Adopted

Chapter 42

Sarah's POV continued

"Sarah!  Sarah, what happened?" A voice in front of me said.  I looked up and Kala was kneeling in front of me. When did I call her?  Did I call her?

"Sarah?" She said again

"Kala," I cried. "They beat her up."

"What?  Who beat her up? Jessica?"

I nodded.

"Who beat her up? Why?"

"Some kids at school," I said. "Some kids at school beat her up because she has AIDS," I broke down crying again. Kala wrapped me in a tight hug.

"What do the doctors say? How bad is it?" She asked, holding me at arm's length and looking into my eyes to make me focus.

"They haven't come out yet. No one has told me anything," I said.

"Let me go see if I can find something out," the nurse, did she say her name was Pamela?, said.

Kala moved into her vacated seat beside me.

"I don't understand, Sarah. What do you mean they beat her up because she has AIDS?"

I shrugged.

"Some eighth graders somehow found out that Jessica has AIDS and confronted her after school. I was able to stop them when someone came to find me, but not before they'd already given her a good beating," Patrick said.

"Please don't think me rude," Kala said, "But who the hell are you?"

"Sorry. Patrick Clark. One of Jessica's teachers.  I drove Mrs. Urie here so she didn't drive herself."

"Thank you. How did these little assholes find out Jessica has AIDS?"

"I don't know. But I know the students and we'll be investigating. Not that this will make anything better, but those boys are in a whole heap of trouble."

"BOYS?!" Kala shouted. "Eighth grade BOYS beat up a seventh grade girl?"

"Unfortunately, it seems that way,"  Patrick said.

Just then, a doctor came out of the emergency department with the nurse.

"Mrs. Urie?" He said. I stood up.

"How's Jess? Is she okay? Can I see her?"

"Your daughter is going to be okay, but right now, she is a very sick little girl. She has four broken ribs, one of which punctured her lung, which has required a chest tube to be inserted. She's on a ventilator because she was having trouble breathing on her own. Her right arm is broken, but that should heal just fine. She has a lot of bruising and cuts, so she's had some stitches. Our main concern right now is that she has a fractured skull and some bleeding on her brain, which is causing some pressure. We have to take her down for surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain, and then she'll be moved to the Pediatric intensive care unit.  We won't know if there is any lasting brain damage until we can wake her up. We've put her in a medically induced coma."

I sat down and broke down again. My girl. My poor poor girl.

"We'll come get you once she's moved up to the PICU," the doctor said. Kala's arms wrapped around me again and I heard her sob, too.

"Kala, my girl. Why would anyone do this to another kid?  What did she do to deserve this?  We were supposed to protect her," I cried. "This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to be safe with us. She was supposed to have a chance to grow and be loved. She shouldn't be lying here, beaten and broken.  Kala, what if she dies?" I came to the realization that could happen.

"Sarah, she's not going to die. She's a strong kid. You have done amazing with her since you adopted her. She is loved. You have protected her and kept her safe. You can't control other people. Those kids will get their due. When you're calmer and focused, we'll discuss options. But for now, let's just keep positive thoughts that Jess is going to be okay."

I wrapped my arms around Kala and cried.

———-
I'm not sure how much time had passed. I did wind up falling asleep from crying, holding Kala. I was shaken awake by her.

"Sar, the doctor is here."

I sat straight up.

"Mrs. Urie?" The doctor asked. He looked like he had bad news. That was my greatest fear.

"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked.

"Oh! No, no. I just came to tell you Jessica's surgery went well, we took a small piece of her skull out, which we'll replace later, to give her brain room to swell a bit. This is a completely normal thing. She did fine, she'll stay in a medically induced coma for at least a few days while her brain heals. We have a monitor placed to monitor the pressure in her cranium. Once the swelling goes down, and believe me, it's not a lot of swelling, but enough that we don't want to cause any possible further damage to her brain.  She had some bleeding on her brain as well, and her body will eventually reabsorb that on its own. We'll need to do a few CT scans or MRIs as she recovers to check that the bleeding has stopped, which her last scan shows have either stopped or slowed down considerably. If the bleeding vessel doesn't stop on its own, we'll do a second surgery to cauterize it if needed. But we don't need to worry about that right now. I just want to give you all the information I can."

"She's okay?" I asked.

"Well, as I said we've got her in a medically induced coma, but it looks like she'll be okay. We'll know more when she wakes up."

"Can I see her?"

"Of course. They're just moving her up to the PICU now. You can head up there and see your daughter."

"Thank you," I said to the doctor.

He nodded and left. I looked around.

"Where's Patrick?" I asked Kala.

"He called an Uber and went home when you fell asleep. He's a nice guy, Sarah. Jessica has a great teacher to sit here with you while waiting for me."

"He has my car keys," I realized.

"No, he doesn't. He gave them to me," she held them up. I took them and put them in my purse. 

Kala put her arm around me and led me to the elevators to the PICU.