My apologies everyone, I'm back in college now (in my second year for Teacher Education). I'm sorry this has taken so long. Thanks for your patience!
Enjoy!
Carlos was the first back to the shack. It had taken him twenty minutes at most to go home, grab his things and come back. He had two bags, one was an old backpack and one was a torn garbage bag half-full.
Ben looked up from Melanie just in time to see Carlos drop his things next to the door.
Carlos looked at Ben and smiled a bit- it was the sad one Ben usually got from Carlos and Evie when they could tell the young kind was feeling bad for them. "It's easy to pack when you hardly have anything to begin with,"
Ben frowned.
"Why are you doing this?" Carlos asked suddenly.
"Because… because Melanie needs help and she can't get it here and I can't … just let her suffer."
"No, I get that. But why are you bringing me and Evie too? Why not just Mal and Melanie?"
"I can't be responsible for ripping apart the makeshift family you guys created any more than I already have. I can't just tear Mal and Melanie away from people who love them. It wouldn't be fair to them. Or to you."
Carlos sat on the table then, legs dangling off the floor, leaning back with his arms used as support. "You love them,"
Ben looked back to the feverish little girl on the floor and swallowed hard. He hadn't known these people for very long, but all of them were special. And Mal was the most amazing girl he had ever met. And little Melanie had shoved her way into his heart the moment he first saw her. "I do,"
"Thank you,"
Ben furrowed his eyebrows as he looked back to the younger boy. "For what?"
"For letting us come with you. And… for loving them."
Ben smiled.
Mal came then, red-faced, out of breath, and teary. She dropped her things on the floor at her feet and all but collapsed to the floor on her rear, cradling her left arm to her chest. Carlos hopped off the table and rushed to her side. Ben was there the next second.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Carlos questioned.
"My mom…" Mal said in a hoarse whisper. "She caught me leaving and…" She sniffled hard.
"Did she hit you?" Carlos asked so quietly and in such a tone that it sent shivers down Ben's spine. A tone that was urgent yet casual as if that sentence was spoken often.
Mal shook her head. "I think she broke my arm. She grabbed me and I heard a crack and I can't feel it but it hurts."
Carlos nodded understandingly. "I know how to set breaks, but I won't do it all the way. Maybe when we get to Auradon, they can do it right. Right Ben?"
Ben managed to nod somehow through his anger. His anger at Maleficent for hurting Mal. His anger at his father for putting this screwed up system in place. "Yeah, Carlos's right. They'll fix it for you at the hospital." He promised Mal gently. "It's really, really easy to do that. They take a picture of your arm so they know just how to fix it and then they wrap it up in a cast and you get to pick the color of it and then it's over."
Mal tried to speak, but her words failed, so she just closed her eyes tightly.
By the time Carlos had set Mal's arm, she had cried out in pain twice, Melanie had woken up too weak to support herself in a sitting position, and the hour was almost up.
Mal was sitting against the wall, Melanie's head in her lap. Carlos was leaning against the table, and Ben was pacing.
Ben was starting to worry about Evie. If she wasn't there in time, Ben wasn't sure if the driver would take too kindly to waiting around for her to turn up. He probably wouldn't even want to take them in the first.
Carlos was just about to suggest he run out to look for her when she banged into the door, holding more than Carlos and Mal had brought combined. Ben breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sorry, fabric and clothes." She said sheepishly, by way of apology. She was standing in the doorway, holding the door open with her hip.
"That's okay. We were worried about you is all." He said, trying not to appear outwardly nervous. "Let's go down by where the car dropped me off. That's where they'll come to get us."
Carlos nodded and grabbed his and Mal's bags. Ben put on his bookbag.
"May I carry Melanie?" Ben asked Mal.
Mal nodded and so Ben scooped up the child as gently as he could and held her against his shoulder. Melanie, however, started screaming for her mother the moment she was against his skin and not Mal's. She was writhing in Ben's arms, trying to get away, no matter how weak she was.
The sound was heartbreaking. It really was. The poor dear was frightened and sick. She didn't know what was happening and her fever was probably fuzzing her already confused mind even more. Mal pushed herself to her feet with her good arm and tried to speak to the anxious girl, but her words still wouldn't come. They hadn't been able to since before Carlos set her arm. Her eyes welled with tears.
"It's okay," Ben promised Mal between Melanie's screeches. "It's okay. Touch her. Let her know you're still here."
Mal put her hand on her daughter's back and Melanie's hysteria calmed a little.
"Melanie, Melanie, hey. That's your mama." Ben said softly to the little girl. "She didn't go anywhere. She's right here. We're all going together. We're all going together."
"I want Mama!" Melanie demanded loudly.
"She's right here. She can't hold you right now because her arm is hurt, but she's right here."
Mal rubbed up and down Melanie's back. Mal would've gone around to Ben's back to have Melanie look at her, but it was rather obvious that Melanie's fever was messing with her ability to focus. Even if she would've looked at Mal, it might not have registered.
Melanie stopped panicking and was still against Ben.
Ben took a deep breath and glanced at Mal. "Ready?"
Mal rubbed at her eyes, but nodded. Evie backed out of the doorway and Carlos followed her, Ben and Mal behind.
Ben stopped short when he saw Jay by the shack. He felt Mal tense beside him.
Evie looked meek. "I ran into him on the way back and I-I told him we were leaving..."
"I want to come too." Jay insisted.
"What makes yo-?"
"There's no time to argue, Carlos." Ben said, cutting off the boy. He looked to Jay and spoke in his best kingly tone. "Either you come or you don't, but we have to get Melanie to the hospital. If you upset Mal or Melanie again, I will not hesitate to send you right back here. Am I understood?"
Jay nodded seriously. "Yes,"
"Get a move on then," Ben instructed, nodding forward. Jay took some of Evie and Mal's bags and fell into step beside Evie. Carlos was behind them, and Ben, Mal and Melanie were behind him. Mal seemed a little zoned out, so Ben had taken her good hand with his free hand to guide her forward.
They walked to the spot where Ben had been dropped off at the start of his journey. Not even five minutes later, the royal limo pulled up.
Franklin, the driver, looked very angry, but even more upset once Ben explained he was bringing these five Isle kids back to Auradon with him. But Ben was king, so Franklin couldn't do much more than gripe about it at that moment.
Ben got the six of them all settled in the car, Melanie was sandwiched between him and Mal, Evie was to Mal's other side, followed by Carlos and then Jay. You could fit three people between Jay and Carlos.
"Franklin, please take us to Auradon General Hospital." Ben said. Melanie stirred beside him and Mal still appeared to be out of it. "As quickly as you possibly can."
A/N: What do you think will happen next? Thanks for reading!