CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"Dad, don't." I whined and tried to fall back into sleep.
"That punk is in bed with my little girl." Dad growled out. "Your baby sister, Jackson."
"Yeah, but she moved, not him, she went to him, Dad." Jackson hissed, I smiled sleepilly, Jackson was standing up for me and Joe. "We just got her back, and she seems to really like Joe, so please don't push her away."
"You got a good brother, Babe." Joe murmured huskilly in my ear in that way that made my knees go weak nd filled me with want.
"I know." I smiled, blinking sleep away from my eyes.
"Time is it?" Joe grumbled into my hair.
"Still early. Go back to sleep, Joey." I instructed softly.
"I'm good." Joe hummed, a lazy smile gracing his lips. "Why close my eyes and dream when I can see the real thing?"
"Charmer." I accused as Dad and Jackson noticed we were awake.
"Miley." Dad growled out. "Get away from him, do you know what sort of predator he could be?"
"Predator." I sat up and raised an eyebrow at Dad. "Dad, he's the boy that taught you how to do fish hooks." I rolled my eyes. Divert. Divert. Joe already thought he was some sort of predator and I was his victim. "And he's the man that saved my life and helped keep me from breaking down on that island."
"Dad, just drop it." Jackson insisted.
"I'm sory, Sir, I meant no disrespect." Joe muttered, his eyes downcast and his voice sullen.
"Touch my daughter again and you'll really have something to be sorry for." Dad threatened, glaring at the man behind me.
"Dad." Jackson and I objected at the same time.
"S'cool, Babe." Joe shrugged, running a hand through his shock of black curls. "You and Lilly did try to warn me, so I knew it was coming."
"Dad, Joe saved my life." I reminded, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
"So now he thinks he can have his hands all over you?"
"Dad." I scolded, getting up.
"Dad, don't push her." Jackson begged at the same time. "You know Miley, if you push her, she'll push back until you're at opposite ends."
"I just got you back, Bud." Dad looked at me with sad blue eyes. "I was so worried, so scared..."
"I was scared too, Daddy, but Joe didn't do anything wrong." Joe was actually just sitting there awkwardly now, looking like he wanted to say something, but he didn't want to say something wrong either.
"Except put his hands on my baby girl." Dad ground out, still glaring.
"Mister Stewart." One of the nurses came over. "The others are trying to sleep, could you please take this to another room?"
"Dad, not now, can we at least get her home safe?" Jackson was practically begging now.
"I've got my eye on you, Boy." Dad threatened to Joe, though that seemed to be the end of it.
"I'm sorry." I sighed, but was it to Dad or Joe?
"I'll see you later?" I asked Joe, running a hand through my hair tiredly.
"I'll be waiting." Joe smiled sadly, making me frown.
"I'm sorry, Miles." Jackson sighed when I moved back to the bed I'd started out in, two up from Joe.
"I know you were trying to help." I shrugged and watched as Dad walked to another room to calm himself down. "I love you, Jackson."
"Love you too, Sis." Jackson gave me a one-armed hug. "And don't scare me like that ever again, dang flabit, you're supposed to be my bratty little sister forever."
"Don't worry, I'm not getting on another plane any time soon." I rolled my eyes. We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes and my eyes couldn't help but land on Joe, sitting in his hospital bed two down, holding Beary Bear and staring entently at him. How had Beary gotten to him? Last I knew... Last I knew I don't know where he was; Beary was certainly getting around this past week.
"So what's up with you and the Jonas?" Jackson asked and I laughed, I felt like I was being asked that a lot lately. And I told Dad how I felt yesterday when he asked, but he still went off on Joe. I couldln't understand that, he knew how I felt about Joe, but he was still trying to tear me away from him.
"I don't know." I watched Joe rub his bandaged arm for a second. "It's not like it was when we first met, it's-it's like magnets." I sighed and Joe looked up as if he could actually feel me watching. "I'm drawn to him and I don't want to fight it." Joe grinned and I couldn't help but laugh when he waved Beary's paw at me. "It's crazy, Jackson, but I really, really like him."
"Do you love him?" Jackson asked, I looked away from Joe to see my brother watching me. Do I love Joe? Lilly mentioned it once on the island, but I was more preoccupied at the time with Joe being sick after hunting. Was it possible to fall in love inside of week when we were stranded on an island after a horrific plane crash?
"I don't know." I shrugged again, looking at Jackson, at my hands, then back to Joe. He was still looking at me, staring at me with shining bright brown eyes. "Maybe." I added weakly.
"Dad'll come around." Jackson assured. "He's just a little crazy 'cause we were both so worried. Give him a few days and he'll be able to listen rationally again."
"I'm worried." I told Jackson, tearing my eyes from Joe again.
