Rebirth – Chapter 11: Reconcile

-Notes-

Agent182: Oooh, getting better eh? Thanks! I hope you guys aren't too irked about how long it's taking to get to the whole romance deal (i.e. what the story's supposed to be about) but I'm trying to develop here. Stay tuned!

AngelGardian666: XD! Oh, someone will get naked eventually, I'm sure.

Kaliska Vanka: Ugh! I have issues with nurses…Dun worry though, they'll go away soon. :D

Merry-2004: Muahhahaha! Scary scary Dr. Gordon. As for posting anywhere else? Heh, I don't think so. I'm happy to stick in a big place like this, where it's easy to go unnoticed. I'm a freaked out anti-socialist, sometimes even online. Besides, some of the subject matter in this story isn't exactly…agreeable by all. Thanks for reviewing!

Things get worse before they can get better, right? Let's read and find out…

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"Daddy!"

Lawrence's eyes snapped open as a high-pitched voice rang in his ears, jumping in a motion that might have caused him to fall out of bed had there not been a rail to prevent it. "Diana?" he rubbed his head and tried to focus his vision.

The young girl was suddenly by his bed, reaching up her arms to him desperately.

"Diana! Oh Diana—" Lawrence's tired haze was easily sliced away by joy as he grabbed for her.

"Diana! Don't—" Allison's voice followed from behind in a scolding tone, but she stopped at she saw his reaction.

He held his daughter to him as hard as he dared, kissing her face a few times before he laughed aloud. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too!" she said, and he could already hear the tears in her voice. "Why are you in the hospital Daddy? Why?"

"It's okay, it's okay, don't cry…" he pleaded, looking at Allison painfully for a moment. She returned the emotion. "Daddy just had an accident…that's all…but I'm gonna be fine now. See? Don't I look okay?"

"I know you didn't want her to see you in the hospital, Larry, but…she just had to." Allison said as she came over, placing a hand on her daughter's head. "It's been a couple days, so I thought it would be alright."

Lawrence couldn't decide what to feel. It was true, he looked a little better than he had a few nights ago, but still in an unhapppy position for his young daughter to see him. "It's fine." He uttered.

No one said anything for a while, only a series of sniffles coming from Diana as she gripped the front of her father's shirt. "The bad man hurt you too, didn't he, Daddy?"

Lawrence cringed and opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't find the words. He wanted to lie to her. When he thought about Jigsaw and what he intended for her, he almost couldn't contain his rage. "…The bad man's gone, Diana. For good. He can't hurt anybody any more."

She pulled back, looking up at him with tear-stained cheeks. "Did he die?" her tone was fearful, but twistedly hopeful as well. It was unnerving to hear such a grizzly hope come from the mouth of a child.

Lawrence put what was a relatively large hand in comparison to her face, pushing her hair away and wiping off the tears. With a simple grim nod on his part, she was quieted. He ignored the morbid thought, however, as he studied her. It was as though he was seeing her for the first time again, the fragile newborn to whom he had been half responsible for creating, and he was overcome with a sense of relieved gratitude just for having been able to hear her voice again. "I love you." He said plainly, never so honest. He hugged her again.

"I'll…go get a soda, okay?" Allison looked down at Diana, then back to Lawrence. "You want anything."

"No thanks." He answered back in a grateful tone.

"Okay. Well I'll be back in a few minutes." She forced up a smile.

"Are you okay, Diana? Are you doing alright?" he asked as he watched Allison depart.

She nodded, still clutched into him. "Guess so."

There was a long moment of silence between them after that, no words needed to be spoken. Lawrence was elated with the feeling of true, real love, something that he had missed avidly when it was not there, and something he had admittedly pushed aside at times.

"What's wrong with you? Are you sick?" she asked timidly.

"No, honey, I'm just…well…I…" he faltered, trying to pull up a soft explanation. "I hurt my foot is all." He half-lied. That wasn't all. That wasn't nearly all. But he couldn't possibly explain to her the real circumstances. He could barely comprehend them himself, let alone a child.

She looked down curiously at the cast covering his deadened foot and wiped her eyes. He was never so grateful for the sight. He honestly doubted that it was even possible to have that foot functional again, but she didn't have to know it. She didn't have to see what he'd been forced to do. And that was all that mattered. "Is it broken?" she asked innocently.

"Uh…well yes, sort of." He nodded as he watched her staring at his injury.

"How did you break it?" her eyes went back to his, and he swallowed.

"It…was…just an accident." He justified pitifully. He had to think on his feet here, no pun intended.

She seemed to accept this for the time-being, enough, at least. "Where?" was her next question.

He tried not to hesitate too long. "Diana, um…"

"It was the bad man's place, wasn't it?" she prodded.

He both cursed and blessed her at once for being so intuitive. "Y…yeah." He faked a smile and brushed a hand through her hair. "But I was too smart for him. I got out."

