Chapter 8

Atlanta's heart was racing as she walked off the elevator and towards Chloe's room, she really wanted Chloe to stay with her and Archie until she got better, hopefully she would say yes.

As Atlanta walked up to Chloe's door she hesitated before knocking on it.

"Come in." Atlanta heard Chloe call a few seconds later.

Atlanta opened the door slowly looking at Chloe; she was sitting up reading a magazine, when she saw Atlanta she put the magazine down smiling.

"Atlanta!" She said happily, "I thought you'd be in the cafeteria eating."

"I'm not hungry."

Chloe looked at Atlanta surprised, "really?"

Atlanta nodded her head, before sitting on the chair beside Chloe.

"You've barely left my side the past couple of days."

"I'm honestly fine." Atlanta insisted.

Chloe looked at Atlanta raising her eyebrow confused, "you don't look fine."

Atlanta laughed nervously wishing that she had have hidden the nerves she was feeling at asking Chloe if she'd like to live with her and Archie instead of going back to the orphanage.

"Chloe…" Atlanta began, trying to think of what she was going to say.

"Yes?" Chloe asked after a few moments of silence.

"Archie and I were just wondering…" Atlanta said trailing off again.

"Wondering what?" Chloe asked her voice full of curiosity.

"Archie and I were just wondering if you'd like to come stay with us until your leg gets better?" Atlanta asked speaking very fast; she wondered if Chloe even understood what she had just asked.

Chloe surprised rested her head against the pillow looking up at the ceiling, clearly thinking.

"I'm sorry." Atlanta said feeling foolish, "you barely know us and we barely know you."

"Atlanta, I've been on my own for so long… maybe it would be nice to live with someone again." Chloe said her eyes filling with tears, "It's been so long since I've had a happy home, and I really don't want to go back to back to the orphanage."

"Well Archie and I would be happy to help you with that." Atlanta said wrapping her arms around Chloe, as they both began crying, a few moments later Archie walked into the room.

"Whoa sorry." Archie said awkwardly, he had never been good with people crying let alone girls.

"Archie, Chloe wants to stay with us!" Atlanta said excitedly.

"Really?" Archie asked surprised, "like until her leg heels?"

"I'd actually like to stay for longer than that." Chloe said a little bit unsure.

"You're welcome to stay with Archie and I for as long as you'd like." Atlanta said smiling.

"Uh Atlanta, can I talk to you?" Archie asked.

Atlanta wanted to say no but as soon as she looked at Archie's face she knew something was up.

"I'll be right back." Atlanta said looking at Chloe as she stood up following Archie out the door and into the hallway.

"What's up Archie?"

"K first thing," Archie began holding up one finger, "you do realize that it takes a lot of work to adopt a child right?"

"Well yes…" Atlanta began before getting cut off by Archie.

"And are you sure she even wants to be adopted by us?"

"She told me that she was tired of being alone… look Archie why don't we just give it a try let her live with us, and if she decides after her leg is better that she doesn't want to live with us then so be it." Atlanta said begging; she had grown quite fond of Chloe and didn't want to lose her.

Archie sighed as Atlanta began crying before pulling her into a hug, "OK let's give it a try."

Atlanta smiled up at Archie standing on her tiptoes to kiss his neck.

"I love you." Atlanta said resting her head on his chest.

"I love you too." Archie said kissing her head.

Atlanta was totally content as she rested her head on Archie's chest again, but something felt wrong, he seemed far too tense, and as Archie let out a heavy sigh Atlanta knew something was wrong, Archie ever only really sighed when he was upset or when something was on his mind.

"What's wrong?" Atlanta asked looking up at Archie.

"It's nothing." Archie said giving Atlanta a smile trying to reassure her, but the smiled didn't seem very sincere.

"Archie, I know you better than that, what's wrong?" Atlanta asked again.

Archie sighed again, "it's probably nothing but when I was walking back up here I passed by the ICU and I saw Theresa."

"What?" Atlanta asked alarmed, "is Jay OK?"

"Jay's fine, it's Neil and Krista that I'm worried about."

"Why?"

"Because Theresa told me that Neil and Krista were in an accident and Krista was brought here because she was in labor, and Jay had taken Neil to the school."

"What?" Atlanta asked confused, "why wouldn't they bring both Neil and Krista here?"

"That's what I was confused about, plus Theresa had a broken wrist, and she was acting very strange."

"I wonder if she's still here…" Atlanta said looking down the hallway at the sign pointing to the ICU, "I think maybe I'll try talking to her, she shouldn't keep anything from me."

"I'll stay here with Chloe." Archie said kissing Atlanta's cheek, "good luck."

"Thanks." Atlanta said as she walked down the hallway in search of Theresa to find some answers.

Jay could hear voices around him talking, but he couldn't figure out what any of them were saying, since he had ringing in his ears.

"What happened?" Jay asked himself trying to remember but no memories were coming back to him.

"I think he's coming to." Jay finally heard someone, sounded like Chiron say as the ringing in his ears began going away.

