Age Is But a Number

If Kevin could pace, he would. Unfortunately he was stuck in the hospital bed, a tube stuck into his vein, punping donated blood into his body to make up for the blood he lost. His patience was growing thin, not knowing how Charlotte was doing, and he complained to his brothers.

"I'm sure she's fine, Kev," Joe Jonas assured him. "I'm sure she was just bleeding because something was punctured. He kicked her in the ribs; the borken ribs stabbed some internal organ and it made her bleed. Don't worry, the doctors know what they're doing. She'll be fine."

"You really care about this girl, don't you?" Nick Jonas asked. Kevin nodded. "And you just met her yesterday." Kevin nodded again. (They spent the night in the hospital.) "And you say I fall too hard too fast?"

"Who - who says I've fallen for her?" Kevin protested. His brothers gave him a look. "It's just a crush. There, you happy?"

"Ecstatic," Joe announced. Kevin rolled his eyes. "What does she look like?"

"She as beautiful red hair mixed with a little bit of brown," Kevin answered euphorically. "Her eyes are a gorgeous green color and her nose is kinda small, but, like a button nose?" The beeping on the monitor that registered his heartbeat quickened its pace.

"Uh-huh," Joe responded, imagining her. "She sounds . . . wow."

"How old is she? Do you know?" Nick asked curiously.

"I don't know exactly but she looks a couple years older than you, Nick. Around nineteen, maybe."

"Do you think she likes you?"

Kevin laughed. "No way, Bro. She was giving me daggers when I was talking with her. She got a bit offended when I offered to buy her a CD she wanted. She called me like a rich rock star in that way, you know . . . ?"

"So she's prejudiced towards our band."

"Yeah. It was pretty darn cute the way she glared at me."

"Oh, feisty," Joe commented. He wiggled his eyebrows. "Joe likey." Kevin glared. "Was her expression like that?" Joe asked, pointing, a giant smile on his face.

.:-:.

Charlotte was still in a bit of pain, but she was feeling better than she did before. She was just glad Caitlyn and her mom could finally rest after keeping them up all night. She had asked them time after time to talk with her, to distract her from the pain.

Caitlyn stirred and opened her eyes, smiling softly at Charlotte. "How you feelin' sweetie?" she asked groggily.

"Better, but . . . it still hurts. Why does it still hurt?"

"You just had an abortion, of course it will hurt."

Charlotte looked down at her hands, tears forming. "It was gone before I even knew if it was a girl or a boy. Why couldn't the doctors save it?"

Caitlyn stared into her friend's eyes, seeing the innocent, scared, confused fifteen-year-old. Even though Caitlyn was two years older, she still knew a bit more than Charlotte did. And she knew Charlotte, how this will just add onto the misery and depressing things she already had on her plate.

Charlotte kept on going back to that day she was raped, when she found out she was pregnant. Her dad had just sold some of the drugs to those disgusting guys who always buy from him. One of them, a somewhat muscular man in his thirties, had been staring at Charlotte, trying to corner her, touch her, when her dad left the room to get to his stash. After they had gotten high, her Dad was starting to lose himself in whatever world he entered whenever he used. The man was still aware enough to get up, go to Charlotte's room, and attack her. He was strong, and aggressive, and left the next day. Charlotte was surprised when her dad actually threatened the guy for doing this. But her surprise went to disappointment and shame when her dad just yelled at him for not asking him if he could and snuck around when he was out. The man never came back, thankfully.

A couple weeks later Charlotte had told Caitlyn about this, during the time she was figuring out that she may just be pregnant. This was a month before she left the House of Hell.

When Harold kicked Charlotte in the stomach it had done a lot of damage. Enough damage to where it killed the unborn child. Caitlyn knew this when Kevin told her that Harold kicked her in the stomach, and was devastated when she had to tell her fifteen-year-old friend this after Charlotte asked over and over why they couldn't save the baby. The look in her eyes . . . of course, she was almost under from the drugs the doctors gave her, so she didn't remember asking.

When Charlotte did not receive an answer she did not care. It was a rhetorical question anyway. She knew once she saw Harold's foot heading towards her.

Even if she did go full term, her heart would not have allowed it. She has stage 3 congenital heart failure and with the process of having a baby it could be fatal to her. She can't play softball without having to take constant breaks, needing the oxygen to get to her overworked heart. But she copes.

"You should have seen the way Kevin was comforting you," said Caitlyn. Charlotte raised an eyebrow, meaning she wanted her to explain. "He stroked your hair, talked to you, and when we got to the hospital, even though he passed out, he still had a grip on you." Caitlyn smiled a bit. "And you had quite a grip on him."

Charlotte did not say anything.The stubborn girl, Caitlyn thought.

"When he woke up, you in the middle of having the, er, surgery and he kept on asking how you were, what was wrong, why you -"

"Nobody said I was in the middle of having an abortion did they?" Charlotte asked, fear running through her. "N-nobody needs to know that. They'll think I'm some teenage whore who got pregnant from some random guy."

"Not if they know you were raped, got pregnant because of that, and just had a miscarriage. I didn't say anything to him or his family anyway and neither did the doctors." It was silent for a few short moments. "His parents wanted to talk to you once you were awake enough. Mrs. Jonas seemed especially worried for you."

