The Sun Will Come Out

Chapter 7

Maya's POV
I felt myself being shaken awake. Crap, I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep.

"Mayaaaa," Carina sang to me. "Maya wake up bellina, the police are almost here with Jess."

As soon as I heard Jess's name, I jumped up from my chair. Instantly, I started pacing back and forth again.

"Ok, bambina," Carina laughed. "Maybe you should actually sit back down."

"Oh, never mind," she said, looking down at her phone. "Officer Yapp just texted that they're about to pull in. Let's go get our girl."

She didn't have to tell me twice. As soon as she said that, I dashed out of the room.

"Slow down, bellina," Carina said, rushing after me. I slowed my pace some, but still ended up speed walking to the elevator.

I had wanted to take the stairs because I could do them a lot faster, but Carina had been wanting to do the elevator recently.

The elevator seemed to be taking forever. "Come on, come on," I urged the elevator, smacking the buttons furiously.

"Maya, abusing the elevator isn't going to make it come up any faster," she reasoned. As soon as she said that, the elevator dinged open.

I looked at her as if she was crazy. "Won't it?" I joked.

I was just as impatient IN the elevator as I was waiting for it. I sighed loudly, earning a calming glare from Carina.

As soon as the elevator dinged at the first floor, I rushed out, pushing past everyone trying to get in. We had perfect timing, because as I made my way past the crowd, I saw a police car pull up outside.

I started sprinting to the door. I saw Jess's little body getting out of the car. As soon as she saw me, her face lit up.

"Jess," I yelled.

"Maya," Jess replied softly. She held her arms out, waiting for me. I fell to my knees in front of her, enveloping her into a hug.

"I'm here, baby girl," I said in a hushed tone. "I'm right here."

I heard a voice in my head telling me to compose myself and to get it together, but I didn't care. The only thing I cared about was knowing my girl was safe.

I felt her body start to shake with sobs. Or maybe that was mine, but that didn't matter.

"Why don't we go see your sibling, sì?" Carina suggested.

I stood up, bringing Jess up with me in my arms. "Maya, I'm not a baby," she whined.

"I just want to make sure you get there safely," I said, giving her my best puppy dogs eyes.

"I mean I guess it's fine," she said, pretending to be upset.

"Good," I said, twirling her around.

Jess's POV
We headed back to Iris's room in the burn unit. I enjoyed Maya carrying me, because I wasn't fully confident my legs wouldn't give out underneath me.

"When love takes you in and everything changes," Maya sang to Carina and I.

I heard Carina join in the song with, "a miracle starts with the beat of a heart."

I had heard this song many times before. Mom used to sing it. I tried to sing the next line, hoping I didn't mess up the lyrics.

"When love takes you home and says you belong here," I sang. The two women smiled down at me.

That had to mean I got the lyrics perfect.

"The loneliness ends and a new life begins," we all sang together.

"When love takes you in," Maya finished as we stopped at the door outside of Iris's room.

Then it hit me. The song, the sneaking around, the way both of them had been extremely happy.

"Wait," I said as Maya started to open the door. She turned to look at me.

"The- the song. Does that mean what I think it means?" Carina and Maya looked at each other and then looked at me.

Maya crouched down to be at my eye level and met my eyes.

"I think so," she said with soft eyes.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. I lunged into her, hugging her with all that was in me.

With her I felt safe.

"Alright you two," Carina said. "Why don't we go give Iris the news?"

I quietly creaked open the door in case they were asleep, but we were met with a very awake Iris, impatiently staring at the door.

"Jess," they cried out as soon as we made eye contact.

I rushed over to them. "Hey sweet bean," I said as I sat in the chair next to them.

"I want a hug," they said sadly. I squeezed their hand in comfort.

"We can hug you in a few days, kiddo," Maya said while joining me at their bedside.

"We have some news for you, bambine," Carina said softly behind us.

Jess gave all three of us a questioning look. "Well we wanted to see how you felt about it first but the paperwork is already done," she continued.

"Carina and I want to take you two in to foster you," Maya explained.

"We want to know you're always going to be safe, and don't want to risk Peter getting custody again," she added.

Iris and I were both shocked, even though I had already figured it out. But hearing them say it made it real.

"If there was ever a time for a hug, it'd be right now," Iris smiled.

"And lucky for you, you can leave tomorrow," Dr. Avery said as he entered the room.

"Your burns are healing nicely. We expected you to have to stay for the full 6 days but given how fast your burns are healing it should be safe for you to go."

I jumped up from my chair and hugged his waist. "Thank you," I whispered.

"Just doing my job," he responded. "We need to get you checked out, kid."

"I'm fine," I told him with a little bit of an attitude.

"Look, Officer Yapp told me everything that happened with Peter," he explained.

Maya gave me a stern look. I wasn't scared of her, but I knew I should probably do what she said.

"Fine," I said, rolling me eyes.

This whole thing about people caring about me was getting a bit annoying. I like being by myself.

Maya's POV
I watched as Jackson led Jess out of the room to examine her.

"Look who's taking on the mom role already," Carina laughed.

"What're you talking about?" I asked, turning towards her.

"That look you gave her was the mom look, I've seen it a thousand times when working with kids," she said, still laughing a bit.

"Oh be quiet," I replied. "I'm not going to take on 'the mom role', I just want to know they're safe, and care for them."

"Soooo a mom then," she said.

I playfully smacked her in the arm. "Stop saying that," I laughed.

"Ok, ok bellina, I'll stop," she grinned.

A/N - Hey! I know in chapter 2 I originally said Iris had full thickness burns, but I changed it to deep partial thickness burns. There are two reasons for this- 1. because I don't like long time jumps and wanted the kids to be able to go home, and 2. because I couldn't for the life of me find out how long someone with full thickness burns has to stay in the hospital. Sorry for the change 😂 love you all, thanks for reading!