Give up Forever to Touch You

Brian was breathless as he ran into the ER followed directly by Michelle. He fretfully looked around in search of his daughter or her teacher, not entirely sure which teacher had come with her in the ambulance.

“Mr and Mrs Haner?”

He spun around to be faced with a tall woman in her late thirties, her long brown hair tied back in a bun, her green eyes full of concern. “Where’s my daughter?”

“She’s being treated by the doctors, she’s in safe hands.” She explained calmly.

“What on earth happened?” he asked quietly, still trying to catch his breath.

“I think it’d be better if we sat down and discussed this.” she replied nervously gesturing towards the small family room across the way.

Brian’s eyes widened, “Discuss what exactly? What the fuck happened to my daughter?”

“Mr Haner, please, lets not do this here.” She said and walked over to the room, stepping inside and holding the door open for Michelle and Brian.

“Okay, so what the fuck is going on?” Brian asked as she closed the door behind them.

“Maybe you could tell me Mr. Haner why your daughter had a pack of what I believe to be ecstasy on her possession?” she replied sternly holding up a small see-through bag with a handful of tiny pink and green pills in it.

Brian’s jaw dropped at the sight in front of him. he was far from innocent when it came to drugs, having taken a fair few of those small pills when he was younger, but from the moment he’d found out he was going to be a father he had sworn off drugs for good. And he had stuck to it.

“I don’t understand? Where would she get those?” he said finally in disbelief.

“Again Mr Haner, maybe you could tell me. You are her father after all, when you’re not being a rock star.” Her tone was accusing as she glared at him.

“Excuse me? I may be a rock star and yes I have done drugs in the past but I can assure you that there haven’t been any drugs in my house since before my son was born. My children and their health and safety come first. Always.” He glared back at her.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed, we were just shocked to find something like this on her possession.” She replied her tone softening slightly.

“That makes the two of us. “ he murmured.

“We think she took one at recess and that’s what caused the seizure. One of the other children said she had sweeties in her pocket so I checked and found these.” She said quietly.

“Fuck.” Brian muttered quietly running a hand through his hair. “I have no idea how she could have gotten hold of them.”

He turned to look at Michelle who had remained silent throughout the whole exchange. She was sat staring at the bag of pills, her legs bouncing up and down as she chewed her thumb nail on her right hand. She looked even worse than when she had opened the door to him just an hour ago, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

“Hey, she’s going to be okay you know.” he said sitting down next to her, placing an arm around her. She just nodded in reply and the three of them fell into silence, moving only when there was a knock at the door.

A young male doctor in blue scrubs opened the door and stepped into the room. “She’s going to be fine. She’s going to need some rest and time to recover but she’ll be fine.”

“Thank Christ.” Brian muttered as he stood up and made his way over to the doctor. “Can we see her?”

“Of course, but before you do you need to be made aware that we have had to contact Social Services and the police as tests have proven that your daughter had taken ecstasy which had caused the fit and needed to be flushed from her system.” He told them firmly.

Brian nodded, “I thought you might have done, but I can promise you now that she didn’t get it from us. I have no idea where she got them from. Can you show us to her now though?”

“Of course.” They followed him out of the room and down the corridor into one of the recovery rooms where Ella was led in a large bed a small tube inserted into her nose giving her oxygen.

“Daddy!” she exclaimed quietly her eyes widening with happiness as he walked into the room.

“Hey pumpkin, how are you feeling?” he asked with a worried smile, leaning down to hug her.

“Got a baddie tummy.” She pouted.

“You’ll be okay baby girl.” He said quietly sitting down beside her. “Sweetie, where did you get those, those sweeties from?”

Ella’s eyes shot to Michelle who was stood just inside the doorway still chewing her nails. “I’m sorry mommy, they were in your bag on the table.”

Brian stilled, holding his breath as time stopped, unable to believe the words coming from his daughter’s mouth. Slowly he lifted his gaze and looked up at his ex-wife. She was stood staring at Ella, her eyes wide, panicked as her mouth opening and closing rapidly as if she was failing to find the right words.

“In your bag?” Brian growled through gritted teeth.

“Brian, let me explain, they weren’t mine, they’re Nick’s…”

“I don’t give a fuck whose they are, they should not be anywhere near my children!” he yelled loudly.

“I’m sorry daddy.” Ella whispered, tears forming in her eyes. “Please don’t shout.”

Glancing at his young daughter, Brian took a deep breath to calm himself as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her gently closer.

“I’m sorry baby girl, I’m not angry at you.” he sighed kissing the top of her head as he lifted his gaze back to Michelle. “Either you explain to the police and Social Services or I will.”

