* Please Review! So there is only one more chapter to this and thank you to everyone for hanging on with me. I think I will be launching a new TWD story soon*
" Van."
His head snapped up at the sound of his name in his dad's voice. He was being pushed by Miles down the hospital hallway, with Randy walking beside them. All three men looked worried and scared. After Avalon had been transported to the hospital and Gideon had been arrested, an officer brought Van to the hospital and Miles had promised to go and pick up his dad. Now, Van was sitting in a chair in one of the waiting rooms, waiting on anything and everything he could get from the doctors on Avalon's condition.
" Dad." He said, placing his hands on the chair arms and pushing himself up. Van's eyes travelled down his dad's body to his legs and to his surprise, Chad was wearing shoes which had to mean..."Dad?"
Chad put his hand up, causing Miles to slow his pace until he stopped walking altogether, a few paces away from the son. Chad reached down and clicked on his brakes before he pushed up the pedals of the wheelchair. He set his feet down on the floor, staring at his son hard. Van frowned and bit down into the inside of his bottom lip. Chad stood up slowly then grunted but started forward.
Tears started to burn at Van's eyes as his dad shuffled towards him. This was it. This was Van's breaking point. So much had happen to him in the last twenty-four hours that seeing this was it for him. Van closed his eyes, his shoulders started to shake and he let the damn break. He let his emotions take control and let the salty wetness slipped down his cheeks. He didn't even try and stop them. He didn't even try and stop his sobs from taking him over. He covered his face with both hands and let the tears fall.
" I'm sorry." Chad said as he reached him.
He put his arms around his son's shoulders. Van grabbed at his dad with his arms around his waist. He buried his face into the strong, comforting shoulder of his dad and let his tears flow more freely. Chad rubbed Van's back with both hands, repeating over and over again how sorry he was and he meant it. He was sorry for everything. He was sorry he had had the accident, sorry that Van's mother had left them, sorry he had checked out for so long, and made his son have to be the man of the house. He was sorry he hadn't stuck up for his son to Gideon when the man had said all the things he had about Van. He was just so sorry and Van knew it.
" How is she?" Randy asked quietly. Van pulled his head away from his dad and used both his hands to wipe away his tears.
" I don't know." He said after taking a deep, shaky breath. " The doctor hasn't come out yet. What's going to happen with Gideon?" He asked, turning his attention to Miles as Chad continued to rub his back. His dad had moved to his side so he was facing the other two men. Van sighed and wanted to sagged into his dad but didn't. He didn't want to throw him off balance. This was the first time Chad had ever used his new legs and Van wanted him to feel like he was steady and strong on them.
" Well, he's not talking but we can still hold him. He did shoot her and he violated his restraining order so there will be no bail this time. I need to get a statement from you on what happen though, how you guys ended up at your old house." Miles said.
" He admitted that he kidnapped all those women from the articles. He admitted that he kidnapped Avalon and killed her mother." Van said quickly.
" And you are willing to testify to that? Will you make a statement, stating that and sign it?" Miles asked.
" Yeah. In a heartbeat." Van said with a nod.
" For the family of Avalon Weather?" A doctor asked when he walked into the waiting room.
NRNRNR
" I don't like jello and I'm sick of eating it." Avalon snapped. Van shook his head with a frown.
" I don't give a shit. Eat it." Van snapped back. He was sitting on the bed, in between her legs with his own legs on either side of hers. One of his hands was on her thigh, rubbing it through the blanket while his other hand held a spoonful of green jello up to her mouth.
" Van, no. I don't...ahhh." Her words were cut when he jammed the spoon into her open mouth. He grinned then laughed when she coughed and almost chocked. She scooped up the jello that slipped out of her mouth and stuffed her fingers into his mouth while she pinched his inner thigh. He jumped in surprise and at the pain. Avalon tried not to laugh as she chewed then swallowed the soft snack down.
" You have to eat more." Van said as he chewed. " You want to come home, right? The doctor said if you started eating more, you could come home. You're off the oxygen now, all healed up, you just need to eat more." She nodded, dropping her eyes down to her plate that was sitting between them. She picked up the sandwich he had brought for her and broke a piece off.
" I'm trying." She said, looking back at him.
" Try harder." Van said as he leaned in. " Please." She smiled but gave him the kiss he was silently asking for. " For me."
" I will. I promise." She reassured him. She held up the piece, winking at him when she did. He let her feed him the bite then pointed down to the sandwich.
" Eat it." He said. She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly.
" Fine!" She explained.
" So listen, I finally finished moving all your clothes and books and notebooks into my room and Miles told me that they are releasing all that money Gideon had taken out of his bank account and they are giving it to you. Do you want me to rent a storage unit for your bed and shit?" Van asked as he watched her bring the sandwich up to her small mouth.
This was not a conversation he was looking forward to having with her. Since she had been in the hospital, recovering from the gunshot, blood lost and lung damage the bullet had caused, they had managed to not talk about Gideon. She knew he was in jail, Miles had informed her of that as she soon as she was awake but she and Van hadn't spoken about anything related to him. Van had offered to move some of her things to the house he shared with his dad but that was all they had spoke about life outside of the hospital.
" Um, well, I have been thinking about that." She admitted before taking a bite of the chicken salad sandwich. Van nodded and waited. She met his eyes, turned the sandwich towards him and smiled while she chewed. Van leaned forward and took a small bite. She reached out and wiped a bit of the chicken salad off the corner of his mouth as she swallowed. " He had a lot of money in those bags and Miles said the landlord to the house released us from the lease and is giving me back the money that was paid in advance so maybe we should look for a place of our own."