"How did you get out?" she sniffed one more time and looked up at him intently, much as she did when he told her stories in the past. None so grim as this, granted.

"You know…oh, well," he sat up a little better, determined to hide the surge of pain that came from his leg as he moved. "A friend helped me."

"Who?" she glanced down at his foot again.

"His name is Adam." Lawrence smiled.

"…Did the bad man get him too?" he caught fear in her eyes, and he knew why. He didn't want her to think that those evil bastards in the world had the power over anyone they wished.

"…Well what I do know is that it's because of Adam that the bad man's gone." He decided. "He's a very good person."

This seemed to lighten her spirits just a tad. "Really?"

"Yep." Lawrence confirmed. "…If it weren't for Adam, I'd…" he paused. Whatever you were about to say, drop it. His mind told him as he looked upon his only child. He didn't want to scare her, not again.

"What happened to him?" she asked when he did not continue.

"He's fine. He…hurt his shoulder, so he's in this hospital, too. I've been talking with him for the past few days." He told her truthfully. Even if he had only seen Adam one other time besides the first, his presence had done him good. It was impossibly lonely here, especially with only nerve-wracking memories to accompany him. He imagined it was the same for Adam.

Diana appeared to be thinking for a long while on that statement. As long as she was not displeased, Lawrence didn't fret her silence. She took his arm after a moment and examined it for herself, studying the paleness of his skin. "When are you coming home, Daddy?" she asked.

"In…well maybe in a week or so." He bit his lip as he watched her reaction.

Tears were already filling in her eyes again as she looked back up at him once again. "But…that's a really long time…"

"Don't worry…" he pulled her into him again. "Don't worry…you can come and see me every day." He kissed the top of her head and pushed her back to look at her. "And every time you see me, I'll be better and better until before you know it, I'll be going home with you."

"I just want you to come home now." Tears leaked from her eyes, and she shook her head.

"I know. I want to go home too. But it's not time yet." He assured, pushing her head back up against his chest.

She sniffed hard and lowered her tone to a small whisper. "…I hate this place." She said, almost in a way that said she was afraid of what he'd say about that.

Lawrence froze for a moment in surprise when the sentiment hit him. It was a nagging feeling that muttered…So do I.

Lawrence looked up slowly as he heard steps entering the room, halfway into making a comment to Allison before he realized that the figure approaching was not his wife.

"Hey—oh…yikes, sorry, I didn't mean to um…" Adam stood near the door, one hand in his pocket and the other scratching the back of his head. It was then that Lawrence registered Adam's attire. He was dressed in casual clothes—jeans, a white shirt, and a blue overshirt—not the standard issued hospital gown.

"Oh, Adam." He pulled back a little from Diana, a hand still resting on her head. "No, uh…come in."

"A-are you sure, 'cause really man, I can just—" he gestured over his shoulder with a thumb.

"No, it's fine." Lawrence insisted. "But what are you doing here like this? I mean, shouldn't you be…?" he blinked.

"That's what I came to tell you…uh...." He started, his eyes continually finding the young girl near the bed.

Lawrence snapped out of his momentary confusion and smiled. "Diana, this is Adam. Remember? I was telling you about him?"

She looked up at Adam with wide eyes.

"Oh…" a nervous but affectionate smile appeared on Adam's features. "…Hi there, Diana…You're Dad told me about you." He hesitantly held up his hand in a small wave.

"He did?" her eyes went back and forth between them.

"Well sure I did." Lawrence laughed slightly. "Uh…Diana, why don't you go find your mom for a few minutes, okay? Adam and I just needed to talk for a second."

Her tears were miraculously gone, as was the superhuman power of any child, and she nodded in obedience. "Okay." She turned and trudged towards the door, but she stopped at Adam, looking down at the ground shyly.

Adam gazed down at her with wonder. "Hey…"

"Thanks for getting rid of the bad man." Her eyes darted from his face to the floor. With that, she crept forward and hugged up against him for a quick second.

"I-I…" he stared down with clear shock, fumbling for words. "Well…yeah…O-okay." He tenatively patted her head, the smile coming back to him.

"I hope your shoulder gets better, too." She stepped back and tried to find any signs of injury in either of his shoulders. Covered by the shirt, she could see none.

"You know what, I think it already is." He tapped his bandaged shoulder. "Thanks a lot."

"Okay. Well I'll see you later." She said before leaving the room.

"Bye." He looked after her, holding up his hand. He turned back to Lawrence, who had a wide smile like he knew something Adam didn't.

"Didn't I tell you she was great?" he said lightly.

Adam nodded cheerily. "She is. She's…well she's really beautiful."

"So," Lawrence fixed his position again. "what's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, great." He said, moving to the chair. "Um, well look, I got discharged today."

Lawrence stopped, staring at Adam in what couldn't quite be called astonishment, but was more slightly bewildered. "Oh…well, that's, that's great, Adam."