“Brian, I…”

“I mean it! She could have died! Hell, she could have shared them out with her friends! I can’t ignore this.” he told her. Lowering his gaze again he heard the shuffle of feet followed by the door closing behind Michelle.

Fed up of reading the public health posters about breast cancer, healthy eating and the dangers of smoking, Andie stood and took a seat on the other side of the room so that she could go back to reading the ones that informed her of AIDs, cervical cancer, obesity and safe sex. It wasn’t great reading material but it was just enough of a distraction to keep her mind off Rhian being in theatre, off Jimmy’s pacing and off the fact that she hadn’t heard from Brian yet. Well it had been a good distraction the first five times of reading it, now as she read them the words became a medley of letters, not really making any sense.

As the sound of Jimmy’s pacing slowed to a halt she looked up, a smile forming on her lips as she saw her best friend being wheeled back down the corridor on a hospital bed. She stood and quickly joined Jimmy, taking hold of his hand and squeezing it lightly as they watched a groggy looking Rhian smile up at them as she was taken back into her room.

“Is she okay?” Jimmy asked the nurse.

“Yes, she’s fine, she’s just going to be a little groggy while the anaesthetic wears off but the procedure went well. The doctor will be around in a little while to check on her and she should be able to go home in an hour or two.”

“Great, thank you.” he said with a beaming smile, slipping into the chair beside Rhian’s bed and taking her hand. “Hey baby.”

The response from Rhian was quite and hoarse, a small smile on her lips as she gazed up at Jimmy.

“Glad you’re okay sweetie, I’m going to ring Brian to see where he is, I’ll be back a little later to take you home.” Andie said softly.

“Thanks And, we really appreciate this.” Jimmy said lifting his gaze to hers.

“It’s really no problem, I’ll see you in a bit.” She replied with another smile before she turned and left.

Exiting the room she walked back down the corridor to the relatives’ room, taking out her cell phone and dialling Brian’s number. After three rings he answered in a whisper. “Hey babe, is Rhian okay?”

“Um, yeah a bit groggy but I should be able to take her home in an hour or two. How did it go with Michelle?” she replied.

“Not great. I’ll explain everything when I see you.” he told her, his voice still quiet.

“Fuck that doesn’t sound good, where are you?”

“I’m in the ER with Ella.” He said simply.

“The ER? What the…? I’ll be there in five.” she said hanging up and quickly heading towards the elevators.

Once in the ER, Andie quickly found a nurse who showed her to the room where Brian and Ella were. As she was shown in, she abruptly stopped at the sight of two police officers and another formal looking woman.

“What’s going on?” she asked looking around the room.

“This is my wife, Andie. Babe this is Ms. Lopez from Social Services and officers Hale and Morris they’re here to talk about what happened with Ella.” Brian explained.

“Okay, but um, what has happened with Ella?” she replied baffled.

“I’ll explain everything properly once we’re home, but Michelle’s been arrested so Ella and Connor will have to come and live with us for the foreseeable future if that’s okay.” Brian said quietly.

Stunned by the information her brain was receiving Andie nodded her head, “Of course it’s okay. Arrested though? For what? Is Ella okay?”

“Thank you Mr and Mrs Haner, we’ll leave you to it but we’ll be in touch.” Ms Lopez said with a half smile and a nod towards both of them before the three of them left the room in silence.

“Bri, what’s going on?” Andie asked as soon as the door was closed.

“It’s a long story, and not one I want to go into in front of her, come on.” He said kissing the top of Ella’s head and standing from the bed. “We’ll be back in a minute munchkin, okay?”

“Okay.” she nodded quietly with a smile.

Leaving the room, Brian led Andie to a quiet corner and leaned back against the wall, gazing up at the ceiling and letting out a deep sigh. Andie stood in front of him, regarding him with puzzled eyes. “What’s happened?”

Slowly Brian straightened his posture and found her eyes and began to explain what had happened that morning, watching as Andie’s mouth fell open in shock, her eyes widening likewise.

“I can’t believe it.” she whispered having heard the full story. “When we said we thought there was something not quite right going on I never thought it would be this bad for one second.”

“I know, neither did I.” he sighed running his long fingers through his hair as he stepped forward and wrapped his tattooed arms around Andie, pulling her close to him. “Are you okay with having Connor and Ella move in with us?”

“Why you feel the need to ask me I don’t know, of course I am, where else would they go.” She replied into his chest, her arms encompassing him. “Now, we should really get back to Ella.”