Rourke's Kid
Chapter 5
Lily felt like she was going to die, or be sick, or both as she ran under the flying machines, tripping over rocks and clutching her ribs. She could barely catch a breath, blood was sliding down her hand, and her vision was blurring. If she could have sighed in relief as she made it back to Atlantis and collapsed on the ground. She thought she heard someone shouting but it was so quiet and her vision was going dark. Huh, the ground was actually feeling pretty soft.
Ow, ow, ow, OW! Everything hurt! Lily slowly opened her eyes and tried to sit up, wincing as she did so. "Lily, you shouldn't sit up yet." Milo whispered and glanced at Sweet, who was sleeping on a low seat next to the bed. "He, Kida, me, and everyone else was worried about you when you collapsed. There was so much blood and your heartbeat was barely there, we didn't even here it at first. You've been out for nearly two weeks." Lily grimaced and lifted up her shirt to look at her ribs. "Um, I don't think you-" A brown hand reached down to grip Lily's hand and Lily looked up into the face of Kida who was crying. "You went against your own father, your own blood, to help me and my people. I owe you my gratitude." Lily looked down, tears filling her eyes. "I don't deserve your gratitude. I helped him, heck all I wanted was his love and praise, I would have done anything to earn that!" Lily was full-on sobbing now, guilt and misery overwhelming her. Kida wrapped her arms around Lily and rocked her and made calming noises while Lily sobbed out all her pain, misery, guilt, and fear. Milo and Sweet, who had just woken up, went to go take a walk.
Kida went to go talk with Sweet and Milo while Lily slept. Before Lily went to sleep, Kida had helped her get rid of her long sleeves. Lily had looked up at her and said "I'm tired of hiding and pretending to be fine. My old man beat me and I hid my scars out of fear. He's dead though." It had taken all of Kida's strength of will to not cry or scream out in rage when she saw the numerous scars and bruises on Lily's arms. She had helped Sweet bandage Lily's stomach while she was unconscious and had cried then and there. Kida and her father had disagreed on many things but he had never harmed her the way Lily's father had. No, that thing wasn't Lily's father. Which brought her to the conversation and potential argument between Sweet and Milo. You see, Kida and Milo wanted to adopt Lily. They weren't the only ones who wanted to though.
"I've known Lily for years, you've known for however long this expedition was, heck I've lost count of the days! You think you know her, you think you can help her?!" Sweet yelled at them and glared at them. Milo opened his mouth but Kida beat him to the punch. "You knew her for years, yes? So you would have noticed how much pain she was in. And yet, you did NOTHING. You claim that you love her, and yet, you didn't save her." She didn't even yell it but he stopped and turned pale. "You're right, I let myself turn a blind eye to what was going on. I have no explanation and nothing I can say can make it right." Kida glared at him and Milo looked on nervously as Sweet looked down. "can you guys stop yelling at each other please? One, it's annoying and two, you woke me up." A weak voice said and they all looked up. Lily was standing-well, leaning against the wall and her face was looking kind of pale. They started toward her and Kida made it there first, slinging an arm under her shoulders and helping her back to her temporary room.
"How much did you overhear?" Sweet asked Lily as Kida helped her lie down. "Enough to figure out what's going on." She answered, wincing and rubbing her ribs, the scars on her arms shining silver. "How's Helga?" lily asked, clearly expecting the worst. "She is healing well, but I'm not sure what to do with her. She attacked us and tried to destroy our race and culture. That warrants a death sentence." Lily gasped and covered her mouth. "However, I wish to begin my reign with peace and healing, not death and anger." Lily lowered her hands, but her eyes remained wide. "I can't make any excuses for what she did and I don't intend to. But she was kind to me growing up, she was more of a mom to me than my own. Let her go back to the surface with the expedition or something. Or keep her here so you can keep an eye on here." Lily pleaded and Kida and Milo shared a look. "We can let her go back to the surface but she can't come back ever again. She's just too dangerous." Lily was sad but relieved at the same time. It was better than Helga dying. "Can I go see her?" Lily asked and Kida nodded and told her where she was.
Lily wasn't the only one who was crying as she and Helga hugged after Lily had told her that they might or might not ever see each other again. "So, do you want to go or do you want to stay? It sounds like you have two choices." Helga said and Lily nodded. "I don't know what I want to do. All I've ever wanted is to get dad's love or get away from him. It never occurred to me where I would go or what I would do after I got away from him." She raked a hand through her hair, wincing at the knots. "Come here and I can help you with your hair and we can figure out what to do.