Status: Haitus For Probably A Month--Sorry Guys!

Speechless.

The Innocence Of Babies

Somehow Amelia had ended up in the hospital. Distantly she knew that Metallica had taken over back at the apartment complex and Viper had been knocked out before she ordered them all to get to the hospital. John was holding her close to him, while Mickey held Metallica tightly, her arms wrapped around her neck. Shadows, Synsyster, and Vengeance, had all spoken amongst themselves the whole way there.

Amelia found herself sitting on a gurney with a nurse poking and prodding at her skull. Mickey had ended up in Synsyster’s arms asleep on his shoulder but Amelia had no idea where Shadows, Vengeance, and John were. Yet Amelia couldn’t bring herself to care, they were safe and that was all that mattered. Relief flooded her leaving her lightheaded or was that the blow to the head?

Metallica said something about shock and Amelia as she hovered at her side and Amelia felt that now would be the time to calm down the nurse before she took off in a frenzy looking for a doctor.

“I’m not in shock,” Amelia disagreed monotone. “I’m just-“ Amelia searched for an appropriate word for what she was feeling at the moment. “Tired.”

The nurse pursed her lips. Her name was Harriet and she had stitched and bandaged up the rest of Amelia’s company. She gave disapproving looks to all of her patients, not believing their lies of a ‘nasty tangle up of quads’.

“What?” Shadows had questioned innocently when she studied his black eye. “That Honda 400 had one hell of a right hook.”

Harriett ignored Amelia, instead she addressed Metallica, “Make sure she doesn’t sleep. She has a concussion but if she falls asleep she may fall into a coma.” She threw Amelia one last disapproving look before she wrote something down on her clipboard. “I’d like to have a look at the child now.”

“What?” Amelia questioned in alarm, “Is she alright?”

“She’s a little banged up,” Metallica allowed as Amelia hoped off of the gurney. Harriett followed silently behind the friends as Amelia pried for more information. “Candy’s whore of a friend was coming down the hall when John was leaving with her.” She began in a hushed tone, careful so that Harriett couldn’t hear. “I would have helped you with Candy but I had my hands full.”

“Did you knock her out?”

“Locked her in the closet.” Metallica beamed proudly as she produced a key from her pocket. Amelia laughed lightly and smiled before she winced and touched her badly bruised cheek gingerly. Amelia followed her as Metallica turned down a hall and then veered off into a waiting room. It was then that Mia caught sight of Mickey who was now perched on Shadow’s lap, her head resting against his chest as she fought off sleep.

“Mickey,” The word, barely a whisper on Amelia’s tongue, but Mickey heard her all the same. The five year old’s head snapped toward the door before she leaped out of Shadows’ lap and ran toward Amelia.

“Mia!” She cried happily as Amelia bent down just in time to catch the girl in her arms.

“Hey baby,” Amelia smiled as she hugged her tightly. Relief and disbelief filled Amelia. She was so relieved that Mickey was safe and she was in disbelief that it was finally over. Amelia had left the tunnels, faced Viper, and gotten Mickey back. Distantly she wondered what she was supposed to do now. It was then that Amelia remembered Harriett, who standing just outside the door. “Mick I need you to come with me okay? The nice lady is just going to check your boo-boos.”

“nuh-uh,” Mickey grunted stubbornly as her arms locked like a vise around Amelia’s neck.

“Mickey, she isn’t going to hurt you.” Amelia assured as she rose to her feet, Mickey still clutching her.

“ ‘don’t care,” She mumbled into Amelia’s neck. Synsyster rose from the multicolored chair and approached the two..

“Hey, Mickey,” He whispered near her ear but Mickey just shook her head stubbornly. “McKenna,” he repeated before poking her lightly in the side. The small body in Amelia’s arms spazed before her head turned to glare at the tattooed man.

“Don’t call me that,” She pouted.

“What if I go with you, then will you let Ms. Harriett look at you?” He flexed his muscles jokingly. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t hurt you.” Mickey considered this before nodding mutely.

“Okay,” Amelia laughed softly before she turned to the rest of her bruised friends. “We’ll be right back.”

“She’s a good kid,” Syn mumbled as he followed Mia down the hallway, Mickey still holding her in a death grip.

Amelia turned to him silently and smiled before the two turned into an examining room.

“If you could just set her on the table there,” Harriet gestured. “the pediatrician will be with you shortly.”

Harriet disappeared out of the room as Amelia tried to pry Mickey off of her.

“Come on Micky, She isn’t going to hurt you.” Amelia promised as she finally unhooked Mickey’s arm and set her on the table.

“No!” Mickey cried grappling for Amelia. She pitched forward and nearly tumbled off the table before Syn grabbed her and held her in his arms as he sat on the table beside her. “Stop it Syn!” She complained trying to fight her way out of his grip with no avail.

Synyster held her in his lap, pinning her arms to her side to keep her from hitting him.

“Hey Mickey,” Syn bumped the pouting five year old’s shoulder.

“No,” She grunted stubbornly but Syn just laughed goodheartedly while Amelia shook her head.

“You know,” He began. “I have a little sister named McKenna.” Mickey froze then glanced up at him.

“Really?”

“Yup,” He nodded with a smile, happy to finally have gained her attention. “She doesn’t like the doctor either.” He explained. “You know what I used to do?”

“What?”

