Ticket to Verona

twenty one

~Leo

Words can't explain the joy I felt seeing Aria again. After weeks of grieving, it was like whoever was up there gave me another chance.

I am apprehensive about Nikolai but my baby seems to trust him and he has said he would help us to take down his own father so I'm deciding to give him a chance. He's never being left alone though. I've told Astrid and Gio to babysit him.

It took a lot of kisses and kind words to persuade Aria to go to the hospital. She knows that she needs to go, she was just being stubborn, saying that 'she didn't want to be a bother'. She really doesn't understand how important she is to me or anyone else for that matter.

"Can I go home yet?" she asked for the hundredth time.

"No, amore mio, they've already said you're going to have to stay here tonight."

I'm currently in Aria's room in my private hospital. It's always easier than going to a public one, prevents questions being asked and us all getting into even more trouble.

However, I underestimated how easy it would be to get Ria to stay in bed.

"Leo?" She turned to me.

"Yes, amore?"

"I'm thirsty." She pouted, showing me her puppy eyes.

"Okay, what drink would you like?"

"Limonata." She replied.

I nodded and left to the vending machines to get her the damn drink. The corridors were quiet. It was around 4 in the afternoon and there didn't seem to be that many patients on Aria's floor.

Grabbing the cans from the vending machine, I headed back to the room.

"Aria! What the hell are you doing?"

My girl was sitting on her bed and was currently trying to put leggings on, over her pyjama shorts.

"I wanna go home." She pouted.

"Baby, I know you do, but we need to make sure you're okay. You're injured and I don't want you getting even more sick." I explained gently, picking her up and putting her back onto the bed.

Once she was comfortable in the covers I passed her the drink and she took it gratefully.

A few minutes later we heard a knock on the door and I answered, asking them to come in.

A doctor walked in and slightly bowed her head. "Don, Donna, my name is Doctor Cambrian." She introduced herself.

"Call me Aria, please." My baby smiled and the doctor smiled in response.

"Okay, well, we've got the x-rays and scans back. You have a broken ankle which explains why you can't really walk. Your ribs are bruised and 3 are broken, so you're going to need to take it easy for a while to allow them to heal. Your cuts on your stomach and legs are healing nicely now, surprisingly they aren't infected."

"Yes, my friend Nikolai helped me treat them when they hurt me." Aria whispered back.

"Oh, well, he helped you a lot. Without that help you would have been at risk to get more serious infections or even sepsis."

Wow. Maybe Nikolai isn't that bad.

"Anyway, I'll send someone in now to treat your ankle and we would like to keep you in tonight, just to monitor everything and make sure you're okay, but I'm confident that you'll be able to leave tomorrow morning and make a full recovery." The doctor smiled.

We both thanked her and she left swiftly.

Another knock at the door broke the silence. Bria and Astrid walked in.