Marie's POV.
Megan and I have just gotten back into the car, when my phone goes off. I glance at the text.
'Were r u? Ur late again.' The text is from Raymond. Shoot. I completely forgot I was supposed to drop Megan off to him today!
"Megan honey you're supposed to go to daddy's today, I'm going to drop you there alright?" I say.
"Ok" she replies, with little enthusiasm in her voice. I frown. I know Raymond isn't the best with kids but why does Megan seem so down about going to see him?
"Is everything alright, Meg?" I ask her. Megan meets my gaze in the mirror and smiles.
"Yes, I miss daddy. How long am I there for?" She asks, happiness seeping into her voice.
"Until 6pm, tomorrow." I tell her.
"Ok." She replies. I pull out of the Subway parking lot, and head towards East 77th street...
About 10 minutes later, I pull up in front of a red and grey bricked house, Raymond's house. A large black truck sits in the driveway, gleaming in the sunlight. Megan hops out of the car and I quickly follow her, taking her hand and walking up to the door. I knock three times on the door. After a minute the door opens, revealing Raymond. He's wearing a plain dark green shirt and a pair of grey shorts. His black hair is a mess as usual, and annoyance is visible in his dark brown eyes. He crosses his arms.
"Finally! You're over two hours late Marie!" He exclaims.
"Sorry I got held up and lost track off time." I reply, not bothering to explain. "If you want I can pick Megan up two hours later tomorrow." I offer.
"No 6:00 is fine." He says.
"Well I've got to go now, goodbye Megan." I bend over and kiss my daughter forehead.
"Bye mom." She says before following her father inside. After the door closes, I make my way back to my car. As I pull out of the driveway my phone goes off. Stopping at the curb I pull it out. The text is from Catherine.
'Hey r u going to the hospital again?'
'Yeah want to come?' I reply.
'Meet u there in 10 min' I smile as I put my phone away. Catherine can be really energetic, I'm not surprised that she wants to meet Raven. I frown slightly at the thought of the injured girl. She seems so down all the time, almost emotionless. Well if anyone can cheer her up its Catherine. No one is allowed to not be happy in Catherine's presence. Shell make you smile ir she'll die trying. I pull away from the curb and head to meet Catherine.
I walk through the doors into the lobby of the hospital. I spot Catherine sitting in a chair, reading a magazine. She looks up as I walk over to her.
"Hey what kept you?" She asks. I laugh.
"I'm not late, you're just early." I tell her.
"Yeah sure. Everyone knows you have horrible punctuality, sis." She states, hitting me playfully on the arm.
"Catherine act your age." I scold teasingly. " You better not behave like this in front of Raven. I'll send you home."
"Yeah sure you will Marie, now come on." Catherine laughs. We head up to room 107. Raven is sitting on the bed reading a book, with another one on the nightstand. She looks like she's about a third of the way in. A nurse walks by us into the room.
"You're that far already?" She exclaims. "Jeez that's your second book in three hours.
"I like to read" Raven murmurs softly.
"I can see that." The nurse replies. "Would you like me to dig up another one, since you'll probably be done this one in an hour?" Raven shakes her head.
"No that's okay, I suspect I'll be interrupted in a minute anyways." She says, her eyes flick up from the pages to where me and Catherine are standing. I step into the room, and Catherine follows me. The nurse smiles at us.
"Well then, I'll leave you to it." She says before walking out of the room.
"Back again?" Raven asks, closing her book and setting it down on the bedspread.
"Yup. Why you getting sick of me?" I ask. Raven shrugs. "Oh, Raven this is Catherine, she's been wanting to meet you."
"Hi" Catherine says, waving slightly. Raven blinks in acknowledgement, but doesn't respond. Catherine frowns.
"You know, most kids would be lounging around watching movies or listening to music, but you choose to read?" Catherine teases. Raven meets her gaze.
"I'm not most kids." She states. There's no anger or irritation in her voice, no emotion at all in fact.
"You look pretty banged up, did headbutt a truck or something?" Catherine tries again.
"No" Raven says quietly.
"How would you know that?" I ask her "I thought you didn't remember the accident."
"I'd have to have been near a road. I thought you said I was on the beach." She points out.
"Point taken." I say. Catherine laughs. Raven fiddles with the corner of the bed sheets. Catherine notices her lack of enthusiasm.
"You're not exactly emotional are you?" She comments.
"Not exactly." Raven agrees with a shrug.
"Well why not? I mean every now and then it's good to laugh."
"It's just not really my thing." Raven says.
"Well can I try to make you laugh?" Catherine asks.
"You're going to whether I agree or not." Raven points out.
"Ok then, if you hold nine oranges in one hand and ten lemons in the other what do you have?"
"Nineteen pieces of fruit?" Raven guesses sarcastically.
"No. Really big hands!" Catherine exclaims. Raven rolls her eyes.
"You know you're almost as bad as a friend of mine, he's not funny either." She comments. Catherine sighs.
"Alright you win, I give up, but only temporarily, I will be back!" She states before turning to me. "I've got to make a phone call, meet you out in the hall?"
"Sure." I say, I watch Catherine leave, before turning my attention back to Raven. She's tracing a pattern on the book cover.
"Raven, I don't know why you don't want to tell anyone, but I know you know what happened to you. Why won't you tell the hospital? Are you afraid of something?" I ask.
"No" Raven states.
"You aren't protecting someone are you? Because Raven if someone did this to you, they aren't your friend."
"I'm not protecting anyone." She says. I sigh.
"Look Raven, I have to go, but I wish you would open up. If not to me then someone at the hospital, we only want to help you." I say, before leaving. I meet Catherine outside. As we walk down the hall, I spot a group of doctors speaking amongst themselves.
"I just don't know what we are going to do with her. She's healing well, but as far as we know she's got no family." One doctor says. I recognize him as Dr. Phillips.
"We could arrange foster care." Another doctor suggests. Dr. Phillips shakes his head
"Both of the children's homes are full, and there's a waiting list for foster care, besides she is healing well, but she's still going to need a lot of support once she's discharged.
"Well she could just stay here." A female doctor says.
"We need to keep any unused beds open you know that."
"Well we can't just leave her on the street."
"She's a sweet girl." The nurse from earlier says. "She doesn't say much and is a little closed off, but I really think she has a large heart."
"There is one option we haven't considered." A senior doctor says. The nurse pales.
"No, you'd crush what little spirits that girl has. That can't be our only option." She says
"Well do you have a better idea of where to send her?" The senior doctor asks. The nurse opens her mouth and closes it again. She shakes her head sadly.
"With me."...
Ok I know I said that I wasn't going to update again due to camping but I've had some spare time. Since I leave tomorrow, this really is the last update for a while, but I promise to have the chapter written so it can be updated the second I get home. As for what went on in this chapter, I know that the end bit was a little confusing because I didn't mention where they were thinking of sending her, well in all honesty I didn't get that far. I needed it to mention sending Raven somewhere that everyone was reluctant to actually send her to, but I couldn't think of where (cut me some slack it's four thirty in the morning!" so I just didn't say where. But it doesn't matter because, it most likely won't be mentioned again. Thank you to everyone who's still bothering to read this, things will pick up soon.
-Enchantedforest33