Naia's POV

"Hi Naia, my name is Dr. Manning and this is Dr. Choi." A lady, Dr. Manning said. The man next to her, presumably Dr. Choi, gave me a little wave. "Do you have anybody we can call? One of your parents maybe?"

I didn't say anything and looked out the room to see Ellie with Shane and Thomas talking to a nurse. Sylvie and Gabby were with them as well.

"Naia?"

I turned my attention back to Dr. Manning and Dr. Choi.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Dr. Manning asked me. I bit the inside of my cheek and looked away and at the fancy machines in the room.

They looked expensive.

And scary.

Scary expensive.

"That looks like a pretty bad cut on your forehead." Dr. Choi said, clearly trying to use a different tactic.

I nodded but didn't look at either of them. Was that rude? It probably was so I tried to make an effort to look at them but couldn't. However, I managed to keep my gaze in their direction.

Dr. Choi came a little bit closer and I tensed up, vividly remembering how Mr. Samual had aggressively pushed me this morning. In a flash, Dr. Manning's hand was on a shoulder in a comforting way, but I didn't feel any better as the nervous ball was still rolling around in the pit of my stomach.

"I'm just going to check out that cut." Dr. Choi said and he put on some hospital gloves.

He removed the gauze and looked closely at it.

Dr. Choi let out a tiny sigh, it was more of an exhale really, "You must have hit your head pretty hard, it looks like it might need stitches."

The nurse that Ellie was talking to walked into the room and gave me a smile before turning her attention to the doctors in the room.

"Dr. Manning, Dr. Choi," The nurse had an obviously forced smile on her face.

"Yes, Maggie?" Dr. Manning seemed to have sensed something was wrong, just like how I could. The smile kind of gave it away.

"Can I have a word, outside?" Maggie strained the word outside and then turned her attention back to me, "Hi, Naia...I need to borrow these lovely doctors for a moment but I promise I'll bring them back. In the meantime, I'm sure I can get April who's somewhere around here to clean up that cut."

She looked around the ER behind her and her eyes lit up when she presumably saw April and quickly called her over.

"April this is Naia, Naia this is April. Dr. Manning, Dr. Choi?"

When the three of them left the room, April turned to me.

"Let's get that cleaned up." She said and smiled.

I managed to give her a weak smile back but from the corner of my eye I could see Maggie talking to Dr. Manning and Dr. Choi and I had a sneaking suspicion it was either about me, Ellie, Shane, Thomas, or all of us.

It was all kind of a blur. The doctors coming back with strange looks on their faces and getting stitches. Dr. Manning told me that I would have to stay at the hospital for a little bit since they were extra careful with head injuries.

Not that I minded. Staying here meant that it would delay us having to go back to the Samuals and that would be nice.

April brought me a deck of cards to play with Ellie, Shane and Thomas though, to "help pass the time" as she had put it.

"Thomas, do you have an eight?" Ellie asked. Thomas shook his head.

"Go fish."

Ellie picked up a card from the pile in the center. Nobody did or said anything for a moment so all we could hear was Shane tapping his foot to a steady beat.

"Your turn Naia." Shane reminded me.

"Sorry," I mumbled, "Um, Ellie, do you have a ten?"

"Yeah, I do," Ellie said and handed me the card. I put down the pair but then ended up just throwing my whole hand down.

"I'm sorry guys, you can start another round but I think I'm gonna sleep a little," I said, feeling bad that I had to cut their game short. Ellie looked at me and nodded. I knew she understood and I helped them pack up the cards.

While the boys headed out, Ellie stopped and she held my hand while she spoke.

"You okay?" She asked me and I nodded.

"Just tired, that's it." I lied and she gave me an encouraging smile.

"It's going to be okay." She said confidently, though I heard the slight miss in her tone.

I nodded and tried to believe her, but deep down I doubted that things were going to be okay. We were going to get into a lot of trouble. Not just Ellie, even though she did what was right. All of us.

Ellie then followed the boys, probably back to the room where they were first taken to.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but I wasn't exactly tired so I just kind of sat there, staring at the people who walked by. It must have looked creepy to the people outside the room, to see a pale and small girl with dark hair and bloodshot eyes just staring as if she was possessed or something.

A few minutes passed and a knock on the door brought me back to reality.

"Are you okay Naia?" Dr. Manning asked as she walked in.

I shrugged and looked down at my fingers. Was I okay?

"Okay, well, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Charles and Dr. Reese over here." Dr. Manning said. I looked up to see two other people. One was an older man with glasses and the other was a young woman with curly hair.

"Hi Naia," The one with glasses said, "I'm Dr. Charles."

I wasn't really sure what to do. If they wanted me to talk, or if they wanted to talk to me.

"Thank you, Dr. Manning." Dr. Charles said and Dr. Manning left.

Dr. Charles introduced Dr. Reese and then started talking but I tuned him out.

I just wanted to be left alone right now but clearly, that wouldn't be happening.