Syn grinned before hopping off the examining table and moving toward the cabinets. Amelia had a feeling that whatever Syn did next, Harriet was going to disapprove of. He opened the drawers of the small cabinet near the door and began rummaging through them.

“Syn…” Amelia began hesitantly. “Are you sure that’s a good idea.”

But Syn ignored her until he found a jar of bright neon Band-Aids and showed his findings to Mickey. She eyed him skeptically, unsure of what to make of this tattooed man holding a container of Band-Aids proudly.

I’ll fix your boo-boos,” Syn explained as he set the jar beside Mickey. “Then the nice nurse can just look to see what a good job I did.”

Mickey looked extremely unconvinced as she eyed Syn skeptically.

“Watch,” Syn continued as he pulled a neon pink band-aid from the jar and placed it on a small cut above her eyebrow, “See,” He smiled. “All better.”

Mickey glanced to Amelia who was smiling softly at her and nodded in encouragement before she pulled the little girl close and kissed the band-aid.

“And a kiss to make it even better.” She explained as Mickey touched the Band-Aid gingerly.

“Thank you Syn.” She stated in a small voice.

“No problem kiddo.”

The doctor stepped into the room then and Syn quickly placed the jar of band-aids upon the small counter, hoping she wouldn’t say anything.

“Hello,” The doctor began, a clipboard in hand a smile plastered to her face. She had a panda clip on her stethoscope and a bunny sticker stuck to the shoulder of her bleach white jacket. “You must be Mickey,”

Shyly Mickey could only nod in response as she stared at the doctor hesitantly. She had heard the Tunnel People yell about no doctors when they were hurt. They said doctors were bad and would cause problems, yet Amelia did not act as though this doctor was a bad person.

“My name is Dr. Marney.” She smiled. “It sounds like Barney though doesn’t it?”

Mickey eyed the woman for a moment before finally asking, “What’s Barney?”

Confusion struck the doctor for a moment before she recovered and turned to Syn and Amelia. “I assume this is Mom and Dad?”

“Oh no,” Syn shifted on his feet awkwardly, his hands raised in front of him. “Just a friend.”

“Mia isn’t my Mom,” Mickey added and dread filled Amelia. “She just takes care of me sometimes. Right Mia?” The little girl turned innocently toward Mia having no idea the chain of events she had just struck in motion.

“Yeah,” Amelia murmured.

“Oh well,” Dr. Marney began in slight surprise. “If neither of you have legal guardianship over Mickey here I am going to have to ask you two to step outside for a few minutes.”

Alarms went off in Amelia yet she nodded somberly as the dread filled her completely. “Okay,” she stated before giving Mickey a quick kiss on the forehead. “See you in a minute baby.”

Then she was following Syn out of the room, watching as the spring-loaded door closed behind her causing Mickey to disappear from view.

“Are you okay, Mia?” Syn questioned in concern when Amelia didn’t move from the doorway and refused to utter a sound as she stared at the mahogany wood.

Amelia swallowed hard and nodded slowly. “Yeah,” She murmured quietly. “Can you just wait for Mickey for me? I need to get some air.”

She didn’t wait for Syn to reply to her request before she was moving down the hallway emotionlessly. Amelia wandered among the hospital on the verge of tears. She should have never brought Mickey here, hell she should have never left Mickey in the first place. She should have known better than to leave Mickey with Cougar where Candy would never be far from view. Every bruise, every cut on Mickey, Amelia blamed herself for. Here she was, having been on tour with her brother and All Time Low, developing feelings for a musician, and beginning to gain true friends when Mickey was still in the hell Amelia had escaped—she was disgusted with herself.

Amelia let her feet carry her down the sterilized halls, through the suffocating elevators until she passed by huge bay windows and she froze in her tracks.

Babies. Dozens of them wrapped in pink and blue blankets like cocoons. Some were crying or fussing, others slept peacefully. Some had brown hair or blonde hair, others had no hair at all. For the first time since Amelia had made the decision to get Mickey back she allowed herself to cry

Silently, she stood watching the babies, the most innocent creatures on the face of this earth and cried. Tears spilled silently down her cheeks in rivers as Amelia was consumed with guilt, relief, and ultimately pain.

“Hey,” Amelia jumped as her eyes abruptly turned to the figure beside her, slightly wide eyed. She brushed the tears from her face shamefully as John watched the babies within the nursery.

“Hi,” She stated emotionlessly, her eyes returning to the supposed bundles of joy.

“Where is Mickey?”

“With the doctor,” She stated, refusing to look at John. “They wouldn’t let me be with her because I’m not her mother.”

Silence fell between them as they watched the babies together and John could not help but notice the obvious pain in Amelia’s voice.

“You know,” He began quietly, not looking at her. “I’ve been thinking about something for a while now. Ever sense we were back there in that apartment actually.” He paused for a moment, wondering if he was about to cross a line. “Amelia I have to ask you something and then I promise to never bring it up again.” He rushed.

“What, John?” She questioned tiredly, her eyes still fixated on the babies.

John swallowed hard before allowing himself to ask the one question that had been plaguing him, the question that would change everything:

“Is Mickey your baby?”
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Sooo I've kind of been slacking with this story haven't I? Truthfully I've had the first half of this chapter written since I last updated Speechless I just wasn't happy with it. Hell I'm still not, but I'm happy with that last scene so to speak.

Anyway, let me know what you think you all know I love to hear from you guys =]