"'Bout what?" Jackson asked as I idly thought this was the longest conversation we'd had since we were kids.
"Joe has anger problems." I admitted to the first person who hadn't seen it first-person. "He gets angry and violent and he can't control it."
"Maybe Dad was right." Jackson suggested nervously.
"But, he's not like that with me." I said before he could continue and think bad things about Joe. "He says I can control it, I don't know how and neither does he, but he says I make him not angry anymore. And I've seen it, Jackson, on the island, just before we were rescued, he was ready to kill a guy until I calmed him down and I don't even know how I did it."
"Sounds kinda..." Jackson struggled to find the right words.
"Scary?" I offered and his eyes shot to me. "But, I need him too. He made me feel safe out there, and he kept calm when I wanted to lose it, he looked after me, he made sure I was okay after my concussion, he made sure I ate and drank, he saved my life. Literally. And he's so sweet to me, and he's amaing with the kids."
"What is he? You're Prince Charming?" Jackson joked.
"Maybe." I bit my lip shyly.
S
"What's going to happen to the kids?" Lilly asked as we sat together on a bed, waiting to be officially clear and allowed to leave the hospital. Though, it felt safer in here, at every exit there was a media circus just waiting to happen.
"I think the boys' Aunt and Uncle are trying to get custody of them." I said, swollowing thickly. I'd asked the nurses before if Lorraine had any family coming for her, but apparently the authorities hadn't been able to find any. It was likely she was going to have to go into the foster system or something, and it made me shudder at the idea of the creeps that would try to get her just because she survived the crash.
"What about Lorraine?" Lilly asked, just what I'd been thinking.
"I don't know." I frowned, watching her sitting with Will and explaining to the 7-year-old boy how to have a tea party. The girl certainly did love her tea parties. "But, I don't think it's gonna be good."
"I wish there was something we could do." Lilly continued.
"Yeah." The doctors were working their way through the survivors, checking them over one last time and making sure they were okay before discharging them and Joe - J for Jonas - just got called up. Lilly and I still had a while to go, and the kids were being saved for last. "God, it was only a week, Lil, and everything has changed."
"Looking forward to college now?" Lilly laughed, "a bit of down time in higher education?"
"Should be fun." I rolled my eyes.
"Hey, Babe." Joe came out a couple of minutes later and hopped up on Lilly's other side instead of next to me considering my Dad was glaring like a hawk.
"What happened with the doctors?" I asked, eyeing him warilly, his usually olive complexion looked a little pale.
"Anti-biotics and a cream to put on the cut twice a day." He mae a sour face and I laughed. "But, I think that was more to punish me 'cause it hurts like a bitch. Said I was lucky it wasn't infected."
"I told you that when I was trying to clean it when you did it." I mumbled in an I-told-you-so way.
"And they want me to come back or at the very least see a doctor in a week to make sure it's healing right." Joe added, leaning back on his uninjured arm.
"Have you heard anything about James?" The very reason he might have an infection in his arm.
"No" Joe looked down. "There's not a lot to go on, the people on the boat didn't even have a passenger list."
"You'll find them." I had complete confidence, he was determind and I knew if he put his mind to it he'd find any surviving family that baby boy James might have.
"I hope so." Joe sighed with a sad half-smile. "So, when do you lovely ladies get sprung from this place?"
"Hopefully not until the circus leaves town." Lilly made a face, gesturing to the exits where we could faintly hear the press waiting.
"Sooo... Never?" Joe grinned, reaching over and casually tugging the ends of my hair. "Twenty says majority of them are waiting for us."
"Us?" Lilly scoffed, "more like you two. I'm just a bystander."
"Sure, you are, Lola." I nudged her.
"Oh, please, out of the three of us I've never signed an autograph, been asked for a picture, sung in front of thousands of people, been on-" She started to list, holding up a finger for each point.
"Okay, Lil, we get it." I rolled my eyes.
"Point is; famous, famous, friend." She pointed to each of us. "They're not waiting for me."
"Miley Stewart!" The nurse called out. I guess we'd been sitting here for longer than I thought.
"Make sure they-" Joe started, concern crossing his handsome features again.
"Check my head. Yeah, I know, Joey." I rolled my eyes but kissed his cheek as I passed.
"Miley-" Dad began, following after me as I went to the exam room.
"Dad." I didn't want to start another argument, I mean, I only just got back to my Dad after I wasn't sure if I'd ever see him again. "Please."
"I just want my baby girl back, Bud." Dad said desperately.
1) Only 4 chapters left, anything you want to see happen?
2) What part did you like best from this chapter?
3) Does anyone have any requests for a story to begin after this one is finished (along with the Camp Rock series)?
4) Have any of my readers participated in Miley's little cosmo magazine game? (just curious)
Smiler For Joe!