The next couple of day went by in a blur. Medical checkups, legal questions, visiting Robin and Harry, and so much more. Not a lot registered with Manny. It was like watching a movie for most of the week. The times where it felt real were mostly when he was talking with Ray in Robin and Harry's room, sometimes with Ms. Lawson there as well. Ms. Lawson was always nice, she even smuggled him candy once, but she had a hard time reading the mood. Often when Manny had had a particularly bad day it would be Ray to give her a meaningful look to back down a bit.
It had been a slow day, mostly just listening to Ray talk about video games from the last year, when Ms. Lawson entered his hospital room with the biggest smile on her face.
"Manny! I have fantastic news!" She quickly pulled a chair to the side of his bed and spread some documents and manilla folders around his feet.
"We finally got an answer from Mr. Mitchell's relatives!" It was still weird hearing Harry referred to by his last name. "They're super excited that Mr. Mitchell is safe, and his sister, Avery, says that she was the one you we're going to stay with. She's going to take care of you after you get out of the hospital." He remembered hearing about Avery.
"You would let me stay with her?"
"She is a registered foster parent and has already taken in one kid, so we're confident that it's a safe place for you to stay. We're thinking of letting her visit you here before you move in though, so you can help make the decision." Manny turned this over in his mind.
"…I'll do it." Ms. Lawson lit up and quickly started talking about the technical stuff. Manny tuned her out and tried to remember what Harry had said about Avery.
It was one of the nights that Harry and Robin had been able to bring Manny to their place. Dad was gone for the week, some sort of convention for his company, so they could get Manny out of that hellhole and not worry about getting caught. The last thing they needed was Robin getting fired as Manny's babysitter.
They were all sitting on the floor eating plates of spaghetti in the living room. (The two person apartment "surprisingly" didn't have enough chairs at the dining table for three.)
"Manny?" Robin set his half eaten plate on the floor. "Can we ask you something?"
"Yeah! What is is?" Manny shoved one last meatball into his mouth.
"If we found a way to get you out of your house, like you move in with us, would you be okay with that?" An uncanny silence followed before Manny ran into Robin for a hug, nearly knocking over a cup in the process.
"You mean it?" Came the muffled reply.
"Yes, of course! We've been gathering evidence to put Roy in jail since I started babysitting you. We're planning to take him to court soon, but we want to get you to a safe place first." Robin said.
Harry's low voice chimed in, closer than he was before.
"My twin sister Avery has a fairly large house and is willing to let us stay there while we make sure that you're safe and we look for a place with more that one bedroom, as long as it's alright with you." Alright? It was a dream come true.