The Adopted Romance

Heather's POV (again :P)

I don't know where I am. Everything is black and I can't sense anything. My vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste have all ceased working. It's as if I have been snatched from the Earth and have been left to float in this... space. Like I was when I was orphaned.

Life can be so cruel.

Just when you think that it's all over- your world comes crashing down around you. Kind of like when you fall out of a window and everything comes whooshing past you like a movie on fast-forward. That feeling when you have no stomach, and then total pain. Pain like nothing I have ever experienced and pain that I hope you will never have to experience. Like every cell in your body is screaming and exploding all at once.

That was the last thing I experienced before this. This never-ending black world, like those scary white rooms that are really much smaller then they seem because it's so white. But this is black. Too black. It's also too quiet. The silence that makes you want to scream in frustration at the fact that there is so little noise. I want to scream now, but I doubt that I am even capable of taking a breath. I don't care, I just need to scream. Even if it's the last thing I do in this space before I am plunged into what will probably either be life or death.

Unless this is death. How frustrating.

Stuff it, I'm going to scream. I want to feel the fantastic sensation of my vocal chords vibrating and the rush of air from my lungs as I shatter the glassy silence. I need to scream. I have to do it for Bob and Ray and Frank and Mikey and Gerard. I'll take that breath!

Gerard's POV

I can't believe that we're in a hospital again. Mikey is still in his hospital gown from being here earlier! It's all my fault anyways. I lift my head from my hands, jump up, and kick the chair I'm sitting on. Maybe if we hadn't of kept our true identities from her, none of this would have ever happened! Police and ambulance arrived very soon after Heather was... I won't say she was killed, I won't[i/]! But it was traumatic, there was blood everywhere and she was so... destroyed! You probably could have dislocated her shoulder, and only then would it have been in the right place. And I am the person responsible for that. The others have told me that it was Ravon's fault, who has been thrown in to jail along with his wife until we go to court in three weeks. There were enough witnesses to prove him guilty, so that shouldn't be a problem.

But I'm the guilty one. We're not even allowed to go in and see her because her condition is too serious. Miraculously, her heart was still beating, but only just. The machines are horrible, the beeping is driving me insane, threatening to morph into one continual beep at any second. I yell in frustration and kick the hell out of the crappy plastic chair, almost breaking it, with Frank, Bob and Ray struggling to hold me back. Mikey had to go back to his room, even though he's fine.

I'm suddenly pulled from my fit of rage by an ear-splitting scream. The loudest I have ever heard, and it's coming from Heather's room. Ignoring the staff's orders, we rush through the door and find her, eyes barely open, lying on her bed and breathing heavily. The machine's beeping has gotten twice as fast, and the corners of her mouth twitch into a small smile.

But the sight of her made me want to cry. She was wrapped from head to toe in bandages and her arms and legs were in casts. The only parts of her that weren't cover by white were her eyes, nose and mouth. Her lips were covered in blood and small strands of her long black hair were poking through the bandages too. The worst thing, though, was that she had tubes and needles coming out of her arms and neck, and she had an oxygen mask on. She almost looked like an alien.

"I thought I told you to stay away from this room! What did you do to her?!" Asked a doctor, bursting into the room.

"Nothing, I swear! We heard her scream from outside and came to see why!" I insisted, moving aside to let him through.

"I highly doubt that! Get out, or you are suspended from this hospital!" Just after he said that, I heard a noise. It was extremely soft, but I know I heard it. I walked over to Heather and put my face close to her mouth.

"Say that again?" I whispered

"I want you to stay." Came a slow, soft and very dragged out sentence that sounded nothing like Heather's voice, yet it was hers.

"Doctor, she wants us to stay!" I commanded, turning to face him.

"Nonsense! Unless she can say that to me, you four men are leaving!" He replied, walking over to her. She asked again, and the Doctor apologized, flustered, and ran some tests.

"I am amazed that she is even alive, let alone talking! She should be dead, she broke almost every bone in her body apart from her neck, skull and any part of her spine. I guess you have a miracle daughter there! But she will need to stay here for quite some time, seeing that she could fall unconscious at any second. I'll give the tests in whilst you watch her. Don't get her too excited." And with that, the Doctor turned on his heel and walked away. I flinched at the word 'daughter', wondering if she would ever want me to be her father.

"Dad..." She said, still barely audible.

"M-me?" I stuttered, shocked. She made some small noise which I assumed was a 'yes'. My eyes welled up with tears and I collapsed at the side of her bed, sobbing. "Do y-y-you really wa- hic -want me to be your f-father after what hap-p-pened?!"

"Not. Your. Fault. Yes." It took so much effort for her to string those small words together, but I knew what she meant. And it only made me cry more, tears of joy mixing with my sad ones.

~*THREE HOURS LATER*~

"I have the results of the tests! It was very quick, but I have bad news." The Doctor announced, walking back in the room. My heart froze as I waited for him to continue. "It will take nine months until she is able to leave the hospital, and I am afraid she'll have difficulty using her arms and legs for another three or more months. She will have to use a wheelchair for a while, but she can learn how to walk again and regain her balance if she practices after she leaves this hospital. She'll need to do some arm exercises if she wants to be able to have full control over them." He stopped, which I assumed was the end of his report.

"Twelve months until she is fully recovered?!" Frank gasped

"Well... no. She will never fully recover, because closer examination of the X-rays revealed that her spine has been flattened and stretched. She won't be deformed or anything, but she will be taller and, oddly, slightly more flexible. Also, if she ever breaks another bone, there is a small chance that it will heal properly. Since today is the last day of summer, we will allow her to go home with you on the first day of spring. I'm am extremely sorry, and wish you all the best of luck. We have dormitories here in the hospital if you would like to live here free of charge. I also understand that you are related to a Mr Mikey Way? He is in the next room if you wish to see him. Good day." He finished, walking out of the room to another patient.

"Heather... did you hear that?" Ray asked. She made a small agreement noise as tears welled up in her eyes. It must be so hard for her.