"Me? Why? maybe she was just overly worried because her son is here."

"No, she asked me to give her updates on how you were doing."

"Oh. Strange." Charlotte was flattered, but she wouldn't show that. After living with a man who fed off of any negative emotion, she had learned to hide hers.

"Would you like me to go get them?" Caitlyn asked. Charlotte nodded.

After a few minutes, a man and a woman walked in. The woman was pretty and had fairly short, dark, curly hair and a very trusting face. She also had that Mom feel to her as she called Charlotte sweetie, honey, and asked her if she was all right.

"I'm - I'm fine," Charlotte said quietly. Her shyness wascausing her voice to quiet down, her eyes to look down at her hands.

"Okay, sweetie," Mrs. Jonas replied. "I wanted to let you know that I am grateful that you tried to save my son by telling him to leave." She let out a small laugh. "Of course, because of his strong, caring character, he couldn't leave you with that awful man. He told me that he had to help you. Especially after he kicked you."

"I - I wish he would have just left me there with my dad," Charlotte admitted. "I didn't want him to get hurt. He doesn't even know me and risked almost being killed to make sure I was okay."

"From what I can tell, it doesn't matter to him that he doesn't know you. I think he wants to get to know you." Charlotte looked up and raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be surprised if you two ended up being friends, which I think he wants to be. Don't worry, he's not going to try to make the moves on you, honey."

This made Charlotte giggle, and she was beginning to warm up to Mrs. Jonas. Mrs. Jonas laughed with her as her husband stepped up.

"If you don't mind," Mr. Jonas said, "we have paid the medical bills." Charlotte was about to protest, as well as Caitlyn, but he held up his hand to stop them. "It's the least we can do."

Mrs. Jonas and Mr. Jonas gave one another a look, then Mrs. Jonas began to speak: "And, along with that, we wanted to know if you two would join us for dinner sometime. Maybe after you'll be all healed up from your . . . surgery, was it?"

Charlotte nodded, afraid to say anything.

"How about we have dinner . . . next Saturday? How does that sound?"

"Great, I'd, um .. . I'd like that." Charlotte really meant it, even if it was dinner with the band she couldn't stand. Kevi did, in a way,save her. Why refuse dinner with him and his family?

"Me too!" Caitlyn chimed.

Mrs. Jonas laughed. "I know you're a big fan of my sons. From what I heard, Charlotte isn't." Charlotte felt embarrassed. "And that's fine. We just hope you know that you two won't get rid of us. I absolutely adore your mom, Caitlyn."

While waiting for Kevin and Charlotte to recover, Mrs. Jonas and Mrs. Matters had gotten to know each other more and it was as if they've been best friends for years. They already decided to a day to go have lunch and shop. And Mrs. Jonas was already starting to like Charlotte. She could tell her eldest son definitely did.

.:-:.

Harold woke up from unconsciousness and found himself still lying on the sidewalk near the mall. The sun was beginning to set, and he found two of his friends, drug buddies, standing by him. They were trying to wake him up.

"Where the hell is she?" Harold mumbled.

"Who?" one of his friends asked.

"My daughter. Some guy tried to defend her and take her away from me again." When the two guys looked confused, Harold became angry. He mumbled some profanity and shouted, "She can't leave! I own her!"

"Dude, she's gone, just forget about her," the first man said.

"I can't," said the second man. "The girl was . . . oh, God. What I would do to get my hands on her. . . ." No need to explain what was going through his disgusting, perverted mind. The first man was thinking the same, no doubt.

"Then help me find her, idiot," Harold ordered. "She couldn't have gone far. We can find her. Whatever it takes, I'll find her."

.:-:.

"She - she wants to go?" Kevin asked again, completely in shock. "When I talked to the girl she would give me daggers!"

"Maybe she senses your sexiness, Mr. I Won the Sexiest Man Alive Award," Joe teased. He wiggled his eyebrows. "After you saved her she realized you were the Sexy Man and couldn't help but say yes to going to a dinner with you and your family."

"Or she got passed her prejudice towards us and decided to give you a chance," Nick explained in a more reasonable and rational matter.

Kevin was silent for a moment. "I think I liked Joe's answer better."

While Joe high fived Kevin, Nick rolled his eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me Nick!" Kevin ordered. "Joe's giving me a little bit of hope that the girl I'm starting to like could like me back!"

"That is until I finish my answer right now," Joe announced. "She couldn't help but say yes to going to a dinner with you and our family. Once she sees me she will see who the real Sexy Man is! Poned!" Kevin gave Joe a look. "What? She's really pretty! You can't blame me! Nick, you saw how pretty she is!"

"Yeah, I did, but she looks more in Kevin's age-range than mine," Nick replied. "She does look nineteen."

"I'm nineteen, she she's in my range too," Joe explained. Kevin's eyebrows turned up in the middle. "Dude calm down, I know you saw her first. I'm backing off."

"Thanks, Bro," Kevin said, patting Joe on the shoulder.

"But if she ends up throwing daggers again, do you mind if I move in on her?"

"Joseph!"

"Just kidding Paul Kevin!"

"I'm done with you children," Nick said, standing up from his seat on Kevin's bed. "I'm going to play video games with Frankie."