A Good Heart

New Friendships

Nurses crowded around the man as he ran into the hospital with a woman nestled safely in his arms. An older woman gasped," Milly! Oh not Lou again!" she said before rushing to get more nurses. Before long there were nurses pushing a gourney to him.

He carefully laid her down and looked to the nurse. "Please take good care of her. Her brother and Angie are waiting for the police to come get Lou, he came onto their property and hit her with a gun." he said.

"We'll take good care of her, this isn't the first time Lou put her in the hospital." she said as the other nurses rushed off with Milly's unconcious body.

"What do you mean?" he asked looking at her confusion evident on his face.

"Ask John about it when he comes in, we're really not supposed to release any information like this." She said turning and walking through the same door the other nurses went through just moments ago.

After about 30 minutes John and Angie game running into the hospital. They spotted Jackson and ran to him. "How is she? Is she okay?" John asked frantically.

"I'm not sure, they took her back a while ago and no one has said anything yet, though they said they couldn't release any information to me because I'm not family." he said trying to remain calm. "How'd things go with Lou?"

"Good, he'll be in jail for quite some time, and they finally deemed them unfit to have the dogs. Now they're in our barn, and one of them just had puppies, we'll probably be bringing them to the clinic soon." John said, obviously happy to have Lou out of the way.

"That reminds me, they said that this isn't the first time Lou has sent Milly to the hospital, what happened?" asked Jackson looking to Angie and John.

"Well, that's honestly hard for me to answer. Where Mills doesn't talk much, she wont tell us what all happened. All we know is that she had a broken arm, a broken leg, and her nose, and eyesocket were both broken. She was beaten badly and had to stay in the hospital for quite a while." he said looking back to Jackson. "I've been hoping Lou would get thrown in jail for the beating, but she was on his property, so there was nothing the police could do."

Just then they heard, "John!" the same old nurse from earlier came running out wildly. "John, she's awake now, she lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion, but she's..." she paused for a moment," well, she's very confused."

"What do you mean confused?" John asked.

The nurse looked at him with tears in her eyes," John, she's asking for your parents, she wants to know why they're not here in the hospital with her." she said making all of their eyes snap up to the room behind her. John took off first, followed by Angie, then Jackson. When they made it into the room what they saw suprised them.

There was Milly sitting up in the bed looking out the open window as the spring breeze flowed in making the white see through curtains blow lightly towards her. Her long hair blowing in the breeze. Her eyes lit up as soon as they all entered the room. "Hey John." she said in a beautiful melodic voice. "I was wondering why I woke up alone. Where's mom and dad, they'd never leave me in here by myself." she said calmly.

They all stood shocked. That was the longest string of words that Angie and John had heard in years. How was he going to explain to her that their parents were gone? "Mills, do you really not remember?" John asked walking up to his sister shakily.

"Remember what John?" She asked, "You're scaring me." she added.

"The tornado Mills? The truck?" he asked confused at how this part of her memory could be gone.

"The truck?" she asked back then they could all see the flash of realization go through her as she placed her head in her hands crying out in pain. "No! NO! They can't be gone!" she yelled loudly. "John..." she said weakly. She opened her eyes and tears poured down her cheeks.

"I know Mills, I know!" John said walking to her and pulling her into his arms. "I miss them too, but please, don't stop talking again, please! The silence is deafening sis!" he said brushing her hair with his fingers as she cried into his chest, but she didn't listen, and the silence soon returned.

"Well, I've got to head back home. I guess I'll catch up with you all later." Jackson said.

"Oh! Give me your phone!" John said holding out his hand. Jackson pulled out his phone and handed it to him. John pulled up his contacts and quickly added himself, Angie, and Milly's number to it before handing it back. "If you ever want a place to hang out, you know where we live." John said as Jackson was leaving.

Behind John he could see the frame of Milly curled up under the covers. He felt bad for her having to relive her past trauma's but he knew that if he didn’t get home soon Erika would freak out on him. He waved goodbye to his newfound friends and walked out the hospital. After a short walk back to the pet clinic he got to his car and drove back to his house, after about 10 minutes he pulled in and found Erika waiting for him on the porch with her arms crossed. She was mad, yet again, he sighed heavily getting out of his car and walking to the door.

"Why are you late? You said you'd only be a few minutes! Why do you always lie to me?" she asked annoyed that he was late.

"Erika, I've had a long day." he said before he heard her loud gasp.

"Why is your shirt all bloody, and why is it torn!" She practically screeched at him. Her voice was always whiny, and she was always rude to him, why did he ever agree to stay with her.

