Falling For The Undercover Detective

Elizabeth's POV I could feel it somebody was shaking me.  Trying to wake me up but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why.  My alarm hadn't went off so I knew it wasn't because I was late for school.  Aside from that mom and dad had promised they would be home today before I left for school so, with that promise I had set my alarm an hour earlier.  I planned on making breakfast for all of us when they got home.  But who was trying to wake me up?  Then I remembered that my parents had asked one of my brothers to spend the weekend at the house with me.  It didn't matter that I was going to be sixteen in a few short days they still didn't want me being alone.  They told me it was because there were people out there that wanted to hurt them and would use me to do it.  I really didn't understand as I didn't really know anyone or anything outside of my parents, my older brothers and classmates.  I didn't go anywhere or do anything except go to school and come home.   "Elizabeth honey you need to wake up.  Everyone is in the living room and we need to talk."  It was my brother Larry talking to me.  I opened my eyes wide enough to glance at the clock beside my bed.  THREE AM?  What the hell!  Why was my brother waking me up at this ungodly hour?  What did he mean by everyone?  Opening my eyes more I looked at my brother in the dim light coming from the hallway and noticed that his eyes were all red and splotchy.  He'd been crying.  But he never cried.  He was one of the strongest people I knew.  I nodded my head to him and said "give me a few minutes to wake up a bit and I will be right there."  He nodded in agreement and left the room gently closing the door behind him as he left.  At this point now that I was conscious I could faintly hear voices coming from the living room.  It sounded like all the guys were here.   I climbed out of my bed, slipped on my bathrobe and slippers and headed out my bedroom door. As I made my way to the living room I could hear my brothers and a few of their girlfriends talking in hushed tones.  I could make out a few words here and there but wasn't completely certain about what was going on.  I could hear my brother David say "we have to rally together and make sure we protect her as much as possible now."  I could hear the others agreeing to the statement.  Larry spoke up and said "this is going to destroy her and I'm not sure any of us are equipped to handle this."  What in the hell were they all talking about and who is the she they kept referring to?  Surely not me. Because for the love of God they already protected me more than enough. I am the youngest of seven children.  I was the second child born to my parents but still the youngest of seven.  Everyone said that I was a miracle baby.  After the birth of my brother Larry the doctors told mom that she wouldn't be able to ever have another child again.  That if she did get pregnant the baby would end up dying and more than likely  mom would die in the process as well.  My parents wanted nothing more than to have a family of at least six kids so they went on to adopt.  Eventually they adopted five other young boys that were roughly the same age as their Larry.  Eleven years later I was born.  I was adored and protected beyond any measure. When I was little if I fell and scraped a knee there were always at least two or three people around to pick me up off the ground and make it all better.   As I further approached the living room I could hear my brother Daniel saying "How are we going to tell her that mom and dad are dead?"  With that I felt a gasp escape my lips and the world went dark.   When I woke up I was laying on the couch in the living room.  My head was throbbing in the back.  I gingerly reached my hand up to touch the back of my head and felt blood.  My brother Brian broke through the crowd of brothers and girlfriends with his ever handy doctor bag.  "There, there little sis you took a nasty fall and got a nasty little cut on that pretty little head of yours."  Brian always had a way of making me feel better.  His smile reached his eyes and he always made you feel like you were the most important person in the world.  That's probably why at only twenty seven he was such a successful doctor.  His patients all adored him.  He quickly administered to my wound with the help of Larry's girlfriend Amber who was a nurse at the local hospital.  "Ok sis I'm going to give you a little something for the pain but this wound is going to need a few stitches.  It's going to sting some and I need you to hold still as much as you can do you understand?"  I gingerly nodded showing him I understood.  Amber grabbed my hand and calmly talked to me while Brian stitched up my head. After Brian was done administrating to me and making certain I was ok he moved away.  I cautiously looked around the room to see the faces of my six big brothers looking at me grimly.  Suddenly I remembered why I fell and hit my head in the first place.  It felt  as if my face became deathly pale and by the looks of those in the room it had. My brothers all started to shoot forward to encompass me when Amber spoke up "give the girl some room, geez let her breath."  Amber turned to me and smiled.  It was a sweet, kind smile filled with concern and sadness.  "You heard didn't you honey?" Tears welled up in my eyes and now I couldn't even meet the gaze of the men standing in front of me.  I could feel their hearts breaking like mine was doing.  I looked up at Amber and her gaze confirmed my worst fears. Mom and dad were dead.  I had heard the words correctly when I was walking into the room.  I felt like the earth had just opened up and swallowed me into the depths of hell.  Amber squeezed my hand gently and whispered "talk to us honey."  I looked up at my brothers.  Their faces were filled with concern, worry and worse of all sadness.  I looked at them and said "did I hear right?  Is mom and dad dead? How could they be?  They were coming home today from their trip.  They were going to be home before I went to school.  They promised and they never break their promises." Daniel broke from the crowd and came over to me.  He gently sat down next to me on the couch.  He took my face in his hands and softly spoke the words I didn't want to hear.  "Baby sis mom and dad were involved in a massive pile up on the freeway a few hours ago.  By the time rescue workers were able to get to them they had succumbed to their injuries.  There was no saving them.  They won't be coming home. I'm so sorry baby girl.  But we are all here for you."  I looked up into his face and started crying, shaking my head all I could say was "no, say it's not true."