Chapter 2 ER again

*** POV - Melaena Blackburn - age 6 years old I phone my brothers to come and get us, knowing they ll make a plan, even if it's just to see me getting into trouble. Kiara s ankle is already swollen and her foot is twisted in an unnatural position. We keep talking and laughing about Jason running away like a little screaming baby girl. Green-eyes puts his biker-type jacket with a huge number 13 on the back, over my shoulders when I start to shiver from shock and pain. "That s gonna leave a mark, that s for sure," Kiara says, looking at my arm. "Sniff pixie dust and soar!" The boy whispers softly in my ear, wiping the tears from my cheek with his hand. Okay … now I m sure he s not square in his head. Not even kids my age says stuff like that. And what does it mean anyway? Peter Pan crap or something. Then the boy without a name disappears like a ghost between the trees, looking back at me one last time, giving me a small wave and a big smile. Why does it feel as if he took some part of me with him? Ug, now I m going crazy it seems. Then I see my father s pickup approaching us slowly, Ilkay behind the steering wheel and Logan next to him, the twins standing at the back. My oldest brother might be only 11, but he drives better than mom does. They help us into the cab, load our bikes onto the rear bed, and soon we reach the hospital and push past the swinging glass doors. A middle-aged nurse walks up to us, her round hips swinging with every step. Her face turns into a worried frown when she recognizes us. "Mel, what happened?" She helps Ilkay to put Kiara in a wheelchair and immediately takes us to a consulting room. Before I can answer, an elderly doctor with grey hair and spectacles enters the room, his eyes fixed on the chart in his hands. My heart drops into my shoes. It s doctor Barney! He s like best friends with Uncle John, so I m not getting away this time, that s for sure. I can already imagine how the grownups in my life are going to go bonkers. Mom is going to strip her top for sure. Don t get me wrong, I love them dearly, BUT they can be a tad bit overprotective when it comes to me. They treat me like a child and I m SIX, not a baby. "Hi, I m doctor Barney." He greets and then his eyes move up and land on me and then the rest of my family. "Oh, it s you bunch again," he sighs almost sounding disappointed, "and what the heck did you get into this time?" He shakes his head a little, rubbing his chin with one hand, trying to hide a smile. "Uh … we had a little accident." "Again?" He rolls his eyes, now smiling openly. Yep, my family is regulars here in the ER. At least once a month, one of us gets into the kind of trouble that ends up here. "Ah, let me guess, the haunted house?" Damn, how did he know! Kiara starts to babble, telling him every tiny detail and then I join in, due to stress or pain or I don t know what … Nurse Betty just smiles as my mom would smile if she was here, but mom had to accompany dad to an important function in New York for business, so Uncle John, my father s brother, is looking after us. After a few minutes of me and Kiara chirping like little sparrows, Doc Barney holds up his hands begging us to just calm down for a moment. He s already pulled out the arrow and stitched up the wound. Now his attention moves to Kiara s leg. Axel is still sitting on the chair in the corner, not saying a word and my brothers went to wait in the waiting area. "Ok, little pumpkin, I need you to hold you re friend s hand, and then you both count out loud to a hundred for me." Kiara pulls the same confused face as me, but with a shrug off my shoulders, I take her hand and look down at her and then we start counting. Before we even get to five, Doc Barney pulls on her shoe and removes it with a swift movement. Kiara lets out a painful cry and I see tears forming in those grey eyes. "Pumpkin, we ll need to put this leg back in position under anesthesia. I ll give you something for the pain, but we ll need to wait for consent on the documentation." Kiara looks at me, eyes wide, and I know what she s thinking. Her mom is an alcoholic druggy and her dad is in jail, so Uncle John, being her father s best friend, took custody of her at the request of her dad, and takes care of her as if she s his own daughter. So if she needs consent, it means that they have to phone Uncle John, and that probably means the end of our lives as we know it. "If you guys can wait for a few minutes, I ll be back soon. I have a few phone calls to make." Nurse Betty looks at us with a stern but loving face. I cringe, knowing what s waiting for me. "Can t we rely on doctor-patient confidentiality? I mean, you don t have to tell them all the details, right?" I ask softly and the doctor bursts out laughing. "Sorry Mel, but you re still underaged, so I have to tell your families EVERY SINGLE DETAIL," he drags out the last words on purpose, still laughing. "I know, but maybe you can leave out the part about the haunted house and just say we got hurt on the playground?" I pout my lips and give him my best puppy-dog eyes I can master. Nurse Betty comes back into the room. "Pretty please, Doc, you know my family. We ll get grounded until we re 30 and over the wall. And