Chapter 5: New Friend and New Discovery
The hours continue to pass as everyone becomes more and more anxious for any type of news about Sara. It becomes harder and harder to keep the middle girl entertained for long periods of time. Maddy seems perfectly content with drawing in her own sketchbook on one of the waiting room tables just at Finn's feet. He occasionally looks over her shoulder to see what she's drawing and is impressed by her talent. He sees several teddy bears being drawn on a shelf, each with their own little outfit and then a zoo filled with different animals. Tina offers the girl her coloured markers and pencils from her backpack to add some colour to the drawings and also watches the eldest cousin with great interest.
Julia remains in Ryder's arms for the majority of the time, not feeling safe to leave them for even a few moments. Her cousin's "boyfriend" doesn't seem to mind, he loves having someone to hold and protect, his mind still thinking about Sara. He had a massive amount of guilt in his stomach, thinking that he could've done something to protect Sara, to save her. He could've done more when they were together. He should've noticed something, anything that would preview what happened to her. He keeps staring down at his blood-stained jeans in silent agony. Julia or "Jay" as her sisters called her, held on to Ryder's shirt collar and he even fished her favourite stuffed animal from her backpack, something she'd brought in for show and tell. It didn't take long that after a couple hours, the youngest of the trio fell asleep cradled in his arms.
Katlyn or 'Katy' as her sisters also called her is the hardest to keep entertained, eventually, Rory runs out of games he can play with her, she'd gone through all the books and toys provided in the waiting room and Artie gives her several rides on his wheel chair before she says she wants to do more. Sam entertains her with more impressions, but as time melts on, the phrase, "I'm bored" is repeated frequently.
She begins to run around, trying to find something to do. It's Blaine's turn to watch her, and he has to catch her before she causes more trouble. She giggles, thinking of it as a fun hide-and-seek game, but Blaine is hardly amused. He catches her underneath an unused gurney, ducking down after her, but she runs towards the door… right smack into a blonde woman.
Katlyn looks up into the woman's hazel-green eyes and the stranger gives her a gently smile. The young girl shies away at first until she sees the woman's nice smile.
"Hello there," the young woman says, her voice very soft and gentle. "What's your name?"
"I'm Katlyn…"
"Hi Katlyn, I'm…"
"Quinn," Finn says, standing up to go greet his ex-girlfriend. The former cheerleader captain looks slightly disheveled, her blonde hair done up in a messy bun, the purple sweater over her laced top and pencil skirt are wrinkled and she has what appears to be an overnight bag over her shoulder.
The former football captain embraces her tightly.
"How is she?" Quinn asks.
"We don't know yet," Finn grimaces. "We've been waiting for news."
"And who are the little girls?"
"They're Sara's cousins," Blaine explains, putting his hands over Kaylie's shoulders to keep her from running away again.
"I'm Katlyn and I'm six," the little one says happily. "Sara told me about you. You were like Kitty for a long time, mean and hard to play with, but she still likes you. You were a Cheerio too. She knows you've had a hard time and she told me you became a mommy to a baby girl. She says you believe in Jesus and you once made your hair look pink, but you changed for the better now."
Quinn Fabray is taken aback by the six-year-old's description of herself. She did not know Sara that well, the former cheerleader had had a few conversations here and there, and the shy girl always seemed to remember the blonde's birthday, giving her small presents, presents that Quinn wasn't sure if she still had or not. A surge of guilt goes through her stomach, thinking she should've valued this glee member's friendship more than she really had and she feared that Sara had been one of her victims of her regrettable bullying early on. The woman looks at the girl and then at Finn.
"The uh, girls have been told all about us by their cousin," he explains.
The blonde smiles and opens her arms to the girl, which she happily accepts. After screwing up things with Shelby and Beth, Quinn wanted another chance to make a difference in a child's life, this time for the better. Her confidence is still a little shaken, but she seems to forget her past faults after being embraced by this child.
"I think it's sweet," she says softly. She goes to greet the other members of the glee club, with Katlyn seeming to trail her the entire time. Blaine and Finn watch with interest.
"I think Katlyn has a new best friend," Finn says quietly.
"I think so too."
Eventually, the blonde sits down in exhaustion. She accepts Katlyn into her lap, thinking about the last few hours. She'd heard about the news from Finn just after she'd gotten out of class. She called Puck, who was on base for the Air Force, but he would be delayed by another day at least. She packed a bag, grabbed the quickest flight to Ohio and then a cab to the hospital, without much time to rest.
Katlyn begins to talk to her. "You're really pretty, you look like a princess."
"Thank you, Katlyn, you look like one too."
Just then the young child's stomach grumbles.
"Sounds like someone is hungry," Quinn says. "Why don't we all go down to the cafeteria for something to eat? All I had was a sandwich on the plane and it was terrible."
"You think hospital food is any better?" Artie grumbles.
"Let's go down, but some of us are going to have to stay here in case there is news," Marley points out.
"I'll stay," Ryder says, still cradling Julia. "I don't want to wake her anyways."
"So, will I," Rory agrees.
"I'll stay too," Finn says.
"We can bring you something, what do you want?" Tina asks.
Once everyone has gathered themselves together, Tina takes Madison by the hand and Quinn holds onto Katlyn, everyone leaves to find something to eat.
The trio of boys sit in elongated silence, watching doctors and nurses rush about, all of them wishing that one of them would stop and say at least something about Sara.
As Ryder continues to hold Jay, he notices something dark on her arm. Quietly and slowly as to avoid waking her, he lifts the dark blue sleeve. To his horror, he sees large thick bruises along her forearm. They look like someone's hand and fingers wrapped around her thin, tiny arm. It looks like as if he was holding onto the girl very tightly, hurting her. It amazed him that the hand didn't break her fragile little arm.
