An Unexpected Family Reunion: Book 1

Angel

Kelly and Stella sat at Sadie's bedside. She was asleep again. She woke up earlier long enough to answer some questions from the doctor.
A gentle knock on the door caused the couple to look up. A lady stood there holding a teddy bear with a halo and wings.
They got up and walked out of the room to greet her, so as not to wake up Sadie.

"Can we help you?"
Kelly asked, confused seeing how he had never seen this woman before.

"Maybe...Was she in the high school today?"

"She was, yes."

"Is she Sadie?"

"Yes,I'm sorry I don't understand where this is going."
Stella interrupted, she didn't mean to sound rude, but it had been a long day for everyone.

"She saved my boy today."
The mother began to cry
"If it wasn't for her I would be planning a funeral right now."

"What exactly did she do?"
Kelly asked, now curious to what she meant.

"My son, Marcus, was in the hallway when the shooting began. He was shot in the leg, and was laying on the floor until she dragged him into the bathroom. The doctors said if she hadn't applied the tourniquet when she did, he would have bled out in that school waiting for help."

"Sadie did that?"

"That's what my boy told me."

"We had no idea."
They looked back into the room, she was still asleep.

"I brought this for her, she was my son's angel today."

"Thank you, we'll make sure she gets it. She'll love it."

Stella took the bear from her with a smile, holding it close to her chest.
The mother waved before walking away down the hall.

"Did you teach her how to do a tourniquet?"
Kelly asked Stella

"No, I thought maybe you had."
He just shook his head.

"KELLY!!"
Sadie screamed out his name, they ran back into the room seeing her with a look of terror of her face as she sat straight up in bed.
He ran to her

"Sadie! Hey!...Hey you're ok. You're ok, look at me!"
He put his hands on both sides of her face and brought his forehead to touch hers.

"Look. Look at me. Breath."

She locked eyes with him taking a shaky breath, grabbing onto his hands.

"There you go, you're safe, Sades, ok?"
She nodded her head in understanding.

He sat on the edge of the bed, wrapping her in his arms as she shook.
Stella sat on the other side of the bed rubbing Sadie's back.

"Was it a bad dream?"
He asked, she shook her head yes as she pulled away from him.
"Do you want to talk about it.?"

"Hell no."
She sighed as she sat back against her pillows, a large lump against her lower back caused her to reach behind her, finding the angel bear.

"What's this?"
She asked, holding it, running her hand across the soft fur.
Kelly was still sitting on the side of the as he cleared his throat.

"Um do you remember Marcus?"

"Yeah...he's the kid that- Oh my god is he dead?"

"No, no, no he's ok. His mom came by to give you that, she said you're the reason he's alive. Called you his angel, hence the bear."

"I'm so happy he's ok. I wasn't able to go back for him like I told him I would..."

"It's ok hun, you're both safe now. That's all that matters."
Stella said as she ran a hand over Sadie's hair, trying to flatten it down some.

"My hair is a hot mess ain't it?"

"Honey it looks like you went all three rounds with Rhonda Rousey, and kicked her ass....You want me to fix it?"

"Please? Just no braids. I feel like my skull would split with them in."

"Yeah, the doc said you had a bit of a concussion."

Stella dismantled what was left of the braids she put in this morning.

Kelly leaned over kissing her on the forehead.
"What do you say I go get some milkshakes and smuggle them back in?"

"Yeah, strawberry?"

"Of course."

He gave Stella a kiss before stepping out of the room.
As he left Stella was gently brushing the knots out of Sadie's hair. She waited until her brother was out of ear shot.

"Stell?"

"Yeah Hun?"

"Is Kelly ok?"

"Yeah he's fine. Why?"

"Everytime he looks at me, it's like he's seen a ghost."

Stella stopped brushing, shifting her position so she could look at Sadie in the eyes.

"Sades, I have seen that man put himself into more life threatening situations than you can imagine, and it's like it doesn't faze him, it's part of the job. Hell even when he was trapped in that house fire that put him in the hospital, he fought until he couldn't fight anymore. But today...I saw a part of him I've never seen before...we thought we had lost you Sadie."

Sadie looked at Stella with tears in her eyes.

"I didn't know he cared that much."

"Honey that man loves you. I know he has a weird way of expressing it sometimes but he does....And I love you too, Sades."

Stella's voice cracked on the last sentence.
A few tears fell down Sadie's face as she leaned in to hug her soon to be Sister in law.
Stella held her, kissing the top of her head.
"I love you too, Stella."

Authors note: Not going to lie, the onion ninjas were around when I was writing the last part. Thanks for reading ☺️