we ll die as crazy cat ladies, and it will haunt you forever." He smiles at me lovingly and shakes his head while nurse Betty lets out a giggle-burb. Kiara looks at me with pity in her eyes. We know what s coming, Uncle John can be strict, but at least we re together in this and that s the only plus point in this situation. We wait in silence and I know the exact moment my uncle enters the ER. He growls with a deep voice, demanding to know where we are, and my brothers are talking all at once (one of their strategies to get away with murder) blaming each other, each one using his own charming persuasion skills to get the least punishment possible. So I hold my breath until they walk, or rather, STORM into the room. "Girls, what have you done now?" Uncle John is the first one to speak, looking bewildered at my arm and then at Kiara s foot, shaking his blond-grey head, his eyes are worried. Jackson has no emotion on his face, Ilkay has a disapproving frown, while Enrique and Logan, look at us mischievously as if they re glad the focus moved away from them. A quick intro to my family situation. Ilkay is the oldest, the thinker who never seems to do anything wrong, EVER, until one of his siblings needs saving. Then there are the twins, Enrique and Jackson. And they re like the opposite of two peas in a pod. Enrique is the crazy cocky one, always in trouble, but with a way of talking himself out of every situation, whereas Jackson is more of the mysterious hero type. But just to complicate things, Enrique is a lot more serious than the laid-back Jackson. Logan is the little drama queen with the quick temper and lastly, there s me, the little angel in disguise like mom would say. Dad is almost always away on business trips, and this time mom joined him, leaving us in the care of our uncle. Uncle John is standing in the hallway talking to Doc Barney and another doctor. He looks vaguely familiar, with dark hair and a strong face, actually a very pretty dad-age man. They re looking over at Kiara and I know that they re talking about her operation. I feel cold and put on the number 13 jacket again. The boy forgot to take it back. The handsome doctor pierces me with ice-blue eyes that shine like diamonds. He looks confused, a frown forming on his face. I think he doesn't like this jacket very much. The three men walk into the room, the doctor still giving me the eye, so I swallow down some spit and give him my warmest angelic smile back. He winks at me, and I take a deep breath. Thank goodness. For a moment I thought he was mad about something. Then Axel gets up and walks over to my uncle holding out his hand. "Hi, I m Axel Grey." He pulls the sleeve of his hoody down to cover the marks on his arm. I smile when my brothers attention shifts from teasing us girls to Axel. My brothers tend to treat Kiara as just another annoying sister and they don t like any boys in a radius closer than 5 meters from us. "Axel saved us!" I mutter, hoping they will not be too hard on him. Maybe if they talk to him they will forget about me. But I know by now that s highly unlikely. My brothers will not let our parents forget anything about this incident for the next few weeks – well, my part of the incident at least. So when mom gets back, the whole situation will repeat itself all over again. Jackson greets Axel, thanking him for his bravery and then they start talking about stupid boring boy stuff like bikes and cars. Axel tells them how Jason ran away screaming like a little coward and they laugh until they have tears in their eyes. "So where did you get the jacket?" The blue-eyed doctor asks softly, his eyes warm now. But his question brings back my brothers' unwanted attention to me again. "Some boy helped us out and he gave it to me cause it was cold. I forgot to give it back." He nods his head as if he gets it, and I decide that I really like this friendly doctor. Doc Barney enters the room again and explains that Uncle John signed consent for Kiara so she s good to go. Kiara lets out a soft sigh, thanking him with a sad face. I hug my best friend, telling her that everything will be ok and that we ll be waiting for her when she gets out before Nurse Betty pushes her off to the elevators asking what color plaster she would like. "Don t worry pumpkin, Dr. Grimm is the best trauma surgeon in the country. He ll fix her up." I watch as the friendly doctor gets into the lift with my best friend, a cocky but warm grin on his face. "You guys hungry?" Uncle John asks looking at me and then at Axel. "I thought you ll never ask." Enrique is always hungry, just like me, and he starts walking out taking Axel by the arm, leading him in the direction of the cafeteria. "It s a wonder you kids don t look like a bloat of hippos with all the food you stuff down your throats." Uncle John smirks falling in behind them, pulling me with him. "And don t think for one moment I forgot about what you did, young lady." I let out a deep, hard, long sigh and look at Axel, giving him a faint smile. Kiara and I are going to be grounded for life. Come to think of it, we actually were grounded already and slipped out, so now we re going to be double grounded for life. Life is so unfair, especially when you re only 6.