Homecoming

The boys ran to their dad's bed side. I'd only met them once before, but they hadn't stopped arguing. Now, Joey had his arm around Jakob and tears in his eyes. Adrienne went to Billie. I slumped down in a chair and put my head in my hands. And arm went around me. It was Jakob. I smiled at him and gave him a hug. Adrienne approached me then.
"Hi, you're Jade right?"
I nodded. "And you're Adrienne."
She gave me a warm smile although it seemed out of place. They stayed only a few minutes, but Adrienne said she'd be back tomorrow morning. I gave Jakob a hug and he caught up with his mom. Joey stood there awkwardly. I pulled him into my arms. His resemblance to his father was amazing. He had blonde hair with brown roots. But he had Adie's big brown eyes.
"Bye," he whispered.
"Bye."
That left me and Tre. He sat in the chair next to me and held my hand.
Billie was out cold still. He lost a lot of blood. Mostly from the wound over the Adrienne tattoo and his stomach. I knew this was all my fault. If I hadn't flipped over my mom and him, they'd both be happy. But then again, I revealed a side of her that would probably come out eventually. It was all my fault though. Yeah, mom was the one who tried to kill him, but because of me. She didn't want him hurting me. Damn, my life was screwed up.
***
I woke up in the morning, not even remembering where I was. Then, the sick nightmare came back and I looked around the hospital room to see a nurse talking to Tre and Billie. Wait. Billie was awake!
"Billie!" I nearly attacked him, but remembered the broken ribs. "Damn, stupid ribs," I muttered.
Billie grabbed my wrist and yanked me down into a kiss. It was a hard kiss. I loved how he could kiss me in so many different ways; Sweetly, passionately, urgently, and playfully. Just the many sides and moods of him.
"Watch the arm," I said. "Still a bit sore."
"Oh no, babe. I'm so sorry. I forgot," he said sarcastically. "Let's see it."
I unwrapped the bandage and showed a long red line on my arm.
"What happened," the nurse asked.
"I, uh, was holding a knife and, um, tripped. No biggie. I'm clumsy. How is he?"
She flipped several pages on her clip board. "He'll be here for another two weeks at least. Once he's healed, we have to keep him under observation for two days."
"Okay. How are you feeling?"
He shrugged. "It hurts."
"I'd imagine. You guys are gonna be behind on your record," I added.
"Don't fuckin' remind me." He was really angry about that.
"Mike and I got some stuff to do, so it'll keep us busy," Tre said.
"You can still write songs from here," I reminded. "You know a guitar better than anyone I know and you can work on lyrics."
"Yeah, I guess."
A doctor came in. "Mr. Armstrong, an officer would like to talk to you about the incident. Would now be alright?"
"Bring 'em up."
"I'm afraid you two must leave," said the doctor.
"No. I know who did it."
"All right. You have to leave though," he said, pointing to Tre.
Tre clapped Billie on the shoulder and pecked me on the lips before leaving. The nurse and doctor exited and two police officers came in. They started with Billie who knew nothing about the attacker.
"Did the attacker say anything?"
"No," he said shaking his head. "Wait. Yeah, actually. Why don't you go back to Adrienne, or something like that." His eyes widened with shock.
"What is it?"
"My mom did it," I told them. "He just figured that out."
"It makes sense because of what I heard, but it didn't sound like her."
I face-palmed. "Billie! Don't defend her! And she could have hired someone!"
"Why would this come about," the officer asked.
Billie explained the first part of the story. Then I told them everything she said to me when she took me out.
"Thank you. We're going to bring her in for questioning and try to find evidence."
They both left.
"This fucking sucks," I murmured.
"Ya think? It ruined our Saturday," Billie said with a smile. "I was planning on f-"
The door opened yet again.
"Am I interrupting," Adrienne asked with a smirk.
I laughed, Billie looked amused.
He shifted. "Fuck!"
"I know you're in pain, but you have serious issues with cursing. It's rubbing off on me."
He rolled his eyes.
"He's really bad," Adie agreed.
Although his ex wife and current girlfriend were in the same room, the mood was light and we talked and joked and laughed for a while.