"Jay, are you OK?" Hera's voice came pretty close to Jay's head, making his head pound.

Jay moaned as he saw a bright light and he turned his head trying to get away from it.

"Jay, if you can hear me open your eyes." Hera said again.

Jay began trying to force his eyes to open but they refused to.

"Chiron, try turning off the light it could be bothering his eyes." Hera commanded, and a few seconds later the bright light disappeared.

"Neil's almost awake now too." Chiron said.

"Neil?" Jay thought to himself as the memory of Neil being in an accident came flooding back to him, Jay gasped sitting up too fast and getting a head rush.

"Easy there!" Chiron said putting his hand on Jay's back to stop him from falling backwards, after a few moments Jay didn't feel like he was going to pass out again.

"Where's Neil?" Jay asked looking around the room but couldn't see past Hera.

"He's almost awake; you and Theresa saved his life." Chiron said as he checked Jay's vitals.

"What happened anyways?" Jay asked disoriented as he realized that he was on the floor.

"You gave Neil some blood and passed out." Hera said putting her hand on Jay's shoulder, "you saved his life, Jay."

Jay nodded as he watched Chiron stand up, "OK Jay's fine, now let's work on getting Neil awake."

Jay immediately stood up rushing over to Neil's bed where he was still lying unconscious, but he had color back in his face and was breathing at a normal pace again.

"Neil, can you hear me?" Chiron asked, and to Jay's surprise Neil moaned.

"Neil!" Jay yelled a little bit too loudly sitting down beside him, "Neil wake up!"

Neil moaned again turning his head.

"Jay stop yelling at him and let him wake up on his own." Hera commanded.

Jay nodded looking at Neil before taking out his PMR, "I'd better call Theresa." Jay said walking into the hallway and pressing the button.

After three rings Theresa finally picked up, "Theresa here."

"Hey Theresa."

"Jay, how's Neil?"

"He'll be awake soon, how's Krista and the baby?" Jay asked nervously.

"Krista's still on some heavy duty pain meds so she's still out, the baby is fine, actually better then fine she's perfect." Theresa said smiling.

"That's great news!" Jay said relieved, "as soon as Neil's awake I'll bring him over."

"OK." Theresa said smiling, "I'll see you soon."

"Love you." Jay said kissing the screen.

"I love you too." Theresa said kissing the screen as well and laughing.

As Jay hung up the PMR and walked back into the room he was surprised to see that Neil was sitting up and looking around with a confused expression on his face.

"Where's Krista?!" He demanded.

"Neil calm down you've just been through a traumatic experience!" Chiron commanded.

"No you don't understand!" Neil said begging, "Krista was in labor!"

Jay quickly ran over to the bed and placed a hand on Neil's chest gently pushing him backwards, "Neil I just spoke to Theresa, Krista and your baby are fine."

"They are?" Neil asked relaxing.

"Yes, and as soon as Chiron's done checking you over we'll go and see them." Jay said happy when he saw Neil nod before relaxing more, but Jay could still tell that Neil wanted to jump up right then but he managed to control himself.

"OK, Neil, you're fine." Chiron said almost falling over as Neil jumped up hitting him in the face.

"Oops sorry Chiron!" Neil said giving Chiron an apologetic look before grabbing Jay's arm, "let's go, Jay!" Neil demanded pulling Jay out of the room.

"Whoa!" Jay called as he struggled to keep up with Neil's pace, but Neil didn't seem to notice he just kept pulling Jay's arm pulling him once they made it outside to Jay's car Neil began tapping the handle impatiently.

"Hurry up, Jay!" Neil commanded.

"OK sorry." Jay said finally able to get the key into the hole to unlock the driver's door, once the door was open Neil jumped in, and Jay started the engine speeding down the street.

Theresa was starting to get annoyed with the broken wrist and it hadn't even been twelve hours yet, she had gotten bored sitting in the hospital room with Krista waiting for her to wake up so Theresa had decided to go get a coffee, but while she was pouring the coffee she ended up spilling it all over the counter and herself because she couldn't hold the cup and pour at the same time so of course the cup fell over, luckily the coffee hadn't been hot, Theresa guessed that it had been sitting there for a while and she was actually thankful for that fact, she definitely didn't need a third degree burn on top of a broken wrist.

As Theresa walked to the bathroom to clean up her shirt her PMR went off, taking it out of her pocket she pressed the talk button.

"Hello?"

"Theresa!" Neil's frantic voice came from the other end.

"Hey, Neil glad to see you're awake!" Theresa said smiling.

"Jay and I are on our way."

"OK." Theresa said feeling a knot building in her stomach at having to explain to Jay about how she broke her wrist, he would probably go insane.

"See you soon." Neil said after a second.

"I'll meet you guys outside." Theresa said hanging up the PMR walking into the bathroom, bumping into Atlanta.

"Theresa?" Atlanta asked surprised.

"Oh hey, Atlanta." Theresa said as surprised.

"What happened to your wrist?" Atlanta asked looking the sling and the cast.

"Oh… I… fell?" Theresa said trying to make the lie sound convincing but it came out sounding more like a question.

