Adopted

Chapter 44

Sarah's POV

Brendon's flight would be in around 9 am and Zack had said they'd grab an Uber or a cab from the airport.

Kala had stayed with me through the night. The two of us just kept talking to Jessica, hoping she could hear us. But mostly to try to drown out the machines keeping her alive for now.

"What if this is it?" I asked Kala, quietly.

"Sarah, you can't think like that," she said.

"Someday it will be, though. If not now, someday. I know we're going to lose her eventually, but this can't be it. It's too soon.  I'll never be ready, but I'm really not ready to lose my daughter now," I said through the tears that just wouldn't stop.

"Sarah, she's going to be okay. The doctors said so. She just needs time right now. We have to stay positive," Kala said.

I put my head down on the blanket covering Jessica's broken body.

I must have fallen asleep because I was awoken by Brendon's voice.

"Sarah? Jessica! Oh. Oh my god. Oh. My baby!"

I looked up and saw Brendon standing over Jessica's unmoving figure. He placed his hand on her broken arm.

"What did they do to you? What did those little fuckers do to you?" He asked our daughter's sleeping form.

"I'm going to kill them," he said to me. Then he came around the bed and knelt beside me, hugged me and sobbed in my arms. He set me off again and the two of us cried in each other's arms.

"Holy shit," I heard and looked up. Zack's jaw went slack as he saw Jessica. "What the actual fuck?" He asked. Kala gave him a hug. "What the fuck did they do? What? Why?"

I shook my head. I couldn't explain it.

"Kala, thank you so much for staying. Why don't you go home and get some sleep. You too, Zack. B and I will be fine."

"We'll be back, you know that," she said, giving me a hug. "We'll pick up Penny and Bogey and keep them at ours for now. Okay?"

"I forgot about the dogs. They haven't been out. Or fed."

"I called Pete. He went over. He'll probably be by later. I told him what happened," Kala said.

"Thank you, K," I said.

They left and I leaned into my husband's arms.

"What happened?  Kala said something about eighth graders?"

I took a deep, rattling breath.

"Apparently somehow some eighth graders found out that Jess has AIDS. So they beat her up for it.  I don't know why," I said.

"And the teachers didn't stop it?"

"It was at the end of the day, and they cornered her at the back of the school. Someone ran and got a teacher. Her English teacher actually. He's the one who drove me here. He stopped them and he told me he knows the boys who did this,"

"We're suing.  The families. Maybe the school, too," Brendon seethed.

"It wasn't the school's fault. They didn't tell any of the students that it's Jessica. And they handled it really well once they were alerted."

"Sarah, she could have been killed.   On school grounds."

"But she wasn't. Because Mr. Clark came immediately."

"We're still suing those kids' families," he fumed.

"We'll discuss that when Jessica is out of the woods," I said, holding his hand and running my thumb along the back.