"Erika!" It's not my blood, I met some people today. When I was on my way to the clinic I saw some conditions some dogs were living in that wasn't acceptable, so I went back to check on them. This man John and his sister Milly were there also checking on the animals. I decided to help them." He started calmly.

"Sister! So you were cheating on me! " she shouted making Jackson more irritated.

"No, I wasn't! Will you let me finish!" he yelled back. "They were helping the dogs there, so I helped them as well. Then they invited me for lunch since I helped them. While we were eating lunch their neighbor came and Milly ran out to make him leave. He then hit her over the head with his gun. I took her to the hospital and left shortly after." he finished looking at the woman with slight disdain.

"Milly is an ugly name!" she snorted before turning around and stomping inside. "I made you lunch but it's cold now since you took too long to get home. Go wash that home wreckers blood off of you this instant." she yelled.

He looked at her angrily, "Erika watch what you say about her! She is a kind person, and I wont tolerate you speaking about her in that way! She was nothing but kind to me. She's not a home wrecker! I didn't even want to be with you, but after your mother died you made me promise not to leave you again. Growing up best friends, I never thought you'd behave this way! We were so close, but with the way you behave I can barely stand to be around you! If you keep acting this way over every little thing I will leave you!" he yelled before stomping into the bathroom slamming, and locking the door behind him and showering. The thought of Milly's long auburn hair freely crept it's way into his mind as he showered.

{Milly's POV}

I laid in the hospital bed sobbing silently, before they mentioned it, I thought it was just a bad dream. Now its one that I can't wake up from, no matter how much I try. They really were gone, they're never coming back. Those thoughts beat themselves into my head, as my sobs turned to whimpers. I could hear shuffling behind me, and knew someone just came in the room.

"Hey hon." I heard the soft voice of my friend Angie and felt her gentle touch against my back. "You okay? You know I'm here for you." she said rubbing my back.

I don't know what I'd do without her, she's been my friend since we were in diapers. "No, Can we go home? You know how much I hate this place." I wrote out on my phone.

"Yeah, I'll go talk to the doctor okay hon, I think they want to keep you, but given your history here, maybe they'll let you go if I ask if Doc Brown will come check on you at the house over the next few days." she said getting up and walking out into the hall. I laid there for about an hour in completel silence, the wind turning cold from the open window, and the day turning to night. I stood up, still a little light headed and stumbled to the window. I closed it quickly and the chill left the room. I walked back over to my bed and laid in it, waiting for Angie to come back.

After about 45 minutes she came back in with some papers. "The nurse will be here in a minute to clean and dress your head, and take out the IV and we'll be good to go." she smiled at me. "You were awfully talkative earlier, is your voice going to stick around this time?" she asked.

What was I supposed to say, I don't know, I don't want to stop talking, but I just have nothing to say to almost anyone, and at least in the silence, I don't have to think about how my words would effect others. The whole reason I stopped talking was because of how my words hurt John, I don't want to risk hurting anyone anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone, not with the ways I've been hurt before. Plus if I start talking again John will surely ask about what happened when Lou beat me the last time, and I don't want him to have to hear about that. I shook my head, looking down at my hands.

"Why though? You never explained why you stopped talking, I know the doctor said that it was due to stress, and depression, but can you please tell me?" she pleaded with tears in her eyes.

"I can't. I don't know." Was all I could write before the nurse walked in and pulled the bandage off my forehead. I had a large cut up half my forehead, and going into my hairline that they had stitched up. "Now dear, you need to clean it, twice daily and reapply the bandages to make sure it heals properly and stays clean." She said cleaning it and dressing it with bandages. She then took the IV out of my hand and bandaged it up as well. "You're free to go dear, we just need you to sign some papers." She said handing them to me with a pen. I nodded signing them and looking standing from the bed still a little dizzy.

"Your brother went back to get the wagon to come pick us up. Are you sure you're okay?" she asked looking over me as I walked weakly with my arm around her. I nodded and kept my eyes forward as we walked out of the hospital. John was waiting for us out front with the wagon, he had our horse Oatmill hooked up it. "See, it's gonna be okay, lets get you home." she said helping me into the back of the wagon. There were blankets and pillows thrown back there for us to lay on. I laid down cuddling under some of the blankets and Angie snuggled up beside me holding me closesly. After a few minutes I began to doze off.

"So, is she going to talk again?" I could hear John ask, with worry in his voice.

