Naia's POV

I was woken up the next morning by the alarm going off.

Ambo 23, one car accident at Ashland Avenue

I realized now that the bed was empty beside me so I got up and went to the kitchen where Jimmy was making pancakes for breakfast.

"Morning Munchkin! How did you sleep?" Matt asked me as I took a seat next to Stella.

I nodded, "Good."

"It's really snowing out there!" Stella said, looking out the window and all of the heads in the room turned.

The snow was falling in a flurry. It was the first thing you noticed when you looked. Snow. Snow. Snow.

"Probably how the car accident happened." Herrmann said, referring to the call that just came in. "Driver couldn't see and crashed into something."

This made me worried. "I hope Shay and Foster are okay." I said as Jimmy slid a plate of pancakes in front of me.

"Don't worry, Shay's a very good driver." Gabby said, passing me the maple syrup even though I hadn't asked for it. "We've done plenty of calls in weather worse than this."

Matt nodded in agreement, "That's right. Now eat up, once it stops snowing, we can go sledding."

I perked up, "Sledding?"

"You betcha Munchkin." Matt said, winking at me. "After our shift is over and the snow stops."

This encouraged me to eat all of the breakfast, even though I wasn't that hungry. When I finished, I brought my plate over to the sink and rinsed the extra maple syrup off before putting it in the dishwasher.

Gabby and Matt's shift ended at 8:00 so I guess I'd just have to wait until then.

"Can we go sledding?" I asked for what seemed like the tenth time. We were all sitting on the couch back at Gabby and Matt's apartment now.

Gabby laughed, "Patience kiddo. The snow hasn't stopped yet. Matt and I promised that when it stopped snowing, we'd take you sledding."

I pouted, "But what if it never stops snowing?"

"It will, trust me Munchkin." Matt said, ruffling my hair, "See, it's already starting to slow down.

This was very true. It was no longer a flurry but it also wasn't just lightly falling. It was somewhat in between, though closer to lightly falling. Sighing, I leaned against the back of the couch and tried to watch the movie that was on but I'll be honest, I wasn't really paying attention.

"Where are we going to go sledding?" I asked.

Matt chuckled, "Is that all you're going to talk about?"

"Come on Naia!" Shane yelled as he ran up the hill. "Hurry up!"

Shaking my head, I trudged back up the hill through the thick snow. Ellie and Thomas were already up there. We had lucked out. On one of our Sunday trips to the park, we had found a somewhat decent sled that somebody tossed. Of course we took it and now Ellie and I took the boys sledding every Sunday if there was enough snow.

It was a tight squeeze, but we all managed to fit on the tiny sled. In the very front was Thomas followed by Shane, then me and then finally Ellie.

"Everybody ready?" Ellie asked, ready to give us jump start with her hands.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" The boys chanted and Ellie laughed before pushing off. We flew down the hill, snow flying into our faces. When we started slowing down, we all rolled out of the sled and into the soft snow.

"Yeah, that's all I'm going to talk about." I said, grinning at him.

Gabby laughed, "Alright, you win. There's a hill near by, back by Willow's Park. My parents used to take Antonio and I there all the time when we were kids."

For some odd reason, I had a strange sensation to talk to a certain someone. Yeah, that's right.

"Gabby?" I asked, "Can I try calling my mom again?"

Gabby raised an eyebrow, "Of course." She pulled out her phone and handed it to me.

"Her name's Kristin. Just press the call button when you find her contact." Gabby said and I nodded.

Kristin.

I clicked the call button and put the phone to my ear. I heard a the familiar ring.

Once.

Then the click and a voice.

"Hi Gabby!" Kristin, or I guess, Mom, said.

My throat closed and I gave a tiny cough.

"Um, it's Naia." I choked out.

Silence.

"Oh, Naia! I was wondering when you were going to call." Kristin, no Mom, said. I gave a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, well, I called." I said awkwardly. I looked over at Gabby who gave me an encouraging smile.

Mom laughed, "Yes you did. Look, I was thinking that we should meet up soon. You, Dad, Nolan, Gabby, Matt and I. All of us. I want to explain what happened in person, face to face."

I nodded but then realized that she couldn't see me. Duh. "Uh, yeah. Of course. That sounds good."

"Okay. So, how have you been?" Mom asked me.

Oh yeah, about that. Did you know that you left me an abusive couple who beat us practically everyday? They tried to shoot the other kids but I wasn't there. That kind of backfired and now they're both dead. I stayed with Gabby and Matt for a little bit, everything was great, but then this man, who I later found out was the brother of the wife of the couple adopted me and then locked me in his bathroom because he thought I was the reason his sister was dead. He wanted to kill me but I wasn't dying the way he wanted so he tied me to a bed and set the house on fire. Apparently I coded on the way to the hospital after I was rescued but I don't remember any of that.

"Good." I said. "How's Nolan?"

"He's good. He's almost sixteen now. He turns sixteen on December 30." Mom answered. "Look, I have to go but I'll call back and we can arrange a day to meet up."

I nodded but I knew this time she couldn't see me. "Sounds good. Bye." I didn't wait for her to say bye back before I hung up.

"What did she say?" Matt asked as I got up from the couch.

I started walking to my room, "Nothing much." I went into my room and closed the door before crawling under the covers of my bed. I pulled the covers up to my chin and buried my head into the pillow.

Nothing much.