Something in the Water

EMMA:

I lay on my side in the bed, staring blankly at the wall. The light covers were draped over my body by Dad before he said goodnight. My body is weak - the doctor says it's mental exhaustion, but I want is to get out of here. I want my own bed.

I hear the doors slide open, but I don't turn to see who it is. I have a good guess.

He comes to pull a chair up to the side of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. His brown eyes are sleepy, but he watches me intently. I only move my eyes to look at him quickly, then return them to a random spot on the wall.

We're quiet for a long time. I don't know if he's waiting for me to say something or if he's trying to decide what to say. 

"Sam and Sara are gone." He finally mumbles. "I told them to go home."

"Do they know now?" I ask him. "About me?"

He nods his head.

Each time I close my eyes to blink, they become harder to open. He must see it, because he points it out to me. "Tired?"

I give in to them for a few seconds. "Exhausted. How about you?"

He shrugs. "I can sleep when I'm dead."

I smile a little and open my eyes up on him. He's staring at me like I'm a helpless little puppy locked out in the rain. I guess that's what I feel like.

"I'll get you out of this, Em." He says. "I won't let anything happen to you."

I smile again at his kind heart. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Ben."

"I won't." He says certainly.

I see the determination reflecting off his eyes, but I can't let myself believe him. "Everyone else in the world is against me. Don't you think you'll turn on me on of these days?"

"Everyone's not against you, Emma."

I pretend to think. "Well, there's Dad, and the doctor, and some fifteen people that gave me dirty looks in the hallway...Sara hates me, too. Doesn't she?"

"But that woman in the cafeteria wishes you the best. A complete stranger." He reminds me. "Not everyone is against you. Sam doesn't even see a difference." He laughs a little.

I roll onto my back and run my fingers over my tummy. The bump seems to be a billion times bigger because so many people know about it now, but really it's just barely noticeable. "This kid better be the most beautiful human being to see the light of day." I say mostly to myself, but loud enough for Ben to hear.

I check to see if he agrees. He's smiling, but definitely hiding something.

It ruins the somewhat good mood that was forming. "What?"

He leans back in his chair and loses the sneaky expression. "Nothing."

"Why are you here?" I ask him bluntly.

He's surprised by it. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No," I draw circles with my finger around my belly button. "My own father doesn't like me right now, yet some random boy that says he loves me is attached to my hip like it's his job."

"Some random boy, huh?" He teases.

"You know what I mean. If you were in your right mind, you would be gone before I could blink. No one is making you stay with me." I blink just to see how fast it would be. "So why are you here?"

He reaches his hand through the thin, silver railing on the edge of the bed and holds one of mine. "Last week, you told me you would marry me right now. How could I run away from that?"

I roll my eyes. "You're ridiculous."

He half smiles the way that I like most. "That's what they tell me."

I run my thumb over his soft skin. "I don't want you to feel like you're stuck with me forever just because this happened."

He smirks at me now. "Sounds like you're trying to get rid of me again - which sucks for you because you're stuck with me forever and ever."

I giggle out of extreme fatigue, and pat his hand. "Okay, fine. I'm going to sleep." I roll over again and bounce when I feel him jump over the railing and into the bed beside me. 

"Scoot over, would ya?" He shoves me to the side.

"Ben, you can't fit!" I laugh, my chest squished against the railing on the other side.

"You really are trying to get rid of me, aren't you?" He walks his fingers up my sides and tickles the space under my arm.

I squeal and laugh harder because of the squeal when we hear a woman's voice. "Ben,"

We look at eachother, then up at the ceiling where the voice seemed to have come from. There's a speaker above the bed.

"What was that?" I whisper, afraid it can hear us.

There's a knock on the glass window, and Dr. Steven's is smiling on the other side. "We need patients in their own rooms by eleven." Her voice is portrayed through the speaker as she talks into a device on her wrist.

I feel sad now, mostly because I haven't felt so normal in what seems like forever. Her voice through the speakers shot us back to reality.

Ben kisses me before lifting himself out of the tiny bed. "I love you." He starts for the door, and turns back around, wiggling his fingers. "I'll get you later."

I only smile slightly, because sleep is overcoming all of my senses.

. . . . . . . .

It happens when we are finally free to leave the hell hole called a hospital.

Ben holds my hand loosely as we walk through the building, Dad and the doctor right on our heels. We haven't said much to eachother since yesterday, Dad and I, and it doesn't bother me all that much. Silence is golden.

I see the exit up ahead, but it's blocked by a small mass of people. There's maybe eight of them, a few dressed in business clothes, and others supporting large, black cameras on their shoulders. A few nurses in light colored scrubs are speaking with them.

"I wonder what's going on." Ben mutters to me.

"They look like their waiting for someone." I say. We continue to the exit in hopes that they will move out of the way.

A nurse catches us approaching and says something to a woman in a emerald colored dress. She marches right up to Ben and I. "Excuse me, are you Emma Sullivan?"

I stare at her made-up face. "Um..."

"What is this about?" Dad interrupts, separating Ben and I as he barges through.

The woman sticks a microphone right under his nose. "Mr. Sullivan, are you planning on changing the law to meet the needs of your daughter?"

"What?" Ben says. Someone else sees the advantage and pops a mic out as well. 

I spot my reflection in a round camera lense. Soon, I'm surrounded by cameras and microphones. My connection to my dad and Ben is blocked by strangers shouting questions at me that I can barely comprehend. I'm frozen in fear.

"Did you forge a license to be detoxed early?"

"Are you going to stay in school?"

"Was the intent to protest the age of the Evaluation?"

"Ben!" I cry, unable to breathe with the people jumping down my throat. There's a flash in my face, and I'm blinded by it. "Daddy!"

"That's enough! Back off!" Dr. Stevens shoves them away with a force I wouldn't expect to come out of her. "You people aren't allowed to be in here!"

They still shout their questions, hanging on like leeches. The doctor conceals me in her arms and directs me to the embrace of my father. 

Dad wants to curse them off, but he can't. His job is already hanging by a thread, and apparently we aren't the only ones who know it.

I stay hidden in Dad's chest until the shouting goes silent. My ear drums throb with the thickness of it.

I hear the doctor sigh heavily. Dad pets my hair as I try to start breathing again.

"What the hell was that?" Ben growls.

"The nurses..." She's out of breath and trails off.

"Emma?" Dad murmurs, gently lifting me away from his body.

I spin myself to face away from Dad and slowly open my eyes. Ben's pacing a two foot distance with his hands in his hair. The doctor tucks a loose strand of hair back into her bun. We're safe in a room similar to the one I was in before.

"Who let them in here?" Ben yells at her.

"I don't know, but is it really all that surprising?" She peeks through the door. "Only a few are left."

Ben shakes his head. "Unbelieveable." Our eyes connect for the first time. "Em, are you okay?" He takes one of my hands. I automatically lean away from my dad and into Ben's arms.

"That was awful." I whisper, clinging to his shirt.

Ben holds me closer, tucking my head under his chin. "She's shaking." He says.

"They won't touch you ever again." Dad promises. "I won't let them touch my baby girl."

I wipe the wetness in my eyes before it falls. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Daddy."