"No hon, I'm sorry, she said she cant, it's all just too much on her. We need to give her time, she needs us for now, she's been hurt by Lou before, and now she's been hurt again. She needs our love and support, and I know it's hard on you, but you'll always have me." Angie said while calmingly rubbing my back. I felt the wagon come to a halt and knew we were home, I heard the smallest neigh, and knew that Juniper was coming towards us, I sat up groggily, my head still pounding. I smiled softly as her head fell into my lap.

I kissed her head softly and pet her behind the ears. My brother was getting Oatmill off of the leads and led her back to the stables. I started to get up to help him put up Juniper and Oatmill then he turned to me.

"Sis, you need rest. You're still covered in blood, go in, shower, and go to sleep tonight." He said as I nodded and turned to walk into the house. "And don't even think about trying to do your chores tomorrow! Doc said you need rest!" he added before walking Juniper and Oatmill to the barn.

I walked slowly up to the front porch and into the house, I made my way up the stairs, and down the hall into my room. It was painted white with a light oak wooden plank accent wall. I had two swinging eggs chairs that were black with white cushions and tan pillows next to a bay window that had a sitting area built into it. I had a large canopy bed with white velvet curtains coming down making it look like a bed a princess would sleep in. I looked to one of the large posts that had a heart with my parents inititals in it. I asked them to do that when I saw it on a tree outside. Just seeing this made me sob again. How did I forget what happened, it was so traumatic I didn't understand how I could have ever forgotten. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and walked into my bathroom. It was a larger bathroom, it had a jacuzzi tub in the corner, and a large walk in shower with a rainfall shower head. My bathroom counter was white marble, just like the bathroom floor, and the cabinets were a light oak. It was all so light, and lovely, but inside right now I felt dark and stormy. This all hurt so badly, I closed my bathroom door and stripped out of my dress turning on the shower to the warmest setting, then entered the shower. I silently slid down the shower wall onto the ground and just kept crying for what seemed like forever. I cried myself to sleep in the shower floor, not wanting to wake up after all of this. He had hurt me again, and my parents were gone. It all had been brought back to me so fast, that I haven't had time to recover. This depression is the same as it was the first time, and I wasn't sure I'd make it through again.

"JOHN!" I heard Angie screaming, what happened? Was there something wrong? "JOHN HELP!" She screamed again.

"Angie, what is it?" I heard John ask. "No, MILLY! GET UP!" I heard him scream.

"Me? I'm fine, just tired, don't worry about me." I thought to myself.

I felt myself being shaken and suddenly it felt like I was thrown back into my body from somwhere distant. I gasped quickly for air and shot my eyes open. I coughed and gagged up some water. I looked up to the two standing in front of me tears streaming down both of their cheeks as they both lunged forward holding me against them.

"I thought you were dead Mill!' Said Angie through sobs. "Why were you in the shower floor?" she cried.

I shook my head, not really understanding, I must have fallen asleep while taking a shower.

"No Amelia! You can't just do that! You can't almost die twice in one day, and pretend like nothing happened!" Yelled John, I haven't seen him this angry in years.

"I’m sorry!” I signed. It was once of the few signs that John and I learned.

"Milly, you need to take better care of yourself, you keep getting hurt, and doing things that could hurt you! You could have drowned Milly!" John said angrily.

"John, let her be. She had a long day, you saw what all happened to her today, think about how traumatized she must be after having to relive abuse by Lou, and learning her parents were gone!" Angie yelled back to John. "I know that what she did is scary, and dangerous, but she had to relearn years of trauma in one day, give her a little break." she said looking at him sternly.

He scoffed and walked out of the bathroom and back down the hall to his room.

"Come on Milly, lets get you cleaned up, you still have blood all over you." she said beginning to fill up my tub with water. After a few minutes she came and helped me out of the floor and into the bathtub. She began washing my hair for me and was extra careful around the bandage on my forehead. "Your brother is kinda right Mill, you need to be more careful." she said softly. She picked up a cup and began rinsing my hair for me. "You're his whole world Mill, he loves you more than he loves anything! He needs you more than you know." she said running some conditioner through my hair and washing off my body with my loofah and soap. Once she rinsed me off she helped me out of the tub and helped me get some clothes. She grabbed me a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt and the bandges for my head. She took off the old ones and cleaned the area, before wrapping it up again. She helped me get dressed, and then blow dried my hair.

"I'm sorry Ang." I signed, my eyes blurry from the tears.

"Hey, hey, It's alright Mill, I'm here." she said bringing me to my room and laying in my bed with me covering us both up. "Goodnight Milly." she said as she rubbed my back and shushed me as I cried myself to sleep yet again.