He looks for some explanation but can't draw one, it's not the typical bruise shape that a child should be getting at this age. He slowly readjusts Julia and examines her other arm, he sees more bruising, some very dark and some look like they've been healing for awhile. He then moves her hair out of the way and sees scratch marks and more blue discolouration's on her skin. His heart continues to pound in anger and hate, thinking about who would do this to an innocent child. His brief, first thought was Sara, but he knew she loved these girls with all her heart and she'd never laid a hand on anyone, ever. He then assumed this Joe, Sara's brother and if he was the one who beat her and left her bleeding on the stairs… so help him…
He's about to speak up and point it out to the others, but something interrupts him.
…
Meanwhile, up a level in the hospital, the New Directions members, old and new were purchasing things for dinner. Katlyn holds Quinn's hand the entire time, even when she's carrying a carton of milk and a small sandwich in one hand. The blonde is impressed with how well-mannered the two girls are, saying thank you when Sam offers to pay for the youngster's food and sitting up straight when eating. Katlyn sits next to Quinn the entire time while eating her sandwich quietly and drinking her chocolate milk. Madison sits with Blaine and Tina, eating a muffin and some apple slices calmly.
As they eat, Quinn watches the little girl with great admiration. It's clear that the six-year-old wanted to make a connection with her, and the former Cheerio was more than happy to oblige. She thought that all three girls were very beautiful and special in their own way. She looks at the strawberry blonde girl's hair, braided by Unique and then something makes her stop eating her own salad. She notices dark bruises on Katlyn's forearm, which appeared every time the young girl's sleeve moved when she took a bit of her sandwich. They especially stood out from the girl's plaid long sleeve shirt. They were much darker than any typical bruise for a young child. They had the consistency of a handprint.
She wants to get a closer look, deciding to get an explanation from the girl before jumping to conclusions.
"Katlyn…" she asks gently. "Are you okay? You have a couple ouches there."
The little girl turns away from her sandwich and locks eyes with Quinn for a few moments, and the former cheerleader can see fear and sadness, something that made her stomach turn.
Katlyn is about to speak when Quinn's phone buzzes in her pocket. She checks it to see it's a series of texts from Finn.
News about Sara,
It's bad, but there's more…
get up here now… they read.
…
As the three men wait for what felt like forever, Finn looks down at Madison's drawings as a way of distracting himself and giving him something to do. She'd left them on the table, with the pencils and coloured pens strewn about. He couldn't help but be curious. He picks it up carefully, brushing the pencils aside.
The nine-year-old had her very own sketch book, which had a cover decorated with stickers that sparkled in the fluorescent light of the hospital. He begins flipping through the pages, all were drawings of various things, anything that the fancied the little one's attention.
He saw stars, puppies, fairies, children playing, toys, even a family picture. He sees a mother, a father and the three girls, all with the associated labels. He assumes that they were the girl's parents before they lived with Sara. He sees a picture of what could be Sara and the cousins singing on stage. As he gets deeper into the book, he stops on a few pages that make him be very concerned. He sees the mother and father with angel wings, and he assumes that this was Madison's way of coping with her parents no longer being there. As he flips through more, he sees this dark looking figure always standing over the images, there are four female girls, but the dark one appears male. The three shorter ones are shown playing, while the taller one appears to be wearing a cape, trying to protect the children. They appear to be happy, until he sees the shadowy figure. There's also drawing of what looks like a beer bottle. The "superhero" character seems to have bruises on her body and scratches from multiple fights with the shadow man. But it's one page that really turns his stomach over. There's a picture of what looks like a bad man, with horns and evil looking eyes, holding what seems to be a knife over someone. The victim appears to be a girl with a ponytail, often the way Sara wore her hair and wearing her cape. He swallows bile in his throat as the girl is lying on the floor, her stomach all red. It looks as if she's been stabbed in the stomach, just like the wound she'd received barely a few hours ago.
His hands begin to shake as his mind put the pieces together. He didn't have to guess who the shadow figure and the man with horns was… He can feel tears coming to his eyes and he's about to explode with anger, when a nurse approaches them.
"Is there are Ryder Lynn and Rory Flanagan here?"
"Yes," Ryder says, standing up, Rory following close behind.
"You were both with Sara Walsh when she was brought in?"
"Yes, what happened?"
"Is she okay?"
"Did you stop the bleeding?"
"Where is she?"
"We need to see her."
"Why has it taken so long?"
The nurse blinks in confusion by the flurry of questions and it takes Finn stepping in to settle both boyfriends down.
"Let the woman speak guys," he says.
The nurse clears her throat. "Sara is still in bad condition. Critical and it's not looking great right now. She was just take out of surgery for the big laceration she had at her stomach."
"Laceration?" Rory asks in confusion.
"A large slit, it was deep and caused some internal damage."
Ryder swallows and fights back tears. "How did she…?"
"She's on a respirator for the time being and only time will tell when she wakes up how this will affect her. Additionally, she has numerous cuts and bruises that are in various stages of healing, and her leg was broken both of her wrists as well are badly sprained… She's being prepped for further exams."
The nurse goes on to list more and more injuries, each one feeling like a stab wound to both teen boys' hearts. Their girlfriend is suffering and they're standing out here, not helping her. They seem to tune out whatever else she might day, until she's almost done.
"She was also severely dehydrated and her hormone levels were completely haywire. The doctors have run some more tests and I was asked to come out to find her boyfriend."
"I'm her boyfriend," Ryder says, still holding Julia.
"No, I am," Rory insists angrily.
Finn steps between the two to keep this from escalating. He looks at the confused nurse. "Uh, both are… um… basically, at this moment, Sara was deciding between the two of them. Why is this important?"
"I need to get blood work done in order to determine who the father is…"
