Adopted

Chapter 54

Brendon's POV

"It hurts!" My daughter was crying while I held her.

"I know sweetheart. They're almost done," I assured her, while I held her in my arms on her bed.

"Ow! ow! Ow!!  Make them stop!  Please!" She cried.

"Honey, they need to get the tube out. You don't need it anymore."

Jessica was trying to move away from the doctor and the nurses who were trying to take out her chest tube as quickly as possible but needing to be careful as to not make the wound any worse.

"Just a couple more stitches, Jessica," Crystal, her nurse said. "Then we can take out the tube and close it up, okay?"

"No!!" She screamed. "Stop!  Please stop!!"

My heart was breaking because she was in so much pain.

"As soon as we're done, I'll give you something for the pain, okay?  It hurts because the ribs are broken beside it," Crystal explained to Jessica and I.

Crystal's eyes pleaded with me to calm Jessica down. I tried to relay that I was doing my best. I'd managed to stop her thrashing around when they first started.

"Dad!! It hurts!! Please make them stop!!" She cried into my chest.

"There. Last stitch out," the doctor said.

"You're doing great, Jessica," Crystal said, patting her shoulder.

"Can we be done now?" Jess cried.

"Almost. We're going to take out the tube and then put in a couple of stitches and we'll be all done," the doctor said.

I watched as the doctor grasped the tube and contemplated the best way to take it out. Too fast could cause damage. Too slow could cause Jess an unreasonable amount of pain.

"Jess, look at me," I said. She looked up with her tear stained face. I started singing to her. I went with Victorious. It seemed appropriate.

I nodded at the doctor while looking at Jess and singing.

The doctor pulled the tube out. Jess screamed once and broke down into tears.

"Dad!  That hurt!!" She cried.

"I know baby,  I know. But now they'll  just put in a couple of stitches and Crystal will get you some pain meds and you can rest okay?"

Jessica was sobbing again into my chest.

"We're all done," the doctor said. "Jess, you did great. You can roll over onto your back if you want."

She stayed curled up and holding on to me for dear life. I nodded to the doctor.

"Sweets, they're all done. Crystal's going to get you a shot, okay?" 

She nodded.

Crystal came back and told Jess she needed to get to her left hand, where her IV was. I felt her let go of me and stick her hand out. As soon as Crystal was done giving her the shot her hand was back on my back grasping my shirt. She was still crying and hitching her breath. I kept holding her and singing quietly to her.

A little while later, her breathing evened out and her hands loosened their death grip on my shirt. I moved away just a little and saw Jess had fallen asleep. I sighed a sigh of relief. Not for me but for her. I hated seeing her in pain. And she still had one more surgery left to replace the piece of her skull.

Sarah came in just then with Zack and Kala.

"What happened to your shirt?"  She asked. "Why do you look like you ran a marathon against a booger?"

"They took Jess's chest tube out just now, and she did not enjoy the experience."

"Oh, my poor girl," Sarah said, rushing to her side.

"She's asleep. Crystal gave her a shot of pain meds," I said, flopping into the chair.

"Here," Zack said, tossing me a shirt from a bag he was holding. "We grabbed some more clothes for you."

I hadn't left the hospital in two days. Jess had had a few nightmares, and I didn't want to leave her side. Once she was home, I'd be going back out on tour. And I wanted to spend every minute with her.

I heard a kerfuffle in the hallway and my parents burst into the room.

"Brendon! We couldn't wait any longer. We had to come to see Jess. How is she?" My mom asked.

"She's sleeping right now," I said quietly to make my mother realize she was being loud.  "She's doing much better. Thank you for being patient before coming up to visit."

"It wasn't easy, I'll tell you," my dad said. "A girl needs her PopPop when she's not feeling well."

I smiled. Despite their rough start, my parents and Jess had formed a really strong relationship. Sarah told me she texted with them a couple times a week and my mom called at least once a week to talk with Jess.

"Have the police said anything more?" My mom asked.

I sighed.

"Not really. We filed charges against them and their parents. The police brought them in for questioning. Bernie's on top of everything," I said.

"Okay, good." 

Sarah was leaning on my dad, holding Jessie's hand while he rubbed Jessie's arm and spoke quietly to her. My mom came over to me and gave me a hug.

"And how are you two holding up?" She asked.

"We're doing better now that Jess is definitely on the mend," I said. "Zack and Kala have been amazing, making sure we get fed and watered."

I smiled at them.

"Jessie's friends have been by to visit and her teachers have come and worked with her to get her more caught up. She's really doing great." I said.

"What about the reading issue?  Sarah told us she couldn't read."

I smiled down at my sleeping daughter.

"Completely temporary. It was a mix of the medication they used to keep her in the coma and her just needing to adjust to being awake. Her brain just needed a few days to get her processing speed back up. She's already finished two of the books Andy and Joe brought," I smiled. "This is one amazing kid."

"When do the bandages come off her head?" My mom asked.

"She has one more surgery left to replace the piece of skull they had to take out, and a couple of days after that, they'll take the bandage off and she'll probably be able to come home."

"When is the surgery?"

"Tomorrow," I said.

"This child is a true miracle," my mother said. I let it go. It wasn't worth getting into a religious debate with her.