" You serious?" Van asked when he swallowed his own bite. She nodded and became to play with the food, something she did when she was nervous. She pulled at a corner of the bread before slipping it between her lips.
" Yeah. I mean, there's so much money there that we could live off it for a long time before we have to get jobs." She said quietly. " We can keep some his pieces and sell off what we don't want, like everything from his room. I don't want any of that. Miles said that Gideon signed everything over to me so I'm going to sell his car and some of his other stuff and put it into another account for his lawyer fees. After that, I'm not having anything else to do with him. So we can get a place and get us a car." She tilted her head and looked up at him through her lashes. " Then you can teach me how to drive. If you want."
" Yeah, that would be cool." He said with excitement settling in his stomach. This was it, it was finally happening, his life was finally starting. " And I don't have to look for a job, I got one."
" Are you serious?" Avalon asked with a bright smile that he loved to see.
" Yeah. I got a roofing job." Van said. He placed his fingers against one of her hands, and raised it up so the sandwich went to her mouth, give his chin a tilt towards her mouth. Avalon smiled and gave him a small laugh.
" What about Chad?" She asked before taking her bite.
" He's been doing really good with the legs and since I have been here so much, he is doing more and more for himself. He actually smiled when I told him I got the job." Van said. Avalon nodded and turned the sandwich again. " I didn't bring you that sandwich to share it." He said before taking his bite.
" Knock, knock." They looked over to the door as Randy knocked on it before he walked in with a smile. "How are you today, Sweetheart?"
" I'm good." Avalon said. Every day Randy had been coming to see her and spending most of the day with them. The DNA test had come back and confirmed that she was his daughter so Avalon was making an effort to get to know him. She knew she would never call him Dad but she didn't want to push him away. He was her only tie to something real when it came to her past.
" That's good. Guess what I got today? Your birth certificate. And I brought more pictures of your mother." He said, coming toward her bed holding his hand out to show her the pictures and the paper.
" Oh cool. Thanks." Avalon said.
" Finish eating." Van said, giving her hand a little push and making her laugh.
" Are you eating more?" Randy asked.
Randy took a seat in the chair by the bed and the three of them started talking while Avalon ate. Van refused anymore bites from the sandwich, which made her laugh. They looked over the pictures Randy had brought and listened as he explained what was going on in front of them. Some of the pictures triggered memories in her, memories of her mother and even a few with Randy in them. Van watched and listened to them talk, tapping her hand when he thought she had forgotten about the sandwich.
" Well, I have something to tell you." Avalon said after she was finished eating. The couple looked at each other with Van smiling and rubbing her thighs over the blanket. Avalon smiled back and nodded before looking back at Randy. " I have decided to keep the name Avalon. It just seems right to me. I just can't imagine being called Gabriella." Randy nodded as he sat back in his chair.
" I understand. I didn't expect you to take back your name." He said. Van continued to rub one of her thighs while he fingered at his lips with his other hand. He pushed the corner of his lip in between his teeth and started to chew against it while he watched her talk.
" It's just, in my memories of you and my mom, I don't remember you calling me that. In my mind, I have always been Avalon." She said. Van dropped his hand down and looked back at the other man.
" I tried calling her Gabriella a few times but it didn't feel right to either of us." He explained.
" I understand." Randy explained.
" According to Gideon, I didn't have a middle name so Officer Miles and a judge in town are pushing through a name change for me." Avalon said. " My name will now be Avalon Gabriella Gibson. I hope that's okay." Van squeezed her when he felt her start to tense up. This had been a hard choice for her. She didn't want to carry on Gideon's last name anymore but couldn't give up the name of Avalon. Like Van had said, they had tried calling her Gabriella and it just didn't sit well with them.
" I love that." Randy said with a smile. " I really do and I can work on calling you Avalon."
" Oh good, you're all here." Miles said as he walked into the hospital room. " I have some news." He walked over to the side of her bed, making Van shift so he could look at him. Avalon touched his hand and he knew she needed comfort. He quickly opened his fingers and allowed them to tangle with hers. Their palms flatted out to press against each other as they waited for Miles to continue.
" Is he talking yet?" She asked quietly. Since Gideon had been arrested, he had completely stopped talking, save one time when he asked Miles how she was doing. He refused to answer questions and won't talk to his lawyer, no matter how much the man tried to get him too.
" He is. He is going to plead not guilty to the missing women he has the articles on but we are pressing charges against him with them and I hate to tell you this but we will need you two to testify since he confessed to you." Miles said. Van nodded, looking back at Avalon as she looked at him.
" We can do that, right?" He asked, giving her hand a small squeeze. She sighed but nodded slowly.
" Yeah." She said. She didn't want too. She didn't want to see him again...well that wasn't true. She did want to see him. She hated that she felt that way but she still loved him. It was hard for her to not think of him as her father and to know he won't be in her life anymore.
" Has he admitted to taking Avalon?" Randy asked.
" He actually did. He won't admit to doing anything to your wife," Miles started while looking at Randy. His eyes shifted to Van then to Avalon, " but he does admit to kidnapping Avalon, today, actually. He said he moved you two around so much to keep you hidden."
" So what does that mean for the trial?" Van asked.
" Well, it means, he has agreed to plead guilty to her kidnapping but not guilty to everything else. We do need her to testify to what she remembers from the day she was taken and the DA will go over all that with you." Miles said.
" I might be able to get him to talk." Avalon said, pulling all three sets of eyes to her.
" Is that really needed?" Randy asked, looking back to Miles.
" It might help, actually. He might be more inclined to talk if it's with her." The officer confirmed.
" She might be getting out of the hospital tomorrow, if she eats more." Van said. " I could bring her over to the police station then."