He sat down, rolling his wounded shoulder once with a shudder. "I just, you know, thought I should tell you."

"Yeah…" Lawrence meant to say more, but he wasn't sure what else there was. The truth was, he didn't feel comfortable with Adam leaving. Not because he worried about his health, or because he would feel lonely in this place without him (granted, those were both very small concerns, but easily dismissed), but because of what that meant for Adam to face. Based on the conversation that had taken place a few days ago, he could assume that Adam was just going to file back into his old life. Alone, in his apartment, with nothing and no one again. Just the memories. There was no worse company than that. Life could simply go on for him, haunted by this awful thing. No one had noticed that he was gone—mabye Adam wouldn't even see the reason to tell them about it. It would be possible that his family could miss the news, even as big as this story surely would become…He had been tormented and violated, and he was just going to…push it down. Lawrence quickly shook the thought away. Now his mind was just making up stories. …He hoped.

"So…how are they?" Adam asked, obviously referring to Lawrence's wife and child.

"Good." Lawrence replied thankfully.

Adam nodded and paused again, looking down at the floor distantly. "Um…well, here." He leaned forward and dug through a pocket of his shirt, producing a folded slip of paper that Lawrence took from him curiously.

"What's this?" Lawrence unfolded it.

"I-It's my uh, phone number and address. You know, so you can get a hold of me, if you need to."

"That's great," Lawrence said, scanning over the paper. "I should give you mine."

There was a scrabbling moment where Lawrence rummaged through his surroundings for a pen, then some paper. At once he was scribbling down quickly, Adam peering over his arm to see. After a few impatient moments, Adam snorted. "You writing me a number or a phonebook?"

"Here." Lawrence handed it up, pointing to the series of numbers he'd written. "Um…well that's my home number here, up top. Then my cell phone number. The next is my work number if it's an emergency and then you can page me here," he motioned lastly. "or you can ask th-"

"Whoah, hey, alright man." Adam chuckled, taking the paper. "Unless your house is situated in an ass-corner of Area 51, I'm sure I can find you."

He watched Adam fiddle with the paper between his fingers before he folded it languidly in a single crease and placed it back into his pocket. "Guess you're going home tonight, then." Lawrence prodded.

"Yeah." Adam said. His voice was clearly mixed with emotion, an odd tangle of discomfort and relief all at once. Lawrence understood.

"And…you'll be alright?" he tilted his head a little to try and catch Adam's gaze, seeing that he was purposefully holding his eyes away.

"Sure." He responded stubbornly, wiping a hand over his face in what Lawrence was beginning to suspect was a nervous gesture.

"Sure." Lawrence repeated. "I just…you know…"

"Just gotta find a new gig. Do some shopping maybe." He shrugged, trying to keep the mood light.

"You know what I mean." Lawrence cut through his façade.

Adam bit down on his lip, releasing a gruff sigh. "Hey man, it's over…I can take care of myself, I'm not a fucking kid."

"I didn't say that, I…" he recoiled a little, noting Adam's awkward mood. That alone told him all he needed to know. Despite the wall he was trying to put up, Adam was already having trouble dealing with all this.

"Uh…I-I had something else before…this." Adam tried to continue. "A job, I mean. Looked like it would pay pretty decent."

"Good." Lawrence nodded. "That's good."

"Yeah." He said again. "What about you, you gonna be alright? I mean, until you can work again, I guess."

Lawrence pondered at that grimly. Honestly he hadn't even contemplated what it would be like to come back working here. Would he even be able to? Assuming he would lose his foot, which was a very likely possibility, what would he do? …If Jigsaw's intent hadn't been to kill them, it surely must've been to ruin their lives. And he couldn't help but think that maybe he'd done a good job of it. He didn't know anything else but to be what he was. He'd gone through years of medical school, hours upon hours and sleepless night after sleepless night studying terms and conditions and trying his hardest to pass his exams. He'd never even given a thought to anything else—he didn't have time. He quickly surpressed the momentary panic and looked back at Adam with an intake of breath. "Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Right." Adam glanced at the clock, then to the door. "Lawrence, um," he scratched the back of his head, unwittingly grazing the still-healing cut. "can I come and see you here? Well, I-I guess, I usually work at night and all, so maybe sometime during the day…"

"Of course." Lawrence agreed hastily. "If you really have time…I'd like to see you."

"All I've got is time." Said Adam with a smirk, but something in that statement made Lawrence somewhat sad.

"Great. I appriciate it, Adam." He thanked, looking down again at the paper in his own hands.

"Okay. Well I better go." He said at last, standing. He looked down at Lawrence hesitantly as if he wanted to say—or do—something more, but whatever it was, it was forgotten as he went for the door. "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure."

"…See ya."

"Bye…" he watched Adam go with restrained objection to his departure.

Adam gave one last look to him, a confused and unreadable emotion in his eyes before he was gone. Lawrence sighed, wondering if Adam, or himself for that matter, would really be okay…