say when she calls them and that he will meet them in front of the local hospital.
Alarmed, Emma tells Enoch what Ethan has said and dials the number for the ambulance, while Enoch keeps calming down their ymbryne, who hasn't heard everything but certainly knows what's going on.
Waiting for the ambulance, Emma stays with Miss P., who gets more restless by the minute, no more able to take the increasing pain, while Enoch goes to talk to Olive and Jake.
Knowing that something is very wrong, the little ones start crying again, so Olive has her hands full with comforting them. Carefully she explains, that Miss Peregrine needs to go to the hospital to get better as soon as possible, because the doctors can help her there best. The children understand everything but that doesn't ease their worry.
After only a few minutes, they already hear the ambulance coming, so Enoch opens the door, while Olive distracts the younger ones. They don't want any of them to see, what's going on in the living room, so Jake especially keeps an eye on Millard.
As the paramedics enter the house, Emma and Enoch stand aside to give them some room. The emergency doctor talks to Emma about everything she knows before joining the others at Miss Peregrine's side. It's immediately clear, that her ankle is broken and needs to be reset at once.
Miss Peregrine is writhing in pain and needs to be restrained by the paramedics. No more able to take this sight of her ymbryne, Emma shoves through all the people, holds her hand and talks to her. Slowly, Miss Peregrine calms down a bit, so the paramedic can insert an intravenous cannula to give her the pain medication and sedatives.
As Miss Peregrine has calmed enough, the emergency doctor starts the reduction. Despite the strong medication, Miss Peregrine winces and screams again. As soon as it's done, they steady her leg and move her onto a gurney for an immediate transportation to the hospital.
One of the paramedics talk to Emma before they all leave, Emma accompanying her ymbryne in the back of the ambulance. During the drive, the doctor has to renew the pain medication, because Miss Peregrine gets restless again. But arriving at the hospital, she is really calm, too calm, for Emma's liking. Alma is barely responsive anymore, her eyes closed nearly the whole time.
Exiting the ambulance, they meet Ethan, who has just arrived with his car, hurrying across the forecourt towards them. He joins Emma at Miss Peregrine's side, taking her hand and gently stroking it.
With Ethan talking to the doctor about things, Emma has never heard before, they enter the huge building. Eventually they meet another doctor and disappear behind a big door, while Ethan and Emma have to wait in the corridor.
Seeing how upset Emma is, Ethan tries to explain everything that he knows about Miss Peregrine's condition, which isn't much, because they hadn't done any tests yet. After explaining the standard procedures after a fracture like this, he goes to the vending machine and buys something to drink and eat for Emma. "For the nerves," he says and smiles, which kind of makes her feel better. If Ethan can still be so calm, then Miss Peregrine's condition won't be too bad, she hopes.