Atlanta raised her eyebrow, "you sound like you don't even know."

"No I definitely fell." Theresa said pleased with herself that this time she sounded more convincing, but Theresa could tell by the look on Atlanta's face that she still didn't believe her, "um well I'd like to clean my shirt so…" Theresa said trying to get past Atlanta, but she blocked the entrance of the bathroom with her arms.

"Archie said that Neil and Krista were in an accident." Atlanta said.

"Uh yeah they were." Theresa said.

"Archie also said that Jay took Neil to the school, and you brought Krista here, why?" Atlanta asked her voice full of suspicion.

"I brought Krista here because she was in labor."

"Yes, Archie mentioned that as well, how is the baby?" Atlanta asked her voice full of worry.

"She's fine, and so is Krista," Theresa said looking at Atlanta's arms, "now could you please let me through?" she asked annoyed, "Jay and Neil are going to be here soon and I need to go meet them."

"Not until you answer one more question." Atlanta said taking Theresa's good arm and dragging her into the bathroom, locking the door before trapping Theresa against the sink, "why did you bring Krista here and Jay took Neil to the school, especially since Krista was in labor?"

Theresa felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest, she really wasn't sure if she should tell Atlanta about Cronus and Odie but at the moment it didn't look like she had much of a choice, just then her PMR went off, meaning that Jay and Neil were probably outside.

"Look, Atlanta I will explain to you everything later, I promise!" Theresa said putting her hands over her chest, "but right now I have somewhere to go."

Atlanta looked like she wanted to argue but she trusted Theresa and knew that she would tell her when the time was right.

"OK fine, but I want answers soon." Atlanta said sounding slightly annoyed.

"I promise." Theresa said again before running out of the bathroom and towards the entrance of the hospital, where she found Neil and Jay standing right by the entrance.

"Theresa!" Jay said alarmed when he saw her wrist in a cast, "what happened?!"

"I'll explain later, right now let's bring Neil to see Krista." Theresa said walking back into the hospital with Neil hot on her heels.

"Here we are." Theresa said stopping outside of Krista's door.

Neil smiled at Theresa as he walked inside, Jay and Theresa stayed outside.

"So what happened?" Jay asked again.

"Odie attacked me." Theresa said shuddering at the memory.

"What?!" Jay demanded.

"And I punched him trying to get him off of me… which turned out to be a really bad idea." Theresa said shuddering again as she thought of the pain she had felt punching Odie.

"How could he do that?!" Jay demanded again.

"How could he attack Neil?" Theresa asked, "Jay, Odie is a vampire I don't think that he has much of a soul anymore."

"I shouldn't have left you alone." Jay said clenching her hands into fists.

Theresa took Jay's hand with her good hand and squeezed it, "if you had have stayed with me then Neil probably would be dead right now, stop blaming yourself." Theresa said kissing Jay's cheek.

"Ms. Cook?" Came the nurse from earlier right beside Jay and Theresa.

"Oh hi." Theresa said surprised she hadn't even heard her footsteps.

"And you are?" She asked looking at Jay.

"I'm Jay Vincent." Jay said holding out his hand, the nurse shook it.

"Well Ms. Cook we're ready to bring your sister out of the induced coma that we kept her in to keep the pain under control, and that means she can meet her daughter." The nurse said and Theresa noticed that she was pushing a crib with Neil and Krista's baby inside.

"OK sounds good; her husband is actually already inside."

The nurse nodded as she walked inside the room, Jay crossed his arms smirking, "I didn't realize you and Krista were related."

Theresa rolled her eyes laughing, "Well I had to keep you and Neil updated somehow…" Theresa said trailing off.

"What's wrong?" Jay asked concerned.

"Archie and Atlanta are suspicious, Archie saw me waiting for any news on Krista and he wanted to know why my arm was broken, and also why you brought Neil to the school and why I brought Krista here, especially since she was in labor… I didn't know what to tell them so I told Atlanta I would explain everything to them later." Theresa said.

Jay nodded his head, "we're going to have to have a team meeting very soon."

"Probably won't be the worst idea." Theresa said as she opened Krista's door walking inside.

"Guys look!" Neil said happily as they walked into the room, and Theresa had to fight back tears Krista was awake and was actually sitting up and Neil was sitting beside her holding his new born daughter.

"She looks so natural in your arms, Neil." Theresa said smiling.

"Thank you for everything, Theresa and Jay, Neil just told me everything." Krista said wiping away tears, "It's because of both of you that we're all alive and can be a family."

"It's what we do." Jay said smiling.

"Come here and see our daughter." Neil said proudly, and Theresa and Jay walked over to him looking down at their beautiful baby girl.

"Oh Neil, she's perfect!" Theresa said not being able to hold back the tears anymore; Jay placed a hand on her shoulder kissing her head, as Neil and Krista kissed each other, and in that moment Theresa wished that things could always be this simple, but she knew that since Cronus was going to be escaping from Tarturas in three months that they couldn't be.

End Chapter 8.

I don't own COTT.

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